Sweden’s JÄRNBÖRD will release their second album “Filmer för blinda” (Movies for the blind) on January 10th 2025.
The first single “Okomplicerad” is now streaming HERE.
The album took almost four years to complete. The fact that it took so long has a lot to do with the band releasing a handful of split records and singles in the meantime, but also because of an ambition to really invest this time. “What happens if we broaden the view of what our grindcore really is? Can we attack the songs from another direction – plank a Pixies stick, interpret Björn Afzelius?”
On Björn Afzelius’s song “Flickan i snøn”, the band is guested by Anna Wagner from, among others, Dead Sleep. She is joined by more guest artists. In “Rockar med mammon” Mikey Lennartsson from Gamla Pengar and The Dahmers rasps out lines about having time to listen to Slayer and in “Vi ska ätas, vi ska dömas”, the techno artist Johanna Knutsson sings about how sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut.
“Filmer för blinda” revolves around the phenomenon of being human – during one and the same day, we can be exposed to feelings of helplessness, joy, sadness, anger, fatigue, love, friendship and hatred. How do we handle it? How do we stay afloat? Some close their eyes, others confront it. Some booze their day away, others go to work. Some becomes right-wing, others renovate their balcony. But in the end, nothing really matters. It’s movies for the blind.
“It has been important for us not to get stuck in the generic. Although we have taken every opportunity to place ourselves in the grindcore genre, we have always identified ourselves as a regular rock band. We quite often play a very fast form of rock music, but in the end it’s completely normal rock we deal with. It also gives greater freedom in terms of lyrics. I want to be able to write about raw capitalism, but I also want to sing about fast cars and Torgny Lindgren”, says Anders Schärberg, who plays guitar and sings in JÄRNBÖRD.
“Filmer för blinda” is mostly recorded in Studio Covid by Niklas Ehrlin, with the exception of the drums, which were recorded in Studio Tonhuvud by Hannes Heed. Mixed and mastered by Ulf Blomberg, HoboRec Recording Studio.
Vinyl-LP is released by De:nihil Records (SWE) and 7Degrees Records (GER). CD is released by Hecatombe Records (SP) and Esagoya Records (JPN).
Album tracklist:
01 Gärning Och Lidande 02 Ormens Väg På Kvarnberget 03 Filmer För Blinda 04 Rockens Heraldik 05 Vi ska ätas, vi ska dömas 06 Rockar med Mammon 07 Okomplicerad 08 Flickan i snön 09 Dött format 10 Nu kör vi
No band has flipped death metal on its deformed head like Defeated Sanity. The band’s uniquely potent concoction of punishing technical proficiency and jazz-infused chaos has delighted metalheads from their familial beginnings in Berlin to Maryland Deathfest and India. Now, after breaking onto the Billboard charts with their last album, these underground champions are returning to the brutal slamming that cemented their legacy.
“Chronicles of Lunacy is not only a must buy”, writes New Noise. “It’s one of the top death metal records of 2024. All hail Defeated Sanity”.
Chronicles of Lunacy was released yesterday, Friday, November 22 on Season of Mist, and you can hear all eight rip-roaring songs today by listening to the full album stream on the Season of Mist YouTube channel.
Chronicles of Lunacy punches you right in the face. Opener “Amputationsdrang” already has you pinned to the mat beneath its non-stop blasts. Get comfortable, too. Defeated Sanity don’t let the album up for air until “Temporal Disintegration” warps into a wiggling bass outro.
“We love experimenting”, explains drummer and founding member Lille Gruber. “But we realized that some of our oldest fans might have gotten lost after our last couple of albums. With Chronicles of Lunacy, we wanted to focus more on neck-snapping brutality”.
