Monolord return with their enthusiastically-awaited fifth album, Your Time To Shine, on October 29 via Relapse Records. A preview of the 5-song, 39-minute collection, which was recorded by drummer Esben Willems in his newly founded recording space, Studio Beserk, arrives today via the soaring, fist-raising album opener, “The Weary”. A video can be found below.
“’The Weary’ is us telling a story to future generations that we are sorry but we fucked it all up,” explains guitar player Thomas Jäger.
Never ones to shy away from sharp social commentary, whether it’s about the global climate crisis, the destructive nature of religion, or the isolation endured during the pandemic, Willems says of the new collection: “To me, it’s an honest representation of how I feel about the current state of humanity.”
Musically, the album sees the Swedish trio cultivating the elements that take their monstrous, heavy riffing to new heights with a darker edge. A five-track journey that spans across crushing doom rock to more spacey, groove laden opuses, Your Time to Shine is Monolord at their most unfiltered and focused.
Your Time To Shine pre-orders are available now (Physical/Digital).
The album is available in the following formats: standard vinyl (Kelly green), CD, cassette, and digitally, as well as a smörgåsbord of limited-edition vinyl variants:
Deluxe versions (available exclusively via Relapse.com):
· Deluxe mail order version (white, brown and olive green merge with splatter including a specially designed stand up church cutout display piece, and a high-quality Zippo lighter with screen print. 100 available)
· Deluxe mail order version (100 available – highlighter yellow/orange krush/highlighter yellow three color striped with splatter including a specially designed stand up church cutout display piece, and a high-quality Zippo lighter with screen print. 100 available)
· Deluxe mail order version (butterfly with splatter – 200 available)
Relapse.com exclusives:
· Grey inside clear with rainbow splatter – 300 available
· Yellow and mustard merge – 500 available
· Milky clear with brown, mustard and orange splatter – 500 available
Monolord.com exclusive:
· Olive green – 100 available
Retail exclusives:
· Mustard yellow – 200 available via Rough Trade UK
· Milky clear – 200 available, Swedish indie record store exclusive
· Grey – 300 available, UK indie record store exclusive
· Brown – 300 available, German indie record store exclusive
· Neon Orange – 500 available, North American indie record store exclusive
Your Time To Shine tracklisting:
"The Weary"
"To Each Their Own"
"I’ll Be Damned"
"Your Time To Shine"
"The Siren Of Yersinia"
"The Weary" video:
Monolord has simultaneously announced a US tour, with the coast-to-coast run kicking off on March 3. The dates are on-sale today with all performances supported by Firebreather. A European trek is slated for this November with Blackwater Holylight opening those dates.
Styx drummer Todd Sucherman has uploaded a new live video along with the following message:
"Highlight montage of the 21 song set from Phoenix’s Celebrity Theater, September 2021. This rotating in the round stage is one of the most unique places to play in the USA."
Fan-filmed video from the Phoenix show can be viewed below. The setlis was as follows:
Set 1:
"The Fight of Our Lives"
"Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)"
"The Grand Illusion"
"Lady"
"Reveries"
"Light Up"
"Man in the Wilderness"
"Rockin' The Paradise"
"Save Us From Ourselves"
"Pieces of Eight"
"The Outpost"
"Too Much Time on My Hands"
Set 2:
"Red Storm"
"Suite Madame Blue"
"Sound the Alarm"
"Crystal Ball"
"Crash of the Crown"
"Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)"
"Khedive"
"Lost at Sea"
"Come Sail Away"
"Mr. Roboto"
"Renegade"
The Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci Majesty 8 string signature guitar has arrived. This new Majesty 8 will be available in a limited quantity of only 100 pieces worldwide and offered in the original Mystic Dream signature finish.
The Majesty 8 string features a non-tremolo mahogany neck-through-body with basswood wings and ebony fretboard. The new multi-scale fretboard features 24 stainless steel frets and measures 27" on the bass side with a standard scale length of 25.5" on the treble side. This fanned fret, multi-scale design allows for a longer string length providing a comfortable amount of tension on the bass strings, with a traditional feel on the treble side for fluid string bends and solos.
The electronics package includes a 3-way selector switch with signature 8 string custom-angled DiMarzio Dreamcatcher (bridge) and Rainmaker (neck) pickups. Also included is a 3-way toggle that incorporates a piezo bridge system giving the Majesty a much focused and highly versatile pallet of tones. The Majesty 8 string will be hand-numbered on the back of the headstock and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
21 years ago, the Swedish heavy metal powerhouse, HammerFall, travelled to Nashville to record their third album with legendary producer Michael Wagner, leaving the safe space that was Studio Fredman in Göteborg. Fredrik Nordström had recorded the two previous records, so naturally that was a huge change for the band. The Wagner experience and the Renegade album turned out great, as we all know today. For this anniversary edition, the band felt that they needed to close the circle and have Fredrik remix the Renegade album.
The result is Renegade 2.0 which will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on November 12 in many beautiful formats and with a brand new album artwork made by famous cover artist Andreas Marshall, which makes every HammerFall fan heart beats faster, and the pre-order starts today.
Remember Wacken Open Air 2001 when ten thousands of metal heads were roaring along the chorus for "Templars Of Steel"? No? Well, let us refresh your memory with this legendary live footage from just that show. A song like a cry for a heavy metal revolution that really caught on to the scene. To this day, "Templars Of Steel" is a true highlight of every HammerFall live show and is a track that couldn’t encapsulate what the band stands for like barely any other.
Frontman Joacim Cans remembers: "Oscar and I went down to Gran Canaria to write and finalize some songs for the Renegade album. Somewhere in the constant ”haze” I still remember that Oscar played the riff to the song and it totally blew me away. Couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the hymn-like masterpiece and try some vocal ideas in my temporary studio built in the bathroom. This song became the opening track on the upcoming tour and created one of the coolest show openings ever when the draw bridge slowly started to come down during the pulsating intro to the song.”
