Metallian Heavy

EXCITER headlined the Hell’s Heroes festival in Houston, Texas, USA on April 13th. The band features guitarist Daniel Dekay of AGGRESSOR who replaced original guitarist John Ricci. The band is opening for SACRED REICH in Toronto this month.

Crawling Chaos Records has issued RAPTVRE’s Feast Upon Their Flesh. This demo is the first release of a project featuring members of AYAHUASCA, PRIPJAT, SHITSHIFTER and NECROTIC WOODS.

To commemorate its fortieth anniversary EXODUS has issued the single No Love (Live At Day In The Dirt 1984), which was recorded live in California. Former EXODUS guitarist Rock Hunolt joined the band to perform several older songs during the METAL ALLEGIANCE April 20th concert in San Francisco, California. The concert followed a screening of a music documentary called Murder In The Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story.

Joakim Karlsson has left the death metal band BLOODBATH and will focus on CRAFT. The man claimed he was never meant to be a good guitarist. The band has recruited Tomas Åkvik of LIK as its touring guitarist.

Italy-based OBSCURA QALMA’s From The Sheol To The Apeiron digital EP is out through Metal Scrap.

Sweden-based death metal act OF FIRE will issue its full-length entitled Dräparen through Art Gates on May 25th.

Romania-based back metal band MERCY’S DIRGE has issued Live, Raw & Relentless through Loud Rage Music. The band was founded in the ‘90s.

ONSETCOLD has issued its single Let Me Die through Wormholedeath.

Death/black band APPALLING’s Inverted Realm album is out through Redefining Darkness Records on the 3rd of May.

Toronto, Canada-based SLUDGEHAMMER has a demo called Antechamber as of April 12, 2019. The band is playing several shows in its home country.

UK-based death metal band BODY HARVEST’s Parasitic Slavery is due out on Comatose Music on May 3rd.

DEPRAVED MURDER’s Manifestation is out through Comatose Music on the 17th of May 2019.

Poland-based death metal band HATE will release an album called Auric Gates Of Veles through Metal Blade Records in June.

Kitchener, Canada-based CATHARTIC DEMISE is releasing its debut single The Vice from its first release, a self-titled three-track demo this month. The band’s music is base in thrash metal, but the act claims a free-form sound.

THY ART IS MURDER will release its next album, called Human Target, through Nuclear Blast and Human Warfare in July.

DARKTHRONE will release a new album called Old Star through Peaceville this month.

CRO-MAGS members John Joseph and Mackie Jayson have settled with their former band-mate Harley Flanagan. The former two will perform as CRO-MAGS JM and Flanagan will perform simply as CRO-MAGS.

PRO-PAIN have lost guitarist Adam Phillips and recruited Greg Discenza.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will tour North America this July using the A Quest To Believe, A Call To The Void II monicker. CROWBAR is opening.

Season Of Mist has signed the blackened doom band CULTED. The band will release its Vespertina Synaxis; A Prayer For Union And Emptiness album later this year.

Art Gates Records has signed its first North America-based band, THE NOCTAMBULANT. The Florida-based band has a “northern” vibe, according to the label! An album is due in June.

DESTRUCTION has re-signed with Nuclear Blast. The band is working on a new album called Born To Perish, which is due in August.

Former SODOM members Bernd “Bernemann” Kost (guitar) and Markus “Makka” Freiwald (drums) have grouped with Ingo Bajonczak (ASSASSIN) on vocals, Marc Hauschild (bass) and Chris Tsitsis (ex-SUICIDAL ANGELS) on guitar to form BONDED. The band is recording a demo.

REVOCATION has re-signed with Metal Blade.

BURIAL’s (NL) Relinquished Souls is being reissued by Redefining Darkness Records (North America) and Raw Skull Recordz (Europe).

AMON AMARTH, ARCH ENEMY, AT THE GATES and GRAND MAGUS will tour North America using the Berserker monicker in September. The name is taken from AMON AMARTH’s latest album.

MEMORIAN, featuring BOLT THROWER and CEREBRAL FIX members, will release its new album Requiem For Mankind through Nuclear Blast in June.

Calgary, Canada-based death/thrash band Calgary’s CONCRETE FUNERAL has a debut demo called Ultimum Judicium.


Metallian Hard

RAGE has re-signed with SPV and is working on an album tentatively called Wings Of Rage.

UFO guitarist/keyboard player Paul Raymond has died following a heart attack. He was 73 years old.

THE RODS will release a new album, called Brotherhood Of Metal, through SPV/Steamhammer in June.

Drummer Joey Kramer of AEROSMITH was again not on stage with the band in Las Vegas on April 26th. He had hurt his shoulder earlier. The band’s roadie John Douglas filled in.

KAMELOT has made drummer Alex Landenburg an official member replacing Johan "Jo" Nunez who injured his leg a year ago.

SANCTUARY will perform its 1988 debut album, Refuge Denied, in its entirety during its North American tour this summer. Joseph Michael is on vocals.

Season Of Mist has signed instrumental progressive band ESSENCE OF DATUM. The two-piece from Belarus is currently working on the release of a third full-length record.

