Album Anniversary
Metallica Took a Quantum Leap on Ride the Lightning
The first four Metallica albums are among the genre’s most powerful and enduring documents, and while the band’s debut LP, Kill ‘Em All, was a landmark for thrash metal, Ride the Lightning presented a quantum leap in terms of songwriting and structure. Kill ‘Em All leaned heavily on elements of boogie beats nabbed from ’70s Judas Priest and the heavy swung feel to fast-paced riffs that Dave Mustaine would eventually take with him to Megadeth, but Ride the Lightning, released July 27th, 1984, almost wholly struck the swung-boogie vibe from its mostly slower-paced riffs, focusing instead on a near neo-classical sense of grandeur plucked more from the pages of groups like Rush, Rainbow, Blue Öyster Cult and even Priest’s more grandiloquent epics than bands like Sweet or even the more rock ‘n’...
40 Years Ago, Judas Priest Released the Heavy Metal Rallying Cry Screaming for Vengeance
Judas Priest began the ’80s with a bang by unleashing the all-time metal classic British Steel in 1980 — an LP that spawned the anthems “Living After Midnight,” “Breaking the Law,” and “Metal Gods.” So when it came to a follow-up, why not figure they would take it to the next level? Turns out, 1981’s Point of Entry was a surprisingly unfocused effort (especially when compared to its predecessor). But Priest — singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and KK Downing, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Dave Holland — more than made up for the fumble with their eighth studio effort, 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance. Recorded from January through May of ’82 (with Tom Allom once again handling production duties), two studios were utilized — Ibiza Sound Studios in Ibiza, Spain, and Beejay Studio...
30 Years Ago, Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction Tackled Politics and Personal Demons
By the start of the ’90s, Megadeth were on track to dominate heavy metal. After all, 1990’s Rust in Peace garnered stellar sales and press reviews, with the corresponding Clash of the Titans tour — featuring Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax — further bolstering their hegemony. Plus, as he confessed to Guitar School in 1993, Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine was finally getting “stone sober” after years of addiction to marijuana, cocaine, cigarettes, heroin, and other vices. At the same time, however, the meteoric rise of grunge meant that metal was becoming “the red-headed stepchild of the music industry” (as Mustaine postulated to Goldmine in 2012). Advertisement Although they faced some industry pressure to follow the tides, Mustaine told Patch.com the same year, Megadeth chose instead to “...
Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast Turns 40: Bruce Dickinson Reflects
Certain years have seen the release of an overabundance of classic metal albums. And 1982 was undoubtedly one of them. Case in point, the arrival of Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance, Venom’s Black Metal, Scorpions’ Blackout, Kiss’ Creatures of the Night, and Accept’s Restless and Wild all within that particular calendar year. However, most metalheads would probably agree that the top metal release of ‘82 was Iron Maiden’s tour de force The Number of the Beast — which celebrates its 40-year anniversary on March 22nd, 2022. Lead singer switches in already established rock bands seem to not work out far more times than they do. But Maiden were one of fortunate ones — when Paul Di’Anno (who provided vocals for Maiden’s first two albums, 1980’s self-titled debut and 1981’s Killers) was re...
Sevendust Announce 21st Anniversary Animosity Tour Dates with Tetrarch and Dead Poet Society
Sevendust are celebrating their 2001 album Animosity with a 21st anniversary US tour, featuring support from Tetrarch and Dead Poet Society. The tour will kick off March 4th in Oklahoma City, and run through a March 27th date in Nashville. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday (January 14) via Ticketmaster, with pre-sales beginning tomorrow (January 13th). As the tour poster suggests, Sevendust didn’t get a chance to fully commemorate the 20th anniversary of the album in 2021, and thus have moved ahead with a 21st anniversary celebration. Advertisement Related Video Animosity arrived on November 13th, 2001, and features two of the group’s most popular singles: “Angel’s Son” and “Praise.” The LP peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 chart and remained on the chat for 13 we...
30 Years Ago, Nirvana Unleashed the Game-Changing Nevermind
Heavy Consequence contributor Greg Prato is the author of several rock books, including 2009’s Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music. Here, Prato looks back at Nirvana’s groundbreaking 1991 album Nevermind on its 30th anniversary, sharing quotes from his aforementioned book. Few albums have played a major role in changing the direction of rock music. Not only did Nirvana’s Nevermind do just that, it also started a cultural revolution. Upon the release of Nevermind on September 24th, 1991, it seemed like almost immediately, hair metal was pronounced dead, as radio and MTV suddenly embraced likeminded bands hailing from the Seattle area. Beyond the music, young people began adopting “grunge fashion,” while also embracing the more progressive and introspective thinking ...
