Metallian Heavy

Germany-based black metal duo ALTAR OV ASTERIA has a debut album, called Éna, through Dusktone. The act is described as, “a sound both rooted in black metal tradition and expansive new avantgarde sounds.”

Comatose Music will release a remastered version of CEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE’s Exempting Reality album on January 17th 2025. It will feature new cover artwork. It was originally issued in 2001.

MACERATION’s third album Serpent Devourment will be issued through Emanzipation Productions on 31st January 2025. Dan Swanö produced, but this time did not record the vocals. MACERATION’s regular lead singer Jan Bergmann Jepsen (ex-COR VACANTE) took over the vocals on the new recordings. Jan Bergmann has been with the band live since its reformation in 2022.

Never let the underground be underground: Creator-Destructor has signed USA-based death metal group BARBAROUS and will issue a cassette version of the band’s 2024 demo, which contains two songs. A debut LP is due next year.

Brisbane, Australia-based crossover solo act NUCLEARSAURUS REX has a demo called Operation Party Destroy. The four tracks tell the story of Nuclearsarus Rex’s 25th birthday party being sabotaged by the evil Velociradioactive and his minions in 1985.

Sweden-based grindcore band JÄRNBÖRD will release an album called Filmer För Blinda (‘Movies For The Blind’) through Hecatombe Records (SP)/Esagoya Records (JPN)/De:nihil Records (SWE), etc..on January 10th 2025.

THULCANDRA has a live album called Live Demise, which will be released through Napalm Records on the 6th of December 2024. It was recorded at a hometown show in Munich, Germany in 2011.

Personal Records will issue Finland-based AUGUST MOON’s debut album, Something Eldritch And Macabre. The band was founded originally in 1993.

Finland-based melodic death metal band VOIDFALLEN has an album, called The Rituals Of Resilience, through Noble Demon in January 2025. There is a video for the song Pyre Of Vengeance.

DEMISER, NUNSLAUGHTER and DESOLUS are conducting a two-week US tour this winter. It is called the Pestis Infernum tour.

Drone band VOIDWARDS will release its first full-length album Bagulnik through Aesthetic Death on December 27th 2024.

Solo act GRIMSCYTHE (a.k.a. Nolan Void) has a single called From Ashes Ascend through The Charon Collective.

Italy-based death metal band ACROSS THE SWARM has a new album, called Invisible Threads, early 2025 through Time To Kill Records. This release follows the 2020 album, Projections.

UK-based death metal act AS THE WORLD DIES will release an album called Nebula through Reaper Entertainment on March 21st, 2025.

A Sonication is OBSCURA‘s second of a trilogy concept and will be released through Nuclear Blast on February 7, 2025. There is a video for the song Silver Linings. The group, RINGS OF SATURN and GOROD are touring Europe in February.

Doom/death act INBORN SUFFERING, which inevitably reformed in 2023, has signed with Ardua Music. A first album since 2010, entitled Pale Grey Monochrome, will be issued in February 2025. There is a video for the song From Lowering Tides.

Canadian band INEPSY will have Tankcrimes rerelease its back catalogue chronologically on CD and LP. The band existed between 1999 to 2011.

Sibiu, Romania-based solo “atmospheric black metal” act ANTUMBRA has an album called Days Of Future Ravaged Lands through Loud Rage Music.

THY LEGION has an album called Grand Cosmic Funeral through Art Gates Records.

DISINTER is releasing Laments Of The Unborn, a compilation of the band’s first two demos: Laments From The Castle Of Sorrow (1996) and Unborn (1997). The label is Pest Records.

Gore House Productions announces the release of NECRAMBULANT’s second full-length, Upheaval Of Malignant Necrambulance for March 2025.

Monumenty, the new full-length album from Poland-based black metal band CZORT is available through Pagan Records now. Monumenty translates to ‘Monuments’ from Polish.

Finland-based THY KINGDOM WILL BURN will release a new album, The Loss And Redemption, through Scarlet Records on 17.01.2025.

Time To Kill Records has signed Italy-based black metal act SAKAHITER. The band will release a new album in the coming months.

“Norwegian cosmic brutal tech-death metal” band CELESTIAL SCOURGE will release its debut full-length album, Observers Of The Inevitable, through Time To Kill Records in early 2025.

NO WORTH OF MAN has a demo called What’s Your Damage? The band conducted a mini-tour of the UK in November.

Osmose Productions will release the third full-length by Russia-based death metal group PYRE, Where Obscurity Sways, on 31.01.2025. There is a video for the song Murderous Transcendence.

