Formed by members of established extreme metal acts such as Carnality, The Modern Age Slavery and Nightland, SUN OF THE SUNS is a new, exciting musical project consisting of vocalist Luca Scarlatti and guitarists Marco Righetti and Ludovico Cioffi.
The three musicians collectively released several LPs and EPs, played shows all over Europe and are still aiming to push the boundaries of extreme music in a very personal and original way. Sun Of The Suns’ identity is carved in their own name: a cosmic order with innovation as its brightest polestar.
The band fully came into life by signing a multi-album deal with Scarlet Records and will soon announce the details of their debut album.
Extreme Management Group (EMG), home to bands like Suffocation, Cattle Decapitation, Rings Of Saturn, Misery Index and more, has announced their partnership with Greek Thrash Metallers, AMKEN.
AMKEN was formed in 2011 in Athens, Greece. Blood-pumping thrash metal that bridges the gap between old-school and the new-era, crafted by the band’s unique style.
With the new album “Passive Aggression”, AMKEN really elevated their game. A wall of sound is created by the constant “dialog” between their singers, the super tight rhythm section that the bass provides alongside with the relentless pummeling drumming, combined with intricate riffs and emotional melodies that the guitars unleash. Fotis Benardo (Sixfornine, ex-Septicflesh) was behind the mixing desk, inspiring the band to shape their new sound which blends originally their vintage roots with modern elements and influences. The mastering was completed by George Nerantzis (Abbath, Dark Funeral, Pain Of Salvation), and artwork fashioned by Adam Burke (Vektor, Fit for an Autopsy, Hooded Menace, Creeping Death).
In the course of their brief existence, playing 2018’s Japanese Assault fest in Tokyo, Japan and with a European tour alongside Norwegian black metallers GORGOROTH in their arsenal, AMKEN has shared the stage with world-renowned metal acts such as SODOM, DESTRUCTION, SUICIDAL ANGELS, SIX FEET UNDER, MERCILESS, NERVOSA, SKELETONWITCH, SKULL FIST and others; following their debut full length album “Theater of the Absurd” (2017) which was released by No Remorse Records and their first EP “Adrenaline Shot” (2014).
With an upcoming full-length album and subsequent tours set in their sights, AMKEN plans to cover more territory and expand their style of electrifying metal.
Now, having inked a worldwide deal with Extreme Management Group (EMG), the band says: “We are very excited to be a part of the EMG family and take AMKEN to a whole new level! With our second full length album on the way and our yearn for live shows being stronger than ever, we can’t wait to get on the road and bring our music to you all, so stay tuned!”
EMG said, “We are thrilled to be working with Amken and look forward to a great partnership!”
One month after the release of their recent EP “LV-426” Italy´s infamous Technical Death Metal combo HIDEOUS DIVINITY drop a brand-new Bass-Playthrough of “Chestburst” performed by bassist Stefano Franceschini on the Century Media YouTube channel.
Stefano comments:
“‘Chestburst’ is one of the most “in your face” songs Hideous Divinity has ever written; it’s probably also the song where the bass sticks out the most, which is always great (HA!). Seriously, I love the track, and the reason I chose it for this playthrough is that it’s Hideous Divinity at its best, being the perfect blend of aggressive riffing, harmonic minor / symmetric scales, and musical narrativity. Enjoy!”
“LV-426” will is already out now as Ltd. CD Edition (Pocket Pack) and on all digital platforms! Stream it or get your CD HERE
Italian based technical Death Metal diehards Hideous Divinity deliver their staggering conceptual EP “LV-426”. The concept of the EP is a sub-narrative of the second Alien movie, directed by James Cameron.
The band states “We chose to concentrate on the story of Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jorden, the 6-year old girl rescued on the alien infested planetoid LV-426 by Ellen Ripley. We live the story from her point of view, a mixture of childhood’s happy life and memories cut off by the alien attack.”
The EP includes two brand-new Hideous Divinity tracks (“Acheron, Stream of Woe” & “Chestburst”) and a smashing Tech-Death cover version of Coheed and Cambria’s “Delirium Trigger”. Like its predecessor “Simulacrum” the EP has been produced by Stefano Morabito at 16th Cellar Studio who refined the bands signature sound consisting of bone-crushing riffs, superb drumming, and frightful vocals. Also, the EP features a stunning Alien-themed artwork by Colin Estrada.
