In a time when music television has largely disappeared and streaming platforms dominate media consumption, Metal.Rocks is bringing heavy music back to television screens around the world.
Following the successful launch of the “Metal.Rocks” channel last year, the channel, operated by UCM.ONE in cooperation with PLAION PICTURES, is expanding into 16 European countries as well as Egypt, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. Effective immediately, the channel is available via Samsung TV Plus in all these territories. Through the newly concluded agreement with Samsung, “Metal.Rocks” significantly expands its global reach.
Created by passionate music fans for passionate music fans, Metal.Rocks offers a professionally curated 24-hour programming schedule featuring everything from classic and contemporary music videos to live concerts, documentaries and exclusive content. The channel covers the full spectrum of heavy music, from melodic hard rock and traditional heavy metal to the most extreme forms of metal.
“Music television once played a crucial role in helping fans discover new artists and connect with their favorite bands,” says Patrick Walch, founder of Metal.Rocks. “While on-demand platforms offer unlimited choice, they often lack the excitement of discovery. Metal.Rocks combines the best of both worlds by delivering a carefully curated viewing experience dedicated exclusively to rock and metal music.”
As traditional music television continues to disappear from the broadcasting landscape, Metal.Rocks aims to fill a gap that has long existed for fans of heavy music. The channel offers a continuously updated selection of programming designed to showcase both legendary artists and emerging talents from around the world.
Available free of charge through Samsung TV Plus (Channel # 4745 in EU), Waipu, Rakuten TV (EU), Plex (international) and Pluto (ES), Metal.Rocks will broadcast around the clock, featuring:
Music Videos
Live Concerts
Music Documentaries
Special Features
Future Original Content including Band Interviews and Exclusive Shows
From iconic classics to the latest releases, Metal.Rocks delivers a unique destination where fans can simply lean back, turn up the volume and enjoy the music.
Metal.Rocks is more than a television channel – it is a celebration of the global rock and metal community. Welcome to your world of heavy music.
About Metal.Rocks
Metal.Rocks is the new home for metalheads and rockers worldwide. Featuring a professionally curated and regularly updated programming schedule, the channel delivers 24/7 access to music videos, concerts, documentaries and exclusive heavy music content. Covering everything from melodic hard rock to extreme metal, Metal.Rocks is built by fans for fans and is available free on Smart TVs on various platforms.
Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the signing of Germany’s rising rock force Velvet Rush. To celebrate the announcement, the band has released their new single and accompanying video, “Nature Of The Beast”, available now.
Singer Sandra Lian commented: “Nature Of The Beast” is about the constant search for a secret formula. People watch, analyze and question every move, trying to figure out what makes someone succeed. In today’s world, it’s easier than ever to judge, comment and criticize from behind a screen, but not everyone is willing to put in the work”. “The song reflects my belief that there is no magic recipe. It’s about self-belief, resilience, determination and having the confidence to trust your own path, even when others doubt it. The things that truly make a difference can’t be copied; they have to come from deep within. That’s the “nature of the beast”, she continued.
About signing to Frontiers, Lian added: “I’m also very excited to be joining the Label Frontiers Music and starting this new chapter together. From the beginning, I felt a genuine connection with the team and their vision. Frontiers has such a strong legacy in rock music, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be part of it. I’m looking forward to sharing this journey and the music that’s still to come”.
Serafino Perugino, President and Founder of Frontiers Label Group, stated: “Germany has always been one of the world’s great homes for rock music, and Velvet Rush are exactly the kind of exciting new band we love to support. They have great songs, strong musicianship and a genuine authenticity that we believe can connect with audiences far beyond Germany. We are very happy to welcome them to Frontiers and excited to start building this next chapter together.”
Hailing from Hamburg, Germany, Velvet Rush are breathing new life into modern rock with a sound rooted in blues-infused hard rock, ’70s attitude, and contemporary energy. Fronted by the charismatic Sandra Lian, whose powerful and untamed vocals sit at the heart of the band’s identity, Velvet Rush combine authenticity, groove, and raw emotion into a sound that feels both timeless and fresh.
Alongside guitarist James Moncur, bassist Tim Black, and drummer Daniel Rothe, Lian leads a band whose electrifying chemistry has quickly earned them a reputation as one of the most compelling live acts on the European rock circuit.
The band recorded their music at Hamburg’s renowned Chameleon Studios with acclaimed producer Eike Freese (Deep Purple, Simple Minds, Slash, Status Quo), crafting a sound packed with driving guitars, memorable hooks, and undeniable energy.
