Canadian hard rock heavyweights Sven Gali have announced the release of a ferocious new live album, captured during their sold-out performance on Friday the 13th, September 2024, at the world-famous El Mocambo in Toronto. The record captures the band at full throttle in one of the most iconic rock venues on the planet — and it’s set to drop on another Friday the 13th: June 13, 2025.
With a history as loud as the amps that have powered it, The El Mocambo has hosted some of the most legendary names in rock: The Rolling Stones (who recorded their now-famous 1977 live set there), Stevie Ray Vaughan, U2, The Ramones, Blondie, Elvis Costello, and more. Sven Gali now joins that elite club with a performance that’s raw, unfiltered, and undeniably heavy.
“Recording at the El Mocambo was a full-circle moment for us,” says frontman Dave Wanless. “The energy of the crowd, the history of the venue, and the rawness of the night are all captured in this album. It’s a testament to our roots and our evolution.”
“A REAL live album from one of Canada’s finest. Recorded at the infamous club where April Wine, Coney Hatch and a little band from England called The Rolling Stones all recorded killer live albums. This is no exception. Like their shows, this needs to be played at maximum volume for maximum enjoyment.” – Celtic Bob (Metal-Rules.com)
The live album features a thunderous setlist focused on the band’s gold-certified 1992 self-titled debut, delivering full-throttle versions of the songs that made Sven Gali a household name on MuchMusic and beyond:
“Under the Influence” – 1993 MuchMusic Heavy Metal Video of the Year
“Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” – Top 10 Canadian single and #6 CanCon song of 1993
“Tie Dyed Skies” and “In My Garden” – fan favorites with iconic video rotation
Plus a searing live cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”. The video for this is here: https://youtu.be/Vpyl_OOAFyk
Recorded live with Dave Wanless (vocals), Andy Frank (guitar), Shawn Minden (bass), Sean Williamson (guitar), and Dan Fila (drums), the album captures Sven Gali doing what they do best: delivering heavy music with zero compromise and total conviction.
As a special thank you to fans, every purchase or pre-sale of the new live album before June 30, 2025, will be automatically entered into a one-of-a-kind contest to win an official Sven Gali Gold Album Award — the real deal, issued by Music Canada, celebrating their 1992 self-titled record going gold. This isn’t a replica — it’s the same style of award that hangs in industry offices and band studios. One lucky fan is going to own a true piece of Canadian rock history.
Street Date: Friday the 13th, June 2025
Pre-orders, exclusive bundles, and additional details are available at:
Formed in 1987, Sven Gali erupted onto Canada’s hard rock scene with the release of their 1992 self-titled debut — a gold record loaded with anthems, attitude, and arena-sized energy. With awards, chart-topping singles, and a legacy of crushing live shows under their belt, Sven Gali continues to fly the flag for no-nonsense, straight-up rock and roll.
US progressive metal legends TRANSCENDENCE are thrilled to unveil their brand-new single, “Shades of Winter”, available today via Cosmic Fire Records. Accompanying the single is a stunning official video, now streaming for fans worldwide.
“Shades of Winter” showcases TRANSCENDENCE’s signature blend of intricate instrumentation, emotive melodies, and thought-provoking lyricism. The track serves as a powerful glimpse into the band’s forthcoming album, their first in over two decades, set to arrive later this year. With its haunting atmosphere and dynamic energy, the single reaffirms TRANSCENDENCE’s place at the forefront of the progressive metal scene.
The official video for “Shades of Winter” complements the song’s introspective tone, offering a visually captivating experience that draws listeners deeper into its emotional narrative. Fans can watch the video here:
Vocalist Brian says about the new single:
“‘Shades of Winter’ was the second song we recorded for the album. It’s got a little bit of everything in it, you can hear our influences shine through. One of my absolute favorites”.
John Howser (keys, piano) comments:
“‘Shades of Winter’ represents what happens when all five of us collaborate evenly. Soaring guitar work, keyboards creating an emotive atmosphere, dramatic vocals, and lyrics that tell a story. In my opinion, this track in particular really hits the right balance of our shared vision”.
The release follows TRANSCENDENCE’s recent signing to Cosmic Fire Records, marking a new chapter for the band as they prepare to share more music in 2025. “Shades of Winter” was recorded and produced with the same meticulous care as their earlier work, featuring new vocalist Brian Dixon (Resonance Theory), whose commanding performance elevates the track to new heights.
Fans of TRANSCENDENCE and progressive metal alike are invited to stream “Shades of Winter” and watch the official video today. Stay tuned for more updates on the band’s highly anticipated upcoming album.
About TRANSCENDENCE:
TRANSCENDENCE was formed in the late ‘90s in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area by Kirk Wood (Bass), Jeff Ford (Guitar), Greg Drew (Vocals), John Von Rosenberg (Drums), and John Howser (Keyboards).
