The Metal Voice recently interviewed Armored Saint, now Category 7 singer John Bush.
Debut Category 7 album will be released July 26, 2024 via Metal Blade records.
When asked about losing his voice temporary on the last Armored Saint Tour ” I’m back to being better and you know that was really annoying and sucks but uh part of life, it happens. What are you going to do? But you just keep going. I pretend like I’m an athlete who got injured and you’re just fighting to get back into the game. It’s all good, it’s a lot better. It was really annoying. It probably was the beginning of a cold that I got. I didn’t really think too much of it at the time but then it kind of goes into the chest area and when that happens it becomes really difficult to have any power and sing and it sucks, it’s a drag. But all in all we played this whole long tour of seven weeks and it was a lot of work. So I don’t want to beat myself up too much because I did a lot of work on it. I’m not the last singer to have a voice problem, I wont be the first I won’t be the last.”
When asked if Category 7 can also be a vehicle to play Bush era Anthrax “Another guy asked me that, even Phil Demmel has asked me that. I don’t know. I guess that’s something that we could discuss. I had this idea although I haven’t told anybody about it in regards to doing the Anthrax thing which I’ve been wanting to do. I don’t want to go out and do 30 dates. I don’t want to do that but I do want to do some selective shows at some point because I think it would be cool and again time is slightly of the essence based on my age and the realities of life. I have a couple of ideas but it’s possible.”
When asked about the musical style of the Debut Category 7 album “When people ask me I trying to generalize it in a paragraph. It’s Rift Mania because there’s Rifts everywhere. There’s incredible rhythms. Rhythms that are supplemented by really well orchestrated songs, with big hooks. You have really amazing players. And there’s no denying that everybody is very skilled. Then having like really cool songs and that’s the key component.”
When asked about social media is a big problem today in society “I don’t have social media at all, neither does my wife. We decided that a long time ago. The label is like dude are you kidding you can’t, like come on? You’re like no, I’m not going to do it, I’ll do as many interviews as you want but I I’m just not getting an Instagram account or Facebook account because to promote myself I can’t because I think so low of it. Yeah I think it’s actually one of the biggest problems in the last 20 years for society to be honest. That’s just my opinion I can’t stand social media, I hate it. I think it’s done way worse for society than any positives. So yes I think they’re a big problem.”
CATEGORY 7, the new band featuring former MACHINE HEAD and current KERRY KING guitarist Phil Demmel, ex-ADRENALINE MOB guitarist Mike Orlando, ARMORED SAINT/ex-ANTHRAX singer John Bush, OVERKILL/SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner and EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson, will release its self-titled debut album on July 26 via Metal Blade Records.
Wormholedeath Records is thrilled to announce the signing of Swiss industrial progressive death metal force, Lethal Technology, for their highly anticipated album “Mechanical Era,” set for a global release on August 2nd, 2024.
Lethal Technology is a band that defies categorization, blending elements of industrial, death, and progressive metal into a unique and potent sonic assault. Their forthcoming album, “Mechanical Era,” promises a genre-bending journey through post-apocalyptic and futuristic soundscapes.
“We are very happy to present you our first album Mechanical Era!” says the band. “You will travel through post-apocalyptic and futuristic worlds. It will also continue among the different sounds used by the group which passes by different types of Metal: Indus Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Metal.”
1. Forbidden Flesh 2. Factory 3. Mechanical Era 4. Steel Body 5. New Hope 6. The Final Day 7. Programmed World 8. You Are MY Target 9. Iron and Ice 10. Digital God
Get a taste of the band’s crushing sound with the album’s teaser:
Formed in Collombey, Switzerland in July 2017 by guitarist Cédric Ferret, Lethal Technology has undergone a complete lineup overhaul in 2024. The band’s current incarnation features Cédric Ferret (guitars, programming, bass), Yu Chen (vocals), Benjamin Fievez (vocals), Michael Pascale (guitars), Fabrice D’Agostini (lead guitars), and Loris Larue (drums).
Lethal Technology draws inspiration from a wide range of musical influences, including Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, Dying Fetus, Dream Theater, video game soundtracks, and even 80’s giants like Genesis. This diverse palette of influences allows the band to create a truly unique and experimental sound that transcends the boundaries of traditional metal genres.
