

ARCH ENEMY return with their first song in four years, “Deceiver, Deceiver”. Fans will surely not be disappointed by this precision, hostility driven anthem. The band remain in tremendous form and this well-crafted song is arguably more proof they are undoubtedly still in the top of the field when it comes to melodic death metal. If you need to blast someone’s ears off and feel a sense of righteous integrity, just wait until you hear this one.
Earlier today the band announced the song, as frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz said: “Surprise! We are ARCH ENEMY and we are back with our newest single ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’ which is available everywhere that you listen to music now. So go check it out and also check out our stories because we are counting down to the live music video premiere for ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’ later today, so we’ll see you there.”
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New VENOM PRISON news? It is about time!
The celebrated extremists have announced plans to release a new full-length titled Erebos on February 4 via Century Media Records. It will surely continue to cement their place as one of the world’s most exciting heavy bands.
“Being able to work with our dear friend Eliran on another piece of art for Venom Prison has been exciting as always. Kantor knows the band perfectly well to capture our music and poetry into a visual masterpiece every single time. ‘Erebos’ was a personal one for both Eliran Kantor and ourselves. This artwork captures the moment a young person dies inside as they are surrounded by horror. In the moment their innocence is lost and desensitization will from now on fuel the repetition of the cycle of violence in their life. This is ‘Erebos’ the one born from chaos,” states Venom Prison.
Erebos | 4th February 2022@centurymedia
Art & concept by @EliranKantor pic.twitter.com/oP77UCELzJ— Venom Prison (@Venomprison) October 19, 2021
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Finnish death doom pioneers SWALLOW THE SUN release their newest single “Enemy”, taken off their upcoming album Moonflowers, which will be released worldwide on November 19th via Century Media Records. Compared to the dark and mournful “Woven Into Sorrow”, their latest single release, “Enemy”, presents the heavier and more dramatic side of the album without seeming less sad and gloomy. Watch the video, which was produced by Dronicon Films, below.
Moonflowers will be available as Ltd. Deluxe sky blue 3LP+2CD & Art Print Box Set, Ltd. 2CD Mediabook, Gatefold black 2LP+CD and digital album (incl. Bonus album) and can be pre-ordered HERE.
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KRISIUN are one of the most reliable bands in metal and today we are gifted with a new six minute perfect storm of inarguably metal as fuck death thrash full of moment after insane moment. Wickedly relentless drums, red hot mini-solo blasts, snarled death vocals of defiance…it’s all here! Check out “Scourge Of The Enthroned” from this underground veteran band of lifers below. Keeping the Brazilian metal flame proudly burning hot, bright and high!
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Taking a break from enjoying Henry Rollins camp it up as Tri-Klops to give you all a little death metal fix for your weekend. I had never heard BIZARRE from Spain before this morning and am really enjoying the mix of melodic soloing with the plague ridden corpse-like weight of the marching and oppressive main, rougher sound. This band crushes!
I was especially struck by the ominous might of the beastly vocals of Mark Berserk (APOSENTO), certainly some of the most head turning death metal vocals I have heard in awhile!
Transcending Obscurity will continue their tradition of high quality releases and merchandise with the gift of darkness that shall arrive when Invocation Codex is birthed upon the unsuspecting world! You will head bang! Check out ‘Ex Oblivione’ today (or also peep the Lovecraftian death of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” on the label Bandcamp. Along with Crypts Of Despair and Revulsion, Bizarre prove that Transcending Obscurity is right near the front of the pack in upholding the oozing, pungent legacy of death metal in 2021!
Forge Your Future is a fitting name for the pending August EP release one of the most celebrated melodic modern metal bands has on deck. More than most bands in the genre, Spirit Adrift have ensured their longevity by giving every release 100% molten conviction and, to quote old school Classic Loki, “glorious purpose”.
Spirit Adrift guitarist/vocalist Nate Garrett comments, “On March 1, 2020, I relocated to the woods outside of Austin, Texas. Two weeks later, everything was locked down. I turned to the thing that has helped me navigate difficult situations for most of my life: writing music. I wrote and demoed a ton of songs over the course of the pandemic. The songs on this E.P. are the best of the bunch. Marcus, Preston, and I recorded these in March of 2021 at Homewrecker Recording Studio with Ryan Bram at the helm. Zeuss handled mixing and mastering, after lengthy discussions about Martin Birch, Tom Allom, Crowbar, and how important it is to carry forth the essence and spirit of heavy metal. Special thanks to our friend Cody Davis for the brilliant title.” He continues, “These songs, and this band, represent persevering through difficult times, staying true to your innermost self, and celebrating the life-affirming power of metal. We can’t wait to see you all live and in the flesh, in the meantime we hope you enjoy the tunes.”
Forge Your Future will be available August 27th from Century Media on vinyl and digital formats. Pre-orders are available now. Get the Fuego variant, though.
Forge Your Future track listing:
1. Forge Your Future
2. Wake Up
3. Invisible Enemy
BALA has come to shake you out of you complacency! The Galicia, Spain duo is Anxela Baltar (vocals, guitars) and Violeta Mosquera (vocals, drums), wielding heavy grooves and catchy but determined and anarchic vocals to excellent effect. I detect some L7 crunch and wolfish glee mixed with Breeders level melodic command, if more spiteful. In short, this fucking rips!
