At Alcatraz 2025, Avatar’s Johannes Eckerström opened up about the band’s next chapter: a new album that was not to be named (it has a name, but he was being a “good boy” in not unveiling the title), their fastest song in 15 years, and why independent festivals (like the one we were at) keep metal’s future alive.
From sludge legends to Olympic headliners and unexpected big performances on the smaller stage… Lokerse Feesten delivered on August 5th a day that was nothing short of historic. Melvins, Helmet, Coilguns, Amenra, Gojira on the main stage and Coilguns, envy, Red Kross and Light of Eternity on the Club Studio Brussel stage shook Lokeren to its core.
The modern groovers of Incite just released their new album ‘Savage New Times’ via Reigning Phoenix Music and unleashed a music video for the title track to celebrate!
As has become tradition, Alcatraz Festival announced a healthy grab of confirmed names during this year’s edition, and the 21 bands they dropped are promising the 2026 edition to be hitting hard again!
The first day of the third edition of Hellsinki Metal Festival is filled with an impressive line-up of metal bands of almost every subgenre, completed with some special ones. Of course you need to go see King Diamond headlining tonight, but there is so much more to discover, so our editorial team picked out 7 bands that they think you definitely shouldn’t miss out on with Rabbit Cult, Gost, Kanonenfieber, Forbidden, Fear Factory, Candlemass and Moonsorrow! What bands are you really looking forward to today? Let us know in the comments!
On the third day of Graspop 2025, we got served a quite diverse set of shows with Poppy, Soulfly, The Dead Daisies, Bullet For My Valentine, The Hu and Airbourne!
Orbit Culture released 3rd single and video ‘Hydra’ from their upcoming album ‘Death Above Life’, set for release in October via Century Media Records!
Last month, the tribe of Helsinki got to welcome Soulfly at Tavastia. Founded by the legendary Max Cavalera they still sound and are as energetic as ever, and with the fitting addition of Finnish hardcore icons Terveet Kädet as support, it was a great night with fast music!
On the first full day of Alcatraz 2025, 3 out of 4 stages will be opened by some Belgian gems, some banging heavy metal from Room13, atmospheric and melancholic doom with Splendidula and brutal death with a wink and a grin from Coffin Feeder!
Avatar is back with another single under the form of ‘In The Airwaves’, the fastest song they’ve done in quite some time! Catch them live the coming years supporting Iron Maiden in Europe right now, at their exclusive Europe festival show at Alcatraz Festival, US headline tour this fall, Europe headline tour early 2026 or supporting Metallica in Europe summer 2026,… plenty of opportunities!
