Samurai Pizza Cats officially announced their upcoming headliner tour for October 2026, to celebrate the release of their second album “Press Start ”. The band, known for their entertaining and high-energy live stages, will be making stops in 12 cities across Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.
As Everything Unfolds are gearing up for the release of their highly-anticipated new album, DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE?, on April 10th via Century Media.
Today sees the release of new single, ‘DENIAL’. “Denial is the hardest thing to watch someone go through,” shares Charlie Rolfe. “You can say or do nothing that will make them realise the horrible situation they’re in, you see small moments of clarity where they’re screaming out for help but they fall back into denial. It’s their closest friend, their comfort. […]”
Dallas’ beloved death metal / hardcore unit Frozen Soul announce No Place of Warmth – a monolithic, majestic and exigent collection of anthems built on the perfect blend of ferocity and subtle melody, allowing soaring guitar leads to guide a lantern through the dark chasm of merciless riffs.
Album opener and title track “No Place of Warmth” features Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) is “about life at its coldest and the choice you have to let it consume you, or to use it to find warmth in a world that feels void of it. Life is always coming at you, and death doesn’t stop—you might slow it down, but it’s always coming—so you have to make the best out of it and march on” reveals Frozen Soul vocalist Chad Green.
JON ANDERSON AND THE BAND GEEKS announce today the 2nd leg of their 2026 YES Epics, Classics, and More Tour. The 12-show tour begins June 23rd at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona, and ends July 22nd at the Palladium Times Square in New York City. These shows follow the already announced 10-show run in April/May.
Additionally, due to overwhelming fan response, JON ANDERSON AND THE BAND GEEKS have added to their September/October UK and Sweden dates with 4 additional UK shows in Oxford, Portsmouth, Brighton, and Nottingham.
All dates are below.
Dates for the 2026 Tour:
US Leg 1: April 17 – Ridgefield, CT @ Ridgefield Playhouse April 19 – Ridgefield, CT @ Ridgefield Playhouse April 21 – Patchogue, NY @ Patchogue Theatre April 23 – Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie Theatre April 26 – Rochester, NY @ Kodak Center Theater April 28 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Theater April 30 – Landsdowne, PA @ Landsdowne Theater May 02 – Landsdowne, PA @ Landsdowne Theater May 05 – Troy, NY @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall May 07 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Theatre
US Leg 2: June 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Celebrity Theater June 25 – Anaheim, CA @ Grove of Anaheim June 27 – Thousand Oaks, CA @ Fred Kavli Theater June 30 – San Jose, CA @ San Jose Civic July 3 – Monterey, CA @ Golden State Theater July 5 – Napa, CA @ Meritage Resort and Spa July 8 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theater July 11 – St. Louis, MO @ The Factory July 15 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater and Ballroom July 17 – St. Charles, IL @ Arcada Theater July 19 – Des Plaines, IL @ Des Plaines Theater July 22 – NYC @ Palladium Times Square
UK & Sweden: Sep 6 – Brighton @ Dome Sep 8 – Portsmouth @ Guildhall Sep 10 – Oxford @ New Theatre Sep 13 – Nottingham @ Royal Concert Hall Sep 15 – Birmingham @ Symphony Hall Sep 17- Bath @ Forum Sep 20 – London @ Palladium Sep 22 – Liverpool @ Philharmonic Sep 26 – Manchester @ Opera House Sep 28 – Glasgow @ Royal Concert Hall Oct 1 – Gateshead @ Glasshouse Oct 3 – Stockholm @ Cirkus Oct 5 – Malmö @ Slagthuset
For more information: Jon Anderson’s official website HERE Band Geek official website HERE Jon Anderson YES Epics and Classics: Website HERE Facebook HERE Twitter – @JonYesEpic Instagram – @jonandersonyesepicsandclassics TikTok – @JonAndersonYESEpic YouTube HERE
Three decades into a storied career, Green Carnation continue to stand the test of time. Just last year, the Norwegian prog bards reached crushing new highs during the grand and gloomy opening chapter of their long-awaited album trilogy. Now, as the band descend into deeper, darker and more personal depths on Part II of A Dark Poem, they are breaking past the surface with the album’s emotional peak.
Today, Green Carnation are releasing the second advanced single from A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis. While awash with melancholy over the past, “I Am Time” seizes the moment with the band’s unwavering control and raw emotions.
