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Mining Metal: Autarkh, Celestial Sanctuary, Demiser, Flesh of the Stars, Koldovstvo, Lunar Shadow, Mare Cognitum, Memoriam
“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. The heavy metal community lost a real one this month. On March 7th, Swedish death metal vocalist L-G Petrov passed away after a battle with bile duct cancer. It’s the latest in a series of metal vocalists gone too young in the past twelve months, including Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, and Riley Gale of Power Trip. Petrov was one of the musicians who brought death metal to the masses as the vocalist for Swedish legends Entombed. A quick history lesson, while Entombed did not originate death metal in Sweden, the...
Japan releases softball squad for Tokyo Olympic Games
Japanese softball team head coach Reika Utsugi has urged her players to capture Olympic gold on home soil after naming a 15-strong squad for Tokyo 2020. The team features Yukiko Ueno, captain Yamada Eri and Yukiyo Mine who helped Japan clinch softball gold at Beijing 2008 – the last time the sport featured at the Games. Pitchers Yamato Fujita and Miu Goto, who was named Most Valuable Player in last season’s Japan Women’s Softball League, as well as star outfielder Saki Yamazaki are other notable names. Haruka Agatsuma, Nayu Kiyohara, Mana Atsumi, Yuka Ichiguchi, Hitomi Kawabata, Minori Naito, Yu Yamamoto, Nodoka Harada and Sayaka Mori have also been chosen. “Of course, skills and physical competence are the necessary elements,” said Utsugi. “But in selecting the 15 members, we also took th...
2023 Jeep Wagoneer Trailhawk: Everything We Know About the Upcoming Off-Roader
The excitement surrounding the recently revealed Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer hasn’t even died down yet, and we have it on good authority that Jeep isn’t done making news with this family of vehicles. For example, we know that there will be a long-wheelbase model coming, along with a PHEV version. And you shouldn’t be surprised if, down the road, there’s an off-road version as well—which we had our talented artist, Abimelec Arellano, render in the images you see above and below. Not Trail Rated? While it might not wear a “Trail Rated” badge due to its size, the Wagoneer is still a capable off-roader from the factory—and a “Trailhawk” version would be more so. On a regular Wagoneer, you’ll be able to get adjustable air suspension, 18-inch...
Artist of the Month serpentwithfeet on Black Gay Love, Relationship Advice, and Creative Honesty
Artist of the Month is an accolade we award to an up-and-coming artist who we believe is about to break out. We turn our attention in March to serpentwithfeet, an R&B singer-songwriter presently creating out of Los Angeles. When asked about any especially impactful messages from fans about his music, serpentwithfeet immediately recalls a tweet, regarding his Apparition EP, released last year. He quotes, “This project sounds like what happens in a dollhouse when the humans aren’t looking,” which he follows up with a hearty chuckle. “That is such a great appraisal. And I thought it was a great compliment,” he says. It’s also a more-than-accurate assessment, one that couldn’t be placed on just any artist’s work. Originally hailing from Baltimore — before moving to New York City and now, L...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Robin Wattie of Big|Brave
Beyond the Boys’ Club is a monthly column from journalist and radio host Anne Erickson, focusing on women in the heavy music genres, as they offer their perspectives on the music industry and discuss their personal experiences. This month’s piece features an interview with Robin Wattie of Big|Brave. Montreal metal trio Big|Brave tackle the weighty issues of gender, race and feeling like one doesn’t belong on their new album, Vital, out April 23 via Southern Lord. The album’s lead single, “Half Breed,” finds singer-guitarist Robin Wattie sharing the experience of being of mixed race and the confusion and insecurity that can come with it. Wattie checked in with Heavy Consequence for the latest “Beyond the Boys’ Club” column to discuss how she and the members of Big|Brave quarantined together...
An Integra Restomod? This ’98 Acura Packs a Modern Supercharged Heart
If you’ve been at all involved in the Honda aftermarket over the last few decades, give or take, you’ve probably come across this Laguna Seca Blue Acura Integra before. Back in 2002, it landed on the pages of Super Street and was plastered across every Honda-related forum (and there were many) for years. It was rescued by car builder Jay Smith of ONE Honda Specialist who found it at a wrecking yard. Smith had a plan to tear the car down in order to create the ultimate Japanese Integra Type R clone. He’d go on to gain notoriety for his attention to detail and meticulous approach to this build, along with that of his deep green 1992 Honda Civic hatchback project (both of his Honda projects “went viral,” before that was even a thing). The eternally low-key Smith ...
Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop Remains a Prized Relic of the Grunge Era
In the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World, titular protagonist and lay philosopher Wayne Campbell tells his best friend and hockey partner, Garth Algar, “Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes that everyone liked. They left that to the Bee Gees.” Apply that sage wisdom to the hard rock landscape of the mid-1990s, and you can make a convincing case for Stone Temple Pilots being their generation’s Led Zeppelin while the Bee Gees in this case were, well, any of the myriad contemporary grunge titans that critics accused STP of mimicking. Just as critics learned to worship Jimmy Page’s monolithic riffing and Robert Plant’s banshee wail, they slowly came around to Stone Temple Pilots’ effortless pop savvy and staggering musicality on their third album, Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which turns 2...
Evanescence’s Amy Lee on The Bitter Truth, Billie Eilish, and More
Evanescence’s Amy Lee. photo by Nick Fancher Amy Lee is one of the most influential women in rock music, having broken down barriers at the start of the 21st century. As the lead vocalist and chief songwriter for hard rockers Evanescence, Lee emerged at a time when women were scarcely heard on mainstream rock radio. Now, Evanescence are back with The Bitter Truth, the band’s first album of brand-new music in 10 years. Following their orchestral Synthesis release and world tour with a full orchestra, The Bitter Truth finds Evanescence getting back to their hard rock roots with blistering guitars and pounding rhythms. With The Bitter Truth set for release this Friday (March 26th), Evanescence have already released a string of singles from the effort, including the empowering song “Use ...
Joni Mitchell and Me
Last night, a friend alerted me to a filmed concert on the Isle of Wight in 1970 where Joni Mitchell performed. She said it was on YouTube. It was one of those post-Woodstock ridiculous assemblies of thousands of people who seem to be walking around, talking, getting high, eating, and every once in a while, listening to the music. Onto the stage walks Joni Mitchell and sadly tries to sing her quiet little song “A Song About the Midway” from her second album, Clouds, to this sea of people in an advanced state of distraction, and suddenly my weeks of working on this piece about her seems overblown and out of proportion. Maybe I am not, in all of this, writing about Joni Mitchell? Maybe I am writing about me and my reactions to things as I change and they change; the times, and me. I don’t th...
10 Album Covers Worse Than Justin Bieber’s Justice
Justin Bieber’s new album, Justice, immediately caught people’s attention when it was first announced — not necessarily for the music it promised but for having a really terrible album cover. Along with Bieber’s painful attempt to edgily pose in a dim, green tunnel, as if he was the new Skins cast member, eagle-eyed music lovers also spotted the album font’s similarity to the band Justice’s logo. <img data-attachment-id="1114012" data-permalink="https://consequenceofsound.net/2021/03/justice-cease-and-desist-justin-bieber/justin-bieber-justice-logo-cease-and-desist/" data-orig-file="https://consequenceofsound.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/justin-bieber-justice-logo-cease-and-desist.jpg?quality=80" data-orig-size="1200,675" data-comments-opened=&q...
Women’s History Month Tribute: Eva Cassidy
We were living the life in New York; I, slowly writing poems while my girlfriend, Diane Scanlon, played the clubs as a singer-songwriter. In 1993 a midtown publishing company executive turned off Diane’s tape in the middle of one of her newest songs and, shaking his head, passed. As she went down the elevator she remembered that Bruce Lundvall (Blue Note Records) had “great ears” and was in the same building; Bruce played the tape all the way through, loved the songs and had someone in mind, a lead singer from one of his other projects: Eva Cassidy. Eva, born 1963, was one of four children from an artistic and musical family. Her short life of performing was mostly around Washington DC, but after her untimely death of melanoma in 1996, Cassidy became beloved all around the world. Her cover...
5 Things to Keep in Mind when Creating the Perfect Password
Sourced from Travellers Using a strong, original and memorable password is one of the first things you can do to make sure you’re protected from cyber-threats. With that in mind, here are five things you can do to create the perfect password: 1. Remember the longer the betterWhen it comes to your password, try to include as many unique characters as possible – this makes it more difficult for hackers to crack. Mix letters, numbers, and punctuation and, when possible, include both uppercase and lowercase letters. Made up or altered words are better than actual words. You should go for passwords that are a minimum of 12 to 14 characters in length. A longer password would be even better. 2. Avoid obvious number combinations like calendar dates or phone numbersDon’t use account numbers, b...