Watch the legendary live video from Wacken 2001 below. Listen & pre-order here.
Tracklistings:
Disc 1 (The 2020 Remix) CD, Vinyl, Digital
"Templars Of Steel"
"Keep The Flame Burning"
"Renegade"
"Living In Victory"
"Always Will Be"
"The Way Of The Warrior"
"Destined For Glory"
"The Champion"
"Raise The Hammer"
"A Legend Reborn"
Disc 2 (The Original Album & Bonus Tracks) Vinyl As Bonus LP In Boxset Only
"Templars Of Steel"
"Keep The Flame Burning"
"Renegade"
"Living In Victory"
"Always Will Be"
"The Way Of The Warrior"
"Destined For Glory"
"The Champion"
"Raise The Hammer"
"A Legend Reborn"
Bonus tracks:
"Run With The Devil" (from "Renegade" Single)
In all the silence, Finnish death doom masters, Swallow The Sun, have written, recorded and mixed a new album called Moonflowers. It is done and ready and will be released on November 19.
Along with some of the album formats, there will also come a full bonus album featuring very special instrumental versions of all the regular album tracks. This instrumental album has been composed for strings and recorded at Sipoo Church in Finland. The strings were performed by the group called Trio NOX from Finland.
All these instrumental songs will be launched as animated videos, which were created by Dronicon Films. One by one every week, leading up to the first single release of the main album.
The new instrumental song, "The Fight For Your Life", is accompanied by an animated video created by Dronicon Films. Watch below:
Check out the instrumentals for "All Hallows' Grieve", "Woven Into Sorrow", "Moonflowers Bloom In Misery" and "Enemy", below:
Juha Raivio comments: “I know well that I should not say this, but I deeply hate this album. I hate where it takes me, how it makes me feel and what it stands for me personally. I wish it wouldn’t. But for all its honesty I got no option than also love it. That is all that matters to me with the music anyway and it doesn’t matter how it makes me feel, as long as it does. For me this album is like a mirror of a deep self-disappointment. Even I still want to believe that there is and could be more than this in me. But I don’t need or want to talk more about it. After all music means so different things to each one of us by how we have walked our own paths, and that is a beautiful thing about music. There is no right or wrong.
"After I had finished writing all the music for this record in the fall of 2020 I started to write these small instrumental versions of the album songs for the violin, viola, cello and piano. Mostly because I was wondering how it would feel like to hear all these songs first as these intimate versions instead of a full band album. It was really beautiful to see and hear these songs come alive in this way and form, recorded live in this big church in Finland. To be able to hear the echoes of this music reflecting from the church walls and feel the very soul of these old wooden instruments played by real people in this sacred place. Something about hearing the strings breathe this fragile beauty into these songs that carry so much pain otherwise. Now looking back, maybe I wrote these versions just for myself to be able to hear and feel at least some kind of a beauty and solace in these songs, maybe…
"I wanted to create the cover art of this album myself this time, so it would stand as brutally honest for me as the music is. So I painted the moon on the ‘Moonflowers‘ cover with my own blood and I decorated it with the flowers I picked up and dried on the spring of 2016. Maybe it isn’t the most outstanding looking piece of art ever made in this world, but for me it is everything. I wasn’t going to write any new music before I would have moved towards the right direction in my life, but finally all this music just forced itself out of me during the long nights of this hope crushing and neverending lockdown prison. Something grew out from that void eventually and writing these songs made me think a lot about moonflowers that bloom at the darkest hour of the night, so that name felt right to call the album also.
"All my love to you, take care."
Moonflowers tracklisting:
"Moonflowers Bloom In Misery"
"Enemy"
"Woven Into Sorrow"
"Keep Your Heart Safe From Me"
"All Hallows' Grieve" (Featuring Cammie Gilbert)
"The Void"
"The Fight Of Your Life"
"This House Has No Home"
Raivio further states, “In other news, unfortunately our busy brother Jaani will step aside from the band at least for this new album cycle, but we are happy to tell that you can hear Jaani’s backing vocals on the new album anyway.”
Jaani Peuhu adds, "Sadly, Corona virus messed up everything including the release schedules of my bands. Both the Mercury Circle and Swallow The Sun albums are being released at the same time, making it impossible for me to tour with both bands. For this reason, I decided that it’d be better for me to solely focus on MC for this release cycle.
"That being said, the upcoming Swallow The Sun album will be amazing, and I am so happy we could still do it together. I wish the best of luck to StS on their tour with it! See you in the audience!"
Lineup:
Juha Raivio - guitars
Matti Honkonen - bass
Mikko Kotamäki - vocals
Juuso Raatikainen - drums
Juho Räihä - guitars
Maryland rockers CLUTCH played a brand new song apparently titled "Boss Metal Zone" during their September 11 concert at Reverb in Reading, Pennsylvania. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.
"Boss Metal Zone" is the second new CLUTCH song to be played by the band on its current run of shows. On September 5, CLUTCH performed a track said to be titled "Strive For Excellence" during its first fan-attended live concert in 21 months, which took at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, Alaska.
CLUTCH drummer Jean-Paul Gaster recently told the Chicago-based webzine Metal Kaoz that he and his bandmates have "written a lot of songs" in the last year for the follow-up to 2018's "Book Of Bad Decisions" LP. He said: "We've been writing now for our new album that we will record in the fall, and I think we're spending more time than ever in the studio, just trying out different ideas. And most of the ideas don't ever really make it to the end; we try 10 things and we keep one.
