Alternative Music
Huerco S.: Plonk
Brian Leeds has been wrestling with electronic music’s utilitarian aspects since he was barely out of his teens. He started his career as Huerco S. in 2011 with a series of 12″s that subverted house music’s rhapsodic abandon, buffing its surface until the dancefloor seemed to lie behind a pane of frosted glass. As he became recognized in dance music circles as an innovator of what was inelegantly called “outsider” house, he dipped in and out of club-centric styles until he abandoned them altogether on 2016’s For Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have). Despite its stature as one of the defining ambient albums of the past decade, many tracks on For Those of You cut to stark, disorienting silence mid-phrase, insistently reminding the listener that any blissful state is by...
Heavy Metal Community Reacts To Russia-Ukraine Crisis
David Coverdale (WHITESNAKE), David Draiman (DISTURBED), Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman (THE OFFSPRING), Michael Sweet (STRYPER) and Adam “Nergal” Darski (BEHEMOTH) are among the hard rock and heavy metal musicians around the world who have reacted to the escalating crisis in eastern Europe, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine. On Thursday (February 24), Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” in the east of the country. A short time later, explosions were reported in the outskirts of Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Mariupol, as well as the capital Kyiv. Putin made the announcement during a televised early morning speech, saying the action comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine, yet insisted Russia does...
Colossal Gods – Cobra The Impaler
RATING: 8/10 It may not be instantly obvious what a “grand electric skull” is, but by the end of the opening track on COBRA THE IMPALER‘s debut album, most discerning listeners will definitely want one. This Belgian mob have the perfect post-millennial metal sound: thunderous, melodic and proudly progressive, it bears a strong enough resemblance to modern benchmarks (MASTODON in particular) to grab the attention of the metalhead majority, but with a bold identity of its own that points to a bright and fascinating future. There is a strong whiff of mid-’90s, grunge-influenced metal lurking in these songs, and it adds to a diverse overall sound that marks COBRA THE IMPALER out as gentle eccentrics. With vocal harmonies that hit a smart midpoint between the haziness of...
GEOFF TATE To Perform QUEENSRŸCHE’s Entire ‘Promised Land’ Album At Belfast Concert
Geoff Tate will perform QUEENSRŸCHE‘s 1994 album “Promised Land” in its entirety at his August 28 concert at Limelight Belfast 2 in Belfast, Ireland. Tate‘s setlist will also include “a selection of his greatest hits from his legendary career,” according to an advertisement for the show. In a recent interview with the “Thunder Underground” podcast, Tate touched upon the possibility of performing “Promised Land” from front to back, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We did it when it first came out, but that was almost 30 years ago. I’d like to do that one [in its entirety], although it’s a bit of a dark album. I’m not sure that it would be a candidate for doing something like [that]. I might have...
Watch: JOURNEY Performs In Philadelphia During ‘Freedom’ 2022 U.S. Tour
JOURNEY played the second show of its U.S. “Freedom” tour with TOTO last night (Wednesday, February 23) at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below. JOURNEY‘s current touring lineup features bassist Todd Jensen, a veteran musician who has played for various artists, including the bands SEQUEL, HARDLINE and HARLOW, as well as David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Perry, Alice Cooper and Paul Rodgers. Also part of JOURNEY‘s current incarnation is returning drummer Deen Castronovo, who shared the drum duties in the band last year with Narada Michael Walden. Walden, bassist Randy Jackson and keyboardist/backing singer Jason Derlatka all joined JOURNEY in 2020 following the band’s acrimonious split w...
Sean Penn Is in Ukraine Filming a Documentary on the Russian Invasion
Sean Penn is in Ukraine filming a documentary about the Russian invasion, according to a press release from the Office of the President of Ukraine (via Newsweek). The American filmmaker first landed in Ukraine in November 2021 to make a movie about Russian aggression. After briefly retuning to the US, he was back in Ukraine’s capitol city of Kyviv on Thursday to attend a press conference. For the project, he has reportedly interviewed local journalists, military leaders, and Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. According to a statement from the Office of the President, “The director specially came to Kyiv to record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country. Sean Penn is among those who support ...
