MetalSucks

There’s a rumor going around that Billy Howerdel’s Ashes Divide have broken up. To which I say: HUH?

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With Ashes Divide, essentially a one-man solo project in band form, former A Perfect Circle collaborator Billy Howerdel has stepped out on his own. While Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright lacks the dynamic and immediacy that Tool’s Maynard James Keenan brought to the band, the album is certainly strong enough to prove Howerdel’s mettle as an able songwriter. Still, something about the ambitious artistry Howerdel seems to be getting at falls short, leaving Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright a bit on the short end of the straw and ultimately a tad disappointing.

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Projekt Revulsion – er, Revolution – Linkin Suck’s answers to Ozzfest/Summer Sanitarium/summer package tour of your choice, has announced its line-up for this year’s edition, and in addition to headliners The Chester Bennington Comedy Hour, the mainstage will include Chris Cornell, The Bravery, and Ashes Divide. Second stage performers will include Atreyu, 10 Years, Hawthorne Heights, and Armor for Sleep.

Okay, so I’m dying to see Ashes Divide live (or, for that matter, hear their album in its entirety – I don’t know how the label has done such a solid job of preventing it from leaking with only a week left ’til its release, for but good for them), but otherwise, this has to the tour to skip this summer. As of late, Chris Cornell seems to be going out his way to become a caricature of his former self, 10 Years, Hawthorne Heights and Armor for Sleep all blow goats, and even though I liked some of Atreyu’s pre-Lead Sails offerings, their live show is a painful demonstration of how reliant they are on Pro Tools and other studio chicanery.

I don’t know much about The Bravery but they strike me as the kind of band that is listened to exclusively by anorexic hipsters in skinny black jeans. Actually, they seem kind of out of place on this tour.

It’s interesting that Linkin Suck are booking a tour that’s so light on heavy bands. I wonder if that’s because they’re booked elsewhere or because Mike Shitoda and company are deliberately trying to distance themselves from the metal world that has so forcefully and maliciously busted their balls for the past seven years. Debate amongst yourselves while I pray for an Ashes Divide solo tour.

-AR

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Billy Corgan? The Associated Press reports that the bald rock god, a mere shadow of his former self, is suing his record label of 17 years, Virgin Records, because said label’s “use of the band in a ‘Pepsi Stuff’ promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. threatens their reputation for ‘artistic integrity.’”

ARTISTIC FUCKING INTEGRITY?! Is this shithead completely fucking bonkers or what? You wanna talk about damaging your artistic integrity, let’s talk about how you’re doing Smashing Pumpkins “reunion” without 50% of the Smashing Pumpkins. Let’s talk about your decision to include photos of Paris Hilton in your album’s liner notes. Or let’s just talk about the fact that you made a really, really shitty album. Ya think any of that shit might’ve damaged your so-called “artistic integrity,” Billy? Fuck, Trent Reznor even called you “corporate.” And what’s the photo above this article, Billy? Oh, yeah. It’s a picture of you. With Courtney Love. At the fucking premiere for the movie Freedom Writers. Your artistic integrity is about as intact as Edsel Dope’s career, so let’s cut the shit. If you’re pissed that the label fucked you out of royalties for using your image and/or music in a soda ad, that’s one thing, but don’t bitch and moan about artistic integrity.

There’s only one bald Billy making relevant alt rock right now, and that’s Billy Howerdel. While we’re waiting for his new album to get released next month, someone please beat Corgan to death with a sock full of quarters.

-AR

After three Perfect Circle records with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Billy Howerdel is set to embark on his own journey with the brand new outfit Ashes Divide, essentially a solo project assembled around himself NIN-style. A few weeks back MetalSucks was fortunate enough to be able to speak with Billy, who was one of the more articulate and intelligent interview subjects we’ve spoken with to date. Billy told us about the long writing and recording process for the new record Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright (April 8th, Island/DefJam), the personal battles contained therein, working with a slew of guest musicians, and stepping out on his own from underneath Maynard’s shadow. The full interview transcript, after the jump. Click to read more…

In case you didn’t know, Billy Howerdel is something of a hard rock Cinderella story: he started as a guitar tech for bands like Nine Inch Nails, Tool and Smashing Pumpkins, and was working with Axl Rose on Chinese Democracy when Maynard James Keenan heard some demos he’d written and decided to start a band with him. That band, of course, was A Perfect Circle, and that’s the reason any of us know who the hell Billy Howerdel is today. See? Doing other people’s grunt work really can pay off!

Billy hasn’t forgotten his roots, though; that’s why his new band, Ashes Divide, are teaming up with MetalSucks and Travelworm.com for a contest that will allow one luck fan to be Billy’s guitar tech for a day. And while that might sound like some shitty contest where you get to bring Dave Mustaine his coffee, it’s actually way, way cooler than that: one lucky winner and a guest will be flown to LA to stay at a super swanky hotel for 2 nights, PLUS they get to go see Ashes Divide live, PLUS they get to watch the show from the friggin’ stage, PLUS they get a private meet and greet with the band. And, no, I don’t think you actually have to set up Billy’s guitar for him.