Acting like cavemen isn’t so easy when your band has a Mensa-level maestro like Gruber at the controls. “Lille’s drumming is just ridiculous”, says bassist Jacob Schmidt. Whether Gruber is hammering his snare, pinging between cymbals or riding a colossal groove, Chronicles of Lunacy flows like a never-ending stream of filth. Lead single “The Odour of Sanctity” opens like he’s puncturing a wound with blistering blast beats, only to spew over into a monstrously wonky syncopated stomp.
“He’s the face of the franchise, so we’re never going to abandon those head-scratching moments that set Defeated Sanity apart”, Schmidt continues.
Indeed, Chronicles of Lunacy isn’t Defeated Sanity for dummies. “Each song deals with a different form of mental corruption”, vocalist Josh Welshman says. “Odour” stinks of religious fanaticism. Early crowd favorite “A Patriarchy Perverse” cracks open the mind of co-ed killer Ed Kemper. “Sickness breeding sickness“, Welshman growls with guttural vengeance.
While it still hits from every odd angle, Chronicles of Lunacy does draw a jagged red line back to Defeated Sanity’s brutal origins. After all, the band now share a label with their namesake. New guitarist Vaughn Stoffey’s chunky finger taps whip “Accelerating the Rot” into the fastest song in DS history. “This album is rawer and more straightforward”, Stoffey says. “It gets back to what people love about Psalms of the Moribund and Chapters of Repugnance“.
To dig up the sheer brutality that long-time fans have come to crave, Defeated Sanity returned to Thousand Cave Studios. The underground hot spot served as the excavation site for their previous two albums, but with Chronicles of Lunacy, producer Colin Marston was encouraged to really get his hands dirty. “We still wanted some of the high fidelity that you hear on modern death metal records”, Schmidt says, “but this album also has the old school’s crushing low-end”.
The band execute this two-headed approach to monstrous effect on “Condemned to Vascular Famine”. At just under six minutes, the song delivers the longest ass beating on Chronicles of Lunacy. At times, all four members sound like they’re climbing up the walls in separate asylums, but after slipping in a brief nod to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the band come slamming down into the album’s ugliest breakdown.
“That’s one of our favorites”, the band says. “It lands at a crossroad of the DS sound that we ended up with on Chronicles of Lunacy. Even though it gets pretty fucking weird at times, there’s still an emphasis on heavy, straight-up slamming”
They’re never going to drag their knuckles in a straight line, but on Chronicles of Lunacy, Defeated Sanity return to sheer brutality.
Tracklist 1. Amputationsdrang (2:30) 2. The Odour Of Sanctity (3:36) [WATCH] 3. Accelerating The Rot (3:22) [WATCH] 4. Temporal Disintegration (5:52) [WATCH] 5. Extrinsically Enraged (4:09) 6. A Patriarchy Perverse (4:16) 7. Condemned to Vascular Famine (6:00) 8. Heredity Violated (3:48) Total runtime: 33:35
To celebrate Chronicles of Lunacy, Defeated Sanity are embarking on their first headlining tour of Europe since 2018. They’ll be performing songs off their brutal new album alongside Wisconsin’s Putrid Pile and To Violently Vomit Forth, a tribute to Disgorge that features current and former members of the legendary BDM band.
Iniquitous Savagery, Strangle Wire, Asylum and Embryonic Devourment round out the two legs of this stacked bill.
