Swiss melodic death metal act Voice of Ruin shared a music video for the song ‘Bloody Salvation’, coming from their fifth album ‘Cold Epiphany’ set for release next Friday, December 1st!
Links
News Posts
Melodeath supergroup The Halo Effect released a video for the new single ‘The Defiant One’, out now via Nuclear Blast, but a track that won’t sound unfamiliar to those who have seen the band live recently! Catch them on their tour with countrymates Meshuggah in March 2024!
Swedish melodeath fans in Europe, rejoice! In Flames, Arch Enemy, and Soilwork, 3 of the biggest and most influential bands of the genre are banding together and will reap havoc across the continent with the “Rising From The North 2024 tour” next year!
Melodeath collective Hiraes announced their sophomore album ‘Dormant’ set for release early 2024 via Napalm Records and unleash a metal assault with a first single ‘Through The Storm’!
Links
Canadian heavy metal outfit Lutharo announced their new album ‘Chasing Euphoria’ to be released next year via Atomic Fire Records and shared the new single ‘Time To Rise’ to celebrate! Get ready for some serious headbanging!
Links
American metal band Darkest Hour announced their upcoming new album ‘Perpetual | Terminal’ to be released next year via MNRK Heavy, and unveiled the title track with a video! Catch them live right now on tour with Fit For An Autopsy, Exodus and Undeath starting from today!
Links
Melodeath band Upon Stone announced their Century Media Records debut album ‘Dead Mother Moon’ to be set for release early next year, and shared the title track with a captivating video!
Links
Danish melodeath outfit Vanir shared a lyric video for the historically themed track ‘Twisting The Knife’, the first single from their upcoming new album, set for release early 2024 via Mighty Music!
Links
A couple of days ago, Tuska announced a 2nd batch of confirmed names for the 2024 edition, and they got us even more excited about next summer! With Bad Omens, Zeal & Ardor, Tarot, Sonata Arctica, Warmen, Annisokay, Solence, Beyond The Black, Ankor, Rytmihäiriö, and I Am The Night! Go get your tickets now!
Links
Columbian melodeath act Eshtadur lets the spirits guide you through their new video single ‘Fire Above | Mountain Below’, out via Blood Blast Distribution!
Links
Album Reviews
Chris Maragoth just released his first album, ‘Gatherer of Souls’. Some of the songs have already been released before, and have been remastered for this album. Some songs are brand new. This album contains mostly instrumental melodic death metal/modern metal tracks, worked on by Chris alone or together with other artists, bringing a lovely collection of melodeath-inspired modern metal tracks!
Links
Swedish melodic blackened death metal super group Night Crowned offers a compelling mixture of aggression and modern mixture of Nordic melodies on the third album ‘Tales’ out via Noble Demon Records today!
Links
Melodic death metal supergroup Berzerker Legion returns with the stunning sophomore “Chaos Will Reign”, delivering a superb mixture of galloping and melodic death metal, out now via Listenable Records.
Links
Majesties’ debut album “Vast Reaches Unclaimed” conveys the perfect sound of the Gothenburg melodic death metal, a stepping stone for the U.S. trio that has found its niche and inspiration from bands like In Flames, Gates of Ishtar and The Moaning. This is a highly recommended album for fans of melodic death metal, released via 20 Buck Spin.
Links
On Hexa Mera’s new album ‘Methuselarity Part 1’, the music is solid and strong, carried on a bed of melodies, and is honestly beautiful to listen to. The album comes out this Saturday March 18 and the band will be doing a release show in Nijdorp, Opwijk on the same day! Be sure to check them out and hear this solid piece of music being played live for the first time.
Links
With ‘Anno 1696’, Insomnium created a new refreshing album that shows a different kind of style than what they have released of late. It became a raw, blackened and fierce release that really embodies the dark part of history that it’s based on. Out this Friday via Century Media Records!
Links
Wairua is the spirit of a person. Like when you die, it’s the spirit, or wairua, that leaves the body. To me, it feels like we are a spirit, and we get to go on a journey through this EP
Links
With “Worship” Hypocrisy managed to craft one of it’s best albums that combines the classic trademarks of these Swedish pioneers.
On ‘Torn Arteries’ Carcass takes us on a tour de force cycle of their musical evolution from old school death metal grindcore to technical melodeath.
“Deconsecrate” is a kind of album that will make you remember the good old days from the early nineties when there were abundant bands that played the aggressive style of melodic death metal.
Gig Reports
Last month, we got to go to the very last stop of the Polish black metal collective Batushka “Black Pilgrimage tour 2023” at Vanha Ylioppilastalo in Helsinki, with the good company of Arkona, Aeternam and Varang Nord!
Lost Society and Amorphis played at Logomos Terassikesä in Turku, Finland last Friday and although there were some issues it was still a very enjoyable show from two great Finnish bands.
The French symphonic melodic death metal outfit Aephanemer came to On The Rocks, saw a wild crowd and conquered everyone’s hearts! Here’s for hoping that they get to come back to Finland some time really soon! And local up-and-comers Numento definitely got us warmed up properly for the main event!
At the end of February, Insomnium released their new album ‘Anno 1696’ and celebrated in style with 2 completely sold out shows at the legendary Helsinki rock club Tavastia, with support from the new doom collective The Abbey!
The kickoff of the European tour of Kataklysm came in a package of some old school Canadian death metal mixed with the Swedish melodic death metal of Soilwork topped with a sauce of the progressive antics of Wilderun. Quite a lot of variation which satisfied a lot of people. Make sure you catch this tour whenever it comes to a venue near you!