Click here to enter this super duper sweet contest. Ashes Divide’s new album, Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, hits stores April 8, and is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the more buzzed about alt-metal releases of the year. In case you somehow still haven’t heard their so-catchy-it’s-painful first single “The Stone,” click here to look at a neat-o widget with the song’s PR Brown-directed video, plus pics, band news, and all the other stuff that comes with widgets.

Heh heh. “Widget” is a silly word.

-AR

It hasn’t even been two full years yet since Tool released their most recent album 10,000 Days, so we can expect to wait at least another 2 years before we get the next record, right? Well, maybe not. Apparently Maynard told MTV.com that the band is about to enter the rehearsal studio to begin writing for a new album.

For a band who usually takes 4-5 years between albums this comes as a shock. For a fan who’s used to waiting 4-5 years between albums this comes as a welcome surprise — or does it? Maybe part of what makes Tool’s mystique so awesome is the fact that we always have to wait… so… long… for new Tool music. But really, we can hardly complain. Without a A Perfect Circle holding things up (Billy Howerdel will release a new record under the name Ashes Divide in April without Maynard) there’s no reason they shouldn’t begin making a new album. And news that the band will soon begin writing doesn’t mean much; first they have to start writing, then they have to write, then they have to record, then mix, then master, then… you get the point. It’ll be at least another year before we get new Tool music.

But still; get excited! New TOOL! After all, they are the best band currently walking the planet Earth.

-VN

While Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has been busy dicking around with V is for Vagina (haha, get it?), the real brains behind A Perfect Circle has been busy on a new project, Ashes Divide. Billy Howerdel, always the mastermind behind A Perfect Circle in that Reznor/NIN kind of way, will be releasing the Ashes Divide debut Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright this Spring. Unsurprisingly the music we’ve heard from the band’s MySpace page sounds a whole lot like APC — and this is great news if you ask us. Supposedly their first single “The Stone” is burning up the radio charts, and it’s a damn good track, but who needs radio when we’ve got the Internet?

Matt Pinfield recently sat down with Howerdel in the most Zen of settings for an interview about Ashes Divide. The following clip and more can be viewed at the Ashes Divide YouTube channel.

-VN

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/xNTEwZcgflQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Dude, remember Matt Pinfield? The last time I saw him was at least four ago, when he was hitting on my friend after her band Morningwood played a showcase. I kind of thought he’d retired or died or something.

But not so! He’s alive and just did an interview with Billy Howerdel about his new project, Ashes Divide (As much as I like Howerdel, I refuse to do the lowercase “a” and “d” thing. Sorry, Billy.). It’s a good interview, but I’m kinda peeved that Pinfield never appears on camera with Howerdel, since it denies us the sight gag of a Pinfield looking like Howerdel if Howerdel, y’know, ate the other members of A Perfect Circle.

VIDEO REMOVED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES – ED. 

Ashes Divide’s debut album, Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, comes out March 18 on Island Records. The band’s first single, “The Stone,” is out now and can be heard by clicking here.

-AR

I’ve made it clear before that I’m excited about Ashes Divide, the new Maynard-free project from A Perfect Circle mastermind Billy Howerdel; now that I’ve heard “The Stone,” the first single from their forthcoming debut Keep Telling Myself It’s All Right, my curiosity has peaked.

The song basically sounds like APC with Howerdel on vocals – which isn’t that much of a surprise, given that Howerdel wrote and recorded most of APC’s music, and that APC skinsman Josh Freese is handling drum duties (Maynard’s eleven year old offspring, Devo – I imagine he’s named after one of the approximately 2,436,758 bands with which Freese has played in the past – will play cello on the album).  And that’s just fine with me, ’cause, well, I really liked APC.

Keep will come out in March; in the meantime, if you’ve yet to hear “The Stone,” check it out on Ashes Divide’s MySpace page.

-AR

I don’t know what the consensus is on A Perfect Circle these days, now that they’ve been gone a few years; personally, I loved them (okay, maybe not eMotion, but definitely their first two albums). Were they as good as Tool? Of course not (who is, really?). But they were fuckin’ great, and the two times I got to catch them live, they killed.

So I’m glad to hear that APC mastermind Billy Howerdel has a new solo project, Ashes Divide, and that they’ve signed to Island Records, who will release their debut album sometime in March. Howerdel, you may recall, was once a guitar tech to the stars (he’d done work for Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, of course, and was working on GN’R’s Chinese Democracy right before APC took off) who practically won the lottery when Maynard James Keenan heard some of his demos and decided to front his band.

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