Metallian Heavy

France-based thrash metal band WITCHES will issue The Fates album through Mighty Spells Records on 05.06.2020.

Italy-based crossover band ITALICUS CARNIFEX has issued its album Incide Your Mind through Volcano Records.

Belgium-based metal combo BASEMENT CRITTERS has a new album called God Save Us As .Jpeg, which will be out on 01.05.2020 through Wormholedeath.

Switzerland-based noise death metal band ETERNAL DELYRIA has issued a new record called Paradox Of The Mechanical Angel. The album was recorded by Nicola Leoni at the Studio From Hell and mixed and mastered by Tommaso Monticelli at the Sonitus Studio.

BENEDICTION’s next album is postponed from May to August due to the pandemic. The band is signed to Nuclear Blast.

Norway-based death metal band FÉLETH shall release its debut album Depravity through DeadPop Records in May. The band seems proud that it has elements of rock and jazz in its music!

Spain-based VELKHANOS has an album called The Wrath through Art Gates at the end of June.

Singer and bassist Fernanda Lira and drummer Luana Dametto have left the Brazil-based thrash metal band NERVOSA. Guitarist Prika Amaral is recruiting members.

Gatathrope is a new single from the Russia-based extreme metal project INSIDIOUS ONE. Featuring guest musicians from Norway, India and Serbia, the release consists of two eclectic tracks fused with thrash, death and black metal elements as well as piano. The man considers his act anime metal.

Avantgarde is issuing WITH THE END IN MIND’s Tides Of Fire (black metal), NEXION’s Seven Oracles, ASOFY’s Amusia (death/doom) and DROUGHT’s Trimurti (black metal) albums this month.

Sun Productions is issuing WIKING1940’s W and BASTARDI PUTRIDI DI VICENZA’s Oltre Ogni Limite albums.

Good that they told us they are proud or we would have thought they are ashamed: Malta-based symphonic blackened death metal act RISING SUNSET is “proud” to announce that it has signed with Wormholedeath for the release of the album De Mysterium Tenebris due in the summer.

Laden with keyboards like ABBA: LARVAOVCUM has an EP called This Brutal World through Sheep united Nations.

Spain-based death/thrash metal band LINED has signed with Art Gates Records. An album called Soulcrifice is coming out on June 12th.

[EVERTRAPPED] has a music video for the song Sorrow (Nothing More In Between), which comes from the band’s The Last Extinction demo, which is due out on May 22nd.

Switzerland-based THE IMPALEMENT has a self-titled demo. The deathrashers are supported by drummer Torturer (BETHLEHEM, ex-BELPHEGOR). The release also contains guest contributions by Helmuth Lehner (BELPHEGOR) who contributed a guitar Solo for Satan’s Fire In My Eyes and Sarah Jezebel Deva (ex-CRADLE OF FILTH) on I Am All.

Germany-based BLOODRED has a demo called The Raven’s Shadow. The drums were recorded by Joris Nijenhuis known for his work with ATROCITY and LEAVES’ EYES.

TORN IN HALF has an EP called Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth through Redefining Darkness Records. The band was founded in 2019 and has an image reminiscent of drug dealers and gangbangers.

LUNARSEA has new lyric video for The Fourth Magnetar, which features SOILWORK‘s Björn “Speed” on vocals. The Fourth Magnetar is taken from the band’s latest album Earthling/Terrestre.

FORBIDDEN singer Russ Anderson has reported that he has undergone months of treatment and rehabilitation for alcoholism.

Argentina-based DRACONIS has an album called Anthems For An Eternal Battles out through Brutal Records on 31.07.2020.

Denmark-based death metal combo ECITON has a video for the song Estimated Effort, which is taken from the album Suspension Of Disbelief. It shall be released through Wormholedeath/The Orchard on 03 06 2020.

BOOK OF THE DEAD (featuring members of VISCERAL DISGORGE and WHISTERIA COTTAGE) will release a new EP entitled Bound In Flesh, Inked In Blood through Rebel Pyro Musick this month.

