Sweden-based SHADOWBORNE has a debut album called Heaven's Falling through Scarlet Records in June of 2026.

Marta Gabriel's LEATHERWITCH has its debut album, First Spell, available through Listenable Records now.

STORMHAMMER has uploaded a video for the song Wrath Of The Hammer, which is taken from the Wrath Of The Hammer album. The album will be issued through Reigning Phoenix Music on 17.07.2026. It was produced, mixed and mastered by Alexander Krull at Mastersound Studio.

France-based IRON SLAUGHT will release an album called Metallic Torments through Gates Of Hell Records on 10.07.2026.

Finland-based DREAMTALE has announced a forthcoming full-length called Aetherbound. The release, which was originally due in 2025, is preceded by a song called Mirror Mirror available now.

Colombia-based KRAKEN is returning to Europe for a tour of France and Spain. It is dubbed the El Rugido Del Kraken 2026 and follows the act's European appearance in 2025.

Four-fifths of KING DIAMOND's late 1980s line-up has reunited in a new band, LEX LEGION. The band has a music video for the song Gypsy Tears, in advance of its self-titled debut full-length through MNRK Heavy. LEX LEGION will play its first concert at the Filmstudion in Gothenburg, Sweden on November 28th, 2026.

Germany-based hard rock band SINNER has a video for the song Wait. It is from the band's forthcoming, and final, full-length album, Boom Bang Goodbye, which will be released through Reigning Phoenix Music on 31.07.2026. The usual guest musicians (Ronnie Romero, Björn Strid, etc.) appear here as well.

Italy-based FROZEN CROWN is releasing an album, called The Legend Of The Six Kings, through Napalm Records on October 2nd, 2026. It is the first album with guitarist Alexandra Lioness.

Greece-based power metal band THE SILENT RAGE has recruited singer Constantin Maris and guitarist Vasilis Batilas. The band's new line-up is at An Club in Athens, Greece, on June 6th 2026.

German musician and producer Michael “Ristridi” Wöß returns with RISTRIDI's Ride The Storm, a power metal demo created together with Anti from DON’T DROP THE SWORD and Alex Meyer from DARK SOLSTICE. The act is compared to BLIND GUARDIAN. RISTRIDI will release the new album Ride The Storm on August 21st, 2026.

Spain-based HEADON has a video for a new song called Dogma (Chapter II). Per Art Gates Records, the song "dives deeper into the complex narrative the band is building chapter by chapter."

Norway-based solo heavy metal and occult band BLOOD PYTHON has a demo called Voidseeker.

Guitarist Oliver Kaufman of 1980s' heavy metal band TYRAN' PACE has died at the age of 63. He was in the band between 1983 and 1986. TYRAN' PACE featured PRIMAL FEAR singer Ralf Scheepers. Kaufman was in the band RUNAMOK more recently.

TAILGUNNER bassist Thomas Hewson has been put on furlough pending the resolution of unknown allegations against him. Simultaneously, guitarist Rhea Thompson has left the band. She stated that she initially had not resigned and merely shared that she was uncomfortable with playing in the band, but found out through social media that she was replaced. According to her, “I am not comfortable playing with the band under the current circumstances.” Rhea had already been on medical leave this year. Scuttlebutt has it that Hewson was coercive towards a touring guitarist. The band has been removed from shows like Hella Rock Festival. TAILGUNNER had previously fired guitarist Patrick Van Der Völlering with rumours alleging the man's overt racism was the cause.

TUNGSTEN will issue an album called Ashes on 09.10.2026. It was produced, mixed and mastered by Niklas Johansson. Induction and Tungsten are touring Europe in October.

STONECAST will release the Expand Crimson Chaos on Pitch Black Records on July 10th, 2026.

Retroactive Records is reissuing albums by white metal band SACRED WARRIOR and BLOODGOOD on vinyl. These are BLOODGOOD's Rock In A Hard Place and Out Of The Darkness and SACRED WARRIOR's Rebellion and Wicked Generation.

After booting drummer Larry Howe for his political views earlier this year, VICIOUS RUMORS has hired Wyatt Cooper (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) as its newest member.

IX OF BLADES has a full-length album, entitled Way Of The Midnight Wave, through Electric Funeral Records. This concept album is inspired by cultural myth cycles and philosophical works such as Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Founded in 2023, IX OF BLADES began as the one-man project of horror writer Curtis M. Lawson.

SIGNUM REGIS has an album called Beyond Spacetime through Fireflash Records in October of 2026. It was recorded at the namesake Signum Regis Studio.

Scotland-based heavy metal group PYROCLAST has a demo called Fractured State.

GALNERYUS has announced a new album, which will be called A Cry From The Sky Above. The album will be issued through Warner Japan. GALNERYUS will tour Japan in August.

DRAGONFORCE has announced ex-ARCH ENEMY and BLUE MEDUSA singer Alissa White-Gluz as the band’s newest member and first frontwoman as of May 2026. Apparently, White-Gluz didn't want to focus on "a fully sovereign artistic vision," as stated by her upon forming Blue Medusa. Since everyone is doing anniversaries, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its Inhuman Rampage album, DRAGONFORCE will tour Canada and the USA this November and December. Support comes from ENSIFERUM and RHAPSODY OF FIRE.

ARCH ENEMY and THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER are co-headlining a North American tour in October and November of 2026. The Wrath Across North America tour will also feature SEPTICFLESH, CRYPTA and THROWN INTO EXILE.

