Magnetic Eye Records reveal the next installment in their acclaimed Redux Series in homage to American industrial rock pioneers NINE INCH NAILS. The release follows the series’ established practice of paying tribute to legendary rock classics with a re-imagination of one of the chosen band’s milestone albums.
This edition features cover renditions by current artists taking on NINE INCH NAILS‘ 1994 sophomore album “The Downward Spiral“, which sold over 5 million copies worldwide and was nominated for a Grammy award in the category ‘Best Alternative Music Performance’.
An impressive list of artists and collaborations has already been announced for “The Downward Spiral Redux” and “Best of Nine Inch Nails Redux” as follows:
BLACK TUSK ‘Mr. Self Destruct’ DAEVAR ‘Closer’ ABRAMS ‘Eraser’ BLUE HERON ‘Head Like a Hole’ GRAYCON ‘Right Where It Belongs’ IAH ‘A Warm Place’ THE OCEAN ‘Even Deeper’ BLEAKHEART ‘Something I Could Never Have’ SNAKEMOTHER ‘The Day the World Went Away / Sin’ BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME ‘Hurt’ SANDRIDER ‘March of the Pigs’ BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE ‘Over and Out’ JOHN FRYER with STELLA SOLEIL ‘I Do Not Want This’ AUTHOR & PUNISHER ‘Reptile’ DREADNOUGHT ‘The Becoming’ THIEF ‘Piggy’ JOHN CXNNOR feat. HEXA ‘Big Man with a Gun’
At this moment in time, the world’s reliance on machines, algorithms, and artificial intelligence has never been greater. This means it is also the perfect time to reflect on the emergence of a musical force whose blend of mechanized instrumentation and raw emotion was singular and revolutionary.
NINE INCH NAILS were formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. They arrived around the same time as grunge when Generation X was developing an awareness of itself, but while there was cross-appeal, the sound they created was clearly and intentionally something very different.
The skepticism of that era came through in the music, with artists from RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE to NIRVANA pushing back against what was acceptable to say and do in our society, and everything from the ideals of what major musicians should do with their fame to what people and corporations stood for were fair targets.
NINE INCH NAILS were twice as cynical as everyone else and reflected the singular, driven musical expression of mastermind Trent Reznor. The music he made as NIN has always ranged from infectious, furious, delicate, and sexual to transgressive, uplifting, cautionary, and hopeless. While Reznor did not always make broad, blunt statements about politics, materialism or repression (though he definitely did at times), there was a consistently restless quality to his music. His frustration at the veneer of normalcy and acceptability that characterized modern popular music was palpable, and he seemed to search endlessly for seams to peel back and rip loose to expose what was underneath.
Of NINE INCH NAILS‘ seminal breakthrough album, Spin magazine respectfully had this to say in 2024: “As The Downward Spiral turns 30 this year, it still stands as an act of artistic transgression against the limits of popular music. Pushing the boundaries of creative censorship, it is still considered Nine Inch Nails’ most daring and uncompromising album.”
Join us in paying homage to one of rock’s most ambitious innovators and angriest Gen X voices railing against the status quo, as we present our latest Redux Series installment “The Downward Spiral Redux”, along with the traditional companion album “Best of Nine Inch Nails Redux”. The two double album collections together comprise 27 re-imagined renditions by some of today’s coolest and heaviest artists taking on NINE INCH NAILS classics and deeps cuts.
The Magnetic Eye Redux Series features hand-picked classic albums from across the history of rock and metal re-imagined in their entirety from start to finish. Artists we love from within and outside the heavy rock landscape choose tracks to make their own, bringing these milestone records into the new millennium with crushing heaviness and searing energy. To date, we’ve produced Redux editions of PINK FLOYD’s “The Wall”, HELMET’s “Meantime”, BLACK SABBATH’s “Vol. 4”, HENDRIX’s “Electric Ladyland”, ALICE IN CHAINS’ “Dirt”, AC/DC’s “Back in Black”, SOUNDGARDEN’s “Superunknown”, JETHRO TULL’s “Aqualung”, and RAMONES’ debut “Ramones” which have included artists like RED FANG, MATT PIKE, PALLBEARER, THE MELVINS, ALL THEM WITCHES, KHEMMIS, ASG, SUPERSUCKERS, ZAKK WYLDE, MARK LANEGAN, RUBY THE HATCHET, and many more amazing artists.
Join us for our tenth foray into Redux territory as we pay proper respect to the US industrial rock legends NINE INCH NAILS. More artist announcements to follow!
US death metal force NO RAZA, originally from Colombia, just dropped a new music video for their track “Savage Strength” from the latest album, “Tyrona”, out now on Noble Demon.
“‘Savage Strength’ is a fierce anthem honoring the true guardians of our planet – wildlife“, the band states. “The lyrics channel raw power and urgency, reminding us that while humans are invaders destroying balance, nature continues to resist, fight back, and reclaim its place. This song is not just music, it’s a call to respect, protect, and recognize the wild as the ultimate force of resilience and wisdom. The countdown has begun… and nature will prevail.“
Furthermore, NO RAZA are hitting the road for a run of North American shows this September. Be sure to catch the band on the following dates:
9/12 Club Underground – Minneapolis – MN 9/13 Northern Wisonsin Metalfest – WI 9/15 LiveWireLounge – IL 9/17 Howlin Wolf – New Orleans – LA 9/19 Albatross – Jacksonville – FL 9/20 South FL (TBA)
About NO RAZA:
From the landscapes of Colombia, forged in 1997, death metal powerhouse NO RAZA has taken root in Florida, USA, continuing their relentless sonic assault. More than just a band, NO RAZA delivers a visceral experience, their live staging a stark recreation of a world ravaged by conflict. Through their crushing riffs and guttural pronouncements, they embody the spirit of resistance, standing as sentinels of truth, fiercely defending ancestral cultures and the remnants of a world teetering on the brink.
Thorugh the years, the band has performed on international stages across Mexico, the UK, the USA, and Colombia, sharing the spotlight with renowned bands at major festivals and tours.
After releasing three solid full-length studio albums between 2004 and 2014, NO RAZA was one of the very first signings of Germany-based metal record label Noble Demon (est. 2019) and successfully released their latest masterpiece, “Transcending Material Sins”, back in 2020. Now, five years after that success, this powerful alliance is reignited with the unveiling of “Tyrona”, the band’s newest masterpiece. Get the album HERE
Ever since they came rumbling down from the Blue Ridge Mountains, Bask have sounded of their very own time and place. The climb to reach album number four ended up taking these Southern trailblazers on one hell of a trip. But on The Turning, the band take their homebrewed Heavy Americana to a whole new dimension.
“The album is passionate, soul searching, driven with purpose and a sense of adventure that doesn’t involve pointless wandering”, Blabbermouthwrites about The Turning in a 8/10 review. “Sure, influences can be heard, assumed and even self-professed, but as a collective, Bask doesn’t rip off any band, subgenre nor style. The Turning is a true exploration of sound, story and self”.
“The Turning is an emotionally charged record of the highest order with Bask firmly establishing themselves as one of the most unique and original voices within the modern day Psych Stoner Rock / Metal scene”, writes Outlaws of the Sun. “This is a record of real quality and can easily be considered of the best Psychedelic Rock albums of the year”.
The Turning was released yesterday, Friday, August 22 on Season of Mist, and you can hear all eight lush and roaming songs by listening to the full album stream on the Season of Mist YouTube channel. Order the album: https://orcd.co/basktheturning
Bask are ringing in this heavy and heady frontier on their current tour of the East Coast. Hear them perform songs off The Turning during the album’s opening run out on the road.
The Turning 2025 East Coast Tour, remaining shows: August 23 – Raleigh, NC @ Chapel of Bones [TICKETS] August 24 – Richmond, VA @ Fuzzy Cactus [TICKETS] August 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy [TICKETS] August 28 – Searsport, ME @ Starboard Lounge [TICKETS] August 29 – Providence, RI @ Parlour [TICKETS] August 30 – Wallingford, CT @ Cherry Street Station [TICKETS] August 31 – Boston, MA @ O’Briens [TICKETS]
Bask remain grounded in the natural-born sounds of Appalachia, but The Turning truly straddles the fence between cosmic and country. “When we started writing this album, the songs were twangy but also spacier and more psychedelic than anything we’ve done before”, vocalist and guitarist Zeb Wright says. Though already in the band’s orbit, this is their first album to welcome Jed Willis as an official member. Lead single “Dig My Heels” starts with its boots firmly planted in rugged pastures before bounding for the great beyond, where Willis’ pedal steel swirls like all the colors of the Milky Way.
