HEAVYS Weekly Breakdown and Metal Picks | 4/12/26
HEAVYS Weekly Breakdown
talking about GWAR death threats,
Spirit Adrift releasing final album, and more.
“Known for their grotesque, tongue-in-cheek live shows – where politicians, celebrities and public figures are routinely “killed” in exaggerated, blood-soaked fashion – the band found themselves at the center of a political firestorm following their appearance at Riot Fest in Chicago. During that set, the band staged the disembowelment of Donald J. Trump and the beheading of Elon Musk. Footage of the performance quickly circulated online, catching the attention of MAGA-aligned influencers and triggering widespread condemnation, accusations of inciting violence, and even death threats directed at the band. Frontman Blöthar the Berserker dismissed the criticism in an interview with Billboard at the time, stating in part: “The idea that Gwar is normalizing violence is patently absurd.” While Gwar have largely treated the controversy as fuel for their long-running satirical machine – continuing to target political figures including ICE and former Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem in subsequent shows – the fallout hasn’t been entirely without consequence. Behind the scenes, the band reportedly faced serious threats in the wake of the viral footage – an escalation that, even for a group built on outrage, proved harder to simply laugh off. “In a sense, it’s just laughable, but it was scary when we were getting death threats over social media. It did get me very upset when people were trying to say: ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ This is the country where we’re supposed to be able to do that! People were saying we can’t do it after we’d been doing it for 40 years.” (Metal Injection)
HEAVYS Metal Picks | 4/10/26
Five new songs to electrify your playlists.
What are you listening to?
“Swedish melodic death metal pioneers At The Gates are today revealing a second single for their upcoming album The Ghost of a Future Dead, out on April 24th via Century Media Records. The band added the following about the “The Dissonant Void”: “We are proud to unveil the second track from‘The Ghost of a Future Dead’:’The Dissonant Void’. Originally considered to be the title track – it’s a powerful, melodic and to the point track with the classic At The Gates style sound.” The video for “The Dissonant Void” serves as a first glimpse of a massive conceptual project featuring painting, filming, editing and production by Costin Chioreanu for a visual storyline that enhances the entire The Ghost of a Future Dead album, which will be launched in full to expand the album’s release sometime soon. Costin Chioreanu checked in as follows about the special video project: “‘The Dissonant Void’ is the peak of the iceberg, as a whole visual universe got born out of the void written so masterfully in lyrics by Tomas and expressed magically by the band through their unique heavy metal approach. This video, together with the whole‘The Ghost of a Future Dead’ movie, represent my ultimate homage to the genius which will forever remain as Tomas Lindberg. It was a colossal task to express visually the depth and the darkness of these lyrics and music for an entire album, which also is most probably the darkest record I ever worked for.” The follow-up to 2021’s wildly adventurous The Nightmare of Being, this upcoming At The Gates album The Ghost of a Future Dead marks a special tribute to frontman Tomas Lindberg, who tragically passed away in September 2025.” (Press Release)