Defeated Sanity Chronicles of Lunacy 2025 European Tour 23 January – Wolfburg, DE @ Jugendhaus OST* 24 January – Hambourg, DE @ Bambi Galore* 25 January – Copenhagen, DE @ Temple of Doom* 26 January – Dyestad, SE @ Dyestads Bygata* 27 January – Stockholm, SE @ Kollektivet Livet* 28 January – Aalborg, DK @ Studenterhuset* 29 January – Tilburg, NL @ Hall of Fame* 30 January – Lille, FR @ The Black Lab* 31 January – Paris, FR @ Glazart* 1 February – Basel, CH @ Kaschemme Basel* 2 February – Milan, IT @ Slaughter Club* 3 February- Graz, AT @ Explosiv* 4 February – Vienna, AT @ Escape^ 5 February – Zagreb, HR @ Klub Močvara^ 6 February – Budapest, HU @ Dürer Kert^ 7 February – Belgrade, RS @ Dorcol Platz^ 8 February – Sofia, BG @ Oldskulls Club^ 9 February – Varna,BG @ Club Smile^ 10 February – Bucharest, RO @ Quantic^ 11 February – Cluj-Napoca, RO @ Flying Circus^ 12 February – Košice, SK @ Collosseum Club^ 13 February – Prague, CZ @ Modrá Vopice^ 14 February – Bielsko-Biala, PL @ Rudeboy Club^ 15 February – Berlin, DE @ Orwohaus^ * with Iniquitous Savagery, Strangle Wire ^ with Asylum, Embryonic Devourment
Defeated Sanity aren’t wasting any time in returning to Europe, either. The band are also hitting the European festival circuit this summer, including a headbanging stop at Brutal Assault.
EXIST have shared a new guitar play along, performed by guitarist / vocalist Max Phelps, for Hijacking the Zeitgeist. Hijacking the Zeitgeist is the title track from the US progressive metal band’s fourth full-length, with EXIST sharing the play along ahead of West Coast tour dates in February and March with labelmates Four Stroke Baron – full details below.
Speaking on the play through and tour dates, EXIST‘s Max Phelps comments: “Hijacking The Zeitgeist is one of the most difficult, if not THE most difficult songs to perform on EXIST‘s new album. It’s a real rollercoaster, tons of fun to play. Shout out to Maru Martinez for doing an excellent job filming this performance!”
Of their West Coast tour dates, Phelps adds: “We are very excited to hit the road with our brothers in Four Stroke Baron. I’ve personally been a huge fan of FSB for several years now and really admire their unique identity and strong, engaging approach to songwriting. This will also be EXIST‘s first time on the west coast in six years and since our previous two album releases!”
Similarly to 2020’s Egoiista, EXIST took on a keen co-production role for Hijacking the Zeitgeist as recording sessions commenced in early 2022, with the band emphasising a collaborative approach to the songs arrangements. Drum co-production was handled by John Douglass (Mr. Bungle, Entheos and The Contortionist) before vocals were handled by Mike Semesky in the winter.
Hijacking the Zeitgeist’s sonic heft isn’t without its diaphanous counterpoints, as Phelps and new addition Charles Eron (guitar and synths) craft deceptively complex interplay on album high points in Thief of Joy (featuring Sanjay Kumar of Inferi and Wormhole), Blue Light Infinite and soaring closer Window to the All. EXIST’s sonorous sonic landscape is bolstered by immersive rhythmic lock-ins between Alex Weber (bass and vocals) and Brody Smith (drums), that shine in Anup Sastry’s mix and Kris Crummett’s mastering work.
At the core of Hijacking the Zeitgeist lies a multifaceted exploration of algorithmic rabbit holes, conspiratorial paranoia, and the universal traits that lie within humanity – these cautionary tales are tied together in striking detail with album art by Sebastian Jerke. EXIST treats both the allure and perils of both digital mazes and the real world, with equal parts wide eyed awe and horror.
Upcoming EXIST tour dates: Hijacking the Data West Coast tour w/ Four Stroke Baron
February 21 – Dante’s – Portland, OR February 22 – The Wise Hall – Vancouver, BC February 23 – Funhouse – Seattle, WA February 25 – Harlow’s – Sacramento, CA February 26 – Virginia Street Brewhouse – Reno, NV February 27 – Ivy Room – Albany, CA February 28 – The Wayfarer – Costa Mesa, CA March 01 – Brick by Brick – San Diego, CA March 02 – Sinwave – Las Vegas, NV
Hijacking the Zeitgeist tracklist: 1. Blue Light Infinite 2. Thief of Joy 3. Hijacking the Zeitgeist 4. Funeral Toll 5. A Path to Nowhere 6. One Degree Removed From Human 7. Window to the All
EXIST is: Max Phelps – Guitars and Vocals Alex Weber – Bass and Vocals Charles Eron – Guitars and Synths Brody Taylor Smith – Drums
U.S. Metal legends Warlord have released a video for the song “Battle Of The Living Dead (2024)“ The song comes off their recent release “From The Ashes To The Archives – The Hot Pursuit Continues” on High Roller Records.
