Australian Heavy Metal heavy weights Wicked Smile officially release their brand-new album titled When Night Falls Worldwide via No Dust Records (Netherlands).
Wicked Smile claim that this new record was a natural progression for the band, moving in a heavier direction than their highly acclaimed debut “Wait For The Night”, whilst still keeping it true to the Wicked Smile sound with catchy melodic hooks. “When Night Falls was a labour of love to create and we really hope our fans enjoy it.” – quote the band.
Wicked Smile will be launching the new album live on tour, beginning in their Hometown of Melbourne, Australia on the 7th of March at The Northcote Social Club. Followed by a tour of the UK in June 2026, featuring festival and headline dates, with more European dates to be announced.
You can order When Night Falls now via No Dust Records and tickets to see Wicked Smile on tour are available now via wickedsmileband.com
WICKED SMILE – When Night Falls
1. When Night Falls (Video) 2. Back To Back We Stand (Video) 3. Face Of The Wicked (Video) 4. Rebel Souls 5. Never Surrender 6. Before The Rain 7. Walking The Wire 8. Night Time Riders 9. Heaven’s Falling Down (Crutch) 10. The Phoenix Will Rise 11. Scream ‘n’ Shout 12. Edge Of Madness (LP bonus track)
SCARDUST, fronted by the superstar vocalist of Sabaton’s ‘Legendary Orchestra’ – NOA GRUMAN, has announced the first group of dates of their ‘SOULS IN THE FLESH’ tour, celebrating the release of their latest album ‘SOULS’.
SCARDUST will be supported on all the European & UK dates by French band HARTLIGHT plus a local band in each city and welcome ROSS JENNINGS as very special guest at the London show.
“Carried by progressive metal, jaw-dropping vocals, and exceptional musicianship, Scardust deliver a powerful live show that shifts between crushing heaviness and anthemic melodies.” TotalRock 2026
A long-awaited return, and the perfect chance to experience the new era of Noa Gruman’s Scardust live.
Souls In The Flesh Tour – Part 1 08/03/2026 Eindhoven Blue Collar Club with Hartlight & Isabeau 10/03/2026 London Underworld with Hartlight & Crimson Veil 12/03/2026 Avignon Rouge Gorge with Hartlight & Parallel Minds 13/03/2026 Frejus Monster’s Art with Hartlight & Ashen Heart 14/03/2026 Lyon Rock n’ Eat with Hartlight & Wedingoth 11/04/2026 Tel Aviv Reading 3
ABOUT SCARDUST: With the release of the band’s first EP, “Shadow” (2015) and the release of their first full length LP. “Sands of Time” (2017) Scardust positioned them as a promising newcomer of the new progressive metal scene. They rapidly rose to the top of the local metal scene, selling out shows and opening for the likes of Symphony X, Therion and Epica and started touring overseas playing festivals and headline shows in Germany, China and the UK as well as continuing to headline shows and festivals at home. From the beginning the band strove for exceptional artistic and instrumental achievement at the highest level and Noa Gruman’s voice captivates her listeners whether with its gentle purity, operatic power or guttural growls. Despite the challenges of Covid-19, 2020 saw the release of their sophomore album “Strangers” accompanied by seven self-produced music videos. Described by Dead Rhetoric as “captivating from start to finish,” Strangers introduced a unique concept album built on complementary song pairs, earning strong critical and fan acclaim. 2022 started on a high note with the visit of folk star Patty Gurdy, who joined Scardust for a live show in Israel and filmed the band’s most viewed video to date, “Concrete Cages”. That summer, the band headlined multiple shows across Europe, performing to packed arenas at Wacken Open Air & Dong Open Air where they earned the praise of Testament’s Steve Di Giorgio who, on hearing the band from backstage, ran out front and watched the entire set ‘mesmerised’. The year concluded with the release of the dramatic one-shot video video “Evolution of the Disney – But She’s METAL” in which Noa weaves her way through a magical metaL arrangement of all the best known Disney Princess songs.
