Swedish arena rockers VNTER, feat. ex-members of White Limo, have released a music video for ‘Holy Freedom‘. It’s the first single, taken from their upcoming EP ‘Unfolding‘, out on March 22th, 2024. The YouTube video can be viewed below. The video was filmed by Robert Hellström and edited by Alfredo Souza.
1. Forever never ends 2. Pieces of me 3. Holy Freedom 4. New beginnings 5. Euphoria
‘Unfolding‘ was recorded in Studio Soundport in Ulricehamn, Sweden by Micke Andersson – who also produced, mixed and mastered the album. You can also hear him sing backup vocals and playing synth on ”Forever never ends” and piano on ”Pieces of me”.
VNTER is:
Andy Larsson – Guitar and Vocals Oliver Gonzales Stiller – Bass Alexander Wedding – Drums and backup vocals Rickard Borg – Lead Guitar
VNTER was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in November 2017 by singer and guitar player Andy. Since then they have done a lot of interviews, radio and live shows both in Sweden and outside of Sweden. With their explosive, high energy rock made for both big and small stages the now aim to get a bigger audience.
The band is also an extension and continuation of the previous band White Limo that had a few successful years and was put to its final rest in 2016. Andy took the best songs that were written and released with White Limo, gave them a make over and re-recorded them as VNTER which became the first album ”When it all comes down”. Previous to that they released two singles ”Make it up” and ”Queen”.
They have now just finished a brand new 5 song EP that is more commercial than they ever done. The band challenged themselves and a unique, brave, huge sound came out of it. You probably have heard it before, but then again you probably haven’t. Recorded, produced, mixed & mastered in Studio Soundport in Ulricehamn by Micke Andersson who have a hand in the bands two previous albums.
About
The last album ”Overcoming” was written and recorded with only one member in the band (Andy) and was determined that VNTER was now a project where invited friends could come and join the recording sessions and live sessions. However Andy decided that it´s way more fun to have band members and begun the search in the early 2023.
And after two years hiatus from where the band was on hold and all the existing members left in one way or another they are back with new music, three new members Oliver Gonzales on bass, Alexander Weding on drums and Rickard Borg on lead guitar, new energy and more determination to play huge shows.
The mission from day one is to deliver in every aspect, both live on stage and on tape.
Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Muse and Queens of the stone age. These are the influences that helped form the shape and idea of the band and the will to play worldwide. That and a constant drive to be better, do more and write really good music.
”If you take the blue pill you will wake up in your bed believing whatever you want to believe but if you take the red pill you will stay in VNTER´s world and they will show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”.
Dutch artist and Nordic folk pioneer Kati Rán is now pleased to reveal that she has signed with Svart Records, where she will be debuting her brand new full-length SÁLA on 24th May, 2024. For a glimpse of what’s to come, Kati Rán is now sharing a short docu-clip about the record, which can be seen here.
Kati Rán elaborates: ”For me, signing to Svart Records was the most natural next step. Collaborating and releasing my music with Svart’s long-standing expertise in bringing out amazing artists and vinyl for true music connoisseurs, I’m grateful to be able to bring my audience a beautiful, elevated experience to enjoy my new Nordic dark folk album SÁLA.
“Together with Jaani Peuhu (Swallow the Sun, IANAI, Lord of the Lost, Hallatar) and Christopher Juul (Heilung), my new album has been tenuously crafted and produced and is curated by my many years of writing, researching, and traveling the Northern landscapes, taking on board with me incredible artists, sounds, and musicians to breathe the Nordic soul into the heart of this album.
“I’m looking forward to opening the floodgates to SÁLA with the release of the first single and opening track ‘Stone Pillars’ on the 23rd of February. It embraces our most vulnerable side, questions our mind, and attempts to resurrect or reposition ourselves through spinning with the Fates. It dips right into the heart of things.”
Special vinyl editions in gold, transparent smoke, and black as well as digipack CDs are available for pre-order HERE.
