Death Metal
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...
Cannibal Corpse Expand Their Brutal Palate with Violence Unimagined: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-15T18:14:52+00:00“>April 15, 2021 | 2:14pm ET The Lowdown: American death metal institution Cannibal Corpse continue their almost-unbroken string of gory and mosh-worthy killing sprees with Violence Unimagined, their first album with longtime producer Erik Rutan as a full-time guitarist. The result is one of their most subtle and disquieting albums – but subtle is a relative term here. Every Cannibal Corpse album is a nonstop metal assault, and Violence Unimagined is no exception. The Good: While the fortunes of American death metal as a whole have waxed and waned, Cannibal Corpse’s career has remained steady, thanks to a solid lineup and reliable recorded output. Their string of...
Gojira Unleash New Song “Into the Storm” Ahead of Upcoming Album Fortitude: Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-12T16:09:28+00:00“>April 12, 2021 | 12:09pm ET Gojira have unveiled a fourth single, “Into the Storm”, from their upcoming new album, Fortitude, arriving April 30th. The crushing new track will undoubtedly satiate eager fans as the release date fast approaches. Opening with a wash of blast beats and frenetic tremolo picking, “Into the Storm” is arguably the most dynamic and technical piece we’ve heard from Fortitude. It manages to be both atmospheric and catchy, with a bouncy vocal delivery emphasizing the lyrics — always an important facet for Gojira. “Into the Storm” is “infused with the concept of civil disobedience,” according to frontman Joe Duplantier. Related Video “Acting...
Power Trip Members and Obituary Honor Riley Gale with “Executioner’s Tax” Performance: Watch
Obituary have paid tribute to late Power Trip singer Riley Gale, who tragically passed away last summer. The death metal pioneers invited members of Power Trip onto a recent livestream for a cover of the latter’s staple song, “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)”. Power Trip guitarists Blake Ibanez and Nick Stewart made a surprise guest appearance for the cover, which was dedicated to Gale. It’s likely the first public performance by members of Power Trip since Gale’s death. Obituary did the rollicking track justice, and the unmistakeable riffage of Ibanez and Stewart sounded nothing short of triumphant given all that’s happened. We previously reported on the first interview with the members of Power Trip since their August 25th statement confirming the death of their singer. While speaki...
Cannibal Corpse Singer Corpsegrinder Hung Out With Cher, Who Told Him “I Was Metal Before You Were Born”
Just when we thought we’d never write a story involving Cannibal Corpse and Cher, we get a doozy of tidbit from the death metal band’s lead singer, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. Turns out, the frontman spent time at the pop icon’s house, and even got “owned by Cher.” In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Corpsegrinder revealed that he was once invited to play a birthday bash for Cher’s son Elijah Blue Allman, the lead singer of the industrial metal band Deadsy. As Corpsegrinder told it, “Cher’s son Elijah, who is in the band Deadsy, is a big Cannibal Corpse fan and maybe 15 or 20 years ago he wanted us to come out to L.A. and play his birthday party at the Viper Room. His birthday is two days after mine, so my wife and I went out a few days early: ‘Let’s just fly out there, hang around fo...
20 Years Ago, Opeth Unleashed the Progressive Death Metal Masterpiece Blackwater Park
Despite being an exceptional concept album, Opeth’s fourth album, 1999’s Still Life, failed to garner enough industry attention to fully reward the amount of hard work and hope they’d been put into it. Even so, their recent signing with Peaceville Records and increased touring opportunities meant that mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt and company still felt hopeful that their big break was just over the horizon. Luckily, that turned out to be true, as 2001’s Blackwater Park was not just a major steppingstone for the Swedish troupe, but also a huge leap forward for extreme metal as a whole. Part of the reason for why was that Opeth was forced to leave Peaceville and move to Music for Nations / Koch, resulting in an expansion of distribution and promotional prospects. At first, Åkerfeldt was unhap...
