Heavy Metal
International Day of Slayer Celebrated with On-Demand Release of Repentless Killogy Movie
International Day of Slayer is celebrated annually on June 6th, and this year it features the on-demand release of the band’s 2019 movie The Repentless Killogy. This year marks the 18th annual International Day of Slayer. The special day (6/6 — closest date to 666) has seen fans skip work or school to listen to the legendary thrash band’s music all day. And beginning Saturday, fans who didn’t catch The Repentless Killogy in theaters or purchase the Blu-ray can now stream it via video on demand. The VOD stream is available via the band’s website for the appropriate price of $6.66 for 48 hours of access. The Repentless Killogy is essentially two movies in one, combining a narrative story that weaves together the ultra-violent music videos from the band’s Repentless album with a full concert ...
Justin Chancellor Writing “Interesting” New Tool Riffs, Collaborating with Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy
Tool bassist Justin Chancellor has been keeping busy with multiple projects during the pandemic, one of which is writing “interesting riffs” for his main band. Among his other ventures is “bouncing some ideas around” with Bauhaus legend Peter Murphy. While checking in from lockdown with Bass Magazine, Chancellor offered up a glimpse of what his day-to-day life has been like since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Tool off the road. The bassist disclosed that he’s been cleaning up his house and gardening, as well as restoring a 15-foot Statue of Liberty head movie prop that he “purchased years ago on a tipsy impulse.” When asked about his current and upcoming projects, Chancellor responded, “I’m working on tracks for a second MTVoid album/EP with Peter Mohamed, who is in Poland. It looks like it...
System of a Down’s Serj Tankian to President Trump: “Run Donny Run Into Your Bunker”
Members of System of a Down have posted strong reactions to the protests and rioting going on in response to the death of George Floyd. Singer Serj Tankian focuses his anger on President Trump, while drummer John Dolmayan is calling out celebrities for supporting looters and violent rioters. Multiple cities are experiencing daily protests, riots, and looting in reaction to Floyd’s death under custody of the Minneapolis police officers, and reports have come out that President Trump took shelter in a White House bunker while violence erupted in Washington, D.C. Seeing those headlines, Tankian took to Instagram to ridicule the president and express his feelings on the protests: “Run Donny run into your bunker. You may be the first US President to do so out of fear of your own citizens. A rea...
10-Year-Old Girl Rocks Rage Against the Machine in Support of Black Lives Matter: Watch
The very talented Nandi Bushell has offered her support of Black Lives Matter and the fight against racism with a multi-instrumental cover of the Rage Against the Machine classic “Guerrilla Radio.” The 10-year-old musician rocked the drums, bass, and guitar for the performance. This is certainly not the first we’ve seen of Bushell. The UK pre-teen previously wowed us with a drum cover of Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows”, which received an endorsement from QOTSA themselves. And her YouTube channel features dozens of more impressive performances. Her Rage Against the Machine cover comes with a poignant message during these tumultuous times, with protests raging across America and the world following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. A description of the performance o...
Mining Metal: Ara, Cryptic Shift, Goden, Lascar, Mekong Delta, Oozing Wound, Patrons of the Rotting Gate, Xibalba
“Mining Metal” is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence writers Joseph Schafer and Langdon Hickman. The focus is on noteworthy new music emerging from the non-mainstream metal scene, highlighting releases from small and independent labels — or even releases from unsigned acts. This month’s mining metal veers away from the traditional and toward the esoteric. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many labels have postponed hotly awaited releases for months or indefinitely. Because of this, bands not beholden to (or resistant to) commercial scheduling take the lead — Chilean black metal and Irish progressive deathcore, both the passion projects of independent musicians, lead the pack here. Musicians with long histories on the fringes take center stage, such as German neoclassical thrashers...
Faith No More and Korn Co-Headlining US Tour Officially Canceled Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Faith No More and Korn have officially canceled their co-headlining U.S. tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The outing would have marked Faith No More’s first US tour in five years. The late-summer tour was scheduled to kick off August 7th in Denver, and run through a September 17th show in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Daron Malakian’s Scars on Broadway, Helmet, Spotlights, and ’68 were set to support various dates. The tour is being outright canceled, and will not be postponed or rescheduled. A statement from Faith No More’s Facebook reads, “The Faith No More & Korn Summer Tour will unfortunately no longer be taking place. It is with heavy hearts that we came to this decision out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our fans, crew, and fellow artists.” The statement conti...
