After the triumphant release of their recent critically acclaimed EP “Year Of The Four Emperors,” Canadian death metal gladiators EX DEO have just released a lyric video for ‘Galba.’ The song is a ferocious opener for the EP that showcases exactly why they are considered to be at the forefront of the genre.
The band say about the track: “Galba rises from the ashes of Nero’s reign, a tyrant cloaked in the guise of saviour. The track mirrors his ruthless ascent, dominated by unrelenting riffs and venomous proclamations of power. His insatiable hunger for wealth and domination sets the tone for the chaos to follow. As the walls of Rome close in, the Praetorian Guard turns against him in a violent crescendo, heralding his downfall. Galba’s story is a chilling testament to hubris and betrayal.”
The EP is currently available on both CD and as an extremely limited edition vinyl directly from Reigning Phoenix Music. Order/listen to “Year Of The Four Emperors”: https://exdeo.rpm.link/yotfePR
Frontiers Music Srl is thrilled to announce the signing of LYNYRD SKYNYRD, one of the most legendary and enduring bands in rock history. This partnership celebrates the band’s incredible legacy while looking ahead to exciting new projects.
As part of this exciting new collaboration, the Frontiers label will release “Celebrating 50 Years – Live At The Ryman”, a live album and DVD capturing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s historic 50th-anniversary concert at Nashville’s legendary venue in 2022. This special release holds profound significance as it features the final performance of founding member Gary Rossington.
The album showcases the band’s unparalleled energy, their signature blend of blues rock and Southern hard rock swagger and stands as both a heartfelt tribute to Rossington and a celebration of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s lasting legacy in music history.
Johnny Van Zant expressed his enthusiasm about the signing and the upcoming release: “50 years for Lynyrd Skynyrd… WOW! We are so grateful to the devoted fans for their support throughout the years of transitions and losses. Last year we lost the great Mr. Gary Rossington. We unknowingly were able to have captured his final performance with us. It’s bittersweet but what a special place to have had his final performance, the mother ship of music – The Ryman Auditorium!”
“It was a very special night with incredibly talented guests as we honored the iconic musicality of Skynyrd. We are so grateful to the Ryman and to all of those who have worked so hard to make this project become a reality! This will forever be a keepsake in our hearts, and we are so happy to be able to share it with our Skynyrd Nation”, he continued.
“Few bands have left such a lasting impact on rock music as Lynyrd Skynyrd”, stated Serafino Perugino, President & CEO of Frontiers Label Group. “It is an honor to work with such an iconic name, and we can’t wait to bring fans something truly special.”
Tom Lipsky, Head of A&R of North America for Frontiers Label Group, added: “Gary Rossington touched the world with his songwriting and inspired us for decades onstage. It is an honour to bring the words and music of Lynyrd Skynyrd to the fans via Gary’s final performance, surrounded by his Lynyrd Skynyrd family as together they delivered an unforgettable concert experience at The Ryman!”
“We are excited to bring 50 Years of Skynyrd to the fans. The Rossington family felt it was important to share Gary’s last performance with everyone. It was a special night with incredibly talented guest artists, honoring the iconic songs of Skynyrd in the mother church of music, The Ryman Auditorium”, commented Ross Schilling, Vector Management.
With over 28 million records sold in the U.S. and a sound as iconic as the American culture it celebrates, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Lynyrd Skynyrd continue to inspire fans of all ages while embodying the very soul of Southern rock.
From their humble Jacksonville beginnings, through tragedy, reunion, and redemption, the band has earned its place on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” – as well as a prominent spot in the hearts of generations.
In 2023, with the 50th anniversary of their pioneering debut album “(Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd)” the band continues to tour, record, and delight their hundreds of millions of global fans with an eye on both the future and their rich history.
Originally formed in 1964 as My Backyard, the band evolved into Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1968, with a lineup featuring Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass), and Bob Burns (drums). Their 1973 debut album introduced the world to their unmistakable blend of blues, country, and hard rock. Hits like “Sweet Home Alabama” and the timeless “Free Bird” cemented their status as pioneers of the genre.
At the peak of their success, in 1977, a devastating plane crash claimed the lives of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup vocalist Cassie Gaines, leaving the music world in shock. Despite the unimaginable loss, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s legacy endured, and their music remained a beacon of Southern rock.
In 1987, the band reformed with Ronnie’s younger brother, Johnny Van Zant, taking the lead as lead vocalist. Lynyrd Skynyrd continued to tour and record, with guitarist Rickey Medlocke returning to the fold in 1996. Throughout the years, the band remained a driving force in rock, honouring their roots while bringing their signature sound to new audiences.
Recognized as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and ranked No. 95 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists Of All Time.” With over 28 million records sold in the United States alone, their impact on music is undeniable.
