After a four-year break from releasing music, Finnish alternative progressive metal band Somehow Jo is back with a new single, ‘Road To Nowhere’. The single is once again released in collaboration with Inverse Records.
–Composed by Sakari Karjalainen, Eero Aaltonen, Christian Sauren, Tuomas Honkkila, Lassi Peiponen –Lyrics by Eero Aaltonen –Produced by Juha Nevala –Mixed by Matti Lötjönen –Mastered by Jaakko Viitalähde –ISRC: FI3FC2657904 –Single cover by Tuomas Välimaa
The band comments: “After a long and arduous journey through the dark forest of the soul, we are releasing our new song Road to Nowhere. The single represents the dark and brooding feelings we went through as a band and as individuals. The survival of the group was not a foregone conclusion, as our flame was nearly snuffed out by the howling winds. With a period of soul-searching behind us and a new member now part of the band, the light is finally shining at the end of the tunnel. We wanted to encapsulate the essence of our struggle in this hard-hitting and cathartically purifying piece of music. Those who have been on a road to nowhere will surely know what we are talking about.
Have a taste of our best rockmanship yet!”
BIOGRAPHY:
Somehow Jo is a brotherhood of alternative rock / metal founded in Ylöjärvi, Finland in 2009. Our influences range from funk and progressive flavours all the way to the heaviest rip-and-tear-grooves. The light from the different elements refracts through us, creating a distinct icy burn that can only be described in one word: SomehowJo!
The debut album Satans of Swing was released in 2015 via Inverse Records. The album’s title track features vocalist Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast).
The band’s second full-length album, TUSK, was released on 22 November 2019 in both physical and digital formats via Inverse Records. The album received dozens of excellent reviews and widespread praise from around the world, laying a strong foundation for the band’s bright future. The song “The Grey,” released after the album, has garnered over 500,000 streams on Spotify. It was featured on Spotify’s official Prog Rock playlist for a long time.
The band’s third album, SCALES AND DETAILS, was finally released on 16 September 2022 via Inverse Records. Three music videos have also been released from the album, so be sure to check out FRIEND, FATA MORGANA, and RUSH on YouTube!
Their next gig with Stoned Statues will take place on 13 November 2026 at the KULT stage of Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki!
Line-up: Christian Sauren – guitar & vocals Eero Aaltonen – bass & vocals Sakari Karjalainen – guitar Lassi Peiponen – drums Tuomas Honkkila – keys
Icons Creating Evil Art is proud to announce the signing of The Motels, one of American New Wave’s defining bands. Led by the unmistakable voice and songwriting of Martha Davis, the band will release Strange Days on November 13, 2026, offering the first taste of their forthcoming ninth studio album.
Listen on all major streaming platforms here (Nov. 13th)
The single arrives one day before The Motels perform at Darker Waves Festival in Huntington Beach, California, on a bill featuring Morrissey, The Smashing Pumpkins, Simple Minds, The Psychedelic Furs, Soft Cell and Gary Numan.
Emerging from California’s fertile underground, The Motels helped bring New Wave’s atmosphere, dramatic tension and outsider sensibility into the American pop mainstream. Their music paired sharp hooks with nocturnal unease, with Davis’s expressive voice giving songs of loneliness, desire and uncertainty an identity all their own. Their breakthrough brought enduring classics: Only the Lonely reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, followed by Suddenly Last Summer, which matched that peak in 1983. Further Top 40 singles included Remember the Nights and Shame, while their five-album Capitol Records run produced two gold albums. These achievements established The Motels as both a commercial force and a distinctive presence within New Wave.
Now, Strange Days turns that same sense of unease toward a world shaped by anxiety, self-interest and the selling of fear. Written by Martha Davis, Nic Johns and Eric Gardner, the song confronts the psychological cost of living in a state of permanent alarm. Its lyrics move from personal vulnerability toward a wider vision of a civilisation losing its bearings. Davis traces the song’s beginnings to around 2006, reflecting on the atmosphere of fear that followed the millennium and September 11, and how that fear became a tool for commerce and control. “Fear became a marketing tool,” says Davis. Those observations grew into a broader creative direction for the forthcoming album, which she describes as – “a concept album, dealing with the death of a once rational civilization, that let fear and commerce tell them what to do.”
Already road-tested in the band’s live set, Strange Days now receives its studio release. Produced by Clint Walsh and Nic Johns, mixed by Norm Block and mastered by John Webber at AIR Studios, the single brings together a band whose musical partnership stretches back more than two decades: Davis, Walsh, Johns and Gardner, alongside longtime Motels saxophonist and keyboardist Marty Jourard.
