Heavy Music Featured
Trent Reznor on David Bowie: “He Helped Me in Those Dark Times Before I Chose to Get My S**t Together”
Editor’s Note: We continue our celebration of the life and art of David Bowie with an exclusive new tribute from Trent Reznor. Keep checking back all week for more content reflecting on our favorite Starman. And, if you’ve missed anything, you can experience it all again here. David Bowie’s impact on fans and musicians transcended definitions of genre, illustrated by the iconic rock chameleon’s influence on industrial heavyweight Trent Reznor. As the Nine Inch Nails mastermind tells Consequence of Sound, having Bowie as both role model and friend helped him through some very dark times. Nine Inch Nails had the honor of opening for Bowie on “The Outside Tour” in 1995, which saw Reznor and company remaining onstage to perform a handful of songs with Bowie at the beginning of the latter’s hea...
Mr. Bungle’s Dave Lombardo on the Pandemic: “I Had Been on the Go for Many Years and Life Just Stopped”
Mr. Bungle, photo by Eric Larsen As our Annual Report continues, we’ll be taking several looks at how live music changed in a year where most of the world was in lockdown. Today, we share our conversation with legendary metal drummer Dave Lombardo about his incredible year playing with a reunited Mr. Bungle, his life during the pandemic, and the future of concerts. In a year in which the touring industry came to a standstill, a reunited Mr. Bungle were able to make their mark on the concert stage, both in person and online. The band played their first shows in 20 years just before the pandemic began, completing a brief jaunt of a handful of cities in February. And on Halloween, they treated fans to one of the more memorable livestream concerts of the year. Not only did the reunion mar...
Five Things to Know About Puscifer’s New Album Existential Reckoning
Five years after the release of their last album, Money Shot, Puscifer are back with their fourth LP, Existential Reckoning. As with the band’s previous releases, the album comes with an abundance of intrigue and mystique. Puscifer — featuring core members of Maynard James Keenan (Tool), Mat Mitchell, and Carina Round — have crafted a 12-song album that is both experimental and cinematic in quality. The songs range from the dance-y “Apocalyptical” to the angry “Fake Affront”. The album also continues the story of the fictional characters Billy D and his wife, Hilda Berger, who’ve been portrayed by Keenan and Laura Milligan, respectively, in promotion of the band’s previous LPs. Along with the announcement of Existential Reckoning came a classified document that reported on an alien abducti...
Pallbearer’s Joseph Rowland Talks Forgotten Days and the Importance of Releasing Music During the Pandemic
Pallbearer are a true heavy metal success story. Arising from the humble Arkansas metal scene, the band sharpened its craft in the underground and forged its own artistic path, rising up the food chain to become one of the most respected American doom bands. This would eventually lead Pallbearer to heavyweight label Nuclear Blast, who signed the group last year. Symbolically, it signaled that Pallbearer had officially arrived, and that the years of work had paid off. Like the great doom bands of yore — Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Cathedral — Pallbearer infuse their doom with a palpable emotional weight that verges on spiritual. Good riffs are only part of the equation. It’s the human energy and expression that drives the band’s music and spine-chilling live performances. That energy hit...
Mining Metal: Exist, Katavasia, Messiah, Night, Obsidian Kingdom, Plague Organ, Proscription, and Sumac
“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. Like many, I’ve spent much of the last month practically hermetically sealed-in to my domicile, just to avoid too much Pacific Northwest wildfire smoke from clogging my already-punished lungs. Extended isolation leads to eccentricity, and this month’s metal selections skew toward the insular. Expect progressive and cavernous odes to hyper-niche sounds, perfect for deep headphone listening. Of course, there’s a little old-time rock ‘n’ roll to buoy spirits in darkening times and earlier sunsets, but as autumn rolls ...
50 Years Ago, Black Sabbath Deliver the Magnificent Paranoid
The “sophomore slump” has spelt the beginning of the end for quite a few rock acts over the years. But looking back, one of the cases in which the exact opposite occurred was when Black Sabbath delivered one of the greatest metal albums of all time, Paranoid. The Birmingham, UK-based band – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward – had already caught the attention of rock fans with their detuned and doomy self-titled debut (released in February 1970 in the UK, and June in the United States). And they wasted no time capitalizing on the buzz – issuing Paranoid in the UK on September of that year. (It would arrive in the States in January 1971.) While Sabbath amazingly knocked out the recording of their debut album in a single day, they would t...