On July 16th, Berlin’s SPACE CHASER will release their new album, Give Us Life, via Metal Blade Records. For a first preview of the record, a video for the new single, “Remnants of Technology” (produced by Lucas Fiederling / Peregrine Films), can be viewed at: metalblade.com/spacechaser – where Give Us Life is available in various formats.
Space Chaser comments: “For our first sign of life on Metal Blade Records, we wanted to make the best music video we could possibly make. And with a lot of hard work and even more luck, we got something far greater than we could have ever dreamed of. We had this idea for a video lying around for years, but never were able to put it to film. Until now. We had a crew of 60 people working for us. Somehow word got around in the Berlin film scene, and almost everyone was on fire, and wanted to be a part of it. 50 Costumes, 4 make-up artists, 30 extras, a team of directors, camera operators, professional lightning – you name it, we had it. Two teams of set-builders worked tirelessly for a week together with the band. We built an entire bar in some humid, freezing cold basement for a total of 3 days and nights of shooting. The concept was planned for months, an entire week of preparation and two days of assembling everything. Everybody pulled their weight and helped make our little space short. Lucas Fiederling of Peregrine Films didn’t sleep for two months straight. The result looks like a Michael Jackson video. If he was a thrasher. From Berlin. Watch The Skies.”
Album artwork by: Mario Lopez
Nothing can beat the thrill of thrash at its best, and no one is keeping the spirit and sound of the genre alive quite like Space Chaser. Marking their ten-year anniversary with their third full-length, Give Us Life, they are returning in force and once again establishing their importance in the scene. “What we do is contemporary Thrash Metal, if you will, and while still having the ‘old-school’ elements everyone loves, we try to incorporate some of the influences that we expose ourselves to. Over the last ten years, this kind of music progressed a lot, and of course that has its influence on us. But what we do is still Thrash Metal, we just hope we’re able to translate it a little bit better into 2021.”
The album was recorded at their go-to studio, Berlin’s Hidden Planet, with Jan Oberg, who the band acknowledge is a rather unknown name in the metal scene, but his work proves up to par with international standards nonetheless. The songs were produced by guitarist Leo Schacht and drummer Matthias Scheuerer with the help of Oberg, and for mastering they had Dan Swanö of Unisound Studios at the helm. “It was the smoothest recording process we have ever had. Everybody went in perfectly prepared and every idea worked out just how we anticipated. It’s almost surreal, though being satisfied with your production can lead you to get lost in details forever – and the intro for ‘Burn Them All’ was a bitch!” Acknowledging that it feels weird to have reached their tenth anniversary already, this landmark has only stoked the fires. “We never felt so pumped and ready for whatever life throws at us,” they say, and asking what they see when they look to the band’s future, they are emphatic. “World domination! Well…sort of. I think every band just wants to get as big a name in the metal world as possible, and we are no exception. We really hope to expand our fanbase outside of Germany with ‘Give Us Life‘, and we never even dreamt of getting the chance to release a record through Metal Blade. Furthermore, we definitely want to tour a lot as soon as we are allowed to. We are anxious to leave Europe for the first time, and we want to prove that we are capable of delivering on an international standard.”
Give Us Life track-listing 1. Remnants of Technology 2. Juggernaut 3. Cryoshock 4. A.O.A 5. The Immortals 6. Signals 7. Burn Them All 8. Give Us Life 9. Antidote to Order 10. Dark Descent
May has seen the Grammy Award winning legends MOTÖRHEAD continue to show the world that they remain not just immortal, but a major part of hundreds of thousands of international music adventures.
Their latest release on SL Music, Louder Than Noise…Live In Berlin, smashed its way into the international charts with typically impressive numbers, including a #4 entry in the German official album charts, a #1 in the official UK Rock & Metal top 40, a top 40 slot in the official Swedish album charts and a top 40 slot in the US rock albums chart. Album charts weren’t the only ones showing their love, the legendary Ozzy Osbourne declared Lemmy as his “all-time rock God” in an interview with the BBC’s Johnnie Walker.
Ozzy said the following:
“My rock god is Lemmy Kilmister. Lemmy was a guy – he shot from the hip every time. ‘That sucks,’ or, ‘I like that.’
