Tired of waiting for the release of their debut album Sequins & C-Bombs, alt-harmony group The Lounge Kittens, have proffered their first video from the as yet undisclosed track listing. A tongue-in-cheek twist on AC/DC’s killer classic "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" sees the girls return to office jobs… as hitmen with a difference.
“The album doesn’t come out til September and frankly, we’re bored of keeping it all a secret” says Blue Kitten, Timia. “So we thought right, time to make some more videos – it’s been ages.”
And it seems there’s a lot more to come… “Whilst there’s some debate raging about which songs to release from the album and what would make a good single and blah, blah we decided we didn’t have enough to do so set ourselves the challenge of releasing a brand new video every month until the end of the year.” Zan Kitten (the Pink one) tells us.
“The videos are what the fans want. It’s what we’re best known for,” chimes in the little Red one, Jen “and they’re really fun to make! For example, this one we filmed over two night shoots, after working all day. But what’s more fun than hunting people through the streets of London armed with fistfuls of glitter!?!”
“We’ve wanted to do an AC/DC track for ages, the only question was which one?” enthuses Jen. “With so many bangers to choose from, 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' was the shy one hiding round the corner, just to the side of some of the more well-known hits squeaking ‘pick me, pick me’ and it totally works as a Kitten track.” “It’s so much fun to sing live” says Timia Kitten “like a cross between a smoke-filled backroom, speakeasy and a good ole knees up round the Joanna.” Pre-order The Lounge Kittens album now via PledgeMusic.
Salt Lake City's Chelsea Grin have released a video for “Broken Bonds”, a song from their upcoming album and Rise Records debut, Self Inflicted, which is out July 1st. Watch the new video below. Pre-orders are now live at Merch Now and iTunes.
Chelsea Grin will spend their summer on the Van's Warped Tour. They will appear on the entire trek, which begins June 24th and runs through August 13th, laying waste to stages across the country.
Bay Area natives and thrash metal band, Hatchet, have released an official music video for the track “Tearing Into Hell”, from their latest album, Fear Beyond Lunacy, available now via The End Records.
Says Hatchet's founding member, vocalist, and lead guitarist, Julz Ramos: "This song is the most aggressive track from our latest album, so as a band, we wanted the video to feel similarly dark and intrusive. As the mind behind the lyrics, I especially wanted to convey the subject matter of the song in no uncertain terms - that the most horrific of evil that exists commonly in our everyday lives; serial murderers hide among us in plain sight. Countless remain at large, even more are undiscovered, and some have yet to strike.
“Most of the images and clips in the video focus on the well-known killers. But their crimes have earned them a special place in what we consider Hell. And these people don't just go to Hell, they make a grand entrance, holding a very earned spot for eternity. They Tear Into Hell!"
Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS have unveiled the music video for their current single, "Dark Necessities", from their upcoming new album "The Getaway", which will be released tomorrow (June 17) via Warner Bros. Records. The clip was directed by actress Olivia Wilde and features notable female long boarders Carmen Shafer, Amanda Caloia, Amanda Powell and Noelle Mulligan.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS frontman Anthony Kiedis stated about the band's decision to work with Wilde: "We received [her treatment] and it was very simple and it was about this dark and bruised side of these athletes, these female skateboard athletes and it was just easy and simple and we were trying to do simplicity." He added abut the experience: "I like it a lot. I like her a lot, I like the video a lot and I'd work with her again."
Wilde's only previous directing credit is a short film called "Free Hugs". Her acting resume includes roles on the TV series "Vinyl", "House" and "The O.C.", while her film credits include "The Lazarus Effect", "Her", "Tron: Legacy", "Rush", "The Change-Up", "Cowboys And Aliens" and many more.
CHILI PEPPERS bassist Flea told The Pulse Of Radio that "Dark Necessities" almost didn't become the first single. "I mean, I knew that was a good song," he said. "There was another one that was gonna be the first single and then we… Like, we already told the record company, 'Okay, we're gonna do this one,' and then we changed our mind and went to 'Dark Necessities'. But I'm glad we went with it. What I like about this record is that every song really occupies its own space, the songs don't repeat themselves, and that one was a great song. It's dynamic and it just feels great to play, you know. It has a real pull to it."
"The Getaway" will follows up 2011's "I'm With You".
Roadrunner Records group, Kvelertak, have released the official music video for “Nattesferd”, the title track from their new album, which arrived this past May.
