Metallian Heavy

Montreal, Canada-based DISPLAY OF DECAY has an album called Vitriol through Gore House Productions. It is mixed and Mastered by Christian Donaldson. The band has uploaded a song called The Butcher in advance.

Ukraine-based BLOODY HARVEST has a single called I’m Gonna Live In You Forever. The song is inspired by the events in the city of Mariupol, which was occupied by Russia.

Canada-based HYPERIA has a demo called The Serpent’s Cycle on November 17th.

Out of the ashes of SNIPERS OF BABEL, CRUSHUMAN is a new band featuring Mike Bossier (guitar) Danny Boiko (vocals) Michael Lumer (drums) and newest addition Mike Horn (bass). Horror Pain Gore Death has released the band’s single, There Was Blood Everywhere.

Romania-based death metal band VORUS will record an album called Desolate Eternities this autumn. Loud Rage Music will release it in the spring of 2024. Established in 2017 as a solo project of the American musician Uriel (MORBICUS, NECRORITE, REVELER, PUTRED, ex-GUTWRENCH, ex-CRYPTIC REALMS, etc) who has been active since 1989, the act relocated to Romania back in 2014. VORUS participated in Bucharest Death Fest this year.

Tennessee Metal Devastation Music Fest 2023 will take place Saturday, October 14th at The Amp in Jackson, TN, USA. Bands appearing include CASKET ROBBERY, AUTUMN LIES BURIED, BLOOD STAINED DUSK and THE RED MOUNTAIN.

AUTOPSY has a new album called Ashes, Organs, Blood And Crypts through Peaceville.

Loud Rage Music and Pest Records are issuing ANTUMBRA’s Oblivion compilation album. The solo band is based in Romania.

SERAPHIC ENTOMBMENT’s Sickness Particles Gleam album will be released by Everlasting Spew Records on the 13th of October. The group was formed as a side-project of ECTOVOID and HEGEMONY members.in the autumn of 2017.

After releasing a self-titled demo earlier this year, Silver Bullet is the name for NECRONOMICON EX MORTIS new independent release this month.

CURSED TO OCCULT’s Diary Of A Broken Man is out through Crawling Chaos. The act was founded as a solo project in 2019 and began performing live in 2022.

MINDLAG PROJECT has a digital single called Shrapnel. The song’s lyrics were inspired by members’ forebearers who participated in the World Wars. The band is working on a full-length album to be released in the upcoming months.

Horror Pain Gore Death has a split for LIPOMA, FLUIDS and TROCAR called Dissertations. Some of the material was released elsewhere previously.

CVINGER’s new album and single, Doctrines By The Figures Of Črnobog, was released by the Polish record label Via Nocturna on the 28th of August. This new album explores the existence of man in a Slavic spiritual realm whose body and soul are split during rites.

NOCTEM is conducting its Credo Certe Ne Cras tour across Europe in September and October. The band is stopping at multiple festivals.

ASTARIUM has an album called The Ghost Kings out through Acid Vicious.

KING OV WYRMS has a demo called The Womb Ov Borealis. The studio project has a video for the song In Aeons We Spoke.

Romania-based BLACKSHEEP released an album through Loud Rage Music on the 16th of August. The album is titled Bloodties and described as death ‘n roll. The act participated in Wacken Open Air 2023 Metal Battle and has a dozen concerts lined up for this year.

Avantgarde Music is releasing MOONLIGHT SORCERY’s Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle (melodic black metal from Finland) and DISMAL AURA’s Imperium Mortalia (black metal from Canada) albums in September.

Labels and bands against the underground: COAGULATE will re-release its Rehearsal Demo 2022 on 7” through Dawnbreed Records (Europe) and Gurgling Gore (North America).

Dawnbreed Records (Europe) and Gurgling Gore (North America) are reissuing the split EP of SEEP and STENCH COLLECTOR on 7″ vinyl format. The EP was originally released on tape in early 2023. The STENCH COLLECTOR track is the final output from the duo. The band’s guitarist and vocalist Mark Pechack died last year before he could see this split come into fruition.

EERIE’s The Delirium Of The Believers is out through Negra Nit this month. O.C.’s solo project was initiated for the man to focus on Scandinavian sounds. Midgard from OUIJA is on the song The Perversion.

TORN THE FUCK APART will issue Kill.Bury.Repeat. later this year. A song called Stuck In The Trunk is available now. The label is Gore House Productions.

Suspiria Records is releasing INSIGHT AFTER DOOMSDAY’s Remain album. The band is Spain-based and metalcore.

