Hard Rock
Paul Stanley on Soul Station, His Favorite Singers, and Whether KISS Will Complete Their Farewell Tour
For several years, KISS singer-guitarist Paul Stanley has been moonlighting as the frontman for Soul Station — a musical collective that focuses on covers of vintage soul and R&B classics of the ‘60s and ‘70s (as well as some originals that sound as if they were cut from the same musical cloth). But it was not until this month that the band finally issued their debut album, Now and Then. And it turns out the wait was certainly worth it — Stanley’s voice is in fine form throughout, especially on covers of the Five Stairsteps’ “O-O-H Child” and Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”, among others. The singer, who forgoes rhythm guitar when fronting Soul Station, spoke with Consequence of Sound shortly before the arrival of Now and Then, which you can pick up here. Not only did he discuss Soul ...
Robert Fripp and Toyah Deal Out Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”: Watch
It’s your lucky day, as Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox deal out the Motörhead classic “Ace of Spades” for their latest “Sunday Lunch” performance. The married couple once again deliver a frisky take on a legendary rock tune, with Toyah making a deck of cards rain as she sings and dances in a French maid’s outfit — all as a high-powered fan blows her hair back. King Crimson founder Fripp, meanwhile, remains steady as ever, as he delivers the iconic “Ace of Spades” riff. Fripp rose up the ranks of the UK music scene around the same time as late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. Fripp formed King Crimson in 1968, while Lemmy played in the band The Rockin’ Vickers in the mid to late 60s before becoming a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and eventually joining Hawkwind in 1971. Meanwhil...
Song of the Week: SABA Stays Fresh as Ever on the Reflective “Ziplock”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Chicago rapper SABA returns with a double-single, his first new music of 2021. Chicago rapper SABA has returned this week with another set of double singles, “Ziplock” and “Rich Don’t Stop”, continuing the dual-drop format he established throughout 2020. “Ziplock” was produced by D. Phelps and Coop the Truth and marks the first new music from the emcee in 2021. (He can also be found on the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, appearing on “Plead The .45th” alongside Smino.) A recent press release st...
Greta Van Fleet Share New Song “Broken Bells”: Stream
Greta Van Fleet are prepping for the release of their highly anticipated sophomore album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, out April 16th. Now the band has shared the anthemic new single, “Broken Bells”. A coming-of-age song of sorts, the track again sees Greta Van Fleet expanding their sonic palette beyond the restrictive classic-rock pastiche of their debut record. The prog-like Rush influences and subtle folk flourishes add new colors to the band’s sound. For the third consecutive single, Greta Van Fleet push the song past the five-minute mark as they stretch their musical ideas. “Broken Bells is what the fetter of society does to impact a pure and innocent soul,” bassist Sam Kiszka said in a press release. “Our intention is to remove the obligation of generational synthetic expectations; b...
Serj Tankian on His New Elasticity EP: “I Definitely Thought These Songs Would Have Worked Out for System”
Serj Tankian has just released his new solo EP, Elasticity. The title is inspired, in part, by System of a Down’s landmark 2001 album,Toxicity, and the singer has made no secret about the songs being originally intended for his acclaimed metal band. The collection features five new songs, including the recent singles “Elasticity” and “Electric Yerevan”. One listen to the EP, and it’s not difficult to see how these tracks would have fit nicely into the System of a Down canon. Tankian approached System with these songs a few years back, and as he explained to Heavy Consequence, the band members even worked on a few of them. However, ultimately creative differences led to any recording plans coming to a standstill. We asked Tankian what he felt more: regret about not recording the songs with ...
Serj Tankian Releases New Solo EP Elasticity: Stream
Serj Tankian has unveiled his new solo EP, Elasticity, featuring five new songs he had originally hoped to record with his multiplatinum band System of a Down. The EP Is available to stream in its entirety below. “When I conceived possibly doing another record with the guys from System of a Down a few years back, I started working on a set of songs that I arranged in rock format for that purpose,” Tankian explained in a press release. “As we weren’t able to see eye to eye on the vision going forward with an SOAD album, I decided to release these songs under my moniker.” It’s easy to see how these songs would have fit within the System of a Down mold, as they have a quirky metal vibe reminiscent of the band’s acclaimed musical output. The track “Your Mom” is especially in the System vein, a...