"I think we are even more selective than we were before as to which ideas we really decide to focus on. And I think it is because we have so much more time. Before, we would come home for a tour and maybe we would have three weeks off. So, the first week, we don't do really much of anything — everybody goes back home to their families and we rest — and then the next two weeks we would get together and we would just jam really hard and get a bunch of ideas, and then on the road and play those ideas, and then come back and do it again. And that process might go on for a year and a half. This has been different. This is the first time where we've had so much time at home to work on ideas and never really tried them in a live setting. So I'm not sure how it's gonna impact the record. But I think it's gonna make for a different album — whether it's good, bad or otherwise, it's too early to tell. But, for sure, it's a different dynamic, and it requires more of us.
"So often, when we have new ideas and we put them in front of an audience, you can really tell right away — we know right away if the song is the right tempo, we know right away if the riffs are where they need to be, if the chorus is the way it needs to be," Gaster added. "It's a testing ground. And we don't have that right now. So, for that reason, I think we are being a lot more careful about what ideas we really wanna focus on, and which ones we think, 'You know what? We've done that before. Let's do something a little different.'"
Gaster went on to say that the new CLUTCH album will likely arrive in early 2022 — "hopefully before we start really hitting the road again. And it'll be fun to get back out there," he said. "Man, I just miss it so much."
"Book Of Bad Decisions" was recorded at Sputnik Sound studio in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Vance Powell. The record sold 26,000 copies in America during its first week of availability, giving the group its third consecutive Top 20 album on the Billboard 200.
Video footage of former JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim "Ripper" Owens's August 21 performance at the Haltom Theater in Haltom City, Texas can be viewed below.
Owens joined PRIEST in 1996 after being discovered when the band's drummer, Scott Travis, was given a videotape of him performing with the PRIEST cover act BRITISH STEEL. JUDAS PRIEST at the time was seeking a replacement for Rob Halford. He recorded two studio albums with the band — 1997's "Jugulator" and 2001's "Demolition" — before PRIEST reunited with Halford in 2003.
Tim told Danny Stoakes that he still sometimes can't believe that he got to front his favorite band. "It is strange, 'cause you look at 'em totally different," he said. "You still kind of laugh about it and you think, 'Wow! This is crazy.' I started saying that years ago; it really is. They were my idols — Glenn [Tipton] and K.K. [Downing] and Rob. JUDAS PRIEST was the only band I had up in the posters when I was a kid in the '80s. Yeah, it's kind of just crazy that you become such family and friends. And that we really were — that's how I was treated. So you just look at 'em differently, like, 'Man, they were my idols.' And even Rob, because we became friends. And that's a good thing, for their point of view, because they treated me well and that's how it became. It wasn't like they acted any different."
Owens went on to say that touring with PRIEST was "great. We had so much fun and hung out a lot," he said. "It was a really good time. We did everything together."
In 2019, Owens told Ultimate Guitar that he believes his era of JUDAS PRIEST is largely overlooked. "Yeah, I think it definitely deserves more [attention]," he said. "I mean, they don't do anything. [Laughs] It's kind of amazing that they just totally erased it that they won't play... I mean, 'Burn In Hell' [off 'Jugulator'], the crowd would like to hear 'Burn In Hell'. They don't have to give me a tribute or anything, but it would be nice to play a song from... You know, that was a pretty big thing, I did two studio records, two live records, and a DVD, starting from '96 to 2004. So it's kind of crazy that it's just been erased and they won't even play a song from it live, because it is JUDAS PRIEST."
Tim told The Metal Voice in 2016 that he "wouldn't have quit JUDAS PRIEST." But he clarified: "I wanted to leave JUDAS PRIEST, 'cause I had already recorded the ICED EARTH record ['The Glorious Burden']. So I wanted out of JUDAS PRIEST, 'cause I wanted to do other stuff, but I never would have quit. 'Cause I was great friends with them, and I was the singer of JUDAS PRIEST. But to make more money and to do more things, I had to branch out and do other things."
Owens and Downing are reunited in KK'S PRIEST which also features guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE), bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX) and drummer Sean Elg (DEATHRIDERS, CAGE).
KK'S PRIEST will release its debut album, "Sermons Of The Sinner", on October 1 via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records.
Fan-filmed video footage of JUDAS PRIEST's September 16 performance at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan can be seen below.
The British heavy metal legends, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary, threw in several rarely played songs in their set, including "One Shot At Glory" and "Invader", as well as several tracks that hadn't been played in a long time, such as "Rocka Rolla", "Hell Patrol", "A Touch Of Evil" and "Blood Red Skies".
The band's setlist was as follows:
01. One Shot At Glory
02. Lightning Strike
03. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
04. Freewheel Burning
05. Turbo Lover
06. Hell Patrol
07. The Sentinel
08. A Touch Of Evil
09. Rocka Rolla
10. Victim Of Changes
11. Desert Plains
12. Blood Red Skies
13. Invader
14. Painkiller
Encore:
15. The Hellion / Electric Eye
16. Hell Bent For Leather
17. Breaking The Law
18. Living After Midnight
JUDAS PRIEST kicked off its first pandemic-era tour, the rescheduled "50 Heavy Metal Years" North American trek, on September 8 at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania.
JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner told Lana Morgan of the 102.9 The Hog radio station about the "50 Heavy Metal Years" setlist: "It's always a challenge, going into a new tour, to put a setlist together. They've got, like, a million songs. You're always gonna miss out on someone's favorite. But you've gotta put something together that's dynamic, it flows, it has good peaks and troughs and tension and drama — and you put a setlist together like that — and you've also gotta hit on the old songs and new songs, all that sort of stuff. So we've put together what we think is the most dynamic and exciting and dramatic set. And it seems to be going down really well. And as we move on into the tour, if we come back to the States or we do different markets around the world, we're not opposed to putting new songs in there — different songs, I should say. We could re-evaluate the setlist a bit and make it a bit more exciting, change it up.
