Heavy Music News
KISS Urge Everyone to “Do the Rest of Us a Favor” and “Mask Up”
The members of KISS traded their signature face makeup for protective face masks while traveling to their New Year’s Eve show in Dubai. As singer-bassist Gene Simmons put it, “Do the rest of us a favor — mask up!” Simmons shared a photo of himself, singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, drummer Eric Singer, and guitarist Tommy Thayer, as they all sported face masks at an airport. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band will be performing the worldwide “KISS 2020 Goodbye” livestream concert from the Atlantis in Dubai, promising “the biggest & baddest concert event and pyrotechnics show of the year.” Along with the photo, Simmons wrote, “Wear your masks. Even if it’s only as a courtesy. If you yawn, or sneeze, you don’t think twice about covering your mouth. Do the rest of us a favor! Mask Up! … B...
10-Year-Old Nandi Bushell Declares She’s a “Total Metalhead”, Rocks Slipknot’s “Unsainted”: Watch
Nandi Bushell was already our favorite kid musician of 2020, but she just gave us one more “wow” moment before the year ends. The 10-year-old prodigy rocked an impressive drum cover of Slipknot’s “Unsainted”, declaring herself a “total metal head.” It’s been an amazing year for Nandi, who found herself in the midst of a viral multi-round drum battle with the one and only Dave Grohl for several weeks. The drum-off culminated in each musician writing a theme song for one another, as well as a face-to-face video chat. Grohl eventually conceded defeat, but they even made plans to write a song together. While Nandi has proven herself to be a strong guitarist and bassist in recent months, her cover of Slipknot’s “Unsainted” shows off her mastery of the drums, the instrument that first made her a...
Chino Moreno’s ✞✞✞ (Crosses) Cover “The Beginning of the End”, First New Track in Six Years: Stream
Deftones singer Chino Moreno has resurrected ✞✞✞ (Crosses) and released the first new track from the project in six years. It comes in the form of a cover of Cause & Effect’s “The Beginning of the End”. Crosses unleashed their self-titled debut album in 2014, but hasn’t released any new music or performed any shows since that year. The band’s lineup is comprised of Moreno, guitarist Shaun Lopez, and bassist Chuck Doom, although a press release for the new single only mentions Moreno and Lopez. For Crosses’ return, Moreno turned to a song by fellow Sacramento act Cause & Effect, an electropop band who released their self-titled debut album in 1990. “The Beginning of the End” is a track from that first LP, and it gives off some very strong Depeche Mode vibes. Crosses’ version do...
Slash Eyes 2021 Release for New Guns N’ Roses Music
Slash, photo by Antonio Marino Jr. Slash is expecting that 2021 will be a fruitful year for Guns N’ Roses and his band with Myles Kennedy, with hopes to release new music from both acts. In a new interview, the guitarist said he’s recently been working with bassist Duff McKagan on the highly anticipated new GN’R album. He’s also got 20 songs ready to go for an upcoming LP from Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. “We did a week of initial pre-production [on the new Conspirators album] and there’s 20 songs and we’re gonna start back up next year,” Slash told Cleveland.com. “I spent a lot of time writing and demoing that stuff. And prior to that, Duff [McKagan] and I did some jamming and we also worked on the Guns record, and I’ve had a couple of ancillary recordings and jams ...
10 Times Lemmy Was the Coolest Man on Earth
While the rock world will never forget the legendary Lemmy Kilmister, late December is an especially poignant time to commemorate his legacy. This year, December 24th marks what would have been the late Motörhead frontman’s 75th birthday, while December 28th marks five years since the passing of one of rock’s all-time great icons. Few rockers were as instantly memorable and recognizable as Lemmy. Whether it be his lifestyle (pushing life to the max via his party-hearty ways), his looks (long hair, facial hair, and signature facial moles), or his music (penning dozens of headbanging classics that have influenced countless other artists, and have only improved with age), there will never be another gentleman like Ian Fraser Kilmister. So, what better way to celebrate the life of the late, gr...
Kirk Hammett Reflects on Entire Metallica Career: James and Lars “Don’t Even Remember” First Meeting Me
Kirk Hammett has certainly had a memorable 37-year career in Metallica, with the band still going strong. However, his first meeting with longtime bandmates James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich apparently wasn’t memorable for them. The guitarist reflected on his entire Metallica run in a new 80-minute interview for Gibson Guitars’ “Icons” series. One of the stories he told was the time he first met Hetfield and Ulrich. At the time, Hammett was a member of the band Exodus while Metallica were getting buzz as a rising thrash band in the Bay Area. “I remember we were just sitting around one day, and the singer of Exodus, a guy named Paul Baloff, who was an absolute maniac, he walked into the rehearsal and said, ‘Metallica. So heavy. They’re so heavy.’ And I was, like, ‘Metallica.’ And I thought, ‘W...
