Metallian Heavy

WOLVES ATTACK!!’s Piss On Everything is out through Horror Pain Gore Death Productions on June 23rd. Tracks include The Pizza Incident, Silver Bullet and Full Moon Fuck Beast.

Toronto-based DEITY has a self-titled debut demo after 15 years of existence. The album features drummer Flo of CRYPTOPSY as a session member.

Inspired by KEEL? A reformed DEMOLITION HAMMER played at the Keep It True festival in Germany on April 28.

France-based death metal band DUNKELNACHT has a Russian tour 2017 to promote its new release, Anthropocenia.

PATHOLOGY will release its self-titled album on July 21 through Comatose Music.

TANKARD will release its next album, called One Foot In The Grave, on June 2nd through Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2014’s R.I.B. (Rest In Beer) was recorded at Gernhart Studio in Troisdorf with producer Martin Buchwalter.

Germany-based TRINITY SITE has a demo called After The Sun. The band’s style is described as melodic death metal.

Germany-based DAWN OF DISEASE will release its fourth album, Ascension Gate, on August 11 through Napalm Records.

Germany-based death metal band INGURGITATING OBLIVION has a full-length, called Vision Wallows In Symphonies Of Light, on April 21st through Willowtip Records.

Germany-based black metal band NEMESIS SOPOR has an album called MMXL through Geisterasche Organisation.

Belgium-based LENG TCH’E has re-signed with Season Of Mist and a new album is due this summer.

Austria-based thrash metal band DEATHTALE has signed with Art Gates Records. A new album will be recorded this year.

NECROPHAGIA has announced a European tour in support of David Vincent’s I AM MORBID. Opening the trek is HELSOTT. Vincent has also joined HEADCAT, featuring Slim Jim Phantom (THE STRAY CATS) and Danny B. Harvey (ROCKATS, 13 CATS and LONESOME SPURS). Vincent replaces Lemmy Kilmister.

Hamilton Canada-based ACT OF SIN has a demo called Casting The Second Stone since September, 2016. The band’s style is described as melodic death/thrash metal.

OVERKILL has recruited drummer Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, etc.) to replace Ron Lipnicki.

Canada-based NUCLEAR OATH will be releasing a demo called Toxic Playground on June 9th. It is the follow-up to Ashes Of The Unborn.

CARNIVORE played a show on Saturday, May 20th at Bowery Electric in New York City as part of the Black N’ Blue Bowl 2017. The headliner is CRO-MAGS. CARNIVORE’s guitarist Marc Piovanetti will present 30 Years Of Retaliation and pay tribute to the band’s dead founder Peter Steele.

Russia-based death metal band Arbor Inversa has signed a distribution deal with Wormholedeath for the worldwide release of its album, Anticipatterns. The full-length was recorded at Infernal Fields studio from February to July, 2016. Anticipatterns will be available on the 16th June worldwide through Wormholedeath/The Orchard.

Aural Music and Code666 are issuing EORONT’s Another Realm and WASTES Into The Void Of Human Vacuity albums this June.

VENOM, MY DYING BRIDE, GHAALS WYRD, DARKANE, THE GREAT OLD ONES, DIABOLICAL, BALFOR, MORTAL STRIKE and HAUNTED have been added to the line-up of Eindhoven Metal Meeting 2017. The ninth edition will take place on Friday 15 & Saturday 16th of December.

Modern death metal band SUCCUMB has issued its self-titled album.

SHADOWFLAG has a demo called The Delusion Machine out on June 23rd.

THUS DEFILED’s Return To The Shadows EP is out. The EP features a new song and cover versions. Donn Donni (VESPERIAN SORROW) is on METALLICA’s Creeping Death and Mike Browning (NOCTURNUS, ex-MORBID ANGEL) is on MORBID ANGEL’s Demon Seed.

POSSESSED, which is actually singer Jeff Becerra and his backing musicians, has signed to Nuclear Blast and will begin recording an album soon.

ORIGIN will release an album, Unparalleled Universe, on June 30th through Agonia Records in Europe and Nuclear Blast in North America.

“Epic Celtic Death Metal” band STEIGNYR has a new EP and it is called Ashes From A Keltic Spirit, which is out as a bunch of MP3s on June 9th through Art Gates Records.

BIRDFLESH and ORGAN DEALER have a split album out on June 2nd 2017 through Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Both BIRDFLESH and ORGAN DEALER played at the Maryland Deathfest XV on May 26th.

Austria-based black/thrash metal band IRDORATH has signed a distribution deal with Wormholedeath for the worldwide release of its album, Denial Of Creation.

Brazil-based death metal band ABERRARIO has issued a self-titled demo.

ARCH ENEMY will release a new album, called Will To Power, on September 8th through Century Media Records.

Germany-based F41.0 has a new album, Bürde (‘Burden’) through Geisterasche Organisation. The band was formed in 2007 by Hysteriis (KRATEIN, ex-ATRAS CINERIS and GOAT INFERNO). The act gained a live line-up in 2014.

Australia-based THY ART IS MURDER will release its next full-length album, Dear Desolation, this autumn through Nuclear Blast.

