”Denial -album is a manifestation of hopelessness and cynicism. The end is coming; If there’s a light it is always surrounded by endless darkness. The 9 songs are here, so the truth won’t be forgotten.
Denial was recorded, mixed and mastered during 2023 and 2024. All music and lyrics by Samu Männikkö, arrangements by Serpent God.”
Track list:
denial
beneath
repent
revelation
alive
sermon
oblivion
keyhole
void
Album cover by Heidi Hyvärinen
Serpent God is a band formed 2023 in Iisalmi, Finland. The birth is heavily related to Se, josta ei puhuta -band’s writing process; lots of material were created that didn’t fit in the spectrum of Se, josta ei puhuta. In general, the material was more slow-paced and more eerie. However, the mentioned material was also way too good to be deleted, so therefore another output was needed, so Serpent God was born. Different branches grow from a tree with strong roots. Serpent God has its foundation in extreme metal, but there are also heavy influences from post-rock, doom and smaller splashes of more avantgarde sounds.
After their signing with PERCEPTION – A Division of Reigning Phoenix Music and the release of their first single “Kein Kommando” in August, SCHATTENMANN are back with full force: the band unleashes their brand-new single and music video “Besser als der Rest”, now available on all streaming platforms! The track delivers another fierce preview of their upcoming studio album Endgegner, due for release on March 13, 2026 via PERCEPTION.
With this new chapter, SCHATTENMANN are taking their sound to the next level — heavier, more aggressive, and unapologetically metal. Crushing riffs, thunderous drums, and anthemic hooks define their evolution. “Besser als der Rest” captures that raw intensity perfectly: a song built for the stage and made to hit hard!
“In the end, ‘Besser als der Rest’ [‘Better than the Rest’] is about one thing: to enjoy the moment, to celebrate every day and night, and to never get locked in – neither by others nor yourself. This song is a call to leave your daily routine behind and to live your life to the fullest. The line ‘Wir singen schiefer, wir baggern schlechter’ [‘We sing flatter, we shark worse’] makes clear: It’s not about perfection or adaptation but energy, passion, and authenticity. ‘Besser als der Rest’ isn’t arrogant – this is our statement: we’re different, we’re loud, we’re simply us – and we don’t care what other people think of us.”
With Endgegner [German for “End Boss”], SCHATTENMANN are setting a bold statement: a band reborn in steel and fire – ready to claim their place in the modern metal scene!
30.01.2026 DE Nuremberg – Schattenspiele (w/ AESTHETIC PERFECTION & INDUCTION)
w/ special guests 12.03.2026 DE Frankfurt – Das Bett 13.03.2026 DE Oberhausen – Kulttempel 14.03.2026 DE Stuttgart – LKA Longhorn 15.03.2026 DE Saarbrücken – Garage 19.03.2026 DE Hamburg – Knust 20.03.2026 DE Leipzig – Hellraiser 21.03.2026 DE Erfurt – From Hell 26.03.2026 DE Munich – Backstage (Halle) 27.03.2026 DE Cologne – Luxor 28.03.2026 DE Hanover – MusikZentrum 04.04.2026 DE Berlin – Hole 44 05.04.2026 DE Magdeburg – Factory 13.11.2026 AT Dornbirn – Conrad Sohm 14.11.2026 AT Vienna – Szene
Founded in 2016, Nuremberg-based band SCHATTENMANN have entered the metal world by storm! Pinnacling with their top 10 album “Día de muertos” in 2023, the quartet – singer Frank Herzig, guitarist Jan Shook, bass player Luke Shook & drummer Rorschach – paved their way with impactful songwriting but also with energising live shows. A thrilling combination which has resonated with a wide range of range (mostly) European metalheads so far. Sheer metal and continuous touring are the keys of why SCHATTENMANN have become one of the leading German ambassadors in the hard ‘n’ heavy universe within less than 10 years.
SCHATTENMANN are: Frank Herzig | vocals Jan Shook | guitars Luke Shook | bass Rorschach | drums
Metal Injection today premieres a video for “Mayhem,” the new single from THE MON – the solo project of Urlo, vocalist/bassist of Italian heavy-psychedelic trio Ufomammut, co-founder of the renowned poster art collective Malleus Rock Art Lab, and of the independent label Supernatural Cat. The song marks the latest preview of his upcoming Songs Of Abandon LP.
