Miss May I vocalist Levi Benton (pictured left) may have luxurious locks of his own, but we asked him to list the best and most unforgettable hairdos of the scene.
1. Brian Fair, Shadows Fall “Longest hair in the business. I mean, a guy who can hit the floor with dreads while he hair whips is No. 1 in my books.”
2. Rob Zombie “Whether it’s in a ponytail, in a cowboy hat, or purple with slime in it, ever since day one, Zombie’s hair has been memorable.”
3. Jonathan Davis, Korn “A legend since the beginning. Even in a kilt, he can make long hair look metal as shit.”
4. Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society “I know when you think of that black-and-white signature bull’s-eye guitar you also think long blonde headbangs–and that’s exactly what Wylde brings to metal.”
5. Wayne Static, Static X “Even if he does look like the Slim Jim guy, no one else in metal or in the world has hair this metal and this high. One of kind.”
While you’re at it, check out our recent interview with Wayne Static, which we published here late last month. He discusses the return of Static-X, touring plans and how good it feels for the band to be back on the road. You can read it right here.
Photos: Joshua Sean
[futureusgalleryimagebrowser id="118"] ]]>
By Natalie Perez
After steamrolling through the world of industrial metal for 15 years, Static-X took some much-needed time off from 2009 to 2011. The timing was perfect; after touring nonstop and surviving a few lineup changes, a hiatus seemed the right thing to do.
During that time, frontman Wayne Static flew solo, releasing Pighammer in October 2011. “It was something I wanted to do for a long time,” he said. “It’s been rewarding to do it by myself, not having to comprise or anything. I just worked with an engineer in the studio and spent a lot of time making it.
But this year, Static has put the emphasis squarely back on Static-X, who have reformed with three new members: Ashes, Brent Ashley and Sean Davidson.
“I just want to get back into doing Static-X again,” Static says. “We just want to go back on tour and have a good time.”
Check out my interview with Static below; we discuss the band’s return, touring plans and how good it feels for the band to be back in business.
REVOLVER: Can you give us a quick intro to and history of Static-X?
I’m not sure; I think everyone has at least heard of me at this point. But if you never listen to heavy music at all, in which case you probably wouldn’t be interested … In any case, we started off in the ’90s and came out with our first record in ’99. We sold millions of records, toured the world, all of that stuff. So if you like heavy music at all, I’m sure you’ve heard of Static-X.
How did the band get its name?
It’s kind of funny; I’m a Star Trek geek, so I thought Static Warp Field was cool. I shortened it to Static, then added the X to have it sound experimental. It’s what we were doing in the ’90s when creating a new sound we call “evil disco.”
Static-X are back, of course, but how was the solo-artist experience?
My solo record turned out awesome. Everyone loved it. It was something I wanted to do for a long time. It’s been rewarding for me to do it all by myself, not having to comprise or anything. I just worked with an engineer in the studio and spent a lot of time making it. The fans loved it. Now I’m focusing on Static-X again on the current tour.
The band took some time off starting in 2009. Why did you decide now’s the time to reform Static-X?
It seemed like the right thing to do. I wanted to get out before the summer was over and tour. We got some big show offers and it seemed like the right time to get everyone back together, and building a tour around it made sense.
You’re going on tour toward the end of this summer alongside Prong, who you’ve called a huge influence. How does it feel to tour alongside an act that has inspired you to do what you do?
It’s really cool. they’re going to be joining us in another week due to not being able to be with us at the start of it. But it’s rad. Tommy is a great guitar player, and it’ll be cool to have him out with us.
What else inspires you do to what you do?
I just can’t help but do it. I’ve always been that way, and if you ask that question to anyone else you’d get the same answer. The music just inspires you, and everything else as well — all day — being able to write songs just gives me ideas to make music, and I love doing it.
Will we be hearing new music from your solo career or Static-X?
I’m always writing so I’ve had a few months off from the last tour so I always have ideas for new music. I’m guessing maybe next year something will surface just unsure on whether it will be Static-X or my solo project. But expect to hear some new stuff soon.
What advice would you give to bands who want to do what you do?
Don’t quit your day job. But it’s a real different world now than when I started in the ’90s with the industry — heavy bands getting signed to major labels, making money. But now it’s getting harder and harder, and music is underground again. So if you’re going to do it, make sure you do it for the right reasons and have a good time because the chances to make it are getting less and less because of the Internet having changed how everything works.
What can we expect from your set list on this tour?
I always try to cover everything. With this tour, we’re playing stuff off the first two records, Wisconsin Death Trip and Machine. Six songs off each. But I always try to include a little bit of everything.
