Metallian Heavy

CRYPTOPSY will release its full-length album, entitled As Gomorrah Burns, through Nuclear Blast Records on September 8th. The band has uploaded a song called In Abeyance. The album juxtaposes the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah with modern technology and the Internet. CRYPTOPSY was briefly called GOMORRA.

Canada-based death metal group AUGURIUM has a demo called Unearthly Will in August. The members wrote and recorded the demo individually and remotely. The band is touring Canada this month and next.

Dan “Chewy” Mongrain (VOIVOD) and Patrice Hamelin (GORGUTS) have brought MARTYR back in order to play at the Trois-Rivières Metalfest in Canada this November. The band will play its second album Warp Zone in its entirety.

The reformed FORBIDDEN played a secret concert at the Baltic Kiss in Richmond, California, USA on July 16th. The band was billed as TWISTED INTO EVIL. The act is off to the Alcatraz Festival in Belgium next.

Vacation House Recordings will reissue France-based BENIGHTED’s Necrobreed release of 2017 on LP. The package is issued in a limited edition of 300.

DEICIDE has signed to the newly formed Reigning Phoenix Music (RPM) for its 13th full-length album, Banished By Sin. DEICIDE will tour Europe beginning at the Beyond The Gates festival in Bergen, Norway on August 2nd and culminating at the Motorcultor festival in Saint-Nolff, France on August 18th.

CONTRARIAN has issued Demos & Oddities: 1995-1999 independently.

DYING FETUS has a new album, entitled Make Them Beg For Death, through Relapse Records on September 8th. The band is touring Europe for late July and August before touring the USA, with THE ACACIA STRAIN, DESPISED ICON, CREEPING DEATH and TACTOSA in early autumn. There is a video for the song Feast Of Ashes.

EXTREMA is issuing a 30th anniversary of its Tension At The Seams album as a box set edition that will be available for purchase through Rockshots Records in October.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES shall perform the entirety of its debut self-titled album on the 40th anniversary tour in Australia in November.

MNRK Heavy has signed DARKEST HOUR. A new album is expected in 2024. In the meantime, the new label will reissue the 2017 album, Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora, on vinyl. It was released through Southern Lord.

BIOHAZARD and MEGADETH will tour five betting courses and casinos in North America in September. BIOHAZARD’s founding drummer Anthony Meo has died of cancer in the meantime.

After cancelling a spring tour of Europe due to costs, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM has announced the Blood In The Water tour of the USA for September. Support comes from GENERATION KILL, MISFIRE and WOLFTOOTH.

DETERIOROT has a lyric video for the song A Nameless Grave. The song is from The Rebirth album, which was released through Xtreem Music.

Members of YEAR OF THE KNIFE were driving from Utah in the USA to Colorado Springs when they collided with an 18-wheeler. Andy and Aaron both sustained broken legs and other trauma. Brandon was concussed. Madi had head and spinal injuries. A fundraiser was launched.

Canada-based DEVOLVER has uploaded a song called Jewels Of The Maw. The nu band is playing several Canadian concerts with WIDOW’S PEAK and SNAKEPIT.

EXODUS, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY, DARKEST HOUR and UNDEATH will tour the USA in November and December.

Rock, djent and mallcore bands MESHUGGAH, IN FLAMES and WHITECHAPEL will tour Canada and USA this November and December. The band will be joined by VOIVOD in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, on the tour’s final date of December 16th.

Missing the harp: Norway-based TIDES OF CHAOS, a solo project of guitarist and vocalist Henry Lemoin, has hired session musicians such as Rich Gray – bass (ANNIHILATOR and AEON ZEN), Naman Sachdev on drums and Matthew Dakoutros on violin, viola and cello and has a song called Screams.

Will he last in the band for at least a year? Bassist Roel Käller, from Netherlands-based MAYAN, has joined PESTILENCE. He is replacing Joost Van Der Graaf.

Grenoble, France-based crossover band EIGHT SINS has uploaded a song called Street Trash. This new song will be featured on the forthcoming album Straight To Namek in the autumn.

Belgium-based death/doom act MY LAMENT has signed to Ardua Music and will release a new album, entitled The Season Came Undone, in September.

CARNIFEX will release a new album, entitled Necromanteum, through Nuclear Blast Records on October 6th. The album is co-produced by singer Scott Ian Lewis and drummer Shawn Cameron.