“‘I Am Time’ is one of the songs from the forthcoming A Dark Poem album trilogy that discusses the fragile nature of our lives”, Green Carnation vocalist Kjetil Nordhus says. “We do not have control over time. We should try and live in the here and now, before suddenly, it’s too late”.
“To make the song a bit more interesting, the lyrics personify time”, says Green Carnation bassist and lyricist Stein Roger Sordal. “They’re about how we should respect and cherish the time that we have”.
Can’t wait to hear Part II of a Dark Poem? RSVP for Green Carnation’s upcoming Bandcamp listening party and hear all six dark and doomy songs on Sanguis before the album comes out.
A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis Bandcamp Listening Party, Tuesday, March 24 @ 1:30 pm ET – RSVP
Even after taking a hiatus, Green Carnation remain one of prog’s most celebrated and committed journeymen. Most members from the band’s current lineup were already in place back in 2001 upon releasing one-track opus Light of Day, Day of Darkness. Behind Nordhus’ resounding cleans, “I Am Time” is firm in its assertions. “I can’t be tamed, I am not for sale”. However, it’s fitting that the newest single from Part II of A Dark Poem needed time to come together.
“‘I Am Time’ combines ideas from two different songs”, Nordhus says. The opening crash of cymbals didn’t crest into a billowing guitar solo until he and Sordal were writing together at a cottage in the woods of Norway. “We tried letting the intro flow into the lead guitar part that takes over. It worked perfectly”.
The newfound heaviness that anchored Green Carnation on Part I of A Dark Poem hasn’t washed away. “I Am Time” floods with double bass and stormy tremolo picking. But while the view from The Shores of Melancholia was far from sunny, Sanguis pushes the band into a murkier headspace. “In your mind, I’m tomorrow” , Nordhus sings with gloomy restraint. “For your sake, I should be today”. In the shadow of a haunting synth, the song’s central melody slips away like sand through an hourglass.
Sanguis introduces more peaks and valleys into the overarching narrative of A Dark Poem. “Part II deals with personal loss and sadness”, Nordhus shares, though he’s quick to say that the album isn’t all gloom and doom. As “I Am Time” swells like a tidal wave during its memorable finish, Green Carnation stand strong as ever with one final pronouncement. “I am here, I am now / I am time”.
Tracklist 1. Sanguis (9:05) [WATCH] 2. Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold (4:04) 3. Sweet to the Point of Bitter (5:58) 4. I Am Time (5:39) [LISTEN] 5. Fire in Ice (7:03) 6. Lunar Tale (5:25) Full runtime: 37:16
Catch Green Carnation during their upcoming hometown shows and European summer festival dates. During their headlining show at the Kilden Performing Arts Centre, the band will perform A Dark Poem in its entirety for the first and final time – including the as-of-yet unannounced Part III. Already, fans from 18 different countries have purchased tickets for this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Green Carnation 2026 Show Dates June 6 – Tampere, Finland @ Ankea Festival [TICKETS] June 14 – Kristiansand, Norway @ Odderøya [Tickets]* August 1 – Ungarn, Hungary @ Feke Zaj Festival [TICKETS] September 12 – Kristiansand, Norway @ Kilden Performing Arts Centre [TICKETS]# *Deep Purple, Turbonegro + Slomosa #Performing A Dark Poem, Part 1-III
No matter how long or where the journey has taken them, Green Carnation have never been afraid of a challenge. After reaching crushing new highs during the grand and gloomy opening chapter to their long-awaited album trilogy, the Norwegian prog bards are descending into deeper, darker and more personal depths with Part II of A Dark Poem.
“We wanted A Dark Poem to start off with guns blazing. Judging by the reaction, The Shores of Melancholia was successful in doing that”, the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus says. “But for Part II, we have some very personal stories that we want people to hear. Sanguis invites listeners into our darkest inner rooms with some of the most raw and vulnerable songs that we’ve ever written”.
“The second part of A Dark Poem holds some of the most personal lyrics that I’ve ever written”, says Stein Roger Sordal, the band’s bassist and primary lyricist. “The lyrics are so personal that I had to go many rounds with myself over whether or not to tone them down. In the end, I chose to keep them as honest as possible. I mean, am getting older and I do have some life experience to back them up”.
Founded in the early ‘90s by Emperor’s original bassist Tchort, Green Carnation amassed a cult following behind critical acclaim for Light of Day, Day of Darkness, an album containing a single hour-long song that still resonates as one of the most ambitious epics in metal’s archives. Current members Bjørn Harstad (guitar), Stein Roger Sordal (bass) and Endre Kirkesola (keyboard, producer) along with Nordhus, were already in place by 2001. But whether it was the gothic crush of A Blessing in Disguise or pitch-black hard rock of The Quest Offspring, Green Carnation continued branching out through the mid-2000s. Even before going on hiatus in 2007, they still flashed a flare for the dramatic by performing their acoustic verses underneath a mountain dam.
