Heavy Music News
System of a Down’s Serj Tankian to President Trump: “Run Donny Run Into Your Bunker”
Members of System of a Down have posted strong reactions to the protests and rioting going on in response to the death of George Floyd. Singer Serj Tankian focuses his anger on President Trump, while drummer John Dolmayan is calling out celebrities for supporting looters and violent rioters. Multiple cities are experiencing daily protests, riots, and looting in reaction to Floyd’s death under custody of the Minneapolis police officers, and reports have come out that President Trump took shelter in a White House bunker while violence erupted in Washington, D.C. Seeing those headlines, Tankian took to Instagram to ridicule the president and express his feelings on the protests: “Run Donny run into your bunker. You may be the first US President to do so out of fear of your own citizens. A rea...
10-Year-Old Girl Rocks Rage Against the Machine in Support of Black Lives Matter: Watch
The very talented Nandi Bushell has offered her support of Black Lives Matter and the fight against racism with a multi-instrumental cover of the Rage Against the Machine classic “Guerrilla Radio.” The 10-year-old musician rocked the drums, bass, and guitar for the performance. This is certainly not the first we’ve seen of Bushell. The UK pre-teen previously wowed us with a drum cover of Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows”, which received an endorsement from QOTSA themselves. And her YouTube channel features dozens of more impressive performances. Her Rage Against the Machine cover comes with a poignant message during these tumultuous times, with protests raging across America and the world following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. A description of the performance o...
Mötley Crüe’s Comeback Tour with Def Leppard Postponed Until 2021 Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard have postponed their co-headlining summer U.S. tour until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The “Stadium Tour” was meant to be a massive comeback for Mötley Crüe, who had seemingly played their last show ever at the end of 2015. The Crüe signed a legal agreement to never tour again, but blew it up this past November upon announcing their return. The legendary hard-rock act cited the success of the Netflix biopic The Dirt as one of the main reasons for their reunion. The tour would have kicked off June 18th in Jacksonville, Florida, and run through a September 5th gig in Los Angeles. Poison, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, and Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts were set to provide support. According to an announcement, the dates are currently being res...
Mining Metal: Ara, Cryptic Shift, Goden, Lascar, Mekong Delta, Oozing Wound, Patrons of the Rotting Gate, Xibalba
“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. This month’s mining metal veers away from the traditional and toward the esoteric. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many labels have postponed hotly awaited releases for months or indefinitely. Because of this, bands not beholden to (or resistant to) commercial scheduling take the lead — Chilean black metal and Irish progressive deathcore, both the passion projects of independent musicians, lead the pack here. Musicians with long histories on the fringes take center stage, such as German neoclassical thrashers...
Faith No More and Korn Co-Headlining US Tour Officially Canceled Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Faith No More and Korn have officially canceled their co-headlining U.S. tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The outing would have marked Faith No More’s first US tour in five years. The late-summer tour was scheduled to kick off August 7th in Denver, and run through a September 17th show in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Daron Malakian’s Scars on Broadway, Helmet, Spotlights, and ’68 were set to support various dates. The tour is being outright canceled, and will not be postponed or rescheduled. A statement from Faith No More’s Facebook reads, “The Faith No More & Korn Summer Tour will unfortunately no longer be taking place. It is with heavy hearts that we came to this decision out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our fans, crew, and fellow artists.” The statement conti...
Iron Maiden, KISS, and System of a Down Headline Virtual Download Festival
Iron Maiden and KISS (photos by Kevin RC Wilson) / System of a Down (photo by Raymond Ahner) Iron Maiden, KISS, and System of a Down will headline the virtual Download TV festival, which will stream on YouTube and social media June 12-14th. All three bands were set to headline this year’s Download Festival, a massive annual UK heavy music gathering that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual fest promises footage from prior Download appearances, socially distant performances, interviews, and exclusive content from the bands that were initially slated for this year’s lineup. The weekend schedule will be divided into day and evening programming. The day content “celebrates the spirit of Download Festival” and the evening will feature two to three hours of “tailor-made prog...