Spain-based "progressive Groove project" TOOTH UNLABELED SOCIETY has signed with Art Gates Records. The band was founded by guitarist and producer José Augusto Arincón.

12 years after the release of its last album The Heart Of The Matter, Norway-based TRIOSPHERE is releasing an album called Oceans Above, Stars Below through Frontiers Music on the 28th of August 2026.

The delayed new ANTHRAX music arrives in September of 2026. The band has a single and video called It’s For The Kids now. It is taken from the Cursum Perficio album, which is coming out through Megaforce Records in the USA and Nuclear Blast in Europe on 18.09.2026.

LIVING WRECKAGE, featuring members from SHADOWS FALL, ANTHRAX and DEATH RAY VISION, has uploaded a song called Righteous Side Of Sanity. The track will be featured on an upcoming rhythm game called Sound System.

Sweden-based MASTER MASSIVE has an album called White Shadows through Fireflash Records. The band has an organist.

After signing to Season Of Mist, TODOMAL has a music video for the song Humanised Gods, which is taken from the Graveyards Of Joy album.

Doom metal band SPIRAL GRAVE is working on a new studio album, which will be its first with new singer Shawn Michelle Scott.

SOLACE has an album called Fading Failing Ruin through Magnetic Eye Records on 03.07.2026.

UK-based doom band WARNING has a full-length album called Rituals Of Shame on 19.06.2026. The issuing record company is Relapse Records.

Chile-based doom metal band MAR DE GRISES has reemerged from slumber with a new release called Surrender To The Fall.

Greece-based keyboard damaged act PRIMAL CULT has an album called Dark Passage through Northern Silence Productions on June 5th, 2026. Eve Alchemy handles guitars, vocals and keyboards, but there is Michalis Kontos on cello and Babis Konstas on piano!

Doom metal act SLOW GOAT has a demo, called Where The Wisest Fear To Tread, on July 10th, 2026. It is engineered and mixed by Eddie Brnabic.

Get this: Denmark-based SVARTSOT and its whistles, accordion and mandolin player Hans-Jørgen Martinus Hansen have parted ways. Hansen cited pressures of fatherhood and his new job as the reason for departing.

Three members of 1980s Germany-based hard rock act LIZARD are back with a rock band called THREE SCALES LEFT. Singer and bassist Bork The Animal, guitarist Norman Vehre and drummer Bobo Wortmann have a demo called Poikilothermic Poetry.

Switzerland-based SHAKRA is issuing a record called Just Live Loud through Frontiers Music on 04.09.2026.

DEEP PURPLE has announced a new album, entitled Splat!, through earMUSIC for July 3rd, 2026. It is guitarist Simon McBride's second record with the band. There is a video clip for the song Arrogant Boy. The band is conducting a world tour in support.

Guitarist Adrian Vandenberg's VANDENBERG will be touring the United States this summer performing songs from his WHITESNAKE era. MARCO MENDOZA and WINNIE MOORE will open.

Today's Conservatives, Republicans, Christian Nationalists and other shyster cultists are to the right of Attila The Hun.

PARALLEL MINDS - CAIRN
Parallel Minds previously had the backing of several record companies, but with Cairn has gone the independent route and outdone itself. This is an independent release and yet feels very ambitious. There are ten tracks, a number of guests, multiple languages, world music, a couple of videos and a wide range of stylistic elements. Sounds like an expensive production and it probably was because the sound is good and the videos are professional.
This is progressive metal and reminiscent of Blind Guardian vocally. The music is made for fans of Symphony X, Dream Theater and Pain Of Salvation. The intricate and expansive production showcases accomplished musicians, but I am a metal fan and detours are not for me. The songs explore different regions of the world and often incorporate world music. The highlights are the professional arrangements and impressive guitar solos (like the one on Trail OF Tears). Orishas sounds like something off the soundtrack to Avatar. Bhopal clearly is about the disaster by the same name and an important topic, but sitars? It seems like every band has to have a Japanese track and Parallel Minds has one called Sekigahara.
Not always the best, but expensive, always accomplished and well thought through is the correct way to describe this. - Anna Tergel

DU CANE - VEIL OF THE ABYSS
In theory, the knights at Metallian Towers should have liked Veil Of The Abyss. After all, it depicts a Metallian Towers' serf on its cover. Du Cane is not bad per se, but the band's style, a mix of rock, alternative, progressive rock and progressive metal, is simply not my vegemite on toast.
The band's publicity compares it to Opeth, Mastodon and The Ocean. The issue with that description is that Opeth is the crème de la crème of posers and poseurism, Mastodon could be good or bad and The Ocean sucks so badly that this reviewer has never bothered to listen to it. Those were my first thoughts upon reading the description and hearing the demo's seven tracks. It turns out that… I was right.
The release starts with a poppy sound and, in fact, only goes hard on track three, Veil Of The Abyss II. Veil Of The Abyss I and You Cry, I Stare are soft. Glass Crown ends with mallcore-esque sound effects. Ancient Stone alternates between loud ferocity and Opeth. Those harmonic clean vocals grate on my patience. No matter which song, however, this band has one heck of a bassist within its ranks. The drum sound, and the general recording quality, too is quite good. Otherwise, the listener can also catch a modicum of shoegaze throughout the recording. The band is also describing itself as "cinematic," a label that in the last couple of years has replaced calling any old band “legendary” or selling your loser fans branded beer and hot sauce to become the most cliché of bandwagon jumping cliches. If for no other reason, that itself is one reason one cannot get behind the band. - Ali "The Metallian"