METRALION ETERNAL GLORY

VETERAN THRASH METAL BAND METRALION HAS JUST RELEASE THEIR NEW SINGLE - Eternal Glory 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1r4M2ePFQc

AD INFINITUM - FOUR PLAY

Originally launched as a solo project by vocalist Melissa Bonny, Ad Infinitum is a full-fledged band that is on the rise and picking up momentum. At the time of this writing, they were wrapping up the latest European leg of Kamelot's Awaken The World Tour as the third band on a bill of four, and it was clear they have garnered a loyal fanbase over the last four years.

It's a safe bet they will earn more followers over the next year as they hit the road in support of their new album, Abyss, a dark modern metal opus that flirts with progressive, pop and death elements to create a listening experience that is either captivating or grating depending on how open-minded you are. See Ad Infinitum live on stage, however, and the smart money is on the former.

The fact that Melissa has guested on songs by Kamelot, Powerwolf, Feuerschwanz and Eluveitie - and joined Dark Side Of The Moon - has only added to the interest surrounding Ad Infinitum, as has her participation in the Rock Meets Classic tour in 2020 and as a guest vocalist on Kamelot's last few tours.

ATROCITY SHARE MEXICO METALFEST 2024

Germany's Atrocity performed at Mexico Metalfest 2024 in Mexico City on November 16th. They have shared a recap video, which can be viewed below.



Atrocity are celebrating the 30th Anniversary of their Blut (translated: Blood) album. The band has shared the video below along with the following emssage:

SMASH INTO PIECES

a

The new music video, for the track Maze Of Fools, is the brand new single from the Swedish alternative metal band and follows on from their previous single, Hurricane, which was released earlier this month.

Speaking about the new single, the band shares, “this song is about breaking free from limitations, reclaiming control, and standing strong in the face of adversity. You’ve got the power to take control of your future. Break me free from this maze of fools, we’re in.”


Watch the official music video for Maze Of Fools here:

Best headphones deals

For more information on SMASH INTO PIECES like their official page on Facebook.

HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Steeltown – Big Country

Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland – a city that has seen it all. In the modern day, it is Scotland’s major and thriving service centre, but in the past it was known for its textile, coal and limestone industries alongside its complex network eighteenth century railway networks. This industrial setting is the back drop for Steeltown, the second album by Dunfermline natives, BIG COUNTRY. Made up of Stuart Adamson (vocals, guitar), Bruce Watson (guitar) Tony Butler (bass guitar) and Mark Brzezicki (drums) – the band’s classic lineup – BIG COUNTRY shot to fame in the early and mid-1980s and have retained a cult status ever since. Famous for engineering their guitar-driven sound to emulate the sound of bagpipes, fiddles, and other traditional folk instruments.



BIG COUNTRY’s debut album The Crossing was released in July 1983 and reached number 3 in the UK album charts and drew comparisons to Irish rock band THIN LIZZY with its musical style and lyrics. So, there was pressure going into writing and recording of the band’s sophomore album but also plenty of momentum. Recorded at ABBA‘s Polar Studios in Stockholm and produced by Steve Lillywhite (who worked with the likes of U2, ROLLING STONES, SIMPLE MINDS, PETER GABRIEL and THE POUGES to name a few) the album was released on 19 October 1984 in the UK and 29 October 1984, in the United States.

The central themes that occur throughout Steeltown are the misfortunes of Scottish workers during the industrial decline and British politics at the time – Margret Thatcher was Prime Minister when this album was released and the Miners’ Strike started in that year also, so that should tell you everything you need to know. The title track tells the story of Scots went to work at the Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks in the town of Corby, Northamptonshire when it opened in 1935. This was at the height of the Great Depression, but the workers later found themselves unemployed when the steelworks declined in the early 1980s. Alongside thought provoking tracks such as Where the Rose Is Sown, which according to Tim Peacock of Record Collector had an anti-war message “especially resonant in the wake of the Falklands” and East of Eden which Adamson, speaking with Number One magazine in 1984, stated “It’s a questioning song, a song about always having to look for any hope or inspiration.”
Best headphones deals