The otherworldly clip - produced by Norwegian production company Bacon and directed by Jakob Marky - is streaming below. The video was filmed in Fårö, a Baltic Sea island off the south eastern coast of Sweden where Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman lived / died and made several films, among them Through A Glass Darkly (1961), Persona (1966), Hour OF The Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), The Passion Of Anna (1969), and Scenes From A Marriage (1972).
Marky, a recent winner of the prestigious After Bergman Award which allowed the possibility of filming on Fårö, commented on the video stating, "I wanted to make something circular, as the track has it’s never-ending guitars, coming back to haunt you. I very much liked the idea of filming science fiction on the same places that Tarkovsky and Bergman visited. I think both of them were very big fans of the golden triangle too, or so I heard.”
Recorded live in Oslo, Norway’s Amper Tone Studio, Nattesferd is produced by Kvelertak and mixed / engineered by Nick Terry (Lindstrøm, Turbonegro, The Libertines). It is the first of Kvelertak’s albums to be recorded in their home country of Norway.
Greek thrash metal tank, Suicidal Angels, released their new album, Division Of Blood, on May 27th via NoiseArt Records. Today, the band presents the official video clip for the title track, "Division Of Blood".
The band states: "A couple of weeks after the release of our new record, we come back to you with the first video clip, the title track of the album, “Division Of Blood”! Like it, share it, show it to your friends or simply spread the word so that “Division Of Blood” reaches to every single corner of the planet! At this point we would like to thank our friend Maurice Swinkels from Legion Of The Damned for the incredible work he did once more, making a hell of a clip despite the fact we faced some serious problems in the beginning. Images and videos worth more than millions words, so take a look and enjoy!!"
Division Of Blood’s cover artwork was created by acclaimed artist Ed Repka (Megadeth, Death, Municipal Waste).
Tracklisting:
“Capital Of War”
“Division Of Blood”
“Eternally To Suffer”
“Image Of The Serpent”
“Set The Cities On Fire”
“Frontgate”
“Bullet In A Chamber”
“Cold Blood Murder”
“Of Thy Shall Bring The Light”
Berlin, Germany’s Earth Ship have released a music video for “Read Leaves”, a track from their upcoming album, Hollowed, set to be released on June 24th via Napalm Records. Watch the new video below.
Behold the power of the riff in all shapes and sizes: It would be a serious understatement, even borderline ignorance to simply lump Earth Ship in with the rest of the sludge rock genre – a horribly abused and undefined tag.
Earth Ship was born in 2010 and present an intriguing mix of heavy metal, fuzzy stoner rock and some of the finest sludge to date. The band has already released three full-length albums and toured all across Europe and the UK. Now it’s time to take the next step together with their new home at Napalm Records.
Hollowed tracklisting:
“Reduced To Ashes”
“Hollowed”
“Valley Of Thorns”
“Conjured”
“Monolith”
“In Fire's Light”
“In The Arms Of Medusa”
“Castle Of Sorrow”
“Safeguard Of Death”
“Red Leaves”
“The Edge Of Time”
“Blood Candy” (Bonus Track)
“The Edge Of Time” - Acoustic (Bonus Track)
“Red Leaves” video:
Album preview:
"Safeguard Of Death":
"Valley Of Thorns" lyric video:
On Hollowed, the band once more gracefully tackle the soft yet stronger dynamic of bands like Kylesa and Crowbar, celebrating and crowning the whole thing with morbid melodies Alice In Chains would be proud of. Saturated with monolithic doom and hauntingly good!
Earth Ship states: "Musically and lyrically, hollowed is a dark and baleful journey through oceans of sludge and vast whisky-flooded valleys to the edge of time."
German blues rockers Zodiac will release their new album, Grain Of Soul, on July 29th via Napalm Records. It was recorded and mixed by Arne Neurand (Guano Apes, Subway To Sally, The Intersphere) at Horus Sound Studio in Hannover, Germany. The mastering duties were handled by Grammy Award winning Jean-Pierre Chalbos (Gojira, Kavinsky) at La Source Mastering in Paris, France. A music video for the track “Follow You” can be found below.
Grain Of Soul tracklisting:
"Rebirth By Fire"
"Animal"
"Follow You"
"Down"
"Faithless"
"Crow"
"Ain't Coming Back"
"Get Out"
"Like The Sun"
"Sinner"
"Grain Of Soul"
Bonus 7-inch single:
"Shore"
"Dying One"
“Follow You” video:
"Rebirth By Fire" lyric video:
"The recordings of Grain Of Soul were the most intense so far and the album turned out deep and heavy," says drummer Janosch Rathmer. "It's definitely a new chapter that just happened and it's gonna be a blast getting the material up on stage!"
