Metallian Heavy

Canada-based death metal band FEAST OF CORPSES is back and has a lyric video for the song Au Bord De L’Extinction, which is taken from the Atshen: An Anthropophagus Affliction album. It is available through Abominable Records.

Germany-based death metal trio SOUL GRINDER will release a new full-length, Frozen Halls, through MDD Records on 16.10.2025. SOUL GRINDER has booked several shows in Germany for October.

Death metal band VULNIFICUS will release its debut album, Inclination, through Comatose Music on 10.10.2025.

Finland-based deathgrind group I, CURSED has an EP called Heretical Onslaught through Meara Music and Inverse Records. There is a video for the song Disfigurement.

Romania-based TREASONDOM releases its debut album, The Flesh Consumes The Mind!, through Defense Records and Maximed Records this month. The band is compared to NAPALM DEATH.

USA-based VITRIOL has lost drummer Matt Kilner after two years, but gained bassist Brett Leier, bassist for a progressive metal band called GARGOYL.

Indonesia-based DEVASTROSITY will release an album called Eviscerating Desolation through Comatose Music on October 24th 2025. Like all bands, this act’s members also come from other acts. These include DESERTER, GORIFICATION and KILLHARMONIC.

California-based Deathgrinders NEFAS (featuring members of CRYPTIC GALLBLADDER SPLATTER, BEDLAM OF CACOPHONY, WAX PEOPLE, etc.), have a lyric video for the song Mindstream Transference, which is taken from the Oblation Ov Obliteration demo.

Death metal and deathcore band WRETCHED has a new album, called Decay, available through Metal Blade Records in October. The band has a video for the title track.

Never Ending Night Of Terror is the name for a new full-length by international band HEADS FOR THE DEAD. It will be released by Pulverised Records in October.

Denmark-based HYPERDONTIA is touring Europe from November 4th to 13th for a 10-day trek named Scourge Across Europe.

Those Who Live In Death is a demo by Austria-based deathcore act SPIRE OF LAZARUS. There is a video for the song Battle Of Aeonia.

Spain-based MURMUR has recorded material for a release called Red Hill, which will be released later this year.

Transcending Obscurity Records has signed USA-based death metal band GLORIOUS DEPRAVITY. A full-length album called Death Never Sleeps is next.

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions is releasing USA-based MUDSHOW’s Villain single. It is a tribute to one of the pioneers of joshi wrestling and the subject of a Netflix series, Queen Of Villains, The Mighty Dump Matsumoto. All proceeds go to wrestler Jeff Cannonball, who is diagnosed with ALS, through the end of October 2025.

Texas, USA-based death metal band TRIBAL GAZE will release a full-length album called Inveighing Brilliance through Nuclear Blast on 17.10.2025.

Wisconsin, USA-based death metal band PIG’S BLOOD has signed with Dark Descent Records. An album called Destroying The Spirit is due out later this year.

Death doom act DWELLING BELOW has a release called Wearisome Guardian through Transcending Obscurity Records shortly.

Death doom act OLD YEAR has a debut album called No Dissent through Apocalyptic Witchcraft on October 24th 2025. The duo of singer/guitarist Robert Taylor Roark and drummer Jered Veeneman was joined by bassist Skyler Rezendes in 2021.

Originally from Amman, Jordan, Dubai-based FALLING LEAVES has an album, called The Silence That Binds Us, after a 13-year hiatus through Meuse Music Records. Like all new releases there are guest appearances. These are by Paul Kuhr (vocalist – NOVEMBERS DOOM), Fabio Alessandrini (drummer – BONFIRE and ANNIHILATOR) and Ariel Perchuk (keyboards – KENZINER and ROGER STAFFELBACH).

Heidens Hart Records will release Eternal Nightmares, the sixth full-length by Germany-based black metal band PEST in October of 2025. It was recorded and mixed by the band at its rehearsal room.

Poland-based black/death metal band IMPERMANENCE has a video for the song Sorrodise, which is taken from the debut full-length Anicca. It will be released through Satanath Records and Sanatorio Records in October 2025.

Italy-based vampiric duo BLUTSAUGER has a debut full-length, called Nocturnal Blood Tyrants, through De Tenebrarum Principio, a division of ATMF.

