RIP Jonny Zazula, cofounder of mighty Megaforce Records (arguably the metal label which had the biggest impact in metal history). The news was confirmed in a Facebook post from Zazula’s daughter, Rikki. Our hearts go out to Rikki and the rest of Jonny Z’s loved ones. His dedication and love of the artform rippled outward and helped countless people, leaving behind a huge impact.
The world of rock and metal would not be what it is today without Jon Zazula.
Jon's love of music and musicians was unwavering. A giant was lost today.
Very sorry to hear we've lost the legendary Jon "Jonny Z" Zazula, the first manager of Metallica, who together with his late wife, Marsha, cofounded Megaforce Records (Raven, Anthrax, Testament). It was my pleasure to have Jonny on my podcast in 2019. RIP. https://t.co/pZONhurWIppic.twitter.com/NxTjerACOx
From my very first moments getting into metal, the name Jon Zazula aka Jonny Z was popping up in my careful, thorough examinations of cassette liner notes. A clearly respected man among my earliest musical heroes. RIP to a founding father. https://t.co/KLyPxXSl4z
So sad to hear of the passing of Jon Zazula. He was east coast and I was west coast in the early days of metal. He worked with so many amazing bands #ripjonzazula
Metallicarang in 35 (!) years of the iconic Master Of Puppets with a Colbert performance of “Battery”. The classic thrash song still packs quite a punch despite the band being older and you can feel the emotion in the performance. The banner from the Damage Inc. tour made the moment even more resonant as a subtle tribute to Cliff and a reminder of everywhere we have been with this band. In 2015, Master of Puppets became the first metal recording to be selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Kirk’s soloing on “Battery” on Colbert also really makes me wonder again how in the hell the decision was ever made to keep solos off St. Anger. Personally I find that worse than the snare.
There likely may never be another metal band to reach this band’s heights and we would do well to keep celebrating their impact.
Happy 35th to a metal masterpiece @Metallica Master Of Puppets. I’m old enough to have seen the band since the very beginning, so this still seems like a more recent album to me haha. 35 years old? Crazy! Still sounds great though! pic.twitter.com/kpCscvf8ng
The entire world of metal and rock owes Marsha Zazula a debt of gratitude for co-founding Megaforce Records in the early 80’s with Jon Zazula. The label helped launch Metallica into the stratosphere and advance thrash metal much further into mainstream consciousness, where it has arguably remained the most popular form of metal for all time.
Megaforce of course has also helped with records by Anthrax, Bad Brains, Raven, Overkill, Patti Rothberg and so many more terrific and legendary artists.
Marsha has passed at the age of 68 from cancer. While I never got the chance to talk to her I do know Rikki and on behalf of Metal Riot want to send her and all of Marsha’s loved ones and friends our most heartfelt condolences and eternal thankful horns up high for her help making metal the best genre ever.
You can't overstate the impact Marsha Zazula had on American heavy metal. She's beloved. Marsha & Jonny Z did so much to launch Metallica from their home in NJ in the early days that Cliff Burton would read bedtime stories to their daughter. That's the sort of scene they created. https://t.co/BOP3LOKgq0
Just now hearing sad news that Marsha Zazula passed away. As many know I worked w/Marsha & Jon at Megaforce Records in late 80’s. Marsha was one of a kind & played a huge role in the company & was always very supportive. Condolences to Jon & the family. RIP
Hey rockers and rollers. I’m winding down near the end of an interesting day.
Started estradiol on a lower dose again working with my doctor and as a multi-gender person I am excited that I am figuring out what is right for me with the help of someone I trust. PLEASE support Planned Parenthood who offer more than just -ALSO VITAL- abortion services. It is 2019, not the god damn 1950’s. Anyway, I swear to God I have been back on it a few hours after a year and a half and feel like zero desire to drink or smoke a cigarette and very clear headed and motivated, which is fucking wonderful.
It is the anniversary of the release of St. Anger today – released June 5th, 2003- as I write this and so I have been rocking out to the Metallica/Jah Rule collab (I am just gonna pretend it was called “Jump In the Fyre”) and wondering how even Swizz Beatz didn’t tell Lars to fix his snare sound. That said, I honestly listen to that album low key on the regular and it is entertaining and has some bad ass riffs, so hey – it’s entertainment to me. I remember the day I bought it on cd I went and bought a Guiness at a now discontinued chain restaurant in the Hudson Valley Mall and at the time was stoked that they were playing so fast again. I also remember at the Coheed listening party I was at for In Keeping Secrets… Mic Todd was being hysterical and answering his phone “St Anger” everytime someone called him. He prob doesn’t remember that but it had me in stitches that night.
