Swiss heavy metal coven BURNING WITCHES are an all-female five-piece that already ranks among the most exciting bands in the genre. Having just released their 3rd studio album “Dance With The Devil” earlier this year, the Witches are proud to cast yet another spell upon mankind, the magnificent 4-song vinyl EP “The Circle of Five”, which is out TODAY via Nuclear Blast!
And due to a gigantic response during the pre-order period, there are only very few items left. ACT FAST OR MISS OUT!!!
BURNING WITCHES comment: “You guys are truly amazing, the vinyl is out and it‘s gonna be sold out right away! That is so crazy and super overwhelming! We really appreciate your support and are now highly motivated to continue to work on the new record!“
Watch this special shout-out clip from The Burning Witches to their fans!
Sweden’s heavy doom rockers AVATARIUM might not have been able to set the European stages on fire with their magical live show this year due to obvious reasons – however, instead, they’ll bring the best tracks from their four studio albums right into your living room now!
After previously releasing their “Live In Stockholm” show as downloadable concert via Blackbox in August ( still available here: https://avatarium.solidtango.com ), the band has now released their first official live album titled “An Evening With Avatarium” – available on all streaming platforms as of today!
Guitar master Marcus Jidell comments: “This concert was recorded right before the outbreak of Covid-19; it’s the tour we should have made 2020. In these hard and challenging times we hope you’ll get some good energy and power from our doomy, intense, dynamic and heavy show!!”
Make sure to watch this special greetings video from Marcus!
In case you weren’t able to download the full show yet, get a glimpse of AVATARIUM‘s live show with the haunting classic, “Moonhorse (live)”: https://youtu.be/Ei32qc0KJ2Q
Swedish power metal heroes MAJESTICA released last Friday their new Christmas musical power metal album entitled “A Christmas Carol”. It’s pure symphonic power metal in the true MAJESTICA spirit along with elements inspired by the likes of TWILIGHT FORCE, RHAPSODY, ALAN SILVESTRI, DANNY ELFMAN and JOHN WILLIAMS.
To celebrate the release, the band also reveal a video for their new single ‘The Joy Of Christmas’, that you can watch here:
Bassist Chris David comments: ”I’m so excited to release this album today, together with a new music video for ’The Joy of Christmas’! We have literally been working day and night to be able to release the record, music videos, and our Christmas calendar this year. ’The Joy of Christmas’ is a little side track from the original story of ’A Christmas Carol’, it’s a dream and the thoughts of Bob Cratchit, so we can hear the story through Bobs eyes and really know how he feels. It’s also the first MAJESTICA 2020 might have been a very different and challenging year for many out there, but with this album, we hope we can at least bring some joy and happiness to the end of this year. Even if you can’t celebrate Christmas like you usually do!”
Last Thursday, December 3rd, MOONREFLEX released, via Wanikiya Record, their second album “Resurrection”, now available on all the best music stores, a concentrate of rock, grit, emotions and much more! In celebration of the new album, just recently the duo released a music video for ‘Exaggerated’, watch it below.
tracklist:
Resurrection
Exaggerated
Calling for remake
Stop all war
Cosmic brothers
Heroes
The reason for change
Closer
Save your dream
Syncronicity
The Apulian duo MOONREFLEX was born by a talented union between a powerful and biting rock blues voice and an eclectic and brilliant multi-instrumentalist deriving from the purest metal.
Furthermore the duo tells, “7 years after the birth of the project, we boast numerous sold out concerts that have seen us at the center of numerous interviews radio stations (among the most recent INDIERADIOFM America, METAL UNDERGROUND, RADIO IRENE which has chosen our unpublished ‘Fast Ride’ as the theme song for the Friday of Sanremo Rock 2019, MUSIC FREE NETWORK, RADIO HEAVY METAL, RADIO WEB EVENTS LIVE – which dedicates the First to Moonreflex place in the top ten with the new “killer game” -, RADIOSCIA, CENTRALE MILANO, RADIO 10 UK, ROCKRAGE (SWITZERLAND), RDT RADIO STATION which has chosen the unreleased ‘Be Free’ and ‘ Cosmic Brothers’ as DISCO PROMOTION, Radio HEMINGWAY, COMORADIO INTERNATIONAL, RADIO L’AQUILA1, DIMENSIONE RADIO, MTR, INDEPENDENT RADIO, NS RADIO (UK) AND AIIMUSIC.NET (NEW YORK) which has chosen our tracks FAST RIDE, OVERC ACTION, BE FREE and STOP ALL WAR as the protagonist of the show “THE FEMALE FRONTED ROCK & METAL SHOW” still available for streaming on the radio station’s website.
