OBSCURA Finished Songwriting And Enter Studio Soon

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 30, 2020
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German tech death metal titans, OBSCURA, finished the songwriting for their upcoming album and enter the studio to record the follow-up to 2018’s “Diluvium”. The sixth album of OBSCURA is scheduled for a 2021 woldwide release via Nuclear Blast. The band tapped famous award-winning producer Fredrik Nordström for the upcoming full-length album and booked famous Studio Fredman, located in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Steffen Kummerer states: „As of now, songwriting duties for the new, yet untitled album, have been finished. We picked the most promising compositions out of more than twenty pieces written during the last months and we can’t wait to record our sixth studio effort, starting in December. While the new album contains more guitar solos than any of our records before, all compositions are eagerly waiting to be performed live on stage and celebrated worldwide with our fans. As a collective, we are enthusiastic about the diverse, progressive and heavy songs to be released in 2021 through Nuclear Blast records.”

OBSCURA was formed by Steffen Kummerer in 2002 and established its reputation by releasing five studio albums that have been highly acclaimed by fans and press alike. Putting great emphasis on hooks and songwriting, OBSCURA became one of the modern age elites within the genre. Their latest album “Diluvium” is a stunning achievement for the illustrious quartet and a landmark release for progressive metal as a whole. Complete with all the band’s signature elements plus groundbreaking polyrhythms, dramatic songwriting, and jaw-dropping virtuosity, OBSCURA raised the bar with an album that will go down in the annals of metal history as one of the most astonishing performances the genre has to offer.

FALLUJAH Announce New Guitarist Nico Santora (SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, FACELESS)

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 30, 2020
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Photo Credit: Hristo Shindow

Bay Area metal band FALLUJAH is making quarantine moves. Today, the band has announced an addition to their lineup, welcoming notable guitarist Nico Santora (SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, THE FACELESS, LILLAKE) to the family. The band has released a new video discussing their history with Santora. 

Watch the video announcement here:

The band is currently spending their pandemic downtime working on new music that will likely come to light in 2021. In the meantime fans can follow the band on their Twitch channels to stay up to date on their latest activities. https://www.twitch.tv/fallujahofficial 
https://www.twitch.tv/scottcarstairs
https://www.twitch.tv/sigmacaldera

FALLUJAH’s latest album, Undying Light, was released in 2019 with Nuclear Blast. The record was mixed and mastered by Mark Lewis (CANNIBAL CORPSE, WHITECHAPEL, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, CARNIFEX), while drums and vocals were tracked by Lewis and guitars and bass were recorded by guitarist Scott Carstairs. The album is the band’s first with their newest member, vocalist Antonio Palermo.

Purchase Undying Light in various formats, here: http://nuclearblast.com/fallujah-undyinglight

DAKAR Release Debut EP ‘Come and Get it’, Currently Working On New Songs

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 30, 2020
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“You either bleed out or you learn to grow from the scars!”

Florida based rockers DAKAR are set to release their debut EP ‘Come and Get it’ soon, already available through CD Baby to be distributed on all major streaming platforms. Furthermore the band reveals that they’re currently working on new songs for their new EP/LP. More information TBA.

‘Come and Get it’ track listing:

  1. Escape From New York
  2. Come and Get It
  3. Empire Dreams

Watch ‘Escape From New York’ – demo video here:

DAKAR is a rock band from Duval County, Florida, named after the street in the Murray Hill neighborhood where it was founded by David Benfield and Darrell Edmunds in 2015. The songwriting pair based their work in the style of 90s alternative and evolved from there, incorporating elements of indie, punk, modern, and southern rock with an unabashed penchant for pro-democracy, anti-facist, pro-diversity, anti-racist themes. Edmunds and Benfield recruited Luke Jean for drums and played locally for several years before releasing the EP Come and Get It in 2020. The group is currently recording new tracks for an EP/LP and booking live concert dates for spring and summer 2021.

More information at https://www.dakar.band – https://www.facebook.com/dakartheband

MEGADETH’s David Ellefson Joins Metal Medical Panel To Discuss Vaccines & The Safety & Legality Of Live Shows

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 30, 2020
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Streaming on The Metal Voice Facebook Live, host Jimmy Kay, was joined by Megadeth’s David Ellefson, Combat records Manager and singer of Ellefson Thom Hazaert, CTV legal affairs television journalist Stephane Giroux and Doctor  Chris Karatzios, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. The Five discussed and debated the new reality of bands touring’.

Topics in the panel discussion included; the safety and reliability of fast tracking vaccines; the legality of enforcing mandatory vaccines at concerts; risk and benefits of vaccines at a global level; distribution of vaccines, the safety of wearing masks at shows; touring in a non vaccine environment and helpful hints to reduce community transmission plus so much more.

David Ellefson also spoke about his recent Ellefon tour supporting his new album ‘No Cover’ and all the precautions and challenges the band faced on the road.

