Canada-based black metal duo SORGUINAZIA has an album called The Negation of Delirium through Iron Bonehead Productions.
UK-based ANDRACCA has an album called To Bare The Weight Of Death through Vendetta Records.
HEXER is working on an album called Black Flame In Cosmic Void. This will feature a new line-up. In the meantime, the act is appearing at Endzeit Festival, Hell Over Hammaburg and Crawling Chaos Live respectively in January, March and May.
ARCH ENEMY has split with guitarist of one decade Jeff Loomis and recruited Joey Concepcion as its new guitarist. Concepcion had taken Loomis’ place live in 2018 as well. Concepcion was in Armageddon and has been touring with Dark Tranquillity.
PERVERATION will release its new album, Putrefaction Of Infinite Apogee, through Comatose Music on February 2nd.
ARTILLERY is issuing Raw Live (At Copenhell) through Mighty Music. It is out on the 2nd February. It was recorded in 2022. It is the last live appearance by drummer Josua Madsen who was no longer part of the act after the show and died in 2023.
Germany-based pagan metal act HEIMDALLS WACHT has an album called Mystagogie through Trollzorn. The record delves into German romanticism and the philosophical concepts of Ludwig Tieck and Klingemann.
Germany-based NORNÍR’s Skuld album is out through Northern Silence Productions. It is the final piece of the band’s Three Nornes trilogy, which melds Norwegian black metal with folk elements.
MASSACRE has signed with Agonia Records for the release of the band’s next album. Kam Lee and bassist Mike Borders are joined by guitarists Rogga Johansson and Jonny Pettersson and new drummer Jon Rudin (JUST BEFORE DAWN, HEADS FOR THE DEAD, etc.). The live line-up features Carlos Gonzalez (GRIM REALITY) on guitars and Elden Santos (DRUID LORD) on drum.
RIBSPREADER will release a full-length called Reap Humanity through Xtreem Music in January. The band is Rogga Johansson on guitar, bass and vocals, Taylor Nordberg (DEICIDE, INHUMAN CONDITION and ex – MASSACRE) is on guitar and Jeramie Kling (VENOM INC., INHUMAN CONDITION and ex – MASSACRE) is on drums.
MERRIMACK has an upcoming album called Of Grace And Gravity in 2024. Season Of Mist is uploading an advanced song and video called Sulphurean Synods.
Italy-based grindcore trio NEID has signed to Time To Kill Records for the release of a covers’ EP entitled Still Offensive. It will focus on the 1990s hardcore scene.
SEPULTURA has joined KISS, OZZY OSBOURNE, HOLY MOSES, ELTON JOHN, BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST, AEROSMITH, FOREIGNER, MÖTLEY CRÜE, STATUS QUO, MANOWAR and SCORPIONS on the farewell tour circuit. SEPULTURA’s 40th anniversary farewell tour will cover the “entire globe” for 18 months starting in March.
Loud Rage Music and Pest Records have solo Romania-based act INSEPULTUS’ Deadly Gleams Of Blood – Steel And Fire album available this month. It is described as, “A Black Metal Symphony of Death in seven acts.” The labels also have a rerelease of ULTIMATUM’s Among Potential States out in January. It is described as, “the very first Death Metal full-length album released in Romania, initially out in 1996, and now re-mastered.”
Metal Crushes All Tour 2024 covers Canada and the USA in April and May and features AMON AMARTH, CANNIBAL CORPSE, OBITUARY and FROZEN SOUL.
The video for AMON AMARTH song Saxons And Vikings from its The Great Heathen Army album features SAXON‘s Biff Byford, Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt. Byford also contributed vocals.
HULDER will release its Verses In Oath album through 20 Buck Spin in February. It was mixed and mastered by Ahti Kortelainen at Tico Tico Studio in Finland. The 2024 Decibel Magazine Tour will take place with HULDER, DEVIL MASTER, WORM and NECROFIER in the USA in February and March.
CARCASS and THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER are touring Australia and New Zealand in April.
Poland-based schizophrenic act WARBELL has a video for the track Melancholical. The song is taken from an upcoming demo called Ruin, which has been in the works for three years. The lyrics for Melancholical were inspired by Sotha Sil, a half-god from The Elder Scrolls series.
SCHIZOGEN has one of those lyric videos for the song Out Of The Light. The song will be featured on the band’s upcoming full-length, which will be released through Willowtip Records.
Osmose Productions will release 333, the new album of the Netherlands-based group FUNERAL WINDS on 26.01.2024.
Anthology Of Horror is the new full-length by ACHERON’s VINCENT CROWLEY. It will be released through Hammerheart Records on February 23, 2024.
Anti-underground: Repulsive Echo Records and Frost & Fire Records have re-released the I’a Aem’nh S’ha-T’n the 1995 demo of OSCULUM INFAME on CD.
CORROSIVE has a live video for the song The White Witch. It was recorded at a concert in Hannover, Germany in August. The band shall release the complete concert recording in 2024. The track is taken from the band’s Wrath Of The Witch album.
EXODUS’ bassist Jack Gibson will skip the remaining concerts on the group’s U.S. tour due to “a family emergency”. The band has not honoured or respected him by cancelling the concerts. Instead, filling in is Mike Schleibaum of opening act DARKEST HOUR.
Canada-based thrash metal act TRISKELYON has re-signed with Moribund Records for two more albums. The band issued its Artificial Insanity album in September.
DEAD EARTH will release the CD version of its Et Disperdam Illud album through Chaos Records in February. It was released by De:Nihil Records as an LP in 2022. DEAD EARTH features Mathias Kamijo known from ALGAION and HYPOCRISY and has several notable guests like Henke Forss (DAWN), Björn Larsson (MORDBRAND and GOD MACABRE), Kristin Starkey (TEMPERANCE), Thomas Clifford (ABSCESSION and THRONE OF HERESY), Angus Norder (WITCHERY), Kim Arnell (MORIFADE and PRIME CREATION) and leads by Toby Knapp and Chaq Mol (DARK FUNERAL).
Germany-based thrash metal band SMORRAH has a demo called Welcome To Your Nightmare in February. The band is compared to EXHORDER and SEPULTURA.
Australia-based thrash metal group EXECUTUS has a demo called The Black Throne Of Chaos Abandoned.
VIO-LENCE, EXHORDER, DECEASED and MORTAL WOUND are conducting a mini-tour of the USA in April. The first two bands conducted a joint tour recently as well. VIO-LENCE will play its Eternal Nightmare debut album in its entirety.
Original RDP bassist Jarbas “Jabá” Alves died in 2023. He was sixty-years old.
MORTA SKULD will release a new album, entitled Creation Undone, through Peaceville Records on 23.02.2024.
MESSIAH will release a new album, entitled Christus Hypercubus, through High Roller Records in March. It features the band’s newer members Marcus Seebach (vocals) and V.O. Pulver (guitar). A video for the title track is available.
Austria-based metalcore act XENOCRACY has a record called Impermanence through Kvlt Und Kaos Productions. “Each of the 12 tracks on the album presents a narrative rich in literary and cultural references, such as “Vanitas” influenced by German Baroque poetry and “Fireflies” inspired by a Japanese war film.”
DIPYGUS has a self-titled full-length. It shall be released through Memento Mori (CD) and Crypt Of The Wizard (vinyl) on 22.01.2024.
Atmospheric band SLOW has released an album called Abîmes I through Code666.
VLTIMAS has a new album coming through Season Of Mist called Epic in March. The band is Rune Eriksen (ex-MAYHEM), Flo Mounier (CRYPTOPSY) and David Vincent (ex-MORBID ANGEL). The band’s previous record was called Something Wicked Marches In and issued in 2019.
Serbia-based all-girl band NEMESIS has an album called Embrace Reality in January. The original title was Here To Stay, which ended up being a track on the new record.
