‘Weightless’ is an excruciatingly emotional journey into the void, just to ultimately reach nothing, never, and nowhere. Quite contrary to the album’s title, this meaningless escapade abounds with tremendous sonic forces, mercilessly grasping the listener throughout the whole album, giving mere moments of rest. Band drifts between shattered bits of stoner doom and sludgy post-metal.
Recorded in June 2022 at HUGE Studio Mixed and mastered by the notorious Haldor Grunberg (Satanic Audio) Artwork by Cvspe: instagram.com/cvspe street date: Oct 6th 2022
Hailing from southern Poland, the band features Filip Dąbrowski (bass), Jakub Hanusa (dr) (ex-members of post-metal group Forge of Clouds), Jonasz Plaskota (guit.) and Kvass (voc – Psychotropic Transcendental, Moanaa).
Swiss-Italian cinematic/progressive metal outfit VIRTUAL SYMMETRY present a video for “The Paradise Of Lies,” the third single from their eponymous fourth album, which sees release next week through Sensory Records.
VIRTUAL SYMMETRY was founded in 2009 as a solo project of guitarist Valerio Æsir Villa, when the first ideas for the debut album, Message From Eternity, began taking shape. The band’s lineup has since expanded to now include vocalist Marco Pastorino, keyboardist Marco “Mark” Bravi, bassist Alessandro Poppale, and drummer Alfonso Mocerino. Featuring members of Temperance and Fallen Sanctuary, the band is a revelation in the progressive metal universe, stunning their fans and listeners with influences which range from classical music to contemporary metal and a style characterized by epic suites, rich of cinematic elements and balance between melody and technique, leading the listeners through a dynamic and emotional journey in each track.
Between 2018 and 2020, VIRTUAL SYMMETRY composed and produced their third album, Exoverse, which was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath, UK, and featured special guests including legendary drummer Thomas Lang, a return performance by Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess, saxophonist Ruben Paganelli, the symphonic orchestra Sinfonietta Consonus, and Evergrey’s Tom S. Englund. Some honorable mentions among their live shows are 2015’s debut live show with Evergrey and Dream Theater, 2017’s live show supporting Deep Purple’s keyboardist Don Airey.
Featuring eight immersive songs, Virtual Symmetry was recorded by the band then mixed and mastered at Domination Studio by Simone Mularoni (DGM, Michael Romeo, Turilli Lione Rhapsody) and completed with artwork and photography by Kyrhian Balmelli.
The video for “The Paradise Of Lies” was directed by Giampiero Zappa and features dancer Vera Santagata.
Watch VIRTUAL SYMMETRY’s “The Paradise Of Lies” official video now at THIS LOCATION.
Sensory Records will issue Virtual Symmetry on CD and digital platforms next Friday, September 16th. Preorders are available at the label webshop HERE and at Bandcamp where “Come Alive” is playing; the standard version HERE and the 24-bit hi-res version HERE. Also watch the “Come Alive” video HERE and the “Butterfly Effect” lyric video HERE.
VIRTUAL SYMMETRY has been confirmed alongside Fractal Universe as support for Evergrey for five weeks on their 2022 European tour, which runs from September 16th – the day of Virtual Symmetry’s release – through October 23rd. See all confirmed tour dates and more at the band’s website HERE and at their various social media points.
Since there is a green light for concerts all over the world again, Swiss hard rock act SHAKRA also floods the social media with photos of huge open air stages all over Europe, in front of thousands of people. And yet it seems that the five-piece has skipped something compared to other bands – where is the new album, is there something happening?
Since the “grand opening“, the market has been literally overrun with new record releases, created during lockdown period, only SHAKRA seem to be once again taking different paths and immediately thrown themselves straight back into the live arena. But who is familiar with the band, knows that actually nothing ever happens by pure accident.
After SHAKRA released their new album “Mad World” shortly before the pandemic hit the earth, any live activities had to be cancelled again or partly postponed. Conscious of their duty, as the Swiss are, they immediatly started to get back into the ring and began to play shows, long awaited by their fanbase, and more powerful and intense than ever.
Just recently, the band released a brand new song, entitled “The Way It Is”, and a music video is now available! “I had this song idea that had been floating around in my head forever and it just had to come out,” says Thomas Muster, rhythm guitarist. “We thought the song was so awesome that we just had to record it!” adds Mark Fox, vocalist of SHAKRA. When asked if there is even a whole album in the making, the band keeps a low profile. It is what it is – “The Way It Is”.
SHAKRA Live: 10 SEPT (CH) RUBIGEN / MÜHLE HUNZIKEN 30 SEPT (DE) KÖLN / HELIOS 37 01 OKT (BE) ITTRE / ZIK-ZAK 02 OKT (NL) SITTARD / POPPODIUM VOLT 03 OKT (DE) MANNHEIM / 7ER CLUB 26 NOV (DE) MEMMINGEN / KAMINWERK 27 NOV (DE) OBERTRAUBLING / AIRPORT 28 NOV (DE) NÜRNBERG / HIRSCH 29 NOV (DE) MÜNCHEN / BACKSTAGE HALLE 30 NOV (DE) AUGSBURG / SPECTRUM CLUB 02 DEZ (CH) GROSSHÖCHSTETTEN / KÜHLTÜR
“Death Cult” is the second single taken from THE END A.D.‘s “It’s All In Your Head” album, due for release on October 28th via Wormholedeath worldwide.
Watch the lyric video below.
THE END A.D. has had the privilege of sharing the stage with such great acts as Eyehategod, Green Jelly, Murphy’s Law, Cro- Mags (Harley Flanagan), The Accused A.D., Vicious Rumors, Raven, Sulaco, Cliterati, End Of Hope, Snipers Of Babel, TFD, Leeway and The Mentors. The band is booking more great shows for 2022-23. The End A.D. is looking forward to making new friends and fans from around the world.
