Heavy Metal
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Metallica has always had a strong independent streak for a band that spent its formative years on a major label. Now, a decade after getting the rights back to their biggest albums, the band is buying Furnace Record Pressing, a plant in Alexandria, Va., to serve its vinyl business, which has grown by keeping catalog albums in print and releasing ambitious box sets aimed at its legions of hardcore fans.
For a decade, Furnace has pressed records for the band, which has a reputation for releasing high-quality vinyl. At a time of supply-chain issues and manufacturing delays, the plant helped the group keep most of its albums available, plus a growing number of ambitious box sets. (Its most recent “black album” box set includes a double LP of the album, three live LPs, 14 CDs and 6 DVDs.) Last year, the group pressed more than 902,500 pieces of vinyl for more than 620,000 packages, according to management, not all of which are made at Furnace. The band sells roughly half of these in the U.S.
“We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace,” and its founders “to the next level,” said Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in a statement. James Hetfield, the singer-guitarist who co-founded the band with Ulrich, said that the plant had been “great to Metallica and more importantly to our fans,” and that the purchase would ensure that potential vinyl buyers “will have continued access to high quality records in the future.”
Those fans are already buying a good deal of vinyl. In 2022 and 2021, Metallica rated among the best-selling acts on vinyl in the U.S., according to Luminate – No. 6 in 2022, with 387,000 albums sold and No. 7 in 2021 with 337,000 sold. That’s especially remarkable for a brand that hasn’t released a new album since 2016. (In 2022, the group’s most popular release was Master of Puppets, which sold 91,000, followed by “the black album” and Ride the Lightning.) In most years, the U.S. accounts for roughly half of the group’s vinyl sales worldwide.
“Metallica over-indexes dramatically with physical product,” says Marc Reiter, who helps run Blackened Recordings, the band’s label. “The fans enjoy owning the physical product.”
Although the band hasn’t released a new album since 2016 – the new album, 72 Seasons, comes out April 14 – there’s plenty of product out there. The band regularly releases box sets devoted to their albums, most recently Bob Rock-produced “black album,” and does a good job keeping in print its older releases.
Its relationship with Furnace, which goes back almost a decade, has been part of that. “The catalog is always being pressed,” says Brant Weil, head of marketing at Q Prime, the band’s management company. A couple of years after the band got back the rights to its older albums, its management team realized that it needed a steady supply of vinyl that could live up to the bandmembers’ high standards.
Furnace, which then also brokered vinyl pressing capacity at other plants, arranged a deal with Pallas, a German pressing plant with a reputation for high-quality work, and Q Prime was able to arrange to essentially lease its own presses there. “We never want to be out of stock on Metallica vinyl,” Weil says. “I didn’t want our release plans to be dictated by manufacturing timelines.”
At that point, “any vinyl shortages ceased to be,” Reiter says. Eventually, as Furnace started pressing more records itself, they started pressing more for Metallica as well.
Gradually, the two companies grew close. “We looked at them as more of a partner than a client,” says Furnace found CEO Eric Astor. (As it happens, the first record Furnace worked on was the 2008 re-release of “the black album” as an audiophile edition.) Furnace, like Pallas, has a reputation for doing quality work at a time when some pressing plants have sacrificed quality for output. “We’d rather throw out some bad records than make as many as we can,” says Furnace COO Ali Miller. (Discarding some vinyl is a factor in quality control.) Furnace has been pressing copies of the band’s forthcoming album, 72 Seasons, since January.
Furnace will not change much, Astor says, and plans call for the plant to keep working on other projects, as well as ones for Metallica. “They want to keep the quality and service the whole industry,” Astor says. “It will give us the opportunity to invest more.”
The hope is that Furnace can grow – as both a partner to the band, as well as an investment the group and its team have come to understand well. “They have the same indie spirit we have,” Reiter says, “and they like doing things the right way, which is also the Metallica way.”
If Nikki Sixx is still thumping out “Girl, Girls, Girls” at 73, “Kickstart My Heart” might take on a whole new meaning. In a recently resurfaced video from an interview with Brazil’s A Rádio Rock from December (according to Blabbermouth) the 64-year-0old Mötley Crüe bassist said he could imagine a scenario where the Crüe celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2031.
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Describing drummer Tommy Lee’s 60th birthday party in Mexico a few months earlier — where the guys, their wives and some friends chilled out without talking business at all — Sixx said there was talk of keeping the train rolling a bit longer.
“Me and Tommy and [singer] Vince [Neil] had this conversation. I said, I go,’ What are you guys doing for the next eight years?,’” he said he asked them. “And everybody’s laughing: ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘Why don’t we just keep going? Let’s just take it to 50.” The group was formed in 1981 and 2031 will mark their half-century anniversary.
Sixx then put a finer point on it. “So this isn’t a final tour,” he said. “What does that look like? I have no idea. I’m just telling you, you have the band saying, ‘We’re having a blast. Why stop?’”
Keep in mind, back in 2014, the Crüe signed a Cessation of Touring agreement and swore that their final show would be a Dec. 2015 gig at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But just a few years later it seemed like they’d pulled the plug too early and after a few pandemic delays, they hit the road last year with Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett for the wildly successful The Stadium Tour, which earned a cool $173.5 million. They are currently on a world tour with Leppard slated to run through July, followed by North American stadium dates through mid-August.
All the original members will be in their 70s if they keep on rocking into 2031 — except for newly recruited guitarist John 5, who will be a spritely 61; recently departed guitarist Mick Mars, who left the band last year due to decadeslong, painful battle against a spinal condition, would be 80 at that point.
Check out the interview below
When HARDY hit No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart dated Feb. 4 with the mockingbird & THE CROW, he shined a light on country’s move toward the hard edge of the overlapping rock format.
HARDY’s album opens squarely in country territory, shifting midway on the title track into angry messages, crunchy chords and sections that feature the harsh screaming associated with the metal genre. The development is part of a bigger-picture revival.
“Rock’n’roll has kind of come back, even in pop music a little bit,” HARDY says, pointing to Machine Gun Kelly and the Billie Eilish track “Happier Than Ever.” “It’s a good time for rock to make its way back into the mainstream. It hasn’t been that way for a long time.”
Country’s embrace of rock elements and symbolism is nothing new. Alabama, now considered traditional country, was viewed as revolutionary when it applied Creedence Clearwater Revival and Lynyrd Skynyrd influences to early-’80s country singles. The entire country/rock subgenre — featuring Eagles, Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers — made the mixture fashionable in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Still, country has grabbed increasingly harder rock inspiration over time. Billy Ray Cyrus grafted Led Zeppelin‘s “Heartbreaker” riff onto “Achy Breaky Heart” performances in the 1990s, Garth Brooks covered Aerosmith‘s untethered “The Fever” in 1995, and Jason Aldean drew comparisons to AC/DC with his thunderous 2008 single “She’s Country.”
Brantley Gilbert concerts felt more metal than country when he emerged shortly after Aldean with heavy guitar chords and dark imagery.
“I’ve always told people there’s a box that is country music,” says Gilbert. “Where we belong is right on the outside of it, close enough to touch it.”
The genre edges even further toward the end of the rock’n’roll plank with Country Goes Metal, a five-song EP recorded under the banner of metalcore act Righteous Vendetta. Due in May through 8 Track Entertainment, the project has already been teased with a harsh, blistering cover of Rodney Atkins‘ “If You’re Going Through Hell.” A frenetic remake of Dustin Lynch‘s “Small Town Boy” will be released May 10, and the full project includes raucous versions of songs associated with Sam Hunt, Chris Young and Montgomery Gentry.
“HARDY, in my opinion, he’s one of the best things going,” 8 Track co-founder Noah Gordon says. “If people are digging that, then the pump is primed for this hybrid music.”
On the surface, the two genres would not seem to fit together well. Country originated in rural areas, while the sound of metal better reflects industrial buildings and urban isolation.
But Righteous Vendetta lead vocalist Ryan Hayes attended a show on Gilbert’s recent tour with Five Finger Death Punch and was convinced that 75% of ticket buyers were fans of both acts.
“Five Finger Death Punch is a certain demographic, like hard-working guys just trying to make ends meet,” says Hayes. “Those are the same people that I think [follow] Brantley Gilbert, like really rough around the edges. That’s the audience that I think they share.”
The country/hard-rock bond has appeared periodically in different ways since around 2010. Staind frontman Aaron Lewis, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl appeared on country charts, the latter through a collaboration with Zac Brown Band. Jelly Roll scored a No. 1 country single while riding the rock charts, and Cody Jinks and Devin Dawson have found country success after starting out in metal bands. Eric Church‘s “The Outsiders” made it to No. 6 on Hot Country Songs, Blackberry Smoke and The Cadillac Three mixed hard Southern rock and blues into a country framework, and Carrie Underwood shared the stage with Guns N’ Roses. Additionally, Chris Stapleton, Darius Rucker and Jon Pardi participated in the cover project The Metallica Blacklist;Luke Bryan has made “Enter Sandman” a part of his “All My Friends Say” live performance; and a host of country acts — including LeAnn Rimes, Justin Moore and Florida Georgia Line — took part in Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Mötley Crüe.
The growing confluence of country with rock’s harder edge is just another version of music’s natural evolution.
“In the ’70s, when Black Sabbath was doing their thing, that was considered heavy metal then, and now you listen to heavy metal, and it’s so much heavier,” Hayes says. “So I think, as this progresses, we’re going to see an entire subgenre come out of this, like country metal. I think it’s going to get heavier, and it’s going to get more crazy.”
It already has. Brantley pushed some of his existing material further over the hard-rock edge during the Five Finger Death Punch tour, and he anticipates it will become a permanent part of the show during his upcoming outing with Nickelback.
“When we went through songs like ‘My Kind of Party’ and ‘Kick It in the Sticks,’ my guitar player, Noah [Henson] — he’s got dreads hanging down to his calf muscles — he came from the metal world, and he does the screaming thing behind me on some of them,” says Gilbert. “The energy behind it was so crazy, we’ve kept it.”
Gilbert’s live revision, the impending Country Goes Metal project and HARDY’s country-metal mixture all suggest that a day may be on the horizon when banjos and fiddles could be completely welcome at a headbangers’ ball.
“There have been people that have really pushed the boundary with the whole rock thing, especially — in my era — FGL and Brantley Gilbert,” HARDY says. “With the screams and the breakdowns and stuff, I’m just pushing it a little bit further.”
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Lizzo can’t get enough of Rammstein. A week after doing a playful a cappella run through the chorus of the German band’s 1997 single “Du Hast” at a show in Hamburg, Germany, the flute-loving rapper was at it again in Berlin at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday night (Feb. 28), where she did a beefed-up version of the industrial metal anthem.
Backed by her full band and dancers, Lizzo sang the song’s hypnotic refrain before warning the audience, “you better sing that s–t!” As she stalked the stage in a lime green unitard, she asked the crowd, “Y’all ready to go f–king crazy?”
Whether or not, here she came, jumping in time to the song’s aggro guitars, taking off her baseball hat for some hair-whip headbanging and throwing in a heavy metal twerk for good measure. She posted video of the moment, repeating the German phrase she uttered at the end of the cover: “Ich liebe dich Berlin,” which translates into “I love you Berlin.”
The second “Hast” came during a week in which Lizzo also re-created Ariana DeBose’s viral opening number from the 2023 BAFTA Awards, complete with the West Side Story breakout star’s shoulder shimmy and impassioned delivery of the infamous line “Angela Bassett did the thing!” The European leg of Lizzo’s The Special Tour will continue through the middle of March, with stops in Milan, Paris, Dublin and London before she heads back to the U.S. for a second North American leg beginning April 21 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
Check out Lizzo’s cover of “Du Hast” below.
Metallica‘s Dec. 16 Helping Hands concert raised millions for the group’s All Within My Hands Foundation. In a release on Wednesday (Feb. 8), the band announced that the gig at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles raised around $3 million, all of which will go to the foundation’s efforts to support workforce education, fight hunger and provide disaster relief and other critical local services.
“The funds raised from the Helping Hands Concert & Auction will have a lasting impact on All Within My Hands’ ability to grow our Metallica Scholars Initiative, combat hunger, and aid in response to natural disasters,” said the organization’s executive director, Peter Delgrosso, in a statement. “The Los Angeles event was the largest fundraiser in our history, and we profoundly appreciate the generosity of everyone involved. We could not have achieved these results otherwise.”
The gig hosted by late night’s Jimmy Kimmel was streamed live on Paramount+ and also featured sets from Greta Van Fleet, a surprise appearance by St. Vincent and Robert Downey Jr. introducing the headliners. The Helping Hands Concert and a parallel auction honored a number of local organizations, including: Baby2Baby, First Star, Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, mikeroweWorks Foundation, and The Skatepark Project.
The band also announced that the first donations from their 2021 The Metallica Blacklist compilation — which featured covers of the group’s songs by Mac DeMarco, Juanes, Rina Sawayama, Weezer, White Reaper, Royal Blood, Cage the Elephant, J Balvin, Phoebe Bridgers, Miley Cyrus, Elton John and more — has generated more than $1 million in donations to date.
According to the release, all the profits from the Blacklist project will be divided evenly between All Within My Hands and charities chosen by the participating artists — including Happy Hippie Foundation (Cyrus), Outlaw State of Kind (Chris Stapleton), RAINN (Bridgers), Dhamma Mahavana (Weezer), Borne Cancer Fonden Denmark (Volbeat), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Balvin), The Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation For Autism (Jon Pardi), The Special Olympics (Cage The Elephant), Save The Children (Alessia Cara + The Warning, Ha*Ash), Camp Aranutiq (Ghost), and more.
Ozzy Osbourne reacted to winning two Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5) in the exact way you’d expect from heavy metal’s legendarily salty king of darkness. After landing best rock album for Patient Number 9 and best metal performance for the album track “Degradation Rules,” in a statement on Monday (Feb. 6) Osbourne, 74, was perfectly candid about what it felt like to land his fourth and fifth Grammys wins.
“I’m one lucky motherf—er to have won the ‘best rock album’ Grammy,” Osbourne said. “I was blessed to work with some of the greatest musicians in the world and [producer] Andrew Watt was my producer on this album.” The rock icon added that winning best metal performance was “equally gratifying being that the song featured my longtime friend and Black Sabbath bandmate, [guitarist] Tony Iommi.”
Osbourne’s 13th solo studio album was indeed packed with some of his favorite players, from the title track (one of several that featured late guitar legend Jeff Beck), to songs featuring Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready (“Immortal”) and Ozzy’s longtime musical partner guitarist Zakk Wylde (“Parasite,” “Mr. Darkness,” “Nothing Feels Right,” “Evil Shuffle”) and Eric Clapton (“One of Those Days”). Other guest performers/songwriters included: Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and others.
Though Osbourne will make a hilarious appearance in a Super Bowl LVII commercial on Sunday (Feb. 12), he recently revealed that he will never tour again due to a spinal injury, which forced the cancelation of his scheduled European/UK tour.
Pantera have been dropped from another European festival. After the organizers of Germany’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park announced on Monday that the reunited thrash metal band will not be performing at this summer’s events, on Wednesday (Jan. 25), the organizers of Vienna, Austria’s Gasometer Festival also crossed the group off their roster.
Promoter Mind Over Mater Music announced in a FB message that the Pantera performance originally announced for May 31 has ben cancelled; the post did not give any further information on the reason for the decision.
According to a report in Vienna’s Die Presse, the Austrian Green Party had a hand in the cancellation after demanding that Pantera be removed in a statement that echoed one from Germany’s Greens in advocating for Pantera to be dropped from that country’s events. “Due to its National Socialist past, Vienna in particular has a special historical responsibility to oppose any form of right-wing extremism. The appearance of Pantera is completely incompatible with this responsibility,” the statement from the Austrian party reportedly read.
A spokesperson for the band said management had no official statement on the German cancellations and at press time the band’s rep had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment on the Gasometer news.
The reformed band’s new lineup — featuring original singer Phil Anselmo and longtime bassist Rex Brown joined by Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde — kicked off their first major tour in two decades in South American in December. While organizers of the three events did not give a specific reason for their decision, speculation has centered on an incident from 2016 when Anselmo was filmed giving a nazi salute and shouting “white power” during a tribute to late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell.
Shortly after, Anselmo issued an apology, in which he said, “I was at the Dimebash, and it was extremely late at night. There was heavy-duty talk between myself and those who love Dime. And heavy emotions were flowing, jokes were made backstage that transpired upon the stage, and it was ugly. It was uncalled for. And anyone who knows me and my true nature knows that I don’t believe in any of that; I don’t want to be part of any group. I’m an individual, and I am a thousand percent apologetic to anyone that took offense to what I said because you should have taken offense to what I said. And I am so sorry, and I hope you just … man, give me another chance to … just give me another chance.”
Both of the German festivals take place in Nuremberg — the site of many Nazi rallies, including a 1934 one filmed by Leni Riefenstahl for the notorious party propaganda film Triumph of the Will — and Germany’s Stern magazine reported that there was pressure from the city’s Green Party city council representatives to remove the band from the lineup of the gigs in the city, with a Green spokesperson saying Anselmo’s apology for his white power outburst was “not credible enough.”
Similarly, the reported statement from the Austrian Green Party noted, “Therefore, it can only mean for Vienna: No stage for a Hitler salute, no stage for Pantera!”
Pantera‘s first major tour in more than two decades is getting off to a rough start after bassist Rex Brown has been forced to sit a string of South American dates due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. “I caught a very mild strain of Covid, but because of our own protocols, I simply do not wanna risk getting my brothers or the crew sick!!” Brown wrote on Instagram on Monday (Dec. 12).
“I’m feeling better & am on my way to a speedy recovery. Merry Fckn Christmas & see you all next Year!” Brown thanked Cattle Decapitation bassist Derek Engemann — who also plays with Pantera singer Phil Anselmo in his Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals side project — for filling in for him after the bassist missed the band’s gig at Knotfest in Bogotá, Colombia on Dec. 9.
The group’s South American tour kicked off with a gig at the Hell & Heaven Metal Fest in Toluca, Mexico on Dec. 2, followed by the Dec. 6 Monterrey Metal Fest, the Bogotá Knotfest show, a Knotfest Chile appearance on Sunday (Dec. 11) and a headlining show at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile on Monday night (Dec. 12). The final shows on the swing are slated for Thursday (Dec. 15) at the Vibra São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil and a Dec. 18 Knotfest in Sao Paulo.
Pantera will get back out there again in late May in Europe, then return to the U.S. in August before opening some North American dates on Metallica’s 2023-2024 72 Seasons global tour. In addition to Brown and singer Anselmo, the reunion tour also features drummer Charlie Benante — filling in for late original Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul — and longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, who is playing late guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell’s parts.
Check out Brown’s post below.
Pantera fans are getting psyched for the upcoming reunion of the beloved thrash metal icons. The group’s first major tour in more than 20 years will kick off in South America on Dec. 2 when they play at the Hell & Heaven Metal Fest in Texicoco, Mexico and over the weekend we got the first look at the new-look lineup of the group.
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Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante — who is filling-in for late original Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul — posted a pic of their reunion rehearsals on Sunday that featured him jamming in the studio with longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, who will be playing late guitarist Dimebag Darrell’s parts. Also in the candids were longtime bassist Rex Brown and vocalist Phil Anselmo.
“2 weeks in NOLA with these boys, it’s been a lot of work but how could it not?,” Benante wrote. “So much heart and soul is going into it. This is all about the Love for Vinnie and Dime, the fans and the music that these 4 created.” Charlie said he’s really enjoying playing the songs, which he promised “sound Great! It’s very emotional and it’s just starting to hit me… see you soon, I need a drink.”
Pantera is one of the most successful and influential bands in metal history, combining elements of hardcore and thrash to create a menacing sound anchored by late brothers Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott on drums and “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott on guitar; the reunion tour was given the green light by both mens’ estates. The group broke through after the release of their fifth album, 1990’s Cowboys from Hell, with then-new singer Anselmo and the 1992 follow-up, Vulgar Display of Power. “Dimebag” Darrell was murdered in 2004 while performing on stage during a show with his band Damageplan in Columbus, Ohio, while Vinnie died in 2018 from natural causes including heart disease.
In addition to the shows in Latin America and Mexico, Pantera are playing three Knotfests (in Colombia, Chile and Brazil), as well as a run of European festivals in 2023.
Check out the pictures and their tour dates below.
Pantera 2022-2023 tour dates:Dec. 2 – Texicoco, MX @ Hell & Heaven Metal FestDec. 6 – Monterrey, MX @ Monterrey Metal FestDec. 9 – Bogotá, CO @ Knotfest ColombiaDec. 11 – Santiago, CL @ Knotfest ChileDec. 12 – Santiago, CL @ Movistar ArenaDec. 15 – São Paulo, BR @ Vibra São PauloDec. 18 – São Paulo, BR @ Knotfest BrazilJune 2-4 – Nürburgring, DE @ Rock Am RingJune 2-4 – Nürnberg, DE @ Rock Im ParkJune 10 – Sölvesborg, SE @ Sweden Rock FestivalJune 22-24 – Oslo, NO @ Tons of Rock