In April 2020, Finnish melodic death metal unit WOLFHEART were one of the very first international metal bands to present a full-scale, professional-grade virtual concert livestream just weeks after the entire world went into lockdown. Now, resilient as ever, the band optimistically enters 2021 with another exciting presentation: a brand new, streaming studio performance event, set to take place on January 20, 2021 at 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST / 9 PM CET.
Tickets are available NOW for just $9 USD via TicketSpice.com. The stream will be available to view for 72 hours after its initial stream time. More details on the stream itself are also available at the same location.
During this event, WOLFHEART will perform their debut studio album, Winterborn, in its entirety, plus favorites and rarities scarcely ever performed live, in celebration of Winterborn reaching over 10 million streams via Spotify and YouTube combined. This is an absolute must-see for any diehard WOLFHEART supporter! The stream will also include bonus footage such as fan-chosen multi-instrumental tutorials and exclusive band Q&As.
That’s not all – January 20 will also bring more exciting news for hardcore WOLFHEART fans – stay tuned on this day to learn details about upcoming new music from the band!
Frontman Tuomas Saukkonen says: “After hitting the brick wall of 2020, we had some unexpected free time to look into the past while diving into writing mode and getting ready to kickstart 2021 with a new release. Our dear debut album ‘Winterborn’ has reached 10 million Spotify+YouTube plays and we wanted to celebrate that by making a special studio live experience and play the whole album through, adding a few selected gems into the setlist.”
Get tickets & learn more about WOLFHEART’s upcoming virtual studio performance HERE
WOLFHEART‘s most recent full-length album, Wolves Of Karelia, was released in April 2020 to wide acclaim! Just as wildlife itself maintains harmony with a violent clash of beauty and unpredictability, Wolves Of Karelia explores the band’s previously coined genre of “winter metal” – smoothly bridging a traditional approach of extreme genres while maintaining atmospheric and acoustic elements.
The album’s lyrical and musical content is inspired by the Winter War waged between Russia and the band’s native country, Finland, which took place during the winter of November 1939-March 1940. Finland ultimately managed to stop the Russian troops from invading their country. WOLFHEART mastermind and frontman Tuomas Saukkonen was inspired by the personal stories of local veterans, conveying the tales of what they experienced and survived from their perspectives. Somber, frostbitten and heroic, Wolves Of Karelia portrays these tales with stunning musical precision.
EKTOMORF have just released the second official single, “And The Dead Will Walk”, off their upcoming album, Reborn, out January 22, 2021 via Napalm Records! After hitting things off with the raging title track “Reborn”, EKTOMORF display their crushing heaviness once more on their second single. “And The Dead Will Walk” is another glimpse into the uncompromised, hard-hitting thrash metal that EKTOMORF will deliver on Reborn!
Frontman Zoli Farkas about “And The Dead Will Walk”: „’And The Dead Will Walk’ is the darkest and heaviest number on the new album Reborn, slow and evil, and the video is just what I always wanted to make! It’s like an old school horror movie with a foggy scenery at a real graveyard. This creepy setting gives you the chills – can’t wait to play it live!“
Watch the Music Video for the Album Title Track “And The Dead Will Walk”HERE:
Since their debut, Hangok (1994), the four-piece around singer/guitarist Zoltán “Zoli” Farkas has regularly delivered new power to their devotees. Only three years after the release of their chart-breaking full-length, Fury (2018), Reborn ignites a blazing fire with its heavy sound and harsh lyrics that will burn any genre limitations to the ground. Their 15th studio album breathes the spirit of the “Big Four” – Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth – while at the same time, beginning a completely independent new chapter of EKTOMORF.
Be prepared for this thunderous onslaught! With Reborn, EKTOMORF confidently kicks off a new chapter, taking along anyone who crosses the path of this thrash metal bullet with them!
Reborn Track Listing: 1 – Ebullition 2 – Reborn 3 – And the Dead Will Walk 4 – Fear Me 5 – Where the Hate Conceives 6 – The Worst is Yet to Come 7 – Forsaken 8 – Smashing the Past
Hailing from Geelong, Australia WARPED are a 3-piece band that have been around the traps for 30 years and are highly respect scene veterans. WARPED have earned a deal with Golden Robot Records and have now released their new single Raised By Goats.
