German death metal band Ichor have revealed a video for their song "Tales From The Depths". The track is taken from their album Hadal Ascending, which is out December 7th.

The band commented, "'Tales From The Depths' is one of the slower songs on Hadal Ascending. It builds up a deep atmosphere which is combined with the unexpected that awaits one in the depths."

Hadal Ascending is the fourth full-length album from German death metal band Ichor. It links thematically to the group’s previous albums Benthic Horizon and Depths. The fictional story of a devastated and hate-filled deep-sea world full of creatures and mystical beings continues.

Human warriors reached the hadal-level in the deep sea and fight a bitter war against gorgons and creatures of the depths. To implore transcendent energies, rituals are held during the slaughter. The demon Zaan wakes and feeds on the blood of the warriors. He opens the portal to other worlds and as leader of gorgons and creatures, he leads them through the portal into the empire of stars and planets.

 

As this historic and volatile election approaches in the United States, Prophets Of Rage want to remind people of the importance of exercising their right to vote. The revolutionary musicians Prophets Of Rage: Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk, Chuck D, B-Real and DJ Lord, released a mash up today of three new unreleased tracks and their latest release, Heart Afire, into a brand new video. Named after the famous Malcolm X speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” the video is aimed squarely at turning out voters to next week’s midterm elections.

As the group states in the music video, “There are people trying to keep many of us from being able to vote. Don’t squander the rights we’ve fought so hard to get. Agitate, organize, resist and rebel before, during and after Election Day. In the words of Malcolm X, ‘it’s got to be the ballot or the bullet.’” Additionally, it provides reminders and resources linking people to check ID requirements in their state, since new laws and policies threaten to disenfranchise large numbers of Native American and Black voters in North Dakota and Georgia, but activists are resolute in the battle for the ballot.

Prophets Of Rage, who remain hard at work on their next album, are nonetheless focused on the matter at hand, and with this powerful new video, are strongly encouraging their fans to be heard, to be counted, to vote.

The Swiss trio Cellar Darling take a turn towards heavy progressive rock with the release of “Insomnia”: the first single from their upcoming second album, which is due to be released next year on Nuclear Blast Records. The track surprises on every level and takes the listener on a dark and sinister trip, illustrated beautifully by a mesmerizing animated video. Each part of this epic song outdoes the previous one on a musical journey that blends the band's heaviest side together with hurdy-gurdy, flute, grand piano and a Hammond organ, culminating in a grand finale that will leave the sonic traveller speechless.

The “Insomnia” video was made by the talented Costin Chioreanu:

Grab the first chance to see the songs performed live on the March/April 2019 European tour, with more dates being confirmed soon. Check out dates and ticket information at  CellarDarling.com.

Cellar Darling are:
Anna Murphy - vocals, hurdy-gurdy, multi-instrumentalist
Merlin Sutter - drums
Ivo Henzi - guitars, bass

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Live In Atlantic City is out now on CD + Blu-ray Digipak (limited first print run in fake leather), 2LP Gatefold+download, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital via  earMUSIC.

Order here, and watch a new video trailer below:

Trailer:

"Free Bird":

"Sweet Home Alabama":

Earlier this year Southern rock icons, Lynyrd Skynyrd, announced that, after a career that has spanned more than 40 years and includes a catalog of more than 60 albums with more than 30 million units sold, they would embark on their Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour. Produced by Live Nation, the two-year farewell tour will have logged over 50 stops by the end of 2018 including some stops in Canada.

The blockbuster farewell tour continues to take the band across the globe next year starting in Canada.  With additional international and U.S. dates to be announced soon, The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will give fans one last unforgettable night of classic music.

The 2019 Canadian leg will feature one of the most celebrated musicians in Canadian history, special guest, Randy Bachman. The two-time inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame is one of few artists to hold the distinction of topping the charts in two different bands: “American Woman” with The Guess Who and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” with Bachman‐Turner Overdrive.

In addition to Bachman numerous friends including but not limited to: Kid Rock, Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Daniels Band, Bad Company, Marshall Tucker Band, 38 Special, Blackberry Smoke and Blackfoot, will continue as special guests on the farewell tour. The tour derives its name from their song, "The Last Of The Street Survivors" and the band’s fifth studio album Street Survivors that is certified multi-Platinum by the RIAA and includes the Platinum-certified single, “What’s Your Name.”

The Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour marks a big moment for generations of fans, as Lynyrd Skynyrd has been touring consistently since the ‘90s. The band, that USA Today called the “whiskey-soaked genre's most popular and influential crew,” is ready to rock one last time. The farewell tour will take original member Gary Rossington joined by Johnny Van Zant, Rickey Medlocke, Mark “Sparky” Matejka, Michael Cartellone, Keith Christopher, Peter Keys, Dale Krantz Rossington, Carol Chase and special guest Jim Horn across the country over the next two years.

The Southern Rockers are best known for the RIAA Platinum-certified “Sweet Home Alabama” and self-proclaimed signature song, “Free Bird,” that Rolling Stone said was “easily the most requested live song in existence.” With everlasting hits such as “Simple Man,” “Gimme Three Steps,” “What’s Your Name,” “Call Me The Breeze,” “You Got that Right,” and more, it is easy to see why Rolling Stone named Lynyrd Skynyrd one of its 100 Greatest Bands of All Time.

Tickets for the Canadian run of shows go on sale to the general public starting Friday, November 2nd at 10 AM local time via LiveNation.com. Stay tuned for future announcements and specific tour line-ups for each market. VIP packages will be available for all dates. More information available at  LynyrdSkynyrd.com.

Dates:

March
2 - Ottawa, ON - Richcraft Live at the Canadian Tire Centre
3 - Windsor, ON - The Colosseum a Caesar’s Windsor (Not a Live Nation date)
5 - London, ON - Budweiser Gardens
8 - Winnipeg, MB - Bell MTS Place
9 - Regina, SK - Brandt Centre
12 - Edmonton, AB - Rogers Place
13 - Calgary, AB - Scotiabank Saddledome
15 - Abbotsford, BC - Abbotsford Centre

Quebec’s Trollwar prepare to march on the warpath once again with their new album Oath Of The Storm, set for release on November 16th.  Maintaining the folk metal roots that the band has garnered acclaim for with previous releases Bloodshed Forges EP (2011); Earthdawn Groves LP (2013); and The Traveler’s Path EP (2017), the band has been ever evolving and ensures a more symphonic experience than from albums past.

“The new release will be way darker and deeper than ‘Earthdawn Groves’, but Trollwar is always following the same path. Starting from a blend of blackened folk metal, we worked really hard to develop the melodic and dynamic aspects that forge our sound. Prepare for something really epic. Adding an orchestral aspect to both the album production and live act will be a great phase for us.”

Produced by Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, The Agonist, Beyond Creation) from The Grid, the production has been raised to a new level and Oath Of The Storm contains four remastered songs with refined orchestration from their 2017 EP The Traveler’s Path as well as eight brand new adventurous and epic tracks perfect for the soundtrack of your upcoming raids.

Taking notes from bands such as Wintersun, Ensiferum and Finntroll, Trollwar is sure to be appreciated by fans in a multitude of realms including melodic death, folk, black and power metal.

A new lyric video for the track"Into Shadows" can be found below.

Tracklisting:

“Intro”
“Summoning”
“Into Shadows”
“The Forsaken One”
“In Defiance”
“Hymn For The Vanquished”
“Forgotten”
“Omens Of Victory”
“Home Of Forbidden Lore”
“Shores Of Madness”
“Winter’s Night”
“Outro”

“Into Shadows” lyric video:

“Summoning”:

Crusty death/doom act Vallenfyre performed their second last show ever at Germany's Wacken Open Air festival earlier this year. Pro-shot footage of the band's full set can be found below.