Alice Cooper: David Bowie Saw My Stage Show and Said This Is What He “Should Be Doing”
Legendary rockers Alice Cooper and David Bowie each broke new ground as theatrical stage performers. While the two pioneers of glam rock were contemporaries, Cooper says it was his stage show that influenced Bowie. In a new feature for Metal Hammer, Cooper answered a number of fan questions. One reader named Debbie asked, “Did you ever cross paths with your theatrical comrade, David Bowie?” “David used to come to the show when he was a mime artist, he was Davy Jones back then,” responded Cooper. “I remember at one of our ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ shows, he brought his band the Spiders From Mars and he was saying, ‘This is what we should be doing.’ But he never did it the way we did it.” He added, “When we started doing theatrics and still had hit records, that opened up a huge door for Bow...
Eddie Van Halen’s Son Wolfgang Declined Invite to Perform Tribute at Grammys
Many viewers came away from Sunday’s Grammy Awards disappointed with the very brief tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen. On Monday, his son Wolfgang revealed that he was invited to perform Van Halen’s “Eruption” but declined. Even so, he was one of the ones who was underwhelmed by the salute to his father. While such artists as John Prine, Little Richard, and Kenny Rogers were toasted with full musical performances, Eddie Van Halen’s legacy was observed with one of his guitars sitting on a stage for 15 seconds during the “In Memoriam” segment, as a few videos played behind it. In a tweet, Wolfgang explained that he didn’t want play his father’s iconic Van Halen instrumental track “Eruption” because he felt he wouldn’t do it justice. That said, he was hoping the Grammys would do a little mo...
Robert Fripp and Toyah Serve Up Mötley Crüe’s “Girls Girls Girls”: Watch
Tennis, anyone? Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox are back at it with another “Sunday Lunch” performance, this time taking on the Mötley Crüe hit “Girls Girls Girls” as Toyah practices her forehand. After taking a detour from tackling rock classics with a version of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” last week, the King Crimson founder and his singer wife are back on the rock train this week. As she sings and dances along to Fripp’s guitar work on the Mötley Crüe song, Toyah fires off foam tennis balls with a red racquet. Toyah is once again wearing the revealing white shirt that helped propel their cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” to more than 5 million views, only this time she’s sporting some strategically placed tape underneath. Did she get a note from the powers that be at YouTube? If you combi...
School Teacher Goes Viral for Awesome Korn Version of the Alphabet Song: Watch
A metal-loving school teacher has reinvented the alphabet song, and he’s blowing up TikTok in the process. Nick Harrison’s aggro version of the ABCs, set to Korn’s “Coming Undone”, even got the attention of the pioneering nu-metal band’s singer, Jonathan Davis. Harrison, who goes by the TikTok handle MrProfessor318, titled his video “My audition for School of Rock 2,” and it features the educator going full-on headbanger from A to Z. The loud lesson in literacy has earned Harrison more than 130,000 likes as of this posting. Davis shared the clip on his Instagram Stories, and Harrison acknowledged the Korn singer’s shout out in follow-up TikToks. “When Jonathan Davis, the lead singer of Korn, of course, posts your video to his Instagram story — I can’t even talk, man!,” the teacher exclaime...
Korn to Stream Concert from Set of Stranger Things: Drive-Into Experience
Korn have announced a livestream performance, dubbed “Korn: Monumental”, that will see the band performing from within the setting of Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience in Los Angeles. The concert goes live globally on April 24th. The virtual show is Korn’s first livestream event. To celebrate the occasion, they’ll be playing rare deep cuts and select tracks from 2019’s The Nothing for the first time ever, as the band was unable to properly tour in support of its most recent album due the pandemic. “We hope you take part in this experience with us,” frontman Jonathan Davis said in a press release. “And though it is not the same as performing live with you here, we still want to bring you some great music and a fun show.” Korn will be performing amidst scenes from the popular Netfli...
Rob Zombie Unleashes New Album The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy: Stream
Rob Zombie has just released The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, his first album in five years. The LP features 17 tracks, including the recent singles “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)” and “The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man”. The album itself was completed a couple years ago, but Zombie’s film obligations and the pandemic pushed its release to this year. Both Zombie and his guitarist John 5 have touted the album as one of the shock rocker’s best efforts, if not his best, with the singer telling Heavy Consequence in our recent interview, “I feel the last three records have really been on an upward trajectory.” It marks the third album featuring the lineup of Zombie, John 5, bassist Piggy D, and drummer Ginger Fish. In addition t...
