Russian singer, pianist, composer Anna KiaRa of IMPERIAL AGE has been confirmed at Online Female Fest on May 13th 2021.
Anna KiaRa will join the virtual stage with Madame Mayhem, Linda Varg and other female artists that have already been confirmed.
The Online Female Fest aims at uniting female artists from different musical backgrounds (pop, rock, hard rock, electronica, heavy metal) in one event.
The proceeds of this year’s Online Female Fest will go to Progetto Itaca, that has been financing projects to help individuals struggling with their mental health and raising awareness on mental health issues for decades.
Anna KiaRa has been the lead singer of the Russian symphonic metal band Imperial Age since 2016. Imperial Age has toured with bands such as Orphaned Land and Therion. In 2019 she released her first single “Loneliness”, with her solo project KiaRa.
Finnish NOBODY have released a new single Bathory. The track is taken from the upcoming second album Eternal Infernal which is set to be released on May 21st 2021 via Inverse Records. The new album takes the band’s music to a new territory, including elements of world music as well as traditional instruments. While black metal influences are not so overtly heard, the album retains a dark undertow as it travels through time from ancient Rome to the present day.
Tuomas Kauppinen comments: “In the depths of a Romanian castle lies its former queen Elizabeth Bathory. She is forever trapped inside four tightly sealed walls. Her quest for eternal youth sealed her destiny. Bathing in the blood of hundreds of young girls under the belief that this would give her what she wanted, she invoked the fury of a great mage. The horror she inflicted gave the mage power to confront her and inspire others to stand up to her. To this day her cries can be heard in the castle but no one knows where exactly she is buried.”
Greek modern metal five-piece SCAR OF THE SUN is poised to reach the next level with the release of their otherworldly third full-length, Inertia, out May 14, 2021 via Napalm Records, and has dropped the exciting second single and official video for the album’s title track today!
After unveiling their hard-hitting first offering, “I Am The Circle”, quite recently, SCAR OF THE SUN is set to deliver their next smashing anthem with its catchy chorus, poised to stick in the listener’s mind forever. Taking off with an instrumental intro, “Inertia” evokes full aggression – raising a voice for everything that is about to come and lyrically dissecting the idea that those who run the world want society to be numb. The song is visually underlined and smartly grasped by an impressive music video, shot and directed by Achilleas Gatsopoulos.
SCAR OF THE SUN and on the video for “Inertia”: “It’s absolutely breathtaking to watch your emotions and words that you put on paper being materialized and visualized in such a magnificent way! The work of Achilleas Gatsopoulos exceeded our expectations for one more time! Achilleas perceived and depicted the whole Inertia album lyrical concept and he managed to fit it in a four minute masterpiece of a video. We hope everyone will enjoy it as much as we do!”
Achilleas Gatsopoulos adds: “Picking up from where the album cover left off, the band’s trademark Jugendstil/Dieselpunk/Ancient Minoan design elements were combined with an Expressionist Film approach in order to breathe life into the intricate illustration and manifest the lyrical concepts into visual form.”
Vocalist Terry Nikas on the second single, “Inertia”: “The opening track of the album is a surprise attack! An amalgam of good old Swedish death metal with modern colors, it’s the aggression you didn’t expect at all!”
After sharing the stage with outstanding acts such as Dark Tranquillity and Insomnium, as well as compatriots Rotting Christ, SCAR OF THE SUN has made a name for themselves with the very special ability to merge modern metal sound with atmospheric soundscapes and dynamic riffs. Their upcoming third studio album, Inertia, delivers a fresh take on melodic, atmospheric, often progressively-influenced metal while forging a unique path, and acts as a follow up to their self-titled demo (2005), debut full-length, A Series Of Unfortunate Concurrencies (2011) and sophomore offering, In Flood (2016).
On Inertia, SCAR OF THE SUN utilizes scientific terminology to transmit their impassioned messages of difficult trials and social awareness lyrically, conveying an overarching theme that reflects one of society’s heaviest burdens – that financial gain has flourished at the expense of humanity and the livelihoods of everyday people.
Terry Nikas about the album: “Third strike, this album is our punch to the world disarray! The most aggressive album we’ve done so far indicates our current intentions! The main concept of Inertia deals with how financial interests act against the lives of everyday normal people, no matter where you come from, since profit knows no ethics and nationalities.
We become lab rats and we struggle in our everyday life while at the same time that extreme minority that runs the financial interests see people like numbers and value our lives like ants. These are matters that concern and annoy me and I had to get them out of my chest.”