Setlist:

"Born To Decay"
"Messiah"
"Cathedral Of Dread"
"Scabs"
"Nihilist"
"The Merciless Tide"
"Kill All Your Masters"
"Savage Arise"
"Desecration"
"Splinters"

The official video for "That Crazy White Boy Shit", a new song from New York hardcore legends SICK OF IT ALL, can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's twelfth studio album, "Wake The Sleeping Dragon!", which was released today (Friday, November 2) via Century Media. The follow-up to 2014's "The Last Act Of Defiance" was produced by Jerry Farley (EVERY TIME I DIE, DEMON HUNTER) over a two-and-a-half-week period at Nova Studios in Staten Island, New York and was mixed and mastered by Tue Madsen (MESHUGGAH, THE HAUNTED, MADBALL). The cover artwork was created by Ernie Parada and can be seen below.

"Wake The Sleeping Dragon!" features guest appearances by RISE AGAINST vocalist/guitarist Tim McIlrath and HOT WATER MUSIC frontman Chuck Ragan.

Working with friends is one of the key factors that are very important to SICK OF IT ALL, so asking Parada for the striking front cover was an obvious choice. "There is no reason to burn bridges in this business," says drummer drummer Armand Majidi. "Our history with Ernie Parada goes back to the late eighties, so working with him, there is a kinship that makes things easier to communicate."

Singer Lou Koller and Parada came up with the idea of doing monster-movie-styled art as the cover. "The dragon climbing the Empire State was a concept I always wanted to see brought to life, so the two ideas were destined to come together this way," Lou says.

b>SICK OF IT ALL and Tue Madsen, who mixed and mastered "Wake The Sleeping Dragon!", have maintained a long-lasting relationship based on understanding, friendship and most importantly, good results — three factors any band would be very happy with. Jerry Farley also became a very important part of the creation of this album. After working with him at Nova Studios in Staten Island, New York, they went for a closer approach on this album. "This is the first time we've ever had a producer involved from start to finish, including the songwriting process," the band says. "His objective viewpoints helped settle a lot of little issues that could have easily become stumbling blocks, and the songs themselves ended up benefitting from them."

SICK OF IT ALL's latest release was the "When The Smoke Clears" EP, which came out in November 2016 via Century Media Records.

Photo credit: Montecruz Foto

Former KYUSS frontman John Garcia returns with his next incarnation of Desert Rock, JOHN GARCIA AND THE BAND OF GOLD. The group's self-titled debut album will be released on January 4, 2019 via Napalm. None other than KYUSS and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE producer Chris Goss gave this new groovy piece of dust its finishing touches.

A lyric video for the disc's first single, "Chicken Delight", can be seen below.

"Chicken Delight" is the perfect beginning of your California desert trip that opens out to a new album that melts down the whole subgenre to the core! It's the perfect mix of his trademarked voice and the groovy, laid back and dusty sound that lies within every chord that makes your mind fly away. Over the last almost three decades, John Garcia's voice has set the standard for the sound of the California desert and "Chicken Delight" takes it one step further.

Garcia takes the next step in his almost 30-year career by combining the strengths of his musical past with the achievements of modern times. It's once again a distinctive John Garcia album.

ays the singer: "After a year of heavy stress, starting my own studio, shutting it down, hiring and firing, the drama is finally over. Saved by surgeon Chris Goss, this record is finally done.

"It is unclear if I will ever be doing this again, so this is it. Here it is, proud and loud JOHN GARCIA AND THE BAND OF GOLD record comes out January 4th with supporting tour thereafter.

"The Vegas jam is my only U.S. electric show and will prove to be something special.

"I thank my supporters; you keep me going. Big love from the Garcia res!!"

After starting the stoner rock movement by establishing KYUSS together with Josh Homme, Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri in 1990, Garcia became one of the most heard voices from the desert in rock history. No doubt that he had massive impact on the desert rock movement by singing in bands like HERMANO, SLO BURN, UNIDA and VISTA CHINO. Since his debut album as a solo artist in 2014 via Napalm Records, he has further established his very own trademarks.


After having a meeting between his musical past and present, by playing on one stage with Oliveri, Dave Angstrom (ex-HERMANO) and Arthur Seay (ex-UNIDA) on November 29 in Las Vegas, Garcia will embark on a European tour with BAND OF GOLD in late January.

The official Rob Neilson-directed video for the song "Fathoms" from melodic tech-death overlords ARSIS can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's new album, "Visitant", which is being released today (Friday, November 2) via Nuclear Blast (North, Central, South America) and Agonia (rest of world).

Guitarist and vocalist James Malone states: "I think 'Visitant' is ARSIS's most mature album but at the same time, it is also an album that harkens back to our youth.

"We all grew up on horror movies. For me personally, my father would bring me, from a very early age, to the theater to see horror films. He passed his love of science fiction and horror down to me.

"I wanted to do something different for this album and it was just a natural move to incorporate this passion into 'Visitant'.

As I was doing my part of the writing, I tried to capture the tone and atmosphere of some of my favorite films ('Silver Bullet', 'From Beyond', 'Prince Of Darkness'). It was a very satisfying and fun album to write and I think it might be what fans consider a 'worthy follow-up' to 'A Diamond For Disease'."

"Visitant" was recorded in part and mixed and mastered by producer Mark Lewis (WHITECHAPEL, DEVILDRIVER, DEICIDE, CANNIBAL CORPSE). Artwork was created by longtime collaborator Mark Riddick.

Malone told Electric Music Magazine about "Visitant": "In my opinion, the aesthetics of heavy metal, even at their most fundamental and basic level, lend themselves perfectly to horror genre (and vice versa). When I would listen to the music we were writing for 'Visitant', I would try to let my mind wander and paint a mental picture for me. I would relate these mental images to a horror film and use that as the lyrical inspiration. I didn't try to tell stories with the lyrics as much as I tried to paint images that were inspired by the films. This is the 'surface' reason that I chose to give the lyrics on the album a horror theme. I think the underlying reason is that I lost my father this year, and given his illness and the care he was receiving, it was something I was trying to brace myself for during most of the writing for 'Visitant'. An interest and appreciation for horror was something that both he and I shared so in that sense it was kind of a 'tribute' to him. In another sense, I feel that one of the reasons horror exists as an art is to help us deal with events or emotions that we don't wish to process in reality... death being the most obvious."

Catch ARSIS on tour as part of "Bloodletting North America XII" with co-headliners and labelmates DECREPIT BIRTH.

The official music video for the song "Frozen Gaze" from Tasmanian extreme metal stalwarts PSYCROPTIC, can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's seventh full-length studio album, "As The Kingdom Drowns", which will be released on November 9 via Prosthetic Records.

Formed by brothers Dave and Joe Haley, PSYCROPTIC has always lived in that very small space between technical and metal. The over-the-top insanity peaked with their third album, 2006's "Symbols Of Failure". From there, the band looked to smooth things out a bit, whether it was with some ambience or industrial elements in 2008's "Ob(Servant)" or focusing in on the groove on 2012's "The Inherited Repression". 2015's "Psycroptic" seemed to encompass all that the band had done, so where does one go from there? For the band, it was somewhat easy.

The self-titled album gave the band a new and solid platform to launch off of, making experimentation easier. The hard part was where to go and just how far to take it. Singer Jason Peppiatt comments: "As always with this band, we wanted it to have the distinctive sound of a PSYCROPTIC album but wanted to push ourselves further with adding new elements and having a darker vibe than on previous releases. I think we achieved our goal and this is something we are all very proud of."

The new album was once again produced by J. Haley and was mixed and mastered by Will Putney. Artwork was handled by Mariusz Lewandowsky.


b>"As The Kingdom Drowns" track listing:

01. We Were The Keepers

02. Frozen Gaze

03. Directive

04. Deadlands

05. As The Kingdom Drowns

06. Beyond The Black

07. Upon These Stones

08. Momentum of the Void

09. You Belong Here, Below

As PSYCROPTIC approaches its 20th anniversary, it's nice to see them sounding as fresh as ever. With age comes wisdom and maturity. All the band's previous work got them to where they are at today. Comfortable in their own shoes, nothing to prove, being able to look back at their earlier years with pride and seeing a long road ahead that they know they are ready to tackle.

