Heavy Metal
Midnight Announce New Album Let There Be Witchery, Share “Szex Witchery”: Stream
Midnight, the one-man metal project of multi-instrumentalist Athenar, has announced a new album, Let There Be Witchery. Lead single “Szex Witchery” is available now ahead of the LP’s March 4th release date. Under the Midnight moniker, Athenar has proliferated a brand of blackened heavy metal where sodomy and blasphemy reign. For the uninitiated, the new song “Szex Witchery” is a perfect introduction to the Midnight’s Motörhead-playing-black-metal assault. This is “music to start fights to,” as record label Metal Blade so gently puts it. “I always want it to be loud and nasty,” Athenar said via the label’s press release. “That kinda thing never gets old with me. How funny will that look to see me at age 77 — if I reach that point — sitting on the porch blasting Hellhammer?” Advertisement Re...
Behemoth and Arch Enemy Announce Co-Headlining 2022 North American Tour
Behemoth and Arch Enemy are joining forces for the co-headlining “North American Siege” tour this spring. Napalm Death and Unto Others (formerly known as Idle Hands) will support the outing, making for a stacked bill of extreme metal. The tour spans 19 shows and kicks off on April 16th in Tempe, Arizona, running through a May 15th date in Los Angeles. Tickets go sale Friday (January 21st) at 10 a.m. local time and can be purchased via Ticketmaster, with pre-sales beginning tomorrow (January 20th). “To say that we are dying to return on the road would be an understatement!” remarked Behemoth frontman Nergal. “In fact, we’ve never been more hungry to reunite with our legions… not only to bring young of the hottest extreme metal touring lineups in a long time but also to bring you new Behemot...
Clutch to Embark on 2022 North American Tour with Eyehategod, The Sword, and More
Clutch have announced an extensive Spring 2022 North American tour with support from Eyehategod and The Sword on select dates. The trek is split into two legs. The first part launches March 18th in Birmingham, Alabama, and runs through an April 10th date in Joliet, Illinois. Eyehategod and Tigercub will support these shows. After a break, Clutch will return to the road with The Sword and Nate Bergman for the second leg of the tour, kicking off April 27th in Burlington, Vermont, and running through May 22nd in Richmond, Virginia. All tickets go on sale Friday (January 21st) and can be purchased via Ticketmaster. Clutch recently wrapped up their annual string of holiday shows, which followed an earlier run of dates in the fall. Before that, the band made the most of lockdown with a series of...
Slipknot Announce 2022 North American Knotfest Roadshow Tour
Slipknot have announced the 2022 edition of their “Knotfest Roadshow” package tour. The North American outing will be divided into two distinct one-month legs, with In This Moment and Jinjer supporting the first run, and Cypress Hill and Ho99o9 opening the second round. The first leg of the tour kicks off March 16th in Fargo, North Dakota, and runs through an April 17th show in Vancouver, British Columbia. The second leg launches May 18th in University Park, Pennsylvania, and wraps up with a June 18th concert in Chula Vista, California. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 21st, at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster, with pre-sales beginning as early as today (January 18th). The new dates come as Slipknot continue to support their 2019 album, We Are Not Your Kind, while also prepari...
Steel Panther Announce Spring 2022 US Tour
Steel Panther have announced the first leg of their 2022 “Res-Erections” US tour, spanning 13 dates in March. Never ones to turn down a good pun, the comedic glam metal heroes parodied the latest Matrix film with their upcoming tour and poster. “You won’t need a pill to rock this hard,” the band proudly claims. Any Given Sin will support the trek, which kicks off March 10th in St. Petersburg, Florida, and runs though a March 26th concert in Dubuque, Iowa. The route will hit 13 cities in 16 days, and the press release states that it’s only the first leg, so more tour dates are forthcoming. Tickets go on sale Friday (January 21st) at 10 a.m. local time and can be purchased via Ticketmaster, with pre-sales beginning Wednesday for most shows. Advertisement Related Video “Even though they are k...