USA-based black/death metal trio ORDEALS has a debut full-length Third Rail Prayer through Eternal Death.

Germany-based HANGATYR has a full-length demo called Sumpf Der Fäule. It is produced by Alexander Dietz (HEAVEN SHALL BURN) at his Chemical Burn Studio. The band has focused on Norse tales over the years.

Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and Anthony “Abaddon” Bray, the early guitarist and drummer for VENOM, are crowdfunding for a legal battle against the act’s mainstay singer and guitarist Cronos. They report that the legal action has been ongoing since 2023 and is to secure recognition for their artwork contributions and share of merchandise profits for albums they co-wrote and performed on. Cronos asserts ownership of VENOM’s Satanic imagery.

Darkness Shall Rise Productions will release GORLEBEN’s Menetekel album in October. The band’s style is described as death/doom.

Indianapolis, USA-based band ATAVISTIC DECAY has a demo called Immakulate Invokations. A 7” vinyl edition will be available through Night Terrors Records in October 2025.

Germany-based heathen metal band WALDGEFLÜSTER will release an album called Knochengesänge I through AOP Records in November.

Germany-based ‘Viking’ band THORONDIR has an album called Wächter Des Waldes through Trollzorn Records in October 2025.

Turkey-based MORIBUND OBLIVION has a full-length album called Intertemporal. It will be released through Theogonia Records in September 2025.

Switzerland-based black and death metal group ANTIVERSUM has a full-length, called De Nemesis Omnes Et Omnia, through Amor Fati Productions.

USA-based act ONE OF NINE has an album, Dawn Of The Iron Shadow, through Profound Lore Records on 31.10.2025. The band is described as “melodic black metal.”

Death and black metal group WODE has an album called Uncrossing the Keys Through 20 Buck Spin in October. The UK-based gang has several European gigs in Europe this autumn.

USA-based side-project CRUENTATION has a debut full-length, called Damned Fallen Angels, through Iron Bonehead Productions. Members are in CEMETERY LIGHTS, EMBRYONIC CRYPTOPATHIA, WITCH TOMB, etc.

ABHORRENCE has a video for the song Old Age, Sickness And Death Metal. The song is a tribute to early death metal bands. Each line of the song’s lyrics mentions an album from the late ’80s and early ’90s’ death metal. The video features animated versions of covers of many albums namechecked in the lyrics. The cover of the single is inspired by POSSESSED‘s Seven Churches and was created by Olli Nurminen, the guitarist of XYSMA.

Armenia-based black metal band ILDARUNI will release its new full-length, Divinum Sanguinem, through Black Lion Records on 07.11.2025.

Belgium-based black metal band LVTHN has a full-length called The Devil’s Bridge, which will be released through Amor Fati Productions on September 06, 2025.

Washington, USA-based sludge and thrash metal band URSAWRATH has a full-length demo called Emergence. There is a video for the song Thawed By Hell’s Flames.

SANGUISUGABOGG will return to Europe, with FULCI, GATES TO HELL and CELESTIAL SANCTUARY, in February of 2026.

The USA-based DYSENTERY will release an album called Dejection Chrysalis through Comatose Music on November 7th 2025.

Finland-based sludge band TRYPANON has a full-length, Through The Portal Of Flesh To Achieve Divinity, through Time To Kill Records in September.

Poland-based thrash metal group SPECIES will release an album called Changelings through 20 Buck Spin in September.

UK-based thrash metal group HELLBEARER will release a new demo, called Darker Fates, on October 17th 2025. The quartet is compared to TESTAMENT and EXODUS.

TESTAMENT has an album, entitled Para Bellum, through Nuclear Blast Records on 10.10.2025. The band also has a video for the song Infanticide A.I.

More disbanded band concerts: SLAYER, KNOCKED LOOSE, CAVALERA, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, POWER TRIP and EXODUS have a concert in Pennnsylvania, USA on Saturday, September 20th.

SEPULTURA has four recorded songs in the bag, which are due to be released as a new EP in 2026. They feature drummer Greyson Nekrutman. The band announced it had reached “the end of the road” in December 2023 and would disband after 18 months of touring.