With the release of “Mechanical Era” on the horizon, Lethal Technology is gearing up for a series of live shows and festival appearances throughout 2024 and 2025. The band is also already in the early stages of songwriting for their next studio album.
Lethal Technology is: Cédric Ferret: Guitar, Programming, Bass Yu Chen: Vocals (Lyrical) Benjamin Fievez: Vocals (Growl) Michael Pascale: Guitar Fabrice D’Agostini: Lead Guitar Loris Larue: Drums
Album Line Up Cédric Ferret: Guitars, drum programming, keyboards Programming Julien Dulex: Bass, keyboards programming Sofiane Thoulon: Vocals (Lyrical) Jade Hänni : Vocals (Guttural) Xavier Boscher: Lead guitars
Century Media Records and InsideOutMusic have recently announced the upcoming “First Chapter” of a comprehensive catalog reissue campaign for legendary and groundbreaking Death Metallers EDGE OF SANITY as well as versatile Prog/Hardrock outfit NIGHTINGALE, who were both fronted by Swedish vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and acclaimed metal producer Dan Swanö (OPETH, KATATONIA, DISSECTION, etc.).
Long out of print, never previously available in certain formats or in any properly re-worked re-issue version, as well as enhanced by tons of exciting extra-material, these definitive re-issues come efficiently all re-mastered by Swanö himself and partly even shine in a new light via additional remix efforts as bonus.
The following re-issues will kick off the “First Chapter” of the re-issue campaign on June 21st, 2024: EDGE OF SANITY – Purgatory Afterglow (Re-issue) EDGE OF SANITY – Until Eternity Ends – EP (Re-issue) NIGHTINGALE – Nightfall Overture (Re-issue)
In order to support the start of the reissue campaign as well as to showcase the new treatment given to some of the material, you can now also check out the EDGE OF SANITY digital single and video clip for EDGE OF SANITY’s “Black Tears (Remaster 2024)”, taken from the upcoming Purgatory Afterglow reissue, on all DSP’s as well as in a relaunched video clip here:
Dan Swanö checked in with the following comment about “Black Tears”: “What kind of album “Purgatory Afterglow” should be took many turns and at one point it was gonna be an “all growls and back to the roots pure metal album”. So it’s quite strange that this track ended up on it in the end, and that it then even became the biggest “hit single” Edge Of Sanity ever had. There’s zero Death Metal going on here, but I still love it and always had a blast playing it live with both Edge Of Sanity and Nightingale”.
A cover version of the track “Black Tears” made popular by EDGE OF SANITY’s CMR labelmates Heaven Shall Burn can also be checked out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PtfyRjkn40
And the previously launched EDGE OF SANITY single “Twilight (Remix 2024)”, taken from the 2CD and Digital Album format from the upcoming Purgatory Afterglow reissue, is also available on all DSP’s as well as in a brand-new video clip created by Costin Chioreanu / Twilight13Media here: https://youtu.be/RPKMHlyAo9U and as part of the “Death Metal” streaming playlist on Spotify here: https://centurymedia.lnk.to/DeathMetal
Dan Swanö – who has not only had a long tradition of co-operating with mix/mastering roles for many CMR artists like ASPHYX, SKELETAL REMAINS, INSOMNIUM, but also last became musically active in Metal with the band WITHERSCAPE via CMR (Two albums and a mini album between 2013 and 2016) and also released his latest Nightingale album Retribution in 2014 on the IOM label – had checked in with the following comment about the re-issue campaign:
“It’s hard to describe in words exactly how excited we all are about these re-issues for both Edge Of Sanity and Nightingale. It’s incredible that these albums are finally available again, with the attention to detail they always deserved and with a label like Century Media Records / InsideOutMusic behind us, we know that these releases will turn out amazing in the end and not be so hard to get a hold of like they used to be, and hopefully reach a new audience as well as the old!
