Metal Shock Finland’s Exclusive Premiere for Finland: STARGAZER “Heartbroken” Official Video

Posted by tarjavirmakari on February 17, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Photo by Øystein Hermstad

After three successful singles where STARGAZER confirmed to be at the forefront of classic heavy metal/hard rock in Norway, it’s now time for “Heartbroken”, one of the ballads of the upcoming album “Life Will Never Be The Same”. And the Norwegian quintet lives up to expectations: Scorpions chills, Blackmore-inspired guitar solo, and the Tore André Helgemo vocal tone, which always manages to pay homage to Ronnie James Dio without being a copycat. 

One of the most heartfelt ballads of the year from one of the best heavy metal/hard rock albums in the latest times.

STARGAZER have teamed up with Metal Shock Finland to premiere “Heartbroken” for Finnish territory, enjoy it here:

After their previous release “The Sky is the Limit”, Norwegian band Stargazer entered the radar of connoisseurs of the hard rocking world. The group was loudly hailed as one to watch. They received a lot of great reviews all over the western world and were, back then in late 2019, ready to take on the world for serious touring. But serious touring saw an abrupt end due to Covid-19 for almost every band in 2020-21, with Stargazer being no exception. 

The nordic five-piece didn’t lose their spirit and, diligently, took the downtime to start penning their next album. Produced by guitar player William Ernstsen and vocalist Tore André Helgemo, “Life Will Never Be The Same” is the result of those dark times with a silver lining ahead. Engineered by William at Jedimasterstudios, Trondheim, and mixed and mastered in Medley Studios, Copenhagen, by Soren Andersen (Glenn Hughes, Electric Guitars, etc), “Life Will Never Be The Same” is exactly the kind of album that you’d expect from a matured Stargazer and then some. 

The five-piece powerhouse hammers on with Scandinavian vibes that consists of virtuosity and a vintage sound with a modern twist. Firing on all cylinders in combination with the sense of good melodies, great riffs, solos and songwriting handcraft. With one of rock’s best voices and one of the best blues-based hard rock guitar players around today. All this on top of a rock steady hard groove with killer rock songs such as “Live My Dream”, or down to the most tender and heartfelt tunes, as for example the single “Live Today”, with emotions worn on their sleeves. 

“Life Will Never Be The Same” is the sound of Norwegian classic hard rock flagship, and Stargazer sets sail again with this third release in their discography. One to change their life – and yours – for good. 

“Life Will Never Be The Same” will be released on digital, digipack CD and gatefold double LP (black vinyl, limited to 500 units) via Mighty Music on March 3rd, 2023.

Lineup:
Tore André Helgemo – vocals, rhythm guitar
William Ernstsen – lead & rhythm guitars
Sondre Bjerkset – keybards
Jomar Johansen – bass
Svend Skogheim – drums

Digital single: https://strgzr.lnk.to/heart

Webshop:

More information at:
https://www.stargazerofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stargazertheband
https://www.instagram.com/stargazer_thehardrockband/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6JqPtv3cIuiEZUU5aefA1v?si=bdK9eGb2T4eN1RMqIblYhw
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/stargazer/1468149365

Metal Shock Finland’s Exclusive Premiere for Finland: NERVOCHAOS – “Taphephobia” Official Video

Posted by tarjavirmakari on February 17, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Photo by Benedetta Gaiani – The Hurricane Photography

NERVOCHAOS continue the inexorable countdown to their new studio album “Chthonic Wrath”, this time with the digital single “Taphephobia”. The song, based on the phobia of being buried alive, starts in a really heavy mode, with a somber ambient, and continues in a growing mode. The Brazilians capture like almost anyone else the claustrophobic and desperate feeling of waking up inside a coffin and to realise that you were buried alive. 

Today Metal Shock Finland has a pleasure to premiere for Finland NERVOCHAOS’ “Taphephobia” video, enjoy the premiering below.

July 2021. Pandemics was still hitting hard the entire globe, specially Brazil, where deaths exceeded the 30 thousand. Local death metal big guns NervoChaos were home for far too long. Being used to tour most of the year and not having that chance, due to Covid-19 related constrictions, the band had a brand new album entirely written and ready to record, even before their current album at that time, “All Colors Of Darkness”, hit the shelves. Not ones to wait for the perfect music industry timing or sit on their arses, the Brazilians got themselves in the Abracadaver Studio, with producers Addasi Adassi and Adriano Daga (Angra, Almah, Torture Squad, etc) and recorded what was to be their next album. “Chthonic Wrath” was born. 

