TODAY IN METAL HISTORY 🤘 AUGUST 31ST, 2024🤘 SCORPIONS, GENE HOGLAN, DEATH, MEGADETH, LAMB OF GOD, EX DEO

HEAVY BIRTHDAYS

Happy 76th
Rudolf Schenker (SCORPIONS) - August 31st, 1948 (photo credit: Thomas Mazerolles)



Happy 80th
Roger Dean (YES, URIAH HEEP, ASIA, ATOMIC ROOSTER album artist/painter) - August 31st, 1944

WHERE THE GODS PLAY SILENTLY SACREDEATH

WHERE THE GODS PLAY SILENTLY: Conheça o tributo brasileiro ao Saturnus organizado pelo THE CROSS


Um dos tributos mais aguardados pelos fãs do Doom Metal mundial está muito perto de ser lançado! Trata-se do “WHERE THE GODS PLAY SILENTLY – A Brazilian Tribute To Saturnus”, que vem sendo organizado pelos baianos do THE CROSS, com autorização dos dinamarqueses homenageados neste trabalho.

Já são 14 bandas confirmadas até o momento, além da anfitriã que participará com a faixa “I Love Thee” (com participação especial do vocalista Thomas A.G. Jensen), nomes como Ode Insone, Martyrdom, Under the Gray Sky, Spectrummm, Sacredeath e outros estarão neste novo material, previsto para agosto de 2024 em CD duplo. Confira abaixo a capa — feita pelo artista Paulo Monteiro da LFX Music Works — e tracklist completo:



– The Cross/Thomas Jensen – I Love Thee
– Lamentos – Embranced by Darkness
– Spectrummm – A Father’s Providence
– Ode Insone – Empty Handed
– Endless Solitude – Pretend
– Scarlet Peace – Chrisy Goodbye
– Martyrdom – Limbs of Crystal Clear
– Thy Dying Star – I Long
– Aqueronte – Rain Wash Me
– Under the Gray Sky – To The Dreams
– Fohatt – A Poem (Written in Moonlight)
– Inventor – For Your Demons
– Sorrow Blue – Noir
– Sacredeath – Truth


“Where The Gods Play Silently – A Brazilian Tribute to Saturnus” comemora os 31 anos de carreira do Saturnus e ainda conta com uma vaga disponível para artistas interessados em participar. Para mais informações, entre em contato agora pelo e-mail saturnustributobraziliantribut@gmail.com e solicite-as.

Receba essa e outras notícias em primeira mão participando do canal oficial da SFP – Press & PR no WhatsApp AQUI: https://bit.ly/SFPWhatsAppChannel

Imprensa interessada em receber o material completo da banda para resenhas e/ou entrevistas escreva para contato@sanguefrioproducoes.com ou diretamente pelo WhatsApp/Telegram pelo número (46) 98838-7204 e solicite o press kit.

ASSESSORIA DE IMPRENSA: SANGUE FRIO PRODUÇÕES
Contato: www.sanguefrioproducoes.com/contato
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https://saturnus-official.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/artist/7HY8HFHBM9zrY5R9rlY3Id
https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/194121
http://saturnus.dk/

NILE - THE UNDERWORLD AWAITS US ALL

NILE - THE UNDERWORLD AWAITS US ALL



Rating: 9.0

review black death nile



Well, look at that, it's Nile as a five-piece here on their 10th full-length, The Underworld Awaits Us All. And all I can think is it just adds to the chaos, opener “Stelae Of Vultures” sounding like a total wall of noise, the band actually sounding more alive than they have in a while here, the song just a steamroller of technicality and forward momentum.

Follow-up (deep breath) “Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes” continues the vibe but streamlines it down to 3:50 compared to the opener's 6:20 (which, I must say, races past); we're going back to Nephren-Ka here in that these songs aren't oppressive and overwhelming, they're full of energy.

And so is George Kollias' drumming, the man on an absolute tear here, mastermind Karl Sanders looking on with a sagely nod before laying down absurd riff after absurd riff, “Naqada II Enter The Golden Age” being almost catchy, “Under The Curse Of The One God” featuring riffs flying faster than they should at this point in Nile's career, “True Gods Of The Desert” absolutely destroying with a pair of Crowbar-worthy sludge/death opening riffs.

(REDEFINING DARKNESS)

(REDEFINING DARKNESS)

Nick Balazs

Rating: 8.0

review black death oxygen destroyer



Gamera – the fearsome turtle monster and protector of the world. The Atlantean created beast is also the subject of Oxygen Destroyer’s third full-length Guardian Of The Universe. It’s 30 minutes of krazed, kaiju-themed death/thrash done with manic ferocity and respect to the creature that first appeared in the 1965 film Gamera The Giant Monster.

The U.S. west coast thrashers specifically focus on the Heisei-era trilogy of films in the ‘90s that are often regarded as top quality kaiju films. Oxygen Destroyer terrorizes their way through nine tracks with razor sharp guitars, primal vocals, vicious bass and drums, and an atmosphere of whirling chaos.