Discography – Self-Titled EP (2016) – Scorched Earth/Massacre Records (2017) – The Smell of Despair EP/Kill Time Records (2018) – Sermon of Violence/Hellforced Records (2018) – Badlands/Fastball Music (2019) – Badlands/Inferno Records, Cassette (2019) – It’s All in Your Head EP/Fastball Music (2021) – It’s All in Your Head Deluxe Version – Wormholedeath (2022)
Line up Ami Friend – Vocals Paul Juestrich – Guitar Jim Weiss – Bass Lorin Savadove – Drums
Australia’s VICTORIA K are sharing the next single “Tower” from the forthcoming sophomore album “Kore” set for release this coming October via Rockshots Records to follow the highly praised 2020 debut album “Essentia”.
Being unveiled with a music video, “Tower” is the longest song on the album. Clocking in at over seven minutes, the band got the inspiration for this track from the part of the hymn where Kore’s mother orders the people of the world to build a tower in her honour.
The band explains further: “This idea and concept sparked a lot of ideas, taking inspiration from events and questions that we face in our current society. Questions such as the existence of a divine power, and why we praise higher powers both spiritually speaking and in our physical world. It also raises ideas about our current social regimes, like capitalism, as well as the toxicity of materialist and consumerist cultures. Aspects of this song touch upon the exploitation of the middle and lower class. This is a topic that we wanted to bring forward, as musicians, artists, and writers as we feel it is relevant and important. This song also takes a lot of inspiration from ethnic sounds. The chanting is sung in ancient Greek, meant to imitate marching and worship, this ties into the message that the song is trying to convey.“
Offering up progressive symphonic sound, “Kore“ was specifically written to provide a full orchestral experience that drives people through a sonic journey of growth and grandeur.
“We wanted to take a new approach with this record and to grow our sound and bring something new to Victoria K. Incorporating sounds from our vocalist’s ethnic culture and heritage is something we are so extremely proud of! A concept album is something we really wanted to explore, and we are so excited to bring you this ancient story and create a sonic experience and journey for all our listeners. We cannot wait to share this new stage of Victoria K!”
“Kore” explores modern-day issues through the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (the story of Persephone). Victoria K conceptualized the idea for the album with her producer Lee Bradshaw and then spent many months researching and analyzing the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, even meeting with experts of the Homeric Hymns from Greece. The story was then broken up into its different parts where Victoria Knight wrote the lyrics and developed the melodies for each section of the tale, exploring the myth from a modern perspective.
The tracks were written specifically to encapsulate the various sections of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and tell the story chronologically through each song and the music grows in intensity throughout the record capturing the emotional state of Persephone and other characters as the story progresses.
The various instruments on “Kore” were then written by Victoria around the lyrics and further enhanced and developed through the production process. Lee Bradshaw then finalized the songs by writing orchestral scores for each song, which were recorded live in Europe, before the final mixing and mastering.
Four-time GRAMMY-winning and Diamond-certified rock legends AEROSMITH officially kicked off their 50th anniversary celebrations at the iconic Fenway Park in their hometown of Boston, MA last week. With over 38,700 people in attendance, it was the most tickets sold to date for a show at the iconic venue.
The night prior to the show, Steven Tyler surprised fans and residents of 1325 Commonwealth Ave when he made an impromptu visit to the building, which was home to the original five members of the iconic band. Known as the “Aerosmith Apartment,” the building was one of several that hosted flashing Aerosmith-themed projections ahead of the Fenway show. The light display returned to the apartment building after the show on Thursday night and visited other locations on Boylston Street and in the Seaport District.
On September 14th, Aerosmith will return to Vegas to continue their wildly successful “AEROSMITH: DEUCES ARE WILD” residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM. AEROSMITH: DEUCES ARE WILD is an electrifying 90-minute live performance from the band who continue to deliver one of the most innovative and thrilling performances in music. The band goes beyond the average concert, taking fans on a deep dive of their groundbreaking career with exclusive, unreleased audio and never-before-seen visuals from Aerosmith’s archives. Tickets can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com/aerosmith.
Most recently, Aerosmith aired the fifth and final installment of their five-week archival streaming concert series, 50 Years Live!: From the Aerosmith Vaults, featuring rare and unreleased archival concert films from the band’s legendary archives. The concert series followed the release of Aerosmith – 1971: The Road Starts Hear (UMe), available to stream HERE. This rare recording from 1971 was recently discovered in Aerosmith’s Vindaloo Vaults and was originally only available as a limited-edition cassette and vinyl release for Record Store Day in 2021. The heavily sought-after RSD release quickly sold out and debuted on the Billboard 200, hitting No. 2 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart, No. 12 on the Top Rock Albums chart, No. 13 on the Vinyl Albums chart, and No. 19 on the Top Album Sales chart. In addition, the band’s official online store now features a new 1971 collection of exclusive merchandise, available HERE.
Celebrating their 50th anniversary, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members Aerosmith have sold more than 150 million albums around the world, produced genre-defining music videos such as “Amazing,” “Crazy,” “Janie’s Got A Gun,” “Livin’ On The Edge,” and “Love In An Elevator,” and launched extravagant record-shattering global tours, most recently with their smash hit Las Vegas residency. The band has broken numerous boundaries, including becoming the first rock band with a massive commercially successful hip-hop collaboration with Run DMC on “Walk This Way” and the first hard rock band to appear during a Super Bowl Halftime Show with their 2001 performance, and in 1999, Aerosmith became the first band to have their own themed attraction at Disney World in Florida and later Paris with the launch of the Rock ‘N’ Roller coaster starring Aerosmith.
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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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Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 