HE MON’s double-album Embrace The Abandon is structured in two complementary chapters – Songs Of Abandon and Songs Of Embrace – the project depicting a journey of duality: loss and surrender on one side, acceptance and rebirth on the other. The first chapter of this journey, Songs Of Abandon is perhaps the most intimate and vulnerable work Urlo has ever created. Born in a moment of solitude and personal darkness, the album originated from a radical exercise: writing one song a day, for nine consecutive days, using only acoustic guitar and voice. Later, these sketches were shaped into fully realized tracks, with lyrics and subtle layers of sound – not to overwhelm, but to underline the fragile, raw atmosphere that pervades them. The result is a stripped-down, emotionally charged collection that embodies an inner search: the power of music as a tool to face abandonment, to dig into oneself, and ultimately to glimpse the possibility of an embrace.
With Embrace The Abandon, THE MON reaffirms itself as one of the most personal and uncompromising projects. It is a body of work that fuses vulnerability and strength, speaking directly to the listener with sincerity, leading them through shadow towards light. An intimate yet powerful sound experience, intertwining the minimalism of acoustic folk with the dark, visionary tension that has always defined Urlo’s artistic path.
Both albums were written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Urlo at The Howl, Italy, between 2023 and 2025, and as with all Supernatural Cat releases, completed with artwork by the Malleus Rock Art Collective, who also created the animated videos.
With the new single, Urlo reveals, “‘Mayhem’ is a furious piece, voice and guitar joined together to scream what our world has become: a great chaos in which every day we sink deeper and deeper. The lyrics tell of what happens around us: the sky turning more and more into hell, those who should guide us blinded by power, holding the lightning bolts that will lead us to destruction, without realizing that it will also be their fate. The chaos surrounding us is a light that explodes, a star shining in the hands of those who cannot see anything but the vortex of chaos itself. Today more than ever we cannot remain silent: we need to shout against the evil that devours us, against the indifference that is dragging us toward the abyss. Mayhem is not just a song, it is a necessary cry, rage turning into resistance, the voice that breaks the silence before it is too late.”
Metal Injection writes, “If you’re looking for a different kind of heavy today, you’re in the right place. We’re streaming the new single ‘Mayhem’ from THE MON… This one feels like a Monster Magnet cut and I’m here for it.”
Watch THE MON’s video for “Mayhem” first at Metal Injection HERE.
Songs Of Abandonwill be released digitally, on CD, and with both standard and limited LP pressings on November 7th. Those who preorder the limited edition of Songs Of Abandon will have early access to an advance preorder of Songs Of Embrace. Find preorders at the Supernatural Cat webshop HERE and in the USA at A Thousand Arms HERE, and watch the “Your Eyes” video HERE.
The second chapter, Songs Of Embrace, is an instrumental counterpart – darker, ambient, and ritualistic – and it will be unveiled in the Spring of 2026.
Where Ufomammut projects massive, otherworldly soundscapes, THE MON offers a more vulnerable and introspective experience. The music moves through shadowy electronic landscapes, ambient textures, and hypnotic dark folk, always guided by an emotional core that searches for meaning, balance, and transformation. The name THE MON evokes several layers of meaning: a contraction of “demon,” “monk,” and the Japanese word 門 (mon, meaning “gate”), a symbolic passage toward altered states of consciousness and inner truth. This duality of light and dark, sacred and profane, runs through the entire project.
History-making multiplatinum Australian alt-rock and future punk / pop band 5 Seconds of Summer have released the official video for their new single “NOT OK,” directed by Hannah Lux Davis (Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne).
“NOT OK” marks the lead single from their highly anticipated sixth studio album, EVERYONE’S A STAR! due out November 14th – and their first official new music since 2022. To kick off the new chapter, the band surprised fans in Los Angeles with a pop-up performance. Announced just hours before showtime, thousands of fans lined up and down Sunset Boulevard eager to witness the start of the band’s new era and one-of-a-kind event.
The band debuted new songs off the album including lead single “NOT OK,” “Boyband” “Telephone Busy,” “No.1 Obsession” and “Everyone’s A Star!,” alongside fan favorites like “Youngblood,” “She’s So Perfect,” and “Teeth”.
