Avenged Sevenfold is planning to release a new album by the summer of 2022.
During a recent stream on the DWPresents Twitch channel, frontman M. Shadows revealed, “We’re booking shows for next summer, and the record will be out before then.”
As for what the upcoming effort will sound like, well, you’ll just have to wait until it’s released to find out.
“There’s no way to describe music,” Shadows asserts. “It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s heavy, it’s fast.’ Like, what are we gonna say about it? It’s a work of art that we’ve worked on for a long time.”
Avenged Sevenfold’s most recent album is 2016’s conceptually driven The Stage.
Co-founding 5th Dimension members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. recall are sharing the emotional impact of being a part of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of concerts that took place at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem over the course of several weekends.
Documented in Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson‘s directorial debut, Summer of Soul, includes footage of the musical group performing in front of a crowd of thousands at the festival. McCoo, the group’s original lead singer, says it was very important to the band members to been “seen and heard in Harlem.”
“The 5th Dimension was known for a lot of our pop success,” McCoo tells ABC Audio. “But we wanted to be known and understood by our audiences in Harlem as well. We knew a lot of those people weren’t going to be able to get a chance to come and see one of our concerts and see the variety of music that we offered. So, doing a performance for this concert was important because we wanted them to have a little bit broader understanding of what The 5th Dimension was about musically. And so this gave us a chance to do it.”
Davis, who’s been married to McCoo since 1969, agrees, noting that being a part of the dynamic lineup that included Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Nina Simone to name a few, made perfect sense since they currently had a hit song “Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In” on the airwaves.
“So a lot of people were waiting for us out there for that day,” he explains. [So] to be able to do that in front of our own folks was just a real thrill.”
Summer of Soul is now available in theaters and on Hulu.
Metallica is headlining Atlanta’s 2021 ATLive festival.
The metal legends will take the stage at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on November 6, the second night of the two-day event. Greta Van Fleet and Cage the Elephant are also on the bill.
Tickets go on sale to the general public next Friday, July 16, at 10 a.m. ET. Those who’ve joined Metallica’s Fifth Member fan club will have access to a pre-sale. Visit Metallica.com for all ticket info.
The first night of ATLive, November 5, will be for the country fans, and features a lineup of George Strait, Eric Church and Caitlyn Smith. That show is ticketed separately from the Metallica day.
In related news, Metallica has shared Biffy Clyro‘s cover of “Holier Than Thou,” which will appear on the upcoming all-star tribute compilation The Metallica Blacklist, celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Black Album.
Along with the Scottish trio’s version, you can also listen to the punk group OFF!put their spin on “Holier Than Thou.” Both covers are available now for digital download.
The 53-track Metallica Blacklist will be released September 10.
Meanwhile, Metallica has also dug up a “Pre-Production Rehearsal” version of “Holier Than Thou,” one of the many bonus tracks included on the 30th anniversary Black Album reissue, also due out September 10.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay paid tribute to actress Suzzanne Douglas, who passed away Tuesday at age 64. The two worked together on Netflix’s When They See Us, in which Douglas played Grace Cuffee.
“Suzzanne Douglas was a quiet, elegant force as we made When They See Us,” DuVernay wrote on Instagram, sharing a clip from the film. “A gentlewoman. A gem of a lady. A confident, caring actor who breathed life into the words and made them shimmer. I’m grateful that our paths in this life crossed. May she journey on in peace and love.”
News of Douglas’ passing was shared on Facebook by her cousin, Angie Tee.
“Suzzanne Douglas, a beautiful and talented actress, made her transition today,” the post reads. “She warmed our hearts on movie screens and television sets all over the world. This beautiful soul was my cousin. I can remember growing up, there weren’t very many black actresses who had starring roles, but there was my cousin with the lead role in Tap starring alongside great dancers such as Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr.“
Tee continued, mentioning Douglas’ other roles in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, alongside Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg, plus The Inkwell and Jason’s Lyric. “The world will miss your talent, but your soul will live on forever. Rest in Paradise, my beautiful cousin Suzzanne. You will be missed RIP,” Tee concluded.
