LIVE REVIEW: RØRY @ Tramshed, Cardiff

RØRY needs to give a masterclass in how not to give up. As she herself said, “I’m 40 and finally got a top 10 album, independently.” We see first-hand why perseverance pays off, just two years ago she was headlining a 250-capacity venue, and now she’s headlining 1000 capacity venues. Touring her long-awaited second debut album, RESTORATION, her dedicated fanbase arrives early, with the barrier crew eagerly awaiting her show.

Lake Malice live @ Tramshed, Cardiff. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

Opening the show is LAKE MALICE, a high-energy band whose infectious hyper-pop/metal mix grabs attention from the get go.
Having had an incredible few years themselves, it’s great to see the duo on this tour. They make the perfect opening act, delivering energetic and catchy songs. The crowd warms up quickly, heads bobbing along, a few people already singing. It’s always great to see fans who know the support acts beforehand and can join in with the songs.

Just three songs in, guitarist Blake Cornwall heads into the crowd, becoming the centre of the first circle pit of the night, though it hilariously turns into a fun conga line around him instead. Blake isn’t the only one drawing attention. On stage, Alice Guala stuns on vocals, never missing a note while commanding the crowd with kicks, jumps, and spins. The whole thirty minute set flies by, and we don’t think we could have asked for a better opener.

Rating: 9/10As December Falls live @ Tramshed, Cardiff. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

AS DECEMBER FALLS are no strangers to playing with RØRY, having joined her on Misery Loves Company last year in Bristol. That show gave us a taste of what to expect, and tonight, excitement fills the venue. Cheers echo as the band takes the stage, launching into their signature fun, pop-punk sound.

Bethany Curtis jumps and prances around the stage, a constant smile on her face as she sings to the crowd. Both guitarists take turns stepping onto risers, ensuring even those at the back get a good view of the action. As the set progresses, more people sing along and get involved. We even get our first crowd surfer of the night, who manages to high-five Bethany on their way past. These little moments make live shows extra special.

With so much fan crossover tonight, AS DECEMBER FALLS is an easy sell. But that doesn’t mean they slack off, they deliver an incredible performance, as always. We’ve already been treated to an amazing night.

Rating: 9/10RØRY live @ Tramshed, Cardiff. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

With her new album RESTORATION taking centre stage, we know tonight will be filled with its tracks. Opening with In The Bible and if pain could talk, what would it say?, we dive into the heavier side of RØRY‘s music, something that continues throughout the night. Darker, more intense songs mix with the emotional weight of ALTERNATIVE and Jesus and John Lennon, while pop-punk energy shines through on Baby Vendetta and Uncomplicated, creating a true roller-coaster of emotion. One standout moment comes when Bethany of AS DECEMBER FALLS joins RØRY for My Funeral Song, adding a fresh dynamic to the track.

A hallmark of RØRY’s shows is the time she takes to connect with the crowd. She openly shares her experiences, struggles, and the stories behind her songs, making her performances feel deeply personal. While some artists only throw in a quick comment or check-in, RØRY engages in full conversations with the audience, making us feel part of her journey.RØRY live @ Tramshed, Cardiff. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

A particularly special moment occurs when RØRY moves to the balcony to perform One Drink Away and the apology i’ll never receive acoustically – a beautifully intimate segment, though slightly disrupted by a few people at the bar loudly chatting about something that clearly couldn’t wait.

Ending the night with SORRY I’M LATE and BLOSSOM, we see just how far she’s come. SORRY I’M LATE was first debuted at Misery Loves Company, where silence fell over the room as people listened intently, unfamiliar with the song. Now, the crowd screams “Sorry I’m Late!” right back at her.

This entire set was perfect – seamlessly showcasing the new album while treating long-time fans to older deep cuts. We’ve witnessed RØRY’s growth, from online success to filling venues with passionate fans. We already know that whatever she does next will be bigger, better and even brighter.

Rating: 10/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Cardiff from Serena Hill Photography here:








































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MARDUK Incompetence or bad faith? Understand the case of the producer who shook the Brazilian underground MAD PRODUCTION

Brazil is a country with many financial problems, as the whole world already knows, but over the years, concert promoters in Brazil have seen it as a market to make easy money and rob their own people, and try to rob bands around the world. The Brazilian way, even immigrants come to the United States and try to rip off their own people, if only other peoples. We are not generalizing, but a country that has the biggest robbery event with its own leaders, helps the people to mirror themselves in making easy money. Remembering that before judging our site, we have no bias towards any political side. And we know that the country is having political problems.




