Hard Rock
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara
Beyond the Boys’ Club is a monthly column from journalist and radio host Anne Erickson, focusing on women in the heavy music genres, as they offer their perspectives on the music industry and discuss their personal experiences. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara. Los Angeles rockers Dead Sara spent much of the lockdown period working on their Warner Records debut (and third album overall), the just-released Ain’t It Tragic. With recording sessions set to take place smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, the new album brought some challenges for the band, but it was nothing they couldn’t face head-on, as demonstrated in their triumphant new single, “H...
Louder Than Life 2021 Gallery: Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly, Korn, Jane’s Addiction, and More
The Louder Than Life festival returned to Louisville over the weekend, after last year’s edition was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s fest provided fans with four days of rock, including two headlining sets by the mighty Metallica. The festival saw a whopping attendance of 160,000 over the four days at Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center. Day 1 (Thursday) was headlined by Korn, with singer Jonathan Davis still feeling the after-effects of his recent bout with COVID-19, but still delivering a strong performance. Staind (with right-wing singer Aaron Lewis wearing an “Impeach Biden” baseball cap), Sevendust, Anthrax, Beartooth, and more were also on the Thursday bill. Advertisement Related Video Metallica headlined the Day 2 (Friday) bill, playing a set t...
David Lee Roth to Ring in the New Year with Las Vegas Residency
David Lee Roth will help Sin City ring in 2022 with a residency at the House of Blues Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. The five-night stand will kick off with a New Year’s Eve show and include four gigs in early January. The Van Halen singer originally kicked off a residency at the same venue in January 2020. He had more dates planned for that year, but the pandemic forced him to cancel the remaining Vegas shows. Now, he’ll return roughly two years later, playing December 31st, as well as January 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th. A look at the 19-song setlist from his last 2020 date at the House of Blues Las Vegas shows the singer performing 11 Van Halen classics (including the band’s cover of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”), as well as solo tunes like his own hit covers of “California...
Tool Announce Massive 54-Date Tour for 2022
Tool will the return to the road in 2022 for an expansive tour that includes shows across the US, UK, and Europe. All told, Tool will play 54 concerts between January and May of next year. The tour officially kicks off on January 10th in Eugene, Oregon — the location of the next show Tool had been scheduled to play before canceling their 2020 tour due to the pandemic. It’s been a particularly rough pandemic for frontman Maynard James Keenan, who contracted COVID-19 not once but twice. The singer surmised that he likely contracted COVID the first time during the band’s February 2020 tour of Australia and New Zealand. He also revealed that he had been dealing with longterm symptoms, include lung damage. Thankfully, earlier this year, he told Heavy Consequence that “everything’s grand” when i...
Guns N’ Roses Announce New EP, Perform “Hard Skool” Live for First Time: Watch
Guns N’ Roses have announced the new Hard Skool EP, arriving February 25th. The band also played the new song “Hard School” live for the first time on Sunday (September 26th) at a concert in Baltimore. The four-song EP includes “Hard Skool,” previous studio single “ABSUЯD,” and live versions of “Don’t Cry” and “You’re Crazy.” It will be available on cassette, CD, and digitally. A 7″ vinyl version will be available on June 24th, featuring just “Hard Skool” and a live version of “ABSUЯD.” “Hard Skool” is the second previously unreleased Chinese Democracy-era track to be officially released as a single in 2021. Unlike the more industrial sound of “ABSUЯD,” Guns N’ Roses go old-school on “Hard Skool.” Advertisement Related Video As the footage from the Baltimore show attests, the track is an u...
Machine Gun Kelly Fights Fan, Gets Booed During Louder Than Life Performance: Watch
Machine Gun Kelly’s headlining set at Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday (September 25th) was certainly an eventful one. The rapper turned pop-punker was heckled throughout the gig, and at one point threw a punch at a fan who jumped the barricade to confront him. It’s safe to say that the fans turned on MGK due to his recent feud with Slipknot singer Corey Taylor. While Slipknot weren’t on the bill for Louder Than Life, a lot of bands on the Saturday lineup share fans with the masked metal act, including Disturbed, Volbeat, Code Orange, and more. Video footage shows Machine Gun Kelly performing to a chorus of boos, with festival goers flipping him the bird. At one point, when the singer made his way down to the photo pit, a couple of fans jumped the barricade to...