Mining Metal: Cobra Spell (Premiere), Atramentus, Humavoid, Krallice, Necrot, Nug, Question, and Terminal Nation
“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. As I’m writing this, the metal underground is still reeling from the unexpected passing of Riley Gale, vocalist for Texas thrashers Power Trip. Gale was known for his unabashedly political lyrics, charismatic live performances, and interpersonal messages of kindness. The underground will be feeling his loss for some time. I first heard Power Trip a few days after publishing an essay on Invisible Oranges declaring the post-Municipal Waste thrash revival dead. Power Trip’s debut album, Manifest Decimation rendered my...
Heavy Culture: Musicians on Protests, Power, and the Pandemic
Clockwise from Upper Left: Skin, Rasheed Thomas, William DuVall, Cammie Gilbert, Elias Soriano, Militia Vox, AJ Channer, Prika Amaral Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their music. The latest installment of this column features multiple rock and metal musicians recounting their early experiences of racism. The year 2020 will go down as one of the most difficult and memorable in the history of the world. As a global pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the physical and economic health of countries across the world, protests for justice and equality have led to notable progress in the battle again...
30 Years Ago, Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction Gave Rise to ’90s Alternative Rock
Alice in Chains’ Facelift, via Columbia / Jane’s Addiction’s Ritual de lo habitual, via Warner Bros. The rise of ’90s grunge and alternative rock can be traced back to a handful of significant moments, but one date in particular stands out: August 21st, 1990. On that same day, Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction released Facelift and Ritual de lo habitual, respectively, signaling a new shift toward textural, artful, heavy music. The albums parallel one another in myriad ways — from sonic congruencies to shared influences — a point best illustrated by mutual producer Dave Jerden, who worked on both LPs successively. The addictive ethereal vocals of Perry Farrell and the group’s eclectic blend of metal, post-punk, and funk had already caused a turning point in pop music wh...
Avatar’s Johannes Eckerström Talks Hunter Gatherer, Pandemic, and Corey Taylor’s Musical Assist
Even when the world is turned upside down, we can count on Avatar to churn out an opus of groovy, melodic metal that sings and soars. That’s just what you’ll find on the Swedish metal band’s eighth studio album, Hunter Gatherer, due out Friday, August 7th. Spearheaded by lead single… Please click the link below to read the full article. Avatar’s Johannes Eckerström Talks Hunter Gatherer, Pandemic, and Corey Taylor’s Musical Assist Anne Erickson You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of In...
Mining Metal: Bedsore, Defeated Sanity, Drouth, EMBR, Havukruunu, Maggot Heart, Rebel Wizard, and Skeleton
“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. Metalheads, permit me a brief digression into hip-hop fandom: Do you remember that last year rapper extraordinaire Megan Thee Stallion declared these months Hot Girl Summer? I sure do. In contrast, this year feels more like the Hot Seat Summer, with not much to look forward to besides an endless stream of anxiety-inducing news articles chronicling dire political and social climes, and not much anyone can do about it though there’s a constant fire under our butts to at least try to do something — anything. There’s n...
Watch: “AC/DC Back in Black 40th Anniversary: A Virtual Celebration”
AC/DC’s legendary Back in Black album is turning 40 years old, and we’re celebrating with a special digital event featuring a bevy of notable musicians. “AC/DC Back in Black 40th Anniversary: A Virtual Celebration”, presented by Consequence of Sound and Gibson Guitars, premieres Friday, July 24th, at 5:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. PT. Hosted by guitar virtuoso Jared James Nichols, “AC/DC Back in Black 40th Anniversary: A Virtual Celebration” will stream across Consequence of Sound‘s social platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. The event features testimonials, performances, and guitar tutorials from such prominent artists as Slash, Juanes, Dee Snider, Alice in Chains’ William DuVall, Orianthi, and members of Cage the Elephant, Trivium, Anthrax, Maná, Airbourne, Beartooth, Refus...
- 1
- 2