Anyway, Every band has eras where they are struggling and at least the dudes got through it. Plus, there’s a few certified bangers on there like “Frantic” – you know you love that intro- and the riffs (not the vocals) of “Invisible Kid”, for example. I am glad dudes have at least revisited “Frantic” live and let Kirky cut loose a little more.
In other news, my gf Globelamp’s traumatic story of the horrible time she had around her time in Foxygen has finally been picked up by Pitchfork and hopefully will now not be ignored by other outlets that used to kiss that band’s ass for being on a big, enabling indie label. I should certainly hope my regular readers here don’t think we are part of some insane ongoing murder plot allegation and thank you to everyone who believed us about the DARVO and who have supported us during the months since I have been able to see my partner. It’s been a lonely and stressful ass year and I have tried hard to keep things rolling along anyway. Thank you very much Hether Fortune and one or two other friends who reached out to ask if I was doing self care regimen when I was having a hard time with all this recently. That meant a lot. I am feeling better and thankful for this scene and the good people.
We don’t have the money to keep flying her back and forth from New York where we live to California where court is and we want to get an RO granted on Sam from Foxygen. A temporary one was granted but he has hidden from it despite knowing about it through a twitter exchange and now this huge Pitchfork article. Globelamp on the other hand has complied with every court demand and appearance. Sam also has come onto our Instagrams and if he is allegedly scared of us why would he and his partner antagonize us? He came onto Globelamp’s IG and was probably loving that he could leave comments and because of DARVO she couldn’t respond, so disgusting.
It also is telling that this unbiased article caused their entire camp (including the predatory trolls who constantly try to gaslight and trigger my partner’s ptsd and who lie and say I am a sex slave in a dungeon and have made transphobic statements mocking me as a non binary person with no condemnation of the transphobia and lies from fake peace and love ambassadors Foxygen) to freak out online like babies caught with their hand in the cookie bag. Jagjaguwar should drop them immediately. Anyway, I wanted to say thanks to some of the metal/punk community and people like Timothy Heller and Meredith Graves who offered Lizzie some support. It really meant a lot to Lizzie/Globelamp.
Now back to some proper metal news!
Korn thought it was a good idea for Brian to jam on their most iconic song “Blind” with a massive GOP homophobe during Pride Month. I have been a fan since the debut and am beyond disgusted at this bullshit. Will not be linking to the atrocity and it is going to be awhile before I consider listening to them again or supporting unless they acknowledge that was some serious wack bullshit. Very bummed out and love their records. You can’t just pretend Mike Huckabee is some chummy dude. He is horrid. I did laugh online that someone wrote on twitter they should have played “Ass Itch”.
Amon Amarth news! The Viking warriors of riffs, beer and roars have a new song out about Captain America’s…er, Thor’s hammer. Check out the bad ass video below! Fight sequence/concept rules! “Working the bellows…!” AHHHH!!! METAL! Hope you all have a killer rest of the week and stand up for one another, metal friends!
Metallica‘s “Spit Out The Bone” was a highlight of Hardwired…To Self Destruct for many thrashers (my faves are probably still “Moth into Flame” and “Atlas Rise”, if you must know). But yeah, this live version of “Spit Out The Bone” is lively as hell and gets the Oct. 24th London O2 crowd roaring with enthusiasm. You’d think it was an older classic!
Check it out HERE. Rob and James in particular ripped this bad baby up!!
