NEWS: NORWICH LCR RENAMED IN MEMORY OF LATE MANAGER NICK RAYNES

To music fans in the East of England, Norwich's LCR, situated on the University of East Anglia campus, is well known as one of the principal live music venues in the region. A huge plethora of bands, such as Muse, Enter Shikari, Bowling For Soup, Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Motorhead, and a frequent stop-off for the Kerrang! Tour (there have been hundreds of amazing bands playing the LCR, this list is just off the top of my head) have all stopped off in Norwich, and these are all largely thanks to the work of the late Entertainments Manager at the university, Nick Rayns.

He worked for 34 years, bringing in some truly incredible acts over that time, and in his honour: RIP Mr Rayns, and thank you for your work in bringing in some incredible acts over the years.

The late Nick Raynes - image courtesy
of the Norwich Tab

NEWS: TIM LAMBESIS (AS I LAY DYING) POSTS BAIL, RELEASED FROM JAIL

Tim Lambesis, vocalist for As I Lay Dying, has apparently posted bail reportedly to the sum of a cool $2 million, releasing him from custody following charges of arranging to have his wife killed. If you haven't been aware of the story, Lambesis is alleged to have asked someone, in fact an undercover police informant, how he would go about having his wife killed - the prosecution claims to have audio evidence that Lambesis gave $1000 to end the murder his partner, with whom he is separated from and currently in the middle of divorce proceedings. 

The trial is set to begin on June 10th. If found guilty, he faces between 3 and 9 years in prison.

Lambesis in court - image courtesy of Metal Hammer

STEP INTO MY OFFICE, BABY

Come in. I'll take your coat, you make yourself comfortable. Take a look around, why don't you? No, I'm not referencing you, Fred Durst.

So. You may notice there has been a...makeover...here at theNOISE. Well, not theNOISE. In a style befitting of Pokemon*, I have evolved the blog into YESTHISISNOISE. Newly re-designed layout, and to come, the things I did before - reviews, news and the odd opinion or personal piece. But I've decided to scrap my prior ratings system for reviews, so there will no longer be stars or '/10' marks, just the written part. Because I think that no rating system can truly capture something; reviewing is a subjective process, and ratings systems, in my mind, distort the true opinion of the review. God I sound pretentious.

But anyway, I hope the new layout is more pleasing to the eye than the black and white lark I had going on before, and as with my last post, remember...don't look, just keep your eyes peeled. New stuff coming very soon...

*not really

DON'T LOOK...JUST KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED

This time, I'll refrain from making any "Heeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" statements declaring how I'm back for good, daily posts etc...but I've fallen by the wayside on this, because I've been busy, inbetween working and travelling, so I've just not had the time nor motivation to write in a while. 

But, my stint in Spain comes to an end in mere days...and while I'm not gonna go from busy to zombic stupor, I will have time to re-gather myself and get writing again. 

In the works then, are reviews for the new Queens Of The Stone Age album ...Like Clockwork, which hits all good shops (or doormats, if you've pre-ordered it) on Monday June 3rd, Kvelertak's Meir and a long-time-nearly-finished piece on Bring Me The Horizon's latest effort Sempiternal. 

There may also be some more pieces coming from sources that aren't me, including some smaller festivals and Jack Daniels' JD Roots programme regarding these festivals.

So, with everything above in mind, I will leave you with the oddly appropriate opening line to the first track on QOTSA's new record - "Don't look...just keep your eyes peeled"

PANIC STATION; AKA MUSE WHAT ARE YOU DOING

There's been talk floating around for a while of the next single/video from Muse's The 2nd Law being Panic Station, and lo and behold stills/gifs from that video began to surface recently. Then the video itself dropped today. 

What.

The.

Fuck?

See for yourself...

I can't embed the video so here it is

ALL HAIL SABBATH FOR THEY HATH RETURNED

It's been a while...but praise be to the lords of metal for bringing Black Sabbath back to us. God Is Dead? is the first track to come from the legends' 13th album, called, well, 13. 

It's pretty sexy. Creepy doom-laden riffage, the unmistakeable evil tones of Ozzy, more riffs, damn fine soloing...they're back. But what are your thoughts, dear lovely readers? Leave a comment below.

STOP EVERYTHING BECAUSE QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE ARE BACK

So am I, from the unnofficial hiatus of laziness that I've been on, hiding from the internet like a cyber hermit.

Back to the news here. Queens Of The Stone Age have finally dropped details on their new album, which will be their 6th studio effort. It is as follows:

• It's called Like Clockwork
• It's out June 3rd
• And there's a new single out too, called My God Is The Sun
• A video of them performing this in Brazil has been circulating for a few days, but finally we have the studio version. Oh guys, I've missed you.
• Pre-order from Matador here