Heavy Music News
System of a Down’s Comeback Songs Help Raise $600,000 for Artsakh and Armenia
System of a Down surprised the music world with their first new songs in 15 years this past Friday. Less than a week later, the charitable singles have helped raise more than $600,000 for Artsakh and Armenia amid ongoing conflicts with Azerbaijan and Turkey. While the Armenian-American metal act has remained an active touring entity, the band hadn’t released new music since 2005’s Hypnotize until dropping the songs “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” last week. The members of System of a Down explained that they set their creative differences aside to record the songs to aid their ancestral home of Armenia and its neighboring state Artsakh in the midst of “horrific injustices and human rights violations” being perpetrated by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Now, the band has unveiled a vide...
Marilyn Manson’s Team Issues Statement Addressing Evan Rachel Wood Controversy
Marilyn Manson’s publicity team has released a lengthy statement addressing the singer’s former relationship with actress Evan Rachel Wood. The statement comes after Manson hung up during an interview with Metal Hammer when he was asked about Wood’s 2019 testimony in which she revealed she was in an unspecified abusive relationship. The allegations stem from Wood’s testimony before California senators last year during the creation of the Phoenix Act. Without naming any one specific, Wood described an abusive relationship with an older man when she was 18 — around the time she was known to have dated Manson, who was 36 at the time. After Manson cut the interview with Metal Hammer short, the news outlet sent his UK publicist 10 questions regarding the topic that they wanted answered from the...
Mr. Bungle Unveil Derek Cianfrance-Directed Video for “Sudden Death”: Watch
Mr. Bungle, photo by Eric Larsen Mr. Bungle have unveiled a music video for recent single “Sudden Death”. The clip was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Derek Cianfrance. The director is best known for his 2010 drama Blue Valentine and 2013’s The Place Beyond the Pines. He brings striking visuals to what singer Mike Patton called “the least commercial and longest song” on Mr. Bungle’s new album, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo. “That’s where his eyes and ears go,” Patton said of Cianfrance in a press release. The two became friends after working together on Pines, which was scored by Patton. The new video continues a lifelong fandom for Cianfrance, who remembers growing up and blaring Mr. Bungle out of his 1974 Mustang while cruising the streets of Lakewood, Colorado, as a teenager...
Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta on Weight of the False Self, Adjusting to the Pandemic, Podcasting, and More
Like many musicians, Jamey Jasta thought he had his 2020 plans set. He was gearing up to release a new album with Hatebreed in the spring, plus the band had two tours booked with the likes of After the Burial, Havok, Creeping Death, Parkway Drive, Knocked Loose, and Fit for a King. Then, COVID-19 hit. Right as the band was set to begin promoting their new album, the concert industry shut down, and the album’s release date was pushed back indefinitely. Now, Jasta and Hatebreed are set to unleash their eighth LP, Weight of the False Self, on November 27th via Nuclear Blast Records. The album is one of the veteran Connecticut metal outfit’s most aggressive to date, with heavy riffing and powerful themes of self-reflection, loss, and the state of the world. While the concert industry remains s...
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes Announce Interactive “By Request” Livestream Concert
UK rockers Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes have announced “Brixton By Request”, an interactive streaming performance. The virtual show will be streamed live in real-time from the O2 Brixton Academy this Friday (November 13th) at noon PT / 3:00 p.m. ET. Unlike a number of other recent streaming performances, “Brixton By Request” will actually take place live. As the name implies, fans will be able to help choose the setlist as the concert happens and interact with the band via onstage screens. While streaming events have become the norm during the pandemic, few have featured fan interaction, arguably the most important aspect of live music. With their high-energy shows, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes have proven themselves to be one of the most dynamic live acts to emerge in the pa...
Philip Anselmo’s En Minor Announce Livestream Concert from New Orleans
En Minor, photo by JehN.W.A. Pantera singer Philip Anselmo’s gothic Americana project En Minor have announced a livestream of an upcoming performance at the historic Orpheum Theater in New Orleans. The virtual show streams on November 25th at 6 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. ET and will be available for on-demand viewing through November 29th. Shot on eight cameras, the event follows similar cinematic livestream performances by Mr. Bungle, Puscifer, and Corey Taylor. Anselmo and En Minor will take up residence in the legendary Orpheum in NOLA. Built in 1918, the theater is known for its unique Vaudevillian-era “vertical hall” design, originally built to provide perfect sight lines and acoustics for Vaudeville shows that didn’t have modern amplifiers or lighting. “To play a beautiful room like The Orpheu...
Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler Finds Cardi B’s “WAP” Song “Disgusting”
When Black Sabbath first emerged, they were branded as “the devil’s music” by conservative Christians. Now, the band’s founding bassist and chief lyricist, Geezer Butler, has branded the popular Cardi B hit “WAP” (featuring Megan Thee Stallion) as “disgusting,” while also admitting he’s an “old goat.” As the first true heavy metal band, Sabbath experienced their fair share of backlash, having been dubbed “Satanists” by many who didn’t delve into the actual words of the songs. While speaking to Kerrang! about the perception of new artists, Butler brought up his own gripes with the salacious “WAP”. “Whatever new music comes out, it’s viewed as the devil’s music,” explained Geezer. “I remember when Elvis came out everybody said he was Satan. And then in the ’60s and ’70s he became America’s n...
Slipknot Get Together to Write Music for New Album
While many of us spent the past week glued to election results, Slipknot got to work. According to percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, the band has been writing material for its next album and worked on new songs together last week. In addition, the band’s Knotfest concert series announced the new “Pulse of the Maggots” virtual underground metal fest. “Right now is kind of an interesting time,” Clown said during a video signing for Slipknot’s No. 9 Iowa Whiskey. “We’re taking this time to write some new music. So for the last week, we’ve been just having a good time, eating a lot of food and writing.” He continued, “Since everybody’s taken a lot of time off, we thought we’d utilize it by getting together and do what we probably do best, which is write music. So it’s been good, because ther...
The Pretty Reckless Cover Soundgarden’s “Loud Love”: Stream
The Pretty Reckless and singer Taylor Momsen have never shied away from expressing their love for the music of Soundgarden. Now, the hard rockers have paid tribute to the grunge pioneers with a cover of “Loud Love”. Momsen is no stranger to Soundgarden covers, having performed a quarantine version of “Halfway There” with Soundgarden / Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron earlier this year. Her vocal ability is well-suited for tackling the impressive vocal range of late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, and she turns in another strong effort on this emotionally charged, faithful rendition of “Loud Love”. It was recently recorded for a virtual festival on SiriusXM’s Octane channel. The two bands’ stories are forever linked after The Pretty Reckless opened for Soundgarden in Detroit on the night ...
Dave Grohl and 10-Year-Old Nandi Bushell Plan to Write a Song Together
After providing the music world with some of the most uplifting headlines of the year, Dave Grohl and 10-year-old Nandi Bushell have made plans to record a song together. What’s more, the Foo Fighters frontman has invited the music prodigy to jam with the band once they are able to tour in her home country of England. As we’ve chronicled over the past few months, YouTube sensation Nandi challenged Grohl to a drum battle by playing the Foo Fighters classic “Everlong”. The rock icon accepted her challenge by performing “Dead End Friends” from his supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, and Nandi responded within a week with a beat-for-beat version of the same song. From there, the friendly competition went to a new level, with Grohl writing and performing an original theme song about Nandi, and th...
Dave Grohl: Foo Fighters Can “Turn Into a Death Metal Band”
Over the weekend, Foo Fighters announced their new album, Medicine at Midnight, which will arrive in February. According to Dave Grohl, the LP will showcase a fresh sound for the band, but the frontman still thinks the Foos have yet to tap into the full spectrum of their musical capabilities. In fact, he says the band’s sound has the potential to range from death metal to The Carpenters. Months prior to announcing Medicine at Midnight, Grohl compared the new album to David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, which featured more groove and dance elements than the late rock legend’s previous albums. In a new interview with SiriusXM, Grohl explained, “All of us grew up loving rock ‘n’ roll records you could bounce around to, like The Cars, or David Bowie’s Let’s Dance or The Power Station or The Stones...
Fuck the Facts Premiere New Song “Everything I Love Is Ending”: Stream
Canadian grindcore vets Fuck the Facts are set to release their new album, Pleine Noirceur, on November 20th. In advance of the LP, the band is premiering the single “Everything I Love Is Ending” exclusively via Heavy Consequence. The new song is a four-movement powerhouse that sees Fuck the Facts at their most ambitious and unrelenting. Blasts of energy and mathy noise are arranged like a prog or classical piece, traversing four musical passages during its four-minute runtime — epic in length by grindcore standards, but not uncommon for FTF. The searing vocals of singer Mel Mongeon completes the band’s patented whirlwind of grinding chaos. “‘Everything I Love Is Ending’ exploits the classic grindcore dichotomy between sludgy and grindy,” the band tells us of the single. “Even though this ...