The M.A.D. Metal Fest was scheduled to take place on March 8th and 9th at VIP Station in Santo Amaro (São Paulo), but was canceled due to a series of events that led to the collapse of M.A.D. Produtora. At least, according to the event “producer”, Marlon da Silva Rocha (also known as Marlon Mitnel).The São Paulo event, focused on extreme metal, featured very prestigious names in its lineup and quickly caught the public's attention. It would be an almost unique opportunity to see bands of the stature of Dark Funeral, Nargaroth, Yoth Iria, Opera IX, Besatt and other prestigious national underground groups such as Troops Of Doom, Dorsal Atlântica, Mystifier, Luxúria de Lilith, Amen Corner and more.

As was announced this week, problems began to occur regarding the organization of the festival and we will discuss all of the points here in this article. We will follow a timeline so that our dear readers can understand exactly what happened and can draw their own conclusions. How come the event is canceled? On March 5th, just a few days before the event date, Marlon shared a video on his Instagram account in which he announced that the event was canceled. Yes, at the last minute, with countless tickets sold, people with tickets and hotel stays purchased and bands on their way to Brazil. In the description of the publication, he asked the bands not to appear at the event venue and for people not to leave their homes as the shows would no longer take place.
It was clear that the producer was presenting a frightening picture that apparently pointed to a person having a breakdown. Mitnel said he would take his own life (to be clear, this did not happen) and claimed that he had tried everything to make the event happen, but unfortunately he was being called things like “thief”, “Nazi” and “dishonest”. Because of this, people were requesting refunds for their tickets, making the show financially unviable. The video in question is no longer on the air and, although the material is in our possession and safe, for legal reasons we will not release it. It is important to note that the video was recorded the day before, that is, on March 4th, and scheduled to air the following day, March 5th. Some time after this video was published and, after people began to question what was happening, he published another video, but this one with very worrying content. Marlon’s mental state seemed to have worsened a lot in these 24 hours and the images showed someone in total despair.
The São Paulo event, focused on extreme metal, featured very prestigious names in its lineup and quickly caught the public's attention. It would be an almost unique opportunity to see bands of the stature of Dark Funeral, Nargaroth, Yoth Iria, Opera IX, Besatt and other prestigious national underground groups such as Troops Of Doom, Dorsal Atlântica, Mystifier, Luxúria de Lilith, Amen Corner and more. As was announced this week, problems began to arise regarding the organization of the festival and we will discuss all the points here in this article. We will follow a timeline so that our dear readers can understand exactly what happened and can draw their own conclusions.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE EVENT IS CANCELLED? On March 5th, just a few days before the event, Marlon shared a video on his Instagram account announcing that the event was canceled. Yes, at the last minute, with countless tickets sold, people with tickets and hotel stays purchased, and bands on their way to Brazil. In the description of the post, he asked the bands not to show up at the event and for people not to leave their homes because the shows would no longer happen.

It was clear that the producer was showing signs of instability, which apparently indicated that he was having an episode. Mitnel said he was going to take his own life (to be clear, this didn't happen) and claimed that he had tried everything to make the event happen, but unfortunately he was being called things like “thief”, “Nazi” and “dishonest”. Because of this, people were asking for refunds for their tickets, making the show financially unviable. The video in question is no longer available and, although the material is in our possession and safe, for legal reasons we will not release it. It is important to note that the video was recorded the day before, on March 4th, and scheduled to air the following day, on March 5th. Some time after this video was published and, after people began to question what was happening, he published another video, but this one with very worrying content. Marlon’s mental state seemed to have worsened significantly in the last 24 hours and the images showed someone in total despair.
Well, in the first few minutes after these videos, and at this point we at Mundo Metal had no knowledge of Marlon's history with past events, the first feeling that came over us was concern for his physical integrity. He really seemed like a desperate person who didn't know how to deal with a situation that, according to him, got out of control. We tried to understand all the details and that's what this article is about. If you haven't followed the case and found out about it through this call, I imagine you were shocked by the images above. But we ask that you continue, because THERE IS A LOT OF HIDDEN DATA that you need to know before forming a definitive opinion.
THE REASONS FOR CANCELLATION Marlon had been holding some recent events in the southern region of the country, where some of them were actually happening without major problems, however, with the help of partnerships and with other people involved. It is fair to say that M.A.D. Produtora has faced some recent accusations and has also been involved in some controversies. Local things that did not make headlines on major websites in the country, but generated comments behind the scenes, where Marlon's reputation was not the best. Regarding M.A.D. Metal Fest, the producer's most ambitious event, the complications began when Fantástico's report about the NSBM scene was aired. Mundo Metal also wrote an article about TV Globo's report and you can read it by clicking HERE. Returning to the event, some bands that were confirmed were correlated to the Black Metal niche that involves Nazi ideology. Soon, the producer came under pressure to have these bands removed from the cast, and Marlon did so.
At the time, he said he was unaware of the groups' involvement with the NSBM and even stated that some of the names linked to this group were being unfairly treated and wrongly accused. Even so, a new cast was released without the participation of the accused groups and the event was confirmed. At least, until March 5th...
In the video available above and also in the various subsequent live shows that the now former producer did, he states that he suffered cancellations on social media and people started asking for refunds of the amounts already paid for the tickets. And as this number of requests grew every day, he came to the conclusion that he would not be able to cover the entire structure of the shows. Marlon then decided to abandon the festival itself, saying that he was not mentally fit.


