Thrash Metal
The Offering Announce New Album, Unleash Pummeling Lead Single “WASP”: Stream
The Offering have announced their sophomore album, Seeing the Elephant, arriving November 4th via Century Media. The Boston thrashers also shared the video for lead single “WASP.” The track is one of the most extreme pieces of groove-oriented thrash we’ve heard this year. Ceaseless torrents of blast beats and technical riffs compliment the aggro growls of frontman Alexander Richichi, creating a sonic fray that waylays the listener. While the lyrics might be hard to make out, both the song and album have a political slant, having been written during the “warzone of cultural upheaval” that was 2020. This is epitomized by the shirt Richichi is wearing in the single’s performance clip, bearing the phrase: “God Isn’t Real – Climate Change Is.” Advertisement Related Video “’WASP’ is first and fo...
Late Metallica Bassist Cliff Burton Immortalized with New Collectible Statue
Late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is being immortalized with a new KnuckleBonz Iconz collectible statue. The finely detailed statues are limited to 3,000 pieces and retail for $164. They’re currently in production with an anticipated ship date of early 2023. A portion of the proceeds will support the Cliff Burton Music Scholarship Fund. The KnuckleBonz statues are hand-crafted by artists using “a fine-arts process where each figure is hand-cast, painted, and numbered.” The 1/9 scale figures stand 8.5 to 9 inches tall and come with a certificate of authenticity on the base. Advertisement Related Video “Working on this design allowed us to go back to the foundations of thrash and this is our way to pay tribute to the ferocity and brilliance of Cliff Burton,” said KnuckleBonz CEO/creative d...
Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante Open Up About Pantera Tour: “It’s Gonna Be Awesome”
Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante have opened up about the highly anticipated Pantera reunion tour in a new interview. Speaking with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, the guitarist and drummer discussed their aspirations for the shows and the legacy of the late brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul. In fact, initial discussions took place prior to Vinnie’s passing in 2018. “It’s gonna be awesome…,” Wylde said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “When Vinnie was still with us, it was always rolling around that, ‘Zakk, would you honor Dime and all of us get together and do this thing?’ And I said, ‘Fellows, whenever you wanna do this thing, I’ll be over here waiting in the dugout and in the bullpen. And just call me when you need me and I’ll learn everything and we’ll go do this.’” Advertisement E...
Pantera’s 10 Best Songs
The story of Pantera is bound to the modernization of heavy metal in the 1990s, but the band’s origins began long before that. Formed by guitar virtuoso “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, Pantera began as a rather rudimentary ’80s metal band: big hair, glam riffs, and unfortunate album titles such as Metal Magic and Projects in the Jungle. Bassist Rex Brown was along for the ride from nearly the beginning, but things shifted when vocalist Phillip H. Anselmo joined the band after they had already released three under-the-radar albums. While Anselmo was on board for 1988’s Power Metal, It would be the seminal 1990 album Cowboys from Hell that truly marked the arrival of the Pantera that is now recognized as one of the best heavy metal bands of all time. Perhaps th...
Goatwhore Announce New Album, Unleash Blackened Thrash Ripper “Born of Satan’s Flesh”: Stream
Goatwhore are returning with a new album, Angels Hung from Arches of Heaven, on October 7th via Metal Blade Records. Upon the LP’s announcement, the New Orleans band offered up the video for lead single “Born of Satan’s Flesh.” A vicious brew of blackened thrash and death metal is Goatwhore’s M.O., and “Born of Satan’s Flesh” hits that multi-genre intersection at blinding speeds. Guitarist Sammy Duet rains down precision riffs while frontman Louis Ben Falgoust II spouts blasphemies through his bellowing snarl. The accompanying performance clip offers a glimpse at what it would be like to witness the brutality live. The band again tapped producer Jarrett Pritchard (Exhumed, 1349) and tracked the new album primarily at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana under pandemic restrictions....
Metallica Took a Quantum Leap on Ride the Lightning
The first four Metallica albums are among the genre’s most powerful and enduring documents, and while the band’s debut LP, Kill ‘Em All, was a landmark for thrash metal, Ride the Lightning presented a quantum leap in terms of songwriting and structure. Kill ‘Em All leaned heavily on elements of boogie beats nabbed from ’70s Judas Priest and the heavy swung feel to fast-paced riffs that Dave Mustaine would eventually take with him to Megadeth, but Ride the Lightning, released July 27th, 1984, almost wholly struck the swung-boogie vibe from its mostly slower-paced riffs, focusing instead on a near neo-classical sense of grandeur plucked more from the pages of groups like Rush, Rainbow, Blue Öyster Cult and even Priest’s more grandiloquent epics than bands like Sweet or even the more rock ‘n’...
