Hard Rock
The Sword’s J.D. Cronise Talks New Compilations, Bootlegging Rare Clutch Tracks, and His Band’s Future
Modern stoner rock owes a major debt to The Sword. Formed in 2003 in Austin, the band’s propensity for Black Sabbath-influenced doom and desert grooves predated the subculture that suddenly emerged from the stoner rock scene in the 2010s. Suddenly, remote fans of bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard were connected by the familiar churning sounds of these bands. The Sword played a vital role in this movement, with their 2006 debut album, Age of Winters, and its lead single, the now legendary “Freya”, cementing their place in doom metal lore. It was a time of resurgence for classic rock, a new era of teenagers were discovering Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, and “Freya” garnered The Sword a cult audience of eager rock fans. Their music even reached Lars Ulrich of Metallica, who would eventually ta...
Video Surfaces of Zack de la Rocha Playing Guitar in His Pre-Rage Against the Machine Band: Watch
Just a few years before becoming the electrifying frontman of Rage Against the Machine, Zack de la Rocha was cutting his teeth as the guitarist in the hardcore band Hard Stance. Now, 30 years later, video footage of a young Zack playing guitar with Hard Stance at a show in March 1990 has surfaced. Hard Stance formed in 1987 as a straight-edge hardcore band, with Zack on guitar and Eric Ernst on vocals. At one point, Ernst left Hard Stance, and de la Rocha took over lead vocals, eventually leading to the formation of the band Inside Out. The gig in question took place March 4th, 1990, and was apparently Hard Stance’s final concert. According to Zack’s Wikipedia page, by 1990 he would have been fronting Inside Out, so the show could have been a one-off farewell with Hard Stance. Nonetheless,...
#MetallicaMondays: Watch Metallica’s Hit-Filled 2007 Lisbon Show
For the latest installment of #MetallicaMondays, the thrash legends are revisiting their Lisbon, Portugal show in 2007. The archival concert footage goes live this evening (July 6th) at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT via Metallica’s YouTube channel below. The show took place at Lisbon’s Super Bock Super Rock and kicked off the “Sick of the Studio Tour” prior to the release of Death Magnetic in 2008. The European trek was named during a fan competition, with the band choosing the winning entry. Appropriately, it reflects Metallica’s many hours in the studio working on the laborious Death Magnetic, which was considered a return to the band’s thrash metal roots upon release. The hype for Death Magnetic was boiling by the time Metallica took the stage in Lisbon. Fans clamored for what message boa...
Dave Grohl Says He Worried About Getting Fired from Nirvana
Dave Grohl’s drumming in Nirvana is the stuff of legend, but at one point he was worried about getting fired from the band. In a new interview, Grohl admits he was “nervous” that he “was not good enough” to keep his job in the iconic grunge act. “I joined Nirvana, I was their fifth drummer, right?” Grohl reflected in a new interview with Matt Wilkinson of Apple Music. “They’d had a team of drummers before me and some of them were more, I don’t know, more in the band than others. So when I joined the band, I didn’t know Krist and Kurt at all. And when we first met and started playing, it was clear that when we got together to play that it worked really well, and we sounded what most people know now to sound like Nirvana. We sounded like that.” He continued, “But you just meet these people a...
Failure Share New Cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”: Stream
Failure have released a newly recorded version of the Depeche Mode classic “Enjoy the Silence” more than 20 years after originally covering the song for a tribute album. Back in 1998, Failure contributed a cover of the song to the Depeche Mode tribute compilation For the Masses. However, with the LP long out of print, the Los Angeles rockers decided to record an updated version of the track, which originally appeared on Depeche Mode’s landmark album Violator. As Failure frontman Ken Andrews explained, “We originally recorded a cover of ‘Enjoy the Silence’ for the 1998 Depeche Mode tribute, For the Masses. That album has all but disappeared, no longer in print and not available via streaming platforms but we as a band are proud of our take on that song and had wanted to re-record it for som...
July Album Anniversaries Every Music Fan Should Know About
As we enter July and leave the first half of 2020, we’re more than happy to look forward. Hopefully, that means returning to some level of normalcy (masks on, peeps), continuing to push for racial justice across society, and, of course, new music. As always, though, to know where we’re headed, we’re keeping one eye and both ears to our past. And there are plenty of groundbreaking records celebrating major anniversaries this month. Read on for a rundown of the albums we’ll be revisiting all month long and information on some of the pieces we’ll be featuring in correlation with these must-know anniversaries. Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters (1995) <img data-attachment-id="548547" data-permalink="https://consequenceofsound.net/2014/11/faces-dave-grohl/foo-fighters-foo-fighters-al...