R.I.P. Bob Kulick, Lou Reed Guitarist and SpongeBob Songwriter Dies at 70
Bob Kulick, a veteran session guitarist known for his work with Lou Reed, Meat Loaf, and KISS, has died at the age of 70. News of Bob’s death was revealed by his older brother, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick. “I am heartbroken to have to share the news of the passing of my brother Bob Kulick,” Bruce wrote in a post to Facebook. “His love of music, and his talent as a musician and producer should always be celebrated. I know he is at peace now, with my parents, playing his guitar as loud as possible. Please respect the Kulick Family’s privacy during this very sad time.” Bob himself actually auditioned for KISS in 1972, but was beaten out for the job by Ace Frehley. Nevertheless, he was an active contributor to the band in an uncredited capacity, playing on albums including Alive II, Unm...
Behemoth Share New EP A Forest, Unveil Trailer for Nergal Documentary: Stream
Behemoth have just released their new EP, A Forest, which includes two different covers of The Cure’s song by the same name, as well as two new original tracks. Previously, Behemoth shared the studio version of “A Forest”, which puts an extreme-metal spin on the goth classic and features guest vocals from Shining’s Niklas Kvarforth. The EP also boasts a live version of the Cure song that was recorded at a December 2018 gig in Poland. Along with the EP’s release, Behemoth have unveiled a visualizer for the song “Evoe”, one of two previously unreleased original tracks on the EP that were recorded during the sessions for 2018’s I Loved You at Your Darkest album. In other news, a trailer has been revealed for an upcoming documentary about Behemoth frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski. The film, ...
Lamb of God Unleash New Song “Routes” Featuring Testament’s Chuck Billy: Stream
Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe and Testament’s Chuck Billy (photos by Antonio Marino Jr.) Lamb of God have released a fourth new song from their upcoming self-titled album. The latest single, “Routes”, features guest vocals from Testament singer Chuck Billy. The new song follows previously released tracks “Checkmate”, “Memento Mori”, and “New Colossal Hate”. Originally, the album was set to be released on May 8th, but was pushed back to June 19th due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Routes” was inspired by Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe’s time spent at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota during the #NoDAPL movement, which protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. “I went to Standing Rock because I had heard reports of violence committed on the peaceful protes...
Slipknot, Underoath, and Code Orange to Stream Full Concerts on Reimagined Knotfest Website
With concerts and festivals on hold due to the pandemic, Slipknot and their creative team have relaunched Knotfest.com as a content destination, including concert streams, original interview series, and more. While the site had been hosting weekly streams of past concerts by artists who had participated in previous Knotfest events, it has now been completely reimagined to offer a steady stream of news, interviews, performances, and new merch. In celebration, the Knotfest website is streaming full concerts by Slipknot, Underoath, and Code Orange beginning this Friday (May 29th) at 6:00 p.m. ET / 3:00 p.m. PT The three bands were set to perform on this year’s North American Knotfest Roadshow tour, which would have kicked off this Sunday (May 30th) had it not been canceled due to the COVID-19...
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford to Release Tell-All Autobiography Confess in September
Judas Priest Rob Halford, photo by Steven J. Messina Judas Priest singer Rob Halford will “expose every facet” of himself in an upcoming autobiography, titled Confess. A September 29th release date has just been announced for the book. The metal legend revealed that he was working on the book last year. In an initial press release, he promised he wouldn’t hold anything back. “Confess is a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to expose every facet of myself,” stated Halford. “Digging deep with nothing to hide and nothing to fear was in many ways exciting, fun, disturbing, terrifying and cathartic. I’ve held nothing back. It’s time for me to ‘confess.’” The book will span Halford’s entire life and career, including his decision to publicly come out as gay in 1998. Among the other top...
Charlie Benante on New Anthrax Album: “The First Thing I Wanna See Come Out Is a Vaccine”
Anthrax have a number of songs written for their next album, but drummer Charlie Benante wants to see a COVID-19 vaccine arrive before the legendary thrash-metal act releases a new LP. During an interview with Lou Brutus for HardDrive Radio, Benante offered an update on the follow-up to 2016’s For All Kings. “There is new music, there actually is,” said the drummer. “There’s about six, seven songs — and it’s really good.” When asked whether fans would get to hear some new music in the near future, Benante responded, “The first thing I wanna see come out is a [COVID-19] vaccine. Then we’re gonna put a record out.” Benante also revealed that Anthrax will not play any shows in 2020, and that their first gig back will be January 11th, 2021, at the rescheduled Knotfest Japan. “Other than that, ...
