Band photo by Kalle Salo — Artcover painted by S3nsku
The wait is over! “Taste of Blood” is officially here, bringing a more horror-inspired side of Demonessa out just in time for Halloween. The release features two previously unreleased songs written during the same period as their debut album, “Wild ‘N’ Loud”. As an added treat, the release also includes a shortened version of “Till Death Do Us Part”, the opening track of “Wild ‘N’ Loud”. With the minute-long acoustic intro removed, you can get straight to the heavy metal mayhem.
The music video for “Taste of Blood” was filmed entirely in Tampere, with the vampire storyline shot in the forest near Kaupinoja beach and the band’s performance scenes filmed in Rusko, close to the band’s rehearsal place. The idea was to create a classic low-budget, ’80s-inspired horror movie wrapped around a heavy metal performance, with the vampire’s story unfolding between shots of the band. Some extra props, including the idea of a suitably scary microphone stand, were discussed along the way, but in the end the band stuck to more traditional stage outfits.
The performance footage also follows the visual progression of the story. At the beginning, when the story takes place in the dead of the night, the band also appears in dull, grey tones, but as the vampire’s night comes to an end and the sun begins to rise, the performance scenes take on warmer, orange lighting to match. The song’s story was interesting enough to inspire a film adaptation of its own, making it a natural choice for the video. A lot of the full story was left out so that the band can get more screentime, but maybe in the future the full story video will be available too.
As with everything Demonessa does, the production was largely a DIY effort, with the band handling practically everything themselves. The two actors, Fiona Fyhr and Sakari Mattila, came from different parts of Finland to take part in the shoot, while Kalle Salo filmed the band’s performance as well as performed as the photographer at the beginning of the film.
Filming did, however, lead to a few unexpected public appearances. While Sakari laid on the ground covered in homemade fake blood, with John standing over him holding a pair of scissors, passing walkers and joggers repeatedly stopped to check whether someone needed emergency assistance.
More on Demonessa: Demonessa is a heavy metal band from Tampere, Finland, carving its path with pure power and attitude. Formed in 2019, the band combines the explosive force of 80’s heavy metal with the spectacle of glam metal creating an experience that must be witnessed live.
Line-up: S3nsku – Vocals John Creweholm – Guitars Hugo M. Raze – Guitars Peet von Rowanskerry – Bass Jerry Iron – Drums
Today, the two-time Fonogram winner Thy Catafalque is releasing the third single single from its quietly expansive thirteenth album, XIII: Sárga erdő. “Cseremisz” is a folk song that never existed, built from traditional Hungarian instruments, a choir and familiar faces.
“In English, ‘Cseremisz means Cheremis”, explains Thy Catafalque visionary Tamás Kátai. “They are a Finno-Ugric people living along the river Volga in Russia. They are an ethnic minority in Mari El Republic and because of the Finno-Urgic roots they are relatives to Hungarian people. We have learned about them in primary school, and they have always been a very distant and mystical people to me.
“This song is a fictitious folk song from that region that could be connected to recent historical events as well”, Kátai continues. “We have some traditional instruments like citera and koboz here with accordion and a male choir together with Bálint Bokodi on vocals.”
On XIII: Sárga erdő (Yellow Forest), Kátai wanders through an old, half-remembered time from a quietly expansive direction. Thy Catafalque’s new album features more than 30 collaborators, including a 20-person choir and, for the first time in the project’s history, a live drummer. However, the folk and classical elements that flooded 2024’s XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek are handled here with a lighter touch. Just as a forest doesn’t explain its colors, the album turns inside you, until you look up to discover that you’re somewhere new.
“Cseremisz” moves across the steppe at night. A steppe-gull soars over the plain. The narrator is the wolf in the reeds and the fox in the meadow. A heart beats “like hooves on the steppe”, while a black ship drifts down the Volga with its soldiers asleep aboard. Only the pounding of hooves is awake in the dark, a headlong flight that somehow feels beautiful. The song closes on a line it repeats and does not soften: “A halál mögöttem száll, utolér” (“Death flies behind me, and overtakes”).
