Having perversely watched the efforts of an adulterous couple trying to avoid being noticed right after extensively exchanging fluids in the 10 o' clock Lyon – Paris high speed train bathroom, here I am in Paris. Note the hustle and bustle from the cleaning staff 10 minutes later. There's nothing cuter than the flush of shame rising upon a lover's cheek.

The Final Frontier listening session, a sneak preview of the new Iron Maiden opus, was set at 1 P.M. in the famous EMI building. Unsurprisingly, the building is classy all around with few decorations referring to artists here and there: The Beatles phone booth, Pink Floyd eyes... There is also a great yard where we can sit on the grass to rest or have a drink whilst bathing in the sun. How do they ever manage to work in such a place?!

The listening session takes place in a large room with a stage commonly used for conferences. The plan was to listen to the album and then eat at the buffet. As a result of my work ethics, I feel compelled to sacrifice myself despite the fact that I feel repulsed by these overrated cocktail parties yet this afternoon I will recount my experience at one of them thoroughly and in the best way possible. Rule number 1: never lock a group of hungry people in a room with a group of lesser hungry people and a buffet. As it is to be expected, it's war: the buffet is devastated before the first verse of the first track.

After a brief speech stating that it is a great album and also revealing that the “El Dorado” music video will be available on the web by mid-July, the session begins...

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One evening, as we were talking about Anthrax, our mythical Fucktoy told me: "this story with Belladonna and Bush, it makes me think of a guy who leaves his wife for another woman, but who then wishes to come back to her while he's sitting on the other one just in case. And when one of the two women dumps him, he tries to come back to the other, in vain!". When it comes to human relationships, Scott Ian and his partners in crime are just like teenagers.

If you've followed the metal scene news in the last few months, you've most certainly heard some stories about the relationship between Anthrax and its singers: a real soap opera. The last month's pussyfooting recently led to Joey Belladonna's official return. For once, the use of the adjective "incredible" is not excessive. How many of you have followed this story's developments without thinking "can't be, it's a joke!"?

Even if that first official confirmation seems to have put an end to these incidents in the short term, one can't help questioning the stability of the band in the long term.

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Does the name My Ruin ring any bells? There is very little media coverage of the band on our side of the world and in fact very little in the States, in their own country. Despite the indifference towards the band shared by three quarters of the metal public, the band are bravely releasing their eighth album, Ghosts And Good Stories, in August this year.


What is My Ruin like? Some heavy riffs with a rock n roll and metallic sound at the same time. The band could be placed between the gasoline guzzling southern rock movement and Motörhead. In fact, since we are mentioning the American band, it could be said that Mick Murphy (guitar) shares a slight physical resemblance with Lemmy. Two adjectives to sum up My Ruin’s musical aspect: virility and machismo. That’s when the vocals come up and everyone is left dumbfounded. The music is a “soft” feminine voice of a frail young lady throwing all of her hatred and rage at you. This is where the band’s originality lies: in the contrast of the music “for guys and only guys” and female vocals.


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Wendy Dio's message:

« Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. [on Sunday] 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private goodbyes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.»

Ronnie James Dio lost his battle with stomach cancer and died at the age of 67.

On Saturday 15th, in the evening, Wendy Dio had to refute several rumours announcing the death of the singer. She indeed declared: "he is not doing good, but he is not dead.". It is nonetheless only a few hours later that she posted the message announcing Dio's death.

We can be surprised by such a tragic and sudden end. Dio indeed started his cancer treatment only six months ago, at what was still an early stage of the disease. Dio's statements were positive and implied that he had good chances to get over the illness. He was even determined to take part in the gigs organised by Heaven and Hell for their summer tour – until very recently. These dates finally had to be cancelled. Although these cancellations did not sound particularly alarming, we can now deduce that they were probably the consequence of an aggravation of Dio's health.

The loss is enormous – possibly the most terrible one that the world of Metal ever had to cope with. Ronnie James Dio was the most respected man of all times in the metal/hard rock community. If there is a man who succeeded in federating and being respected by all – thrashers, black metal fans, death metal fans, doomsters, proggers, glamers, heavy metal fans, etc. – it can only be him. Because he played with Black Sabbath, Elf, Rainbow, Dio or Heaven And Hell, his influence is and will always be deep. Incidentally, he's also the man who made the "devil horns" become the symbol of our community – a symbol used by all, in every single metal gig. No doubt: the world of Metal will struggle to recover from such a loss.

Do not hesitate to share your opinion and feelings with us in the comments or on Dio's official facebook page.