CAVALERA, featuring former SEPULTURA members Igor Cavalera and Max Cavalera, has announced an autumn tour of the USA performing SEPULTURA’s Chaos A.D. album of 1993 in its entirety. FEAR FACTORY opens. The brothers are in a dozen acts and so Max Cavalera’s SOULFLY is touring Australia in the new year. NAILBOMB, which once featured Igor Cavalera, is opening.

USA-based VEKTOR is conducting the Hemispheres Awakened Tour of Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and South Korea in the autumn of 2025.

USA-based thrash metal band VINDICATOR has a new demo, Whispers Of Death, which is available on the Speed Meddle Records’ imprint.

Germany-based thrash metal band RAVAGER has a new album entitled From Us With Hate through Iron Shield Records. It was recorded at Soundlodge Studio.

Finland-based speed metal trio DET has a debut full-length, called Destructive Elite Terror, through Dying Victims Productions on 17.10.2025.

Italy-based IN LIMINE has a debut album called Inveteratus through Rockshots in October 2025. The act features Matteo Galimberti (ex-CRIPPLE BASTARDS) while singer Laur Lindmäe and drummer George Kollias (NILE) are session members.

SEASON OF THE DEAD (the title for NECROPHAGIA‘s debut record) is a “cinematic” extreme metal project by sessionist Titta Tani (former drummer of NECROPHAGIA and GOBLIN), Giacomo Anselmi (former GOBLIN guitarist and current member of GOBLIN LEGACY) and Enrico Giannone, founder and owner of Time To Kill Records, acting as producer behind the entire concept. Also involved are John McEntee (INCANTATION) – vocals, Fiore Stravino (FULCI) – also vocals, Dave Neabore (DOG EAT DOG) – bass and Chuck Sherwood (INCANTATION) – also bass. The label likes to put out two press releases for maximum publicity so the album’s details followed by a couple of weeks. Zombie Chronicles Vol. 1 is scheduled for November 2025.

Germany-based ‘post’ band HERETOIR has a music video for the song Season Of Grief, which is taken from the Solastalgia album. The full-length is available through AOP Records in September 2025.

Portugal-based ‘post’ band GAEREA has signed with Century Media Records. The band has uploaded a song called Submerged.

Finland-based SYNTHRE has a demo called Heterodoxa on 13.10.2025. It is described as, “clean vocals accompanied by harsh, dissonant guitars, repetitive ritualistic riffs, and middle-eastern themes and instruments.” Like everything else it is called death metal and black metal. The song Thy Gaze Is Fire features guest musician David De Liniers on drums, alongside multi-instrumentalist Mircea Purdea of the band EXHALUS, who forms the core of SYNTHRE.

WOLFHEART has a stop-gap EP called Draconian Darkness II. There is a video for the song Carnivore. It features an acoustic song, a live song, etc.

ETERNAL DRAK has lined up three Canadian dates in support of its The Warrior Order demo. The gigs are in Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres and Sherbrooke in August, September and October 2025 respectively.

Grande Prairie, Canada-based metalcore, nu and now Gotherburg-inspired band DEVOLVER returned with a demo called Non Compos Mentis on August 22nd, 2025. Produced by Mark Lewis (WHITECHAPEL, TRIVIUM and DEVILDRIVER), the album marks a melding of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal with the raw intensity of early 2000s metalcore. The title track draws from a true story: the 1805 murder of Amos Babcock’s sister in a religious frenzy, an ancestor of guitarist Devin Babcock.

Thunderbay, Canada-based underground metal band TEKNOSIS is touring with pop/rock band THE FIXER in Canada in October.

Canada-based THE JUDGE THE JUROR (TJTJ), has a demo, called Primitive Minds, in early autumn 2025. It marks the start of a trilogy of demos that should unfold over the next eight months, each exploring the collapse of the human condition. The band calls its style Psydeathtechprog, but has synthesisers. The next demos are called Medieval Institutions and Godlike Technologies.

SHORES OF NULL just played four shows in the UK including a headlining appearance at Plymouth’s One For Sorrow Festival. Joining them on the mini-tour was THE CRAWLING.

Montreal, Canada-based SCORCHING TOMB has a debut full-length, entitled Ossuary, through Time To Kill Records on October 24th, 2025. Like all releases there is a guest appearance on this album.