SÁLA features an impressive lineup of diverse musicians who lent their talents to the record, including Gaahl, Napalm Death‘s Mitch Harris, members of Heilung, Sígur Rós, and many others!
Kati Rán is known for her collaborative audio work for Netflix’s tv series ‘VIKINGS: VALHALLA‘, films and work for videogames, her stage appearances with Wardruna, Myrkur and Gaahls Wyrd to name a few, and her previous releases of the successful album; and Nordic dark folk tracks ‘Blodbylgje’ and Icelandic track ‘Unnr | Mindbeach’; that run millions of streams and gathered a tightly knit Nordic folk music loving audience around her.
If the most profound treasures are often the most deeply buried, the journey to uncover them is a vital process of discovery. Five years after the 15-minute single ‘Blodbylgje’ signaled the birth of a new, more primordial, and immersive vision after the dissolution of her band L.E.A.F., Nordic dark folk artist Kati Rán has expanded on its oceanic theme for her long-awaited full-length album, SÁLA. Embarking on a far-reaching musical and personal travelogue, it’s a reawakening of both the feminine narratives submerged and fragmented within Norse mythology, and the enduring, healing powers held within.
Named after the Old Norse word for ‘soul’ and ‘sea’, SÁLA is an act of ‘soul retrieval’, the shamanic art of trauma recovery, be it illness, death, heartbreak or loss, and the reintegration of a splintered self. Across its 13, wide-ranging, elegantly unfolding tracks, the album is an embodiment of different feminine voices and perspectives – from the Norse nine daughters of the sea, or ‘billow maidens’, through various historical and fictional figures to the late-night voices we hear in our most liminal states – all with tales to tell, riddles to solve, challenges to be accepted and guidance to offer. It’s a multiplicity that, like the ocean itself, belongs to a vast, restless dynamic: a matrix of mysteries, unfathomable depths and ever-shifting currents, accumulating into an elemental, regenerative source of power.
Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland – home to glacier ice caves and a rare lava stone marimba rediscovered for the track ‘Stone Pillars’ – as well as Finland, Norway and at home in Kati’s native Netherlands, SÁLA is as much chronicle of Kati’s own perspective-shifting recording process as it as a pilgrimage through different viewpoints and internal states. That itinerant urge is also reflected in the use of different languages, ranging across Norwegian, Old Norse, Icelandic, and, for the first time, English, her combination of ancient texts, historical reimagining’s and unguarded personal reflection backed up by deep research into the most resonant recesses of Nordic lore.
Spun throughout every thread of SÁLA is a sense of communion – with the power of stories to offer moral guidance and the thrill of the unknown; with the element of water, recreated across the album both in field recordings and the agelessly organic nature of the music itself; with the archetypes whose qualities we are called upon to embody at our most critical moments; and with the internal hidden realms forever whispering at us from the far edges of our consciousness.
Appropriately, it’s a collaborative venture too. As well as working closely together with Finnish producer Jaani Peuhu, there are contributions from across the musical spectrum, including extreme metal vocalist extraordinaire Gaahl, the Icelandic female choir Umbra Ensemble, renowned Norwegian jazz musician Karl Seglem, Björk and Brian Eno contrabassist Borgar Magnason, members of pagan folk acts Völuspá, Gealdýr, Heilung and Theodor Bastard and even Napalm Death’s Mitch Harris on vocals.
For all the many sources SÁLA draws from, the result is a singular, intimately transformative rite of passage, and a returning of the heart to the reverent continuity of the sacred. It will take you from the opening title track’s chest-pounding rhythmic pulse emerging from a traditional Norwegian bukkehorn (recorded by Karl Seglem), a galloping horse-rider and Kati’s glacial, velveteen chant, through “Kólga’s” recounting of female persecution through the ages borne on the most gossamer-light yet unbreakable of timbres and “Stone Pillar’s” gently percolating, deep wells of abandonment and incantations to recovery. SÁLA closes with the track ‘Sátta’ – Old Norse for ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ – ending the album as it began with the bukkehorn, as it weaves rich drones and experience-stamped poems and prayers, Kati’s vocals the most sensitively tuned of emotional barometers. An album made in dedication, and in thrall to, its own sense of destiny, SÁLA is, as all quests must ultimately be, a homecoming.