Prior to kicking off a European headline tour in support of the album in September / October, Zodiac will be playing two exclusive record release shows in Germany.
Greek melodic metallers, InnerWish, have released a video for the track “Machines Of Fear”, featured on their new album, InnerWish, available via Ulterium Records. The live footage for the video was recorded at Fuzz Live Music Club in Athens, Greece on December 26th, 2015.
The album was mixed by Fredrik Nordström and Henrik Udd at Studio Fredman (In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Hammerfall) and mastered by Peter In De Betou (Arch Enemy, Opeth, Amon Amarth).
The artwork for the album was created by Felipe Machado Franco (Blind Guardian, Rhapsody Of Fire, Xandria) and the design was done by Jan Yrlund (Korpiklaani, Apocalyptica, Manowar).
Tracklisting:
“Roll The Dice”
“Broken”
“Modern Babylon”
“Machines Of Fear”
“Needles In My Mind”
“My World On Fire”
“Rain Of A Thousand Years”
“Serenity”
“Sins Of The Past”
“Through My Eyes”
“Zero Ground”
“Cross The Line”
“Tame The Seven Seas”
Helix have released a video for "(Gene Simmons Says) Rock Is Dead", the new single from their new compilation CD, Rock It Science. Rock It Science is a compilation CD spanning the band's career, beginning with their first album Breaking Loose in 1979 and continuing up until the present.
The song, "(Gene Simmons Says) Rock Is Dead”, was produced by Aaron Murray, who just won Producer Of The Year at the Jack Richardson Music Awards in London, Ontario, and the video was filmed and edited by former Helix guitarist Brent Doerner.
The video features Moe Maurizio (Demon Moe) and Michael Moodry from the KISS clone band, Destroyer, as well as Laura Nielsen (an aspiring London singer) and Chelsea Zimmerman. Written by Helix leader Brian Vollmer and guitarist Sean Kelly, the song was in response to an interview Gene Simmons did a while ago with his son Nick, in which he stated that "Rock is Dead” (see article below and Helix’ lyrical response from the song).
In the interview with Esquire conducted by his son, Nick, Simmons said that - thanks to a crumbling business model, including "file-sharing and downloading" by fans who believe they "were entitled to have something for free" - "rock is finally dead."
"I am so sad that the next 15-year-old kid in a garage someplace in St. Paul, that plugs into his Marshall and wants to turn it up to 10, will not have anywhere near the same opportunity that I did," Simmons said. "He will most likely, no matter what he does, fail miserably."
Simmons blamed a lack of industry support, piracy and a lack of appreciation for "the creators”. "It's very sad for new bands... They just don't have a chance," he said. "You're better off not even learning how to play guitar or write songs."
“Today's songwriters and creators are more likely to work behind the scenes than practicing and testing their material out on stage”, he added. "The death of rock was not a natural death. Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered.”
Simmons, of course, is far from the first to lament the decline of rock. In 1972, The Who sang "Rock is dead, they say" in "Long Live Rock”, a finger in the eye to those who believed the music wasn't what it was a few years earlier. In 2009, guitarist and "Underground Garage" host Steven Van Zandt gave a speech at SXSW, "A Crisis Of Craft," that observed that one reason nobody's buying records is "because they suck”.
In blogs and on Twitter, reaction was largely negative to Simmons' statements.
"Business models for the music industry will come and go. But rock will never die," wrote Bill Brenner.
"So What's This About Rock Finally Being Dead? I Beg To Disagree, Gene Simmons," was the headline of a column by Alan Cross on A Journal Of Musical Things.
And the Foo Fighters were probably the pithiest. "Not so fast, Mr. God of Thunder," the Dave Grohl-led band tweeted.
Simmons, however, doesn't think there's much future in the genre.
“(Gene Simmons Says) Rock Is Dead” lyrics (Kelly/Vollmer):
I’m a man of practicality
I know that Rock N Roll money isn’t what it used to be
The local record store is hanging by a thread
We mainline stolen music through a cell phone to the head
I see it in the streets, I feel it everywhere
A crowd of people gather with their fists up in the air
We want it heavy, rough and ready
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
ROCK IS DEAD (gang vocal)
You can’t replace it, techno-erase it
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
ROCK IS DEAD (gang)
ROCK IS DEAD
If rockin’ is your business, then business ain’t too good
But tell that to the longhaired kid in any neighborhood
With a second hand guitar, some sweat and blood and luck
He’ll bring it to the people, he ain’t in it for the buck
He sees it in the sparkle of a pretty young girl’s eye
Those power chords work magic as her hand moves up his thigh (oh my!)
