Heavy Music Concerts
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 ...
Deftones Postpone Summer Tour with Gojira and Poppy Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Fans holding out hope that Deftones might still tour North America in 2020 will have to wait until next year to see the alt-metal veterans. The band has officially postponed its summer tour with Gojira and Poppy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but plans to announce rescheduled dates for 2021. The news of the postponement comes as no surprise, as singer Chino Moreno recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that “it’s not looking like we’re going to be able to get out there this summer.” In that same interview, Moreno revealed that Deftones had originally planned to deliver a new album to their fans this summer, but now the release date is “something that we’re going to have to figure out.” The tour was slated to run from July 27th in Portland, Oregon, through September 5th in Denver, Colorado. T...
Clutch to Headline Virtual Show with Support from Crowbar and More
Clutch have announced that they’ll headline a full bill of rock and metal, albeit a streaming-only concert due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The veteran hard rockers will play a virtual show that will feature support from Crowbar, Blacktop Mojo, and Saul. For a ticket price of $9, fans will be able to enjoy four bands from the confines of their own homes. The May 27th concert begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with Saul, followed by Blacktop Mojo at 4:35 p.m., then Crowbar at 5:10 p.m., and finally Clutch at 5:55 p.m. A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit the nonprofit organization Angel Flight West. The streaming show, dubbed “Live From the Doom Saloon Volume 1”, follows a series of informal mini-concerts that Clutch have been performing from their studio in Maryland. Those shows streamed live fo...
Gojira to Stream “Live at Red Rocks” Concert as They Wrap Up New Album
Gojira are completing work on their forthcoming seventh studio album. To tide fans over, the band is streaming its previously unreleased 2017 concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. The show, at which Gojira opened for headliners Opeth, came in the midst of the French metal act’s tour in support of 2016’s Magma album. The open air venue is nestled in the side of a mountain, 10 miles west of Denver — surroundings that the band considered worthy of hiring a professional film crew to shoot the show. The 11-song setlist drew mostly from Magma and 2005’s From Mars to Sirius. The band will also be selling limited-edition merchandise to commemorate the show, including a special edition t-shirt and poster. The apparel and memorabilia will be available during the stream, which will...
#MetallicaMondays: Watch a Young Metallica Play Kill ‘Em All in Chicago in 1983
Metallica are offering up an extra-special treat for the latest installment of their weekly #MetallicaMondays streaming series. This evening (May 18th), the band is airing an August 1983 show from The Metro in Chicago, filmed a few weeks after the thrash masters released their now-legendary debut album, Kill ‘Em All. To put the show in perspective, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett were both 20 years old; Lars Ulrich was 19; and the late, great Cliff Burton was 21. The entire show was comprised of nine songs from Kill ‘Em All, including classics like “Hit the Lights” and “Seek and Destroy”. Plus it featured a guitar solo that ended with fans grabbing and destroying the instrument. Two of the Metro performances — “No Remorse” and “Metal Militia” — were featured on Metallica’s Cliff ‘Em All ho...
Slipknot Cancel North American Knotfest Roadshow Tour Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
One of metal’s most anticipated tours, Slipknot’s North American “Knotfest Roadshow”, has been called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it seemed inevitable, Slipknot officially canceled the trek on Wednesday (May 13th), just a few weeks before the tour was slated to begin. Moreover, the band also postponed its Knotfest at Sea cruise and canceled its Knotfest UK festival, both set for August. The month-long “Knotfest Roadshow” had been scheduled to kick off May 30th in Syracuse, New York, and run through a June 25th show in The Woodlands, Texas. In addition to headliners Slipknot, the outing was to feature A Day to Remember, Underoath, and Code Orange. The Slipknot-headlined Knotfest at Sea cruise, slated to set sail from Barcelona on August 10th, featured a bill that included Behemo...
Rammstein and Guns N’ Roses Both Call Off European Tours Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Rammstein’s Till Lindemann (photo by Jens Koch), Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose (photo by Amy Harris) Two of rock’s biggest live acts will not be touring Europe this spring and summer, as planned, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rammstein and Guns N’ Roses have each announced that they’ve called off their respective outings. Rammstein were scheduled to embark on a new leg of their “Stadium Tour” on May 25th in Klagenfurt, Austria, and remain on the European run until August 4th in Aarhus, Denmark. As of now, there has been no official announcement regarding the band’s late summer North American run, which is slated to kick off August 20th in Montreal. Rammstein, who’ve been touring in support of their 2019 untitled album, explained the European tour cancellation: “Due to local eve...