Merely two months later, American producer Brendan Duffey, which worked previously with Nervosa, Angra and Andre Matos – to name just a few – got the 14 tracks to mix and master, and was utterly impressed. What NervoChaos achieved with “Chthonic Wrath” was their death metal essence, in all its brutality and technical prowess glory, but with hints of a renewed energy and heaviness. How could a group in their 26th year as a band be so hungry for more, passionated about death metal and still motivated enough to dig up riffs so vile, rhythm patterns so vicious and vocal attacks so violent that shake the listener to the ground? On top of it all, the subtle melody nuances and the superb acoustic guitar interlude (aptly named “Tomb Mold”) recorded by Brazilian traditional music researcher Ricardo Vignini. NervoChaos might be an experienced band with thousands of accumulated stage hours. Some might even call them “old”. But they’re nowhere near their descent of the central role in Brazilian – and South American – death metal and they keep firing all cylinders when it comes to no bullshit, truly angry extreme music. 

The band gained cult status in the music scene due to their hard work over the past 26 years, offering a sonic extravaganza in their unique way. The group has tenth full-length studio album out, being the latest one “All Colors Of Darkness” – their first for Emanzipation Productions – released in 2022. NervoChaos is also constantly touring worldwide to support their releases, doing around 100 concerts per year – from clubs to big festivals, with everything in between. 

“Chthonic Wrath” will be released on digital and CD via Emanzipation Productions on March 31st, 2023.

Digital single: https://orcd.co/nervo-taphe

Webshop: https://bit.ly/nervo-target

More information at:
https://nervochaos.net/
https://www.facebook.com/nervochaos
https://www.instagram.com/nervochaos/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/79zxs7jzzd0scwnyouckgx?si=rwvlh2u3rm6xjnsjrcezsg
https://nervochaos.bandcamp.com/
https://music.apple.com/br/artist/nervochaos/570172609

AVATARIUM Premiere ‘A Love Like Ours’ Music Video

Posted by tarjavirmakari on February 16, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: . Leave a comment
[ photo: Niklas Palmklint ]

Following the release of their much acclaimed, chart-topping studio album, Death, Where Is Your Sting (October 2021, AFM Records), Swedish doom rock act AVATARIUM will not only embark on a European tour with SWALLOW THE SUN this Spring, but has just premiered a new music video for the album opening track “A Love Like Ours”! Says Marcus Jidell:

“This song was created together with one of the world’s most interesting and skilled cello players, Svante Henryson. When I was a teenager I saw him play one of Bach’s cello suites on a Yngwie Malmsteen concert, all alone on the big stage. I have loved his talent ever since and it’s an honour to work with him! I also hope you’ll enjoy this video, created by Niklas Palmklint and Jennie-Ann Smith, as much as I do.” 

Almost 10 years ago, Candlemass legend Leif Edling made the doom metal world a darker and ultimately more interesting place with new band, AVATARIUM. Edling eventually left AVATARIUM‘s ranks due to health issues, but the band forged onward, and 2022 seen them capping off a prolific decade with their fifth studio album, Death, Where Is Your Sting, that is available at THIS LOCATION!

Ever since their impressive debut, AVATARIUM operated with the keywords “dark”, “heavy” and “poetic”, which best describes the Swedish outfit at its core. Yet they are somewhat unique within doom metal, fronted by Jennie-Ann, unintentionally breaking genre boundaries. She has learned a lot from working with Leif Edling, whom she affectionately refers to as The Master Of Doom, and Death, Where Is Your Sting, marks the first time Smith has written all the lyrics for an album. This is significant in that lyrics have always inspired the song arrangements in AVATARIUM.


Death, Where Is Your Sting was written over a two-year period, during the global pandemic. The album was produced by Marcus Jidell, mixed by Mats Valentin and Jidell, and was mastered by Svante Forsbäck. 