"The reaction we're getting to the setlist at the moment has been really positive, and it's got some really surprising tracks in there — some that the band hasn't played in a long time and some that the band has never played live at all up until this point," he continued. "So, as a fan myself, it's great to be out there playing these songs and experiencing the band playing these songs for the first time in some cases."
On October 15, JUDAS PRIEST will release "50 Heavy Metal Years Of Music", a mammoth limited-edition box set which will include every official live and studio album to date plus 13 unreleased discs. This is the most extensive release of previously unreleased music the band has made from its vast archives — a real treat for fans. Restored and mixed by Tom Allom at La Cucina W8 and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios, this special release will be made available via Sony Music.
EXODUS drummer Tom Hunting joined HELLHUNTER on stage last night (Saturday, September 18) at Thee Parkside in San Francisco, California to play the classic EXODUS song "Metal Command". The concert was a benefit event for the 56-year-old musician, who performed live for the first time since undergoing a successful total gastrectomy in July in his battle with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach. Also appearing with HELLHUNTER was DEATH ANGEL drummer Will Carroll, who contributed lead vocals.
Last month, EXODUS tapped John Tempesta to play drums for the band at Psycho Las Vegas on August 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada and at Full Terror Assault on September 11 at Hogrock Campground in Cave In Rock, Illinois — while Hunting was recovering from surgery. Tempesta was a member of EXODUS from 1989 until 1993 and played on the band's albums "Impact Is Imminent" (1990) and "Force Of Habit" (1992).
When Hunting announced his absence from Psycho Las Vegas and Full Terror Assault, he said in a statement: "I need to manage my own expectations, and then work my very core back into shape to be fully ready for action. I have no doubt I'll bounce back and get there."
A GoFundMe campaign to help Hunting with medical expenses had previously raised more than $108,000 — including $5,000 from Tom's former EXODUS bandmate, current METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett, and $1,500 from FOZZY singer and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho.
EXODUS will release its new album, "Persona Non Grata", on November 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP was recorded at a studio in Lake Almanor, California and was engineered by Steve Lagudi and EXODUS. It was produced by EXODUS and was mixed by Andy Sneap. For the third time in the band's history, they returned to Swedish artist Pär Olofsson to create the album artwork.
"Persona Non Grata" is the follow-up to 2014's "Blood In Blood Out", which was the San Francisco Bay Area thrashers' first release since the departure of the group's lead singer of nine years, Rob Dukes, and the return of Steve "Zetro" Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.
If you’re not at Thee Parkside you’re missing out. This dude is playing with us for a special song.
U.D.O., the band led by former ACCEPT frontman Udo Dirkschneider, will release its new album "Game Over", on October 22 via AFM Records. The official music video for the disc's third single, "Prophecy", can be seen below.
Not one for embellishment. Dirkschneider strikes a sour note on "Game Over". If mankind does not rethink several aspects, it may have fatal consequences. For example, "Kids And Guns" is about the increased gun sales and little regulation in the gun industry in the USA, which also leads to higher rates of child or adolescent gun violence.
Track listing:
01. Fear Detector
02. Holy Invaders
03. Prophecy
04. Empty Eyes
05. I See Red
06. Metal Never Dies
07. Kids And Guns
08. Like A Beast
09. Don't Wanna Say Goodbye
10. Unbroken
11. Marching Tank
12. Thunder Road
13. Midnight Stranger
14. Speed Seeker
15. Time Control
16. Metal Damnation
In June, Dirkschneider told Via Nocturna about the band's upcoming follow-up to 2018's "Steelfactory" LP: "It will be a really good U.D.O. album. This is also the first time we are composing together with the two new members of U.D.O.," referring to bassist Tilen Hudrap and guitarist Dee Dammers. "Very interesting. And there are a lot of things there that will be a little bit of a surprise. But no, we are not changing the style, but a lot of little things are a little bit different. But it will be very interesting."
Last year, U.D.O. collaborated with Das Musikkorps der Bundeswehr, the military band of the German federal armed forces, on an album called "We Are One", which was released in July 2020 via AFM Records/Soulfood Music.
U.D.O.'s current lineup includes Udo's son and drummer Sven Dirkschneider, Hudrap and guitarists Andrey Smirnov and Dammers.
Udo's DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG project, in which he is joined be fellow former ACCEPT members Peter Baltes (bass) and Stefan Kaufmann (guitar), recently released a new single and video, "Every Heart Is Burning".
DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG, which is rounded out by Udo's son Sven Dirkschneider (drums), Manuela Bibert (vocals) and Mathias Dieth (guitar), issued its debut single, "Where The Angels Fly", in September 2020. A second single, "Face Of A Stranger", followed in April. On August 27, all three songs were released as the "Arising" CD, a 12-inch vinyl and a download.
BEHEMOTH set the world on fire when the Polish masters of black metal took an abandoned church in rural Poland to perform a worldwide stream event in the heart of the pandemic lockdown. After over a year since the show's premiere, "In Absentia Dei" returns on to a range of deluxe formats for fans to relive the danger and drama that took place on that fateful night in 2020. The live release will hit the shelves on December 17.
BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski states: "'In Absentia Dei' was a massive challenge and a huge risk, but it was a great artistic and commercial success. The response was absolutely brilliant — we made a statement with this performance and set the bar high. I hope that we can continue to raise the bar with the projects to come!"
A performance clip of the opening track from "In Absentia Dei", "Evoe", can be seen below.
"In Absentia Dei" will be available as digital album, digibook and 3LP vinyl in various colours. All Nuclear Blast triple LPs come with a premium 20-page booklet and a cut-out, build-at-home model of the actual church that BEHEMOTH performed in.
