music blog
Watch SHADOWS FALL Reunite For First Concert In Six Years
SHADOWS FALL, the Massachusetts metal band which was at the forefront of the New Wave of American Metal scene that dominated the ’00s, reunited to play a one-off show last night (Saturday, December 18) at The Palladium in Worcester in their native Massachusetts. Also appearing on the bill were UNEARTH, DARKEST HOUR, WITHIN THE RUINS, SWORN ENEMY and CARNIVORA. Fan-filmed video of SHADOWS FALL‘s performance is available below. A few days before the concert, SHADOWS FALL singer Brian Fair told Heavy New York about the preparations for the gig: “Jon [Donais, guitar] and Jason [Bittner, drums] have been full-on touring full time with two legendary and super-professional bands in ANTHRAX and OVERKILL, so those dudes are at the top of their game in every way. I’ve been pl...
LZZY HALE Says Making New HALESTORM Album Was ‘Most Difficult, Maddening And Rewarding Process Yet’
HALESTORM has finished mastering its new album for an early 2022 release. The follow-up to 2018’s “Vicious” was once again produced by Nick Raskulinecz who first helmed HALESTORM‘s 2017 effort “ReAniMate 3.0: The CoVeRs eP” and was previously described by singer Lzzy Hale as the group’s “fifth member.” On Saturday (December 18), Lzzy shared a photo of her listening to the new HALESTORM album after it was mixed and mastered in its entirety the previous night. She added in an accompanying caption: “I’m so grateful to my entire team for their incredible hard work, passion and patience. I’m also grateful for my bandmates that stepped up to make this album magic. I can’t wait to unleash this beast into the world. Holy...
MACHINE HEAD’s MATT ALSTON Shares ‘Imperium’ Drum Playthrough Video
Drum-cam footage of MACHINE HEAD drummer Matt Alston playing the song “Imperium” at his studio can be seen below. He wrote in a message accompanying the YouTube release of the video: “After a long time coming…I’m finally able to start recording play-throughs in my studio!! Songs are played/recorded in ONE continuous take. That means there are: NO Cuts/Drop-ins; NO Replacements/Samples (all drum audio is LIVE from the Drum Mics); Only basic EQ/Compression/Reverbs used! If it’s not ‘perfect’….that’s just real life!” The British-born Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT) and Polish guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) joined MACHINE HEAD in time for the 25th-anniversary tour for the band’s classic debut,...
DE LA TIERRA Feat. SEPULTURA’s ANDREAS KISSER: Third Album Recording Sessions Underway
Latin American metal supergroup DE LA TIERRA has entered Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, Florida to record its third album for a tentative early 2022 release. Photos and video footage from the recording sessions can be found below. DE LA TIERRA features Brazilian guitarist Andreas Kisser (SEPULTURA), Argentine singer/guitarist Andres Gimenez (A.N.I.M.A.L.), Cuban/Mexican drummer Alex Gonzalez (MANÁ) and Puerto Rican bassist Harold Hopkins (PUYA). DE LA TIERRA‘s last release was a standalone song called “Distintos” which came out in October 2020. At the time, Gonzalez described the track to “In The Trenches With Ryan Roxie” as an “amazing song that, I think, fits perfectly with the times and what’s going on right now.” Gonzalez also talke...
Drakeo the Ruler Fatally Stabbed at Once Upon a Time in L.A. Festival
Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed backstage at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. Festival in Los Angeles on Saturday night. The 28-year-old rapper was stabbed with a knife during an altercation that took place around 8:30 p.m. local time, according to TMZ. He was taken to an area hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Following the incident, the remainder of Once Upon a Time in L.A. was canceled, including headlining sets from 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg. “There was an altercation in the roadway backstage. Out of respect for those involved and in coordination with local authorities, artists and organizers decided not to move forward with remaining sets so the festival was ended an hour early,” organizers said in a statement. Advertisement Related Video Drakeo had been scheduled to per...
The SNL Christmas Episode That Wasn’t
If you want proof of how off-guard New York City was for its biggest COVID surge in months, look no further than Saturday Night Live. Somehow the show had both assembled three strong home-produced pandemic episodes back in Spring 2020, and in an even more impressive/foolhardy feat, went back on the air the following fall. From September 2020 through last week, SNL hadn’t missed a planned episode or even retreated back to filmed-at-home pieces. This has arguably helped further cement the show’s cultural-event status that rankles its harshest critics. Virtually everything about the television landscape has changed over the past five years, but Saturday Night Live still does twentysomething live episodes per season that a fair number of people actually watch as they air. That was, until this ...