In order to pay tribute to the "elf with a golden voice", Radio Metal organises a 48h-long Dio Marathon starting today at 2 pm and ending Wednesday at the same time. During this time, the radio will only broadcast titles from Dio, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Elf, Rainbow, etc. The marathon will only be interrupted by tonight's Body Electric (8 pm), which should follow its normal course.

Tomorrow's Anarchy X will however be entirely dedicated to the singer. You will then have the possibility to call us to request specific titles, and to share with us your passion for his music, your anecdotes, gigs memories, etc.

Frankly, one wonders if there are really only 24h in Bruce Dickinson's standard days. Aside his role of frontman for Iron Maiden(which will release its 15th album this summer) and his solo career which he leads under his own name , Bruce still finds time to fill his free time with a variety of activities. It has to be said: this great singer is not only successful in the music industry. The Iron Maiden vocalist's hobbies are extremely varied, and in the last few years, he never hesitated to share them with his public.


Dickinson has for instance a great interest for literature. He demonstrated his writing talent in a book called Lord Iffy Boatrace, which was successful enough for the publisher to ask for a follow-up. The Television and Cinema worlds are also familiar with the great singer, who wrote the scenario for the fantasy movie Chemical Wedding, and who made several appearances in the BBC TV-series The Paradise Club.

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We’ve been telling you about the crisis that has hit the music industry for quite a while now. The proof of the matter lies in the fact that even the greatest of stars are affected now. For now, we will concentrate solely on the British music company which has been heading straight down to Hell.

Who would have thought that this famous record company responsible for many prestigious and popular artists could have ended this way? It’s time to evaluate this critical situation from which the company might never recover.

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Recently, in an interview for an American magazine to promote his latest album, Slash once again managed to divulge some honest truths about his relationship with Axl Rose by answering “Axl Rose hates me” when asked if he believed that he would ever make peace with the Guns N'Roses singer. ”So this makes it difficult. But if we walked past each other and all of the animosity shared between us was left behind, I am certain that we could have an exciting conversation.”

Slash also gave his opinion of Chinese Democracy, Guns N’Roses’ latest album released in 2008. Unlike what we might have expected, Slash highlights Axl Rose’s talent. ”It’s a perfect Axl album. It is exactly the type of album I was expecting him to produce, according to the kind of music that we made during our later years together. The album is very heavy, dark and depressing. But it’s one hell of a record.”

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Now that’s an interesting question. Faith No More will be at Sonisphere of Madrid on the 9th and 10th of July and we will of course be there too to see the San Franciscan band because seeing them on stage is always an out of this world experience. And needless to say, that we will also be there for the unique performance of their singer Mike Patton. If you are a faithful Radio Metal listener/reader, you will know that many members of the RM team are fans of the front man. He is an exceptional singer in Faith No More, crazed loon in Mr Bungle and king of experimental music in Fantomas; in other words, Mike Patton has proved his musical talents in many branches. However, today we find ourselves pondering on one question:

Why is Mike Patton into so much pipi-caca stuff ?

Bad memories from childhood ? An uncurable taste for provocation ? An exhibitionist side ? Many questions to which there are probably many answers.

It’s always wise to be wary of pre-listening exclusive events. The excitement of hearing something new and the intrinsic rarity of having access to an object that is not yet available, can often create falsify your emotions and make you idealise the moment more than necessary.

This is especially the case with an album as dense as Avantasia’s new album. For this latest release, Tobias Sammet didn’t want to have any regrets and he gave it his all. As he admitted in the interview taking place afterwards, this album represents the greatest accomplishment of his life, despite appearing somewhat sad and happy at the fact of turning a new page, yet slightly worried about not knowing what to do next. Wicked Symphony/Angel Of Babylon is like a festival, compiling all musical aspects of the saga for the past 10 years. If you don’t want to ruin the surprise, do not click on this link (Spoiler inside).

Like our friend Francis Zegut often puts it in his blog:

"The wind is blowing strong right now..."

And it's true that right now, we at Radio Metal tend to think that something really important is going on with Scorpions.

Sunday, January 24th 2010, 1pm, update:

The official statement has just appeared on the band's website...

That is the time it took for all of the available Metallica concert tickets in Lyon on the 23rd of May 2010 to be sold.

They started selling the at 10 am today for all of the “refresh” freaks who were on the Fnac website since 9.30am. At 10.05am, the following message appeared on www.fnac.com :

« Metallica in Lyon : there are no more tickets available on the internet”.







At 10.13am, the Virgin and Ticketnet websites showed the following message for all those trying to get reservations: “expected waiting time to access this page: 12 minutes”. At the end of this delay, the user was then directed towards the reservation page only to find out that it was sold out.

The time when we used to set our alarm clocks to be at the ticket selling shop before the sun had come up is long gone…