“The Meridian Project” was released in 2001 and quickly sprang to #1 on MP3.com for both the album and the song “Alpha Omega”. John Von Roseneberg left the group immediately after “The Meridian Project” release and was very capably replaced by Derrek Edwards.
During that time they also released a three track EP titled “3 Stones” (2003).
TRANSCENDENCE spent the next 14 years opening for the likes of Dream Theater, Geoff Tate, and countless other national acts in their home town.
TRANSCENDENCE has been a cornerstone of the US progressive metal scene since their formation. Known for their intricate compositions and emotionally charged performances, the band has garnered a dedicated following over the decades. With “Nothing Etched in Stone”, Transcendence continues to push boundaries, blending technical prowess with profound storytelling.
TRANSCENDENCE are: Brian Dixon – Vocals, vocal harmonies Jeff Ford – Guitars Kirk Wood – Bass, vocal harmonies John Howser – Keys, piano Derrek Edwards – Drums
While they’ve always ebbed and flowed between different extremes over the course of the past 30 years, on their upcoming seventh album, …and Oceans are surging onto the scene with their most expansive experiment in symphonic black metal. The Regeneration Itinerary melds black and death metal with symphonic, industrial and electronic elements, plus inspiration from Paulo Coelho’s best-selling novel The Alchemist.
Blending the band’s avant-garde legacy with their raw intensity, the third single off their upcoming new album is inspired by theatrical transformation and existential revelation. “Förnyelse i Tre Akter” (“Renewal in Three Acts”) tells the tale of a reclusive performer who glimpses a new world beyond the stage—a powerful metaphor for shifting perspectives and inner awakening. As described by vocalist and lyricist Mathias Lillmåns, the song is “about seeing things in a different light, how to rearrange your perspective in three acts.”
The performance video for “Förnyelse i Tre Akter” was premiered on Black Metal Promotion’s YouTube channel.
“Förnyelse i Tre Akter” echoes the spirit of …and Oceans’ early era while also injecting a sharper death metal edge, creating a sound that is both nostalgic and forward-reaching. The song echoes the broader themes of duality and personal regeneration found throughout The Regeneration Itinerary.
“This is more in the vein of old 90’s …and Oceans”, says guitarist Timo Kontio, “but this time I did some different riffing. Some say it’s more in the death metal style, which might be true.”
The performance video for “Förnyelse i Tre Akter” was filmed and edited by Aarni Visuals
Tracklist: 1. Inertiae (4:30) [WATCH] 2. Förnyelse i Tre Akter (5:07) [WATCH] 3. Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics (4:29) 4. The Form and the Formless (3:32) 5. Prophetical Mercury Implement (6:57) [WATCH] 6. The Fire in Which We Burn (3:04) 7. The Ways of Sulphur (4:17) 8. I Am Coin, I Am Two (4:25) 9. Towards the Absence of Light (4:49) 10. The Terminal Filter (5:22) 11. Copper Blood, Titanium Scars (Bonus Track) (4:14) 12. The Discord Static (Bonus Track) (3:35) Full runtime: 54:22
Cover Art: Adrien Bousson
Chaos chameleons. Nocturnal shapeshifters. The skyward trajectory of idiosyncratic Finnish extremists …and Oceans has been serpentine and sublime.
Since rising in 1995 from the ashes of death metal outfit Festerday, the group’s esoteric take on extreme music has seem them draw on a gamut on contrasting elements, ranging from black and death metal to classical, industrial and EBM, forever questing through various line-up changes, defying expectations while remaining wholly true to themselves.
“We’ve never been tied to one particular genre,” explains founding member, guitarist Timo Kontio. “As a band, we are driven to explore, to traverse unfamiliar landscapes, while always preserving our core sound. It’s about striking a balance. There’s the constant need in this band for renewal and ambition, but never at a cost to our identity.”
The group’s earliest albums, The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts (1998) and The Symmetry of I: The Circle of O (1999), combined bombastic synth-driven salvos, blisteringly raw guitars, piercing banshee shrieks and ornate gothic arrangements in eviscerating wrath-fuelled blasts, while several celestial passages and near-dungeon synth segues already demonstrated the band’s need to mix things up.
A more seismic shift came in the mutant forms of A.M.G.O.D. (2001) and Cypher (2002), which saw …and Oceans transmogrify into a crushing cybernetic colossus, bulldozing into dystopian anti-futures with batteries of scalding techno beats and chugging palm-muted malevolence.
Accompanied by frontman Kena Strömsholm’s android syntax, the band’s dark heart now pumped corrosive hydraulic fluids around digital membranes, its symphonic black metal supercharged by martial industrial rhythms and infectious melo-death grooves.