LOL. Yet.another.guest.spot. Gods of unoriginality awaken! Metalcore and so-called groove metal act RECURRENCE will issue its Art of Survival demo on November 5th, 2025. Inspired by V For Vendetta, the song Unpopular Demand features Björn “Speed” Strid (guest spot with every single act in the world).

Following its Ferocity Of Steel demo, Denmark-based SPEEDSLUT has signed with Listenable Records.

Hall Of Fame in Tilburg, The Netherlands is the setting for Nox Occultum on September 19th and 20th of September 2025. The black metal show features bands like TORMENTOR, NECROWRETCH, MISOTHEIST and WITCHFUKKER.


Metallian Hard

RAVEN's European touring in September was cancelled when singer and bassist John Gallagher was diagnosed with Subdural Hematoma (bleeding around the brain) after being admitted to a hospital on August 12th, 2025. He had been complaining from a headache.

Chile-based ARMOURED KNIGHT has a debut full-length, called The Quest For The Sacred Melody, which will be released through Dying Victims Productions on 17.10.2025.

Doom metal act THE ANSWER LIES IN THE BLACK VOID has a record, called Transcendental, through Lay Bare Recordings on 26.09.2025.

France-based heavy metal band RISING STEEL has a new record, Legion Of The Grave, through Frontiers.

Finland-based GLADENFOLD has a video for the song For My Queen. The song is taken from the next full-length, which will be issued through Reaper Entertainment in 2026.

Seattle, Washington USA-based heavy metal act SÖLICITÖR has an album, called Enemy In Mirrors, through Cruz Del Dur Music on 19.09.2025.

MEGADETH has joined SCORPIONS, JUDAS PRIEST, MANOWAR, KISS (in the year 2000), MÖTLEY CRÜE (2014), etc. and announced its next album will be its final one. The farewell tour will follow the album's release in early 2026. Said band leader Dave Mustaine, "There's so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional. Most of them don't get to go out on their own terms on top, and that's where I'm at in my life right now. I have traveled the world and have made millions upon millions of fans and the hardest part of all of this is saying goodbye to them." No word whether they would tour with ELTON JOHN, BLACK SABBATH, STATUS QUO or ATREYU.

SCORPIONS recruited ALICE COOPER bassist Chuck Garric to play with the band for its five-show residency in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA this summer. Garric was filling in for SCORPIONS' bassist Paweł Mąciwoda who had a "scheduling conflict."

Goth and horror band SOULGRIND is back 15 years following the release of its last release. The Ad Pulchram Mortem album will be released through Inverse Records in late 2025. A video for the song Jylhä Metsämies is available now.

SINTAGE has a new album, Unbound Triumph, through High Roller on 17.10.2025.

TIM RIPPER OWENS is touring Europe this autumn.

THE HALO EFFECT is working on a covers' EP featuring music by DANZIG, KENT and more.

Brazil-based hard rock and heavy metal band CREATURES has signed with High Roller Records and will release an album in November 2025.

Poland-based heavy metal group AQUILLA has signed with High Roller Records and will release an album, called Sentinels Of New Dawn, later this year.

THE RODS will release an album, called Wild Dogs Unchained, through Massacre Records in September 2025.

WILD DOGS' guitarist Robert Robinson has died due to Arteriosclerosis. He was 57 years old.

After cancelling shows due to heart problems, SAXON singer Biff Byford has revealed that he underwent an operation to remove "a small tumor" from his prostate gland recently. He has been treated with chemotherapy for bowel cancer in order to get any cancerous cells out. Immediate shows are cancelled and SAXON hopes to return in November.

DAVE TINELT has a demo called Power Of Discretion on 25.10.2025. The singer was formerly a member of NEKRÖFEIST and briefly MORTAL SIN.

WITHERING SCORN, featuring former MEGADETH and FATES WARNING personnel (Shawn Drover, Glen Drover, Joe DiBiase, etc.), is asking for donations through GoFundMe in order to release a demo called Sanctum Of The Depraved. The band's debut Prophets Of Demise was issued through Frontiers.

Denmark-based progressive metal group DEFECTO has signed with Frontiers.

