Heavy Metal
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Johanna Platow Andersson of Lucifer
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” with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Johanna Platow Andersson of Lucifer. Lucifer craft a unique brand of music, combining the dark, sludgy sounds of ’70s hard rock with a dose of modern doom metal. The band was formed in 2014 by singer Johanna Platow Andersson and has since performed hundreds of shows around the world, from the Kiss Kruise to Psycho Las Vegas to Sweden Rock. The band released its latest album, Lucifer IV, in October via Century Media. For He...
Ozzy Osbourne Announces CryptoBatz NFT Collection
Ozzy Osbourne has delved into the world of crypto, announcing the new CryptoBatz NFT collection. The Prince of Darkness is the latest rocker to dabble in the NFT game, and he’s doing it in style. The CryptoBatz collection features 9,666 totally unique and surefire-collectible NFT bats commemorating the time Ozzy infamously bit the head off one of the winged nocturnal creatures during a concert. But these aren’t your ordinary, static NFTs. Advertised as a “world-first feature,” the CryptoBatz have the unique ability to “bite” another NFT from the collection, rendering “MutantBatz” that combine attributes from each NFT. Each bats’ traits have been creatively directed by Ozzy. Related Video “I’ve been trying to get in on the NFT action for a while so when I asked Sharon for a Bored Ape for Ch...
Dave Mustaine Teases New Megadeth Song “Life in Hell” from Upcoming Album: Listen
Dave Mustaine has offered up a holiday treat in the form of a snippet of the new song “Life in Hell” from Megadeth’s upcoming album. The frontman shared the brief audio clip in a Cameo video for a fan named Gabe. While Megadeth’s new album still doesn’t have a release date, Mustaine has mentioned that the LP is slated to be titled The Sick, The Dying and The Dead. While Mustaine tells Gabe he’s the first person in the “outside world” to hear music from the new album, the metal legend did share a snippet of the title track in a previous Cameo video for a fan named Joe back in July. In the new Cameo clip, Mustaine wishes Gabe a Merry Christmas before telling him, “I will play you something that’s been recorded already and is special. How would you like to hear a little bit of the new album? ...
Mining Metal: Top 10 Underground Metal Albums of 2021
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. For the December edition, Joseph and Langdon pick their Top 10 Underground Metal Albums of 2021. We thought this year was going to be the mother lode — and it was. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, we predicted that many bands working on albums would hold onto them for a year, expecting the global crisis to end in time for a celebratory 2021 album drop and profitable summer/fall tour. Obviously, some of those predictions fell though, though we did get big summer festivals like Psycho Las Vegas returning, and ...
Sammy Hagar Says He Was Once Asked to Join Pantera (and Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe and Velvet Revolver)
If Sammy Hagar joined every band he was asked to be in, he could have fronted every act on one of the greatest theoretical one-day rock festivals himself. The Red Rocker says in a new interview that he was approached by Pantera’s manager to join the legendary metal group as their singer, and it’s certainly not the only time he’s been asked to sing for a high-profile band. Of course, Hagar will forever be known as one of the most notable replacement singers of all time, taking David Lee Roth’s spot in Van Halen. Granted, he already had a very successful solo career at the time. Hagar took a recent ride in Pantera’s old limousine, which was gifted to radio host Jose Mangin by the estates of late brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul. Advertisement Related Video “How about if I tell you so...
Meshuggah Reschedule 2022 US Tour Due to Health Issue Within Band
Swedish extreme metal veterans Meshuggah have pushed their early winter headlining 2022 US tour to the fall due to a health issue affecting one of the band members. As a result of the new itinerary, direct support act Converge will no longer be on the bill, but openers Torche will remain on board. Meshuggah’s US outing was set to kick off February 23rd and run through March 20th. Instead, it will launch September 16th in Worcester, Massachusetts, and wrap up October 16th in Atlanta, Georgia. Current ticket-holders will be admitted into the rescheduled gigs, while others can purchase tickets via Ticketmaster. In a Facebook post announcing the postponement, Meshuggah explained that one of their members is “undergoing medical treatment related to a skin condition on his hands.” The full state...
