Artist

The following is an excerpt from the Periphery feature in the August/September issue of Revolver. Here, frontman Spencer Sotelo discusses the more personal meanings behind songs on 'Periphery III: Select Difficulty' compared to the 'Juggernaut' double-album's fictional concept.  

To read the rest, pick up the new issue on newsstands August 9 or get your copy here. Story by Jon Wiederhorn.

"It was a pretty rough patch," the singer admits. "I was doing stuff I don't want to mention, and it definitely left a scar on my mind."

Sotelo wrote about his struggles in "The Way the News Goes...," a proggy, melodic song about escaping through substances; "Catch Fire," a more straightforward alt- rocker about casual sex; and "Prayer Position," an angular, rhythmically complex screamer about the aftermath of binging. "It's basically an angry hangover song," the vocalist explains. "It's about paying for the fun you've had and dealing with the effects of it."

While many musicians are unable to escape the party lifestyle once they dive in, Sotelo was able to back out and sober up on his own. "Luckily, I don't have a super-addictive personality, so I was able to get my act together," he says. "I just went, 'Dude, what the hell are you doing to yourself?' Now, I'm back to working out and eating healthy and I feel so much better."

In addition to writing about his struggles with rock and roll excess, the front- man also addresses other personal subjects including his goal not to take life so seriously ("Remain Indoors"), the danger of depression ("Flatline") and his feelings for his new girlfriend, who lives in Germany ("Lune").

"I really wanted this album to be more about the heartfelt emotions I've been having," he reveals. "The 'Juggernaut' records formed a concept that had nothing to do with real life. This time I wanted to do something that was the exact opposite of that."

For the rest of the story, pick up the August/September issue.

Jamaica, Vermont-based prog-metal act Barishi will release its new album, 'Blood from the Lion's Mouth,' on September 16 via Season of Mist. In anticipation, the band has teamed up with Revolver to premiere the title track. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

The band said, "'Blood from the Lion's Mouth' was the first song we completed for this record. I think it set the mood album and is a good representation of the type of music we are interested in writing. It went through a ton of changes as we wrote it. Everyone brought something unique to the table, which I think resulted in a cool melting pot of ideas.

"We're really proud of this album. It was an absolute blast to both write and record. We spent last summer at home in Jamaica, Vermont writing constantly. Our goal was to come up with something that was cohesive as a whole but also had an individuality to each track. Our producer Brian Westbrook really went above and beyond with it's production. He has such clear vision in regards to a song's structure as well as it's sonic potential. It was killer to work with him again."

To get 'Blood from the Lion's Mouth,' visit Season of Mist's webstore. For more on Barishi, follow them on Facebook.

Swedish prog-metal group Opeth have premiered its new song, "Sorceress." Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

Vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt said, "Here you go kids! Here's the title track, 'Sorceress,' combined with the now obligatory lyric video. Why not, eh? We're happy with the tune. It's heavy, a bit 'meat and potato,' but what the hell…we love it! Hope you do too!"

The band's upcoming 12th studio album is due out September 30 via the band's imprint label Moderbolaget Records with Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

In honor of Ozzfest Meets Knotfest, Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne and Slipknot's Corey Taylor appear on the cover of Revolver's August/September issue, which will hit newsstands on August 9 and is available for purchase online right now! You can view the cover below.

Below, you can also read an excerpt from the issue's cover story, written by Dan Epstein. In this section, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor explains how his neck injury ironically has its roots in 1999's Ozzfest.

Unfortunately, Taylor may be the only person at Ozzfest Meets Knotfest who won't be banging his head, thanks to the emergency spinal surgery he was forced to undergo in early June, when it was discovered in the course of a routine physical that he'd been walking around for years with a broken neck.

"I was describing these symptoms that I was having to my doctor," he recalls. "I was losing strength on my right side, my balance was screwed. Seriously, the last two or three years have been weird for me, physically. But you get to a certain point where you think it's just because you're getting older...

"My doctor sent me to a specialist, and he was like, 'Oooh, yeah—we need to do surgery right now.' Me being me, I was like, 'Is there any way we can reschedule this for after the tour?' And he's like, 'No.' [Laughs] He said my spinal cord injury was 20 times worse that what he's seen with UFC fighters; he pulled up the MRI, and he goes, 'You see that? That's really, really bad! That shouldn't even be growing like that.' And I was like, 'Oh, shit. You could have been paralyzed, dumbass!'"

Ironically, Taylor believes that the root of the problem can be traced back to the fall he took off the Ozzfest second stage in 1999. "My foot slipped off a monitor, and I fell four or five feet off the stage and landed on my head," he recalls. "I think that was what caused my two vertebrae to compact around the discs. Of course, being 25 and stupid, I didn't do anything about it. 'I can move my head, I'm fine!'" he laughs.

"The funny thing was, I had staples in the top of my head at the time, from an earlier accident where I'd walked into a cherry picker. And after I fell off the stage, I went to the EMT to have them check on the staples, and not my neck. I was such a fucking idiot, it's just not even funny! And then I just kind of forgot about it; but over the years, the headbanging and everything else I've done just exacerbated it to the point where the disc was crushed into my spinal cord."

Taylor's surgery, which involved replacing the disc and shaving back the vertebrae that had compacted around it, forced Slipknot to delay its summer tour with Marilyn Manson and Of Mice & Men by three weeks. Though he's been given the all-clear to perform, he'll have to keep his head immobilized while he's onstage—which will admittedly be something of a challenge for such a dynamic performer.

"I'm not going to be able to go as crazy as I'd like," he admits, "but the band has been fantastically supportive. They all hit me up, like, 'We're thinking about you, and we just want to make sure you're OK. Don't worry about any- thing; just get better, and let us do the heavy work for this tour.' It was good to feel that kind of respect. You know how this band is sometimes—it gets a little crazy, so that meant a lot to me.

"My doctor says that, if I follow my regimen, I'll be back to 90 percent recovered by the end of the year. Until then, I've just gotta make sure I can sing great, hit the parts and work the crowd—and make sure they're having a great fucking time!"

For the rest of the story, pick up the August/September issue.

Currently taking the Internet by storm is this video of thrash legends Metallica covering the Pokémon theme live in concert.

We jest, of course. What's really here is a quite masterful melding of Metallica concert footage and the Pokémon theme. In fact, James Hetfield's mouth syncs up with the lyrics quite well throughout the video. 

Of course this isn't the first time Metallica have been redubbed. A few years back, YouTube user Andy Rehfeldt crafted an excellent smooth-jazz version of "Enter Sandman" and melded it to video of the group performing live. The video, included below, is just shy of 6.5 million views.