Paul Bostaph Leaves Testament

Testament vocalist Chuck Billy has told Terrorizer magazine that Paul Bostaph has left the band. Due to a "serious injury," Bostaph was not present for the recording sessions for TESTAMENT's new album, "The Dark Roots Of Earth", which is scheduled for release on April 27, 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records.

He was replaced in the studio by Gene Hoglan (ex-DARK ANGEL, ex-STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, FEAR FACTORY, DETHKLOK), who also sat behind the kit for select dates on TESTAMENT's recent North American tour with ANTHRAX.

 "We just found our last week Paul Bostaph is not coming back to the band, he's starting his own new project and doing some things on his own," Billy told Terrorizer. "So we're actually going to be holding a couple of auditions with probably small group of drummers that we chose — we don't want to have a revolving drum stool, we have a new record we want a permanent drummer."

According to Chuck Billy, the split with Bostaph is amicable. "We're still buddies," he said. "It's just that Paul feels at this point in his career he wants to be in a little more in control of the artistic creation of the songs and with his new project, they are all involved with that process whereas with our group, Eric [Peterson, guitar] is pretty much the main songwriter and that's just the way its been with us for 25 years."

That Time Revolver Went the Way of the Buffalo

Korn's new record hits the shelves on Dec 6th, but is already polarizing metal fans, maybe better stated rock fans. With pieces of the album being released and lambasted by anyone who has any sense of self respect, it was an utter surprise that Revolver Magazine has not only put it in their top 20 records of the year, but named it the best album of 2011.

All things considered The Path of Totality is not the worst album of the year (I reserve that for Lulu), and they are embarking on territory that is not unfamiliar. Venturing into the dubstep realm is not a departure from their mixtures of the past, working with electronica artists and carving a small home out of the charred remains of the Nu Metal take over from the late 90s.

It is simply astounding though how this relic of the doldrums of 90s metal can garner the accolades of the 'premiere' hard rock magazine Revolver with an album that has not even been heard yet by most people. There is no doubt that it will sell, chart, and earn some praise, but with releases from Mastodon, Anthrax, Machine Head, Weedeater and so many more amazing bands allowing this to be the 'best' defies logic.

Yet the fact that this will ruffle the feathers of so many with an opinion, this may be a smart move just to make sure people are talking and buying magazines, however, my subscription is now cancelled.