Hard Rock
Alice Cooper: David Bowie Saw My Stage Show and Said This Is What He “Should Be Doing”
Legendary rockers Alice Cooper and David Bowie each broke new ground as theatrical stage performers. While the two pioneers of glam rock were contemporaries, Cooper says it was his stage show that influenced Bowie. In a new feature for Metal Hammer, Cooper answered a number of fan questions. One reader named Debbie asked, “Did you ever cross paths with your theatrical comrade, David Bowie?” “David used to come to the show when he was a mime artist, he was Davy Jones back then,” responded Cooper. “I remember at one of our ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ shows, he brought his band the Spiders From Mars and he was saying, ‘This is what we should be doing.’ But he never did it the way we did it.” He added, “When we started doing theatrics and still had hit records, that opened up a huge door for Bow...
Eddie Van Halen’s Son Wolfgang Declined Invite to Perform Tribute at Grammys
Many viewers came away from Sunday’s Grammy Awards disappointed with the very brief tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen. On Monday, his son Wolfgang revealed that he was invited to perform Van Halen’s “Eruption” but declined. Even so, he was one of the ones who was underwhelmed by the salute to his father. While such artists as John Prine, Little Richard, and Kenny Rogers were toasted with full musical performances, Eddie Van Halen’s legacy was observed with one of his guitars sitting on a stage for 15 seconds during the “In Memoriam” segment, as a few videos played behind it. In a tweet, Wolfgang explained that he didn’t want play his father’s iconic Van Halen instrumental track “Eruption” because he felt he wouldn’t do it justice. That said, he was hoping the Grammys would do a little mo...
Robert Fripp and Toyah Serve Up Mötley Crüe’s “Girls Girls Girls”: Watch
Tennis, anyone? Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox are back at it with another “Sunday Lunch” performance, this time taking on the Mötley Crüe hit “Girls Girls Girls” as Toyah practices her forehand. After taking a detour from tackling rock classics with a version of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” last week, the King Crimson founder and his singer wife are back on the rock train this week. As she sings and dances along to Fripp’s guitar work on the Mötley Crüe song, Toyah fires off foam tennis balls with a red racquet. Toyah is once again wearing the revealing white shirt that helped propel their cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” to more than 5 million views, only this time she’s sporting some strategically placed tape underneath. Did she get a note from the powers that be at YouTube? If you combi...
School Teacher Goes Viral for Awesome Korn Version of the Alphabet Song: Watch
A metal-loving school teacher has reinvented the alphabet song, and he’s blowing up TikTok in the process. Nick Harrison’s aggro version of the ABCs, set to Korn’s “Coming Undone”, even got the attention of the pioneering nu-metal band’s singer, Jonathan Davis. Harrison, who goes by the TikTok handle MrProfessor318, titled his video “My audition for School of Rock 2,” and it features the educator going full-on headbanger from A to Z. The loud lesson in literacy has earned Harrison more than 130,000 likes as of this posting. Davis shared the clip on his Instagram Stories, and Harrison acknowledged the Korn singer’s shout out in follow-up TikToks. “When Jonathan Davis, the lead singer of Korn, of course, posts your video to his Instagram story — I can’t even talk, man!,” the teacher exclaime...
Korn to Stream Concert from Set of Stranger Things: Drive-Into Experience
Korn have announced a livestream performance, dubbed “Korn: Monumental”, that will see the band performing from within the setting of Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience in Los Angeles. The concert goes live globally on April 24th. The virtual show is Korn’s first livestream event. To celebrate the occasion, they’ll be playing rare deep cuts and select tracks from 2019’s The Nothing for the first time ever, as the band was unable to properly tour in support of its most recent album due the pandemic. “We hope you take part in this experience with us,” frontman Jonathan Davis said in a press release. “And though it is not the same as performing live with you here, we still want to bring you some great music and a fun show.” Korn will be performing amidst scenes from the popular Netfli...
Rob Zombie Unleashes New Album The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy: Stream
Rob Zombie has just released The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, his first album in five years. The LP features 17 tracks, including the recent singles “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)” and “The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man”. The album itself was completed a couple years ago, but Zombie’s film obligations and the pandemic pushed its release to this year. Both Zombie and his guitarist John 5 have touted the album as one of the shock rocker’s best efforts, if not his best, with the singer telling Heavy Consequence in our recent interview, “I feel the last three records have really been on an upward trajectory.” It marks the third album featuring the lineup of Zombie, John 5, bassist Piggy D, and drummer Ginger Fish. In addition t...