The metamorphosis intensified with an interim rebrand as …and Oceans disbanded and its members reassembled under the name Havoc Unit in 2005, a vehicle for further mechanised contagions and noise worship, issuing their sole full-length, h.IV+ (Hoarse Industrial Viremia), in 2008.
But throughout these detours the mournful essence of …and Oceans’ singular universe endured, gathered together by a lamenting thread, a dolefulness unique to the Finnish scene, borne emphatically in the impassioned guitars of Kontio and his axe-wielding brother-in-arms, Teemu Saari. “Melancholia is everywhere, it’s in all the music that I make, especially my lead work,” elaborates Kontio. “It’s a key factor, distinctive to the whole …and Oceans catalogue.”
The band’s insatiable thirst for reinvention would subsequently find sustenance in its 90s roots, recasting the symphonic pomp of the past in the ardent furnace of experience and experimentation. Reconvening under the …and Oceans banner in 2017, the resulting brace of albums – Cosmic World Mother (2020) and As in Gardens, So in Tombs (2023) – redefined the group once more with ornate epics brimful of deliciously grim Karelian melodies and the chimerical atmospheres of keyboardist Antti Simonen, while new vocalist Mathias Lillmåns, replacing the departing Strömsholm, reinforced ties to black metal’s second wave with his devastatingly toxic rasp.
Now, 30 years on from their auspicious birth, …and Oceans have unveiled their most accomplished statement yet. A flamboyant distillation of the group’s grand nocturnal art, The Regeneration Itinerary assimilates all their hopes, dreams and influences into an uncompromising document of ravenous intent, with inebriating stylistic hybrids such as ‘Inertiae’ and ‘The Form and the Formless’ seamlessly fusing the heady onrush of symphonic black metal to the bludgeoning pulse of Simonen’s trance-dance hypnosis.
“The new album can be seen as a synthesis of our entire back catalogue,” suggests Lillmåns. “But there are new levels of extremity, too, ones that we’ve never reached before. These songs simply demanded harsher vocals. The riffs commanded it, and who am I to disobey?”
“This is our most experimental album since our comeback,” states Kontio. “It might be considered a continuation of the music we made in the 90s, but the sound has ripened and developed as our individual tastes have broadened, our inspirations subconsciously feeding into the band’s sound, necessitating change. From the very start, this band has encouraged progression and growth.”
Representing an intrepid summation of …and Oceans’ extraordinary journey, their continuing evolution, The Regeneration Itinerary locates the band’s dramatic thaumaturgical blends within a conceptual framework of opposites (and opposition).
“The Regeneration Itinerary explores the interplay between darkness and light, chaos and order, spiritual and material realms, with each song embodying an experience for the mind and body, navigating a passage to the present moment,” explains Lillmåns.
“The album works like a guide,” he continues. “Teaching us that not everything can be defined as simply being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘light’ or ‘dark’, ‘copper’ or mercury’, underscoring the perpetual dance of dualities in the human experience.”
Line-up: Mathias Lillmåns – Vocals Teemu Saari – Guitar Timo Kontio – Guitar Pyry Hanski – Bass Antti Simonen – Keyboards Kauko Kuusisalo – Drums
Production Credits: Recorded at Inka Studio / SoundSpiral Audio, Orimattila, Finland. Producer & Engineered by Juho Räihä. Mixed & Mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio, Söderfors, Sweden.
Hungarian Death Metal powerhouse Sin Of God is set to return with full force in 2025 with the release of their crushing new album, “Blood Bound“, arriving May 19th on CD through the combined efforts of Pest Records and Metal Ör Die Records.
Marking a bold chapter in the band’s brutal legacy, “Blood Bound” is a conceptually intense and sonically unforgiving record. The seven-track release is steeped in apocalyptic themes, existential despair, and the psychological decay of mankind, all filtered through a dense wall of relentless riffs and monstrous growls. Each track is a grim testament to Death Metal’s enduring power to confront humanity’s darkest instincts and failures.
Lyrically, mastermind Tamás Schupkégel takes listeners on a journey through the blood-soaked corridors of vengeance (“Blood Bound“), spiritual ruin (“The Unbelief“), psychological torment (“Cerebral Malfunction“), and societal collapse (“Black Waves“). Whether dealing with personal damnation in “No Return (From Hell)” or mythological reckoning in “Obolus“, Sin Of God pulls no punches in delivering a record as furious as it is thought-provoking.
Sonically devastating and thematically complex, “Blood Bound” is not merely an album—it’s an experience soaked in rage, tragedy, and transformation.
Artist: Sin Of God Title: Blood Bound Release Date: May 19, 2025 Format: CD / Digital (Bandcamp) Label: Pest Records / Metal Ör Die Rex Music: Sin Of God (2024) Lyrics: Tamás Schupkégel (2024) Reacordings: Denevér Hangstúdió, Hungary
Tracklist:
1. Blood Bound 2. Black Waves 3. No Return 4. The Unbelief 5. Diabolical Agitation 6. Obolus 7. Cerebral Malfunction
Prepare for a descent into darkness, Sin Of God have returned, and they are “Blood Bound“.