Amon Amarth and Machine Head came, saw and delivered! The ‘Vikings & Lionhearts tour’ made a stop in Helsinki, Finland and set the room on fire, quite literally… Support came from Swedish melodeath supergroup The Halo Effect.
The co-headline tour of Dark Tranquillity and Ensiferum made a stop in Helsinki with support from Marianas Rest and Gwendydd and packed Vanha Ylioppilastalo to the brim for a night of pure and wholesome energy to lift our spirits!
Insomnium finally got to do their Finnish tour with Finntroll and we were at the very first stop in Helsinki!
A welcome reunion with Bloodred Hourglass, MyGrain, Marianas Rest and Balance Breach for the top of the Finnish up-and-coming scene!
A night of youth sentiment and good music by promising young bands at Metsatöll’s show at On The Rocks in Helsinki!
Photo Reports
On Thursday November 16, Mors Subita made it to Klubi, Tampere for one of their ‘Origin of Fire’ release shows, in good company of Marianas Rest. Nem Agency presented a nice evening of Finnish metal.
Before setting out to take over Europe with their co-headline tour, Before The Dawn and Wolfheart hit several cities throughout Finland, and we were there when they dropped by Tavastia in Helsinki, with the support of Brymir!
Every year the Lost in Music Festival brings around 100 Artists to Tampere, showcasing what the Nordic region has to offer of music. And we made it to one of the shows happening at Olympia-Kortteli, featuring rising stars Bloodred Hourglass, One Morning Left and Shereign. It was packed, it was hot and it was a big party!
Awhile ago, the Finnish leg of the Wolfheart and Before the Dawn co-headline tour started, and with support of Brymir, we got a very nice night of Finnish melodeath at the not so crowded Pakkahuone in Tampere, organised by Master Events.
Be’lakor just finished their biggest European tour ever with 6 festivals and 10 club shows! We joined them in at JOC in Ypres, Belgium, where together with Hiraes brought a great night of melodic death metal!
Lost Society and Amorphis gave us a little preview last Friday of the upcoming ‘Halo’ European Tour, when they did a show together at Logomo’s Terassikesä in Turku, Finland.
Day 2 of Tuhdimmat Tahdit was just as hot. Carnival Academy, Heavy Metal Perse, Antony Parviainen Trio, Turmion Kätilöt, Metalite, Wolfheart, Shereign, Before the Dawn, Brymir, Mokoma, Swallow the Sun and lastly Battle Beast. Master Events gave us a festival that is certainly worth coming back to.
Tuhdimmat Tahdit and Master Events brought one very hot festival to Tampere’s Ratinanniemi. It started with Verikalpa and ended with Beast in Black, but we also can’t forget about all the bands in between: Transworld Identity, Prestige, Ensiferum, Bloodred Hourglass, Dynazty, Lordi, Mors Subita, Dead by April and Diablo.
The French band Aephanemer dropped by On The Rocks in Helsinki to turn the heat up and make a pretty much crammed venue go wild to their symphonic/melodic death metal tunes! Support came from locals Numento.
Interviews
We talked with June and Eemeli from Mors Subita about their new album ‘Origin of Fire’ (released recently via Out of Line Music) and how taking more time to record and working with Tue Madsen for the mixing and mastering resulted in a more organic, full sound that was aggressive with a touch of old school heavy riffing.
And we laugh about their drummer possibly regretting asking for a song with blastbeats and a fan knowing the lyrics of a new song better than Eemeli at one of their recent shows…
Links
Last Spring, we sat down with Julius and Matti from I Am Your God to talk about their new album ‘SINister’ (released in May via Out of Line Music), how it shows their growth as a band, what they did differently this time and why the album title is written the way it is.
Links
A chat with Bloodred Hourglass about their pretty amazing year thus far, and the new album ‘How’s the Heart?’, how they’re not afraid of trying out any ideas or leaving things out when a song calls for it, and how they’ve stepped up their game yet again with this record.
Links
A chat with Jukka from Omnium Gatherum about their recent US tour, how they got their new EP ‘Slasher’ together with the first track featuring their new guitarist and a cover of the famous 80s song ‘Maniac’, a hint at new music that is in the works and upcoming festival shows and European tour with Paradise Lost, Primordial and Harakiri For The Sky.
Links
A chat with Jaakko and Niko from Marianas Rest about their new album ‘Auer’, set for release via Napalm Records on March 24, and how they’ve tried some new things with their music without losing the band’s soul, by having the courage to follow where the songs were taking them, bringing in clean vocals and a guest vocalist for the first time.
Links
A talk with Niilo and Ville of Insomnium about their new album ‘Anno 1696’, how the short story it’s based on was specially written by Niilo for the album, how much they love putting together special editions and a kind of whole experience for their fans and how they got Johanna Kurkela and Sakis Tolis to join them on some tracks!
Links
A chat with Johannes from Avatar on the new album ‘Dance Devil Dance’ on why this is the best album of them as of yet, how they did things somewhat different and tried to approach everything in such a way that they thought people could dance to even blast beats and why now was the time for them to self-release the album.
Links
A chat with Björn Gelotte about In Flames’ amazing year in 2022, their new album ‘Foregone’ and how everyone seem to link it to a different stage of their sound with the way they put the mixing and production together this time around. We also touch on his personal writing process and how incredible it is to him to be able to have their music transcend into other forms of art like the upcoming graphic novel!
Links
Watch the chat we had with vocalist Jarkko from the Finnish melodeath outfit Bloodred Hourglass about their upcoming new album ‘Your Highness’!
Watch the chat we had with Markus Vanhala about the new Insomnium EP ‘Argent Moon’, the upcoming new work of Omnium Gatherum and his new black metal project I Am The Night!
