Heavy Music News
Kid Rock’s Nashville Bar Has Beer Permit Suspended for Violating Pandemic Rules
Earlier this year, Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk and Steakhouse was one of a handful of Nashville establishments that refused to close despite Mayor’s orders as the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the city. Now, the very same tavern has had its beer permit suspended for violating social distancing guidelines upon re-opening. According to the Tennessean, Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk and Steakhouse, along with Broadway Brewhouse and Nudie’s Honky Tonk, were spotted serving patrons alcohol at their bars this past weekend. As part of Phase 2 of Nashville’s re-opening plan, a public health emergency plan bans people from sitting at bars. “They were in violation of two points of the order that states bar areas must remain closed to the public,” inspector Melvin Brown explained. “No interaction with the pub...
20 Years Ago, Deftones Unleash Their Magnum Opus White Pony
Though it wasn’t so apparent on their 1995 debut album Adrenaline, Deftones screeched onto the scene with an instinct towards perpetual expansion that was practically encoded in the band’s creative DNA. At first, the Deftones brand was basically synonymous with the nu metal movement the Sacramento, California, outfit seemed to fit so well. By 1997’s sophomore effort Around the Fur, it was clear that Deftones were straining against the stylistic confines they’d initially seemed comfortable working within. The hip-hop, groove metal, and thrashy influences were still there, but the music was now undergirded by an emphasis on dynamics, mood, and atmosphere. But when the band released its third album, White Pony, six months into the new millennium (June 20th, 2000), Deftones effectively rendere...
20 Reasons We Still Love Deftones’ White Pony
Gimme a Reason takes classic albums celebrating major anniversaries and breaks down song by song the reasons we still love them so many years later. This week, we celebrate 20 years of Deftones’ White Pony. In 2000, nu metal ruled the airwaves. It’s then-novel mixture of alternative rock choruses, heavy metal riffs tuned lower than ever before, and hip-hop verses and rhythms had been on a half-decade growth streak. It’s juggernaut acts, like Korn and Limp Bizkit, were ubiquitous. One of the genre’s most forward-thinking devotees, a cadre of Sacramento upstarts known as Deftones seemed hot on their tails, thanks to the success of the singles “My Own Summer (Shove It)” and “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” from their 1997 album Around the Fur. However, rather than be keep following the p...
GWAR’s Blothar: Oderus Urungus Wouldn’t Have Wanted His Statue Next to a “Row of Losers”
Over the past week or so, a petition to replace a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, with one of late GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus has garnered more than 55,000 signatures. While it would be cool for scumdogs everywhere to see their fallen leader honored, current GWAR singer Blothar the Berserker tells us that Oderus wouldn’t want a statue of himself alongside a “row of losers.” As controversial statues continue to get toppled amid worldwide protests, the petition calls Robert E. Lee a “failed war general that supported a racist cause” while touting Oderus as a “great local leader.” While Oderus may have come from the planet Scumdogia and settled in Antarctica, his alter ego, Dave Brockie (who passed away in 2014), called Richmond his home. Blothar beamed in...
Heavy Culture: Musicians Recount Early Experiences of Racism
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. Racism is real. Colorism is real. Implicit biases are real. Injustice is real. It is rooted in ignorance. As a Caribbean woman, the first time I experienced racism was a vivid memory in the first grade. A white, female classmate, the same age as me — about 6 or 7 years old — told me I was dirty, ugly, and that I did not deserve the new stationery my mom bought for me. Even as a child, I felt that this classmate had disdain for me...
Rage Against the Machine See 62% Increase in Streams Amid Protests
Amidst this tumultuous period of social unrest, Rage Against the Machine’s music is back front and center. Beginning last week, the hard rock outfit returned to the charts, with their 1992 self-titled debut re-appearing on the Billboard 200, and their two other original LPs cracking the top 30 on Apple Music. That surge on the charts has continued over the last seven days, as Billboard reports. Rage Against Machine’s music was streamed over 11 million times in the last week, a 62% increase. The band’s 1992 single “Killing in the Name” accounts for 2.4 million of those streams alone, which places the song at No. 3 on Hard Rock Digital Songs Chart and No. 21 on the Hard Rock Streaming Songs Chart. “Bulls on Parade”, meanwhile, has been streamed 1.4 million times in the last week. Billboard a...
