German metal queen Doro has prepared a special New Year's gift for her fans and is excited to announce the digital release of the cover of METALLICA's classic "The Four Horsemen". This track will also be included on the forthcoming digital EP "Conqueress – Extended", due to be released on March 1.

Doro's cover of "The Four Horsemen" was included on the physical products of her latest studio album, "Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud", which came out last October.

Doro comments: "METALLICA's debut album, 'Kill 'Em All', has just celebrated its 40th anniversary. I can still remember the first shows we played together in Europe in the mid-'80s. The METALLICA guys (back then with Cliff Burton) were just great and we quickly became friends. There was a very special spirit of optimism in the metal scene that I like to remember. That's why I re-recorded 'The Four Horsemen', one of the early METALLICA classics. I still love the song."

"Conqueress – Extended" EP track listing:

01. Warlocks And Witches
02. Horns Up High
03. True Metal Maniacs
04. Heart In Pain
05. The Four Horsemen

In a recent interview with DJ Ramo (a.k.a. Omar Rodriguez) of The Metal Mixtape, Doro reflected on the first time she met the members of METALLICA, in particular the band's then-bassist Cliff Burton. The singer, who was fronting the band WARLOCK at the time of her METALLICA encounter, said: "[Cliff] was so relaxed. He was so relaxed, like really like cool and he played fantastic bass. And he was always smiling, always in a good mood. He was really, yeah, very cool. And he had more like a — can I say? — more like a hippie attitude, like totally relaxed and cool.

"The first time I met them, that was actually in '84, I think," she continued. "We got a phone call and it was a promoter in the Netherlands. And he said, 'Hey, you guys wanna play a show? I have a little club here.' And we said, 'That's cool.' And there was one band pulling out and, I just found out who it was; it was actually TWISTED SISTER. They were supposed to play, but they didn't play. I don't know. And they said, 'You guys wanna play?' And we said, 'Yes.' And the guy said, 'Wait, but there's another band from America. They're coming from far away, from San Francisco. You guys have to play before that band.' And we said, 'Yeah, no problem. Super.' So we went to the Netherlands. And we were playing a show. It was maybe 400 people there, all going crazy, headbanging, sweating. It was fantastic. And then we said, 'Hey, let's check out this band, the other band.' And it was METALLICA. And they walked onstage, and I thought, 'Wow.'

"Back in the day, it was very hard to even get information — no Internet, no cellphones," she explained. "You just had like these little fanzines, and usually it was like handwritten notes and then photocopies, maybe a black-and-white photo, but a photocopy, so we didn't know them so well before. And then they did a fantastic show. And you could tell they would be big; you could tell. And then I fell in love with their music and 'Kill 'Em All' and 'Ride The Lightning'. And then we did another big festival. Actually, VENOM was the headliner. It was the Metal Hammer festival in Germany. It was based on the Rhine River. It was really nice. It's called Loreley. And VENOM was headliner, and METALLICA and WARLOCK and all the other bands, we were kind of the support bands. And then it was a big deal. And then, soon after, METALLICA, they blew up and they were, like, 'Wow.'

"I always loved them. And I was a big fan. That's the reason why I wanted to [cover METALLICA's] 'The Four Horsemen' [for my new album, 'Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud'] because I love that song so much. And I love the early METALLICA. I love it all, but the early stuff, it was, yeah, it was so influential. And they were all so nice. They were so nice to us — James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burton.

"And then we were actually supposed to play a big festival in Scandinavia. We were on tour with JUDAS PRIEST in 1986. It was my first big tour. I couldn't believe it. And we were supposed to play a big festival in Scandinavia — METALLICA, JUDAS PRIEST and WARLOCK. And we were in our tour bus, and I could feel there was something not right — really dark skies. It wasn't cold but it was bad weather. We were sitting in the tour bus and we had a strange feeling. And suddenly I had a really, really strange vibe. And I thought, 'Man, I hope everything is okay.' And then we went to the — it was a big festival setting. Then we came there, and nobody showed up. And we thought, 'Hmm, that's really strange.' And then later on, a couple of hours later, we found out that METALLICA had this bad accident and that Cliff lost his life. That was the first time that we felt, 'Oh, one of us is gone.' It was so unbelievable. And the show didn't take place then, and the whole tour was… Yeah, we were all, like, really, really shocked and sad. And at first, we couldn't believe it. We were just watching some rumors and stuff, but we thought, 'Everything is okay.' You know when you're a teenager, you think, 'Oh, fuck it, it will be okay.' But no, it wasn't.

"I saw [METALLICA] last time [in 2015]," Doro added. 'We played together. I was in Rock In Rio, in Brazil, and I played there with ANGRA, a Brazilian band, and Dee Snider was there, and METALLICA played there, and that's when I last saw them.

"Yeah, [METALLICA] was always one of my favorite bands."

The 20-song "Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud" LP is described in a press release as "the result of intensive hard work that took the incomparable singer and songwriter back to studios in Miami, New York and Hamburg, amongst others. The album presents Doro at the height of her creative powers."

Last June, Doro released "Time For Justice", the first single from "Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud", along with a "Mad Max"-style video. The clip was filmed with director Mirko Witzki.

"Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud" arrived one day before Doro's 40th-anniversary concert at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Photo credit: Jochen Rolfes

In a new interview with Scott Itter of Dr. Music, SOULFLY mainman Max Cavalera was asked if he has heard any of the SEPULTURA albums that were recorded following his departure from the group. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I haven't. It's like… People say if you break up with your wife and she marries somebody else, you don't really go on Facebook and go see what they're doing. [You keep your] distance. I feel kind of like that. So I have no interest. I've got a lot of stuff to keep me busy. It's a fair question, and I'm sure a lot of people wonder about that, but, yeah, I haven't [heard anything]."

Max previously addressed the question of whether he has heard any of the music SEPULTURA recorded after his exit from the group nearly three decades in a 2015 interview with Sticks For Stones. At the time, he said: "Fuck no! I don't give a shit about SEPULTURA or what they're doing. I just heard from fans that people don't like their albums, and they're shitty, and the band's just going down and down, and, I don't know… I really can't care, can't care less what they're doing. It don't concern me at all. I've got my things going, and, for me, it's just so sad to see a band that was so important and special in the '90s turn to shit like that so fast. But whatever, that's what they're doing. But I've got my things, I've got my things to do, and I'm proud of what I did with them. We did great records and we did cool stuff, and that's there forever, and I'll leave it at that."