“Green Carnation use Leaves of Yesteryear to prove once again they are titans of the craft”, Metal Injectionwrote about the band’s 2020 comeback album, which welcomed drummer Jonathan Pérez.
However, there was one tale – or three, to be exact – that eluded them for more than three decades. The idea for an album trilogy penned after Shakespeare’s tragic Ophelia stems all the way back to their earliest reflections of life and death, but when the first part of A Dark Poem was unfurled in 2025, right away, it was clear that Green Carnation had completed their masterpiece. The Shores of Melancholia washed onto year-end lists atLoudwire , Angry Metal Guyand other major publications.
“Epic in both scope and sound, the latter being the band’s rich, melodic take on the genre best described as Rainbow’s Rising if it were a prog album”, PROG wrote. “Part I works as an entity in its own right while also leaving the listener desperate to hear the next installments”.
If Green Carnation set sail from a familiar place of melancholy on The Shores of Melancholia, then Sanguis finds the band far out at sea, fighting to stay afloat against the storm that’s raging in their minds. Whereas Part I only scratched at the surface, the epic title track that opens Part II vows to forgive and forget old bloodied wounds. Over the course of nine minutes, cresting cleans and swells of organ from long-time producer and newest member Endre Kirkesola try and wash away the familial wreckage — only for a traumatic childhood memory to come flooding back during the song’s doomy coda.
“Father was boiling, mother was crying / The children left scared in their beds”. A fiery shiver of a riff slowly spirals downward, as if trapped inside a mental hell.
“It paints a pretty grim picture of my childhood”, Sordal says about “Sanguis”. “I do have great memories from that time, too, but parts were very dark. I had some tough issues with my father, but I now know that he had it worse. I didn’t think about that when I was younger, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that there is usually more to the story”.
“It took Stein Roger almost 50 years to understand why his father treated him the way he did”, Nordhus says about his dear bandmate. “He didn’t understand until he had kids of his own and was watching them grow up”.
The heaviness that launched Green Carnation during Part I of A Dark Poem has aged like a fine wine on Sanguis. “Sweet to the Point of Bitter” balances meaty riffs with a pleasing melody and underlying notes of resentment. “You will acknowledge I was broken / Before you came around”. With a guitar solo that winds like the winds of change, “I Am Time” demands immediate recognition. “In your mind, I’m tomorrow / For your sake, I should be today”.
But while “Fire In Ice” stokes the political flames viewed from The Shores of Melancholia with pounding windchills of double bass, Part II reveals Green Carnation at their most raw and vulnerable. As was the case for most of Part I, Sordal penned all the lyrics to Sanguis. However, in a rare appearance not seen since the burden was his alone, he steps to the mic on “Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold”. With an arrangement that’s plucked like the petals of a wilted flower, the song now stands as one of the more barren and stirring in their discography. “Do you want to die?” Sordal poses to a distant familiar of the band. His delicate delivery confirms his fear of already knowing the answer.
“These songs come as they are, with no filter”, Sordal says. “I needed to set these stories free and let them out”.
“Part II deal with personal loss and sadness”, shares Nordhus, though as he’s quick to explain, Sanguis isn’t all gloom and doom. “Those feelings can be almost comforting, like stories you hear about the calm that people experience before they die”. Indeed, if A Dark Poem contains a silver lining, it’s in the creative partnership that’s helped Green Carnation endure for more than three decades. “It would be different if I had only known Stein Roger for two months”, Nordhus continues in explaining how he gives voice to the words of his dear friend. “It’s easy for me to understand and relate to all of his struggles, all of his pleasures and joys, because I’ve been a part of them as well”.
Part II introduces more peaks and valleys into the overarching narrative of A Dark Poem, but nowhere does the album’s bleeding-heart core shine through more achingly than its closing ballad. Graced by Ingrid Ose’s soothing flute, “Lunar Tale” positively sparkles, even as it casts a rather grim beacon into the future. “The end justifies the means, you’ll see”, Nordhus sings with eerily quiet confidence. As the piano seeps beneath the moonlight, Sanguis leaves fans hanging in suspense over where this trilogy will end.