PSYCROPTIC is:

Dave Haley - drums

Joe Haley - guitar

Jason Peppiatt - vocals

Todd Stern - bass guitar

Multi-national melodic hard rockers, Eden's Curse, have released an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) in support of Testament - The Best Of Eden’s Curse, out now via AFM Records. The two disc CD set features 14 songs, covering all five studio albums on CD1, and a bonus disc The Best Of The Bonus Tracks on CD2, which includes a brand new song "Forever". Find the EPK below.

The full tracklisting for Testament - The Best Of Eden’s Curse is as follows:

CD 1 - The Best Of Eden’s Curse
"Symphony Of Sin"
"Masquerade Ball"
"Black Widow" (Featuring Andi Deris)
"The Great Pretender"
"Fly Away"
"No Holy Man" (Featuring James Labrie)
"Sell Your Soul"
"Jerusalem Sleeps"
"Unconditional" (Featuring Liv Kristine)
"Judgement Day"
"Jericho"
"Unbreakable"
"Evil & Divine"
"Angels & Demons" (Featuring Pamela Moore)

CD2: The Best Of The Bonus Tracks
"Forever" (New Song)
"Man Against The World" (2016)
"Time To Breathe" (2013)
"Fallen From Grace" (Acoustic)
"Unchain The Night"
"Children Of The Tide" (Piano)
"Never The Sinner"
"Guardian Angel" (Acoustic)
"Prisoner Of The Past"
"Sail On" (Acoustic)
"After The Love Is Gone" (Acoustic)
"Fly Away" (Acoustic)
"The Voice Inside" (Acoustic)
"Eden's Curse" (Acoustic)

EPK:

"Forever" lyric video:

Eden's Curse will team up with Mob Rules and Degreed for a tasty triple billing in the UK in April 2019.

"Mob Rules have been one of my favourite bands for many years and when we were putting the tour together with our booking agency, their brilliant new album Beast Reborn dropped and we also signed to the same Lucky Bob Music Agency. The omens were there and it just made perfect sense, as musically we are not too dissimilar and they haven't been to the UK in many years," says bassist Paul Logue.

Paul went onto add, "I had been hearing the name Degreed for a few years now, but never seen or heard them. Eventually I caught them opening for H.E.A.T last year and they were absolutely brilliant. We then followed them on the bill at MelodicRock Fest - Scandinavia in Sweden, earlier this summer, and I loved what I saw and kept them in mind as possible future touring partners. I'm really glad they accepted our offer. I think it makes it a brilliant package for the fans. Expect an evening of gigantic guitars, titanic choruses and fist pumping anthems!".

Tour dates:

April
14 - The Underworld Camden - London, England
15 - Trillians Newcastle - Newcastle, England
16 - Yardbirds Rock Club - Grimsby, England
17 - Eleven - Stoke, England
18 - The Robin 2 - Bilston, England
19 - Corporation - Sheffield, England
20 - Muni Arts Centre - Pontypridd, Wales
21 - The Garage G2 - Glasgow, Scotland

Tickets on sale here.

SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor joined FOZZY on stage during Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager At Sea to perform covers of KISS's "Cold Gin" and THE KINKS' "You Really Got Me". Video footage of his appearance can be seen below (courtesy of Metal Injection).

Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager At Sea, launched in partnership with Sixthman, the industry leaders in festivals at sea, delivered a breakthrough vacation experience aboard the Norwegian Jade. The FOZZY singer, six-time WWE champion and over 2,000 die-hard friends of Jericho set sail October 27-31, from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas, joined by some of Y2J's closest musician, comedian and wrestling hall of fame friends.

Earlier this year, Chris stated about Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager At Sea: "The moment I walked off the 'Kiss Kruise' after playing it with FOZZY in 2015, I called my manager with the idea doing a rock and wrestling cruise. My thoughts were that it would feature everything that Chris Jericho is known for: wrestling, rock and roll, podcasting, comedy, paranormal discussion and most importantly, A GREAT PARTY! Throw in as much food and drink you can handle, a beautiful island paradise like the Bahamas and you've got everything you need for the greatest destination vacation that a rock and wrestling fan could ever dream of!"



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W.T.C. Productions has set November 26th as the international release date for Valkyrja's fourth album, Throne Ablaze. A work forged in the fires of the ancients with deadly intent to raze the present, Throne Ablaze precludes a full European tour of Valkyrja supporting Marduk and Archgoat.

Kneel before "Crowned Serpent", the first track to be revealed from Throne Ablaze:

Valkyrja was founded in 2004 with the earnest intention of channeling violence, deprivation, and loathing through means of extraordinarily potent audio emissions. Their ideals were permeated by passionate and boundless perversion – a sickly urge festering ever so vibrantly in the essence of its members, a will to cast off the manacles of societal enslavement and leave a dying world behind. While the brotherhood took shape, opposition and defiance surfaced from the deepest recesses of the mind: a fierce hostility towards the laws and morals of their surroundings, notions which felt entirely alien to the band's core.

As part of Valkyrja's philosophy of ridding themselves from limitations, no specific genre was ever chosen since it would only serve to establish a framework of useless expectation. The artistic output created under the flag of Valkyrja defies all earthly shackles, including those of commercial categorization. With ideology as lodestar, venturing into darkness without a backwards glance, they took their first fledgling steps on a road staked out by the night itself.

Valkyrjaz's debut album, The Invocation Of Demise, was recorded in Necromorbus Studio during March 2007 and then released in physical form by Northern Silence Productions six months later. Valkyrja quickly gained their reputation as a ferocious live act: a display of carnal lust leaving each stage with the foul scent of death. Drawn to the stench of putrid bereavement, Metal Blade Records contracted the band in 2009. The Invocation of Demise was treated to a re-release by their new ally, thus spreading the curse even further. The same year also saw a return to Necromorbus Studio for the recording of their second album, the most aptly named Contamination. The new tracks would prove to be a crucial part of the band's live setlist as they, the following autumn, embarked on their first European campaign.
 
Forged and conceived to reflect blood and fire,  the third Valkyrja album, The Antagonist's Fire, set the world aflame on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 2013. The opus also marked the beginning of Valkyrja's long-running collaboration with elite underground label World Terror Committee. During the past decade, facilitated by Massive Music and accompanied by titans of extreme metal, over 100 different European cities has been forced to swallow the bitter wine of sonic violence. Furthermore, 2016 and 2017 saw two extensive North American tours with Valkyrja as co-headliner, during which 22 different states were soaked in rotten blood.
 
Five years removed from the third opus, Valkyrja return under a new guise. The past few years have seen the band subjected to several crucial lineup changes, igniting a period of utter despair that would sow the seeds for what has now come to pass: Throne Ablaze is set for worldwide release on November 26, 2018. The album reflects the passion and dedication of everyone involved, those who face every storm – past and future – with weapon in hand. It will forever stand as a monument of continuous struggles – so right there, in the core of this strife to conquer every obstacle, kneel and obey the fires of the blazing throne!

Tracklisting:

"In Ruins I Set My Throne"
"Crowned Serpent"
"Opposer Of Light"
"Tombs Into Flesh"
"Halo Of Lies"
"Transcendental Death"
"Paradise Lost"
"Throne Ablaze"

 

The official lyric video for the song "Walk Away" from VANDENBERG'S MOONKINGS can be seen below. The track comes off VANDENBERG'S MOONKINGS' new record, "Rugged And Unplugged", which will be released on November 23 via Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group.


"Rugged And Unplugged" is a beautifully stripped back acoustic album which features songs from across Adrian Vandenberg's career. From his first band TEASER as a 20-year-old, he has always used an acoustic guitar in his recordings, which along with the electric guitar creates the light and shade dynamic that is the cornerstone to all of his records.


"For me, the sign of whether a song is good or not, is whether it still stands up when it's completely stripped down to the bare essence of it," says Vandenberg. He continues: "What I find with acoustic versions of songs you already know is that they can touch you in a different way than the full band and even orchestral versions. You don't get 'impressed' by big guitars, drums and even orchestras. As a performer, you can't hide behind all that, so what's left is the emotional content of the performance and the actual song."