This also coincides with Adamson’s more personal songs such as Girl with Grey Eyes being based on his wife Sandra. While his father who was a merchant mariner, is the man who is described as bright and hard as “a bloody edge of sword” in the catchy Tall Ships Go. While BIG COUNTRY’s sound was still as revolutionary, the lyrics has also taken on that revolutionary tone, with Adamson in the liner notes stating that the album has “an unshakeable belief in the integrity of the working man, beset on all sides by the hypocrisy, cynicism and often blatant dishonesty of those in power”. So, with the Bolshevik-esque art adorning the album’s cover to boot, Steeltown was very much a songbook for the working man, and in the four decades since its release it still has a visceral effect on a listeners who have experienced the daily working class hardships and collapse of industry.


As a result of this relatability the album rocked to number one on the UK album charts with singles East of Eden, Where the Rose Is Sown, and Just a Shadow all entering the top 40 at various points. However, it failed to take hold of the same success internationally, especially in North America reaching number 53 in Canada and number 70 on the US Billboard 200. It is speculated that this is a result of the insular lyrical themes mentioned above, American and Canadian audiences struggled to relate to it and this effected sales. Despite this, Fred Schruers of Rolling Stone – the well known American publication – gave BIG COUNTRY a glowing review, stating “Clanging and crackling with energy, this second album from BIG COUNTRY rings natural evolutionary changes on the band’s stirring twin-guitar sound even as it frames still better news: bandleader Stuart Adamson has rapidly matured into a songwriter capable of bringing meticulous craft to his obvious passion.”

It also didn’t hamper the band’s touring schedule too much as they toured the UK, Europe, and to a lesser extent the US both as headliners and in support of bigger name artists as QUEEN and ROGER DALTREY (notable frontman of the THE WHO) throughout 1984 and 1985. BIG COUNTRY even appeared on the 1984 Christmas charity record Do They Know It’s Christmas? for Band Aid alongside PHIL COLLINS, BOB GELDOF, FRANCIS ROSSI and RICK PARFITT of STATUS QUO and many other famous faces.

When it comes to Steeltown as an album, it has a very unique place in the rock world as it shows BIG COUNTRY at their pique and it sings of a time when community really meant something. As Adamson poignantly states in the album’s liner notes “If music is important, it has to come down to emotion. It should be a human thing. Maybe that has something to do with coming from Scotland, where music has always been really close to the heart of the community…”
Best headphones deals





Steeltown was originally released on October 19th, 1984 via Mercury Records.

Like BIG COUNTRY on Facebook.

ALTERNATIVEFEATURESINTRODUCINGPOST-HARDCORE

Distortion, the new album from FUTURE PALACE is a feast of racing brutality and melodic creativity. We spoke to vocalist Maria Lessing and were enlightened on the unique journey from start to finish of the album; from the bookending medical issues, to the heighten skillset and experience on the way to making it.



The album is brimming with energy, and that might be in part due to its intense turnaround time. “Well, the process was much, much shorter than normal, and the in between time [between writing and recording] was the shortest we’ve ever had, because we had to delay the studio appointments due to some health issues with me,” Maria explains. She goes on, “first of all, I started very late with the demo, so I was very, very burnt out. Then I got an infected wisdom tooth and had to get in surgery. Fun fact, tomorrow I get another surgery! So, it just ends how it started – this album should have been called wisdom tooth instead of Distortion. And so, yeah, it was a very tight timetable.”

FUTURE PALACE hasn’t exactly slowed down in the meantime between getting the record together. “We just did all the music videos right after started playing festivals. So, I think we finished the process of everything [for the album] in like April or something. Then we worked on merch and everything. So, the process was pretty long [but] now it’s being released already, so it feels like it just happened really quick.”
Best headphones deals



While the results have been highly dynamic and bursting with vibrancy and groove, it’s been a hard process to get Distortion to completion. “To me, it was too chaotic,” Maria laughs, “I mean, I am chaotic, I do have a chaotic life in general. It was very stressful and challenging, I would say, because I just had to make it happen, no matter the circumstances. Didn’t matter if I had no power, if I had no time and no health; we had to somehow make it work, or it would have not worked with the release date it is now. To sum it up, I’m just happy it worked.”