Personally, I always hoped that there would come a time when I could revisit all these albums and have the time and budget to remaster or even remix them and be able to present them the way I wish they had sounded all along. A lot of time, work and money have been put into making sure we have the best possible version of the original artwork to work with, and we searched everywhere for photographs and memorabilia. Endless hours have been spent talking and writing about these albums, resulting in super detailed liner notes for the Deluxe CD edition. Also, the lyrics have been double and tripled check, and it was quite amusing to see just how wrong most of them were both in the original booklets and online. The lyrics are in the booklets and on the inner sleeve of every re-issue!
I wholeheartedly hope you appreciate these new, improved and definitive versions of the entire Edge Of Sanity and Nightingale back catalogues!”
The “First Chapter” of the reissue campaign will cover the following all-remastered releases and formats in June/August:
EDGE OF SANITY – Purgatory Afterglow (Re-issue) Out June 21st, 2024 (CMR) – Ltd. Deluxe 2CD Jewelcase in O-Card (Incl. “Until Eternity Ends” EP songs and remix of all songs on bonus disc) – Black LP (180g vinyl, unlimited) – Ltd. transp. red LP (180g vinyl, limited to 500x copies, available from www.cmdistro.de & various other retailers) – Ltd. transp. sun yellow LP (180g vinyl, limited to 300x copies, available from www.cmdistro.de) – Digital Album / Remaster 2024 – Digital Album / Remix 2024 Note: The seminal 4th album, originally released in 1994, now celebrating its 30th Anniversary.
EDGE OF SANITY – Until Eternity Ends – EP (Re-issue) Out June 21st, 2024 (CMR) – Black 12″ EP (180g vinyl, unlimited) – Ltd. blue 12” EP (180g vinyl, limited to 300x copies, available from www.cmdistro.de & various other retailers) – Digital EP / Remaster 2024 – Digital EP / Remix 2024 Note: The companion 4-track EP to “Purgatory Afterglow”, originally released in 1994, now celebrating its 30th Anniversary. Never available on vinyl before, including remix versions on Side B.
EDGE OF SANITY – Nothing But Death Remains (Re-issue) Out August 23rd, 2024 (CMR) – Ltd. Deluxe 2CD Jewelcase in O-Card (Incl. remix and rare 1991 rough mix versions on bonus disc) – Black LP (180g vinyl, unlimited) – Ltd. transp. blue LP (180g vinyl, limited to 500x copies, available from www.cmdistro.de & various other retailers) – Ltd. lilac LP (180g vinyl, limited to 300x copies, available from www.cmdistro.de) – Digital Album / Remaster 2024 – Digital Album / Remix 2024 Note: The intense debut album, originally released in 1991.
NIGHTINGALE – Nightfall Overture (Re-issue) Out June 21st, 2024 (IOM) – Ltd. Deluxe 2CD Jewelcase in O-Card (Incl. 16-track live bonus disc) – Black LP (180g, unlimited) – Ltd. transp. light blue LP (180g vinyl, limited to 300x copies, available from www.insideoutshop.de & various other retailers) – Digital Album / Remaster 2024 Note: Special compilation album, originally released in 2005 for the band’s 10th anniversary, including re-imagined and re-recorded songs from the band’s first four albums as well as 2 additional songs.
NIGHTINGALE – I (Re-issue) Out August 23rd, 2024 (IOM) – Ltd. Deluxe 2CD Jewelcase in O-Card (Incl. 7 additional songs and 18-track bonus disc) – Black LP (180g, unlimited) – Ltd. transp. sun yellow LP (180g vinyl, limited to 300x copies, available from www.insideoutshop.de & various other retailers) – Digital Album / Remaster 2024 Note: The 3rd album, originally released in 2000, available on vinyl for the first time ever.
Stay tuned for further news about this catalogue campaign and look out for the “Second Chapter” of EDGE OF SANITY and NIGHTINGALE re-issues coming late 2024 / early 2025…
Finnish rock band MOFFAT releases their debut album later this year. Now they present the first single from the album. Cloud of Sound is a powerful rock song that tells the story of a dangerous person who once held a high social status. However, he has lost his status and now suffers from eternal shame. Stylistically, the song represents a unique form of hard rock and features speed, danger and a surprising ending.