Kerry King Prepares to Launch Post-Slayer Project, Confirms Paul Bostaph as Drummer
Kerry King is getting ready to debut his long-gestating post-Slayer project. In a new interview, the guitarist said he was waiting out the pandemic before launching the band, and that it won’t be that much longer before he unveils the project. He also confirmed that Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph was on board. This comes after the guitarist revealed he was sitting on two albums’ worth of new material in 2020. “You know me, so you know what it’s going to sound like,” he told Metal Hammer. “I played this new song for a buddy, and I said to him, ‘If there’s anything I’ve written in the last few years that sounds like Slayer, it’s this.’ And he said, ‘That sounds like you could have pulled it off of any Slayer record.’” Related Video Regarding the band’s lineup, King refrained from naming a...
Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante to Round Out Pantera Lineup for 2023 Tour: Report
On Wednesday (July 13th), news broke that surviving members Philip Anselmo and Rex Brown would resurrect Pantera for a 2023 tour. According to a new report from Billboard, Zakk Wylde and Anthrax’s Charlie Benante will fill the band’s guitar and drum positions held by late brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, respectively. Billboard cites a source close to the band as confirming that Wylde and Benante are on board, while also revealing that Pantera will headline major North American and European festivals next year, in addition to playing headlining shows. The report further divulges that the estates of Dimebag and Vinnie Paul have given the tour their blessings. Wylde, who fronts Black Label Society and is the touring guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, has long been mentioned as a potential...
30 Years Ago, Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction Tackled Politics and Personal Demons
By the start of the ’90s, Megadeth were on track to dominate heavy metal. After all, 1990’s Rust in Peace garnered stellar sales and press reviews, with the corresponding Clash of the Titans tour — featuring Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax — further bolstering their hegemony. Plus, as he confessed to Guitar School in 1993, Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine was finally getting “stone sober” after years of addiction to marijuana, cocaine, cigarettes, heroin, and other vices. At the same time, however, the meteoric rise of grunge meant that metal was becoming “the red-headed stepchild of the music industry” (as Mustaine postulated to Goldmine in 2012). Advertisement Although they faced some industry pressure to follow the tides, Mustaine told Patch.com the same year, Megadeth chose instead to “...
Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” Enters Billboard Hot 100 for the First Time Following Stranger Things Inclusion
First Kate Bush, now Metallica: Thanks to a high-profile feature on Season 4 of Stranger Things, the metal legends have enjoyed a nice little bump on the Billboard charts, with the 1986 song “Master of Puppets” entering the Hot 100 for the first time ever. After Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) shredded the song from the Upside Down (with an assist from Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo’s son Tye, who recorded additional guitar parts for the scene), “Master of Puppets” entered at No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of July 16th. Metallica already thanked the popular Netflix series for the feature by duetting with Munson on TikTok, with each member of the band sporting “Hellfire Club” T-shirts. Advertisement Related Video Kate Bush was the first artist to benefit from the so-called...
Metallica Duet with Stranger Things’ Eddie on “Master of Puppets”: Watch
Metallica are officially members of the Hellfire Club, as they’ve shared a duet with Stranger Things 4 hero Eddie Munson on the epic “Master of Puppets.” Much like Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” the 1986 thrash metal classic played a pivotal role in the most recent season of the hit Netflix series. And just like Bush’s track, “Master of Puppets” has seen a major bump in streams as a result. Metallica have openly expressed gratitude for their part in the epic Stranger Things final, and now they’ve taken it a step further, giving Eddie the ultimate stamp approval by duetting with him via the magic of TikTok. Advertisement Netflix posted a duet challenge on the app earlier this week, tasking fans with playing along with Eddie as he ripped “Master of Puppets” from atop an RV. Do...
Metallica Help Shred Some Demons In Stranger Things Season 4
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things, “The Piggyback.”] For a show already known for killer needle drops, Stranger Things Season 4 took things to a new level with its season finale. In the epic-length Episode 9, “The Piggyback,” our heroes decide to venture into the Upside Down to take down the malevolent demon known as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). The plan: Use Max (Sadie Sink) as bait to lure the demon into making a psychic attack, while the rest of the gang attacks Vecna’s comatose body. Vecna isn’t defenseless, though, as he’s guarded by an army of demonic bats. That’s when Eddie Munsen (Joe Quinn) — and his guitar — come into play. Eddie pulls out an amp and electric guitar and, with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) headbanging beside...
