Heavy Consequence
R.I.P. Burke Shelley, Budgie Singer-Bassist Dies at 71
Burke Shelley, the singer and bassist of the influential Welsh metal band Budgie, has died at the age of 71. Shelley’s daughter, Ela, shared the following post Monday night (January 10th) on Facebook: “It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my father, John Burke Shelley. He passed away this evening in his sleep at Heath Hospital in Cardiff, his birth town. He was 71 years old. Please respect the family during this time. With love, His four children: Ela, Osian, Dimitri and Nathaniel.” Although no cause of death was given, Shelley had suffered from health problems over the last few years (a genetic disorder called Stickler syndrome, plus two aortic aneurysms), which kept Budgie off of the road and from issuing new music. Advertisement Related Video Born John Burke Shelley on ...
Tool’s 10 Best Songs
No one crafts equally perverse and philosophical slices of prog metal quite like Tool. Indeed, the quartet (drummer Danny Carey, vocalist Maynard James Keenan, bassist Justin Chancellor, and guitarist Adam Jones) have spent the last 30-odd years fusing the industrial salaciousness of Nine Inch Nails with the mesmeric sophistication of Pink Floyd and King Crimson, yielding a beloved sound all their own. The acclaimed band, set to launch a 2022 US tour (get tickets via Ticketmaster), has evolved significantly without losing sight of its most vital trademarks, ensuring that all of its work feels at home within the same catalog. In a nutshell, 1993’s Undertow and 1995’s Ænima perpetuated rougher and more risqué syntheses of progressive and alternative metal. Then, 2001’s landmark Lateralus off...
Vio-Lence Announce EP, Unleash First New Song in 29 Years “Flesh from Bone”: Stream
Vio-Lence have returned with their first new song in 29 years, “Flesh from Bone,” from the upcoming Let the World Burn EP due out March 4th. The Bay Area thrash band previously inked a record deal with Metal Blade after reuniting in 2019. Although Vio-Lence haven’t released new material since 1993, they’ve lost none of their ferociousness. True to its title, “Flesh from Bone” is a ripper. As founding guitarist Phil Demmel explains, the track faithfully carries old-school riffage while incorporating some of the more modern stylings the guitarist employed as a longtime member of Machine Head. Advertisement Related Video “I wanted to keep some of those early Eternal Nightmare qualities intact but infuse a lot of what I’ve culled into my songwriting arsenal over the decades,” Demmel said in a ...
Judas Priest to Perform as Four-Piece, Dropping Andy Sneap from Their Touring Lineup
Judas Priest will play their upcoming tour as a four-piece after dropping guitarist and producer Andy Sneap from their live lineup. The legendary metal act’s rescheduled 2022 North American tour kicks off March 4th in Peoria, Illinois, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. Initially, a statement from the band suggested that the split was amicable, with Sneap leaving to concentrate on production — including work on Judas Priest’s next album. Judas Priest stated, “Hello maniacs! We are chomping at the British Steel bit to return to world touring… celebrating 50 years of Judas Priest as an an even more powerful, relentless four piece heavy metal band – with Glenn [Tipton] coming out on stage with us here and there as before. Big thanks to Andy for all you’ve done and continuing to be in th...
Corey Taylor Confirms New Slipknot Album and More for 2022
Corey Taylor has confirmed that Slipknot will release a new album in 2022. The band unleashed a new single, “The Chapeltown Rag,” back in November, and now fans can look forward to the follow-up to 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind sometime this year. The Slipknot singer took to Twitter over the weekend to disclose that the new Slipknot album and a few other projects are on tap for 2022. “Big Shit Coming, 2022 edition: ZvN updates, SK album, secret ‘homecoming’ plans, etc. Stay Tuned! ‘Hold On To Your Butts’ – Franklin D. Roosevelt.” In addition to “SK album” referring to the new Slipknot LP, “ZvN updates” touches on Taylor’s feature film, Zombie vs. Ninja, for which he wrote the script. Several months ago, Taylor had reported that he was looking for a director and that he expected filming to be...
Converge Announce 2022 US Tour with Full of Hell, Uniform, and Thou
Converge have announced a March 2022 US tour, and they’re bringing along heavy-hitting support acts Full of Hell, Uniform, and Thou. As previously reported, Converge were forced to drop off their tour with Meshuggah after the dates were rescheduled. Instead, Converge will headline a stacked bill of underground talent for 10 concerts throughout March. The trek kicks off March 10th in Philadelphia and wraps up on March 20th in Detroit, sticking mostly to the East Coast and Midwest. Get tickets via Ticketmaster. Advertisement Related Video Converge were supposed to be supporting Meshuggah during that span, but we’re certainly not complaining about the contingency plan. Due to the strength of the support acts, the order of the openers will change every night. “Attendees should arrive to the sh...