Renowned for their signature blend of uplifting yet melancholic progressive pop metal, Australia’s national treasures Voyager have returned after an unplanned hiatus. In a turbulent twist of events following the band’s post-Eurovision success, the upwards trajectory of the band took an unexpected downturn in September 2023, with vocalist Danny Estrin being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
Having undergone a significant amount of treatment since then, the future of Voyager was always uncertain. The band cancelled all international touring plans, and for a while it was uncertain if Danny would even be able to sing again. The sense of universal devastation felt for Danny and the band was palpable, and the outpouring of love and support from Voyager’s longtime and newfound fans provided solace in challenging times.
Now, Voyager return, with new single ‘Seen Better Days’.
‘Seen Better Days’ is a song borne out of the adversity that Danny and the band have faced these past 18 months, and it breathes new life and a new outlook for the band, whose strength and determination knows no bounds. Nobody knows what the future holds, but the present holds new music, and this song is a powerful reminder of the vulnerability of life.
Danny says this about the song:
“Difficult times yield dark music. It won’t come as a surprise that ‘Seen Better Days’ is a personal account of the 18 months of hell, through chemotherapy, radiation and surgery that I have endured. Embracing the beautiful love and support I have received from friends, family and fans while often putting on a brave face in the horrid abyss of stage 4 cancer is no easy feat, so I felt it was right to put it to words and music. Somehow as brutally vulnerable as the song is, it still maintains an uplifting melancholy and, despite its crushing ending, manages a breath of optimism through the bleakness… after all, life is beautiful.”
In January 2025, Voyager returned to the stage for a brief 15 minute performance at the Rugby SVNS in Perth. This performance reignited the love for performing live, and allowed Danny to regain the faith in his ability to locally return to the stage in between treatments.
Voyager have now announced that they will perform two live shows in their hometown Perth this coming June/July and have announced the following dates:
21 June 2025 – Rosemount Hotel (All Ages Family show, under 18’s to be accompanied by an adult) 4 July 2025 – Magnet House
“Last Time” is one of the last unreleased tracks from the huge amount of songs Chris Caffery recorded at the time of the “Faces” sessions. It’s a song about not allowing others to take advantage of you and for you to control your own destiny. There comes a time in your life when you either grab the bill by the horns and enter the ring by yourself or you keep being the rodeo clown.
The Savatage and TSO guitarist presents a very personal selection of 21 songs from his successful career, which has now spanned two decades.
The compilation includes songs from his previous solo albums as well as rare and unreleased tracks that Chris considers too important not to make available to the fans.
Chris says about his selection: “In 2004 I released my first solo record. I wasn’t sure what to expect I just knew I wanted to make some music on my own. It was a time when I had a lot of questions not only about myself but where certain parts of my life were heading. The “Music Man” in me decided to use my energy positively. I spent 20 years writing and recording and expressing myself to you. This new release contains some of your favorite songs as well as mine. There are also some unreleased songs and a brand new one as well.
I’d like to thank all of the amazing musicians, engineers and producers who participated on these recordings with me.
I dedicate this to all of you my friends, also to my mentor in heaven who believed in me from the earliest days of my career Mr. Paul O’Neill and a special dedication to my mom who remained my best friend and supporter through all of my roller coaster rides these past couple decades.
Thank you all for being a part of my journey and I look forward to continuing the next 20 years and beyond!”
In June, Chris Caffery will return to Europe with Savatage
13.06.2025 NL-Leeuwarden – Into The Grave Festival 14.06.2025 Oberhausen – Turbinenhalle 16.06.2025 UK-London – Shepherds Bush Empire 18.06.2025 CH-Zürich, Schweiz – Komplex 457 19.06.2025 München – Tonhalle 21.06.2025 FR-Clisson – Hellfest 22.06.2025 BE-Dessel – Graspop Metal Meeting 24.06.2025 IT-Mailand – Alcatraz 26.06.2025 ES-Barcelona – Barcelona Rock Fest 28.06.2025 GR-Thessaloniki – Rockwave Festtival
“20 Years Of Music Man” TRACK LISTING (CD Version)
CD 1 The Jester’s Court May Day Music Man Pisses Me Off (radio edit) Do You See What I See Now – new song unreleased Edge Of Darkness Fright Knights S.O.T.S. (Sick Of This Shit) – only released as a single Forever We’ll Be What Child Is This Glitter – only released as a single
CD 2 Seasons Change My Light – only released as a single I Miss YouSometimes – prev. unreleased Last Time – prev. unreleased Your Heaven Is Real Why Y.G.B.F.K.M. Preludio Abandoned Then Shes Gone – prev. unreleased
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 