Pred časom smo že poročali, da so melodični death metalci The Agonist iz Kanade odpovedali nastop na letošnji ediciji festivala MetalDays. Sedaj pa je iz tabora zasedbe tudi odjeknila vest, da je uradno prenehala z delovanjem. Več si lahko preberete v spodnji izjavi:

Dear friends, it's time to make a very difficult but necessary announcement.
We have decided that The Agonist as a band, has come to an end. Much deliberation and care has been put into making this decision, and unfortunately, given the circumstances, this is the conclusion that makes the most sense for the band and us as individuals.
There are many factors that led to this decision. It is a mix of personal, financial and industry related issues, but in the end the 5 of us are no longer able to agree on a way forward that would benefit The Agonist business as a whole, while respecting each member's personal lives and wishes.
We want to express our deepest gratitude to the fans for coming out to the shows, buying our merch, and supporting us over the years. Nothing is more satisfying than connecting with our fellow human beings via the gift of music. It is the number one factor that has always driven us- to make you, the listener, feel something. In the end, we know that we've accomplished this together.
Some members of the band will continue to work on music in various ways, others will focus on personal projects and family. We kindly ask you to respect their privacy on this particular matter and encourage you to follow them on their individual social media accounts to support their future endeavors.
Vicky Psarakis will be carrying on with her band, Sicksense. They have a new EP coming out this summer and she will be playing 2 live shows with them in Montreal, in June.
You can also directly support her by following her on Patreon and Twitch.
Simon McKay is currently looking to join a new band full-time, while offering session work for studio and live gigs. Also, keep an eye out for new music coming soon from his solo project.
Chris Kells will be focusing on his career as a videographer. Since 2015, he has directed all of The Agonist's music videos, as well as many other established bands.
Danny Marino is currently writing music for 2 new projects.
Pascal "Paco" Jobin will be releasing new music with his project Leading the betrayed.
Our US-based merch store with Sound Escape Agency will remain open. We have also put together an EU-based store for our European fans. Inventory is final and there will be no restocks. Proceeds will go directly to the band to help us pay off our remaining debt.
Once again, we thank you and we love you.
»We will survive. At the end of the tunnel there's always a light.« - The Agonist

Po tem, ko so pred kratkim turnejo odpovedali White Ward, je ista usoda doletela blackened death metalce 1914 iz Ukrajine. Upamo, da se stvari umirijo in nas bo zasedba lahko obiskala letos poleti na festivalu Črna Loka. Sledi bandova izjava za medije:

»Many of you could have been noticing a recent wave of European tours cancellations by UA bands. Unfortunately, 1914 is not an exception here. With heavy hearts we must inform you that we cannot play for our fans this April and have to cancel our upcoming tour.

Just to make it clear, it is still a 'wartime' on the territory of our land, and this specific time makes it impossible to leave the borders by the men of a conscript age. How could we travel last year? It was possible to get a special permission from the state authorities for the artists to leave the country and do shows and other activities in order to aid the country and spead the truth about unprovoked and brutal war started by russia. There were some irresponsible people who used such permissions to leave the country and never come back, and after it became public and went through a media - the state authorities stopped granting the special permissions for the artists by artificially overcomplicating the process of getting all the necessary documents, by enlarging the list of the documents and making it impossible for bands to obtain what is needed. This affected a lot of different bands in UA.

Last couple of weeks for us were in a constant fight with that new stupid system trying to show that we had a positive experience of returning back home after foreign tours, trying to display the value of such tours for our country benefit, but no matter how hard we tried - we couldn't break that system and it made impossible for us to go and play this time. We want to apologize to our fans, other bands, promoters, but currently we are powerless here. We will work hard to be able to get to our other shows this year, maybe the ice will melt and we will see some easement in the future, but currently we just did everything we could.

Міністерство культури та інформаційної політики України - Thank you for nothing!«

Blaze Bayley, nekdanji vokalist zasedbe Iron Maiden, je prejšnjo soboto doživel srčni infarkt in bil zaradi tega hospitaliziran. Njegovo stanje je že stabilno, žal pa je zaradi tega moral odpovedati turnejo. Več lahko preberete v uradni izjavi:

»We sincerely regret to announce that Blaze had a heart attack at home yesterday evening & is now in hospital in a stable condition, awaiting news of further surgery/treatment. He is in good spirits in the circumstances but utterly disappointed to have to postpone our imminent shows due in March & April. Ticket refunds will be available at source but we truly hope you will keep your tickets & make it to the new dates which we will be announcing as soon as they are scheduled.

Regarding shows already booked for June-November this year, we understandably have to wait a short while to see how quick Blaze’s recovery will be, so please stay tuned & meanwhile most importantly we're sure you will join us in wishing him a complete & speedy recovery.

Blaze misses you, cannot wait to regain full health & see you all again.

Every Storm Ends… ‘your heart will heal’

Thank you so much everyone for your understanding & support.

Mark Appleton & Christopher Appleton (management / bookings)«

Ukrajinska post/black metal zasedba White Ward je bila zaradi situacije v Ukrajini žal primorana odpovedati vse načrtovane nastope in turneje. Spodaj lahko preberete izjavo banda:

»Dear friends,

With a heavy heart, we need to inform you that our April tour is canceled. Last 2 weeks we fought for the fate of the tour. We tried all the possible ways, but the system proved to be stronger.

So, let's make it clear about what happened and about the reasons for the cancellation.

Right now “wartime” restrictions are applied in Ukraine, and they include limitations for men in ages 18-60 to cross the border, because it is a range when men are available for military service. So, there is a need to get special permission from state authorities to travel out of Ukraine. During the year 2022 the Ministry Of Culture helped Ukrainian musicians and different artists and assisted in acquiring such permits (for a limited time) and that is why we, and many other bands, were able to play in Europe last year.

But a working algorithm that allows to control the “way back” was not created and responsibilities related to the violations of the permission terms - were nowhere written. And that is why some impudent people just used this opportunity to run out of Ukraine and decided not to come back. Very few cases are known, but after the last one, which raised a lot of noise and dissatisfaction in the media, the Ministry Of Culture decided to implement immediate changes and new rules, even for artists who have already sent a request for permit weeks before an accident - we have sent such request on February, 20th. That is the reason why many Ukrainian bands like Schizogen, Bezlad, The Hypnotunez, Kazka, and many more have already canceled or almost canceled their tours. Some bands were affected when they were already at the border and shows should take place the next day, but due to new rules, they were not allowed to leave Ukraine!

The new rules suppose some additional documents to a request. In our case, every member of the band has his own difficulties in acquiring that, even with an immediate start - there is no guarantee that the process will be successful and accomplished in time. Also, that is anyway not a guarantee that the request will be approved - our colleagues` request was refused even with all the requested documents. So, we just can't get this permission and it is over.

We have tried everything, and the media noise was our last hope. But it hasn’t worked, unfortunately. Months of work, preparations, money - all this is now in vain.
We sincerely apologize to our fans, promoters, and everyone who helped us with this tour. We hope that one day we will make this tour real, and you will wait for us. We will still try to figure something out before Hellfest and August festivals, but no new tour announcements till the end of the war will be made.

But, the one and only responsible for this is russia. They broke everything by invading our country, killing our children, bombing our cities, destroying our culture, and applying all fascist methods to destroy us and we will never forget what they DID and are still DOING!«

Avstrijski melodični death metalci Dystersol so pretekli mesec napovedali svoj prihajajoči album Anaemic, ki bo izšel 6. aprila. Včeraj so predstavili prvi single Fair Better kot tudi naslove ostalih komadov:

Things To Come
Fail Better
In Dreams
Battering Ram
Mountain Of Death
Shapeshifter
Nailed To The Stars
Rainmaker
Soothsayer
Dollmaker
Niedergang
Into The Void

Irski tehnični metalci Ropemaker so razkrili single Paean, ki ga lahko preverite spodaj. Single naj bi nagovoril vse ljubitelje zasedb, kot so Mastodon, Gojira, Pelican, Keelhaul ali Russian Circles.

Metalsteel so razkrili novo priredbo, za katero so posneli tudi videospot. Gre za komad Na Noge! zasedbe YUNK (Junaki nočne kronike), pri snemanju pa sta na pomoč priskočila Sergej Škofljanec na vokalih in Davor Klarić na klaviaturah. Poleg tega je zasedba razkrila, da bo prihajajoči album remake-ov nosil naslov Spomenik.

In Flames so posneli video za svoj najnovejši single Meet Your Maker, ki se bo nahajal na prihajajočem albumu Foregone, ki izide 10. februarja pri Nuclear Blast Records.

Nizozemski downtempo/deathcore band Distant predstavlja single Argent Justice, za katerega je pripravil videospot. Pri singlu so sodelovali naslednji vokalisti:

Eddie Hermida (Suicide Silence),
Frankie Palmeri (Emmure),
Mike Greenwood, Casey Tyson-Pearce in Colton Bennet (AngelMaker),
Kyle Medina (Bodysnatcher),
Johnny Ciardullo in Andrew Baena (Carcosa),
Aaron Matts (ten56.),
Marc Zelli (Paleface),
Andreas Bjulver (Cabal),
Marcus Jasak in Kevin Petersen (Acranius),
Dan Tucker (Crown Magnetar),
Devin Duarte of Worm Shepherd) in
Tomáš Klár (Abbie Falls).

Švedske death metal legende Dismember bodo najverjetneje posnele svoj deveti album, kakor je v intervjuju namignil Fred Estby. To bo zasedbin prvi studijski album po 15 letih od izdaje samonaslovljenega ploščka leta 2008.

Progresivni deathcorovci Enterprise Earth so predstavili single Death Magick. Za komad je band posnel video, ki si ga lahko ogledate spodaj, prav tako pa se zasedba že ta konec tedna odpravlja na turnejo po Evropi, med katero se bo ustavila 21. januarja v Münchnu in 22. januarja na Dunaju.

Of Wolves iz Chicaga so objavili single Maker, za katerega je njihov član Steve naredil videospot s pomočjo umetne inteligence.

Švedski heavy metalci Screamer so objavili video za skladbo The Traveler, ki se nahaja na prihajajočem albumu z naslovom Kingmaker. Celotna setlista albuma je sledeča:

Kingmaker
Rise Above
The Traveler
Hellfire
Chasing the Rainbow
Ashes and Fire
Burn It Down
Fall of a Common Man
Sounds of the Night
Renegade

Ameriški heavy rockerji Uncommon Evolution bodo ta petek pri Argonauta Records na CD-ju, vinilu in digitalno izdali svoj drugi album, ki nosi naslov FRY. Seznam pesmi je takšen:

Widowmaker’s Breeze
Rut Struttin’
Smolder
Funeral Samba
Mask
Deep Sea Loving

Scream Maker so objavili video za Bloodking, naslovni komad januarja izdanega drugega albuma.