Heavy Metal
Iron Maiden Announce New Live Album, Begin Work on New Music
Iron Maiden’s “Legacy of the Beast Tour” was an epic occasion. And like most of the band’s high profile tours, it will be immortalized as a live album, with the band announcing Nights of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Live in Mexico, which arrives November 20th. The album was culled from Iron Maiden’s three sold-out arena shows in Mexico City in September 2019, during the heart of the band’s lengthy “Legacy of the Beast” trek. Clocking in at over 100 minutes, the tracklist encompasses the band’s setlist from the tour and is a perfect way to relive the experience. Heavy Consequence caught the tour in Brooklyn last year and we came away astounded. Even by Maiden’s standards, it was a massive production, featuring a stage-sized bomber plane, flamethrowers, and twirling guitars. Per its “Legac...
Boris Announce High-Res Digital Reissues of Vein, Präparat, and Eternity
Boris have been archiving past releases on Bandcamp throughout the course of the year. Now, the Japanese metal band are unearthing high-res digital reissues of vein (2006), präparat (2013), and the 2018 live recording eternity, all of which will be available starting October 2nd. The reissues mark the first time the albums will be available in high-res 24-bit audio, which can be selected as a downloadable format when you purchase a release via Bandcamp. Back in August, Boris unearthed rare recordings as part of their six-volume Archive series, culling their many one-off experimental recordings into one intuitive anthology. The many sides of Boris are apparent on vein, präparat, and eternity. On the 2006 version of vein (it’s been recorded and released a few times by the band over the years...
Singer Alex Varkatzas Parts Ways with Atreyu
Alex Varkatzas, photo by Thaib A. Wahab Atreyu have announced that founding singer Alex Varkatzas has parted ways with the band. The metalcore act delivered the news via its social media pages on Wednesday (September 30th), promising that the group “will not disappear.” Varkatzas was Atreyu’s vocalist since the band formed in 1998 in Anaheim, California. His passionate screams were a staple of the band’s metalcore style. In fact, in 2018, Varkatzas claimed Atreyu had invented metalcore, comments that raised some eyebrows in the scene. The band issued a statement on social media announcing the split, which appears to be mutually amicable, though it doesn’t specify any definite reason for Varkatzas’ exit: “We have been a band for over 20 years now. Lived our dreams together as friends and as...
Trivium’s Matt Heafy Presents Guitar to Hero UPS Driver on Drew Barrymore Show: Watch
Just a couple weeks after its premiere, Drew Barrymore’s new talk show has already earned some major metal cred. Trivium frontman Matt Heafy recently made an appearance on the daytime television program to gift a Gibson guitar to a hero UPS driver. On a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the actress spotlighted a UPS driver named Hector as part of her “Drew Gooders” segment. Hector recently went viral for a super-cool gesture that made a young boy’s day. As the parents of four-year-old Langston explained, the youngster has been lonely and cooped up inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, and gets excited anytime a delivery person comes by. One day Langston asked Hector if he had a package for him, but Hector had to tell him he didn’t have anything. Cut to the next day, when Hector cam...
Testament’s Alex Skolnick Unveils New Rap Song “Trump Sucks”: Watch
Testament’s Alex Skolnick (photo by Antonio Marino Jr.), President Trump (via YouTube) Testament’s Alex Skolnick has long been regarded as one of thrash metal’s finest guitarists, but now he’s showing off his rap skills. The metal musician spits verses on his new original track “Trump Sucks”. The veteran rocker is not exactly Snoop Dogg when it comes to his flow, but he’s got some clever rhymes that spotlight his gripes with Donald Trump and the current administration in the White House. Skolnick was inspired to write and record the song by certain responses to his recent Instagram post condemning the president. “This song just poured out of me yesterday,” wrote Skolnick about the song. “It was completed in a matter of hours. To all the # Trump2020 and # Maga folks who’ve been floodi...
Corey Taylor Slams Trump’s Presidency: “The Cheeto Can’t Lead”
Kyle Meredith With… Corey Taylor Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Corey Taylor sits down with Kyle Meredith to discuss his first solo record, CMFT. The Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman talks about wanting to make an album with vintage vibes, blending genres, not hiding his influences, and writing with a different artistic muscle. Taylor also tells us about learning piano and his desire to take on steel drums, the loss of guitar-driven rock, and how he’s auctioning off his guitars to support the ACLU. We’re also tipped off on the B-sides and covers that will accompany this LP. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of m...
