March 23, 2017

Good morning, it’s time to metal. Here’s some news you might have missed from yesterday:

• To support their new album, Heartless, (which drops TOMORROW!!!!) Pallbearer have announced a run of tour dates throughout the U.S. and Europe. Support will come from Marissa Nadler, Kayo Dot, Pinkish Black, and unfortunately not my wallet, as there’s no Philly date. Oh well, I did pre-order the album.

• Sad news from the world of Negură Bunget, as founding drummer Gabriel “Negru” Mafa has passed away at age 42. Not much is known about the circumstances surrounding Mafa’s passing, but…that’s just far, far too young to go. Rest in peace, Gabriel.

• Speaking of tour dates, Fates Warning have announced a set of their own! Nice to see they’ll be hitting such thriving metropoli as Patchogue, NY, and Joliet, IL.

• Some great news from the Eyehategod camp, as frontman Mike IX Williams, has revealed he’s recovering well from the liver transplant he underwent back in December. They’ve also announced some shows coming up in April — one of which is at Philly’s First Unitarian Church. Irony: TOP SCORE.

• Clutch have announced their first-ever Earth Rocker festival, which will take place on May 20 in Shivey, WV. Support acts include Lucero, The Sword and a whole bunch of others. Plus, tickets are just $35, which is almost enough to make you overlook the fact that this is in West Virginia.

• Gorguts will be hitting the road with Defeated Sanity and Exist in June. I don’t really know what an Exist is, and couldn’t give less of a shit about Defeated Sanity, but…man, Gorguts. Le Poisson Rouge, I might be comin’ for ya…

• And finally, Iron Maiden‘s The Number of the Beast turned 35 yesterday. There’s nothing more I really need to say about that. Just watch the video for the title track:

Up the goddamn irons. Now and forever. Anyway, that’ll do it for now — check back this time tomorrow for our next edition!

Keep it heavy,
Dan