Heavy Consequence
Meshuggah Announce 2022 US Tour with Converge and Torche
Swedish metal veterans Meshuggah have announced a 2022 US tour with support from Converge and Torche. The 19-date outing will launch in late February. Meshuggah have been going strong for nearly 35 years, having formed in 1987, and are pioneers of extreme tech-metal. The entire tour lineup is impressive and intriguing, with Converge being one of the early architects of metalcore, and Torche earning acclaim over the past 15 years for their eclectic mix of sludge and melody. The tour kicks off February 23rd in Silver Spring, Maryland, and runs through a March 20th show in Atlanta. Related Video A press release announcing the tour also revealed that Meshuggah recently entered Sweetspot Studios in Sweden to record their ninth album, the follow-up to their 2016 album The Violent Sleep of Reason...
Tenacious D, Rob Halford, Sammy Hagar, Lzzy Hale Join Ronnie James Dio Virtual Birthday Fundraiser
Tenacious D, Rob Halford, Sammy Hagar, and Lzzy Hale are among the new guests added to the Ronnie James Dio virtual birthday fundraiser. The stream goes live at 2 p.m. PT on July 10th. Metal luminaries, friends of the Dio family, and fans will partake in the global livestream celebration to raise funds and awareness for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund. This will include one-of-a-kind performances, birthday messages, and artist interviews celebrating the late singer’s life of heavy metal and philanthropy. Previously announced guests included Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, members of Guns N’ Roses, and many more. In addition to the previously named guests, a plethora of others have also been added to the roster: Sebastian Bach, John Bush (Armored Saint); Mikkey Dee (Scorpio...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Kris Esfandiari of King Woman
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. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” under the moniker Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Kris Esfandiari of King Woman. King Woman’s new album, Celestial Blues, delves into heavy themes of suffering, spirituality and, ultimately, triumph. The ethereal doom band, led by Kris Esfandiari, releases its sophomore set July 30th via Relapse Records, following up the 2017 debut, Created in the Image of Suffering. Esfandiari grew up in a cult-like religious environment filled with stories of demons and exo...
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Surpasses 1 Billion Spotify Streams
NIrvana’s game-changing single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify, a rare feat for a heavy rock song. The achievement comes just a few months before the band’s landmark 1991 album Nevermind celebrates its 30th anniversary. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” changed the face of rock music as the first single released from Nevermind. The song and its iconic music video helped open the floodgates for grunge and alternative rock at a time when hair metal and pop ruled the MTV and radio airwaves. The song joins Linkin Park’s “In the End” among the more than 150 tracks that make up Spotify’s “Billions Club”, most of which are of the modern pop and hip-hop variety. A few songs from Queen (“Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Don’t Stop Me Now”) are als...
Babymetal Announce Budokan Live Album and Director’s Cut Livestream
Babymetal have announced a new live album, 10 Babymetal Budokan, recorded at the legendary Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, in addition to a director’s cut livestream of the performances. The album is out October 1st, while the streaming event goes live July 24th at 3 p.m. ET and will be viewable through July 25th at midnight PT. The Japanese pop-metal act began 2021 by continuing its 10th anniversary celebration with a series of 10 shows at Budokan. Those performances were culled into the “10 Babymetal Budokan World Premiere” livestream that recently aired. The director’s cut “encore” promises an alternate take on the initial concert film, with new cuts and visual edits. The Budokan shows followed meticulous COVID guidelines and safety restrictions, with Babymetal offering concertgoers “Saviour M...