Judas Priest Welcome Andy Sneap Back Five Days After Dropping Him from Touring Lineup
Judas Priest have reversed course on their recent decision to drop guitarist and producer Andy Sneap from their touring lineup. The legendary metal act announced Saturday (January 15th) that Sneap will indeed be with the band when it launches its North American tour in March (tickets available here). Sneap joined the Priest live lineup when longtime guitarist Glenn Tipton stepped away from regular touring after revealing in 2018 that he is battling Parkinson’s disease. On Monday (January 10th), Judas Priest announced that they would be proceeding without Sneap as part of their live band, but that he would still stay on to produce the group’s upcoming album. The band stated at the time, “Hello maniacs! We are chomping at the British Steel bit to return to world touring… celebrating 50 years...
Meshuggah Announce New Album Immutable, Share Teaser Video: Watch
Meshuggah have announced their ninth studio album, Immutable, arriving April 1st. They also shared a short video teaser featuring a snippet of new music. While a Meshuggah album was expected this year, no formal details were available until now. The teaser clip posted on the Swedish extreme-metal band’s social media touts fiery artwork by Luminokaya and powerful chugging guitar grooves — a taste of what’s to come. “The title [Immutable] fits perfectly for where we are as a band,” guitarist Mårten Hagström remarked in the band’s Facebook post. “We’re older now. Most of us are in our 50s now, and we’ve settled into who we are. Even though we’ve been experimenting all along, I also think we’ve been the same since day one.” Advertisement Related Video He continued: “The way we approach things ...
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...
Suffocation Announce 2022 North American Tour with Atheist
Suffocation will return to the road on their 2022 North American “Forces of Hostility” tour with direct support from fellow death metal pioneers Atheist. The extensive itinerary kicks off May 26th in Brooklyn, New York, and runs through a June 25th date in Clifton, New Jersey. Soreption and Contrarian will open most shows. Tickets go on sale Friday (January 14th) at noon ET for most dates and can be purchased via Ticketmaster. “We are beyond stoked to return to the road with the ‘Forces of Hostility North American Tour 2022’! exclaimed Suffocation guitarist Terrance Hobbs in a press release. “We’ll be joined by our good friends and brothers in metal Atheist as well as the technical metal powerhouse Soreption and death metallers Contrarian! This will be our first tour back in almost three y...
R.I.P. Burke Shelley, Budgie Singer-Bassist Dies at 71
Burke Shelley, the singer and bassist of the influential Welsh metal band Budgie, has died at the age of 71. Shelley’s daughter, Ela, shared the following post Monday night (January 10th) on Facebook: “It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my father, John Burke Shelley. He passed away this evening in his sleep at Heath Hospital in Cardiff, his birth town. He was 71 years old. Please respect the family during this time. With love, His four children: Ela, Osian, Dimitri and Nathaniel.” Although no cause of death was given, Shelley had suffered from health problems over the last few years (a genetic disorder called Stickler syndrome, plus two aortic aneurysms), which kept Budgie off of the road and from issuing new music. Advertisement Related Video Born John Burke Shelley on ...
Judas Priest to Perform as Four-Piece, Dropping Andy Sneap from Their Touring Lineup
Judas Priest will play their upcoming tour as a four-piece after dropping guitarist and producer Andy Sneap from their live lineup. The legendary metal act’s rescheduled 2022 North American tour kicks off March 4th in Peoria, Illinois, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. Initially, a statement from the band suggested that the split was amicable, with Sneap leaving to concentrate on production — including work on Judas Priest’s next album. Judas Priest stated, “Hello maniacs! We are chomping at the British Steel bit to return to world touring… celebrating 50 years of Judas Priest as an an even more powerful, relentless four piece heavy metal band – with Glenn [Tipton] coming out on stage with us here and there as before. Big thanks to Andy for all you’ve done and continuing to be in th...
Corey Taylor Confirms New Slipknot Album and More for 2022
Corey Taylor has confirmed that Slipknot will release a new album in 2022. The band unleashed a new single, “The Chapeltown Rag,” back in November, and now fans can look forward to the follow-up to 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind sometime this year. The Slipknot singer took to Twitter over the weekend to disclose that the new Slipknot album and a few other projects are on tap for 2022. “Big Shit Coming, 2022 edition: ZvN updates, SK album, secret ‘homecoming’ plans, etc. Stay Tuned! ‘Hold On To Your Butts’ – Franklin D. Roosevelt.” In addition to “SK album” referring to the new Slipknot LP, “ZvN updates” touches on Taylor’s feature film, Zombie vs. Ninja, for which he wrote the script. Several months ago, Taylor had reported that he was looking for a director and that he expected filming to be...
