Iconic Berlin label Pelagic Records has announced its first wave of artists for Pelagic Fest 2026, which will unfold on 28th and 29th August at Muziekgieterij in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Including post-metal legends The Ocean, returning with a new lineup and a new album release coming soon, Pelagic Fest 2026 looks to be yet another sensational event from the esteemed label.
The Ocean are joined by The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble for an ultra-rare performance, Oh Hiroshima, EF, and more.
“We are excited to share a first glimpse on the lineup of Pelagic Fest 2026 with you.
“THE OCEAN will return to the stage of Muziekgieterij with a new lineup and a new album release just around the corner, to inaugurate the next chapter in their journey spanning 11 albums and 25 years of existence. This will be the first show for the European audience and the first opportunity to hear new material.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE to Pelagic Fest. After 10 years of hiatus, the collective reunited this summer for a single Berlin show, which sold out months in advance. The vibe in the room was sublime and full of anticipation, and proved that even after such a long hiatus their music has been all but forgotten. TKDE have pioneered and shaped a musical genre of their own with albums like Here Be Dragons‚ From The Stairwell and the self-titled 2006 debut album. We can’t wait to immerse ourselves in their mesmerizing dark soundscapes.
“OH HIROSHIMA will return to the MainStage of Pelagic Fest with a new album that we can’t tell you more about at this stage, only that it’s coming out before the festival.
“EF will grace us with their 2025 re-recorded debut album Give Me Beauty… Or Give Me Death! in its entirety.
“SPURV will be releasing their new album Kelolågen next spring and LOST IN KIEV will drop We’re All Going To Be Fine in the summer, and Pelagic Fest will be your chance to watch them perform their new offerings in full.
“THE DEVIL’S TRADE will bring us a full band performance this time, and PREDATORY VOID, OTAY:ONII, ZATOKREV, NORNA, ABRAHAM, HANRY and PREYRS will all make their debut appearance at Pelagic Fest.
“This is not the full lineup! More names tba. “See you in Maastricht!”
Line-up so far:
The Ocean The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble Oh Hiroshima EF Lost in Kiev Spurv The Devil’s Trade Predatory Void otay:onii Zatokrev Norna Abraham Hanry Preyrs
More information on Pelagic Records:
Founded in 2009 by post-metal spearheads The Ocean and their Berlin collective, Pelagic Records has grown into one of the most influential labels in the realms of post-rock, post-metal, and progressive/left-field heavy music. Over the years, Pelagic has worked with an impressive roster of artists, including MONO, Årabrot, Sugar Horse, Year of No Light, and Bruit ≤, among many others. Celebrating its 15th anniversary last year, Pelagic Records is focused on further solidifying its legacy by establishing Pelagic Fest as an annual event, an occasion that removes barriers and brings together artists and fans for a captivating celebration of the music that defines the label’s diverse and forward-thinking sound.
Italian experimental noise metal icon Daniele Brusaschetto is set to release his new album “Dichotomous” via Wormholedeath, a fierce and imaginative statement from one of Italy’s most original underground voices.
Since 1994, Daniele Brusaschetto has been on a continuous journey through his own world of sonic soot.
Performing as a power trio, he follows the imaginative path paved by Voivod, Godflesh, and early Mastodon—a mix of granite-heavy riffs, metal grit, no wave dissonance, and an emotional machinery waiting to be discovered beyond the wall of guitars.
In 2016, his passion for the six-string and extreme rock was reignited. “Flying Stag” (2019) marked his return to a metal–math–groove–stoner sound. In 2023, he released “Bruise A Shadow” via WormHoleDeath Records.
Now, Daniele is preparing to unveil his new full-length album, “Dichotomous”, which captures the natural evolution of his distinctive and uncompromising sound.
Tracklist:
Nosediving
Remember Not To Forget
Choking Clouds Of Ammonia
Blank T-shirt On The Radio
Jeux Sans Frontières
Assenza
Mare Profumo Di Mare
Nera
Check out the lyric video for “Nosediving”:
The Lineup Driving the Sound:
Daniele Brusaschetto: voce/chitarra Daniele Pagliero: basso Alberto “Mono” Marietta: batteria
Just in time for the holiday season, AEVA MAURELLE is releasing an acoustic version of her song “Dreamer,” featuring Jasmin Isabel Kühne on the harp!
