Germany-based heavy metal group TOMB OF GIANTS has a demo called Legacy Of The Sword. The band has a video for the song Soulstealer.

MICHAEL CATTON has an album called Point Of No Return through Mighty Music, which is due at the end of 2023. The band has a video for the song Armageddon Again. The music is akin to DIO or early GARY MOORE. Allan Tschicaja of PRETTY MAIDS and Soren Andersen of GLENN HUGHES and MIKE TRAMP are part of the line-up.

KK'S PRIEST will release its new album, entitled The Sinner Rides Again, through Napalm Records in late September. KK'S PRIEST and PAUL DI'ANNO will conduct a mini-tour of the UK dubbed Priests, Killers & Witches this October.

IN FLAMES has lost bassist Bryce Paul and replaced him with Liam Wilson (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) for the current tour dates.

Rise Above Records has released CHURCH OF MISERY’s Born Under A Mad Sign. The Japan-based band specialises in songs about serial killers.

FIREWIND will release a live CD/Blu-ray, entitled Still Raging, through AFM Records on 01.09.2023. It was filmed in the band’s hometown of Thessaloniki in Greece.

Rockshots Records has signed Brazil-based fantasy metallers DRAGONHEART for the release of an album, entitled The Dragon Heart's Tale, which will be out in August. The fantasy stories are divided into three acts. The first talks about sea and pirates, the second about blood battles and the third about magic and fire.

WATCHTOWER has reunited with founding singer Jason McMaster to play a European concert at the Keep It True Rising III festival in October. The man fronted the band at the Headway Festival in The Netherlands last in 2004. McMaster has been a session singer in recent years.

In what is sure to not be the last of them BMG has issued another MOTÖRHEAD live record. This one is called Live At Montreux Jazz Festival '07.

After being cited for racism and white pride over the years, PANTERA singer Phil Anselmo took a moment during a concert in Sofia, Bulgaria to ask attendees holding a “white power” flag to keep politics out of music. Anselmo claimed to “disavow” the flag. The Complete Studio Albums 1990-2000 is a picture disc set being released for $150 next month.

GIRLSCHOOL has uploaded a song called It Is What It Is, which is taken from the band’s WTFortyfive album. It is out through Silver Lining Music in July. The album’s title refers to the act’s age.

Rockshots Records has announced ARCH BLADE’s Kill The Witch album is out in July. The act was founded by father and son guitar duo Rob V and Big Rob in 2019. Al "Mayhem” Mendez (ex-DARK ANGEL and ex-DREAMS OF DAMNATION) is on drums.

In conjunction with its animated film, The War To End All Wars - The Movie, SABATON has launched a campaign entitled History Rocks in support of interest in history and to encourage visits to museums. The film is to be screened at select museums.

The Dreamspace album line-up of STRATOVARIUS from 1994 has reformed and is returning as TIMO TOLKKI'S STRATO. The members are Timo Tolkki (vocals and guitar),Tuomo Lassila (drums) and Antti Ikonen (keyboards). This line-up was active for the Fright Night, Twilight Time, Dreamspace and Fourth Dimension albums and has been rehearsing since last year. This act is recording an album called Return To Dreamspace and has a contract with Warner Japan. Tours in Japan and elsewhere are promised.

Fresh after being signed to From The Vaults, epic doom metal group ALTAR OF OBLIVION releases the Burning Memories EP, which was recorded just after the completion of the band’s full-length in 2016. Frontman Mik Mentor is a former opera singer.

THE RIVER has a new album, called A Hollow Full Of Hope, through Cavernous Records. There is a video for the album track Fading.

MOONSPELL Singer Fernando Ribeiro underwent tests at a Lisbon, Portugal hospital after performing at Poland’s Mystic festival on June 8th which he termed, "the hardest gig of my life.” Fernando went on to elaborate that he has been suffering from the aftereffects of the pandemic and other medical ailments.