Their debut single, “Euphonia”, immediately attracted international attention, earning Classic Rock Magazine UK’s “Best Rock Song of the Week” accolade in October 2024. Momentum continued with the release of their debut album “Trail Of Gold” in September 2025, which received widespread acclaim and was highlighted as a “Tip of the Month” and “Tip of the Year” by leading rock publications including Classic Rock, Rocks, and Rock Hard.
Onstage, Velvet Rush have continued their rapid ascent, sharing stages with Jerry Cantrell, touring Europe alongside The Vintage Caravan, and appearing at major festivals including Rockharz. The band’s calendar for 2026 includes appearances at Wacken Open Air, Maid of Stone Festival, Riverside Festival, and Osteguna Rock Vital Fest, alongside a coveted support slot on Rose Tattoo’s final European tour. Please find the full list of dates below.
With a second studio album coming soon, Velvet Rush are only just getting started. Armed with grit, passion, and undeniable attitude, the band are poised to become one of the defining new voices in modern hard rock.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Supporting Rose Tattoo July 21 NL Tilburg – O13 July 22 NL Leiden – Nobel July 24 DE Leipzig – Parkbühne July 26 DE Osnabrück – Hyde Park August 1 NO Oslo – Rockefeller August 4 DE Bochum – Zeche August 5 DE Frankfurt – Batschkapp August 6 CH Pratteln – Z7 Summer Nights August 7 DE Köln – Live Music Hall August 11 DE Kaiserslautern – Kammgarn August 12 DE München – Backstage Werk August 14 AT Graz – PPC August 15 HU Budapest – Barba Negra August 16 PL Kraków – Kwadrat August 18 DE Berlin – Astra August 19 DE Braunschweig – Westand August 20 DE Hamburg – Markthalle
Festivals July 3 DE Wieslet – Datscha OA July 5 DE Oldenburg – Burning Pants Festival July 11 DE Nideggen – Tollrock July 18 DE Jüterbog – Motorcycle Jamboree July 19 UK Maidstone – Maid of Stone July 29 DE Wacken – Wacken Open Air August 13 DE Eisfeld – Woodstock Forever August DE Mönchberg – Rock im Bad August 22 DE Obrigheim/Pfalz – Rock im Hinterland August 23 CH Aarburg – Riverside Festival September 5 DE Brüggen Alst – Bongert OA September 11 DE Marienmünster – Rock n Revel December 18 DE Hamburg – Lordfest
Line Up: Sandra Lian Tim Black James Moncur Daniel Rothe
Celebrated Canadian Roots Rock band The Commoners return to the UK in November 2026 for a 12-date Headline UK Tour with special guest Spencer Mackenzie.
An exclusive 48-hour ticket pre-sale will start at 10am UK time on Wednesday July 1st at Commoners.ca.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am UK time on Friday July 3rd from Commoners.ca.
Watch the official “Runnin’ Blind” November 2026 UK Tour trailer on YouTube HERE.
To coincide with the tour announcement, The Commoners will release a new single “Runnin’ Blind” on Friday July 24th. The single is available to pre-save on all streaming platforms HERE.
“Runnin’ Blind” is the second single from the band’s third studio album due for release in 2027.
“We can’t wait to get back to the UK,” says the band’s lead singer, Chris Medhurst. “British audiences are the best in the world. We always love playing live to our UK fans.”
“Runnin’ Blind’ hits hard right out of the gate,” Medhurst continues. “Musically, we wanted something that carried a lot of swagger and rock and roll grit, but lyrically it confronts that uneasy feeling of moving forward, when you can’t see what’s right in front of you. It sets a bold tone for the next record.”
“Bassist Ben Spiller, who crafted the initial iteration of the track, sheds light on its origins: “We wrote ‘Runnin’ Blind’ as a reflection on the last few years we’ve spent living on the road. Touring has a way of throwing you into situations you could never plan for. Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts and keep moving. That’s really where the song came from. It’s a lighthearted look at the chaos, misadventures, and unpredictability that come with chasing this dream, but it’s also a love letter to that lifestyle, and a reminder that some of the best stories come from the moments you never saw coming.”
“The song symbolizes running full speed down a dark road and trusting you’ll make the turn before it’s too late, so we wanted to capture that high-octane energy where everything feels urgent, loud, and off the rails,” says guitarist Ross Hayes Citrullo. “We tracked live off the floor to lock in that massive, driving groove, with blazing guitars and a driving organ for that authentic retro attitude. It’s a track built to strip gears and rattle some speakers, and we’re already dialing up the engine in rehearsals so we can rock these UK venues in November.”