Hailing from three different countries, Poland, Argentina and Chile, comes rock and hard rock band ALDABARAN, which was founded in 2024. The trio has a demo called Perséfone that is sung in Spanish.

THE UNCROWNED, now featuring singer Inoyui, has a new album on October 22nd. It is called Run Through The Night and will be released through Walküre Records.

After playing at Dynamo in June of this year, the line-up of THE GATHERING which performed on the Mandylion album 30 years ago embarked on an anniversary reunion mini-tour on August 27th at Doornroosje in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

The song Brave Force by BRAVELORD, the solo project of Chilean musician Rodrigo Bravo, is taken from The Power From The End Of The World, which is a demo by the man due in November. In accordance with most releases nowadays, there are multiple guest musicians. The song, produced by Nicolás Arce at AST Studios, is part of a conceptual album that tells an epic story set in the south of Chile.

Metal Envy: Why is there no metal in symphonic metal, folk metal or gothic metal and why do they contain the word 'metal'?


Metallian Demos

DAVE TINELT - POWER OF DISCRETION
Dave Tinelt is an Australian solo artist who previously fronted bands such as Metreya and Nekröfeist. He also fronted Mortal Sin for a couple of months and has been performing cover tunes more recently. Power of Discretion is his solo demo. It brandishes a cover artwork with so many hands and arms on its cover, which makes sense because the man is the singer, guitarist and drum machine operator here (or perhaps his hand gestures symbolises the range of reviews he expects for Power Of Discretion). The man has been around, but is still hip to the requisites of the day and has a solo release with multiple guest musicians.
The first couple of tracks are power thrash and recommended for fans of Armored Saint and Metal Church. There is nothing wrong with that. Even the sound is good, but the music is pretty standard though and the phrasing obvious. The drum machine, of course, is a downside.
My Maniacal Mind is an intro followed by Axe To Grind. This song hints vocally at Metallica and musically at Flotsam And Jetsam. Am I Sane starts slowly before picking up with the vocals hinting at both ends of the spectrum, Metallica's and Ripper Owens. A solo pops up here. Vaguely Clear is rock music. It's a good rock song, but a rock song nonetheless. The self-deprecating Just A Clown could have been a Lynyrd Skynyrd song with keyboards. The man tells us he can't take anything "serious." Adverbs, and grammar, not being a strong suit of Dave's, the next song Alien Welcome Note somewhat makes up for it with a rare full-length solo. The solo is not quite at Testament's level, but the lick is still juicy. - Anna Tergel

PORTAL - CATACLYSM
Portal is the doom project of Texas, USA-based Raddar's 'Razar' King. Portal is both similar and dissimilar to Raddar. Both bands are clearly influenced by the heavy rock of the 1970s (and even late 1960s) and carry the torch. Portal, as opposed to the hard and heavy rock of Raddar, is the man's doomy project. There are a couple of admirable elements here and two that this listener does not appreciate.
Sifting through a few songs randomly, the demo begins with Causality, a heavy and doomy start with some guitar doodling before the bass kicks in. Eternal Void is even heavier and yet has a hint of Sébastien Tellier's Fantino in its melodies towards the end. The bass really returns in Freq Of Nature. The track Portal begins like a lounge piece with spoken word, before an early Priest-style riff crashes through and collides mid-song with an early Maiden-esque passage. The Grieving Widow is doom. For more, wait until the song's end.
Cataclysm, in spite of its title, is actually quite relaxed and easy going. It does the heavy and doomy thing too, but Echoes of mid-1970s Black Sabbath appear, along with shades of Blue Cheer and Elf. Think of those doomy proto-NWOBHM bands, like Pagan Altar, people rediscover every once in a while. It’s an enjoyable, unpretentious listen that never drifts toward commercial polish.
Two weaknesses were referenced earlier. The first one is the drum machine (Note: Razar updates that he has live drummers). The thing is as toothless as any drum machine rendering the backbeat inconsequential. The second is the phrasing of the lyrics. More specifically, the rhymes are too obvious and simplistic. Two words may rhyme, but Portal would do well to not be so on the nose. With that said, fans of heavy doom rock (or discount time machines) may visit https://thedoomportal.wixsite.com/my-site - Ali "The Metallian"