Fronted by the iconic Helstar singer James Rivera, July 28, 2023 will see JAMES RIVERA’S METAL WAVE release their much-awaited album, New Wave Gone Metal, via Massacre Records. Get ready for the embrace of metallic, dark, epic and euphoric cover versions of songs by some of the greatest bands of the new wave/dark wave era!
Following a previously-released, first appetizer, the crushing heavy metal cover version of Depeche Mode‘s classsic “Black Celebration”, JAMES RIVERA’S METAL WAVE has just shared a music video for their unique version of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, originally performed by Tears for Fears.
James Rivera says:
“”Well now because of Depeche Mode and not being so closed minded about our rival music being in a metal band (and of course still having to be somewhat secretive about this new taste of music I started loving from my metal head peers), when this song came out I really loved it and bought the 45 single. I was still loosely working for a major law firm and for about 3 or 4 months while the whole time I was getting ready for work, I left the arm on the turntable open so it would just keep repeating playing the song. I was that hooked on it.
However it’s the clever composing Maurice Eggenschwiler did with this one. The nice doomy but ironically very Helstar-ish feel in the verses, makes it one of my favorites. Also I love the producing Larry Barragan did with my vocals on it. Kind of a cross between Poppa Emeritus of Ghost and Alice Cooper vibe.”
Watch the new video clip for JAMES RIVERA’S METAL WAVE’s version of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, now streaming here:
New Wave Gone Metal was mixed by Larry Barragan at the Hombre Malo Studio, and was mastered by Robert Colwell at Bombworks Sound Studio. Slated for a release as CD Digipak , Ltd. Vinyl LP and Digital formats on July 28, 2023 through Massacre Records, the pre-sale is available at THIS LOCATION!
Track listing:
Black Celebration
Love My Way
Lovesong
Shock The Monkey
Black Planet
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Bela Lugosi’s Dead
The Killing Moon
Pet Sematary
Rain
Album Line-Up: James “Vampiro” Rivera – Vocals Larry Barragan – Guitars Maurice Eggenschwiler – Guitars Garrick Smith – Bass Rene Luna – Drums
Guest Musician: Jan Kimmel – Hammond Organ, Backing Vocals & Co-Lead Vocals on “Rain”
HANABIE. is a sensational hybrid-girl-band with their original genre, “Harajuku-core”, which is a mix of metalcore and hardcore with Akihabara culture.
Already achieving a rabid fan base overseas through YouTube and TikTok, HANABIE. will finally release their major debut, “『来世は偉人！』 (English translation: Reborn Superstar!)”, on July 26th followed by a European and US tour starting in August!
With YUKINA’s screams that you wouldn’t expect from her small and cute looks, their unique genre mix, and their sense for fashion that offers Japan-culture in their true HANABIE.-style, they will take the world by storm!
They have just released their brand-new single, “今年こそギャル〜初夏ver.〜 (English translation: Be the GAL~Early Summer ver.～)”, on all digital platforms.
Consider yourself lucky if you got tickets for one of their two German shows in August:
Philly’s finest and filthiest death metal band HORRENDOUS leave no stone unturned. While still on their grand US tour, the band is releasing their third track “Preterition Hymn”! The song is taken from the album ‘Ontological Mysterium‘, which will be released worldwide on the 18th of August, 2023.
“Preterition Hymn” is of a different Satanic verse than the two previous singles. It’s still plenty sinister, with hellacious vocals that sound like the band is being burned alive. But it’s more of a slow burn. The twin guitars wring out a tortured but deeply melodic riff that drips like sweet, sweet tears.
HORRENDOUS comments: “Preterition Hymn is a lament for the weary and the damned–those who, like in the myth of Tantalus, can glimpse the golden fruits of knowledge and divinity yet are kept perpetually just out of reach by the tides of misfortune and fate. It is a hymn of longing infused with the faintest hope that our misery is merely the cleansing ablution necessary to don the robe of flames, free at last.”
Pre-order “Ontological Mysterium + Limited Vinyl Frankenstein edition with Daniel Warren Johnson poster HERE and pre-save HERE
The cover artwork, see above, for “Ontological Mysterium” was designed by Brian Smith.
