Metal Riot

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

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

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