Heavy Music Interviews
Heavy Culture: Alien Weaponry on Māori Ideology, New Album Tangaroa, and Touring with Gojira
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 craft. The latest installment of this column features Lewis and Henry de Jong of Alien Weaponry. New Zealand metal act Alien Weaponry have recently released their latest album, Tangaroa, and they also wrapped up a tour supporting supporting Gojira and Knocked Loose. The band’s music is written and sung in both Māori and English, with themes that center around the ideologies and history of the culture. Heavy Consequence caught up with brothers Lewis de Jong (vocals, guitar) and Henry de Jong (drums) while they were on the road with Gojira. They spoke about tour...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Anette Olzon
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. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Anette Olzon, formerly of Nightwish. Anette Olzon previously fronted one of the biggest symphonic metal bands in the world, Nightwish, but has since embarked on a solo career. This year, she returned with her sophomore solo album, Strong. The new set is nothing like her debut solo release, Shine. While the latter was a much more stripped-down, intimate collection of songs, Strong takes the listener in a much heavier and da...
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford on 50 Years of Metal, Handcuffing Andy Warhol, and Touring with Ozzy Osbourne
Fifty years of doing anything in the arts is impressive — even more so in popular music, and especially in heavy metal. It’s a rigorous and demanding genre, and certainly of a niche for faithful. But it’s proved resilient, welcoming to new directions and trends while continuing to revere its traditions and its long-haulers. Judas Priest have become the latest to join the golden anniversary club, and in its case a band that’s spent the past half-century rocking uninterrupted, weathering lineup changes and changing audience tastes. But anyone who’s seen the quintet as recently as this year’s “50 Heavy Metal Years Tour” — which came to an abrupt and unexpected stop on September 26th after guitarist Richie Faulkner suffered a ruptured aorta onstage and more than 10 hours of open heart surgery ...
Alice Cooper on His New Audio Memoir, the Legacy of “School’s Out,” and Who Should Play Him in a Movie
When Audible announced its ongoing “Words + Music” audio program — in which some of rock’s biggest names combine storytelling with music — it made perfect sense that legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper participate in the series. As evidenced by his newly-released entry, Who I Really Am: The Diary of a Hollywood Vampire, Alice tells great story after great story. Throughout the audio memoir, he is comparable to a “rock ‘n’ roll Forrest Gump” — recounting experiences in which he crossed paths with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett, Frank Zappa, John Lennon, and Keith Moon, among others. Additionally, you’ll hear new acoustic versions of “School’s Out,” “Is It My Body” (a tune from which a line was plucked from for the title of his Audible release), “Poison,” and other classics. Advertis...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara
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. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara. Los Angeles rockers Dead Sara spent much of the lockdown period working on their Warner Records debut (and third album overall), the just-released Ain’t It Tragic. With recording sessions set to take place smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, the new album brought some challenges for the band, but it was nothing they couldn’t face head-on, as demonstrated in their triumphant new single, “H...
Cage the Elephant on Covering Metallica’s “The Unforgiven”: “It’s Almost Like Their ‘Stairway to Heaven’”
Cage the Elephant were among the 53 artists to participate in the just-released covers compilation The Metallica Blacklist. Each act covered a track from “The Black Album,” with all proceeds from the release benefitting a charity of the artist’s choice and Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation. For their contribution to The Metallica Blacklist, Cage the Elephant took on the epic ballad “The Unforgiven.” Proof of the song’s universally captivating arrangement, Cage make it sound like their own song while preserving the grandeur and dynamics of the original. In an exclusive Q&A with Heavy Consequence, Cage the Elephant guitarist Nick Bockrath discussed the experience of covering “The Unforgiven,” the impact of “The Black Album,” and the legacy of Metallica. Advertisement Related Vid...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Willow Smith on Embracing Rock, Her Mother’s Influence, and Opening for Billie Eilish
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. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Willow Smith. Many music acts take an entire career to churn out four studio albums, but Willow Smith has already achieved that feat at the age of 20. If you count her collaborative LP (The Anxiety) with Tyler Cole, then it’s five albums, plus a handful of EPs. Willow recently released a rock-inspired new album Lately I Feel Everything, featuring a raw, alternative vibe with heavy guitars, punky rhythms and powerful vocals...
Heavy Culture: Nova Twins on Racial Identity, Representation of Women of Color in Heavy Music, and More
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 craft. The latest installment of this column features Amy Love and Georgia South of the Nova Twins. UK duo Nova Twins released their debut album, Who Are the Girls?, in 2020. They kicked off 2021 by curating a compilation called Voices for the Unheard, which showcases alternative and rock artists of color. Proceeds from this compilation went to The Black Curriculum, which is an initiative to address the lack of Black British history in UK classrooms. Bandmates Amy Love and Georgia South describe their music as “urban punk,” but it melds several genres together...
Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez on Navigating the Pandemic, 2021 Tour, and New Music
Coheed and Cambria have kept busy during the past year, between launching a coffee line, collaborating with Rick Springfield on the song “Jessie’s Girl 2”, doing Twitch streams, and working on some musical side projects. “We each tried to be creative in our own unique ways apart from each other and navigate the isolation as best we knew how,” frontman Claudio Sanchez tells Heavy Consequence. Sanchez caught up with Heavy Consequence to discuss Coheed and Cambria’s upcoming tour with The Used, how he and the band navigated the pandemic, and various other projects. He also gave us a hint as to what fans can expect as far as new Coheed music. Advertisement Related Video Pick up tickets to Coheed and Cambria’s tour with The Used via Ticketmaster, and purchase Coheed’s line of Coffee Roasters pr...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Kris Esfandiari of King Woman
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. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” under the moniker Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Kris Esfandiari of King Woman. King Woman’s new album, Celestial Blues, delves into heavy themes of suffering, spirituality and, ultimately, triumph. The ethereal doom band, led by Kris Esfandiari, releases its sophomore set July 30th via Relapse Records, following up the 2017 debut, Created in the Image of Suffering. Esfandiari grew up in a cult-like religious environment filled with stories of demons and exo...
Heavy Culture: Palaceburn Singer Meredith Bell and Hyro the Hero on Juneteenth and Being Black in America
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 craft. The latest installment of this column features Palaceburn singer Meredith Bell and Hyro the Hero and focuses on Juneteenth and other topics. Juneteenth has just been declared a federal holiday in the United States by the Biden administration. The day, marked on June 19th, commemorates the end of slavery as the date the last remaining slaves in Texas learned of their freedom in 1865, two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Philadelphia-based Palaceburn began their music journey with their EPs The Awakening in 2013 and Curs...
Heavy Culture: Chthonic’s Freddy Lim Talks Politics and Metal, Premieres “Oceanquake” Live Video
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-14T18:06:27+00:00“>May 14, 2021 | 2:06pm ET 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 an interview with Chthonic frontman Freddy Lim. Freddy Lim has intertwined his life as both a politician and musician. In 2020, Lim was re-elected to Taiwan’s parliament, where he first won a seat in 2016. He’s also been going strong as frontman of the Taiwanese metal band Chthonic for more than 25 years. As countries around the world continue to have COV...
