Photo source: X@arjenlucassen
Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s latest solo album, the apocalyptic Songs No One Will Hear, is set to be released in a month, on September 12th, 2025 on InsideOutMusic. Following the 2 epic singles “Our Final Song,” and “We’ll Never Know,” Arjen now shares the hard-rockin’ 3rd single titled “Goddamn Conspiracy.”
Watch the new video below by Elan Lopez and Arjen Lucassen, and Pre-order the album here: https://ArjenAnthonyLucassen.lnk.to/SongsNoOneWillHear-Album
BEAT (Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, Danny Carey) share the live performance of “Frame By Frame” taken from the upcoming live release ‘BEAT LIVE’, due out on Sept. 26th. Watch the video below.
BEAT LIVE will be released in three configurations. A 3-LP set, a Blu-ray release accompanied by 2-CDs and a 12-page photo booklet, and lastly a limited collector’s edition that will contain the Blu-ray, 2-CDs, a bonus CD, and a 36-page artbook. PRE-ORDER HERE: https://beatband.lnk.to/Live-Album
LEPROUS are releasing a very special digital single of a cover version of A-HA’s “Take on Me”, which was recorded during the band’s latest North American tour at the Musora Media studios in Abbotsford, Canada. The recording was part of Musora’s “Covers On The Spot” series, where LEPROUS heard the song blind and had to record it on the spot in a space of a few hours.
“Take On Me (Musora Session)” can be checked out across digital platforms worldwide today here: https://leprousband.lnk.to/TakeOnMe
And also in the following videos: “Take on Me” (Covers on the Spot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te2MR6j5Qhg Baard Kolstad (Drum play-through): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfU70_IvVJI
LEPROUS drummer Baard Kolstad has recently also appeared as guest of the acclaimed Drumeo platform with a “Leprous Grooves & Fills” feature showcasing play-through recordings for various LEPROUS songs, which can be checked out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKBxUz2uOEU
W.A.S.P. are adding four new shows in Budapest, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Milan to the 2025 Album ONE Alive European Tour. The final leg in Europe begins on September 26th in Newcastle. Six shows on this final European leg of the Album ONE Alive tour are already SOLD OUT. The Album ONE Alive tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.’s first album by playing the debut in it’s entirety.
Blackie Lawless, “It was very important that we reschedule the previously cancelled show in Italy, so while we were doing that we thought lets just add a few more new shows since WASPnation has been going nuts for the Album ONE Alive tour.”
New Album ONE Alive Tour shows:
10/27 Budapest, HUNGARY – NEW SHOW
10/28 Zagreb, CROATIA – NEW SHOW
10/29 Ljublajana, SLOVENIA – NEW SHOW
10/30 Milan, ITALY – NEW SHOW
General on-sale: Friday, Aug 22 at 10am local time, visit WASPnation.com/tour
The W.A.S.P. Blackie Lawless VIP Experience is available for all shows and includes:
All tour dates, tickets and VIP packages are available at WASPnation.com/tour
2025 Album ONE Alive Tour
09/26 Newcastle, ENGLAND *
09/27 Manchester, ENGLAND *
09/28 London, ENGLAND *
09/30 Utrecht, NETHERLANDS
10/01 Hamburg, GERMANY
10/03 Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC
10/04 Vienna Metal Meeting, AUSTRIA
10/06 Copenhagen, DENMARK **
10/07 Oslo, NORWAY ** – SOLD OUT
10/08 Lund, SWEDEN ** – SOLD OUT
10/09 Oslo, NORWAY **
10/10 Gothenburg, SWEDEN **
10/11 Örebro, SWEDEN **
10/12 Stockholm, SWEDEN **
10/14 Falun, SWEDEN ** – SOLD OUT
10/15 Östersund, SWEDEN **
10/17 Oulu, FINLAND ** – SOLD OUT
10/18 Helsinki, FINLAND ** – SOLD OUT
10/19 Tampere, FINLAND ** – SOLD OUT
10/21 Tallinn, ESTONIA **
10/23 Warsaw, POLAND
10/24 Wroclaw, POLAND
10/25 Zilina, SLOVAKIA
10/27 Budapest, HUNGARY – NEW SHOW
10/28 Zagreb, CROATIA – NEW SHOW
10/29 Ljublajana, SLOVENIA – NEW SHOW
10/30 Milan, ITALY – NEW SHOW
Support:
*Armored Saint
**Battleborn
Formed in 1982, W.A.S.P. is set to bring this universally acclaimed “classic” album to life. Lead vocalist Blackie Lawless says, “It was an angry record made by an angry band. It was a record that not only reflected the attitude of the band members who made it, but also a record that reflected its time.” This record became a central piece of the 80s metal scene and remains one of the best metal debut albums of all time.
Along with bassist Mike Duda and lead guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band are 29 and 26 years respectively, W.A.S.P. is joined by long-time drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester.
Lawless and company will deliver the ultimate incredible spectacle, bringing W.A.S.P.’s most colorful history to life by performing this revered album in its entirety… ONE more time… ONE last time… Album ONE Alive!
About W.A.S.P.
Few Bands in the history of Rock N’ Roll have ever incited the love, the hate, the raw emotional effect this Band has had on the world. From the very beginning, in the small venues of Los Angeles California, and later to the numerous countries worldwide that banned these Winged Assassins from performing live, the Band’s unique style of Shock and Rock caused Religious organizations, Local City Councils, Parliaments, and the Washington D.C. Senate to hold hearings in an effort to bar this group from selling records and trashing stages everywhere they played.
The band’s founding member, frontman Blackie Lawless, has led the group as its lead vocalist and primary songwriter since its beginning. His unique brand of visual, social and political comment took the group to worldwide heights and sold millions of records alongside a legacy of sold out shows across the globe for 4 decades.
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Chinese Mongolian progressive metal outfit Nine Treasures will unleash their Seeking The Absolute full-length on October 24th via Metal Blade Records, today unveiling the record’s first single and pre-orders.
Formed by vocalist/guitarist Askhan in 2010 in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia in China, NINE TREASURES delivers a unique combination of heavy metal and traditional Mongolian instrumentation, utilizing both conventional vocals and Mongolian throat singing. Guitars, bass, and drums collide with indigenous string instruments including the balalaika and the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle), resulting in a sonic kaleidoscope that follows no set template. Playing 100-plus festival shows and headlining gigs per year in Asia, to audiences of up to 50,000, and with four albums to their name, NINE TREASURES are at the top of their proverbial game and ready to conquer North America. Seeking The Absolute is their first record for Metal Blade, and first LP to have a worldwide release.
“On Seeking The Absolute, we tried to capture the things that truly excite us deep inside; those unforgettable moments when your mind swings wide open to infinite possibilities,” says Askhan. “You open a brand-new realm for yourself, unfamiliar, yet incredibly thrilling. At the same time, it’s like an enormous puzzle, and to complete it, you also need calm reflection and meticulous analysis. That’s why we look upon it as ‘seeking the absolute.’“
The band takes its name from a group of objects referenced in ancient Mongolian poems, and in their music, lyrics, and visuals, the band touches on the mythology and fairy tales of their homeland. But the band’s songs contain more universal references, too, explains Askhan, a practicing Buddhist. “Lyrically, [title track] ‘Seeking The Truth’ for example is about holding onto faith and seeking the ultimate truth of the universe. That’s something I’ve personally been striving for in recent years so in many ways, this song is a message to myself. A kind of self-encouragement. But I also hope it can bring strength to others, too.”
NINE TREASURES moves easily from a straight-up headbanging style to the more atmospheric progressive style. Guitar-wise, Askhan uses a lot of Mongolian playing techniques and songwriting logic into his playing and is excited for the “fresh blood” it adds to the band’s sound. The quintet’s varied approaches and universal messaging will allow them to tour with any musically progressive band, be it Amon Amarth or Tool.
The first single from Seeking The Absolute is “Real Dream,” a song written while the band was in Los Angeles. “‘Real Dream’ marked a turning point for the band,” says Askhan, “it felt like stepping into a new dimension. Through this song, we rediscovered our confidence and broke through a long creative bottleneck. It truly felt like a rebirth. We explored every possible structure, piecing together the perfect arrangement through endless trial and error. And in the end, we got exactly what we had envisioned – it was all worth it.”
Find pre-orders at: metalblade.com/ninetreasures
Seeking The Absolute Track Listing:
01. Until Now
02. Indecision
03. Yellow-Black Storm
04. Steel Falcon
05. Real Dream
06. The Ultimate Evolution
07. Just Like You
08. Lonely Old Horse
09. Seeking the Absolute
NINE TREASURES:
Askhan – guitars, vocals, balalaika, tovshuur
Orgil – bass, backing vocals
Saina – balalaika, backing vocals, guitars
Namra – drums
Nars – morin khuur, backing vocals
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Italian metallers SOULS OF DIOTIMA will enter the legendary Studio Bohus in Sweden at the end of August to begin work on their fifth album. The band will do so under the watchful eye of producer Oscar Nilsson at the legendary Studio Bohus.
Speaking about this significant moment in the band’s history, frontwoman Claudia Barsi has said:
“This new record feels like a deep dive, both creatively and emotionally. After twenty years together, we feel we have found new ways to tap into what really makes us tick. Our first productions, which are absolutely fantastic, always followed that classic female metal trend, perhaps following certain well-known canons, and today we have arrived at such an awareness that we are finally able to create something that is really ours and to be and present ourselves to the audience as we really are.
With that in mind, we made the decision that, from this album onwards, our guitarist, Fabio Puddu, will be contributing vocally with me. For me, this is incredibly exciting.”
Founded in 1977, Studio Bohus has hosted bands such as ABBA and Status Quo, gaining a legend all of its own. Since then, it’s become a haven for European metal acts, with bands like Avatar, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Europe, and more calling it home. And it’s precisely because of the importance of the place that the band decided to make documentary throughout their time in the studio, a documentary that will be shot by Emanuela Solinas.
Barsi continued when discussing the documentary:
“With the band, we decided to document our stay in the studio, because we feel that this album will bring a radical change to the band, musically. So, we think it’s extremely interesting to document, not only what will be the creative phases in the studio, but also our everyday life. We want our audience, new and old, to see the work that goes into the production of an album because we believe that the material meaning of a record release has been lost. People think it’s something that magically came out of nowhere, whereas there are hours and hours of hard work behind it. All this we want to document, and we believe that our fans will really enjoy it.”
SOULS OF DIOTIMA were formed by Giorgio Pinna and his brother in Sassari, Italy in 2004 and have released four studio albums and two singles under three different labels worldwide. The band has participated in tours and festivals abroad, headlining and sharing the stage with bands such as Obituary, Hatebreed, Stratovarius, Vision Divine, Dgm, Folkstone, Saurom and others. Souls of Diotima have also worked with many of Europe’s top producers, including Jens Bögren and Oscar Nilsson, who is their current producer. In 2017, SOULS OF DIOTIMA founded a record label in London: Diotima Records Music Management LTD.
“Janas”, their fourth studio album, was released on January 29, 2021, via Diotima Records/Rockshots Records. The album achieved great success with audiences and critics taking the band to a higher level of popularity and entering many charts within days of release. In October 2023, the band entered the recording studio in Göteborg. On 22 March 2024, Souls of Diotima surprisingly released a new single to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their artistic career. The song, for the first time in their career, is a cover of the well-known international artist, Phil Collins called “Another Day in Paradise”. The band will soon announce their 2026 tours and their presence at various festivals.
DISCOGRAPHY
“Another Day in Paradise” SINGLE (2024), via Diotima Records,
“Janas” (2021), via Diotima Records/Rockshots Records,
“The Sorceress Reveals-Atlantis” (2016), via Rockshots Records,
“Sentence of the Blade” SINGLE (2013),
“What Remains of The Day” (2012), via Revalve Records
“Maitri” (2011), via Copro/Casket Records
More details about the album’s name, themes and release date will be announced later.
Souls of Diotima are:
Claudia Barsi
Giorgio Pinna
Fabio Puddu
Manuel Dettori
More information:
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Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 