WARPED bring you a crunchy hard garage sound that blends in some chunky desert rock with an added Henry Rollins-esque aggression.
Raised By Goats features crunching riffs and bombastic beats that are matched by intense and angsty vocals. It is highlighted by tongue in cheek lyrics about cults and urban myth conspiracy theories. What else do you want to go out with a bang for 2020.
ABOUT WARPED Barely into high school, Ben Watkins with his childhood accomplice in hi-jinx, Cris Wilson, formed Warped in their hometown of Geelong. Cris on drums, Ben on guitar. 30 years later they are considered veterans of the Aussie Rock ’n’ roll scene.
Warped now stand as a solid 3-piece Benny, Cris and Sammy on bass. In 2018 Warped released Bolt From The Blue. This record is just the latest in a large catalogue of blistering rock ’n’ roll.
Warped have been fortunate to share the stage with some of the bands that they love and who helped mould their sound and shape their musical inclinations. Playing with The Melvins, Fu Manchu, Wayne Kramer, Dinosaur Jr and The Dwarves, as well as buddies – Magic Dirt, Bored and Asteroid B612.
Warped have been quoted as “An evolving rock ’n’ roll ANIMAL” and that’s the truth! If you dig timeless, hard, fast and original rock ’n’ roll then Warped needs a listen. For 30 years Warped have evolved and created a sound like no other
Tortured blackened death metal outfit WITHERED have announced a virtual concert stream! The online show will take place on Friday, December 18 @ 8:00 P.M. EST in support of Atlanta music venue The Earl, which is raising funds to help keep the doors open during these troubling times. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
GLENN HUGHES sang lead vocals on 17 tracks for the Phenomena Project and all these tracks have been collected together on one Phenomena compilation named after the Hughes co-penned track “Still The Night”.
Phenomena is an all-star series of albums created by Tom Galley and this compilation also features: Cozy Powell, Mel Galley, Neil Murray, Ric Sanders, Ted McKenna, Michael Sturgis and Richard Bailey.
The tracks are collected together from the million selling debut Phenomena” album, “Dream Runner” and “Psycho Fantasy”.
As Tom Galley recalls of Glenn Hughes’s work with Phenomena “It did him a lot of good. He got a lot of attention for the performance he did for us”.
This compilation also features final mixes of the RARE tracks “Assassins in the Night”, “Running with the Pack” and the 12” remix of “Still the Night”. The CD housed in an attractive 6 panel digipack with artwork by Iain Lowe.
Metal Queen DORO has certainly earned that title, with a career spanning over more than three decades. From the first album release with her band WARLOCK in 1984, Doro paved the way for women in metal and has long been an inspiration, empowering so many artists in the rock and metal industry.
After releasing her first album post-WARLOCK in 1989, Doro has never looked back, with a steady stream of albums and collaborations with many artists over the years.
Just a few weeks ago, Doro released a best of album, “Magic Diamonds – Best Of Rock, Ballads & Rare Treasures”, via her own label Rare Diamonds Productions. The album contains a fantastic collection of 56 songs with 20 rock songs, 18 ballads and 18 rare treasures!
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth, recently caught up Doro who was the special guest on the 8th anniversary of her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem at TotalRock. The whole show can be heard at this location. You can hear the chat on the audio player below, along with a selection of excerpts to read:
Discussing the new album, Doro explained:
“There’s another box set and it has two double vinyl, one is white, the other is clear. It all looks nice, sounds great.
I did it because it was impossible to tour this year and we had two European tours and two American tours, Australia, South America. Everything was lined up, tons of great festivals and everything got cancelled or postponed. So I thought yeah I wanna go back into the studio, working on some new songs, which I did. And then I thought, maybe I want to put out a best of record. At first I started with like fifteen songs, then it was twenty five, thirty five, forty five and now fifty six songs!
And there’s still some songs I would love to put on maybe volume two in the next couple of years or something. There are so many songs that deserve to be heard in a different arrangement or live. That’s what I miss the most. There’s tons of live versions on there, so even if people can’t come to the concerts, they can definitely get the excitement and the power when you listen to it.”