Suzzanne Douglas is also known for starring alongside Robert Townsend in the family sitcom The Parent Hood, which ran from 1995-1999 on The WB. The cause of her death has yet to be disclosed.
Jennifer Lopez neither confirmed nor denied she and Ben Affleck are giving love another shot, but she did recently say she’s “never been better.”
After ending her engagement with Alex Rodriguez, the “On The Floor” singer caught up with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and dished on her career and personal life.
Lopez, while plugging her new single “Cambia El Paso,” assured fans she’s in a good place.
“I’m super happy. I know people are always wondering, ‘How are you? What’s going on? Are you okay?’ This is it. I’ve never been better,” she grinned. “I want my people who care about me… to know that I’ve really gotten to a place in my life where I’m great on my own.”
The Grammy nominee continued, “I think once you get to that place, then amazing things happen to you that you never imagine in your life happening again. And so that is where I’m at.”
“I just want everybody to know that it’s… the best time of my life,” she maintained.
As for her new single, which translates to “Change the Step,” Lopez hinted the song may be about her recently called off engagement.
“It is about change and it is about taking a step… when things don’t feel right,” she explained. “To me that represents joy, happiness [and] life.”
“‘Cambia El Paso,’ where it says, ‘All she wants to do is just dance, dance, dance, dance.’ It’s really about all she wants to do is be happy. All she wants to do is live,” Lopez said.
Lopez and Affleck, who have recently been photographed canoodling together, first met in 2002 and broke up in 2004.
Lopez later married singer Marc Anthony in 2004 while Affleck wed Jennifer Garner in 2005. Both respective marriages ended after 10 years.
Britney Spears‘ temporary conservator Jodi Montgomery is staying put in her role in the singer’s on-going conservatorship — and that’s apparently how Britney wants it.
In a statement obtained by Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, Lauriann Wright, an attorney for Montgomery, says that the pop star requested that Montgomery “continue to serve” as conservator.
“Ms. Montgomery has no plans to step down as Ms. Spears’ Temporary Conservator of the Person,” the statement began. “She remains committed to steadfastly supporting Ms. Spears in every way she can within the scope of her duties as a conservator of the person.”
The statement continued, “Ms. Spears as recently as yesterday has asked Ms. Montgomery to continue to serve. Ms. Montgomery will continue to serve as a conservator for as long as Ms. Spears and the Court desire her to do so.”
The statement comes the same day that Sam Ingham, who has been Britney’s court-appointed attorney during her conservatorship, filed a resignation request with the court and just one day after her longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, announced that he has resigned after 25 years. It also comes less than a week after Bessemer Trust’s request to resign as Britney’s co-conservator of her estate was approved.
All of these developments occurred after Britney’s explosive testimony during her June 23 court hearing.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
BTS is giving fans a taste of their new single “Permission to Dance.”
The worldwide sensations dropped the trailer for their upcoming track on Tuesday and it’s channelling all of the Wild Wild West vibes.
The 32-second clip begins with Suga reading a tabloid newspaper before strutting over to meet his fellow bandmates as the melody begins to play. Once united the boy band dances in unison, rocking side-to-side and snapping their fingers, while adorned in matching denim outfits. The teaser ends with them singing, “we don’t need permission to dance,” as the camera pans out to show the septet in the middle of a desert.
Co-written by fellow pop star Ed Sheeran, “Permission to Dance,” is set to be released on July 9.
Tank is putting the finishing touches on his 10th album, R&B Money. As a preview, the R&B singer released his vulnerable single “Can’t Let It Show,” where he talks about love and heartbreak from a woman’s perspective.
Despite similarities in the song’s message to his 2001 single “Maybe I Deserve,” Tank says he didn’t consider sampling the older tune for his new track.