What else can we expect from Static-X this year?
We’re working on more U.S. dates. This current leg ends September 2, so we’ll be heading back out in every other town, staying out until October after a little break. Then we’ll take another break for the end of the year and pick up again in the new year. So right now it’s all about touring.
How long does it take for you to get your hair to look like that?
It takes zero time. It’s only a weekly thing, and it ends up staying like that.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
No, that’s about it. Just come on out to a show and have a good time!
Keep up with Static-X at their Facebook page.
Southern Californian Natalie Perez has a fiery passion for music, writing and photography. Dying to know more? Connect with her via her own reality she calls Natalie’s World.
]]>
Dean Guitars is holding its annual NAMM Jam in Anaheim, California, tonight. The artists performing include Testament, Jackyl, Vinnie Moore, and Wayne Static. You can watch the jam in its entirety below, beginning at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST. Here is the performance lineup (all times are PST):
Doors open 6:00pm (METALACHI, the world’s great mariachi metal band, in the courtyard)
VINNIE MOORE 7:00pm to 7:50pm
WAYNE STATIC 8:15pm to 9:00pm
DEAN GIRL/COFFIN CASE FASHION SHOW 9:10pm-9:30pm
JACKYL 9:40pm-10:35pm
TESTAMENT 11:05pm-12:00AM
Let’s also take this moment to recognize the photographers, credited below each photo, who risk life and lens to go in the pit and capture the mayhem as it happens. For those about to shoot, we salute you!
[futureusgalleryimagebrowser id=63] ]]>
Chris “Weird Biker” Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his local New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a freelance writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone’s collective ass.
December is the harvest time for metal journalism. That’s when all of us misanthropic black-clad fucks put together our end-of-year lists, going over our entire musical diet for the last 12 months in an attempt to compile a decent final 10. And while it’d be easy to do a best/worst list, I want to take the high ground and not point out a Worst Album list. That’s just petty. (My 10 best of 2011, if you’re wondering, are: All Pigs Must Die, the Black Dahlia Murder, Tombs, Origin, Toxic Holocaust, Ash Pool, Revolting, Vreid, Hate Eternal, and the Atlas Moth.)
Artwork, however, is different. If your album is bad, fine. You know who you are, probably. When it comes to the music, let’s let it die—everyone’s made a Cold Lake in their lives, so let’s be the bigger man about it.* But there’s no excuse for shitty artwork. In fact, if your album sucks, the least you can do is put something really fucking amazing on the cover (for instance, I’ve always been 50-50 on Lair of the Minotaur, but their covers are damn cool). And unlike your music, which we all know sucks, your stupid choice of artwork is fair game for public condemnation. So here are my picks for this year’s Six Best and Worst Album Covers.
The Six Best Album Covers of 2011
1) Book of Black Earth, The Cold Testament Yes. With this cover, Seattle’s death-metal masters found a perfect image to describe their enthralling brand of fuzzy blackened death metal. If this doesn’t become a back patch soon, someone has to die.
2) All Pigs Must Die, God Is War You know what’s great? When your favorite album of the year has hands-down one of the coolest covers of all time. My No. 1 record of 2011, ladies and gentlemen, and it bears this breath-taking cover, courtesy of artist Florian Bertmer. It’s good to be the king.
3) Autopsy, Macabre Eternal This is one of those covers that’s comical to describe: Two zombies carry a giant stone skull towards an almost-completed statue of the Grim Reaper. Best part? That’s pretty much what the album sounds like.
4) Mhorgl, Heresiarch Until recently, I hadn’t heard of Australia’s Mhorgl, but not only is their brand of black thrash totally badass, the cover of their new record is a Miltonian flurry of demons, devils, wraiths, and fallen angels. When you stare into this abyss, it screams, “Charge!”
5) Chthonic, Takasago Army There’s something about a soldier carving a symbol into his forehead with a huge knife that touches me deep inside. The question is, what character is he carving? This album’s about Taiwanese soldiers, who spoke Mandarin Chinese, fighting for the Japanese! Then again, it might just be an inverted cross.
6) Mastodon, The Hunter Here, the Georgian metal titans left the world of over-the-top van-side illustration and had themselves a Communist Party. I mean, come on, how cool is this 3-D multi-jawed beast-creature? And look at the new logo—insane!
The Six Worst Album Covers of 2011
1) Cradle of Filth, Evermore Darkly Do you guys remember the Cradle of Filth I remember? The band that would put bathtubs full of blood and nude women on their albums, who put out the ‘Jesus is a cunt’ shirt? Remember that? So why does this album have a chick on a park bench for its cover?
