Metallian Heavy

Vancouver, Canada-based techno-death band PARAM-NESIA has a demo called Aspect Of Creation. There is a music video for the track Pestilence Of Man.

Sweden-based DODSKOLD has issued an album called Ödesriket through Pesttanz Klangschmiede.

HOODED MENACE has a new song called Blood Ornaments, which is taken from the band’s upcoming release The Tritonus Bell. The album is scheduled for world-wide release on through Season Of Mist August 27th, 2021.

Germany-based OBSCURA lost guitarist Rafael Trujillo, bassist Linus Klausenitzer and drummer Sebastian Lanser due to “musical differences” last month and they have launched OBSIDIOUS. OBSCURA itself intended to record this year. OBSIIDIOUS has signed with Season Of Mist now.

TOM THUMB Licence To Spill demo is available. The band is compared to GENERAL SURGERY.

New internationally-based death/doom act INKAR-NATION is working on its debut album currently and has a first single called To Begin With. The act features Samuel Morales from Spain (guitarist for GOLGOTHA and ex-HELEVORN) and PAUL BELTMAN (guitarist for RIVER OF SOULS, drummer with GRINDPAD and previously the drummer of SINISTER, SUPREME PAIN, etc.) from The Netherlands.

Funeral doom metal band SUFFER YOURSELF and Aesthetic Death will release an album called Rip Tide on June 25th 2021.

Finland-based doom metal band SWALLOW THE SUN will release a live album, entitled 20 Years Of Gloom, Beauty And Despair – Live In Helsinki, through Century Media Records in July. It will be available as a DVD as well.

Hailing from Denmark, funeral doom metal band FUNERAL CHASM and Aesthetic Death release Omniversal Existence, the band’s first album, on July 2nd.

Helsinki, Finland-based crossover band MY FUNERAL has released a single called Flamethrower. The band is working on a full-length demo.

To commemorate the band’s 30th anniversary both vinyl and cassette versions of PUTRID OFFAL’s ’90s’ discography, called Premature Necropsy: The Carnage Continues, will be issued on November 5th. This was issued on CD in 2015.

Deathrash band MUERTISSIMA has signs with Music-Records for the release of its debut album, which is scheduled for October 2021.

Horror Pain Gore Death will issue Italy-based SPASTICUS’ Fuck Me Before I Die on June 18th. The band was funded in 2019 and is compared to ASPHYX.

Following a livestream show DESTRUCTION will release a new Blu-ray and CD entitled Live Attack through Napalm Records on August 13th.

Taiwan-based black metal band LAANG 冷releases the single Dongshang 冻伤 in anticipation of the release of the Xinteng 心疼 album on Talheim Records in July 2021.

SODOM will release an EP called Bombenhage through Steamhammer/SPV on August 20th.

MAYHEM has an EP called Atavistic Black Disorder/Kommando featuring leftover music from the Daemon sessions. It is due in July.

Portugal-based ALASTOR will release its new album The Unholy Hordes through Firecum Records this month. The Unholy Hordes is the follow-up to its 30th-anniversary album The Dark Tower.

ASBJORN DAEMONIUM DE NOCTIS and ABYSSIELLE have a split demo called Cosmic Ritual. These are two solo acts.

They call it an “album,” but everyone knows it’s really a demo: Cold Thirst is a demo from Italy-based project MEURSAULT OMEGA, which is focused on the death penalty and features different artists and vocalists from the Italian metal scene. Cliff Scott is the main man. The style is described as “Thrash Industrial Noise Metal.”

SATYRICON has an exhibition called Satyricon & Munch at Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in 2022. Newly arranged SATYRICON music will be paired with art from Norwegian painter Edvard Munch famous for The Scream.

Comatose Music is releasing the debut album of Indonesia-based ANTHROPOPHAGUS DEPRAVITY, which is entitled Apocalypto. The band was founded in 2016.

Italy-based sludge band NEKER has an album called Slower, which will be out through Time To Kill Records on June 18th.

Indonesia-based VALLENDUSK issued its Heralds Of Strife album through Northern Silence Productions last month. The band was founded in 2011.

Sweden-based black metal five-piece BURNING DARKNESS will release a full-length album, called Dödens Makt, through Non Serviam Records on July 2nd.

To coincide with his new Backstage With David Ellefson podcast the Christian bassist pastor in MEGADETH has been the subject of an extramarital video, which was posted in May. The videos were recorded in 2018. Ellefson has been married for more than two decades and claims is taking legal action against the person who posted the video. MEGADETH has booted the man from the band referring to “an already strained relationship.”