Belarus-based death metal quartet RELICS OF HUMANITY is back with a new album after a decade and will release its Absolute Dismal Domain album through Willowtip Records on January 31, 2025.

DEVIL’s HOUR has an album called Apocalyptic Drunken Bastards through Crawling Chaos.

Hammerheart Records has reissued Chile-based SADISM’s 1992 album, Tribulated Bells, on 2-CD and LP. The label has also reissued Dutch act DEFENDER’s City Ad Mortis EP, which stems from 1987.

FRACTURED INSANITY will release a fifth full-length album, entitled Age Of Manipulation, through Xtreem Music on February 18th 2025.

Denmark-based DETEST’s A World Drowning In Detest album is available through Emanzipation Productions on 6 December 2024.

Sweden-based black metal act VÖLVA has an album, called Desires Profane, through Grind To Death Records (CD)/Fiadh Productions (LP).

GRÀB, featuring former DARK FORTRESS singer Grànt/Matthias Jell, has an album called Kremess through Prophecy Productions on 21.02.2025 The band is ethnic as “Grànt… wanted to bring a particularly Bavarian expression to black metal.”

SADIST has a Christmas themed EP, called Jugular Bells, through Nadir Music on 20.12.2024. The band’s full-length is scheduled for the spring through Agonia Records.

Finland-based TRÉBUCHET SDG has an EP called Lux Mundi through The Charon Collective. The band claims to be “black metal,” but has a “Christmas gift this holiday season.” The EP contains three reinterpretations of Christmas hymns.

GORGON has an album called For Those Who Stay through Osmose Productions.

Italy-based solo act HESPERIA has an album called Fra Li Monti Sibillini (‘Black Medieval Winter Over The Sibylline Mounts’) through Hammerheart Records. The act is described as “Winter Medieval Black Metal.”

DARK TRANQUILLITY has announced several dates in Australia for February 2025. EYE OF THE ENEMY is opening.

Must be so hard living in Italy: Anti-fascist hardcore/sludge band OTHISMOS has a demo called Sottrazione (‘subtraction’).

Italy-based atmospheric/black metal act, INCANTVM, has an album called Maleficia through My Kingdom Music in February 2025.

HIRAX will release a full-length album, called Faster Than Death, through Doomentia Records on 21.02.2025.

Metal fans should approach with caution as the act has a keyboardist. As Darkness Falls, is a demo from USA-based THE OBSIDIAN RESURRECTION. The band is “orchestral” and “symphonic.”

Folkstorm, the sophomore full-length by GNIPAHÅLAN, will be released through Purity Through Fire on December 25, 2024.

Folk rockers SUIDAKRA have a video for As Heroes Abide, which is taken from the band’s new album, DarkanakraD.

The “cinematic” bandwagon marches on. UK-based metalcore act ARCHITECTS has an album, entitled The Sky, The Earth & All Between, through Epitaph Records on 28th February 2025.

Italy-based OTHISMOS has a new release entitled Sottrazione, available on December 16th, 2024. It is the progressive band’s first release entirely in English. Matteo Maroni is on drums now.


Metallian Hard

France-based power metal band KINGCROWN has a music video for the title track of its Nova Atlantis album. The record is available through Rockshots Records.

Spain-based power metal band NURCRY has an album called Renacer through Art Gates Records.

Spain-based LÖANSHARK has signed with ROAR and shall release a studio album, called No Sins To Confess, in February. The album's cover is designed like a 1980s' film poster. A video for the song Electric Shocking Waves is available now.

Hard and heavy band DOMINUM has a new album, called The Dead Don't Die, through Napalm Records on December 27, 2024. There is a single entitled One Of Us, which is about a zombie Jesus.

What is the difference between 'last' and "very last'? Finland-based ARCHED FIRE has a single called Northbound Train through Inverse Records. It is a reworked old song. Originally formed in 1989, the band was inactive for thirty years until reforming in 2019. However the band states, "Things are about to change. It may be that Northbound Train is the very last release with this ARCHED FIRE line-up."

TIM RIPPER OWENS is touring Australia in February. "Limited" VIP Meet & Greet is available (because everyone else has unlimited time to meet unlimited paying customers).

SABATON and THE LEGENDARY ORCHESTRA covering SABATON are touring Europe as The Legendary Tour 2025 in the autumn.

Sweden-based heavy metal band AMBUSH has signed to Napalm Records and is working on live dates and new music.

Sweden-based ENFORCER has signed with Napalm Records and is expected to release an album in 2025. A&R Sebastian Münch mixed cult status with popularity in one sentence. “Since their debut album Into The Night, ENFORCER, together with AMBUSH, have been the most important traditional heavy metal bands in recent years! With the new album release, I look forward to the task of further increasing Enforcer's cult status.”

