Horror Pain Gore Death Productions are set to release the new album from Virginia’s blistering old school Death Metal destroyers HumanInfection. Gravesite is now up for pre-order and will be released May 3rd on CD and Digital formats along with merch.
Horror Pain Gore Death Productions welcome Human Infection to the roster with a deluxe edition of their third album Gravesight! Human Infection were formed in Roanoke, Virginia in 2009 and play classic Death Metal with a modern twist.
This revamped edition of Gravesight features a brand new remaster courtesy of guitarist Jeremiah Tuck, giving the album a fuller and more powerful sound. Human Infection also have comissioned legendary Spanish artist Juanjo Castellano (Coffins, Ribspreader, Rottrevore) for breath-taking new artwork, as well as all four tracks from the band’s 2016 promo are included as bonus material. Spread the infection!
Legendary UK metal giants Orange Goblin are back with details of their long awaited new studio album Science, Not Fiction. Set for release on July 19th, Science, Not Fiction will be the band’s first release on the iconic Peaceville label (Darkthrone, Autopsy, Candlemass).
To accompany the announcement, the band have shared their new single “(Not) Rocket Science” – a matter of fact observation on the human tendency to over-complicate life – alongside a swirling animated lyric video by Matthew Vickerstaff (https://www.instagram.com/matthew_vickerstaff)
Speaking on the track, frontman and lyricist Ben Ward says “It’s basically saying that life can be pretty simple and straightforward if you just stop wasting your time and make each day count. Be prepared to work hard, don’t expect any hand outs and basically enjoy yourself along the way.When Chris came up with the music he said it needed something that could be delivered in a Bon Scott / Lemmy style and I think it came out really well”.
Science, Not Fiction was recorded at Woodworm Studios UK in late 2023, with production and mixing duties carried out by Grammy winning producer Mike Exeter (most notable for his work with Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Tony Iommi) and mastering conducted by the esteemed Peter Hewitt-Dutton at The Bakery in LA.
From the explosive death-boogie of opener “The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine” onwards, the band’s tenth album crackles with energy and belligerence. Following the departure of long serving bassist MartynMillard in 2020, Orange Goblin welcomed close friend Harry Armstrong (formerly Hangnail) into the fray, making Science, Not Fiction his first studio outing with the band.
With the new line-up fizzing with chemistry, the hard rocking likes of “(Not) Rocket Science”, “The Fury Of A Patient Man” and “The Justice Knife” breathe new life into some classic Orange Goblin tropes. Meanwhile, twisted prog-doom detours like “False Hope Diet” and “Cemetary Rats” take the Londoners into epic new territory, with everything from skull-shattering punk ‘n’ roll to transcendent space rock hurled into the swirling brew.
“It is a continuation of what we’ve been doing, and that’s because when we write, it’s a big mixing bowl of all of our influences and favourite artists, and we try and create the perfect band that we always wanted to hear,” Ben states. “This album, it’s just more accomplished and mature, I guess. None of us are spring chickens anymore and we’ve got ten albums under our belts now. I feel like we’re more professional in the recording studio, I feel like we’re better musicians and writers, and now with me looking after myself, I feel like my performance is better as well. It’s all moving in the right direction.”
For the last 30 years, Orange Goblin, London-based hard rock lifers, have tirelessly flown the flag for balls-out heavy metal and maximum rock ‘n’ roll. Driven by passion, persistence and heartfelt love for metal’s dark magic, Orange Goblin have always been a vital force and a risk-free bet. While some may be content to trade on past glories, Orange Goblin view heavy metal as a lifelong pursuit. In 2024, they open a new chapter in their heroic saga, marking it with the release of their tenth studio album: Science, Not Fiction.
“People have funny ideas about what heavy metal is. But to me, it’s an attitude, it’s a lifestyle, it’s not something you decide to dip into. You either are or you’re not. And it’s for life.” Ben Ward, Orange Goblin
Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction track-list:
The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine
(Not) Rocket Science
Ascend The Negative
False Hope Diet
Cemetary Rats
The Fury Of A Patient Man
Gemini (Twins Of Evil)
The Justice Knife
End Of Transmission
Bonus track on CD Deluxe & LP: 10. Eye Of The Minotaur
Orange Goblin are: Ben Ward – vocals Joe Hoare – guitar Chris Turner – drums Harry Armstrong – bass
The band will be supporting the release of Science, Not Fiction with a full live campaign starting on April 6thwith a tour in April, of Japan, Australia and New Zealand, more shows and festivals are due to be announced very soon.
It’s time to set the world on fire! The new POWERWOLF album “Wake Up The Wicked” will be released on July 26, 2024! The once again mesmerizing artwork by Zsofia Dankova perfectly reflects the elemental force of the album and embodies its sheer intensity! At this point we will keep it short, because we will go into more detail over time! Available for pre-order now!
One of the early bastions of true U.S. metal, New Jersey’s Attacker is back to celebrate their 40th anniversary on The GodParticle, a triumphant, eight song classic metal offering! The new album will be released on CD, vinyl and digital formats through Cruz Del Sur Music on April 12.
A lyric video for the first single, “The Mighty Have Fallen” is available at: youtu.be/cVpamPWzZg8.
New Jersey heavy metal legends Attacker are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2024. A milestone marked by their influential 1985 Battle at Helm’s Deep debut and 1988 The Second Coming sophomore effort, as well as post-2001 reformation full-lengths like 2004’s Soul Taker and 2006’s The Unknown that served as reminders of Attacker’s staying power.
While it hasn’t always been easy for Attacker, founding member and drummer Mike Sabatini attributes the band’s longevity to their love of heavy metal music. That red thread and never-ending appreciation for what Attacker means to them and so many across the globe helps define the band’s newest studio foray, The God Particle.
The follow-up to 2016’s Sins of the World LP and 2018’s Armor of the Gods EP was recorded at Sabatini’s Bandmother Recording Studio in Jersey City, New Jersey, from November 2023 to January 2024. The album was mixed by Sabatini alongside C.J. Scioscia, with mastering by Joe Lambert.
The God Particle is a tried-and-true dose of pure, unbridled heavy metal with ample broadsides of aggression and melody; both permanent elements of Attacker’s sound. The band rounded out by vocalist Bobby Lucas, the guitar tandem of Mike Benetatos and Jon Hasselbrink and bassist Brian Smith, have gelled into a formidable writing unit, offering what is perhaps Attacker’s most varied batch of songs.
The album’s gestation period was longer than normal (see: Covid). The extended time writing afforded Attacker the opportunity to craft new songs that are primed and ready for European festival sing-along participation. Lucas is responsible for the album’s soaring choruses and its concept, which is based on the Large Hadron Collider Particle Accelerator in Cern, Switzerland, that is used to create energetic collisions of particles like protons, breaking them into subatomic components that are detected and studied. Adding to the intrigue: supposedly a satanic ritual was performed at the Collider site to call in evil from another dimension. Whether that actually happened or not, it serves as the perfect tie-in to Marc Sasso’s cover art (DIO, HALFORD, Marvel Comics).
Sabatini has been on record that he was reluctant to reform the band during its 1990s dormancy. Only the passing of original guitarist Jim Mooney and vocalist John Leone (who performed on The Second Coming) reignited the Attacker fire. The band now exists to honor its storied legacy and to create new, compelling music to satisfy a worldwide fanbase that remains hungry for Attacker music. Consider the job complete on The God Particle.
Overlooking the ancient lands of sensational heavy metal, Norway’s Coffin Storm is the new band consisting of a trio of Kolbotn veterans, with the line-up of Apollyon (Aura Noir/Lamented Souls) and Bestial Tormentor (Infernö/Lamented Souls) completed by Darkthrone’s Fenriz on vocal duties.
Fenriz explains the origins of the band: “Kolbotn is a hilly forest-y place directly south of Oslo, Norway. When Ole Jørgen and Olav and me grew up there in the 80s we had easy access to all the metal in the massive amounts of record stores in Oslo. Olav and Ole Jørgen started playing doom metal together in the 90s (Lamented Souls) but in 2020 they teamed up again and making riffs in the slow thrash/doom/classic heavy metal style. When the songs started to take form, Ole Jørgen took his place on the drum throne and soon started to record them. Wanting it to be a 100% Kolbotn project, they asked if I wanted to lay down vocals for it and after a couple of sessions in 2021 and 2022 COFFIN STORM was born.”
Apollyon adds “Me and Bestial Tormentor have been playing together since we met in college in 1990 and formed the doom metal act Lamented Souls. However with most members being busy with other bands LS kind of faded away. Our last rehearsal was around 2007.
After I had stopped playing live with Aura Noir we decided to meet up weekly and play guitar together. It was not going to be Lamented Souls and we had no serious plans of any kind. – but as songs were starting to emerge I switched to drums and we made recordings that Bestial Tormentor played to Fenriz, who apparently approved! I would never have dared to ask him to do the vocals! I was considering doing them myself but he was secretly our first choice. Fortunately Bestial Tormentor popped the question and he said yes, so we recorded 3 songs with an extra pair of drum mics(4 in total )in the rehearsal place. Added bass and guitar in my house and went to Fenriz’ to record the vocals. Then we had two more sessions before the album was finished.
Initially I was assuming the music would be doom metal. I think all of us had “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” in mind but even if our songs are slow/mid tempo, the riffs ended up being more thrashy than I had expected. Only the title track is pure doom simply because it’s a song me and Bestial Tormentor made some 20 years ago that we were über eager to hear Fenriz’ ravishing vocal lines on.”
And so the first fruits of their toil manifest in the form of debut album, ‘Arcana Rising’, with a sterling concoction of classic heavy metal, slow thrash and doom. The result is a torrent of rousing, accomplished titanic riffing from both Apollyon & Bestial Tormentor, commandeered by Fenriz’s unmistakable vocal prowess as witnessed with his own Isengard project as well as multiple Darkthrone releases, with vocal inspiration summoned from bands such as Agent Steel.
Having exclusively premiered the first track “Over Frozen Moors” on the Fenriz Metal Pact Podcast he comments on the single “Right off the bat it’s a chunky 1984 style Exodus verse riff followed by a myriad of melodics in a levitating refrain. The middle of the song just proceeds with an even more killer slow-thrash riff and a surprising vocal part baked into it which gives the song an added epic layer. For the heaviness of the rhythm shift in the closing part I just have one thing to say: Wait for it!..”
‘Arcana Rising’ contains six sprawling metallic epics covering the 45 minute running time, and was recorded at a variety of studios in the band’s native Norway, with work originally commencing back to 2021. With production overseen by Apollyon himself, ‘Arcana Rising’ truly channels & encapsulates the spirit of the 80s, with inspiration from such masters of metal as Candlemass, Pentagram, Metallica & early Kreator, with musical nods to early Paradise Lost & Cathedral from the more extreme side of the doom spectrum, as well as including traces of the DNA from Apollyon & Bestial Tormentor’s own prior work together with their cult doom act Lamented Souls, to create a sensational and majestic opus.
Mastering work was completed by Jack Control at Enormous Door (Darkthrone), and cover art appears courtesy of Polish artist Maciej Kamuda.
ALTERIUM, the new Italian power metal quintet led by Nicoletta Rosellini (ex. Kalidia, Walk in Darkness), has revealed new details about their hotly-anticipated, first full-length studio album! “Of War And Flames” will be out on March 8, 2024 via AFM Records, the pre-sale is now available via: https://alterium.bfan.link/of-war-and-flames
Following previously-released, first album appetizers, “Siren’s Call”, “Drag Me To Hell” and the epic cover version of Sabaton‘s “Bismarck”, ALTERIUM have unleashed their powerful title track “Of War And Flames”!
Born in late 2022, ALTERIUM consists of vocalist Nicoletta and former bandmates Paolo Campitelli (guitars) and Dario Gozzi (drums) from Kalidia, soon joined by Alessandro Mammola (guitars, also in Draconicon) and Luca Scalabrin (bass, also in Altair).
After Kalidia parted ways, Nicoletta decided to take a different approach and finally unleashes her whole potential as both a singer and a songwriter. Produced by Lars Rettkowitz (Freedom Call), and featuring 9 original classy power metal tracks including the cover of “Bismarck”, “Of War and Flames” turns out to be a triumph of catchy choruses, terrific vocal lines, powerful sounds, strong guitar riffs, explosive drums, majestic choirs and captivating grooves, all skillfully mastered by Achim Koehler. Pre-order your album copy now, and get ready for new power metal hope ALTERIUM, when theywill take the metal scene by storm!
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