Ireland-based INCESSANT has a demo called Perennial Umbra. The band claims to offer the “experience of loud and heavy bands of the late 60s, 70s, and 80s while driving forward the sound and atmosphere of black and death metal today.”

Seattle, USA-based GOAT SANCTUARY has a demo called Chthonic. The centre model on the cover is a serf at Metallian Towers.

Dormant PRIMALFROST from Toronto is back with a single called Nomad off a new eight-track demo called Lost Elegies. PRIMALFROST is the project of Dean Arnold who writes for and plays all instruments.

Grindcore band INSISTENT has an album called Disease! Through L’Inphantile Collective. The band is compared to NAILS.

USA-based SCATTERED STORM, featuring two members of PISSING RAZORS, has a demo called Oblivion this summer.

RAMCHAT has independently issued a cassette version of its 2020 release Znelo Lesom. The band is based in Slovakia.

Switzerland-based GULGUTA has a new demo called Andzia. A track called Fille Du Vent has been released.

Robert Meadows (A LIFE ONCE LOST, MINDPOWER and LEFT TO VANISH) has lent his vocals to Chicago-based BENEATH THE HOLLOW for a new single titled Carrion.

The Korporation has announced the August 6 CD and Digital release of deathrashers VRIESS’ debut EP as part of the budget Xenokorp Militia Series. In addition to the two band members, drum-for-hire Kévin Paradis (BENIGHTED, MITHRIDATIC, etc.) and bassist Linus Klausenitzer (ALKALOID, ex-OBSCURA, etc.) are session members, not to mention a guest solo by DARKANE‘s own Christopher Malmström.

SEWER TRENCH (UK), GLOBAL HORROR (FR) and STATE TERROR (ES) together with DIY labels Fatalism Extreme (UK), Metal Is The Law (FR) and State Terror (ES) will release a split of death, crust and grindcore called Global Terror Sewer.

Germany-based black metal band FIAT NOX has signed with Crawling Chaos. First seen live by the label at Odyssee To Blasphemy festival, the album The Archive Of Nightmares has been entrusted to the label and due this month.

Algeria-based LELAHELL and Moroccan pop singer Julie have collaborated on a sing-along in Arabic. The song was written by Julie.

BELETH has signed with WormHoleDeath and has its debut album, entitled Silent Genesis, out on Friday June 25th. The intro/opening track off the album Thirteenth Spirit/Silent Genesis was pre-released at the end of 2020.

CHESTCRUSH’s Vdelygmia is out in July and described as death metal and sludge. Edinburgh-based CHESTCRUSH is the solo project of the Greece-born Evangelos Vasilakos.

CATACOMB is back after twenty years of silence and issuing an EP entitled Back To Unknown Kadath through Xenokrp this December, which is a rewritten and re-recorded version of their 1993 demo, In The Maze Of Kadath.

Saudi Arabia-based WASTED LAND has uploaded a song called Fade Away, which is the follow-up to the self-titled 2013 demo. The band claims to be heavier than its past output. It is still compared to IN FLAMES.

Chicago, USA-based VILE CYNIC is a deathrash band with a demo called Agony.

EXUMER vocalist Mem v. Stein, HEAVEN SHALL BURN drummer Chris Bass and PRIPJAT guitarist Kirill Gromada are collaborating on metal producer Marc Wuestenhagen’s new solo project DEUS AX. Marc is also in THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.

The Dawn Of Ares is the title of the new album of Italy-based thrash metal band XENOS. The successor to Filthgrinder will be out through Iron Shield Records on June 25th. It will feature Josh Christian from TOXIC and Tony Dolan from VENOM INC. as special guests on two tracks.

Bremen, Germany-based death metal trio SOUL GRINDER will release a new EP called Lifeless Obsession through MDD on June 4th. Night’s Bane (Nyktophobia) is the first single and features a guest appearance by Nachtgarm (NEGATOR).

After years of silence KORZUS has independently issued a single and video called You Can’t Stop Me. The work is based on Oroboros, a mystical symbol represented by a snake or a dragon that bites its own tail. The track is a composition by the vocalist Marcello Pompeu and drummer Rodrigo Oliveira (ARMORED DAWN). The actresses Pamela Punch and Fernanda Ferrer and their respective partners, Renan Schueroff and Vander Caselli; the performer Christian Cavalera, son of drummer Igor Cavalera of SEPULTURA and Henrique Mello, who is part of the band’s road crew, appear on the video.

Hamilton, Canada-based 30 IMMOLATED ; 16 RETURNED has a demo called The Burial Of The Dead, which is an arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s controversial 1913 ballet The Rite Of Spring’. The band is inspired by the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days Of Sodom.

STENCH COLLECTOR’s Effluvatorium Du Jour is out through Redefining Darkness Records on 25.06.2021. The band’s lyrical theme “is suburban decay and the plight of the working middle class twisted at the intersection of our nation’s failing capitalist economy.” The band also incorporates Lovecraftian themes.

NECRO WEASEL, a Finnish one-man crossover band, was formed during the lockdown and has a demo called Another Day To Waste.

GODLESS THRONE is a US-based keyboard-laden act which has a demo called Damnation Through Design.

Australia-based black metallers AULD have releases an EP called …of Petrichor and I through Eschatonic Records.

Black metal band TAAKEFERD has an album called Mitt Septer For Et Tusenårsrike through Apocalyptic Empire Records since 12.02.2021.

The long broken up NIDEN DIV. 187 and Dawnbreed Records/De:Nihil Records released a vinyl boxset edition of Impergium/Towards Judgement on May 21st. These 1990s’ records were originally issued by Necropolis Records.

London, Canada-based MÜTHERLOAD, which has risen from the ashes of HEAVEN ABLAZE, has a video for The Visitor. This single is off the upcoming demo Ü.

MYRONATH’s Djevelkraft is out now. Lars Broddesson could unfortunately not continue as drummer of the band and the band recruited Fredrik Andersson (ex-AMON AMARTH and NETHERBIRD).

Turkey-based DIABOLIZER shall issue Khalkedonian Death through Everlasting Spew Records on 02.07.2021.

France-based black metal solo act HETERIIK has released its first full-length demo. La Brillance Des Maux is an exploration of disorders of character and their manifestations.

Since most labels are not proud of their releases… and issue releases that are not official: Audio Epidemic Records “is proud to present” its third “official release”: Play Fast, Ride Easy 4-way split cassette, which will be released on June 11th. It features N.W. 77, HCG, D.F.C. and LIFE IN GRAVE.

PALUS SOMNI’s Monarch Of Dark Matter is out through BlackSeed Productions since the 28th of May. The band was founded in 2020.

OUIJA’s Selenophile Impia album is out through Negra Nit since 28.05.2021.

USA-based EXSANGUINATION’s Spectral Hymns is out through Horror Pain Gore Death. The band is compared to FLESHCRAWL.

Russian-born and Canada-based AXEDRA has a demo called Mass Deception. The band has been around since 2008, but this is a first release for the act featuring two brothers.

Italy-based thrash metal band INSANE went the way of Donald Trump a long time ago, but its Wait And Pray album is being re-issued by High Roller Records.

Germany-based death/black metal band NEPHILIM has a single called Neoblasphemer. The band is working on a full-length.

Germany-based heavy thrashers DAILY INSANITY has a single, called Sleepless, from its upcoming demo, Chronicles Of War, which is out September 10th. The band has announced sporadic European shows for the coming months.

USA-based thrash metal group THE BAND REPENT has a song called War. A release called Written In Blood is due soon.

MACHINE HEAD will release a new single, called Arrows In Words From The Sky, on June 11th. It features three tracks.

Australia-based thrash metal group NOTHING SACRED has a new album called No Gods coming July 2021. The band has a video for Final Crime. The label is Rockshots.

The Black Tears Label has reached a deal with Italy-based thrash metal band VEXOVOID, and Apocalypse Extreme Agency, for the re-release of the band’s debut album Call Of The Starforger, which was issued in 2017. The new version, which will be out this summer, will contain the Heralds Of The Stars demo as well.


Metallian Hard

Art Gates Records has signed heavy metal veterans ANKHARA. An album called Premonición is out on July 16th.

Germany-based POWERWOLF will release an album, entitled Call Of The Wild, through Napalm Records in July.

Poland-based IRONBOUND has an album called The Lightbringer through Ossuary Records. Ironbound was the name of an OVERKILL album.

KIX has announced that guitarist Ronnie Younkins is unable to perform and will be replaced by a Bob Paré until the long-time member improves. Bob is in a RUSH tribute band called SUN DOGS with KIX bassist Mark Schenker.

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN will release a new album called Parabellum Trough Music Theories Recordings/Mascot on July 23rd.

AEROSMITH’s 50th Anniversary show in Boston, USA has been postponed due to the pandemic to Thursday, September 8, 2022.

USA-based heavy metal shredder LAWRENCE WALLACE has release first single, Lost At Sea, from his upcoming demo.

Hailing from Slovakia, power metallers BALLSQUEEZER released a demo called Old Scotch Ale earlier this year.

WARLORD guitarist William J. Tsamis died on Thursday, May 13th. He was sixty.

