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ICONIC Share New Single + Visualizer ‘Tears Keep On Falling’ from Upcoming Album

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 13, 2026
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: ICONIC. Leave a comment
Composite photo by Justin Roszkowski

Hard rock supergroup Iconic – featuring Michael Sweet (guitars), Joel Hoekstra (guitars), Marco Mendoza (bass), Tommy Aldridge (drums), and Nathan James (vocals) – share today the new single and visualizer, “Tears Keep On Falling”, taken from the upcoming sophomore album “II”, scheduled for July 31, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl.

Nathan James commented: â€œI loved singing this song in the studio. Such a great chorus and I really hope the listeners enjoy it as much as I do!”

Michael Sweet said: â€œI’m really proud to be a part of such an iconic band, no pun intended! It takes me back to the glory days, when rock ruled radio and it was topping the charts. We created this album to remind people of those times. Here’s to “Tears Keep On Falling”!”

Joel Hoekstra added: â€œI hope everyone enjoys “Tears Keep On Falling”.  It was killer to lean into the groove that Tommy Aldridge and Marco Mendoza gave us for this one.  It was also great fun to play the harmony lead lines with Michael Sweet and finally to hear Nathan James belt out the vocals like only he can!”

“Tears Keep On Falling” is a powerful rock ballad,it will get your attention as soon as you hear it, from the first verse. Nathan’s vocals are amazing and Michael and Joel’s guitars are on fire
 Tommy A at the helm driving! Enjoy!”, said Marco Mendoza.

Tommy Aldridge also exclaimed: â€œSuch a honor and a blessing working with Nathan, Marco, Michael and Joel again. Consummate pros!”

Pre-Order “II” HERE

Iconic return with “II”, a second album that doesn’t just continue the band’s journey – it defines it. Where their debut introduced the chemistry between five world-class musicians, II sharpens that vision into a clearer, heavier, and more confident sonic identity, delivering a sound that is more powerful, more direct, and unmistakably rock.

At the heart of the album lies the electrifying guitar partnership of Joel Hoekstra and Michael Sweet, delivering a masterclass in soaring melodies, blazing solos, and muscular riffs that perfectly balance technical brilliance with pure hard-rock attitude. Beneath them, the rhythm section of Tommy Aldridge and Marco Mendoza drives the record with thunderous authority, creating a groove that is both massive and relentless.

The album kicks off with “Cry No More”, a high-octane opener that immediately sets the tone – an energetic slice of hard rock packed with driving riffs, explosive drums, and a chorus built to stick. 

On the other side of the emotional spectrum, “Tears Keep On Falling” showcases the band’s dynamic range, unfolding as an electrifying power ballad where melody, atmosphere, and intensity come together in dramatic fashion.

Towering above it all is Nathan James, whose performance on “II” is nothing short of extraordinary – powerful, soulful, and commanding, elevating every track with unmistakable presence.

With bigger riffs, deeper grooves, and a stronger sense of identity, “II” captures Iconic at full force: a band no longer introducing itself but fully owning its sound.

“II” Tracklist:

1.    Cry No More
2.    All I Want
3.    Open My Eyes
4.    Tears Keep On Falling
5.    Take Me To The Place
6.    S.O.S.
7.    Nothing Left For Me
8.    Far Away
9.    Valley Of Lost Souls
10.    Written In The Stars
11.    Heart Of Stone

Line Up:
Nathan James – Vocals
Michael Sweet – Guitars
Joel Hoekstra – Guitars
Marco Mendoza – Bass
Tommy Aldridge – Drums

Keyboards by Antonio Agate
Backing Vocals by Marco Pastorino

Follow ICONIC:
Facebook
Instagram

WITCH OF THE VALE’s Triumphant Return with “Lovesongs For The Damned” Album

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 13, 2026
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: Witch Of The Vale. Leave a comment

It’s been a long time
 way too long, in fact
 since we last heard from Witch Of The Vale
 It was back in 2021 that Cleopatra Records released their debut album Commemorate and, while the self-released digital singles “Love of a Father” and “Power of Love,” and the masterful 100 Ways To Leave Volume 1 EP certainly fed the fans’ hunger, Lovesongs For The Damned is sure to fill an aching void regardless.