2) Wayne Static, Pighammer You know what, I love this album title. It has so much potential to inspire a good cover—oh. Oh, you…you just want a picture of you, with scars, in a kimono. Oh, that’s, that’s cool…no, really, it shows a lot of…erm. Well.
3) Decapitated, Carnival Is Forever Yikes. I don’t know where they were trying to go with this cover, but Decapitated really fell short here. It seems like it’s really trying to say something, but…I dunno. It’s like a parody of a nu-metal album cover. Not a fan.
4) Sebastian Bach, Kicking and Screaming You really have to wonder about these hair-metal dudes sometimes. Like, was it the drugs? Was it the weird biker/homegrown sexuality being bred in the ’80s? What happened, once upon a time, that made them possibly think shit like this looks cool?
5) Limp Bizkit, Gold Cobra I like it when album art says something. For instance, when an album features a morbid sigil by Wes Benscoter, it says, “Good times ahead.” When it’s covered with Vince Locke’s unholy zombiescapes, it says, “This is a Cannibal Corpse record.” And, in the instance of Gold Cobra, it says, “Urinate here.”
6) Lou Reed & Metallica, Lulu To be fair, I’ve never heard this album, only the criticism of it, so for all I know the music rules. But man, how much did they pay the beret-wearing Sarah Lawrence sophomore who made this piece of shit? (Answer: Too much.)
*Actually, I have to be a dick about the new Morbid Angel. Sorry guys, big fan of your stuff, but you really shat the bed with the lights on with this new record.
]]>
Wayne Static has announced a host of new tour dates to kick off the new year. The former Static-X frontman, who is featured in the January/February 2012 issue of Revolver, is touring behind his debut solo album Pighammer, released earlier this year. Check out the tour dates below.
12/14 Las Vegas, NV, LVCS
12/15 Salt Lake City, UT, The Complex / Vertigo
12/16 Denver, CO, The Fillmore Auditorium / KBPI Mistletoe Jam
12/17 Gallup, NM, Slapshot Billiards
12/18 Tucson, AZ, The Rock
01/25 Farmington, NM, Top Deck
01/26 Lubbock, TX, Jake’s
01/27 Houston, TX, Scout Bar
01/28 Dallas, TX, Trees
01/29 San Antonio, TX, Backstage Live
01/31 Baton Rouge, LA, Varsity Theatre
02/02 Fort Lauderdale, FL, Culture Room
02/03 St. Petersburg, FL, The State Theatre
02/04 Greensboro, NC, Greene Street
02/06 Atlanta, GA, The Masquerade0
02/08 Towson, MD, The Recher Theatre
02/09 Hampton, NH, Wally’s
02/10 Worcester, MA, Tammany Hall
02/11 Rochester, NY, Montage Music Hall
02/12 New York, NY, Gramercy Theatre
02/16 Joliet, IL, Mojoe’s
02/17 Cleveland, OH, Peabody’s
02/18 Detroit, MI, Harpo’s
02/19 Mankato, MN, Buster’s
02/21 Missoula, MT, Monk’s
02/22 Idaho Falls, ID, Shilo Convention Center
02/23 Reno, NV, Cargo
Static-X frontman Wayne Static is currently on a tour, with hard rockers Kyng as support, promoting his solo debut, Pighammer (Dirthouse). Revolver photographer Stephanie Cabral was on hand to capture the mayhem, including some scantly clad ladies interacting with Static, at Hollywood’s Key Club on Monday. Check out pics of all the bands below.
[futureusgalleryimagebrowser id="waynestatic-kyng"]
]]>
It’s Tuesday–the day that albums come out–and there are some big ones, including the latest from blessthefall and the first new Misfits record in nearly a decade. Check out the list of releases below and let us know which ones you have already or are planning to get.
Absu – Abzu (Candlelight)
Blessthefall – Awakening (Fearless)
The Browning – Burn This World (Earache)
Danava – Hemisphere Of Shadows (Kemado)
Head – Paralyzed (digital single) (N/A)
La Dispute – Wildlife (No Sleep)
Misfits -The Devil’s Rain (Misfits)
Nachblut – Antik (Napalm)
Styx – Regeneration (Eagle Rock)
Thulcandra – Under A Frozen Sun (Napalm)
Various Artists – Batman: Arkham City – The Album (Watertower Music)
Wayne Static – Pighammer (Dirthouse)
Check out “Thunder Invader” off Pighammer below: