Heavy Metal
Petition Launched to Replace Statue of Robert E. Lee with GWAR’s Oderus Urungus in Richmond, Virginia
Amid the protests taking place in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in police custody, some long-standing statues are not fairing very well. Now, a new petition calls for a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, to be replaced with one of late GWAR leader Oderus Urungus. In recent days, statues of Christopher Columbus have been toppled and beheaded in Richmond and Boston, respectively, with protesters citing the explorer’s involvement in the genocide of Native Americans. In England, a statue of known slave-trader Edward Colston was destroyed and thrown into a river, and in Belgium, a statue of King Leopold II was removed because of his oppressive rule over the Congo. As Metal Injection reports, onetime GWAR dancer / backup vocalist Slymenstra Hymen (aka Dan...
2021 Rock am Ring and Rock im Park Festivals: System of a Down, Green Day, and Volbeat to Headline
The massive twin festivals Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in Germany were among the major events canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, organizers have announced the initial details of the 2021 fests, with planned 2020 headliners System of a Down, Green Day, and Volbeat all agreeing to sign on for next year’s events. Rock am Ring and Rock im Park were set to celebrate their 35th and 25th anniversaries, respectively, this year. In addition to System of a Down, Green Day, and Volbeat, the 2020 lineups would have also featured Deftones, Korn, Disturbed, Weezer, The Offspring, and many more acts. As of now, only the three headliners are confirmed, with the rest of the 2021 artists yet to be announced. Rock am Ring and Rock im Park will take place concurrently on the weekend of June 11th-13...
Metallica Concert to Kick Off New “OffStage With DWP” Streaming Series
Festival promoter Danny Wimmer Presents has been hit hard this year, forced to cancel the majority of its popular rock festivals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the company is taking its business online, launching a new streaming series that will kick off with a full Metallica concert. Over the past couple of months, Danny Wimmer Presents has canceled the spring U.S. rock fests Welcome to Rockville, Epicenter, and Sonic Temple, as well as the fall fests Louder Than Life, Boubon & Beyond, and Hometown Rising. As of now, the only festival still on DWP’s schedule for 2020 is Aftershock, set for October in Sacramento, California. The new series, dubbed “Offstage with DWP”, combines footage from the promoter’s past festivals, with newly recorded acoustic performances and interviews. Meta...
Inter Arma Unveil Cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “March of the Pigs”: Stream
Inter Arma recently announced a covers EP titled Garbers Days Revisited, and now they’ve unveiled the second single from the forthcoming release: a metallic version of the Nine Inch Nails classic “March of the Pigs”. In a press release, Inter Arma acknowledged that it could be construed that the timing of the single is tied to the current unrest across the nation, where protests have broken out following the death of George Floyd in police custody. In fact, the band actually quietly released the song last week, but didn’t announce it until today. “We released our cover of Nine Inch Nails’ ‘March of the Pigs’ this past Tuesday, but felt it would have been inappropriate to latch onto the outrage we’re all experiencing to promote a cover album, even if by happenstance,” stated the band. ...
#MetallicaMondays: Watch Metallica’s Rain-Soaked 2019 Manchester Show
Metallica’s weekly streaming series #MetallicaMondays continues with the band’s full June 2019 concert at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England. The show was played in the pouring rain, as the band and fans braved the weather for 18 songs, including five from “The Black Album” and four from their latest LP, Hardwired … To Self-Destruct. As they did throughout the tour, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo paid tribute to a local act, this time performing a portion of The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored”. Like all bands, Metallica are currently off the road due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they may start work on a follow-up to Hardwired … To Self-Destruct. During a recent online video chat, drummer Lars Ulrich said that if the concert industry ends up being shut down for six...
International Day of Slayer Celebrated with On-Demand Release of Repentless Killogy Movie
International Day of Slayer is celebrated annually on June 6th, and this year it features the on-demand release of the band’s 2019 movie The Repentless Killogy. This year marks the 18th annual International Day of Slayer. The special day (6/6 — closest date to 666) has seen fans skip work or school to listen to the legendary thrash band’s music all day. And beginning Saturday, fans who didn’t catch The Repentless Killogy in theaters or purchase the Blu-ray can now stream it via video on demand. The VOD stream is available via the band’s website for the appropriate price of $6.66 for 48 hours of access. The Repentless Killogy is essentially two movies in one, combining a narrative story that weaves together the ultra-violent music videos from the band’s Repentless album with a full concert ...