Ethereal and haunting, Witch Of The Vale hail from the serene shores of Scotland’s myth-ridden Loch Lomond, and the remote – but so beautiful – Outer Hebrideas, and made their public debut in 2018, with the single “The Way This Will End.” They followed up with “Trust The Pain” and “Changeling” – evocative and emotional electronic soundscapes woven around Erin’s delicate but never less than captivating vocal.  That’s when Cleopatra discovered them.

And while it is easy to see how the duo have built such a loyal following among the Goth community, their sound expands way beyond any expected parameters – and into wider pastures too, with their music soundtracking such modern horror classics as Cocaine Werewolf, Baphomet and Scavenger.

Initially intended as a companion volume to 100 Ways To Leave Volume 1, but swiftly outgrowing the EP format, Lovesongs for the Damned is sensual and seductive, the kind of album that makes you yearn for darkness to fall – or which could cause it to do so, whatever time of day it is.  

Opening with an alternate version of  â€Love of a Father,” with Erin’s spectral vocal colliding with brutal,  brittle percussion; and delivering, too, an unheard revision of 100 Ways’ â€œPorcelain and Ivory,” Lovesongs for the Damned features remixes, too, of two of the collection’s most dramatic songs, “What’s Left of Me” and the title track.

And then there’s “The Curse,” which sounds exactly like the title says it ought to, and a contrarily fragile take on Johnny Cash/Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” – most recently heard as the very last recording ever made by the Witch’s Cleopatra label mate, the so sadly missed Melanie. Which is probably the right place to mention a future Witch of the Vale project, bringing their magic to another Melanie recording, “All The Pretty Little Horses.”  Watch this space for further details.

For now, however, we have Lovesongs for the Damned, a gorgeous collection that steps out of your dreams to foster a whole new, fresh reality.

DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/witchofthevale_lovesongsforthedamned

Track listing

  1. Love of a Father (alternate version)
  2. What’s Left Of Me
  3. Porcelain and Ivory (alternate version)
  4. Lovesong For The Damned
  5. The Curse
  6. Hurt
  7. What’s Left Of Me (Promenade Cinema Remix)
  8. Lovesong For The Damned (Minimalist Version)

SELFISH THINGS Announce New Album “Receptivity”, Out October 9th

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 13, 2026
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: SELFISH THINGS. Leave a comment
📾: Eden Graham

Alt-rockers SELFISH THINGS are thrilled to announce the release of their new studio album, ‘Receptivity,’ set for release on October 9, 2026 via FLG.

After releasing their single “Sunlight” in March, the band now unleashes their new track â€œEffigy,” along with an official video, available below.

Frontman Alex Biro comments:

“Admittedly – this was a song I hated that quickly became everyone’s favourite. I wrote the lyrics in an hour at the lowest point of my sobriety in 2022. I can’t say anything about it beyond it was stream of consciousness, clearly blistering, and is something I can’t listen to often without feeling sh*t I’ve tried to bury. I hope it brings you peace.”

SELFISH THINGS’ â€˜Receptivity’ is a raw and unflinching portrait of frontman Alex Biro’s reckoning with collapse and recovery. Born from the ashes of a life derailed – years of relentless touring, addiction, and the stillness of a pandemic that forced reflection – â€˜Receptivity’ is both a lifeline and a rebirth. Created alongside longtime collaborators Michael Ticar and Mike Tompa, and mixed by Sam Guaiana (Bayside, Neck Deep, Against The Current), the album took shape during Biro’s earliest days of sobriety. It’s not just a return – it’s a declaration. Brutally honest, emotionally charged, and rooted in redemption, â€˜Receptivity’ stands as a testament to survival, accountability, and the strength to rebuild when everything falls apart.

Originally a moniker for Biro, SELFISH THINGS released their debut EP â€˜Vertical Love’ (A Wolf at Your Door Records) produced by James Paul Wisner (Paramore, Underoath, Dashboard Confessional). The release earned the attention of BBC Radio 1’s Dan P. Carter and earned the band a 2017 cover spot on Spotify’s New Noise playlist.

Their 2019 debut LP â€˜Logos’ (Pure Noise Records) produced by Drew Fulk (Knocked Loose, Beartooth, Lil Peep) landed the band on multiple Billboard charts before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the album cycle short, forcing the band into hiatus.