Drakeo the Ruler Dies at 28, Stabbed at Los Angeles Festival
Drakeo the Ruler has died at the age of 28, TMZ and Rolling Stone report. A representative for the Los Angeles rapper also confirmed the news to Pitchfork. According to TMZ, Drakeo was stabbed during an altercation that broke out backstage during Once Upon a Time festival last night (December 18), where he was scheduled to perform. He was reportedly rushed to the hospital following the incident. Pitchfork has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department, and Once Upon a Time festival for further information and comment. Shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern, Once Upon a Time posted a statement to Twitter stating that the festival would be ending early. The post did not reference the altercation or Drakeo the Ruler. Reports from The Los Angeles Times and local st...
Billie Eilish’s Biggest Billboard Hits: ‘Bad Guy,’ ‘Everything I Wanted’ & More
Happier-than-ever birthday, Billie Eilish! As the singer-songwriter turns 20 Dec. 18, Billboard celebrates by recapping her biggest chart hits and accomplishments. Eilish has tallied 30 entries on the Billboard Hot 100, from her first, “Lovely,” with Khalid, on the chart dated June 9, 2018, through the latest list, dated Dec. 18. She boasts five top 10s, including the No. 1 “Bad Guy,” which holds the distinction of dethroning the longest-leading hit in the chart’s history, Lil Nas X’s 19-week No. 1 “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. On the Billboard 200 albums chart, Eilish has scored two No. 1s: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, for three weeks in 2019, and Happier Than Ever, for three weeks beginning this August. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Eilish also hol...
Jay Johnston Fired From Bob’s Burgers After Attending January 6th Capitol Riot: Report
While we’ve yet to really see adequate reparations for the MAGA crowd who instigated the January 6th riot at the US Capitol, actor Jay Johnston is facing some consequences. The comedian, known for his roles in films like Anchorman and TV shows like Arrested Development, has reportedly been booted from his role on Fox’s beloved adult animated series Bob’s Burgers after internet sleuths identified him in FBI footage of the attempted coup early this year. Since its first season, Johnston had voiced the recurring Bob’s Burgers character Jimmy Pesto Sr., the owner of Jimmy Pesto’s Pizzeria who often butts heads with Bob and the Belcher family. As The Daily Beast points out, Johnston made his last Bob’s Burgers appearance in the Season 11 episode “The Bridge Over Trouble...
Tom Holland Says Sex Scenes Aren’t “Appropriate for the Spider-Man Franchise”
As much as the internet has been swooning over the newly-public romantic relationship between Tom Holland and Zendaya, don’t except to see them consummate their relationship on-screen: Holland, who stars as Peter Parker opposite Zendaya’s MJ in Spider-Man: No Way Home, told Yahoo Entertainment that he doesn’t see any need for sex scenes in the latest Spider-Man film. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Spider-Man franchise,” Holland said. “We are still very much young kids. Should there be a future for this character maybe one day we will explore that. But at the moment, this is a film about celebrating friendships and young love.” Despite Eternals having broken the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s sex-scene barrier earlier this fall, Zendaya evidently agrees, adding that “Pe...
LCD Soundsystem to Continue Brooklyn Residency Amid Omicron Surge
In just a few short days, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has threatened to thwart any indoor plans for the winter months — especially in New York, where cases just cracked a new single-day record. But for LCD Soundsystem, who are in the midst of their 20-night residency at Brooklyn Steel, the show must go on: The band released a statement on social media this week explaining their decision to not cancel their upcoming shows. “For starters, we’ve all known that there are risks playing these shows,” James Murphy and company wrote. “When we planned them, we thought we’d be in better shape, COVID wise, by now, but it didn’t pan out… We know that we and our team (and the team at Brooklyn Steel), in many ways, face the most risk of getting rick, just by virtue of being at every one of our 20 sh...
METALLICA Plays Career-Spanning Set At First 40th-Anniversary Show At San Francisco’s Chase Center (Video)
METALLICA played the first of two shows celebrating its 40th anniversary last night (Friday, December 17) at San Francisco, California’s Chase Center. While in-person tickets were available exclusively to members of the group’s Fifth Member fan club, METALLICA fans across the globe were able to view the performance live from home or on mobile via Amazon Music, Amazon Music‘s Twitch channel, and Prime Video (with or without Prime on-demand viewing membership). The show — along with tomorrow night’s (Sunday, December 19) gig at the same venue — will then be made available exclusively at The Coda Collection/Prime Video channel for subsequent viewing. As of a week ago, limited tickets for Friday night’s show were going for between $757 and $1,457 via Ticketmaster,...