MOFFAT is a rock band founded in Jyväskylä, Finland in 2020. Their music is mostly inspired by 1990s grunge, hard rock and progrock. The lyrics of the songs often deal with social themes.
After eight years of soul-searching deep within the Canadian wilderness, Anciients are back and ascending toward their rightful place as guiding lights for progressive metal. The JUNO Award winners recently announced their highly-anticipated third album.
To celebrate the coming of Beyond the Reach of the Sun, this fall, Kenny Cook, Mike Hannay and the band’s new axe men Brock MacInnes and Rory O’Brien will play three record release shows in their native British Columbia. This special run includes one night at The Rickshaw Theatre in the band’s hometown of Vancouver.
“We are beyond excited to play our new album in a live setting for the very first time,” Cook says about the band’s upcoming shows. “It’s going to be epic! More show announcements are coming soon”.
Anciients will be supported by five fellow Canadian bands: metal-punks Fearbirds, progressive metalheads Black Thunder, metal stoners Waingro, thrashy death metal trio Bloodrhine and post-metal doomsayers Empress.
Anciients Beyond the Reach of the Sun Record Release Shows
September 20 – Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar with Fearbirds and Black Thunder [TICKETS] September 21 – Nanaimo, BC @ The Queens with Fearbirds and Black Thunder [TICKETS] September 27 – Vancouver, BC @ The Rickshaw Theatre with Waingro, Bloodrhine and Empress [TICKETS]
Beyond the Reach of the Sun comes out August 30, 2024 on Season of Mist.
Watch the mind-bending guitar playthrough for lead single “Melt the Crown”.
The video for the guitar playthrough of “Melt the Crown” was directed, filmed and edited by Claine Gorgoth Lamb (@claines_world).
Tracklist 1. Forbidden Sanctuary (8:16) 2. Despoiled (5:19) 3. Is It Your God (7:07) 4. Melt the Crown (7:08) [WATCH] 5. Cloak of the Vast and Black (6:20) 6. Celestial Tyrant (5:52) 7.Beyond Our Minds (4:12) 8. The Torch (4:13) 9. Candescence (4:10) 10. In the Absence of Wisom (6:35)
It’s been a rough handful of years for British Columbia-based extremity-laced progressive rockers, Anciients. When the quartet unleashed their Voice of the Void album in 2016, the world appeared to be their oyster and things seemed ripe for the picking. They were coming off the success of their Heart of Oak debut from 2013, its ascendancy due in large part to a collective uptick in interest for involved, forward-thinking music. The public had moved beyond toe-dipping and tire-kicking, and were instead doing headfirst dives into exploring the likes of Opeth, Mastodon, Baroness, The Ocean, Intronaut and others who originally hailed from the extreme music underground, but had since grown, matured and scrubbed behind their ears to include heaping and healthy chunks from the outskirts of their record collections and influence pools.
The Band That Auto-Correct Loves to Fuck With™ shared stages with everyone from High on Fire and Goatwhore to Boris and Lamb of God, were in the midst of a European tour when they discovered they were JUNO Award (Canadian Grammy equivalent) winners in the heavy metal/hard rock category. The world was ready to accept Anciients into its welcoming arms. Anciients was gearing up to employ takeover methods, specifically their brand of thunderous rhythms and labyrinthine riffing bolstered by a road warrior mentality. And then, the momentum petered out and the band seemingly fell off the face of the earth.
Today, Anciients are ready and poised to resume their spirited quest for heavy metal paramountcy. There’s no doubt the band is back and with a stunning and beautiful collection of ten songs on offer in the form of new and third album, Beyond the Reach of the Sun, they are positioning to reestablish themselves as a dominant force for those who love windmilling their tresses around thoughtful tempo changes, complex harmonic layers and driving power chord shifting. But what the hell happened and where did they disappear to?
“Basically,” explains guitarist/vocalist Kenny Cook, “right before Voice of the Void was recorded, my wife had our first kid. She ended up having heart complications and almost passed away from it. We recorded the last record and once it came out, I was kind of just focusing on her, dealing with her health issues and keeping that in check. I wasn’t at the stage where I could be gone for half a year, especially with a new kid. Long story short, she’s happy and healthy now, but dealing with family issues was the main priority. It was a bit of a road.”
