Progressive Metal
Liturgy Share Choral Piece “Angel of Sovereignty” Ahead of Upcoming Double Album: Stream
Liturgy have shared the choral piece “Angel of Sovereignty” ahead of their upcoming double album 93696, out March 24th. Outwardly, a two-minute song that’s almost exclusively the sound of a children’s choir seems like a bizarre choice for a single. But Liturgy have been known to throw a curveball, and the track epitomizes the project’s uncompromising nature. There are no traditional rock instruments; nor is there anything remotely metal about the piece. However, the same compositional complexities that run through Liturgy’s “heavier” offerings, if you will, are still at work here. The arrangement of the vocal melodies is unconventional and beguiling — a test for listeners both in its choir-only format and composition. Advertisement Related Video As a teaser for 93696, the track has effecti...
The Strokes’ Fab Moretti and Tool’s Danny Carey to Sit in with Seth Meyers’ 8G Band
Late Night with Seth Meyers has booked a couple of high-profile drummers to sit in with the 8G Band this month. The Strokes’ Fab Moretti and Tool’s Danny Carey will bring their talents to the nighttime NBC talk show for one week each. Fans can catch Moretti starting tonight (January 9th) and running through Thursday (January 12th). The Strokes’ stickman previously filled the 8G Band drum seat for a week in 2016. Carey will jump behind the kit on January 23rd and stick around through January 26th. Like Moretti, the Tool drummer also previously performed with the 8G band in 2016. Advertisement Related Video The Strokes have been working on a new album with legendary producer Rick Rubin. The forthcoming LP will be the follow-up to 2020’s The New Abnormal. As of now, the band has a handful of ...
Ghost’s Tobias Forge Promises “Good Change” and More Touring in 2023
A fresh year often brings change, and that appears to be the case with Swedish metallers Ghost. Frontman Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus IV) tells Metal Hammer that “good change” is ahead for the band before hitting the road on additional tours in support of their 2022 studio album, IMPERA. “We’re doing a lot of touring again,” Forge explained in the interview. “On previous album cycles, we’ve done four legs in America and two or three in Europe and repeated. We’re going to go into every territory next year, but there’s going to be one European tour, one American tour. We are going to do a little bit of everywhere.” He added, “There’ll be a little bit of something up in upper Asia, on the far end there – a very well-established country with a lot of pop cultural fascination, and the home o...
Mining Metal: Top 10 Underground Metal Albums of 2022
I sit here writing this intro essay crouched at a too-small desk, my fiance’s mother’s childhood desk, huddled beneath a blanket in my fiance’s childhood room placing the finishing touches on our list just before Christmas Eve. My body is currently scratched and busted up; I have a bad hematoma on my left arm from elbow to armpit, with deep scratches on that forearm while my left hip and right elbow feel jacked to hell. That is because last night, after bursting out of my apartment door to tell a neighbor to quiet down after they paced screaming at the top of their lungs for over two hours, I found myself locked out of my apartment with my 12-year old dog locked inside. So, I attempted what any grown man left on their own in such a situation would: I attempted to scale my apartment buildin...
9-Year-Old Girl Plays 15-Song Tool Medley on Guitar Gifted to Her by Adam Jones: Watch
Nine-year-old music protege Maya Neelakantan was gifted a signature Gibson Les Paul by Adam Jones and promptly put it to use, recording a 15-song Tool medley. Not unlike Nandi Bushell, Neelakantan has become a YouTube phenom thanks to her gifted guitar skills. You may remember her 15-minute playthrough of Tool’s “7empest” earlier this year — a feat so impressive, it apparently caught the attention of Adam Jones himself. A couple months ago, the Tool guitarist bequeathed one of his prized signature model Gibson Les Paul guitars to Neelakantan, who shared the surprise moment in a heartwarming unboxing video. The gift must have inspired the young virtuoso to learn even more Tool songs. Advertisement Earlier this week, Neelakantan uploaded the aforementioned 15-song Tool medley played with the...
Mining Metal: Critical Extravasation, Cryptae, Dream Unending, Elder, Fell Ruin, Feminizer, Spider God, and Tchornobog, and Abyssal
Mining Metal is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence contributing writers Langdon Hickman and Colin Dempsey. 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. Peter Griffin once asked, “Where are those good old-fashioned values on which we used to rely?” While he was talking about entertainment at large when he posed that question, stroking his inappropriately-shaped chin, it’s debatable if he’d ask heavy metal, the genre that holds onto its good old-fashioned values with a Mankind-Mandible-Claw-like grip, that same query. This is to say that metal is laden with refinement more than drastic innovation. Now, this is actually good in that metal has arguably ...
