Heavy Metal
Cattle Decapitation’s “2020 Sucks” Face Mask Puts Your Mouth on a Butthole
Cattle Decapitation have captured the “cacophonous dumpster” of a year it’s been so far with a new “2020 Sucks” face mask. What’s more, the “back” side adds to the ridiculousness by placing a butthole against your mouth. The front of the mask offers a hastily designed collage that features the band’s logo set against a coronavirus sphere alongside images of hand sanitizer, toilet paper, a torn ticket to “Literally All Shows”, Tiger King star Joe Exotic, and a “Karen”. Also included is a picture of televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who recently claimed to have destroyed coronavirus and ended the pandemic. But wait, there’s more! The mask is two-sided, with the back showing an actual photo of a human butthole. Yes, if you choose to wear the mask as directed, you’ll have to do so with the ...
Slay At Home Virtual Metal Festival to Feature Trivium, Suicide Silence, Gavin Rossdale, Tesseract, and More
Slay At Home, a two-day virtual metal festival, is slated to take place this Friday (May 29th) and Saturday (May 30th) with dozens of performances and appearances. The virtual music and art festival will feature exclusive performances by Trivium’s Matt Heafy, Suicide Silence, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale, Tesseract, Darkest Hour, Khemmis, Spotlights, Twelve Foot Ninja, Allegaeon, and more. There will also be collaborative performances featuring members of Stone Sour, Megadeth, GWAR, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and other acts. In addition to the performances, there’ll be appearances by comedian Don Jamieson, Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, Orange Is the New Black star Jessica Pimentel, Testament singer Chuck Billy, and more. Moreover, the fest will feature art installations from musicians, graphic...
Rammstein Officially Postpone North American Tour Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Rammstein fans in North America will have to wait until next year to see the German band’s electrifying stage show. The industrial metal act has just postponed the late-summer outing until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The North American run was set to be the first time that Rammstein brought their full-scale stadium production to the continent. As the band stated in the initial tour press release, “Rock ‘n’ roll’s most ambitious pyro-theatrical experience will be on display for a series of 10 open-air dates.” Now, that will have to wait until 2021, with rescheduled dates yet to be announced. The news of the postponement comes just a few weeks after Rammstein called off their early summer European tour. The North American run would have kicked off August 20th in Montreal, Canada, hitt...
Mastodon Working on New Album, Recording Song for New “Bill & Ted” Movie
Mastodon were making significant progress on their highly anticipated new album, until the coronavirus pandemic delayed production. In a new interview, guitarist Bill Kelliher revealed the metal band had laid down 20 rough songs when the recording process came to a halt. “We were kind of right in the middle of it and we had about, I don’t know, 20 rough songs recorded right before this [pandemic] hit. And it just totally put the brakes on it,” Kelliher told RocknRoll Beer Guy. However, it appears the band feels like it’s safe enough to reconvene and continue work on the new record. “I’m actually leaving tomorrow for Atlanta,” added Kelliher. “We’re gonna get back together and have our first kinda… try to get back into finishing a few things that we started and seeing where we get.” The gui...
Minneapolis Ice Cream Truck Plays Extreme Metal, Serves No Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all scream for … extreme metal! An ice cream truck is making the rounds in northeast Minneapolis but all it’s serving up is heavy metal music. According to City Pages, area residents have noticed a black ice cream truck cruising through the streets while blaring out extreme metal music. Even though it also plays a more traditional ice-cream-truck jingle and appears to have images of various ice cream choices on the side of the truck, it never stops for treat-seeking kids with money in their hands. Turns out it’s the long-conceived brainchild of the driver, Matt Peterson, who purchased a rundown ice cream truck 10 years ago and tricked it out with heavy metal imagery. He calls the truck the Hell General, and there’s quite a backstory that goes along with the high-vo...
Sleigh Bells, High on Fire, Poison the Well Members Perform Guns N’ Roses’ “Rocket Queen”: Watch
Sleigh Bells singer Alexis Krauss has joined forces with members of High on Fire, Poison the Well, and more for a quarantine cover of the Guns N’ Roses classic “Rocket Queen”. It’s the latest installment of the “Bedroom Covers” series from the Two Minutes to Late Night YouTube channel. In addition to Krauss, the full lineup includes Two Minutes to Late Night host Jordan Olds (aka Gwarsenio Hall) on vocals and guitar; Cloak’s Billy C. Robinson on bass; High on Fire’s Chris Maggio on drums; and Poison the Well’s Ryan Primack on guitar. Olds handles lead vocals for the first part of the Appetite for Destruction song, with Krauss providing backup on the chorus. At the 4:15 mark, Krauss (sporting an Axl Rose-like bandana on her head) takes over lead vocals, shining in the spotlight as she ...