Though founding member Gary Rossington’s passing in 2023 marked the end of an era, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s influence remains stronger than ever. Their enduring music, spirit, and legacy will forever stand as a testament to the power of rock and roll.
Hard rock veterans Earshot have unleashed an exclusive lyric video for their latest single, “Where Were You?” a gripping preview from their forthcoming 11-song studio album produced by Grammy-nominated producer Johnny K (Disturbed, Staind, Megadeth). The video debuted this past Monday, available only on the band’s official social media pages, and has already racked up thousands of views from eager fans.
Brimming with raw emotion and powerful instrumentation, “Where Were You?” captures Earshot’s signature dark, melodic intensity, offering a thrilling glimpse into what fans can expect from their long-awaited new album. The song also marks the first of many tracks to come co-written by frontman Wil Martin and guitarist Aaron Fink (Lifer, Breaking Benjamin)—a dynamic pairing of talent that blends their unique songwriting styles into an emotionally charged and sonically rich experience. This powerful collaboration is sure to excite both Earshot and old school Breaking Benjamin fans alike.
“Our fans have been waiting for a new album, and we couldn’t be more excited to share ‘Where Were You?’ as the first glimpse of this new chapter,” says Wil Martin. “We wanted the lyric video to be immersive, simple, and direct, and keeping it exclusive to our social media ensures that our most loyal fans experience it first.”
The release has already ignited a frenzy online, with fans flooding the comments section with praise and anticipation for the full album. With Johnny K’s masterful production and the powerhouse songwriting duo of Martin and Fink, this record is shaping up to be one of Earshot’s most compelling efforts yet.
Head to Earshot’s official social media pages to watch the lyric video for “Where Were You?” and be among the first to experience the heavy chugging energy of this hard-hitting new track.
UPCOMING 2025 TOUR DATES: 4/24 – Austin, TX. – COME AND TAKE IT LIVE! 4/25 – Houston, TX. – SAWYER PARK ICEHOUSE (FREE SHOW) 4/26 – San Antonio, TX. – FIESTA OYSTER BAKE (w/ SUGAR RAY, TONIC, & VERTICAL HORIZON) 8/14 – Glen Flora, WI. – NORTHWOODS ROCK RALLY
Törzs, Hungary’s premier instrumental post-rock band, return with the understated sonic beauty of Menedèk, their first new music in six years, out 16th May via Pelagic Records. In celebration, Törzs have released the first single ‘Otthon’.
Meaning ‘At Home’ in Hungarian, ‘Otthon’ serves as a de facto introduction to the record. The song’s lilting groove, soaring yet soft guitar palette and the band’s signature delicate dynamism all combine to invite the listener to reflect; not steering one way or another yet inviting us to close our eyes and join the flow.
Loosely translating as ‘Refuge’, Menedèk sees the freshly bolstered trio in their element; finding shelter, comfort and joy in the act of creative collaboration whilst the storm of day to day life weathers ever on.
A steadfast and admirable mission statement centred on staying true to themselves in the moment, being open to growth and documenting this process as honestly as possible has led to TÖRZS building a reputation as one of Hungary’s most exciting musical collectives. Three stunning albums of organic and perfectly composed contemplation, as well as the band’s transcendental live shows alongside acts including contemporaries We Lost The Sea, Oh Hiroshima, Föllakzoid and more have placed TÖRZS at the forefront of a post-rock movement that prizes the shared experience of band and listener above all else.
The band’s previous full-length release, 2019’s Tükor, was recorded live at Aggteleki Cseppkőbarlang, a UNESCO World Heritage protected cave system, 500 metres below the Aggteleki National Park. Embracing the cave’s utterly unique natural reverb almost as a fourth member led to Tükor receiving critical acclaim, with TÖRZS were subsequently nominated for the HEMI Music Awards 2022 and invited to perform at the likes of Moscow Music Week (2020), The Budapest Showcase Hub (2021) and 2024’s Changeover Festival in Belgrade, Serbia.
Whilst the intervening years have seen unprecedented change on a global scale, TÖRZS too found themselves in a state of flux. The band returned to the more traditional studio setting in 2023, working alongside long-time producer György Ligeti, in order to faithfully capture the intimate energy of songs meticulously crafted together in their small rehearsal space, a far cry from 2019’s subterranean setting. However, having spent countless hours writing, orchestrating and recording the pieces that have become Menedèk, the band’s founding drummer Zsombor Lehoczky stepped away from the band and music as a whole. Where this might have been catastrophic for any other band, remaining members Soma Balázs and Dániel Nyitray soon found a connection with Tamás Szijártó, who approached TÖRZS’ music with the same openness to creativity in the moment; not ‘performing’ as such, but simply working together to produce breathtaking, musical escapism away from the daily humdrum.
