Finnish Deathgrind band Cannibal Accident is set to release their fifth studio album ‘Disgust’ on February 28th 2025 via Inverse Records. Today the band unleashes the new music video for ‘Darken The Attic’.
Vocalist Kurwa Doktor comments the lyrics:
” “Darken The Attic” tells about the horrors of delirium tremens after sacrificing your mind, body and soul to excessive amounts of alcohol for so many years you have already lost the count.”
Jondom (Bass) comments music and video: “Musically “Darken The Attic” is quite far from our comfort zone with dissonant riffs which are like made to create feelings of pure anxiety for the listener. Song is one of “weirdos” of coming “Disgust”-album and goal was to highlight how guitar and bass has own place and space in our music even these two instruments aren’t necessarily always playing same kind of riff, part or even notes in a song. This “chaotic harmony” can be heard particularly in this song. Idea for the video came also partly because of the nature of the song. Quick clips of grotesque and graphic content forced to listeners eye receptors are just like made to underline the musical feeling and lyrical theme of the song.”
Formed in 2007, Cannibal Accident have released four full-length albums and a number of smaller releases. Old-school grindcore, death metal, hardcore and mosh part(ie)s are combined in brutally cutting, compact songs where speed, heaviness and catchiness are the main denominators.
Cannibal Accident live on stage is a comprehensive psychophysical experience, no holds barred.
Line-up: Kolkka – guitar Wilkman – drums Raisio – low Kurwa Doktor – high Jondom – bass & backing howls
Connecticut-based metal powerhouse DEAD BY WEDNESDAY (DBW) will be hitting the road today for their highly anticipated BLIZZARD BASH TOUR 2025, alongside West Coast metal legends SKINLAB. This intense winter tour will run from January 7-12, bringing the heat to the Northeast with select local bands supporting at each show. The BLIZZARD BASH tradition, which began nearly two decades ago, is centered around drummer Opus’ birthday and has grown into a highly sought-after indoor music festival.
The tour’s centerpiece show will take place at the iconic Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT, a legendary venue that has hosted the annual BLIZZARD BASH party for years. This event, spanning two stages and featuring out-of-state visitors, has become a staple in the New England metal scene.
For tickets, tour dates, and more details, stay tuned to DBW’s social channels.
BLIZZARD BASH TOUR 2025 Dates: SKINLAB w/ DEAD BY WEDNESDAY Plus select local support at each show!
Legendary German hard rockers BONFIRE are thrilled to share the new single and accompanying video “Lost All Control”, taken from their highly anticipated new studio album, “Higher Ground”, out on January 24th, 2025, via Frontiers Music Srl.
Bassist Ronnie Parkes comments on the new single: “Lost All Control is a powerful song with some great performances throughout the track and very melodic. It talks about the isolation and the disconnection of reality that people with mental illness sometimes have to deal with. One of my favourites off the new album Higher Ground.”
Guitarist Hans Ziller expresses his enthusiasm for the new album: “The new Bonfire album is a masterpiece. Bonfire has reinvented themselves with “Higher Ground”, never neglecting their virtues – fat hard guitars, incredible solos, great choir passages and stirring vocals. The band plays as one and is at its best.”
Bonfire are one of the most seminal German hard rock bands of the past fifty years. Originally founded as Cacumen in 1972 by guitarist Hans Ziller in Ingolstadt, Germany, the group initially played local venues, steadily building a fan base before releasing their first album under the name Cacumen.
In 1986, the band rebranded as Bonfire, and their debut album as Bonfire, “Don’t Touch the Light”, marked their international breakthrough. They followed it up with “Fireworks” in 1987, which further cemented their status in the rock and metal scene. Despite their success, Bonfire experienced several lineup changes, including the departure of key members. However, Ziller, the band’s driving force, kept Bonfire alive, continuously adapting to the challenges faced by the group.
In the 1990s, Bonfire briefly disbanded but returned in 1996, with Ziller reclaiming the rights to the band’s name. Since then, Bonfire has released numerous albums and maintained a strong presence on the international rock scene. Bonfire has remained a resilient force in hard rock, continuing to tour and release new material well into the 21st century.