Asked if he would still call his former bandmates in SEPULTURA friends, Max said: "Not really, 'cause there is a lot of animosity and bad vibes in that camp, and a lot of bad things happened between us and them. So, yeah, I wouldn't, man. I really don't care. Like, life goes on. For me, it's, like, I'm more focused on the moment, what I have in front of me and I have a lot in front of me. A lot of projects… So, I've got to move on forward."

SEPULTURA fell apart in 1996 with the exit of Max after the rest of the Brazilian four-piece split with the vocalist/guitarist's wife Gloria as their manager. Max's brother, drummer Igor "Iggor" Cavalera stuck around with the group for another ten years before leaving SEPULTURA and re-teaming with Max in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY.

Max discussed the possibility of a classic SEPULTURA lineup reunion in a February 2023 interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of Rock Interview Series. He said: "I'm very, very busy right now with all the projects, 'cause I've got so many — SOULFLY being my main band, but also GO AHEAD AND DIE with my son Igor, and KILLER BE KILLED. And I'm already playing a lot of the old stuff with my brother; that, to me, right there, it fills the void anyway.

"So, yeah, I don't think about that at all," Max said in regard to a SEPULTURA reunion. "At this moment, I don't need to do anything like that. I think at this moment I'm so busy with the stuff that I have in front of me, and the fans love all the stuff that I've been doing anyway. There's no point, really. 'Cause I haven't even thought of that idea in a long time. But I think that my main thing right now is SOULFLY… And I love the fact that SOULFLY just keeps getting stronger and stronger with every record. And I look forward to the time to write the next one. It'll be another challenge and another chance to make something good again."

In the summer of 2022, Igor told the "Mike Nelson Show" about the possibility of him and Max returning to SEPULTURA: "I have to be honest with you, man. The reunion, in my opinion, it's me and my brother — that's the person that I wanna be united with. So, for me, if the other stuff, it doesn't happen, I can't really be too bummed about it. Of course, it would be amazing, but the real reunion for me is just me and my brother being together. That's what makes me happy."

Although SEPULTURA has maintained a diehard fanbase in all parts of the world throughout the band's nearly four-decade history, Max-era albums "Roots" and "Chaos A.D." were by far SEPULTURA's most commercially successful, having both been certified gold in the U.S. for sales in excess of five hundred thousand copies.

Max was asked in a December 2021 interview with "General Population With Marco Lesher" what he thinks of his replacement in SEPULTURA, vocalist Derrick Green. "It doesn't bother me," he insisted. "It is what it is. At the end of the day, the fans know what the band was and what it is now, the difference [between the two]. And I really don't care. I'm not bitter. They do what they do; I do what I do. It's been like that for a long time now. But you can't touch the classics; those records that we did [in the 1980s and 1990s]. It still goes, but it is what it is.

"If you wanna really hear something that sounds close to what it was, you have to come see me and Igor play," he added. "That's the only thing that is gonna be close to what it was, to that time."

Igor and Max have spent much of the last eight years celebrating the 20th anniversary of SEPULTURA's "Roots" and 30th anniversary of "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" albums on tour all over the world.

In 2020, SEPULTURA bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. said that he has had "zero" contact with Max, adding that a reunion with the band's original frontman would have to happen "naturally."

Back in 2017, Igor told The Salt Lake Tribune that he and Max "believe SEPULTURA doesn't really make sense nowadays, to do what they're doing." The drummer also downplayed the possibility of a reunion of SEPULTURA's classic lineup, saying: "Unless it's something really solid — and we haven't seen that from their part — of doing something totally professional and coming together, trying to do something like that. At the end of the day, it would be special for the fans, so it's not like a closed door, but at the same time, we have no time to spend energy with this kind of thing. So we just move forward."

Max echoed his brother's sentiments, telling The Salt Lake Tribune that he doesn't even think about his former bandmates much. "For a time — for a long time — there was a war in the press, like, 'He'll talk this, I'll talk that,'" he explained. "I got really tired of it, honestly. I'm not gonna do that anymore. So let them go their way and do their thing, and we're gonna do our thing, and I think that's the best for everybody."

While stopping short of completely ruling out a reunion of SEPULTURA's classic lineup, Max said: "Right now, we don't even need it. It's been so much of that kind of bad vibes through the years that I don't even know how that would even really work out. I think what [Igor and I] are doing is the closest thing to that, and it works great, it works like a charm. It's amazing."

Last month, SEPULTURA announced that it will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year by embarking on a "farewell tour" which will cover the entire globe. Starting in March 2024, SEPULTURA will spend 18 months celebrating the band's past and the present one final time.

In the works for two years, SEPULTURA's final tour, titled "Celebrating Life Through Death", will start with dates in Brazil, and will include shows in Latin America and the United States, with the promise of additional dates to be revealed soon.

SEPULTURA's current lineup comprises guitarist Andreas Kisser, vocalist Derrick Green, bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. and drummer Eloy Casagrande.

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner spoke about the band's upcoming album, "Invincible Shield", which will arrive on March 8, 2024 via Sony Music. Asked about his previous comment that the follow-up to 2018's "Firepower" would be "a little bit more progressive", he clarified (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think 'progressive' means different things to different people, so it's not super, super complex DREAM THEATER magic, but I think it's complex and progressive in the way that there's some twists and turns and it doesn't really follow any scripts if it doesn't have to. There's two solos in [the LP's first single, 'Panic Attack']. There's a part in it that's 7/8 time [signature]. There's two kind of bridges. So it just goes out of the box a little bit, without being unaccessible, that's what I mean. So I think compared with 'Firepower', it's a little bit more progressive, a few more twists and turns along the journey of the song."

Asked what the inspiration was to make the music a bit more progressive this time around, Richie said: "That was the stuff we were coming up with. When I come up with music, it's usually the riffs first. I sit down with the guitar and the guitar kind of pulls it out of me, really, wherever it comes from. And it just so happened that some of those parts were a bit more unorthodox, time-changey stuff or different time signatures. And the record takes on its own character by itself. As you write a record, you might have an idea of where you wanna go, but the record takes on its own flavor by itself, and you go with that — you recognize where it's going and go with that. So, that's what we were coming up with, and sort of went with that mindset, really."

Regarding his own personal contributions to the songwriting process on "Invincible Shield", Faulkner said: "Well, it's a fairly shared thing. I'm not a lyricist, and obviously Rob [Halford, PRIEST singer] is, for example. Me and Glenn [Tipton, PRIEST guitarist] write a lot of the guitar parts and musical parts and Rob writes a lot of the vocals and vocal melodies. And Rob's got a great sense of phrasing as well. He might come in one day with an idea for a song and it's got some melody and it's got some timing and you can attach yourself to that timing and come out with a riff. So it's kind of — we get in a room, like me and you put a band together, and 'what have you got?' and 'what have I got?' and we put them together and come up with new songs. And it's fairly organic like that."