J.T. LEHTONEN To Release New Single “Cause & Effect”, Out Dicember 8th, Teaser Available

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 30, 2020
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Finnish long running musician and songwriter J.T. LEHTONEN will release a new single “Cause & Effect” on Dicember 8th, available on the most common streaming services! Today he’s revealed a teaser video, watch it below.

J.T. stated:
“Dear friends, we have finally finished the J.T. Lehtonen’s new single “Cause and Effect” and it will be released in streaming services at december 8th. This single is a kind of a story about annoying people who might drive others to grab a bottle, the title tries to desrcibe this chain of situations. Despite the story, the music itself is a sort of getback to my roots and it is pure real played music without any tricks. Due to several reasons, this took quite a long time to finalize, but now my friends; I am very happy to tell you that here it is! I really do hope that you like it!

After this single I’m going to renew the whole studio and after I’ve learned to use the new system, I’ll continue with a new music. Then the new target is full album with new and hopefully better sound! Let’s see how long it takes this time… my first album “Land Of Dust” took about six years!”

Watch ‘Cause & Effect’ -teaser video here:

‘Cause & Effect’ is written, recorded, mixed and mastered by J.T.Lehtonen.
Song arrangement by J.T.Lehtonen and Peter Grip. Coverart by Sami Lehtonen and J.T.Lehtonen

J.T. LEHTONEN Line-up:
Peter Grip on drums
J.T.Lehtonen on guitars, bass and vocals

More information at https://www.facebook.com/JTLehtonenOfficial

More about J.T. LEHTONEN

J.T. LEHTONEN released his debut album “Land of Dust” on April 7th, 2017. The story of the album began when J.T. Lehtonen built his own rehersal room and recording studio to the downtairs of His garage.

Material started to form from riffs, ideas and unrecorded songs. Things became to get their form first so that J.T. Lehtonen played all the instruments himself using midi-drums. The tracks started to form but the midi-drums was something that needed to be changed. So J.T. asked Miika “Gas Lipstick” Karppinen (ex HIM) to play the drums for four tracks. After the proper groove drumtracks recorded the idea about the full album started to became clear. Then J.T started to proceed with the re-recordin more guitars etc. On that time “Kaasu” was busy on recording the HIM -album “Tears on Tape” so J.T. got another drummer to play some of the easier songs. By the time Kaasu came back to record drums for three more songs. Then J.T. engineered the album sound with help from Risto Niska.

Order your “Land of Dust” copy here! https://www.facebook.com/JTLehtonenOfficial

Watch “Seeking” video, taken from the debut album “Land of Dust”: https://youtu.be/mtQAGC8th3Q

COSTAS VARRAS Feat. MARK BOALS To Release ‘Rock You Hard’ Single On December 3rd

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 28, 2020
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Guitarist and songwriter COSTAS VARRAS will release his brand new single ‘Rock You Hard’ on December 3rd, featuring the legendary American singer Mark Boals (ex Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring Of Fire, ex Uli Jon Roth etc.). Costas composed the music and he wrote the lyrics for this song. The final production happened  in August 2020 at LP Studios owned by Leonidas Petropoulos who also played the Bass and the Keyboards for this track. Also a guest appearance  by Fotis Benardo on the Drums. 

This song is gonna be included on Costas’s 3rd solo Album which is in progress at the moment.       

Buy the CD at: www.lionmusic.com                       

“Rock You Hard” can be characterized as a Mix of American Hard Rock with a European style interlude guitar part in the middle of the song. Costas had the idea for this song back in 2007. He was at an airport in Germany and he wrote some of the Lyrics there. This song is about a friend of his from Los Angeles who wanted to become a Rock Star but his girlfriend couldn’t keep up with his dream and they finally broke up. Costas dedicates this song to those who want to become Rock Stars but they are having problems with their girlfriends! Costas did the demo for this song back then but he didn’t finish with the whole thing till 2019  when he recorded it at his Home Studio. Costas loves this song and it brings him back memories from his early years in Hollywood.

Costas Varras is a guitarist, songwriter & a band leader. His musical style is a blend of Metal & Classical music. He was born in Athens, Greece in 1983. He started playing electric guitar when he was about 12 years old and by age 13 he started taking guitar lessons at a conservatory in Athens. He spent 12 years in education for music and in 2008 he graduated from Musicians Institute in Hollywood CA. He started playing shows with his band in Athens in 2001 and in 2006 he moved to Los Angeles to pursuit his career in music! In 2001 he had a self release Demo (7 tracks) under the name of “PERPETUAL” which was also his band’s name. In 2004 Sonic Age Records released his first solo Album “Overlord’s Perpetual”. In 2009 Costas went to Kent, England to record his second solo album with the legendary Producer Chris Tsangarides. These recordings were never released though. Years later in 2015 he worked again with his old time friend Bob Katsionis on new music and in 2018  Symmetric Records finally released Costas Varras’s second solo album entitled “Neon-Classical”. At the moment Costas Varras is working on his 3rd solo Album and now LION MUSIC  is about to release his new single featuring the great American singer Mark Boals!!