BLACK PESTILENCE has a new demo called Chaotic Wisdom. There is a video for the song The Devil’s Connection. The band is touring western Canada with CITIZEN RAGE in September.

WORMHOLE has an album entitled Almost Human through Season Of Mist this month. The band has a video for the song Elysiism.

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions has announced DESTABILIZER’s Violence Is The Answer album for September 22nd. The Denmark-based band was founded in 2020.

CATTLE DECAPITATION will embark on the Terrasitic Infestation North American headlining tour with IMMOLATION, SANGUISUGABOGG And CASTRATOR in November and December.

REDSPHERE’s Immortalized album is out through Malmorta Records. The band calls itself death metal, but also has “groove.” It is described as “complete rework of the album Immortal Voids.”

OVERKILL cancelled a trip to Europe after several members fell ill with COVID-19 in the USA.

In addition to its tour of Austria, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES will play at Blue Ridge, Muddy Roots and Rifflandia festivals this year and perform shows to commemorate its debut album’s 40th anniversary.

In addition to DBC, a reunited MARTYR, KATAKLYSM and BARF, Canada’s Trois-Rivières MetalFest has announced SUFFOCATION and INCANTATION as bands that will appear on stage in November. The last two bands are touring North America together. SKELETAL REMAINS and STABBING are opening.

Suckers ahoy! Wargaming Metal Fest is the name of a new collaboration between the Wargaming company and MEGADETH with band members’ voice-overs and more appearing within the company’s games. Simultaneously, MEGADETH has rebranded its Rattleheads NFT brand Megadeth Digital. In the meantime, band leader Dave Mustaine told the audience at AMA Music Festival that he has purchased a house and is moving to Italy.

To celebrate its fortieth anniversary SEPULTURA is recording its concerts with an eye on a live album. The band was founded in 1984.

Drummer Pete Sandoval and bassist David Vincent (both formerly of MORBID ANGEL) have resurrected TERRORIZER. Singing for the act is former VITAL REMAINS singer Brian Werner. The band is booked for Maranhão Open Air 2023 in São Luís, Brazil.

Horror Pain Gore Death is issuing crossover band ROAD PIG’s Still The Future Is Bleak EP this month. The band is compared to MOTÖRHEAD, MIDNIGHT, WORLD BURNS TO DEATH, OVERCHARGE and CHILDREN OF TECHNOLOGY. The band features ex-CUT IT OUT!, THE UNWILLING and COME AND GET IT members.

The 2006 album Mind Tricks by DISARMONIA MUNDI is rereleased on vinyl by Rockshots Records. Claudio Ravinale equally shares vocal duties with Swedish session hero Bjorn Speed Strid.

Hells Headbangers will release ten albums and an EP by CANNIBAL CORPSE on cassette. These limited edition tapes constitute the band’s discography with Corpsegrinder on vocals.

A car crashed into the tour bus of OBITUARY while it was parked in Glasgow, Scotland on Thursday 31st of August. It missed the band’s merchandise guy. The band was able to continue to Newcastle following some makeshift repairs.

Avantgarde Music is issuing VOIDESCENT’s Dust And Embers (black metal from Spain) and AKOUPHENOM’s Death·Chaos·Void (death/black metal from Spain) albums in October.

SERPENTS OATH has signed to Odium Records for the release of a third album, which is due later this year.

Brazil-based heavy metal band AS THE PALACES BURN has signed with Rockshots Records and will release the Drowning Into Shadows album in October. There is a video for the song Into Emotions.

Italy-based sludge group MAGNITUDO has a demo, entitled Scotoma, out on September 22nd. The song The Algorithm features backing vocals from Michele “Mike” Basso (VISCERA///, FORMALIST and THE END OF SIX THOUSAND YEARS).

SHADOWSPAWN has a new album, entitled Blasphemica – Absolution Carved From Flesh, through Emanzipation in October. This will also be the group’s first album with new drummer Lukas Meier known from THE PETULANT and SACRIFICIAL.

Denmark-based groups HEXIS and TELOS have a split 5” vinyl released through Init Records. HEXIS has performed over 1,000 concerts. TELOS features members of LLNN, EYES, DEMERSAL and REGARDING AMBIGUITY as well as former members of HEXIS.

JOB FOR A COWBOY is back with a single and video for The Agony Seeping Storm. The song will be on the band’s first album in a decade due for release through Metal Blade Records in 2024.

NERVOSA will release a full-length, entitled Jailbreak, through Napalm Records on 29.09.2023. Founding member Prika Amaral is on vocals for the first time, Helena Kotina is on guitar, Hel Pyre on bass and Michaela Naydenova on drums.