Tracklist: 1. The Blaze (02:00) 2. Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn) (07:16) 3. Neon Leviathan (03:30) 4. Aurora Neoterica (01:56) 5. Preterition Hymn (03:58) [LISTEN HERE] 6. Cult of Shaad’oah (05:24) 7. Exeg(en)esis, (03:38) 8. Ontological Mysterium (04:44) [WATCH HERE] 9. The Death Knell Ringeth (05:20) Total run time: 37:44
Recording Studio: Subterranean Watchtower Studio Mixing + Mastering: Damian Herring
“Surprises always come up during writing — spontaneous ideas pull you into new territory and enable the realization of novel possibilities that previously were inaccessible.”
Such are the words from HORRENDOUS drummer Jamie Knox when discussing the creation of the band’s fifth full-length, the highly anticipated Ontological Mysterium. Knox’s quote also encapsulates HORRENDOUS’s approach to extreme metal. Since 2009, the band has capably tapped into the inaccessible by providing a fresh, unconventional take on death metal that harnesses technical brilliance with elaborate, mind-melding melodies, frothy, spewing vocals and labyrinthine song structures. This combination has made each HORRENDOUS long player a clinic in the gratifyingly unorthodox. The trend continues on Ontological Mysterium.
The follow-up to 2018’s Idol was recorded, mixed and mastered at Subterranean Watchtower Studios in Virginia, which doubles as the homestead of guitarist/vocalist Damian Herring. While the band (completed by guitarist/vocalist Matt Knox and bassist Alex Kulick) finished much of the songwriting for Ontological Mysterium in 2019, its recording was delayed by the 2020 global pandemic and various life events. HORRENDOUS eventually finished recording in early 2022 and mastered the album before the start of 2023.
The album upholds HORRENDOUS’s position as one of the underground’s best outside-of-the-box extreme metal bands. Having long abandoned concern whether people would appreciate their “uniqueness,” HORRENDOUS has embraced its role as a band willing to veer far from death metal conventions, intentionally stretching and breaking norms. To wit, the band primarily views its music as filtered through a death metal lens. This may be HORRENDOUS’s defining trait: By not accepting parameters, nothing is off-limits.
In comparison to the complex, off-kilter vibe of Idol, Ontological Mysterium emerges as a more direct, if not confident, album, at times, recalling HORRENDOUS’s critically acclaimed 2015 opus, Anareta. The vocals of Matt Knox and Herring serve up an array of asphyxiating, phlegm-filled volleys that remain the ideal counterpoint to the band’s jarring, multifaceted material. Moreover, HORRENDOUS remains unafraid to adorn their songs with lavish guitar melodies to offset frequently strenuous riffing. But the members of HORRENDOUS have long cited their affinity for metal’s glory years. It ended up being one of the defining traits of their new album.
“Ontological Mysterium is partly our love letter to the bombastic spirit of heavy metal from the ’80s and early ’90s,” says Matt Knox.
“Yet, even as it looks back on this legacy, it also gazes ahead to the future — an aural head of Janus encompassing our love of the genre while also forging a new vision for its future,” continues Jamie Knox. “We set out to expand the technicality from Idol and to continue to challenge ourselves musically while leaning more heavily into the ‘anthemic’ heavy metal feeling that better permeated some of our pre-Idol material — that larger-than-life vibe that makes all the greats like Judas Priest great. We wanted to make this record more immediately fun. As always, we try to surprise ourselves with new ideas for structures and rhythms so that the material feels fresh. Our sphere of influences is ever expanding as we evolve as music listeners.”
Jamie Knox notes HORRENDOUS’s penchant for spontaneous jams at the start of band practice as the catalyst for several Ontological Mysterium cuts, notably “Exeg(en)ensis,” one of their most unpredictable songs to date. “We just hit record on someone’s iPhone during the jam and realized that we had ‘composed’ something that felt like a song, but with a very specific, lively energy,” he says. “Something that still feels like HORRENDOUS, but almost from a different vantage point. We crafted the song’s basic structure from the jam’s ideas, filled in a few gaps, and made an effort to inject some of that spontaneity during the recording process.”
The Ontological Mysterium title translates to the “mystery of being.” HORRENDOUS has previously tackled a wide range of topics dealing with the human psyche and matters of the existential. According to Jamie Knox, HORRENDOUS opted to deal with broad themes of growth and evolution — with a more positive bent.
