This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sound Of Liberation (Desertfest Berlin, Up In Smoke, Keep It Low, Lazy Bones Fest), booking agency for some of the best bands the rock scene has to offer (Brant Bjork Trio, Yawning Man, Slomosa, Greenleaf & many more) and now also record label for Ruff Majik, Kant & more). To celebrate two decades of finest heavy riffs, Sound Of Liberation will host multiple events throughout 2025, kicking off on March 29, 2025 for a one-day-only festival, the previously-announced SOL Sonic Ride Cologne feat. COLOUR HAZE, 1000MODS, SLOMOSA, MY SLEEPING KARMA, GREENLEAF and many more. Now, Sound Of Liberation continues its 20th anniversary celebration with the SOLSonic Ride Part II, taking place on June 28th at Schlachthof Wiesbaden in Germany! The outstanding line-up for Wiesbaden reads as follows:
Sound Of Liberation CEO, Matte Vandeven, recently commented:
“Dear Friends, Fans, Partners,
after very difficult last years we are more than thankful and happy to be able to celebrate our 20 years company birthday. As we can´t feature all our beloved bands on one day we are planning further events throughout 2025.
A big Hug goes out to my amazing team ( all current and former members), nothing would have happend without you! Thank you, all the fans and heavy rock music lovers for all your support throughout the years! Hopefully we can welcome you at our SOL Sonic Ride events.”
For more info and tickets for the upcoming SOL events, in Cologne, Wiesbaden or upcoming festivals such as Desertfest Berlin & more, please visit:
Time To Kill Records is proud to announce the signing of the Belgian goregrind powerhouse BRUTAL SPHINCTER to its roster. Known for their raw energy, outrageous themes, and relentless live performances, the band is gearing up to unleash their most ambitious release to date this spring.
The upcoming album marks a significant evolution in BRUTAL SPHINCTER’s sound, showcasing a more dynamic and technical approach while staying true to their unmistakable goregrind roots. Fans can expect an explosive blend of unhinged brutality, groove-laden riffs, and intricate compositions, highlighting the band’s growth without sacrificing the chaotic fun that has become their trademark.
Stay tuned for further updates, including the album’s title, tracklist and release date.
Offending everyone since April 1st, 2013, BRUTAL SPHINCTER have, over the years, established themselves as one of the leading acts in the current goregrind scene.
Bringing political themes into their music, they dub themselves “POOlitical” and, through offbeat and satirical humor, take a stand against all forms of extremism while championing freedom of speech.
Despite their extreme musical style, they are one of those rare acts that can seamlessly fit into any type of event or festival. They have proven this time and again, performing at some of the biggest metal gatherings in Europe, such as Hellfest, Summer Breeze Open Air, Alcatraz, Motocultor, Party San, Metaldays, and more, as well as at the most extreme metal events like Obscene Extreme, DeathFeast Open Air, Meh Suff, Kaltenbach Open Air and Netherlands Deathfest.
BEWARE! Party, dance, groove, and brutality are the elements they always bring with them to every show.
The Court of Appeal in Norway has rejected the final appeal of Iranian black metal musician Atash (who performs under the project name Kaaboos), leaving him with no further legal recourse. He now faces imminent deportation to Iran, where he is at grave risk of torture and prosecution due to his music and activism.
Atash’s case highlights the severe persecution faced by artists in Iran who challenge the regime’s oppressive laws. Heavy metal music is considered blasphemous and forbidden, with those associated with it facing severe punishment, including imprisonment and even death.
Atash’s situation is particularly precarious due to his public profile. He has openly protested against the Iranian government, including a performance outside the Iranian embassy in Oslo in 2023. “My face is all over the internet,” Atash stated in a previous appeal to the Norwegian government. “Upon return to Iran my life would be in great danger due to the recognition I have received from the governmental people, also known as Basij.”
In addition to his music and activism, Atash faces compulsory military service in Iran, which he has been absent from since leaving the country. This absence, combined with his artistic expression and public protests, makes his return to Iran a near-certainty of imprisonment and further persecution. He previously expressed concerns about facing execution.
“I beg you to spare my parents the thought of losing a son,” Atash pleaded in his letter to the Norwegian government.
