ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR “I.O.G.”, a Theatrical Hard Rock/Fantasy Metal band based in York, PA USA. I.O.G. took the United States by storm, debuting “The Siren Saga” live show.
The Siren Saga is a story of the journeys, perils, and triumphs of the Siren and her warriors. The story mixes facts and fiction combining Greek and Norse Mythology, Sirens, Gods, Archangels and Kharon “The Ferryman”.
Part 1, “The Songs of the Siren”, released by Pavement Entertainment on August 30th and available on all digital music outlets. Part 2 “The Siren”, Released October 2021 on Revulsion of Spirit Records/Universal Music Group.
Since their formation, Illusions of Grandeur have toured in the United States as well as across the UK and Europe, and made appearances at various festivals including Sav Fest, Dewey Beach Music Festival and Witney Music Festival. I.O.G. has shared the stage with artists as varied as DOPE, Motograter, September Mourning, New Year’s Day, Puddle of Mudd, Stryper and Otep.
Illusions of Grandeur’s fierce and energetic live show has gained them a legion of fans dubbed “The Siren Nation” who follow them worldwide, at live shows, and on social media.
Illusions of Grandeur’s singer The Siren and bassist The Archangel currently host a weekly music and arts Talk show The Syndicate on Foqus Tv ( www.foqustvlive.com) a worldwide music TV network in 195 countries.
In the album “The Siren’ is included the single “Take Me Alive”.
L-R: Juan de Ferrari Montoya – Jerry Vergara Cevallos – Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr – Alejandro Londono Montoya
Long-running South American metallers CULTURA TRES have unveiled the second single taken from their upcoming album “Camino De Brujos” due for release on April 7th 2023 via Universal Music in the Americas and Bloodblast in the rest of the world.
“‘ProxyWar’ is a deep sounding mixture of thrash and psychedelic sludge metal. Featuring Paulo Jr. from the almighty Sepultura, this song has been produced the organic / realistic way. its double bass-drum blasts as if it came from the golden records of Slayer. No sampled drums, no fake performances, this is the real deal.” comments the frontman AlejandroMontoya.
Recently the band the welcomed SEPULTURA’s bass player Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. in their ranks.
“In 2019 after hearing about the plans for a new Cultura Tres, I offered Ale and Juanma to join the band. The music is very organic. There are a lot of influence from the 90’s and a little bit of hardcore as well. Personally [In this album], I got inspired by the bass players who I’ loved the most back in the 70’s”, enthuses Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr.
In the studio the band explored new ideas and found a musical common ground. The resulting style retained elements of the psychedelic-sludgy past, but incorporated the groove of a more metal oriented vibe that Paulo brought in with his SEPULTURA influence.
So, how should South American heavy music sound like nowadays? The answer is easy – just listen to “Camino De Brujos”, an album which explores both new and old musical textures. The power of thrash metal meets the eeriness of sludge and the melancholic feel of classic rock.
“The album title ‘Camino de Brujos’ can be roughly translated as ‘Trail of Witches’. Do you remember the little story about letting your subconscious make artistic choices? Well this is one of the best examples, ‘Camino de Brujos’ is the main line sang on top of a nasty slow riff, the song is filled with tribal ritual percussion, typical from south America’s black magic practices. The phrase didn’t only end up being the only lyrics sang on the song but it also gave the name and identity to the album”, explains Alejandro Londono Montoya.
“Camino De Brujos” will be released as vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital.
Pre-order you copy now HERE Pre-save the album HERE
“Camino De Brujos” track listing reads as follows:
The World and Its Lies
Time Is Up
Signs
The Land
Proxy War
19 Horas
Zombies
De Maracay
The Smell of Death
Camino de Brujos
“Camino De Brujos” was recorded by Juan M. De Ferrari Montoya & Alonso Milano Mendoza at AJM Sound Studios, Amsterdam (NL) and at Reborn Studios, Artesa de Segre (SP). Alejandro Londono Montoya took care of the mixing and the mastering at AJM Sound Studios in Amsterdam. The artwork was made by Damian Michaels.
Portuguese melodic metallers ENCHANTYA are set to release their third studio album Cerberus on April 28th 2023 via Inverse Records. The first single Existence is released today and video of the track is available below.
Pedro Antunes (keyboards) comments:
“Enchantya have worked on “Cerberus” before and throughout the pandemic, and its concept became clearer as the world kept changing around us. There was a need for strength and guarding ourselves and our loved ones, and at the same time an urgency for balance and calm in the midst of all the chaos. Our Cerberus is a metaphorical guardian whose 3 heads separate the energies that reign over all Existence : Karma (actions and consequences), Prana (the eternal energy flowing and uniting us all and the Universe itself) and Anima (the individual spark in each soul). Only through mastery of these three energies can we overcome and achieve enlightenment. This is a beastly task and the main challenge for us all. We are very proud of this album and hope you can connect with us through its music! We can’t wait to share Cerberus with you all!”