The band are also very pleased to announce they will be performing as support to the legendary Judas Priest, on July 1st 2025 in Ferrara, Italy.
Warlord’s recent studio album “Free Spirit Soar” was released to critical acclaim in May this year, with the band performing at a number of European festivals over the summer, they will be following this up in 2025 with further live appearances and festivals.
The bands current lineup is: Giles Lavery – Vocals Eric Juris – Guitar Diego Pires – Guitar Philip Bynoe – Bass Jimmy Waldo – Keys Mark Zonder – Drums
SKAM release their new video for single ‘Selfish Friend’, out now, new album ‘From The Depths’ set for release on 29th November.
“Selfish Friend is about that one friend everyone has. You keep this person around even though they repeatedly let you down and only think about themselves. Yet you still keep them around!”
Formed in 2011, SKAM are a hard rock power trio band from the middle of England. They have a reputation for delivering no nonsense, gutsy, classic sounding contemporary British rock music. To date, the band have independently released 3 albums. ‘It’s Come to This’ (2011) and ‘Peacemaker’ (2014) were released to critical acclaim and the band established themselves as a live force to be reckoned with.
A drive to innovate inspired SKAM to release ‘The Amazing Memoirs of Geoffrey Goddard’ (2017), a concept record based on the diary entries of a time travelling RAF pilot. The songs were described as ‘gritty anthemic rockers’ by Classic Rock Magazine and the album received a number of 5 star reviews from the UK Music press. Lead single ‘Take it Or Leave it’ was voted as ‘track of the week’ by Classic Rock Magazine and has since been included on Earache Records ‘New Wave of Rock N Roll’ compilation vinyl. In 2021, broke into the Official UK Rock Charts with their ‘Intra’ EP hitting number 6. Part 2 ‘Venous’ went one better making it to number 5.
On 22nd November, the band returns with new single ‘Selfish Friend‘, taken from upcoming release ‘From The Depths’, their most eclectic and ambitious album yet. On this album they have pushed themselves into unknown waters, experimenting with everything from Metal to prog, to Acoustic balladry. The album is due for release on 29th November.
UK Tour dates, remaining shows: 23rd Nov – Rebellion, Manchester 29th Nov – The Musician, Leicester 30th Nov – The Patriot, Newport 1st Dec – Planet Rockstock, Porthcawl
Steve Hill (guitar/vocals) Matt Gilmore (bass/backing vocals) Neal Hill (drums/backing vocals)
STILL DUSK have released a new lyric video ‘Sugar’ taken from their upcoming “Chronicles Of Dystopia” album.
Still Dusk’s new song, “Sugar”, explores the modern addictions that define us and keep us stuck. With an intense and revealing lyric, the track addresses the way we lose our true identity as we fall prey to image, acceptance and constant validation. The addiction is not limited to substances or material goods but extends to patterns of behaviour, people and even social media, where we seek to project an ideal self. We show that we are well, while often being emotionally unstable and lonely.
Still Dusk captures our age’s obsession with “perfection,” the deep need to be liked, and the obsession with creating superficial relationships that conform to social norms. “Sugar” challenges each listener to ask themselves if they truly feel alive in a world where everyone is struggling to survive. The song is a strong critique of the culture of compromise and manipulation of human relationships, urging us to ask ourselves if we really want to continue living in a reality that is full of lies. It is an anthem against addictions which can arise from anywhere but the bottom line is that people end up there thinking they will forget.
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 