Metallian Heavy

Following the release of Sicknesses Obsessions this year, PUTRID OFFAL’s Live At Hellfest 2017 is out through Xenokorp.

HATE ETERNAL has released an instrumental version of 2018’s Upon Desolate Sands album. The release is available through HATE ETERNAL’s Bandcamp page only.

Grindcore band TO DUST has an EP entitled Nightmare Cycles through Seeing Red Records.

ABLAZE MY SORROW’s Among Ashes And Monoliths albums is due through Black Lion in February.

HORNCROWNED’s Rex Exterminii (The Hand Of The Opposer) is out through Ketzer Records. The label has also re-released PEST’s Ad Se Ipsum.

USA-based CORRUPTED SAINT has had its Mutilated Before The Masses demo re-issued by Redefining Darkness Records and Raw Skull Recordz.

Seattle, USA-based technical extreme metal band XOTH will re-release the Interdimensional Invocations demo on vinyl through Dawnbreed Records.

Other labels are not proud of their signings?? Season Of Mist “are proud to announce the signing of FUATH”, the atmospheric offshoot of SAOR’s Andy Marshall. A record is due next year.

Germany-based technical death metal band PROFANITY will release a new demo, entitled Fragments Of Solace, on December 4th.

Black metal band CONQUERORS has signed with Music-Records for the release of a new album entitled Stormbringer, which will be released on May 21, 2021. The band hails from France.

Goth black metal band ARSENIC ADDICTION has a demo called XIX.

NIGHTFALL will release its back-catalogue on vinyl. Five albums will be released on vinyl through Season Of Mist in the first two months of 2021.

Italy-based black metal band HELLRAISERS has released a video for Another Chance to Die from The Macabre Dance Of The Keeper album through Vacula Productions.

Avantgarde Music is issuing SEVEROTH’s Vsesvit and FUNERAL WINDS’ Essence albums in January.

The Czech Republic-based grind/death metal duo !T.O.O.H.! has issued an album called Free Speech and a second single online. The album is out through Lavadome Productions.

Horror Pain Gore Death has a compilation with four bands, WHIPSTRIKER, TERRÖRHAMMER, VULCAN TYRANT and SPEEDWHORE.

Everlasting Spew will issue FRACTAL GENERATOR’s Macrocosmos LP in January. The band is compared to AEON.

UK-based dark metal band ZEBADIAH CROWE returns to the world of the Host Rider album with a new EP called The Cloven Hand. It is out on December 2nd.

Following CURSED MOON, the speed/thrash band HELLRAIZERR by Sal Hellraizerr will issue an album called Life After Deaththrough Reaper Metal this month.

Belgium-based dark metal outfit EMPTINESS has a new full length entitled Vide. The album is produced by vocalist/bass player Jérémie Bézier.

Finland-based black metallers QWÄLEN have signed to Italian label Time To Kill Records for the release of their first album Unohdan Sinut in 2021. The band was founded in 2017.

Australia-based REAVER will issue a second single and video called Broken Smoker from its split EP The Nobody Crowd with ACROLYSIS.

EYEHATEGOD is back on Century Media Records and will issue a new album entitled A History Of Nomadic Behavior in the spring of 2021.

Montreal, Canada-based industrial metal band SYYNASTRY has a demo called Civilization’s Coma.

Gothic industrial doom band SAVIORSKIN has an album called Omnipotence Of The Absolute through Horror Pain Gore Death. Naturally, Rogga Johansson is a guest on the album.

Italy-based DOGS FOR BREAKFAST has a video for the song The Blade Of The Lord from the Suiru album, which is issued through Overdrive Records.

Finland-based grindcore band (the label calls them “merchants,” but we are sure they are a musical group) CANNIBAL ACCIDENT has signed to Italian label Time To Kill Records for the release of a new album in 2021.

THE MACHINIST has a debut blackened death metal called I Am Void. The band features the talents of members of REIGN OF EREBUS and NEKRODRAKO.

Finland-based doom metal group INFIRMUM has signed a deal with Wormholedeath for the physical CD release of the Walls Of Sorrow album. It is set for release on the 18th of December.

Serbia-based groove/death metal act MUD FACTORY has signed with Wormholedeath for the release of its album The Sins Of Our Fathers.

Art Gates Records’ grinding act MORPHIUM has an upcoming album called The Fall due out in March.

Season Of Mist has signed PESSIMIST (featuring Kelly McLauchlin of DEATH, ex-POSSESSED and I AM MORBID).In addition to a new full-length, which the band is currently writing, the label will be releasing the band’s early full-length records in the coming months.

Comatose Music has signed SLOB, the UK’s self-proclaimed “Hillbilly Death Brutality” band. Comatose will be launching the band’s debut album, Deepwoods Barn Of Sodomy, early next year.