The event was said to set a new standard for streaming events in the future and this was something BEHEMOTH set out to achieve from the start. Produced by Grupa 13, "In Absentia Dei" was presented as a show of four parts, woven with high-production theatrics and even hellish flames emanating from all parts of the sacred building.
BEHEMOTH released its latest full-length, "I Loved You At Your Darkest", in 2018 to vast critical acclaim. "I Loved You At Your Darkest" marked a milestone in the history of the band, being not only their most successful album, but also an audiovisual masterpiece: from its detailed, blasphemous artwork to the highly vicious yet deeply emotional tracks.
BEHEMOTH's latest EP, "A Forest", came out in May 2020 via Metal Blade. The EP's title track was a cover of THE CURE classic, and it featured a guest appearance by SHINING frontman Niklas Kvarforth. The "A Forest" EP also included a live version of the title track as well as two songs from the "I Loved You At Your Darkest" sessions.
BEHEMOTH supported SLIPKNOT on an arena tour of Europe in January and February 2020.
British extreme metal veterans CARCASS have released a music video for their new single, "The Scythe's Remorseless Swing". The track is taken from the band's seventh studio album, "Torn Arteries", which is being made available today (Friday, September 17) via Nuclear Blast Records.
In 2019, the band released its first single in over five years, "Under The Scalpel Blade", followed by a four-song EP titled "Despicable" (October 2020), setting a potent precedent for "Torn Arteries". With the album title itself referencing an old demo created by original drummer Ken Owen back in the 1980s, "Torn Arteries" sits as a bookend on the modern side of the CARCASS discography, connecting directly back to where everything began over 30 years ago.
The "Torn Arteries" album artwork also rings reminiscent of the grotesque photography that appears on classic CARCASS album covers like "Reek Of Putrefaction" and "Symphonies Of Sickness". Artist Zbigniew Bielak traveled outside his normal wheelhouse to bring forth a time-lapsed set of photos showing vegetables shaped like a heart, rotting over time upon a white plate. This form of artwork was influenced by Japanese Kusôzu, meaning "painting of the nine stages of a decaying corpse."
"It's very clean, white, which we've never done before," explains vocalist and bassist Jeff Walker. "It doesn't look evil, or typically death metal, but I like how clean it is; almost like a coffee table book." This new album presents images, lyrics, and sounds that so distinctly scream CARCASS, but ferry us into a new era of production, songwriting, and art all together.
"I think as our seventh album, it does stand out from the others both sonically and stylistically," says Walker. "You can definitely tell that it's CARCASS; when you drop that needle on the vinyl, when you hear that guitar tone, you can tell it's Bill Steer, but each album is always a product of its time."
With "Torn Arteries", each track stands unique from the rest in its approach to guitar, bass, vocals and drumming, along with all the finer details. Filthy and dominating guitar work creates thick layers of tone and melody, piling on top of each other like the weight of dead flesh in tracks like "Kelly's Meat Emporium".
"The working title for 'Kelly's' was originally 'Stock Carcass'," laughs Walker. "We knew that one was a real meat-and-potatoes track for the album." Meanwhile, the elevated speed and catchy beat in "Dance Of Ixtab" tell a robust and airier story, one that is certain to get a reaction from live crowds. "We built this song around the beat. We had an approach to each song that was a definite idea," Walker says. "It's all about 'what haven't we done before?'"
Recording and production for "Torn Arteries" wasn't as simple as sitting down for a few weeks and knocking it all out, but rather spread out over the course of approximately one year bouncing back and forth between England and Sweden. Initially, drummer Daniel Wilding did session work in Sweden at Studio Gröndahl with David Castillo while guitars were recorded at The Stationhouse with James Atkinson in Leeds, England. Eventually needing some form of residential location to finalize vocals, bass, and other guitarwork, the band headed back to Studio Gröndahl in Sweden to continue work in a very relaxed atmosphere with Castillo. "There was no real big plan to do it this way, the process just organically grew on its own," says Walker.
Most will find that the only real struggle when indulging in "Torn Arteries" is fighting the desire to start it over the second it finishes. It covers substantial new ground for a band with such a reputation, while still retaining that addictive, time honored CARCASS sound that has come to represent the face of true death metal.
"Torn Arteries" track listing:
01. Torn Arteries
02. Dance of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstances March No. 1)
Long-running hard rockers L.A. GUNS will release their new studio album, "Checkered Past", on November 12 via Frontiers Music Srl. Fans can get another preview of the album with the release of the official music video for the second single "Cannonball".
Written and recorded during late 2020 and early 2021, "Checkered Past" sees Tracii Guns, Phil Lewis and company continuing with the darker lyrical tone of the preceding studio albums, "The Devil You Know" and "The Missing Peace", while incorporating their classic rock influences into the mix. Heavier songs are mixed with bluesier, boogie inducing tracks and dark, introspective ballads, often harkening back to the first three albums the band made, but also pushing the band forward. When fans absorb the album as a whole, they'll see that the track listing is divided up into "sets" or "suites," where a sonic style is explored across multiple songs before moving on to the next, making for a remarkable listening experience.
Feeling inspired and excited like they did when they first started out, but with many years of wisdom and experience under their belts, and most importantly, a renewed and stronger creative and personal relationship, Guns and Lewis are maintaining a creative peak that started with "The Missing Peace". "Checkered Past" shows a band invigorated and ready to bash you over the head, as well as “wow” you with some epic, slower songs, and even make you dance a bit to some rock 'n roll.
"Checkered Past" track listing:
01. Cannonball
02. Bad Luck Charm
03. Living Right Now
04. Get Along
05. If It's Over Now
06. Better Than You
07. Knock Me Down
08. Dog
09. Let You Down
10. That Ain't Why
11. Physical Itch
L.A. GUNS performed its second album, 1989's "Cocked & Loaded", in its entirety on November 28, 2020 at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was livestreamed via Veeps.