From the union between the two components comes the total and innovative fusion, in life and in music, which generated the MOONREFLEX phenomenon: an explosion of thrash metal songs and rock ballads, capable of containing in each note different souls and atmospheres, always at ‘ avant-garde and constantly evolving: they defined us as “deservingly courageous artists” “eclectic, experimental and avant-garde” “a time bomb” both for the vocal performances, always unpredictable, and for the sounds used, always new, refined, but above all for the Positive Energy that distinguishes us: “distinguishing ourselves and doing what we love is our mission, in life and above all with our music, which aims to be expressive, experimental, innovative and creative in all its forms (vocal, instrumental and artistic). An adrenal, creative, free and multiform voice, capable of passing from clean to scream to flow on the distorted and futuristic sounds that have determined the peculiarity of the Moonreflex project: technique and passion in its purest state, a combo totally out of the box and out of any ordinary convention.
Our independent and unprecedented project aims to spread ideals against violence, loves to sensitize the community through music on themes of peace, focused on respect for life and for one’s planet: for this reason we collaborate with various relevant associations, which they fight at the forefront for the same themes: music is an important vehicle, an incomparable and extremely important art form, a source of inspiration for positive ideals: Moonreflex is also this.”
This year, the music industry experienced arguably its toughest year yet, battling many setbacks and standstills. But, tenacious and hardworking, TETRARCH refuses to waver – remaining on the move upward into 2021 with colossal achievements in tow!
The steadfast trajectory of “I’m Not Right” and its impressive streaming numbers matches the official music video’s YouTube views – with both boasting over 1.5 million streams and views individually and respectively. The triumphs the band has seen with the single at US radio are also matched at European radio stations such as Kerrang! (UK), StarFM (GER) or Radio Lombardia (IT), and TETRARCH are more than ready to build on these achievements.
In addition to this success, TETRARCH lead guitarist Diamond Rowe and frontman/guitarist Josh Fore have both been nominated in Music Radar’s “Best Metal Guitarist of 2020” accolade. The deft duo is nominated alongside guitar greats Mark Morton, Willie Adler, Matt Heafy, Robb Flynn and many more.
In 2021, the Atlantean firestarters will push even harder by releasing their upcoming album Unstable! The album was recorded earlier this year with producer Dave Otero (Cattle Decapitation, Allegeon, Khemmis) and is due for release via Napalm Records, whom the band signed with in 2020.
Lead guitarist Diamond Rowe says: “We are thoroughly impressed with the year that we have had in the TETRARCH camp. 2020 has not been the best year for artists, but we have always been a band that tries to go out and make our own opportunities when circumstances may not permit and that’s just what we did with this year. I am extremely happy with what we achieved and it’s only a foreshadowing of what’s to come. We have so much in store for 2021 and we cannot wait to unleash this monster of a new album on the world.”
Experience TETRARCH via the official music video for “I’m Not Right” HERE
Fierce individuality and a fearless embrace of the outsider are at the heart of TETRARCH, a band equally defined by metallic power and melodic hooks. Seamlessly blending technical chops and aggressive ferocity with menacing groove and massive choruses, TETRARCH obliterates musical barriers. The band’s tireless hard work and relentless determination has established them as one of the top up-and-coming bands in heavy music, catching the attention of major media including Pollstar (cover mention), Billboard, Revolver, Alternative Press, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Premier Guitar, Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, many in which lead guitarist Diamond Rowe was the first African American female lead guitarist from the heavy metal genre to be featured. As of today, TETRARCH boasts over 180,000 monthly streams on Spotify, where they’ve been featured on playlists such as Kickass Metal, Rock Hard, New Blood (cover featured), Metal Tracks and more. The band has also seen stellar support from Apple Music and their users, appearing on several playlists and seeing their debut full-length, 2017’s Freak, emerge at #3 and #17 on the iTunes Metal and Rock charts, respectively. Having appeared on major festivals such as Epicenter and Exit 111, TETRARCH will charge back into the major touring scene upon its resurgence with renewed persistence and the mighty nonconformist’s spirit that has driven them since day one.
