The Dallas, TX band EMPIIRES is a modern rock/metal band bringing their unique brand of fist-pumping metal to growing audiences across Texas. We last heard from the band Empiires (TLG/INgrooves label) during the lockdown year, as they were putting out a series of killer new singles and videos, and grinding hard to hone their songcraft.
The band is back with an inspirational new single and an accompanying lyric video – “Stronger.” The infectious, heavy song is a rallying cry to anyone who has ever dealt with self-doubt and can build a bridge to fans struggling in these tense times.
“Stronger” is a song about reflection. Seeing yourself and finding the strength to overcome your own shortcomings. We all make mistakes. Learning from those mistakes makes us “Stronger”
Alestorm guitarist Máté “Bobo” Bodor has completed work on his debut solo album “Oh Wow!’ to be released on 26th November 2021 via H-Music Hungary. Máté has been an integral part of Alestorm in the last 6 years, playing on the albums “No Grave But the Sea” (2017) and “Curse of the Crystal Coconut” (2020) and also formed the band All But One with Heaven Shall Burn drummer Christian Bass and singer Joe Carter-Hawkins. He has used the free time given by the lockdowns to write and record his first instrumental solo album, which he recorded with bass player Soma Schiszler (of the 2018 Eurovision participant band AWS) and drummer Márk Maczák (Leander Rising, AMIGOD). The album is now available for pre-order, and the first song and music video is out now, check out “The Forgotten Ones” below!
“The idea of an instrumental solo album was born around 4-5 years ago, but the continuous touring with Alestorm and Leander Kills has made it unrealistic to make time for it, so it remained a vision only, for a long time. After we’ve completed work on the 2020 Alestorm album and I got home, the first Covid lockdowns started immediately. Because of that I was stuck at home, and for the first time after 5 years I’ve felt I have nothing to work on. In May 2020 I’ve deliberately started working on instrumental songs, initially one or two at a time, to see where this is going. I’ve completed the songs and recorded the demos all by myself, but eventually I found myself constantly coming up with new ideas and completing new ones. I thought I should do this only as long as this “natural flow” is there, and I will stop as soon as I feel it’s forced. By the end of the year I’ve completed the songwriting part of the project.
With the finished demos I’ve contacted Soma Schiszler (AWS), who I toured together with before, so I knew he was a professional producer and is very adapted when it comes to guitar music. Together we have started discussing this album more seriously. We’ve started working with Márk Maczák, who recorded all the drums by the end of spring, so the second half of summer was about recording all the other instruments. The main concept was not to involve many people so that I could supervise the whole process and I can learn from it to improve my skills for the next albums. Eventually Soma and I recorded all guitars and bass over a few weeks. The album was also mixed and mastered by Soma.
I really wanted to make an instrumental album that is not about “over-playing it for the sake of over-playing.” The main aspect was to deliver songs with good, well-built structures, and not some kind of improvised mass that someone just played something on top of. The order of songs was not changed, they can be heard in chronological order so there is an arc to the album that can describe my feelings of that one year period. If I had to characterize this album, I’d say I’ve managed to put together songs with a certain “feelgood / travelling” mood where there are only technical / complex parts where it’s really needed and has a place naturally.
The main concept behind the album’s cover art was to include as many of my favourite things in life as possible: guitars, sea animals, basketball and donuts. Basically these are the things that make me happy, so it was clear these are the elements to make my dream world from. Polish artist Aleksandra Klepacka made this imaginary idea into reality, who had an extremely good perception of what was in my head, and delivered the basic design for the album in merely a few days.”
Máté is a Hungarian guitar player, known as the member of the internationally touring pirate metal band ALESTORM, the melodic metalcore band ALL BUT ONE and formerly of Hungarian metal band LEANDER KILLS.
Máté started touring at a young age with various bands internationally supporting bigger bands in the UK scene. After joining the power metal band WISDOM they were part of multiple major tours across Europe with acts such as Sabaton, Powerwolf and Eluveitie.
Joining ALESTORM in 2015 brought on more performing around the globe on a much larger scale. The band has since played main stages at most of the biggest festivals in the world such as Wacken, Summer Breeze, Hellfest, Graspop, Heavy Montreal etc. All accompanied by tours in Russia, Australia, South America, Asia, the United States and Canada. Máté continues to tour and record with ALESTORM around the world, whilst also using the 2020 lockdown as a means to work on his first instrumental solo album set to be released on 26th November 2021.
Máté has been endorsed by Ibanez guitars since 2016 and mostly plays his LA Custom Shop “Bobo” model, loaded with EMGs. Since the relationship with Ibanez and EMG started, Máté has done two workshop tours around Europe to promote their products.
Monstrous Estonian metallers GORESOERD have released their new video + single ‘Eksortsist’.
As if hatched from the darkened corners of human nature, “Eksortsist” aggressively proves that the band definitely has not drifted off into the pandemia’s miserable coma sleep. The song is released under Inverse Records.
“Eksortsist” was recorded at Heliala studio by Janek Kivi. The video was directed by Eero Soomere and shot by Erlend Štaub. Editing and colouring were done by Rasmus Tauk and Laur Lindmäe.
