Music

The first Pantera reunion concerts have been announced.

The “Walk” metallers will play their first shows since breaking up in 2003 at Slipknot‘s 2022 South American Knotfest festivals, taking place this December in Colombia, Chile and Brazil.

As previously reported by Billboard, the Pantera lineup will consist of the group’s surviving members, vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, as well as Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Anthrax‘s Charlie Benante in place of the late Abbott brothers, guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul.

Dime was murdered in 2004, while Paul died in 2018 of a heart condition.

News that Pantera was getting back together was first published by Billboard in July, which reported that the band would be touring in 2023. Since the news broke, metal fans have been debating whether the lineup of Anselmo, Brown, Wylde and Benante constituted a “true” Pantera reunion, given the absence of foundational members Dime and Paul.

Wylde and Benante have since characterized the project as a “celebration” of Pantera’s music, with Wylde telling the Danny Wimmer Presents YouTube channel, “Obviously it’s not Pantera, Pantera’s those four guys: it’s Phil, Rex, Dime and Vinnie.”

Still, the Knotfest lineup posters shared by the Pantera Twitter account simply bill the band as “Pantera.”

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Jay-Z is one of many features on DJ Khaled‘s upcoming album, God Did, but rapping is not the only way he contributed to the project. According to the famed producer, Hov selected the cover art, which debuted on social media earlier this week.

“I am the biggest Jay-Z fan, and I actually let him pick my album cover,” Khaled told Billboard, revealing Jay helped with previous album covers, as well. “I always give him like two cover options and see which one he would pick, and I did it again on this album,” he continued.

As displayed on Khaled’s socials, the artwork for God Did features a portrait of him looking up as a tear falls from his eye. The LP itself boasts appearances from Kanye West, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Future, Dr. Dre, Gunna, Takeoff, Quavo and Jay, whose verse Khaled says is good enough to make an album of Hov’s greatest hits.

The Brooklyn rapper reportedly had a huge compliment for Khaled, as well. “After I got done playing it, he pulled me aside and said, ‘Yo this is your best album,'” the Grateful star recalled. “Jay-Z, I love you, and you know that.”

God Did comes out on Friday.

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Indie rockers and nu metallers unite in an upcoming movie called I Saw the TV Glow.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, and confirmed by studio A24, the horror film’s cast will include Phoebe Bridgers and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.

Bridgers will be appearing in the movie alongside the band Sloppy Jane, in which the “Kyoto” singer played bass before launching her solo career.

By the way, this isn’t the first time Bridgers has crossed paths with the 2000s metal scene. During her U.S. tour this year, she used Disturbed‘s “Down with the Sickness” as her walk-on music.

Durst, meanwhile, certainly has experience in the film world, having directed three movies. His most recent directorial effort is the 2019 thriller The Fanatic, starring John Travolta.

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The domestic assault brought against Michelle Branch a couple of weeks ago has been dismissed, according to court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight.

During a court appearance on Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee, the 39-year-old singer’s misdemeanor domestic assault by offensive/provocative conduct charge was dismissed by Judge Gale Robinson at the request of the state, according to the court papers.

Following the news that Branch and her husband of three years, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney were separating, officers were called the couple’s home about a possible domestic disturbance, and Michelle said she’d slapped Carney in the face one or two times, according to a police report viewed by ABC Audio. Carney confirmed that, though he had no visible injuries, and Michelle was taken into custody.

Michelle and Carney share two children, 6-month-old daughter Willie and 4-year-old Rhys. Michelle has a 17-year-old daughter, Owen, from her previous marriage. She and Carney wed in 2019.

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In a new Men’s Health feature, Zac Brown Band frontman Zac Brown details his tour workout and the custom-built gym that follows the band on the road in a tractor-trailer.

Years of hard road living took its toll on Zac. “I had L5 issues, a bulging disc and I couldn’t move my leg. I had to have a surgery last year to take some of the trash out,” he explains. But the singer found fresh motivation to stay active and healthy when he sought advice from a rocker who knows exactly how difficult it is to stay fit on tour: Bruce Springsteen.

“When I met Springsteen, I said, ‘Tell me something that’s helped you stay feeling good,’” Zac recounts. “He was like, ‘Man, you need to sweat for an hour every day. I don’t care what you do, doesn’t matter. You need to sweat for an hour a day.’”