Mining Metal: Abduction, Daeva, Faceless Burial, Forlesen, God Alone, MAL, The Otolith, and SUMAC/Keiji Haino
Every month, I could write to you all about how the selection process for this column is hard. When you first sit down to do something like this, there’s a hunger to write about all the bands that really get your engines going, to finally get to make people outside of your circle hear the things you’ve rehearsed in your head to pitch all this music you love to others. But as the months (and now years) creep on, you start finding that, well, those bands keep putting out music and a lot of it has stayed pretty good, but now new bands have joined the pack, and oh that’s a new label, and I’ve never even heard of this scene before, and wow these classic bands came back and put out a really special release, and… So sometimes the choices are less based on pure quality as other paradigms. One of t...
Liturgy Announce New Double Album 93696, Release Title Track and Mini-LP: Stream
Liturgy have announced a new double album and shared the title track “93696.” The band also released a new stand-alone mini-LP, As the Blood of God Bursts the Veins of Time, that is available to stream now. Clocking in at 15 minutes, “93696” is another ambitious sonic leap for Liturgy. The genre-defying epic is structured into three movements that are crammed with musical flourishes. At any one point, you might hear tremelo-picked black metal riffs, a Melvins-y breakdown, or mind-boggling mathematical prog. The howls of guitarist/vocalist Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix (formerly Hunter Hunt-Hendrix) peek in and out of the fray. Hunt-Hendrix has been at the center of Liturgy since its inception, often joined by a revolving-door lineup of musicians who can achieve her complex musical vision. Here, the...
Ghost’s Tobias Forge Talks Arena Rock, Jack the Ripper, and the Band’s Next Album
Ghost are the rare band that formed in the past 15 years to graduate to arena headliners. In fact, the Swedish metal act is about to embark on its latest massive tour, playing North American arenas with support from Mastodon and Spiritbox. The outing kicks off Friday (August 26th) in San Diego, and runs through a September 23rd show in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. The new run follows up an early 2022 US tour that saw Ghost co-headlining with Volbeat, and playing their first shows since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the concert industry. Heavy Consequence caught up with Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus IV) to discuss the band’s return to the road, their latest album, IMPERA (released in March of this year), and whether the wheels are alrea...
Mastodon Unveil Sinister “More Than I Could Chew” Video Ahead of Tour with Ghost: Stream
Mastodon have unveiled the music video for “More Than I Could Chew,” the latest single from 2021’s Hushed and Grim. The acclaimed metal band’s new video comes ahead of their high-profile North American tour with Ghost and Spiritbox. The outing kicks off August 26th in San Diego and run through September 21st in Peoria, Illinois, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. Directed by Zev Deans, the video is inspired by vintage psychedelic horror and is cast in hazy oranges and reds. The members of Mastodon appear as distorted images, cut amongst a vivid retelling of The Garden of Eden. Advertisement Related Video Lisa Saeboe assumes the role of Eve, while Brenden McGowan plays the tempter Lucifer. In contrast with Hellacious hues of red covering the band members, the cutaways to the Garden ar...
Spiritbox Surprise Release New Three-Song Collection, Including Video for “Rotoscope”: Stream
Spiritbox have surprise-released a new three-song collection titled Rotoscope, while unveiling the music video for the title track. You can stream all three tracks now. The title cut sees Spiritbox embracing a more industrial metal sound. The pulsing beats and crunchy, syncopated riffs have a danceable quality, with frontwoman Courtney LaPlante going full melodic-pop on the vocals. But the clean singing dissipates on the chorus — a nu-metal explosion that’s wholly unexpected. The Max Moore-directed video showcases the intensity of LaPlante’s performance on the track. The release also includes two additional tracks, “Sew Me Up” and “Hysteria.” The former is a mid-tempo riffer that recalls Diamond Eyes-era Deftones with its balance of pop-like songcraft, melody, and harshness. Advertise...
9-Year-Old Girl Masters Tool’s Complex 15-Minute Song “7empest” on Guitar: Watch
Tool’s complex 15-minute opus “7empest” is a difficult cover for anyone to attempt. Don’t tell that to 9-year-old guitar shredder Maya Neelakantan. In the YouTube clip, Neelakantan puts on a Nandi Bushell-esque display of talent as she expertly darts around the fretboard. Adam Jones wrote some deft guitar parts for the Fear Inoculum track, and it appears he has a worthy understudy in Neelakantan, if ever needed. She even emulates his wah pedal footwork. As she explains in the introduction to the video, Maya was inspired to play her “most favorite song” after receiving a brand new Gibson Les Paul guitar for her ninth birthday last month. Of note, Jones famously plays a Les Paul and even has his own line of signature models with Gibson. Advertisement Related Video “This is my most favorite s...