On some days, we seem to implode under the burden of daily life and the constant pressure from society. Disconnected from Nature and a bigger purpose, we float through our sad little existence, eaten up by schedules, meetings and senseless tasks. Yet, sometimes all it takes is a step outside into the wild peace of an old forest – carrying nothing but a shovel in your hand…
With their new music video directed by Andreas J. Borsodi, ANOMALIE depict moments of our lives we’ve all been through before, yet offer a surprising ending…
After having been forced to postpone their album release due to pressing plant delays, Austria’s black metal shamans ANOMALIE will now fulfil their “Tranceformation” on November 26th, but didn’t want to leave their fans waiting for another two weeks for new music. So here is the music video for the 3rd single and album opener ‘Trance I: The Tree’:
To be released via the band’s longterm partner label AOP Records, “Tranceformation” offers a hypnotic mix of ferocious extreme metal with genuine folk vibes and will be the fourth studio offering from multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter Marrok (live guitarist of Harakiri For The Sky) and drummer Lukas Schlintl.
Available in three formats, you can pre-order your copy of “Tranceformation” here: https://shop.aoprecords.de
“The Alpha” is the third single by Finnish melodic death metal band WOLFTOPIA. The single, off their 2021 debut album Ways of the Pack, boasts the characteristic fast-paced melodic death metal that the band have become known for since their first release (the 2019 EP I am the Storm). “The Alpha” opens with a frenetic guitar riff by guitarist, singer and frontman Aleksander Okhotnikov. This opening soon settles into a menacing riff accompanied by the unforgiving blast-beats of drummer Tom Israels and pounding lines of bassist Tim Reus.
Okhotnikov explains that the song is about the chaos of nature: the breath of the wild, the harshness of existing at the mercy of nature, the never-ending, cruel cycle of life… And listening to the song, that’s not hard to imagine. From the first of Okhotnikov’s howls to the tremolo picking and majestic chords by lead guitarist Topi Karhunen, the song breathes that chaos. The melody occupies the middle ranges — neither high nor low — which makes it difficult to interpret, and this interpretation is not aided either by the movement of the melody: it moves up and down at seemingly random intervals, fully encapsulating the unpredictability of the wilderness.
The lyrics tell of dominance in a wolf pack. Okhotnikov admits that the alpha male theory has long been debunked, but the idea persists in popular culture, and it’s an enticing metaphor for the cyclic nature of, well, nature. The alpha leads the pack, grows old, and is replaced by the next alpha. The cycle starts again. That notion of repeating cycles can also be heard in the music. The main melody continues into the verse, and the pre-chorus melody into the chorus, changed but still the same. And this cycle of verse, pre-chorus and chorus repeats throughout the song, too, just like the cycle of nature. The song ends with the introduction melody, but changed yet again. We are back at the start. The cycle is ready to repeat itself. But everything keeps changing. The wilderness is never predictable.
Track list:1. Hound of War 2. The Last Embrace of the Mother 3. Wash the Spears 4. We are Pack 5. Predator 6. May He Sever the Shadow 7. The Alpha 8. I am the Storm
Canadian Punk Legends DAYGLO ABORTIONS release the fourth single – “Smart Food” from their upcoming album “Hate Speech” and premiere via New Noise Magazine. the track can be heard here.
Murray adds – This is song #4 from the soon to be released dayglo abortions album “Hate Speech”. It is more along the lines of the irreverent humour that I am generally known for than the previous three songs have been, but as I am wanton to do, there is a tiny morsel of relevance woven into the second verse. I should also note that, Blind Marc was visiting his family on the day we recorded this one so our friend Rob Lawless played drums on the beds thinking Blarc would replace the drum tracks when he got back. Blind Marc being the way he is, listened to the beds with Rob on drums and said “hey, he’s already played them and it sounds good, might as well leave them”. So just as easy as that, Rob gets the meagre thrill of playing drums on a dayglo album. I hope this song is as entertaining for you to listen to as it was for us to record it, because to be honest, this one was not that easy to play.
This album is dedicated to the people that helped us make it. Scott Bennet and Scott Henderson, for essentially talking me into making it, then offering their studio (the lap of luxury) so we could do the pre-praductlon Work while in the middle of Covid-19 induced lock-downs. Then Rob lawless, and Terry Paholek, for allowing us io Invade their studio (The physics lab) in Edmonton Alberta, and for the brilliant work the did making it sound so good. Next is Matt Jak and Sherry Benson, and family, for inviting us into their home and putting us up in Edmonton. And finally Tyson Cale Boyd and the people at The Starlight for putting on the show that paid our travel expanses. Well why the fuck stop there, The Edmonton Jak’s for always rocking out with us, and all of you for supporting through the years. Cheers to all of you.
Dayglo Abortions are: Murray (The cretin) Acton – guitar, lead vocs. Matt Fiorito – guitar, backup vocals. Blind Marc – Drums. Mike Jak – guitar. Scott Henderson – bass guitar Rob Lawless – Drums on smart food Matt Jak & Carmen Jak – backup vocals. Terry Paholek – fact checking & debunking.
Recorded at the Physics Lab in Edmonton AB. Recorded by Rob Lawless and Terry Paholek mixed by Terry Paholek and Rob lawless, mastered by Terry Paholek, Produced by The Dayglo Abortions and Rob Lawless.
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 ) 