With the imminent questions about refunds, he stated that people would need to claim the money for the tickets through Bilheto, an online platform that allows the sale and management of tickets for events, and that he had worked on the creation of the website ingressosmad.com.br (now offline).


It is important to note that the website's domain is registered in Marlon's name, as we can see in the photo below.

Benediction release new music video for ‘Crawling Over Corpses’

Photo Credit: Karen Rew


BENEDICTION have released a new music video!



The new music video, for the track Crawling Over Corpses, is taken from the veteran British death metal band’s upcoming new album, Ravage Of Empires (the follow-up to 2020’s Scriptures), which is scheduled to be released in April this year, via Nuclear Blast Records.

Watch the official music video for Crawling Over Corpses here:


Alongside the release of the new music video, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. A Carrion Harvest
2. Beyond The Veil (Of The Grey Mare)
3. Genesis Chamber
4. Deviant Spine
5. Engines of War
6. The Finality Of Perpetuation
7. Crawling Over Corpses
8. In The Dread Of The Night
9. Drought Of Mercy
10. Psychosister
11. Ravage Of Empires



Ravage Of Empires is set for release on April 4th via Nuclear Blast Records. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here.

For more information on BENEDICTION like their official page on Facebook.

ALBUM REVIEW: Belly Of The Beast – Combust

Nowhere does hardcore like New York. MADBALL, BIOHAZARD, CRO-MAGS, KILLING TIME… between them these bands and many others have made the Big Apple’s take on the genre synonymous with groove, bounce, swagger, riffs and – often as a result of all this – a catchiness that is impossible to deny. That’s exactly what you’ll find on Belly Of The Beast, the sophomore full-length from the unmistakably and unapologetically New York hardcore outfit COMBUST.



That and a butt-load of guest features. If the band’s excellent debut LP Another Life (2022) hadn’t already piqued your interest in this record, then perhaps the fact that they have attracted the patronage of members of CROWN OF THORNZ, MINDFORCE and TERROR – to name just half – will do the trick. Jay Peta and Scott Vogel of the latter two of those bands both make inevitable marks on Swallowing Swords and Paid With Pain respectively – such is their style and charisma – but all the guests add their own flavours really; whether it’s Rory O’Neill of IMPOSTER bellowing away on lead single Our Own Breed, rapper Rome Streetz providing a skit-like intro to Tiger Style II, or Danny Diablo of CROWN OF THORNZ and Chiqui Rodriguez of DMIZE representing some of New York’s supremely influential class of the 90s on N.Y.H.C. and Crossed Off respectively.


To be clear though, COMBUST are a great band in their own right, and unlike, say, pretty much all the post-2019 output of a certain cinematic universe, Belly Of The Beast is far from reliant on cool cameos and fan service. It kicks off with the incendiary and infectious title track, vocalist Andrew Vacante displaying more than enough style and charisma of his own as he presides over an impeccably produced onslaught of thrashy riffs and swagged-out grooves. Second single Everyone’s Enemy follows, its simple chorus of “I don’t need the validation that you seek / I wanna be everybody’s enemy” clearly standoffish but also just demanding to be bellowed along to by an irresponsibly stacked pile of bodies in a live setting.

And that is essentially Belly Of The Beast in a microcosm. Aside from Streetz’s appearance on the aforementioned Tiger Style II – and perhaps the more melodic intro to sixth track Fear In The Streets in a distant second place – the album doesn’t really deviate from there. But it doesn’t really need to. This is the kind of hardcore that just feels good, with lyrics about all the usual business of turning your back on fakes and overcoming obstacles and doing things your own way delivered across a set of 12 songs that are riotous, catchy and motivational without exception. With the runtime landing pretty much bang on half an hour it’s exactly the length a record like this needs to be, and as mentioned the production courtesy of Zach Miller is just fantastic – crisp and clear, but still a safe distance from overproduced and lifeless.

