The Grinding Wheel

The Grinding Wheel, the eighteenth album, came out on Nuclear Blast on 10 February 2017 as NB 3702-2, with Ward Records issuing the Japanese edition (GQCS-90285) the same day. The band produced it and, for the first time, Andy Sneap mixed it; finishing the mix took long enough to move the release from November 2016. Travis Smith painted the cover again. Ron Lipnicki plays drums. The band photographs of the time show the stand-in Eddy Garcia, but a Japanese interview piece makes the point that the drummer on the album is Lipnicki. "Our Finest Hour" came out first, as a 7-inch single on 4 November 2016, at the start of the European tour. Kevin Custer shot the videos for "Goddamn Trouble" and "Shine On" in New Jersey on a single cold January day. The album reached number 69 on the Billboard 200 and number ten in Germany. The Japanese edition adds covers of Thin Lizzy's "Emerald" and, for Japan alone, Iron Maiden's "Sanctuary", and its limited first pressing came with a DVD of the band's set at Thrash Domination 2015, which Ward Records secured by negotiating with the band at length. Spotify carries this album, but none of its tracks will play in this territory, so this page shows the sleeve instead of a player. The running order here is the original's as printed.