“I was like, ‘You’re the Boss. Let’s do it,’” the singer recalls.

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While Harry Styles did appear in the movie Dunkirk, his new film Don’t Worry Darling is one of his first starring roles. It was, of course, directed by Harry’s now-girlfriend, Olivia Wilde, and for a Variety cover story on her and the film, Harry revealed what advice she gave him as he becomes a leading man.

“‘The first step is to lose the Oscar you won in the shower that morning,'” Harry says Olivia told him. “‘Listen, and do the scene with your partner, not at them. Be a human, tell the truth.'”

“As a director, Olivia is incredibly focused. She communicated what she was looking for from the cast with both clarity and respect,” Harry tells Variety. “I think transitioning from acting into directing has made her a director who knows how to get the best out of everyone.”

Harry also explains why he wanted to take on the role of Jack in Don’t Worry Darling. He plays one half of a couple who lives in an experimental utopia where all the women are housewives and all the men work on the same mysterious project.

“It felt like an opportunity to play someone who is incredibly complex, caught between love and obsession,” says Harry. “There were always two sides of the character to play with. It’s fun to play someone that you feel like you’re trying to work out the whole time.”

Richard Brener, the president of the studio behind the movie, tells Variety, “Harry obviously is a revelation. I think there will very quickly be a conversation about why is he even bothering with music when he is such a huge movie star?”

Don’t Worry Darling arrives September 23.

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While the 2000s emo and pop-punk kids have the When We Were Young festival, aughts indie rock fans have the Lights, Camera, Factions tour, co-headlined by Spoon and Interpol.

Touring together feels a little like destiny realized for the two bands, given how much their careers have been interconnected over the past 20 years. For example, both their 2002 albums, Kill the Moonlight and Turn on the Bright Lights, and their 2007 records, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Our Love to Admire, were released on the same day.

“It’s gonna be pretty killer to be touring with Spoon, who’s just a band that is one of the great bands, period,” Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler tells ABC Audio. “Britt [Daniel]’s one of the great songwriters, and a good friend. They’re all good friends. We’ve known them … for 20 years, since we put out our first record.”

Spoon drummer Jim Eno hopes that their friendship might lead to an onstage collaboration.

“We’re talking about seeing if we can do anything with those guys as far as a song,” Eno shares. “We’re friends with them, so I imagine there’s gonna be a lot of hanging out and stuff, so hopefully we’ll be able to do something special.”

The Lights, Camera, Factions tour launches Thursday in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Spoon and Interpol will be touring in support of their respective 2022 albums, Lucifer on the Sofa and The Other Side of Make-Believe.

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Of all the acts currently on the radio, Black Eyed Peas are among the veterans, having released their first album in 1998. But the group doesn’t take for granted that more than 20 years later, they’re still scoring hits, especially in today’s competitive pop landscape.

During a 2020 interview with ABC News, will.i.am noted success in the late ’90s and early aughts was measured by record sales and appearances on shows like MTV’s TRL: “That was your entry point. Now the entry point … it’s so competitive, because it’s like Instagram. It’s Spotify, it’s TikTok, YouTube.”

“There wasn’t a measure of how many times your song was played on TRL or how long,” he explains. “Now it’s different. Now there’s, like, skip rates. Like, ‘What? Skip rate?’ ‘Yeah. If they skip the song.’ ‘If they skip the song????'”

As a result, will says BEP isn’t resting on its laurels as one of the best-selling groups of all time. They’re going hard, like all the up-and-coming artists. That definitely worked on 2020’s Translation, which produced a string of hits.

“You gotta freakin, like, humble yourself, look at it and compete,” will explains. “The ticket is not, like, ‘But I was big!’ Nah, nah, nah. Nope. Who cares? They moved on.” 

He laughs, “There’s people that have more followers than Black Eyed Peas on Instagram. And what do they do? I don’t know.They’re on Instagram! And that’s humbling!”

That’s why will says the group puts so much thought into their songs.

“Every single second in the song’s duration, every moment, we made sure that we kept people’s attention,” he notes. “We don’t want skips!” 

The Peas’ latest hit is “Don’t You Worry” with their pals David Guetta and Shakira. Their ninth album is coming soon.

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