Nickelback gets protest in "Edge of a Revolution"

It's been three years since their last album, "Here and Now," the Canadian rock band Nickelback are back in action, and just unveiled a protest-heavy new music video to their latest politically-themed single, "Edge of a Revolution," the lead single from their upcoming eighth studio album, "No Fixed Address," due out on November 4th under Nickelback's new label, Republic Records.
The rising rock radio track was described as a departure from Nickelback's original sound and it's more like a song with a political protest message that's not been part of their hit catalog to date. Nickelback have found their "anti-system" calling just like Green Day found theirs years ago in the “American Idiot” era. In the interview, the frontman Chad Kroeger stated the song touches upon "fat cats on Wall Street" and was inspired by current events such as the war in Ukraine and how the government has been treating their citizens.
Directed by ace song video director Wayne Isham - who has directed song videos for artistes like Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, KISS, Roxette and Britney Spears - the "Edge of a Revolution” visual stays true to the song lyrics and features footage from cultural and political protests like Egypt's Arab Spring and the Occupy movement, along with Kroeger and the rest of band members performing and chanting rebellious before a dark and crowd classroom full of young kids at a school class where they'll teach them to doubt the current system and fight for their own beliefs and not what society tells them to do that they ultimately decide to reject in favor of much-needed change as they pushing over classroom furniture and scattering papers in the air chanting "we want change!" As the rock band preach their speech to the sat-down younglings, footage of wars, arresting scenes of soldiers, riot police, demonstrations, and repression acts will be displayed on the wall behind them.

The Pretty Reckless go to hell in "Heaven Knows"

The Pretty Reckless have been climbing the charts with their single "Heaven Knows" and there's now a corresponding and very attention-grabbing "dark" visual for the song, which is the second single featured on alternative metal/hard rock band's imminent sophomore album "Going to Hell," due in stores on March 18. Considering the titles of the songs on the album, the journey to hell appears to be something The Pretty Reckless are spent a lot of time pondering. And hey, it might be kinda fun to go along for the ride.
The first single and title track from "Going to Hell" was hardcore rock music, and for the follow-up, frontwoman Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless slow it down a bit and add a little soul, continues where the first hardcore rock "Going To Hell" left off. Shocking, lurid antics are sort of the point of the "Heaven Knows," so we're not being entirely gutter-brained. The song rocks a powerful rhythmic guitar with a striking refrain that Momsen delivers dead-on: "Oh no, heaven knows, we belong way down below." Once again considering spiritual matters of sin, redemption, the afterlife, and all of the attendant rock-and-roll tropes that come with the territory.
Shot on location in Miami, the Jon J and Momsen-co-directed striking clip, sees 20-year-old Momsen as a rock n' roll savior strutting down the halls of a school in a black robe until entering one of the smoke-filled darkened classrooms where a group of innocent children are being fed subliminal messages on multiple television screens, and some not-so-innocent-looking adults to illustrate drug use and eternal damnation and play out the concept of how a culture becomes brainwashed by sex and violence. But what will have viewers buzzing is later Momsen pulls back her robes to reveal she is wearing nothing but the band's customized Gothic black cross logo on her body.
Momsen says of the video and track's inspiration, "How do you sum up a song that is metaphorically speaking about everyone's life from any general perspective on video? You understate it. We decided to film variations of all of the issues we as a people are facing, whether personal, political or social. We took a lot of shots, each representing some social constant or emotional struggle. Some overt, some subtle, but it's all in there. Everything is thrown at you from the day you're born, you're only chance is to think for yourself... which is not as simple as it sounds." Simple, no, but Momsen does seem to have focused on doing exactly that.

The Pretty Reckless unveiled dark 'Going to Hell'