For Fans Of:Heilung, Wardruna, Ianai, Gaahls WYRD, Nytt Land
Special Guests: Gaahl (Gaahl, Wyrd, Wardruna) Mitch Harris (Napalm Death) Jaani Peuhu (Swallow the Sun, IANAI, Lord of the Lost, Hallatar) Karl Seglem (Norwegian jazz and folk legend) Borgar Magnason (Björk, Sígur Rós, Brian Eno) Gealdýr Emilie Lorentzen (Heilung) Nicholas Schipper (Heilung) Yana Veva (Theodor Basterd) Umbra (Icelandic female choir) Sól Geirsdóttir, Varg Saastad (Völuspá band) Marianne Heikkinen, Salla Marja (Saruru,´bunny girl metal´) Páll Guðmunsson (Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Steindór Anderssen, Sígur Rós)
Production: Jaani Peuhu, Kati Rán, Christopher Juul Mastering: Jaime Gomez Arrelano
Cover Art: Photographer Arne Beck, Illustrator Halfdan Skrifa, Graphic design Jari Laurén, Charlotte Boer, Deluxe Box Edition with cover painting by Marzena Ablewska-Lech
CLEARxCUT is out there to spread the message of total liberation. (Former) Members of HEAVEN SHALL BURN, IMPLORE, and KING APATHY/THRÄNENKIND started this collective, because they are dedicated to the vegan straight edge (XVX) and want to confront listeners with inconvenient thruths and todays harsh reality. The German band addresses their songs and convictions to all people who are prepared to stand up for a better, fairer future – but especially to all anarchists, anti-fascists, feminists, primitivists and indigenous peoples of the world. Or to put it brief: to all defenders of our earth. The stylistic choice of means falls on metallic hardcore, which is rooted in a strong DIY ethic.
Having released their first two albums “For The Wild At Heart Kept In Cages” (2019) and “Songs of Desire Armed” (2022) for Catalyst X Records (Gather, Nueva Ethica, Abnegation, Birthright, Maroon, Point Of No Return, Forward To Eden), “Age Of Grief” now marks CLEARxCUTs debut for LIFEFORCE RECORDS. Started in the mid-1990ies as label with mainly vegan and straight edge bands, the German Label has an impressive history with XVX bands such as ARKANGEL, DAY OF SUFFERING, RANCOR, UNCONQUERED, UNBORN, FAULT, or DEADLOCK and THRÄNENKIND/ KING APATHY. Being a collective that is outspoken in its message and keeps the vegan straight edge banner high, CLEARxCUT continue this tradition.
Also besides having switched their label, “Age Of Grief” marks a fresh start for CLEARxCUT. After a big shift in their ranks, before the global pandemic hit, the band moved from two (female) vocalists to one (male) frontman, Gabriel Dubko (former IMPLORE vocalist). This is accompanyed by a change of sound. On their third full lenght album, the German band is diving into the realms of metallic hardcore, leaving behind their early hardcore punk influences. Noone should be surprised by this move, as CLEARxCUT was conceived as a collective where members, names, or styles wouldn’t matter, but one and only the final goal of spreading a positive message in defense of animal rights and sober living. “Age Of Grief”, in this respect, is extremely consistent.
The Metal Voice recently spoke to Judas Priest’s Guitarist Richie Faulkner about the bands upcoming Studio album ‘Invincible Shield’ that will be released March 8, 2024 via Epic Records.
