Heavy Music News
Guns N’ Roses Launch “Not in This Lifetime Selects” Concert Streaming Series: Watch
Having just postponed their summer North American tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Guns N’ Roses are offering an alternative “live experience” for fans. The band has launched a new streaming series, dubbed “Not in This Lifetime Selects”, showing pro-shot footage from their mega-successful tour. The “Not in This Lifetime Tour” kicked off in 2016, with Slash and Duff McKagan rejoining Axl Rose in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band. Over a four-year period, the extensive trek has earned $563 million, making it one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. The streaming series starts Thursday (May 21st) with select highlights from the band’s October 29th, 2019 show at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. That gig saw GN’R play 25 songs, including seven from their iconic d...
DevilDriver Announce New Double Album, Unleash Single “Keep Away From Me”: Stream
DevilDriver have announced the release of a new album, Dealing With Demons I, due out this fall. The LP will be the first of a two-part double album, with the second one to follow at a later date. In advance of the release, the band has unveiled the single, “Keep Away From Me”. Aptly titled for the current times, “Keep Away from Me” has an anthemic quality as people social distance during the coronavirus pandemic. Serving as the album opener, the song touts a groove-laden, mathematic technicality and a passionate vocal delivery from frontman Dez Fafara. The video is rooted in the pandemic as well, featuring news footage with phrases like “censoring freedoms of speech” and “truth missing” flashing across the screen, a la The X-Files intro sequence. It’s an ominous way to begin the doub...
Death Angel Drummer Says He Met Satan and Morphed Into Jabba the Hutt-Like Monster During COVID-19 Coma
In a new interview, Death Angel drummer Will Carroll likened his recent COVID-19 coma to a trip through hell itself. Carroll was in a 12-day coma after contracting coronavirus during a European tour in March, an outing that led to numerous infections among the bill’s three Bay Area thrash bands — Death Angel, Testament, and Exodus — and their crew. But Carroll’s battle became especially dire, with doctors unsure if he would survive. The drummer told the San Francisco Chronicle that the experience felt like returning from hell, with “dreams of visiting the afterlife” where Satan, who appeared as a woman to Carroll, “punished him for the deadly sin of sloth, morphing him into a Jabba the Hutt-like-monster who vomited blood until he had a heart attack.” “I woke up on the hospital bed wi...
Stabbing Westward Announce New Album Wasteland, First Full-Length Since 2001
Stabbing Westward have inked a new record deal and will release a new album titled Wasteland, the industrial rock act’s first full-length LP in nearly 20 years. The news follows the early 2020 release of the band’s comeback EP, Dead & Gone. So far, there’s no release date or tracklist, but Stabbing Westward plan to unveil the album and at least one single in 2020. They’ve signed a recording deal with COP International, and have welcomed back producer John Fryer (Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode), who helmed Stabbing Westward’s early albums Ungod and Wither Blister Burn & Peel. “It’s grand to be working with Stabbing Westward again,” said Fryer in a press release. “The first two albums we made together were some of my finest work as a producer.” Stabbing Westward frontman Christopher H...
Nickelback Cancel North American Tour Due to COVID-19
Not even Nickelback is safe from COVID-19: the Canadian rockers have pulled the plug on their All the Right Reasons 15th anniversary tour due to concerns over the pandemic. The tour was scheduled to kick off in mid-June, with direct support from Stone Temple Pilots, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, and Switchfoot. In announcing the tour’s cancelation, Nickelback wrote, “The ability to make music, tour and share memorable experiences with everyone across the world is all that we could have ever possibly imagined and hoped for throughout our career.” “Over the past few months we have been in constant communication with our team, tour industry professionals, medical professionals and everyone that could help guide us collaboratively on a safe path forward,” the band continued. “The heal...
