MK ULTRA

GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge will be awarded the prestigious STIM Platinum Guitar this year.

STIM, the Swedish performing rights society, protects the interests of authors and publishers of music in Sweden.

The Platinum Guitar has been awarded since 2004 to authors who have experienced exceptional success over the year.

Forge will receive the award for “his exceptional success as a music creator.”

“Artistry usually involves performing works on stage,” Tobias said in a statement. “But since the songwriting is ultimately the very essence of the business, such a fine award is fantastically meaningful to get as a songwriting artist.”

Previous STIM award winners include Veronica Maggio, Avicii, Max Martin and Robyn.

GHOST spent the past year and a half touring in support of its latest album, “Prequelle”, which was produced by Tom Dalgety and originally released in on June 1, 2018. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award as “Best Rock Album”, and for Sweden’s Grammis award as “Best Rock/Metal Record Of The Year”, and Dalgety received a Grammy nomination as “Producer Of The Year.” Both Revolver and Kerrang! magazines named “Prequelle” the best album of 2018, and the album produced three Top 10 singles — “Rats”, “Dance Macabre” (both of which went to No. 1 at Rock Radio) and “Faith”. To date, “Prequelle” has accumulated some 250 million streams globally.

RATT has announced a dozen shows in December as part of its “In Your Direction” tour.

The trek will kick off on December 12 in Buffalo, New York and will end on December 29 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

RATT’s current lineup includes original members Stephen Pearcy (vocals) and Juan Croucier (bass), along with drummer Pete Holmes (BLACK ‘N BLUE) and guitarists Jordan Ziff and Chris Sanders (BRITNY FOX, KNIGHT FURY).

Tour dates:

Dec. 12 – The Showplace Theater – Buffalo, NY
Dec. 13 – Wally’s Pub – Hampton, NH
Dec. 14 – College Street Music Hall – New Haven, CT
Dec. 16 – Six String Grill & Stage – Foxborough, MA
Dec. 17 – Jergel’s Rhythm Grille – Warrendale, PA
Dec. 19 – The Paramount – Huntington, NY
Dec. 20 – Wellmont Theatre – Montclair, NJ
Dec. 21 – Penn’s Peak – Jim Thorpe, PA
Dec. 22 – The Beacon Theater Hopewell – Hopewell, VA
Dec. 27 – Arcada Theatre – St. Charles, IL
Dec. 28 – The Fillmore Detroit – Detroit, MI
Dec. 29 – Bogart’s – Cincinnati, OH

Pearcy recently confirmed to The Metal Voice that RATT is planning to make new music available in 2020.

“The format of music and releasing and this and that is so different,” he said. “I always release solo records, pretty much every year, just because I like to write and try different things, expressions and whatever.

“With RATT, we’re gonna shoot for a record,” he continued. “We’re gonna probably release a couple of singles first. And see what happens. If it fires up, we’ll go ahead and do a record. That’s the easy part. Having the songs is the hard part. [Laughs] We’ll release a couple and see what happens. Of course, we’re hoping for people to get off on it. It’s been quite a while.”

Asked about the musical direction of the new RATT material, Stephen said: “Of course it’s gonna be in the RATT norm. We get Juan [Croucier, bass] on backup vocals and we get him with arrangements and writing too. When we get into RATT writing mode, something just clicks there. We know what is RATT music and what isn’t. But we’ll see what happens. I’d like to get a little more melodically aggressive — something like the EP or in between [1984’s] ‘[Out Of The] Cellar’ and [1985’s] ‘Invasion [Of Your Privacy]’. We’re shooting for some harder ‘Ratt ‘n’ roll.'”

RATT hasn’t released any new music since 2010’s “Infestation” album.

This past January, Pearcy underwent knee surgery. The operation came three months after two disastrous RATT shows that saw the now-63-year-old singer incapacitated to the point where he had trouble remembering the words to some of the bands biggest hits.

SOURCE: www.side-line.com

Cold Spring has announced the reissue of Coil’s 1992 album “Stolen & Contaminated Songs”, presented on CD and, for the first time, on vinyl. “Stolen & Contaminated Songs” was recorded and produced by Coil in 1992 and Swas the first of two albums recorded and produced by the band in that year. The album is composed of outtakes and unreleased songs from their prior album, “Love’s Secret Domain”.

The line-up in 1992 consisted of John Balance, Peter Christopherson, Stephen Thrower and Danny Hyde. The release will be reissued on CD (available here) but also on vinyl including a limited bone coloured 2LP (limited to 800 copies – you can buy it here) and a regular black double vinyl.

Coil, a short history

Coil were an experimental music group, founded in 1982 in London, England and concluded in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by singer and songwriter John Balance (born Geoffrey Burton) while he was in the band Psychic TV, Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of artistic creative partner Peter Christopherson, a founding member of Industrial Records and pioneering Industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, who also became Balance’s life-partner. Throughout the group’s existence, Balance and Christopherson were the only constant members; other members and contributors included Stephen Thrower, Danny Hyde, Drew McDowall, William Breeze, Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis), and Ossian Brown (Simon Norris).

After the release of their 1984 debut EP “How to Destroy Angels”, Coil joined Some Bizzare Records, through which they released two full-length albums, “Scatology” (1984) and “Horse Rotorvator” (1986). After departing from Some Bizzare, Coil had established their own record label, Threshold House, through which they produced and released “Love’s Secret Domain” (1991), which saw the duo incorporate the influence of the UK acid house scene. Financial difficulties slowed the group’s work in the early 1990s before they returned to the project as well as releasing several projects under aliases.

Following the death of John Balance on 13 November 2004, Christopherson announced via their official record label website Threshold House that Coil as an entity had ceased to exist, and after working on the record’s content to his extent officially ended the Coil discography with “The Ape of Naples” (2005).

The First Amendment and the very idea of free speech are under attack in America today. A growing number of Americans don’t believe you have the right to speak your mind if what you have to say might offend someone, somewhere. They advocate for “safe spaces” in which people won’t be offended by ideas they may find troubling. But is that what America is about? In No Safe Spaces, comedian and podcast king Adam Carolla and radio talk show host Dennis Prager travel the country, talking to experts on the right and left, tour college campuses and examine their own upbringings to try to understand what is happening in America today and what free speech in America should look like.

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