“Cseremisz” features the Male Choir of Tiszaföldvár, Bálint Bokodi on vocals, Anikó Barna on citera and koboz, Dmitry Karev on accordion, Dario Cei on flute and Árpád Szenti on drums.
Yellow forests don’t stay yellow for long. That’s the image Tamás Kátai keeps returning to when he talks about THY CATAFALQUE‘s thirteenth album, Sárga erdő—a title that translates plainly and then unfolds into something less settled the longer you sit with it. There’s no single story running through the record’s twelve tracks, Kátai says, only a feeling: wandering through a forest built from old time, half-remembered and already turning colour. It’s the quietest premise he’s worked from in years, and perhaps even the most honest one yet.
Thy Catafalque began in Makó, in southeastern Hungary, in 1998, when Kátai and a bandmate named János Juhász put together a black metal project with no intention of ever playing it live. The name itself—catafalque, the platform that holds a coffin during a funeral rite—told you where the mood was headed before a single note was even heard. A year later, Sublunary Tragedies arrived through the Budapest label KaOtic Productions, tremolo-picked and grim in the way most things were grim in that corner of European metal at the time, though even then the seams were showing: this was never going to stay inside the genre’s lines.
It didn’t. Microcosmos followed in 2001, restless in ways the debut hadn’t dared to be, and when KaOtic folded, Kátai self-released 2004’s Tűnő Idő Tárlat rather than wait for another label to catch up to him. These were the years the project figured out what it actually was—not black metal with detours, but something closer to a single songwriter’s imagination refusing to be filed under anything.
Signing to the avant-garde label Epidemie Records in 2009 gave that imagination its first real audience. Róka Hasa Rádió became Thy Catafalque’s breakout, and it introduced a voice that would keep returning across the decades since: Attila Bakos, whose clean vocals still surface on Kátai’s records fifteen-plus years later, most recently on XII. But the real hinge point came in 2011, with Rengeteg—the first album Kátai wrote and recorded entirely alone, and his first for Season of Mist. From here on, Thy Catafalque wasn’t a band in any conventional sense. It was Kátai’s vision, executed with the help of whoever he needed to bring it to life, a model that would eventually mean twenty, thirty, sometimes three-dozen collaborators on a single record.
Sgùrr, Meta and Geometria carried that model through the back half of the 2010s, each one pushing the genre-hopping further—prog, electronica, jazz, Hungarian folk, all folded into records that critics increasingly struggled to categorize and increasingly stopped trying to. By the time Naiv arrived in 2020, Thy Catafalque had become something like Hungary’s most singular musical export, a reputation the country’s own industry made official the following year: Vadak, released in 2021, won the Fonogram Award—the Hungarian equivalent of a Grammy—for Best Hard Rock/Metal Album. That same year, something else changed. Thy Catafalque, for the first time in over two decades of existing purely as a studio project, played live—a single performance at the Fekete Zaj festival with twenty-six musicians onstage, later released as the concert album Mezolit. The project that had never intended to leave the studio had just proven it could fill a stage.
It’s kept proving that formula ever since. Alföld, in 2023, brought Thy Catafalque a second Fonogram win and a return to the heavier, more grounded sound of the project’s earliest years. XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek followed in 2024, Kátai’s first album made with an outside producer—Gábor Vári, a longtime live collaborator who stepped behind the desk and helped shape a record New Noise called a five-star “celebration of the powers of music.” Thy Catafalque spent 2025 making its debut at Hellfest, Rockstadt Extreme and Alcatraz, and playing its first-ever shows in Latin America. A second European headline tour, opening at Budapest’s Dürer Kert in March 2026, has carried that momentum straight into the new album cycle.
Sárga erdő, out this autumn via Season of Mist, was recorded across various locations and at Miracle Sound Szeged with Gábor Vári again handling engineering, mixing and mastering. It marks another first for the project: real drums, played rather than programmed, for the first time in Thy Catafalque’s history. Thirty-four musicians and vocalists appear across the record, along with a twenty-voice male choir, but the folk and classical textures that flooded XII—sitar, kamancheh, zither, strings—are handled with a lighter touch here, chosen with more precision for the moments that call for them. There’s no unifying story across the twelve tracks, only that same felt sense of wandering through old, half-remembered time. A forest doesn’t explain its colours—it just keeps turning them, until you look up and you’re standing somewhere new.
