Norwegian progressive metal/rock band VALD HEKS will release their debut EP, entitled “Aether”, on September 17th, on all streaming platforms. Furthermore the band’s first single “Supernova” comes out on August 20th.
VALD HEKS is a new and exciting progmetal/rock band from Tysnes, an island outside of Bergen – Norway. VALD HEKS started out as trio of brothers. Today it consists of the two youngest ones, Emil and Niklas Martila.
VALD HEKS started out back in 2017. With focus on quality, the songs were worked on for a long time. During the pandemic the 2 brothers decided that it is time to show the world what they’ve been working on. The songs were all done in 2020, but they had one obsticle, they had no vocalist. After some time, Emil Martila took upon himself this task. Emil Martila works the drums, guitars and vocals. Niklas Martila on bass. The songs were recorded at Alf Gunnar Wold’s studio GF: U. Now the 1.chapter of VALD HEKS is ready for launch.
About their music: The vision during the writing was to have a broad specter, both depth and diverse. First and foremost the music has to be honest and go new ways. This is very needed in a time that metal becomes more and more alike. Influences are very diverse, but Mastadon, Gojira, Meshuggah and Rush are among favorites.
Gearing up the engines for their third studio album, Finnish modern metallers AS I MAY release their new video and single, for the track “Breaking Myself Away”. A song with all the elements that make As I May one of the hottest offerings in Finnish metal these days, “Breaking Myself Away” foreshows great features for the upcoming album “Karu”.
“In “Breaking Myself Away” we are using more vocal power with our three vocalists than ever before“, the band comments. “The guys have found their place and space better than before. Also, this song has more rhythm than any song we have ever written. The drums are huge! They sit well together with bass and it has those melodies that we are known for“.
Check out the digital single of “Breaking Myself Away” or the official video of the song in UPRISING! Records Youtube page here or in one of our media partners, which premiered the video yesterday.
As I May is a four-piece modern melodic metal band from Mikkeli, Finland – formed in 2016. The band combines modern elements, yet keeps focus on the heavier side of the music, and they sound like a modern-day US mixture of In Flames and Amorphis, so almost any metal fan would get a treat from listening to the music of these Finns! It’s a mature band, displaying a truly professional attitude towards the modern sound of heavy metal. The soul of the music lies within the catchy melodies and the big choruses.
The band released their debut album “Speak No Evil” in 2017, and got the attention of lots of fans and from the record label Rockshots Records, who decided to sign As I May for the release of their 2nd album “My Own Creations”, which was released in the summer of 2019. In Asia, the album was released through the label Spiritual Beast.
As I May played a wide array of local Finnish shows and were booked for a European tour, as support for the Brasilian powerhouse-metal act Semblant… and then Covid-19 reared its ugly face, postponing everything for everyone.
The tour is postponed until the spring of 2022 and in the lock-down period, As I May have spend the time, composing and recording their brand-new opus ”Karu” – a venture into more modern and direct in-your-face songs, which caused for UPRISING! Records to sign the band on a worldwide deal.
“Karu” will be released by UPRISING! Records in 2022.
Florida-based melodic death metal masters THE ABSENCE have unveiled a Drum playthrough by Jeramie Kling of popular song, “Echoes”. The song is taken from the band’s sophomore record, “Riders of the Plague”, released on Metal Blade Records.
The video is now Live via the bands YouTube and can be viewed here:
Upon release of “Riders of the Plague” in 2007, the band made history with the likes of the legendary Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord, and Goatwhore. This was a historical tour because it was the “Metal Blade 25th Anniversary Tour”. There can only be one of those, and The Absence supported this great record with their labelmates, at the time.
Coming off a high, The Absence kept pushing and went back out with a follow up tour in 2008 with headliner, Amon Amarth on their “Twilight of the Thunder God” tour. Supporting Amon Amarth on the release of their new record Ensiferum, and Belphegor. A dynamic line up that would prove the band to be able to tour with almost any act. The Absence has a unique twist on what feels like the Swedish coined genre of “Melodic Death Metal”. The band as a whole has a personality on stage and through their music that just has something to offer any metal head in general.
The band members took the experiences from their touring gigs and reconvened in the studio with Stewart – who has also been busy with his other project, Hot Graves – to put together the 11 tracks of pummeling death metal that compose “Coffinized.” The album was produced and engineered by Kling and Nordberg, mixed by Kling and mastered by Jonas Kjellgren (Immortal, Overkill, Scar Symmetry) at Sweden’s Black Lounge Studios. Its track listing is as follows:
Coffinized Future Terminal Choirs of Sickness Radiant DevastaXon Cathedral Dawn Black Providence Discordia Treacherous This Consuming Nocturne Aperture Expands Faith in Uncreation
THE ABSENCE first burst onto the scene in 2005 with their crushing, Erik Rutan-produced Metal Blade debut “From Your Grave.” That album and its two follow-ups, 2007’s “Riders of the Plague” and 2010’s “Enemy Unbound,” showcased a perfect mixture of heart wrenching melodies and skull-pounding aggression, truly making them one of the premiere bands of the melodic death metal scene. THE ABSENCE further cemented their reputation via numerous tours supporting some of the biggest names in metal, including Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, Amon Amarth, Sabaton, Goatwhore, Evergrey, Malevolent Creation, Kataklysm and Destruction. Following a lengthy hiatus, the band regrouped in 2016 with a new lineup uniting founding members Stewart and Kling with long-time bassist Leon and guitarists Nordberg and Joey Concepcion for “A Gift for The Obsessed.” (Concepcion appears on four tracks on “Coffinized.”)
New York Blues Rock singer/songwriter SARI SCHORR releases her haunting new single: a cover of the folk-blues classic — “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” Sari’s recording features a new musical arrangement and eloquently updated lyrics that shift the song’s focus onto events that sparked the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 to protest police brutality and systematic racism that overwhelmingly affects the Black community. The song will be released on Manhaton Records from 6th August.
Like many folk-blues songs, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” — also known as “In the Pines” —has a fascinating backstory, and many interpretations exist. The song is believed to date way back to the 1870s, with the first recording of it being laid down in 1926 by banjo player Dock Walsh. The most famous versions were recorded by American bluegrass musician Bill Monroe (1941) and the iconic folk and blues singer, Lead Belly (1944), who recorded it many times. Modern artists have also performed and recorded the song, with Nirvana performing an unplugged rendition for MTV in 1994, based on Lead Belly’s version.
In its original form, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” tells the tragic tale of murder after a man finds out his woman has been cheating on him. “Lead Belly’s version of the song is deceptively profound,” Sari explains, “To breathe new life into it, I reharmonized the chord progression to dramatically alter the mood and build tension to change the way people would hear the song. Moving away from the customary choice of acoustic guitar to feature a grand piano instead provided the perfect backdrop for the intensity of the lyrics. I’ve been performing songs from Lead Belly around the world for years, from Carnegie Hall to The Montreux Jazz Festival. It’s a great honor to share music from such an influential artist with a whole new audience.”
In Lead Belly’s versions, the song sometimes begins with “My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me / Tell me, where did you sleep last night?” and in others, “Black girl, black girl, don’t lie to me / Tell me, where did you sleep last night?” Sari opts for the latter, significantly moving the focus, scope, and theme of the song. Emphasis moves away from infidelity and jealousy. Race now takes centre stage, as do the risks of race, via the black girl’s life and experience as a single mother raising her child alone only to witness her son being shot down by a policeman.
What’s more, Sari’s elegiac black and white video shows her playing piano and singing – the first time she’s been seen playing piano in one of her videos.
In other news for Sari’s many fans, she hopes to resume touring in the UK between September and November. Sari will be headlining most shows, playing some festivals, and will also appear with guitar legend Robin Trower at 3 gigs in November. She’ll play Bude Blues Festival 2021 on 7th November before she moves on to Germany.
See Sari’s website for full details. N.B. All tour dates depend on the COVID situation and the rules applying at the time.
US death metal kingpins WALKING THE CADAVER return with new single and graphic video ‘Human Chop Shop’, taken from their forthcoming album, Authority Through Intimidation, out 22nd October 2021 via Unique Leader.