Meanwhile, The Motels’ catalogue continues to find fresh cultural contexts. Total Control appeared in season two of The Bear in 2023 and returned to television in 2026 through FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. Its placement in Love Story even drew attention in Vogue, which noted how the song underscored the central couple’s shifting power dynamic.
With Strange Days, The Motels bring their history into a new partnership with Icons Creating Evil Art, opening the next chapter with music that speaks directly to the present.
LIVE November 14, 2026 — Darker Waves Festival, Huntington Beach, California
credits: Martha Davis – Vocals Eric Gardner – Drums Nicholas Johns – Bass, Keyboards Martin Jourard – Saxophone, Piano Clint Walsh – Guitars, Keyboards
UK death/doom legends Atavist are set to revisit one of the most bleak and uncompromising records in the British extreme metal underground with a newly remastered and expanded ’20th Anniversary Edition’ of their landmark 2007 album II: Ruined. Formed in Manchester in 2004, Atavist emerged from the UK’s underground sludge, drone and doom scene, quickly establishing a reputation for their crushing, slow-burning intensity and expansive, suffocating compositions. II: Ruined became a defining moment in the band’s early career, capturing the full weight of their devastating sound and cementing their standing among the UK’s most formidable doom metal acts.
Originally recorded at State of Art Studios, Bristol, by Stu Matthews (Portishead/Massive Attack), II: Ruined stands as an immense and uncompromising work of death/doom, built on crushing atmospherics, monolithic riffs and an overwhelming sense of desolation. A defining release in Atavist‘s early catalogue, it remains a powerful document of the band’s place within the UK’s extreme metal underground.
For this anniversary edition, the album has been remastered by Greg Chandler (Esoteric/Priory Recording Studios) from the original DAT tapes, returning to the original source recordings to give the material a fresh lease of life while retaining the oppressive atmosphere, weight and sheer heaviness of the original.
Featuring collaborations with acclaimed vocalist, Rose Kemp and prolific songwriter / performer, Justin Greaves (Iron Monkey/Crippled Black Phoenix/Electric Wizard)
The extended edition also includes a cover version of Grief’s ‘I Hate The Human Race’, alongside the two tracks originally released as the Alchemic Resurrection EP (Rise Above Records, 2008). Recorded during the same sessions as II: Ruined, all of these tracks complete the expanded release, bringing together material from that original recording session in one definitive edition.
II: Ruined – 20th Anniversary Extended Edition – Track list
1. I 2. II (feat. RoseKemp) 3. III 4. IV (feat. Justin Greaves) 5. V 6. VI 7. VII: I Hate The Human Race (Grief Cover) 8. Bonus Track – Alchemic A 9. Bonus Track – Alchemic B
THROWN INTO EXILE proudly unleash their new single, “Remorse,” featuring a guest solo by legendary guitarist Michael Amott of Arch Enemy. “Remorse (feat. Michael Amott)” marks the band’s second release under the BLKIIBLK banner, giving fans another taste of what’s to come in 2027. The new track arrives alongside a music video, available below.
THROWN INTO EXILE shares on the new single:
“‘Remorse (feat. Michael Amott)’ is a personal song that deals with how much of yourself you are willing to give to something that only results to being where you started and the emotional weight that comes with that, past mistakes, things that could have been handled better and carrying that with you.”
Stream / Listen to “Remorse (feat. Michael Amott)”HERE
Watch the Music Video for “Remorse (feat. Michael Amott)”HERE
With a career marked by constant change and evolution, Los Angeles’ THROWN INTO EXILE is a band on the brink. Exhaustive international touring and gigs alongside the likes of Arch Enemy, Orbit Culture, At The Gates, Dethklok and Black Label Society as well as US and European festivals including the UK’s Bloodstock have paved the way.
Now, THROWN INTO EXILE breaks through further with the release of their new single, “Remorse (feat. Michael Amott).” With the addition of 27-year-old vocalist, Josh Santos, the stakes have grown as the band’s new material brings together urgent riffing with underlying melody that recalls both American and European sounds while delivering modern metal with unapologetic intensity.
On working with TIE, Michael Amott comments:
“I’ve been watching THROWN INTO EXILE steadily grow over the last couple of years, so when Mario brought the opportunity to lay down a guest solo on one of their tracks, it was a no-brainer to team up with my current tour mates. Give it a listen!”
Guitarist Mario Rubio on the significance of having Amott contribute to the track: “What more can I say that hasn’t been said? He is the master of melodies and having his feel and legendary phrasing on this song is nothing short of an honor. What an experience to trade a lead with him!”
THROWN INTO EXILE are currently on the road supporting Arch Enemy and The Black Dahlia Murder. A list of remaining tour dates can be found below.