Norway-based ETERNITY has a full-length called Mundicide through Soulseller Records.

FOSSILIZATION’s Leprous Daylight is out through Everlasting Spew Records in September. The duo claims this is the band’s more violent release.

The band talks about a new world order, disorder and “unparalleled world of emotions and raw musical power,” but is on Facebook. GENUS ORDINIS DEI has uploaded a trail called The Beginning, which promises to be the start of a serious series of music through Eclipse Records. More information coming soon on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Eclipse Records, Spotify, Apple Music or Deezer.

Guitarist Christopher Amott has left DARK TRANQUILLITY. He intends to again focus on his own music. The band has replaced him with Joey Concepcion for imminent concerts. Joey, currently a solo artist, was in ARMAGEDDON as was Amott.

PERCUSSOR has a single called Gaslight Mania through Horror Pain Gore Death, which bills it as the band’s final output.

USA-based grindcore group GRIDLINK will release an album, entitled Coronet Juniper, through Willowtip Records in September.

REBAELLIUN will release a full-length called Under The Sign Of Rebellion through Agonia Records on September 22nd. It was recorded in 2021 and, therefore, features singer and bassist Lohy Fabiano who died of a heart attack in 2022.

Germany-based PORTA NIGRA has uploaded a song called Es Ist Krieg. It is from the act’s Weltende album, which was released through Soulseller Records in July.

Italy-based black-death metallers ASKESIS have signed to Time To Kill Records for the release of its debut album. The band was founded in 2013.

ON THORNS I LAY’s self-titled album is out through Season Of Mist on 13.10.2023.

Canada-based VORTEX is supporting its keyboard-laden demo The Future Remains In Oblivion with concerts in eastern Canada in late summer and autumn. AETERNAM will be on the road with the band for many of the dates.

Crawling Chaos Records issued WRACK’s Altäre Der Vergänglichkeit on vinyl on July 21st. There was a record release event with WRACK, ÄERA, MNHG and CARADRAS at Helvete Oberhausen.

Sibiu, Romania-based “atmospheric black metal” one-man-band ANTUMBRA will issue its Oblivion compilation CD, in collaboration with Loud Rage Music, this year. The act was formed in 2021.

MAYHEM will release a live album, entitled Daemonic Rites, through Century Media Records in September. It was recorded at various gigs over the last two years. MAYHEM is touring with CANNIBAL CORPSE, GORGUTS and BLOOD INCANTATION later this year.

CULTIC has a maxi-single called Seducer. Released on 7-inch record, CD-r and digital through Eleventh Key on July 20th, the songs feature new bassist Andrew Harris and older bass player Reese Harlacker. The band features a husband and wife duo otherwise.

A new black metal band based in Rome, Italy, DEFLESHING A GOD has a demo called Cenotapharium.

Ephemer, the full-length of the Germany-based black metallers NEBELKRÄHE, will be released through Crawling Chaos Records on October 27th.

EVILDEAD has uploaded a song called Bathe In Fire. The band, which is touring Europe, will release a new record through SPV this year.

The so-called Teutonic Big Four of KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION and TANKARD have announced a concert called Klash Of The Ruhrpott festival. It is scheduled for Gelsenkirchen, Germany on July 20, 2024.

Pest Records has an album by Israel-based death metal veterans SPAWN OF EVIL, which is entitled Sadistic Missionaries.

TERREUR NOCTURNE has uploaded a song called Fardeau De Mes Peines, which is taken from the Solitude Post-Mortem album. The black metal release is slated through Music Records in October.

Following tours of Belgium and Scandinavia, SUFFER YOURSELF will issue an album called Axis Of Tortures through Aesthetic Death in September. The album’s theme revolves around the four dimensions of torture.

Following an introduction from Gene Palubicki of PERDITION TEMPLE, Hells Headbangers has signed Stockholm, Sweden-based death metal group MUTATION. The band’s debut album will be released early next year. The act may release a 7″ reissue of the band’s Demo ’23.

BRUJERIA will release a full-length album, entitled Esto Es Brujeria, through Nuclear Blast Records in September.

CROWBAR is touring the USA this September. PRIMITIVE MAN and BODYBOX will open select concerts.

HELLFROST is back and is recording a self-titled album at Derek Roddy’s studio in Florida, USA.

Canada-based BLACK PESTILENCE mixes extreme metal and punk on the new demo, Chaotic Wisdom, which is out in September. There is an advance song called The Devil’s Connection. The act was a solo one and founded by bassist/vocalist Valax in 2008 before growing into a trio.

