John Norum is mostly known as the founder and lead guitarist from the rock band Europe that quickly took the name as Sweden’s biggest rock export with the songs “The Final Countdown”, “Carrie” and “Rock the Night” and has sold over 15 million albums worldwide. In October 28, 2022 Norum released his 9th solo album titled GONE TO STAY, and is now greeting his fans with a new single and a music video directed by award winning director Patric Ullaeus from rEvolver Film Company.
Today, John Norum is releasing ‘Calling’ from ‘Gone To Stay’ as a single and treating his fans to an accompanying music video. ‘Calling’ is a hard rock song with a driving rhythm and with catchy guitar riffs. The song consists of powerful guitar solos along with soaring vocals, therefore it showcases Norum’s skills as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. The video is dark, doomy and gloomy and it reinforces the song’s message of wanting to escape your past and seeking hope somewhere else.
Savannah, GA swamp rockers BLACK TUSK have announced several U.S. live performances in conjunction with their appearance at Hell in the Harbor on Saturday, May 27! The run kicks off on May 25 in Charlotte, NC and will conclude on May 28 in Richmond, VA. The full run can be found below!
BLACK TUSK (w/ Howling Giant): 05/25: Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone* 05/26: Raleigh, NC @ The Pour House 05/27: Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage (Hell in the Harbor Fest) 05/28: Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall* *w/ Restless Spirit
Fresno, CA’s ELDER DEVIL have shared a new single, titled My Body Is An Earthen Shrine, alongside an accompanying music video directed by vocalist Stephen Muir. My Body Is An Earthen Shrine is the second track to be taken from the grind group’s forthcoming sophomore album, Everything Worth Loving, which is set for release via Prosthetic Records on June 16.
Speaking on the single release, ELDER DEVIL‘s Stephen Muir comments: “My Body Is An Earthen Shrine serves as a spiritual sequel to album track After Flesh and its story of obsession, nature, and transcendence. It is a reminder that devotion may not bring the rewards you are seeking.”
Founded in 2016 by primary songwriter Jacob Lee (Hellish Form, Keeper, PlasticBag FaceMask) and vocalist Stephen Muir, ELDER DEVIL‘s mission statement of crafting corruscating grindcore and apoplectic sludge for the love of extreme music, and the scene they were birthed from, has remained unwavering in its execution. With a handful of EPs and 2019 full-length, The Light Dimmed Eternal, ELDER DEVIL’s latest chapter is an uneasy rumination on grief.
Upon completing writing for the musical components of Everything Worth Loving in January 2021, Muir took meticulous care in penning the lyrics to their sophomore’s 13 tracks. With the passing of his mother at the forefront of his mind, Everything Worth Loving is tinged with personal loss and a sense of displacement. Melding the insular and universal aspects of such grief is exemplified on the title track’s ponderance of love itself, as Muir questions, “Why do we love and why does that love leave?”. ELDER DEVIL’s answers for such questions are not easily stomached, but beneath the surface of their harsh noise lies a comfort within the cacophony.
With Lee once again taking on production duties, ELDER DEVIL commenced recording and mixing sessions between April and May of 2022 before handing over mastering duties to Jacob Plotkin (Cave In, Old Man Gloom, Street Sects and many more). The resulting 13 tracks possess a fervently raw side to the band, capturing ELDER DEVIL’s live explosiveness and grit in equal measure.
The striking black and white cover art for Everything Worth Loving was commissioned from Richmond, VA artist Derek R. Setzer, embodying the restless disquiet of ELDER DEVIL’s latest work. For all of the harsh truths and loss that permeates Everything Worth Loving, ELDER DEVIL’s second long player sees the quartet stand tall on, and come into, their own in uncompromisingly dark fashion.
Everything Worth Loving tracklist: 1. Endless Need 2. The Hounds at Night 3. Awash in Light 4. My Body is an Earthen Shrine 5. New Grief 6. Insomnia 7. What Do You See? 8. After Flesh 9. Puncture Wound 10. Burning Forest 11. What Do You Hear? 12. Dismal and Alone 13. Everything Worth Loving
ELDER DEVIL is: Stephen Muir – vocals Jacob Lee – guitar Peter Ruacho – drums and noise Ryan Urquidez – bass
May 5th will see the release of “Deformity Adrift”, the highly anticipated sophomore full-length record by international extreme metal collective NIGHTMARER. Slated to be released via Vendetta Records and Total Dissonance Worship, the band’s upcoming record is NIGHTMARER‘s most diverse work to date, venturing far beyond the conventions of the already unconventional genre of Dissonant Death Metal, without sacrificing even an ounce of viciousness. Strong undercurrents of Industrial and Doom Metal can be found throughout this 32 min behemoth of a record, which ends with an oppressive wall of sound that will leave you bruised and battered. Featuring current and former members of The Ocean, War From A Harlot’s Mouth and Gigan, NIGHTMARER set out to derive only the most extreme elements of their previous musical endeavors and take them to a much more miserable and punishing level.
With the track “Brutalist Imperator” the band releases today the fourth and final single from the upcoming album. Listen to the song here:
NIGHTMARER on ” Brutalist Imperator”:
“For the 4th and final single of our upcoming full length ‘Deformity Adrift’, we chose the album’s opening track. We dug deeper into our Death Metal-roots and dialed up the aggression to 11, to undeniably serve the subject matter of the lyrics. ‘Brutalist Imperator’ is a look beneath the blustering facade of tyrants, which only appeals to the fragile and subservient. The desperate craving for the illusion of power ultimately reveals their true face: A desperate grimace, marked by complete and utter weakness. Crush ’em all!”