R.I.P. Johnny Solinger, Ex-Skid Row Singer Dies at 55
Johnny Solinger, the longest tenured singer of Skid Row, died Saturday (June 26th) at the age of 55. The rock vocalist had announced that he was suffering from liver failure in May. A statement from Skid Row read, “We are saddened to hear the news of our brother Johnny Solinger. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and fans. Godspeed Singo. Say hello to Scrappy for us.” Solinger became Skid Row’s singer when the when the multiplatinum rock band re-formed in 1999 without vocalist Sebastian Bach following their 1996 breakup. He recorded two studio albums (2003’s Thickskin and 2006’s Revolutions Per Minute) and two EPs (United World Rebellion: Chapter 1 and Rise of the Damnation Army – United World Rebellion: Chapter Two) with Skid Row before being fired from the group in 2015. Related V...
Marilyn Manson to Surrender to Police on Warrant for Alleged Assault
Marilyn Manson is set to turn himself in to the Los Angeles Police Department on a New Hampshire warrant for his arrest, stemming from an alleged assault in which the singer is accused of repeatedly spitting on a videographer during a concert in 2019. The incident is not related to the allegations of sexual assault brought against Manson by numerous women in recent months. According to the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, Manson has reached an agreement with the police department in Guilford, New Hampshire, to surrender to the LAPD at a prearranged date, at which time he will be booked and go through the bail process. He’ll then be ordered to appear at a New Hampshire court for arraignment, likely in August. The incident in question occurred at Manson’s August 18, 2019 concert at the Ba...
High on Fire’s Matt Pike Announces Head on a Pike Illustrated Lyrics Book
High on Fire frontman Matt Pike has announced a new illustrated lyrics book, Head on a Pike: The Illustrated Lyrics of Matt Pike. It arrives in bookstores November 9th. The tome collects lyrics and poetry spanning Pike’s years as a member of Sleep and as the principal songwriter in High on Fire. “When I started singing, it changed the way I had to write music,” Pike told the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Knopper via the book’s press release. “I started realizing I was a natural at it. I was always a good creative writer, but words started coming to me immediately — when I get one line, fast, I start getting (full songs) down…lots of them will be metaphoric. I get really complicated when I start writing — my brain goes two different ways.” Related Video Accompanying Pike’s words are brand ne...
Mining Metal: Take Over and Destroy, Avtotheism, Boss Keloid, Code, Pharaoh, Siderean, Witch Cross, Witch Vomit
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. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many anticipated that a year or more without touring would prompt musicians to create a surplus of material to be released afterward. Now that America’s becoming increasingly vaccinated, that prediction looks to be panning out. Not only are there a slew of spectacular releases on the horizon (and I don’t just mean Carcass, though their new song “Kelly’s Meat Emporium” is a must-listen), but many of them come from bands that never broke up but also haven’t been particularly active, eith...
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...
Bad Religion and Alkaline Trio Announce Rescheduled 2021 US Tour
Bad Religion and Alkaline Trio will finally get the chance to embark on their co-headlining tour after postponing the outing due to the pandemic. The originally scheduled trek was supposed to kick off in March 2020, the same month the concert industry shut down, but will now launch this October. The newly rescheduled 30-date tour kicks off October 15th in Riverside, California, then makes its way east before returning to the West Coast for a final gig on November 26th in Los Angeles. War on Women will serve as support for the entire run. “This tour is special,” said Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin in a press release. “Not only are we celebrating the return of live music, but we get to do it with Alkaline Trio, who are such a great band, really excited about this!” Related Video Alkaline T...
Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler Announces Solo Box Set and Greatest Hits Album
Legendary Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has announced the Manipulations of the Mind solo box set and a separate greatest hits album. Both arrive on July 30th. The box set spans four CDs and collects Butler’s three solo albums, Plastic Planet (1995), Black Science (1997), and Ohmwork (2005) — each having been previously reissued individually on vinyl. A fourth CD houses rare and mostly unreleased material. The box set is perfect for completionists, but if you’re looking for a quick sampler of the legendary bassist’s solo work, the standalone The Very Best of Geezer Butler compilation houses 17 highlights form the three LPs chosen by Butler himself. Free from the creative limits of Black Sabbath, Butler explored the full breadth of modern heavy metal on his solo albums. This ...