While the run to making Distortion was turbulent, there were still some upsides. “It was still nice to go back to songwriting after a while, because Run was released in 2022, so we haven’t done songwriting much since, and it felt kind of nice to be forced to do some songwriting. It helped me a lot to process how I felt these past years; process how I actually feel with touring and being a live musician now, and with everything growing and my life changing so much. It was a bit of therapy for me, even though it was squished in.”


It’s pretty obvious that Distortion has a clear-cut message about mental health, but tackled from a variety of different perspectives. “The entire album is pretty much all about mental health,” Maria clarifies, “and it’s also about different kind of mental health disorders. That was important to me, to point out the differences, that not only one, but a few more can mess up your life or your reality. And I also put some spotlight on illnesses that I don’t even have myself, like narcissism and how could maybe relate to some things in our world happening. And then The Echoes Of Disparity doesn’t really have anything to do with distorted views. Maybe you could interpret the way some people treat women – that that could also come from mental illness or some lack of self-confidence, you just don’t know. But I wanted to only write songs that mean something to me with this album. There’s no meaningless song there for me, all the songs are very important and very honest.”

The record has a huge variety in sounds, from the way the instrumentals have expanded, to the overall range of vocal styles Maria plays with. “I try to do a bit more of like speech singing, or like rapping, if you want to say so, it just felt like it was fitting the songs,” she explains, “And I just wanted to try it out, because I think it’s boring to repeat the same things. I think one vocal coach once said, ‘it’s a one trick pony thing when you keep doing same thing’. And I’m naturally I’m not really one trick pony person! I want to challenge myself a lot, I don’t want to get bored myself with things. And with Run, I just started screaming, for example, and now with Distortion, I’ve screamed for a few years now and gained some life experience.”

While most of these experiences eventually lead somewhere positive, the initial hardship of some of them wasn’t pleasant, we discovered. “I messed up my voice a lot live, and was very, very sick of it just after the headline tour, [and with] the infected wisdom tooth, so I was not really feeling singing super high on this demo stuff this time,” but Maria had a creative solution to this rising issue. “With some demos, I went very, very low. And in the studio, they kind of begged us to go higher, but I really didn’t want to lose my voice again! I listen to them, thankfully, because you shouldn’t make decisions when you’re in a bad state. But a few songs stayed low because there was an intentional decision that I want to show a new phase of me, or a new version where I also sing a bit lower. That it doesn’t always have to be the super high singing rock music thing, it’s a bit more diverse. I wanted to show like, my range and have people get to know me, yeah? I just want to make the songs the most present thing, and my voice just goes with it.”
Best headphones deals



FUTURE PALACE, while pushing hard for the best album they could with Distortion, have managed to make a diamond strong record and still manage to create a fresh, authentic experience. it’s a record they won’t forget making in a hurry, and one that only demonstrates their commitment to moving forward to more exciting places.

Distortion is out now via Arising Empire.

Like FUTURE PALACE on Facebook.

BAND FEATURESDEATH METALFEATURES

BLOOD INCANTATION have just released their new album Absolute Elsewhere and it is a stunning piece of work that melds together prime death metal with sublime progressive rock amongst a myriad of other sonic wonders. Listening to the record takes you on a vast and wild journey amongst the stars. We had the pleasure of talking to guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky about Absolute Elsewhere and got an insight into the making of the album.



We start things off with Morris excitedly telling us about Absolute Elsewhere and the mass praise that the album has gained so far. “Every day I wake up to some new crazy review or news about where the record has reached. It’s getting into a lot of circles outside of the metal community, which is what we were hoping for. We obviously appreciate all the praise within the metal community as well, because it is still a pretty extreme record.”

Morris then goes on to tell us about the biggest influences on the record, which includes some heavy hitters in both the death metal world and the prog rock world. “There’s a lot, because there isn’t any one sound to the record, and that makes it so interesting. There’s so many different types of parts. We’ve always been a band that incorporates lots of different genres into our sound, so there isn’t necessarily any one influence.”