“These guys have become friends and brothers to me over the past decade or so”, Willis says. “Our music journeys have become intertwined, creating a solid and welcoming foundation that made my transition into the band feel like a natural next step for all of us”.
The Turning doesn’t just span genres. The album stretches across generations in man’s never-ending quest for immortality. Its spurred heroine, known simply as The Rider, has her extraterrestrial world turned upside down by “The Traveler”, a mysteriously ageless gunslinger, who arrives armed with a double-barreled riff atop galloping drums. Maze-like twists are revealed at every self-referential turn as the star-crossed outlaws try and outrun the changing of the seasons. But while out of this world, the dwellings on family, aging, death and rebirth hit close to home.
“We’ve been through so much together. We were robbed in Sweden. A tire literally fell off our van while we were driving”, bassist Jesse Van Note reflects. “Because of COVID, we didn’t get together as much, either. We’re also older now and there are challenges and responsibilities that come with that. I have two kids. Some of us have bought houses. We’ve all been through marriages and different relationships. For things to snowball on top of the band one after another, it kind of had us feeling like maybe this was the end of our era”.
The Turning was almost lost to the sands of time. Bask finished tracking the album just a few weeks before Hurricane Helene reached Asheville. “It was terrifying”, remembers guitarist Ray Worth. “We had a hard time getting in touch with each other. I climbed a hill to get cell phone reception. One of the guys was still unaccounted for the day before we were supposed to leave for Europe”. With a wearisome gait, “Long Lost Light” drifts through a ghost town haunted by salooning piano and high, lonesome fiddle, until it’s swept like sawdust into the void.
But just as the album’s heroine discovers her hidden powers, the title track ends with the newly mounted five-piece stampeding toward the next frontier. “I danced through age and fire“, Wright belts, backed by everything Bask stand for: mountainous bass, tumbling drums, blazing leads and sunbursts of pedal steel.
“COVID, Hurricane Helene and just life in general threw much instability at us, but I think the resilience of the band and our music shines through”, drummer Scott Middleton says. “It’s been a challenging five years, but I think we did a good job weathering the storm and expanding our sound on The Turning“.
Tracklist 1. Chasm (1:30) 2. In the Heat of the Dying Sun (4:57) 3. The Traveler (4:06) [WATCH] 4. The Cloth (4:12) 5. Dig My Heels (5:33) [WATCH] 6. Unwound (7:02) 7. Long Lost Light (6:52) [WATCH] 8. The Turning (6:33)
Psychedelic rockers have wrangled with the laws of spacetime since time immemorial, but for Bask, the past half decade has felt like falling through a prolonged series of black holes.
Before the pandemic knocked 2020 for a loop, the band were all set to traverse North America’s dusty ol’ trail with kindred spirits Elder. Flash forward roughly four years and they were fixing to tour Europe when another disaster struck their idyllic mountain town. The climb to reach album number four wound up taking one hell of a trip. But on The Turning, Bask bring Heavy Americana to a whole new dimension.
“The past five years have been challenging for all of us”, the band says. “So seeing this album finally come to light is therapeutic. The Turning is Bask at our finest. It’s our most cohesive and heartfelt effort, an ode to our mountain home in the sky”.
For as long as they’ve been together, Bask have called Asheville, North Carolina home. Drummer Scott Middleton and axeman Ray Worth were already jamming up a storm, when in 2013, they tag teamed with bassist Jesse Van Note and vocalist/guitarist Zeb Wright after the two arrived in The Land of the Sky. “We’ve been a band longer than we’ve been with our spouses”, Van Note acknowledges with a gold-toothed smile of appreciation. And yet, after 12 years in the same city, Bask still sound of their own time and place. Sharing bills with High on Fire, Black Tusk and Weedeater has led some metal archivists to peg them as stoners, though it was clear right away that these trailblazers were carved from a different neck of the woods.
“I’m quite sure I haven’t heard anything like it”, Metal Storm admired after filling up on Bask’s first full-length American Hollow. Second helping Ramble Beyond expanded the band’s homebrewed heaviness into crushing peaks and leaf-strewn valleys. “It’s tuneful, heavy, full of heart and soul and wanderlust” noted Invisible Oranges before adding, “and above all, a killer fucking rock album”.
“It’s really exactly what you want from a musical artist: a group of people creating their own sound that isn’t aping anyone”, Heavy Blog is Heavy sang in praise of the aptly titled III, which took a more snow-sheened path at the direction of Matt Bayles, who’s served as studio sherpa for Pearl Jam, Mastodon and Minus the Bear. “This is the kind of band you want to see grow”.
Bask continue to grow by literal leaps and conceptual bounds on The Turning. “I think that’s where the magic is for us”, Van Note muses. “We’re not put in a box”. Following a retreat to Echo Mountain Recording with producer Kenny Harrington, the band have returned with a concept album that truly straddles the fence between cosmic and country. “Zeb did a lot of work behind the scenes to help Kenny bridge the gap between the polish of our last record and the warmth of Ramble Beyond“. In the spirit of a Hollywood Western, the opening track sets a sizzling scene. Distant cries of trumpet stir beneath ominous drone, as if blown with the wind through a mountain chasm. Only then, like a lone ranger, does “In The Heat of the Dying Sun” appear over the blood moon horizon. “I was born to ride”, announces Wright with booming cleans as bass circles the wagons with the earthshaking force of an asteroid.
The Turning remains grounded in the natural-born sounds of Appalachia, which pokes its prickly head through the sludgier chords of “The Cloth” like a black bear swimming upstream. “We all like heavy music and half of us grew up around folk and bluegrass”, explains Wright, “but this album leans into that mix even further”. Despite starting with boots firmly planted in Tampa Bay death metal, lead single “Dig My Heels” strides through kudzu-covered fields of prog before bounding for the great beyond. “Scott called me out”, Worth laughs when asked about the song’s origins. “Instead of writing to my riffs like we’re known to do, his drumbeat took the reins on this one”.
“There’s nothing wrong with playing in 4/4”, Middleton admits, “but if you’re not exploring, then you’re missing out on a world of opportunity”.
While they’ve always been a tight-knit group, Bask’s immediate universe has also expanded. Granted, Jed Willis was already part of the band’s orbit, having helped put a bow on their last album. He’s also chipped in on tour with merch and driving duties, but The Turning welcomes him as an official member. “It’s hard trying to add someone when you’ve had the same four guys in a van for 12 years”, notes Van Note. Indeed, it’s a testament to their dyed-in-the-wool chemistry that the album’s initial thread was teased out in one go. Chugging riffs lock horns with a sideways galloping before folding seamlessly into pastoral space rock, though “Unwound” didn’t fully come together until laced with Willis’ aching bends of pedal steel. “He’s done a really good job of shining when we want that sound”.
“These guys have become friends and brothers to me over the past decade or so”, Willis says. “We’ve shared rehearsal spaces, explored new sounds and collaborated on various side projects. Our music journeys have become intertwined, creating a solid and welcoming foundation that made my transition into the band feel like a natural next step for all of us”.
“When we started writing The Turning, the songs were twangy but also spacier and more psychedelic than anything we’ve done before”, adds Wright, who also performs as the band’s lyrical scribe. “And so I asked myself, ‘What does this feel like? What do all these things come together and make?”
The answer? How about a 40 odd minute, sci-fi opus that stretches not just across dimensions but generations in man’s never-ending quest for immortality. “Sorry, this is gonna get a bit heavy”, Wright warns before walking us through the ins-and-outs of Bask’s latest yarn. Whereas the band’s previous treks were inspired by tall tales, The Turning spools forth from their own fantastical imagination. The album’s spurred heroine, known simply as The Rider, has her extraterrestrial world turned upside down by “The Traveler”, a mysteriously ageless gunslinger who needs her help getting out of Dodge. “Don’t be frightened of me”, he pleads, though the breakdown’s doomy, organ-provoked premonition suggests his intentions aren’t so honorable. Maze-like twists are revealed at every self-referential turns as the star-crossed outlaws try and outrun the changing of the seasons. However, despite being admittedly “out there”, the album’s dwellings on family, aging, death and rebirth hit close to home.
“We’ve been through so much together. We were robbed in Sweden. A tire literally fell off our van while we were driving”, Van Note reflects. “Because of COVID, we didn’t get together as much, either. We’re also older now and there are challenges and responsibilities that come with that. I have two kids. Some of us have bought houses. We’ve all been through marriages and different relationships. For things to snowball on top of the band one after another, it kind of had us feeling like maybe this was the end of our era”.