THE COMMONERS “RUNNIN’ BLIND” NOVEMBER 2026 UK TOUR
NEWCASTLE, ANARCHY BREW WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2026 Tickets: Commoners.ca Benfield Business Park, Unit A1, Benfield Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 4NQ www.anarchybrewco.com/events
TROON, WINTERSTORM FESTIVAL THURSDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2026 Tickets: Winterstorm Troon Concert Hall, Municipal Buildings Troon, Ayrshire, KA10 6EF https://www.winterstorm.co.uk
AIRBOURNE proudly releases their latest single, “Kid In A Candy Store,” taken from their upcoming self-titled album set for release on August 28th via Spinefarm. The new track is produced by Brian Howes (who helmed 2013’s ‘Black Dog Barking’), engineered by Mike Fraser (who worked on 2010’s ‘No Guts. No Glory’ & 2016’s ‘Breakin’ Outta Hell’), mixed by Zakk Cervini (BMTH, Architects, Evanescence) and mastered by the legendary Ted Jensen.
Available since spring 2025, the do-or-die anthem “Gutsy” sent up the flare, signaling that a new album and a fresh chapter for the band were on the horizon. “Christmas Bonus” followed in November, with “Alive After Death (Last Plane Out)” arriving soon after, both the song and its accompanying video serving as spectacular flag-bearers for the 12-track album to come. Now comes “Kid In A Candy Store,” cut from the same battle-jacket cloth, a classic rite-of-passage anthem in the tradition of songs like AC/DC‘s “Whole Lotta Rosie.”
When AIRBOURNE – brothers Joel and Ryan O’Keeffe (vocals/guitar and drums, respectively), bassist Justin Street, and guitarist Brett Tyrrell – entered Music Farm Studio in southeastern Australia to record their new album, they effectively drew a line in the Byron Bay sand. The mission was clear: to create not only the greatest body of work in the AIRBOURNE canon (“Real blockbuster sh*t!,” to echo their own words), but to scale the highest possible peak – shirtless, naturally, in true AIRBOURNE style – in the name of hard rock; to break new ground, defend the territory won by the heroes who came before them, and strengthen and celebrate the sacred bond with rock fans around the world.
In short, go forth and GET GUTSY!
Ryan shares:
“We said, this is it, let’s make the oracle. And if we’re going to do it, no corner can be cut. Because if you cut a corner, you’re not going to pull it off.”
He continues, “This record distils everything we stand for into one place. Everything we love. It’s the best album we could possibly have made.”
“It’s a rocket that we’ve been building and building, and we’ve filled it with this fuel and we’re ready to light it up and let it go,” exclaims Joel. “Everything we are as a band, our heart and soul, is in this record.”
Made on home soil in the face of tropical storms, dangerous, potentially lethal wild-life and temperamental vintage gear, ‘Airbourne’is the album, the statement recording, that only one band could have created; for proud sons of Warrnambool, Joel and Ryan, it was all about setting a high bar, then raising it higher, with Bryan Adams and studio maestro ‘Mutt’ Lange adding their multi-platinum songwriting skills to a couple of the tracks.
‘Airbourne’ — Made with passion. Made in Australia. The Great Barrier Riff.
1- Gutsy 2- Alive After Death (Last Plane Out) 3- Here She Comes 4- Kid In A Candy Store 5- Sky High 6- Who Put The Rhythm In You? 7- Christmas Bonus 8- Last Man Standing 9- Rock ‘N’ Roll Ya 10- Bogotá 11- Hells Got No Vacancy 12- Send Me To Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven
AIRBOURNE Live:
July 2 – Belfort, France @ Eurockéennes July 3 – Ballenstedt, Germany @ Rockharz Open Air July 4 – Vienna, Austria @ Donauinselfest July 7 – Villafranca di Verona, Italy @ Castello Scaligero July 10 – Weert, Netherlands @ Bospop July 11 – Knebworth, UK @ Eddfest July 16 – Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France @ Guitare En Scene July 17 – Ambert, France @ World Festival Ambert July 20 – Carcassonne, France @ Festival De Carcassonne July 22 – Solothurn, Switzerland @ Kulturfabrik Kofmehl July 23 – Liège, Belgium @ OM Concerts July 25 – Sondershausen, Germany @ Bobfest July 28 – Zagreb, Croatia @ Boogaloo July 30 – Râșnov, Romania @ Rockstadt Extreme Fest August 1 – Wacken, Germany @ Wacken Open Air August 4 – Bratislava, Slovakia @ Tipos Arena August 7 – Chemnitz, Germany @ Wasserschloss Klaffenbach August 8 – Poznań, Poland @ Rockowizna Festival August 10 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Forum Karlín August 12 – Dinkelsbühl, Germany @ Summer Breeze August 14 – Sulingen, Germany @ Reload Festival August 16 – Carhaix-Plouguer, France @ Motocultor Festival August 18 – Pamplona, Spain @ Navarra Arena August 20 – Valencia, Spain @ Roig Arena August 22 – Château-Gontier, France @ V And B Festival August 26 – Kraków, Poland @ Klub Studio August 29 – Tallinn, Estonia @ Helitehas August 31 – Helsinki, Finland @ Allas Sea Pool September 3 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Tivoli Gröna Lund September 5 – Oslo, Norway @ High Voltage Live
Black/death experimental metal band Emptiness are releasing the title track from the band’s upcoming seventh album as its third and final advanced single. While it serves as the album’s conceptual center, “Nowhere Speaks” builds toward an enclosing, unyielding force.