EVERYONE’S A STAR! Tracklist: 1. Everyone’s A Star! 2. NOT OK 3. Telephone Busy 4. Boyband 5. No. 1 Obsession 6. I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep 7. istillfeelthesame 8. Ghost 9. Sick of Myself 10. Evolve 11. The Rocks 12. Jawbreaker
The quartet—Luke Hemmings [vocals, guitar], Michael Clifford [vocals, guitar], Calum Hood [vocals, bass], and Ashton Irwin [vocals, drums]—have boldly elevated their sound to another stratosphere with “NOT OK.” Nodding to everyone from The Prodigy to N.E.R.D., the track’s bright hyper-charged beat could just as easily ignite the dancefloor of an underground rave as it could shake festival grounds anywhere in the world. Across the song, anxious cymbals accent a buoyant bassline, and a hummable guitar solo rings out as Luke carries an emotionally complicated and undeniably catchy chorus, “Hey, I’m not okay! I like the darker side of me, that part of me comes out to play when I’m with you, bite the apple, baby.” It has all the makings of a live staple from the group as well.
Regarding “NOT OK,”Luke commented, “It has the older 5 Seconds of Summer energy, but it’s different—which is the whole M.O. of this chapter. Lyrically, it’s about letting out the darker side of yourself and embracing it. The song is also a nod to the band itself. We pull those sides out of each other.”
Most importantly, it heralds the arrival of the band’s sixth full-length album, EVERYONE’S A STAR!, out November 14th. The guys carefully assembled the record throughout 2024 and 2025, working in Los Angeles and Nashville with the likes of Jason Evigan [Maroon 5, Benson Boone, Papa Roach, Rüfüs Du Sol], Julian Bunetta & John Ryan (Sabrina Carpenter, Teddy Swims)
About the album, Luke added, “This band is made of four people who could all have their own solo albums where they do it all, sing it all, and write it all.Everyone’s A Star!embodies all of that. We were teenagers at the beginning of 5 Seconds of Summer. We were writing with more naivete, but we said what we were thinking. As time goes on, you tend to get a bit more cautious about what you say, but I think this record has more of our original sprit—but with 15 years of wisdom and a dash of reckless abandon.”
Back in 2022, 5 Seconds of Summer dropped their most recent album, 5SOS5. It notably bowed at #2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Billboard Hot 100 hit “Complete Mess.”
Get ready for a whole lot more from 5 Seconds of Summer very soon though.
Their biggest, boldest, and brightest era begins now. This is 5SOS 2.0 – Evolved.
ABOUT 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Formed in Sydney, Australia in 2011, 5 Seconds of Summer have grown from local high school friends into one of the biggest bands of the 21st century. Across fourteen years, the multi-platinum group has sold over 18 million albums, moved more than six million tickets worldwide, generated over 10 billion streams, and achieved three Billboard 200 #1 debuts, while winning multiple accolades at the ARIA Awards, MTV EMAs, MTV VMAs, and beyond. Known for their genre-defying collaborations and globe-spanning tours, the quartet – Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood, and Ashton Irwin – continue to reinvent what a modern band can be.
With the release of their highly anticipated sixth album Everyone’s A Star! – their first under Republic Records – 5 Seconds of Summer usher in their most ambitious era yet, led by the explosive single “NOT OK.”
Drawing from the raw bloodlines of blues, rockabilly, goth rock, and American country, Florida’s dark torchbearers THE NOCTAMBULANT open the gates to the abyss with their new single “Bring The Sorrow.”
With this release, the band channels the haunted spirits of the South, where gospel hymns curdle into laments and salvation tastes of rust and whiskey. “Bring The Sorrow” is the first true blast of sound from a forthcoming chapter in THE NOCTAMBULANT’s evolution, a forceful wake-up call from the shadows of the American heartland.
The track begins with the metaphorical crack of a Bible slamming shut on a pulpit, signaling the end of blind faith and the beginning of reckoning. Its lyrics twist the familiar words of Psalm 91, a passage once meant to promise protection and peace, into something deeply corrupted. In the world of “Bring The Sorrow,” faith offers no refuge, only torment. The song reimagines the sacred as profane, echoing through the backwoods of Appalachia and the swamps below, where every prayer is answered with silence.
