Death Metal
Mining Metal: Beyond Grace, Blames God, Centenary, Defacement, Formless Body, Replicant, Succumb, Wraith
Mining Metal is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence writers Joseph Schafer and Langdon Hickman. 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. Metal is eternal. While its popularity ebbs and flows in the macro, its genres in the micro persist. A subgenre might experience a resurgence in popularity long after its progenitors have become elder statesmen — thrash exploded again long after its mid-’80s heyday in the early ’00s, for example. Even minuscule representations of a genre might persist after its innovators metamorphose. For example, Carcass have a new album out this month, one that sounds nothing like the grindcore permutation of the group from their ...
Possessed Singer Jeff Becerra Walks for First Time in More Than 30 Years
Possessed singer Jeff Becerra, who was paralyzed in a 1989 shooting incident, walked for the first time in more than 30 years. On Saturday (September 18th), the pioneering death metal vocalist shared video of himself walking with the aid of robotic legs. The 90-second video shows Becerra walking down a hallway, with a small team of medical personnel helping him. Along with the clip, he wrote, “I walked again for the first time in over 30 years with the help of robotic legs #jeffbecerra #possessed #possessedband #rewalk #rewalkrobotics #smallmiracles.” Becerra was paralyzed from the chest down during a 1989 robbery. He described the incident during a 2019 interview with The Underground Metal Gamer (via Blabbermouth). “I’ve been in a wheelchair longer than I’ve been walking,” he began. ...
Carcass’ Torn Arteries Is a Masterpiece of Bitterness: Review
The Lowdown: British death metal innovators Carcass helped found the genre in the ’80s and expand its boundaries in the early ’90s with a series of mostly-excellent and progressively different records, then broke up before getting their due. After a long hiatus they returned in 2013 with the platonically perfect Surgical Steel, maybe the best comeback album in all of metal and Heavy Consequence’s eighth-best metal album of the 2010s. Eight years later, their long-delayed follow-up, Torn Arteries, is harder to love than its predecessor, but still excellent. The Good: Carcass play to their strengths on Torn Arteries, chief among them guitarist Bill Steer’s potent balance of rhythmic chugging, saturated guitar tone, and speedy-but-bluesy melodic runs. These have been the focus of his sound si...
Founding Cannibal Corpse Singer Calls Kourtney Kardashian a “Poser” after She Wears Band’s Shirt
Kourtney Kardashian turned heads by sporting a gory Cannibal Corpse shirt when she stepped out with boyfriend Travis Barker a few days ago. Now, founding Cannibal Corpse singer Chris Barnes has labeled both the reality TV star and the Blink-182 drummer “posers.” The eldest of the Kardashian sisters sported a long-sleeve black shirt with the gruesome artwork from Cannibal Corpse’s 1990 debut album, Eaten Back to Life, as she walked hand in hand with Barker, who repped punk pioneers The Cramps with his white tee. Barnes, who has fronted Six Feet Under since Cannibal Corpse parted ways with him in 1995, shared the pic of Kourtney and Travis on his Twitter, and simply wrote “Posers.” Advertisement Related Video It’s not the first time the Kardashians have been called out for wearing metal shir...
Ed Sheeran Mulls Recording a Death Metal Album, Loves Slipknot and Cradle of Filth
Pop star Ed Sheeran going metal sounds like a late-night comedy skit — in fact that was an actual sketch a few years back on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. But this time, the British pop star isn’t playing around, as he now reports that he “would not be opposed to creating” a death metal album. That’s right, Sheeran, whose chart-topping hits like “The Shape of You” and “Perfect” are anything but metal, is a big fan of crushing riffs and guttural growls. The singer-songwriter was quoted in The Sun over the weekend as saying, “I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to Cradle of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff.” Advertisement Related Video In fact, Sheeran is considering dipping his toes in some extreme music. “I’m not saying I could ever step into that world,” he a...
Obscura Unleash New Song “Solaris” Ahead of Upcoming Album A Valediction: Stream
Obscura have shared the music video for “Solaris,” the lead single from the band’s upcoming album, A Valediction, out November 19th. The song is the first new music from Obscura since undergoing a major lineup change in April 2020 that saw three members exit the group. Two of the “new” members — bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling and lead guitarist Christian Münznerare — are familiar faces, as they have returned to Obscura after previous stints in the band. Safe to say, the personnel swap hasn’t encumbered the technical death metal band’s virtuosic assault. “Solaris” is a maximal crusher that begs for repeated listens in order to decipher its many twists and turns. Related Video “‘Solaris’ turned out to become one of the band’s shortest and utmost direct compositions featuring all trademarks, ...
