Death Metal
Heavy Song of the Week: Dryad Conjure an Icy Gust of Midwestern Black Metal on “The Abyssal Plain”
Heavy Song of the Week is a new feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week the honor goes to Iowa black metal band Dryad’s “The Abyssal Plain.” Winter is upon us. The days are short, and the trees bare. A seasonal depression creeps in as we stay indoors to escape the cold. No wonder black metal was pioneered upon the tundras of Scandinavia. Otherworldly howls and walls of guitar that recall the bitter arctic wind — it just sounds right this time of year. A life indoors also means more time to consume, perform, write, and record music. Ideal circumstances for those looking to indulge the dark arts and channel whatever thoughts, negative or otherwise, through the escapism and personal journey black metal provides, bo...
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...
Cannibal Corpse’s Corpsegrinder Meets Mall Santa and Wins Stuffed Animals for Charity
Cannibal Corpse frontman George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher is spreading the cheer this holiday, posing with Santa at the mall before hitting his local Walmart to dominate the claw machine game for charity. Fisher took to Instagram to share the heartwarming content. In stark contrast to the gore-filled imagery and harrowing presence he projects as Corpsegrinder, the death metal vocalist showed off a softer side, beaming a big smile while Santa sat on his lap. “Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!!!” Fisher posted on Instagram. “…yours truly with the best Mall Santa ever!!!” Advertisement Related Video With Christmas around the corner, Fisher then played the role of Santa himself, scoring a plethora of stuffed animals from the Walmart claw game to donate to charity. Along with photos of him with a...
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 ...
Northwest Terror Fest 2023 Lineup: Autopsy, YOB, Necrot, and More
Northwest Terror Fest has unveiled its 2023 lineup. The annual underground extreme metal festival is set for May 25th through the 27th at the Seattle venues Neumos and Barboza. Tickets are available at 10 a.m. PT on Friday (November 25th) via this location. This year’s lineup is highlighted by death metal pioneers Autopsy and doom-sludge heroes YOB, both of whom are playing sets exclusive to the region for 2023. Other notable bands on the bill include the masked ensemble Ghoul, scene vets Misery Index, old-school death metal revivalists Necrot, doom/sludge act Conan, and death metal stalwarts Impaled. The bill will also showcase numerous underground extreme metal acts, some native to the Pacific Northwest region, including: Horrendous, Fetid, Torture Rack, Draghkar, among many more. One no...
Morbid Angel Announce 2023 US Tour with Revocation and More
Morbid Angel have announced a 2023 US tour featuring support from Revocation, Crypta, Skeletal Remains, and Vitriol. The “United States Tour of Terror” will launch on March 15th in Pensacola, Florida, and run through an April 22nd date in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Morbid Angel are billing the outing as a 40th anniversary tour, with the legendary death metal band having formed in 1983. Revocation will provide direct support, with Crypta also on board throughout the run. Skeletal Remains will appear from March 15th through April 4th, while Vitriol will be on the bill from April 6th through April 22nd. Tickets go on sale this Friday (November 4th) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster, with pre-sales for select cities beginning on Thursday (November 3rd) using the code HEADLINE. Advertisemen...
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...
Decibel Metal & Beer Fest 2023 Philly Lineup: Suicidal Tendencies, The Black Dahlia Murder, Eyehategod, and More
Decibel Magazine has unveiled the lineup for the 2023 Philadelphia edition of its Metal & Beer Fest set for April 14th and 15th. Suicidal Tendencies are among the headliners and will be performing their seminal 1983 self-titled debut album, among other songs. Also on the bill is The Black Dahlia Murder (who recently announced that they were continuing as a band following the death of frontman Trevor Strnad), Eyehategod (performing 1993’s Take as Needed for Pain in full), and veteran death-doom metallers Incantation (performing 1998’s Diabolical Conquest). The remainder of the lineup is rounded out by a slew of notable underground extreme metal acts: Mizmor, Frozen Soul, All Out War, Undeath, Drowningman, Worm, Fuming Mouth, Phobophilic, and ...
The Black Dahlia Murder to Continue as a Band Following Trevor Strnad’s Passing
The Black Dahlia Murder will continue as a band following the death of frontman Trevor Strnad earlier this year. The news comes alongside the announcement of the band’s first show since his passing, an October 28th gig in Detroit with Darkest Hour and Plague Years. The concert will be held at Saint Andrew’s Hall and is being billed as a “celebration of the life and legacy of Trevor Strnad.” Ticket pre-sales begin tomorrow (September 15th) at 10 a.m. ET and general on-sale begins Friday (September 16th) at 10 a.m. ET. You can purchase tickets via Ticketmaster. Founding member Brian Eschbach will move from his longtime role as guitarist to take Strnad’s place as lead vocalist. Meanwhile, former BDM guitarist Ryan Knight will rejoin the band, having been a member from 2008 to 2016. The press ...
Dying Fetus Unleash “Compulsion for Cruelty,” First New Song in Five Years: Stream
Dying Fetus have shared their first new song in five years, “Compulsion for Cruelty,” ahead of their upcoming North American tour. The new track should satiate those who’ve been desperate for some new Dying Fetus music. All the veteran death metal band’s signature sonic trademarks are in the mix here, from superhuman blastbeat drumming to gnarly guttural vocals. Some beefy chug-a-lug riffs prop up the satisfying breakdowns in the middle of the song. The single also comes with a visceral performance clip, ostensibly shot on-location at a Dying Fetus show. It should be enough to get fans fired up for the upcoming tour, as the crowd is in full mosh form for the duration of “Compulsion for Cruelty.” Advertisement Related Video The North American outing will see Dying Fetus playing their own he...
Exhumed Announce New Album and US Tour, Unleash “Drained of Color”: Stream
Exhumed are returning with a new album, To the Dead (out October 21st), and shared the gruesome video for lead single “Drained of Color.” The band has also announced a Fall 2022 US tour in support of the upcoming LP. The extreme metal vets deliver six minutes of pummeling death metal with “Drained of Color,” combining chugging rhythms and breakdowns with grindcore vocals and frenzied blast beats. The band has always had an affinity for toeing the line between death metal and grindcore, and this track is another fine example. Exhumed are also outspoken horror movie fans and get to star in their own gory video for the single. Cut between performance footage, the band members find themselves in a distant past, dressed in antiquated attire. The group revels in libations and games of chess unti...
Katatonia Announce Fall 2022 North American Tour
Katatonia have announced a fall 2022 North American tour with support from The Ocean Collective and Cellar Darling. The outing is Katatonia’s first on North American shores since 2017. Dates kick off November 9th in Washington, D.C., and run through December 10th in Tampa, Florida. Ticket pre-sales for select dates go live Wednesday (August 24th) at 11 a.m. local time. General on sale begins Friday at 11 a.m. ET. You can pick up tickets via Ticketmaster. Advertisement Related Video ”North America! We are very pleased to announce that we are coming back to your shores for a full headline tour,” commented Katatonia frontman Jonas Renske via a press release. “Support will come from our talented friends in The Ocean Collective and Cellar Darling. We haven’t toured North America since 2017, so ...