Turkey-based power metal band VENGEFUL GHOUL has an upcoming demo called Infestation.

DEEP PURPLE has rescheduled its U.K. tour for October of 2022. It was most recently due in October of 2021 and previously 2020.

UK-based heavy metal band CERBERON has a single called Outpost 31. A demo is due soon.

PARADISE LOST will release the At The Mill livestream as a live album and DVD on July 16th.

DC Comics has announced a Dark Nights: Death Metal Soundtrack featuring MASTODON. The soundtrack will be released on July 16th. There is no connection musically or visually to death metal.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's The Stadium Tour with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS opening has been to 2022. The band had previously disbanded for good.

Italy-based TESLA SHAMANS has a video and single called Shamans and a full-length demo called Electric Storm as of May 17th.

JUDAS PRIEST, GOJIRA, ANTHRAX and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE are among the bands playing Louder Than Life 2021 Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, USA in September.

KK'S PRIEST, featuring former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing and singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, as well as second guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE), bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX) and drummer Sean Elg (CAGE), will release its debut album Sermons Of The Sinner through Explorer1 Music Group on August 20th. A single called Hellfire Thunderbolt is available now. The American drummer replaces former JUDAS PRIEST drummer Les Binks who had a wrist injury. Elg is in THE THREE TERMORS with Ripper.

GUNS N' ROSES will headline this year's BottleRock Napa Valley festival in California, USA in September.

LARS ERIC MATTSSON has a single and video called Broken Heart Blues.

AGE OF FIRE has uploaded a song called Seeds Of Tomorrow.

Heavy rock band SUPREME COURT is issuing Been A While on Campbell Recordings on 02.07.2021. This marks the band’s return after an absence of ten years.

SHININGSTAR has signed to Italian label Time To Kill Records for the release of its first album, Destiny. The album will see an official release in late 2021. The band has uploaded a song called Night Witches.

Another project: Bassist Nikki Sixx (MÖTLEY CRÜE), Rob Zombie, John 5 (ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON) and Tommy Clufetos (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK SABBATH and ROB ZOMBIE) have a new project called L.A. RATS. The band will be heard on the soundtrack to a film called The Ice Road.

FATES WARNING, HALFORD and SEBASTIAN BACH drummer Bobby Jarzombek is the drummer in country artist George Strait’s ACE IN THE HOLE now.

Season Of Mist has signed the “epic horror metal act” OPERA DIABOLICUS. The act will be releasing its full-length entitled Death On A Pale Horse, featuring Mats Levén (PRINS SVART, CANDLEMASS, THERION, SKYBLOOD, etc.), Snowy Shaw (KING DIAMOND, CANDLEMASS, THERION, SKYBLOOD, etc.), Andy La Rocque (KING DIAMOND) and Michael Denner (KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE), later this year.

Swedish progressive and keyboard-oriented project 7DAYS has released a new lyric video for You Hold The Key, from its remixed and remastered album Into Forever, which was originally issued in 2010.

The happy keyboard-drenched band MORGARTEN has released a lyric video for The Last Breath, from its Cry Of The Lost demo.

Japan-based heavy metal band RISINGFALL has a new digital single called Rock Fantasy.

ALICE COOPER and ACE FREHLEY will tour the USA this September.

FASTER PUSSYCAT and ENUFF Z'NUFF are using the Straight Outta Quarantine monicker to tour in July. The former band has a single called NOLA.

WARRIOR Bassist Rob Farr has died in California, USA at the age of 58.

Ingen Som Hör Dig (‘No One Can Hear You’) is a single from Sweden-based “story metal” Band PRESSURE and its demo Path Of A Shadow.

CRADLE OF FILTH has a new keyboardist. Anabelle Iratni was in DEVILMENT with CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth and also plays piano in VEILE. The goth rockers have an album called Existence is Futile later this year.

Flying V is the name of a documentary on the referenced guitar and its origin. The documentary features interviews with members of acts like MERCYFUL FATE, MSG, SCORPIONS and others.

DREAM THEATER is digging into its vaults and releasing material on CD and digitally. The first release in the Lost Not Forgotten Archives series is Images And Words - Live In Japan, 2017 on June 25th. The band’s imprint is called Ytsejam.

Oliver Palmquist (singer of death metal band PHIDION) has teamed up with guitarist Nino Vukovik (guitarist of technical speed metal bands IMMACULATE and TYRANEX) and after two years of development, produced a demo through their own Liminal Spaces Distribution imprint. TERRAVOID’s Ectogenesis is available now.

Chile-based heavy metal band BÓLIDO has a lyric video for the track Angel In Black And White. It is from the Against The World album released through Fighter Records on June 15th.