“Deformity Adrift” was mixed and mastered by Raphaël Bovey at MyRoom Studio. Cover art by Jeanne Comateuse. The album will be released on vinyl, CD, cassette tape, digital and streaming formats by Total Dissonance Worship (US) and Vendetta Records (EU).
“Deformity Adrift” is available for pre-order at THIS LOCATION
“Deformity Adrift” tracklist:
Brutalist Imperator
Baptismal Tomb
Throe of Illicit Withdrawal
Tooms
Suffering Beyond Death
Taufbefehl
Hammer of Desolation
Endstadium
Obliterated Shrine
Line-up of the recording: John Collett – Vocals Simon Hawemann – Guitars Keith Merrow – Guitars Brendan Sloan – Bass Paul Seidel – Drums
Chilean melodic doom metallers WOODEN VEINS will be releasing their new album, “Imploding Waves”, on June 23rd 2023 via Ardua Music.
The band is sharing the latest single “Skies” at THIS LOCATION.
WOODEN VEINS, formed by Chilean musicians mostly based in European countries, engages in classic melodic doom metal, combining it with progressive and gothic elements, exploring even further as they bring more heaviness and even some latin flavour into their sound.
“In Finitude”, their debut album (The Vinyl Division), released in 2021, got an excellent response from the media, ranking the album in many lists as one of the best of 2021, in specialised press and was even nominated for the best Metal Album in the Premios Pulsar Chile, the biggest Music Award for Chilean Music.
Now WOODEN VEINS present us their second album “Imploding Waves”, a more complex and refined work. This time the Chileans took a more progressive approach, expanding their stylistic boundaries, mixing darker, heavier and faster passages into their distinctive melodic and atmospheric elements. “It’s about dreams, death and change, the mixture of these elements and their manifestation in ourselves and the world around us.”
“Imploding Waves” was recorded in Chile, Czech Republic, Spain and Germany, between July and October 2022. The album was mixed by Juan Escobar at Vultura Studio in Plzen, CZ and mastered by Sebastian Puente at Audiocustom, CL. The artwork is once again by French artist Valnoir from Metastazis.
Tracklist:
01 – Dreamside Death 02 – Tearing Seas 03 – The Dreamer 04 – L´apell du Vide 05 – Skies 06 – Ganymede 07 – Kaimerah 08 – Broken World 09 – Vuelavá 10 – Calling
Line-up:
Javier Cerda – Vocals Juan Escobar – Guitar Eduardo Poblete – Keys Juan Diaz – Bass Alberto Atalah – Drums
The pioneers of the ‘New Wave of South African Heavy Metal’ DEADLINE are back yet again with the 4th Single and Video called ‘Vitriol’ from their long-awaited 3rd album ‘Vitriol Inc’ (set for release Friday 5 May). Deadline openly bow down to the memory of 80’s Thrash Metal, Power Metal, Heavy Metal and on occasion Sleaze Rock, as they march with intent and pride. ‘Vitriol Inc’ is undoubtedly their most daring release yet!
Frontman Jessy Switchblade shares that ‘Vitriol’ is “the only song on the album that actually follows the Deadline / Lady Blitzkrieg / San Lombardo story. The song is a metaphor for power and elitism and revolves around a weapons and armaments corporation in the city of San Lombardo called Vitriol Inc run by the very corrupt Judge Mental, acting mayor of San Lombardo. It is a full on raging thrasher with a very melodic chorus and a very beautiful movie noir piece in the middle. Inspired by Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’, it fits perfectly with our new sound and direction and will be the final single of this album run before we release the actual album, Vitriol Inc.”
From choosing a band name taken from a Testament song, to wearing their beautifully crafted battle jackets emblazoned with the names of their favourite heavy metal bands, the quintet is hellbent on bringing the nostalgia, exuberance, and blood thirsty passion of the 80’s without necessarily pigeonholing themselves in one sole genre.
Formed in Pretoria, South Africa in 2014, Deadline played their first show at a friend’s house party on 7 March 2015 and have not looked back since. 2 albums and an EP later, they have become the fore runners of the Old School Heavy Metal sound in South Africa which they have dubbed the “New Wave of South African Heavy Metal”. With 6 South African Metal Music Awards to their name, a dedicated fanbase who dub themselves the “Deadline Heavy Metal Crew” and an energetic, passionate live show second only to their heroes Iron Maiden, they march with intent and pride towards the release of their 3rd album, “Vitriol Inc” that will undoubtedly be their most daring release yet.
Led by the effervescent, high flying Frontman Jessy Switchblade, Deadline have undergone a few core changes during the pandemic, but have now solidified their line up around guitarists Judge Mental and The Skullprit (the last original member along with Jessy), bassist Damian Dread and percussionist and back up vocalist Wrighteous Mike. The quintet is hellbent on bringing the nostalgia, exuberance, and blood thirsty passion of the 80’s without necessarily pigeonholing themselves in one sole genre. Their music transcends genres, it transcends generations, it’s an ode to the decade that changed us forever. Sit down in your Lamborghini Countach, strap your seat belt, and let their crashing drums, pulsating bass rhythms, bright neon guitar riffs and screeching vocals take you back to your glorious metallic past! “Vitriol Inc” will be released on Friday 5 May 2023!’
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
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )