Heavy Music News
Converge and Chelsea Wolfe Announce First-Ever US “Bloodmoon” Shows
Converge and Chelsea Wolfe have announced their first US live dates supporting the collaborative Bloodmoon: I album. The pair of shows are set for Boston and New York City on April 9th and 10th, respectively. Caspian and an as-yet-unannounced act will support the Boston date at Roadrunner, while Caspian and Liturgy will open the NYC show at Brooklyn Steel. Tickets go on sale Friday (February 4th) at noon ET and can be purchase via Ticketmaster. The shows will mark the first time “Converge Bloodmoon” — as the supergroup is being billed — will take the stage together on US soil to perform the new material. In addition to the members of Converge and Wolfe, the cast is rounded out by Stephen Brodsky (of Cave In) and Ben Chisholm (Wolfe’s longtime collaborator). Advertisement Related Video The ...
R.I.P. Jon Zazula, Megaforce Records Founder Who Helped Launch Metallica’s Career Dies at 69
Jon Zazula, the legendary founder of Megaforce Records, has died at age 69. Sadly, his passing comes just one year after the death of his wife, Marsha, who co-founded the iconic metal label with her husband. According to Variety, a rep for Megaforce confirmed that Jon Zazula passed away on Tuesday (February 1st) in Florida, where he was surrounded by his brother, daughters, and granddaughters, as well as a number of friends and associates. Known as “Jonny Z,” Zazula was a major force in the metal world, helping to launch the careers of Metallica, Anthrax, and many other bands. He and Marsha essentially founded Megaforce in order to sign Metallica to their first record deal, releasing the band’s groundbreaking 1983 debut album, Kill ‘Em All. The thrash titans stuck with Megaforce for their ...
Failure Pull Music from Spotify, Citing Business Model and Joe Rogan Controversy
Failure are the latest band to pull their music from Spotify, citing the platform’s business model and the spread of COVID vaccine misinformation. The cult alternative rockers join a growing number of other artists who’ve followed Neil Young’s lead and removed their music from the streaming service. Young and others have objected to Spotify hosting Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has been criticized for proliferating misinformation and falsities about COVID vaccines. Failure released a lengthy statement on Facebook decrying Spotify’s response to the Rogan controversy and the company’s business model in general: “Failure have wrestled with the question of Spotify and whether to have our newest music, which we control, on the platform. Until now, our ambivalence about Spotify has been based on th...
Kirk Hammett: Cliff Burton “Freaked Out” When Rush’s Geddy Lee Came to See Metallica Play a Show
Metallica have often cited the music of Rush as an inspiration for epic songs such as “Master of Puppets” and “Orion.” Late Metallica legend Cliff Burton especially idolized the progressive rock band, particularly fellow bassist Geddy Lee. During a recent Q&A session alongside photographer Ross Halfin and Metallica fanclub magazine editor Steffan Chirazi, guitarist Kirk Hammett reflected on the time when Lee came to see Metallica play. “Geddy Lee showed up at one of our shows on the Ride the Lightning tour,” Hammett told the audience at the San Francisco Elk Lodge as part of the Q&A for Metallica’s 40th anniversary celebration last month. “We played Toronto, and all of a sudden we got a message backstage that Geddy Lee was in the audience. And Cliff Burton just freaked out.” Advert...
Korn to Stream Intimate Requiem Album Release Show from a Church
Korn have announced they will livestream an intimate Requiem release show from the Hollywood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. The band is calling the event “Requiem Mass.” Only 300 fans will be able to attend the “funeral” concert, which will see Korn “honoring the souls that have passed during these unprecedented times.” The performance will be directed by Richard Gibbs, who previously worked with Korn’s Jonathan Davis on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack. The concert and livestream are set for Thursday (February 3rd) at 8 p.m. PT, right before the Friday release of the album. You can stream it via Korn’s YouTube channel (a rebroadcast goes live on Sunday, February 6th, at 10 a.m. PT for international markets). Advertisement Related Video For those lucky few who get to attend in-p...
Biopic About The Who’s Keith Moon Set to Shoot This Summer
A biopic about The Who drummer Keith Moon is set to shoot this summer. The long-gestating project is tentatively titled The Real Me, after the Quadrophenia song. The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are on board as executive producers for the film, which focuses on the turbulent life of the band’s late drummer. According to Variety, Paul Whittington (The Crown, White House Farm) is set to direct, with a script by British screenwriter Jeff Pope. Los Angeles-based White Horse Pictures is handling the production, having previously helmed music films such as George Harrison: Living in the Material World and Ron Howard’s Beatles documentary Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years. Related Video The casting process is currently underway, with shooting set to begin this summer. It’s still unde...