The Canada-based progressive rock band THE WRING has a music video for The Light off its upcoming demo The Wring² Project Cipher.

From here forth every band has its own wine, beer, coffee and hot sauce.


Metallian Demos

VRADEMARGK – ARRELATS
This Spain-based band has been around since 2003 and … wow that is a long time for such anonymity. Naturally, name recognition is not a function of quality so how does the band sound?
Firstly, the biography’s contention that the band is comparable to At The Gates is correct.. musically. The vocals are more growled and of lower register here. There is not much here that would be termed original thank goodness, but this is not a copycat clone band either. The band does put pedal to the metal here as a quartet - the last release was almost a decade ago - but slows down often enough to find itself room to be flexible and dynamic. Yet, the atmosphere is dark and underground as are the human-emanating roots on the disc’s cover. The band has switched its lyrics to its native Catalan and it is no worse for it. These are growled and dark vocals after all.
Track number two, which is the title track, has a voice-over a la At The Gates from Slaughter Of The Soul. L’Art De Morir is slower and pensive for a while and has impressive drumming and Egocidi is immediately thrasher again. The rattling toms come to the fore on Eudaimonia, which reminds me that the so-so production has pushed the snare way down. While the toms can be heard the snare is absent. The guitars and vocals fare better.
There you have it. Deathrash from the underground, with an underground cover artwork, underground production and even more underground lyrics. One last thing: the printing and graphics on the CD itself had chipped as if wilted on my copy. It was as if, while in transit, the digital music had affected and impacted the material to such an extent that the physical elements could not withstand it. That is good stuff too. – Ali “The Metallian”

DR. ELEPHANT’S REVOLUTION – ON OUR OWN
Nearly everything about this band is an enigma. When this nice looking CD (alongside cool stickers and coasters) sailed into Metallian Towers last month we were holding in our hands a disc released last September featuring two, sometimes three, members by a band that has been around fifteen years, has three releases only and has as many people aware of it as they have family members and very close friends. Yup, as underground as it gets. That is alright by all rights of course. The bad news is it is almost not metal. We lost anyone who was reading this so adding that this writer’s first impression naively was that the band would sound like Running Wild was wrong makes no difference. Indeed, there is no jolly roger on this pirate ship (but the members look like pirates to their amusement, I am sure) and instead we have, what else, an elephant’s head.
The Swiss duo has a professional package chock full of serious songs that unfortunately veer towards the right-wing and conspiracy theory (yup Switzerland is full of fascists to answer the band by the way), which makes the spelling mistakes and logical fallacies and chasms unsurprising. When was the last time a right-winger made any sense? Never, you say? True that, but what are the specifics? Dr. Elephant’s Revolution is a mixture of Tool, Type O Negative, Soundgarden, Primus, Arcade Fire and The Dead South. The last name may have popped into my mind due to the members’ physical resemblance however. Maggie De Vault (no relation to Alice Cooper) a.k.a Marco Frei goes for the rockabilly on Le Petite Fleur Rouge. Goose Stepping Steam Train has the riff from Babymetal’s Karate, while the singer pushes the Type O Carnivore vocals. The German and English lyrics were mentioned earlier and in that department several things are wrong. It is wrong either way whether the band is poking fun like it doesn’t matter or being vicious. The issues discussed are important and not a joke. On Unicorns On Parade the lyrics proclaim “what your saying” and on Goose Stepping Steam Train it is “to far.” On Canary In A Coal Mine the band heralds the thought police shutting you down, but then itself goes on to insist you shut up on Le Petite Fleur Rouge! It is also on Unicorns that the band rails against “Social Justice Warriors.” Yes, the same people who are trying to make us all have breathable air. Those pesky idiots!! And, for the record, yes there are racists everywhere despite the band’s insistence to the contrary. 40% of Swiss voters wanted foreigners deported immediately for any crime after approving it in 2010. Not trusting the judiciary they wanted the judges to not oversee the issue. The People’s Party is a third of Swiss electorate. Next door in Germany AfD is 11% of the electorate (not mentioning the racists in CDU and CSU) and one could have missed Le Pen in France, the Freedom Party in Austria, the fascists in Italy currently and so on. Suffice to say, there are racists everywhere indeed.
Contemporary history lesson over, the band has a nice package here. Folk into the underground of the undergrounds, the above-mentioned band names or just hoping to grab those cool coasters and stickers need to connect with the band. Either way, call me next time you write lyrics, guys. We can proofread it for you for spelling and information mistakes. We would throw in a question about the monicker too! www.drelephantsrevolution.com – Ali “The Metallian”