“Bring The Sorrow” captures The Noctambulant’s signature fusion of dark Americana and gothic metal, where howling guitars and funeral dirges collide. It is both a sermon and a curse, a lament for a world where redemption has lost its meaning.
About THE NOCTAMBULANT: In 2013, THE NOCTAMBULANT formed in Jacksonville, Florida, with a mission to spread the culture of Southern Appalachia through their unique interpretation of black metal. Merging the genre’s primal aggression with the crushing weight of blackened death metal and the haunting atmospherics of Southern Gothic, they sought to honor the myths, spirits, and eerie folklore of the region.
Founded by E. Helvete (Guitars, Vocals) and D. Franseth (Drums) following the breakup of their psychobilly band, THE NOCTAMBULANT emerged as they delved into the darker realms of black metal. With the addition of Lars Goerschafft (Bass) and, later, Rev Beaumont (Guitar), the band fully embraced a sound that merges relentless intensity with ghostly Appalachian storytelling, crafting an auditory spell of sorrow, brutality, and mysticism.
Their music weaves a sonic tapestry of feral blackened riffs, ominous melodies, and immersive soundscapes steeped in spectral Appalachian lore. Drawing inspiration from metal legends such as VENOM, CELTIC FROST, BATHORY, and DARK FUNERAL, THE NOCTAMBULANT channels both ferocity and haunting atmosphere, merging the unrelenting force of extreme metal with the ghostly echoes of ancient myths and the desolation of the Southern Gothic landscape. Their next album is set to emerge in 2026.
THE NOCTAMBULANT is: E. Helvete – Guitars/Vocals D. Franseth – Drums Lars G – Bass Rev. Beaumont – Lead Guitar
When you really think about it, true Halloween anthems are hard to find. There’s “Monster Mash” and Ministry – no-one would argue with those. But too many others slip in by virtue of a suggestive lyric or even an appropriate title… have you ever actually listened to the words to “Don’t Fear The Reaper”? You might as well repurpose the Stones’s “She’s A Rainbow”… “have you seen her dressed in black?”
Enter, then, WARFIELD, the dark wave dynamo fronted by She Wants Revenge’s Justin Warfield, and “Black Halloween.”
It’s a non-album cut, meaning it’s from neither his most recent Death Rock Devotionals Vol 1 EP nor the forthcoming volume two. Rather, it’s a stand-alone seasonal anthem, written for precisely the reasons outlined above,
Justin explains, “For years I’ve dreamed of writing a Halloween song which could not only be the kind of song I wished existed for my own playlists and listening, but so that I could contribute something to the pantheon if you will. Like, why can’t I write an evergreen holiday song for the goths, punks, death rockers, and freaks who live it before and after October?”
It was not easy, he admits, especially as Halloween already seemed to be just around the corner. This year, however, the timing was perfect.
“One day I walked in the studio, picked up a guitar, and immediately started playing. As luck would have it and as sometimes is the case, what came off my fingers straight away felt right.”
Rather than record it in a traditional way, however, “I took to Instagram and went live, writing the song in front of a live audience. At the end I gave away the title, and tucked it away as I got ready for a tour.” (Watch the Instagram sessions here – live session on IG.)
“A few days before the tour, I wrote the chorus, but I still wasn’t happy with the verses. Then, a few hours before I had to leave for the airport for a European tour, I sat down, rewrote the verses, sang them, did a rough mix of the song, sent it off to the label, and to my mixer so he could put the finishing touches on it while I was flying overseas.”
The result, released today on both single and a truly captivating video, s perfection, neither a plea for understanding (“Everyday Is Halloween”) nor a misappropriated title (“There’s a Ghost In My House”); not a realigned movie hit (“Time Warp”) nor a novelty comic cut. Just a joyous, rambunctious and deliriously illustrative celebration of lifestyle, culture and lust – a love song, an overture and a driving, driven dance number which encapsulates everything we love about this one magical night, and then spreads it out across the entire calendar.
“I tasked myself with a heavy lift,” concludes Justin, “to not only write something I loved, but which could stand the test of time, and though it came about in a truly unorthodox manner, and was finished just in the nick of time, I have to say I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and cannot wait for people to hear it and hopefully make it a part of their tradition and lives”.
“Sleep with all the lights on,” sings Justin… and indeed, you should. But only so you can see what you’re doing, while you do it, and who you’re doing it with. Happy Halloween!
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
