Escapeis a tribute to AC / DC and Deep Purple from THE TØLKS. The dynamics of the song are reminiscent of the golden age songs of those bands, where a motorcycle crashes through a scorching desert. The song scrapes a memorable riff on the side of nowadays such a smooth rockenroll. The song confuses the listener, as the initial assumption of a criminal fleeing a crime scene changes from a side to side as the singer goes through an inner Inferno. The end result remains to be guessed by the listener. Despite the darkness of the words, the song proclaims “only the riff matters”.
Finland Power Prog Metal band ULTIMATIUM share “Digital Tower” track off their latest album “Virtuality”.
Band comments “Digital Tower is a very aggressive, but low-tempo song, the heaviest and most symphonic song we’ve ever made. Song is heavily influenced by these three songs: Rainbow – Stargazer / Stratovarius – Season of Change / Black Sabbath – Heaven & hell. And shows the full potential of character sang by Jukka Nummi. As seen on the video, this song has very special meaning for Jukka since Matti gave him full artistic freedom to use his Ronnie James Dio-vocaling style at full strength”
The premise behind “Virtuality” is an introduction of a storyline of four gamers getting stuck in a virtual reality game in a near-future setting. Packed with five amazing lead vocalists, Peter James Goodman (Conquest, ex-Virtuocity), Jukka Nummi (ex-Myon), Emily Leone, Tomi Viiltola (ex-Dreamtale, Perpetual Rage, Viilto) and Matti Auerkallio (Katra, Manzana, SoulFallen), “Virtuality” is a unique storyline about the virtual world, and the dangers of sharing everything in social media, along with up-tempo power metal songs combined with darker elements.
The story album is backed up with lots of background vocals, sound effects and a “narrator”/system voice synthesized with Amazon’s Alexa.
The album introduces the best parts of power and progressive metal combined, including easier up-tempo songs, but also long, progressive mid-tempo tracks. The songs take influence from such bands as Stratovarius, Dream Theater, Symphony X and Rainbow.
Norway’s CHRIS WICKED has released his debut album “Aleine” through Apollon Records. The album is featured by members of Gorgoroth, Taake, Helheim, Gaahls Wyrd og Shining.
“Chris Wicked is an experienced artist from Bergen, Norway, best known as the vocalist in Malice in Wonderland where he toured the world and released several albums, EP’s, and singles. Now Chris is reinventing himself, creating dark, atmospheric music singing in his own language”.
Aleine (The Sprawl Remix) – LP bonus track *Ørjan «Hoest» Stedjeberg – bass on track 4, 5 og 6 *Ørjan «V’gandr» Nordvik – bass on track 2
Chris Wicked is an experienced artist from Bergen, Norway, best known as the vocalist in Malice in Wonderland where he toured the world and released several albums, EP’s, and singles. After a tour in China with Finnish band Negative, the artist was brought to Finland where he spent several years touring, doing festival work, as well as several TV appearances.
Back in Bergen, the band was eventually disbanded, and Chris has spent the last few years creating a new sound singing in his own language – now as a solo artist. The recent time has been spent in Polyfon Studio and the debut album has now been recorded.
Although parts of the Black Metal elite such as Gaahl (Gaahls Wyrd), Hoest (Taake, Gorgoroth), V’gandr (Helheim, Taake) and Niklas Kvarforth (Shining SE) contributes on the album, it is in no way extreme music we are talking about. This is melancholic and catchy, at times low-key, with a dark, beautiful, and unique expression, inspired by artists such as Sisters of Mercy, Nick Cave, David Bowie and Depeche Mode.
After the first single, the title track «Aleine», where Black Metal legend Gaahl contributed as a guest vocalist, Chris released the beautiful video single, «Sørgebånd” which is the most stripped-down song on the upcoming album. Both songs have been aired on national radio.
The debut album is now released worldwide through Apollon Records. The record is available in LP (ltd white vinyl) and CD format in addition to the digital release.
Band Line Up Chris Wicked – Vocals Rune Nordahl-Pedersen – Guitars Eskil Sæter – Bass Marius Mathisen – Drums
Nearly four decades after their unholy conception, masters of Floridian death metal, MASSACRE, have found a diabolical union with Nuclear Blast Records with plans to release their fourth studio album, and first in seven years, later this year.
Commenting on the signing, vocalist Kam Lee states:
“I would first like to give my appreciation to NUCLEAR BLAST for signing MASSACRE. It’s a long time dream of mine to be a part of the metal family under the NB flag and I am even more so grateful that it’s with my signature band. We have a lot of plans for the future of MASSACRE, and what a great place to be making such a proper return other than one of the best independent metal labels in the world.”
Bassist Michael Borders adds:
“It’s a privilege at this point in our careers to be associated with the big name in metal labels, we did our best to make this a proper Massacre release, an authentic sounding representation of a band we started over thirty years ago.”