UK-based deathcore act VESICARUM has an album called Reign Of Terror through One Eyed Toad Records on 22.05.2020.

HEINOUS and FLUIDS have a split release called Snuffed/Torture Euphoric through Horror Pain Gore Death in May.

“Symphonic death metallers” GENUS ORDINIS DEI has a new full-length concept album called Glare Of Deliverance, which will be released on December 4th. The album will be produced by Tommaso Monticelli. The band has announced a crowdfunding campaign to create a metal music opera which will feature a series of ten music video episodes (one for each song on the album).

RUADH (which is pronounced ‘Roo-Ah’ and translates to ‘red’) is an atmospheric black metal solo-project from Glasgow, Scotland. The Rock Of The Clyde demo is out this month.

MALEVOLENT CREATION has lost singer/guitarist Lee Wollenschlaeger and drummer Phil Cancilla and replaced them with Ryan Taylor (BODY BLOW, SOLSTICE, etc.) and Ronnie Parmer (ANGELCORPSE, AMON, BRUTALITY, etc.) respectively. Lee lived too far from the rest of the band.

DEAD TREE SEEDS signs with Music-Records for the release of a new album on October 2nd. Push the Button’s style is described as akin to SEPULTURA.

SIX FEET UNDER has announced Nightmares Of The Decomposed as the title for its next album. It is due through Metal Blade later this year.

Toronto-based PLAGUE WEAVER released a demo called Through The Sulphur Eyes in January 2020. The black metal band has a video for the song The Traveller.

SHADOWFLAG’S n album, In Asylum Requiem, shall be released by Clobber Records on June 19th.

“Raw melodic black metal act” NETHER, which is based in Belgium, has signed with Art Gates. The band is having its album mastered at Andy Classen’s Stage One Studio with the aim of issuing it in October. The act was Founded in 2019.

XENOKORP has bowed to COVID-19 and cancelled the release of the new PUTRID OFFAL, MERCYLESS albums, as well as the DISABLED and its Exhumation record. The label has issued a sampler instead.

PULCHRA MORTE is in the midst of mixing a new album for release. One of the tracks on it, entitled The Serpent’s Choir, has a chorus with gang vocals on it. The band invited anyone and everyone to record their backing vocals and send it in last month.

SEROCS has an EP called Vore through Everlasting Spew Records on 26.06.2020.

A new DEFEATED SANITY full-length entitled The Sanguinary Impetus will be released Worldwide through Willowtip Records in July.

CHAKA, a side-project of DARKSIDE NYC bassist Mark Sokoll, has a music video for Flak off the Neanderthal Tales demos.

UK-based FOETAL JUICE has an album called Gluttony through Gore House Productions this June.

LUNARSEA, DARK TRANQUILLITY, IHSAHN, PESTILENCE and others are booked to play at Hard Rock Laager – festival 2020 in Estonia in July.

Sy Keeler has left ONSLAUGHT to focus on his day job. The band is still working on a new album.

Finland-based CONVULSE has signed a deal with Transcending Records to release a studio album entitled Deathstar this autumn.

AZZIARD’s Liber Secondus – Exégèse is released by Malpermesita Records on 05.06.2020.

LINED has a video for the song Devil, which is extracted from the Soulcrifice album, which will be released through Art Gates Records June 12th.

Toronto, Canada-based CRYPTONIGHT has a debut demo The Black Ritual. The band is compared to MESHUGGAH.


Metallian Hard

MAD HATTER’s Pieces Of Reality is coming out through Art Gates Records on May 22nd. The album has been produced by Petter Hjerpe and Dennis Eriksson. It was mixed and mastered by Dennis Eriksson.

The debut album of Italy-based heavy metal band HUNGRY DAZE is called Back To My Future and out through Diamonds Prod.