Mike Patton Sings Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme Song for Shredder’s Revenge Video Game: Stream
What’s cooler than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song? Mike Patton singing that theme song in the trailer for the new video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. That’s right, the lead singer of such bands as Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Dead Cross, and Fantômas lends his vocals to the infectious song that so many of us still have in our heads since it first debuted in 1987 as part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV show. Oddly enough, the original theme was co-written and co-recorded by Chuck Lorre, who would go on to famously produce such TV shows as Two and a Half Man, The Big Bang Theory, and others. Patton, whose six octave ranged once earned him the title of greatest singer of all time, offers a rocking take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles&nb...
Corey Taylor Compares Gen Z Attempt to Cancel Eminem to the Salem Witch Trials
Eminem was recently the target of a cancellation attempt for a lyric from “Love the Way You Lie”, his 2010 hit featuring Rihanna. After seeing the story, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor compared the situation to the Salem witch trials. As the story goes, a group of Generation Z TikTok users apparently attempted to cancel Eminem for “Love the Way You Lie” line, “If she ever tries to f**king leave again/ I’mma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire.” Eminem responded by sharing a lyric video for his 2020 song “Tone Deaf”, which contains the lyrics, “I won’t stop even when my hair turns grey (I’m tone-deaf)/ ‘Cause they won’t stop until they cancel me.” Taylor, seeing the story make headlines this week, brought up the topic when speaking with Matt Pinfield on Los Angeles’ 95.5 KLOS radio....
KISS’ Gene Simmons Explains Why He Keeps Saying “Rock Is Dead”
KISS singer-bassist Gene Simmons made headlines several years ago when he declared that “rock is finally dead.” He recently doubled down on that sentiment just before the band played a streaming New Year’s Eve show to ring in 2021. At the time of his initial statement in 2014, he explained in an Esquire feature, “Once you had a record company on your side, they would fund you, and that also meant when you toured they would give you tour support. … There are still record companies, and it does apply to pop, rap, and country to an extent. But for performers who are also songwriters — the creators — for rock music, for soul, for the blues — it’s finally dead.” Heavy Consequence recently checked in with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer to discuss his new G² line of guitars with Gibson. At one...
Serj Tankian: I Respect John Dolmayan Very Much, But Not His American Political Views
Over the past year or so, a political divide has played out indirectly between System of a Down bandmates Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan. While Tankian’s views are strongly on the left, Dolmayan is firmly planted in the right, when it comes to American politics, in particular. Tankian supported Bernie Sanders during the presidential primaries, and repeatedly voiced his displeasure with the Trump administration. At one point during the height of the 2020 protests, the singer even called for the end of the Trump regime. And right before Trump’s presidency ended, Tankian declared, “I’ve never seen a president suck so much,” following a U.S. agreement with Turkey that appeared to minimize Armenia’s cultural heritage. Dolmayan, on the other hand, took to his Instagram account to label Democrats...
Dirty Honey Announce Debut Album, Share “California Dreamin’”: Stream
Hard rockers Dirty Honey have announced that their self-titled debut album will arrive April 23rd. The L.A. band has also shared the music video for the opening track and lead single, “California Dreamin’”. Not to be confused with the ’60s pop hit of the same name by The Mamas and the Papas, Dirty Honey’s take on the Golden State is a darker portrayal. Vocalist and lyricist Marc LaBelle said the track and its video explain that the Cali dream is just that: a dream. It doesn’t always come true. “Lots of people come out to California, chasing a dream, and sometimes, people just don’t make it,” LaBelle said in a press release. “California isn’t always the ‘land of milk and honey,’ dreams don’t always come true here, and that’s the perspective this song and video take. The video is a dream thr...
Tim Commerford: Rage Against the Machine Will “Never” Play Drive-In Shows or 10% Capacity Venues
Last year, Rage Against the Machine were set to reunite for perhaps the most anticipated rock tour of 2020. Whether the band embarks on its rescheduled outing this year remains to be seen, but bassist Tim Commerford suggests that it won’t happen until they can play in front of packed venues. The pandemic forced Rage Against the Machine to table their first tour in 10 years, just a few weeks before it was set to kick off. As of now, the rescheduled dates are slated to begin June 3rd in El Paso, Texas. It just so happens that Texas is set to lift all capacity restrictions (and foolishly end mask mandates) beginning next week, but that’s not the case in most states. Either way, Commerford is not looking to play drive-in shows, where people watch from their cars, or reduced capacity concerts. ...