“Dreamer” was originally released in 2020, and now the soprano is following up with a new version that showcases her incredibly beautiful voice even more. The single is available “digital only”, save-it.cc/epr/dreamer or directly on Spotify, but is part of the live setlist on December 15 (Düsseldorf) and December 26 (Bad Lauterberg).
The darkness of a new era has descended. Finnish melodic death metal band Re-Armed returns from the shadows with their new single “Ominous Penumbra”, serving as a foreboding introduction to the band’s upcoming full-length album.
The song’s oppressive atmosphere and symbolism – “A dark mass with wispy tendrils, floats across the sky…” – intertwine with the concept of a shadow that is not born solely from individual darkness, but surrounds us all. “We ourselves are the greatest enemies of all living things,” the band reflects on the song’s message.
“Ominous Penumbra” continues Re-Armed’s journey toward the spring 2026 album, exploring the delicate balance between light and darkness in ever deeper ways. The album is loosely themed around opposing forces and the ongoing struggle between them – both in the world and within the human mind.
The single is now available on all streaming platforms – a reminder that shadows are never far, and each of us carries our own.
Finnish Kuopio-based death metal band Licuation unveils an exceptionally intense double single, with the tracks 213 and Stigmatized showcasing the band’s most brutal and ambitious side to date. 213 is a relentless and straightforward death metal strike, blending rapid-fire riffing, pounding double-kick patterns, and sewer-rat-like guttural vocals. Lyrically, the track plunges into the horrifying world of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his infamous “death room,” from which no one ever returned. The song’s physical, aggressive energy mirrors the human darkness at the core of Dahmer’s story.
Stigmatized, on the other hand, delivers a longer and more epic composition that fuses direct riffing with groove elements and layered rhythmic variations. The track features a bass solo, tight guitar tapping, and deliberate rhythmic intricacies that highlight the band’s technical skill and compositional ambition. Lyrically, Stigmatized explores dangerous cults and the twisted internal logic that pulls people into their orbit. The song constructs a closed, oppressive world where personal freedom is consumed by the deranged rules of the collective.
Together, the two tracks demonstrate Licuation’s ability to combine raw aggression, technical proficiency, and storytelling in a way that stands out within the Finnish metal landscape. 213 represents the band at its most explosive and direct, while Stigmatized expands their sound into longer and heavier territories. Through these two songs, Licuation proves capable of both crushing intensity and nuanced atmosphere-building.
The result is dark, menacing, and musically tight — exactly what modern death metal demands. This double single stands as a strong testament to Licuation’s readiness to ascend to the next level. Both 213 and Stigmatized reflect the band’s evolution toward an even bolder and heavier sonic identity.
–Composed & lyrics by Esa Laukkanen, Veeti Heiskanen, Teemu Tick, Jani Nevasalmi ja Samu Reijonen –ISRC: FI3FC2596901, FI3FC2596902 –Single cover by Tata Kumislizer
The band comments tracks:
” “213” is a straightforward and merciless track that blends rapid-fire riffing, pounding double-kick patterns, and sewer-rat-like guttural vocals. Lyrically, it delves into the twisted world of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Plunging straight into his infamous “death room,” from which there is no return.
“Stigmatized” is a long, epic death metal track that blends straightforward riffing with heavy groove elements. The song features intricate rhythmic twists, a bass solo, and tight guitar tapping. Lyrically, it explores dangerous cults that pull people into their orbit — closed worlds ruled by their own disturbed internal logic.”
Licuation is a death metal band from Kuopio, Finland, known for playing fast, heavy and uncompromisingly hard. Their music fuses relentless blast beats, growling bass lines, ice-cold guitar tones and melodic solos. Tying it all together is a raw, ferocious vocal delivery that channels themes of pain and death. The group has released several acclaimed records and music videos. Their latest EP, Morbidly Curious, garnered wide attention and strong support from metal fans around the world. Now the band is hungrier than ever — ready to show what they’re truly capable of. Licuation has earned a reputation on major festivals and club stages across Finland: performing in front of a 5,000-strong crowd at Raahe Kölifest, five consecutive shows at Kuopiorock, and an intense set at Turku Metallivuori are just a few highlights. Licuation has shared the stage with acts such as Stam1na and Marco Hietala. This regiment won’t slow down until it rests in the grave.
Line-up: Esa Laukkanen – Bass Veeti Heiskanen – Vocals Teemu Tick – Guitars Jani Nevasalmi – Guitars Samu Reijonen – Drums
Fresh from the aftermath of wrecking the road with Sanguisugabogg, Despised Icon and Corpse Pile, Defeated Sanity are announcing their first U.S. headline tour in support of Chronicles of Lunacy. The brutal innovators of technical death metal will perform their latest Billboard-crushing album in full on top of pit-slamming favorites from their early classics.