Instrumental intro “Hydrogen” stirs things up before kicking in with uncompromising title track “Inertia”, while the “Quantum Leap Zero”-trilogy conveys very intense and dramatic events that occurred in Greece in 2015: Suppression, rise/revolution and huge defeat in the end. Beginning with “Quantum Leap Zero I: Torque Control”, SCAR OF THE SUN unveils a whole new instrumental facet of the record, splicing their soundscapes with distinctively desolate vibes. “Quantum Leap Zero II: Transition To Turbulence”, on the other hand, calls for an untamed storm to annihilate everything, followed by atmospheric “Oxygen”, smashing “The Fallible Experiment” and poignant trilogy-closer “Quantum Leap Zero III: Thrust”. Inertia ends with “Anastasis” (Greek for “resurrection”), an intense track about the terrible pain of losing someone you love. With this closer, SCAR OF THE SUN manages to put agony into words and turn this palpable despair into emotive music.
Inertia was recorded and mixed by singer and songwriting mastermind Terry Nikas at Zero Gravity Studios in Athens, Greece and mastered by the legendary Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Dimmu Borgir) at Fascination Street Studios, Sweden.
Inertia Tracklisting: 1. Hydrogen 2. Inertia 3. I Am The Circle 4. Quantum Leap Zero I: Torque Control 5. Quantum Leap Zero II: Transition To Turbulence 6. Oxygen 7. The Fallible Experiment 8. Quantum Leap Zero III: Thrust 9. Singularity Collapse 10.Zenith To Minos 11.Anastasis
London based metallers JASON PAYNE & THE BLACK LEATHER RIDERS are confirmed to play the all-day hard-hitting show at Camden Rocks on July 10th, alongside Reverted, Rival Karma, Janus Stark, Bleeding Antlers, Star Circus, Thousand Thoughts, Season of Ghosts, The Blood Republic, Tales of Perdition and Red Light Acid Test at The Black Heart! Tickets – http://camdenrocks.seetickets.com. Facebook Event page HERE.
Jason Payne stated: “It has been too long since I’ve played a show. We’re so excited to be back on stage! I know it’s gonna be a great moment for us and for the fans!”
Furthermore, JASON PAYNE & THE BLACK LEATHER RIDERS will play at Ignite live stream festival on Sunday, April 18th. Facebook event page here.
In addition, the band has finished recording their 6-track EP. More details TBA.
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With a history boasting over 300,000 streams, 50 live shows and a modest lifetime of musical creation with past acts, London based metal artist Jason Payne has taken 2020 to embark on a new journey; JASON PAYNE & THE BLACK LEATHER RIDERS. A culmination and reincarnation of his strongest rock compositions, with numerous releases ready and waiting taking influence from the likes of Slash, Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park, Korn, and many other legendary over the years. Think big riffs, impactful grit-laden vocals, and an energy just screaming to be invited to the live stage.
Finnish melodic metal quartet SCARS OF SOLITUDE have released a new single. No Riddance is the second single taken from the group’s upcoming EP called If These Walls Could Talk to be released later this year. Watch the music video below.
According to the band’s singer/guitarist Tuomo Laulainen“No Riddance is a explosively energetic and vitally melodic metal anthem with a catchy chorus of which’s energy and straightforwardness is borrowed from pop-punk. The song used to go with the working title ’Paramore’ for a long time. The song’s lyrics were written during the sleepless nights accompanied by arrythmia and anxiety as if it were the exact opposite of the song’s musical side.”
The music video for No Riddance was filmed during the “busy gigging year” of 2020 and it is filled with the band’s hearty spirit and its live energy. Luckily the band could go and play most of their planned shows safely even during the weird year and only had to cancel two of them.
The EP still has no release date but it should see the light of day during the second half of the year. More details will follow once the release date has been set.
What do you get when you combine Jean Claude Van Damme with classic 80’s metal? You get BLOODSPORT, a heavy metal tribute to the one and only Belgian martial artist/actor. Their first Ep “Kumite Attack” was released in 2018 and the year’s “Lethal Tender” is a cut above with tighter drumming, tighter riffing, better vocals, and A+ production! Fans of true heavy metal are digging right into it!
All Bloodsport lyrics and themes revolve around Jean-Claude Van Damme’s movies in the late 80s and early 90s, specifically focused on his martial arts films. “Lethal Tender” is inspired by Van Damme’s movie Lionheart, for those who haven’t seen it, you’re in for a wild ride! Bloodsport explains the track further:
“We were really wanting to continue with the Bloodsport movie theme because it’s such a hit movie for cult cinema, not to mention it’s Van Damme’s best in terms of action and authenticity! Alas, we decided not to focus too much on one film, as he has close to a dozen good martial arts films from that era, all of them totally awesome in their own way. We feel like our music acts as a second soundtrack to the films! They are completely and respectfully dedicated to the glory of those films.”
Bloodsport prides itself on tons of riffs, complex song structures, and very little repetition; they are highly recommended for fans of early Running Wild, Helloween, and Exciter.
“Lethal Tender” was released on March 12, 2021 via Nightstrike Records and is available as a limited edition cassette and CD along with a digital download at the following link: https://bloodsportband.bandcamp.com/album/lethal-tender
Track Listing:
Lethal Tender (7:53)
Lion’s Den (5:06)
EP artwork was hand-painted by Constance Knight.
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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