2023 saw Scardust release of Game of Now, a cinematic piece set in a futuristic dystopian live show, play festivals and concerts across Europe and join power metal legends Blind Guardian on tour. The year culminated in the signing of a major multi-album deal with Frontiers Records – heralding the release of the highly anticipated album “Souls”. December 2024 saw the release of My Haven from Souls followed by RIP, Unreachable and Dazzling Darkness. With 2024 being taken up with writing and recording Souls it wasn’t until early 2025 that they were able to announce that Ross Jennings (Haken) was guesting on the album and was to join the band for headline show resulting in the epic Touch of Life video. Towards the end of 2025 Noa Gruman was the featured lead singer and conductor of The Legendary Orchestra on Sabaton’s large-scale European arena Legendary Tour, performing re-imaged versions of Sabaton’s music with orchestral and choral arrangements. The band also announced a lineup change with founding member Orr Didi departing and Bar Sasson joining on bass, as Scardust look ahead to an active 2026 with international touring plans. “Souls is our most ambitious album to date, incorporating Scardust’s signature technical musicianship, and featuring the Hellscore choir and a string quartet throughout the entire album plus guest appearances from some international top tier musicians like Ross Jennings (Haken), Ally Storch (Subway to Sally), a Turkish orchestra and the TLV orchestra. It’s bold, it’s emotional and we hope it resonates deeply wherever it is heard.”
HARTLIGHT Hartlight is a French Symphonic Metal band forging music through Alchemy. Each song is a heartfelt journey carved in the poetry of power. Led by Noémie’s intense voice, their music takes listeners through gothic cathedrals, enchanted forests, and vivid landscapes, creating an emotional and cinematic experience. Acclaimed by the press for its refined orchestrations and musicianship, Hartlight performs across Europe, with their albums As Above, So Below (2024) and The Triumph of Metal (2025).
Dutch black metal ritual Doodswens have released the first official track from their upcoming album, Doodswens, alongside a new music video which is not for the faint hearted. The new album is due on 17th April, via Svart Records.
About ‘Driven By Death’, drummer and vocalist I. comments: “I was on the way back from a spontaneous adventure, full of music, new connections, and inspiration. A path without a plan and a journey without a goal, with only a very strong feeling that this is where I’m meant to be.
“With a misty horizon of endless asphalt before me. A large tree at the edge of the road, in the corner of my eye, screaming that this could just be the end. But what I felt wasn’t fear, it was happiness. With the thought that if I crash into that tree now, I won’t care at all. Because up until this moment, I’ve done everything possible, experienced every adventure, and each time, gotten up again and faced life with that gray cloud around my head.
“I have a death wish, so if it happens now, it’s okay, and I’m at peace with it. This was the moment I realized, I’m not afraid of life. I’m driven by death.“
Doodswens is a Dutch black metal band, forged in 2017 by I. The name translates to ‘Deathwish’ but its true meaning heavier; Not giving up, but returning with power after looking the end in the eye.
Live, I. performs drums and vocals as one, a single body split into rhythm and invocation. She is joined by R. and P. on bass and guitar. R.I.P. is a line-up that moves like a blade; precise, violent, and locked in. Their shows are as ceremonial as confrontational. Doodswens doesn’t soothe; it exposes. Bring your demons and they will be named. Bring your grief and it will be heard. Whatever you carry into the room is dragged into the light because this band chooses confrontation over comfort, every time. Blood, bones, bullets, flame, skull, sweat: not props, but real artifacts of the rite. A full-body experience with sound, smell, vision and vibration which is meant to pull you under and return you a changed person.
