Entertainment

RATING: 8/10 Death metal can seem a crowded marketplace at times, but bands as distinctive as COGNIZANCE generally tend to rise to the top. Ultimately, the genre has become an intermittent battle between the instinctively creative and the lazily generic, and it’s albums like “Upheaval” that are doing much of the hard work to ensure that death metal’s more adventurous tendencies are continually exploited. COGNIZANCE are a straightforward technical death metal band at heart, as showcased on their utterly ripping debut album “Malignant Dominion”, released two years ago, but it’s the subtle details that separate their music from the mediocre majority. This is an album of punishing grooves, virtuoso syncopation and moments of outright, old-school unplea...

“Nothing To Lose – A Stephen Pearcy Rockumentary” is available now on ASY TV on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Firestick or at ASYTV.com. Follow RATT singer Stephen Pearcy‘s story from his childhood home in San Diego to the world-famous Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, eventually finding platinum success and playing to sold-out arenas around the world. Check out three separate “sneak peek” clips from “Nothing To Lose – A Stephen Pearcy Rockumentary” — totaling just under 45 minutes — below. This past June, Pearcy spoke to Vintage Rock Pod about his upcoming follow-up to 2018’s “View To A Thrill” solo album. He said: “So much time has passed since we started writing, Erik [Ferentinos] and I — my guitar player and co-writer gu...

According to Billboard, Funko and the Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) have partnered to release a collection of Digital Pop! NFTs of IRON MAIDEN‘s mascot, Eddie. The first musical artist who is receiving the company’s Digital Pop! treatment, MAIDEN‘s mascot will be available in 44 different versions as digital “Pops!” beginning September 30. “We are huge IRON MAIDEN fans here at Funko and couldn’t be more excited to have our inaugural music Digital Pop! NFT be music icon Eddie,” Funko CEO Brian Mariotti said. “IRON MAIDEN and Funko fans alike appreciate creative genius in music and pop culture. Now, they can celebrate both in digital form.” The Eddie NFTs will be available in packs containing five digital “Pops!” and 15...

During the latest installment of his YouTube livestream, Ted Nugent played a snippet of his new song “Feedback Grindfire” over his mobile phone. The track, which can be heard below, will appear on Nugent‘s recently completed new studio album called “Detroit Muscle”. The follow-up to 2018’s “The Music Made Me Do It” was recorded with Ted‘s current band, which includes bassist Greg Smith and drummer Jason Hartless. Other songtitles set to appear on the 10-track disc include “American Campfire”, “Come And Take It”, “Born In The Motor City”, “Just Leave Me Alone”, “Driving Blind”, “Alaska”, “Leave The Lights On” and “Winter Spring Summer Fall”. &...

Students at X University in Toronto — formerly known as Ryerson University before a recent name change — will soon be schooled in the ways of Drake and The Weeknd. Taught by journalist and scholar Dalton Higgins, the new course is called “Deconstructing Drake and The Weeknd” and will begin next semester in early 2022. Higgins, who serves as a music professor-in-residence at the university, detailed his decision to create the course after bearing witness to an increased focus on hip-hop pedagogy at academic institutions across the United States. “On American college campuses, there are easily more than 300 hip-hop courses being taught about artists like JAY-Z, Outkast, Beyoncé (there are a lot of Beyoncé courses),” Higgins told Now Toronto. “Many Ivy League universities including Harva...

Vic Mensa has dropped a new single called “The Taste,” paired with an official visual in the style of a home video. The track comes after the rapper’s last EP, I Tape, which dropped in March, as the second release of his ongoing album trilogy. Though Mensa has delivered the song on the first official day of autumn, it serves as a sentimental ode to his hometown of Chicago during the summertime. In upbeat bars laid over a guitar-heavy background, the rapper shares an appreciation for his city tinged with a warm sense of nostalgia. The accompanying video follows the rapper and his significant other as they explore the city, riding a carousel together and goofing off in the aisle of a pharmacy. “Girl you sweeter than a Baba’s lemonade,” Mensa raps, making reference to the iconic Illinois “ste...