Dorothy Announces New Album and Tour, Unveils “Rest in Peace”: Stream
Dorothy has returned with a dramatic new single, “Rest in Peace,” as well as details on a new album, Gifts From the Holy Ghost, and a 2022 US tour. While Gifts From the Holy Ghost has no release date yet, a press release reveals that the album will arrive this spring. The headlining tour, meanwhile, kicks off March 21st in San Diego and runs through a May 19th gig in Anaheim, California. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster. The music video for “Rest in Peace” certainly fits the song, with Dorothy appearing in an elegant, mysterious black veil in one scene, performing with her band in another, and appearing in a room with chains hanging from the ceiling in yet another visual. Watch the Nick Peterson-directed and Linda Strawberry-edited music video below. Advertisement Related Video Dorot...
Corey Taylor to Machine Gun Kelly: Don’t “Talk Shit” About “Bands That Have Been Doing This for 20 F**king Years”
Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has shared a further explanation about his beef with Machine Gun Kelly, telling a crowd on the recent ShipRocked cruise that the rapper turned pop-punk singer doesn’t get to “f**king run [his] mouth about bands that have been doing this for 20 f**king years.” As we previously detailed in a comprehensive timeline of the feud between Taylor and Machine Gun Kelly, the bad blood seemed to start when Taylor apparently referenced MGK during an early 2021 interview, saying, “I [hate] the artists who failed in one genre and decided to go rock — and I think he knows who he is.” Machine Gun Kelly then called out Taylor and Slipknot when both acts were playing Chicago’s Riot Fest at the same time on different stages. “You all want to know what I’m happy that I’m not doi...
Meshuggah Unleash “The Abysmal Eye” as First Single from New Album Immutable: Stream
Meshuggah have offered up “The Abysmal Eye,” the lead single from their forthcoming album Immutable. “The Abysmal Eye” is a robust crusher and one of the strongest metal songs we’ve heard in 2022 thus far. Indulging the Swedish band’s extreme prog tendencies, the track melds dynamic grooves and technical riffs into a hypnotizing haze of sinister dissonance. Consider us thoroughly satiated. Meshuggah teased us with a snippet of audio when they initially announced the April 1st release date for Immutable, leaving fans clamoring for new music. Their first new song in nearly six years, “The Abysmal Eye” was clearly worth the wait — the fruits of an album cycle that almost didn’t happen. Advertisement Related Video “For us, it wasn’t all that clear that we were making a new album,” said gu...
Disturbed’s David Draiman Applauds Spotify for “Making the Right Call” in Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan Decision
After receiving an ultimatum from rock legend Neil Young to choose between his music and Joe Rogan’s podcast, Spotify decided to keep streaming The Joe Rogan Experience and remove the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s music. Now, Disturbed singer David Draiman has weighed in on the decision, applauding Spotify for “making the right call.” As previously reported, Young issued an open letter deriding Rogan for spreading false COVID information, asking Spotify to remove his music because he didn’t want to be associated with the same streaming service that profits from Rogan’s podcast. “I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” wrote Young. “Please act on this immedi...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Lena Scissorhands of Infected Rain
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 and will release a new single, “Scars,” on February 4th with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Lena Scissorhands of Infected Rain. Moldovan metal band Infected Rain released their fifth studio album, Ecdysis, on January 7th. Created during lockdown, the new record covers the gamut of themes, from the strength and power of the female experience (“Fighter”) to tumultuous world events that took place during pandemic (“The Realm of Chaos”). Infected Rain also just announced that they’re returning to North A...
Howard Stern: “Meat Loaf Got Sucked into Some Weird F**king Cult … And Now He’s Dead”
Legendary rocker Meat Loaf passed away at age 74 last week, and while his official cause of death has not been confirmed, TMZ reported that the singer succumbed to COVID-19. Now, radio titan Howard Stern is blaming the music icon’s death on his apparent stance against masking and vaccines, asserting that “Meat Loaf got sucked into some weird f**king cult.” Upon reporting on Meat Loaf’s death, TMZ cited sources as revealing that he fell seriously ill with COVID, and that his condition became critical, eventually leading to his passing. During the pandemic, the singer had spoken out against social distancing and safety measures. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August of 2021, Meat Loaf said, “[Face masks] don’t do anything. They don’t stop you from getting COVID. They’re ...