Mr. Bungle’s Dave Lombardo on the Pandemic: “I Had Been on the Go for Many Years and Life Just Stopped”
Mr. Bungle, photo by Eric Larsen As our Annual Report continues, we’ll be taking several looks at how live music changed in a year where most of the world was in lockdown. Today, we share our conversation with legendary metal drummer Dave Lombardo about his incredible year playing with a reunited Mr. Bungle, his life during the pandemic, and the future of concerts. In a year in which the touring industry came to a standstill, a reunited Mr. Bungle were able to make their mark on the concert stage, both in person and online. The band played their first shows in 20 years just before the pandemic began, completing a brief jaunt of a handful of cities in February. And on Halloween, they treated fans to one of the more memorable livestream concerts of the year. Not only did the reunion mar...
R.I.P. Leslie West, Legendary Mountain Frontman Dies at 75
Leslie West, the legendary singer-guitarist of pioneering hard-rock band Mountain, has passed away at the age of 75. His death was confirmed by Dean Guitars. “With a heavy heart, we are saddened to hear about the passing of #Dean Artist and part of the Dean family, Leslie West. Legendary and one of a kind. Rest In Peace,” read a tweet from the guitar company. According to Rolling Stone, West suffered a cardiac arrest at his home near Daytona, Florida, and never regained consciousness. West was born Leslie Weinstein in New York City on October 22nd, 1945. He originally formed Mountain in 1969, with the band breaking up and regrouping on various occasions over the past 50 years. Mountain released several albums throughout the decades, beginning with their 1970 debut, Climbing! That LP yielde...
Mining Metal: Top 10 Underground Metal Albums of 2020
“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. The year 2020 is nearly done, and we’re sure most “Mining Metal” readers can join us in wishing it good riddance. The global pandemic left the international metal community, not to mention the entire music world, in a precarious spot: tours and festivals canceled, venues closed, and hard-working metalheads losing jobs. With all that darkness, the resilience of the genre remained a hopeful light. 2020 offered no shortage of excellent albums, some of them recorded during the pandemic itself. Diverse in their aims, st...
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Wife Toyah Perform Eccentric Covers of Nirvana, Alice Cooper, GN’R, and Sex Pistols: Watch
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and his singer wife, Toyah Willcox, have stayed busy in recent weeks with eccentric interpretations of classic heavy songs by Nirvana, Alice Cooper, Guns N’ Roses, and Sex Pistols. They’re the latest additions to the couple’s “Sunday Lunch” pandemic performance series. You may remember the couple’s utterly bizarre Halloween rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, which saw Fripp playing the song on guitar while Willcox sang and danced in what appeared to be a prison cell. Although the new covers aren’t quite as unconventional as the Sabbath performance, they still showcase the idiosyncratic talents of each artist. Fripp tends to handle most of the music, while Willcox sings and supplies interpretative dances, including a one-person mosh for Nirvana’s “Smells Li...
Queen’s Brian May Recalls Recording Sci-Fi EP with Eddie Van Halen
Brian May, photo by David Brendan Hall / Eddie Van Halen, photo by Philip Cosores Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May has paid tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen by recalling the time the two recorded the sci-fi themed Star Fleet Project EP in 1983. “A couple of days after I heard the news about Eddie, I went back to Star Fleet,” May told Total Guitar. “I started revisiting all the feelings I had when we were in the studio doing that, and it sort of healed my soul a bit. I thought, ‘Yeah, this is what I should be doing at this time.’” The three-song, 28-minute release was officially released under the “Brian May + Friends” moniker on October 31st, 1983. The EP favored a heavy blues rock sound and also featured REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer and session musicians Phil Chen and Fr...
Nickelback Hilariously Spoof Own “Photograph” Video for Google Photos Commercial: Watch
Nickelback have long been one of rock’s most parodied acts, but the latest mockery of the band comes courtesy of Nickelback themselves. The Canadian rockers have hilariously spoofed their own “Photograph” video in a new commercial for Google Photos. The multiplatinum group’s 2005 music video has been the inspiration for countless memes and even a Donald Trump tweet that was eventually blocked by the band over copyright issues. The image of frontman Chad Kroeger holding up a picture frame, with the words “Look at this photograph”, provides a blank slate for endless fun. In the Google commercial, Nickelback are poking fun at the original song and video with newly written lyrics that even dare make fun of Chad Kroeger’s signature curly locks: “Falling down the photo rabbit hole/ Is it my hair...