Richie also addressed the fact that the main "Invincible Shield" album contains 11 songs, with three additional tracks being made available on various versions of the album. He said: "We wanted to keep it around 10, 11 tracks on the main record. But the bonus tracks, we didn't wanna put them on the shelf never to see the light of day. We wanted to get them out. We wanted people to hear those as well without being part of the standard release. So we released everything we had in different formats."

Faulkner then elaborated on the musical direction of "Invincible Shield", saying: "It's a pretty intense record. There's no real moment where there's a ballad or something like that. It stays up there.

"When you release a record, it's exciting," he explained. "It's also scary at the same time, 'cause is it gonna be well received or not? You never quite know when you let it out in the world. So it's an exciting time, for sure."

JUDAS PRIEST will release the official music video for "Crown Of Horns", the third single from "Invincible Shield", on Friday, January 19. A teaser for the clip is available below. The official music videos for the LP's first two singles, "Panic Attack" and "Trial By Fire", can also be seen below.

The release date for PRIEST's follow-up to "Firepower" was announced on October 7, 2023 during the band's performance at the Power Trip festival in Indio, California.

After BLACK SABBATH's "War Pigs" played as the intro to PRIEST's set, a graphic was displayed on the video screens announcing "The Invincible Shield".

The cover artwork for the CD and vinyl versions of "Invincible Shield" can be found below.

To pre-order "Invincible Shield", visit shop.judaspriest.com.

"Invincible Shield" track listing:

01. Panic Attack
02. The Serpent And The King
03. Invincible Shield
04. Devil In Disguise
05. Gates Of Hell
06. Crown Of Horns
07. As God Is My Witness
08. Trial By Fire
09. Escape From Reality
10. Sons Of Thunder
11. Giants In The Sky

Deluxe edition bonus tracks:

12. Fight Of Your Life
13. Vicious Circle
14. The Lodger

Last June, Faulkner told Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio about the musical direction of the new PRIEST material: "There are definitely a few more twists and turns on this record. There are a few more musical parts. So, there might be a bit of... As I said, there are twists and turns. I've used the word 'progressive' before, and the Internet ripped me a new asshole. But it is progressive in the sense that it's not like verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-finish. It's musical part-verse-musical part. It might do a few twists and turns, musically. It veers from the path of it, a bit like 'Sinner' or 'Tyrant' or something like that. So, it's a bit more '70s PRIEST, which I welcome as a guitar player… It's '70s PRIEST, but it's not a retro album, by any means. It's the influence of '70s PRIEST in the progressive sense, but it sounds like PRIEST in 2023."

He added: "Every PRIEST album has kind of stood on its own, stylistically. It's had that DNA of JUDAS PRIEST, because the characters are so strong. But it's always been a little bit different — retaining that DNA but having its own character. So, this one's no different, really, in the sense that it's obviously JUDAS PRIEST, but it's its own animal; it stands on its own two legs."

In November 2022, Faulkner told Robert Cavuoto of Metal Rules that some PRIEST fans misconstrued his previous comments about the musical direction of the band's upcoming LP. He said: "I think we've used the word 'progressive', and everyone thinks it's gonna become 'Nostradamus' [PRIEST's controversial 2008 symphonic heavy metal concept double album about Nostradamus], or RUSH, which is two different things. I've definitely used the word 'progressive' [to describe the new PRIEST material in previous interviews], purely because it's got a few musical turnarounds that 'Firepower' doesn't have. But that doesn't make it a RUSH record. It just makes it — instead of, like, a verse into a bridge into a chorus, there might be a couple of more musical passages in there to make it a bit more… interesting; might be the wrong word. I don't know. You've gotta be careful with the words you use these days. So it's not 'Firepower 2', but it's the same band a few years later, so there's obvious connections to the last record. But it's not 'Firepower 2' by any means."

Richie continued: "No PRIEST records have sounded the same, but it's got a common DNA. And you always try and make the next one sound a bit better — or whatever 'better' may be; 'better' is subjective. So, is it better written? Are the lyrics better? Does it sound better? And 'better' is always subjective. So it's hard to pinpoint, really. But it's a bit more of a musical adventure than the last one, I'd say. But then again someone might listen to it, when it does come out, and have a totally different interpretation of what it is. So it's always tough to sum up your own music without sounding up your own butt."

In February 2022, Halford was asked by Remy Maxwell of Audacy Check In if he agreed with Faulkner's comment that the band's upcoming album would be more musically "progressive" than "Firepower". He responded: "Yeah, the metal is there. But here's the thing: we've tried our best not to replicate anything that we've done. From 'Rocka Rolla' all the way through to 'Firepower', each record has had a distinctive character. And it's tough because fans go, 'We want another 'Painkiller',' 'We want another 'British Steel'.' And [it's, like], 'Dude, we've already done that.'

"Fans know that we're a band that is always full of adventure and trying new stuff," he continued. "And so, yeah, this has got probably some more progressive elements that we've never really delved into before. And that's exciting, because, again, it gives us and our fans another opportunity to see a different side of PRIEST. But it's still metal. There's just more of it. There are more notes than there were before."

Also in February 2022, Faulkner told Canada's The Metal Voice about the overall sound of the new PRIEST music: "Whenever you start a record, you never know how it's gonna turn out. So you might start with an idea of what it's gonna be, and as it kind of rolls on, it comes out something different. So you don't quite know. And also it's really hard to sum up your own music, I find, without sounding really pretentious. But I think this one — it's not 'Firepower 2', I don't think. It's its own thing, it's its own animal. If anything, I would say it's a bit more progressive in places, and in places it's got a bit more of that 'Killing Machine' swagger."

Faulkner added: "I know everyone says, 'Oh, is it the next 'Painkiller'?' or 'Is it the next…?' whatever… I don't know if they'd ever done it, but I know we've never done it when I've been in the band; we've never tried to recreate an album. It's always we try to create an album that stands on its own legs. So I think it's definitely a little bit more progressive than 'Firepower' and, as I said, in places it's got a little bit of that 'Killing Machine' angry swagger attitude going on."

Bassist Ian Hill is the sole remaining original member of PRIEST, which formed in 1969. Halford joined the group in 1973 and Tipton signed on in 1974. Rob left PRIEST in the early 1990s to form his own band, then came back to PRIEST in 2003. Original guitarist K.K. Downing parted ways with the band in 2011, and was replaced by Faulkner.