“I know what you are thinking. Doesn’t the Metal Riot staff ever rest? Shouldn’t they be more hungover and not posting today? Well, I’m sure some of us are (probably Nich Madl). I haven’t had a drink in about three years. And while year end lists are freshly posted, confetti and streamers and smashed champagne glasses are still being swept up, Motley took their bow and the memory of Lemmy’s death is still ringing in our ears, let’s remember that this New Year we can make metal and hard rock as meaningful and powerful as it has ever been. We have new releases to look forward to from Lycus, Primal Fear, Cauldron’s new album, Peace Killers and more. Biohazard’s Mata Laeao turns twenty! AND Metallica’s Black Album turns fucking twentyfive this year! It’s a controversial yet landmark record that was a more unified representation of all the facets their career has come to include under the band’s umbrella of styles than any other release (though my favorite era and many others is the earlier stuff). BUT I can still remember exactly where I was when the “Enter Sandman” video came out. The thumping drums and sense of anticipation. Let’s treat this year the same way. Let’s aim big but stay strong.” – Morgan Ywain Evans
“Short, sweet and to the point: “2015 was such a fuckin’ pisser that I could not be more ready for 2016, which is going to fucking rock. We’ve got a lot of great stuff planned. Some killer albums are slated to come out this year and we can’t wait to cover them and talk about them. In addition to the straight news, we’re going to rock some editorials, including looking back at some of the amazing moments in metal that have brought us here today, so get fucking ready!” – Longhairedpoet/Jessica Fisher
“I’m looking forward to new music, seeing the scene grow closer and prosper , and I’m looking forward to photographing way more shows!” – Crashqueen/June Aispuro
Metallica have released 18 minutes of fly on the wall footage shot by the MetOnTour reporter on August 25, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Footage includes a birthday pie-ing, Tuning Room, plus “One” from the show.
Metallica‘s “Lords Of Summer” has gotten the dance remix treatment and if you aren’t the type of person who’ll dismiss this kind of shit out of hand this aint half bad. Check it out HERE or listen to it when it is the official anthem of the X Games Austin 2015. We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast of actual brutality.
I just saw on Lambgoat that metal lords of summer Metallica (Lars, I forgive you for the no bass on AJFA cuz it’s still my fave Metallica album)…ahem…are planning on co-headlining this years awesome Lollapalooza line up. Man, when I was a kid Lolla was the shit. 1996 when they last were headliners it was really controversial that a big metal band would play an “alternative” festival. This was the times when Axl had to make his arguably greatest “we’ve had our share of problems with so called Alternative bands” speech (Kurt Cobain/jukie remarks aside, Mr. Rose had some good points on being “human” otherwise) and Hetfield and co were seen by more cynical alt rockers as proto dinosaurs (which is funny and makes no sense since Metallica as well as Nirvana, Soundgarden and Melvins owe so much to the school of Black Sabbath equally. Soundgarden a bit more Led Zep, perhaps). Tangents.
I just looked up the 1996 line up for a refresher and grinned.
Wu-Tand and Rage! That was a fuckin’ team up and Republican people were like legit scared in America. It was great! And Psychotica! That band used to be HUGE in NYC, at least. Did I see them once at Roseland? Shit, I forget. R.I.P. Joey Ramone, that’s what really matters. James, Lars, Kirk and Rob…please have one of your PR who might hopefully stumble across this article forward my suggestion that you do one of your rad Ramones covers i honor of Joey and the boys to commemorate your return. It’d be an epic Lolla win moment. Advice FREE. Memories…PRICELESS.
I’d also like to see a Tame Impala/Metallica unison version of “No Leaf Clover”. They can be called Tame Metallimpalicca. ok, I’m stoned.
Lars Ulrich says there is a lot of new Metallica music to sort through. Lars spoke to Rolling Stone HERE on progress for the proper follow-up to Death Magnetic. “We’ve got lots of songs, and we’re honing them and tweaking them. It’s pretty close,” Ulrich noted.
In addition the band are re-releasing No Life ‘Til Leather (The Dave Mustaine debate will rage on forever) on cassette format, like the original. Don’t all old tape players eat tapes by now? I thought after a few years all tape players become tape eating monsters. Does anyone make new cassette players, oh wise Phantom Lords?
Machine Head‘s new Bloodstone & Diamonds has proven to be one of the best releases in the long running act’s history. Heck, I honestly am not sure if I have enjoyed any of their albums more and I’ve been into metal for about two decades now. “Cast off the shackles of the past,” sings Rob Flynn as the band grooves hard and even embrace a moody string section on the intro and chorus. The video is pretty good, though not as good as the song itself. The visuals kind of have a Metallica in the 90’s “Until It Sleeps” trying to be weird thing going on before a bunch of gas masked Bodom fans (joke) come along and shoot the guys. But yeah, this record kicks total ass and I’ve gotta find a way into their upcoming NYC date. No thrash band of their high-profile size released anything nearly as good this year, in my opinion (no offense to Exodus, I just prefer the Rob Dukes-era stuff).