This project created the opportunity to strip down the big orchestral arrangements on songs such as "What Doesn't Kill You" and "Breathing" to just Vandenberg on acoustic guitar and the voice of Jan Hoving.

My favorite singers ever since my teens have always been guys like Paul Rodgers and David Coverdale," Vandenberg says. "Since I wrote this song in 1981, I've always pictured it sung by a singer with such a tone of voice and vocal abilities. Jan is absolutely such a singer as you can hear." "One Step Behind" has a graceful warmth and "Walk Away" feels both intimate and anthemic.


Originally from WHITESNAKE's 1989 album "Slip Of The Tongue", "Sailing Ships" has a delicate beauty to it that makes the hairs on your arm stand up and has become a favourite and regular in the MOONKINGS live shows. "Out Of Reach" is the only song that features drums, bass and violins and has a warm cascading elegance. The album closes with a new song, the instrumental "Sundown". Adrian says: "It was one of those beautiful early evenings in the late summer, the light turning pink, it was quiet and I was doodling away on my acoustic guitar. The melody that pretty much rolled off of my fingers really matched the vibe of that moment so I decided to record it and end the album with it. It felt like a very natural thing to do."


Like the two MOONKINGS albums, "MoonKings" (2014) and "MK II" (2017), "Rugged And Unplugged" was produced by Adrian Vandenberg himself. It was recorded between Vandenberg's home studio and Jan Hoving's farm which gives it the relaxed, intimate and natural feel, away from the clinical studio environment. It is Vandenberg and Hoving doing what they do and love the most, playing music straight from the heart.

"Rugged And Unplugged" track listing:

01. What Doesn’t Kill You

02. Sailing Ships

03. Out Of Reach

04. One Step Behind

05. Burning Heart

06. Walk Away

07. Breathing

08. Sundown

Philadelphia’s Devil Master have been spitting in the face of convention since forming in 2016 with their raw, twisted brand of death rock meets black metal punk mayhem.

Manifestations includes the band’s full catalog, two sold out demos from 2016 & 2017 (S/T & Inhabit The Corpse); remixed, remastered, and sounding more malevolent than before; plus available on vinyl together for the first time.

The compilation is out tomorrow, November 2nd, on CD/LP/Digital. Physical pre-orders are available via Relapse.com here, and digital downloads and streaming services here. A full album stream can be found below.

Tracklisting:

“The Devil Master (Devil Is Your Master)”
“Distorted Paths / Fear The Future Gleam”
“Failure To Die”
“Sex With Succubus”
“Inhabit The Corpse”
“Obscene Charade”
“Gates Of Pain”
“Blood On My Shroud”

Album stream:

“Obscene Charade” video:

(Photo by: Kassandra C & A.P.)

Italian grindcore legends Cripple Bastards celebrate 30 years of misanthropic extremity with their seventh full-length album, La Fine Cresce da Dentro (meaning: “The End Is Growing From Within”). The album is due out November 9th on CD/LP/Digital.

Physical pre-orders are available via Relapse.com here and digital downloads / streaming services here.

The track "Crimine Contro L'immagine" is available for streaming below.

Recorded at the legendary Fredman Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden with producer Fredrik Nordström (At The Gates, Dark Tranquility), La Fine Cresce da Dentro is eighteen tracks of inconceivable speed and brutality surpassing even their previous work. Over three decades in, Cripple Bastards are showing no signs of slowing down and continue to destroy unsuspecting eardrums with hate-filled, grind punk chaos.

La Fine Cresce Da Dentro tracklisting:

"Suicidio Assistito"
"Non Coinvolto"
"La Memoria Del Dolore"
"Passi Nel Vuoto"
"Ombra Nell’ombra"
"Due Metà In Un Errore"
"Chiusura Forzata"
"Dove Entra IL Coltello"
"Crimine Contro l’immagine"
"Narcolessia Emotiva"
"Nervi In Guerra"
"Sguardo Neutro"
"Interrato Vivo"
"Equilibrio Ansiogeno"
"Quali Sentieri"
"Decessi Per Cause Sconosciute"
"Recidive"
"Crociati Del Mare Interno"

"Crimine Contro L'immagine":

"Passi Nel Vuoto" video:

"Non Coinvolto":

"La Memoria Del Dolore":

Band lineup:

Giulio the Bastard - Drums/Vocals
Schintu the Wretched - Bass
Der Kommissar - Guitars
Raphael Saini - Drums

The official music video for the song "It Burns" from the Danish/Swedish group NORDIC UNION — which features PRETTY MAIDS vocalist Ronnie Atkins and guitarist/songwriter/producer Erik Martensson (ECLIPSE, W.E.T., AMMUNITION) — can be seen below. The track is taken from NORDIC UNION's sophomore album, "Second Coming", which will be released on November 9 via Frontiers Music Srl.

The partnership between the two Scandinavians came about sometime in 2015, when Atkins was sent a bunch of demos put together for him by Martensson. The enthusiastic reaction from Atkins sparked a brand new musical alliance that culminated in NORDIC UNION's self-titled debut album, which was released in January 2016.

Musically, the duo presented a hybrid of the more melodic aspects of PRETTY MAIDS' sound mixed with elements of ECLIPSE, TALISMAN and W.E.T., while still possessing their own identity. Following requests from fans for a follow up to the debut, the two musicians decided to give NORDIC UNION another shot, so after a few months production, "Second Coming" will land soon much to the delight of melodic rock fans worldwide!

Every aspect of the album screams quality. The songwriting is of the highest standards, the musicianship faultless, and the production top notch, crispm and clear as a bell. Ronnie Atkins continues to improve with time as he deftly demonstrates throughout the album that he knows how to use his voice effectively at any given point in a song. Heavy riffs, soaring vocals, thumping beats, and a grand ballad... this album has it all and flows perfectly with songs that are memorable, rocking, and of course, melodic. Prepare to delight your ears with a great new album from the sensational Nordic musical alliance known as NORDIC UNION.

b>"Second Coming" track listing:

01. My Fear & My Faith

02. Because Of Us

03. It Burns

04. Walk Me Through The Fire

05. New Life Begins

06. The Final War

07. Breathtaking

08. Rock's Still Rolling

09. Die Together

10. The Best Thing I Never Had

11. Outrun You

Recording lineup:

* Ronnie Atkins - Lead & Backing Vocals

* Erik Martensson - Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Keyboards and Backing Vocals

* Magnus Ulfstedt – Drums

Atkins, 53, co-founded PRETTY MAIDS with guitarist Ken Hammer in Denmark in 1981. The group has released 15 studio albums to date, most recently 2016's Jacob Hansen-produced "Kingmaker", which cracked the Top 40 in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. The band plans to release a new album in 2019.

Martensson is a prolific Swedish producer, guitarist and songwriter who is best known for fronting ECLIPSE — who will also release a new album in 2019 – and serving as the "E" in the melodic rock supergroup W.E.T., whose third album, "Earthrage", was released via Frontiers on March 23.

Progressive metal icons DREAM THEATER have set "Distance Over Time" as the title of their fourteenth studio album, due out in February 2019. The album's cover art and a brief teaser snippet can be seen and heard below.

DREAM THEATER will kick off the "Distance Over Time" promotional cycle with a six-week North American tour that launches in San Diego, California on March 20. The tour poster includes the tag line "Celebrating 20 Years Of Scenes From A Memory," a reference to the group's acclaimed 1999 concept album "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory", which the band has not performed live in its entirety in nearly two decades. It is unclear at this point if they plan to do so again in 2019.

To announce the details of "Distance Over Time", DREAM THEATER enlisted the help of fans to spread the word about the release and even to break the news of the record release date, cover artwork, and to share the first taste of never-before-heard music. With this album, DREAM THEATER hoped to create a fan engagement experience unlike any previously undertaken.