Denzel Curry Teams Up with slowthai for New Song “Zatoichi”: Stream
Denzel Curry has reunited with slowthai to unleash “Zatoichi,” the latest preview of Curry’s highly-anticipated album, Melt My Eyez See Your Future. Co-produced by Pro Era’s Powers Pleasant and Jonnywood, the track is named after the Japanese samurai movie character of the same name, who is the subject of the longest-running action series in modern Japanese media. A blind and skilled swordsman, his journeyman tale fits the story Curry has been telling with this new era. The drum and bass-inspired beat transitions into a climactic breakbeat for slowthai’s chorus: “Life is short like a dwarf, fuck the world, intercourse/ Life’s a bitch, no remorse, but God forbid, we get divorced.” Advertisement Related Video Meanwhile, Curry channels Zatoichi while rhyming about trying to find peace. “I’m Z...
Ukrainian Metal Band Jinjer Condemn Putin’s Decision to Start a War
Jinjer, a Ukrainian metal band which has achieved international success, have condemned Vladimir Putin’s decision to have Russian troops invade their “sovereign and independent” country. Coming off the release of their fourth album, Wallflowers, in August of last year, Jinjer are set to open the first leg of Slipknot’s “Knotfest Roadshow” US tour starting next month, as well as headline a number of off-dates from the outing (tickets here). While it is uncertain how the current unrest in the Ukraine will affect their tour plans, the band is focused on the bigger picture right now. In a new Facebook post, Jinjer reported that they are currently safe while also imploring for the war to come to a swift end. Their message reads as follows: “Dear all, as we write this text, for the moment, each ...
R.I.P. Sally Kellerman, M*A*S*H Star Dead at 84
Sally Kellerman, the veteran actress known for portraying U.S. Army Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s 1970 film M*A*S*H, has died at age 84, Deadline reports. She passed away at an assisted living facility in Woodland Hills, California from complications of dementia. Born in Long Beach, California, Kellerman grew up in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High School. Soon after, she studied acting at Los Angeles City College, where she performed in a stage production of Look Back in Anger alongside Jack Nicholson, Dean Stockwell, and Robert Blake. Kellerman is perhaps best known for her turn as Major Houlihan in M*A*S*H (the film, not the television series), though she also appeared in several other Altman films, Brewster McCloud, Welcome to LA, ...
BRUJERIA Announces Spring 2022 U.S. Tour
Extreme metallers BRUJERIA have announced their “Raza Odiada West America Tour 2022”. The 18-date Southwest trek will kick off on April 26 in Mesa, Arizona, and make stops in Albuquerque, Dallas, and Tucson before concluding on May 15 in Palmdale, California. Support on the tour will come from GOATWHORE and UNIDAD TRAUMA. Juan Brujo comments: “Regresando desmadre Post-Covid! Esto es Brujeria!” General admission tickets for the tour are now on sale. Confirmed dates for BRUJERIA‘s “Raza Odiada West America Tour 2022” with GOATWHORE and UNIDAD TRAUMA are as follows: Apr. 26 – Nile Theater – Mesa, AZ Apr. 27 – Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM Apr. 28 – Jake’s – Lubbock, TX Apr. 29 – Scout Bar – Houston, ...
MIKKEY DEE To Lead MOTÖRHEAD Tribute Concert In Sweden This July
On July 23, Mikkey Dee will take part in a special “tribute to MOTÖRHEAD” concert at Mellby Horsepower in Laholm, Sweden. This “unique” gig will feature the former MOTÖRHEAD and current SCORPIONS drummer and as-yet-undisclosed “friends” performing MOTÖRHEAD classics. For more information, click here. In a 2021 interview with the “Waste Some Time With Jason Green” video podcast, Mikkey said that MOTÖRHEAD frontman Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister refused to quit touring in the weeks leading up to his death, even when his health was clearly deteriorating. “We played the last show the 11th of December [of 2015] in Berlin, and he passed just [two] weeks later,” Mikkey recalled (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “And that tel...
MESHUGGAH Drops Music Video For New Single ‘The Abysmal Eye’
Swedish extreme tech-metal pioneers MESHUGGAH have released the official music video for “The Abysmal Eye”, the first single from their upcoming ninth studio album, “Immutable”. You can now watch the Scott Hansen-directed clip below. Due on April 1 via Atomic Fire, the follow-up to 2016’s “The Violent Sleep Of Reason” was recorded at Sweetspot Studios in Halmstad, Sweden; mixed by Rickard Bengtsson and Staffan Karlsson; and mastered by multiple Grammy Award winner Vlado Meller (METALLICA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, SYSTEM OF A DOWN). Visionary artist Luminokaya once again created the stunning cover artwork. Full of surprises and yet instantly recognizable as the work of metal’s most idiosyncratic force, “Immutable&...