Lyrics by Rute Fevereiro, except for Karma, Prana and Anima written by Pedro Antunes
Cover Artwork by Mara D’Eleán and Phobos Anomaly Design
CERBERUS was produced by Enchantya and Fernando Matias and mixed and mastered by Fernando Matias at The Pentagon Audio Manufacturers
Enchantya was born in 2004 when vocalist Rute Fevereiro took a break from her classic band Black Widows and started exploring music for a new project. In 2005, the band recorded their first EP, Moonlighting the Dreamer, out in 2006. Having witnessed a great reception, the band started to work on their first album, releasing ‘Dark Rising’ through Massacre Records in 2012 to very positive reviews. After some time touring and promoting the album,the band began composing. However, artistic and creative differences about the new music’s direction and sound would lead to the departure of members and the band split up.
Rute was alone with her project again and having to start all over. Fortunately, this did not stop Rute’s motivation and a few months later, by March of 2016, she had chosen a whole new team of talented musicians to take Enchantya through the next step. After a year of rehearsing with amazing creative chemistry, the band created “On Light and Wrath” , Enchantya’s second album. Like in their debut album, the band booked a few months of studio recordings in 2018 with Fernando Matias at the Pentagon Audio Manufacturers, to bring the new album to life with eleven tracks, entitled “On Light and Wrath” , also taking one step further by adding violin, a whole choir of singers and the guest appearance of the vocalist from D E S I R E , Nuno Caldas, creating a very refreshed and even more epic sound for the band. Finnish label Inverse Records released Enchantya’s album in 2019.
In the middle of their second album’s promo tour, the pandemic hit and the band spent the following two years composing their new opus in the midst of all the chaos. It is now time to release “CERBERUS” , the result of the songwriting through the world’s conflicted times, and also Enchantya’s most ambitious album to date, an ode to how we can all rise from the ashes again and again. With the first single coming out in January, and two more in February and March, the album will finally see the light of day on April 28th, marking a 2023 with Enchantya returning in full form.
In a prompt follow-up to THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET‘s DMP debut, “Miserere“, creative mastermind Jason Köhnen (BONG-RA, MANSUR, ex-THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE) continues to explore the deepest abysses of Darkjazz on a new 7” EP.
“Black†White” features two shadowed and enigmatic tracks influenced by the spiritual free Jazz of Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders, the avant-Black Metal of BEHERIT, the Noise/Jazz/Death Metal supergroup PAINKILLER and the early work of Grindcore spearheads NAPALM DEATH.
Check out the trailer below.
Jason narrates the idea behind “Black†White“:
“Albert Ayler’s song ‘Ghosts‘ included the first blast beats I heard in Jazz. For me there is a lot of connection between free Jazz and Black Metal: the chaos, speed and noise. I hear a clear musical relationship between free Jazz, Black Metal and early Grindcore as well – they are all raw and primitive sounding. PAINKILLER is a perfect mix of these worlds. In this group, Mick Harris and John Zorn’s universes collide. The title “Black†White” in turn is based upon the hermetic principle of polarity. In this case it can also be seen as political, creative and/or philosophical statement. Polarities are a mental construct and are basically two extremes of the same concept. In this case, these two extreme genres are actually more connected in their sonic characteristics than they might seem at first glance. Polarization is more often used to divide (i.e. the well-known ‘divide and conquer’ concept), but I decided here to use it as a tool for unification.“
“Black†White” will be released via Debemur Morti Productions on March 10th. Pre-orders for the limited 7” EP start on February 3rd.
Tracklist:
01. Black 02. White
THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET is one of the many projects from multi-instrumentalist Jason Köhnen. Renowned for his previous projects BONG-RA or THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE and THE MOUNT FUJI DOOMJAZZ CORPORATION.
Köhnen coined the term “Darkjazz” back in 1999 when he composed a track entitled ‘Darkjazz’ for his 2001 “Darkbreaks” EP. From that point embarking on a long musical journey into dark experimentations with the jazz sound palette in combination with a plethora of genres.
THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET was evoked after a void appeared with the ending of his other Darkjazz outlets, firstly TKDE and TMFDJC and then the short lived THE THING WITH FIVE EYES project which saw Köhnen’s first flirtations with Arabic scales and instruments, progressively transforming into his MANSUR project together with ex-PHURPA member Dmitry El Demerdashi and avantgarde metal THY CATAFALQUE vocalist Martina Hórvath.
Köhnen’s approach to his releases with THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET are to open the spectrum of Darkjazz in all its wonderful and mysterious facets. Seeing each release as a script and soundtrack to a different movie, setting a different pace and atmosphere and playing with unorthodox climaxes and atmospheres. The projects hosts a list of dedicated guest musicians, who all participate as the leading actors in these scripts, all playing a crucial role in the soundtracks of these non-existing movies.
THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET releases albums on Denovali Records and Debemur Morti Productions, in a way where the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde part of this project comes to its best and most creative fruition.