To lead into the initial release of material, an Alternate Reality Game was launched. This game encompassed a "treasure hunt" whereby fans were able to search for clues hidden in various photos, video, social media posts, and more. Cooperation to host the Alternate Reality Game focused on various fan communities. The band's fan club, forum members and Reddit each brought in technical expertise to create puzzles for the participants. Each and every week, a new puzzle would be released, often in the form of a candid photo or video from the studio where DREAM THEATER recorded their latest album. This would contain a piece of the puzzle — a clue to be used in the process of solving that week's mystery. The puzzles were usually based on some encryption scheme or hiding information in the files, such as hiding a zipped file with text in an image file, or hiding text within the spectrogram of an audio file. One puzzle had the fans decoding Morse Code on a light diode of recording equipment, while another had the fans decoding a touch tone number from a phone call. Fans had to solve a sonogram, sudoku puzzle, reverse engineer an encryption scheme to find a key that would decrypt a specific text. They had to solve crosswords and trivia games. Fans were eager to participate, and often worked together to collectively solve the puzzles within hours of their release.

ltimately, there would be one person — one fan who would be the first to solve the final clue. As their prize, this fan would be the first person to possess previously unreleased DREAM THEATER content. The very first person outside the band to have possession of any new music, new artwork, new album title. It would be the fans who would solve the puzzle, complete the game and break the news of the release, disseminating this brand new DREAM THEATER news to the world from their personal online presence.

"Distance Over Time" — described in a press release as a "return to the band's roots" — was recorded over the summer. Earlier this year, vocalist James LaBrie stated about the new material, "There's a heaviness to it, there's an aggression to it," while guitarist John Petrucci added, "So far the music is heavy, it's progressive, it's melodic, it's shredding, and it's also epic. So it has all those elements, which… they are the five pillars of DREAM THEATER, if you wanna call it that."

Keyboardist Jordan Rudess told Lotsofmuzik that DREAM THEATER's follow-up to 2016's "The Astonishing", the wildly ambitious double concept LP which has been criticized by some fans for being an overblown, self-indulgent exercise in excess, would see him and his bandmates going "back to the core of the sound — screaming Hammond organ, killing leads, chunky riffs, slamming drums, and everybody will be there moshing! [Laughs]"

Rudess went on to describe the songwriting process for DREAM THEATER's upcoming album as "definitely very collaborative. We basically hid away in a secret location, we found an old barn turned into studio and set aside a couple of months to do everything. We were very constructive, very energized, had a great time together, a lot of laughs. We cooked together, joked around, but in general, we had an uninterrupted musical experience together, which was very productive."

Petrucci hinted in a recent interview that "Distance Over Time" was musically inspired by the band's "Images, Words & Beyond" tour, which saw the pioneering group celebrating the 25th anniversary of its milestone RIAA-gold-certified album "Images And Words".

"Distance Over Time" will mark DREAM THEATER's first album for Sony Music's progressive imprint InsideOut Music. The group spent the past 25 years recording under various labels in the Warner Music Group system, most recently Roadrunner Records, which released five albums by the band between 2007 and 2016.

Tour dates:

Mar. 20 - San Diego, CA

Mar. 21 - Los Angeles, CA

Mar. 22 - Los Angeles, CA

Mar. 24 - San Francisco, CA

Mar. 26 - Denver, CO

Mar. 28 - St. Paul, MN

Mar. 29 - Chicago, IL

Mar. 31 - Milwaukee, WI

Apr. 02 - Detroit, MI

Apr. 04 - Toronto, Ont.

Apr. 05 - Montreal, Que.

Apr. 06 - Quebec City, Que.

Apr. 08 - Boston, MA

Apr. 09 - Oakdale, CT

Apr. 10 - Red Bank, NJ

Apr. 12 - New York, NY

Apr. 13 - Upper Darby, PA

Apr. 15 - Washington, D.C.

Apr. 17 - Nashville, TN

Apr. 22 - Charlotte, NC

Apr. 23 - Atlanta, GA

Apr. 25 - Orlando, FL

Apr. 26 - St. Petersburg, FL

Apr. 27 - Jacksonville, FL

Apr. 29 - Dallas, TX

Apr. 30 - Houston, TX

May 01 - Austin, TX

California rockers BUCKCHERRY are back with their first music in over three years with the cover of the NINE INCH NAILS classic "Head Like A Hole".

"Head Like A Hole" is taken from BUCKCHERRY's forthcoming seventh full-length album, "Warpaint", which will be released in the spring via Century Media/RED Music. Helming the sessions is producer Mike Plotnikoff, who previously worked with the band on 2005's platinum-certified "15" record.

Frontman Josh Todd told Billboard that the NINE INCH NAILS cover "happened really organically. We were in the studio making the record, just kind of going through some old songs while they were setting up," he said. "We jammed it out the first time and it was like, boom, automatically sounded right as if we'd written it, which is what we always want to achieve when we do a cover.

"Our producer, Mike Plotnikoff, was recording the whole time and said, 'Hey, why don't you guys come in and hear this?' He put up a little rough mix of it and we were like, 'Wow, this sounds really good. We should do it.'"

ack in September, Todd told the 105.7 The Point radio station that BUCKCHERRY wrote 30 songs for the follow-up to 2015's "Rock 'N' Roll". "We've been writing songs since November of last year, and we really molded it into something really great," he said.

Asked how they whittle down so many songs to just a 10-track album, BUCKCHERRY guitarist Stevie Dacanay (a.k.a. Stevie D.) said: "You kind of know. When you [are writing] the songs, it kind of takes a life of its own, and you can really kind of feel it if it's working or not. And if it is working, then we pursue it; if not, we kind of put it to the side right away."

On the recent "Gen-X" summer tour with P.O.D., LIT and ALIEN ANT FARM, BUCKCHERRY was playing two new songs, "The Vacuum" and "Chaos Is The Ladder", both of which are expected to appear on the upcoming LP.

BUCKCHERRY's new disc will mark the band's first release since the departures of guitarist Keith Nelson and drummer Xavier Muriel and addition of Kevin Roentgen and Sean Winchester, respectively.


BUCKCHERRY will bring its live show to California for a handful of headline dates this January before heading overseas for their month-long February European tour. Expect a jam-packed year full of touring in support of their forthcoming album.

SEVENDUST has released the official music video for song "Unforgiven". The clip, which can be seen below, is set in a post-apocalyptic world created from an idea by director Scott Hansen presented to the band. The concept is the world is rebuilding and the youth will be the ones to keep mankind going long after the adults are no longer around, a message that has been shared throughout society for decades.

Vocalist Lajon Witherspoon said: "The 'Unforgiven' video was a great experience for me. I loved working with everyone on that shoot. It was like being in a movie for real and I hope we can do something like that again."

"Unforgiven" ia taken from SEVENDUST's latest studio album, "All I See Is War", which was released in May via Rise Records.

Lajon previously stated about "All I See Is War": "What a pleasure it was doing this album and actually being able to record and work with [producer] Elvis Baskette, someone I've personally I've been wanting to work with for a long time, and he's a good friend. There was a magical energy to be able to live with him in the house and the studio be there. We had a great time not only writing, but every day was exciting. You wanted to get into the studio. It was good."

egarding SEVENDUST's new deal with Rise Records, Lajon said: "We got lucky and thought the days of bands being signed were long gone. We had a few labels courting us for a while and it was fun, but we thought Rise Records would definitely be a good fit for SEVENDUST and it seems to be working. We thank those guys for everything they've done, and they've done a lot. We just did another single that's coming out or is just ready to come out. Rise is cool, man. We like being a part of the Rise family. They've really got their finger on the pulse."

SEVENDUST's North American tour in direct support of CLUTCH along with TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN wrapped on October 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

SLEEPKILLERS, the new band featuring Damien Starkey (PUDDLE OF MUDD) on vocals, Sam Rivers (LIMP BIZKIT) on bass, Adam Latiff (PUDDLE OF MUDD) on guitars and Bobby Amaru (SALIVA) on drums, has released its first single and video, "Dirty Foot". The song is taken from SLEEPKILLERS' self-titled debut album, due in early 2019.

Sam stated about SLEEPKILLERS: "A few years ago, a good friend mine, Damien Starkey, and I started a project together just for fun. We quickly realized we wrote well together and had fun doing it. I'm super excited about the songs we have written. We are approaching the final stages and can't wait for the world to hear."