Bloodbath have awesome news today for death metal fans in North America! The icons will at last return to North America in 2022, playing several shows leading up to an appearance at Maryland Deathfest XVIII. The current dates are listed below. To say this is exciting news is an understatement!
Bloodbath comment: “We have been crushingly disappointed from tours falling through in the past, and it would be naive to say there isn’t an element of uncertainly about tours in the future. However, we are determined to commit to playing the US in 2022 and we are pleased to announce the following new dates.”
05/22 Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
05/23 Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
05/24 Montreal, QC @ L’Astral
05/25 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
05/27 Baltimore, MD @ Maryland Deathfest
Photo credit: Ida Kucera
THE CROWN are going to absolutely clobber this year with their Royal Destroyer release. Today you can hear the majesty of “We Drift On” (directed by Christoffer Tönnäng and Oskar Norberger), a minacious yet resolute tune that has an accompanying video full of unpleasant inward thoughts.
Guitarist Marko Tervonen comments: “I think that after 30 years, people are aware that we can play pretty brutal music. But we also sometimes like to take it down a notch and explore other areas. I guess in 2021, it’s pretty difficult to ‘surprise’ people with a brutal song, so we hope to surprise you with this more mellow tune. Dare I even use the word ‘ballad’ *insert-fear-here*
Ok. Lean back, drift on and enjoy.”
Uh, don’t worry dude. It still sounds pretty damn heavy and very metal.
“It is our album number ten, so now we are in the big boys club,” says bassist Magnus Olsfelt. “I think it in some ways is our crowning achievement, and it encompasses our sound across all albums on one defining record. It’s got it all – the early 90s death metal stuff, the haunting melodies, the thrash, the punk, the grind, the heavy metal and the more epic and doomy stuff.”
Together with legendary producer Fredrik Nordström, the band tracked the resulting 10 songs at Gothenburg’s Studio Fredman. “We push ourselves to the limit, really trying to make everything as good as it can get, trying to make every song as impactful as possible,” Olsfelt states. While he believes that people need to hear the album themselves to be able to accurately describe it, Olsfelt also asserts that The Crown have achieved something that makes for a “continuous whole” – while being diverse. There are also some surprises in store for fans. “We have some of the most intense stuff ever, like one song is about one minute long, and we also have a ballad!”
Royal Destroyer track-listing
1. Baptized in Violence
2. Let the Hammering Begin!
3. Motordeath
4. Ultra Faust
5. Glorious Hades
6. Full Metal Justice
7. Scandinavian Satan
8. Devoid of Light
9. We Drift On
10. Beyond the Frail
One of my personal favorite metalcore bands ever, Germany’s CALIBAN have released many rock solid examples of the genre and worked hard to keep the sound both meaningful and alive in the scene through hard work and valuable, emotionally resonant material. They balance heavy and catchy better than most bands doing that contrast, as well.
Now the band are doing something cool I think they ought to be applauded for, re-recording a bunch of tunes in their native German. I think it is problematic when band’s feel like they can only sing in English because of capitalism and the market share. Hey, wasn’t “Despacito” like the biggest YouTube played video ever? Maybe we should be encouraging more education and culture exchange rather than normalizing English constantly being centered?
From the press release:
It took German metalcore vets, CALIBAN, recording a cover of Rammstein’s “Sonne” to realize that their native tongue was a seamless fit with their time-tempered collision of punishing riffs and Andreas Dörner’s urgent vocals. With fans hungry for the Essen-borne quintet to record an album exclusively in German, the band simply said, “Why not?”, and Zeitgeister, which will be released on May 14th, was born.
11 genre-defining LPs deep into their career, the band’s vision for the album came naturally – a career retrospective and deep-dive into CALIBAN favorites that haven’t had been seen live in some time.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but once we allowed us to make them as different from the originals as we felt it was needed it came fairly naturally”, explains guitarist and main songwriter Marc Görtz. Of course, some updating was necessary when it came to translating the songs to German. “It turned out to be surprisingly tricky,” states Dörner. “While I feel more at home with my native German it made it a lot more complicated, as I had more options to phrase something.”
Formed in 1997, CALIBAN’s legacy has been a tireless one, touring the globe and sharing stages with the likes of Kreator, Killswitch Engage and Dark Tranquillity just to mention a few. Zeitgeister was a welcome homecoming. With the help of long-running producer Benjamin Richter (Moonspell, Emil Bulls) CALIBAN hand-picked seven tracks to bring new life to:
“Trauma” (feat. Matthi from Nasty, originally “Arena Of Concealment”)
“Herz” (originally “I Will Never Let You Down”)
“Ausbruch nach Innen” (originally “Tyranny Of Small Misery”)
“Feuer, zieh’ mit mir” (originally “Between The Worlds”)
“Nichts ist für immer” (originally “All I Gave”)
“Intoleranz” (originally “Intolerance”)
“Mein Inferno” (originally “My Little Secret”)
“Zeitgeister” also boasts a new track, “nICHts”.
Stay tuned for Pre Orders and more info!