Metallian Heavy

Canada-based BLOOD OF CHRIST is having its frozen Dreams (1994) and The Lonely Flowers Of Autumn (1995) re-issued by CDN Records. The release will feature additional songs from 1996’s 7” single.

Canada-based DEFORMATORY has a new demo called Inversion Of The Unseen Horizon. The Ottawa-based band plays death metal.

Babylon Doom Cult Records has a split LP between PISSWITCH and ST. BARTHELEMY’S TEMPLE, which is set for a July 9th release.

VIO-LENCE, VOIVOD, EXCITER and ARTILLERY will use the MTV Headbangers Ball monicker to tour Europe this autumn.

Singapore-based ANTOLOGI has an album called Chronicles Of Catastrophes through Vrykoblast Production.

UK-based black/doom band MOON REAPER has a demo called Descent.

Thrashback Records is issuing PSYCHIC PAWN’s Eulogy: The Complete Anthology. The US-based death metallers were active in the early ‘90s.

USA-based DIESEL THEORY has a demo called Hidden From The Sun through its own Full Scale Fire imprint. The band has added keyboards to this release!

As TRISTWOOD commemorates its twentieth anniversary, the Dystopia Et Disturbia MMXXI demo is available on CD now. There are nine bonus tracks recorded between 2001 and 2007.

Spain-based PHRAXATHON has a demo called The Path Beyond The Cycle Of Birth And Death. Several ideas date back to the man Fer’s ASEPSIA days from 1994 to 1997.

ACROSS ANTARCTICA’s Billions Of Miles Along The Endless Dark Ice-Plane is a new demo by the US-based band.

Sweden-based GRISLY will issue its second album Salting The Earth through Xtreem Music on August 3rd.

Really cashing in: Comatose Music is re-issuing the 2012 INTERNAL BLEEDING demo compilation, Heritage Of Sickness calling it Heritage Of Sickness II and replacing the live tracks with 2019 performances and adding a new cover.

COVERED IN SORES’ Civilian Casualties is a compilation of the grindcore band’s three demos, Militaristic Cannibalism, Blown To Bits and Evil Experiments, and out through Horror Pain Gore Death now.

Germany-based CRYPTOBIOSIS has joined the Art Gates Records’ roster. An album is due from the death metal group this year.

More than a decade following the release of its debut, Italian/German death metallers HUMATOR are working on a follow-up. The band has signed to Time To Kill Records.

MACABRE DECAY’s Into Oblivion is out through Grind To Death Records. Vinyl will be released through Corrupted Flesh Records on a later date.

They call it an “album,” but really it is a demo. Singapore-based “black metal punks” THE IRONFIST has a digital release called Hyenarchy – Scavenger Music Volume 1.

SEA MOSQUITO’s Fire, Magic & Venom demo is being re-issued by Onism Productions. The release is the story “of a single night and one man’s battle for his sanity and soul.”

AN UNCTION IN BRAILLE is issuing a demo called The Wordless Whisper.

The Germany-based death metal band HELLDRIFTER has signed a digital distribution deal with Nuclear Blast‘s Blood Blast Distribution for the release of an upcoming album whose details will be announced soon.

Black metal duo ERGHOLAE SOMPTATOR has a new album entitled Mille Vertiges Fondent Sur Les Âmes Vides through Code666 late 2021.

The new Black Metal entity K AMON K, featuring veterans of the French black metal scene, has signed a worldwide deal with Code666/Aural Music to release the debut album Arca Ende Aeterna. It is scheduled for late 2021.

OMMNUS’ A Single Green Light was issued through Hell-Fi Records last year. As members of sludge/doom band WORMFOOT, as well as ex-members of countless other groups, Jay and Derek have been creating music together for over a decade.

Finland-based BLOODY FALLS has signed with Art Gates Records. An album is expected this October. The band has a video for the song Soul Ripper.

ANCIENT SETTLERS has announced dates for the Autumnus European Tour, which is scheduled for July and includes countries like Spain, Portugal and France.

US-based GORETHRONE has a digital demo called Descension.

US-based SNOGARD has had its Moral Presence, Corrupt Misdeeds demo of 2020 re-released by Horror Pain Gore Death.

Time To Kill Records has signed Russia-based crossover band HELLBOMB. A record is due this year. The band was founded as a studio project in 2013.

Pest Records has issued ELDINGAR’s Maenads album. It is described as old school Hellenic metal.

Germany-based black metallers CARADRAS have signed with Black Sunset and will release a debut album this year. The band has recorded eight tracks with a playing time of 55 minutes.

DECONSECRATION and REBURIED have a split release on Selfmadegod Records.

OXYGEN DESTROYER’s Sinister Monstrosities Spawned By The Unfathomable Ignorance Of Humankind will be issued through Redefining Darkness Records on 27.08.2021.

Singapore-based VRYKOLAKAS has issued And Vrykolakas Brings Chaos & Destruction through Dark Blasphemies Records (CD worldwide) and Sadist Records (tape and CD South East Asia).

MISOPHONIA’s New Beginnings is out through Madness Records since January. The style is described as “Melodeath/Melodic Metal/Doom/Alternative”.

North Carolina, USA groove metal band WOR has parted ways with drummer Hunter Crews. Dylan Jenkins is the new member.

The band with the monthly member changes OBSCURA will release a new album, called A Valediction, through Nuclear Blast in November. It was mixed and mastered by producer Fredrik Nordström.

Spain-based INFERNAL HATE has signed with Art Gates Records and will issue an album this year.

Portugal-based APOTHEUS has released a video for the track Staring The Abyss off its The Far Star album.

Finland-based GALVANIZER has an album called Prying Sight Of Imperception through Everlasting Spew.

Mighty Music has signed E-FORCE and will issue its Mindbender album in November.

SHADOWS FALL will reunite for a show this December in its native land. The December 18th show will be opened by DARKEST HOUR, UNEARTH and others.
Germany-based “monkeycore” band ENRAGED MONKEYS has a demo called No Compromise through its Hicktown imprint. The band is inspired by the film Planet Of The Apes.

MEGADETH and Dave Mustaine are removing the bass tracks of ousted bassist Dave Ellefson from the band’s already recorded album. A session player is rerecording them. The album is due later this year.

Austria-based FEARANCY has signed with Black Sunset and will release an album called Dæmonium this summer. The band was founded in 2014 and had a 2016 debut called Paranoia. The band is playing Area 53 Festival this month.

They sold 50 albums and no one was at their concert, but “the legendary” Spain-based death metal band CANKER will have its Exquisite Tenderness album re-released, 24 years after its original release through Xtreem Music on July 6th.

UK-based VESICARUM’s Place Of Anarchy album is out through One Eyed Toad Records on 18.06.2021.

ALCHEMY OF FLESH’s Ageless Abominations is out through Redefining Darkness Records on 13.08.2021.

HEXENKLAD (featuring members of SIG:AR:TYR, ECLIPSE ETERNAL, PAGAN RITUAL) has an album called Heathenheart through CDN Records on July 23rd. The band claims to mix death metal and folk music.

Glasgow, Scotland-based solo act THINE INNER SANCTUM has a release called Dark Sky Weeping through Ancient Entity Records. The act is compared to MY DYING BRIDE and CELTIC FROST.

Avantgarde Music has signed Sweden-based GRÁ. The band is working on an album. The label is also re-issuing KANONENFIEBER’s Menschemühle demo on vinyl. The end of summer will bring the debut from France-based black metal duo REMAH, Une Main, together with the new release from New Jersey USA black/folk metal quintet WINDFAERER titled Breaths Of Elder Dawns.

WAERLOGA has a 7” through Dawnbreed Records. The black metal band is based in USA.