SLEEPKILLERS originated out of the intense insane love of conceiving songs that are raw and infectious. Two longtime friends who are both multi-instrumentalists, decided to stop worrying about the demise of the industry that once supported their multi-platinum bands and start birthing music exactly the way they envision it. With no managers or labels breathing down their necks, they found the ultimate freedom that brought them here in the first place. Now after recruiting other notable artists from their circle, SLEEPKILLERS are buried deep in the lab producing what they need to survive. Who needs sleep when there is so little time to create in this life?

Having spent the past year putting the final touches on the new album and filming the debut music video for the single "Dirty Foot", the band is excited to finally share its heavy yet melodic sound with fans old and new.

b>"Sleepkillers" track listing:

01. Dirty Foot

02. Leftovers

03. Left For Dead

04. Drown

05. Hogtied

06. Hate Me

07. So Low

08. End Of The Rope

09. Facedown

10. Better Man

San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans SKINLAB have released the official Josh Vargas-directed music video for the song "Dead Tomorrow". The track, which was recorded with Juan Urteaga at Trident Studios, is taken from the band's upcoming fifth studio album, which is tentatively due in 2019 via Art Is War Records.

Earlier in the year, SKINLAB announced the return of guitarist Steve Green, best known to fans as Snake. Snake remains a member of THE DEVIL IN CALIFORNIA, with whom he's been performing since 2015.

Formed in 1994, SKINLAB has released four studio albums: 1997's "Bound, Gagged And Blindfolded", 1999's "Disembody: The New Flesh", 2002's "ReVolting Room" and 2009's "The Scars Between Us".

SKINLAB has had different lineups throughout its history, with vocalist/bassist Steev Esquivel and drummer Paul Hopkins as the only mainstays.

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On November 16, AMON AMARTH will release its new documentary and supporting live album(s), "The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm" — which includes a retrospective documentary that features a wealth of live and behind-the-scenes content and extensive band interviews. This film tells the Swedish quintet's history, through both their own eyes and those of the fans that have supported them along the way. It is a thrilling collection that pays respect to the faithful, as well as making for a detailed and riveting introduction for those new to their inspiring story. Paired with this documentary is the live video/audio, which contains two different sets at 2017's Summer Breeze festival in Dinkelsbühl, Germany, capturing the unit at their very best.

A performance clip of the song "Raise Your Horns", taken from "The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm", can be seen below.

Having played the German festival numerous times over the years, and loving the family vibe they have always experienced there, AMON AMARTH leapt at the chance to appear twice in the same year. Playing a secret, smaller scale set that focused primarily on older material, and then headlining the main stage with full production — including their giant sea serpent and lots of fire — allowed them to showcase their songs at their best, though putting together setlists from such a mighty catalog was not the easiest of tasks.

"For the first night, we wanted to write a set that the fans would enjoy by wholly diving into our back catalog but also keeping it interesting," explains guitarist Olavi Mikkonen. "But putting the two shows together also made us realize that we have a lot of songs to choose from!"

or the band, producer Alexander Milas (who contributed to Kerrang! and was an award-winning editor-in-chief of Metal Hammer, before starting his own creative solutions company, Twin V Ltd.) and director Phil Wallis, "The Pursuit Of Vikings" has been a true labor of love.

"I think I first became conscious of AMON AMARTH around the release of 2002's 'Versus The World'," Milas states. "It was a really transitional time for metal, and it seemed there wasn't a credible band on the heavier end of the scale that hadn't in some way responded to or been influenced by the pioneering sounds of the Swedish death metal scene, but I distinctly remember thinking that there was something unique about these guys: the artwork, the thematic underpinnings, even that curiously timeless logo."

While their sound certainly displays strong echoes of the nation that birthed them, AMON AMARTH arguably wield a unique aura, a "lusciously crafted escapism" that Milas likens to the classic bands he grew up with: DIO, IRON MAIDEN and others who exist on a spectrum of their own making.

The DVD/live album can be pre-ordered in the following formats via Metal Blade Records in the USA:

* CD/2DVD 8-Panel Digipak

* Blu-ray (includes audio digital download of Main Stage Show)

* special edition hardcover book with 6 discs (3DVD, 2CD, 1 Blu-ray) plus amulet and patch - (import - limited to 500 copies)

* transparent orange vinyl (U.S. retail exclusive — limited to 500 copies)

* clear with black splatter vinyl (U.S. webstore exclusive - limited to 250 copies)

* transparent yellow with orange marble vinyl (U.S. webstore exclusive — limited to 250 copies)

CD track listing (Main Stage Show: August 17, 2017):

01. The Pursuit Of Vikings

02. As Loke Falls

03. First Kill

04. The Way Of Vikings

05. At Dawn's First Light

06. Cry Of The Black Birds

07. Deceiver Of The Gods

08. Destroyer Of The Universe

09. Death In Fire

10. Father Of The Wolf

11. Runes To My Memory

12. War Of The Gods

13. Raise Your Horns

14. A Dream That Cannot Be

15. Guardians Of Asgaard

16. Twilight Of The Thunder God

DVD Digipak and Blu-ray track-listings:

- Documentary

T-Stage Show: August 16, 2017

01. Twilight Of The Thunder God

02. Free Will Sacrifice

03. With Oden On Our Side

04. The Last With Pagan Blood

05. For The Stabwounds In Our Backs

06. Thousand Years Of Oppression

07. Gods Of War Arise

08. Versus The World

09. Asator

10. Under The Northern Star

11. Fate Of Norns

12. Varyags Of Miklagaard

13. Live For The Kill

14. Victorious March

Main Stage Show: August 17, 2017

01. The Pursuit Of Vikings

02. As Loke Falls

03. First Kill

04. The Way Of Vikings

05. At Dawn's First Light

06. Cry Of The Black Birds

07. Deceiver Of The Gods

08. Destroyer Of The Universe

09. Death In Fire

10. Father Of The Wolf

11. Runes To My Memory

12. War Of The Gods

13. Raise Your Horns

14. A Dream That Cannot Be

15. Guardians Of Asgaard

16. Twilight Of The Thunder God

**Note: special edition hardcover book contains all of the above, plus audio from T-Stage Show: August 16, 2017**

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of LACUNA COIL's debut. To celebrate this special year, they played an exceptional show on January 19 in London at the O2 Forum Kentish Town. The unique, one-time event was filmed and recorded for "The 119 Show - Live In London", which is scheduled for release November 9.


A performance clip of the song "The House Of Shame", taken from "The 119 Show - Live In London", can be seen below.


Fans can look forward not only to a very special live performance that was accompanied by the U.K. circus group Incandescence, but also to a career spanning set including LACUNA COIL songs never played live before:

01. A Current Obsession

02. 1.19

03. My Wings

04. End Of Time

05. Blood, Tears, Dust

06. Swamped

07. The Army Inside

08. Veins Of Glass

09. One Cold Day

10. The House Of Shame

11. When A Dead Man Walks

12. Tight Rope

13. Soul Into Hades

14. Hyperfast

15. I Like It

16. Heaven's A Lie

17. Senzafine

18. Closer

19. Comalies

20. Our Truth

21. Falling

22. Wide Awake

23. I Forgive (But I Won't Forget Your Name)

24. Enjoy The Silence

25. Nothing Stands In Our Way

he band comments: "What took place at the O2 Forum Kentish Town in London on the 19th of January 2018 was pure magic. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us as a band and as people. The work involved, the pre-performance tension, the intensity on stage, the energy between us and the audience — all of this was beyond anything we've ever done before. This event was not just a show, it was a birthday party, an anniversary celebration and most importantly a huge THANK YOU to everyone who travelled side by side with us for the last twenty years. And now, with the release of 'The 119 Show - Live In London', we can also share the magic with those fans who weren't able to party with us in January."

LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia explained to Tattoo.com that "there is a reason" January 19 was chosen as the date for the anniversary show. "It's because 1/19 is recognized as 'Lacuna Coil Day,' because we have a song that's called '1.19', so the people from the fan club and the fans decided to declare it 'Lacuna Coil Day,'" she said. "And we thought about making a special show in London, because, logistically, we thought it was the easiest way to reach, even for people who are not coming from Europe, our area. Usually the flights are cheaper. Like, if you come from the States, it's easier to reach London than Milano, for instance, [which] is our hometown. So we thought about London."

After the release the band will head out for a European tour to support the release of "The 119 Show - Live In London".

Early 2018 also saw singer Cristina Scabbia take on the prominent role of a coach for "The Voice Of Italy" on prime-time Italian national TV. LACUNA COIL were recently awarded the fan voted "Best Live Band" award at the prestigious Metal Hammer Golden Gods in London, U.K. Additionally, they were announced for a very important career recognition award for their 20 years together as a band from MEI, which is the annual meeting of the Independent labels in Italy.

LACUNA COIL is working on its first-ever book, also titled "Nothing Stands In Our Way", which is scheduled to be published later in the year.

Co-singer Andrea Ferro told the Impact metal channel last year that LACUNA COIL fans will have to wait until at least 2019 for the follow-up to 2016's "Delirium" album.

German/American heavy metal legends ACCEPT will release a live set, "Symphonic Terror - Live At Wacken 2017", on November 23 via Nuclear Blast. Fans can expect a unique ACCEPT show, shot on August 3, 2017 at the legendary Wacken Open Air festival, where the band played the biggest and most extraordinary show of its career in front of 80,000, on top of thousands more fans watching via a live stream.

The two-hour concert was divided into three parts, showing the full creative power of ACCEPT: The first part featured the premiere of new tracks "Die By The Sword" and "Koolaid", as well as some of the band's most popular songs, such as "Restless And Wild" and "Pandemic". The middle part featured guitarist Wolf Hoffmann accompanied by a symphony orchestra, presenting the best tracks from his recent solo album, "Headbangers Symphony", which includes metal versions of some of the world's biggest classical compositions (e.g. from Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi). And in the last but not least part, fans were able to bang their heads to ACCEPT anthems (also accompanied by the orchestra), such as "Princess Of The Dawn", "Breaker", "Fast As A Shark" and "Metal Heart", as well as to newer songs like "Stalingrad", "Shadow Soldiers" and "Teutonic Terror". The finale was an eight-minute version of ACCEPT's classic song "Balls To The Walls".

A performance clip of the song "Breaker", taken from "Symphonic Terror - Live At Wacken 2017", can be seen below.

"Symphonic Terror - Live At Wacken 2017" will be available as:

Blu-ray+2CD digipak

* DVD+2CD digipak

* 2CD digipak

* 3LP box (black) including booklet, poster

* 3LP Box (gold) including booklet, poster (Nuclear Blast mailorder exclusive)

* Blu-ray+DVD+2CD earbook

* BluRay+DVD+2CD earbook + photo card (signed) (Nuclear Blast mailorder exclusive)

Pre-order here.

DVD/Blu-ray track listing:

Part 1: Accept

01. Die By The Sword

02. Restless And Wild

03. Koolaid

04. Pandemic

05. Final Journey

Part 2: Headbanger's Symphony

06. Night On Bald Mountain

07. Scherzo

08. Romeo And Juliet

09. Pathétique

10. Double Cello Concerto In G Minor

11. Symphony No. 40 In G Minor

Part 3: Accept with Orchestra

12. Princess Of The Dawn

13. Stalingrad

14. Dark Side Of My Heart

15. Breaker

16. Shadow Soldiers

17. Dying Breed

18. Fast As A Shark

19. Metal Heart

20. Teutonic Terror

21. Balls To The Wall

Bonus:

22. Making Of: Wacken

23. Making Of: Headbanger's Symphony

"This was a mash-up of intensity and precision," Wolf Hoffmann says about the fusion of heavy metal and classical music. "The fans are extremely open-minded, but I was nervous 'till the last minute before the show anyway. After all, it's still a metal festival! But I think that, after many years of ACCEPT combining both worlds, fans have started to really accept this concept."

After the Wacken performance, Hoffmann told TotalRock's Whitney Alyson Ribbins: "It was phenomenal. We didn't really know what to expect. We did some rehearsals and stuff, but that was the first time we were ever on stage with an orchestra. It was totally different to what we normally do, but it sounded fantastic and it felt great. Everybody was smiling, the orchestra people had a lot of fun, the conductor was in a great mood and everybody was, like, 'This is fun.' It all went really, really smooth and it couldn't have gone better."

He continued: "A lot of preparation went into it — months of talking about it and organizing everything and writing the scores and writing all the sheet music for everybody, because playing with an orchestra, you can't just jam."

Asked whether this was something he would like to do again, Wolf responded: "Yeah, I'd love to. For me, classical music... the sound of an orchestra is something that has always fascinated me. My whole life I have wanted to combine the two elements together. I've done it by using classical bits and pieces in my solos over the years, then I made a solo record, then I made a solo record with an orchestra and now finally live on stage with an orchestra like that, fifty people, it was a dream come true."

What started as a world premiere at Wacken will be continued in early 2019. ACCEPT is planning to tour with an orchestra across Europe in the spring of next year. "I really hope we will be able to fulfill our dream — we are working hard on it!" Hoffmann says. "What I can already say now is that there will be lots of optical and musical surprises that fans of ACCEPT have never experienced before. We want to multiply what we have achieved in Wacken and are happy about every bit of support we get. One thing is for sure: 2019 will be exciting!"

Arizona metal veterans FLOTSAM AND JETSAM have released a new song called "Recover". The track is taken from the band's 14th album, "The End Of Chaos", due on January 18, 2019 via AFM Records.

The album will be available as digipak, clear orange, gatefold vinyl (limited to 450 units), black gatefold vinyl (limited to 450 units), limited picture vinyl (ltd. to 500 units), gold black splatter gatefold vinyl and limited boxsets with T-shirts.

Vocalist Eric "A.K." Knutson told Capital Chaos TV about the new disc: "There's 12 songs on the record. This was [whittling] down from 40-something songs these guys wrote for me to put lyrics on, and we had to quickly go through all of them and go, 'Which ones capture our attention the most?' Those are the ones we concentrated on. There was just great song after great song after great song coming to my house every other day, and I'm like, 'Wow, how am I going to keep up with this?' It worked out pretty good."

Added guitarist Michael Gilbert: "We used to have a certain template that we'd write. Now, we're writing more for this guy to sing a heavier, more memorable chorus for people. You're always learning as a songwriter, trying to achieve the perfect chorus that someone's going to remember after the song's over. If you've got that going, then you've [written] a successful song."

ontinued Eric: "Things have evolved a little more catchy with our songwriting, but not really on purpose too much. It was just as we evolve and our tastes and our loves in music evolve, so does our writing. I really like the direction we're going now."


FLOTSAM AND JETSAM recently officially welcomed Ken Mary (ALICE COOPER, ACCEPT) as the band's permanent drummer. Mary began touring with the group last year after Jason Bittner was invited to join OVERKILL.

"This album kills! It's all five guys with the gas pedal pushed to the floor for the entire album!" stated Mary.

Added bassist Michael Spencer: "It was cool to have a new element of influence on this album with having Ken's drum parts to partner with and play in and around his playing that also do with the guitars and vocals. Glad to have had Jacob Hansen bringing this album to the overall sound and energy it has. Jacob really highlights A.K.'s vocal melodies, as well as Steve and Michael's songwriting, while the power of the rhythm section drives the songs."

"The End Of Chaos" track listing:

01. Prisoner Of Time

02. Control

03. Recover

04. Prepare For Chaos

05. Slowly Insane

06. Architects Of Hate

07. Demolition Man

08. Unwelcome Surprise

09. Snake Eye

10. Survive

11. Good Or Bad

12. The End

After a successful North American tour earlier this year in support of Swedish power metal giants HAMMERFALL, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM will be returning to the road for a trek across North America, continuing its "Tour Of Chaos 2019".