It’s not a secret who they are musically motivated by – Demolition Hammer, Hell Awaits-era Slayer, Morbid Saint, and Scream Bloody Gore-era Death. There’s a cinematic quality due to the interspersing of dialogue and kaiju shrieks from the movies to accentuate the terror and intensity of the music. The soloing is a hybrid mix of Kerry King like chaos and ferocious melodic squeals.

THE CROWN - GUITARIST MARCUS SUNESSON RETURNS, NEW SINGLE DUE NEXT WEEK

"We are thrilled to announce that Marcus (Sunesson, guitarst) has returned," begins a statement from Swedish death metal icons, The Crown. It continues:

"Marcus left the band in 2012, and his unique, passionate guitar work on albums like Deathrace King and Crowned In Terror has been deeply missed.

He has contributed significantly to the new album, writing the guitar parts and solos on the upcoming release, Crown Of Thorns, which will be out on October 11th.

Seth: Vive la Révolution

BAND FEATURESBLACK METALFEATURES
Seth: Vive la Révolution
August 24, 2024Jack Press


“Whenever I start writing a new album, I keep thinking that hopefully this one should be a little easier in the way that I don’t want it to be painful, but it turns out that every album that I write is actually painful,” states Heimoth, founding member and guitarist of black metal institution SETH, only weeks removed from the release of their seventh album, La France des Maudits. “The more I think about it, the more it turns out to be something you can’t escape. It’s not sheer happiness, but there is happiness from time to time, and those times, though very short, are intense and big enough to carry on.”





If producing albums is painful for Heimoth, the evidence is clearly left on the cutting room floor. Considering it took SETH 17 years to release two albums, they’ve dropped arguably the finest albums of their career to date with just three years between them. La France des Maudits and 2021’s La Morsure du Christ build a burning monument to 90s black metal, using the 2019 Notre-Dame fire and the 235th anniversary of the start of the French Revolution as their inspiration.

“The title is the union of two concepts,” explains vocalist Saint Vincent, a key figure in SETH’s own musical revolution since joining in 2016, choosing to write all their lyrics in French alexandrine, a syllabic poetic metre. “The French concept was us wanting to put in front that we are French black metal, the point was not being patriotic or anything, just that in the black metal scene, we are different from the Scandinavian scene.”

“Secondly, des Maudits, or the cursed, represents in a way the republic of black metal, but has a more universal meaning, like all the people that have been rejected, or cursed, by the main power or the main order from God, or all the people who have been rejected by the morals or religion in place: they are all cursed.”

Having chosen to forego New Music Friday traditions to release La France des Maudits on Bastille Day, and with political unrest deep-seated in the hearts and minds of French nationals right now, you’d be forgiven for assuming the album was a politically-charged patriotic stand. Only, it’s not. Unless of course, you view it as a symbol of their patriotism for black metal.

“I think the black metal scene, even if you can find some really great and really successful people, there is always cursed people,” reflects Saint Vincent, “they’re away from the mainstream, so they’re rejecting the main essence of the people, the ministers of society, and so in a way it’s a celebration of all the people that have been rejected by God and are gathering in the darkness.”



The French Revolution, then, is merely a setting for a celebration of Scandinavian, second wave black metal. Influences and Easter eggs are wide-ranging, from referencing French poet Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers Of Evil to occultist Aleister Crowley’s. However, it all comes back to the seeds of their scene.

“There is such a black metal thing in the French Revolution. You have the former king that is not the son, but the Heir of God, and all the people are finally getting angry, and aggressive, and violent and get him and cut his head off and it’s so brutal,” laughs Saint Vincent, revelling in his country’s history. “There is something really brutal that is connected with metal imagery, just think about the guys in Scandinavia that burnt churches, it’s connected to that kind of destruction, that fiery will against a former oppressor.”


When it comes to themes, SETH toy with listeners like cats with yarn. Even their song titles are misnomers. Take the atmospherically spacious, grandiose interlude Marianne for example. To many, Marianne is the symbol of the French Revolution, personifying liberty, equality, fraternity, and reason. For SETH, it’s a tribute to a fallen soldier of black metal, LSK. Known as a member of blackened doom outfit SECRETS OF THE MOON among others, Marianne ‘LSK’ Séjourné took her own life 11 years ago.



“When Heimoth was writing this song, we talked about our will to dedicate the album to our former friend that disappeared, and I said why don’t you call that song Marianne because it’s a connection with the concept of the French Revolution,” explains Saint Vincent, as a clearly moved Heimoth adds, “it just hadn’t crossed my mind, I was really shocked that he suggested this, and I was like okay, that’s the perfect title for this acoustic track, which is in a way kind of bold, because this is in the middle of the album, and it is reminiscent of what used to be done in the past in the 90s in black metal albums, just like DISSECTION.”