With members from Taiwan, Norway, and the USA ABYSSUS is a new band with a single called Nihil through Mourning Light Records.

Canada-based grindcore band FÂCHÉ has a self-titled album through Horror Pain Gore Death. The band’s monicker translates into ‘angry’ from French.


Metallian Hard

Sneakout Records and Burning Minds Music Group have issued the lyric video for the song Chic & Destroy, which is a song taken from T.M.T.T.80, the 2022 album by Italy-based glam metal band RECKLESS. The lyric video, directed by Federico Bordon, includes live footage recorded at Revolution Live Club of Colceresa, Vicenza while supporting WHITE SKULL.

MY DARKEST RED is the evolution of the Italian hard rock and glam band POISONHEART, which debuted on Sneakout Records/Burning Minds Music Group in 2017. The band recruited bassist Andrea Verginella (ex-DREAMHUNTER) and changed its sound to one away from glam and sleaze towards goth and metal.

GUNS N' ROSES released the shelved and unreleased Chinese Democracy-era song Perhaps on August 11th.

IN FLAMES has released a short format documentary called The Journey Home, which covers the band's last European tour and the making of its latest album, Foregone.

ZEBRA is performing a series of concerts in the USA this autumn. There is a band documentary in the works as well.

Former KISS members Bruce Kulick and Ace Frehley will appear at this year's Kiss Cancer Goodbye II fundraiser for the American Cancer Society in Florida, USA on October 13 and14. Kulick will run through Kiss Alive III material.

SEBASTIAN BACH cancelled a couple of concerts in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada in August due to “scheduling” issues.

LIZZY BORDEN has a digital single and video called Death Of Me. The band is booked for Life After Death Horror Fest in Mexico in December and Monsters Of Rock Cruise 2024.

Frontiers Music will release LYNCH MOB’s Babylon album on October 20th. Time After Time is a video off the record. Guitarist George Lynch has singer Gabriel Colón, bassist Jaron Gulino (HEAVENS EDGE) and drummer Jimmy D'Anda (ex-BULLETBOYS) in tow.

In addition to Eindhoven in November, the reunited ELEGY has announced two concerts for Greece for March 2024.

DYECREST (featuring members of METAL DE FACTO, THY ROW, EVERFROST and KIOWAN DYNAMO, a couple of which are on the same label) has an album called Once I Had A Heart through Rockshots Records. The band being Finnish, the band has a keyboard player.

Former WHITESNAKE and ALASKA guitarist Bernie Marsden has died.

VANDENBERG and GEOFF TATE are touring the USA in February and March 2024. Guitarist Adrian Vandenberg is touring the US for the first time since his WHITESNAKE days in 1990. His own solo act was last on the road there in 1986. The sets will include WHITESNAKE and QUEENSRŸCHE songs respectively.

THE UNCROWNED has announced a new album for November. Stopover is dedicated to the act’s dead singer Shal. The album contains demo tracks rerecorded and tracks featuring Shal, which never appeared on the band’s previous two albums.

BLINDMAN has a mini-album called Outburst through Walküre Records in October. The release features a couple of self-cover versions. CRUEL FORCE is back with an album called Dawn Of The Axe through Shadow Kingdom Records.The band has several videos to support the release.

HELLOWEEN was forced to cancel its show at the Hellsinki Metal Festival in Finland and Bloodstock Open Air in England due to singer Michael Kiske contracting laryngitis. KK’s PRIEST will replace HELLOWEEN at Bloodstock.

A judge has set February 20th 2024 as the sentencing date for ICED EARTH guitarist Jon Schaffer following his participation in the riot and attempted coup in Washington DC, USA on January 6th 2021. He breached the US Capitol and is a founding member of right-wing militia, the Oath Keepers. The man has reportedly been cooperating with the authorities since his initial arrest two years ago.

DANZIG is touring the USA with BEHEMOTH, TWIN TEMPLE and MIDNIGHT.

XHAMAIN, has completed the recording of a song called A Nosa Canción (‘Our Song’), a tribute to the fans of Spanish football team, RC Celta. Seventy artists are assembled to sing on the track.

To support its Code Red album PRIMAL FEAR will tour Latin America this autumn.

Napalm Records has signed DRAGONFORCE. The act is touring Canada and the USA with AMARANTHE, NANOWAR OF STEEL and EDGE OF PARADISE this October and November.

UK-based IMPERIUM has a demo called When Kings Meet. It contains the recently uploaded song Iron Thunder, as part of four studio tracks, as well as two live recordings from Bloodstock 2022.