Oddly, the US Republican Party still has a Facebook page! Facebook has taken down Satanath Records’ page ostensibly after posting an old BURZUM flyer. Apparently, the site has been censoring BURZUM references due to the man’s fascist ideology.

Black metal act TOTALITARIAN has a new EP called Kulturkampf/Los Von Rom through Barren Void Records.

Ecuador-based INFECTED HUMANS will release its debut album Unexpected Traumatic Experiences through Gore House Productions on January 15th.

The WINDIR albums Soknardalr, Arntor, 1184 and Likferd will be available in a special, limited edition wooden box set through Season Of Mist in March.

Brazil-based MORTIFER RAGE is working on a new demo. The band has a single called Touch Of Blood.

Chile-based thrash metal group MAYHEMIC’s Mortuary Of Skeletons was issued on vinyl through Awakening Records on28.08.

Argentina-based CEMETERY DWELL will issue the Cold Visions Of Nether demo through Redefining Darkness Records on the 30th December. The label is also issuing HAUNTED CENOTAPH’s Abyssal Menace, EXTIRPATION’s A Damnation’s Stairway To The Altar Of Failure and Sweden-based ETERNAL EVIL’s The Rise Of Death.

INHALEMENT and Horror Pain Gore Death Productions have issued a new EP called Live Resin. The EP contains five tracks recorded live in its practice space on October 1st, 2020.

The Netherlands-based band CARACH ANGREN has a music video for the title track of its latest release Franckensteina Strataemontanus.

Italy-based SADIST is working on its upcoming ninth studio album, titled Firescorched, currently which is expected to be released next year. The band will record the new full-length with French drummer Romain Goulon (ex-NECROPHAGIST, ex-BENIGHTED and ex-DISAVOWED) and Dutch fretless bass master Jeroen Paul Thesseling (OBSCURA, QUADVIUM and ex-PESTILENCE).

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM has made bassist Bill Bodily (ex-TOXIK) permanent after the man filled in on stage in 2019. A new album is due in 2021.

MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson will self-publish a fiction novel called The Sledge Chronicles: Rock Star Hitman this month.

Sweden-based TRIBULATION will release its new album, Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, through Century Media Records.

EXODUS’ Persona Non Grata album is out through Nuclear Blast Records in the summer.

KREATOR will reissue its Terror Prevails – Live At Rock Hard Festival 2010, album on two cassettes limited to 444 copies through Reborn Through Tapes Records. The band is working on a new album for 2021. The band has also jumped on the merchandising bandwagon and has collaborated with coffee roasters The Barn on a blend called Black Sunrise.


Metallian Hard

Edmonton, Canada-based BONEYARD is a female-fronted hard rock/heavy metal band whose debut demo Oathbreaker was preceded by the single Fates Warning.

Italy-based hard rock group HATE will issue an album called Save You through Diamonds Prod immediately.

DIAMOND HEAD’s Lightning To The Nations 2020 is a rerecording of the band’s debut album.

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT is issuing Live At Rock Of Ages Festival 2016 on CD/DVD, LP and Blu-ray this month through Frontiers.

Former URIAH HEEP Keyboardist Ken Hensley has died at age 75.

After a break of a little more than 5 years, Austria-based hard rockers SERGEANT STEEL are back with a new album. Truck Tales will be released digitally and on compact disc worldwide through Boyz Tyme on January 22nd.

Italy-based melodic metal band MARBLE has signed a record deal with Sliptrick Records. The new album is called S.A.V.E. and shall be released in early 2021.

DEMON HUNTER will release the Songs Of Death And Resurrection acoustic album through Solid State Records in March.

The new AETERNITAS album Haunted Minds is out through Wormholedeath. Henning Basse (Ex-METALIUM and FIREWIND) and Glen Drover (Ex-MEGADETH, Ex-KING DIAMOND) guest on the record.

TANAGRA has a new single coming out entitled Seas Of Glass.

After signing a contract with RTR Records, the band CARTTADA (formerly MOTORBASTARDS) disclose the title and track list of the next album as Recharged. It will be released in March. To celebrate this CARTTADA's first release will be issued as a deluxe gatefold limited edition on coloured vinyl.

Combat Records has issued a single for the Canada-based veteran band SWORD. It is called In Kommand. An album is due next year.

KIX will issue a new version of Midnite Dynamite called Midnite Dynamite Re-Lit on the album’s 35th anniversary. It will feature new unreleased material such as demo recordings.

JACKYL will release a live DVD and CD, called Family Reunion - Live In Kansas City, independently.

UK-based hard-rock band THUNDER will release its next album, entitled All The Right Noises, in March.

Bandwagon: SAXON will issue a covers’ album called Inspirations in 2021.

COMMUNIC’s Hiding From The World is out through AFM. The band has a video for the title track.