We want it heavy
Rock steady
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
ROCK IS DEAD (gang vocal)
You can’t replace it, techno-erase it
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
ROCK IS DEAD (gang vocal)
Rock Is Dead
Rock Is Dead (gang vocal)
Deader than a doornail
Deader than a post
Deader than old Jim Morrison’s ghost
Rock ain ‘t dead
It’s never going down
From D-Rock City to your-home-town
If Rock is a religion
You don’t need to pass the plate
We don’t need no God of Thunder
To tell us what is great
A million dollars might be nice
But it doesn’t drive this song
We just want electric licks to keep the power on
Like this:
We want it heavy
Hot and sweaty
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
Rock Is Dead
You can’t replace it
Techno erase it
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
Rock Is Dead
We want it heavy
Ruff and Ready
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
Rock Is Dead
You can’t replace it
Techno erase it
So don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says
Rock Is Dead
Rock Is Dead
Rock Is Dead
Rock It Science tracklisting:
"Billy Oxygen"
"You're A Woman Now"
"Heavy Metal Love"
"Rock You"
"Deep Cuts The Knife"
"Wild In The Streets"
"Good To The Last Drop"
"Shock City Psycho Rock"
"Get Up!"
"Make 'Em Dance"
"Even Jesus (Wasn't Loved In His Home Town)"
“(Gene Simmons Says) Rock Is Dead”
Catch Helix live in concert:
June
30 - The Brass Monkey - Ottawa, Ontario
July
22 - Fourth Annual Rock & Roar - Kitchener, Ontario
23 - Mattawa Voyageur Days - Mattawa, Ontario
August
2 - Canna Fest - Grand Forks, BC
27 - Great Canadian Kayak Challenge & Festival - Timmins, Ontario
November
4 - Club Regent Event Centre - Winnipeg, Manitoba
The self-titled debut album from Swedish AOR band, Cruzh, will be released on August 26th. The band’s new video for the album cut “First Cruzh” can be found below.
Cruzh was put together after the demise of Swedish glam rockers TrashQueen, in which both Anton Joensson and Dennis Butabi Borg played. They shared a love for melodic rock and AOR and joined forces with Tony Andersson, who previously worked as a studio musician on the never released TrashQueen record.
It all started in March 2013 when Cruzh was announced online. The only things shown to the public were an image of the silhouette of the three band members, the debut song "In A Blink Of An Eye”, information that the band was Swedish, and the text "Get ready for the Cruzh". The song quickly spread on the internet and both Swedish and international websites and radio stations played it and speculated about the identities of the band members. In May came the sequel "Stay", which continued in the same melodic rock spirit. Meanwhile, the band spread various clues on social media regarding their whereabouts. In the fall of 2013 Cruzh had reached a point where they chose to “unmask” and take it all to the next level and reach out to the masses together with the release of the Hard To Get EP, the first of two very successful self-produced demos. Hard To Get and its successor, the darker Aim For The Head got great reviews worldwide.
By late spring of 2015, just when Cruzh was about to release a new EP, they were approached by Frontiers Music Srl who wanted to sign the band, so Cruzh started the recording process by the end of summer 2015. The result is truly an awesome debut, in the spirit of Def Leppard, Danger Danger, H.E.A.T, Winger, Firehouse and Bryan Adams.
“We all share the love for Melodic Rock,” says bassist Dennis Butabi Borg, “but in the meantime we all have very different musical background and inspirations. This shows in our songs”. “When we started out, almost immediately I felt this synergy in the band,” adds Tony Andersson, “and despite our musical backgrounds and differences, we all head in the same direction.” “When a piece of music is coming to me and I am developing someone else’s work, I am filled with some sort of emotion that I want to convey,” concludes guitarist Anton Joensson, “it’s easy to do this in a natural way with Cruzh because I could not feel more at home with our band and the music we create. This is also true with Tony and Dennis. This is who we are!”