Listen to “Nowhere Speaks” on the Season of Mist YouTube channel:
Save for vocals, keyboards and additional effects, Nowhere Speaks was played live in the studio, after four years of preparation, rehearsals and tests to ensure the music could be performed with the right weight and intention. This is not a production detail so much as a commitment to a specific kind of tension, the kind that does not survive being assembled in pieces. Emptiness’ previous album, Vide (2021), had no distortion, was sung entirely in French, and existed at the edge of silence; Nowhere Speaks moves in the opposite direction, and does so deliberately, opening exactly where Nothing But The Whole (2014) cut off mid-riff and closing by looping back to that album’s opening riff.
The title track opens in unhurried density, a body of sound that grows and presses inward without urgency, The lyrics inhabit the dimension the album describes without mapping it: a mind that twists, a dead world moving alongside something unresolved from the past, and through it all, something vast speaking outward into a landscape of sorrow, addressed to no one in particular. “Nowhere speaks loud thru the wind, in a landscape of sorrow, to a soldier of steel.”
Tracklist: 1. Nothing but the Whole (Part 2) (01:19) 2. The Threat (04:07) 3. Nowhere Speaks (05:37) 4. Darkness Commands (01:02) 5. Words to Wind (08:24) 6. One Must See All (01:29) 7. When the Whole Arrives (05:43) 8. The Clash of Forces (03:08) 9. Next in Line (04:15) 10. All for Nothing (06:37) Full runtime: 41:44
With Nowhere Speaks, EMPTINESS descends into a dimension stripped of all human trace, a place governed by its own silent logic, where unfamiliar forces and energies move with intent that has nothing to do with the listener. The album does not narrate; it confronts. Its opening track, “Nothing But The Whole (Part 2)”, begins mid-riff, picking up exactly where Nothing But The Whole (2014) cut off, the abrupt ending that baffled fans for years and became one of the more discussed gestures in underground metal. The closing track of Nowhere Speaks then returns to the opening riff of that same 2014 record, completing a deliberate loop between the two albums, beginning and ending inside each other. It is the band’s central idea made structural: nothing and everything at the same time, a cycle with no fixed point. After the stark withdrawal of Vide (2021), distortion-free and sung in French, this is a return to density, weight and immersive intensity, recorded live in the studio after four years of preparation, and entirely unconcerned with making its listener comfortable.
Founded in Brussels, Belgium in 1998, EMPTINESS set out with a clear and uncompromising intention: to explore darkness not as aesthetic but as territory. Drawing from black and death metal as departure points rather than destinations, the band approached extreme music with an experimental orientation from the start, shaping a sound that resisted easy classification. Early demos established a presence in the underground, their reception confirming that something distinct was forming in the Belgian capital.
The debut full-length Guilty to Exist(2004) laid the foundation, establishing the band’s identity without yet fully realizing its potential. Oblivion(2007) was where that potential first arrived completely: a record of exceptional production depth, commanding guitar work and a heaviness of atmosphere that made it, in retrospect, one of the defining metal releases of that year.
Error (2012), released through Dark Descent Records, pushed further into dissolution and atmosphere, sacrificing structural clarity in favour of immersion. Menacing, dissonant and unrelenting, it cleared space for what came next.
Nothing But The Whole (2014) was the album that opened EMPTINESS to a broader critical audience and remains their most discussed and celebrated statement from that first phase. Strange, hypnotic and formally resistant to genre convention, it held the raw force of extreme metal while stripping back its mechanics, allowing texture, dread and silence to carry weight where blast beats and tremolo picking had previously stood. Its closing moment, a riff severed mid-phrase as though the record had simply ceased to exist, drew years of speculation from listeners. It was not an error. It was a promise deferred.