In the years since, Biro and bandmate Michael Ticar have collaborated with Juno Award–winning producer Mike Tompa, writing music born from the tail end of addiction and carried into sobriety.

Now four years sober and working in peer support within the touring community, Biro says the band’s return feels less like a comeback and more like a reckoning – a chance to speak plainly about addiction, mental health, and the danger of freezing people at their worst moments.

‘Receptivity’ is a triumph of the human experience. It is a story of a man who understands the depths of his own shadow, unafraid to face the thunder of his past. In a society obsessed with division and virtue signalling, the three friends have created something inextricably tied to challenging the status quo. An album meant to tell the story of a man willing to stand in front of the world and acknowledge his brokenness and its impact without blame. A man tired of division and anger. A man who is changed for the better.

Biro states:

“This wasn’t supposed to be an album. It’s still not really an album to me, or to any of us. More just
 closure, I guess. I was at the beginning of my full-blown addiction on the last tour we ever did before COVID stopped the world in 2020. I hated myself and I hated the world more than I really knew at the time. I’m four years sober on the 18th of May, working as a sober coach and clinician with folks who struggle with the same things I do, even in my recovery. The profits will be donated to the hospital where I went to rehab, and (admittedly), we don’t really know where to go (or if we’ll go anywhere with it) afterward.”

“The only thing that’s brought me peace in the aftermath of the cataclysm of my addiction is being of service to others. I think deep down, releasing this for whoever needs to hear it is an extension of that. Everything beautiful blooms from the mud. Everything beautiful grows from the dirt”, he added. â€œThis is for those who can accept that the things they’ve been through can either be the poison cup they sip from or the counterweight that lifts themselves and others up. That being imperfect is being human. And that suffering is singular, and universal.”

Pre-order the album here: https://ffm.bio/selfishthings-receptivity

Receptivity’ Track List:

  1. Intro
  2. Plant The Seed
  3. Sunlight
  4. Violence
  5. Effigy
  6. Cracks
  7. Liability
  8. Mugshot
  9. Eye For An Eye
  10. Outro

SELFISH THINGS are:
Alex Biro
Michael Ticar

More info: https://www.facebook.com/selfishthingsband

ROTTING CHRIST Announce Reissue of “Khronos”, Out July 10th

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 13, 2026
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: Rotting Christ. Leave a comment
Photo by © David Parham

ROTTING CHRIST, are reissuing their album Khronos. First released in 2000, the sixth album from the Greek legends stands as the final pillar of the band’s Gothic period, which started in the mid-1990s, before they turned toward the mythology and cultural roots that characterize their later albums.

Season of Mist will reissue Khronos on July 10, 2026. Pre-order: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/RCReissues

Recorded in the dead of a Nordic winter at Sweden’s Abyss Studios, Khronos carries a sense of cold. Keyboards pull back beneath the guitars rather than ride above them. The album’s overall atmosphere leans toward shadow rather than sheen. Songs like “Thou Art Blind” and “Aeternatus” hit with a ferocity closer to Rotting Christ’s uncompromising 1993 debut Thy Mighty Contract than to the polished gothic sound of the recently reissued Sleep of the Angels. “My Sacred Path,” “Art of Sin,” and the title track hold onto the melodic intelligence of the band’s late-90s records, threading dark wave undercurrents through slower, more insinuating structures. The eleven-minute closer “Glory of Sadness” eventually yields to an industrial-inflected hidden passage—a signal, in its own oblique way, that a door is closing.

Among the most debated moments on Khronos is Rotting Christ’s cover of Current 93’s “Lucifer Over London”. The band’s restrained and deliberate reading of David Tibet’s Neofolk original drew divided responses on release and has continued to do so since.

Tracklist:

  1. Thou Art Blind (02:47)
  2. If It Ends Tomorrow (04:28)
  3. My Sacred Path (05:38)
  4. Aeternatus (03:15)
  5. Art of Sin (05:18)
  6. Lucifer Over London (05:16)
  7. Law of the Serpent (02:08)
  8. You Are I (03:27)
  9. Khronos (06:37)
  10. Fateless (04:10)
  11. Time Stands Still (05:04)
  12. Glory of Sadness (11:26)
    Full runtime: 59:39

Current Lineup:
Sakis Tolis — Vocals, Guitar
Kostis Foukarakis — Guitars
Kostas Cheliotis — Bass
Themis Tolis — Drums