In May 2020, L.A. GUNS released a new single, "Let You Down". The song was written and recorded while the band was in the midst of working on its next studio album.
L.A. GUNS is:
Phil Lewis - vocals
Tracii Guns - guitars
Ace Von Johnson - guitars
Johnny Martin - bass
Scot Coogan - drums
This past April, a settlement was reached between drummer Steve Riley and Guns and Lewis over the rights to the L.A. GUNS name. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Guns and Lewis will continue to operate under the L.A. GUNS trademark, while Riley and his bandmates from the other version of L.A. GUNS will now operate under the new name RILEY'S L.A. GUNS.
Frontiers Music Srl recently announced the release of the sophomore album from Groundbreaker, Soul To Soul, on November 12. Today, the melodic rock project centered around the vocal talents of Steve Overland (FM) have released the title track. Listen below, and pre-order/save Soul To Soul here.
Groundbreaker's new album, Soul To Soul, is once again centered around the fantastic vocal talents of Steve Overland (FM) with stunning production by Alessandro Del Vecchio. While the self-titled debut was a collaboration with Robert Sall (Work of Art, W.E.T), on the songwriting side, joining Steve and Alessandro this time are Stefano Lionetti (Lionville), Pete Alpenborg (Arctic Rain), Jan Akesson (Infinite & Divine), and Kristian Fyhr (Seventh Crystal). The resulting album is simply everything that a melodic rock fan could hope and dream for. Expect nothing less than soaring hooklines, magnificent melodies, and amazing instrumental performances. Mixing the best of the European melodic rock traditions, Soul To Soul is easily one of the melodic rock highlights of the year.
The lineup on the new album includes Sven Larsson (ex-Street Talk) on guitars, Nalley Pahlsson (ex- Vindictiv, Therion) on bass, Herman Furin (Work of Art) on drums, and Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards. Steve Overland plays lead guitar on the track “Wild World” too.
Groundbreaker started with a conversation between Frontiers President Serafino Perugino and Overland. Perugino was eager to start a top notch collaboration with well-respected musicians from the European melodic rock scene and highlight Overland's absolutely stunning vocal talents. Robert Sall of Work of Art was brought into the picture to craft the songs and to be paired with Alessandro Del Vecchio’s production. Overland immediately loved the material that was submitted to h
BRING ME THE HORIZON continues the carefully executed next phase of its highly successful EP series with the launch of a new single titled "DiE4u". Recorded remotely during the pandemic with frontman Oli Sykes stuck in Brazil and keyboardist Jordan Fish in the U.K., "DiE4u" is part of the second phase of the "Post Human" EP campaign.
The new single, out today via Columbia Records, is another perfectly crafted future emo masterpiece by the U.K. five-piece and comes with a video, shot in Kiev and directed by Sykes.
Oli says: "''DiE4u' is a song about toxic obsessions, vices and things you can't kick. I think a lot of people went through very similar struggles while in lockdown, coming face to face with yourself and seeing who you really are and what's important. The song is a triumphant and emotional one for me because it was a time of realization to kick the things that were no good, and to take the choice in bettering myself. It also connects to a deeper theme about us as a society, and how we need to look at the way we treat ourselves, each other as well as the world."
BRING ME THE HORIZON recently celebrated a U.K. No. 1 with its EP "Post Human: Survival Horror", which has been streamed over 450 million times and sold over 300,000 globally, showcasing the band's incredible drive to explore and push its own creative boundaries during the height of the global pandemic. The EP became one of their most intricate, varied pieces of music thus far and scored them critical acclaim.
The four singles alone from "Post Human: Survival Horror" racked up over 250 million streams across platforms to date.
"DiE4u" comes ahead of a sold-out arena tour in the U.K. and BRING ME THE HORIZON's appearance at SLIPKNOT's Knotfest at Los Angeles's Banc Of California Stadium on November 5.
Black/death metal veterans, Thulcandra, are back! After six years of silence, the band’s brand new studio album, A Dying Wish, will be released on October 29, via Napalm Records - once again carrying the burning torch of the glorious death metal era.
Since their foundation by Obscura mastermind Steffen Kummerer in 2003, Thulcandra became an indispensable protagonist in the European extreme metal-sphere that reaches way back to the magnificent origins of their genre. Thulcandra are musically and visually shaped by bands like Entombed, Sacramentum and Unanimated, but mainly influenced by genre carving act Dissection.
A Dying Wish was produced at Unisound Studio by Dan Swanö, keeping the black flame of Jon Nödtveidt alive and worthy. A Dying Wish transports the listener right into an icy soundscape of a never ending, severe winter. With 10 blood-freezing tracks delivering clashing guitar riffs, epic slow moments driven by atmospheric acoustic guitars and rapid outbursts of dark and raspy screams, Thulcandra creates another record that continues the great legacy of true death metal.
Today, Thulcandra releases their staggering opener track from A Dying Wish, entitled "Funeral Pyre", alongside a strong music video. The track swiftly showcases clear direction: a mystic intro launches the calm before the snowstorm, which arrives seconds later with freezing riffs, grim growls and powerful drums.
Steffen Kummerer on the first single: “With 'Funeral Pyre' we present you the opening track of A Dying Wish and show you a first glimpse of new music in years. With a foul, unpolished and rotten attitude 'Funeral Pyre' takes you on a ride between bitter sweet melodies, fast forward pushing up-tempo blast beats and a sheer steamrolled performance.”
Watch the new music video for "Funeral Pyre” below.