Justin Chancellor Writing “Interesting” New Tool Riffs, Collaborating with Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy
Tool bassist Justin Chancellor has been keeping busy with multiple projects during the pandemic, one of which is writing “interesting riffs” for his main band. Among his other ventures is “bouncing some ideas around” with Bauhaus legend Peter Murphy. While checking in from lockdown with Bass Magazine, Chancellor offered up a glimpse of what his day-to-day life has been like since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Tool off the road. The bassist disclosed that he’s been cleaning up his house and gardening, as well as restoring a 15-foot Statue of Liberty head movie prop that he “purchased years ago on a tipsy impulse.” When asked about his current and upcoming projects, Chancellor responded, “I’m working on tracks for a second MTVoid album/EP with Peter Mohamed, who is in Poland. It looks like it...
System of a Down’s Serj Tankian to President Trump: “Run Donny Run Into Your Bunker”
Members of System of a Down have posted strong reactions to the protests and rioting going on in response to the death of George Floyd. Singer Serj Tankian focuses his anger on President Trump, while drummer John Dolmayan is calling out celebrities for supporting looters and violent rioters. Multiple cities are experiencing daily protests, riots, and looting in reaction to Floyd’s death under custody of the Minneapolis police officers, and reports have come out that President Trump took shelter in a White House bunker while violence erupted in Washington, D.C. Seeing those headlines, Tankian took to Instagram to ridicule the president and express his feelings on the protests: “Run Donny run into your bunker. You may be the first US President to do so out of fear of your own citizens. A rea...
10-Year-Old Girl Rocks Rage Against the Machine in Support of Black Lives Matter: Watch
The very talented Nandi Bushell has offered her support of Black Lives Matter and the fight against racism with a multi-instrumental cover of the Rage Against the Machine classic “Guerrilla Radio.” The 10-year-old musician rocked the drums, bass, and guitar for the performance. This is certainly not the first we’ve seen of Bushell. The UK pre-teen previously wowed us with a drum cover of Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows”, which received an endorsement from QOTSA themselves. And her YouTube channel features dozens of more impressive performances. Her Rage Against the Machine cover comes with a poignant message during these tumultuous times, with protests raging across America and the world following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. A description of the performance o...
Mining Metal: Ara, Cryptic Shift, Goden, Lascar, Mekong Delta, Oozing Wound, Patrons of the Rotting Gate, Xibalba
“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. This month’s mining metal veers away from the traditional and toward the esoteric. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many labels have postponed hotly awaited releases for months or indefinitely. Because of this, bands not beholden to (or resistant to) commercial scheduling take the lead — Chilean black metal and Irish progressive deathcore, both the passion projects of independent musicians, lead the pack here. Musicians with long histories on the fringes take center stage, such as German neoclassical thrashers...
Faith No More and Korn Co-Headlining US Tour Officially Canceled Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Faith No More and Korn have officially canceled their co-headlining U.S. tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The outing would have marked Faith No More’s first US tour in five years. The late-summer tour was scheduled to kick off August 7th in Denver, and run through a September 17th show in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Daron Malakian’s Scars on Broadway, Helmet, Spotlights, and ’68 were set to support various dates. The tour is being outright canceled, and will not be postponed or rescheduled. A statement from Faith No More’s Facebook reads, “The Faith No More & Korn Summer Tour will unfortunately no longer be taking place. It is with heavy hearts that we came to this decision out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our fans, crew, and fellow artists.” The statement conti...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Blasts “Defund the Police” Movement as “Stupidest Thing I’ve Heard”
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has been very open about his political beliefs in the midst of protests across the country. Now, he’s blasting the “Defund the Police” movement as “probably the stupidest thing [he’s] heard.” Last week, Dolmayan made headlines when he called President Trump the “greatest friend to minorities” around the same time his bandmate Serj Tankian called for the protesters to “force the [Trump] regime to resign.” In a 13-minute Instagram video posted over the weekend, Dolmayan addressed the backlash he has received since that post, while also outlining his positions on a variety of socio-political issues. As far as the differences between him and his bandmates, particularly Tankian, Dolmayan said, “We have differing opinions in System of a Down. That shouldn’t...