UK-based OPPOSING MOTION has been auditioning new singers and has recruited Mariano Gardella on vocals.

AXEL RUDI PELL’s XXX Anniversary Live a 30th album release will be issued by SPV on June 7th. The album was recorded at various stops in Europe.

Phil McCormack, the singer for MOLLY HATCHET, has died. Cause of death was not revealed.

ACCEPT will release a 7” entitled Life's A Bitch, which is backed by Restless And Wild (Live At Wacken 2017) on the B-side. The band has recruited Martin Motnik on bass and Ava-Rebekah Rahman on violin for its current Symphonic Terror tour.

Former OPETH man Per Wiberg is in a progressive band called KING HOBO. The band’s Mauga album is out.

Metalocalypstick Festival is a festival focused on women, which will take place on Canada day weekend in Lone Butte, British Columbia. Among others VIOLENT BETTY, KOSM and KAYAS will appear.

The Greece-based heavy metal band SERPENT LORD has released a music video for the song Ambassador Of The New Age. The track is taken from the debut album, Towards The Damned, which was released through Alcyone Records on September 14th 2018. The band is on tour opening for NECRONOMICON in Europe this month.

OZZY OSBOURNE has cancelled all 2019 touring as he deals with the aftermath of his pneumonia. More recently he injured himself after tripping at home sustaining an injury.

DEF LEPPARD will release a limited-edition box set, called Def Leppard - Volume Two, on June 21. This is the second of four volumes of the complete discography of the band.

GRENOUER’s ninth full-length album Ambition 999 is out on CD through Greek record-label Sleaszy Rider Records now. The band was on Mausoleum previously.

NORTHTALE has signed with Nuclear Blast. The group will release its debut album Welcome To Paradise this summer. The power metal band features vocalist Christian Eriksson (ex-TWILIGHT FORCE), guitarist Bill Hudson (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, I AM MORBID, ex-U.D.O., etc.), bassist Mikael Planefeldt, keyboardist Jimmy Pitts and drummer Patrick Johansson (ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, ex-W.A.S.P.). The band is playing at the Evoken festival in Japan.

WARRIOR SOUL will release a new album, entitled "Rock 'N' Roll Disease, through Livewire/Cargo Records in June.

Sylvain Mizrahi, a.k.a. Sylvain Sylvain, of NEW YORK DOLLS has cancer and is undergoing treatment.

Mythical Human Vessel is a trilogy of records written and performed by the songwriter and guitarist Paul Masvidal previously of CYNIC. They are the first independent solo releases on his imprint, Masvidalien Records.

THIN LIZZY has recruited Troy Sanders of MASTODON to play bass for the act for its summer shows.

Sweden-based heavy metal band SABATON will release a full-length album, The Great War, through Nuclear Blast Records in July.

Edmonton, Canada-based STRIKER will be hitting the road for the Deadly Ripping North American Tour with HOLY GRAIL and BEWITCHER this summer. The 21 shows are in support of the band’s latest release Play To Win.

Derek Davis, singer for BABYLON A.D., has released his first single and video Sweet Cream Cadillac. The track is from an upcoming album Resonator Blues, which lands worldwide on June 1st, 2019. It is distributed by Perris Records.

Inspired by KEEL? Four members of the France-based heavy metal band SORTILEGE reunited for a tribute concert at Petit Bain in Paris, France on April 19th. The band invited several members from acts like ADX and NIGHTMARE onto the stage as well.

Inspired by KEEL? Anders Odden has resurrected CADAVER with help from drummer Dirk Verbeuren. Featuring Jeff Becerra on guest vocals on one track the band has recorded a demo called Edder & Bile, which is being shopped to labels.

Montreal, Canada has officially been noticed for its heavy metal scene. City councillor Craig Sauvé offered a motion calling Montreal a "city of excellence" in heavy metal music. The motion passed on April 15th.


Metallian Demos

FLUX AMUCK - THE ALTERNATE
The Alternate is the debut release for this Omaha, USA quintet. It includes 12 songs the last of which is an untitled bonus. The songs sound like a weird journey, unsurprisingly the highlighted comparisons include Primus. The bass lines and guitars lend credence to that similarity. The experimental sounds do too. Song titles such as Reptilian Sun and Sci-Fi Western corroborate the 'spacey' theme that is also matched by the cover art. Caterpillar is very much in Primus territory with Toby Wandel, Mark Rohrbaugh and so-called multi instrumentist Jesse Otterson very much in the famous funk and freaky mood. They keep it up in Thanks, We'll Call You. Sam Taulborg varying singing styles carry this weird journey forward. Grunge, progressive and tempo changes peek through repeatedly in a song like Standard Of Excellence. Otterson dabs in the likes of keyboards and banjo, almost as expected. Emperor is more rowdy and the guitars, bass and vocals trio take over the song. Intercepted Transmissions does sound like what it says, it is a minute and half of almost unintelligible sounds. The band title song does seem more structured into a complete rock song. The aforementioned bonus song is a good completion or conclusion to this oddity. Travel to the hypnotic at fluxamuck.bandcamp.com – Anna Tergel