The release date of the next DEEP PURPLE album, entitled Whoosh!, has been postponed to August from the June 12th. earMUSIC is responding to market conditions and a lack of business activity.

Ex-SLAYER and current SUICIDAL TENDENCIES drummer Dave Lombardo has a new industrial rock project called SATANIC PLANET.

EISENHAUER’s Blessed Be The Hunter album is out through Rafchild Records in the summer.

Former ACCEPT Members Udo Dirkschneider, Peter Baltes and Stefan Kaufmann are heard on U.D.O.'s We Are One album for the German military’s band DAS MUSIKKORPS DER BUNDESWEHR. The album will be issued through AFM.

HELSTAR has signed with Massacre Records. The band is working on new songs and a new album is due later this year.

Yet another project from Shane Embury: NAPALM DEATH’s bassist Shane Embury has a new ambient project called DARK SKY BURIAL. The project’s debut album, De Omnibus Dubitandum Est, is out now.

Canada-based SVEN GALI has a single called Now from its EP entitled 3, which is due through RFL Records in June.

ALCATRAZZ will issue an album called Born Innocent through Silver lining in July. This is the band’s first release since 1986's Dangerous Games.

Germany-based OBSCURA has lost guitarist Rafael Trujillo, bassist Linus Klausenitzer and drummer Sebastian Lanser due to "musical differences." The musicians have launched OBSIDIOUS. OBSCURA itself intends to record this year. Bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling has rejoined OBSCURA after being away for a decade.

Vancouver, Canada-based SPELL's new LP Opulent Decay is now available through Bad Omen Records.

DRACONIAN REMAINS first full-length The First Crusade is out through Housemaster Records. The band plays heavy metal.

UDI LEVY has a new demo called Addictive Substance.

USA-based MOONS has an album called Go Out Swinging, which was released by Horror Pain Gore Death on April 10th. The band professes to doom metal.

Disdain for the original recording? THE QUIREBOYS will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the group’s debut album, A Bit Of What You Fancy, by re-recording it.

PRIMAL FEAR will release its next album, which is entitled Metal Commando, through Nuclear Blast in July.

CARCASS’ Torn Arteries is now postponed from August.

Ukraine-based GASOLINE GUNS has a digital single called Under Wicked Sky. The band is compared to MOTORHEAD.

Progressive metal band ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND has a video for the song Aries off its forthcoming Zodiac concept demo. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac and the band is issuing new tracks one month apart.

Ukraine-based THY DESPAIR has a single called Falling Star taken from its forthcoming album The Song Of Desolation, which is out through Rockshots Records in May.

The 2020 edition of British Columbia, Canada’s Armstrong MetalFest has been cancelled due to a recommendation by the provincial government for social distancing during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Bands that have Facebook and Instagram accounts are such individualistic rebels. So Hip.


Metallian Demos

INSISTENT - SUSPECT
The Czech Republic quartet opens its bio with "Inteligent, Intense, Crushing, Dark, Furious". Four out of five is good (?). Suspect is listed as a full-length but is less than 15 minutes long. The song lengths offer insight as to the band's style. Those 15 minutes are nine songs. Depression takes a few seconds to get into gear. A heavy grinding song appears, it takes on death metal too. About Hunger And Sheep does Extreme Noise Terror and Napalm Death as one should. Rust continues on from there. Abandoned Monuments keeps it heavy and its lyrics seem to forebode the current pandemic with lines like We are out of luck and Manifestation of human collapse being among the words screamed out by Jiri Vosahlik. Haste Makes Waste offers some more advice for humanity and ironically is the shortest song at just 48 seconds. Overdosed takes a bit more of a slower approach, sounding like a mid-paced death metal song. Terrorstorm is head banging stuff with double base drums aiding. Vanity is hyper speed on display. The closing title track is over three minutes long and affords the grinders a few seconds of an intro and an almost too long outro. Blast beats do their job in between. No suspicions here, check insistent.bandcamp.com for 15 minutes well spent. – Anna Tergel