Bridging the gap between traditional European roots and modern American sounds, SOLE SYNDICATE know well the secret of all the greatest, past’n’present-hard’n’heavy bands: every song counts.
‘Into the Flames’ is a darker and heavier record than its predecessor (the brilliant 2020 classic hard rock affair ‘Last Days of Eden’): earthquaking riffs & tasty solos, roaring vocals, some great melodies and a thunderous rhythmic background represent the foundation of each track.
The lyrical theme of the album is quite gloomy and leads the listener on a journey into the human mind, taking pulse on everyday life. Sole Syndicate is not a political band, but they are not afraid to write and sing about the state of things – war, mental health, environment and social injustices.
‘Into the Flames’ is the raucous and entertaining soundtrack of this crazy world of ours.
third record for the Swedish hard & heavy rising maestros
recorded at Syndicate Studios and mixed and mastered by Simone Mularoni at Domination Studio
artwork by Jonas “Urna” Beijer
first edition will be released in a 4-panel digipak
SOLE SYNDICATE are: Jonas Månsson – vocals and guitar Katja Rasila – keyboards and vocals David Gustafsson – bass and vocals Henrik Zetterlund – drums
SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE will release their new album “Voodoo Nation” on June 24th via Provogue Records/Mascot Label Group. The new album features special guests Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke), Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, Ana Popovic, Kirk Fletcher, King Solomon Hicks, Josh Smith & Sonny Landreth
Furthermore the band has shared a new official video for ‘8 Ball Lucy’ feat. Sonny Landreth, watch it below.
“The general discontent in the world at the moment is so widespread, we get told to embrace it because that’s life,” says Fabrizio Grossi. “No, that’s not life,” he asserts. “It’s how we’re forced to live nowadays. Voodoo Nation refers to the times we’re living in, at least here in the States, but I guess the whole world can relate. We’re getting to the point where we’re living out life almost as Zombies. We’re little machines.”
But there is always hope, which is what Supersonic Blues Machine has always been about.
At the core of the band is producer/bass player Fabrizio Grossi (Steve Vai, Alice Cooper, George Clinton, Slash) and drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, Meat Loaf, Brandon Flowers, John Fogerty, Red Hot Chili Peppers) with British rocker Kris Barras replacing Lance Lopez as singer-guitarist. Barras has a recent UK Top 30 album chart hit in March himself, and he is leading the pack of the British hard rock revival with several A-list singles, BBC Radio appearances and sell-out shows.
Voodoo Nation is the band’s third studio album. On their evolution, Fabrizio says, “Kris comes from this British school of hard rock and blues. This is a different sound to Kenny and me with the Allman Brothers, Sly Stone & The Family & Mountain. On Californisoul (2017), we were going more West Coast Funkadelic 60s and overall jam vibe. Blues but with more of a hippy flower power.” “With Kris, we wanted his footprint there, so that’s why you hear Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Gary Moore. Kind of a Union Jack imprint over a Star-Spangled Banner.”
The lyrical front on Voodoo Nation is less forgiving than everything in the past. “I’m not saying fuck flower power because that’s always the message,” Grossi says. “But there are very introspective things and a lot of the theatrics that we are dealing with on this record which I would say are fairly common in the blues but are dealt with a twist. There is a lot of Devil’s stuff in this record.”
Louisiana slide-god Sonny Landreth features on the haunting “8 Ball Lucy.” The song is a story about it being “easy to fall into temptation when you’re broken down and somebody comes along saying all the right things. That’s the true Devil, and she’s so good at playing her cards,” he says. The 8-minute “Devil at the Doorstep” features Eric Gales – whose recent album Crown was a #1 Blues Billboard hit. “With Eric, it can start as a 3-minute 12 bars Blues and morph into an epic Led Zeppelin Dazed and Confused thing. I also think it’s a perfect soundtrack for a horror movie…If the story wasn’t real!” he adds.
They underline problems faced by musicians on “Coming Thru” and “Get It Done” – the latter features Josh Smith and “Do It Again” is another firecracker that rounds off the theme with Ana Popovic. Young Harlem blues-sensation King Solomon Hicks features on the call to arms “You and Me.” The band’s trademark soulful blues sound can be heard beautifully on “I Will Let It Go,” featuring Kirk Fletcher, and the sumptuous “Is It All” with the legendary Joe Louis Walker. The album closes with the inspirational Rootsy Rock “All Our Love” featuring Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr.
The song came together in the summer of 2020 whilst there were the biggest fires in living memory in California. “I was dropping off donated clothes in Woodland Hills. We were heading down through the infamous 405 and were literally driving through fire – on both sides of the road.”
“I realised that we’re in one of the world’s richest cities, and there’s discontent, plus climate change and everything else going on. How is this happening? It’s total devastation. I was like, no, no, we need a major reset here. For all the wrongs in the world to be fixed, it requires all our love. That’s the song, a message of hope,” Grossi ends.