Bon Jovi Announce Spring 2022 US Tour
Hard rock icons Bon Jovi have announced a Spring 2022 US arena tour that spans 15 dates in April. The trek kicks off April 1st in Omaha, Nebraska, and runs through an April 30th date in Nashville. The route will hit markets in the Midwest, along the East Coast, and throughout the Southeast and Texas. Tickets go on sale to the general public January 14th at 10 a.m. local time in most markets, and can be purchased via Ticketmaster. Pre-sales will begin as early as January 11th. Related Video “We have all missed touring and we know that nothing can replace the energy of a live show for the fans or the band,” Jon Bon Jovi said via a press release. Advertisement The band was forced cancel its last major tour with Bryan Adams in April 2020 after pandemic lockdowns hit. Bon Jovi have played a han...
Slash: Guns N’ Roses Plan to Release “Entire Record’s Worth” of New Material
Guns N’ Roses released two new songs last year, and there’s more where that came from. In a new interview, Slash revealed that the legendary rock band will continue to release new material until a full album is completed. And fans won’t have to wait long. “There’s new Guns material coming out as we speak, and we’ll probably keep putting it out until the entire record’s worth of stuff is done and then put it out solid,” Slash told Classic Rock magazine. “It’s cool. I’m enjoying working on the stuff and having a good time doing it.” Related Video The guitarist rightly projected a 2021 release for Guns N’ Roses’ most recent singles: “Absurd” and “Hard Skool.” Both originated from the Chinese Democracy era, but were reworked by the band’s current lineup — particularly the guitar parts. Ev...
Cobra Kai Creators Really Want to Use Classic AC/DC Song But Can’t Afford It
Even the current No. 1 show on Netflix can’t afford AC/DC! Creators of the popular series Cobra Kai have been hoping to work the legendary rock band’s classic hit “Thunderstuck” into an episode over the course of its four seasons, but the price is too steep. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz revealed that he and the show’s other writers had “Thunderstuck” in mind for a montage in a Season 4 scene in which Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) puts Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) through some grueling Eagle Fang training. And it wasn’t the first time they wanted to feature the iconic 1990 tune. “We had ‘Thunderstruck’ written into the script,” explained Hurwitz. “We’ve written ‘Thunderstruck’ into the script several times over the years, and we’ve never...
Testament’s Alex Skolnick Forms New Rap Duo Hu$h Money, Condemns Right-Wing Echo Chambers in “B.I.G. L.I.E.”: Stream
Testament guitarist and unlikely political hip-hop prodigy Alex Skolnick has debuted his new rap group, Hu$h Money, and shared the video for the track “B.I.G. L.I.E.” Last year, Skolnick made headlines when he released a pair of politically-charged rap songs, one blasting Donald Trump and another encouraging us to “Wear a F**king Mask.” Now Skolnick has returned as his alter ego Skoly-D and teamed up with co-conspirator Kimmy G, aka Kimmy Gordon, for a full-blown rap project. “B.I.G. L.I.E.,” which also features guest rapper J-Hype, picks up where Skoly-D left off with his previous songs, this time taking on “right-wing echo chambers” and the political lunacy that provoked the Capital insurrection a year ago today (January 6th). The song comes complete with an equally tongue-in-cheek...
The Body and OAA Announce Collaborative Album, Share “Barren of Joy” Featuring Full of Hell’s Dylan Walker: Stream
The Body and producer OAA, aka AJ Wilson, have announced their debut collaborative album, Enemy of Love, out February 18th. With just over a month until the release date, they’ve also shared the lead single “Barren of Joy” featuring Full of Hell vocalist Dylan Walker. Year in and year out, The Body continue to offer up beguiling and adventurous heavy music that defies categorization. The duo of Lee Buford and Chip King frequently collaborate with like-minded artists to achieve their vision, having worked with Full of Hell, BIG|BRAVE, Uniform, and many more. For their latest collab, Buford and King teamed up with OAA, who had previously remixed a track for The Body’s 20th anniversary Remixed LP in 2019. True to its stark title, “Barren of Joy” is an uncompromising blast of free-form no...
Loathe Unleash New Song “Dimorphous Display”: Stream
Loathe have unleashed the new one-off single “Dimorphous Display,” their first non-instrumental track since 2020’s I Let It In and It Took Everything. “Dimorphous Display” is a bit of a departure for Loathe, who embrace a ’90s alternative aesthetic over the metallic leanings of their 2020 album. The saturated production and ambitious arrangement paint the band in a new light without compromising the dynamic songwriting. According to a press release, the UK experimental metal group worked with Eddie Al-Shakarchi at Giant Wafer Studios on “capturing the rawest incarnation of the Loathe sound to date.” The final version expands on a demo that was recorded after the sessions for I Let It In and It Took Everything. Advertisement Related Video “‘Dimorphous Display’ in its first iteration, had be...
