Kirk wrote 250 riffs for the album and stored them all on a mobile phone which he lost in late 2014, meaning the whole album had to go off only what Lars and James (and Rob for one song) had planned out. That's why he has no writing credits and his only contributions are the solos.

Fair enough I didn't know that. I still think his solo's on this album are very bland though.

There are certain songs where I think his solos are quite nice like on "Halo On Fire", "Spit Out The Bone" and "Here Comes Revenge", but yeah I have to say he's the weak point of the band on this album. Yeah, Lars isn't great, but he's upped his game significantly here where as Kirk has become too over-reliant on the wah pedal making all his solos have a very similar sound even if they're structured totally different.

Lars definitely hasn't upped his game. The entire album, with one or two exceptions, is reliant on snare fills. It works on some tracks like Spit out the Bone but at other times it's just lazy.

Again though I don't wanna be on a downer. I think the album is great and infinitely better than anything the NWOTM bands have ever released. But I'd still take Death Magnetic and Beyond Magnetic over it.

As far as double peddling goes he most certainly has. Acording to him he was deliberately aiming for simplistic drum fills to evoke the NWOBHM era, that may or may not be true but I'd honestly take his drumming on this album over the drumming from any other post-Black Album era Metallica album.

I don't listen to much metal these days but I had to give a new Metallica album a listen and it's much better than I thought it would be. It's angry and powerful which is what you might expect. I don't know all the technicalities with the drumming but it sounded clear and not over flash. There some good riffs in there as well. 'Spit Out The Bone' is outstanding. Some life in the old metal yet.

Anybody going to see Anthrax on their uk tour.?

GUNS N ROSES ARE TEASING A EUROPEAN TOUR

Guns N Roses currently have fliars, posters, billboards and are even running TV ads to tease an upcoming European tour. So far Dublin, Ireland and Lisbon, Portugal are the only countries at the moment where the adverts have been reported, but no doubt there'll be more places getting the hype train to market the tour within the next couple days.

Could this mean the tour announcement is imminent? With tickets on sale 1 or 2 weeks before Christmas a la AC/DC last year?

Either way, consider me stoked.

I went to see Alter Bridge in Cardiff on Monday, supported by Gojira and volbeat.

I've seen Gojira before but fair play they are loud!! Because of the traffic we didn't see all of their set, but they are always worth seeing.

I'd never seen Volbeat before, but thanks to hearing Lola Montez on Planet Rock I've got in to them over the last two or three years. They were very impressive and Michael Poulsen's voice can certainly cut it live.

Alter Bridge were, well Alter Bridge!! I've seen them a few times and always enjoy them. This time they seemed to have a bigger budget for a larger stage show but, as always with them, it is about their musicianship and they were superb. The show was recorded for a live CD so it will be great to have that when it comes out as a reminder of the show, and I'll even forgive them for not playing my favourite song of theirs, Slip To The Void!!

KISS have just announced a European tour for next spring.

UK dates are:

27 May - SSE Hydro Glasgow
28 May - Barclaycard Arena Birmingham
30 May - Manchester Arena
31 May - O2 Arena London

Tickets go on sale Friday 2nd December, Live Nation pre-sale Thursday 1st December.

Best news all year so cannot wait to see them at least twice, will be 18th and 19th time

New Sepultura album out in January

A person in the know on "mygnrforums" is claiming that Guns N Roses are to play the London Olympic Stadium with tickets going on sale next Friday December 9th which are apparently "rather expensive"

Just treated myself to a ticket for the Birmingham show, KISS being on of the bands I've always wanted to see live, but never got around to it.

Got a KISS ticket for the O2.

They were shocking at DL2015, Paul's voice beyond the pale and the rest of the hand seemingly decidedly uninterested, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and see them indoors as I love them on record.

I saw them at the NEC about 20 years ago as part of the reunion tour - they are pretty dismal then.

I got a ticket for Birmingham as well.

I last saw them on the Sonic Boom Over Europe tour, 2012 I think, they were brilliant then so hopefully they'll be good this time!

As with the likes of Rush, Status Quo, Aerosmith, I can't imagine they will be doing too many more tours!

Ramblin Man Fair today have announced that ZZ Top, Kansas, Monster Truck, Joanne Shaw Taylor, The Quireboys, Magnum, Jared James Nichols and others are to play their 2017 festival in Mote Park, Kent.

More acts (including the other headliner) to be anbounced soon

Deep Purple have announced UK dates for Nov 2017, plenty of notice.


Deep Purple: inFinite – The Long Goodbye UK tour dates

Nov 17: Birmingham Barclaycard Arena
Nov 18: Manchester Arena
Nov 20: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Nov 22: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Nov 23: London O2

With the title of the tour, some are thinking it could be their last, which wouldn't be surprising due to Ian Paice's recent health problems.

Once again a UK tour which leaves out Northern Ireland. If you're not visiting all the countries in the UK, don't call it a United Kingdom tour!

Know what you mean ags, even though they are doing a night in Cardiff, most bands usually miss Wales out on their 'UK' Tour, very annoying at times.

I've never really understood this argument, it's a bit like saying "Oh look, another band that says they're doing a European tour but aren't coming to Romania!", if you're playing a series of consecutive dates ANYWHERE within the UK surely that constitutes a UK tour? I sympathise with people in North Ireland as obviously they're separate from England, Scotland and Wales so getting to gigs is much, much more of a hassle, but I think people in ES+W generally take for granted how lucky we are that bands play as many dates here as often as they do considering we're comparatively a pretty small place.


....Also for what it's worth in my personal opinion you've been given the small mercy of NOT seeing modern day Deep Purple, trust me on this you don't want to pay £60 a ticket to tarnish what ever good memories you may have

Guns N' Roses finally announce European dates for 2017, including Dublin on 27th May, and the Olympic Stadium, London on 16th June.

Just got myself tickets for London, a bit pricey at £95 each with fees, but really looking forward to it.

Got my GNR tickets, £135 each for front row seats in a Seating Section close to the stage.

Expensive, but no doubt worth it.

Will be definitely going to the GNR Slane Castle gig, just debating whether to pay the extra for Nightrain membership and get them early or wait until GA goes on sale this Friday...