Sweden-based stoner act SATURNALIA TEMPLE is recording a new album at singer and guitarist Tommie Ericksson's studio T.O.N. The release is entitled Paradigm Call and released through Listenable Records in early 2024.

Sweden-based STYGIAN FAIR will be releasing a new album, entitled Aradia, through Rockshots Records in August. It features new singer and guitarist Andreas Stoltz (BINARY CREED and HOLLOW).

Former AGATHODAIMON and current solo project OMEGA POINT, which focused on the musician’s mental problems, guitarist Ristridi (Michael Wöß) has chosen RISTRIDI as the title for his latest act. RISTRIDI boasts a full line-up and has issued a progressive demo called Dark Solstice.

Chile-based power metal duo CATHALEPSY will release a full-length called Blood And Steel this summer. It goes without saying that Tim Owens is a guest, in this case on the song We Are The Warriors.

SCAR SYMMETRY's The Singularity (Phase II - Xenotaph) album is out. To coincide with the album's release the band has a video for the track Overworld.

SEVENTH WONDER singer Tommy Karevik, who is also a member of KAMELOT, has quit the Sweden-based progressive metal band. He cites a lack of time as the reason. The band is seeking a replacement.

IRON SAVIOR has a lyric video for the title track to the Firestar album. This album, which is set through AFM for October 6th, was taped, mixed and mastered by singer and guitarist Piet Sielck.

JOE LYNN TURNER performed live without his wig at Rock Orchestra Fest in Minsk, Belarus on June 8th. After admitting to wearing a wig over the years due to alopecia in 2022, this was the first time Tuner appeared naturally.

Former ANTHEM singer Sakamoto Eizo and former GRAND SLAM bassist Yoshikawa "Ban" HIRONORI have picked up former GARGOYLE guitarist Kentaro and drummer A-Joe to form a new act called UNCHAINED. The last two are billed as guests. In the meantime, Shibata Naoto, the bassist for ANTHEM, is a guest on guitar for GRAHAM BONNET’s tour of Japan.

TNT reunited with singer Tony Harnell at Sweden Rock Festival on June 9th. The American singer has been back in the band again since 2022.

The Netherlands-based REBELSTAR has a music video for the track Hold On To The Night from its The Black Widow Anthems demo.

AEROSMITH will release a new Greatest Hits record in multiple formats through Capitol Records in August.

DOKKEN will release an album, called Heaven Comes Down, through Silver Lining in September. DOKKEN had a song called When Heaven Comes Down on the 1984 album Tooth And Nail.

Former MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars has announced the title of his new solo record to be Another Side Of Mars. The man has sold his share of MÖTLEY CRÜE’s music to a publishing company recently. MÖTLEY CRÜE played a club concert at The Underworld Club in London , England on June 30th. The group billed itself after one of its forthcoming new songs, namely DÖGS OF WAR.

SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan missed a number of concerts on the band's European tour due to "an urgent family matter." Filling in for him is SKID ROW's roadie Casey Sproatt who has also supplanted the band’s guitarists previously.

Erik Ferro, drummer for New Jersey, USA-based 1980s and 1990s’ act T.T. QUICK, has died.

Another side-project: Rockshots Records has announced the signing of Italy-based RAINING NAILS featuring members of ETERNAL SILENCE, FALLEN ARISE, ORACLE SUN and SOUND STORM for the release of the debut album, Human Deeds, in 2023. The band is described as “symphonic heavy metal.”

The brainchild of lyricist Shadows, LORD OF SHADOWS is a gothic doom project. The full-length album Echoes Of Yore features vocal performances from Aaron Stainthorpe of MY DYING BRIDE and Heike Langhans of REMINA and formerly of DRACONIAN. It is out through Tragedy Productions.

STEELHEART singer Miljenko Matijević has been diagnosed with Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) forcing the postponement of tour dates due to complications from a stroke and surgery. The band has a single, entitled In Love, which is a version of the band's 2017 track, I'm So In Love With You.

Progressive metal band DROTT, comprised of Arve Isdal (ENSLAVED), Ivar Thormodsæter (ULVER) and Matias Monsen, has a video for the song Det Ser. The track is taken from the Troll album, which was released through By Norse Music on May 19th. By Norse Music is co-owned by Ivar Bjørnson of ENSLAVED.

Screw The Troops.

FRACTURUS - VERSUS THE VOID
Many of the demos we come across these days are amazing. They wipe the floor with album releases from a number of record companies on occasion.
Appropriate to the title this starts with a sound effect reminiscent of technology and science fiction, which is the intro before yanking the listener into 25 minutes of harsh punchy death and deathcore slamming. The artwork makes sense too given the demo title. The artwork reminded me of the black donut or bagel or whatever it was in Everything Everywhere All At Once. That was a nonsense of a film. Stick with Fracturus. The music here is like a crushing hammer blow. It’s abrasive with its sharp tone that still manages to remain rhythmic. It’s brutal, heavy and usually fast. The singer is barking, and has been filtered through effects, yet is not difficult to understand if listened to attentively. The group means business, but melodies are incorporated too.
The title track has a dub of a voice, which may be from a movie. Either way, that is old-hat. Further down the song Dissolve is true to its name and is watered down and synthesised. The downtuned guitars go too core for a while.
The band is young and yet really together. It must be the musicians’ experience in groups like Dark Century and Neuraxis.
Which will win? Fractures or the void? The band has a web page at https://fracturus.bandcamp.com/ - Anna Tergel

HOLLOWED - SOULKILLER
Hollowed, based in central Germany, is a thrashy band that has been around for a few years and has used the pandemic downtime to be productive to the tune of twelve tracks (with one being an intro) and 53 minutes of music.
The cover artwork is intriguing. Soulkiller is influenced by the Cyberpunk 2077 game. The band draws an analogy between the soulkiller stealing one’s consciousness and leaving one hollow and modern society leaving humans traumatized and suicidal. As such, the statue is both new and old. It is an old world with some older technologies with modern and contemporary problems and advancements.
These pages have argued dozens of times over the years against such lengthy releases, let alone when it is an independent one designed to showcase one’s wares to the unfamiliar masses and record companies. My writing has advocated for bands making their releases shorter and punchier in order to keep the best and discarding the rest. Longer releases suffer and the quality becomes inconsistent. Let's see how these Germans fare.
The demo is called Soulkiller and the intro is called Secure Your Soul. It has a few disharmonic chords with some strumming and pleasant picking before the listener is thrown head-first into W.M.D complete with a growl-o-rama of a singer, a war shriek and high speed thrash metal in the tradition of Protector, Sodom and Kreator. One is liable to like the noisy and distorted aspect of this seemingly out of control attack. The singer growls, snarls and screams, yet is easy to decipher. The noisy solo transitions to a more melodic one, and while the nature of it hints at the guitarist not being technical, he does compensate with some metallic ripping. The too short of a solo ends with an appropriately explosive sound effect. Soulkiller, the song, yanks up the nuanced bass drums. It is slower than its predecessor and a heavy tune mostly made as a showcase for the bestial vocals with a half-buried cryptic vocalizing and chanting. The music is evidently simple, but that makes it more true and analogous to the heydays of the underground and thrash metal. Still, the emphasis is on abrasiveness and barbarism. This is cool and essentially the essence of thrash metal. As a longer track it has time to weave in and out of patterns. Act Of Humanity sports a heavy staccato blizzard, but goes 1969 heavy rock on the listener mid-song. It won’t be the last time either. The opening song proper was not necessarily representative of the effort as a whole after all. On My Knees has more of those cryptic submerged vocals, but with some wah wah guitars layered in. The groovy Fireproof goes along the same lines late in the record.
2021 was an advance track from the band and, along with WMD, is one of the better works of Hollowed. It sings of the dying world and is old Sodom-ish and vicious. The band's music oscillates at high speed and is as simple as it is does well because of the delivery. Another cool burst of a too-short-of-a-solo is there. The guitarist adds value with these. Why not prolong them? The song ends as the band gets to 2022! Chrysalis is a weaker one despite an attempt at a longer solo. It is not much of a song and the composition is throwaway. The music itself is like an offbeat early Prong track gone off the rails. The band shows a different side of itself away from German thrash and more along the lines of Death Angel or Prong. The same applies to Vortex later. And as soon as the words were typed on the screen Savage Messiah kicks in with a doom riff served on a platter. The riffing that follows is cool though. The singer vomits his lyrics on top of a sludgy doomy track. The serpentine vocals could fit on an Eyehategod song. Just listening to Herr Lintner makes one’s throat dry. There is something different above this composition and it is not the act's tightness.
Whenever the guitarists solo the rhythm guitar and the drums keep moshing forward underneath and so it is on this song too.
Thoughts And Prayers is a funny title. Not sure what the band's intention was, but down in the dump that is the USoA every time someone gets shot or bombed or sprayed with a mass murderer's machine gun all the right-wing politicians jump in with “thoughts and prayers,” which is code for 'screw yourself. I couldn't care less to do anything.' Funny. Unfunny. Good attacking guitar barrage on this track. It sounds like the band mocks social media, but instead of having an independent and individual website itself it has... social media only! Thoughts And Prayers is a wild song either way. People, practise what you preach though.
The Germans fare well with this release and while there are dips in quality and lapses in commitment to metal, Hollowed comes out looking good especially given the length of this release. The band can be found here. - Ali “The Metallian”