“I don’t even think that far back into time,” he tells ABC Audio. “I just kind of move forward, and if something connects to something from then or from there, that’s great. Let’s bring it all full circle.”
Tank adds, “I don’t think men do enough of understanding from a woman’s perspective. So [I’ll] always have that conversation.”
“Maybe I Deserve” — from Tank’s debut album,Forces of Nature— was his first single to chart on theBillboard Hot 100. The 45-year-old artist reveals that he plans to continue speaking from a woman’s perspective by including a sample of his hit record on the upcoming track “I Deserve.”
“R&B Money album sneak peek!” Tank wrote Monday on Instagram. “What if I told you 21 years ago that I’m going to sample myself 21 years in the future and make a new hit record? Would you have believed me?”
Back in May, Joe Jonas teamed up with the travel site Expedia to give away some unusual promotional items: 550 3-D printed, limited-edition autographed replicas of his hand. But now one man in Florida is annoyed that he’s received two of Joe’s hands in the mail — and he didn’t even enter the contest to win them.
The Washington Post reports that the man, 56-year-old retiree Sean O’Farrell, had no idea what the hand was, until he did a Google search and found out about the giveaway. The only problem is that he hadn’t logged into his Expedia account in five years, and he certainly hadn’t given the company his information in hopes of receiving a hand.
Sean shrugged it off and forgot about it — until he received yet another hand a few weeks later.
“I’m like, ‘You have got to be kidding me,'” he told The Post, the publication in which he first read about the contest. In fact, he tweeted The Post after receiving the first hand and wrote, “Expedia keeps sending me Joe’s hands. Up to 2 so far. I’m 56, a dude, and haven’t done business with Expedia in 5 years. Any ideas?”
Expedia told The Post that starting in mid-June, it began shipping 550 of the hands to the U.S., U.K. and Canada, but only to those who’d entered their name, address, phone number and email address into a dedicated site.
Expedia thought maybe someone O’Farrell knows entered his info, but Sean said he’s asked everyone and nobody has ‘fessed up. For now, O’Farrell is keeping the hands in a closet, and he said he’d only sell them in order to give the money to charity.
“If I get a third one, I’m gonna lose my mind,” he declared.
Happy Birthday to Ringo Starr, who marks his 81st trip around the sun today.
As has become tradition, the legendary Beatles drummer is asking fans across the world to celebrate his big day by pausing at noon local time, wherever they are, and saying his catchphrase “peace and love,” or by sharing the #peaceandlove hashtag on social media.
Unfortunately, Ringo has decided not to have a public celebration this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, although virtual parties have been scheduled in many cities around the world. Visit Starr’s Facebook page for more details.
As previously reported, Ringo posted a video message on his YouTube channel in which he encouraged people to take part in the “peace and love” festivities today.
“[Y]ou can post it, you can say it, you can even think it, but it’d be cool if you go ‘peace and love’ at noon on my birthday,” Starr declared. “So let’s spread peace and love around the world on my birthday. Come on, everybody!”
In other news, Peter Frampton has posted a couple of messages on his social media pages revealing that Starr has been working on a new EP to which the guitar whiz apparently is lending his talents.
In a Twitter message, Frampton posted a photo of him with Starr and songwriter/producer Linda Perry at Ringo’s home studio, along with a note that reads, “So great to be able to fly and see friends again. Lovely afternoon listening to Ringo’s great upcoming EP.”
Peter also posted a couple of photos on his Instagram page that show him playing guitar at Starr’s studio while goofing around with Ringo.
The new release apparently will be a follow-up to Starr’s Zoom In EP, which came out May.
So great to be able to fly and see friends again. Lovely afternoon listening to Ringo’s great upcoming ep. Bonus: Linda Perry came by. Always great to see #barbarabach too. Much love guys ❤️ pic.twitter.com/HOnAigPbgV