Adding to that bit of Anciients camp turmoil, guitarist/co-vocalist/co-founding member, Chris Dyck and the band parted ways in January of 2017. This left a gaping lineup hole at an inopportune juncture in the band’s timeline. Not only did Cook have to deal with the absence of his long-term song and lyric writing partner, but Dyck was also someone he had been splitting vocal duties with since the pair formed the band in 2009. And then, while helping his wife with her recovery, raising their new born and “because we wanted to raise our son in a small town environment,” the Cook family uprooted to Columbia-Shuswap four hours east of the Vancouver area, where drummer Mike Hannay, Brock MacInnes (Dyck’s replacement) and brand spanking new bassist Rory O’Brien still reside.
“We knew Brock from other bands he’d been in and we knew he’d be a great fit,” explains Cook. “He actually filled in for Chris on a tour we did back in 2015. As far as the vocals, I just found myself picking up the slack on both ends. It felt somewhat natural, it was definitely different. Doing the lyrics myself for the first time was somewhat daunting, but it was also something done out of necessity. But even when Chris was in the band I handled 80-90% of the vocals anyway, so it didn’t change all that much.”
Then, that whole COVID-19 thing you probably heard about once or twice hit in 2020 and put another restraining bolt on Anciients’ activity, especially touring as the Canadians found themselves dealing with stricter travel restrictions and mandates than many other countries; most notably, not being able to cross the border for almost two years. Once the dust settled, Cook had to adjust to being the lone vocalist and how that impacted the material he was writing while navigating being creative with distance between Anciients’ members for the first time. Not a biggie, as in-person writing sessions are more of a rarity these days, but because of the time elapsed since Voices of the Void, things/interests/influences changed and the band ended up scrapping half of an album’s worth of material and starting fresh. When they put their heads down at the end of 2021 with the focus being Beyond the Reach of the Sun, what was revealed a year later was more streamlined and slithery, more chest-thumpingly direct, more epic and triumphant sounding. Riffs come in explosive layered packets. Leads, harmonies and melodies are more on par with wind-tussled mountain tops instead of sweaty bar shows and the band moves with finely honed, martial accuracy as conducted by Hannay’s rocket-in-the-pocket staccato swing and accents.
Songs like “The Torch” blaze with the shirtless glisten of ‘70s stadium rock power. “Cloak of the Vast and Black” swirls and whirls with a combination of hardcore intensity, grunge groove and expansive six-string parries. “In the Absence of Wisdom” is a hurricane-sized maelstrom of classic and prog rock elevated to grandiosity by a return to their growling sludge/death early years as the song/album concludes. The album’s first single, “Melt the Crown” mixes cues from legendary fellow hosers Rush and Harlequin, turn-of-the-millennium post-metal and the most psychedelic corners of the Rise Above Records roster.
“The new record has a lot more of our rock side,” Cook offers, “and leans towards those elements of our sound and personalities, whereas Voice of the Void was pretty crushing all the way through. With the new material we’ve tried to add more dynamics to the music and give the songs more room to breathe.”
Album opener “Forbidden Sanctuary” is the soundtrack to exploration, of new worlds and sonic arrangement as sine-wave guitars pull from vintage Mercyful Fate covens and Krautrock communes with synths opening up novel textural avenues, as they do on the ethereal wispiness and space rock/sci-fi soundscapes of the instrumental “Candescence.” Beyond the Reach of the Sun sees synths and keyboards making their first appearance on an Anciients record and were played by producer/mixer Jesse Gander and Justin Hagberg at the former’s Rain City Recorders studio. In addition to augmenting the album with his skill on the black and whites, Hagberg — a member of the recently reunited 3 Inches of Blood — also helped Anciients navigate a significant last-minute hurdle, one that threatened to pull the reins back on their comeback roar.
“We lost our bass player literally a month before we were going in to record and were kind of up shit’s creek. Justin also plays in a band called Ritual Dictates with Rory and is the one who brought his name up.”
O’Brien, a former member of Vancouver’s Bushwhacker, was absolutely interested when approached by Anciients.