LAC - LIMBO
At first listen it is quickly obvious that the band has a capable songwriting ability, which it often combines with swift death metal extremism. It is not surprising as the band has been around, with a notable hiatus, for almost twenty years and, moreover, the members have gained experience elsewhere as well. Still, of the act’s original line-up, only singer Jonathan Cruz is left standing and two current members are new post reformation. The old drummer Victor Mendonça can still be heard on this recording.
The type of fury Krisiun delivers begins this full-length demo, but the music is more diverse than at first indicated. There are several types of rhythms and melodies and some of them are entertaining. Still, the material maintains its heaviness. A song like Hellfire is as deadly underground as it can be, yet could also be termed catchy. One still prefers faster and punchier parts like the beginning of Endless Void, which itself descends into something rockier as the band is liable to do.
It is always advisable to shorten demos to EP length to put one's best foot forward and LAC is not an exception. The filler, aside from the cliched cover version (more on that later), here is called Rancor Incarnate. Fillers do not represent the majority of the material. Listen to Unsparing Onslaught next and the title is not an empty promise. Then there is The Faceless with its gothic ambiance unfortunately.
The soloing is capable, but always all too brief. The all too short lead guitars mirror the songs’ length. There are 12 tracks in 38 minutes here. The short burst on the title track should have been longer. On the riff side, the band throws many effective riffs as if it's nothing. The bass is present and, on occasion, a song finds itself with the bass as the centre of attraction. In tandem with the style, the drummer may blast his guts out or calm down. It is just too bad that he is buried in the mix and his sound is not sharp. The vocals remain raspy and dry as if parched from all that is ill in the world.
There was earlier a mention of the meandering quality and a filler. The biggest one, however, is a cover version of a Misfits’ song .. yawn. Yet.another.cover.version. And on a demo too. This is the band’s chance to present itself to the world and it opts to play back someone else’s tune.
LAC, or Lacerated And Carbonized, is a band that can become technical but prefers not to and instead focus on the effective and the crushing. The style of the Brazil-based act varies some on this crowdfunded release, as does the tempo and the quality, but overall this is extreme, swift and worth hearing. - Ali “The Metallian”