Check “Now We Die” out here and don’t look back. Can we petition for Flynn to have a Game Of Thrones cameo now?
Metallicahas been extremely proud to offer virtually every show we’ve done in the past ten years as a download within days of the shows happening… sometimes even hours! Over the years we’ve been able to offer more download options adding HD audio and Apple lossless files to the mix, but we still get requests for the “old school” compact disc. To celebrate ten years of Live Metallica, we’re going to make that happen! Starting today through the end of this year, every show that we’ve played in 2014 will be released on CD! We are gonna roll out three shows at a time on Mondays.
We want to keep it simple so we’ll go in order of when the shows were played starting with Bogotá, Colombia, Quito, Ecuador and Lima, Peru from the March South American run. Next week the next three shows will be available and so on. For those of you who want it all, we’re also giving you a chance to pre-order a box set with all 27 shows included, which will ship in December. There’s that special concept of a volume discount and you’ll have a box to store all your CD’s in. CD’s will be priced at the very clever price of $19.81 a pop with the box set at $417.00 (spot the savings!) and you can place your orders at either LiveMetallica.com or in the Met Store.
And for you vinyl junkies, select shows will be released on limited edition 180-gram vinyl early next year. And once again, we here at your friendly Metallica HQ want your input as to which shows you would like to see on vinyl… YOU choose from the 27 shows we’ve played this year by voting for your favs here. We’ll take the top four that receive the most votes and press them up for you to order in early 2015. Voting will close on September 26.
Let us know what you think and look for many more releases and some cool box sets in the New Year!
METALLICA‘s Ride the Lightning Turns 30:
Cliff Burton Photographer Harald Oimoen Recalls Jacket Shot;
Alternates Revealed via MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW
Thrash Metal Photo Book.
July 27 marked the 30th anniversary of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning (still arguably their “purest” metal moment). Along with original shots from the Slayer Hell Awaits album and the Exodus landmark Bonded by Blood, not to mention Possessed’s Seven Churches, the Bazillion Points photo book MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW: Shots from the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew, includes Cliff Burton’s portrait from the back of Metallica’s stunning second album.
Every photo in MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW has a pretty good story, and the background behind this particular Cliff pic is a pretty good one. Harald, who has played bass himself for almost 20 years with crossover legends D.R.I, tells the tale:
Says Oimoen: “First of all the shots almost didn’t exist. Cameras weren’t allowed at this show, so about halfway through I got mine taken away by security. They were just about to expose the film, but luckily I was able to roll it back into the canister before they were able to ruin it! I got the film confiscated, but lucky for me a buddy of mine was able to get it back. That roll had the classic Cliff shot from Ride the Lightning on it. I never received a penny for the shot, but the credit was priceless.”
For a longer excerpt from the book, tales of thick smoke with Cliff Burton, and further 1983 photos of Metallica live, visit the Bazillion Points blog:
We’re taking a cue from our Dying Scene compatriots and remembering Joey Ramone today. The Ramones made arguably the best music ever besides Dio (but RJD’s death anniversary isnt until next month). Anyway, the Ramones changed the world. Enjoy THIS metal cover of “Commando” by Metallica and get them ready for “vietnam-ahhhh” in true Hetfield style.
We absolutely can’t believe that it’s been 13 years since Joey Ramone died. Thanks for your inspiration, we miss you. In the next 13 years, you will still never be forgotten.
There are some bands more adept at riding the chaos than others in the storied history of underground music. From noise and hardcore pioneers like Steel Pole Bathtub to Man Is The Bastard to synth/indie/post-core bands like Six Finger Satellite to numerous grindcore bands like Fuck The Facts, etc.- some groups just embody the concept of "fuck it/let's really go for it" more than others. NY's Black Mesa sits proudly in that same spirit of frenzy and ferocious inventiveness, as evidenced by their recent compilation of insanely manic live performances. Whatever sub genre they throw in the emotional blender, you are bound to enjoy a deliciously nutritious smoothie of muddy sonic punk purée.
Official press statement:
