Midnight Metal News – February 4th 2022
Megadeth pushes back the release of their new album again, Chris Barnes criticizes what death metal has become, Exodus talks about what it means to be a metalhead and the passing of former Dark Tranquillity guitarist Fredrik Johansson this week in your Midnight Metal News Update!
Bad news for Megadeth fans: the new album The Sick, the Dying and the Dead, which was due out this spring, has had its release date pushed to summer.
While talking with Forbes, Dave Mustaine blamed distribution problems and issues getting vinyl records made as the reason for the delay and confirmed that their spring tour will be a continuation of the tour that brought them to our second night at Riff Fest last fall with Lamb of God and Trivium. If you missed them then, local headbangers get a second chance when they hit the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on April 19th.
Six Feet Under vocalist Chris Barnes took to Twitter last week after catching footage of the Death Metal Round Table at Knotfest to say that the video made him, “physically ill.” That he, “despises what this genre has become.”
Jamey Josta of Hatebreed invited Barnes to come on his podcast to clarify his thoughts but Barnes replied he ain’t here to play that game.
Meanwhile Exodus front-man Steve Souza spoke with our own Anne Erikson for Audio Ink Radio about when people age out of heavy metal.
“You’ve never heard a guy come up and go, ‘Yeah, man, I was into Slayer last summer,’” said Souza, “That doesn’t happen. You’re either a metalhead or you’re not. There’s not gonna be anybody that’s ever said, ‘Yeah, I listened to you guys when I was a kid, but I don’t really listen to you anymore.’ That was never a fan. If you’re into it, you’re still into it.”
Ex-Dark Tranquillity guitarist Fredrik Johansson has passed away at 47 years old after a battle with cancer.
“Fredrik was mercilessly funny, sharp and highly intelligent, and would light up a conversation with his amazingly positive and quick witted commentary,” vocalist Mikael Stanne said in a statement on behalf of the band.”Fredrik left the band in ’99 to focus on his family, yet he remained our biggest fan and our fiercest critic. Living without you in this world will be radically different and not even close to as interesting and curiously fun as it has been with you in it.”