As SETH look more and more to the past to mark out their future, 2025 marks 30 trips around the sun for the purveyors of French black metal. The reason they’re not only still standing, but releasing the best music they’ve made, is that in their minds, they drive down different lanes to everybody else. “I think we’ve always been rather different from the other French metal bands, both in terms of sound and in terms of the writing,” declares Heimoth matter-of-factly. “In a way, I’ve felt very close to French black metal, but equally very far, as I think we stand out from that scene somehow.”

Standing on the shoulders of giants comes to mind for a band who’s lofty legacy is still being written. La France des Maudits doesn’t rest on its laurels. It’s progressive, it’s gothic, and it’s grandiose. It’s everything Heimoth believes SETH are in comparison to other French black metal bands, and it’s been that way since 1995.

“It’s not like we started playing BURZUM or doing the DARKTHRONE thing, like many French black metal bands actually believed that playing guitar was just enough to play black metal, which I don’t think so. I think we did consider music, possibly as one of the first French bands to play black metal, so a lot of people said we sounded a bit like DISSECTION and all those bands, and obviously we used to listen to the Scandinavian scene at the time.”



“I don’t think that these remarks could go to any other French bands and that’s fine by me. At least the French metal scene has managed to create something very specific, but I’m not sure that we do belong to that scene.”

La France des Maudits is out now via Season Of Mist.

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HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Redeemer Of Souls – Judas Priest

JUDAS PRIEST are a band that should need no introduction. One of the bands that helped craft the sound of heavy metal, they have flown the metal flag for over fifty years, leaving a trail of classic material in their wake. The band today are still going strong, releasing two late-career classics in the form of 2018’s Firepower and 2024’s Invincible Shield, the band are showing no signs of slowing down. But what about the album that preceded their glorious return to form?





Like many of their peers, JUDAS PRIEST had struggled in the nineties against the onslaught of grunge and nu-metal, but with Rob Halford’s return in 2003 after his departure the previous decade, the band were riding the wave of a return in popularity of classic metal. Their ferocious comeback album of 2006 Angel Of Retribution capitalised on this and was well-received by fans and critics alike. What quite convinced them to then release an overblown symphonic metal mess based on the 16th century astrologer in the form of Nostrodamus as a follow up, is not something that Nostrodamus himself could have predicted. Clocking in at monstrous 102 minutes, the album was seen as a poor man’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.

After the less than glamorous reception for Nostrodamus, the band received another blow: the sudden exit of founding guitarist KK Downing in 2011. This was due to in KK’s words “an on-going breakdown in working relationships between myself, elements of the band and management for some time”. This happened right on the eve of their Epitaph World Tour, which at the time was rumoured to be their last. The band then picked the relatively unknown Richie Falkner to replace the legendary former guitarist, and embarked on their “last world tour” (it wasn’t).


All of this context is to say that the run up to Redeemer Of Souls was somewhat tumultuous. Many were concerned at what a JUDAS PRIEST album would sound like without the iconic twin leads of Glen Tipton and KK Downing, and whether it could even be possible. The band ploughed on regardless, and preparation began for the album.



In a rather telling statement, guitarist Glen Tipton stated that “Sometimes in the past we may have come under fire for being too adventurous musically – so we have listened. From start to finish, Redeemer Of Souls is 13 songs of pure classic PRIEST metal.” A not so subtle reference to the mixed reaction to Nostrodamus.


Classic PREIST was certainly what the fans received when Redeemer Of Souls was released in July 2014. The album received a decent reception from the critics at the time, with AllMusic declaring it is the “anthesis to Nostrodamus” and Rolling Stone stating that “Redeemer Of Souls is proof that PRIEST can still call themselves metal’s defenders of the faith”. It is certainly a solid effort for a band on their seventeenth album, with standout tracks such as Dragonaut, Halls Of Valhalla and Metalizer serving as a reminder that no one does classic metal like JUDAS PRIEST.

The problem that Redeemer of Souls has is the two albums that come after it. Fire Power and Invincible Shied are rightfully seen as modern classics, and some of the best work the band has ever done. Redeemer Of Souls sounds dated in comparison, and severely lacks the sonic punch that producer Andy Sneap brought with on the last two albums.

The legacy of Redeemer of Souls is a mixed bag. Louder ranked it 14th in their listicle of the band’s discography, assessing that it was “not quite the sizzling return to form that many proclaimed it to be”, with Blabbermouth serving an even harsher appraisal at 17th stating that “it lacks cohesion and some of the anthemic bombast we’re accustomed to, and the flat production ultimately drags this one down.”

Tracks from the album do still make an appearance however, with Sword Of Damacles popping up in 2024’s Invincible Shield tour, so the band themselves aren’t resigning Redeemer Of Souls to the musical graveyard just yet. But in it’s ten years since release, it’s hard to imagine many fans are clamouring for an anniversary show.





Redeemer Of Souls was originally released on July 14th, 2014 via Columbia Records.