East Nashville, TN based Hard Rockers VOLTAGEHAWK get into the Holiday spirit with a sexy, heavy re-interpretation of everyone’s least favorite Christmas retail standard, the 1994 MARIAH CAREY Award Winning “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Giving the bubbly classic a metal kick wasn’t enough, though, with the new and upcoming rockers putting together a Frankensteinesque music video narrative dripping with equal parts sex and carnage, creating the ultimate Christmas song experience for rock and rollers who love tasty licks and heavy riffs and gore.
“We all know this song sucks, so we made a version that doesn’t.” – VOLTAGEHAWK
Hell-bent on pushing the sonic envelope, East Nashville rockers Voltagehawk quickly set a ground rule that “NO” was not welcome in the creative space.
While recording at Electric Thunder Studios with Geoff Piller, Mastering by Brian Lucey at Magic Garden Mastering (Black Keys, Ghost, Arctic Monkeys, Dr John, Marilyn Manson) the band put together an energetic, fast paced, melodic opener set and quickly found themselves supporting national touring acts including loud rockers Beasto Blanco (Chuck Garric of Alice Cooper) [Rat Fink], as well as pop punkers The Pink Spiders [Geffen], bluesy rockers Goodbye June [Earache, Interscope] and stoner powerhouses Duel and Toke.
Danish alternative rock upstarts GO GO BERLIN have released their new EP, entitled Lyfe, via Rodeostar Records / Napalm Records.
The chart-breaking alternative rock group is one of Denmark’s strongest live acts and is now igniting their musical expertise with the new focus track “Struggle is Real”, taken from their new EP Lyfe, which includes five well-written and self-produced tracks.
The soft and floating 80’s-vibed track “Struggle Is Real” sets the bar for the band’s ultra-modern sound and questions how much time you’re willing to wait for one person to change or move forward. All we know is that you can’t wait forever.
Listen to “Struggle Is Real” and watch the video HERE:
Drummer Christoffer Østergaard on “Struggle Is Real”: “It was our favourite song almost right away when we wrote it. It’s a track we constantly want to put on. It gets stuck. You only have to hear half of it, and the melodies stay in your head. And it’s got something. It’s one of those songs that just makes you happy when you hear it.”
Lead singer Christian Vium says: “You shouldn’t spend your life waiting for others but instead find out what it is that you want. It is a love song, about the fact that life can be insanely colorless when the right people are not there. Maybe you have to make some choices to move forward.“
Lyfe envelops you like a gentle lullaby, carrying you into the depths of the GO GO BERLIN universe!
The band states on new EP: “‘Lyfe’ is focusing on changes, a band in constant motion. A band that is always searching for answers and ideas. Sometimes life hits you hard and sometimes you float – It’s a symbol for a new era in Go Go Berlin’s ‘lyfe’. We could not keep these songs in a drawer and wait to release them – They had to be born!
Lyfe Track Listing 1. I Never Meant To 2. Changes (U Want It) 3. Welcome To The Hills 4. Nervous 5. Struggle Is Real
GO GO BERLINon tour: 20.04.21 DE – Nuremberg / Club Stereo 21.04.21 DE – Passau / Zauberberg 22.04.21 CH – Luzern / Schüür 23.04.21 CH – Wil / Gare de Lion 24.04.21 DE – Jena / Rosenkeller 25.04.21 DE – Hannover / Bei Chez Heinz
ALICE COOPER releases “Rock & Roll” today as a first taste of the upcoming studio album “Detroit Stories”, coming February 26th, 2021 on earMUSIC.
“Rock & Roll,” a classic song by The Velvet Underground from the album “Loaded,” is not a casual choice: It´s a song of joy and celebration of that magical moment when we all first turned on Rock and Roll radio …and it saved our lives.
Have a listen: Maybe it will save yours too! Here are some interesting Detroit Stories for the fans of rock and roll trivia and for those who believe that nothing happens by chance (especially in Detroit).
In 1971, the Alice Cooper Group was working in Detroit, with producer Bob Ezrin. Around the same time, also in Detroit, a band called… Detroit, which featured Mitch Ryder, Johnny Bee and Steve Hunter, recorded a heavy new arrangement of Lou Reed’s “Rock & Roll” also produced by… Bob Ezrin. It was when he heard that version that Lou Reed decided to work with Ezrin on the follow-up to his monster hit album “Transformer.” Their collaboration produced the seminal and fascinating classic album “Berlin.” But wait, there’s more.