Ultimately there may be little mistaking COMBUST’s influences – to be fair, they’ll probably just tell you themselves, or invite them to guest on the record even – but that doesn’t mean Belly Of The Beast should be written off as pure pastiche. Like a lot of the current crop of truly great hardcore bands – your SPEEDs, DRAINs and MINDFORCEs etc. – COMBUST are compelling not just because they are brilliant at what they do, but perhaps even more so because of the unmistakable heart and soul and conviction they do it with, which, after all, is what this stuff is all about.

Rating: 8/10



Belly Of The Beast is set for release on March 7th via Triple B Records.

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BLACK METAL HISTORY IMMORTAL: The Blackened Chronicles

In the second installment of a three-part series spotlighting pivotal bands in Black Metal's past and present; we recount the history of Immortal, one of the biggest bands in the genre's second wave.






The second wave of black metal arose during the early nineties. Following the ferocity of the first wave that washed over Europe, a new blast of bands emerged to carry the demonic torch of black metal. However with this second wave came a musical culture brimming with corpse paint, satanic imagery, murders, suicides, and church burnings. It was an infamous era in metal that saw some of its biggest talents become some of Europe's most notorious criminals. In the midst of all the metallic chaos, isolated in the frigid winter of Bergen, Norway was another one of the second wave's biggest bands, Immortal.


Immortal formed in 1990 under its two most consistent members, Olve Eikemo and Harald Nævdal. Immortal followed an atypical model when compared to their contemporaries. They steered clear of any illegal activity and controversy. Their lyrical styling spoke to more of a dark fantasy of Blashyrkh, a realm filled with demons and battles. Immortal's albums also take on a very icy aura, harnessing the frigidness of life in Norway. To this point, the band has released eight studio albums, a couple splits an EP, and a demo in their twenty five years of off-and-on existence.


Eikemo and Nævdal originally were members of the death metal groups, Amputation and Old Funeral (which at one time featured Varg Vikernes), that existed in the late eighties and early nineties. The duo adopted new names upon donning corpse/war paint and embarking on Immortal. Eikemo became known as Abbath Doom Occulta and Nædval went by Demonaz Doom Occulta. Their music was heavily influenced by bands like Mayhem, Bathory, and Celtic Frost. They recorded a debut demo and EP in 1991, both entitled Immortal prior to releasing their full-length debut in 1992, called Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism. This was the only album to feature drummer, Armagedda, and it built a foundation for one of black metal's most influential acts.

1993 saw the release of Pure Holocaust, Immortal's second studio album that introduced the frozen nature of the band's music. The instrumentation for the album was done entirely by Abbath and Demonaz, the former playing bass, studio drums, and vocals while the latter played lead guitar and wrote the lyrics. This formula remained the same for their next and arguably their most influential studio album, 1995's Battles in the North. It was within this album that the songs, "Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms" and "Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)" became wildly popular and fortified the icy aesthetics that often are associated with black metal and the lyrical realm in which Immortal's music exists, respectively. Their icy repertoire grew in 1997 with Blizzard Beasts. With its arrival also came Immortal's first consistent drummer since their inception, Reidar Horghagen, who became known as Horgh. Unfortunately, following the release of Blizzard Beasts, Demonaz got severe tendinitis of the shoulder and was forced to resign from guitar duties. While Demonaz stayed on with the band to write lyrics and manage Immortal, Abbath took over full-time lead guitar duties as well as continuing to play bass guitar.

Immortal released three more albums between 1999 and 2002. "At the Heart of Winter", "Damned in Black", and "Sons of Northern Darkness" all saw the Norse trio utilize a blackened thrash sound. In 2003; the band split, citing personal reasons. Abbath joined a Mötörhead cover band, called Bömbers, for a while. Then in 2005, Abbath and Demonaz reunited again to form another metal group, called I. The group saw the Immortal duo reunited with one time drummer, Armagedda, and joined by Arve Isdal of Enslaved and King ov Hell of Gorgoroth. The group released an album entitled Between Two Worlds in 2006 and coincidentally sent black metal fans into a fit over the possibility of Immortal's resurrection.



Much to many fans' relief, Immortal reformed in 2006. Abbath, Demonaz, and Horgh all came back and three years after reformation (now joined by current bassist, Apollyon), released All Shall Fall and another split. However the excitement would be relatively short-lived as these would be Immortal's last releases to this day with frontman, Abbath. He has since left the band due to disagreements with Demonaz and Horgh. In January, Abbath released his solo, self-titled debut album through Seasons of Mist, channeling the icy rage his former band was known for. Demonaz and Horgh meanwhile have since vowed to carry on Immortal and are planning to record during 2016 in an effort to release new music. While unfortunate that one of black metal's biggest names has broken up, Immortal's legacy continues to carry its weight. In the ever-evolving scope of today's black metal, many bands still site the grim, Norse titans as influences for their music.