WARLORD has a video for the song Battle Of The Living Dead. The song is taken from the From The Ashes To The Archives - The Hot Pursuit Continues album. The group will open for JUDAS PRIEST in Ferrara, Italy on July 1, 2025.

Madfish Music has a CD edition of The 7 Savage box set of 2023’s The 7 Savage LP box set by W.A.S.P. Spanning W.A.S.P.’s Capitol Years, this 7-CD set includes the first five studio albums, a CD full of rare demos, B-sides, and live tracks, as well as the Live… In The Raw (1987) album. The band's November gig in New York City turned into a Trump rally with praise for the far right racist. "Freedom of speech," the lip syncer reminded us.

MAJESTICA has an album, called Power Train, through Nuclear Blast Records on the 7th of February 2025. A mini-tour, which is called The Dead Don't Die Tour, along with headliners DOMINUM and support HAMMER KING is running through Europe in late December.

Luxembourg/Belgium-based rock and growl band INSCENDIUM has signed with Music-Records for the release of its debut EP Awakening, which is due in March 2025.

USA-based stoner band MOON WIZARD has a record called Sirens through Hammerheart Records.

LABYRINTH has a new album, entitled In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye, through Frontiers Music in January. The band has already released a video for the song Welcome Twilight.

Groovy Australia-based band BRIMSTONE issued an album called Brimstone through Art Gates in late 2024.

Australia-based KING ZOG's Second Dawn is available through Hammerheart Records now.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY rhythm guitarist Dario Lorina has a project called DARK CHAPEL. Also featuring Brody DeRozie (guitar), Mike Gunn (bass) and Luis Silva (drums),a debut album, called Spirit In The Glass, is available through MNRK Heavy on 28.02.2025.

Switzerland-based hard rock and heavy metal band DISTANT PAST has an album called Solaris, which is inspired by Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris and Andrei Tarkowski’s film adaptation of the same title. The record is available through Art Gates. The act was founded by Adriano (bass) as a studio project in Switzerland in 2002 and became a live band when EMERALD vocalist Jvo joined in 2014.

SAXON announced the Hell, Fire And Steel UK & Ireland Tour where the band was to perform songs from its Hell, Fire And Damnation album, as well as playing the Wheels Of Steel album in full. DIRKSCHNEIDER is to open by performing ACCEPT's Balls To The Wall album.

Chilean guitarist MATÍAS FRANCINO has a single called Frozen Senses. Its video was recorded in Chile and Russia.

Tony Childs, guitarist of ELECTRIC TEMPLE, has announced that the act's debut album, High Voltage Salvation, will be released through Eonian Records on December 6th 2024. It is compared to DIO and OZZY OSBOURNE. The band is composed of singer Andrew Freeman, guitarist Tony Childs, bassist Mike Duda and drummer Matt Starr.

Hyperspace Metal Fest returns to Vancouver, Canada on April 10 and 11th. The 2025 line-up includes ENFORCER, joke act PSYCHOSTICK, PLANESWALKER, TYLOR DORY TRIO (which had cancelled in 2024), GLYPH, CRIMSON SHADOWS, LUNAR, OWLBEAR, TOWER HILL, SOLARUS, RED CAIN and more.

Due to damage to their tour van after hitting a rock in Oregon, USA on the road during the Shredding North America Tour with SEVEN KINGDOMS and LUTHARO, STRIKER pulled out of the remaining dates last month.

Guitarist SERGIO MICHEL has a headlining tour of Japan this month in support of his Tropical Depression release through the Cold War Relic label.

SAVATAGE is booked for Into The Grave 2025, Monsters Of Rock, Graspop Metal Meeting and Barcelona Rock Fest in 2025. The band announced a European tour subsequently.

Frontiers Music has organized a Frontiers Rock Festival in Milan, Italy for April 25, 26 and 27, 2025. This edition, which follows the last one by six years, features WINGER, BONFIRE, GIRISH AND THE CHRONICLES, FANS OF THE DARK, PRIDE OF LIONS and more.

DR. ELEPHANT'S REVOLUTION newest demo Between Order & Chaos is available on 13.12.2024.

A true Artiste: Joining coffee, beer, wine, meet & greets and wife beaters is multivitamin gummies. YNGWIE MALMSTEEN has launched Yngwie Malmsteen's Force. Says the merchandiser guitarist, "a strong immune system" is important.

Every band has mastered the art of cashinstry by slapping its name on coffee, wine, beer, figurines and VIP meet 'n greet packages among other things. Because it’s all about the fans and the art. lol.