Apart from the conceptual audio releases, THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET also navigates through the multi-disciplinary arts. The “In Memoriam” release saw a first in a series of short stories and audiobooks combined with an album. Future releases will see more art disciplines combined as a release.
Melodic doom/death metallers INFIRMUM have released a new single “Sleep of Reason”. The band was formed early 2019 and they have released full album “Walls of Sorrow” 2020 and EP “The Great Unknown” 2022. Melancholic, dark, gloomy, full of emotions. These words would describe our atmospheric journey with beauty and the beast through the darkness.
Vocalist Anna Rose backgrounds the song:
“This is a song that started taking its first shape a few years ago, before I even joined Infirmum. It is a song born of frustration, meant to express the despair of existing in an ever more uncertain world. While it is a salve, a way to vent all those feelings, it is also a herald of our doom. If I ever wrote an actual funeral dirge, this is it!”
Guitar player Timo Solonen continues:
“As soon as Anna joined Infirmum in the summer 2020, she told she had lyrics ready for a song called Sleep of Reason. She also had vocal melodies ready for the chorus.
I did my best to compose whole song around the chorus’s vocal melodies and get the atmosphere to be right for the song based on the lyrics.. I think results are quite good but wasn’t easy I have to say.
Teemu Mastovaara did arrangements for the cello and perfect job he did.
Also Erna’s keyboards, Hanska’s drums, Joonas’s guitars and bass are excellent. Eliel’s growls works perfectly. And Anna? Well, you really have to love her voice.
Infirmum’s line-up is: Anna Rose as vocalist, Taka Eliel (Sanctuary of Hate) as vocalist and bassist, Erna Siikavirta (previously in Lordi, Children of Bodom as session keyboards, Sinergy as session keyboards, Arthemesia and Deathlike Silence) on keyboards, Joonas Siikavirta (Begrim) on guitar, Timo Solonen on guitar, Hanna-Leena “Hanska” (Mourning Wood) on drums, and Elya on cello.
DEADLINE are back with their new powerhouse single and video ‘Cult of Prometheus’
As the pioneers of the ‘New Wave of South African Heavy Metal’ Deadline openly bow down to the memory of 80’s Thrash Metal, Power Metal, Heavy Metal and on occasion Sleaze Rock, as they march with intent and pride towards the release of their 3rd album, ‘Vitriol Inc’ that will undoubtedly be their most daring release yet.
Produced, Recorded, Mixed & Mastered at Dread Studios and Gloryvale Studios Art Designed by Barend Chamberlain Video Filmed & Edited by Marius Els & Michael Wright
Jessy elaborates that “As far as the cover is concerned, we decided to do a tribute to old school power metal covers. This one is largely inspired by Manowar and Primal Fear. We tied it up to the story of Lady Blitzkrieg and Deadline, after Abigail’s Crypt, Deadline have captured her and tied her to the church steeple and the eagle has been sent to attack her (It mirrors the story of Prometheus).”
The band members are Wrighteous Mike (Drums), Judge Mental (Guitar), Jessy Switchblade (Vocals), Damian Dread (Bass) & The Skullprit (Guitar).
From choosing a band name taken from a Testament song, to wearing their beautifully crafted battle jackets emblazoned with the names of their favourite heavy metal bands, the quintet is hellbent on bringing the nostalgia, exuberance, and blood thirsty passion of the 80’s without necessarily pigeonholing themselves in one sole genre.
Formed in Pretoria, South Africa in 2014, Deadline played their first show at a friend’s house party on 7 March 2015 and have not looked back since. 2 albums and an EP later, they have become the fore runners of the Old School Heavy Metal sound in South Africa which they have dubbed the “New Wave of South African Heavy Metal”. With 6 South African Metal Music Awards to their name, a dedicated fanbase who dub themselves the “Deadline Heavy Metal Crew” and an energetic, passionate live show second only to their heroes Iron Maiden, they march with intent and pride towards the release of their 3rd album, “Vitriol Inc” that will undoubtedly be their most daring release yet.
Led by the effervescent, high flying Frontman Jessy Switchblade, Deadline have undergone a few core changes during the pandemic, but have now solidified their line up around guitarists Judge Mental and The Skullprit (the last original member along with Jessy), bassist Damian Dread and percussionist and back up vocalist Wrighteous Mike. The quintet is hellbent on bringing the nostalgia, exuberance, and blood thirsty passion of the 80’s without necessarily pigeonholing themselves in one sole genre. Their music transcends genres, it transcends generations, it’s an ode to the decade that changed us forever. Sit down in your Lamborghini Countach, strap your seat belt, and let their crashing drums, pulsating bass rhythms, bright neon guitar riffs and screeching vocals take you back to your glorious metallic past! “Vitriol Inc” will be out early 2023!’
We are metal! We are fire! We are legacy! We are energy! We are power! We are Deadline!
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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
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
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