Overkill Announce 2022 US Tour with Prong
Thrash metal cult heroes Overkill have announced a March 2022 US tour with support from Prong. The 16-show outing will hit venues across the Midwest and East Coast, kicking off March 3rd in Poughkeepsie, New York, and running through a March 19th date in Stroudsburgh, Pennsylvania. Get tickets via Ticketmaster. The New Jersey-based Overkill are still touring in support of 2019’s The Wings of War, their latest studio album. However, the veteran band is also celebrating the recent release of a 6-LP box set, The Atlantic Years 1986-1996, collecting Overkill’s major-label studio albums from that time. Related Video Overkill are also hard at work on a new album, with bassist D.D. Verni telling Misplaced Straws in September, “We’re recording it right now, a good portion of it’s done. It keeps ge...
Metallica Dig Out More Deep Cuts for Second and Final 40th Anniversary Show: Review
Setting the Stage: The first night of Metallica’s two 40th anniversary shows at in San Francisco’s Chase Center delivered a strong career-spanning set, so expectations ran high for Night 2 a couple of evenings later (Sunday, December 19th). Once more, no special guests were present for this final performance (unlike their 30th anniversary concerts), but quite a few setlist surprises occurred. Similar to the first night, the setlist was constructed in a manner that featured a tune or two from each album chronologically. But, this night, instead of starting from 1983’s Kill ‘Em All and running through 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, it was set up in reverse order, starting with the band’s last album and finishing up with selections from their debut. Taking the Stage: As with the fi...
Shadows Fall Reunite to Play First Show in Six Years: Watch
Shadows Fall reunited for their first show in six years on Saturday (December 18th) at The Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts. The influential metalcore band had previously announced the one-off concert in its home state way back in June. Before that, we hadn’t heard much of anything from the Shadows Fall camp since the group went on hiatus following gigs in 2015 — although guitarist Jon Donais has been keeping busy as a member of Anthrax the past several years. The celebratory reunion show featured a stacked lineup with support from Unearth, Darkest Hour, Within the Ruins, Sworn Enemy, and Carnivora. As for the headliners, Shadows Fall sound like they’re in fine form based on the audience footage recorded during their set. Advertisement Related Video The band played a 16-song, car...
In Photos: Bands Featuring Sons of Metallica’s Hetflied, Ulrich, and Trujillo Team Up for San Francisco Gig
As part of Metallica’s “San Francisco Takeover” to mark their 40th anniversary, a handful of club gigs were announced to surround the metal titans’ massive shows at the Chase Center. One of those shows included three bands — OTTTO, Taipei Houston, and Bastardane — with each featuring at least one son of a Metallica member. The gig took place Saturday night (December 18th) at The Chapel, with Bastardane taking the stage first. Based out of Savannah, Georgia, the group features drummer Castor Hetfield, son of Metallica frontman James Hetfield. The trio had a sound that was just as much thrash metal influenced as it was hard rock, and put on an impressive set. Next up were Taipei Houston, a two-piece whose members Myles (drummer) and Layne (singer-bassist) are the sons of Lars Ulrich. Althoug...
Metallica Rep Every Album At First of Two 40th Anniversary Shows: Concert Review + Photos
Setting the Stage: It’s hard to believe, but it has been 40 years since thrash legends Metallica first formed. And to celebrate this impressive career accomplishment, the band — frontman James Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Robert Trujillo, and drummer Lars Ulrich — booked two arena shows (December 17th and 19th) at San Francisco’s Chase Center. When those concerts quickly sold out, the metal titans announced they were making the shows available to stream for free via Prime Video and Amazon Music. Unlike their livestreams from last year, including the charity show Helping Hands Concert & Auction, Live & Acoustic from HQ, each night of the “40th Anniversary Live” performances is taking place in front of a sold-out arena, with tickets initially being made available exclusi...
Top 30 Metal & Hard Rock Songs of 2021
The 2021 edition of our Annual Report continues with our list of the Top 30 Metal & Hard Rock Songs of 2021. As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. Another heavy year deserves another heavy soundtrack of standout songs. While we still find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, our favorite acts continue to churn out tunes that stir inspiration, hope, anger, rage, sadness, and all the emotions that go with the uncertain world in which we live. Music serves as an escape we need during difficult times, briefly diverting our attention from the daily grind or reminding us that there is still beauty in the world, no matter the circumstances. In 2021, we were once again blessed ...