Tracklisting:
“In N' Out Of Love”
“First Cruzh”
“Aim For The Head”
“Anything For You”
“Survive”
“Stay”
“Hard To Get”
“You”
“Set Me Free”
“Before I Walk Alone”
“Straight From My Heart”
“First Cruzh” video:
EPK:
Cruzh lineup:
Dennis Butabi Borg – bass
Anton Joensson – rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars on all tracks, backing vocals
Tony Andersson – lead vocals on all tracks, keyboards
With:
Erik Wiss – piano on “Anything For You”, intro on “In N’ Out Of Love”
Louisian Boltner – drums on all tracks
Mattias Silfver – backing vocals on all tracks
Martin Johansson – backing vocals on “Anything For You”
Patrik Norén – backing vocals on “Aim For The Head”
Helsinki, Finland-based melodic hard rock band, King Company, will released their debut album, One For The Road, on August 26th. A new music video for the album track “In Wheels Of No Return” can be found below.
Formed in the spring of 2014 under the name No Man’s Land, King Company is a band featuring cream of the crop Finnish hard rock scene members. Drummer Mirka "Leka" Rantanen (Raskasta Joulua, Warmen, Thunderstone, Kotipelto) had been thinking about forming a new hard rock/melodic metal band for a long time. He wanted to play with people with whom he had worked before and who he knew both as good musicians and as friends. First, he contacted guitarist Antti Wirman (Warmen) who immediately joined the band. Singer Pasi Rantanen was in Mirka's mind from the beginning, as they had played together in a couple of bands before (Thunderstone, Warmen). After keyboardist Jari Pailamo (Kiuas, Ponies To Kill) and bassist Time Schleifer (Enfarce) joined the band, this super group of sorts was finally ready to start working.
King Company’s debut album, One For The Road, is a trip back in time to the melodic hard rock world of the golden 80’s and 90’s. The band’s biggest influences come from legendary bands such as Deep Purple, Rainbow and Whitesnake, but also from other great acts like Europe, Mr Big, Lynch Mob, and Dokken. All this, but with a contemporary twist! Singer Pasi Rantanen has taken his biggest influences from the great David Coverdale and you can definitely hear it. King Company salutes all these great bands and fans of this genre with their debut album and they are hoping to reach people who are new to this kind of music too.
The album’s title track, ”One For The Road” says it all. “Some of us got in this ride back in the 80’s and we are still on that same road,” tells Mirka Rantanen. “It was 1985 we were young and wild and free, We dreamed of playing rock'n roll, and sitting in a black limousine...we still believe!”
Mirka continues: “Our debut album One For The Road should have been done years ago, but there was’t simply time to form King Company. We all had our own projects and we were too busy in our personal lives. Many of us have played in power metal and extreme metal bands, but something has always been missing. We wanted to write an album full of songs that we have always wanted to play. And we did. Most of the songs have been written together around Antti Wirman’s guitar riffs, but there are some older song from Pasi Rantanen that we re-arranged to a more modern form. The greatest ballad on the album is called “Cast Away” and it’s written by the keyboardist Jari Pailamo. Most of the lyrics are written by Mirka and Pasi.”
One For The Road tracklisting:
“One For The Road”
“Shining”
“In Wheels Of No Return”
“Coming Back To Life”
“No Man's Land”
“Farewell”
“Wings Of Love”
“Cast Away”
“Desire”
“Holding On”
“One Heart”
“In Wheels Of No Return” video:
King Company lineup:
Pasi Rantanen - vocals
Antti Wirman - guitars
Jari Pailamo - keyboards
Time Schleifer - bass
Mirka Rantanen - drums
The official video for "Generation Idiot", a brand new song from NONPOINT, can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's upcoming album, "The Poison Red", due later in the year via Spinefarm Records. The CD was recorded at Uptown Recording Studio in Chicago with producer Rob Ruccia.
"The Poison Red" is the first NONPOINT album to feature lead guitarist BC Kochmit, whom frontman Elias Soriano has described as "Eddie Van Halen's illegitimate child."
Soriano said the song was inspired by Internet culture, which breeds digital "zombies."
"Over the past five years, I began to notice people, myself included, getting lost in a few of the simple things — life, art, passions," he explained. "Everything became a reality TV blog with pictures and comments, likes and dislikes, online bullies and online tough guys. And no one is talking anymore. Everything is texts, e-mails, replies and denies. They're all anchors. They all suck the life out of life. It creates zombies with unhinged appetites. It's a real zombie apocalypse and, motherfucker, I'm grabbing a machete and a shotgun."