Morris then goes into more detail about those influences in a refreshingly honest manner. “The influence comes from, first of all, ourselves, our previous output. We like to listen to our own music because we make music, we want to hear. What’s the point otherwise? We went back and listened to the stuff we’ve done in the past and tried to push it further into every direction. Over the years, we’ve toured with a lot of great bands like CANNIBAL CORPSE and we wanted to incorporate tricks we’ve seen from these people, especially in the live environment, into our record. But there’s so much more to it. TANGERINE DREAM obviously, we recorded in Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin with Arthur Rizk for the first time. Lots of 70s prog, CAMEL, GONG. I can go on forever!”
Best headphones deals




With the mention of TANGERINE DREAM as a huge influence on Absolute Elsewhere, Morris then passionately tells the tale of working with Thorsten Quaeschning from the band on the track Stargate (Tablet II) and how that collaboration arose. “It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever experienced in my life. I mean, this is a band that influenced us all greatly over the course of years. It came about through our product manager, who worked for Century Media at the time,” he explains. “He was emailing with Edgar Froese‘s wife, who runs the estate of TANGERINE DREAM. After he died, he passed the torch on to Thorsten, and he is the current bandleader. Later, we were able to have Thorsten come to the studio and listen to what we were working on. We went to his studio in Berlin, where Edgar Froese lived, and there was this massive collection of vintage 70s/80s gear that he used on every single TANGERINE DREAM album. I nearly cried, because this gear is legendary. It’s more than just having a guy play on your record. It meant the world to us. We were all just like, ‘I can’t believe this is actually happening’. The music he made for it, and the way it’s incorporated into the album is crucial, and it worked out so well. The guy knows what he’s doing. He’s a fucking master. We’ve stayed in touch and are friends now. We’re in talks about the European shows we’re doing next May. I think for the Berlin show, he’ll be incorporated into a set somehow.”
Best headphones deals



With all this talk of prog rock royalty, we discuss the entry point for any metal fan getting into prog rock as Morris lists a few of his favourite albums. “Well, first of all, before we get to prog, I would recommend that a person getting into this, should probably also listen to OPETH, because they are a band that’s been championing the 70s prog into extreme metal for much longer than we have been. Ghost Reveries is one of my favourite records, and Still Life is named after a VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR song. I think a good starting place would be CAMEL, a record called Moonmadness is an absolute classic. One of my personal favourites is a bit more of a deep cut. Steve Hillage from GONG. I’m obsessed with the guy. I love his guitar playing. All of his solo records are fantastic, but there was a supergroup that he was in with the keyboard player from EGG called KHAN, and they have a record called Space Shanty that’s absolutely mind blowing, it’ll melt your brain, completely crazy musicianship, catchy songs, KHAN is amazing! I think those would be a good place to start before you really go down the rabbit hole and get lost in it forever, because I’m still discovering new bands every day too!”


Talk then turns to the recently announced BLOOD INCANTATION European tour which will see the band playing at next year’s Incineration Festival in London where they will play Absolute Elsewhere in full, something Morris is very excited about. “The Roundhouse is a very classic venue. OPETH recorded a live record there, so that’s my reference point. To me, that’s already enough to be, I can’t believe we’re doing this! The festival itself looks really cool.”

Morris goes on to enthuse about playing Absolute Elsewhere in full live. “We just did the release show a couple weeks ago, and it was the first time we played it live. So we’ve still only done it one time, and I think with this coming tour, it’ll really lock in. So by time we get to Europe, it’ll be an absolute powerhouse!”

We finish off this great chat with Morris tantalisingly talking about potential new music from the band. “Usually for BLOOD INCANTATION, writing new music is a process, because we’ll write record and go on tour and play these songs. This is the first time where we sat down with this material and we didn’t ever play it live before we recorded it. We do have all these tours, but we still have a clean slate. So now we can be more free and open to creating amidst all these other things that are happening. So we do actually have a bunch of ideas and some work in the pipeline.”
Best headphones deals



Absolute Elsewhere is out now via Century Media Records.

Like BLOOD INCANTATION on Facebook.