During their most successful phase with album classics such as “Don’t Touch The Light” (1986), “Fireworks”(1987) and “Point Blank” (1989), the group – alongside the Scorpions and Accept – counted among the three most popular German acts on a global basis, including triumphal accomplishments throughout Europe and overseas, celebrated tours alongside Judas Priest and ZZ Top, gold records, high chart positions, TV appearances and more than 35 million YouTube views of their hit “You Make Me Feel” alone.
The band’s trademarks continue to be and always have been deeply melodic hard rock songs, driven by captivating guitar parts, grooving rhythms and haunting vocal melodies. To this day, band founder/guitarist Hans Ziller and his exceptional group regularly awe their fans with new releases and impressive shows.
“Higher Ground” is a new life chapter for Bonfire and the very first release under the wings of Frontiers Records.
“Higher Ground” Tracklist:
1. Nostradamus 2. I Will Rise 3. Higher Ground 4. I Died Tonight 5. Lost All Control 6. When Love Comes Down 7. Fallin` 8. Come Hell Or High Water 9. Jealousy 10. Spinnin’ In The Black 11. Rock’n’Roll Survivor (2024 Version)
Line Up: Hans Ziller – Guitar Dyan Mair – Vocals Frank Pané – Guitar Ronnie Parkes – Bass Fabio Alessandrini – Drums
Degreed have been releasing critically acclaimed music since the start of their career with their first album “Life, Love, Loss” in 2010. Over the course of their career, the band has gone from strength to strength with every release, touring and gaining fans all over the world. Their sound mixes classic melodic and hard rock sounds with more contemporary influences, offering the fans a very personal, fresh and exciting mix of great rock music.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the band wasn’t able to tour on the heels of the release of the album “Lost Generation” in 2019. The band released the song “The World We Knew”, their musical summation of the year 2020 (the song became “Track of the Week” at Classic Rock Magazine’s website a week after its release) and then in 2021, Degreed began working on what would ultimately become “Are You Ready”, released in 2022.
The latest Degreed album, “Public Address”, was released on July 7, 2023, and it sees the band delivering on all of the promise of earlier efforts and reaching an absolute premiere moment in their musical creativity.
Line Up: Robin Eriksson – Bass/Vocals Mats Eriksson – Drums Mikael Blanc – Keyboards Daniel Johansson – Guitars
2024 stood out as another memorable year for Ne Obliviscaris. The maestros of extreme progressive metal celebrated the 10th anniversary of Citadel with a newly definitive remastered version. The band performed both their acclaimed second album and their latest album Exulin their entirety during a two hour set on their fall headlining tour of Europe. They also reunited with original drummer Dan Presland and toured South America for the first time.
Now, as this year winds down, Ne Obliviscaris are tightening their strings in anticipation for an even bigger 2025. The band will return to North America for their first run on the CHAOS & CARNAGE Tour.
“North America, we are super excited to announce that we are coming back in April and May as part of the CHAOS & CARNAGE tour with an epic package that includes co-headliners Dying Fetus and Cradle of Filth, as well as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Undeath, Vomit Forth and Corpse Pile”, says violinist and clean vocalist Tim Charles. “These shows are going to be incredible, so make sure you get your tickets and we’ll see you there!”.
Watch the brand new video for “Graal”, the soul-stirring single from Exul, featuring Australian fire dancer Jessy Spin:
Tickets for CHAOS & CARNAGE go on sale this Friday, December 20 at 10 am local time. VIP Upgrades will go on sale Monday, January 6 at 10 am Pacific Time.
CHAOS & CARNAGE 2025 April 17 – Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre April 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern April 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren April 22 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater April 24 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater April 26 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Event Center April 27 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues April 29 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl May 1 – New York, NY @ Palladium Times Square May 2 – Richmond, VA @ The National May 3 – Reading, PA @ Reverb May 4 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium May 6 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia May 7 – Toronto, ON @ Rebel May 8 – Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot May 9 – Chicago, IL @ Radius May 10 – Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom May 12 – Wichita, KS @ Temple Live May 14 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
Exul and the 10th anniversary remastered version of Citadel are now available on Season of Mist.
Albums have come and gone over the past decade, but Citadel still stands as a monumental achievement not just for Ne Obliviscaris but progressive metal. “It will stand the test of time”, Metal Injection wrote in a prescient review of the Australian band’s classic second album.