Photo credit: Matt Owen (courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records)



CROWN OF HORNS. FRIDAY.

Posted by Judas Priest on Tuesday, January 16, 2024

CD cover:

Vinyl cover:

Front Row Warriors are about to release their next big banger - the power metal influenced song, "Dystopian Time", with a warning message, influenced by the myths of Indian cultures.


A song whose lyrics couldn't be more haunting and stirring, with a terrific vocal performance by Todd Michael Hall (Riot V) and Elkie Gee in a soulful duet.


Enjoy their new masterpiece and check out their album Wheel Of Fortune, which was released on June 9, 2023 via ROAR! Rock of Angels Records as vinyl and CD/Digipak. The album was awarded the "Best Hard Rock Album" for 2023 by Deutscher Rock & Pop Musikerverband e.V and the Deutsche Popstiftung. Get the album here.







Front Row Warriors lineup:


Elkie Gee – Vocals
Jay-G – Drums
Sorin Badin – Guitars
Richie Seibel – Keyboards
Timo Michels – Bass
Stef Binnig-Gollub – Guitar

Vocalist Dani Filth of British extreme metal titans CRADLE OF FILTH spoke to Poland's Pełna Kulturka about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's next studio album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, strangely enough, I begin my vocals tomorrow. We started back in July, but we've been so busy. We've done loads of summer festivals and we had our annual break for holidays for everybody. Then we did a couple of weeks. So we've done all the music. Then I was away for 12 weeks on recording in L.A. CRADLE were playing in South America, and then we did a full American tour, co-headlining with DEVILDRIVER, the second part of that. Then I did a couple of more weeks in the studio, getting some ideas down, getting everything ready to sing. And then the producer had a baby. So we haven't actually been back since November. And then obviously we're only gonna be doing a couple of weeks 'cause then we go out on the road. So the album's gonna take a bit longer than usual because we're doing a lot of touring as well. But we're hoping to release it by the end of the year. It's gonna be a big record for us. [I'm] very excited about it. At the moment it's in development stage, so we're being very creative. I'm staying at home. I just got back from France last week where I was visiting with my girlfriend for New Year's. And now I'm just alone in my fortress of solitude at home getting all creative and getting all prepared for the album and the tour."

Asked about the musical direction of CRADLE OF FILTH's new material and whether there will be any "surprises" on the upcoming album, Dani said: "Well, one of the surprises, obviously, but it's not so much a surprise is that we've got a song that we have [pop superstar] Ed Sheeran guesting on. It's gonna be on the album. And people have heard it and loved it. But it is what you imagine — it's CRADLE OF FILTH and it's Ed Sheeran. It sounds like Ed Sheeran, it sounds like CRADLE OF FILTH. There's a blast beat in it. I think it's gonna surprise a lot of people, the album. But it doesn't necessarily mean the album is commercial. It's a very heavy record. We just upped the game as a band. We moved one step further toward the future from our previous record. We see everything as an evolution, everything as an evolutionary step, everything as a necessary link in the chain. And this album's gonna be an important record for us — our first for Napalm Records, if you discount, obviously, the live record. But, yeah, we're very much looking forward to this year. And there's no rush. We've got plenty of shows. But expect the first single probably about September, October time."

Asked if he heard Sheeran's collaboration with BRING ME THE HORIZON on a new version of the former's "Bad Habits" song, Dani said: "I did hear it, yeah. They decided to do that after we started working [with Ed]. 'Cause we actually did the song with Ed over a year ago now. And before then, the idea happened off the back of 'Bad Habits', the album. So, it's been about two and a half years, and it's probably gonna be three and a half years before anybody actually hears the song. But it is what it is. Obviously, he's one of the biggest artists in the world, and we have to kind of abide by his rules because… He's a lovely guy — don't get me wrong — but his management, obviously, have his vested interest at heart. And I think this year he's taking a complete year off. And obviously we want him in the video, so if that's gonna happen, we have to release that single with him on next year. But that's not gonna affect the rest of the album."

Filth originally broke the news about potentially working with the 32-year-old singer/songwriter, who is one of the most successful musicians on the planet, during an interview with Kerrang! Radio"Breakfast Show" at the 2021 Bloodstock Open Air festival in the U.K. At the time, Dani said: "I've actually been e-mailing with [Ed]… He actually touched base with me. I've been invited up to his place. Well, he said he could come down to mine, but I pointed out to him that I don't own my own bar or village, and it'd be better if I went there.

"He said he'd do anything," he added. "Quite literally. He said he's a massive fan. He seems like a genuinely very nice guy actually."

Filth went on to say the prospect of collaborating with someone like Sheeran is not as far fetched as one might think. "We've always been like that," he explained. 'If someone tells us not to do something, then we'll do it. That's been our prerogative the whole time. I did this rap song with this band called TWIZTID in America. It's actually turned out more like RAMMSTEIN and BEASTIE BOYS than full-on rap. So, in that respect, I think it the Ed Sheeran collaboration would be great fun. I think it'd be great if we did it for charity, because at least it would bring a bit of credibility to it. Because obviously to his public, it'd be, like, Oh my god, he's got this weird comical guy,' and to my public it'd be, like, 'Oh my god, this is a bit weird, isn't it? But I think that sort of thing nowadays works."

In July 2021, Sheeran floated the possibility of exploring a more extreme musical path while speaking to The Sun. He said: "I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to CRADLE OF FILTH and SLIPKNOT and all that stuff. I'm not saying I could ever step into that world. I learnt all those riffs on guitar as a kid. That's something I've never thought about doing — but something I would not be opposed to creating."

Sheeran had previously dabbled in a variety of genres, including rock, dance, rap and reggae.

After The Sun published Sheeran's comments, Filth posted a screenshot of an article headlined "Ed Sheeran is open to recording a death metal album after spending his youth listening to CRADLE OF FILTH" and wrote in an accompanying caption, "I'll believe it when I see it. Fellow Suffolk lad could come good in the end. 'Dracula's Castle On The Hill' anyone?"

Last May, Dani was asked by BLABBERMOUTH.NET if he envisions the next CRADLE OF FILTH studio album staying in the same vein as "Cryptoriana" or "Existence Is Futile". He responded: "It's not going to be a million miles away from that. I've been working on some of the material today. We're putting the finishing touches on the songs we're going to record, whether all of them make the grade or not. It has a 'Dusk… And Her Embrace' vibe to them. Musically, it plays across 'Dusk' and 'Midian', but lyrically, and the vibe of it, it has a 'Dusk… And Her Embrace' feel to it. I don't know why. History repeats itself. Maybe it's because we wrote 'Dusk' around this particular time of year, but it has that vibe. It sounds great, but I would say that, wouldn't I?"