"The Poison Red" track listing:
01. Generation Idiot02. Foaming At the Mouth03. Bottled Up Killer Bees04. Rabbit Hole05. Chasing White Rabbits06. Standing In the Flesh07. Divided.. Conquer Them08. Radio Chorus09. Spanish Radio Hour10. El Diablo11. No Running Allowed12. Promises13. Be Enough14. My Last Dying Breath
Soriano added about their new disc: "This record tells a lot of stories: going from guts to glory; chasing impossible dreams down the rabbit hole; harsh and honest words with consequences attached; uncovered rules for the weak, made by the wicked and heartless; recalling fight or flight moments with a deep breath. And it all starts with a warning to all the world's generations past, present and future to look up, look forward and live their lives loose from social media shackles, online bullying, the devaluation of art and music, and to not be absorbed by the dramatic, megalomaniacal side of politics. Life is right outside of your phone and newsfeed. Go live it and play this record while you do. It'll all start to make sense."
From their 2000 debut, "Statement", through 2014’s "The Return", NONPOINT have stayed the course, continuously crafting smart rock anthems with the kind of hooks that take up residence in your brain for days. The band is a staple performer at all the core U.S. festivals, such as Rock On The Range, Carolina Rebellion, and Rocklahoma, and has enjoyed several Top 20 rock radio singles. NONPOINT's 2014 single, "Breaking Skin", was the most played track of the year on SiriusXM’s Octane channel.
The official video for the song "Apage Satana" from Greek extreme metallers ROTTING CHRIST can be seen below. The clip was directed and produced by Jon Simvonis (Magnum Production Studios), who previously worked with the band on the "666" video.
Commented ROTTING CHRIST frontman Sakis Tolis: "Dear friends, following a string of lyric videos specifically designed to illustrate tracks taken from 'Rituals', we are now presenting you the first official clip for our latest album.
"We chose to work again with the amazing Jon Simvonis, who already directed our video for the song '666'.
"The concept for this new video is based on the ritual of exorcism and connected to the idea of a soul's transition to the other side.
"We sincerely hope that you will enjoy the journey to the other bank of the river with 'Apage Satana'!"
"Apage Satana" is taken from ROTTING CHRIST's new album, "Rituals", which was released on February 12 via Season Of Mist.
"Rituals" track listing:
01. In Nomine Dei Nostri02. Ze Nigmar03. Elthe Kyrie04. Les Litanies De Satan (Les Fleurs Du Mal)05. Apage Satana06. Tou Thanatou07. For A Voice Like Thunder08. Konx Om Pax09. Devadevam10. The Four Horsemen11. Lok'tar Ogar (bonus track)
For almost 30 years, ROTTING CHRIST have blazed a trail for the black metal genre to follow. From their primitive early material through to 2012's epic "Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy", their pioneering spirit has been a flame of inspiration in an increasingly reductive genre. Now the renowned band return with new album "Rituals", a diverse collection of new songs influenced by rites and myths from all around the globe. "Rituals" highlights their unique power and magic, and is the darkest and most personal-sounding ROTTING CHRIST album to date. As "Rituals" illustrates, there is a reason that ROTTING CHRIST are an international heavy metal institution.
Sakis Tolis in collaboration with his brother Themis on drums achieve a perfect balance of amalgamating their classic and unique style of riffing and rhythm with exciting new elements sprinkled in to keep their material exciting and fresh. Carefully chosen guests are being added for better effect, including the spoken words of Nick Holmes (PARADISE LOST) on "A Voice Like Thunder" and SAMAEL's Vorph mesmerizingly quoting from Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs Du Mal" throughout the song "Les Litanies De Satan". Goosebumps moments such as these are liberally sprinkled throughout the record, which manages the feat to sound rock solid and made out of one heavy piece as well as diverse and far ranging at the same time. The experienced is enhanced by Jens Bogren's equally clear and transparent yet also massive as well as sombre mix and mastering at his widely renowned Fascination Street Studios (AMORPHIS, BORKNAGAR, MOONSPELL, DEVIN TOWNSEND).
* Magus (NECROMANTIA) - "In Nomine Dei Nostri"* Danai Katsameni (NATIONAL HELLENIC THEATER) - "Elthe Kyrie"* Vorph (SAMAEL) - "Les Litanies De Satan (Les Fleurs Du Mal)"* Nick Holmes (PARADISE LOST) - "For A Voice Like Thunder"* Kathir (RUDRA) - "Devadevam"
Kadaver have released the third video for the Berlin visual album concept. Watch “Lord Of The Sky” below.
Together with long-time friend and collaborator Nathini van der Meer, who has created artwork and videos for them in the past, they are working on their first "Visual Album" - 12 short films accompanying each of the albums' songs, to be released once a month throughout the entirety of the year.