The new 10th-anniversary edition was remastered by Mark Lewis, who mixed and mastered the band’s latest album Exul. Together, they’ve meticulously resurrected the original’s power, ensuring every note, every growl and every whisper of the violin rings clearer and more haunting than before.
Watch drummer Dan Presland crush all three of Citadel‘s epic movements in just one take:
Praise for Citadel
“Citadel is a blind plunge well worth taking…Ne Obliviscaris have crafted all their wild conceits into sprawling epics that flow with grace and fortitude” – Metal Hammer
“Never before have we seen such range from a violinist in this context, all performed with maximum control and in such a way that the instrument rarely feels out of place or in any way a gimmick” – Heavy Blog is Heavy(4.5/5)
Drum tracking for Exul, the fourth long-player from Australian extreme progressive metallers Ne Obliviscaris, started in March 2020. There is an ominous tone to that date: March 2020. The pandemic demarcation line. That month, Daniel Presland laid down his drums in Nashville, Tennessee, with American producer Mark Lewis. As flight cancellations increased and borders shuttered, Presland made it home literally hours before Australia closed theirs. Lewis, guitarist Benjamin Baret and bassist Martino Garattoni weren’t as lucky. They were due to land in Australia in the days that followed to continue tracking, but were forced to remain overeseas indefinitely. With recording studios shuttered throughout Melbourne, a slow, tedious, life-altering two-year grind to complete Exul ensued for Ne Obliviscaris.
What should have been the continued upward swing after 2017’s critically acclaimed Urn turned into the most fraught moment of Ne Obliviscaris’ career. Clean vocalist and violinist Tim Charles says the period “came close to breaking us completely.” It was a time filled with death, relationships breaking down, despair and financial loss. Presland, Ne Obliviscaris’ drummer since 2005, amicably parted ways in early 2022, throwing yet another wrench into the band’s plans.
There are, however, happy accidents scattered throughout the creation of Exul. The extra, unexpected downtime allowed the band to fine-tune and even re-write parts previously set in stone before the pandemic. Charles’s violin solo at the end of “Graal” is a prime example: His original idea wasn’t fully realized until he revisited the song in early 2021 and promptly came up with a new part. It was a classic “a-ha” moment that improved the song.
“Getting an opportunity to have a song mostly done for a year or so and then go back to it, find what you loved about it the first time and maybe even improve it in some ways was a nice silver lining from all the delays,” says Charles. “I think because we had so many delays that were out of our control, we were even more determined to take our time to make sure when the time came to record and to mix, that we ensured it was the absolute best it could be in every way.”
Seven additional studios and three more countries later, Exul was finally mixed and mastered in July 2022.
The album personifies Ne Obliviscaris’ distinctive, boundary-pushing ethos. The band’s trademark blend of emotion and beauty is as towering as ever, if not even more compelling, particularly how Charles’s violin lines carefully weave their way around Baret and fellow guitarist Matt Klavins’ riffing. The duality of Charles’s clean vocals and Xenoyr’s growls remains the narrative anchor, elevating songs that emanate sophistication and are a masterclass in composition.
“Our approach is always the same,” says Charles, “which is essentially to just write and see what comes out. Exul definitely had its challenges during the songwriting process. Part of the beauty of how our music comes together is that we are quite different individuals bringing an array of ideas together. From there, we work out how to combine them into something that is seamless and beautiful to us. We were determined to make this our best and most complete album yet, which definitely resulted in it taking longer. But we are so proud of this album and it’s exciting to finally share it with the world.”
The album’s centerpiece is the two-part “Misericorde I – As the Flesh Fails” and “Misericorde – Anatomy of Quiescence.” (A Ne Obliviscaris album is not complete without a multi-part epic!) According to Charles, Part II began by taking a song they thought was finished (Pt I) and asking, “What if after that…?” The band then wrote a section that took the piece in a new direction and what was a 7 minute song, became an almost 17 minute 2 part epic.
“The bulk of Part I was written more so by Benji and Martino,” notes Charles. “You can hear the very guitar-driven approach present throughout that track. Part II, by contrast, was written more so by myself in collaboration with others and the emphasis changes more towards expansive solos and slow-developing sections that build towards the epic finale. These two tracks are a great example of how it’s the combination of our different strengths as songwriters spread across an album that results in the sound that is ‘Ne Obliviscaris’.”