“Rock for Relief” Virtual Benefit Concert to Feature Corey Taylor, Lzzy Hale, Alice Cooper, and More
Corey Taylor, photo by Antonio Marino Jr. A bevy of notable rock musicians are coming together for a good cause. Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale, and more will perform during the “Rock for Relief” virtual benefit show, while Alice Cooper and others will conduct interviews. “Rock for Relief” is being organized by United Stations Media Networks and Storic Media Podcast Network, with proceeds benefitting Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund. The streaming event airs this Friday, July 3rd, at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT, and will rebroadcast immediately following at 11:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. PT. In addition to Taylor, Hale, and Rossdale, the performance lineup includes ex-Eagles guitarist Don Felder, George Thorogood, Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy, Filt...
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Announces New Album Created with Fans on Twitch
Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park has announced a new solo album, which he crafted on Twitch along with input from his fans. The new LP, called Dropped Frames, Vol. 1, will arrive on July 10th through his own Kenji Kobayashi Productions label. The album owes its creation to Shinoda’s daily Twitch livestreams, in which he made music four days per week. Instead of making an album on his own, Shinoda reached out to fans on his Twitch channel to get their feedback. “Dropped Frames is just as much about the live channel as it is about the ‘album,’” Shinoda said in a statement. “The collection of songs is a highlight reel of the tracks I make on the channel, but a big part of the experience is the stream itself. When I start, I usually have very little idea of where it will go.” He added, “What ...
Evanescence Unveil New Song “The Game Is Over”: Stream
Evanescence, photo by P.R. Brown Evanescence have shared the second single from their upcoming album, The Bitter Truth. The new song, “The Game Is Over”, showcases the band’s heavier side, with chugging guitars and driving drums accompanying Amy Lee’s vocals. “The Game Is Over” follows lead single “Wasted on You”, which arrived in late April. As of now, no release date has been set for The Bitter Truth, which will mark the band’s first album of new material since 2011’s self-titled effort. As for the message of the new tune, Lee stated, “This song is about being sick of the facade. The disguises we wear for others to make them feel comfortable, the inside feelings being so different than what we show on the outside to fit within the boundaries of what’s socially acceptable, or what’s not g...
Rammstein Drummer’s Early East German Band Had Two Government Spies in Its Lineup
Drummer Christoph “Doom” Schneider was an active member of the East Berlin music scene prior to the formation of Rammstein in 1994. In the ’80s, he was the drummer of new wave act Die Firma (The Firm), and it turns out he had two government spies in his band. When asked by Metal Hammer about playing music prior to the take down of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Schneider recounted his time in Die Firma. The band’s music had dark goth influences, indicative of his latter work with Rammstein, featuring protest lyrics that were poignant, if incriminating, given who might be listening or in the case of Die Firma, literally singing them. “Die Firma was like a new wave punk band,” Schneider said. “The style was a little dark, with gothic influences. We had lyrics that protested against the system...
Corey Taylor Responds to Slipknot Tribute Band’s Craigslist Ad Seeking New Singer
Corey Taylor is one of the hardest-working dudes in metal, but apparently he has time to consider a gig impersonating himself in a Slipknot tribute band. The singer actually responded to a Craigslist ad from a Slipknot tribute act seeking a new vocalist. Taylor has his hands full with Slipknot and Stone Sour, not to mention his upcoming solo album, and his work as a best-selling author. But the fact of the matter is that he fits the description in the Craigslist ad to a tee. And, with his bands currently sidelined from the road due to the pandemic, perhaps he’s looking for some new ventures to conquer. The Craigslist ad is titled “Established Slipknot tribute seeking accurate, dedicated Corey Taylor.” It comes from New Jersey-based Of the (Sic), who promote themselves as the “most accurate...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan: Black Lives Matter “Never Had Legitimacy”
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has condemned Black Lives Matter in a new Instagram post, insisting the movement “never had legitimacy” and calling it a “propaganda tool” for the Democratic Party. Dolmayan has been making headlines for the past few months with his right-wing sociopolitical commentary. On Monday night, he posted a picture of Secoreia Turner, an 8-year-old black girl who was killed over the weekend in Atlanta amid a wave of gun violence in the city. Upon her death, Secoreia’s father exclaimed, “They say Black Lives Matter. You killed your own this time.” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms added, “You can’t blame this on a police officer; you can’t say this is about criminal justice reform. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with an 8-yea...