Iron Maiden, KISS, and System of a Down Headline Virtual Download Festival
Iron Maiden and KISS (photos by Kevin RC Wilson) / System of a Down (photo by Raymond Ahner) Iron Maiden, KISS, and System of a Down will headline the virtual Download TV festival, which will stream on YouTube and social media June 12-14th. All three bands were set to headline this year’s Download Festival, a massive annual UK heavy music gathering that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual fest promises footage from prior Download appearances, socially distant performances, interviews, and exclusive content from the bands that were initially slated for this year’s lineup. The weekend schedule will be divided into day and evening programming. The day content “celebrates the spirit of Download Festival” and the evening will feature two to three hours of “tailor-made prog...
Lamb of God Unleash New Song “Routes” Featuring Testament’s Chuck Billy: Stream
Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe and Testament’s Chuck Billy (photos by Antonio Marino Jr.) Lamb of God have released a fourth new song from their upcoming self-titled album. The latest single, “Routes”, features guest vocals from Testament singer Chuck Billy. The new song follows previously released tracks “Checkmate”, “Memento Mori”, and “New Colossal Hate”. Originally, the album was set to be released on May 8th, but was pushed back to June 19th due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Routes” was inspired by Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe’s time spent at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota during the #NoDAPL movement, which protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. “I went to Standing Rock because I had heard reports of violence committed on the peaceful protes...
Slipknot, Underoath, and Code Orange to Stream Full Concerts on Reimagined Knotfest Website
With concerts and festivals on hold due to the pandemic, Slipknot and their creative team have relaunched Knotfest.com as a content destination, including concert streams, original interview series, and more. While the site had been hosting weekly streams of past concerts by artists who had participated in previous Knotfest events, it has now been completely reimagined to offer a steady stream of news, interviews, performances, and new merch. In celebration, the Knotfest website is streaming full concerts by Slipknot, Underoath, and Code Orange beginning this Friday (May 29th) at 6:00 p.m. ET / 3:00 p.m. PT The three bands were set to perform on this year’s North American Knotfest Roadshow tour, which would have kicked off this Sunday (May 30th) had it not been canceled due to the COVID-19...
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford to Release Tell-All Autobiography Confess in September
Judas Priest Rob Halford, photo by Steven J. Messina Judas Priest singer Rob Halford will “expose every facet” of himself in an upcoming autobiography, titled Confess. A September 29th release date has just been announced for the book. The metal legend revealed that he was working on the book last year. In an initial press release, he promised he wouldn’t hold anything back. “Confess is a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to expose every facet of myself,” stated Halford. “Digging deep with nothing to hide and nothing to fear was in many ways exciting, fun, disturbing, terrifying and cathartic. I’ve held nothing back. It’s time for me to ‘confess.’” The book will span Halford’s entire life and career, including his decision to publicly come out as gay in 1998. Among the other top...
Charlie Benante on New Anthrax Album: “The First Thing I Wanna See Come Out Is a Vaccine”
Anthrax have a number of songs written for their next album, but drummer Charlie Benante wants to see a COVID-19 vaccine arrive before the legendary thrash-metal act releases a new LP. During an interview with Lou Brutus for HardDrive Radio, Benante offered an update on the follow-up to 2016’s For All Kings. “There is new music, there actually is,” said the drummer. “There’s about six, seven songs — and it’s really good.” When asked whether fans would get to hear some new music in the near future, Benante responded, “The first thing I wanna see come out is a [COVID-19] vaccine. Then we’re gonna put a record out.” Benante also revealed that Anthrax will not play any shows in 2020, and that their first gig back will be January 11th, 2021, at the rescheduled Knotfest Japan. “Other than that, ...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Blasts “Defund the Police” Movement as “Stupidest Thing I’ve Heard”
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has been very open about his political beliefs in the midst of protests across the country. Now, he’s blasting the “Defund the Police” movement as “probably the stupidest thing [he’s] heard.” Last week, Dolmayan made headlines when he called President Trump the “greatest friend to minorities” around the same time his bandmate Serj Tankian called for the protesters to “force the [Trump] regime to resign.” In a 13-minute Instagram video posted over the weekend, Dolmayan addressed the backlash he has received since that post, while also outlining his positions on a variety of socio-political issues. As far as the differences between him and his bandmates, particularly Tankian, Dolmayan said, “We have differing opinions in System of a Down. That shouldn’t...