“We got lucky and he saved our asses at the last minute.”
Cook stepped up to the challenge of being the sole lyricist to drape Beyond the Reach of the Sun in deeply personal expressions of the inner turmoil, fear and isolation he’d experienced in himself and saw in others over the past few years. There were moments where he didn’t know whether loved ones were going to pull through and what life was going to look like were tragedy come to pass. Mental health and people living life without being able to see any light at the end of the tunnel became a very prevalent theme to tracks like “Despoiled” and “Beyond Our Minds.” And while the line that became the album’s title is taken from a David Attenborough-narrated Planet Earth documentary, it speaks more to the coming and going of despondency when one doesn’t know how dark the darkness is going to get, as in “Is It Your God,” which pulls from the manifestation of grief and how it can shatter belief systems.
“That one is a little more personal to me and my situation,” Cook says somberly. “I had a good friend of mine from when I was younger pass away from cancer. His mother was super-religious and there were ideas taken from her questioning how could something like that happen to her when she had such a strong faith.”
The title and themes of stripped away hope and piled on anguish and tumult were parlayed into the album’s spectacular cover art. Created by Adam Burke (Nightjar Illustrations), the drawing is part-pulp novel cover, part-Franzetta landscape, part-sci-fi movie poster and all a vast illustration one can easily lose themselves in while the record spins in the background.
“We gave him the concept and basic outline of how we wanted the cover to look and he took it to a whole new dimension. It turned out pretty wild!”
With all being said and done, Anciients have returned! They stand ready to ascend the prog metal ladder and get back to doing what they do best with a weighty and dense, but wholly accessible, album. It’s a collection of ten songs that possesses the ability to have those furiously banging heads also tapping into their power of self-reflection and contemplation to ponder the finality of existence, the value of life and their place in the universe.
“Totally! We’re going to take as many of the opportunities that come to us. The hiatus is over and I think with the new members and everyone being on the same page we’re ready to get out there as soon as possible. We missed out on a huge block after the last record, so we’ve got to make up for lost time. Now that everyone is happy and healthy, we plan to hit it hard.”
Kaaboos, a one-man Iranian black metal project, is facing deportation from Norway. Due to cultural differences and the genre’s association with anti-religious sentiment, Atash, the sole member of Kaaboos, fears for his life if he is forced to return to Iran.
Omid, known by his stage name “Atash,” fled Iran in 2019 seeking refuge in Norway, known for its deep black metal history. He envisioned Norway as a place where he could freely express himself musically and delve deeper into the genre’s spiritual and empowering aspects.
However, in response to his music and antitheocratic stance under the Kaaboos moniker, Atash faced threats from certain groups. Fearing for his safety, he sought asylum in Norway.
After four years of residing in Norway, the Norwegian Immigration offices (UDI & UNE) rejected Atash’s asylum claim and issued a deportation order. The decision disregards the potential dangers Atash faces upon returning to Iran.
Heavy metal, punk, and rock are deemed blasphemous and illegal in Iran. Participation in such music can lead to severe punishment, imprisonment, or even death.
Atash has a chance to appeal the decision, but legal representation comes at a steep cost. His lawyer requires a total of €17,000, of which Atash has already exhausted €6,000. Currently unemployed due to his asylum seeker status, Atash is struggling to cover basic necessities, let alone the remaining legal fees.
Atash has launched a fundraiser to raise the necessary funds for his legal battle. He pleads with the black metal community and anyone who values artistic freedom to donate and help him fight for his right to remain in Norway. Donate here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/urgent-fundraiser-for-metal-refugee
Message from Atash:
Kaaboos previously released two videos from his performance in front of the Iranian Embassy in Oslo, Norway: Wrath of Gods & a Taake cover.
Kaaboos (کابوس) which stands for Nightmare in Farsi/Persian, hails from Iran, but currently residing in Norway. Main man ‘Atash’, whose name translates to ‘Fire’, left his home country of Iran and sought refuge in Norway, the true home of black metal, in order to freely express himself via this unique and versatile subculture, away from the religious and dictatorial oppression of the Middle Eastern country.
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 ) 