Rare Elements return with “Our Legacy?”, a fast, aggressive and dramatic journey into the darker realities of the world around us. Built around a dark harmonic minor atmosphere, the track draws influences from melodic death metal, thrash metal, groove metal and, to a lesser extent, progressive metal. Heavy guitar riffs, powerful grooves and cinematic textures create a tense and threatening soundscape. The music combines aggression, melody and a strong sense of drama.
“Our Legacy?” deals with war, destruction and the world we leave behind. The lyrics begin in the morning light over a bombed city, where survivors search through the ruins for their loved ones. From there, the perspective expands from one city to countless others and to wars watched through our screens day after day, year after year. The song also turns its attention toward those who hold power and the consequences of their decisions.
“Greedy clowns and lying monsters / Rule the world” delivers the accusation with deliberate bluntness. Yet the song is not only about those who hold power, but also about what happens when the course is not changed. The recurring question is what will remain if destruction is allowed to continue. The central idea of the chorus is summed up in the words: “Only silence is our legacy.” The question mark in the title turns that statement into a challenge. Is silence really what we want to leave behind?
Musically, the song moves with relentless energy, shifting between hard-hitting passages and cinematic moments that open up the atmosphere. The harmonic minor tonality gives the track its dark and restless foundation. Aggressive guitars and a grooving rhythmic core keep the song physically powerful, while melodic and progressive elements add depth to the arrangement.
“Our Legacy?” was recorded, mixed and mastered at RE Studio in August 2026. The track was produced entirely at RE Studio as part of the Rare Elements project. The result is a dark, fast, cinematic and fierce metal track that offers no easy answers, leaving the listener with one question: Our Legacy?
–Composed & lyrics by Harri Sarpavaara –Arranged, mixed & mastered by Harri Sarpavaara –Single cover by Harri Sarpavaara –ISRC: QTA2Y2623784 –Self-released
Line-up: Harri Sarpavaara – vocals, guitars, bass, synths, drum programming
French progressive rock powerhouse Lalu are thrilled to unveil the acoustic version of “Amnesia 1916”, originally appearing on their 2023 album, “The Fish Who Wanted To Be King”, out now via Frontiers Music Srl.
Vivien Lalu commented: “This acoustic version of “Amnesia 1916” was recorded for the Japanese edition of “The Fish Who Wanted To Be King”, as a bonus track. The album was never released in Japan in the end, so the recording stayed in a drawer and nobody has heard it until now. It covers one section of the original epic and, as always, showcases our love for dreamy atmospheres and ambient music: Joop on acoustic guitar and myself on keyboards, playing around Damian Wilson’s vocals, with Jelly Cardarelli mixing and mastering. I’m glad it finally gets to exist outside our hard drives”.
“Amnesia 1916 (Acoustic Version)” offers a fresh interpretation of a track originally featured on Lalu’s 2023 album, “The Fish Who Wanted To Be King”, revisiting the composition through a more intimate, acoustic approach.
Stripping the song back to its essential elements, this new version brings a different perspective to the original, placing greater emphasis on its melodies, atmosphere and emotional depth. The acoustic arrangement allows the composition to shine in a new light, highlighting the songwriting and musical sensitivity at the heart of Lalu’s progressive rock sound.
Led by French keyboardist and composer Vivien Lalu, the project has long been recognised for its distinctive blend of progressive rock, intricate arrangements and expressive musicianship. Throughout his career, Lalu has continued to explore new musical directions, combining technical sophistication with a strong sense of melody and emotion.
Originally released in 2023 as part of “The Fish Who Wanted To Be King”, “Amnesia 1916” remains a compelling example of this approach, and its acoustic reinterpretation offers listeners an opportunity to rediscover the track from a different angle.
With “Amnesia 1916 (Acoustic Version)”, Lalu revisits an earlier chapter of the project’s musical journey, presenting a familiar composition in a fresh and intimate setting while preserving the spirit of the original.
Line Up: Damian Wilson – Vocals Joop Wolters – Acoustic guitar Vivien Lalu – Keyboards
Polish black metal act Kalt Vindur have revealed the next single “In Silence” from their upcoming fourth full-length album, “The Void of Time”, set for release on 27 November 2026 via The Circle Music.
The band commented on the songwriting and execution behind the track: “In Silence” hits the listener right from the start with a fast, intense riff accompanied by a powerful blast beat. As the song progresses, its raw energy begins to give way to more melodic passages that introduce a touch of space and contrast, without losing any of its original intensity. “In Silence” combines speed, aggression, and melody to create a cohesive, dynamic composition that keeps the listener on the edge of their seat from start to finish.”