I’m good at starting lyrics, but I can’t finish them. And he’d go – he’d write a bunch of lyrics for my songs – ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home.’
“So, I’d give him a tape, and I had this book on World War II. I haven’t read it and I told him, ‘Tell me what you think. And I have a bunch of these lyrics – whenever you can…’ I’m thinking, it’s gonna be aweek.
And he says, ‘Come back in about four hours.’ So I got back, and he goes, ‘What do you think about these?’ And I go, ‘Oh, great.’ He then goes, ‘What about these?’ I go, ‘Oh, you got two…?’
“He goes, ‘No, I got another one – three.’ I go, ‘You had written three sets of lyrics?!’ He said, ‘Yeah, and that book was crap!’ I said, ‘What book?’ He says, ‘The book you gave me.’
“He was a speed-reader! He could read really fast. He was amazing! You look at people like Lemmy and you think, ‘Oh, he’s a yob [a rude, noisy, and aggressive young person].’ But he was very well-educated.”
There was also the annual 8th of May Celebration, which saw BMG/Murder One unveil the first of what will be an ongoing series of archival live material – The Löst Tapes Vol. 1- Madrid ‘95, whichsaw over 60,000 fans enjoy a blistering performance from Lemmy, Phil and Mikkey thanks to this surprise drop. With various social media events going on throughout the day, hundreds of thousands of fans engaged in celebration of MOTÖRHEAD and their music. All of this culminated in streaming peaking at its highest ever with 4m streams on the day (a 15% increase).
May has also been the month which has seen The Motörcast podcast (hosted by Howard H Smith and available on all podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google Podcasts and Deezer) pass 40,000 listens.
MOTÖRHEAD will continue taking their immortal music to the people this June with the 40thanniversary release of their chart-topping live spectacular No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith, which will feature the original album plus all three full shows from which the album was originally compiled, as well as unseen photos, the story of the album and other collectibles. The album is currently availablefor pre-order from all your favorite music outlets.
In such times of madness, it is wonderful to see that MOTÖRHEAD continue to be a major international rock’n’roll force, smashing eardrums and finding new ears to deafen at an ever-increasing rate.
Metal legends FLOTSAM AND JETSAM have debuted a video for “Brace For Impact,” the third single from the band’s blistering fourteenth studio album, Blood In The Water.
Scheduled for release on June 4 via AFM Records, Blood In The Water is unarguably the Arizona-based quintet’s finest, hardest-hitting release to date. After spending most of the past year in a pandemic-induced holding pattern, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM made the best of a struggling situation and let their angst-ridden creative juices flow, resulting in the twelve crushing tracks that comprise Blood In The Water.
“We knew we had to come out strong after ‘The End of Chaos,’” says drummer Ken K Mary. “I’m not sure we really believed we could deliver. Those fears, it turns out, were unfounded. The events around us just poured fuel on the creative fires. I’m very proud of this album and the band.”
Adds guitarist Michael Gilbert,“We weren’t really sure what we had left in the tank, as we put so much work, sweat and blood into the ‘Chaos’ album. As it turns out, we had plenty to say. With everything that’s happened in the world, the friends we lost this last year, and not being able to perform or tour… you hear all of that in our music. It’s angry, it’s aggressive, and our emotions pour out all over this album.”
The band has already backed up these statements with Blood In The Water’s first two singles, “Burn The Sky” and the album’s title track, the latter of which sees the return of Flotzilla, the creature that graced the group’s 1986 debut Doomsday for the Deceiver, in an updated and even more menacing form throughout its lyric video.
“FLOTSAM AND JETSAMhave been working very hard for many years, and the strength and energy of this band just keeps getting more forceful,” says guitarist Steve Conley.“This is our new theme song… we’re hoping this is the album that gets us to where we want to go…and we smell ‘Blood In The Water’ this time.”
Blood In The Water was mixed and mastered by Jacob Habsen (U.D.O., Volbeat, Amaranthe, Powerwolf), who also worked on the band’s 2019 album, The End of Chaos, and will be available in several configurations.
Three and a half decades since their landmark debut – still the only album to ever receive a 6K rating from the influential British magazineKerrang!– Blood In The WatersetsFLOTSAM AND JETSAMup to finally shed the “most under-rated metal band on the planet” tag and lay claim to the thrash metal throne.
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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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