Khronos recording Line-up:
Sakis Tolis — Guitars, Vocals
Kostas Vassilakopoulos — Guitars
Andreas Lagios — Bass
Georgios Tolias — Keyboards
Jan Roger Halvorsen — Drums (session)

Follow Rotting Christ:
Official Website: https://www.rotting-christ.com/en/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rottingchristofficial/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/rottingchristofficial/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/athanatoieste/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RottingChristOfficia/
Bandcamp: https://rottingchristofficial.bandcamp.com/
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/artist/rotting-christ/28441629/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FhkwcO8Jd7BRWdllBpXBJ/

SĂĄtan Fest Announces Day Split for 2026 Edition

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 13, 2026
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: SĂĄtan Fest. Leave a comment

The Icelandic SĂĄtan Festival has announced the time table and day split for their 2026 edition, which will be held on 4-6 June in StykkishĂłlmi, Iceland. With the recent addition of Icelandic rock legends SĂłlstafir, the line-up for this year’s edition is now complete – with prestigious acts including The Haunted, Hamferð, MĂșr, Aborted and many more.

A full list of confirmed acts and the timetables per day can be found below. (Day) tickets are available here: http://satan-festival.com/tickets

Thursday June 4
SĂłt
Bootlegs
Carpe Noctem
Tailgunner
Cadaver
Voivod
Sventevith (MisĂŸyrming and Nergal)
Stripshow

Friday June 5
Barnaveiki
Nexion
Gavin Portland
MĂșr
Necrowretch
Hamferð
Aborted
Sign

Saturday June 6
Kookaveen
Wistaria
Devine Defilement
Power Paladin
Skitsystem
MisĂŸyrming
The Haunted
SĂłlstafir

SĂĄtan is a three day metal festival happening in StykkishĂłlmur on the SnĂŠfellsnes peninsula. The festival focuses on offering a variety of Iceland’s best metal bands as well as a carefully curated selection of international bands.

The organization behind SĂĄtan consists of metalheads and musicians that have been active in the Icelandic scene for up to 30 years and have extensive experience of organizing music festivals and concerts as well as general band related activities.

SĂĄtan prides itself on inclusivity and a good time for all; our goal is that everyone goes home with a smile!

Såtan Festival online:
https://www.facebook.com/SatanMetalFestival
https://www.instagram.com/satanmetalfestival
https://www.youtube.com/@SatanMetalFestival

DARKTRIBE Release Instrumental Version of Latest Album “Forgotten Reveries”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 13, 2026
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: DARKTRIBE. Leave a comment
photo by Darktribe

Darktribe has released the instrumental version of their latest album â€œForgotten Reveries”, originally released on November 2025 by Scarlet Records.

The fourth studio album for the cult progressive power metal act, “Forgotten Reveries” embodies the sonic and lyrical essence of the very own Darktribe universe. 

Join the French band in this whirlwind of catchy riffs and captivating rhythms, an essential call to arms for all fans of swirling, dynamic and melodic prog power metal. “Forgotten Reveries” explores themes such as fear, solitude, childhood, the journey of life, family, and the cultural heritage unique to each human being. 

Powerful, modern and forward-thinking, this record will immerse you in a world where time makes you lose your mind and humanity is left to its own devices. 

Life or death, hope or despair, you’re now at the crossroads of your legacy â€“ step into the dark tribe!

artwork by Baptiste Araujo

“Forgotten Reveries” tracklist:

1 Paradox
2 I Walk Alone
3 The Fallen World
4 Sicilian Danza
5 Ghost Memories
6 Eden And Eclipse
7 From Star To Dust
8 Reality
9 Kings In The Sand
10 Mornings Of Fear
11 Son Of Illusion

Total running time – 53:51

STREAM IT – the latest album “Forgotten Reveries” available: ORDER IT/STREAM IT

In other news, Darktribe has announced the “Japan Reveries Tour ’26”:

28.08 Nishinari Club Water (Osaka)
30.08 Kanda Myojin Hall (Tokio) – Evoken Fest
31.08 Holiday Shinjoku (Tokyo)

Darktribe:
Anthony Agnello – vocals
LoĂŻc Manuello – guitars, keyboards
Bruno Caprani – bass
Guillaume Morero – drums

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