“This wasn’t something preconceived,” he says. “I think it just reflects what was on our mind over these last hectic years. I wouldn’t say the lyrics were a direct reaction to Idol, but I think one could view them as stepping beyond that negativity and moving forward into a different and necessary future — one in which you step up as the protagonist. Perhaps these lyrics do serve as a sequel to some of the Idol material.” The release of Ontological Mysterium will carry HORRENDOUS into 2024 — the band’s 15th anniversary. The members of HORRENDOUS have long walked the delicate tightrope between their passion for the band and their responsibilities back home. The period surrounding Idol prompted soul-searching amongst the band (Jamie Knox calls them “comparatively bleak times”), but it appears HORRENDOUS is ready to hit the ground running to support their newest creation.
“At this point, we want to wave the HORRENDOUS banner high in a way that we perhaps didn’t around Idol and continue on this path that we’ve forged,” says Jamie Knox. “We are very proud of Ontological Mysterium and what our band has become — it’s almost like we’ve figured out how to make this band work amidst the wildness of adult life. This entity feels worth celebrating and feeding to see where it might take us next. “We didn’t give Idol its fair due on the road,” he closes. “We plan to play much more this time around and in new places like Europe. The first round of shows to support the album is in the works now, and more will follow with time. Also, Ontological Mysterium definitely will not be our last album. While it has become more difficult to meet, we have an abundance of new material and ideas and are eager to begin shaping what will ultimately become our sixth album. I’m sure we’ll start the process soon.”
Line-up: Matthew Knox Jamie Knox Damian Herring Alex Kulick
Indie rock band The Intemperate Sons released their latest single “Faceless Man” from their highly anticipated new album Game of Keep Away that will be released to all major platforms via FRAME|WORK in the fall of 2023. The band also released the official music video for the single today and are in the early stages of planning a fall run of shows on the west coast.
“‘Faceless Man’ is our latest journey into an alt-acoustic soundscape with the proper amount of electric elements inspired from a heavy Alice in Chains influence circa the SAP-era. The song is about the fatalist view of the world seen through the eyes of an otherwise invisible person trying to survive from minute to minute. There is heavy influence on this track, not only from Alice in Chains, but from The Doors and Stone Temple Pilots as well,” says the band.
Fri Sep 1 @ Trees Dallas in Sallas, TX Sat Sep 16 @ Hanovers Draught Haus in Pflugerville, TX Sat Sep 30 @ O’Riley’s on Dallas, TX Sat Oct 14 @ Six Springs Tavern (Private Event) in Richardson, TX Sat Dec 16 @ Viper Room in West Hollywood, CA
The Intemperate Sons release all their music through the Frame|Work record label at the direction of Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck. The Intemperate Sons are managed by Denny Sanders at The Label Group. The video was produced by Ardent Owl Media and Keith Watson.
The Intemperate Sons emerged onto the rock scene in the summer of 2019 in Dallas, TX, to bring their distinct sound to the genre. A deep love for music brought family members Keith Watson (drums), Jake Watson (guitars) and Max Watson (vocals, guitars, keys) together along with close friend Mark Marks, who provides the groove on bass to unite everything together. The band’s sound has been described as a 90’s alternative style that is obsessed with the 70’s.
Keith is well acquainted with entertaining massive crowds of concert goers and has played with many successful bands in Dallas, such as Gun Hill, Natural Born Thrillers and Agents of Solace, on top of opening for Lynch Mob, Joe Lynn Turner and Sponge. He is the primary lyricist for the band and has written the music for some of their most successful songs, including “Dust to Dust,” “The Color Within,” and “Unrealized.”
Multi-talented and gifted with the ability to play various instruments, Max is also the lead vocalist of the group. Along with being musically dexterous, he has also collaborated with Keith to write lyrics on the released songs “Going Crazy” and “Way Back When.” In the studio, Max usually surmounts expectations and goes above and beyond to prepare prior to a session with his own vocal harmonies.
Jake is the song architect of the Sons and extremely instrumental in the crafting of the music. His inventive ways of bringing lyrics to life in clever ways are unprecedented and fascinating to see in the studio setting. He is a prolific writer of music as well and is credited with helping create the songs “What’s Done is Done,” “Remission,” “Way Back When” and “Wading in the Gray.” Both Max and he play lead guitar on many of the songs as well. The other members of the band fondly refer to him as the “art director” since he enjoys taking charge in those areas for the group.
