Heavy Metal
Lemmy’s Ashes Were Placed in Bullets and Given to His Closest Friends
The late Lemmy Kilmister was indeed the coolest man on Earth, even in death. Per the legendary Motörhead frontman’s request, his ashes were placed in bullets and delivered to his closest friends and associates. Now, that’s metal — literally! The revelation comes courtesy of Riki Rachtman, the onetime host of the MTV show Headbangers Ball. On Monday (March 22nd), Rachtman shared a photo of a bullet with “LEMMY” engraved on it, writing, “Before his death #Lemmy asked for his ashes to be put in some bullets & handed out to his closest friends. Today, I received a bullet & was literally brought to tears. Thank you, @myMotorhead.” Rachtman’s post follows one on Instagram from last year by former professional tennis player Pat Cash that is now getting attention. Cash shared a pic of anot...
Ministry Announce Fall 2021 US Tour with Helmet and Front Line Assembly
With the hope that touring will resume in earnest by the fall, Ministry have announced new dates for their “Industrial Strength Tour”, which will feature support from Helmet and Front Line Assembly. The twice-delayed outing commemorates the 30th anniversary of Ministry’s 1989 album, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste. The month-long trek kicks off October 3rd in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The route veers east before looping back across the South and West Coast, hitting most major U.S. markets. The tour was originally set to launch in July 2020, with Front Line Assembly and KMFDM supporting. It was then moved to spring 2021 due to the pandemic. Now. with Helmet in place of KMFDM, the band is banking on finally embarking on the outing in the fall. KMFDM had to drop from the bill due to the ...
Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer Ordered Jailed Without Bond Until His Trial for Storming the Capitol Begins
Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer will remain jailed until his trial begins for his role in storming the U.S. Capitol building. A federal judge ruled that the metal musician must be held behind bars without bond during a bail hearing on Friday (March 19th). According to Indiana TV station WUSA-9, Schaffer appeared for the Washington, D.C. hearing via a video link. The veteran rocker was one of the many people arrested for the riot that broke out on January 6th. He faces six charges, including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. He allegedly used bear spray on Capitol police during the insurrection. The guitarist’s attorney read a statement on his behalf, saying that Schaffer admits he “used bad judgement” and wishes he had a “do-over.” The lawyer also argued that...
Serj Tankian on His New Elasticity EP: “I Definitely Thought These Songs Would Have Worked Out for System”
Serj Tankian has just released his new solo EP, Elasticity. The title is inspired, in part, by System of a Down’s landmark 2001 album,Toxicity, and the singer has made no secret about the songs being originally intended for his acclaimed metal band. The collection features five new songs, including the recent singles “Elasticity” and “Electric Yerevan”. One listen to the EP, and it’s not difficult to see how these tracks would have fit nicely into the System of a Down canon. Tankian approached System with these songs a few years back, and as he explained to Heavy Consequence, the band members even worked on a few of them. However, ultimately creative differences led to any recording plans coming to a standstill. We asked Tankian what he felt more: regret about not recording the songs with ...
R.I.P. Corey Steger, Founding Underoath Guitarist Dies in Car Accident
Guitarist Corey Steger, one of the original members of Florida metalcore act Underoath, has died in a car accident. The tragic news was reported by Dallas Taylor, another founding member of band. Steger joined singer Taylor, guitarist Luke Morton, bassist Rey Anasco, and drummer Aaron Gillespie in Underoath’s original lineup in 1998, remaining with the band through 2001. He appeared on their first two albums, 1999’s Act of Depression and 2000’s Cries of the Past. Taylor, who parted ways with Underoath in 2003, shared the devastating news of Steger’s death on Instagram, writing the following: “I don’t know how to type this. I’m without words. Yesterday 3/17/2021 at around 6:00 p.m. Corey Steger one of the original founding members of Underoath was rear ended in a car wreck, and went home to...
Serj Tankian Releases New Solo EP Elasticity: Stream
Serj Tankian has unveiled his new solo EP, Elasticity, featuring five new songs he had originally hoped to record with his multiplatinum band System of a Down. The EP Is available to stream in its entirety below. “When I conceived possibly doing another record with the guys from System of a Down a few years back, I started working on a set of songs that I arranged in rock format for that purpose,” Tankian explained in a press release. “As we weren’t able to see eye to eye on the vision going forward with an SOAD album, I decided to release these songs under my moniker.” It’s easy to see how these songs would have fit within the System of a Down mold, as they have a quirky metal vibe reminiscent of the band’s acclaimed musical output. The track “Your Mom” is especially in the System vein, a...