Guns N’ Roses Postpone North American Tour Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Guns N’ Roses have officially postponed their summer North American tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The outing, which was set to feature support from The Smashing Pumpkins on select dates, will be rescheduled. The tour was slated to run from a July 4th gig at Milwaukee’s Summerfest through an August 26th show in Missoula, Montana. The Pumpkins would have opened a handful of shows from July 8th through July 18th. The news comes roughly a week after GN’R called off their European tour, which was set to kick off today (May 20th). A full statement regarding the North American postponement reads as follows: “GN’R Fam, some news: the North American tour is being rescheduled out of an abundance of caution. We will share the updated schedule as soon as the dates are finalized & all tickets ...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Maria Brink of In This Moment
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 Maria Brink of In This Moment. In This Moment reinvent themselves from album to album, so it’s no surprise that the band’s latest record, Mother, has a fresh style and feel. Their previous LP, 2017’s Ritual, was a concept album of sorts, centering around the Salem Witch Trials. Mother is a deeply personal and serious album lyrically, with solid rock riffing, experimental electronics, and singer Maria Brink’s soulful vocals. Mother was released in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the band choosing not to postpone ...
Sammy Hagar Thinks Van Halen Aren’t “Finished”, Has Heard Eddie Van Halen’s Health Has Improved
Last year, singer David Lee Roth declared, “I think Van Halen is finished,” when discussing the status of the legendary rock act. However, in a new interview, the band’s former singer Sammy Hagar insists, “Van Halen will never be finished,” while also adding that he’s heard guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s health has improved. While Van Halen have been inactive for the past few years, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band has made a number of headlines. First it was reported and later confirmed that Van Halen had reached out to former bassist Michael Anthony about bringing him back to the band for a new tour. Then, in September, Roth made his comment about Van Halen being “finished.” A month later, a report surfaced that Eddie was diagnosed with throat cancer, and had been undergoing treatments...
Ministry Reschedule US Summer Tour for Spring 2021 Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Ministry have postponed their summer “Industrial Strength Tour” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have already rescheduled the shows for spring 2021. Original support acts KMFDM and Front Line Assembly will remain on the bill for the revised dates of the monthlong U.S. outing. The tour, in which Ministry still plan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1989 album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, will now kick off March 31st in Seattle and run through a May 1st show in San Francisco. The trek hits all the same cities and venues that were planned for this summer, and also adds an additional April 3rd date in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tickets for the summer tour, which would have launched on July 1st, will be honored for the rescheduled dates. Exceptions are the Dallas show, for which ...
Deftones Postpone Summer Tour with Gojira and Poppy Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Fans holding out hope that Deftones might still tour North America in 2020 will have to wait until next year to see the alt-metal veterans. The band has officially postponed its summer tour with Gojira and Poppy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but plans to announce rescheduled dates for 2021. The news of the postponement comes as no surprise, as singer Chino Moreno recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that “it’s not looking like we’re going to be able to get out there this summer.” In that same interview, Moreno revealed that Deftones had originally planned to deliver a new album to their fans this summer, but now the release date is “something that we’re going to have to figure out.” The tour was slated to run from July 27th in Portland, Oregon, through September 5th in Denver, Colorado. T...
Dee Snider Announces Live Release, Unveils New Song “Prove Me Wrong”: Stream
Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider will release a new live album and home video, For the Love of Metal Live, on July 31st. The package also includes one studio recording, “Prove Me Wrong”, which Snider is sharing ahead of the album’s release. The track is a fun sing-along stomper that is fairly thrashy for Snider. Like with Twisted Sister’s classics “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock”, Snider takes a stance against his naysayers and uses the chorus to emphasize his point. “‘Prove Me Wrong’ are words that I’ve thought in my head since the day I began rocking,” Snider reflected in a press release. “I had a monster chip on my shoulder and dared the world to knock it off… nobody ever could. At this point in my career I thought I’d let everybody in on what has kept be going all these man...
Cherie Currie on Blvds of Splendor, Working with Billy Corgan, and the Elusive Runaways Reunion
Cherie Currie is a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, having fronted the groundbreaking band The Runaways in the ’70s. Over the past 40-plus years, she has had a fascinating career that has run the gamut from musician to actor to author to professional chainsaw-carving sculptor. In April, Currie released her latest solo album, Blvds of Splendor, for the first time digitally, following a limited vinyl run last year. The album, which in large part is a collaboration with former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, features guest appearances by such rock luminaries as Slash, Duff McKagan, and Billy Corgan. The expanded digital LP also sees Currie offering a new take on The Runaways’ “Queens of Noise” with The Distillers’ Brody Dalle, Juliette Lewis, and The Veronicas. We recently caught up with Cherie by ph...