A Dying Wish guarantees instant frostbites just as the first glance at the thrilling icy-blue cover artwork promises. After the listener is buried under the opener’s avalanche, Thulcandra spans a dark arc between acoustic interludes and harsh blackened death metal parts. The quiet interlude “In Bleak Misery” marches into “A Shining Abyss”, that guides its listeners like a torch through the night. Dramatic riffing and the screeching growls of Steffen Kummerer create dark and dense walls of sound as up-tempo tracks like “The Slivering Silver” and “Devouring Darkness” offer strong leads, driving riffs and engaging drums that let the storm rage on without mercy. The final, title track “A Dying Wish” provides a great finale that covers everyone and everything under a massive layer of cold, leaving the world behind in nothing but ice and snow.
Thulcandra on the album: “We return with an album full of eerie cold melodies, ice-cold vibes and an over the top production by Swedish legend Dan Swanö at Unisound Studios! Within the first album in 5 years we celebrate the essence of pure black & death metal, adorned with more twin guitars, blast beats and filthy arrangements than ever. We celebrate the release of A Dying Wish with excessive shows and embark on a European tour to perform for all our loyal fans and supporters in the upcoming months.”
A Dying Wish will be available in the following formats:
- 1 CD Jewelcase (RePress)
- 1 CD Digipak + Bonustrack
- 1 LP Gatefold Black
- 1 LP Gatefold Blue + 7 inch + Slipmat
- 1 CD Digipak + Bonustracks + Plecs
- 1 LP Gatefold Gold
- Digital Full Length Album
- Digital Full Length Deluxe Al
Ohio, US-based project Untamed Land - the world’s very first metal band incorporating the feral sounds of classic, old western cinematics - recently announced its sophomore release, Like Creatures Seeking Their Own Forms, scheduled for release via Napalm Records on October 8.
Today, following soaring recent single, “Clothed In Smoke”, Untamed Land has revealed a second single, entitled "A Nameless Shape", alongside an official music video. The track blends ghostly acoustics, doom-drenched riffs and icy screams as it cascades into a wave of blast beats, rhythmic guitars and operatic accent vocals, making it one of the key epics on the record!
Project mastermind Patrick Kern says about the track: "With a thundering march-like drum pattern and aggressive full chord guitar strumming, the first two minutes of this song set the stage for the rest of the album. The lyrics tell a tale of isolation and spiritual crisis set against the backdrop of the mythical Old West. This video only serves as a teaser however, and you will have to pick up the album itself to see how the story for this song ends."
Watch the official music video for “A Nameless Shape”:
While exploring influence and nuances from various strains of atmospheric metal, Untamed Land traverses wild new frontiers - evoking the ambiance of classic Ennio Morricone/Spaghetti Western soundtracks and traditional old western instrumentals. While some listeners may be quick to label this a purely black metal album before diving into its depths, this description only scratches the surface.
Untamed Land mastermind, composer and sole performer of all instruments (except for accented violin performances by Rita Torrens and vocal contributions by Caroline Joy and Jacob Wherley), Patrick Kern, was initially inspired by what he describes as pagan, cosmic and even “doomy” black metal when writing the album, but the material bloomed in a way that is much more multifaceted to be categorized so singularly.
Patrick Kern adds about the album: “I would hesitate to call this a black metal album. It's meant to be a cinematic journey into a dark and fantastical old west setting, and various genres and sounds are used to bring that story to life. Lyrically, whereas the previous album dealt with the eternal struggle of the solar hero, this time we delve into a sort of gnostic "Beauty and the Beast" story, ultimately revolving around the feminine role in creation and the tension between the world of matter and the world of forms. The album ended up reflecting my own spiritual journey that occurred all throughout the writing and production process. I had a great time experimenting with many different styles and sounds for this release and am excited to share this new chapter in the Untamed Land world!"
The album begins with a haunting, yet whimsical old western inspired introduction, “Once Upon A Time In The Kenoma”, before ascending into the grimly epic, piano-laden "A Nameless Shape" - blending ghostly acoustics, doom-drenched riffs and icy screams as it cascades into a wave of blast beats, rhythmic guitars and operatic accent vocals. The track closes with a backing of dominant horns before leading into the introductory organs and forsaken rhythms of the dynamic, ebbing and flowing "Clothed In Smoke" - one of the album’s most movielike offerings. 15-minute standout “The Heavenly Coil” entrances with organ, harpsichord and acoustics before intertwining with progressive blackened metal ingredients instilled with outlaw temper. Like the veil of first
British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH will release their 13th studio album, "Existence Is Futile", on October 22. The official music video for the disc's second single, "Necromantic Fantasies", can be seen below. Directed by Vicente Cordero, this clip was shot back to back with his previous work for the band, the horribly apocalyptic "Crawling King Chaos", though both are remarkably contrasting.
CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth stated: "This is a very different video from its predecessor, sporting more of a narrative amid leaning back toward a dark Victorian gothic vibe, showcasing the second of many unique tracks on this, our 13th album. It's very cinematic, much like 'Crawling King Chaos', but walking a much more 'dark faerytale' path. The director Vicente has done such an amazing job bringing the storyline together with the band and the incredible sets. It looks gorgeous. And the song is pretty good too!"
Pieced together in isolation, at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk with studio guru Scott Atkins (DEVILMENT, BENEDICTION, VADER), "Existence Is Futile" is a pitch-black, perverse and at times absurdly brutal and extreme masterpiece following a truly nihilistic concept:
"The album is about existentialism, existential dread and fear of the unknown," Dani explained. "The concept wasn't created by the pandemic. We'd written it long before that began, but the pandemic is the tip of the cotton-bud as far as the way the world is headed, you know? I guess the title, 'Existence Is Futile', does sound a little morbid. But again, it's more about recognizing that truth and saying that everything is permitted because nothing really matters, which mimics the occultist Aleister Crowley's maxim. We all know we're going to die, so we might as well indulge life while we possess it. The final track on the album — 'Us, Dark, Invincible' — really drives that point home. Also, the artwork for this record was created by the Latvian visionary Arthur Berzinsh, who also dressed the last two albums, and that reeks of the exceedingly beautiful yet apocalyptic too."