In fact, The Turning was almost lost to the sands of time. Bask finished tracking just a few weeks before Hurricane Helene reached Asheville. “It was terrifying”, Worth remembers. “We had a hard time getting in touch with each other. I climbed a hill to get cell phone reception. One of the guys was still unaccounted for the day before we were supposed to leave for Europe”. While they feel fortunate to have sustained just a flooded practice space, the storm’s aftermath did seep into the album’s mixing and mastering sessions with Alan Douches. “It would be naive to think that a life-changing event didn’t color the overall tone”. With a wearisome gait, “Long Lost Light” drifts through a ghost town haunted by salooning piano and high, lonesome fiddle until it’s swept like sawdust into the void.
“It’s the heaviest and most challenging song”, Wright says about the album’s emotional centerpiece. Though not the last song written for The Turning, it became the missing piece almost by design. “We worried it was going to be too hard for us to listen back to”, Van Note shares, a sentiment that Worth echoes. “You can feel the pain in every note”. But fellow Asheville native Franklin Keel helped them turn the tide with his deeply melancholic churns of cello. “The way Franklin bends the note, right as things get heavy”, Van Note points out, ” it acted like a release for us”.
When pressed, Wright stops short of concluding that The Turning has a happy ending. “Honestly, it’s almost in spite of that”, he responds in reference to the surprise family reunion that sets its final showdown in motion. If we’re left with a cliffhanger, then the myriad ways in which the albums keeps us guessing are perhaps fitting. After all, much like their hometown, the band are just starting to feel as if things are turning around. “Cleaning up our practice space was such an emotional experience. It was heart-wrenching but also heartwarming at the same time. It led us to re-appreciate each other and our community”. Just as our heroine discovers her hidden powers, the title track ends with the newly mounted five-piece stampeding toward the next frontier. “I danced through age and fire”, Wright belts, backed by everything Bask have always stood for: mountainous bass, tumbling drums, blazing leads, and a sunburst of pedal steel.
“Music is an emotional outlet, but at the end of the day, it’s also a way for us to hang out with our best buds”, the band says. “The Turning was a challenge, but we weathered the storm and came out the other side with a beautiful album that sounds like Bask”.
Line-up:Jesse Van Note – Bass Scott Middleton – Drums Ray Worth – Guitar Zeb Wright – Guitar/Vocals Jed Willis – Pedal Steel
Guest musicians Clay White – Trumpet Franklin Keel – Cello Alex Taub – Piano, Hammond B3 Organ
Thomas Wildelau, drummer of Hamburg, Germany-based sludge metal outfit HIGH FIGHTER, has launched his first-ever solo project under the flag of WDNHF (pronounced: Weidenhof). His upcoming debut album, entitled “Consideration”, will be self-released on September 21, 2025, and sees the multi-instrumentalist stepping onto new ground.
“Consideration” is a work of complete self-creation — written, arranged, performed, recorded, and mixed entirely by Wildelau. The result is a sonic journey that escapes rigid genre borders and opens the door to an entirely different world.
“The origin of ‚Consideration‘ — as with so many of us — goes back to the pandemic and its lockdowns in early 2020, a time that opened the door to other pursuits,“ Wildelau reveals. “During this period, I returned to my family home, partly because my mother, who had lived there for most of her life, suddenly fell seriously ill and passed away a year later.
With plenty of time, a new setting surrounded by nature, countless memories of this place, and a sense of new responsibility, I began making music. I wasn’t following any particular genre, nor did I have the plan of writing a full album. It wasn’t until 2022 that the desire arose to develop my collected ideas into something more complete. At the same time, I set myself the goal of arranging, writing, and recording the entire album on my own. The only exception is the guitar solo on ‚Time Holes‘, which didn’t come from me. Since I never set deadlines for myself, and no one else had expectations of me, the album was allowed to take its time. It simply came into being.
The music video for WDNHF’s first album single, “Future Sign”, is now premiering below:
Wildelau says about the track: “In ‘Future Sign,’ it’s about taking responsibility for oneself, but also, equally, for one’s role within their environment. ‘Signin’ The End: Future.’ and ‘Sign: In The End Future.’ are the two lines from the song that aren’t necessarily noticed when spoken. There are people who have their own lives in their hands, can guide them well, and stand firmly on the ground. And there are people who do not have their lives in their own hands. In the broadest sense, this relates to concepts such as fate, respect, responsibility, perspective, and ultimately to our society – seeing oneself as part of a greater whole.