Relapse Records has signed EXPULSION. The act features members of REPULSION, EXHUMED, GRUESOME and PHOBIA. EXPULSION’s debut album, called Nightmare Future, will be released on July 14.

Schwarzdorn Production will release Black Mass Ritual, the full-length debut album from FORMICARIUS, in July.

Britain-based black metal band STAHLSARG has signed a deal with the Dutch label Non Serviam Records. The album Mechanisms Of Misanthropy will be released in the autumn of 2017.

LUNATIC HOOKER, which recently released its debut album Embracing The Filth, will support US death metal band SUFFOCATION at the Camden Underworld in London, UK on August 31st.

Italy-based djent/death core band TURMA has signed a deal with Agoge Records. The band’s Kraken album is ready to be released and distributed.

FACE DOWN HERO’s False Evidence Appearing Real album is out through Yonah Records. The band’s style is thrash metal.

Montreal, Canada-based KARKAOS has a new demo called Children Of The Void. It follows the Empire full-length debut in 2014 and the In Burning Skies of 2011.

USA-based WOLVENGUARD has a debut demo called Elemental Reclamation. The band features members of VESPERIAN SORROW, CEREBRAL DESECRATION and IN OBLIVION. The band’s style is described as “archaic black metal.”

Montreal, Canada-based thrash metal band MUTANK has an EP called W.H.A.T.S.T.H.A.T. out June 16th through Boonsdale Records. The band is embarking on its first cross-Canada tour with ANNIHILATOR in June.

The new DEVANGELIC album Phlegethon will be out on 27.10.2017 through Comatose Music.

Sweden-based SOIJL’s As The Sun Sets On Life album is out through Solitude Productions. The band’s style is described as atmospheric doom death.

Germany-based doom/death metal group CALLIOPHIS has an album called Cor Serpentis through Solitude Productions.

MARCHE FUNEBRE’s Into The Arms Of Darkness album is out through BadMoodManMusic. The band’s music is described as “doom death/black metal.”


Metallian Hard

Lion Music has announced June 15th as the release date for Finland-based ANTHRIEL's new album, Transcendence.

Obscurena Records has issued DANIEL`S DELUSION’s album Peace, Love & Harmony In The Midst Of Chaos. The band’s style is described as progressive metal.

MASTERPLAN, which features ex-HELLOWEEN guitarist Roland Grapow, will release a covers’ album entitled PumpKings on June 30th through AFM. The album is comprised of reworked versions of HELLOWEEN songs from albums on which Grapow played.

SANCTUARY has recruited Attila Vörös (NEVERMORE) as its new second guitar player. Vörös will join the former NEVERMORE members on the 2017 European summer tour.

Italy-based power metal band BURNING GROUND has signed to Minotauro Records and shall release an album called Last Day Of Light.

Brazil-based heavy metal band WILD WITCH has signed with Arthorium Records. The band was founded in 2011 by Felipe "Rippervert" (B), Mariano Burich (G), Weiberlan Garcia (D) and Flav Scheidt (V) who all at some point were in the speed/thrash metal group CRUSHER, which was also founded by Felipe. The band recently lost singer Flav Scheidt and had Felipe rerecord the vocals for the album the group was recording. The album, which is called Offering, will be out late this year.

Norway-based LEPROUS will release a new album, called Malina, on August 25 through InsideOut Music. The band is also touring Europe.

BLIND GUARDIAN will release a live album entitled Live Beyond The Spheres on July 7th. It is a 3-CD and 4-LP package and will be issued by Nuclear Blast.

L.A. GUNS — featuring Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns — will release a new album called The Missing Peace on October 6th through Frontiers Music.

In an interview with The Guardian former DEEP PURPLE guitarist Ritchie Blackmore reports that he no longer disdains his former band-mates and asserts he would play with his former band-mates were he invited.

Greece-based power metal band VALOR has a new album, four years following The Yonder Answer album. The band was founded in 2002.

IN FLAMES has recruited Bryce Paul, formerly of rock band IVES, to play bass for its current U.S. tour.

VOIVOD member Jean-Yves Thériault ‘Blacky’ and bassist Monica Emond have a new project called CŒUR ATOMIQUE (‘atomic heart’). CŒUR ATOMIQUE's debut album is called Landscape Of Emergency. The music is bass and electronica-oriented.

Sweden-based heavy rock band GRAND DELUSION has signed to Minotauro Records for the CD release of Supreme Machine.

With singer and founding member Bobby Liebling in jail PENTAGRAM is touring Europe with guitarist Victor Griffin handling the vocals.

Belarus-based KLIODNA, which is described as symphonic/melodic metal, has signed a deal with Wormholedeath for the worldwide release of its album, The Dark Side...

Sweden-based “symphonic extreme metal” band ZORNHEYM has finished work on its debut album and will issue it on the 15th of September through Non Serviam Records.

Five years following his departure from ANGRA, Brazilian singer Edu Falaschi announces he will be performing songs from the band's catalogue as part of his newly launched solo career with plans to tour various countries. Falaschi released his solo album Moonlight last year through Test your Metal Records. The album is comprised of acoustic versions of songs of his career with ANGRA and ALMAH.