After rising through the Dutch underground, Doodswens gained an international following through tours alongside Marduk and Gorgoroth. In 2021 they entered the chaos of the pandemic era on their first Massive Music run, supporting Marduk and Valkyria between lockdowns when venues were closing behind them and the world was unstable. But their will was unbroken. In 2024, on the Marduk/Origin tour, I. made the impossible possible; taking on lead vocals while remaining the drummer. With only months to prepare, she cut out all doubts and locked herself into rehearsal. The result? I. carried Doodswens across 30 shows back-to-back, barely losing her voice.
Doodswens was recorded and produced by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt at Galloway Studio and mastered by Alex McCullough (who re-mastered Dolly Parton‘s Backwoods Barbie) at True East Mastering.
If you’ve been close to ending your life, or if you think about it more often than you admit, then you know what it is to live with a death wish. It’s weight. A grey cloud that follows you everywhere, depriving you of your breath and blurring your sight. It’s almost impossible to explain to anyone who hasn’t been inside it. Doodswens isn’t an album about giving up. It’s about what happens when you stop looking away. About meeting death face to face and coming back with strength. Not because the darkness disappears, but because you learn how to carry it without letting it own you.
The heart of Doodswens is not the wish for death, but the death of the wish, the breaking of a curse. A taboo spoken aloud. A darkness worn on the chest, not as pride, but as truth: “This is what I feel, and I will not hide it.“
Track-list: 1: Driven by Death 2: Verrot 3: The Black Flame 4: These Wounds Never Healed 5: She Carries the Curse 6: Devils Stone 7: Vlaamse Vloek
Another new video has arrived from the already released album “Babylon” by DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG (released in October 2025, RPM).
Following the strong impact of previous clips, with “It TakesTwo To Tango” and “Hellbreaker” each surpassing one million views, the band now present the video for “Batter The Power”, continuing the visual journey through their latest release.
“Batter The Power” is a classic heavy shuffle driven by a true metal riff and an anthem-like sing-along chorus that instantly evokes the spirit of “old times.” What initially appears to be a deliberately straightforward and repetitive verse structure is given a sharper edge by the accusatory vocal interplay between Udo Dirkschneider and Peter Baltes, adding tension and attitude to the song’s message.
Manuela “Ella” Bibert puts the icing on the cake with her distinctive solo vocal interludes during the final choruses, while Mathias Dieth’s extraordinary guitar solo breaks free from any convention, unapologetically bold and perfectly in line with the band’s uncompromising approach. Why should we care about rules?
Lyrically, “Batter The Power” draws on classic heavy metal imagery of battle, resistance and liberation. Lines like “we’ll die to be free” and “never surrender” underline the song’s central message: relentlessly challenging oppressive power in the name of freedom and justice.
With the “Batter The Power” video, DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG once again highlight the timeless strength of classic heavy metal, reinforcing „Babylon“ as an album that proudly bridges the past and present with experience, conviction and raw power.
DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG (DATOG) was originally launched in 2020 as a one-off charity project, but quickly developed a momentum of its own and formed into a band consisting of Udo Dirkschneider (vocals; ACCEPT/U.D.O./DIRKSCHNEIDER), Peter Baltes (bass, vocals; ACCEPT/U.D.O./DIRKSCHNEIDER), Stefan Kaufmann (guitar; ACCEPT/U.D.O.), Mathias “Don” Dieth (guitar; SINNER/U.D.O.), Sven Dirkschneider (drums; U.D.O./DIRKSCHNEIDER) and Manuela “Ella” Bibert (vocals). Between 2020 and 2021 their first three singles attracted a lot of attention, whereupon the band wrote more songs and recorded their debut album. With a unique vocal concept of three voices, powerful riffs and stylistic complexity, DATOG combine classic heavy metal with a modern, powerful production.