Charles’s violin parts, whether on “Misericorde II,” “Equus” or “Suspyre,” exude confidence. The instrument has always been central to the band’s sound. On Exul, Charles’s violin playing is taken to another level. “I think that over the years, in regards to how my violin interacts within NeO’s music, I’ve simply continued to add more strings to my bow, so to speak,” he says. “With Exul, I definitely explored even further the use of layers of violin and viola parts to create a more textured feel compared to other albums. ‘Mesericorde II’ was definitely a bit of a breakthrough song for me, where I felt I could utilize the strings in a way that hadn’t been done in NeO’s music before. In the end, whatever serves the song best is always the aim and having more ways of creating music makes it easier to serve the song.”
The Exul album title came to Xen when he was summing up the album’s feeling musically and lyrically. Coincidentally, it matched the experience of most people during the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I think everyone at some point has felt at odds with the world around them, felt alone, cast out, or misunderstood,” says Xen. “Exul felt right to use in a broader sense and as a lone word, for we each have our own history and a story of exile.
“Overall, there’s a darker core to this album, perhaps more ominous than previous releases,” he continues. “However abstract the lyrics are, they involve some form of unwanted departure — all journeys into torment, passion, longing and even despair. They touch on the process of physical and psychological destruction that comes from that sense or reality of being exiled, whether forced from one’s land, ostracised from a community, shunned by a religion, or even simply being treated differently for being who they are.”
Touring factored heavily into Ne Obliviscaris’ 2023 plans. The band embarked on headlining tours worldwide that hit new territories. As luck would have it, the return to live show activity coincided with the release of Exul and the band’s 20th anniversary. As one of Australia’s leading extreme metal exports, there is a distinct sense of gratitude from Charles and his bandmates. They’re looking forward to sharing it with fans when they resume touring.
“Simply getting the opportunity to perform music that we’ve written on stages around the world to people that genuinely love and connect with it,” finishes Charles when talking about Ne Obliviscaris’ 20-year journey. “There is something incredibly special about the energy that exists between an artist and audience at a concert and it was an honor to get the opportunity to spend 2023 connecting with people in that way once more.”
Lineup: Xenoyr – Harsh Vocals James Dorton – Harsh Vocals (Live) Tim Charles – Violin & Clean Vocals Benjamin Baret – Lead Guitar Matt Klavins – Guitar Martino Garattoni – Bass Dan Presland – Drums (Live)
The great tragedy of self-consciousness, that terrible and wonderful spark that makes us uniquely human, is the knowledge of our own mortality. That knowledge that one day, everything we have done, everything we are, and everything we love will succumb to the inevitable fading into nonexistence is a curse and our blessing.
“Fade To Blue,” the title track from BASTION ROSE’s debut EP, captures the essence of resilience and transformation. Produced by three-time Grammy award-winning producer David Bottrill (Tool, Muse, Godsmack) and mastered by Maor Appelbaum (Faith No More, Dream Theater), this song is a journey through raw emotion, blending powerful rock riffs, soulful vocals, and intricate melodies.
The video visually reflects the song’s themes of loss, renewal, and self-discovery, mirroring the poignant and personal experiences that shaped the track.
“Fade To Blue” is more than a song—it’s an anthem for anyone who has faced life’s hardships and emerged stronger. Let the sound and imagery pull you in and leave you inspired.
Bastion Rose’s story is nothing short of extraordinary, a testament to the resilience and creative fire that fuels their music. In just two years, frontman Austin Frink has transformed from a musician battling the uncertainty of ever regaining his singing voice after a life-altering surgery into the driving force behind Bastion Rose. The band’s name itself embodies the transient nature of existence and the significance of cherishing every moment.Their debut EP, “Fade To Blue,” is a testament to their unwavering spirit and artistic passion.
Inspired by a diverse range of musical legends, from timeless classics like Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Lynyrd Skynyrd to contemporary giants like Tool and Foo Fighters, Bastion Rose crafts anthems that resonate with rock enthusiasts worldwide.
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
Ads
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