The Pretty Reckless is back after an extended leave of absence with a typically dark, gloomy and slightly demonic music video for "Going to Hell," the lead single and title track from the band's upcoming sophomore studio album, to be released in early 2014. As frontwoman of the hard-rocking outfit, Taylor Momsen has been making a name for herself outside her acting career. With the band's latest video, "Going to Hell," it's safe to say that she is firmly entrenched in the world of rock music.
"Rock & roll needs to make a resurgence," insists Momsen, speaking to her belief that the genre has slipped from the mainstream. "It needs to come back in a big way and take over again." The 20-year-old singer, whose band The Pretty Reckless broke out in 2010 with their alt-rock debut "Light Me Up," says she's fully prepared to hold up her end of the bargain. "We're really trying to come to something unique and different," she tells Rolling Stone of "Going to Hell," which references the devastation in a hard-charging, riff-heavy blitzkrieg. Momsen wrote it during the band's downtime as they struggled to regain their footing.
On the sinister inspiration behind the song, the metal band's frontwoman said, "I've done all these things, I've toured the world, I've seen all these sins and horrible things going around. And I have to tell you about it." So, naturally, the "Going to Hell" video is based on the seven deadly sins. "I worked closely with our director, Tim Mattia. It's based around the seven deadly sins and these kind of crazy vignettes and exaggerated versions of these sins, done artistically. Whether they'll look like sins to you or not, who knows, but there's definitely some interesting footage that I would check out," Momsen added.
The Tim Mattia-directed clip truly matches the intensity of the song. It opens with Momsen whispering in a preacher's ear, "Don't bless me father for I have sinned," setting the stage for a clip filled with Momsen's dance with the dark side. The song itself rocks with a hard-driving and infectious beat and Momsen's powerful vocal. Meanwhile the scantily clad frontwoman delivers the track while looking flawless in a black latex catsuit, corrupting a priest, having a feast with her slaves, and something that looks like an orgy in a cinema room, and posing with a snake, laying amongst a hedonistic pit of bodies and holding the forbidden apple, driving home the point of the song.

Sick Puppies unveils "There’s No Going Back"

Australian hard-rock trio Sick Puppies have released the music video for "There's No Going Back" the lead single from the threesome's latest bona fide fourth studio album, "Connect," in stores now on Capitol Records, and it debuted at No.17 on the Billboard Album Chart upon its release last month – much to the delight of singer-guitarist Shim Moore, bassist Emma Anzai and drummer Mark Goodwin after 16 years of toiling in the music industry trenches.
Four albums into their career, it is time for Sick Puppies to buckle down and grow up. Sick Puppies thrives on tight-roping between two genres: hard-rock and radio-friendly rock n' roll. Usually, the stabs at lyrical profundity come up a bit short, but Sick Puppies' maturation from neo-grunge to neo-post-grunge means that "Connect" offers a richer musical experience than the group's previous records. They're still hampered a bit by their desperate desire to be taken seriously. "Connect" begins with some wick guitar melodies, before lead single "There's No Going Back" shows the softer side, with acoustic guitars and a softer approach, yet still retaining that rock touch, typical of Sick Puppies.
"There's No Going Back," was co-authored by legendary songwriter Desmond Child, who crafted career-defining tunes for Bon Jovi, KISS and Aerosmith. "He made us step up our game," Moore said. "He was the enemy of 'good.' Everything we came up with had to be 'great,' not 'good.'" The song is about past mistakes and regret, putting those things behind you and moving forward, making the most out of what your life is now. "There's No Going Back" is a tepid affair that screams "please play me on the radio," complete with an inoffensive and boring lead guitar riff and the same "whoa oh oh" backing vocals that plague every other mainstream rock release.
In the clip, the trio find themselves in the desert, when all of a sudden they start seeing ghosts of their own selves. So, their ghostly selves are letting them know that no matter's what's happened in the past, it remains in the past and it's time to move forward. While the trio stranded in a seemingly desert setting beginning to figure out there's something different about their surroundings, they begins to poke at the ground with their umbrellas and soon take the plunge by diving into the sand-covered oasis. In the end, the three Sick Puppies members escape their stagnant stage to rock out and take their next steps toward the future.

Flyleaf Reflect on Past in "New Horizons"

Flyleaf are back after taking a well-deserved break, and they've returned with their emotionally charged clip for "New Horizons," the first single and title track from the rockers' upcoming third full-length disc. The Texas-based alternative metal band are gearing up to release, and decided to name their next album after their new track, while it speaks about enjoying the moment and thinking about the future, actually takes on more reflective feel within the new music video.
The lead singer Lacey Sturm' voice takes center stage, with a big assist from the twin guitar assault of Sameer Bhattacharya and Jared Hartmann. She sings to the camera, "There is no such thing as time inside this moment no surprise, wait until I fly," while she and her bandmates look through photos and gifts collected through the years. Bassist Pat Seals describes the tune: "'New Horizons' expresses a feeling of looking toward the unknown future with hope. Definitely one of our best and most joyful songs - I am excited to see how our fans will receive it."
This catchy new single features a slightly more mellow Sturm over a melodic beat, but the song works simply because it manages to catch your ear right out of the gate and leaves you wanting more by the time it is over. Sturm has an uncanny ability to encode uplifting messages within sublime hard rock, and the track continues that tradition. Simultaneously, the group continues to challenge itself and evolve, and that's the most wonderful and refreshing aspect of the latest from Flyleaf.
"New Horizons" is all about letting go of the past and looking hopefully towards the future, and its video does just that. It's everything you've come to expect from rock quintet Flyleaf: loud, anthemic, and inspiring. In the clip, while looking back and reflecting, Seals takes viewers on a tour alternates between shots of the band playing in a backlit, hazy living room and photographs of the group in various stages of their career. At the end, Sturm opens up a photo album and then joins her husband and son on a picnic blanket, and you've got one of Flyleaf's most emotional videos to date.