In April 2023, CRADLE OF FILTH released its first live album in over 20 years, "Trouble And Their Double Lives", via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded between 2014 and 2019 at different performances in the USA, Europe, Australia and beyond during the band's "Cryptoriana" world tour and dates following. Produced, mixed and mastered by Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studios, with recording captured by Danny B, the effort not only features a slew of fan favorites encompassing the band's discography but also two bonus tracks and two entirely brand new songs, "She Is A Fire" and "Demon Prince Regent".

UK death metal juggernauts, Ingested, will unleash their new full-length studio album, The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams, on April 5 via Metal Blade Records.


Not many top-tier death metal bands can record and release an album a year and follow it with an extensive tour. That's hardly ever been the case for Manchester, England's crushing, visceral Ingested. Since the release of their fifth album, 2020's Where Only God May Tread, the band has been on a creative tear that has produced almost a full record every year - even through the COVID-19 pandemic - but has resulted in the kind of musical growth that only comes from constantly practicing, playing, and writing.


The band's latest output, The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams, is not only as innovative and brutal as their last disc - the bleak, firestorm Ashes Lie Still - it showcases a band willing to expand its creativity without sacrificing the ferocity that made it one of the most impressively destructive, technical death metal bands on the scene. The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams is proof that once Ingested sniffs out a trail of musical blood, they ravenously follow it until they've uncovered a festering feast.




Produced by the band with the guidance of recording engineer Nico Beninato, the record includes a guest appearance by Chimaira's Mark Hunter who provides guest vocals for the track "In Nothingness" and Sylosis singer Josh Middleton who contributes to "Expect To Fail," as well as the striking cover art of David Seidman.


Whether pummelling listeners with double-bass rolls, blast-beats, and grinding rhythm; breaking it all down with jagged, staggered riffs, and piercing harmonics; or flooding the mix with rapid-fire bursts of minor key melodies, Ingested has injected all of their experience, skill, and artistry into the ten trenchant new songs on The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams. Where the new album differs from its predecessor isn't in its brutality or melodicism, it's in the songwriting and the way the tunes flow together in a way that's vicious, but not morose.


"Ashes… was constructed in the COVID period, and the mood of that album definitely reflects that time," the band notes, "With The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams, we wanted to bring the energy up a bit. As much as we like what we did with Ashes…, its depressive tone isn't something we wanted to continue to explore quite as much. There are definitely some dark moments on …Tide…, but for the most part, we took a more upbeat approach to the songs this time round."


In advance of the record's release, today the band revealed the first single, "Paragon Of Purity," and its accompanying video. The track seamlessly contrasts devastating guitar chugs and a spine-tingling minor-key licks with a wall of blast beats and a balance of intense, dizzying riffs that explore both sides of the sonic spectrum; it's alternately reminiscent of Obituary and Morbid Angel.


Elaborates guitarist Sean Hynes, who penned the lyrics for this particular track, "It's about loving what we do, how hard we've worked for it, and the support we have from our families back home. Missing them and being on the road is hard, but we couldn't do it without them."


Watch the video below.





The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams will be released on CD, digitally, and LP in the following color variants:


- Pulverised Viridian (US)
- Wounded Scarlet (US)
- Sapphire Shards (EU)
- Empty Crimson (EU - ltd. 500)
- Shattered Harlequin (EU - ltd. 500)


Find pre-order options here.





The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams tracklisting:


"Paragon Of Purity"
"Endless Machine"
"Where No Light Shines"
"Expect To Fail" (feat. Josh Middleton of Sylosis)
"Starve The Fire"
"Numinous"
"In Nothingness" (feat. Mark Hunter of Chimaira)
"Pantheon"
"Kingdoms Of Sand"
"A Path Once Lost"


"Paragon Of Purity" video:





Lineup:


Jason Evans - vocals
Sean Hynes - guitars, backing vocals
Lyn Jeffs - drums


(Photo - Eduardo Ruiz)

Mick Mars's lawyer has told Rolling Stone that the issue of whether the guitarist was illegally severed from MÖTLEY CRÜE is heading to private arbitration later this year.

When Mars, a co-founding member of MÖTLEY CRÜE, announced his retirement from touring with the group in October 2022 as a result of worsening health issues, he maintained that he would remain a member of the band, with John 5 taking his place on the road. However, he filed a lawsuit against the band in April 2023, saying that, after his announcement, the rest of CRÜE tried to remove him as a significant stakeholder in the group's corporation and business holdings via a shareholders' meeting.

Specifically, Mars claimed he was asked to sign a severance agreement that would divest him of his 25 percent stake in the band's various business interests in return for a 5 percent stake in the band's 2023 tour. This stake, the lawsuit alleged, would be reduced to 0 percent for future tours. Mick claimed CRÜE's management later upped the offer from 5 percent to a 7.5 percent stake in the band's 2023 tour, which would remain contingent on Mars divesting himself from the band and their businesses. When Mars refused to sign the papers, the band took the dispute to arbitration "rather than a public lawsuit so that the public would not be aware of the deplorable manner in which they treated their 'brother' of 41 years," Mick claimed in the lawsuit.

"When they wanted to get high and fuck everything up, I covered for them," Mars told Rolling Stone in an interview last year. "Now they're trying to take my legacy away, my part of MÖTLEY CRÜE, my ownership of the name, the brand. How can you fire Mr. Heinz from Heinz ketchup? He owns it. Frank Sinatra's or Jimi Hendrix's legacy goes on forever, and their heirs continue to profit from it. They're trying to take that away from me. I'm not going to let them."

Mars's lawyer, Ed McPherson, told Rolling Stone that the judge's ruling on Tuesday (January 16) that MÖTLEY CRÜE took too long to produce some of the documents he requested confirms his client was mistreated by his bandmates. "Finally, somebody, somewhere told these guys they can't bully Mick anymore. We're in the middle of a huge arbitration that will ultimately decide if Mick has to give up his shares or not, if they did things properly or not. Obviously we claim they didn't do anything properly. But they feel that they're above the rules. And that's what this lawsuit was about," McPherson said.

"This was them feeling they were above the rules, and this judge saying, 'No, you're not. And you may have given all the documents now, so there's nothing left for me to do, but, you're going to pay for it," he added. "I think that's a pretty huge victory for Mick. If they want to claim a victory, that's fine. But this is someone finally telling Mick, 'No, you're not crazy. These guys are bullying you. And we're not going to let it happen.'"