Recording lineup Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals Stein Roger Sordal – Bass, Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Keyboards, Lead Vocals on “Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold” Bjørn Harstad – Lead Guitars, Effects Endre Kirkesola – Keyboards, Synthesizers, Organs, Effects, Backing Vocals on “Lunar Tale” Jonathan Alejandro Perez – Drums
Guest musicians Ingrid Ose – Flute on “Lunar Tale”
Live lineup Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals Stein Roger Sordal – Bass Tchort – Guitars Bjørn Harstad – Guitars Trond Breen – Guitars Endre Kirkesola – Keyboards
Recording, Mixing & Mastering Studio DUB Studio
Production Credits Producers – Endre Kirkesola, Stein Roger Sordal, Kjetil Nordhus Sound Engineers – Endre Kirkesola, Bjørn Harstad Mixing Engineers – Endre Kirkesola, Bjørn Harstad Mastering Engineer – Lawrence Mackrory
Swiss melodic rockers Fighter V share today “Foolish Heart”, the third single taken from their upcoming album, “Déja Vu”, set for release on April 10, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl.
The band said: “Foolish Heart” is an intimate, deep and emotional song. What seems to be like a complaint of a heartbroken narrator is in reality a critical and honest self-reflection. By stepping into the role of a heartbroken woman, it allows the narrator to see with her eyes, feel the emotions she must have felt during a critical time she experienced by being abandoned”.
“This message is carried by the song, starting off from the hopeless consequence of the past event leading to the question why he left her with an ounce of hope. Then she wants to make him understand that it’s worth fighting, which you can hear by the building of tension within the song”, they added. “This will be dissolved in the chorus letting all the frustration and emotions out to show that there is no way out but to close this heartbreak chapter. This one is for all the heartbroken ones out there”.
The band talked about how the album came to life: “Deja Vu” is our third album, after “Fighter” and “Heart Of The Young”. It was recorded, mixed and mastered in 2025 in the Swiss studio “Little Creek” by the engineer Pulver and produced by Emmo Acar. The vocals and production work happened externally. The vocal recordings and production were done by Ronny Lang aka “The Voicefinder” in his own studio in cooperation with Emmo. The keyboard was produced, played and recorded by Victor Olsson, with whom we already worked on the keys of the album before. Background vocals were done separately by Emmo, Victor, Tess and Ronny. Saxophone as well by Magnus Hägglund”.
“The album contains a variety of styles, like the previous one, thanks to the cooperation with Dave Niederberger (Ex vocalist of FV) and Roman and Emmo. Influenced by our idols from the 80‘s, we are paying tribute to the prime era of Melodic Hardrock/ AOR, which you can hear by the authenticity of our sound”, they continued. “The title “Deja Vu” is not only the title of the album but also the title of a song of it. This classic French quote portrays the events we see already coming but can’t be saved from them. They will repeat cause some things are written in stone”.
Fighter V burst onto the scene in 2019. Born in Hergiswil, Switzerland, the band draws deep inspiration from classic 1980s hard-rock and arena-rock giants like Whitesnake, Journey, Survivor, and Bon Jovi – channeling that vintage energy into modern melodic rock anthems.
Their debut album, “Fighter” (2019), recorded in Sweden with producer Jona Tee (H.E.A.T), delivered 12 tracks of keyboard-driven riffs and old-school rock hooks, quickly establishing the band as one of Europe’s most promising new melodic rock acts.
In 2024 they returned with “Heart Of The Young”, featuring a refreshed lineup led by vocalist Emmo Acar, embracing a renewed but faithful homage to ’80s-era anthemic rock.
Now, with “Déjà vu”, Fighter V embark on a new chapter – their first album to be released through Frontiers Records, a pivotal step that brings their sound to a wider global audience. The record is both a nostalgic nod to their roots and a bold evolution: expect the band’s signature blend of stadium-ready riffs, soaring melodies, harmony-rich vocals, and shimmering keyboard textures, now sharpened by matured songwriting and heightened production.
“Deja Vu” is more than a title – it’s a powerful, time-bending ride through the golden age of rock, reimagined by a band reaching new heights.
“Deja Vu” Tracklist:
1. Raging Heartbeat 2. Victory 3. Made For A Heartache 4. Foolish Heart 5. Deja Vu 6. Stand By Your Side 7. All Your Love 8. Hold The Time 9. For All This Time 10. Break Those Limits 11. Victim Of Changes
Line Up: Emmo Acar – Vocals Lobe Valentin – Guitar Lucien Egloff – Drums Roman Stalder – Bass
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 