Progressive Metal
In Photos: Mastodon, Opeth, and Zeal & Ardor Bring the Metal Thunder to New York City
Atlanta metal giants Mastodon and Swedish progressive metal favorites Opeth are in the midst of their co-headlining US tour, which features support from avant-metal act Zeal & Ardor. The 15-date run kicked off in Asheville, North Carolina, at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena on November 16th and is set to conclude in Denver, Colorado, at the Mission Ballroom on December 5th, with tickets available here. The trek made its way to New York City at the legendary Hammerstein Ballroom this past Saturday (November 20th) for a gigantic showing. Supporting their brand new album Hushed and Grim, Mastodon played a slew of new songs in NYC: “Pain With an Anchor,” “The Crux,” “Teardrinker,” “Skeleton of Splendor,” “Pushing the Tides,” “More than I Could Chew,” and “Gobblers of Dregs” (marking the tra...
Animals as Leaders Announce New Album Parrhesia, Share “The Problem of Other Minds”: Stream
Animals as Leaders have announced their fifth studio album, Parrhesia, out March 25th. Ahead of the release, the instrumental prog-metal band has shared the video for the new song “The Problem of Other Minds.” Guided by the otherworldly talents of guitarist Tosin Abasi, Animals as Leaders have become a forerunner in the realm of progressive metal and djent. The band continues to push the boundaries of rhythmic syncopation and dissonance, as heard on “The Problem of Other Mind.” Parrhesia will be Animals as Leaders’ first studio effort since 2016’s The Madness of Many. In that span, the group dropped its first live album, Live 2017. Advertisement Related Video “It’s been a while since we’ve released a body of work,” Abasi said. “We’re really proud of this collection of songs as well as the ...
Tool’s Adam Jones Unveils Gibson 1979V2 Les Paul Custom Signature Model Guitar
Tool’s Adam Jones has teamed with Gibson for the 1979V2 Les Paul Custom signature model guitar. The axe is a new take on Jones’ prized original Silverburst 1979 Gibson Les Paul. We previously reported on the guitarist’s previous collab with Gibson — also a replica of his original 1979 Les Paul — a number of which were stolen during initial shipping. The 1979V2 Les Paul Custom is an updated version, featuring Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab lightly-aged antiqued Silverburst finish along with custom artwork designed by artist Korin Faught on the rear of the headstock. Included in the guitar package is a removable headstock mirror like the one Jones uses in Tool. Advertisement Related Video The V2 features a reverse-mounted Custombucker neck pickup and a custom-wound Seymour...
Gojira and Randy Blythe Perform Joint Song “Adoration for None” for First Time Ever: Watch
Gojira and Randy Blythe performed their collaborative song “Adoration for None” together for the first time ever during the former’s headlining concert last night (November 1st) in the Lamb of God singer’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Blythe appeared on the studio version of the track from Gojira’s 2008 album The Way of All Flesh, and it took over a decade before the French band and the Lamb of God frontman to perform it live on the same stage. At the time the song was recorded, Gojira were emphasizing elements of death and groove metal in their sonic onslaught — the perfect canvas for Blythe’s guttural vocals. The song sounds massive in the fan footage of the Richmond performance. Advertisement Related Video Blythe has been an outspoken Gojira fan ever since the band broke on...
Dream Theater Postpone North American Tour Due to COVID-19 Concerns
A month before their fall North American tour was set to kick off, Dream Theater have postponed the entire outing due to COVID-19 concerns. The trek will now kick off in February 2022, with the new dates to be announced shortly. The progressive-metal veterans had planned to kick off the tour on October 28th, which would have timed nicely with the October 22nd release of their new album, A View From the Top of the World. While the LP will still arrive next month, the tour dates will have to wait. In a post on their social media pages, Dream Theater wrote the following: “In light of current instabilities to touring that remain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel confident that this is the right decision. Know that we are as disappointed as you are that we will have to wait a little longer ...
Mental Metal: Tool’s Ænima Turns 25
Dusting ‘Em Off is a rotating, free-form feature that revisits a classic album, film, or moment in pop-culture history. This piece celebrates Tool’s acclaimed sophomore album Ænima. Editor’s Note: This article originally ran in 2016, but has been updated in 2021 to reflect the 25th anniversary of Ænima. Many musicians have been influenced by books, but there seems to be something especially literary about the genres of hard rock and metal. This goes double for horror and fantasy fiction: Led Zeppelin meditated on The Lord of the Rings, Black Sabbath wailed about “The Wizard,” and Metallica thrashed to the monster Cthulu. Others have drawn imagery out of the Bible, Norse mythology, or the bloodier epochs of European history. For their second album, Tool drew on the writings of Carl Jun...