When asked about the new album “I think it’s its own animal, as all the albums are. It’s the character of the band that’s been there for over half a century now. There is Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill, Scott Travis. Scott’s been there for 30 years. So there’s that beautiful Legacy that they laid down along with K.K. Downing and Les Binks and Dave Holland and all those guys in the past. We always try to do something a little bit different. Whether it’s musical or lyrical content or we always try to make it better, quote unquote. Better songs, better production, better solos, better Melodies. We always try and strive to do something that’s better than the last one and it has its own unique quality. I think it’s a less commercial record than Firepower because it kind of it Strays away from that three minute single as much as it could. “
When asked what he did different guitar wise on this album than on Firepower “What I did differently this time was that we had a bit more time to develop riffs and solos and musical parts because of the lockdowns of the pandemic. So there were a few solos on this record which actually worked out. I don’t usually do that. I usually play some off the cuff solos in the studio and then a little bit stick here and there and you build it around them. But a few of them on this record I actually worked out. I’m always trying to find my own voice. I’m always trying to find my own thing to say. Coming in after K.K. Downing who had such a unique voice and Glenn as well what am I going to say that’s always been my journey? So I mapped out some of the guitar solos on this record which I don’t usually do.”
When asked to talk about about some of the songs off the new album
‘The Serpent and the King’
“It’s a fast screeching Priest track with Rob’s banshee vocal style. That one had been around for a while with no vocals but we knew there was something in the song we knew there was an energy and when Rob put the vocals on I think it was one of the last ones that he came up with and just sent it over the top man. You know that Halford High register banshee whale is something that really in the dynamic flow of the record that’s something that really makes the record and that song jump out. I really love that song it would be fantastic to play Live.”
“Invincible Shield”
“It’s one of those songs which has riff after riff after riff. Part of the solo goes off in a different direction. The solo is almost like a musical piece in itself it changes almost like Randy Rhoads (style) I was going for that. I wanted a Randy Rhoads type feel. It’s a challenging song to play right until the very end. It’s a great fun fast anthemic track and it sums up the title of the album really. iIt’s all about i metal that we all know and love and it’s our music and our community.”
“Gates of Hell”
“It’s got a tip of the hat to the 80s maybe uh but a good strong track.”
“God as my witness”
“That’s another fast one. This comes in after ‘Crown of horns’ which is a mid paste Anthem and there’s a fade out on’ Crown of horns’ then this one jumps in uh this is Relentless this one that’s a great track.”
“Escape from reality”
“That was one of Glenn songs that he brought in to the sessions. It was a very kind of Sabathy midsection and Rob went with that dynamic as well but that was one of Glenn’s ideas and we thought was strong. It has a different texture on the album both in Sonics and in sentiment of the vocal so we thought that was a good Dynamic to have in there.”
“Sons of thunder”
“I think definitely reminds me of ‘Hell bent for leather’ in heart. That’s another one on Glenn’s. Glenn came to the session and he had this song ‘Sons of thunder’ we added a couple of bits and solo sections and stuff like that. And again that’s Tipton. Hell bent for leather was Tipton too. So it’s a testament to how he writes songs, short, sharp and to the point.”
“Giants in the sky”
“Rob has that kind of way of having something meaningful but yet ambiguous as well. It’s the Metal Gods that have passed, that music, their music will live on forever. The last words on Rob’s final scream is you will never die and that kind of take as a reference to the music and these Metal Gods that we all hold in such high esteem that will live on forever.”
Bonus Track: “The Lodger”
“It tells a story. It’s Bob Halligan Jr that wrote that song, who’s got a history with Priest you know, (‘Take these chains’ , Heads are gonna roll). Bob produced that song for us and gave it to us and it kept coming back you know. We’d work on other songs and then that one kept coming back and it’s got a really unique, uh it’s almost like a Broadway Type sentiment, Jack the Ripper type stuff.”
When asked about Rob Halford’s vocals on the song
“He connects the listener with them you know the sentiment of the song comes across. Rob’s got such a diverse range as we all know he’ll do the high stuff he’ll do the low stuff and the stuff in the middle which really he’s so Dynamic, he’s not just like a one trick pony. He doesn’t do one thing. Rob does so many things ,which makes him the metal god, the Undisputed metal god and uh it’s fantastic to work with him.”
