Some news

Sarah Jezebel Deva's new single "The World Won't Hold Your Hand" was released yesterday. The single comes from her new album "The Corruption Of Mercy".

Tarja works on her new rock album. She has written 18 songs already and wants the songs to be ready at the end of the summer. The name of the album or release date is not known yet.

Simone Simons from Epica will join Kamelot on their NA tour singing "The Haunting". According to Kamelot's founder/guitarist Thomas Youngblood, the members of the band have already begun searching for a permanent replacement for Roy Khan.

Johnny Depp recently joined Alice Cooper on stage to play "I am Eighteen" and "Schools Out".

Some Halloween Tunes

I find Halloween quite an irritating time of year, but the Celt in me enjoys Samhain (pronounced "saw-when"). This is the start of the Celtic new year, and way back in the mists of time this was a celebration of the end of the harvest and the end of the summer. Some Celtic peoples believed that this day marked the time when the border between this world and the otherworld thinned, allowing the dead to reach through the veil between the worlds and touch the living. The living wore masks and costumes to immitate the dead in an attempt to make the spirits a little happier. They lit bonfires for cleansing rituals, and they even carved faces in veggies to ward off nastier spirits.

Of course, like most Celtic celebrations, the Christians had to come over and appropriate the holiday for their own purposes, and in this case, Samhain became All Hallows Eve in the Celtic realm since their celebration coincided with the Christian one. Since then, the original concept of Samhain has been bastardized into the ridiculousness we have now.

Anyway! There is some great Samhain music out there! This is one song I particularly enjoy, from Magica, and featuring the amazing keyboard work of 6 Fingers and Ana's wonderful voice. The lyrics are also beautiful.



On a more Halloweeny level, here is a great song by Manticora featuring gypsies and a fortune teller, and all that good stuff. This is my favourite song from their Black Circus Part 1 album.



And how about some Alice Cooper? He's creepy, though I know he isn't exactly metal. Here he is performing "Welcome to My Nightmare" - with the Muppets!



Enjoy, and if you live somewhere that celebrates Halloween, have a safe night!

Come Cover Me: Alice Cooper's Wind-up Toy

Another gem I found on Last.fm. Well, actually this is not a gem - this is a massacre, a butchering, an abomination of probably my favourite Alice Cooper song by a now defunct Finnish metal band called Twilightning. Jesus Christ on a crutch. When I first saw this a few months ago, I was completely speechless and horrified. You just should not fuck with anything Alice as far as I'm concerned.

Here is the original:



And here is Twilightning's cover:



And holy shit - a mesh T-shirt? Are you kidding me? Hideous!