Line-up: Tamás Kátai — Guitar, Bass, Keyboards & Vocals
Production Credits: Recorded in various locations and Miracle Sound Szeged, Szeged, Hungary. Produced by Tamás Kátai; Sound Engineer, Mixing & Mastering by Gábor Vári (Miracle Sound Szeged).
Sweet Suicide is the new single from 200 STAB WOUNDS. The latest bruiser comes by way of the band’s punishing Lowest Form full-length, set for release on February 19th, 2027 through Metal Blade Records.
Rooted in the same old-school brutality that has defined them from the beginning, Lowest Form delivers leaner arrangements, stronger dynamics and a broader sense of atmosphere without sacrificing an ounce of intensity. The riffs hit harder because they’re given room to breathe, the pacing shifts naturally between explosive violence and simmering tension and every song carries its own distinct identity while serving the momentum of the record as a whole. The result is an album that feels unmistakably rooted in classic death metal while showcasing a band whose songwriting has reached a new level of focus and sophistication.
Sweet Suicide delivers one of the album’s most devastating moments. The band comments, “This song is about anger, despair, confusion, and conquering your own demons. Whether it’s your own, or trying to help someone get through theirs. This song is probably one of the heaviest on the record and discusses what is sometimes an even heavier topic. Enjoy at your own risk!“
200 STAB WOUNDS‘ Sweet Suicide video was produced by NOWHERE2RUN, the production company of Code Orange‘s Jami Morgan and Eric Balderose.
Stream 200 STAB WOUNDS‘ previously released single, Pangs Of Conscience, HERE
Since their arrival, 200 STAB WOUNDS has established themselves as one of the most exciting forces in modern death metal through relentless touring, a powerful live presence, and an unwavering dedication to crafting songs as memorable as they are punishing. With Lowest Form, Steve Buhl (vocals, guitars), Raymond Macdonald (guitars), Todd Thompson (bass), and Owen Pooley (drums) build upon that foundation with their strongest collection of songs yet, balancing relentless aggression with more dynamic pacing, memorable arrangements and a heightened sense of tension that rewards repeat listens.
Lowest Form was produced, mixed, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Cavalera), features artwork by James Bousema (Municipal Waste, Frozen Soul), and finds the band sharpening their signature blend of brutal death metal, massive riffs, and unforgettable hooks through more confident, dynamic songwriting.
Today, in the shadow of the pagan season of Samhain, BLKIIBLK is proud to announce its union with Philadelphia black metal force UNHOLY ALTAR.
The quintet—Desecrator (vocals), Miserer (guitar), Cadaver (bass), Lucifer’s Rage(drums) and Eagle Devouring Snake (guitar)—has emerged as one of the most compelling forces in modern black metal since its unholy birth in 2021.
While their earliest recordings were primal invocations steeped in the frostbitten traditions of second-wave black metal, subsequent offerings, including 2024’s ‘Veil of Death! Shroud of Night’ LP and 2025’s defining ‘A Sullen Dark Sky’ EP, found UNHOLY ALTAR casting a longer, darker shadow. Cadence, atmosphere and an increasingly distinctive identity have become as important to their sound as the raw violence at its core. The result is black metal that honors its dark legacy without becoming shackled to it.
Says UNHOLY ALTAR of their new alliance:
“We are pleased to announce that UNHOLY ALTAR has joined forces with BLKIIBLK Records. A new chapter begins, and with it comes our darkest offering yet. The gates have opened.”
Mike Gitter, BLKIIBLK label head and Frontiers Label Group Global Head of A&R, adds:
“UNHOLY ALTAR has quickly become one of the most exciting bands in modern black metal. They’ve put in the work in the underground, bringing together their metal roots with an atmosphere and aesthetic that’s entirely their own. There’s a real sense of danger to this band. They’re evocative, unsettling and genuinely disturbing in all the right ways. Everything great black metal should be.”
