You’ve been warned: enjoy your first edition of Slaughterday.

The Hard Knock News:

“Would you trust this man with your life?”

Roadrunner reports

If anyone in the realm of metal knows anything about how to survive the life of a superstar, it’s the apparently immortal Ozzy Osbourne. This link has info on his new book, and locations where you can get your new copy signed by the dark prince himself.  In tribute to the ultimate survivor (sounds like a reality show…and here at Slaughterday, we don’t like reality shows), here’s one of his absolute best tracks:

SMN news reports “The Beginning Of The End Of An Era Of Legit Legendary Legends”

In news sure to make the purest and non-poserish metalheads amongst us weep a tear of manly sadness, the nearly 30-year old Candlemass has decided to make their next album their last. While an answer to the question “WHY, DEAR GOD, WHY?!” certainly exists, there is no consolation for us beyond the promise of one last hurrah. In the meantime, let us look back and remember the epic awesomeness that once was, and soon will never be again.

The Reaper’s Reviews:

(NOTE: This space is reserved for a select few metal reviews from our vast collection, focusing on the new but occasionally dipping into the old as well. Enjoy the words and then enjoy the accompanying videos.)

The Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction*click link for review*

From metal mastermind Devin Townsend comes one of the most complex and original albums you’ll hear this year. Yours Truly, SolitaryMan, has all you need to know to know you need to hear it:

Official video for the unbelievably awesome “Juular”:

Mastodon – The Hunter *click link for review*

For my money, Mastodon are the best metal band you can find today. The Hunter is another in a continuously longer line of reasons why this is. Once again, I am here to spread the wisdom:

This song makes me sad (and then the solo makes me all like “SHIT YEAH!”), my vote for song of 2011:

That does it for the first edition, folks. Think of this as a trial run; in the future, you can certainly expect more than this. With the podcast, and extended news/review coverage, we here at Music Emissions hope to make the Slaughterday editorial one of the internet’s finest metal…things! And if you have any suggestions or offerings for Slaughterdays, be sure to drop me a line at hastmich@herzeleid.net or leave a comment on my profile here (Username: SolitaryMan , of course). Until next week, keep the horns in the air and the posers in the malls!

Google won’t be the official retailer, only providing a nicely formatted page with all the above information which will be provided by the partners, Lala and iLike.

It should be officially announced next Wednesday.

Full story over at NME and CNN.com

Miami’s POISON THE WELL are excited and honored to announce they will be stepping into the studio w/ famed producer, J Robbins, beginning this November. Spending an entire month w/ Robbins (whose steady hands have helped create amazing albums from Against Me!, Clutch, Paint it Black, Modern Life is War, Murder By Death and more), the band will be recording their fifth full-length album, and the follow-up to 2007’s critically acclaimed “Versions” LP (praised by the likes of Alternative Press, Revolver, Kerrang! and more). The new album is set for release in May 2009 on Ferret Music.

POISON THE WELL has had an illustrious career to date, with releases dubbed as some of the greatest hardcore albums of all time (Guitar World Magazine), touring w/ bands like The Deftones, Thrice, Cursive, The International Noise Conspiracy, Killswitch Engage, Cult Of Luna, Thursday, Hatebreed, Glassjaw as well as featured slots on The Warped Tour and The Take Action Tour, and now set their sights on even more exciting news in the coming months.

People, people! This might be the biggest announcement of 2008. There has been a band secretly in the making for the past couple of years, a group that calls themselves a “power-violence grind-core band.” They are known as United Nations–but that isn’t the big story here. Though all of the band members have yet to be confirmed (because of contracts to their respective bands, and all that other legal jargon), we do know that Geoff Rickley, lead singer of Thursday, and Daryl Palumbo, lead singer of Glassjaw, Head Automatica, and a billion other side projects, collaborated to make United Nations. And in Radiohead fashion, they’ve left eager fans with an “oh by the way” type of album release–as in, oh by the way we have an album produced and mixed, and it’s being released on September 9th. Yes, Eyeball is releasing this 11 track monster; hope it doesn’t suck like a certain other Thursday release.

Ben Koller from Converge is also in the mix, and it is rumored that Christopher “Chree” Conger from The Number 12 Looks Like You is drumming for the UN. No tour is planned, so who knows if we’ll ever get to see this stuff live. You can stream all their songs on their myspace now.

[Billboard]Tweedy told WAMC he’s going through a phase where he “kinda hate[s]” all of Wilco’s six prior albums, because “none of them are a statement that I would be comfortable making right now at this point in my life. They all served their purpose, and in that respect I’m proud of all of them.

“But as something that feels artistically in keeping with who I am today, I think that they are inevitably going to fall short of that as time goes on. I mean, they just don’t continue to mean the same things to me, and a new record is kind of where it’s at.”

Seems they’ve already been playing some new tracks live. One of them is called “One Wing”, the other is called “On and On and On”.

Full story here…

Pandora, one of the fine companies that have agreed to sponsor our IOTY contest starting next month, is just one of those sites that is being tactlessly forced out of the industry due to shady downloading rights and all that crap. First and foremost… sign the petition – http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Save Pandora and other sites from extinction. They are truly our allies for independent music and freedom. Thanks to ReadWriteWeb for their story;

It seems it’s been a while since Tricky has brought down the walls with any new music. In fact you could argue that the Bristol-based trip hop icon hasn’t done anything worth mentioning since 1996’s Pre-Millennium Tension. Well, he does have a new album coming out this month called Knowle West Boy but even more interesting he has told Uncut Magazine that Tom Waits has invited Tricky to collaborate with him. Now that would be one interesting project and something that might bring Tricky back into the limelight.