Diehard fans will be thrilled to learn that horror icon Doug "Pinhead" Bradley makes a welcome return to the CRADLE fold, lending his dulcet tones to the band's most politically astute song to date, the epic "Suffer Our Dominion" as well as the album bonus track "Sisters Of The Mist", which is the conclusion to the "Her Ghost In The Fog" trilogy that started over 20 years ago on the infamous and classic "Midian".
"Existence Is Futile" consists of 12 new tracks with a total playing time of 54 minutes:
01. The Fate Of The World On Our Shoulders
02. Existential Terror
03. Necromantic Fantasies
04. Crawling King Chaos
05. Here Comes A Candle… (Infernal Lullaby)
06. Black Smoke Curling From The Lips Of War
07. Discourse Between A Man And His Soul
08. The Dying Of The Embers
09. Ashen Mortality
10. How Many Tears To Nurture A Rose?
11. Suffer Our Dominion
12. Us, Dark, Invincible
13. Sisters Of The Mist (Bonus track)
14. Unleash The Hellion (Bonus track)
Four months ago, CRADLE OF FILTH announced the addition of keyboardist Anabelle Iratni to the band's ranks.
Iratni, who previously played alongside CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth in DEVILMENT, as well as her own group VEILE, made her live debut with CRADLE OF FILTH on May 12 during the band's livestreamed concert.
Anabelle joined CRADLE OF FILTH as the replacement for Lindsay Schoolcraft, who announced her departure from the group in February 2020 after a seven-year run.
Last December, Dani said that isolation and lack of live touring amid the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to making CRADLE OF FILTH's upcoming LP "our best album of current years, if not all time." He wrote on CRADLE's Facebook page: "There was absolutely no pressure to turn the album in. In fact, there really was nothing better to do than indulge our creative juices and thus a huge swathe of the year was spent in the sultry depths of the Suffolk countryside polishing and perfecting our latest musical excretion.
"It's an absolute killer of an album (if you forgive my self-flattery), with an immense production courtesy of Scott Atkins and Grindstone studios once again, and I'd like to be able to describe it to you but there is so much bubbling intently in this album," he continued. "Fast and slow parts (and faster still), new delectable flavours and those reminiscent of earlier COF albums galore, massive choruses and melancholic drop-downs, old skool melodic NWOBM amid furious, scathing black metal amid apocalyptic groove and we as a band can't wait for everyone to hear it…. And more importantly, experience our birthed monster live."
In October 2020, Dani told Metal Injection that CRADLE OF FILTH's follow-up to "Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness of Decay" was turning out to be "fantastic" and "probably the best album we've written. We've had the opportunity to really dig deep into it and work hard on the tracks, and, if necessary, rewrite parts, which we have done," he said. "I certainly have rewritten parts and have no qualms about Scott saying this just isn't good enough compared to all the other songs on the record. But I would say it's not very different from 'Cryptoriana'. It's not as intricately laced. That album spoke of the times it was trying to assimilate and represent. This album is about existential terror. The threat of everything. The end of the world, the end of one's life, existential dread. A little hope, I guess in there. It's a CRADLE OF FILTH record. The songs are strong. They're extreme, but it's a mixture of everything."
Regarding what is has been like working with Atkins again, Dani said: "It's very comfortable recording with him. You know, he's very free and easy with how he talks to me. There's no pandering; we're good friends and we can talk to each other how we want. His studio is not far from where I live. It's in the countryside, so during lockdown, I was able to travel to and from the studio. We had less hours to work. We had nothing more that we could do. There was no pubs that we could saddle off to over lunch time — it was just work, work, work. And it was nice, relaxed and, fortunately, lockdown in England's been okay, because we've had some fantastic weather this year."
METALLICA performed its classic song "Nothing Else Matters" with pop star Miley Cyrus on SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show" yesterday morning (Thursday, September 9). You can watch video of the performance below.
METALLICA and Miley's appearance was in celebration of release of the remastered deluxe box set of METALLICA's self-titled fifth album — also known as "The Black Album" — which is being made available today (Friday, September 10) via the band's own Blackened Recordings. Also included is a companion set titled "The Metallica Blacklist", which is packed with covers by major recording artists. Cyrus is among the 53 musicians included in the covers set, which includes her version of "Nothing Else Matters", also featuring Elton John, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith, frequent collaborator Andrew Watt and METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo.
Appearing via video link, Elton told Howard his decision to play piano on the star-studded cover was an absolute "no-brainer." "This is one of the best songs ever written, to me. It's a song that never gets old. Playing on this track I just couldn't wait because the chord structure, the melodies, the time changes — it's got drama written all over it," he said.
Miley, meanwhile, lent her voice to the song for other reasons. While sitting next to METALLICA singer James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett, and bassist Robert Trujillo in SiriusXM's West Coast studios, she told Howard she first performed "Nothing Else Matters" in 2019 at England's Glastonbury festival during a pivotal moment in her life.
"It was right before actually that the world knew I was getting a divorce, but I knew that I was," Miley said. "I had just lost my house in the fires … I was so heartbroken and my purpose was coming from this performance. I got sober at that time. I really pulled my fucking shit together. This song was what drove me to that place."
"My life in regards to love was falling apart, but I had my love for music," she added.
Elton said he cherished collaborating with Miley on the METALLICA song. "When I heard her sing 'Nothing Else Matters', I just couldn't believe it," he told Howard. "It's just astonishing, her voice. She's probably the best rock and roll singer out there, without question."
He had plenty more kind words for METALLICA, too. "You can't really define them," Elton said. "[They're] not a heavy metal band; they're a musical band. Their songs aren't just heavy metal; they're beautiful songs. This is just such a melodic song. It's fucking great, actually."
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