Groovy metalcore act DEVOLVER has uploaded a song called New Blood, which will also appear on the band’s next release. The band wanted to pay homage to the Guitar Hero video game and added, “We had someone make the Guitar Hero charts for New Blood and Jewels Of The Maw, so if you play Clone Hero on PC you can download and play our songs!”
Colombia-based CERCENATORY will release GoreSphere, its first album in seven years, through Comatose Music on February 16th.
DEFEATED SANITY has signed with Season Of Mist. The band is working with new guitarist Vaughn Stoffey on an album, which will be released in 2024. DEFEATED SANITY will also be playing Maryland Deathfest with label-mates SEVERE TORTURE and BRODEQUIN this year.
Romania-based NECROTUM has an album called Defleshed Exhumation, which will be released through Memento Mori on 22.01.2024.
WHITE DEATH has a video for the song Deathstruction, which is a bonus track on the band’s Iconoclast album. It is out through Werewolf Records. The LP version will follow next year.
Spain-based crust/black metal group SVDESTADA will issue its Candela album in January. The CD and LP editions will be available through Long Legs Long Arms Records and Shove Records respectively.
Thrash metal act SOVEREIGN has a full-length called Altered Realities, which will be out through Dark Descent Records this month.
Black metal band GRAVENOIRE, featuring Maximilien Brigliadori (BÂ’A, DIABLATION and ex-HYRGAL), Emmanuel Zuccaro (BÂ’A, VERFALLEN and ex-HYRGAL), Vicomte Vampyr Arkames (DIABLATION and ex-SETH and AD-INFERNA) and RMS Hreidmarr (GLACIATION, BÂ’A and ex-ANOREXIA NERVOSA and THE CNK), has signed with Season Of Mist. An album is expected in 2024.
GORGUTS has picked up DEVIANT PROCESS’ drummer Michel Bélanger as replacement for Patrice Hamelin who left to take care of his “business.” The band is booked for the Maryland Deathfest this year.
DISBELIEF will release an album called Killing Karma album through Listenable Records in April.
FOETAL JUICE is touring the UK into February. It is in support of the Grotesque album, which is out through Gore House Productions.
BRUJERIA has announced Esto Es Brujeria – European Tour 2024 for June.
Because loyalty, focus and dedication are so last century: COUNTING HOURS, featuring current and former members of SHAPE OF DESPAIR, RAPTURE, IMPALED NAZARENE, COLOSSEUM and THE CHANT, has an album called The Wishing Tomb Through Ardua Music on 23.02.2024. The band has uploaded a song called Timeless Ones in advance.
Another self-cover version release: PUTERAEON has a digital EP called Quindecennial Horror through Emanzipation in March. Among others it contains the first song the band wrote, The Plague.
Doom/noise band LACOLPA has uploaded a song called Larva I. Per the press release it “is a stream of consciousness type of experiment brought to light by sessions of cathartic improvisations.”
NEMOPHILA has announced a new album and it is called Evolve. An advanced slow song is called Odyssey and featured on the advertising for a new animation called Oshiri Tantei, which is a series geared at schoolchildren in Japan.
STAGES OF DECOMPOSITION has uploaded a song called Skid Row Slasher. This track, along with the video, is from the group’s Raptures Of Psychopathy album, which will be released through Gore House Productions in February. The advance song refers to the infamous Skid Row Slasher and the Skid Row Stabber.
Canada-based tech death metal act APOGEAN has a full-length, entitled Cyberstrictive, through The Artisan Era in March. It makes the debut of new vocalist Mac Smith (live vocalist of DECREPIT BIRTH until recently). The advance song Thousand-Yard Glare addresses “the damage of overconsumption and the dangers of desensitization in media. The general populace, on a daily basis, is bombarded with endless electronic stimulus, which drastically affects every aspect of our lives and induces a pseudo-PTSD via photo-radiation.”