Ameriški black/death metal heretiki Profanatica so pred kratkim razkrili nov komad z naslovom Take Up the Cross. Gre za drugi komad s prihajajočega albuma Crux Simplex, ki bo 22. septembra  izšel pri Season of Mist Underground Activists. Prinaša naslednje komade:

Condemned to Unholy Death
Take Up the Cross
The First Fall
Meeting of a Whore
Compelled by Romans
Wipe the Fucking Face of Jesus
The Second Fall
Cunts of Jerusalem
The Third Fall
Division of Robes

Zaradi slabega zdravstvenega stanja dveh članov banda je julijski nastop Suffocation v Zagrebu odpovedan. V nadaljevanju lahko preberete celotno objavo za javnost:

»It is with deep regret that we have to announce the cancellation of our Summer June/July 2023 tour scheduled within Europe/UK. As you may know we previously toured Europe last month and during this tour a few members of the band suffered extreme physical strain resulting in injuries preventing us from returning back to the area less than a month from our previous tour.

Although it's never our intention to cancel any tour the health of our bandmates is key for continuing forward into the rest of the year and it's required that these members rest accordingly and recover from their injuries sustained during this tour. The physical strain that touring takes on the bodies of musicians manifests itself in many ways that are out of our control.

We have a lot in the works for the remainder of the year including writing and completing our new album and we look forward to returning to one of our favorite territories and fans in the EU/UK bringing you Suffocation at full strength, blazing and cranking alongside you all.

As you all know, Suffocation puts their all into our live show and we want to make sure fans get our all moving forward. Health and safety is our number one priority to ensure that we can bring it for you guys for the remainder of 2023 and beyond.«

Vračilo kart je možno od danes dalje v trgovini Dirty Old Shop.

Organizatorji legendarnega festivala Bang Your Head sporočajo, da se je ta za vedno poslovil. Več podrobnosti lahko preberete v izjavi organizatorja:

THAT WAS IT! Hello friends, it is with a heavy heart that we are writing these lines. But there is no other way. We really gave and did everything we could to finally catch up with celebrating the big BANG YOU HEAD!!! anniversary in 2023, and eagerly anticipated this summer like no other. But: We alone, unfortunately, did not have control over creating the circumstances needed to set up an event of this caliber with the requirement to quality connected to the name BANG YOUR HEAD!!! and actually make it happen. A lot changed in the past three years and not a lot of it was and is good. All in all, it can and must be said: The whole scene changed, and the preconditions for organizing an open-air event in Balingen are completely different in 2023 than they were in 2019 – also from an economic perspective. All in all, we thus come to the conclusion, even if it is incredibly sad, that there are too many factors and forces working against us, and pushing through to organize an event at any cost would cause more losses for us and others involved than putting an end to it now. And this is how it is now: The BANG YOUR HEAD!!! 2023 can and will NOT take place. Due to the abovementioned reasons which we can’t describe in further detail due to reasons that are hopefully understandable, there is no viable path that we can take responsibility for aside from calling off the big anniversary party in Balingen. We hope for your understanding and thank everybody from the bottom of our hearts that supported us, believed in us, and kept their tickets or even bought new ones. Especially for you we tried everything to finally raise the BANG YOUR HEAD!!! flag again over the Swabian Alb, but it seems like it was not meant to be. And to make sure to avoid any potential misunderstandings: There will be no more BANG YOUR HEAD!!! festivals in the future. This was it. Because we know that many of you waited for the BYH!!! this year with immense anticipation, we intensely tried to come up with a way to marginally make up for the cancellation of the event. So, we had an idea for a ticket exchange to the ROCK OF AGES festival 2023 which you can read up on in the detailed statement on www.bang-your-head.de. Of course, we will also reimburse the purchasing price to everybody who would like to return their tickets – irrespective of which of the past years the tickets for 2023 were purchased. We will inform you about the detailed process shortly through our channels. We want to thank you once again for your support at all 24 festivals and we would be thrilled to greet you as part of the LOYAL ONES in Seebronn on 28th June! Stay heavy! Horst and the BANG YOUR HEAD!!!-Team

Ameriški heavy metalci Alcatrazz bodo konec tega tedna pri Silver Lining Music izdali album Take No Prisoners. S tega so včeraj v obliki videospota predstavili single Bring On The Rawk.