Formed in 2015 in Dukla, Poland, Kalt Vindur has steadily risen through the extreme underground by carving out their own niche: Subcarpathian Black Metal. Blending the aggressive, rhythmic assault of second-wave black metal with deep atmospheric layers, doom-laden weight, and subtle progressive elements, the band has earned critical acclaim across the international metal scene. Following the underground success of 2024’s “Magna Mater” and prominent festival appearances alongside acts such as Hate and Batushka, “The Void of Time” cements Kalt Vindur as one of the most compelling and forward-thinking voices in the modern Polish metal landscape.
“The Void of Time” tracklisting: 01. Suspended In Emptiness 02. The Void Of Time 03. In Silence 04. Lost In Infinity 05. The Path Of Sin 06. On The Way To… 07. Ataraxia 08. Jesien
“The Void of Time” was mixed and mastered by Krzysztof Kokosiński (Grandma Enjoys Music). Produced by Artur Szydło and Krzysztof Kokosiński. Guitars and bass recorded at Private Studio between September 2025 and April 2026. Drums and vocals recorded at Regnat Audio Studio in Cieklin by Grzegorz Gnat.
The front artwork to “The Void of Time” was completed by Maciej Kamuda, while layouts and back artwork were done by Paweł Kuranda.
Kalt Vindur are: Celsus – voice Svart – electric and acustic guitar Ver – electric guitar S – bass guitar Czarnuch – drums
History doesn’t like to talk about it much, but when Deep Purple first replaced Ian Gillan with an unknown, self-described singing salesman named David Coverdale, a lot of their fans – not to mention the media – were deeply, darkly, sceptical.
Nobody, the assembled wisdom of the age insisted, could ever hope to match the lung-searing, throat-tearing, range roving power of Gillan, least of all someone who was best-known among the cognoscenti for having opened for Purple back in 1969, with a forgotten band called The Government!
But Coverdale, came, he saw and he conquered, and “Burn,” the title track of his first album with the band, still blazes with the new energy and fresh dimensions he brought into Deep Purple, as his former Whitesnake bandmate, guitarist Doug Aldrich, explains. “Burn,” after all, is a song with which he is long familiar, and he recalls, “Playing ‘Burn’ with David Coverdale or [bassist] Glenn Hughes was always a great jam.”
And this new version, peeling off the upcoming Purple Storm Deep Purple tribute album, “was equally enjoyable to play on.”
With Bob Daisley and Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow), Jonathan Cain (Journey), and fast-rising goth metal superstars 616 all on board, Aldrich continues “I have been extremely fortunate to work with some of the Deep Purple and Rainbow members during my time….that family tree is pretty legendary!”
And, while he admits, “No one can play [guitar] like Richie Blackmore,” he is adamant. “I always do my best to treat his music with the ultimate respect.”
And “Burn” is respectful, even as this remarkable line-up indelibly stamps its own identity over both sound and vision – the accompanying video is everything a song titled “Burn” should be, and the riff… that riff… still scorches the flesh from a thousand yards.
Purple Storm releases on November 13, on CD, digital and a beautiful purple vinyl double album.
But let’s leave the final words to Doug. “God bless Blackmore!”
US heavy metal psych voyagers BOOK OF WYRMS return with “Proficient Dreamer”, the second single from their highly anticipated new album, Megacelestial, out December 11, 2026, via Argonauta Records on CD, colored vinyl, and digital formats. Alongside the new track, the band reveal the complete details of their upcoming fourth full-length, marking a bold new chapter in their ever-evolving sonic journey.
Following the release of “Slime Fever”, which offered the first glimpse into the new record, “Proficient Dreamer” provides another taste of the band’s renewed creative direction. Faster, dirtier, and more direct, Megacelestial captures Book of Wyrms embracing a sharper, more aggressive heavy metal attack without abandoning the psychedelic spirit and otherworldly atmosphere that have always defined their sound.
Formed in 2014 through a shared love of Hawkwind and ZZ Top, Book of Wyrms have spent over a decade exploring the outer reaches of heavy music. Their latest album reflects a significant shift in both energy and approach, inspired by the arrival of drummer Brian Wiltz, whose powerful, straightforward playing has helped reshape the band’s songwriting and dynamics.
For Megacelestial, the band also collaborated with Rob Wrong (Wrong Way Recording, Witch Mountain), who handled the mix for the first time in the band’s history. Drawing inspiration from the melodic power of 80s Judas Priest, Dio, Thin Lizzy, Scorpions, Queen, and Motörhead, the new material delivers a more immediate and hard-hitting sound, balancing razor-sharp guitar work, fuzz-driven low end, atmospheric synthesizers, and commanding female vocals.
The band previously described their new approach as making music for “driving across the country on no sleep”, a fitting description for an album built around momentum, intensity, and a refusal to settle for anything less than full impact.
With Megacelestial, Book of Wyrms push their cosmic heavy psych into more forceful territory, delivering a record that promises to resonate with fans of Judas Priest, Blood Ceremony, Earthless, The Black Angels, Castle Rat, and Howling Giant.