As a graphic designer, I naturally also engage with the topic of AI. The video for ‘Future Sign’ from the album ‚Consideration‘ was created with the help of AI. Here too, the keywords mentioned serve as indicators of the future relationship between myself as a human and the ideas I visually realize through AI.”
“Consideration” track listing:
Foggy Air
Put Something In Its True Light Pt. 1
Old Knots
Time Holes
Future Sign
Put Something In Its True Light Pt. 2
Autumn Leaves (Leafs)
The Procedure
About WDNHF: Thomas Wildelau discovered his passion for rhythm and music at an early age. He began his musical journey on the drums at the age of six, later playing parade snare in a marching band. Soon after, he took lessons in the fundamentals of organ and piano, before finding his way into the world of guitars through his brother.
In the early 1990s, Wildelau played drums in numerous bands across a wide range of genres – from heavy metal, thrash, and punk rock to soul and funk groups. This stylistic diversity left a lasting mark on his musical horizon.
In the early 2000s, he toured as drummer for Pyogenesis, and from 2010 onward became the drummer for Buffalo Hump. Out of this lineup, and together with musicians from A Million Miles, the band High Fighter was later formed. Heavy music has always been a constant companion and artistic outlet for him.
With his solo project WDNHF (Weidenhof), Wildelau is now exploring new paths. A complete album created entirely on his own – songwriting, arranging, performing, recording, and mixing. His debut album “Consideration” opens up another world, far removed from strict genre boundaries. Perhaps it has become so quiet and playful precisely because Wildelau previously devoted himself almost exclusively to heavier music. But that doesn’t mean WDNHF will always sound this way. The project defines itself as an open-ended musical experiment, refusing to fit into any stylistic box – and may well return in a completely different form in the future.
“Consideration” was created between 2020 and 2024 – a work entirely of his own making, developed over several years. The character of the album is not the result of a deliberate decision for or against a genre, but rather grew organically throughout the creative process.
The music on “Consideration” deliberately avoids easy classification. It resists being pinned down – and that is precisely the point. At present, it lives in a soundscape somewhere between singer-songwriter tradition, ambient rock, pop, and krautrock, interwoven with subtle electronic influences.
Each song follows a feeling, traces a mood, confronts an emotion, or celebrates it – reflecting everything that crosses our path in life. The result is a debut album that owes no allegiance to a fixed genre, but simply exists because it wanted to come into being exactly as it is.
All music and lyrics were written, performed, recorded and mixed by Thomas Wildelau (except the guitar solo on “Time Holes”, performed by Pitti Weidenhof – nullzwomusik.de), with a mastering by Benjamin Kapidzic.
Since their formation in 2009, Der Weg einer Freiheit have carved out a singular place in modern black metal. While rooted in the genre’s foundations, these Germans are constantly evolving. On their upcoming sixth album, they turn inward with devastating clarity. Innern tunnels toward collapse and into silence before finally reaching a place of personal transformation.
Today, Der Weg einer Freiheit are releasing the second advanced single from Innern. “Marter” is the album’s searing opener, a harrowing plunge into its core themes of isolation, dissolution and the fragile possibility of release.
Innern comes out September 12th on Season of Mist.
As the opening track from Innern, “Marter” sets the tone for an album that peers inward, confronting pain not as an end, but as a threshold. The song is defined by its contrasts: unrelenting yet fragile, crushing yet imbued with fleeting moments of calm. Opening with mournful restraint, it slowly uncoils into a storm of relentless tremolo-picked guitars. Intricate yet punishing blast beats from Tobias Schuler rumble beneath the grounding weight of Alan Noruspur’s bass. Nikita Kamprad and Nicolas Rausch’s layered guitars oscillate between ferocity and elegiac stillness as Kamprad’s vocals shift from anguished cries to whispered resignation.
On “Marter”, Der Weg einer Freiheit contemplate identity, rebirth and the futility of clinging to words that fall on deaf ears. The lyrics’ imagery of burning throats, collapsing voices and the pull of the stars frames suffering as both torment and an avenue toward renewal. The repeated surrender, “Nimm sie alle, meine Schreie…” (“Take them all, my screams…”), dissolves personal agony into something vast and cosmic.
The lyric video for “Marter” was created by Riivata Visuals.
In light of their introspective new journey, Der Weg Einer Freiheit are embarking on a headlining tour of Europe this fall in support of Innern. Next year, the band will finally make their long-awaited return to the U.S. with their first-ever performance at Maryland Deathfest.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT – INNERN FALL TOUR 2025:
September 18 – Dresden, DE @ Chemiefabrik September 19 – Berlin, DE @ Heimathafen September 20 – Prague, CZ @ Rock Café September 21 – Munich, DE @ Backstage September 22 – Leipzig, DE @ Werk 2 September 23 – Salzburg, AT @ Rockhouse September 24 – Vienna, AT @ Szene September 25 – Zurich, CH @ Dynamo September 26 – Geneva, CH @ PTR/L’Usine September 27 – Grenoble, FR @ Ampérage September 28 – Paris, FR @ Le Petit Bain September 29 – Ludwigsburg, DE @ Scala September 30 – Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof October 1 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust October 2 – Tilburg, NL @ 013 October 3 – Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat October 4 – Bochum, DE @ Christuskirche
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT @ Maryland Deathfest May 21-24 – Baltimore, MD
With Innern, their sixth studio album, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT return with their most introspective and compositionally expansive work to date. A meditation on suffering, transformation, and the fragile thresholds of the human psyche, Innern refines the band’s signature blend of black metal intensity and post-metal atmosphere. The title, German for “inward”, anchors the album’s conceptual weight: a turning away from the external, into a realm of personal reckoning,silence, and renewal. Across six meticulously crafted tracks, the band explores cycles of disintegration and emergence, inviting listeners to confront the deep and often contradictory nature of existence itself.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT formed in Würzburg, Germany in 2009, the brainchild of guitarist and composer Nikita Kamprad and original vocalist Tobias Jaschinsky. The band’s early beginnings were humble but explosive: their self-released debut quickly sold out, drawing attention across the underground metal scene. A reissue in 2010 with newly recorded drum parts by Christian Bass(Heaven Shall Burn, ex-Night in Gales) established the band’s first official lineup and led to extensive touring across Germany and Europe. From the outset, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT were set apart not just by their technical prowess, but by a philosophical inclination that would become the band’s artistic hallmark.
Their 2012 sophomore album, Unstille, expanded on their debut’s melodic harshness, while introducing a deeper emotional weight. It also marked the first appearance of drummer Tobias Schuler, whose intricate and expressive playing would become central to the band’s identity. Though vocals on Unstille were still performed by Tobias Jaschinsky, he would leave the band shortly after its release. Kamprad took over vocal duties in the months that followed, stepping into the role of frontman in time for the writing and recording of their next album.
Stellar, released in 2015 via Season of Mist, solidified the band’s stature within the modern black metal landscape. Drawing from post-rock and progressive influences, the album embraced wider dynamics and cinematic structures,aligning them with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room and Deafheaven, without sacrificing their own Germanic rigor and introspection.
In 2017, Finisterre signaled a conceptual leap forward. It confronted themes of isolation, personal dissolution, and spiritual finality across sprawling arrangements and stark tonal shifts. This period saw further lineup changes, with the departure of guitarist Sascha Rissling and bassist Giuliano Barbieri, and the arrival of Nicolas Rausch and Nicolas Ziska. Finisterre also marked their first chart placement in Germany and set the stage for increasingly ambitious live performances.
A live album, Live in Berlin (2019), captured the raw power and cathartic energy of the band’s concerts, affirming their reputation for immersive, emotionally charged performances. But it was Noktvrn, released in 2021, that truly redefined what DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT could become. Inspired by the ambiguous state between wakefulness and dreams, and drawing influence from classical composers such as Chopin and Arvo Pärt, the album saw Kamprad experiment with clean vocals and subdued textures. It was both a thematic and sonic breakthrough and was received by critics as their most refined and contemplative release to date.