Švedski heavy/power metalci Bloodbound so v obliki videospota razkrili single Drink with the Gods, ki je del prihajajočega albuma z naslovom Tales from the North. Album izide 7. julija pri AFM Records. Tracklista:

Tales from the North
Drink with the Gods
Odin’s Prayer
The Raven’s Cry
Mimir’s Crystal Eye
Between the Enemy Lines
Land of Heroes
Sail Among the Dead
Stake my Claims
Sword and Axe
1066

Ena izmed prvih madžarskih death metal zasedb Monastery se vrača na sceno. Po šestnajst letih premora so v zadnjih dveh letih izdali kar nekaj novih komadov, zdaj pa so uradno najavili tudi nov album From Blood. Ta naj bi izšel jeseni letos, band pa je predstavil tudi prvi single Pulled Into Stake.

Finski gothic rockerji The 69 Eyes so v sodelovanju s Kat Von D objavili video za skladbo This Murder Takes Two. Video je producirala Gabi Hakanen (Vallila Music House).

Carry the Torch predstavljajo besedilni video za Delusion, naslovni komad prihajajočega drugega albuma, ki bo izšel 26. maja pri založbi Black Lion Records. Tracklista je sledeča:

Children Of The Purge
Delusion
Clear View Of The End
Lazarus
Carry The Torch
The Fathomless Deep
Where Dead Saints March
Filtered
El Niño
As We Drown
Until The Light Takes Us

Brazilski thrasherji Phrenesy so podpisali za založbo Wormholedeath Records, pri kateri bodo ponovno izdali svoj lanski album Fears Apocalypse. Tracklista:

Fears Apocalypse
Bring It On
Fuck The Pain
Lost Generation
Mistakes
My Hate Is Gonna Speak For Me
Vultures
The Truth Is All There
The Party Won't Stop
War For Beer

Nedavno smo poročali, da se kitaristka Nita Strauss vrača k očetu shock rocka Alicu Cooperju, zdaj pa se obeta novo sodelovanje. Nita predstavlja nov single z naslovom Winner Takes All, pri katerem je sodeloval tudi Alice.

Heavy metalci Alcatrazz so predstavili svoj novi single Battlelines. Njihov prihajajoči album Take No Prisoners bo izšel 19. maja pri Silver Lining Music.

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!«

Ameriški tehnični/progresivni deathcore dvojec Entheos je v začetku marca izdal svoj tretji studijski album Time Will Take Us All, ki ga založba Metal Blade tukaj ponuja v posluh. Omenjeni album lahko preverite tudi na bandovem Bandcampu.

Band se trenutno mudi po Evropi z Archspire, Benighted in Psycroptic. Današnji koncert na Dunaju je razprodan, igrajo pa še jutri v Košicah, pojutrišnjem v Budimpešti in v petek v Pragi. Tukaj so obavljeni vsi datumi turneje.

Finski gothic rockerji The 69 Eyes, ki se v začetku marca odpravljajo na evropsko turnejo, bodo 21. aprila pri Atomic Fire Records izdali svoj najnovejši plošček, ki bo nosil naslov Death Of Darkness. Tracklista albuma, ki bo izšel na CD-ju, vinilu in digitalno, bo takšna:

Death Of Darkness
Drive
Gotta Rock
This Murder Takes Two (feat. Kat Von D)
California
Call Me Snake
Dying In The Night
Something Real
Sundown
Outlaws

Ameriški heavy metalci Alcatrazz in angleške heavy metalke Girlschool so skupaj posneli animirani video za pesem Don't Get Mad...Get Even, s katero Američani napovedujejo svoj naslednji album Take No Prisoners. Ta bo izšel 19. maja pri Silver Lining Music in bo vseboval deset komadov:

Little Viper
Don't Get Mad...Get Even (feat. Girlschool)
Battlelines
Strangers
Gates Of Destiny
Alcatrazz
Holy Roller (Love's Temple)
Power In Numbers
Salute The Colours
Bring On The Rawk