Mick originally sued MÖTLEY CRÜE so he could go over all the financial books and determine if he was getting what he felt he deserves.

Mars — whose real name is Robert Alan Deal — served as MÖTLEY CRÜE's lead guitarist since the band's inception in 1981.

Last year, a short time after Mick filed his lawsuit, MÖTLEY CRÜE's manager of 30 years, Allen Kovac, told Variety that Mars decided to publicly voice his allegations "to gain leverage in a smear campaign on MÖTLEY. He's attacked the band, and he's done it in a slanderous way, with false accusations and misrepresenting the facts to the fans. Mick is not the victim. The victims are MÖTLEY CRÜE and the brand, which Mick is so prideful of." But, he added, "What's upsetting to me is not Mick, but his representatives, who have guided Mick to say and do harmful things to the brand he cares about so much, MÖTLEY CRÜE. He has a degenerative disease and people are taking advantage of him. It's called elder abuse."

He continued: "Mick's representatives have no idea what they've created, but I've stopped the band from speaking about this, so they're not gonna turn the fans against Mick. But I am going to make sure that people understand that Mick hasn't been treated badly. In fact, he was treated better than anyone else in the band, and they carried him and they saved his life."

Regarding Mick's refusal to accept an offer from the band to give him 5% of the 2023 stadium tour that he did not participate in (the offer was later upped to 7.5% percent),Kovac told Variety: "He was offered a terrific opportunity. An offer was made to him at 5%, and then up to 7.5 percent, to avoid this. What Mick's asking for is an equal share, 25% — but there's a guy named John 5 in the band. Mick resigned from touring, and John 5's getting paid. So who's gonna pay John 5? None of this makes sense."

Allen went on to say that he couldn't understand why Mars didn't take the deal. "They've got [a 2023 tour] they're about halfway through, so let's [estimate] $150 million [in gross], and then you take off for production and commissions, and let's call it 100 or 110 million. What's seven and a half percent of that? He says it's an insult. And you've got me quoting that the other two guys got zero when they were out of the band" — meaning Vince Neil and Tommy Lee, during the periods they left the group. "So where's the insult? I think Mick is part of the 1%. Please put that on the record. … Let's say it was seven and a half percent of $110 million. Could you live on that, even if you have tens of millions already?"

In a new interview with RichardMetalFan, former OVERKILL and VIO-LENCE guitarist Bobby Gustafson spoke about the status of his recently launched new project called PAINWARD.

When the 58-year-old musician, who is based in Florida, first announced the formation of the new outfit, he said he would be joined by his SATAN'S TAINT bandmate Jim McCourt on drums and MASSACRE bassist Mike Borders. A singer for the project has not yet been announced.
Asked by RichardMetalFan when fans can expect to hear the first music from PAINWARD, Gustafson said: "I've got the album written, and I actually wrote some extra songs while I was waiting. I came up with three other songs that actually pushed two songs off, which are gonna wind up being on the EP."

He continued: "Mike from MASSACRE has been a longtime friend. He lived down in [Fort] Lauderdale. We've known each other over 20 years. So he's gonna do bass. I'm actually looking for a different drummer. I think I'm going to use Jim just for SATAN'S TAINT so it's different. So we have a drummer right now that we're talking with from Ohio. We had a singer here, but he's kind of MIA right now. I don't know what happened. I think he caught COVID a couple of weeks ago and then he just disappeared. So we're still searching for a singer. I wanna get the right guy. So I'm taking my time, because just so much judgment of a band is always put on what the singer sounds like. You either love it or hate it — same thing with Blitz [OVERKILL's Bobby Ellsworth], same thing with Sean [Killian, VIO-LENCE singer]; you either loved it or hated it. So I'm trying to get something that's gonna be more people that love it."

Elaborating on the musical direction of the PAINWARD material, Bobby said: "[The songs are] sharp and to the point. There's no bullshit. There's no clean parts. They're all aggressive. I'm excited about it. I can't get it out yet. I'm trying."

Regarding why it has been so hard finding the right musicians for the PAINWARD project, Gustafson said: "Everyone's in five bands. I mean, I'm literally asking people that are already in bands to be, like, 'Hey, could you could you add another band on your list of five people you fucking play with?' It's hard. South Florida has always been hard to find musicians. It's been that way since I started playing down here…. Most of the musicians, they seem to be in Tampa, Orlando area. Tampa's about three hours and Orlando's about two hours, which isn't that bad. To do [an in-]person rehearsal, it's not a bad deal, 'cause sometimes I'll go up there just to see the show and drive back. There are some good musicians down here, but everyone is already playing, so their time is taken up with whoever they're with. We've got Derek Roddy down here on drums, Patrick Johansson on drums, but they're all busy. The critical element is gonna be that singer. So we've gotta find the right guy. I'm gonna have that vocals on SATAN'S TAINT, 'cause it fits, but there's too many of the cookie-monster vocals. And I don't wanna go too far with the dirty and I don't wanna go too far with the clean. So I'm trying to find somebody in the middle."

Gustafson joined OVERKILL in 1982 and played on the band first four albums — "Feel The Fire" (1985),"Taking Over" (1987),"Under The Influence" (1988) and "The Years Of Decay" (1989) — before being shown the door in 1990 amid growing tension between him and OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni.

Bobby told Metal Rules a few years ago that he was never officially asked to leave OVERKILL. "It wasn't something where they came out and said, 'Hey, you're fired!' It was more of a verbal fight between me and D.D. about doing a show where they wanted to do it strictly for money and I didn't want to do it because we had just sold out Studio 54 in New York, our biggest show, and they wanted to do a Halloween show that was kind of goofy," he claimed.

In a 2016 interview with Rock & Metal In My Blood, Gustafson said that he would "never play with [OVERKILL] again. They stole from me back then and continue to steal from me till this day," he explained. "They haven't paid me for the use of my songs for the past 30 years and now they are even re-recording 'Feel The Fire' live. I've never seen a band claim so adamantly that they don't live in the past, yet most of their set list is from the first four albums I was on. They have had so many albums after me and never play songs from them. I just can't play happily with backstabbers and liars."

Regarding the fact that OVERKILL replaced him with two guitarists, Gustafson told Noisecreep in a 2011 interview: "Some might say it was like a compliment. I would tend to agree. Plus every album after me, when they had two guitar players in the lineup, never topped what I did. 'The Years Of Decay' is still our best-selling album and I had a really short time to write it. I did it short breaks within a six-month period. D.D. had years to put together their next album ['Horrorscope']. So his opinion that two guitarists would make them heavier failed."