Track list Money Too Late Coming thru You And Me (feat. King Solomon Hicks) Get It Done (feat. Josh Smith) 8 Ball Lucy (feat. Sonny Landreth) Devil At The Doorstep (feat. Eric Gales) Is It All (feat. Joe Louis Walker) Do It Again (feat. Ana Popovic) I Will Let Go (feat. Kirk Fletcher) Voodoo Nation All Our Love (feat. Charlie Starr)
Currently working on writing and recording their 3rd album, Spanish power metallers REVEAL announce a very special collaboration with renowned vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (KK’S PRIEST/ex-JUDAS PRIEST/ex-ICED EARTH) on a song called “Messiah”. Tim contributes his powerful vocal style to this metal anthem, performing a duet with Reveal vocalist Rob Lundgren (a well-known Youtube presence with almost 200,000 followers). “Messiah” will appear on Reveal’s new album, which is slated for release later this year.
Tim recorded a video discussing his participation on “Messiah” that can be viewed here.
Reveal’s recording and touring lineup is completed by well-known Spanish musicians with extensive experience in the studio and live arena, including his DarkSun bandmates David Figuer (lead guitar), Dani Cabal (drums), and Helena Pinto (keyboards). Reveal have created videos for eight songs from their two previous albums, Timeline and Overlord, including “Crusaders”, “Path Of Sorrows”, “300”, & “Under Control” and they can be viewed at https://www.revealband.com/media
Italian heavy/power metallers IBRIDOMA have revealed the title and coverart of their upcoming album “Norimberga 2.0”, coming out soon on Punishment 18 Records. The artist behind the stunning album coverart is Gustavo Sazes (Cynic, Angra, Arch Enemy, British Lion, Sinheresy, Old Man’s Child).
“Norimberga 2.0” was mixed and mastered in 2021 at Domination Studio by Simone Mularoni (DGM, Elvenking, Injury, Bulldozer, Labÿrinth).
In 2016 singer Liv Jagrell, worldwide known for her vocal duties in Sister Sin, let the world know that she had formed a new band, LIV SIN, a band driven of massive guitar riffs and a heavy modern metal sound. In 2017 the debut album “Follow Me” was released, and the second album ”Burning Sermons” was edited in 2019.
Fast forward to 2022.
Liv SiN, completely recharged by a two-year down confinement period and a revamped line-up, is now ready to hit the stages again. And also the record shops’ racks, with a new album. The first advance of the record is called “The Process”.
”The main riff in this song got me from the very beginning with it’s really cool groove, but the verse has a bit of a softer and slower side to it”, Liv states. “So I thought, let’s not do whatever comes into the mind at first, which might have been a soft and nice vocal part, but instead I tried out a growling sort of vocals and that just gave another feel to the whole song, a darker and anguished feeling”, the singer concludes.
As for the lyrical part, “The Process” reflects a lot of Jagrell’s inner work during the Covid period but also before that. “I started out a more yogic life path a couple of years ago. Through that, I have really learned that if we want to grow, we have to go through what hurts us the most. You have to work with the pain, instead of against it if you want to move on. It doesn’t matter what sort of pain or path you are on, it is a constant process just to live”.
“And to really know that all of this is a part of this process we call life sometimes actually makes it a tiny bit easier”.
“The Process” will be released as a digital single via Mighty Music on April 29th, 2022. A new Liv Sin album is expected to be released in 2022.
Line-up: Per Bjevoluk – drums Patrick Ankermark – guitars Liv Jagrell – vocals Daniel Skoglund – bass Jay Matharu – lead guitar
Canadian extreme metallers UNBOWED have revealed another crushing new song today, “Fire of Wode,” from the band’s forthcoming, 3rd full-length album, “Colour The Soul,” that’s coming May 20th. Debuted at MetalSucks.net, the new track melds dark soaring synths, crushing blackened, death riffs and diabolical vocals for beastly yet accessible sound. “‘Epic’ and ‘enjoyable’ are often put at opposite poles of the spectrum, but on this track, they meet perfectly” (MetalSucks.net).
Commenting on the new single, UNBOWED states:
“From Old English wōd (“mad, raging, enraged, insane, senseless, blasphemous”), from Proto-Germanic *wōdaz.
‘Wode’ can be understood as an uncontrollable inspiration; a burning passion. This is also a hint as to the meaning of the name ‘Odin’ or ‘Wodin/Wodanaz’, god of death, war, art, and eldritch wisdom. Essentially this root of his name is placing him as an infallible force upon the natural order of the world. It creates a rather formless, yet artistically manifested rationalization for a god’s potential existence within any age of man. It goes beyond the idea of a bearded man in the sky, in other words.
Humanity might mimic the gods in this way, or simply become them. When possessed by this overwhelming force we might call inspiration that grows bigger and bigger through its connection to the breath of life or ‘athem’. The fire of wode is furious in its expanse and unstoppable given the proper breath of life.”
UNBOWED is a melodic death/black metal band formed in Guelph, ON, Canada in 2011 and consists of Ioan Tetlow (Vocals), Steven Rowlands (Guitars), Aiden Watkinson (Bass), Alex Snape (Guitars) and Cory Hofing (Drums). The band has to date released two full-length albums, two EPs, and two singles and is now gearing up to release their third full-length album and strongest effort to date, the 10 song LP “Colour the Soul.”
“Colour the Soul” features artwork by illustrator Marta Sokołowska, who is also created the art for their debut self-titled EP released in 2013. The album was written and recorded by UNBOWED at Nomadic Arts Studios in Guelph, ON, Canada, mixed and mastered by Alex Snape and features guest appearances from Joel Violette (Thrawsunblat, Woods of Ypres), Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns (Finntroll, And Oceans, Dispyt) and Frederik Jensen (Mother Of All, Plained).
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 ) 