Doro expressed her thoughts about the pandemic:
“It was a big shock. My last normal gig was actually March and we celebrated the fortieth anniversary of Saxon in my former hometown in Düsseldorf, Germany. And there was Saxon and Diamond Head, Tygers Of Pan Tang and us and we had a great, great night – it was awesome!
Then, two days later they announced only a thousand people allowed in the venue, then it went down to five hundred people, then nobody and yeah, so March was our last normal gig. Then we thought maybe we can hang in there till the summer festivals. Yeah and then summer festivals one by one got cancelled or postponed, it was shocking, it was shocking.
I did a couple of things which was like totally different, was a big challenge. We did some drive-in shows. For the first time it was weird, because it felt exactly like our All We Are video that was shot in 1987, where everybody was in their cars and we were performing on top of the tour bus and then with the magic of metal and you know and Warlock, it came to life and we were rocking out together and it felt exactly like that. I hopped on stage and I saw only cars, it was so surreal but it was fun. We made it I think that everybody had a great time, it was exciting! And we actually recorded some songs and one song is on the Magic Diamonds album, which I like so much. It’s Love Me In Black and you don’t see any audience participation but you can feel there’s a good vibe going, a nice, magical version.
It was a rough year I think for everybody and we try to stay positive, but it’s hard when you’ve nothing to do – especially for the band and the crew. But we’re hoping next year we’ll get back to normal kind of, it would be awesome. And if not, then we’ll work on a new album.”
Doro had lots to say on the topic of duets:
“Actually, all my duet partners were always great because we stayed great friends. Like there’s one song on this album with Udo Dirkschneider and it’s a cover version of Breaking The Law, because Judas Priest was my first band I’ve toured with in 1986 and I always wanted to say thank you to Priest, so we recorded Breaking The Law and I was just working with Udo Dirkschneider on his album and said ‘hey Udo you wanna work on my album as well?’ with an orchestra, it was really nice, came out so great. We always love to play Breaking The Law.
There’s another duet with Tarja Turunen who sang for Nightwish and this song’s called Walking With The Angels – something that fits so perfectly because she has such an angelic voice.
And then there’s one song, Bad Blood, that’s with Blaze Bayley. We are great friends for a long time. And Descent, that’s another song with Pete Steele and unfortunately he is not any more with us, but he was a great guy. He was the tallest guy I ever met, he was such a gentle giant.
And then my favourite duet is Love Me Forever with Lemmy. That was my first time that I did a duet and it was in 2000. We recorded it for my Calling The Wild album. We did two songs, one was Alone Again and the other one was Love Me Forever and Eric Singer is playing drums on it, the KISS drummer and Bob Kulick, he played guitar on it and it was in his studio. And Bob, he passed away a couple of months ago, I couldn’t believe it. We always stayed friends. So these duets, they mean a lot to me, especially Love Me Forever with Lemmy and Descent with Pete Steele, because you know – I feel we’re very connected in heart and soul, but it’s kinda tough to live without them. Lemmy was my best friend, I loved him so much.
On the “Ace Of Spades” anniversary:
“Somebody sent me the nice box set, oh it’s awesome! If people want to get something really special, this is wow, it’s so nice. Yeah Ace Of Spades was my favourite album. I had my first band in 1980 and when this one came out, like wow, it was so inspiring. I still love that song Ace Of Spades, oh my God. And Love Me Like A Reptile was the second song on Ace Of Spades and it was by coincidence that Dave Ellefson said ‘hey you want to sing a MOTÖRHEAD song?’ And it was oh yeah! Maybe it was meant to be, it was a lot of fun!“
Looking ahead to the future, Doro revealed:
“If I could do ten or twenty more records it would be awesome. I love people and that’s I guess what I’m here for and yeah, I just wanna make people feel great and get inspiration, motivation and positive metal power – that’s what I would love to continue doing. There’s not much, I don’t have any other dreams – I’m definitely living the dream, making music. I always wanted to become a singer since I was three years old.
But I love animals too, that’s my other passion and I just wrote a song for the new album and it’s called Heavenly Creatures, that’s a work title.
Yeah next year and hopefully a tour behind the new album, but we’ll see. But we already have six songs so I think middle of next year the album will be done.”
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 ) 