Not For Music(2017), the band’s first release through Season of Mist, represented a categorical departure. Moving away from extreme metal frameworks entirely, the album drew on goth rock, coldwave, industrial and post-punk, pursuing a palette of dark music that felt fully inhabited rather than borrowed. Recorded at the band’s own Blackout Studio in Brussels, its final form was shaped with the involvement of Jeordie White (MARILYN MANSON, A PERFECT CIRCLE, NINE INCH NAILS), with mixing and mastering by Sean Beavan (GUNS N’ ROSES, NIN, SLAYER). The resulting record reached audiences well beyond the metal world, confirming EMPTINESS as a serious proposition across multiple scenes.
Vide (2021) took the band’s trajectory to its most formally radical point. Recorded in isolation, across apartments, a cabin in the woods and a Brussels rooftop, sung entirely in French and stripped of all distortion, it was a claustrophobic document of confinement and perceptual dislocation. The surrounding global context only reinforced the collapse between the inner world being constructed and the one outside. EMPTINESS performed the album in its entirety at Roadburn Redux 2021, a pairing that confirmed their standing within the avant-garde and experimental underground as precisely as any review could.
From early in their career, EMPTINESS has worked this way: Jérémie Bézier handling production across all its dimensions, Olivier J.L.W. directing the visual work in its entirety. Sound and image conceived, shaped and finalized from within. Nowhere Speaks continues that closed circuit, as it always has been.
Nowhere Speaks is not a return. After the most introverted and isolated record of their career, the band opens outward into density and live intensity. The album, developed over an extended period of time, was composed by Jérémie Bézier and Olivier J.L.W., who oversee its production across both sonic and visual dimensions, bringing the work to completion as a unified whole, committed to tape live in the studio. The structural conceit of opening mid-riff from where Nothing But The Whole ended, and closing with that album’s opening riff, is not nostalgia. It is the same logic that has always governed EMPTINESS: the cycle without a fixed point, beginning and ending inside each other, nothing and everything at the same time. The band has spent years demonstrating that they do not move in straight lines. Nowhere Speaks is a continuation from a point the listener was not meant to forget.
Line-up: Jérémie Bezier — Vocals, Bass Olivier J.L.W. — Guitars Simon L. — Guitars Dea Hydra — Synths Laye Louhenapessy — Drums
Cleopatra’s own God of Thunder, the mighty Thor, celebrates the upcoming reissue of his 1986 album Recruits Wild In The Streets with what we might call a new old single, as the title track peels off for a single… just as it did 40 years ago.,
“The song was meant to be an anthem of the youth,” says Thor. “Ride the Winds to Fame and Glory. A fist pumping tune that would let you cry out for Freedom and Hope! You could travel the world, it was your oyster.”
More than that, however, “Recruits (Ride Hard, Live Free)” was also a soundtrack highlight for the Silver Award winning movie Recruits, Screwballs director Rafal Zielinski’s riotous comedy starring Doug Annear (As Is, Too Outrageous) and John Canada Terrell (She’s Gotta Have It, Def By Temptation).
And, while it certainly took a leaf out of the Police Academy playbook, the focus was instead on the people who failed academy, but were recruited into the police force regardless. It also boasted one thing that its forebear certainly didn’t have – a guest role for Thor himself.
“I played the part of Thunderhead,” Thor continues. “I created the look of my character from my love for the movie Easy Rider, straggly blonde hair, unshaved stubble, and muscles.” Not exactly the kind of cop you expect to see on the beat!
Recruits was not Thor’s only movie role – you can see and hear him, too, in the Hair Metal meets Satan classic Rock n’ Roll Nightmare, Adam West’s Zombie Nightmare and, just a few years ago, Pact of Vengeance.
Hard-hitting as hell, “Recruits (Ride Hard, Live Free)” also kickstarts Cleopatra’s latest tranche of Thor reissues with electrifying elán, a riff you wish could last forever, and a keyboard that screams “it’s the eighties!” in your ear, even as the band’s relentless stomp remains resolutely timeless.
Releasing on July 17, Recruits Wild In The Streets was Thor’s third album, following up the Canadian and UK platinum selling Only The Strong – a barrage of seething hard rock that includes fan favorites “Ragnarok,” “Warhammer,” “Lady of the Night” and “Long Ride From Hell.”
Further reissues will follow this year, while Thor is also preparing both a career-spanning box set and a new album
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 ) 