Soundgarden Unveiled "Live to Rise" Video

American rock band Soundgarden has just unveiled their new clip for "Live to Rise," the grunge heroes's first newly recorded song in 15 years, and it will not appear on Soundgarden's upcoming new album as the band wrote the soundtrack for the new film, "Marvel's The Avengers," features iconic Marvel Super Heroes team up together to fight the foes no single hero could withstand, is just in time released in theaters across the United States Friday and tops box office.
Soundgarden, headed up by lead singer Chris Cornell, was one of the seminal bands in the creation of grunge, a style of alternative rock that developed in Seattle in the early '90s. The new track combines the band's heavy riffs and guitar heroics with sensitive balladry and a psychedelic intermission perfect for scoring a summer blockbuster. "Live to Rise" continues a tradition of Marvel movies using rock songs over the credits.
Comparing the song to the one he crafted for "Machine Gun Preacher", Cornell told THR, "This song came arduously. It's different, because it has to be a Soundgarden song. It has to resonate with every band member. Writing a song for the 'Avengers' film, it has to be lyrically not specific to the movie or the story, but it has to work with it. It wasn't so easy. But it turned out absolutely a Soundgarden song."
The Robert Hales-directed epic and cinematic video features frontman Cornell and his Seattle rock bandmates delivering a searing live performance inside a warehouse under the glowing blue Tesseract-like orbs with footage from the superheroes movie intercepting every once in a while. Cornell's soaring powerhouse vocals sound they could have been lifted off one of their classic albums from the early '90s.

Evanescence Unveils "My Heart is Broken"

Evanescence have just released the new video for their uptempo rock ballad "My Heart Is Broken," is the official second single from American hard rock band's eponymous self-titled third album. It is the standard romantic rock bluster from Evanescence. Really, when your heart is broken, you want a song that's as idea driven as "My Heart is Broken" to carry you through and that's what the frontwoman Amy Lee delivers.
Lee's vocals accompanied by piano, guitars and drums was powerful and flexible as ever, as heard in her piercing wails on hit-in-waiting "My Heart Is Broken." Lee said that the song sounded better with the piano part because it was a stronger and more prominent instrument which made the song "one of the most passionate songs on the whole album." With a gorgeous piano intro rises alongside Lee's high energy, vibrant and undeniably fierce vocal delivery, and the "gut-wrenching" ballad develops into a searching, soulful hook, ranging high among the best material this band has ever recorded.
Lee revealed that the song was written after seeing victims of sex trafficking. Despite brokenness being one of several themes that run through Evanescence's new album, this song is not about romantic heartbreak. Lee explained: "A good friend of mine heads up an organization in New York that rescues victims of sex trafficking. My husband and I got involved and were really moved and horrified. As I was writing the song I was putting myself in that place - what would it be like to be trapped? Threatened? Alone? Unable to tell anyone what was happening because you're afraid of what would happen?"
The video, Lee says, takes inspiration from the 1988 British dark fantasy horror film "Paperhouse." Distinguished director Dean Karr for short film, and Lee promises the video will recall "both dreams and nightmares." In a recent interview with MTV, Lee also describes the video as a "surreal dream world, and the band's performance is the dream within the dream, in an abyss of darkness." Lee continues "we're playing with fiber optics, so basically I'm drawing the world around me from nothingness, and when I draw things with my hands they actually come to life."