Atash’s music project, Kaaboos (کابوس), which translates to “Nightmare” in Farsi/Persian, uses black metal as a vehicle to express his experiences and challenge the oppressive environment he fled. His music reflects the struggles against religious and dictatorial oppression in Iran. His latest album, “Anti-Cosmic Rebellion”, is available digitally, with physical versions to follow in 2025. Two videos from his performance outside the Iranian embassy in Oslo, “Wrath of Gods” and a Taake cover, are available online. “Wrath of Gods” was featured as Metal Hammer UK’s track of the week.
Italian doom metal alchemists MESSA will release their new full-length, The Spin, on April 11th through their new label home of Metal Blade Records.
Sailing past their tenth anniversary in 2024, MESSA takes another step towards legendary status with their majestic fourth album The Spin, which takes its listeners on a breathtaking journey across the wide-open skies of their creative imagination and over a compelling landscape of moods, twists, and styles. Based in the band’s eclectic, self-defined “scarlet doom” sound, The Spin rises, falls, broods, bites, comforts, and destroys, all the while resounding with both instinctive magic and obsessive, concerted hard work. After lighting up the underground with a triptych of increasingly distinctive and wondrous records – 2016’s Belfry, 2018’s Feast For Water, and 2022’s Close – MESSA is audibly equipped for the proverbial big leagues.
Palpably assembled with love and care, MESSA‘s heightened craftsmanship rings loud from the album’s elegant architecture. Written over six weeks of intensive daily sessions, in a 500-year-old villa close to the quartet’s beautiful hometown of Bassano Del Grappa (VI) in Northern Italy, MESSA applied scrupulously high standards to the process, even while challenging themselves to change the way they work. “When we recorded Close back in 2021, we wanted to be all in the same room together,” explains the band. “This time we decided to do the exact opposite. We recorded the album in three different locations and timings. This record has seen a lot of rearrangement of the same musical material in order to make a coherent work from start to finish. We also aimed at making the songs work with the most minimal structure while trying not to repeat ourselves too much. We applied a simple rule: if you hear the same thing twice it’s enough. Three times? It gets boring.”
MESSA‘s signature sound absorbs influences from jazz and blues, punk and prog, and black metal and dark ambient, but their restless experimentalism has extraordinarily smooth and assured results. The Spin incorporates another new element, interpolating an ’80s goth rock vibe in typically full-blooded fashion. “We don’t like to repeat ourselves and we constantly try to find a new language to express while keeping our identity,” stresses the band. “This time we delved into a territory we had never explored before, which is the decade of the 1980s. We are aware that many bands before us took inspiration from that era, but we decided to be careless and run away with it mainly because we get involved and question what we do. We are not part of the ‘dark scene’ in any way. The influence for this record looks back to the early goth rock/dark wave rather than the later emanations of the genre.” In addition to Sisters Of Mercy and Virgin Prunes, the band cites records by Killing Joke, Mercyful Fate, Jimmy Page, Journey, The Sound, Boy Harsher, and Vangelis as impacting significantly upon the creation of The Spin.
In advance of the release of The Spin, MESSA today unveils a video for the record’s first single, “At Races.” The band elaborates, “This song is about the pressure we feel coming from the outside world. Expectation often is the root of pain and we sense the strain of the weight other people lay upon our shoulders. This song is born from our devotion to Killing Joke’s sonic language: our use of chorus-laden guitar tapestries and synthesizers is a nod to their work during the ’80s.”
The Spin was partly recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by Maurizio “Icio” Baggio and includes a trumpet solo by Michele Tedesco on “The Dress,” synth work by Andrea Mantione (Nuovo Testamento) on “Fire On The Roof,” and cover art by Nico Vascellari.
The Spin Track Listing: 01. Void Meridian 02. At Races 03. Fire on the Roof 04. Immolation 05. The Dress 06. Reveal 07. Thicker Blood
MESSA has confirmed shows across Europe this Spring including a special performance at this year’s edition of Roadburn where the band will play The Spin live in its stunning entirety.