Drummer Yoshiki of X JAPAN has undergone a cervical artificial disc replacement surgery on Tuesday, May 16 in Los Angeles, USA. He had been experiencing paralysis of the left hand and arm due to his work.

TEXTURES has thrown in the towel.

RAVEN drummer Joe Hasselvander has gone on sabbatical due to a serious health concern.

UK-based SYTERIA, featuring Jackie Chambers of GIRLSCHOOL and ex-BLITZKRIEG, has released a music video for the track I’m All Women from its debut demo Rant-O-Bot Album, which was issued on May 30th.

Pitch Black Records has signed female-fronted US/Canadian “symphonic power metal” act INSATIA and will issue the band’s second album, Phoenix Aflame, on June 23rd.

Heaven & Hell Records and Metalworx have reissued the CRUELLA albums Vengeance Is Mine and Shock The World albums.

Could it refer to the band members being conservative/right-wingers? Sweden-based SAREA has signed a publishing deal with Wormholedeath for the worldwide release of its Black At Heart album. It was recorded, mixed and mastered at Crehate Studio in Gothenburg, Sweden by Oscar Nilsson.

Metal Scrap Records has issued Ukraine-based HESPERION’s Живим.../Who Alive... CD.

Russia-based EVOKE THY LORDS’ Lifestories album is out through Solitude Productions. The band plays doom metal.

VICIOUS RUMORS and singer Brian Allen have reunited. Allen left the band three years ago due to family reasons.

TRESPASS has signed a deal with Mighty Music. The band's album will be released in late 2017.

Repeating the line-up from this spring, UFO and SAXON have announced more concerts in the U.S. and Canada in September and October.

Poland-based ANIMATIONS has released a demo entitled Without The Sun. It's the follow-up to Private Ghetto, which was released in 2013.

NWOBHM band VARDIS has signed a management contract with Germany-based Rock'n'Growl Promotion. The band's comeback album, Red Eye, was released in 2016 through SPV/Steamhammer. The band is Steve Zodiac, Joe Clancy and Martin Connolly.

NAZARETH, which is comprised of founding member bassist Pete Agnew, guitarist Jimmy Murrison, drummer Lee Agnew and new singer since 2015 Carl Sentance has signed with Frontiers records and will issue an album in 2018.

Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent visited Donald Drumpf in the white House. Enough said.


Metallian Demos

MAGNACULT - INFINITUM
Magnacult and not Magnacvlt? Ok. Infinitum is the third release of this Dutch band formed all the way back in 2005. Groove metal is the first phrase the band has chosen to describe themselves, death metal is the other. To be both at same time takes some doing, The opener, Righteous Murder, is certainly aggressive, chaotic, with screams and so called harsh vocals. The second song is somewhat less so and probably something-core, deathcore perhaps, I'm Chosen does feature some heavy and catchy guitar work however. Scars has the band settling to something less than death metal, underneath the rhythm and Seb's screams David and Thomas do some good guitar work as the song slows down and ends with some clearer heavy riffing. Liberate is structured like the song before it. Be Freed By Death is a short intermission but it is not acoustic. Holy-Um follows and features a welcome solo before the title track surprises with acoustic sections and female vocals. The band's bio lists Holy-Um as featuring the guest vocals of Theresa Smith (Metaprism) but everywhere, including the band's own site, have the seventh song as the title track! Interestingly the song simply titled 8 is listed as the ninth song on the CD and everywhere else too. The confusion aside Magnacult closes Infinitum with an unlisted heavy and sometimes speedy 12th track. Before that there is another intermission and some more chaos, good riffing and a blast beat too. The line of attack is at www.magnacult.eu. – Anna Tergel

MAMMOTHOR - DEVOTION LOST
Devotion Lost is the Americans' sophomore album after 2013's Tyrannicide. Josh Johnson, the guitarist of the band, is a graduate of Berklee College Of Music where he studied under Joe Stump. The CD mentions five names but the band picture right above the names shows four members. The band play hard rock with varying degrees of 'hard'. Unsurprisingly the opener, Howling Baying Jackal, is a more straightforward song but the second, Skin, features more variation between screaming hard rock and lower tempo but angry sounding sections. A grunge-y sound does creep in here as well. Johnson shows off a bit of his skills in the intermission called Anatma. Faith Healer sounds somewhat like a power ballad with the vocals of Travis Lowell reminding of Blackie Lawless. Shadows Of Oblivion features a disconnect between the vocals and the music, the latter is often more melodic than Lowell's screams and attitude. Elusive Engineer is a mellow radio friendly and guitar oriented ballad. This Is Not An Exit is again a more standard hard rock song with higher tempo moments. Generation Thief is the same. Blood-Soaked Candy Heart tries to be higher tempo and angrier, it is apparently about a love story, a broken heart likely, the song ends abruptly! Launch Pad is a bass filled intermission. Tyrannicide follows the very short intermission with what could be described as a harder edge but Pillar Of Simeon leaves the best for last, it is often faster and has progressive sounding sections too. This Boston area band can be found at www.mammothor.com. – Anna Tergel