To remember GRIM REAPER singer Steve Grimmett, who died a year ago, GRIM REAPER guitarist Nick Bowcott and Tim "Ripper" Owens, banded together with others including Steve's son and daughter, Russ and Sami Grimmett, on backing vocals for a version of GRIM REAPER’s most famous song, See You In Hell.

BMG is releasing DIO: The Studio Albums: 1996-2004 on September 22nd. The CD and LP box set includes Angry Machines (1996), Magica (2000), Killing The Dragon (2002) and Master Of The Moon (2004). The Dio: Dreamers Never Die documentary is appearing on DVD this month as well.

W.A.S.P. will release The 7 Savage: 1984-1992 8-LP box set culled from its years on Capitol Records. It comes with a LP of bonus tracks, a 60-page book and posters. It will be released through Madfish/Snapper on 27.10.2023.

PRONG has a new album, called State Of Emergency, through Steamhammer/SPV in October. There was a video for the song Non-Existence. The act performed in the parking lot of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, USA before a Metallica concert last month. OVERKILL did the same two days later.

To support its Blood Omen album, The RAVEN AGE has a tour of Ireland and UK lined up for November.

Heavy metal band AMORTA was founded by bassist Pasi Tanskanen (THAUROROD) in 2021. Other members are Erik Kraemer (SIMULACRUM and KRAEMER), Harri Hytönen (KALMAH’s live guitarist) and Joonas Pykälä-aho (THAUROROD and AMBERIAN DAWN). The group has uploaded a song called Excelsior.

After playing several festivals with TNT in Europe, singer TONY HARNELL has picked up guitarist Jason Hagen and is playing several acoustic gigs in the USA.

THEOCRACY has signed with Atomic Fire. A new album is expected late this year.

ACCEPT warned against cons as far back as 1985: “Wrong is right - wrong is right/I'll never believe all the crap they say…”


Metallian Demos

DEFLESHING A GOD - CENOTAPHARIUM
People are sad. This band was formed in 2022 and already has a new guitarist because Mestor is gone and replaced by Duke Valefor! Seriously, why can’t people stick to bands and not move around so much? But what is even more sad is that this demo will probably not go anywhere. It is true and no frills so the masses of wimps who like synthesizers, harp and sitar will hate it. Yeah, that is the world of today. All sad.
The band that is raw and aggressive has four songs here with an average running time of two minutes and twenty seconds. The simple arrangements and lo-fi recording of this demo is appealing for fans of old Mayhem, old Satyricon when they bashed away, Old Funeral and Darkthrone. It is generally fast, but Cenotapharium brings in the heavy riffs too. Gestatorial Chair Of Sathan Asmodeus also builds up the track in as much as such a short song could.
The band’s name is perplexing though. Unless you are American and a hamburger, er double triple burger, is your god then god comes out of the gates defleshed, doesn't it? The band is at https://www.deezer.com/de/artist/219547015 - Anna Tergel

OMNEROD – THE AMENSAL RISE
I can explain this CD two ways. The first is that there are seven songs over seventy minutes. That speaks volumes. The second is by asking why this CD was handed to me for a review. It sounds like industrial, progressive, alternative and pop combined while a Tim Burton soundtrack goes off in the background. Amensal means something that is the opposite of symbiotic and an association of two organisms where one is destroyed. Not to imply the Belgians are anything organic, but between their music and my ears something has to give and that something will be the CD. It is symphonic, dramatic, theatrical, grandiose, pretentious and the worst moments are when the band pretends to be booked at a dive bar lounge. They are even worse than the emotional clean vocals. Still, there is a decent market for the multi-layered and complex arrangements the band loves. It is full of syntheizers, up, down, progressive jazzy djent and a digital symphony. It has more mood swings than your ex. Satellites (there is a balloon on the cover) is downtuned and harsh on guitar and then soft and melancholy on vocals. The vocals go deep and begin roaring and growling on Spore, but first it’s Arcade Fire-meets-Phoenix pop with high shrieks. You might be asking what it has to do with metal and wondering if the band is more into showing off its compositions and instruments, like keyboards, piano and miscellaneous, than giving you a song and good music a.k.a. metal. Towards The Core instead goes towards hip hop at the beginning. It then turns rockabilly for the hell of it presumably. It is trying so hard to be a mutt. And of course, there is the acoustic end.
Did you ever wake up to tell yourself that metal is too hard and instead deliberately complex sound with random explosions in tandem with quiet reflections are the way to go? There is a band for you.
Devin Townsend worked his magic on these boys. In short, anyone who calls this metal is floating a hot-air balloon - Anna Tergel