The album’s themes of shelter, refuge and support resound clearly on lead single ‘Otthon’. Meaning ‘At Home’ in Hungarian, ‘Otthon’ serves as a de facto introduction to the record. The song’s lilting groove, soaring yet soft guitar palette and the band’s signature delicate dynamism all combine to invite the listener to reflect; not steering one way or another yet inviting us to close our eyes and join the flow.
Elsewhere, the pounding, chiming ‘Levegővétel’ proves TÖRZS are still staying true to their mission statement of documenting the inevitable process of change. Here the band embrace elements of post-rock’s harsher, heavier side with a cacophony of driving half-time drums and distorted, open-chord guitars yet still provide brief havens of space for themselves, the song and the listener alike to breathe before the euphoric swell rises anew.
Whilst TÖRZS’ previous full-length effort was a spectacular collision of the band’s tight-knit existence and the (literal) echo chamber of the world outside, Menedèk is introspective, understated and refreshingly brave in its honesty. TÖRZS have opened the doors to their inner sanctum, their rehearsal space, their songwriting process, their friendship; inviting us to live in it with them, to revel in the moment together.
Track list: 1. Egy pillanatban a végtelen 2. Levegővétel 3. Átfordul 4. Földet ér 5. Otthon
While they’ve always ebbed and flowed between different extremes over the course of the past 30 years, on their upcoming seventh album, …and Oceans are surging onto the scene with their most expansive experiment in symphonic black metal. The Regeneration Itinerary melds black and death metal with symphonic, industrial and electronic elements, plus inspiration from Paulo Coelho’s best-selling novel The Alchemist.
The band’s latest single from The Regeneration Itinerary pushes them into further uncharted territory. With its relentless riffs, soaring orchestration and maze-like song structure, “Prophetical Mercury Implement” dives deep into the album’s overarching themes of transformation, duality and rebirth.
On “Prophetical Mercury Implement”, …and Oceans encapsulate the full metal alchemy of The Regeneration Itinerary. The band’s latest single draws upon the volatile yet transformative properties of mercury. Vocalist Mathias Lillmåns dissolves into reflective waters, where self-awareness and annihilation become indistinguishable. “Now, I am the medium / I am the stream… Drowning in argent colors / This vast bottomless ocean.”
“Prophetical Mercury Implement” is the turning point in the album’s narrative. It embodies the struggle between light and darkness, stagnation and progress, fate and free will.
“‘The Prophetical Mercury Implement’ is an existential realization”, Lillmåns says. “I was exploring some very deep waters at some point, I could see the mercury dripping from my side, but still wanted more, searching for new dangerous currents to take me further.
“I just kept on feeding the destruction until one day I had reached some kind of a threshold. Even though this track is a view from a vast bottomless depth it also offers a glimpse of the other side, a promise of redemption and transcendence.”
Weaving between chaotic black metal and dreamlike passages, “Prophetical Mercury Implement” surges forth as a towering demonstration of how …and Oceans continue to evolve amidst the landscape of symphonic black metal.
The video for “Prophetical Mercury Implement” was created by Aarni Visuals.
Cover Art: Adrien Bousson
Tracklist: 1. Inertiae (4:30) [WATCH] 2. Förnyelse i Tre Akter (5:07) 3. Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics (4:29) 4. The Form and the Formless (3:32) 5. Prophetical Mercury Implement (6:57) [WATCH] 6. The Fire in Which We Burn (3:04) 7. The Ways of Sulphur (4:17) 8. I Am Coin, I Am Two (4:25) 9. Towards the Absence of Light (4:49) 10. The Terminal Filter (5:22) 11. Copper Blood, Titanium Scars (Bonus Track) (4:14) 12. The Discord Static (Bonus Track) (3:35) Full runtime: 54:22
Chaos chameleons. Nocturnal shapeshifters. The skyward trajectory of idiosyncratic Finnish extremists …and Oceans has been serpentine and sublime.
Since rising in 1995 from the ashes of death metal outfit Festerday, the group’s esoteric take on extreme music has seem them draw on a gamut on contrasting elements, ranging from black and death metal to classical, industrial and EBM, forever questing through various line-up changes, defying expectations while remaining wholly true to themselves.
“We’ve never been tied to one particular genre,” explains founding member, guitarist Timo Kontio. “As a band, we are driven to explore, to traverse unfamiliar landscapes, while always preserving our core sound. It’s about striking a balance. There’s the constant need in this band for renewal and ambition, but never at a cost to our identity.”
The group’s earliest albums, The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts (1998) and The Symmetry of I: The Circle of O (1999), combined bombastic synth-driven salvos, blisteringly raw guitars, piercing banshee shrieks and ornate gothic arrangements in eviscerating wrath-fuelled blasts, while several celestial passages and near-dungeon synth segues already demonstrated the band’s need to mix things up.
