Kids today will never know the struggle. Back when I was a longhaired teenage metalhead, if you wanted to keep up with all the new bands, releases and gigs, you had to spend a wad of cash on LPs, singles, tickets and imported magazines. Now all you have to do check your subscriptions and notifications. And if that’s still too much work, well, you can just push play on this collection of the latest and loudest tracks to attack my inbox. All aboard the lazy train:
The Cosmic Dead | Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Glasgow astral travelers The Cosmic Dead are set to return with their ninth studio album Infinite Peaks on April 12. Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo is the tantalizing first excerpt. Infinite Peaks is the followup to their 2019 album Scottish Space Race and features two extended incantations recorded and mixed at Glasgow’s 16 Ohm Recording Studio. About Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo, the band say: “Desert Djilo is the opening section of our 20-minute instrumental track Space Mountain. Completely improvised and recorded live in the studio, it was in itself part of a larger jam. This is a jam within a jam, synth follows bass follows drums follows fiddle. The sound of the radioactive desert.”
Haunted | Catamorph
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The conceptual gestation Haunted’s upcoming third album Stare At Nothing has deep roots. The seeds are study, listening and experience. Haunted have tried to tell their journey of self-awareness, reunion, pacification, ideological freedom, and recognition of the self and its complete destruction. They didn’t want to create nothing — and so they just stared at it. Lyrically, the album deals with “the man who chooses, sees and accepts himself, and doesn’t come to terms with the universe, with a God, with the infinite, but only with himself — through a reverse mystical journey.” With Kim Crowley on guitar and Luca Strano on drums, they lowered themselves headlong, sinking into the dark cavities of the ground. Their music then had to be vibrant, magnetic, deep, dark and powerful. They relied on the darker shades of heavy rock and the furious poetry of grunge, composing sharp rhythms on evocative metrics.”
Kelevra | The Distance
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Regina’s Kelevra have made a name for themselves with their distinct and unique approach to metal, accompanied by a high-intensity live show. Recently they have taken time away from gigging to step back into the studio and create their third album Oneiric, which will be released in March. The first single is the gripping The Distance — a story of hateful endings and love lost. The band comment: “The bpm and varied technique required to pull this one off really demands the band be tight and ready, and it has become a standout track showcasing every band member firing on all cylinders. The nimble string gymnastics, push-and-pull feel in the rhythm section, and stops and starts on a dime really come together to show clever musicianship. The lyrics, vocals, and music interplay with an urgency that drives home the message of the track in a tight and cohesive unit.”
Whitechapel | This Is Exile (Live)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Whitechapel’s new live album Live In The Valley is out now. It was captured live at the band’s seventh annual Christmas benefit show on Dec. 22, 2022 at The Mill & Mine in their hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., and features songs from the albums The Valley and Kin. The audio for Live In The Valley was recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Whitechapel guitarist Zach Householder and serves as a chapter closer before the band begin work on their ninth studio album.”
Baest | Colossus
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After ending 2023 with a full European tour supporting their labelmates in Krisiun, Denmark’s Baest are opening a new chapter. Say the band: “Colossus is the first single taken from upcoming tracks that will emerge from our creative dungeons soon. It’s our slow burner, dirty and mean rock melodies are topped off with some beatdown chugging. Hear, see, feel and fear the heavy weight of our new song Colossus.”
Ancient Teeth | Sacrifice
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ancient Teeth (Adrian Mottram of Sights & Sounds, Seas, The Getaway) is ready to get this 2024 show on the road. Today brings a new single — Sacrifice — and even more excitingly, the announcement of a new album. Humanizer will be yours to sink your own teeth into on March 8. On the new track, Mottram says: “This anthemic post-punk banger reflects on being aware of uncomfortable feelings arising from within ourselves and making the necessary changes in order to move forward in a positive way. The music builds on a steady unrelenting drum beat, matched with heavy down picking guitars that burst into chaos with vocals to match.”
Novichok | Dead Weight
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Novichok are a bunch of pissed-off salty thrashers from Halifax, and they are here to narrate the collapse of the world around us. They released their second album Geo-Desiccant at the tail end of 2022, and this year will be putting out videos to complement some of the best tracks off that album. The first is Dead Weight, an intense song that melds the heaviness of death metal with the speed and precision of thrash. The band explain further: “This song is the narration of an actual nightmare in which a scuba gear malfunction seals your fate as the eager sea life begins to feast even before you are dead. Inspired by an early Cannibal Corpse, it’s thrash bordering on death metal. We’re told that we have a classic metal sound that is still new and exciting. This makes sense… each band member has a long list of influences: Punk, thrash, death, black, grind, folk, rap… all from the 1970s through today.”
Violet Eternal | The Echoes Of Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Violet Eternal was born out of the desire of two musicians from Italy and Japan to work with each other in creating a new melodic metal band, blending power, and oriental choruses with fast-paced rhythms and interpersonal lyrics, with the ambiance of shredding guitar solos. Band co-founder and guitarist Jien Takahashi comments: “I wanted to create the ultimate melodic power metal duo after Majustice and other activities, I was hungry for new music. There were a lot of songs at the end of the previous activity, so I was looking for a way to shape it. In such a situation, I met Ivan Giannini online. I originally knew Ivan from his legendary work with Vision Divine and the album Angel of Revenge and his other band Derdian. I was completely fascinated by his emotional voice that seemed to burn the skies. So I was wishing I could do something with him. When I got in touch with Ivan, we immediately hit it off and we decided to make an album together.”