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM states: "We're excited to hit North America for a headlining tour next spring in support of our upcoming album release, 'The End Of Chaos'. We'll be following up our March 2019 European tour with OVERKILL and DESTRUCTION, with this 34-show run throughout May/June 2019. Look for us to be playing music from the new album, as well as digging into our catalog to play FLOTSAM songs that haven't been in the set for a while, if ever, in our headline set. We're looking forward to bringing FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's metal to the masses, once again!"

RIVAL SONS will release their new album, "Feral Roots", on January 25, 2019 via Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb's major label imprint Low Country Sound/Atlantic. The forthcoming LP is highlighted by the brand new track "Back In The Woods", which is streaming today on RIVAL SONS' official YouTube channel and at all DSPs.

Produced by longtime collaborator Cobb at Nashville's famed RCA Studio A and the equally legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, "Feral Roots" marks RIVAL SONS' Low Country Sound/Atlantic debut. Featuring covering artwork painted by renowned contemporary artist Martin Wittfooth, it is available for pre-order today with exclusive pre-order bundles — including limited-edition vinyl and autographed lithographs of the Wittfooth-designed cover art — available at RivalSons.com. All pre-orders are joined by instant grat downloads of the previously released album track "Do Your Worst" and "Back In The Woods".


"Do Your Worst" — which is closing in on the Top 15 at active rock radio — debuted last month via Rolling Stone, which hailed the single as "a relentless rocker with a gritty verse spearheaded by a sinister lead guitar riff and thumping drums. The track takes a deft turn when it hits the chorus, forgoing out-and-out guitar bombast for rousing gang vocals with singer Jay Buchanan leading the charge."

Known far and wide as a powerhouse live act, RIVAL SONS will celebrate "Feral Roots" with a worldwide tour schedule, including a headline European run set for early 2019. North American dates will be announced in the weeks to come.


b>RIVAL SONS are: Jay Buchanan (vocals), Scott Holiday (guitar), Dave Beste (bass guitar) and Mike Miley (drums).

"Feral Roots" track listing:

01. Do Your Worst

02. Sugar On The Bone

03. Back In The Woods

04. Look Away

05. Feral Roots

06. Too Bad

07. Stood By Me

08. Imperial Joy

09. All Directions

10. End Of Forever

11. Shooting Stars

Holiday is no stranger to Atlantic, having signed a deal with the label in 2000 with his first former band HUMAN LAB. That group spent two years making an album for the company, but the disc was never released.

Scott told Planet Rock: "It's painful to make a piece of art and not having it see the light of day. But I saw how the record business worked. And after that experience, I had to run in the other direction. With RIVAL SONS, it's thirty days writing and recording each album."

Holliday added that it was a huge honor to be signed to the longtime home of such rock legends as FOREIGNER, AC/DC, THE ROLLING STONES, LED ZEPPELIN and PHIL COLLINS. "It's kind of romantic to be at this big, legendary record label," he said. "And fuck all the rock 'n' roll bands — if you want to get really romantic, look at all the soul acts they signed, like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. We're talking about the bedrock, soul and blues, some of the most important recordings in the history of the world.

"But I'm a pragmatic person," he continued. "There's a lot of work to be done. We've made five records and we've had some success, but hopefully signing to Atlantic, we're going to have a little more."

RIVAL SONS' last album, "Hollow Bones", was released in June 2016 via Earache

The band spent much of 2016 supporting the legendary BLACK SABBATH on "The End" world tour.

Over the years, the acclaimed Canadian hard rock trio DANKO JONES has famously sweat blood, given the finger and thought bad thoughts. Today, they add to their inimitable legacy of piss and vinegar with "Burn In Hell", a swaggering dose of garage-filtered boogie rock that serves as the second preview of the group's as-yet-untitled new album, which will be released in the spring.

As was the case with "We're Crazy", a new track unveiled by the band in September, "Burn In Hell" was recorded at Vancouver's Farm Studios with producer GGGarth Richardson (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, BIFFY CLYRO, RISE AGAINST). The song can now be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other digital platforms.

DANKO JONES — whose namesake frontman contributed guest vocals to VOLBEAT's 2017 #1 Active Rock hit "Black Rose", a song he performed live with the group at their recent stadium show in Denmark (a show that will soon be released as the DVD/Blu-ray "Let's Boogie! Live From Telia Parken") — has made a name for themselves over the years as a must-see live band during memorable tours with the likes of GUNS N' ROSES, MOTÖRHEAD and CLUTCH. The group will tour Europe and the United Kingdom from November 14 through December 15 and headline throughout the Western United States in February.

DANKO JONES's forthcoming album — the follow-up to 2017's "Wild Cat", the title track of which appeared prominently in the October 21 episode of the Showtime television program "Shameless" — will be released in the spring via M-Theory Audio (U.S.), Rise Above (U.K.), Indica (Canada, AU, NZ) and AFM (rest of the world). More information about the recording will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

wo big tour dates will be happening for DANKO JONES in 2019. The band has recently confirmed they will be playing in Ontario for New Year's Eve, on December 31 at Maxwell's in Waterloo. More Canadian tour dates will be announced shortly. They have also recently been announced for the MEGADETH Megacruise that sets sail October 13, 2019 from Los Angeles, California and hits ports of San Diego, California and Ensenada, Mexico before returning to Los Angeles on October 18, 2019.

In May 2018, Anneke Van Giersbergen performed two career-spanning concerts with orchestral arrangements together with Residentie Orkest The Hague. Now those special concerts will be available for all to hear when they are released as "Symphonized", an 11-track live album due out on November 16.

The promotional video for the previously unreleased track "Zo Lief", taken from "Symphonized", can be seen below.

Anneke comments: "The song 'Zo Lief' is about hanging on and letting go.

"I always thought that I would be a pretty relaxed mom, but dealing with transitions turns out to be more challenging than expected.

Every time my son Finn enthusiastically welcomes a new stage of his independence, I have to admit that letting go of parental attachment isn't that easy.

"An English translation of the song title is 'So Sweet', and this is the very first time I release a song in my native language as a solo artist.

"I wrote and demoed 'Zo Lief' a couple of years ago and Gijs Kramers made a subtle arrangement for orchestra. The video was shot at the Dutch North Sea coast by director Mark Uyl."

"Symphonized" features material from across Anneke's career, including songs by VUUR, THE GENTLE STORM and THE GATHERING as well as her solo albums.

Anneke comments: "Instead of releasing a 'best-of' collection to celebrate my 25 years on stage, an album with orchestral reinterpretations seemed much more interesting. Two songs of my new progressive metal band VUUR received wonderful orchestral arrangements as well. I was very surprised how much of the intensity and energy of VUUR's heavy music is still present. Performing my music with an orchestra has been such an overwhelming experience. I am really happy both concerts were recorded and there is a chance to relive them with this live album."

Anneke comments: "'Symphonized' was recorded last May in Dutch venues 013 (Tilburg) and Paard (The Hague), as I performed alongside the wonderful Residentie Orkest The Hague conducted by Arjan Tien. The orchestra is one of the leading Dutch symphony orchestras and regularly initiates cross-over projects.

"When artistic director Sven Arne Tepl invited me to create new renditions of songs I have previously recorded, I was immediately enthusiastic. I thought it was the perfect prelude to my 25-year anniversary next year, as I made my stage debut with THE GATHERING in 1994. The compelling arrangements were written by Marijn van Prooijen and Gijs Kramers. Instead of a band with additional symphonic accompaniment, we chose to solely use the instruments of the orchestra and I'm very proud of the result!"

The album will be available as CD digipak, gatefold 2LP + CD and as digital audio download.

"Symphonized" track listing:

01. Feel Alive

02. Amity (originally released by THE GATHERING)

03. Your Glorious Light Will Shine - Helsinki (originally released by VUUR)

04. Two Souls (originally released by LORRAINVILLE)

05. When I Am laid In Earth (aria by HENRY PURCELL)

06. Travel (originally released by THE GATHERING)

07. Zo Lief (unreleased song in Dutch)

08. You Will Never Change

09. Freedom - Rio (originally released by VUUR)

10. Forgotten (originally released by THE GATHERING)

11. Shores Of India (originally released by THE GENTLE STORM)