Heavy Music News
Baroness Announce Stunning Picture-Disc Vinyl Editions of Red, Blue, and Yellow & Green
Baroness are releasing picture-disc vinyl editions of their first three full-length LPs, Red Album, Blue Record, and the double album Yellow & Green. They’re currently available for pre-order direct from the band for $29.99 each and arrive October 24th. It marks the first time the albums have seen a picture-disc pressing, having been released on a variety of color variants over the years. Each LP brings frontman John Dyer Baizley’s glorious cover art to wax — the first side of each emblazoned with the album artwork and the reverse side adorned with alternative patterns from the original sleeve designs. Each picture-disc edition is housed in a gatefold sleeve and limited to 4,500 copies. Baroness fans can attest to the collectivity of the band’s many vinyl color variants, so these might...
Nine Inch Nails’ Pandemic Merch Is Both Clever and Grim
Tackling bleak subject matters is nothing new for Nine Inch Nails, but even Trent Reznor hasn’t seen the likes of the COVID-19 pandemic before. Now, some of NIN’s past works have inspired a new line of “Pandemic 2020” merch. For a limited time, Nine Inch Nails are selling five new T-shirts for “modern times” via their official online store. The tees display song titles and lyrics from throughout the band’s career to address the strange world in which we’re currently living. One such design uses the lyrics “New world/ New times/ Mutation feels alright” from the song “Shit Mirror” off the 2018 album Bad Witch. Another repeats the song title “Everyday Is Exactly the Same” from 2005’s With Teeth. Two of the shirts display U.S. maps, with one featuring the line “Used to stand for something” fro...
Prog-Metal Band The Ocean Have Fossil Named After Them, Unveil New Music: Stream
German progressive metal band The Ocean now have a fossil named after them. “Ophiacantha oceani” is a new brittle star fossil discovered by paleontologists at the Natural History Museum of Luxembourg. The nomenclature is especially fitting given the The Ocean’s own use of paleontological themes, like their new concept album, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic, arriving this Friday (September 25th). The fossil was discovered by Dr. Lea Numberger and Dr. Ben Thuy, who are either metalheads or simply appreciated The Ocean’s obsession with paleontology. Declared Dr. Thuy: “Musicians who so skillfully combine arts and science, composing albums like Precambrian (with songs named after the periods of the Precambrian), Pelagial (with songs named after the bathymetric subdivisions of the water col...
The Sword Guitarist Says Metallica’s Kirk Hammett Had the Best Weed Ever
The Sword’s Kyle Shutt (photo by Jack Thompson) / Metallica’s Kirk Hammett (photo by Raymond Ahner) Back in 2008, Metallica and The Sword teamed up for the “World Magnetic Tour”. Somewhere along the way, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett offered The Sword’s Kyle Shutt some weed, and according to the guitarist, it’s the best he’s ever had. With Shutt playing guitar in one of the most renowned stoner metal bands, Metal Injection put the question to Shutt: Of the artists who’ve smoked him up, who had the best weed? Shutt answered immediately: “Kirk Hammett. He had this shit called ‘Romulan’ one time, which was, probably, the best weed I ever smoked.” A Leafly search of the Romulan strain, named after the wise and mysterious Star Trek race, reveals that its a “powerful indica revered for it...
Lars Ulrich Helps Settle Best All-Time Drummer Debate on Howard Stern Show
Neil Peart (via YouTube), Lars Ulrich (via Howard Stern), John Bonham (publicity) Howard Stern stirred up a debate on his SiriusXM show this week when he sought to determine the greatest drummer of all time. To settle the argument, he and his co-hosts called upon Metallica stickman Lars Ulrich to cast the deciding vote. Prior to Ulrich’s involvement, the Howard Stern Show personalities seemed to narrow it down to Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and Rush’s Neil Peart. Stern himself appeared to settle on Bonham, but the most qualified person on the staff, Richard Christy, made a strong case for Peart. In addition to being a longtime writer and personality on The Howard Stern Show, Christy is a gifted drummer himself, having played in the bands Death, Iced Earth, and his current supergroup Charred...
50 Years Ago, Black Sabbath Deliver the Magnificent Paranoid
The “sophomore slump” has spelt the beginning of the end for quite a few rock acts over the years. But looking back, one of the cases in which the exact opposite occurred was when Black Sabbath delivered one of the greatest metal albums of all time, Paranoid. The Birmingham, UK-based band – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward – had already caught the attention of rock fans with their detuned and doomy self-titled debut (released in February 1970 in the UK, and June in the United States). And they wasted no time capitalizing on the buzz – issuing Paranoid in the UK on September of that year. (It would arrive in the States in January 1971.) While Sabbath amazingly knocked out the recording of their debut album in a single day, they would t...