In their relatively short existence, UNHOLY ALTAR has already left a formidable mark on the international underground. Appearances at Decibel Metal & Beer Festival, Canada’s Prepare the Ground and shared stages with Worm, Mortician, and Crypta have helped establish the band’s growing reputation. Their first European tour in 2025 included Belgium’s Tumult Festival, alongside bands like Myrkur, further extending their reach beyond North America.
That momentum continues into 2027 with appearances at two of North America’s most respected extreme metal gatherings: Seattle’s Northwest Terror Fest (May 6–8), alongside Napalm Death, Artificial Brain, and Deadguy, and Maryland Deathfest (May 30). Both appearances mark another significant step for a band whose reputation has grown well beyond the Philadelphia underground.
With a new chapter beginning under the BLKIIBLK banner, UNHOLY ALTAR is ready to carry its uncompromising vision of American black metal even further into the darkness.
The gates have opened. There is no turning back.
UNHOLY ALTAR Live:
December 4, 2026 — Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie (with Kontusion, Hedonist, and Kinetic Orbital Strike) May 6–8, 2027 — Seattle, WA @ Northwest Terror Fest (Specific Performance Date TBA) May 30, 2027 — Baltimore, MD @ Maryland Deathfest XXII (Nevermore Hall)
GRÓB (Polish for “grave”) was formed in Wrocław in 2019 as a studio project of Necromaniak (guitars, drums) and Death Dealer (vocals, lyrics). The idea was simple: to record some rotten yet catchy metal, put it on cassette and have it released by an underground label.
“Our music draws from the more peculiar corners of early extreme metal, old hardcore punk and, of course, Black Sabbath. Lyrically, we are drawn to the darker chapters of Polish history, particularly the grim exploits of serial killers operating during the communist era,” the musicians explain.
Over the following years, GRÓB released two demos, followed by two EPs through Putrid Cult, “Mięsożerca” (2021) and “Misophonia” (2022), the split “Groźby karalne / Żelazna Kurtyna” (2025), and a self-released live cassette.
In 2026, the time has finally come for GRÓB’s long-awaited full-length debut, “Ikonoklasta“: an uncompromising record that fully captures the band’s musical, conceptual and sonic identity. “Ikonoklasta” distils everything GRÓB has stood for since day one into a varied yet remarkably cohesive record: filthy, ferocious and strangely graceful.
Stylistically, it is the same ugly mixture of thrash, death and doom metal, fuelled by punk, good old rock ’n’ roll and an aggressive, distinctive vocal delivery. The result sounds fresh and alive, yet every bit as rotten and hostile as intended.
Lyrically, GRÓB sticks to its guns while making room for more contemporary concerns. Songs such as “Okultyzm dla mas“, “Szczury Wrocławia” and “Będziesz zabijał” venture into social commentary, addressing the near-religious worship of drugs within certain subcultures and the horror of being caught in the middle of a military conflict.
“Ikonoklasta” was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jarosław Wysocki at Soundscope Studio (Lost Soul, Squash Bowels). The cover artwork and layout were created by Artur von Ritter (In Twilight’s Embrace, Towards Hellfire, Owls Woods Graves). The album will be released on CD by Putrid Cult on November 6, 2026, and is available to pre-order now.
Watch video for the single “Szczury Wrocławia“:
TRACKLIST: 01. Ikonoklasta 02. Okultyzm dla mas 03. Seks i przemoc 04. W blasku płonących akt 05. Pręgierz 06. Pieśni o północy 07. Not dead yet 08. Będzisz zabijał 09. Rozmawiałem ze złem 10. Szczury Wrocławia
Phil Soussan is the Featured Interview on episode 2644 of Metalshop that releases on October 31st. Metalshop is also premiering the second single “The More You Take” from his upcoming release Cosmo Fighter Part One, to be released on BraveWords Records on November 13th.
Charlie Kendall from Metalshop, “Phil Soussan is revered by musicians and fans alike… He’s a British-born bassist, songwriter, and producer best known for playing with Ozzy Osbourne during the late 1980s. He co-wrote “Shot in the Dark,” featured on Ozzy’s 1986 album The Ultimate Sin. Phil seems to be a tireless force of nature, always balancing multiple projects with grace and his remarkable creativity. Cosmo Fighter Part One is just the beginning of something remarkable.”