The Metal Voice recently interviewed Epic Power Metal band Warlord co-founder Drummer Mark Zonder and singer Giles Lavery.
In the chat the two discussed the return of the band with a new album ‘Free Spirit Soar’ and their first single ‘Conqueror’. As well respond to the nay sayers and how the new album was built off of the late co-founder Bill Tsamis’ demos from 2016-2017.
Epic Metal pioneers WARLORD are on a mission in tribute to fallen bandmate William J Tsamis and return once more with a new album in 2024.With »Free Spirit Soar«, a brand-new studio album by Warlord with all songs having been recorded between March and September 2023, singer Giles Lavery and drummer Mark Zonder honor their bandmate Bill Tsamis who passed away in 2021.
They are joined by Jimmy Waldo on keyboards/synthesizer, Philip Bynoe on bass and Eric Juris on guitars. “We wanted to finish these pieces of music that were started ‘for Bill’,” explains Lavery, “and the material we felt was certainly strong enough to inspire us to do so.” Regarding the guitar parts he specifies: “Bill is there where we could pull his tracks off the demo recordings, in much the same way the Beatles were recently able to rescue John Lennon’s voice from an old demo tape. however be assured this album is not “a demo”, nor does it sound like one, our new guitarist Eric does most of the heavy lifting as far the recording, but all of the music was written by Bill and we stayed very very faithful to what he wrote.”
Free Spirit Soar” Tracklist: 01 Behold A Pale Horse 02 The Rider 03 Conquerors 04 Worms Of The Earth 05 The Watchman (CD-exclusive track) 06 Free Spirit Soar 07 The Bell Tolls 08 Alarm 09 Twin (CD-exclusive track) 10 Revelation XIX
Line Up: Mark Zonder – Drums Philip Bynoe – Bass Eric Juris – Guitars Jimmy Waldo – Keyboards Giles Lavery – Vocals
In celebration of the first anniversary of the band’s latest studio album Foregone, Swedish melodic death metal icons IN FLAMES have released a digital bonus version of Foregone today on all streaming platforms. The anniversary edition of this highly lauded part of the group’s discography comes accompanied by alternative artwork as well as including a new bonus track, ‘Become One’.
The band states: “Foregone was a very special record to make and time for our band. We normally don’t have any extra material leftover but this time we had “Become One” and want to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy!! See you out on the road this year!”
IN FLAMES released their fourteenth studio album Foregone on February 10th last year via Nuclear Blast. The record combines the greatest aggressive, metallic, and melodic strengths of their landmark records with the seasoned song writing of their contemporary era.
IN FLAMES will be on tour with ARCH ENEMY and their label mates SOILWORK this autumn. Catch the band live:
OFFICIAL TOUR DATES: 03.10. UK Glasgow – O2 Academy 04.10. UK Manchester – Manchester Academy 05.10. UK Birmingham – O2 Academy 06.10. UK London – Eventim Apollo Hammersmith 08.10. FR Paris – Olympia 09.10. LU Esch-sur-Alzette – Rockhal 11.10. DE Hamburg – Sporthalle 12.10. DE Düsseldorf – Mitsubishi Electric Hall 13.10. NL Den Bosch – Mainstage 15.10. CH Zurich – The Hall 16.10. IT Milan – Alcatraz 18.10 DE Stuttgart – Schleyer-Halle 19.10. DE Frankfurt – Jahrhunderthalle 20.10. DE Munich – Zenith 22.10. AT Vienna – Gasometer 23.10. HU Budapest – Barba Negra 25.10. CZ Prague – Sportovni Hala Fortuna 26.10. DE Dresden – Messe 27.10. DE Berlin – Columbiahalle 29.10. NO Oslo – Spektrum 31.10. SE Malmö – Malmö Arena 01.11. SE Gothenburg – Scandinavium 02.11. SE Stockhom – Hovet 03.11. SE Sundsvall – Nordichallen 05.11. FI Helsinki – Ice Hall
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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
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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
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Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 