“From the first blast-beat barrage, the tempo was merciless, the riffs jagged and precise, the breakdowns heavy enough to register physically”, New Noise wrote about Defeated Sanity’s recent stop in Chicago. “What stood out was how they balanced their signature technical flair, unexpected time changes and bursts of jazzy dissonance with sheer raw impact”.
Supporting Defeated Sanity for all 27 dates on next year’s headlining coast-to-coast run of the U.S. are South African heavies Vulvodynia and New Zealand death metal slammers Organectomy. Excresence, Scasm and Horrific Vision will join on select dates.
“We can’t wait to play all of our new album Chronicles of Lunacy to our U.S. fans”, Defeated Sanity says. “Be sure to join us as we return to brutalize the U.S. once again”.
Get tickets for Defeated Sanity’s 2026 U.S. Headlining Tour, here!
Defeated Sanity 2026 U.S. Tour Dates with Vulvodynia and Organectomy + Excrescence, Scasm and Horrific Vision on select dates
April 16 – Anaheim, CA @ Parish (HOB)* April 17 – Fresno, CA @ Fulton 55* April 18 – Santa Rosa, CA @ The California* April 19 – Sacramento, CA @ Starlet* April 21 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon* April 22 – Portland, OR @ Dante’s* April 23 – Boise, ID @ Shredder* April 24 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Ace’s High Saloon* April 25 – Denver, CO @ HQ* April 27 – Milwaukee, WI @ X-Ray Arcade* April 28 – West Chicago, IL @ Social Club+ April 29 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle+ April 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop+ May 1 – Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall+ May 2 – Clifton, NJ @ Dingbatz+ May 3 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro+ May 4 – Raleigh, NC @ Chapel of Bones+ May 5 – Jacksonville, FL @ The Albatross+ May 6 – Tampa, FL @ Orpheum+ May 7 – Orlando, FL @ Conduit+ May 8 – Pensacola, FL @ Handlebar^ May 9 – Houston, TX @ Pub 529^ May 11 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links^ May 12 – Austin, TX @ Come and Take It Live^ May 13 – Lubbock, TX @ Jakes^ May 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Nile Underground^ May 16 – Las Vegas, NV @ Backstage Bar^ *Excrescence +Scasm ^Horrific Visions
Tracklist 1. Amputationsdrang (2:30) [WATCH] 2. The Odour Of Sanctity (3:36) [WATCH] 3. Accelerating The Rot (3:22) [WATCH] 4. Temporal Disintegration (5:52) [WATCH] 5. Extrinsically Enraged (4:09) [WATCH] 6. A Patriarchy Perverse (4:16) 7. Condemned to Vascular Famine (6:00) [WATCH] 8. Heredity Violated (3:48) Total runtime: 33:35
DEFEATED SANITY is unequivocally one of the most unique, boundary-pushing and crucial bands in the history of extreme death metal. Their music is as technically coherent as it is mind-bending and memorable. Endlessly replay-able and full of discovery, their maze of riffs and musical passages is inspired by infamous classic bands in the extreme metal genre, while also heavily steeped in jazz and progressive classical elements.
The band consists of four members. They’re led by drummer Lille Gruber, who’s the son of deceased co-founding member Wolfgang Teske. Gruber is joined by bandmates Jacob Schmidt (bass), Josh Welshman (vocals) and Vaughn Stoffey (guitar).
As well as being the drummer of Defeated Sanity, Gruber is the multi- instrumental, songwriting mastermind behind the band’s deep and compelling catalogue of songs and compositions. He possesses a bag of tricks seen nowhere else in the genre, and a musical prowess which is on full display throughout their new album Chronicles of Lunacy.
“We love experimenting”, explains drummer and founding member Lille Gruber. “But we realized that some of our oldest fans might have gotten lost after our last couple of albums. With the new one, we wanted to focus more on neck-snapping brutality”.
Chronicles of Lunacy punches you right in the face. Press play and “Amputationsdrang” already has you pinned to the mat beneath its non-stop blasts. Get comfortable, too, because Defeated Sanity don’t let the album up for air until the very end of Track 4. But turns out, acting like knuckle-dragging cavemen isn’t so easy for a band that has a Mensa-level maestro like Gruber at the controls.