Now, with Innern, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT move even deeper into the abyss. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Kamprad in his own studio, the album is an intensely focused work.”Eos,” the album’s lead single, contrasts war and renewal, imagining a post-human earth fertilized by sacrifice and reclaimed by nature.”Marter” follows as a searing portrayal of inner torment and emotional release—suffering not only as a source of agony, but as a path toward transcendence. “Xibalba” then confronts the machinery of fear—media,propaganda, and spiritual fragmentation—urging a return to our collective essence through introspection and clarity. And with “Forlorn,” the band delivers their most vulnerable statement yet: a delicate plea for emotional refuge, sung in English to underscore its universality. The album also marks the studio debut of bassist Alan Noruspur, whose presence brings anew emotional and personal depth to the band’s sound.
Musically, Innern leans into contrast and contradiction. Kamprad and Rausch’s guitar interplay oscillates between searing aggression and elegiac restraint. Noruspur’s basslines pulse with warmth and gravity, while Schuler’s drumming remains as meticulous as ever-bridging technicality with emotional nuance. The album’s production captures a sense of immediacy and live energy, yet remains rich in detail and atmosphere. It is not merely a refinement of past styles, but are invention—one that places the listener in direct confrontation with the void.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT stand now at the peak of a fifteen-year evolution.Their music is as concerned with silence as it is with sound, as shaped by introspection as by fury. As they prepare to bring Innern to European stages in autumn 2025, they do so not as provocateurs of extremity, but as artists navigating the fragile space between collapse and clarity. In a genre often defined by spectacle, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT remain committed to vulnerability, transformation, and truth.
Lineup: Nikita Kamprad — Vocals, Guitars Nicolas Rausch — Guitars Alan Noruspur — Bass Tobias Schuler — Drums
Production Credits: Recorded, mixed & mastered in Würzburg, Germany by Nikita Kamprad. Drums recorded separately at Studio Weißmann, Würzburg, Germany.
In 1995 Ugly Kid Joe released their 2nd full length record, Menace To Sobriety. A heavier and darker album than the predecessor, which fit the time, and Kerrang! Magazine called it “the album of year”, yet the album received little to no promotion in the US, validating vocalist, Whitfield Crane’s claim that their label was backing away from them.
30 years later Menace To Sobriety’s true power is evident, without the bias of the times, and with the years having shown that many of the albums that were ignored by the labels prove to have much more life than the ones they spent their PR budgets on, Ugly Kid Joe may have recorded the heaviest and most consequential album of their careers. Menace saw the addition of drummer Shannon Larkin from Wrathchild America, and later of Godsmack, and his impact was obvious from the opening of the powerful lead off track “God”. His playing propels the doom of the lead off single “Tomorrow’s World”, a track that shows how big of an influence Black Sabbath was on the band, and one of the stand outs on this album. The bands songwriting shines throughout this album, as does the musicianship, and of course the infamous Ugly Kid Joe sense of humor. “Milman’s Son” shows the depth of the band’s writing, and the different textures of Whit’s voice from smooth to snarl, the melody is memorable and so are the lyrics, sincere, yet humorous. As the record rolls on we hear the powerful chemistry of the guitar duo of Dave Fortman and Klaus Eichstadt with riffs like “Clover” and the amazing “Jesus Rode A Harley”, and the heavy and funky bass playing of Cordell Crockett.
View “Milkman’s Son” here:
Deko is proud to bring this album back to vinyl for its first Official Repress in two different formats! The single album reissue is on Ugly Kid Joe Ghostly Green, and a double LP pressed at 45RPM on an explosive Orange A-Side / B-Side Splatter that comes in a gatefold, both featuring the bonus track “Slower Than Nowhere”, which was not included on the US release of the album originally. Both in limited pressings!
Ugly Kid Joe was formed in 1989, and has released five full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. They burst on to the scene with As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America’s Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum, and propelled by the hit songs “Everything About You”, “Neighbor”, “So Damn Cool” and the huge cover of “Cats In The Cradle”. The band broke up in 1997, and after a 13 year absence, reformed, and have been recording and touring almost annually ever since, and they show no signs of slowing down.
This is a must have for Ugly Kid Joe fans and continues Deko Entertainment’s mission to bring you some of the best reissues with the best sound quality and packaging from some of your favorite bands. Bringing some of these releases to vinyl for the first time including recent reissues from Union, Trapeze, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Dokken, Slaughter and Warrant.
Tracklist: Intro God Tomorrow’s World Clover C.U.S.T. Milkman’s Son Suckerpath Cloudy Skies Jesus Rode A Harley 10/10 V.I.P Oompa Candle Song Slower Than Nowhere
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 ) 