Bill Ward Would Love to Record a New Black Sabbath Album with the Original Lineup
Founding Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has said he would “love to” record one more studio album with his former band. Ward parted ways with the group in 2012, prior to Sabbath recording their most recent album, 13, and embarking on their farewell tour. Ward was originally supposed to be aboard for the tour and the album but he departed citing contractual issues. Ozzy Osbourne later alleged that Ward was physically unfit for the tour. Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk performed drums on the album, while Tommy Clufetos played drums on the final tour. It’s been nearly 10 years since Ward’s exit, and now the drummer has floated the idea about making another record with his old band. Speaking with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, Ward — who turns 73 in May — said he definitely wouldn’t be able to e...
Grammys 2021: Body Count Win Best Metal Performance, Earning Ice-T His First Grammy in 30 Years
Body Count won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance on Sunday, earning frontman Ice-T his first award at the ceremony in 30 years. The band won the award for “Bum Rush”, from their 2020 album, Carnivore. The veteran metal act beat out fellow nominees Code Orange, In This Moment, Poppy, and Power Trip for the award. Power Trip were nominated following the tragic death of lead singer Riley Gale this past summer, and Ice-T would have been just as happy if they had won. As he told Heavy Consequence last year, he was equally rooting for Power Trip, telling us, “It would be just like I won the Grammy ’cause [Riley Gale] was my guy.” Prior to Gale’s passing, the Power Trip vocalist guested on Body Count’s song “Point the Finger”. The Grammy win for Body Count is their first as a band, and the fi...
School Teacher Goes Viral for Awesome Korn Version of the Alphabet Song: Watch
A metal-loving school teacher has reinvented the alphabet song, and he’s blowing up TikTok in the process. Nick Harrison’s aggro version of the ABCs, set to Korn’s “Coming Undone”, even got the attention of the pioneering nu-metal band’s singer, Jonathan Davis. Harrison, who goes by the TikTok handle MrProfessor318, titled his video “My audition for School of Rock 2,” and it features the educator going full-on headbanger from A to Z. The loud lesson in literacy has earned Harrison more than 130,000 likes as of this posting. Davis shared the clip on his Instagram Stories, and Harrison acknowledged the Korn singer’s shout out in follow-up TikToks. “When Jonathan Davis, the lead singer of Korn, of course, posts your video to his Instagram story — I can’t even talk, man!,” the teacher exclaime...
20 Years Ago, Opeth Unleashed the Progressive Death Metal Masterpiece Blackwater Park
Despite being an exceptional concept album, Opeth’s fourth album, 1999’s Still Life, failed to garner enough industry attention to fully reward the amount of hard work and hope they’d been put into it. Even so, their recent signing with Peaceville Records and increased touring opportunities meant that mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt and company still felt hopeful that their big break was just over the horizon. Luckily, that turned out to be true, as 2001’s Blackwater Park was not just a major steppingstone for the Swedish troupe, but also a huge leap forward for extreme metal as a whole. Part of the reason for why was that Opeth was forced to leave Peaceville and move to Music for Nations / Koch, resulting in an expansion of distribution and promotional prospects. At first, Åkerfeldt was unhap...
Eyehategod’s A History of Nomadic Behavior Delivers a Fresh Batch of Potent Sludge: Review
The Lowdown: Few myths have been beaten into the ground as badly as the adage that rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to represent danger. Within metal specifically, cultivating a dark aura is so par for the course that it’s actually one of the safest routes artists can take. Nevertheless, when the New Orleans sludgecore outfit Eyehategod roared their way to prominence in the ‘90s with albums like In the Name of Suffering and Dopesick, the woefulness that pervaded their music came from a genuine place. Where the majority of their peers tended toward exaggerated expressions of anger, Eyehategod’s forays into addiction, mental illness, and despair didn’t come across as an affectation, but as a raw glimpse into the human condition that cut all the way to the bone. Eyehategod didn’t need to draw from t...
Korn to Stream Concert from Set of Stranger Things: Drive-Into Experience
Korn have announced a livestream performance, dubbed “Korn: Monumental”, that will see the band performing from within the setting of Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience in Los Angeles. The concert goes live globally on April 24th. The virtual show is Korn’s first livestream event. To celebrate the occasion, they’ll be playing rare deep cuts and select tracks from 2019’s The Nothing for the first time ever, as the band was unable to properly tour in support of its most recent album due the pandemic. “We hope you take part in this experience with us,” frontman Jonathan Davis said in a press release. “And though it is not the same as performing live with you here, we still want to bring you some great music and a fun show.” Korn will be performing amidst scenes from the popular Netfli...