Prolific and unifying, Mark is an accomplished bass player and well known in Dallas. He was in the regionally successful band, Haggard, and had opened for Sebastian Bach of Skid Row. His input in song writing has been invaluable to the process of creating captivating melodies.
Despite the pandemic putting a pause on many major events, The Intemperate Sons lived up to their name and let nothing hold them back from making music. Constantly hard at work in the studio, they have collaborated with Amir Derakh (Julien-K, Dead by Sunrise, Orgy, Rough Cutt) and Ryan Shuck (Julien-K, Adema, Dead by Sunrise, Orgy). Both have lent their musical talents to various songs and ultimately have brought the Sons on to their label, Frame|Work. This led the band to also recently join the management roster at The Label Group. Ryan worked with Amir to produce the band’s upcoming track, “Game of Keep Away,” and has had a huge impact on the group. He’s been especially influential on Max’s vocal melodies and delivery. Amir also plays guitar on this latest ballad and has been mixing all of the band’s music as well as performing on multiple songs.
Another notable collaboration has been with Tony Franklin (The Firm, Roy Harper, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Whitesnake), primarily on the first album, The Color Within. He has been a valuable friend of the band and has played bass on some of their best tracks from that album, including “Running Man,” “Dust to Dust” and “The Color Within.”
The Intemperate Sons’ take on alternative rock is a dark and powerful concoction of hard rock mixed with folk and grunge concepts. The band has earned a serious reputation for writing and performing tracks that scratch deep into the backbone of the human experience. There is no shortage of darkness in their writing style, which has a retro vibe with many guitar-driven tracks stacked on top of a groovy rhythm section. The heavier style fits perfectly with the two and three-part vocal harmonies that are a huge part of their overall sound. It has been said that musicians that are related form unique sounds and communicate at a frequency only they can understand. This frequency has become engrained in their songwriting, arrangements, guitar melodies and vocal harmonies. The band has been compared to Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and even R.E.M.
After a successful show at The Viper Room in Hollywood, CA, the band plans to do some regional shows in Texas and then head out West this year as well.
The Intemperate Sons are: Max Watson (vocals, backing vocals, guitars, keys, bass) Jake Watson (guitars, bass and backing vocals) Keith Watson (drums, backing vocals) Mark Marks (bass)
UK doom metallers GODTHRYMM – featuring members once involved in such luminaries as My Dying Bride, Anathema, Vallenfyre, and Solstice – will issue their sophomore full-length album “Distortions” on August 18 2023 via Profound Lore Records. After the releases of the first single “Echoes”, today, Godthrymm offer another intense glimpse into their soon to be released album with the brand new music video for “Devils”, directed and edited by Ash Pears.
“With this release we really wanted to show the different sides of Godthrymm. Following on from the melancholy of Echoes, we thought Devils would be the perfect counterpart,” bassist Bob Crolla states and continues: “It’s a solid, bang-your-head, metal tune, but it has a couple of surprises, and still has that classic, mournful, doom DNA too. For the video, we felt we needed to introduce the band properly. We went with a no frills, no gimmicks or fancy graphics approach. Just the band, in a room, playing the song. We’re beyond proud of this song, and the video, and we hope you really dig it too.”
“Distortions” is the follow-up to 2020’s widely-lauded “Reflections” and shows the Halifax-based quartet of Hamish Glencross (guitars/vocals), Catherine Glencross (keyboards/vocals), “Sasquatch” Bob Crolla (bass), and Shaun “Winter” Taylor-Steels (drums) elegantly expanding upon their sound and vision. With tracks like “Follow Me,” featuring former My Dying Bride compatriot Aaron Stainthorpe, “Echoes,” and “Devils,” “Distortions” advances Godthrymm into the hallowed halls of the genre they adore to death.
“I absolutely wanted to create a much more layered and complex arrangement in the sound,” says Godthrymm’s Hamish Glencross. “Totally amping up the contrasts to the extreme—the light shines brighter, and the darker depths are vast trenches. There is a lot more harmony and melancholy for much of it, but also some slab-heavy riffing, too. We wanted a total progression in the production and more class and clarity in the sound, as opposed to Reflections, which could get quite dense in tone.”