Steve Hunter, the amazing guitar player who created the iconic main riff that drives Detroit´s cover of the song in 1971, ended up working with Ezrin on many of his productions. He toured and recorded with Alice and with Lou Reed as well…and that same riff is the backbone of this new recording of the song which was done in…Detroit, of course.
Alice Cooper and Lou Reed shared a relationship of mutual respect and friendship over the years. Bob and Lou collaborated several other times and were dear friends for 40 years. Alice and Bob can’t remember how many albums this is and have been creative partners for 50 years.
Listen to Alice’s powerful new version of Lou Reed’s “Rock & Roll” featuring Johnny “Bee” Badanjek (Detroit Wheels), Steve Hunter (Detroit), Paul Randolph (legendary Detroit jazz and R&B bassist) and special guests Joe Bonamassa and Tommy Henriksen (for this occasion, crowned “Honorary Detroiters”) here: https://alicecooper.lnk.to/RocknRoll
A visualizer for the single can be found on YouTube:
“Detroit Stories,” Alice’s upcoming new album, is a celebration of the sound and spirit of the Golden Era of Detroit rock.
“Detroit was Heavy Rock central then,” explains Alice, “You’d play the Eastown and it would be Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, the Stooges and the Who, for $4! The next weekend at the Grande it was MC5, Brownsville Station and Fleetwood Mac, or Savoy Brown or the Small Faces. You couldn’t be a soft-rock band or you’d get your ass kicked.”
“Los Angeles had its sound with The Doors, Love and Buffalo Springfield,” he says, “San Francisco had the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. New York had The Rascals and The Velvet Underground. But Detroit was the birthplace of angry hard rock. After not fitting in anywhere in the US (musically or image wise) Detroit was the only place that recognized the Alice Cooper guitar driven, hard rock sound and our crazy stage show. Detroit was a haven for the outcasts. And when they found out I was born in East Detroit… we were home.”
50 years later, Alice and Ezrin have united in Detroit with their Detroit friends to record “Detroit Stories,” Cooper’s new album.
If 2019’s “Breadcrumbs” EP laid down the trail to the city, “Detroit Stories” drives like a muscle car right down Woodward Ave.
Discover Detroit Stories as they were meant to be told.
“Detroit Stories” will be available on CD, CD+DVD Digipak, CD Box Set (including CD, Blu-ray, T-shirt, face mask, torch light and 3 stickers), and 2LP Gatefold on February 26th 2021 on earMUSIC.
And since Alice hasn’t been able to tour for awhile, Alice asked us to include a DVD and Blu-ray of the incredible last show of the 2019 “Paranormal” tour – “A Paranormal Evening At The Olympia Paris” – available for the first time on video. With all concerts being cancelled or postponed, and the world still facing the Covid 19 pandemic at home, Alice Cooper asked us to bring the show to you… until we can celebrate the joy of Rock and Roll together again.
Tracklist 1. Rock & Roll 2. Go Man Go (Album Version) 3. Our Love Will Change The World 4. Social Debris 5. $1000 High Heel Shoes 6. Hail Mary 7. Detroit City 2021 (Album Version) 8. Drunk And In Love 9. Independence Dave 10. I Hate You 11. Wonderful World 12. Sister Anne (Album Version) 13. Hanging On By A Thread (Don’t Give Up) 14. Shut Up And Rock 15. East Side Story (Album Version)
EKTOMORF return to their musical roots and are Reborn under the sign of thrash metal after 26 years of existence. With their debut on Napalm Records, the Hungarian power machine transports the genre into a promising, modern era and sets itself free from any pigeonholes.
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.
With the first single and album title track, “Reborn”, EKTOMORF rings in a new era during their 25th year of existence by returning to no-frills-required, brain-searing thrash metal. The first single off the new album kicks in like a wrecking machine and takes no prisoners from the first second on!
Watch the Music Video for the Album Title Track “Reborn”HERE:
Frontman Zoli Farkas about making Reborn: “This album was written in some very dark times of my life. When you listen to Reborn, you can hear it in the crushing, heavy riffs as well as within the melancholic, beautiful melodies and honest lyrics. Reborn is the album I worked on for the longest period in my career, there are a lot of new ideas in the songs that EKTOMORF has never executed before, intertwined with the roots of the band’s sound. I’m very proud of it. I hope it will give you what it gives to me.”
Reborn will be released worldwide as a bundle Digipac CD along with a patch and shirt, as well as an exclusive red/black splatter gatefold LP with a slipmat and signed poster, limited to 200!
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
GHØSTKID comments: “The message of CRØWN is basically about not fitting into a frame. It’s about being different and to fight for individuality. We’re sometimes slaves to a system that defines the value of a person if this person meets the standard but there’s so much more besides having success and earning money.“
Make sure to catch GHØSTKID on the following shows:
GHØSTKID – Live 2021 Präsentiert von: MoreCore, Fuze, metal.de 17.03.21 (UA) Kiev – Bingo 19.03.21 (RUS) Moscow – Arbat Hall 20.03.21 (RUS) St. Petersburg – Mod Club 30.03.21 (DE) Hannover – Musikzentrum 01.04.21 (DE) Hamburg – Logo 03.04.21 (CZ) Prague – Rock Cafe 04.04.21 (DE) Berlin – Hole 44 06.04.21 (DE) Stuttgart – Im Wizemann 07.04.21 (DE) Leipzig – Täubchenthal 08.04.21 (DE) Wiesbaden – Schlachthof 09.04.21 (DE) Nürnberg – Hirsch 10.04.21 (DE) Saarbrücken – Kleiner Club Garage 11.04.21 (DE) Münster – Sputnikhalle 06.05.21 (CH) Aarau – Kiff 07.05.21 (AT) Wien – Flex Cafe 09.05.21 (DE) Köln – Gebäude 9
Emil Bulls Birthday Bash: 11.12.21 (DE) Munich – Zenith
GHØSTKID’s music is a headlong dive into darkness and aggression. It aligns on new paradigms: baring its teeth while keeping a sense for catchy melodies.
GHØSTKID is the new namesake of Sebastian “Sushi“ Biesler (formerly Eskimo Callboy) and a conspiracy of friends and likeminded allies who have come to a riot of their own: Steve Joakim (drums) from Sweden as well as Danny Güldener (guitar) and Stanislaw Czywil (bass), both of whom played in To The Rats And Wolves.
Yesterday, November 13th, HARLOTT released their new album, Detritus of the Final Age, via Metal Blade Records. For a preview of Detritus of the Final Age, a video for the single “Idol Minded” can be viewed now here:
More than 30 years after its inception, thrash refuses to die, and with Australia’s Harlott stoking the fires, the genre is in very good hands. Returning with the follow up to 2017′s mighty Extinction, Detritus Of The Final Age sees them continuing to fight the good fight, delivering a collection of serrated riffs, rampant rhythmic battery and bilious lyrics, hitting hard in all the right places. “For the first time ever, I went into this album with a blank slate,” says vocalist/guitarist Andrew Hudson. “No ideas or requirements, just an empty record ready to be filled with whatever took me. Obviously thrash metal is the wheelhouse of what we do, and it came out pretty thrashy, but it was great to be able to set that aside and explore other avenues.” The result is perhaps the band’s most dynamic release, while holding on tight to that signature Harlott sound that has drawn in a legion of fans from around the world.
Helping to realize the new record, the band’s ranks were refreshed with two new members, Glen Trayhern on drums and Leigh Bartley on guitar. “Both bring their own skills and abilities as well as fresh enthusiasm and ideas. Glen is an absolute machine on the kit and lays a rock solid foundation for us to play to, and Leigh is a weapon on the guitar and such a unique lead writer. I couldn’t have had a better ensemble for this release, and the live show is as violent as ever.” Spending longer writing the record than any of its predecessors, for more than a year Hudson worked on it, experimenting with ideas and styles. Determined to make a record that he would want to listen to – and proudly drawing inspiration from the many bands that have shaped the genre ahead of them – it was integral that he was proud of everything included on the record, and he focused on every aspect of the songs. “Whether its lyrics or riffs or breakdowns, I always make sure that every song has at least one bit that makes you go ‘fuck yeeeeah’. I don’t like the idea of thinking a song or line is ‘good enough’, so I try to make sure the elements of the song are strong enough for them to stand alone outside of the ensemble that they are part of.” The result is “thrash metal with a bit of darkness, a bit of sorrow, a bit of melody and a few hooks thrown in for good measure,” something that Harlott fans will recognize while surely drawing in new listeners.
Detritus of the Final Age track-listing 1. As We Breach 2. Idol Minded 3. Bring on the War 4. Detritus of the Final Age 5. Prime Evil 6. Nemesis 7. Slaughter 8. Grief 9. Miserere of the Dead 10. The Time to Kill Is Now
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 