At the Gates Open the Door to Experimentation on The Nightmare of Being: Review
The Lowdown: Swedish death metal giants At the Gates made one of heavy music’s most influential albums – 1995’s Slaughter of the Soul, which had a huge influence on the wave of American metalcore that followed it. In 2014, the band returned after a long hiatus, and have since delivered two respectable albums that mostly follow the template that they created in the ’90s. Their latest effort, The Nightmare of Being, bucks that trend in favor of wild experimentation. The Good: While Slaughter of the Soul solidified the melodic death metal template — Iron Maiden riffs over thrash beats filtered through the famed Swedish Buzzsaw guitar tone, with a little industrial here and there to spice things up — in some ways it ended that genre’s period of vast exploration. The irony is that At the Gates’...
Canadian Death Metal Band Performs for Elementary School Students: Watch
Canadian death metal band Obvurt performed for elementary school students in their home city of Quebec, and the band has hared the entire show on YouTube. Who said death metal was scary? The band set up on the blacktop of the school playground and unleashed an unfiltered set of brutal growls and extreme musicianship. And the children happily bounce and dance along, totally digging it. If you needed a feel-good clip, here it is. Better yet, the idea for the concert came from the school’s faculty, as Obvurt guitarist and music teacher Philippe Drouin explained in a press release. Related Video “The physical education teacher and school principal introduced me to this idea,” Drouin said. “He was thinking about a party to celebrate the end of the school year by doing a show in the school backy...
Dee Snider Teams Up with Cannibal Corpse Singer Corpsegrinder for “Time to Choose”: Stream
Dee Snider has unleashed the new single “Time to Choose” featuring Cannibal Corpse vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. The track is from the legendary Twisted Sister frontman’s upcoming solo album, Leave a Scar, out July 30th. The blistering three-minute song starts with a galloping thrash rhythm and grooving riffage prior to a crushing post-chorus breakdown. This section is prime territory for Corpsegrinder, who bellows “You must choose” in his iconic death growl. Overall, it’s one of the most diverse and brutal songs Snider has recorded to date. “‘Time to Choose’ deals with a subject I’ve addressed often over the course of my writing career: good versus evil (see ‘Burn In Hell’),” Snider remarked in a press release. “Given the heaviness of this track, I felt adding George ‘Corpsegrin...
Knocked Loose Announce Fall 2021 US Tour with Gatecreeper
Knocked Loose have announced a fall 2021 US tour with Gatecreeper and additional support from Magnitude and Kharma. Between the swinging hardcore of Kentucky’s Knocked Loose and the death metal of Arizona’s Gatecreeper, the circle pits will be churning when the trek kicks off on September 9th in Chicago. It runs a month before wrapping up on October 8th in Santa Cruz, California — just days before Knocked Loose join Gojira’s headlining tour as support. “First tour back,” Knocked Loose posted on Twitter. “Small rooms. No barricades. Friends. Two nights in certain cities. Blue.” Related Video “Blue” refers to the band’s 2019 LP, A Different Shade of Blue, and the LeAnn Rimes song of the same name, which served as the band’s walk-out music on their last tour. Meanwhile, Gatecreeper spent the ...
Ex-Cannibal Corpse Guitarist Pat O’Brien Finally Sentenced for Bizarre Headline-Making Incident
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-01T23:45:57+00:00“>May 1, 2021 | 7:45pm ET More than two years ago, then Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O’Brien was arrested for a bizarre incident that involved assault, burglary, a house fire, more than 80 firearms, and three skulls. It has just been reported that O’Brien was recently sentenced for his actions that evening. The death-metal guitarist made national headlines for his exploits on December 10th, 2018. He apparently broke into a home in Northdale, Florida, where he pushed a female occupant to the ground and shouted “the rapture is coming.” When confronted by authorities, he charged at a deputy with a knife, at which point he was subdued with a stun gun. At the same ti...
Deicide and Kataklysm Announce 2021 US Summer Tour
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-19T19:29:41+00:00“>April 19, 2021 | 3:29pm ET Death metal titans Deicide have announced a US summer tour with direct support from fellow extreme metal veterans Kataklysm. Internal Bleeding and Begat the Nephilim will also be along for the month-long trek. Judging by the August dates, the bands and venues apparently feel things will be safe enough to tour by late summer. Just yesterday it was announced that over half of U.S. adults had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Kataklysm’s Maurizio Iacono said that people getting vaccinated is one of the reasons for moving ahead with the tour — one of the first major U.S. metal packages to be announced since the pandemic be...