#MetallicaMondays: Watch Metallica’s 2014 “By Request” Peru Show
Metallica’s weekly concert-streaming series #MetallicaMondays continues with a March 2014 show from Lima, Peru, which took place as part of the band’s “By Request” tour. The outing allowed fans to help pick the set for each gig. The 2014 trek offered online song polls for each city, and the sets were determined by fan voting. While most of the 18-song setlist for the Lima show featured Metallica’s usual concert staples like “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman”, there were a few surprises such “Fight Fire With Fire” from Ride the Lightning and the “Vote of the Day” selection “Hit the Lights” from the band’s 1983 debut, Kill ‘Em All. Last week, Metallica shared a show that took place in Chicago in August 1983, just a few weeks after they had released Kill ‘Em All. Overall, the #MetallicaM...
System of Down, Faith No More, and Korn Announce Rescheduled Dates for Joint Shows
System of a Down (photo by Raymond Ahner), Faith No More (publicity), Korn (photo by Jon Hadusek) System of a Down, Faith No More, and Korn were set to join forces for a couple of the most anticipated concerts of the year, but were forced to postpone the shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, they’ve just announced rescheduled dates for the concerts. The shows would have taken place tonight (May 22nd) and tomorrow (May 23rd) at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, but now they’ll happen on May 21st and May 22nd of 2021. Original support acts Helmet and Russian Circles will also be on board for the rescheduled concerts, billed as “Five Bands, Two Nights of Galactic Proportions.” A full statement from System of a Down on Instagram reads, “We’re excited to announce that the reschedule...
DevilDriver Announce New Double Album, Unleash Single “Keep Away From Me”: Stream
DevilDriver have announced the release of a new album, Dealing With Demons I, due out this fall. The LP will be the first of a two-part double album, with the second one to follow at a later date. In advance of the release, the band has unveiled the single, “Keep Away From Me”. Aptly titled for the current times, “Keep Away from Me” has an anthemic quality as people social distance during the coronavirus pandemic. Serving as the album opener, the song touts a groove-laden, mathematic technicality and a passionate vocal delivery from frontman Dez Fafara. The video is rooted in the pandemic as well, featuring news footage with phrases like “censoring freedoms of speech” and “truth missing” flashing across the screen, a la The X-Files intro sequence. It’s an ominous way to begin the doub...
Death Angel Drummer Says He Met Satan and Morphed Into Jabba the Hutt-Like Monster During COVID-19 Coma
In a new interview, Death Angel drummer Will Carroll likened his recent COVID-19 coma to a trip through hell itself. Carroll was in a 12-day coma after contracting coronavirus during a European tour in March, an outing that led to numerous infections among the bill’s three Bay Area thrash bands — Death Angel, Testament, and Exodus — and their crew. But Carroll’s battle became especially dire, with doctors unsure if he would survive. The drummer told the San Francisco Chronicle that the experience felt like returning from hell, with “dreams of visiting the afterlife” where Satan, who appeared as a woman to Carroll, “punished him for the deadly sin of sloth, morphing him into a Jabba the Hutt-like-monster who vomited blood until he had a heart attack.” “I woke up on the hospital bed wi...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Maria Brink of In This Moment
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. This month’s piece features an interview with Maria Brink of In This Moment. In This Moment reinvent themselves from album to album, so it’s no surprise that the band’s latest record, Mother, has a fresh style and feel. Their previous LP, 2017’s Ritual, was a concept album of sorts, centering around the Salem Witch Trials. Mother is a deeply personal and serious album lyrically, with solid rock riffing, experimental electronics, and singer Maria Brink’s soulful vocals. Mother was released in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the band choosing not to postpone ...
Ministry Reschedule US Summer Tour for Spring 2021 Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Ministry have postponed their summer “Industrial Strength Tour” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have already rescheduled the shows for spring 2021. Original support acts KMFDM and Front Line Assembly will remain on the bill for the revised dates of the monthlong U.S. outing. The tour, in which Ministry still plan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1989 album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, will now kick off March 31st in Seattle and run through a May 1st show in San Francisco. The trek hits all the same cities and venues that were planned for this summer, and also adds an additional April 3rd date in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tickets for the summer tour, which would have launched on July 1st, will be honored for the rescheduled dates. Exceptions are the Dallas show, for which ...
