Heavy Metal
Heavy Resistance: A Playlist of Hard-Rocking Protest Songs
Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen a sea change across the nation and throughout the world. Millions of people have taken to the streets to protest against systemic racism, and the impact has been powerful. In heavy music, protest songs have provided strong condemnations of racism, oppression, war, authoritarianism, and more. Protest songs in heavy metal date back to the genre’s godfathers, Black Sabbath, who released the anti-war track “War Pigs” in 1970. Throughout the years, heavy music has produced hundreds of memorable protest anthems, with punk rock acts like The Clash and Sex Pistols leading the charge in the late ’70s, and hardcore bands like Bad Brains and Black Flag bringing the rebellion in the ’80s. In the ’90s, Rage Against the Machine took protest music to the masse...
Ho99o9 Unleash Grand Theft Auto-Style Music Video for New Song “Pigs Want Me Dead”: Watch
Industrial hip-hop act Ho99o9 (pronounced “horror”) have shared the music video for their brutal new single, “Pigs Want Me Dead”. The video was ostensibly made with Grand Theft Auto V and features the voice of comedian Eric Andre during the opening disclaimer. To be expected from a GTA-style video, it’s total carnage — like when your little cousin takes the controller and blows everything up instead of playing the actual missions. As the song title implies, Ho99o9’s avatar takes a particular interest in the rampant destruction of police property. As Andre warns in his voiceover, it’s chock-full of violence and explicit language, so viewer discretion is advised. Director Tyler Bradberry is behind the video, which is very timely given the current state of turmoil in the United States surroun...
Fender Launches New Player Offset Electric Guitar Models
Fender has announced new additions to its Player line of entry-level electric guitars. The Offset models are designed especially for aspiring guitarists playing “styles that thrive on nonconformity.” The Offset collection features some of Fender’s most bold and eccentric body styles, featuring the Mustang, Mustang 90, Mustang Bass PJ, and Duo-Sonic. Fender fans will recognize these shapes from the guitar company’s stable of iconic designs, but the Offset series brings a new level of accessibility. With their budget price point and smaller, lightweight bodies, the guitars are targeted toward beginner-to-intermediate level guitarists and female players, according to a Fender representative. “Each model delivers the signature Fender sound that has dominated the guitar scene for more than 70 y...
Alice Cooper Is Getting His Own … Chocolate Milk
Alice Cooper has been delivering shock-rock creepiness for 50 years, beheading himself thousands of times onstage along the way. Now, he’s ready to take a slice out of the chocolate milk business. That’s right, Alice Cooper is getting his own chocolate milk, and it’s all for a good cause. Proceeds from the sale of the chocolate milk will benefit the rocker’s nonprofit Solid Rock. The organization operates the Rock Teen Center in Phoenix, Arizona, providing free instruction in music and other creative arts to local teenagers. The rock legend is teaming up with Danzeisen Dairy to produce the chocolate milk, which bears Coopers’ image on the bottle. The milk will be sold at retailers and via home delivery across Arizona beginning this fall. The Solid Rock organization also mentioned in a Face...
How to Capture Opeth’s Guitar Sound
Opeth have become one of the most revered bands in modern metal due to an unceasing artistic drive. Chief songwriter and frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has steered the band through many styles and iterations over a highly successful career, rarely content to settle on any one genre or blanket sound. The death metal of Opeth’s early work gave way to more acoustic, expansive arrangements in latter years. Åkerfeldt would trade his death growls for the beautiful tenor that his new songs demanded. Whether metal or prog, there is always a sense of grandiosity to their performances and albums, a massive theatrical sound encompassing the music, artwork, and universe of Opeth. Opeth are foremost practitioners of sound design, a concept that takes a macro view of the musical whole, each instrument and so...
Rob Halford, Dave Grohl, Jack Black, and More Honor Ronnie James Dio in Video Marking Late Singer’s Birthday
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, Jack Black and several more artists are featured in a new compilation video honoring singer Ronnie James Dio. The late metal icon would have turned 78 years on Friday (July 10th). Many of the testimonials in the video are taken from the red carpet of various Dio-related charity events over the years, but it’s bookended by newly filmed clips from Halford and Butler paying respect to their fellow metal legend. “We connect all the time with [Ronnie’s] unbelievable voice and music,” says Halford in the video. “He was and always will be my friend, my mentor, and my hero.” Grohl calls Dio “one of the greatest singers of all time” and remembers watching him perform on TV as a kid. He recalls being so inspired by ...