Comments the band: "The song is about freedom, about watching your city and your life from a certain distance - from the bird's-eye view. Just like we see our city from that perspective when we're on tour. Problems and tasks just seem to vanish the more you recede from ground. At the same time you need to push your wings against the wind to gain altitude and not get off course. The hopes, memories and expectations with which you leave your city you will always keep."
"The video is also about things that simply don't change," adds Nathini. That's why we chose to use this old man who's just doing his thing for like forever. He goes to work every day, does his job and probably doesn't realize that his surroundings are changing and becoming crazier and crazier. He lives in the bird's-eye perspective and keeps a certain distance to things."
Watch the first two videos for the Berlin visual album concept below:
"Pale Blue Eyes”:
"Filthy Illusion”:
Kadavar recently teamed up with Scion A/V Metal and Skybound Entertainment (The Walking Dead, Outcast) to release "Words Of Evil," a brand new, unreleased song.
Commented Kadavar singer Lupus: "Originally we had written the song for our album Berlin, but thought it would stick out too much and decided not to put it on the album. Nevertheless I think it is one of the best songs we've ever written. At least it is one of my faves. A lot of NWOHBM and straight to your face!"
Download the track via the Soundcloud player below:
In the new video below, Apocalyptica perform the track “Hall Of The Mountain King”, featured on the group’s 2000 release, Cult.
Apocalyptica previously released a video for their cover of Metallica’s “Battery”. The track is available instantly with iTunes pre-orders for the upcoming remastered edition of the band’s Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos, due for release on July 22nd. Watch the new video below:
Nylon Maiden, headed up by Dutch classical guitarist Thomas Zwijsen - known for his acoustic renditions of some of metal’s greatest songs and arrangements of Iron Maiden tracks - will release the new album, Preserved In Time, this month. In the video below, Zwijsen performs “Blood Brothers” with former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley:
In the video below, Blaze Bayley and Thomas Zwijsen talk about the new CD:
The video below features an acoustic cover of Iron Maiden’s “Lord Of The Flies”, from the X Factor album, performed live at the Eindeloos Eiland Festival in The Netherlands by Blaze Bayley and Thomas Zwijsen.
Nylon Maiden’s Preserved In Time promises to be Zwijsen’s ultimate Iron Maiden tribute album. It makes the classical guitar world a bit more metal by adding 16 Iron Maiden songs (and two Bruce Dickinson songs) to its repertoire.
Zwijsen’s long-time collaborator Blaze Bayley is one of the returning guest musicians on this album, performing two tracks from his Iron Maiden days, as well as a unique version of “Blood Brothers” off the Brave New World album! This is the first time Blaze performs an Iron Maiden song from the post-Blaze era. It gives Iron Maiden fans an idea of what it would have sounded like if Blaze had stayed with the band.
Tracklisting:
Disc 1
“If Eternity Should Fail”
“Stranger In A Strange Land”
“Judgement Of Heaven” (with Blaze Bayley & Anne Bakker)
“Ghost Of The Navigator”
“Powerslave” (Thomas & band)
“Burning Ambition”
“Tears Of The Dragon” (Bruce Dickinson song)
“Blood Brothers” (with Blaze Bayley)
“When The Wild Wind Blows” (Thomas & band)
Disc 2
“Afraid To Shoot Strangers”
“Como Estais Amigos” (with Blaze Bayley & Anne Bakker)
“Wrathchild”
“Tears Of A Clown”
“Jerusalem” (Bruce Dickinson song)
“For The Greater Good Of God”
“Reach Out”
“Fear Of The Dark”
“Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” (Thomas & band)
Zwijsen comments: “In our attempt to choose the best track listing for the most fulfilling, surprising and complete Iron Maiden tribute album, we simply couldn't fit all the songs on a single CD, so we decided to make it a double CD this time. Many of the songs were requests from people on YouTube. If this were to be the setlist at an Iron Maiden concert, I’d be very happy!”
People who pre-order the album get some cool extras:
- Their names printed in the booklet of the album, preserved in time!
- The album signed by Thomas
- A free specially designed stainless steel Nylon Maiden dog tag.
Multi-national, award winning progressive metal outfit Skyharbor have released an official video for the new song "Blind Side". It features footage shot on their 2015 tour with Tesseract, The Contortionist and Erra.
Back in July 2015, Skyharbor announced another line-up change, having recently parted ways with drummer Anup Sastry:
"Hello everyone,
After months of deliberation, Dan (Tompkins) has decided to step down as our frontman and singer. This has been the hardest decision we have ever had to make in our history as a group, and it comes after months of discussion about the future of Skyharbor. We owe you an explanation, and we hope this following makes it clear as to why we reached this decision.