The band comment: “We are very excited for our fans to hear our next single ‘Human Chop Shop’!! It is definitely one of our favorite tracks on the new album because it encompasses everything Waking the Cadaver sets out to do, which is creating hardcore-influenced brutal death metal with catchy hooks. Human Chop Shop is predominately a mid-paced jam with a ton of groove, but don’t let that fool you, Authority Through Intimidation is chock-full of blasting brutality as well. We are beyond stoked to unleash this monster of an album October 22nd to show the world how far we’ve come as a band.”
Waking the Cadaver are an American death metal band from Jersey Shore, New Jersey, formed in 2006. The quartet grew to become one of the most exciting bands in the US underground, touring with the likes of Napalm Death and Immolation, and releasing three albums within a six-year span; Perverse Recollections of aNecromangler (2007), Beyond Cops, Beyond God (2010) and Real-Life Death (2013). Their live shows became somewhat legendary for their brutality and power.
Following a huge tour in 2013 with Dying Fetus, Exhumed, and Abiotic, Waking the Cadaver went on hiatus, but returned in 2018 with fresh sound and new line-up, with only vocalist Don Campan and guitarist Michael Mayo remaining. Now signed to Unique Leader Records and armed with their phenomenal new album Authority Through Intimidation, Waking the Cadaver are ready to reclaim their crowns as the kingpins of death.
Guitarist Mike Mayo commented on the new album: “I believe Authority Through Intimidation is the definitive Waking the Cadaver album. Our mission statement for writing it was SLAMMING GORE GROOVE. That’s been our slogan since the beginning and I think this collection of songs exemplifies its meaning more than any of our previous albums. We really wanted to level up the technicality and song writing of Real-Life Death, while also having more nods to our first album Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler. I think we succeeded in doing just that. Listeners will be able to hear our love for bands like Dying Fetus, Last Days of Humanity, and Disgorge, as well as our love for early Hatebreed and All Out War.”
Produced by AJ Viana (Cognitive, Through the Eyes of the Dead), Authority Through Intimidation hits harder than a hammer to the head and takes no prisoners with its polished but powerful live production.
Vocalist Don Campan commented: “I am extremely proud of Authority Through Intimidation for the intensely disgusting brutal vibe it has casted out into the Universe and beyond. Slamming gore groove has been summoned by its worldwide fans and they will not be let down. This album has all of our infamous alien guttural overlord vocal styles and raw signature slam dunks, with wicked fresh ferocious shredding attacks delivered from a musical-masterminded line up. The Kingpins of Death are stoked and proud to have the one and only next level blasting machine Lord Marco on drums giving this new material a cutting edge injection.”
Track listing:
1. Civic Assault 2. Corpse Decomposition 3. Human Chop Shop 4. Frenzied Vehicular Rampage 5. Arbiter of Punishment 6. Threaten Physical Force 7. Asphyxiating Ligature 8. Authoritative Aggressor
CHRIS CATENA’S ROCK CITY TRIBE, the all-stars hard rock project from the Italian rock vocalist Chris Catena, is back with the new single “Freight Train”. The song was produced by Glen Robinson (George Martin, The Beatles’ producer, Keith Richards, Ramones, Voivod, Metal Church, Nashville Pussy, Annihilator, Queensrÿche, U2, Humble Pie, GWAR, etc).
“Freight Train” is an unreleased song and it isn’t included on the album “Truth in Unity”, released last year via Grooveyard Records. “Freight Train” is n hard rock anthem with a country flavour. The song features Alex Giuliani (drums), Alexandra Maiolo (guitars), Marco Fiormonti (bass), Marco Bartoccioni (banjo, dobro, slide, and acoustic guitars), Sara Facciolo (chorus and acoustic guitars), Valentina De Juliis (Keyboards) and Veronica Intorcia (chorus).
The video was shot by Jack Lukas Laugeni at Talus stables, close to Rome (Italy).
Chris Catena is currently working as director of opera in Bulgaria, Italy and Romania.
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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
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 