“Distortions” is the second part of Glencross’ Visions trilogy—the third part, Projections, is already in the works. Throughout its seven-track, hour-long expanse, Godthrymm’s sophomore effort delves deeper into the despondent march of post-pandemic singles “Chasm” and “In Perpetuum,” the latter released exclusively on Decibel Magazine’s Decibel Flexi Series in 2022. Glencross’ emotionally-charged vocals pair perfectly with his towering riffs and thoughtful, crestfallen harmonies. The rhythmic foundation of Crolla and Taylor-Steels is absolutely critical to Glencross’ woebegone éclat. With Catherine Glencross’ angelic vocals and atmospheric keyboards stitched into the monumental “As Titans,” the granite-hard “Obsess and Regress,” and the stirring “Pictures Remain,” “Distortions” has it all.
“Distortions” was recorded between The Nave Music Studio, Sasquatch Music Studio, and The Glencross Residence at various points in 2022. Mixed by Andy Hawkins (Hark, Grave Lines). Produced by Andy Hawkins and Hamish Glencross. The album was mastered by Mark Midgley (Doom, Hellkrusher) at Northern Mastering Company. Artwork by Andy Green (My Dying Bride).
“Distortions” will be coming out August 18th on Profound Lore Records and is available for pre-order at THIS LOCATION
“Distortions” track listing:
As Titans
Devils
Echoes
Obsess and Regress
Unseen, Unheard (feat. Scoot Gladok)
Follow Me (feat. Aaron Stainthorpe)
Pictures Remain
GODTHRYMM are: Hamish Glencross – Guitars/vocals Catherine Glencross – Keyboards/vocals “Sasquatch” Bob Crolla – Bass Shaun “Winter” Taylor-Steels – Drums Al Kotwal – Live guitar
Psych Doom act CAVERN DEEP‘s new record ”Part II – Breach” is out now on all platforms. CD and Vinyl are distributed by Bonebag Records and is available now.
The album recently premiered via The Obelisk and can be found here.
Breach is Cavern Deeps second album. It is, just as the first album a concept album which follows the story of the first. The synopsis is as follows:
Breach The archaeologist is no more. Engulfed. As the ungodly withering sentinel feasts on his flesh and mind, something is opening. Picked up by a violent current, the bare essence of the man is plunged through the strange spaces in between worlds. It is reshaped. Traveling in its primal form with the monstrous being as a conduit. Its heart is blank. Mind is void.
Primordial Basin She is watching patiently. The engineer. The last of its kind. The theft of this essence from the otherworldy refuge was the final attempt. Embedded in the being below her is the code. Her design. Her revenge. Deep down in the basin, the putrid water stirs as the being breaks free from its membranous nursery. The engineer watches in silent triumph from afar as the being destroys everything in its path in blind newborn rage. Wading through the festering amniotic fluid it is pulled by an inner voice to the east.
A World Bereaved No more memories of its earlier existence than glitching, flickering images. Like waking up from distant clouded nightmares. Skin is thin, sore, still growing as it lumbers through desolate landscapes. No signs of life to be seen. The ground is torn by sickly pulsating spirals, shooting up in the thick clouds above. Passing former displays of architectural grandeur; now caved in like hollow skulls. A sense of purpose is shaping inside as it finds its paths through the wasteland.
Skeletal Wastes Before it, an ancient war ground. It is vast and dreadful to behold. The last big battle of a dying civilization. The last gasping breath. The being makes its way through labyrinths of giant dead abominations and remnants of war machines since long put to sleep. Picking up pace. Slowly burning from inside with an ever-growing sense of meaning. It is the final solution. The retaliation of many. The faint glow in its veins extends to a cord. The hovering placenta is feeding it in a steady rhythm, preparing the being for its passing.
Sea of Rust The Sea. Dead. Acidic. This is ground zero. It knows all. It was here above the greatest of cities they broke through. Drawn by the greed of kings and queens and their ever-growing thirst for the primal energy beyond their realm. It was they who forced the few remaining to take refuge in a distant cold world, destined to wither away in subterranean darkness. Everything is lost. Sunken. All but rust. The engineer gives up a sigh as she from afar witness the being floating above the red watery mass towards the pulsating rift at the horizon. It is starting to shed.
The pulse This is it. The release. The soothing of the inner ache. The organic matter is peeled off layer by layer as the being passes the rift. The glowing orb withers away and sinks into the sea. The pulsating passage lays bare. It is liquid. Lethal. Bodiless. It is ready. They are doomed.
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 ) 