Artwork: Erik Rovanpera

AVATARIUM Live:
w/ SWALLOW THE SUN

23.04.2023 FR Montpellier Secret Place
24.04.2023 FR Lyon CCO Villeurbanne
25.04.2023 IT Milano Legend Club
26.04.2023 SLO Ljubljana Orto Bar
27.04.2023 CH Lucern Schüür
28.04.2023 CH Meyrin Undertown
29.04.2023 CH Martigny Caves Du Manoir
30.04.2023 DE Munich Backstage (Halle)
01.05.2023 HU Budapest Dürer Kert
02.05.2023 AT Vienna Viper Room
03.05.2023 CZ Prague Nova Chmelnice
04.05.2023 DE Berlin Hole44
05.05.2023 PL Gdansk Drizzly Grizzly
06.05.2023 PL Poznan U Bazyla
07.05.2023 DE Leipzig UT Connewitz

STRIGOI Stream Exclusive New Single ‘The Construct of Misery’

Posted by tarjavirmakari on February 16, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: . Leave a comment
Photo credit: Hal Sinden @ Eulogy Media Ltd.

Blackened death doom outfit STRIGOI, the brainchild of Greg Mackintosh (PARADISE LOST, VALLENFYRE) and Chris Casket (VALLENFYRE), have teamed up with Decibel Magazine for the exclusive release of their brand new song, “The Construct of Misery,” via the Decibel flexi series! Decibel Magazine is now offering an exclusive stream of the new single, which can be heard at THIS LOCATION.

The exclusive flexi issue of Decibel Magazine can be found HERE.

The band is supporting their brand new sophomore album, ‘Viscera,’ which was released in September 2022 via Season of Mist. The record can be streamed, downloaded, and ordered HERE.

The cover artwork for ‘Viscera’ has been created by Brian Sheehan of Legerdemain Art.

Track-list
1. United in Viscera (6:44)
2. King of All Terror (2:38) [LISTEN]
3. An Ocean of Blood (4:13) [WATCH]
4. Napalm Frost (2:26)
5. Hollow (6:20) [WATCH]
6. A Begotten Son (3:51)
7. Bathed in a Black Sun (4:19)
8. Byzantine Tragedy (5:28)
9. Redeemer (2:38)
10. Iron Lung (7:55)
Total: 46:32

ARJEN LUCASSEN’s New Project SUPERSONIC REVOLUTION to Release Debut Album “Golden Age of Music” on May 19th

Posted by tarjavirmakari on February 16, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: . Leave a comment
Photo credit: Lori Linstruth

ARJEN LUCASSEN’S SUPERSONIC REVOLUTION will release their spectacular debut album Golden Age of Music on 19 May via Music Theories Recording/Mascot Label Group. You can watch the lyric video for “SR Prelude & The Glamattack” HERE.

The album will be available on various formats; 2LP Transparent Blue, 2LP Pink Marble, 2LP Purple Marble, 2LP Yellow Marble, CD, Digitally and Artbook. You can pre-order it from here: https://lnk.to/SupersonicRevolution

You think you know Arjen Lucassen? Towering Dutch prog rock polymath? The man behind the super successful prog rock conceptualists Ayreon? Not to mention his prog metal of Star One and Guilt Machine? Enormous overarching concept albums about space and time, packed to the hilt with special guests that read like a who’s who of modern day progressive rock? Arjen Lucassen? Well, think again…
 
Supersonic Revolution, the band behind ‘Golden Age Of Music’, are simply five men: Arjen on bass, long-standing keyboard player Joost van den Broek, guitarist Timo Somers, drummer Koen Herfst and singer Jaycee. Five men rocking out and having one hell of a time doing it.
 
The whole project grew from a request to provide a track for a cover CD for the German music magazine Eclipsed. “They asked if I had any cover versions lying around,” he recalls. “I said, ‘No but I’ll happily record one for you.’ So, they gave me a list of bands and I saw a ZZ Top song ‘I Heard It On The X’ that I really like. I said I could record it for them, but then they told me it had to be ready in one week…”
 
“I was like ‘Oh my god!’. I contacted my favourite musicians in Holland via WhatsApp and literally within 30 minutes I had assembled five people. A band basically. From there the seed was sown in Lucassen’s mind. ‘I want to form a band. And I want to simply have fun!’.

“I’m a perfectionist as you know, so I’m always sending musicians their parts back and asking them to change stuff,” he acknowledges. “But this was all brilliant. We were having fun, calling and WhatsApping all the time, and within a week we had a complete product.” He continues, “Also I wanted to have an up-beat, positive project.”
 
“I was like, let’s form a band and let’s write songs in the style of the 70s, and have the lyrics be a celebration of all the memorable things from that time, because those were my formative years,” he enthuses. “But I didn’t want it to sound like the 70s because that’s already been done, and I can’t do it any better than ‘Stargazer’ or ‘Kashmir’.”
 