Lamb of God Unveil Self-Titled New Album: Stream
Lamb of God are back with their first new studio album in five years, a self-titled effort filled with poignant tracks that focus on a number of sociopolitical issues. The veteran Virginia metallers’ new effort was lauded as the band’s “strongest album to date” in our review of the LP. Frontman Randy Blythe tackles topics such as mass shootings (“Reality Bath”), immigration (“New Colossal Hate”), the Standing Rock pipeline protest (“Routes”), the Trump administration (“Checkmate”), and more throughout the album. As Blythe told us in a video interview earlier this year, “The best punk rock and hardcore and metal … has always come out of tumultuous times. Right now seems to be an extremely tumultuous time … and it’s not just Trump, it’s not just America — [world leaders in] many different co...
Black Sabbath Selling Black Lives Matter T-Shirt in Style of Band’s Classic Logo
Black Sabbath are showing support for Black Lives Matter by selling a t-shirt with the activist movement’s name spelled out in the style of the iconic metal band’s logo. All net proceeds from the sale of the shirts will be donated to support Black Lives Matter. The godfathers of heavy metal played their last show in 2017, but they continue to have legions of fans throughout the world. The reaction to the t-shirt on the band’s Facebook page has been mostly positive, with some dissenters renouncing their fandom over its political nature. Those naysayers have been called out by supportive fans, who cite the band’s political anthems like “War Pigs” and “Wicked World” as examples of the heavy metal legends taking a stance on social issues in the past. The shirt plays off the purple band logo ma...
System of a Down’s Serj Tankian: If You Love Our Music and Trump, “You’re a Hypocrite”
The recent political back and forth between System of a Down bandmates Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan is as jarring as some of the band’s most popular songs. While neither band member is directly responding to the other, they’ve each been using social media to share views from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Tankian leans far left, while the right-wing Dolmayan seems like he’s auditioning for a show on Fox News. On Monday, Dolmayan called the Democratic Party the “true bigots” and wished Donald Trump good luck in the November election. Now, the focus shifts back to Tankian, who is digging up old System of a Down lyrics to help illustrate his disdain for Trump. In a new Instagram post, Tankian shared the lyrics to the early System of a Down song “Temper”, which appeared on the band...
Alekhine’s Gun Premiere New Song “21”: Stream
Brooklyn band Alekhine’s Gun, fronted by Jessica Pimentel, have been working on the follow-up to 2014’s …And Things Will Fall EP. The group is now premiering its new single, “21”, exclusively via Heavy Consequence. The track picks up where the band left off in 2014. Building from an angular riff, the song is blast of blackened death metal, with improved production over past Alekhine’s Gun releases. The six-year hiatus paid dividends for the band, which sounds as strong as ever on “21”. Pimentel, best known for her role as Maria Ruiz during all seven seasons of Orange Is the New Black, offered some conceptual background on the song’s lyrical themes. Like on prior records, Pimentel mines the spiritual and philosophical for her weighty, literary subject matter. She says of the track: “Inspire...
DMC Joins Anthrax, Volbeat, Suicidal Tendencies Members for Run-DMC Quarantine Medley: Watch
Rapper Darryl “DMC” McDaniels celebrated his legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC with a quarantine performance featuring members of Anthrax, Volbeat, and Suicidal Tendencies. Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante has arranged a number of socially distant performances during the pandemic. For this one, he was joined by his former Anthrax bandmate and current Volbeat guitarist Rob Caggiano and Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Diaz, as they back McDaniels on a medley of Run-DMC classics. “I always wanted to do a medley of Run-DMC songs, so back in March I decided to put an arrangement together and asked these amazing people to be a part of it,” explained Benante in the YouTube description. “How can you do a Run-DMC medley without the King of Rock — Darryl McDaniels DMC.” The drummer added, “I have been a...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Calls Democrats the “True Bigots” While Wishing Trump a Happy Birthday
Despite being antithetical to the sociopolitical ideals that have long been presented in his band’s music, System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan keeps doubling and tripling down on some far-right viewpoints. Now, he has gone so far as to call Democrats the “true bigots” in his latest Instagram rant. At this point, it may seem like Dolmayan is just trying to get a rise out of the band’s fans, but he has made it clear that he stands on the opposite end of the political spectrum than his bandmates, especially singer Serj Tankian. Already the two have expressed very different views about the ongoing protests, with Dolmayan hailing President Trump as the “greatest friend to minorities” and Tankian calling for the Trump regime to resign. Last week, Dolmayan followed up his initial comments by d...