DATOG are: Udo Dirkschneider | lead vocals Peter Baltes | bass, lead & backing vocals Manuela “Ella” Bibert | lead & backing vocals, keys Stefan Kaufmann | guitars, backing vocals Mathias “Don” Dieth | guitars, backing vocals Sven Dirkschneider | drums, backing vocals
Hear, in the year 2026, a raw recording from a young WITHERING SURFACE with various musical directions and inspirations, trying to find their own music style. Does it stand the test of time? Yes
For fans of (early) Eucharist, In Flames, Amorphis
Back in 1994 in a town called Naestved in the South of Sealand, Denmark, Michael H. Andersen used most of his spare time working on his fanzine Emanzipation. Nineteen-year-old still living with his parents, MHA was about to get an awakening. He had recently fell in love with the first demo tape from Eucharist and an advance tape for the upcoming In Flames album and loved the direction At The Gates and Amorphis was heading. Almost no one in the circle of musicians in the South of Sealand had any idea what those bands were all about. This is before the internet and in the outskirts of Denmark, so all information about new bands was through tape trading or the records the local record store managed to get, and occasionally the trip to record stores in the capital city Copenhagen.
The Danish scene back then mainly had focus on brutal death metal and hardcore/thrash. MHA wanted to start up what he thought would be the first Danish melo-death band. After having meet two equally minded metal fans at a local metal show, Jimmy Christensen and Kaspar Boye-Larsen, and approaching Allan Tvedebrink from the local thrash band Mortifere and adding Jakob Gundel from MHAs other band Crawcell, the first melo-death band in Denmark was born: WITHERING SURFACE. A few rehearsals later and a search for the perfect band name, Withering Surface was a reality in late 1994. Just six months later the four young guys, aging from 14 to 21, entered the Take-One studio for 3 days where four songs were recorded, mixed and mastered with producer Kasper Munkebo, who had previously worked with Dominus among others. The result was “Unique”. A recording that was baptized a “promo tape” and sold close to 2000 copies worldwide through the underground scene with trades, and physical money bills sent to MHA. The four songs also ended up being licensed for cassette release South America.
“Unique” now sees the light of day again on all streaming services. Henrik West at Medley Studio was handed over three versions of the original “Unique” cassettes to do a digital re-master. Not an easy job, but he pulled it through. What you hear in the year 2026, is a raw recording from a young band with various musicial directions and inspirations trying to find their own music style. Does it stand the test of time? Yes.
Now, “Unique” is now finally available in all streaming services, roughly 30 years after its original release.
Withering Surface went on to record four albums, played numerous profile shows and tours around the world from 1995 to 2005, Wacken and Roskilde among others, touring with Arch Enemy, Opeth and Dimmu Borgir etc., being Grammy nominated etc. until the band took a 15 year break and did a successful comeback in 2020 with the album “Meet Your Maker” and a handful of well attended shows (a lot of shows got cancelled, including Copenhell, due to covid19). In 2024, they released their latest album “Exit Plan” and toured extensively around it.
“Unique” is out now on all streaming services via Mighty Music
Recording lineup: Kaspar Boye Larsen – bass Jakob Gundel – drums Allan Tvedebrink – guitar Jimmy Christensen – guitar Michael H. Andersen – vocals
German alternative and gothic metal pioneers PYOGENESIS return with their new single “Uncontrolled”, a fierce and uncompromising track which dives deep into the turmoil of adolescence and emotional awakening.
Vocalist Flo V. Schwarz says “Uncontrolled” is raw and unfiltered. It felt liberating and brutally honest to write it. The musical and vocal aggression is emotionally charged and the track captures the moment when hormones are going crazy. It describes what’s going on inside young people as everything changes, while they try to find their place in the world.
“Uncontrolled” is a raw eruption of puberty-fueled chaos, where feelings ignite rage and instinct overrides reason. It captures the violent inner clash between desire, confusion, and loss of control. Trapped between childhood and adulthood, the mind spirals while the body burns. A brutal soundtrack to growing up under pressure.
With this release, PYOGENESIS continue to expand the darker aspects of their artistic identity, reaffirming their ability to combine psychological depth with crushing intensity. “Uncontrolled” stands as a reminder that growth is often confusing and deeply uncomfortable, and that some scars are forged long before adulthood truly begins.
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 ) 