Evanescence Returns With "What You Want"

Evanescence are officially back, with a roaring new single called "What You Want," the first single from American rock band's upcoming, self-titled third studio, which recorded in Nashville and will be released on October 11. It's been nearly four years since Evanescence have released a single, and during that time, it appeared very likely they'd never release another.
The freedom-themed song was penned by frontwoman Amy Lee at her house in New York with bassist Tim McCord and guitarist Terry Balsamo. Lee had previously described the song as being "really different" from anything in the band's back catalog, and, as you can tell, she wasn't kidding. "What You Want" is most definitely a departure, quite possibly the heaviest song Evanescence have ever made. The guitars buzz like a hornet's nest, the drums are pounding and primal, and the strings swell and stab. Throw in a positively massive chorus and Lee's vocal pyrotechnics, and you've got a song that's powerful enough to shake rock radio to its very foundation. And that's pretty amazing, considering its simple roots.
As Lee said, it's not just the band's comeback single, it's also the beginning of a mission - one Evanescence are taking very seriously. Though it came from humble origins, "What You Want" deals with heady concepts, a trait that's readily apparent throughout Evanescence's new album. "It's about freedom - that's definitely a constant theme on the record - but, it's like Evanescence, and me, and my relationship with the music and the fans, and coming to that [realization] of 'This is what I'm supposed to do ... I want to do this,'" Lee said. "And when it says, 'Remember who you really are,' that's exactly everything you could assume it means."
They rock and make the crowd go crazy with an insane warehouse performance in Meiert Avis-directed new visual, filmed in Brooklyn, New York and is a biographical clip of the band from their early days to their reconvening after their hiatus. "This is more a personal video. We've done a lot in the past that were very 'fantasy,' and this is sort of the real us," Lee told MTV News. The heavy goth-rock head-banger video continually cuts Lee running through New York in a dark dress and makeup. The shot represented the band coming back in the world and heading into the unknown, coming into a new world.

Stone Sour Embrace the Slow Burn In "Hesitate"

American rock band Stone Sour has now officially unveiled their video for its current track "Hesitate" just before the Christmas holiday through AOL Music, following several months of post-production work. The the heart-wrenching opus that's sure to garner repeated plays. "Hesitate" is the latest single from Stone Sour's third studio effort, "Audio Secrecy." The album has been landing in top 10 lists far and wide, and in taking note, Amazon is offering digital copies for only $5 for this month.
For as much as Stone Sour hit the volume button and let loose with feelings of anger, the three time Grammy Award-nominated band, from Des Moines, Iowa since 2006, also goes for the heart strings at times. "Hesitate" is one such song that's both melodic and melancholic with orchestral strings and a soaring chorus. Frontman Corey Taylor called it "one of the hardest to put together." From an ember of hope to the growing fire that ends a relationship, this stop-motion video captured the struggling tale of "Hesitate."
For such a deeply personal, touching song, the band shot the clip back on September 20 in Los Angeles with director Paul Brown. With stunning special effects and the expert direction of Brown, the video sees the despairing demise of a relationship, and a window into Taylor's life. Taylor told us this one was just as challenging: "It's a very visual video -- a lot of CG, a lot of post work, and it's just been a long haul. There's been a lot of work that we've had to do on it, but it is so...to me it's up there with 'Through Glass.' Like, it's really, it's really good."
Stone Sour is giving members of its fan club, the Dead Generation, an exclusive glimpse into the evolution of "Audio Secrecy." In a video interview detailing each track on "Audio Secrecy," Taylor explained the work that went into recording the track. "I wrote that song about two years ago and it's a different kind of vibe for what people would normally know from me, but at the same time it's a fantastic tune." He also said that "Hesitate" is one of the standout tracks on "Audio Secrecy," for him. "It's a bittersweet song," he said. "It's about letting go of something that you want with all your heart that you know is just gonna do nothing but damage to you. And it takes a special kind of heart and a special kind of courage to do that. And not a lot of people have that kind of courage. They would rather sit in a relationship for years and wallow in it because they're afraid of being alone. And this is about having the courage to say, 'You know what, I'm getting away. I'm gonna be on my own, and I'm gonna be OK.' And those first few steps are the worst, but once you get each foot in front of the other, it's a lot easier."

Flyleaf Rock Out For Broadway Musical "Sorrow"