Dutch extreme metal outfit AUTARKH are now revealing the album details of their upcoming debut album ‘Form in Motion’. The new offering will be released on March 12, 2021 and pre-orders will start soon.
In celebration, the band is now releasing a first glimpse of what’s to come HERE. Further album details like track titles, recording info and artwork can be found below.
Founder Michel Nienhuis comments: “We are very proud to show everybody a bit of what we have been working so hard on this year. ‘Form In Motion’ is quite a rollercoaster of an album that all of us put a lot of time and effort into making, and we are quite excited about the final result. The amazing artwork by Manuel Tinnemans / Comaworx had us in shock and awe when we first saw the full scope of this enormously detailed drawing – it is a very fitting translation of our music and the process of growth that the album revolves around. The collaboration with everyone involved in making this album has been great so far and we are eager to present you some full tracks in the upcoming months.”
Track-list 1. Primitive Constructs (1:23) 2. Turbulence (6:43) 3. Cyclic Terror (5:17) 4. Impasse (1:50) 5. Introspectrum (5:20) 6. Lost To Sight (7:39) 7. Metacognition (2:47) 8. Clouded Aura (7:25) 9. Alignment (6:39) 10. Zeit ist nur eine Illusion (2:27) Total: 47:30
From the fertle grounds of Tilburg (NL) rises new contemporary metal outit AUTARKH, a group of musical extremists dedicated to pushing the boundaries of the auditory senses. Autarkh is the brainchild of Michel Nienhuis, founding member and composer/guitarist of DODECAHEDRON. Dodecahedron released 2 albums on the French record label Season Of Mist in 2012 and 2017 and has played at Inferno festval (NO), Reykjavík Metalfest (IS) Brutal Assault (CZ), Roadburn Festival (NL) and Eurosonic (NL) amongst others.
Death and illness was closing in on Dodecahedron, triggering a conceptual transformaton that was necessary to effectuate Nienhuis’ artstic development. In the fall of 2019 Nienhuis teamed up with producer Joris Bonis (Dodecahedron, Ulsect), guitarist David Luiten and electronic composer / producer Tijnn Verbruggen, a set of musicians with backgrounds ranging from metal to techno. Autarkh’s first full length album ‘Form In Motion’ will be released the 12th of March 2021 through Season of Mist records.
AUTARKH takes a unique position in the world of extreme metal. Synthetic, IDM-style beats and glitch effects – reminiscent of those produced by artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre – are perfectly balanced with overwhelming riffs and vocals that range from dark growls and exasperating screams to semi-clean harmonies. Together with fluttering blast beats, dense bass lines and eerie soundscapes these elements produce an intense and crystal clear tunnel of sound where the energy of contrasting emotions is constantly felt.
‘Form In Motion’ feels like an evolution in both sound and lyrical content from the two albums Nienhuis released with Dodecahedron. Musically, because of the radical approach the band takes with their rhythm section; lyrically because the album is more about a personal experience of human nature and the nature of the universe. The album takes us from unraveling storms and destructive chaos to transformation, liberation and fundamental shifts in understanding in order to align with the divine. That progression is also present in a linear sense – the intrusive uneasiness the album starts with gives way to a sense of epic victory towards the end.
Give yourself the opportunity to dive into this radical exploration of sonic and spiritual ideas and allow yourself to get inspired by what AUTARKH has to offer.
Mix: – Turbulence, Cyclic Terror, Introspectrum, Lost To Sight, Clouded Aura and Alignment mixed by David Luiten – Impasse mixed by Tijnn Verbruggen – Primitive Constructs, Metacognition and Zeit ist nur eine Illusion mixed by Michel Nienhuis
Master: Joris Bonis
Artwork: Manuel Tinnemans / Comaworx Design & Layout: Arno Frericks & Reinier Bonis
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