At the tender age of six, Lille Gruber picked up heavy guitar and drums. Inspired by killer American BDM bands like Disgorge, Monstrosity and Brodequin, the German wunderkind recorded the band’s first demo alongside his father, Wolfgang Teske. Since Wolfgang’s passing in 2010, Gruber has taken on the bulk of the composing for Defeated Sanity. Whether he’s hammering his snare, pinging between cymbals or riding a colossal groove, The Chronicles of Lunacy flows like a never-ending stream of filth.
“Lille’s drumming is just ridiculous”, Jacob Schmidt says. Schmidt – who toured with Obscura behind Cosmogenesis – joined as the other half of Defeated Sanity’s chaotic rhythm section for the band’s beloved second album. His nimble, belching bass give the new album’s lead single “The Odour of Sanctity” a dizzying bounce. “He’s the face of the franchise, so we’re never going to abandon those head-scratching moments that set Defeated Sanity apart”.
Indeed, Chronicles of Lunacy isn’t Defeated Sanity for dummies. Heck, the lyrics are wrapped up in the twisted ways that delusions can rot the human psyche. This heady concept was made flesh by none other than Jon Zig. Drawn in painstaking detail by his wicked right hand, the album’s cover shows that the birth of some ideas look an awful lot like a gory and sex-crazed nativity scene.
“Each song on Chronicles deals with a different form of mental corruption”, Josh Welshman says”. “Odor” stinks of religious fanaticism. “A Patriarchy Perverse” cracks open the mind of co-ed killer Ed Kemper, while “Extrinsically Enraged” practically foams at the mouth with squealing hammer-ons. “That one’s more literal”, says Welshman with a hearty laugh. “It’s about contracting rabies”. If it weren’t for Disposal of the Dead / Dharmata, then Defeated Sanity would’ve chewed through as many vocalists as they have albums, but after a brutal showing on their last one, Welshman is back with more guttural vengeance. His growls ooze from the pit of his gut on “Temporal Disintegration”, stomped out like the innards of a cockroach by the gravity-defying slams.
While it still hits from every odd angle, Chronicles of Lunacy does draw a jagged red line back to Defeated Sanity’s brutal origins. After all, the band now share a label with their namesake. In true, DS fashion, the first song written for this album was “Heredity Violated”, a headbanging grand finale that never stops chugging. “This album isn’t as tough on the brain as the last two”, says new guitarist Vaughn Stoffey, whose chunky riffs whip “Accelerating the Rot” into the fastest song in the band’s canon. “It’s rawer and more straightforward, which gets back to what fans love about Psalms of the Moribund“.
To dig up the sheer brutality that long-time fans have come to crave, Defeated Sanity returned to Thousand Cave Studios. New York City’s most vile underground hotspot also served as the excavation site for the Billboard-charting The Sanguinary Impetus, which shoveled a fresh layer of dirt over the “polished” production of Passages into Deformity. But the band encouraged producer Colin Marston to get down and dirty with Chronicles of Lunacy. “We still wanted some of the high fidelity that you hear on modern death metal records”, Schmidt says, “but this album has the same crushing low-end as Psalms or Chapters of Repugnance“.
The band execute this two-headed approach to monstrous effect on “Condemned to Vascular Famine”. At just under six minutes, the song delivers the longest ass beating on Chronicles of Lunacy. At times, all four members sound like they’re climbing up the walls in separate asylums, but after slipping in a brief nod to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the band come slamming down into the album’s ugliest breakdown.
“That’s one of our favorites”, the band says. “It lands at a crossroad of the DS sound that we ended up with on Chronicles of Lunacy. Even though it gets pretty fucking weird at times, there’s still an emphasis on heavy, straight-up slamming”
None of their albums are ever going to follow a straight line, but on Chronicles of Lunacy, Defeated Sanity return to sheer brutality.
Lineup Josh Welshman – Vocals Vaughn Stoffey – Guitars Jacob Schmidt – Bass Lille Gruber – Drums
Guest musicians Danny Nelson and Paolo Paguntalan provide backup vocals on “Amputationsdrang” and “Accelerating the Rot”
Recording Studio Thousand Caves Studio in January 2024.
Production Recorded, mixed and mastered by Colin Marston. Produced by Colin Marston and Defeated Sanity.
Cover Art Artwork by Jon Zig Title lettering by Liz Schmidt Layout by Alex Eckman-Lawn
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 ) 