Stone Horns | In The Clutches Of The Abyss
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “France’s Stone Horns just released their third studio album Chimaira. The full-length features seven groove-laden and hell-bent tracks that tell the story of an odyssey of being rejected by all and thirsting for revenge. It explores life’s thirst for recognition, whatever its form. Through its various acts, the story continues in different states, colors, and landscapes. A raw, merciless finality that leaves little room for breath in this torment of violence. We’re all chasing a chimera, but isn’t it the chimera that’s chasing us? That’s the question this album tries to answer, combining freshness and warmth, violence and peace, waves, and digressions. For the album’s release day, Stone Horns shared the video for In the Clutches Of The Abyss, a raging song inspired by Slipknot and Machine Head and treated to a guitar solo reminiscent of diabolical melodies. The final chorus might remind some fans of Gojira.”
Baratro | Don’t Look At Me, I’m Hideous
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sludgy noise-metal project Baratro (with members of Unsane, Marnero and Council of Rats) have unleashed their ear-splitting third single Don’t Look At Me, I’m Hideous. Their debut album The Sweet Smell of Unrest will be released on Feb. 2s. Hot on the heels of their recent Fight The Parking Meter and The Bad, The Bad and The Ugly videos, the thunderous Milano-based trio deliver their frantic and deafening-heavy new single today with Don’t Look At Me, I’m Hideous. While Dave Curran’s trademark mountain-heavy bass tone and gritty shrieks cement Baratro’s sonic attack past devastating levels, The Sweet Smell of Unrest is a rabble-rousing delivery from start to finish and explores different facets of the Baratro arsenal, from uptempo hardcore assaults to nasty doomy breakdowns — all mixed up with their penchant for odd time signatures, ear-shattering riffs and thunderous grooves. The Sweet Smell of Unrest was fully recorded, mixed and mastered by the band.”
Decrowned | Stonewing
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Melancholic Finnish metallers Decrowned will unveil their first full-length Persona Non Grata in February. Just before the new year, they revealed their first single Mouth Leaks Black. Today they’re ready to share their second audio preview to the album with Stonewing. Vocalist and bassist Miikka Hulmi explains: “I was always very keen on the first riff and the whole song came up very fast around it. The song starts heavily and the chorus is very melodic. The track tells a story about a fallen angel who walks on this Earth. The world’s sorrow turns her to stone. Even though the story is dark, it has positive and uplifting features.”
Metro Society | City Streets
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Metro Society, the brainchild of guitarist and songwriter Chris Mangold and bassist Ian Ringler, are set to send shivers down the spines of progressive rock and metal enthusiasts with their latest single and video City Streets. The haunting track is part of the upcoming album The London Conspiracy Chapter I 1898, a concept-driven musical journey down the dark and mysterious streets of 1800s London. City Streets is the first song on the album with lyrics, and it’s a prog rocker with driving guitars and catchy melodic vocals. The band share: “This was one of the first song concepts that we came up with when starting to plan out the storyline for the album. We knew we wanted the album to start off with the character of the detective walking the London streets at night. Ironically enough, when we worked on the vocal recordings for the album, we sort of went in a reverse order starting with the last song on the album and then working our way towards the first song.”
Temple Of The Fuzz Witch | Ashes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Detroit blackened doom trio Temple Of The Fuzz Witch just will release their third full-length Apotheosis on April 5. Today they unleash their towering new single Ashes. With riffs and lyrics as bleak and crushing as a Michigan winter, blackened doom outfit Temple Of The Fuzz Witch bring a unique take on the doom genre, their unwaveringly nightmarish sonic processions being raised to another level with frontman Noah Bruner’s jaw-dropping balance of crypt-worthy growls and astoundingly grunge-styled clean vocals. Never the darkness has felt so magnificent and compelling, and their aptly titled third album Apotheosis has everything to put the mighty trio on every black and doom metal fan’s radar for years to come.”
Mr.Bison | The Promise
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Italian heavy psych and progressive rock stalwarts Mr.Bison reveal a highly progressive new excerpt from their fifth studio album Echoes From The Universe, due Feb. 16. About their new single, the band comment: “The Promise is definitely the most progressive song of the entire concept album Echoes From The Universe. It deals with the series of catastrophic events of the Ragnarǫk and Odin’s hope of averting it. The song came from a psychedelic jam and blends evocative soundscapes with a heavy proggy drive.”
Palooka | Cut You Out Of Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Palooka bring forth big, thick, two-guitar songwriting with strong vocals and remedies to soothe the soul. Save Yourself is their forthcoming EP, due out in February. Today the band preview the second track off the record. Cut You Out of Me embraces change and perseverance to heal oneself with its exciting and irresistible chorus, backed by intense guitar-driven riffs. It’s straight-up rock ’n’ roll that is all truth and pushes to rediscover oneself. They say: “This track delves into the aftermath of the end of a significant long-term relationship. Even when parting ways is the right thing, there are haunting emotions tied to the void, the missed opportunities, and the unrealized potential. Cut You Out of Me is a journey of reclaiming one’s strength and forging a path forward.”