Frontman Burton C. Bell Quits Fear Factory
Veteran industrial metal act Fear Factory are without a singer after founding frontman Burton C. Bell quit the band on Monday (September 28th). In an open letter posted on his official website, Bell listed a number of grievances that led to his decision. Bell’s departure comes a couple weeks after Fear Factory launched a GoFundMe campaign to support work on their new album. The fund-raising effort seemed to be spearheaded by guitarist Dino Cazares, with Bell insisting, “Let me be clear: I am not part of, nor am I benefitting from, any GoFundMe campaign.” That dispute came after a long legal battle between Bell and former members Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera over the Fear Factory name. As Bell points out in his letter, the legal wrangling and recent developments within the ban...
Rock and Metal Tours Rescheduled for Early 2021 Are Already Being Canceled
Early on during the COVID-19 outbreak, bands who announced rescheduled dates for early 2021 probably thought they were playing it safe. Now, with no end to the pandemic in site, those rescheduled tours are starting to get canceled themselves. Predictions of the concert industry not returning in earnest until late 2021 or even 2022 seemed shocking when they first made headlines in the spring. But as we head into October, those prognostications are now turning into a reality. Veteran stoner rockers Monster Magnet were set to kick off a North American tour in celebration of their 1998 album Powertrip on March 20th of this year. When the pandemic hit, the band postponed the tour but eventually rescheduled the dates for January and February of 2021. Recently, Monster Magnet canceled those resch...
R.I.P. Brent Young, Former Trivium Bassist Dies
Brent Young, an early member of the metal band Trivium, has passed away. His death was confirmed by Trivium frontman Matt Heafy, who mourned the loss of his former bandmate via social media. Young joined Trivium as their guitarist in 2000, but switched over to bass in 2001. He appeared on their early Blue demo and their 2003 debut album, Ember to Inferno. He was replaced in 2004 by Paolo Gregoletto, who remains Trivium’s bassist to this day. “We have just been given word on the passing of one of the early members of Trivium, Brent Young,” posted Heafy on Twitter. “Having had a couple wonderful years with Brent in the Florida local band scene, doing the Blue demo and ETI together, the very first European mini-tour and first USA tour together — I have nothing but amazing memories of a wonder...
Spirit Adrift Show the Joy of Classic Metal on “Screaming From Beyond”: Video Premiere + Interview
“I don’t remember pain,” Nate Garrett sings over the stomping guitar riff that opens “Screaming from Beyond,” the newest song from the upcoming Spirit Adrift upcoming album, Enlightened in Eternity. It’s a somewhat ironic lyric, considering that the band’s new LP often reflects on the pain of mortal existence. The song and its accompanying video are premiering right here at Heavy Consequence. “Screaming from Beyond” features an anthemic chorus and pristine melodic vocals, evoking the supernatural and stadium-ready sounds of perennial metal gods like Mercyful Fate, Dio, and Ozzy Osbourne. Close your eyes and it almost sounds like a band that could have opened one of the “Clash of the Titans” tours. But its contemplative and esoteric lyrical approach is modern, and 100-percent indicative of ...
Deftones Embrace Their Heavy Roots on the Commanding Ohms: Review
The Lowdown: Sacramento alt-metallers Deftones tend to transform at the turns of decades. In 2000, they released their conceptual high-water mark White Pony, while 2010’s Diamond Eyes is a stellar collection of catchy-but-clever skate rock tracks. On the other hand, 2020’s Ohms isn’t a radical reinvention, but it’s a solid addition to their legacy — a surprisingly heavy one, at that. The Good: Deftones’ albums exist along a delicate axis: At the one end, singer Chino Moreno’s romantic and crooning atmospheres, and on the other, guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s sludgy, metallic slug-fests. The band is at its best when these elements are in balance, and the tension between these poles is the core of their identity. 2016’s Gore seemed like a Moreno-heavy album, focused on dreamy landscapes. In c...
Dream Theater Announce Live Release Distant Memories, Share “Pale Blue Dot”: Stream
Dream Theater have announced Distant Memories, a new live album and concert film recorded in London back in February 2020. It’s due for release on November 27th, and the progressive-metal legends have shared a clip of “Pale Blue Dot” from the video. The album captures the band on tour in support of 2019’s Distance Over Time and the 20th anniversary of Metropolis Part 2 – Scenes From a Memory. The title Distant Memories can refer both to the album’s content and the fact that it seems so very long ago, despite the performances at the Apollo in London taking place right before the pandemic hit. “Whether you had a chance to see this tour in person and want to relive what was hopefully an awesome concert experience or enjoying the performance on video for the first time, Distant Memories –...