Mental Metal: Tool’s Ænima Turns 25
Dusting ‘Em Off is a rotating, free-form feature that revisits a classic album, film, or moment in pop-culture history. This piece celebrates Tool’s acclaimed sophomore album Ænima. Editor’s Note: This article originally ran in 2016, but has been updated in 2021 to reflect the 25th anniversary of Ænima. Many musicians have been influenced by books, but there seems to be something especially literary about the genres of hard rock and metal. This goes double for horror and fantasy fiction: Led Zeppelin meditated on The Lord of the Rings, Black Sabbath wailed about “The Wizard,” and Metallica thrashed to the monster Cthulu. Others have drawn imagery out of the Bible, Norse mythology, or the bloodier epochs of European history. For their second album, Tool drew on the writings of Carl Jun...
Tame Impala Announce “Innerspeaker Live From Wave House” Livestream
Last year, Tame Impala rang in the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Innerspeaker, by rolling out a limited-edition box set. It looks like those celebrations won’t stop anytime soon either, because Kevin Partner and co. have just announced a special livestream event featuring a full performance of the album. The concert, titled “Innerspeaker Live From Wave House”, will go down on Wednesday, April 21st via streaming platform Moment House. For those not in the know, Wave House isn’t a real venue. It’s the name of the studio where frontman Kevin Parker recorded the album a decade ago. Expect the audio to be perfect and the views to be even better; Wave House is a four-hour drive from Tame Impala’s hometown of Perth, Australia and has a scenic view of the Indian Ocean waves. Tickets for t...
Metallica Celebrate Master of Puppets Anniversary by Crushing “Battery” on Colbert: Watch
With Wednesday (March 3rd) marking the 35th anniversary of their landmark album Master of Puppets, Metallica returned to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to celebrate the iconic LP. The metal masters performed one of the thrash masterpiece’s standout tracks, “Battery”. Metallica really couldn’t have gone wrong with any song off the 1986 album. As we pointed out in our new retrospective piece on Master of Puppets, the band’s third LP is all killer, no filler from front to back. In fact, it’s arguably the greatest thrash metal album ever made. Positioned next to a graphic of the Master of Puppets album cover, Stephen Colbert introduced the performance by saying, “Their album Master of Puppets was released 35 years ago today, and had such an impact that it was added to the National Recordin...
50 Years Ago, Black Sabbath Deliver the Magnificent Paranoid
The “sophomore slump” has spelt the beginning of the end for quite a few rock acts over the years. But looking back, one of the cases in which the exact opposite occurred was when Black Sabbath delivered one of the greatest metal albums of all time, Paranoid. The Birmingham, UK-based band – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward – had already caught the attention of rock fans with their detuned and doomy self-titled debut (released in February 1970 in the UK, and June in the United States). And they wasted no time capitalizing on the buzz – issuing Paranoid in the UK on September of that year. (It would arrive in the States in January 1971.) While Sabbath amazingly knocked out the recording of their debut album in a single day, they would t...
Consequence of Sound Announces AC/DC Back in Black 40th Anniversary Virtual Celebration
Rock’s biggest-selling album ever — AC/DC’s Back in Black — is turning 40 years old this month, and Consequence of Sound is celebrating in a big way. In a joint effort with Gibson Guitars, we’re presenting “Back in Black 40th Anniversary: A Virtual Celebration”. The online stream will take place Friday, July 24th, premiering at 5:00 p.m. ET across the CoS social channels, with an amazing giveaway launching today. Hosted by guitar virtuoso Jared James Nichols, the streaming event will include AC/DC testimonials or tutorial performances from Slash, Dee Snider, and members of Cage the Elephant, Anthrax, Lamb of God, Refused, Airbourne, GWAR, and more, as well as friends and fans of the band. We’ll also get an inside look at some of the gear that guitarist Angus Young used to get his signature...
20 Reasons We Still Love Deftones’ White Pony
Gimme a Reason takes classic albums celebrating major anniversaries and breaks down song by song the reasons we still love them so many years later. This week, we celebrate 20 years of Deftones’ White Pony. In 2000, nu metal ruled the airwaves. It’s then-novel mixture of alternative rock choruses, heavy metal riffs tuned lower than ever before, and hip-hop verses and rhythms had been on a half-decade growth streak. It’s juggernaut acts, like Korn and Limp Bizkit, were ubiquitous. One of the genre’s most forward-thinking devotees, a cadre of Sacramento upstarts known as Deftones seemed hot on their tails, thanks to the success of the singles “My Own Summer (Shove It)” and “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” from their 1997 album Around the Fur. However, rather than be keep following the p...
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