The release of Noctiferia’s latest single “AEON SHIFT” made it more than clear: Their long awaited eighth studio album “AXIOM I” (out November 20, 2026) will be a defining new chapter in the evolution of one of Slovenia’s most legendary extreme-metal acts.
Marking the band’s first studio album with a new vocalist in more than two decades, “AXIOM I” captures Noctiferia at a point where three decades of experience collide with a renewed sense of energy, ambition, and creative urgency. The result is the most technical, aggressive, and contemporary-sounding record in the band’s catalogue, combining precision and complexity with a raw, uncompromising sonic character. Built upon the experience accumulated throughout Noctiferia’s 30-year career, their eighth full-length embraces a distinctly modern approach while retaining the intensity and experimental spirit that have defined the band since its beginnings. The album represents both a continuation of the band’s legacy and a deliberate step into new territory — sharper, heavier and more forward-looking than ever before. “AXIOM I” was recorded in Slovenia, with mixing and mastering handled by David Caplinger in Ohio, USA, bringing together the band’s European roots with an international production approach.
To get ready (and even more excited) for the highly anticipated album, fans are now given one more glimpse of what’s to come with the high-energy, groove-driven second album single “PARADOX REDUX”. Released along with an impressive video, the track explores with uncompromising sonic intensity what the band describes as “the paradox at the heart of human existence”. It’s about nothing less than one of the fundamental contradictions of being human: our own apparent insignificance in the face of an incomprehensibly vast universe, and our extraordinary capacity to comprehend, challenge, and reshape it. The band explains: “On a cosmic scale, humanity is little more than a microscopic speck — fragile, temporary, and seemingly irrelevant. Yet through consciousness, imagination, and the ability to question reality itself, we possess something that makes us appear almost godlike. We are simultaneously prisoners of our own limitations and creators capable of transcending them.” With “PARADOX REDUX”, Noctiferia channels this philosophical duality into a powerful sonic statement, combining groove-oriented aggression with the band’s unmistakable intensity. The result is a track that confronts the listener with the tension between human insignificance and seemingly limitless potential.
As the second release from “AXIOM I”, the track continues to reveal the conceptual direction of the upcoming album, exploring the boundaries of human existence, consciousness, and the ever-evolving relationship between humanity, its future, and its own creations.
NOCTIFERIA’s eighth studio album “AXIOM I” is out on November 20, 2026 via Nika Records. Pre-Save NOW: https://noctiferia.lnk.to/AxiomI
“AXIOM I” Tracklist
1. NOX 2. PARASOMNIAC 3. PARADOX REDUX 4. AEON SHIFT 5. THE SHIMMERING 6. COLOSSUS IN MOTION 7. THE BENDING SOIL 8. DECORONATION 9. SUN COLLIDER
ABOUT NOCTIFERIA
The pioneering Slovenian extreme-metal band NOCTIFERIA was officially formed in Ljubljana in 1997. Over three decades, the band has continually transformed its sound, moving through black metal, death metal, industrial, and groove metal while incorporating electronic, ethnic, and acoustic elements. Their career has established them as one of the most influential and internationally recognized bands in the Slovenian metal scene. The band originally emerged from the early-1990s underground under the name Emetica before becoming Noctiferia. Their debut album, “Baptism at Savica Fall”, was released in 1998 and established their early black/pagan-metal identity. Subsequent releases saw the group progressively move toward a more extreme and experimental sound, including “Per Aspera” (2003), “Slovenska Morbida” (2006), “Death Culture” (2010), “PAX” (2014), the genre-defying acoustic project “Transnatura” (2016) and tribute album to legendary Laibach under the name of “Reforma” (2021) with David Vincent (ex-Morbid Angel), Attila Szihar (Mayhem) and Jorgen Munkeby (Shining) as guests. Throughout their career, Noctiferia have performed extensively across Europe and China, sharing stages with internationally renowned acts and appearing at major festivals. They became the first Slovenian band to perform at Wacken Open Air, while their career has also included performances at Ljubljana’s Drama Theatre and Opera House. Their international collaborations have included renowned producers such as Peter Tägtgren, Jonas Kjellgren, Johan Örnborg, Jens Bogren and Henrik Udd among others. In 2026, Noctiferia enter a new chapter following a period away from the live stage. The band introduces Miloš Mihajlović as their new vocalist and David Bordon as their new drummer and returns to performing with a new lineup. The current full lineup is:
Miloš Mihajlović — vocals Igor Nardin — guitar Uroš Lipovec — bass Andrej Blatnik — guitar David Bordon — drums
The new lineup made its Slovenian live debut at Orto Fest in Ljubljana on 18 April 2026, performing established Noctiferia material alongside selected new compositions. Noctiferia will release their new studio album “AXIOM I” on November 20, 2026, marking another new phase in its musical evolution. The 2026 return also serves as the beginning of the band’s approach toward its 30th anniversary celebrations in 2027.
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