Where can you listen to Metalshop?
Metalshop Monday 4am – TheRockAltar.com 4am – Retrorockradio.com 7am, 10am, 6pm – CMS Network Now (https://media.classicairwaves.com:2020/public/cmsrocks) 7pm til mid – NewHDMedia.com (NewHD New York) 9pm – 128db.com 10pm – TheBlitz.radio12345.com (Blitz Laredo)
Friday 12 Noon – Rock Hard Radio Klassics (lynx.prostreaming.net:2199/start/rhrc/) 7pm – NewHDMedia.com (NewHD New York) 8pm til mid – VeteransClassicRock.com 8pm – Savageradiorocks.com 9pm – Freekshow Radio 10pm – Retrorockradio.com
Cosmo Fighter is a sonic roller coaster that forces us to reconfigure how we see the world. While it treats the listener with fierce respect, it plants subtle, haunting questions that linger long after the music fades. By the final track, the album clears out the background noise of modern society, leaving a profound, open mental space ready to be repopulated with life’s true harmony.
Written, performed, produced, and mixed entirely by Phil, other than a few guest appearances, it was born from an unexpected moment of silence. Finding himself off the road and on a rare hiatus, he felt an aggressive creative pull, an inspiration calling him to once again venture boldly into the labyrinths of creativity.
Tracklisting: “Fading Out” “The More You Take” “Fallen From Grace” “Please Don’t Make Me Wait”
All songs written and recorded by Phil Soussan. Mixed and Mastered by Phil Soussan at Blue Cat Studios, Las Vegas. All instruments and vocals by Phil Soussan, except for the guitar solos on “Please Don’t Make Me Wait” by Richie Kotzen.
For more than forty years, legendary bassist, songwriter, and producer Phil Soussan has laid the sonic foundation upon which global rock-and-roll royalty has built its towers.
British born singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and performer Phil Soussan has been involved in music since his school years in London, where he excelled studying classical violin and composition. His most notable memory of those days was performing at a private classical concert for HRH Queen Elizabeth II.
Since then from rock and metal, to commercial and mainstream, Phil has worked with some of the biggest names in music and has earned himself a stellar reputation. Named by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records as “the most underrated bass player in the rock/blues world” he has played with a who’s who of artists. As such he has been the driving force alongside titans such as Ozzy Osbourne, Jimmy Page, Billy Idol, Vince Neil, Johnny Hallyday, Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, and John Waite.
As a songwriter, he is the master craftsman behind Ozzy Osbourne’s mega-hit “Shot in the Dark”, he co-wrote Vince Neil’s first solo album Exposed, and co-wrote guitarist Steve Lukatherʼs solo album, LUKE. He followed that success by writing and arranging “After You’re Gone”, the opening track for Toto on their Mindfields album, which earned a Grammy nomination.
“As a member of Simon Kirke’s band on Swan Song Records we were managed by Peter Grant; that connection led to an invitation for me to play with Jimmy Page, who was in the process of igniting what was to become The Firm. After a one-off live TV appearance with an unrelated artist I received a call from Ozzy asking me to audition for his band. That was an enviable yet tough decision, whether to continue with Jimmy or to embark on a chapter with the great Ozzy!”
With that commenced a remarkable rock’n’roll rollercoaster ride. Submitting the song “Shot in the Dark” as a last-minute addition to The Ultimate Sin album, no-one could have been prepared for the ensuing success. A Top-Ten single for many weeks on the Rock Charts, six months at #2 on the MTV music charts, a double platinum album and quite possibly the biggest tour of Ozzy’s career, Phil found himself performing to many thousands of new generation Ozzy fans in sold out arenas world-wide. The now 150-million Spotify streamed song crossed Ozzy over into the mainstream, bringing Metal to the commercial masses, and the rest became history.
Jumping forward, and while currently anchoring the sensational rock band LAST IN LINE in, Phil is turning the page on his most ambitious chapter yet.
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