Tennessee, USA-based black metal band ARCANE MARROW has an album called The Elders Present To Me through Moonlight Cypress Archetypes this month.

Any other labels in the world could pitch in? BARBARIAN PROPHECIES has a new album called Horizon through Base Record Production/Iron Matron Records/Violence In The Veins/Hecatombe Records. The band is “supported by synths.”

Self-cover version: Texas, USA-based death metal band DEFLESHED & GUTTED signed to Australian label Vicious Instinct Records. The band has a re-recording of its 2017 track Baptized In Bile taken from The Prophecy In The Entrails release. This version is part of a 16-track, 4-band split titled Excruciating Malformations Of Abhorrent Descent, which features bands such as Devour The Unborn, Slamentation and Inhuman Atrocities. It will be released on August 26th.

Czech Republic-based SUPREME CONCEPTION has a demo called Empires Of The Mind. The act was founded as a one-time collaboration in 2006.

KALMO, which is a ‘cadaver’ in Finnish, has issued the Gehinnom album though Sliptrick Records.

Oregon, USA-based death metal duo PARAPHILIA has released the CD edition of its Primordium Of Sinister Butchery demo through Brutal Cave Productions.

TESTAMENT, EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL will use The Bay Strikes Back monicker to tour the USA this autumn.

White metal act ORATIONEM’s full-length The Black Metal Scripture Collection – Volume I features six tracks from the USA. The lyrics are verbatim from the World English Bible.

INNERSPHERE’s Omfalos album was issued by Slovak Metal Army on 25.02.2021.


Metallian Hard

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of its reformation ANTHEM has organized an ‘Anthem Vs Anthem 2001’ tour. The tour features former members making appearances.

Vancouver-Canada-based REBEL PRIEST has an EP called Lost In Tokyo through Batcave Records. The band is compared to ROSE TATTOO.

CHRIS MARAGOTH has a song called Burning June. It is “a fast-paced melodic metal song” that was actually written for Chris Maragoth’s former band in 2013.

GUNS N' ROSES has announced a rescheduled U.S. tour featuring MAMMOTH WVH to begin on 31.07.2021.

K.K. Downing, formerly of JUDAS PRIEST and currently in K.K.’s PRIEST, has revealed that his former band-mates had threatened to take legal action for the guitarist’s use of the monicker. K.K. Downing had been an earlier member of JUDAS PRIEST than the current line-up members.

NIGHT RANGER has a new album and it is called ATBPO. Frontiers will issue it in August. And The Band Played on references the pandemic. There is a music video for Bring It All Home To Me.

MK music USA has signed RFL recording artist MIND OF FURY to a management deal.

AVALAND has a “metal opera” album called Theater Of Sorcery through Rockshots. Guests include Madie of NIGHTMARE and Ralf Scheepers of PRIMAL FEAR.

MASTERCASTLE has released a video clip and single for Who Cares For The Moon, which is from its upcoming studio album.

They call it an album, but it is a demo. USA-based doom metal band FELL HARVEST has a demo called Pale Light In A Dying World.

Toronto, Canada-based DOWN THE VOID has a demo called Groovy Wolf In The Sky. The band is compared to BLACK SABBATH and MOTORHEAD.

SKID ROW will commemorate the 30th anniversary of its second album, Slave To The Grind, by performing it in its entirety at The Amphitheater at Rolling Hills Casino And Resort in Corning, California, USA on July 11th. Former SKID ROW singer SEBASTIAN BACH will also tour for the same reason and record this autumn. Former SKID ROW singer Johnny Solinger died at the age of 55. His death comes following an announcement that he was afflicted with liver failure.

WHITESNAKE singer David Coverdale, who is 69-years-old, claims he would retire from touring in 2022. A number of concerts and tours are planned before then.

KIX singer BRAD WHITEMAN has a solo album called You’re Welcome, which is his catchphrase. KIX guitarist Ronnie Younkins, in the meantime, is under house arrest due to his interactions with the law recently. He is temporarily replaced by someone called Bob Paré.