Pallbearer Announce New Album Forgotten Days, Unveil Title Track: Stream
Doom metal act Pallbearer have announced their highly anticipated new album, Forgotten Days. To coincide with today’s announcement, the Arkansas quartet has also shared the music video for the title track in advance of the LP’s October 23rd release date. Pallbearer faithful have no fear: The band turns in a crushing track of vintage, riff-filled doom on “Forgotten Days”. The opening barrage of riffs, combined with singer/guitarist Brett Campbell’s slightly more nasal vocal delivery, make for Pallbearer’s most straight-up metal offering in years. A somber middle package recalls Jerry Cantrell’s melodic acoustic material, giving the track added depth and a musical reprieve from what is undoubtedly the band’s heaviest material since their now-legendary 2010 Demo. “Forgotten Days is us explori...
Static-X’s Project Regeneration Vol. 1 Properly Cements Wayne Static’s Legacy: Review
The Lowdown: In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Static-X were one of the bands the helped define that industrial/nu-metal era. Their debut album Wisconsin Death Trip went platinum with the video for “Push It” earning rotation on MTV (back when the channel still played videos). Over the next decade, Static X would release five more albums before drifting apart in 2009. When the band’s singer Wayne Static tragically passed away in 2014, it seemed to signal the end of Static-X forever; that was until original bassist Tony Campos uncovered demos of material that Wayne had been working on. Campos got together with fellow original members Ken Jay (drums) and Koichi Fukuda (guitar), and reworked the unearthed demos along with outtakes from previous albums. While there was an initial plan to recrui...
Kataklysm Announce New Album Unconquered, Unleash Lead Single “The Killshot”: Stream
Canadian death metal institution Kataklysm have announced their 14th studio album, Unconquered, which arrives on September 25th. As a preview, the band has shared the music video for the lead single, “The Killshot”. As the album title suggests, Kataklysm cannot be stopped, releasing album after album of consistent extreme metal. “The Killshot” adds another worthy piece to their already brimming canon of brutality. “‘The Killshot’ is very Machiavellian at its base meaning,” the band comments in a press release. “The song deals with revenge and planning it out, [we] wrote the song in an open interpretation because everyone has their own story that they can attach to it. “In general, the album deals with pain or setbacks, overcoming them and fighting back — especially in today’s situation, th...
Greg Puciato Sets Release Date for Solo Album, Shares New Song “Do You Need Me to Remind You?”: Stream
Greg Puciato has set an October 23rd release date for his upcoming solo album, Child Soldier: Creator of God. The former Dillinger Escape Plan singer has also shared the video for a new single called “Do You Need Me to Remind You?” Each track we’ve heard thus far reveals a different shade to Puciato’s forthcoming LP. Following the dark, sinister “Deep Set”, the new single, “Do You Need Me to Remind You?” is another heavy hitting track with sludged-out guitars and space for Puciato’s vocal talents. When the guitars drop out after the intro, his voice soars throughout he sudden openness in the mix, as drummer Chris Hornbrook continues pounding away. “It felt as if I had more to say, but nothing that necessarily filled the script of [my various] bands,” Puciato says of the solo material...
Avatar Unveil Video for Dark New Song “Colossus”: Stream
Avatar have released another song off their upcoming album, Hunter Gatherer. The new track, “Colossus”, comes with chugging riffs and rhythms, plus a disturbing music video. Vocalist Johannes Eckerström starts the clip off with a haunting prologue, stating, “The human soul can be found within a single cell. It’s like how the essence of a painting can be seen in a single brushstroke. Our drive to force our will upon the world is in shackles, as no thought is truly free.” As he ends his prologue, the band launches in with groovy rhythms, choppy guitars, and a mile-high chorus, making this a solid metal anthem. Visually, the music video depicts a body-less robot frustratingly trying to assemble some items, as a tiny human becomes a casualty of the process. “The accompanying video for ‘Colossu...
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...