Heavy Music Interviews
Serj Tankian on More New System of a Down Music: “We Might Be Able to Get It Together and Do Something Again”
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T15:03:46+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 11:03am ET System of a Down surprised fans back in November by releasing their first new songs in 15 years. Singer Serj Tankian is “extremely proud” that the band was able to put aside their differences, and offers hope that they’ll one day “get it together and do something again.” In the past few years, the band members have made no secret about creative differences hampering their return to the studio. The multiplatinum metal act has not released an album since 2005’s Hypnotize, but came together to record the songs “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” to raise funds for Armenia and its neighboring state of Artsakh, which had come und...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Nancy Wilson of Heart
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-21T15:33:15+00:00“>April 21, 2021 | 11:33am ET 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 Nancy Wilson of Heart. Legendary Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson didn’t spend the past year waiting for the pandemic to end. Instead, she worked on her first-ever solo album, You and Me, which was largely written and recorded during lockdown. The 12-song LP...
Heavy Culture: Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro Talks Hermitage, Pandemic, Growing Up in Portugal, 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 music. The latest installment of this column features an interview with Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro. The year 2020 made most of us embrace our hermit-like ways. Little did Moonspell singer Fernando Ribeiro know that the word Hermitage that he came across in 2017 would be an apt title for the band’s brand new album. The new release Hermitage is the veteran Portuguese gothic metal band’s 12th full-length studio album. The LP focuses on topics such as solitude and isolation, but also on community. Heavy Consequence caught up with Ribeiro via Skype in mid-M...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Robin Wattie of Big|Brave
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 Robin Wattie of Big|Brave. Montreal metal trio Big|Brave tackle the weighty issues of gender, race and feeling like one doesn’t belong on their new album, Vital, out April 23 via Southern Lord. The album’s lead single, “Half Breed,” finds singer-guitarist Robin Wattie sharing the experience of being of mixed race and the confusion and insecurity that can come with it. Wattie checked in with Heavy Consequence for the latest “Beyond the Boys’ Club” column to discuss how she and the members of Big|Brave quarantined together...
Evanescence’s Amy Lee on The Bitter Truth, Billie Eilish, and More
Evanescence’s Amy Lee. photo by Nick Fancher Amy Lee is one of the most influential women in rock music, having broken down barriers at the start of the 21st century. As the lead vocalist and chief songwriter for hard rockers Evanescence, Lee emerged at a time when women were scarcely heard on mainstream rock radio. Now, Evanescence are back with The Bitter Truth, the band’s first album of brand-new music in 10 years. Following their orchestral Synthesis release and world tour with a full orchestra, The Bitter Truth finds Evanescence getting back to their hard rock roots with blistering guitars and pounding rhythms. With The Bitter Truth set for release this Friday (March 26th), Evanescence have already released a string of singles from the effort, including the empowering song “Use ...
Paul Stanley on Soul Station, His Favorite Singers, and Whether KISS Will Complete Their Farewell Tour
For several years, KISS singer-guitarist Paul Stanley has been moonlighting as the frontman for Soul Station — a musical collective that focuses on covers of vintage soul and R&B classics of the ‘60s and ‘70s (as well as some originals that sound as if they were cut from the same musical cloth). But it was not until this month that the band finally issued their debut album, Now and Then. And it turns out the wait was certainly worth it — Stanley’s voice is in fine form throughout, especially on covers of the Five Stairsteps’ “O-O-H Child” and Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”, among others. The singer, who forgoes rhythm guitar when fronting Soul Station, spoke with Consequence of Sound shortly before the arrival of Now and Then, which you can pick up here. Not only did he discuss Soul ...
Serj Tankian on His New Elasticity EP: “I Definitely Thought These Songs Would Have Worked Out for System”
Serj Tankian has just released his new solo EP, Elasticity. The title is inspired, in part, by System of a Down’s landmark 2001 album,Toxicity, and the singer has made no secret about the songs being originally intended for his acclaimed metal band. The collection features five new songs, including the recent singles “Elasticity” and “Electric Yerevan”. One listen to the EP, and it’s not difficult to see how these tracks would have fit nicely into the System of a Down canon. Tankian approached System with these songs a few years back, and as he explained to Heavy Consequence, the band members even worked on a few of them. However, ultimately creative differences led to any recording plans coming to a standstill. We asked Tankian what he felt more: regret about not recording the songs with ...
Emily Wolfe Unveils Epiphone Sheraton Stealth Guitar and “No Man” Performance: Interview + Giveaway
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Emily Wolfe has been rising up the music ranks over the past few years, and now she has her own signature Epiphone Sheraton Stealth guitar. She puts the instrument on display in a new performance of her song “No Man” at the Gibson Showroom in Austin, Texas, exclusively premiering at Consequence of Sound along with a giveaway contest for the new guitar. As an up-and-coming musician, Wolfe makes history with her own signature Epiphone guitar, which she helped develop. The Sheraton Stealth offers thinline, double-cutaway, semi-hollowbody design similar to the Gibson ES-335. Wolfe’s model comes in a Black Aged Gloss finish, boasting an Indian Laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and mother-of-pearl block inlays with abalone lightning bolts. The headst...
Serj Tankian: I Respect John Dolmayan Very Much, But Not His American Political Views
Over the past year or so, a political divide has played out indirectly between System of a Down bandmates Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan. While Tankian’s views are strongly on the left, Dolmayan is firmly planted in the right, when it comes to American politics, in particular. Tankian supported Bernie Sanders during the presidential primaries, and repeatedly voiced his displeasure with the Trump administration. At one point during the height of the 2020 protests, the singer even called for the end of the Trump regime. And right before Trump’s presidency ended, Tankian declared, “I’ve never seen a president suck so much,” following a U.S. agreement with Turkey that appeared to minimize Armenia’s cultural heritage. Dolmayan, on the other hand, took to his Instagram account to label Democrats...
Regional Justice Center Break Down New Album Crime and Punishment Track by Track: Stream
In our Track by Track feature, artists guide listeners through each track on their latest release. Here, Regional Justice Center singer Ian Shelton pulls back the curtain on the band’s new album Crime and Punishment. Hardcore act Regional Justice Center have unleashed their new album, Crime and Punishment, out now via Closed Casket Activities. The LP clocks in at a blistering 13 minutes but leaves an impression that lasts far longer. The album shares its name with the legendary novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky and tackles similarly weighty themes of postmodern existence. As RJC vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ian Shelton explains in the remarks below, many real-life events inspired the passionate outbursts of anger and disillusionment heard throughout Crime and Punishment. Shelton previously ...
Gene Simmons on His New G² Gibson Collection, Restarting KISS’ Final Tour, and More
KISS singer-bassist Gene Simmons is not only a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician, but a merchandizing master. His band set the template for rock branding, and now he’s combining his knowledge of music and merch with a new line of Gibson guitars and basses, dubbed G² (pronounced “G-squared”). The G² collection sees Simmons partnering with Gibson on a new line of right-handed and left-handed guitars and basses, spanning across the company’s owned and operated brands Gibson, Epiphone, and Kramer. The partnership will launch with the G² Thunderbird bass, which Simmons debuted during KISS’ massive New Year’s Eve livestream show in Dubai. Also on tap are Flying V basses and guitars, among other instruments. We had the opportunity to speak with Simmons about the collection, the genesis of the...
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...