MESSA Live: 4/15/2025 Feierwerk – Munich, DE 4/16/2025 Gebäude 9 – Cologne, DE 4/18/2025 Roadburn Festival – Tilburg, NL * Performing The Spin live 5/09/2025 DesertFest Oslo – Oslo, NO 6/26/2025 Resurrection Festival – Vigo, ES 6/27/2025 Nazca Live – Madrid, ES 6/28/2025 Sala Upload – Barcelona, ES 6/29/2025 Molotov, Marseille FR 8/08/2025 Alcatraz – Kortrijk, BE
MESSA: Sara – vocals Marco – guitars/bass Alberto – guitars Rocco – drums
Finnish progressive death/post-metal metal band Ashes In The Fall will release their debut EP ‘Where Serenity Prevails’ on 21 March 2025 via Inverse Records. The band was formed in 2019, and all members are between 17 and 18 years old. The band released the single version of ‘Dusk of Mankind’ today and it’s available on all major streaming services: https://push.fm/fl/ashesinthefall-dusk
Music by Touko Kaihola, Jami Mustola, Kiril Kolga
Lyrics by Touko Kaihola & Samuel Routama
ISRC: FI3FC2590204
Single cover by Tella Kullenberg
The band comments: ” ‘Dusk of Mankind’ is a foretaste of our upcoming debut EP “Where Serenity Prevails”. The song combines acoustic sections and clean vocals with distorted sections and harsh vocals. Also worth mentioning are the polyphonic vocal harmonies and jazz influences. The song paints a picture of the Earth returning to its natural state after the destruction of mankind. Influences can be heard from Opeth and Alcest, among others. Highly recommended for listeners of progressive death metal and post-metal as well as fans of the above-mentioned bands. And for those who like a rough and authentic production, the song was recorded, mixed and mastered by the band. The full version of the song (with solos!) will be released on the EP.”
Where Serenity Prevails Track list:
Kodamas (02:14)
Seven Days of Fire (04:41)
Dusk of Mankind (11:07)
Cover art by Tella Kullenberg
Ashes In The Fall is a Finnish progressive death metal/post-metal band. During the band’s 6 years of existence it has gone through numerous changes in personnel, with the current roster consisting of:
Touko Kaihola – drums, percussion, backing vocals Samuel Routama – lead vocals, samples Anton Valros – bass, backing vocals Simon Valros – guitars Jennifer Evans – keyboards, samples, backing vocals, percussion
The band takes influences from many different sources, with our biggest influences probably being Opeth, Mastodon, Insomnium, Ulver, Neurosis, Alcest and Gojira. We also take influences from music outside the metal genre, such as jazz, folk, progressive rock and hardcore punk to name a few.
After laying dormant for a long time, Ashes In The Fall have finally started to pick up their pace, with the EP “Where Serenity Prevails” being scheduled for release in this spring on Inverse Records. The EP’s lead single Dusk of Mankind will be released to the public on January 30th 2025. With the release of this new material, Ashes In The Fall will also be playing even more live shows, with an upcoming highlight in the band’s career being a performance at Tuska on the KVLT stage in June 2025.
Germany’s charismatic epic heavy/death metallers NECROKNIGHT unleashed their debut album “The Skullthrone” on December 1st, 2024.
➤ These idealists know how to cultivate a multitude of proven virtues with sincerity and passion – and NECROKNIGHT focus on maximum authenticity. The quintet’s emphatically catchy and strikingly structured EPIC HEAVY/DEATH METAL ultimately reveals its very own dark and hungrily devouring magic.
With “The Skullthrone“, the conspiratorial five-piece around singer Mirco present a highly listenable debut album, with material that is as fast as it is convincing in the long term, the five German Necroknights can already place themselves on the higher quality level … [ learn more here» ]
[ Sphenoid Artwork ]
TRACKS: I. From The Ashes II. Awaken The Phoenix III. Succession War IV. Griffin Banners V. The Prophecy VI. Fallen Knight VII. Barbarian Breakout VIII. Sword Of Judgement
total: 36:59 min.
LINE-UP: Mirco Wollenberg • Vocals René Klaas • Guitars Kilian König • Guitars Jens Ignatzy • Bass Simon Grün • Drums
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 ) 