THROWN INTO EXILE Live:
w/ Arch Enemy and The Black Dahlia Murder: 11/7 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fillmore 11/8 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre 11/9 – Saskatoon, SK @ Coors Event Centre 11/11 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall 11/12 – Edmonton, AB @ Midway 11/14 – Vancouver, BC @ The Key 11/16 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox 11/18 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades (No Black Dahlia) 11/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ 1720 (No Black Dahlia or Septic Flesh)
THROWN INTO EXILE are: Mario Rubio Austin Monzon Sayit Quinto Hank Lin Joshua Santos
Caledonian black metal pioneer Saor has premiered their new album Caledonia. This album features five re-recordings of early classics from the one-man band’s first three albums. Far from an exercise in nostalgia, it finds Andy Marshall presenting these songs as they exist today, after years of refinement on stage, bearing the full weight of everything he’s learned.
“Having previously revisited older material through remasters and remixes, this was the first time I could fully reimagine these songs with the benefit of years of experience, stronger performances, and a clearer artistic vision”, Marshall says. “It felt less like looking backwards and more like completing a circle. The songs carry the same emotions and inspiration, but they now reflect the Saor that exists today.”
Caledoniawas released yesterday, November 6 on Season of Mist, and you can hear all five re-recordings by listening to the full album stream on the Season of Mist YouTube channel:
Saor approaches Caledonia as completion rather than nostalgia. Many of these songs have been reshaped over years of rehearsals, concerts and tours. The new re-recordings carry that evolution in their arrangements, dynamics and performances while keeping the identity of the originals intact. Tremolo-driven black metal still sits alongside tin whistle, uilleann pipes and violin, now with the scale and atmospheric depth Marshall heard from the start but could not fully realize until now.
Catch Saor next February during the band’s first-ever Latin American Tour.
Saor Latin America Tour 2027 Roots & Aura Special Set
February 24 – Santiago, Chile February 25 – Sao Paulo, Brazil February 26 – Buenos Aires, Argentina February 27 – Bogota, Colombia February 28 – Mexico City, Mexico
Track list:
Aura MMXXVI (11:40)
The Awakening MMXXVI (08:58)
Carved in Stone MMXXVI (10:19)
Hearth MMXXVI (09:58)
Tears of a Nation MMXXVI (10:33) Full runtime: 51:28
Caledonia finds Andy Marshall doing something few artists in his position ever attempt: applying everything he has learned as a producer, arranger, and performer over the past decade back onto the songs that started it all. Rather than a pause in SAOR‘s forward motion, it is a deliberate act of craftsmanship, five compositions from Roots, Aura, and Guardians rebuilt from the ground up with producer Chris Fielding, given the scale and depth Marshall always heard in them but lacked the resources to fully realise the first time around.
SAOR took shape in Glasgow in 2013, when Andy Marshall, entirely self-taught, began writing and recording alone under the name Àrsaidh, quickly rebranded to SAOR when listeners struggled with the original’s pronunciation. The name, drawn from Scottish Gaelic and meaning “free,” gave shape to what Marshall would come to call Caledonian Metal: atmospheric black metal built on Highland landscapes, ancestral memory, and a distinctly Scottish sense of place, carried as much by tin whistle and bagpipe as by tremolo riffing. It was a niche nobody else had staked out, and Marshall built it almost entirely on his own terms, handling composition, vocals, and most instrumentation himself while bringing in session players to fill out the folk instrumentation live records demanded.
Roots, released in 2013, announced that voice fully formed. Reviewers picking up the record found a songwriter already comfortable letting long, patient compositions breathe, closing on the seventeen-minute “A Highland Lament” with a confidence that belied a debut. Aura followed a year later and sharpened the folk elements further, pulling in violin and tin whistle work that gave the atmospheric black metal a warmth rarely found in the genre’s colder corners. By the time Guardians arrived in 2016, SAOR had become a name to watch in earnest: a windswept, richly arranged record that critics singled out as a high point of the decade in atmospheric black metal, its closer “Tears of a Nation” widely cited as one of the project’s most affecting pieces of songwriting.
Forgotten Paths, released in 2019, took a different approach, trading some of the sprawl of Guardians for a tighter, more immediate four-track structure, and brought Neige of Alcest into the fold on the title track alongside violinist Lambert Segura. It was SAOR’s shortest record to date, and while some found it the least expansive entry in the catalogue, its melodic clarity won it just as many admirers, cementing Marshall’s reputation for restraint as well as grandeur. Origins, SAOR’s first outing on Season of Mist, turned toward the Picts as its central subject, tracing a group of ancient peoples from northern and eastern Scotland into a record that widened SAOR’s historical lens beyond the personal and the pastoral. Amidst the Ruins followed, a return to longer, more expansive songwriting after Origins‘ comparatively direct approach, layering cello, viola, Uilleann pipes, and tin whistle back into the black metal core. It was met with some of the strongest reviews of Marshall’s career and coincided with a shift long overdue: after years as a largely studio-bound project, SAOR began playing live with real regularity, moving through a growing run of European tour dates and major festival appearances that mark a live footprint unmatched at any earlier point in the band’s history. Across six albums and thirteen years, Marshall has shown no sign of repeating himself, each record pushing SAOR’s palette and ambition further while holding to the same essential sense of place.