ROTTING CHRIST has had a fossil named after it. Two researchers from the Natural History Museum in Luxembourg found a new brittle-star species recently and decided to name it Brezinacantha Tolis honouring the Tolis brothers.

MOONSPELL will issue an album called Hermitage through Napalm Records in February.

HELLIXXIR has a video clip for the song Wolf Behind Bars, which is from the group’s latest album The Black Fortress.

CARNAGE ALPHA's From There to Oblivion album is available through Wormholedeath Records worldwide. The band hails from Sweden.

Progressive metal outfit CYRAX has a lyric video for the track Dorian Gray, which is taken from the upcoming album Experiences out through Wormholedeath/The Orchard on out on 11.12.2020.

Sweden-based hard rock band PRINS SVART has a single called Speglar Och Dimma, which is culled from the upcoming album Sanning Och Makt. The band features Mats Leven formerly of CANDLEMASS.

USA-based progressive band AUTOCATALYTICA has a demo called Powerclashing Maximalism. The band is compared to DEVIN TOWNSEND.

Louisville, USA-based punk/metal crossover band PRAYER LINE has a single called Who Goes There? which is based on John Carpenter's The Thing. This is the first single from the band's upcoming demo entitled Thrill Me, Lick Me, Fuck Me, Kill Me which will be released sometime in the middle of 2021.

Embarrassing. Sweden-based heavy metal band OXIDIZE has a new single called Frozen, which is a MADONNA Cover.

Synth heavy pop rockers THERION will issue an album called Leviathan through Nuclear Blast in January.

Frontiers Music has signed PRETTY MAIDS’ singer Ronnie Atkins to a solo deal. His One Shot album is due in the spring of 2021. The man is fighting stage 4 cancer.

Neil Peart of RUSH’s drum kit, which he used from 1974 to 1977, is auctioned off last month. It was previously given away as part of a contest.

Chinese factories may sell less MAGA merchandise now, but will they see orders from a relaunched Ivanka brand?


Metallian Demos

CIRAXIS - ATROCITIES
This Illinois, USA-based trio is a relatively young band. This six-song debut EP was originally released in 2018. Memories opens up this recording sending mixed messages. Kyle Bissell moves from aggressive growling to clean vocals and the music also varies between somewhat extreme and more progressive elements. When not growling Bissell gives off an ‘80s heavy or progressive metal vibe but the music cannot really be called dated or ‘80s style. Being, complete with an extended slow and acoustic section, illustrates the aforementioned description. Pink Cloud starts heavy and catchy and settles on a pseudo-Voivod arrangement. Arbiter continues Bissell's double personality vocals with Darek Mix and Taylor Mix sometimes submitting to the changing face. Order Of No Quarter feels more music dominated. The closing title track starts with a horror themed intro and seems to build up to something heavier and later delivers it to some degree. The potential of the band becomes more evident and promising. The song slowly fades in its final minute.
Two 2020 singles in Judgment: Condemned and Bound To Flesh also arrived at Metallian Towers. The former is a six minutes long song with the vocals starting only half way in. The song is said to be the first chapter of a new concept album that will be released as eight singles. The song structure feels less chaotic although variations in pace are still present. Bound To Flesh is one of the songs of the album that shall be called The Act & The Aftermath. The song itself follows the same direction as most of the other songs. Ciraxis is best described as a heavy metal band with touches of aggression and progressive influences. The graphic novel type artwork are all impressive. www.ciraxis.com to view them all. – Anna Tergel

HOUR OF ANGUISH - INTO THE EMPTY
Into The Empty is the sophomore release of the Swedish duo. They claim to have produced a genre bending amalgamation of existentialism and aggression, all based on the new Gothenburg sound. The album is nine songs and 44 minutes long and Andreas Henriksson and RL Potts promise to deliver both the beauty and the beast. Oblivion has a brief intro and jumps into what is unmistakably a Swedish sound. Clean vocals follow soon after to solidify the Soilwork, In Flames type influences. The loud guitar mix aids the song but the clichéd clean vs not clean vocals does not. The start of Denial is positively pop-ish with the song itself firmly in the nu mental realm. Living Dead has a more promising beginning at least and is somewhat heavier and faster. The title track is once again a clear take on the aforementioned cliché, however the riffing is thicker than would be expected. Within is angrier. Left In Mourning, as its title may suggest, is what counts as a ballad. My Dark Mind features clean vocals and sections that are again pop-ish, to the point of it exiting metal altogether, but the so-called harsh vocals and instruments keep it adrift. A Ghost Of Memories tries to make amends for what preceded it with the fastest and heaviest sections on Into The Empty. The Devil In My Eyes closes this attempt at a balance between melody and force. Check www.hourofanguish.com to hear music that must have commercial viability. – Anna Tergel