Back to trip-hop: Is 2008 the year trip-hop makes a comeback? Seems that Portishead has found some love in their return with 3. Massive Attack have apparently finished a new album as well. Will Tricky follow suit with his new album? I have yet to hear anything from it so it is too early to tell. Now we just need a Kruder and Dorfmeister album and a new Lamb album and we’ll be set for a resurgence of the genre. It didn’t get the

My oh my EMI. Art thou doomed? It seems like all the cuts are coming from EMI and none of the other majors. What’s going on? Seems the typical major label turmoil continues. They state that it is restructuring but is that it? Or is it cutbacks in general? Comments?

Here is the official Press Release:

EMI Cuts Hit Capitol Nashville
June 24, 2008

By Ken Tucker, Nashville

Capitol Records Nashville VP of A&R Larry Willoughby and VP of sales Bill Kennedy are among those who have exited the company as part of parent EMI’s previously announced worldwide restructuring of its recorded music division.

EMI had no official comment on the cuts, but it’s expected that these will be among the last since the company previously announced that all restructuring would be finalized by the end of June.

Denise Arguijo, a production manager has also reportedly exited the Nashville division.

As previously reported, EMI is making decisive moves toward a radically centralized management structure built around function and region, rather than by label. To execute these plans, EMI chairman Guy Hands has assigned EMI veterans to new responsibilities, poached top-flight executives from rival labels and recruited fresh talent from outside the music business.

As part of that process, the imminent departure of Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Jason Flom and the expected reassignment of Blue Note Records president Bruce Lundvall to new duties will allow for the dismantling of the Capitol group and Blue Note into one front-line label group housing multiple imprints organized around job functions.

While the new U.S. structure has begun to take shape with key appointments to some executives — and winks to others, letting them know they have a place in the future — most of the heavy lifting, including layoffs, is expected to take place before the end of June, when Capitol Music president Lee Trink will leave his post.

Additional reporting by Ed Christman and Lars Brandle

Came across this story on punknews.org and then followed a link to a longer article at E! Online. Here’s that article…it’s pretty hilarious, true or not. Rotten looks like something out of a horror movie anymore…hard living?…

Is Johnny a Rotten excuse for a gentleman?

A former reality TV show producer has sued the Sex Pistols frontman for assault and battery, claiming he slugged her in the face because he was unhappy with the Los Angeles hotel room she secured for him during a shoot last year.

She is also suing the company she was working for at the time, Bodog Music Ltd., contending her bosses ignored her concerns when she complained about Rotten’s behavior.

According to the complaint filed Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court, Roxane Davis was working on the Fuse Television Network series Bodog Battle of the Bands, on which Rotten served as a judge, when her unpleasant, profanity-laced encounter with the punk rock icon occurred.

Part of her job was to see to the needs of the celebs on the show, including their transportation, food and hotel accommodations, Davis said. At the time, Rotten, whose real name is John Lydon, was traveling with his assistant, Jon Stevens. He, according to the plaintiff, was also less than chivalrous.

During the several weeks she had to deal with Stevens on the phone in January 2007, the employee would often refer to her as a “bitch” and several other less printable terms, the lawsuit states.

Then, Davis claims, when the duo arrived at the hotel Jan. 24, Stevens called her and unleashed a “tirade of harassing, insulting and intimidating sex-based remarks that were meant to demean and humiliate her.” (Again, all unprintable.)

Rotten later yelled at her in a similar manner when he found out there was no adjoining door between his and Stevens’ rooms, the suit continues. That was when he “cocked back his fist to strike Ms. Davis and punched her in the face.”

Davis claims Bodog never investigated the attack and, when she informed her supervisor of what happened, he told her, “You get paid to be treated like s–t, you get paid to take the s–t.”

Three days later, she was fired via email, according to her complaint.

In addition to multiple violations of the state labor code, Davis is alleging assault and battery, sexual harassment and discrimination, negligent supervision and hiring, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination.

A rep for Rotten couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Davis is seeking unspecified damages to remedy a long list of alleged physical and mental trauma.

Original story from E! Online.

The Pulse of Radio reports: An unconfirmed item at Idolator.com suggests that VELVET REVOLVER may be in talks with an unnamed Australian singer to replace vocalist Scott Weiland, who was dismissed from the band two months ago. The anonymous source wrote, “I have some new information coming from fans/family close to the hard rock Australian band ROSE TATTOO… that Duff (McKagan, VELVET REVOLVER bassist) has been in communications with an Australian singer currently living in the USA. This guy can apparently sing up a storm and of course is a bloody Aussie, so that in itself along with the great voice will be a good choice for the band from all marketing angles.”The writer mentions that McKagan and VELVET REVOLVER guitarist Slash are “huge” fans of ROSE TATTOO, but does not suggest that ROSE TATTOO frontman Angry Anderson is the singer mentioned.Drummer Matt Sorum told The Pulse of Radio last month at a Los Angeles benefit that VELVET REVOLVER was auditioning new singers via email. “It’s going through, like, different phases, you know,” he said. “It goes to these guys, they listen to it, ‘Oh, he’s pretty good, okay, listen to that,’ that kind of thing. And then we’re sending back tracks that we’ve recorded, and then they’re singing on them and sending them back. And then now with the beauty of Internet, is you can send an mp3, open up your email and listen to it, and just go, ‘Oh. No.’”Sorum also recently said that the band had rejected offers to find a new singer through a “Rock Star”-like reality show. He said, “As many years as we’ve tried to keep our integrity intact, we felt that wasn’t the right forum for us to do it.”