“The guys are all younger than me – around 30 – so they weren’t even alive yet in the 70s. So, it was a great way for me to make 70s music with lots of Hammond and blistering guitars, but to update it to this time.”

The end result is 11 tracks of high energy, progressively inclined heavy rock that swings with the kind of groove Deep Purple rocked with in the early to mid-1970s. “This album is not a typical prog album. It’s not Yes or Genesis. But it’s not a metal album either. There’s a track called ‘Burn it Down’,” Lucassen notes, “it’s totally based on ‘Smoke On The Water’ but written from the perspective of the ‘stupid with a flare gun’ mentioned in the original lyrics.
 
The album also features covers of some legendary songs given the Arjen Lucassen treatment as bonus tracks: T-Rex’s ‘Children of the Revolution,’ ZZ Top’s ‘Heard It On The X,’ Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘Fantasy’ and Roger Glover’s ‘Love Is All.’
 
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the real Arjen Lucassen. Job done. Having fun.

“Golden Age of Music” Track list
01 SR Prelude
02 The Glamattack
03 Golden Age Of Music
04 The Rise Of The Starman
05 Burn It Down
06 Odyssey
07 They Took Us By Storm
08 Golden Boy
09 Holy Holy Ground
10 Fight Of The Century
11 Came To Mock, Stayed To Rock
12 Children Of The Revolution (Bonus Track)
13 Heard It On The X (Bonus Track)
14 Fantasy (Bonus Track)
15 Love Is All (Bonus Track)

Arjen Lucassen’s Supersonic Revolution Online
facebook.com/ArjenLucassenOfficial – twitter.com/arjenlucassen – youtube.com/user/ArjenALucassen – instagram.com/ayreon_official

BLAK29 Drop New Single ‘Bleeding Love’

Posted by tarjavirmakari on February 16, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: . Leave a comment

BLAK29 are readying the release of their highly anticipated second album THE WAITING. The album’s second single, ‘Bleeding Love’ is now available on streaming services!

Listen to “Bleeding Love” on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5plaMYLSpQk3dYuyXSefpu

Coming from a background boasting such names as Samhain, Mourning Noise, and even the unholy legion that is Danzig, Steve Zing presents a new record from his current band and passion project, BLAK29. The upcoming album The Waiting will be released on Cleopatra Records on March 3rd and will be available on all streaming platforms.

“Bleeding Love” is about the torments of life in this world, whether it be driven by love, anger, or the push and pull of what we are supposed to believe in and the fact that we are to think that someone else’s beliefs is the right answer,” says Zing. “Raging Wars in my world, I’m coming back, coming back for more.

The song starts off with a driving riff and some grunge-fueled vocals that wouldn’t sound out of place in an amphitheater or a small biker bar. It’s heavy yet catchy—If you aren’t singing along to the refrain by the end of the song, you aren’t doing it right. While other songs on the record lean harder into grooves or heavy riffs, this track has some distinct flavors of Alice in Chains paired with the very unique stylings of Blak29.

Featuring Zing on vocals and drums, Dan Tracey bass and guitar, both wrote and produced the album. The songs on this record pick up where the first album left off, but also hit things harder than ever before. Zing also recruited Danzig bandmate Johnny Kelly, Tommy Victor, and Jyrki 69 vocalist of The 69 Eyes, for guest spots on the record. The sampling of songs on the album range from snarling, rock fury to more contemporary thrashers backed by the power of a storied musical career and a full command of the genre.

Stay tuned for the full album, out March 3rd and more singles and tour and show announcements coming soon.

Pre-order the CD/Vinyl: https://cleorecs.com/store/?s=blak29&post_type=product
Pre-save the digital: https://orcd.co/blak29_thewaiting

Praise for The Waiting:

THE RECORD IS AMAZING!!! It’s like the BEST NYC SMELLING DARK GROOVE ROCK’N’ROLL ALBUM that I would put on after a long weekend and afterparties after Sunday’s Limelight Rock’n’Roll Church eve!!! 80’s horror vibes, doomy rock, comics and rock’n’roll as we know it!!!! FUCKIN’ GREAT!!! –Jyrki 69

About Blak29:

Blak29 is the collaboration of Steve Zing and Daniel Tracey. Formed out of a result of being sick and tired of waiting on others, Zing and Tracey decided to write and record by themselves. This proved to be much easier than past projects where there was too much input from other members, and the two have been creating together under this moniker ever since.