Frontiers Music has signed BETWEEN WORLDS. The project of singer Ronny Munroe (ex-TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, PRESTO BALLET and METAL CHURCH) will have its self-titled debut album released on September 10th. A number of SAVATAGE members guest on the record.

STEIGNYR’s next album is called The Legacy Of Wyrd. Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage (Game Of Thrones) and Sir Ian McKellen (The Lord Of the Rings) contribute to the album, which shall be released by Art Gates.

HELLOWEEN’s new self-titled album has landed at the top of the German charts.

Inspired by KEEL? France-based ‘80s’ heavy metal band SORTILÈGE will release an album, entitled Phoenix, through Verycords on August 27th. The release features 12 re-recorded songs from the past and 2 new tracks. Singer Christian "Zouille" Augustin remains in the band from its heyday.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OBITUARY and PRONG will embark on a U.S.A. tour this autumn.

ARCH ENEMY guitarist Jeff Loomis has joined Graham Bonnet's version of ALCATRAZZ. While Bonnet formed ALCATRAZZ his former musicians are using the name as well. The latter version has a single called Turn Of The Wheel!

Ecuador-based heavy metal band KILL CITY has signed with Music-Records for the release of its album Last Man Standing. It is scheduled for November.

Former NEW YORK DOLLS and HANOI ROCKS’ bassist Sami Yaffa will release a solo album, entitled The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind, through Cargo on September 22nd.

ROAR! Rock Of Angels has signed AIRFORCE to a multi-album deal. A live album is expected this year and a new studio album is to follow.

Sneakout Records has signed 5IVE YEARS GONE. The band’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebirth album, which was a demo in 2020, is being re-mixed for re-release.

VANDALLUS has a new demo called Vandallus 4.

SINSATION is working on a new demo. The band was founded in 2019.

MALACODA has a demo called The Strain.

CANDLEMASS, DARK ANGEL, CIRITH UNGOL and RIOT V are among the groups playing at Hell's Heroes Festival in Houston, Texas, USA next April.

George Lynch joined DOKKEN on stage at the Live United Live Music Festival in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, USA on June 5th to perform several of the band's songs.

Finland-based Rockshots Records’ THY ROW has a single called Road Goes On from its Unchained album, which is out September 24th. The band is compared to MEGADETH and QUEEN.

CONCEPTION has released a new single entitled Cry (Live). It is culled from a crowdfunding campaign supporting the release of a new version of 2020’s State Of Deception album.

Rockshots Records has issued TRITON DEV's Stay Alive album on 18.06.2020. The band is the creation of composer/guitarist/sound engineer Blacky Lee Stone.

God Is A Witness is the demo of Italy-based act ANIMS, which features former DANGER ZONE and CRYING STEEL guitarist Francesco Di Nicola. The group also features bassist Elio Caia, drummer Diego Emiliani and CRYING STEEL singer Luca Bonzagni. There is a single called Freedom.

Birth Ritual Records is issuing PARADISE LOST’s Draconian Times Live MMXI on tape on June 30th.

Croatia-based RAPID STRIKE has a self-titled album through Wormholedeath. The band was initially founded in 2010 and has had a tour of Japan with NIGHTRAGE and a European tour with BLACK STAR RIDERS. The band’s Just A Lie video features several Metallian Towers’ serfs.

Gospel Oak is the first single from Norway-based duo, HRADA featuring Peter Espevoll (EXTOL) and Åsmund Janøy who worked with EXTOL on its Of Light And Shade DVD.

Canadian singer and band leader DEVIN TOWNSEND has a forthcoming album called Lightwork in early 2022. The man is also touring Europe next spring.

Western Canada’s camping and music festival Loud As Hell returns to the Dinosaur Downs Stampede Grounds in Drumheller, Canada from July 30th to August 1st. For information visit http://www.loudashell.ca/tickets.

Every band in the world has one of those $1.99 “lyric videos.”