The Trois-Rivières MetalFest will take place in Trois-Rivières, Canada in November. Bands slated to appear are a reformed MARTYR, playing its Warp Zone album, DBC, KATAKLYSM and SARKASM.


Metallian Hard

LITA FORD is touring across the USA this summer. She also has a Mexican concert planned for the Life After Death Horror Fest for December.

LYNCH MOB, with singer Gabriel Colon, has lined up ten or so concerts for the USA this summer and autumn.

BLAZE BAYLEY has released a live album taped in France and the UK. It is called Damaged Strange Different And Live and was obviously taped prior to his recent health issues. The album features several IRON MAIDEN songs as well.

PAUL DI’ANNO is touring the UK this year and Canada and USA tentatively next.

Jesterhead, IN FLAMES' mascot, has joined MOTÖRHEAD’s Snaggletooth and ANTHRAX’s Not Man in IRON MAIDEN’s Legacy Of The Beast mobile game.

After retiring again and returning again with an announcement that he would play Power trip festival this year, OZZY OSBOURNE has cancelled again noting that he is not ready. JUDAS PRIEST fills the slot.

HURRICANE is back and has a first new album in over two decades. Reconnected includes a re-recording of the band’s hit I'm On To You, a cover version of the QUEEN/DAVID BOWIE song Under Pressure and the single Rock Star Cheater. The band’s latest singer is Dan Schumann.

Another side-project: QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Casey Grillo, guitar player Angel Vivaldi and singer Roman Grey have a hard rock project called INFINITY'S ASHES. There is a video for the song The Perfect Flaw.

X JAPAN’s first single in eight years is called Angel and available through Virgin Music.

Stefan Weinerhall, formerly of FALCONER, and Mathias from UTMARKEN have a new band called RECITE THE CYNIC. The new band mixes folk rock, hard rock and electronica. FALCONER disbanded in 2020.

Former TESLA guitarist Tommy Skeoch has quit RESIST & BITE and joined BAD MARRIAGE. TESLA singer Jeff Keith was heard on BAD MARRIAGE’s Artificial Mind EP of this year.

ULI JON ROTH has undergone a kidney removal operation and has cancelled his North American tour of September and October. The tour was slated as part talk and part music. The man has also launched his own imprint, which is called Alpha Experium. It is distributed through Cargo Records. The first order of business is the re-release of the man’s ELECTRIC SUN records. The guitarist is planning to play in North America in the spring.

Norway-based EUNOMIA has its sophomore full-length, The Chronicles Of Eunomia Part II, for release on Rockshots Records this coming September. Guests include Alessandro Conti (TWILIGHT FORCE), Arnaud Ménard (ALKEMYST) and Jimmy Hedlund (FALCONER). EUNOMIA has a keyboard player. The band compares its fastest song, The Story Goes On, to DRAGONFORCE.

Sweden-based hard rock band BÜRNER has a new album called Hittin' The Target through Time To Kill Records in September. A first video from the album is for the song Beer Before Glory.

ANGRA has signed with Atomic Fire Records and will release an album, called Cycles Of Pain, on November 3rd. A record release concert is scheduled for Tokio Marine Hall in São Paulo, Brazil on the same day.

Rhino/Warner will release a BLACK SABBATH box set called Hand Of Doom 1970 - 1978 in August. The collection contains eight picture discs featuring the band’s full-length catalogue from the 1970s.

Wimp out comes with age cliche alert. Ravinale, the vocalist of Italian death metal band DISARMONIA MUNDI, has a goth rock band called INFERNALIZER, which has a record called After Dark through Rockshots Records in October.

Guitarist Slash of GUNS N’ ROSES is working on a blues album. The album, which is due for 2024, will feature different guests like Demi Lovato.

LARS ERIC MATTSSON has a new album called Evolution. Metal fans should approach it with caution as the record features choir and orchestra.

Sam Mooradian, the touring guitarist for FALLUJAH and co-founder of INHALE EXISTENCE, has a solo demo called Bad Brain. It is described as progressive metal.

MR. BIG, with new touring drummer Nick D'Virgilio, played at China’s Majiao Music Festival and returned to Japan last month.

EXTREME and earMUSIC have launched a marketing plan to promote the band’s Six album. They are asking everyone to cover the band’s new single, which is entitled Rise, in order to “keep rock and roll alive.”

AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Synyster Gates suffered injury to his leg during the band's concert in Mansfield, Massachusetts, USA on July 19th. The concert was resumed with the man playing from backstage and subsequently cut short. His injury was later attributed to heat and dehydration.

SKID ROW cancelled its July 22 concert at the Waukesha County Fair in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA due to an unspecified illness. WARRANT and WINGER played on. SKID ROW has cancelled several concerts or had stand-ins in recent months.

The W.A.S.P. and ARMORED SAINT tour of the USA has been cancelled owing to the back injuries, and subsequent needed operation, of W.A.S.P. singer Blackie Lawless.

STREET FIGHTER’s Second Hand Hero album is out digitally through From The Vaults on 08.09.2023. At the helm of the project is producer and multi-instrumentalist Marco Angioni (MERIDIAN and WITHERING SURFACE) who recorded most of the instruments including lead and rhythm guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. Stefan Jensen of EXELERATE and Sofia Schmidt of ETHEREAL KINGDOMS sing.

Vancouver, Canada’s Hyperspace Metalfest, which takes place between April 11 and 13th, 2024, has announced the first batch of bands that will appear. These include AETHER REALM, IRON KINGDOM, BOREALIS and OSYRON.

Right-wingers are the Sarumans of the Earth: They hate trees. "Rip them all down. Rip Them All Down!"


Metallian Demos

EXOTO - THE FINAL FESTERING
The Final Festering is an odd name for the demo-LP. The band has announced this to be its last release leading to its farewell so the ‘final’ part is right. When I think of ‘fester’ though I think of something that is going to stick around. Exoto has made its departure official, claiming the singer suffered injuries in 2019 and has health problems. Perhaps the band hopes its music, or songs on this release, will have longevity. Perhaps the band members, or the singer, are ignorant. He is photographed with a T-shirt that reads “Fuck Woke.” Another Facebook junkie probably who thinks social justice is a joke and is trying to fit in with his chums. He probably hates vaccines too because they are woke. The singer is the leader of the group and until recently the only original member in the line-up, although guitar player Flip made his way back to record here just in time for the recurring farwell.
The group’s membership is somewhat shrouded in mists of time given the band dissolving, being stood up, dissolving, coming back with new members and lather, rinse, repeat though. So, what about the music of the tattoo models?
The first song is called Crusade Of Deceit and wastes no time to proclaim its allegiance to death metal and thrashcore. The band has been death metal and been constant, but still, for some reason, it is a surprise that they lash so hard, Yet, here it is in 2023. They are either devoted or the break-ups have helped them. The first song begins with a short sound effect of battle before diving headlong into a rough speed course that stops for nothing. Haunted Head, which is a horrific title that goes with the horrific cover art, is less straightforward and contains an impressive bridge. Postnatal Abortion, whatever that means though it sure is a cool title, has a touch of Seance's Saltrubbed Eyes. The ending is off as if the band is tired, begins to crawl and struggles to the finish line. Intertwined Souls is for Exoto fans and Malevolent Creation fans. The vocals are hoarse, but not as dry as on Mountain Of Pain, where Chris' vocals rasp and sound as if they are coming from the beyond. This song has a cool tempo change, haunting backing vocals and, what was that? Did I just hear a ten-second solo? The gang accelerates to impressive speeds making this the best number on this LP. My Frozen Saviour has a heavy military chug. Zombie Zero has a remarkable riff that Sinister fans would like. Did not expect a title track on this because the name is picked to announce the band’s departure, but there is a song called The Final Festering. Of course, it is placed at the end and even brings in a melody alternating with heavy riffs. Could be considered a weak song. It ends the way the album started with the sound of battle and mayhem as if Exoto is leaving destruction behind.
Aside from the aforementioned short solo and a lead at the very beginning of the LP this is no-frills and as technical as Nickelback is listenable. The band is dense though and most of the music is a machine gun on fire. This rough stuff is the type of music which skews the melody and preference of most metal bands these days. It could explain why the band did not find a label. They looked for one and proceeded to self-release, which given today's labels is the same thing really anyway! Possibly labels did not wish to invest in a band that has announced its farewell.
Unbowed after all these years, Exoto’s speed would have been even more impressive if they had not cut away for a number of years and used it as a breather. Still, having formed in 1990 and to this being this extreme deserves a compliment or two. - Anna Tergel