A more seismic shift came in the mutant forms of A.M.G.O.D. (2001) and Cypher (2002), which saw …and Oceans transmogrify into a crushing cybernetic colossus, bulldozing into dystopian anti-futures with batteries of scalding techno beats and chugging palm-muted malevolence.
Accompanied by frontman Kena Strömsholm’s android syntax, the band’s dark heart now pumped corrosive hydraulic fluids around digital membranes, its symphonic black metal supercharged by martial industrial rhythms and infectious melo-death grooves.
The metamorphosis intensified with an interim rebrand as …and Oceans disbanded and its members reassembled under the name Havoc Unit in 2005, a vehicle for further mechanised contagions and noise worship, issuing their sole full-length, h.IV+ (Hoarse Industrial Viremia), in 2008.
But throughout these detours the mournful essence of …and Oceans’ singular universe endured, gathered together by a lamenting thread, a dolefulness unique to the Finnish scene, borne emphatically in the impassioned guitars of Kontio and his axe-wielding brother-in-arms, Teemu Saari. “Melancholia is everywhere, it’s in all the music that I make, especially my lead work,” elaborates Kontio. “It’s a key factor, distinctive to the whole …and Oceans catalogue.”
The band’s insatiable thirst for reinvention would subsequently find sustenance in its 90s roots, recasting the symphonic pomp of the past in the ardent furnace of experience and experimentation. Reconvening under the …and Oceans banner in 2017, the resulting brace of albums – Cosmic World Mother (2020) and As in Gardens, So in Tombs (2023) – redefined the group once more with ornate epics brimful of deliciously grim Karelian melodies and the chimerical atmospheres of keyboardist Antti Simonen, while new vocalist Mathias Lillmåns, replacing the departing Strömsholm, reinforced ties to black metal’s second wave with his devastatingly toxic rasp.
Now, 30 years on from their auspicious birth, …and Oceans have unveiled their most accomplished statement yet. A flamboyant distillation of the group’s grand nocturnal art, The Regeneration Itinerary assimilates all their hopes, dreams and influences into an uncompromising document of ravenous intent, with inebriating stylistic hybrids such as ‘Inertiae’ and ‘The Form and the Formless’ seamlessly fusing the heady onrush of symphonic black metal to the bludgeoning pulse of Simonen’s trance-dance hypnosis.
“The new album can be seen as a synthesis of our entire back catalogue,” suggests Lillmåns. “But there are new levels of extremity, too, ones that we’ve never reached before. These songs simply demanded harsher vocals. The riffs commanded it, and who am I to disobey?”
“This is our most experimental album since our comeback,” states Kontio. “It might be considered a continuation of the music we made in the 90s, but the sound has ripened and developed as our individual tastes have broadened, our inspirations subconsciously feeding into the band’s sound, necessitating change. From the very start, this band has encouraged progression and growth.”
Representing an intrepid summation of …and Oceans’ extraordinary journey, their continuing evolution, The Regeneration Itinerary locates the band’s dramatic thaumaturgical blends within a conceptual framework of opposites (and opposition).
“The Regeneration Itinerary explores the interplay between darkness and light, chaos and order, spiritual and material realms, with each song embodying an experience for the mind and body, navigating a passage to the present moment,” explains Lillmåns.
“The album works like a guide,” he continues. “Teaching us that not everything can be defined as simply being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘light’ or ‘dark’, ‘copper’ or mercury’, underscoring the perpetual dance of dualities in the human experience.”
Line-up: Mathias Lillmåns – Vocals Teemu Saari – Guitar Timo Kontio – Guitar Pyry Hanski – Bass Antti Simonen – Keyboards Kauko Kuusisalo – Drums
Production Credits: Recorded at Inka Studio / SoundSpiral Audio, Orimattila, Finland. Producer & Engineered by Juho Räihä. Mixed & Mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio, Söderfors, Sweden.
Renowned for their captivating stage presence and theatrical performances, Vulture Industries are proud to announce the anniversary reissue of their acclaimed 2013 masterpiece, “The Tower”. This celebrated “Not Avant-Garde” album will be re-released in a stunning Green/Black Galaxy Swirl vinyl (45RPM) edition via Dark Essence Records on May 16.
Frontman Bjørnar comments on the re-issue and shows: “I consider “The Tower” to be the album that solidified our musical expression, and set the course for our future. Inspired and ambitious… Bombastic yet at times tender and moody… Meticulous yet flawed… the album is surely human, and probably our most important one to date. Tall croocked and dangerous. Just like the world.”
In celebration, Vulture Industries have announced a small run of ‘The Tower’ anniversary shows, which will happen this Spring. A full list of confirmed shows can be found below.
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