It is against that backdrop of restless output and expanding reach that Caledonia arrives, not as a retreat from new ideas but as evidence of how far Marshall’s ear and instincts have come since he first put these songs to tape. The album gathers five tracks pulled from Roots, Aura, and Guardians: “Aura,” “The Awakening,” “Carved in Stone,” “Hearth,” and “Tears of a Nation,” each rerecorded in full and produced, mixed, and mastered by Chris Fielding. Many of these songs have been reshaped gradually through years of live performance, taking on new dynamics and arrangement choices that the early recordings, made with far more limited means, were never able to capture.
Caledonia lets them arrive at the form Marshall always intended, retaining the character of the originals while giving them the atmosphere and depth his later production work has made possible. Guest contributions from drummer Carlos Vivas, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ella Zlotos on tin whistle, low whistle, and Uilleann pipes, and violinist Àngela Moya Serrat round out the record’s folk instrumentation. The album’s visual identity, cover artwork, layout, and an accompanying video for “Carved in Stone,” comes from longtime collaborator Anaïs Chareyre-Méjan, whose work has shaped SAOR’s imagery since Forgotten Paths and continues to anchor the project’s sense of place. Lyrically and thematically, nothing has shifted: Scotland’s landscapes and history, a connection to nature, heritage, and personal reflection remain exactly where they were when these songs were first written, still resonant enough, in Marshall’s telling, to justify revisiting them with the full weight of everything he has learned since.
Caledonia does not reinvent SAOR’s past. It completes it, offering listeners the chance to hear where these songs have been all along, and where, after more than a decade, Marshall has finally brought them.
Line-up: Andy Marshall — Composition, Vocals, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Pads
Known for blending powerful hard rock with fantasy-inspired lyrics, classical influences, and Ritchie Blackmore’s virtuosic guitar work, Rainbow became one of the most influential bands of the 1970s and early 1980s. Their classic albums include Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (1975), Rising (1976), Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll (1978), and Down to Earth (1979). Songs such as “Man on the Silver Mountain,” “Stargazer,” “Since You Been Gone,” and “Stone Cold” remain staples of classic rock radio.
Following Ronnie James Dio’s departure to join Black Sabbath in 1979, Rainbow shifted toward a more commercial hard rock sound, first with vocalist Graham Bonnet and later with Joe Lynn Turner, achieving significant chart success. The band disbanded in 1984 when Blackmore rejoined Deep Purple.
Originally released in 1986, Finyl Vinyl brings together live recordings and previously unreleased studio tracks, spanning Rainbow’s career from the Ronnie James Dio era through the Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner years. The collection features performances of fan favorites including “Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll,” “Man on the Silver Mountain,” “Since You Been Gone,” “Kill the King,” and “Street of Dreams.” It also includes the previously unreleased studio tracks “Jealous Lover” and “Bad Girl.”
Now, this legendary collection is being remastered and repackaged for its 40th Anniversary Edition, limited to just 1,000 copies worldwide. The special edition features expanded liner notes by renowned rock journalist Martin Popoff, along with additional reflections from Rainbow’s two surviving vocalists, Joe Lynn Turner and Graham Bonnet.
Available on 180g colored double vinyl in beautiful gatefold packaging, as well as a 6-panel digipak CD, this anniversary release is a must-have for collectors and fans of Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow. Want something extra special? Grab the Limited-Edition Bundle (only 100) featuring a signed print from Graham Bonnet!
Reflecting on the release, Joe Lynn Turner states: “This reissue has been remastered, which gives the album a cleaner quality of sound and presence than the technology used four decades ago, but it still captures the raw and real feel of live performance. If you happened to be at any of these shows, the memories and excitement will come flooding back to an age of Rock & Roll history that remains unmatched to this day.”
Graham Bonnet adds: “I had a fantastic time during my tenure with Rainbow. I learned so much from all of the guys in the band…..those were some of the best days of my life.”
Drummer Chuck Burgi comments: “My time spent with Rainbow was one of the highlights of my career. I had been an enormous Ritchie Blackmore fan since the release of ‘Shades of Deep Purple,’ and to finally get the opportunity to record and perform with him was a dream come true. It was a life-changing experience to work with Ritchie, Roger, Dave and Joe Lynn. The chemistry we had was rare and precious, and we made some incredible music together. Long Live Rock and Roll!”
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