R.I.P. Lee Kerslake, Drummer for Ozzy Osbourne and Uriah Heep Dies at 73
Lee Kerslake, drummer on Ozzy Osbourne’s classic solo albums and longtime member of Uriah Heep, passed away Saturday (September 19th) at the age of 73. The veteran musician died after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. The drummer’s death was reported by Ken Hensley, a fellow former member of Uriah Heep. “It’s with the heaviest of hearts that I share with you that Lee Kerslake, my friend of 55 years and the best drummer I ever played with, lost his battle with cancer at 03:30 this morning,” wrote Hensley. “He died peacefully, praise The Lord, but he will be terribly missed.” He continued, “I know many of you were praying for him not to suffer and I thank you for that and, now that Lee is at peace, our thoughts and prayers should turn to his wife Sue who will need all the support she ca...
Ozzy Osbourne Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Blizzard of Ozz with Animated “Crazy Train” Video and More
Ozzy Osbourne is commemorating the 40th anniversary of his legendary solo debut, Blizzard of Ozz, with a wealth of experiences and goodies. In addition to the previously announced expanded digital edition of Blizzard of Ozz, Osbourne is re-releasing the 2010 documentary 30 Years After the Blizzard in HD while also sharing a newly created animated music video for “Crazy Train” — arguably Ozzy’s most well-known solo recording and perennial sports arena anthem. The festivities don’t stop there: SiriusXM Radio will air a one-hour special on Osbourne’s station, “Ozzy’s Boneyard”, on Friday (September 18th) at 5 p.m. ET. And if that’s not enough, Osbourne himself is hosting a Twitter listening party on Sunday (September 20th) at 7 p.m. ET, discussing songs from the album. Tons of new Blizzard-th...
Transgender Metalhead Satanist Wins Republican Nomination for County Sheriff
Wait until Fox News gets a load of this: A transgender metalhead satanist has won the Republican nomination for Cheshire County Sheriff in Keene, New Hampshire. Aria DiMezzo earned 4,211 votes from registered Republicans in a primary held Tuesday. Granted, DiMezzo ran unopposed and still has to compete in the general election against popular incumbent Eli Rivera, a Democrat seeking his fifth term. But DiMezzo was still amazed that so many registered Republicans voted for her. “I went into it expecting that I would lose the primary to a write-in candidate, because I didn’t think that so many voters were just… completely and totally oblivious about who they are voting for,” she wrote in a blog post. She continued, “Because the fact is that you didn’t bother. You trusted the system. You trust...
Pallbearer Share New Song “The Quicksand of Existing”: Stream
With Pallbearer gearing up to release their fourth album, Forgotten Days, the band has today offered up the LP’s third single, “The Quicksand of Existing”. The track continues a string of strong singles for the album, including “Rite of Passage” and the title track. Again, it’s Pallbearer in full doom mode. Chugging riffs make way for Brett Campbell’s vocals, delivered in a theatrical style that invokes the genre’s great singers like Ozzy Osbourne and Scott Weinrich. Director Ben Meredith’s narrative video for the song parallels the band’s own concept — the song being a “reflection on family and loss,” according to the band. “As we strive to be, the forces of entropy perpetually pull us down into a state of being unmade,” bassist/songwriter Joseph D. Rowland said in a press release. “The b...
Puscifer Announce New Album Existential Reckoning, Unveil “The Underwhelming”: Stream
Puscifer have announced the release of their fourth studio album, Existential Reckoning. In advance of its October 30th arrival, the band has unleashed the album’s second single, “The Underwhelming”. The experimental rock band’s core lineup consists of vocalist Maynard James Keenan (Tool), singer-keyboardist Carina Round, and multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell. For this album, they’ve also recruited Greg Edwards (Failure), and drummers Gunnar Olsen and Sarah Jones. Existential Reckoning will arrive five years to the day that Puscifer released their last album, Money Shot. The new song “The Underwhelming” follows first single, “Apocalyptical”, which was unveiled way back in May. Like everything Puscifer have done in the past, there is a certain mystique around Existential Reckoning. Th...
Deftones Unleash New Song “Genesis” from Forthcoming Album Ohms: Stream
With one week to go before the release of the highly anticipated new Deftones album, Ohms, the band has unveiled the LP’s second single, “Genesis”. The latest song from the alt-metal act’s ninth album follows the title track, which arrived last month as the first single. “Genesis” begins with a slow build before kicking in with vicious vocals from Chino Moreno, who alternates between full-on screams and melodic singing throughout the tune. Musically, the song crushes with mighty riffs from guitarist Stephen Carpenter. The two singles — “Genesis” and “Ohms” — bookend the 12-song album as the leadoff and closing tracks, respectively. “Ohms” was the most added single at Mainstream Rock radio upon its release, and currently sits in the Top 15 of that chart. Accompanying the new song “Genesis” ...