Nuclear Blast’s U.S.A. general manager Gerardo Martinez says:
“For many of us at Nuclear Blast, Massacre is one of our favorite bands, and instrumental in the formative years of Death Metal and with their debut album alone. It paved the way to many artists to follow. It’s an honor to be working a brand new record with Kam Lee on vocals after nearly 30 years!”
MASSACRE rose from the swamps of Southern Florida in the early 80’s during a heatwave of groundbreaking death metal that produced some of the genre’s most revered forefathers, DEATH, OBITUARY and SIX FEET UNDER. Their legacy was founded with a string of classic demos, “Aggressive Tyrant” (1986), “Chamber of Ages” (1986) and “The Second Coming” (1990), before unleashing their critically praised classic debut album “From Beyond” (1991). Now decades later, the band makes their long-awaited return, invigorated with the same youthful rage that brought them together at inception. For the forthcoming record, long-time members, vocalist Kam Lee (MANTAS, BONE GNAWER, THE GROTESQUERY) and bassist Mike Borders, are joined in the studio by some of death’s most prolific and malignant songwriters, guitarist Rogga Johansson (PAGANIZER, MEGASCAVENGER, RIB SPREADER), guitarist Jonny Pettersson (WOMBBATH, NATTRAVNEN, HENRY KANE), guitarist Scott Fairfax (MEMORIAM, AS THE WORLD DIES) and drummer Brynjar Helgetun (CRYPTICUS, THE GROTESQUERY).
Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming record.
earMUSIC is very happy to announce the latest worldwide signing of iconic US hard-rock band SKID ROW, which marks another outstanding artist addition to the label’s roster. The band just started working on their new studio album with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who comes with an impressive track record from his latest works with bands such as Foo Fighters, Rush, Halestorm, Evanescence, Velvet Revolver and Alice in Chains.
The band sends the following comment straight from the studio:
“We are extremely excited to have signed with earMUSIC. Not only do we have an incredible team to work with, but we are label mates with iconic artists like Deep Purple and Alice Cooper. To say we are psyched is an understatement.”– SKID ROW
SKID ROW is a multi-platinum act coming along with a solid bunch of top-ten singles, and the band’s second album, ”Slave to the Grind“ peaked at #1 at US Billboard Charts in 1991.
New Jersey kids, punk and metal attitude, determined to conquer the world. All for one, banded together with single-minded purpose. The battlefield was the stage, the songs their arsenal in an us-against-them musical coup d’état.
In the last 5 years the band entered a new exciting phase by finding the perfect match with lead singer ZP Theart (ex DragonForce, Tank) who already showed his skills and perfect range on the band’s latest tours in 2016 through 2019 all over the world. The band will prove the magic of their new band chemistry on the new album coming to you in 2022!
Max Vaccaro (General Manager earMUSIC):
“We have been given the chance to listen to many songs in pre-production stage and we were completely impressed by the energy and the songwriting quality. Skid Row have reached great levels of success in the 80s and the 90s but we are sure that they have all they need today to open a new chapter in their career and return to be one of the leading names in the hard rock world“
The legendary rock group also recently joined the talent division at Primary Wave Music as a management client. Eric Baker, a partner in Primary Wave’s music management division and based in the company’s west coast office, will handle day-to-day responsibilities for Skid Row.
Heavy metal purveyors INCITE are back with the crushing new single “Deadbeat” from their forthcoming EP, due out later this year via Minus Head Records.
While the song’s lyrics may be inspired by society’s lazy, less savory characters, fans will surely identify with its video, which shows the band members living repetitive, “deadbeat” lives while cooped up during quarantine. Watch the video now below.
Say vocalist Richie Cavalera, “Metalheads!!! We’ve all had a shit year but it’s time to get fired up! Our new single ‘Deadbeat’ is dropping today, 4/20, along with a badass video! Roll up and get ready to burn and shred!!!”
Produced by Steve Evetts (DevilDriver, Dillinger Escape Plan, Suicide Silence, Soulfly) and mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, “Deadbeat” is INCITE’s first single featuring new guitarist Eli Santana (Huntress, Holy Grail). “Deadbeat” is available digitally at https://incite.bandcamp.com/album/deadbeat-single, as well as on Spotify, iTunes and Deezer.
As the foursome nears two decades as a band, the renegade disciples of trailblazing metal architects like Slayer, Sepultura, and Machine Head, INCITE continues to raise the torch for trend-killing and hipster-smashing metal. INCITE is as much a part of the fabric of the style championed by Pantera as the surge of newer bands like Power Trip and has forged its own identity over the course of five albums. The group’s last album, 2019’s Built to Destroy, was a visceral, urgent, voracious distillation of modern metal with reverence for the past, and boasted a progressed, matured sound for INCITE. The group’s upcoming EP promises to deliver on these elements and more, and will certainly be praised as INCITE’s finest work to date.
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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 ) 