Gustafson joined VIO-LENCE in January 2020 as the replacement for Ray Vegas.

When Gustafson's departure from VIO-LENCE was first announced in October 2020, the band cited "logistical difficulties that weigh too heavy to function in a productive manner" as the reason for the split. He later told Into The Pit about his exit: "[The split happened] for the same reason all these bands are canceling tours. It's just gotten so expensive to do. Even within that three-short-year span, the price of plane tickets really shot up after the pandemic. They're not playing all the time — they're doing sporadic shows here and there — and to spend that much money to bring me out there, it's understandable."

Gustafson went on to say: "I thought it was pretty much a solid band when I had started. But I know Phil [Demmel, VIO-LENCE's founding guitarist] has his eyes on something bigger. So if other projects come along, he wanted to really be with something at the level he was used to, which is understandable. You get used to that level, and it's hard to go back. I wish them well. Whatever happens, happens."

In a new interview with Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2020's "Titans Of Creation" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we got delayed a little bit by the fact that 2020 basically didn't exist [due to the coronavirus pandemic]. It's a year that went away. And then there was so much touring to make up for. And for about a year of that, we had Dave Lombardo [ex-SLAYER] on drums, which was fantastic. And he's become a great friend and a great musician, but he's also spread very thin in many different bands. And now we have Chris Dovas [playing drums with us]. And he's a guy old enough to be any of our sons. But he is just unbelievable. He really brings the right energy. I mean, he brings the energy that the music had in the early days. So, yeah, we've been working with him on new material. I know Eric's [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist] been getting together with him. Eric has been on the East Coast a couple of times and we've gotten together and hashed out material. So between their sessions and my sessions and the recordings that we have, there's a lot of sketches that are done on digital audio workstations. There's a lot — there's a lot of stuff. I made a list and there's almost a couple of dozen sketches that just need to be consolidated and arranged. [We have to] find the best parts, develop them a little more, add vocals, but it's definitely well on its way."

Skolnick went on to say that there is no set timetable for the release of the next TESTAMENT album. "You can't rush it," he explained. "I think this band learned very early on, you can't rush it. Like the times in the past that the band sort of rushed to put out a recording, it never felt completely satisfactory. So sometimes it takes longer than it should, but you can always count on a good result."

Last August, Dovas was asked by Pod Scum if it was "unnerving" to step into a group whose list of previous drummers includes such heavyweights as Lombardo and Gene Hoglan. He responded: "It was, especially at first because I knew that a lot of eyes were on me, and also I looked up to the band since I was a kid. Especially Lombardo and Gene — those are two of my favorite drummers right there. So to be put in that situation of taking over for them, I felt like I had a lot of responsibility and a lot of… I felt like I had something to prove a little bit, and I'm still practicing a lot and I just wanna do the best that I can do. Right now I'm not really nervous anymore because I've done two full tours with them now and we're working on the [new TESTAMENT] album and the friendship has been developing now and we all get along super well. They've welcomed me with open arms and it's been great and the fans have been great. I've been putting hours and hours of practice into it to make sure that I can do the best that I could do. And I look up to Dave and I look up to Gene as well, so, yeah, I just wanna play the songs well live and keep making the band sound good."

Asked what his role has been so far in the creative process for TESTAMENT's next album, Chris said: "I don't know exactly what I'm allowed and what I'm not allowed to share yet, but what you've seen publicly, though, right now is that Eric and I have been working on a lot of stuff together. And so it's been really cool to get into their brains, in a way, and how they write stuff. I'm used to people sending me tracks with scratch MIDI drums or programmed drums or something, and I've gotta put my drums to them and then hop on a Zoom call and we can edit things and move stuff around. But with them, Eric and I, he set a timer at one point for, like, 20 minutes and we would just jam random ideas. And then sometimes we'd make mistakes and stuff and that would be cool, and we could take that… It's very organic, though, and it's very involved, I guess. It's a different way of writing and I'm super excited to be a part of that method of writing. And I could see why they're so successful for all these years, now finally being a part of this current writing cycle, I guess."

In July 2023, Peterson said that he and Dovas had spent a few days working on material for TESTAMENT's next studio album. Eric shared a few photos on his Instagram and wrote in an accompanying message: "Had a very productive week with the kid! Mr. @chrisdovas and I worked up new 7 jam ideas ranging from thrash to nwobhm mixed in w/ black thrash to dark heavy hard rock blues…let's see what happens! super stoked so far!"

Dovas shared the same pictures on his social media and he added: "New TESTAMENT material in the works! Eric and I have been working hard all week on new ideas. Stoked so far!"

In a 2023 interview with Loud TV, Peterson said that the new TESTAMENT material is shaping up to be "fucking killer." He added: "I'm a fan. For me, I wouldn't release anything unless I'm a fan of what I'm doing. I have to get goosebumps. When I hear it, I'm, like, 'Yeah.' And then, of course, I play it for friends. A few of them go, 'Ehh.' But most of them go, 'Fuuuck!' Except Chuck [Billy, TESTAMENT singer] — Chuck goes, 'Eh.' And then four years later, [he goes], 'That's the best song ever. Write more shit like that.' I'm, like, 'Yeah, but four years ago you said that sucked.'"

Peterson was also full of praise for Dovas, who officially joined the band last year as the replacement for Lombardo. Eric said: "When we were auditioning for new drummers, his video tape was the number one for me. And then, of course, Dave Lombardo called us, so we just kind of pushed everything aside; we said, 'Okay, we'll try Dave.' And when Dave was, like, 'Oh, I've got this show coming up. I've got this show coming up,' I went back to my [videos], [and I said], 'Oh, yeah, this guy.' I remember the other guys going, 'Let's call Paul Bostaph.' 'Let's call John Tempesta.' And, of course, they would probably do it, but with the stipulation of, like, 'I can only do this date,' 'I can only do this date.' I called Chris. He was, like, 'I'm in. I'll do everything.' And so we tried him, and were just, like, 'What?!' Perfect tempo. Everything correct — bam, bam. Very polite. Really nice guy. I can't say enough good things about him. He's just a really good drummer. He's 24; he's my son's age. Young blood back in TESTAMENT. For me, too, he loves black metal, so he was, like, [into] blast beats. But he also graduated from a school called Berklee. So jazz… He's very fluent. He's not, like, 'Oh, I only know blast beats.' He knows blues… TESTAMENT's really diverse — we have ballads, we have rock songs, we have blast beats. That's just it — when he came to visit me before this tour, we were rehearsing for the tour but we would go back to my house at night, do some Jager really late at night and just start jamming at my house. And the next morning we were, like, 'Woah!' Really cool shit. So I'm excited for the next record. It's gonna be killer."