Rebel Rock Festival Canceled Just Hours Before Gates Were Set to Open
Rebel Rock Festival, which was set to take place in Orlando, Florida, today (September 24th) through Sunday (September 26th), has been canceled just hours before it was set to begin. Unfortunately, severe weather leading up to the festival made the grounds unfit for fans. The fest was able to stage its “Taco Metal Party” last night, although headliner Volbeat was forced to drop out due to visa issues. However, there wasn’t enough time to make the rest of the grounds safe for the three-day main festival, which was set to feature Five Finger Death Punch, Machine Gun Kelly, Rise Against, Papa Roach, The Used, Philip Anselmo, Killswitch Engage, and many more acts. According to comments on the Rebel Rock Instagram page, many fans had just flown into Orlando and some were already in line for tod...
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 ...
Guns N’ Roses Release New Song “Hard Skool”: Stream
Guns N’ Roses have unleashed the new song “Hard Skool.” It’s the first official studio recording of a previously unreleased Chinese Democracy-era track. Earlier this week, we reported that the band had rehearsed “Hard Skool” during soundcheck for their show at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The song was rumored to be in the setlist but wasn’t played, possibly due to Axl Rose contracting food poisoning. “Hard Skool,” which previously had the working title of “Jackie Chan,” is the most old-school sounding GN’R track in years. Like a blast from the late ’80s, the song conjures the sleazy stages of the L.A. strip where the band cut its teeth. The song features some classic glam-metal guitar licks, and Axl sounds ageless. Advertisement Related Video The band’s other recent new single, “Absurd,” soun...
Tom Morello Unveils New Song “Let’s Get the Party Started” featuring Bring Me the Horizon: Stream
Tom Morello is offering up the next taste of his upcoming album, The Atlas Underground Fire, with the scorching new single “Let’s Get the Party Started.” The song is a collaboration with UK rock act Bring Me the Horizon. “Let’s Get the Party Started,” not to be confused with pop singer Pink’s “Let’s Get This Party Started,” is the second single released from Morello’s forthcoming LP, which arrives on October 15th. The Rage Against the Machine guitarist previously unveiled a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” featuring Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen. In a press release, Morello mentioned how he co-wrote the song with BMTH singer Oli Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish while all three were on separate continents. “Bring Me the Horizon is really the current standard bearer of hard rock/meta...
Guns N’ Roses Rehearse New Song “Hard School”: Watch
Guns N’ Roses rehearsed a new song called “Hard School” during a soundcheck for their concert last Thursday (September 16th) at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Slash posted a TikTok of the instrumental runthrough, which was filmed by his girlfriend Meegan Hodges during soundcheck. The snippet features Slash laying down heavy riffs while drummer Frank Ferrerr works a steady open hi-hat beat. Bassist Duff McKagan and keyboardist Melissa Reese are also on stage, though frontman Axl Rose, keyboardist Dizzy Reed, and guitarist Richard Fortus are not present. Another clip, uploaded by a fan, contains some more vocals. Advertisement Related Video Guns N’ Roses previously rehearsed “Hard School” (also known as “Hardschool” or “Hard Skool”) ahead of their 2019 Hollywood Palladium show. Reportedly, the so...
Mike Patton Pulls Out of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle Tour Dates Due to Mental Health Issues
Mike Patton has canceled his upcoming tour dates with both Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, citing “mental health reasons.” “I have issues that were exacerbated by the pandemic that are challenging me right now,” Patton said in a statement. “I don’t feel I can give what I should at this point and I am not going to give anything less than 100 percent. I am sorry to our fans and hope to make it up to you soon.” Patton noted that both Faith No More and Mr. Bungle “support me in this decision and we look forward to working through this in a healthy way.” Advertisement Related Video To that point, the members of Faith No More have issued their own statement expressing support of the band’s frontman. “We believe that forging ahead with these dates would have had a profoundly destructive effect on M...