Scientists Honor Gojira by Naming Three Fossils After the Metal Band
Gojira have always been an environmentally conscious band, and now scientists have honored the French metal act by naming three newly discovered fossils after them. The brittle star fossils were found in France, Luxembourg, and Austria on what was once the bed of the Jurassic Tethys Ocean. Each of the new species were named after the members of Gojira: Ophiogojira labadiei honoring bassist Jean-Michel Labadie; Ophiogojira andreui for lead guitarist Christian Andreu; and Ophioduplantiera noctiluca for both Joe and Mario Duplantier. Scientists Lea Numberger and Ben Thuy from Luxembourg’s Natural History Museum and biologist Tania Pineda from the Florida Museum of Natural History were behind the fossils’ discovery and naming. Advertisement Related Video “Genus named in honor of French metal b...
Mastodon and Opeth Announce Co-Headlining Fall 2021 US Tour
Mastodon and Opeth have announced a co-headlining fall 2021 US tour with support from Zeal & Ardor. The coast-to-coast trek kicks off November 16th in Asheville, North Carolina, and heads up the East Coast before routing through the South. After hitting the West Coast, the tour wraps up on December 5th in Denver. Mastodon will be out in support of their forthcoming album, Hushed and Grim, recorded over a 12-month period with producer David Bottrill. Openers Zeal & Ardor should also have new music in their setlist, with the avant-metal act set to drop a new self-titled album on February 11th, 2022. Advertisement Related Video Meanwhile, progressive metal vets Opeth played one of the last theater shows we saw prior to the pandemic. The band looks to head back out in support of its mo...
Coheed and Cambria Unveil Video for New Song “Shoulders”: Watch
Coheed and Cambria have unveiled a music video for their new single “Shoulders.” Upon its premiere on YouTube earlier today (August 9th), the band members participated in an online Q&A with fans, answering a number of questions covering various topics. “Shoulders” was released a couple weeks ago as Coheed’s first proper single in nearly three years, save for last year’s surprise song “Jessie’s Girl 2” featuring Rick Springfield. The new tune has already surpassed 1 million collective streams and has cracked the Top 40 of the Active Rock radio chart, the band’s first single ever to do so. The video mostly shows the band delivering a high-energy performance in an industrial space, but also contains a narrative featuring masked characters who unveil themselves toward the end of the clip. ...
Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez on Navigating the Pandemic, 2021 Tour, and New Music
Coheed and Cambria have kept busy during the past year, between launching a coffee line, collaborating with Rick Springfield on the song “Jessie’s Girl 2”, doing Twitch streams, and working on some musical side projects. “We each tried to be creative in our own unique ways apart from each other and navigate the isolation as best we knew how,” frontman Claudio Sanchez tells Heavy Consequence. Sanchez caught up with Heavy Consequence to discuss Coheed and Cambria’s upcoming tour with The Used, how he and the band navigated the pandemic, and various other projects. He also gave us a hint as to what fans can expect as far as new Coheed music. Advertisement Related Video Pick up tickets to Coheed and Cambria’s tour with The Used via Ticketmaster, and purchase Coheed’s line of Coffee Roasters pr...
Limp Bizkit Announce Summer 2021 US Tour with Spiritbox
Get ready, y’all! Limp Bizkit are taking their show on the road this summer for a month’s worth of headlining US gigs with support from rising metal band Spiritbox. The jaunt, dubbed “The Limited Post Pandemic Popup Party”, will feature Fred Durst and company playing a number of intimate venues. The tour kicks off July 29th at the Metro in Chicago, and runs through an August 24th gig at the Palladium in Los Angeles. An August 13th show at the recently renovated Irving Plaza in New York City takes place in the middle of the trek. It’s been 10 years since Limp Bizkit released a new studio album (2011’s Gold Cobra), but the band has continued to tour sporadically as fans await the long-reported follow-up, which at one point was slated to be titled Stampede of the Disco Elephants. Related Vide...
Jinjer Announce New Album Wallflowers, Share New Song “Vortex”: Stream
Jinjer have announced their fourth studio album, Wallflowers, arriving August 27th via Napalm Records. The Ukrainian prog-metal band also unveiled the video for the lead single, “Vortex”. The song entwines complex grooves with the powerful vocals of singer Tatiana Shmailyuk. The emotional weight of her performance lies at the heart of the intense track, which again sees Jinjer dealing with introspective lyrical themes. “This is a perfectly balanced song in our opinion,” the band stated in a press release. “A story told through the music and it deserved a video to perfectly match it… The video is a journey, giving the single another layer, another message, as Tatiana sings about the burden of heavy thoughts and how devastating it can be, the video mirrors what the world has sadly become for...