Lombardo, who was the guest drummer on TESTAMENT's 1999 studio album "The Gathering", formally joined the long-running San Francisco Bay Area act in early 2022. The former SLAYER drummer is currently a member of the MISFITS, MR. BUNGLE, EMPIRE STATE BASTARD and SATANIC PLANET, among others. He also played with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES from 2016 up until 2020.

Prior to joining TESTAMENT as a full-time member, Dovas previously filled in for Lombardo on the first six dates of TESTAMENT's summer/fall 2022 leg of "The Bay Strikes Back Tour". Lombardo was unable to make those gigs due to a scheduling conflict with the MISFITS.

Finnish folk metal superstars, Korpiklaani, have released a brand new single called "Saunaan", the first song to whet your appetite for their upcoming new studio album, Rankarumpu, which is due to be released on April 5. The pre-order for the album starts today.


Rankarumpu, like the two previous records, was executed with recording / mixing engineer and producer Janne Saksa. It seems that the collaboration between the band and Saksa has reached a whole new level with Rankarumpu.


Korpiklaani's twelfth studio album is once again full of tasty folk metal and its different flavors, but it also offers new spices. One of the most wonderful features of Rankarumpu is related to the folk instruments. Although Korpiklaani has done one or maybe even a couple of unforgettable things in the realm of folk metal, this time new permanent member Olli Vänskä's violin and Sami Perttula's accordion may surprise even die-hard fans.




One of the best showcases of this new chapter in Korpiklaani's career is the fast paced, violin-driven and playful folk metal tune "Saunaan". With its irresistable lead melody and a chorus for the ages, "Saunaan" is one of the strongest Korpiklaani songs to date, and it should fill any fan of the genre with pure delight.


Olli Vänskä commented: "I actually composed 'Saunaan' already months before I even knew I would be playing for Korpiklaani. I was working on an upbeat folk metal song and less surprisingly KK – Kings of Folk Metal – was definitely one of the influences.


Then, one thought led to another and suddenly I found myself actually playing for Korpiklaani and we were talking about material for an upcoming album. One night during a festival van ride I played a couple of demo tracks for the guys and Jonne was immediately giving me thumbs up. We worked with the arrangement a little bit and the end result is a pretty pretty good song!"


Watch the video below, and pre-order/pre-save the new album here.





Tracklisting:


"Kotomaa"
"Tapa sen kun kerkeet"
"Aita"
"Saunaan"
"Mettään"
"Kalmisto"
"Rankarumpu"
"No perkele"
"Viikatelintu"
"Nouse"
"Oraakkelit"
"Harhainen höyhen"


"Saunaan" video:





Korpiklaani have massive touring plans for 2024, starting with an extensive UK tour with Alestorm and Heidevolk in February and March, two album release shows in Mexico on April 5 and 6, followed by a North Amercan tour with Visions Of Atlantis & Illumishade (feat. members of Eluveitie) in April and May, a good number of big European Summer festivals and a European tour towards the end of the year.


Tour dates:


February (with Alestorm & Heidevolk)
21 - London, UK - O2 Forum Kentish Town
22 - Norwich, UK - LCR UEA
23 - Nottingham, UK - Rock City
24 - Bournemouth, UK - O2 Academy
25 - Bristol, UK - O2 Academy
27 - Belfast, UK - Limelight
28 - Dublin, UK - Academy
29 - Cardiff, UK - SU


March (with Alestorm & Heidevolk)
1 - Birmingham, UK - O2 Academy
2 - Oxford, UK - O2 Academy
3 - Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy
5 - Mancheste, UKr - O2 Victoria Warehouse
6 - Liverpool, UK - O2 Academy
7 - Leeds, UK - O2 Academy
8 - Newcastle, UK - NX
9 - London, UK - O2 Forum Kentish Town


April (album release shows)
5 - Mexico City, Mexico - Foro28
6 - Monterrey, Mexico - Cafe Iguana





April (with Visions Of Atlantis & Illumishade)
8 - Reading, PA - Reverb
9 - New York City, NY - Gramercy Theatre
10 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
11 - Montreal, QC - La Tulipe
12 - Ottawa, ON - Brass Monkey
13 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre
14 - Pontiac, MI - The Crofoot
15 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
17 - Minneapolis, MN - Skyway Theatre
18 - Winnipeg, MA - Park Theatre
19 - Regina, SK - The Exchange
20 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room
21 - Calgary, AB - Dickens
23 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
24 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
25 - Portland, OR - BossaNova Ballroom
26 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
27 - Los Angeles, CA - 1720
28 - San Diego, CA - Brick By Brick
29 - Phoenix, AZ - The Nile


May (with Visions Of Atlantis & Illumishade)
1 - Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre
2 - Lincoln, NB - The Bourbon Theater
3 - Joliet, IL - The Forge
4 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr Smalls Theatre
5 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage


2024 Festivals


June
27-30 - Clisson, France - Hellfest


July
12 - Laundresse - La Guerre Du Son
28-August 3 - Velenje, Slovenia - MetalDays


August
9-11 - Cercoux, France - Festival 666
9-11 - Walton on Trent, UK - Bloodstock Open Air
9-11 - Kortrijk, Belgium - Alcatraz Festival
14-17 - Dinkelsbühl, Germany - Summer Breeze
15-17 - Zámek Moravský Krumlov, Czech Republic - Rock Castle
24 - Pindelo dos Milagres, Portugal - Milagre Metaleiro Open Air


November (with In Extremo & Rauhbein)
15 - Saarbrücken, Germany - Garage
16 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
22 - Rostock, Germany - Moya
23 - Dortmund, Germany - Phantastischer Lichter Weihnachtsmarkt
29 - Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
30 - Bremen, Germany - Pier 2


December (with In Extremo & Rauhbein)
6 - Nürnberg, Germany - KIA Metropol Arena
7 - Wien, Austria - Gasometer
12 - Bielefeld, Germany - Lokschuppen
13 - Hannover, Germany - Swiss Life Hall
14 - Dresden, Germany - Alter Schlachthof
20 - Leipzig, Germany - Haus Auensee
21 - Stuttgart, Germany - Porsche Arena
27 - München, Germany - Zenith
28 - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof
29 - Erfurt, Germany - Messehalle
30 - Köln, Germany - Palladium


(Photo - Peero Lakanen, edited by Jan Yrlund)