In a nutshell, things have developed with this group far quicker than any of us expected, and we have been getting some amazing opportunities to take our music around the world. We have been lucky enough to be able to play sporadically in India, Europe and the UK, but we have always wanted to take our music further afield to territories such as North America and Australia, and for longer periods than Dan could commit to. As many of you will know, Dan is a husband and a father, and touring for long periods of time with little financial security made it very difficult for the band to be active, and Dan felt strongly that he was holding us back from good opportunities.
Keeping this in mind and the fact that Dan rejoined TesseracT last year, we realised we had to make a choice - we could continue with Dan but as a studio project only, or we could move forward with a dedicated and focused lineup to help Skyharbor grow freely and achieve what we all hope to achieve with it. All 5 of us have collectively and amicably decided that the latter option was the best for the band.
We love Dan as a brother, and are incredibly proud of the two albums we've created with him and the times we have shared on the road. Words cannot describe how grateful we are for all he’s done for this band, and the passion and dedication he put into each show. He will be sorely missed, but will always remain close to us.
Which brings us to the good news:
We are very happy to welcome Eric Emery to Skyharbor as our new full time singer. Eric is a fantastic talent and we are all very excited to write and play music with him. When we reached out to Eric in the hopes of finding someone to fill Dan's shoes, we were all delighted by the quality of his audition and his enthusiasm to fill the spot. As a Grammy nominated engineer, Eric brings to the band not just his voice but his music production experience and knowledge, and we look forward to performing live with him, starting with our first US and Canada tour later this year, details of which we will announce shortly.
As tricky as the last few months have been, we truly believe that everything has worked out for the best. We couldn't be more confident in our new lineup and our future.
We'd like to thank you all for the constant messages of support and requests to see us perform all over the world. You inspire us to continue taking this band forward. We hope for your continued support and understanding through this transitional period and hope that you enjoy the exciting new phase of music that we will be sharing with you very soon. See you on the road!
Following is Tompkins' statement regarding his departure:
“I’m incredibly sad to be parting ways with my amazing friends Keshav, Devesh, Krishna and Aditya. We have collectively come to the decision that it is in the best interest of the group that I step down as the frontman of Skyharbor. From the very start I have put my heart and soul into the project but circumstances have made it clear that I am holding the band back from opportunities too good to miss. We all agree this is the best thing for everyone. We will always be close friends and I wish them only the best for the future.”
And finally, a video message from new Skyharbor frontman Eric Emery:
Skyharbor released their sophomore album, Guiding Lights, on November 10th, 2014 via Basick Records.
Guiding Lights offers 10 tracks of exhilarating and heady progressive music, weaving a sonic tapestry of technically beautiful and imaginative melodies around crunchy metal riffs and sweeping, atmospheric vocals. The album was funded by fans after a fast paced and successful PledgeMusic campaign and has been mixed and mastered by legendary Australian producer Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Animals As Leaders, Dead Letter Circus).
Comments guitarist and songwriter Keshav Dhar: "We are thrilled to announce that our second record is officially complete, and it is titled Guiding Lights. We have worked incredibly hard over the last two years on making this album the most spectacular effort we could create, and we thank our AMAZING fans for helping bring it to life and take it to the next level! We can't wait for you to sink your teeth into it!"
The album release rounds out a fantastic year for Skyharbor, which has seen appearances at Download Festival, Graspop and a European tour, as well as a nomination for Global Metal Band at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods. On top of this the band released their first single/video for "Evolution" in June 2014 which can be viewed below.
Guiding Lights follows on from the 2011 debut, Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos, which won the band fans worldwide, including Lamb Of God who handpicked the band to support them in India and saw the band picked to play at festivals across the globe whilst also resulting in awards for Best Song, Best Album and Best Band at the Rolling Stone India Metal Awards.
Tracklisting:
"Allure"
"Evolution"
"Idle Minds"
"Miracle"
"Halogen"
"New Devil"
"Patience"
"Guiding Lights"
"Kaikoma"
"The Constant"
The flagship of the Belgian metal scene, After All, released their new thrash metal hammer, Waves Of Annihilation, on June 10th via NoiseArt Records. Today, the band presents the new video for the song "The Unusual Sin". The clip was directed by Jeroen Mylle. Check it out below:
Waves Of Annihilation is After All’s ninth full-length album. As on the previous two, Dan Swanö once again delivered a crushingly heavy, yet open production. No loudness war on this one.
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