#MetallicaMondays: Watch Metallica Perform “The Black Album” in Full at 2012 Austria Show
Metallica have been digging through their vast archive of live performance footage for their weekly #MetallicaMondays concert series. The latest installment should particularly appeal to fans of “The Black Album”, as the band unearths a back-to-front performance of the LP recorded in 2012 in Austria. The footage captures Metallica’s headlining set for the Nova Rock Festival on June 10th, 2012 in Nickelsdorf, Austria. After playing a handful of hits including “Master of Puppets”, the band launched in a full performance of 1991’s Metallica (aka “The Black Album”) in reverse order, starting with “The Struggle Within”. After playing the full album, they finished the lengthy show with a few more hits. The set and the band’s respective European tour celebrated the 20th anniversary of the legenda...
Suicide Silence Announce Plans for Virtual World Tour
With the concert industry shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bands are coming up with new and creative ways to present live music to their fans. Suicide Silence have just announced plans for a “Virtual World Tour”, in which they will play streaming concerts for select geographic areas. Each performance will feature the band playing a full set professionally filmed by multiple cameras, followed by a Q&A session. The shows will be geo-gated, meaning only people within a certain radius of the city on the virtual tour stop will be able to purchase tickets to view that concert. The band has not unveiled an itinerary yet, but expects to launch the tour with virtual shows in New York and Los Angeles in June. Fans in each market will be able to purchase merchandise unique to that particul...
Fearless Records and Century Media Each Announce Streaming Festivals
Two record labels specializing in heavy music are giving their bands a platform to perform for fans during the pandemic. Fearless Records is staging an “At Home” live-streaming event on May 9th, while Century Media is holding the “Isolation Festival” on May 14th. The Fearless event will feature acoustic performances from The Pretty Reckless, who just inked a new deal with the label, plus As It Is, Grayscale, Ice Nine Kills, Locket, Plain White T’s, Set It Off, The Almost, The Plot In You, and Wage War. In addition, there’ll be appearances from members of All That Remains, August Burns Red, Capstan, Eat Your Heart Out, iDKHOW, I Prevail, Kill the Lights, Movements, My Kid Brother, Oceans Ate Alaska, Starset, The Word Alive, Underoath, Varials, and Volumes. “Fearless At Home” begins at 3:00 ...
Iron Maiden Postpone All 2020 Shows Due to COVID-19 Pandemic, Reschedule Many Dates for 2021
Iron Maiden have postponed all 2020 touring plans as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. The legendary UK metal band has rescheduled many of the European dates of its ongoing “Legacy of the Beast Tour” for 2021, but canceled festival appearances have not been rescheduled. The band was supposed to begin the first leg of the 2020 tour on May 1st in Perth, Australia, with shows in New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan, Dubai, and Israel to follow. Those dates have not been rescheduled yet, though the band hopes to return to those countries “in some guise, in the first half of 2022.” European shows in Moscow, Weert, and Zurich have also not been rearranged thus far. Iron Maiden’s manager Rod Smallwood issued a statement on the band’s website in regards to the postponements and cancellations: “I hope...
#MetallicaMondays: Watch Metallica’s 2016 “House of Vans” London Show in Full
Metallica are back with another concert stream, continuing their weekly #MetallicaMondays series. Today’s offering is of the band’s 2016 “House of Vans” gig in London. The “House of Vans” show came on the same day (November 18th, 2016) that Metallica’s most recent album, Hardwired … To Self-Destruct, was released. The set featured 15 songs, including three from the new LP, among classics like “One”, “Master of Puppets”, and “Enter Sandman”. Metallica announced the free streaming series after postponing or canceling their spring shows due to the coronavirus pandemic. Their South American outing with Greta Van Fleet was rescheduled to December, and headlining festival slots at Epicenter and Welcome to Rockville were canceled. Metallica were also slated to headline the Louder Than Life Festiv...