The Belton, Texas-based heavy rock quintet Flyleaf has released their fifth music video for the fifth track "Sorrow," on their self-titled studio album, "Flyleaf." The video, directed by Jake Davis, features the quintet dressed up and rocking out in a Broadway musical type theme.
The American rock band formed in 2000 when frontwoman Lacey Mosley tried out a string of the dark, hard-edged songs she consistently wrote as a brooding teen on drummer James Culpepper. Following their self-titled 2005 release of "Flyleaf," the band did what they do best and toured heavily on the festival circuit, and were even voted Yahoo's Who's Next band in March 2006, and were also named MTV's artist of the week on December 24, 2007.
"A flyleaf is the blank page at the front of a book," explains Mosley, Flyleaf's vocalist. "It's the dedication page, the place you write a message to someone you're giving a book to. And, that's kind of what our songs are — personal messages that provide a few moments of clarity before the story begins."
The music video displays the band playing on a dark stage. The video intercuts between the band performing and lead singer Mosley walking around a theater and preparing for a show that she is about to perform. At the end of the music video, Mosley is shown handcuffed and thrown into a tank as part of a magic trick in front of a crowd of people. The crowd then looks on in horror as Mosley is shown struggling and apparently drowning in the tank until she is pulled out.
Flyleaf have always worn their hearts on their sleeves. In fact, there's a raw and real honesty at the core of every song that the band's written from their debut "Flyleaf" to their latest offering,
"Memento Mori." Flyleaf have evolved immensely since their debut, and their story continues to inspire fans worldwide. Right now, the band's in the midst of their "Unite & Fight Tour" alongside 10 Years and Fair to Midland. "Unite & Fight" means a lot to the quintet, and they decided to tell us all about it backstage at the tour's Anaheim California stop.

Breaking Benjamin Releases Album "Dear Agony"

Bruce Willis’ latest film "Surrogates" wanderings into the sci-fi realms had a rough first weekend. It took in only $15 million and fails to steal the crown for a distant 2nd place. However the film support band, Breaking Benjamin is about begin their business with releasing new album tomorrow. The American rock band was formed in 1998 by vocalist Benjamin Burnley and quickly garnered a strong local following in their home state of Pennsylvania. Their music is most often classed as alternative rock or post-grunge, and have also been classified as alternative metal. They have released three albums, and are set to release their upcoming 4th studio album "Dear Agony" tomorrow.
The first single "I Will Not Bow" from new album was released for sale on September 1. It was released to the radio and the band's MySpace page on August 11, instead of the planned date, August 17 due to a leak by their hometown radio station, WBSX. This single is also be featured on the soundtrack for the Bruce Willi's new film "Surrogates" with the music video containing scenes from the movie. The song was not written specifically for the film, but according to drummer Chad Szeliga, "Ben sent a few songs to our record label, Hollywood Records," which is owned by Disney, who then decided they "wanted a Breaking Benjamin song for this movie." The song has also reached No.5 on Billboard Rock Songs chart.
The music video for "I Will Not Bow" was released to the band's Myspace on August 21. The video was shot at the World Trade Center building 7, but has no connection or significant meaning having to do with the 9/11 events as stated by Aaron Fink in his Point interview on August 13. The video was directed by Rich Lee who has also directed for Evanescence. Lee chose the location feeling it was an eerie location to film. The video features several shots of singer Ben Burnley walking down a hallway singing into a microphone, as well as shots of the band performing together, and scenes from the movie. There is also a girl who goes onto an elevator, and comes up to the same floor the band is on. She sits down on a couch in front of a set of TVs, all of them either showing scenes from the movie, or the band playing. Towards the end of the video, the members of the band collapse, dropping their instruments, as does the girl. The video then goes to Burnley strapped into one of the chairs from the movie, during which he sits up and takes his mask off.

Three Days Grace Debut Album 'Life Starts Now'

The Canadian rock band, 'Three Days Grace' is gearing up to release their the third studio album, "Life Starts Now", is set to hit stores today via Jive Records. Nothing says "rockstar" like a smashed guitar. Three Days Grace want to give their fans a piece of the rockstar experience – an actual guitar fragment, hand-shattered by the band themselves.
The Canadian rockers also known as '3DG' or 'TDG' with a line-up consisting of guitarist and lead vocalist Adam Gontier, drummer and backing vocalist Neil Sanderson, bassist Brad Walst, and lead guitarist Barry Stock, who has built a dedicated and ever-growing fanbase over the course of two Platinum albums before, and years of touring in North America. Since their 1992 formation, they have had multiple smash hit singles on Rock radio and videos that have received extensive play on Fuse, MTV2, and VH1. In 2007, the band was declared number one rock artist of the year by Billboard, and was the number four artist in airplay in Canada that same year.
Follow up to theirs 2006 release "One-X," the band returned to the studio this year with producer Howard Benson, who had worked with them on their previous releases. Recorded at studios in Vancouver and L.A. since March to craft what will surely be their most accomplished album to date. The lead vocalist Adam Gontier is saying will be "the best Three Days Grace record to date," according to a post on his MySpace Page. This eagerly anticipated release is certain to please longtime followers while getting Three Days Grace even more attention from Rock music fans everywhere. Three Days Grace have planned a tour of the U.S. and Canada encompassing the latter part of 2009 and supporting "Life Starts Now."