Category: news

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This year marks a couple of anniversaries for some long-lasting acts. The boom of 1990s punk rock bands was definitely felt, and it seems we never recovered from the effects. Three of those bands played a show at the Zebulon in Los Angeles to celebrate: The Smoking Popes, Nerf Herder, and Ridel High. While each band may have been celebrating decades of playing music, one thing is for sure: age has not slowed any of these bands down.

This was my first time at the Zebulon Cafe, and it may just be my new favorite venue in Los Angeles. Living in Orange County, I don’t get out to LA as often as I would like for a show, but I would for a venue like this. Small and intimate, with a pretty good sound system and a low-lit, very chill atmosphere despite the number of aggressive bands that seem to come through. I’ve added it to the list of pros if I ever decide to move out of Orange County.

Ridel High opened the night. I got there a little after their set had started, as they were not a band I had any recollection of hearing growing up, but I wish I had. Ridel High played a lively set that included some rare songs. The band played hits like “Wynona Ryder,” but also some rarer songs like “Blue” from the Japanese-only released Happy Meals comp. Their inclusion made sense as Ridel High was labelmates with Nerf Herder on My Records. Musically, they find a nice middle ground by playing pop punk, indie, and emo. If you were stupid enough to miss them their first time around like I was, give them a chance. Lead singer Kevin Ridel was very appreciative of the love they received. They’ve got a bigger lineup which includes Sugarcult’s Marko DeSantis and Ozma guitarist Jose Galvez, which I imagine gives them a bigger sound. Here’s hoping we get some new music with this fantastic group soon.

When I spoke with Nerf Herder lead singer and guitarist Parry Gripp, we talked about how the band would be celebrating their thirty-year milestone and the subsequent tour. Despite releasing an acoustic version of their self-titled record, the band did stay plugged in. Their set was very heavy with songs from the self-titled record, playing all of it except for “I Only Eat Candy.” Opening with “Vivian” and “High Five Anxiety,” they started the set with a lot of energy and got the crowd pumped pretty fast. While Gripp takes pleasure basking in his nerd persona on stage, he exudes charm and fun. 

Nerf Herder sounded great, even stronger than when I had seen them in the past. Varying arrangements in songs had them implementing a synth on a couple of songs and sometimes without Parry playing guitar, which allowed him to go out to the crowd and sing “Nosering Girl” to a fan. Their set time was a lot longer than I expected for a middle band, and they were able to fit in a good number of fan favorites including “Mr. Spock,” “Pantera Fans in Love,” and the theme for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Celebrating thirty-five years of the Smoking Popes, Josh Caterer had set up two nights in California. Each night had mostly different sets spanning the entirety of the band’s career. It’s a career I wish I had followed a little better during their middle years. It’s blatantly clear that there hasn’t been a dull moment. Unfortunately, the rest of the original Popes were not able to join Josh, but the fill-in band still sounded on point. 

I was not able to attend night one, but based on the set list I found online, night two looks to have had a much stronger set. The setlist between the two nights seemed pretty evenly distributed between the records. While it looks like some of my favorite Popes’ songs were played on the first night, songs like “Rubella,” “Gotta Know Right Now,” and Josh’s pushback against the current administration, “Allegiance,” felt stronger in my opinion. He even threw in a couple of songs from their covers-only album, The Party’s Over. Josh closed the set with the first song on the band’s first EP, “Sandra,” about actress Sandra Bernhard. While it doesn’t seem like Josh plans on stopping anytime soon, it was a nice full-circle moment for his songwriting. He seemed as proud of it as he does about the band’s bigger hits.

This was, hands down, one of the best concerts I’ve been to this year, if not in a while. I hate when people chalk shows like this up to nostalgia. Nostalgia is passive; longevity is active. It was three bands coming together, playing some great sets to celebrate the passion they have after all these years and the love we have back for them. Nostalgia always feels like a money grab; this was far from that.

Listen to the best in new, heavy music every week with HEAVY‘s new weekly HEAVY AUDIO MAG, featuring music from our weekly cover artist plus new premieres, hit predictions, and killer tracks we just know you want to listen to from bands featured over both digimags and some just because we want to put them […]

28 Days has turned into 30 years! One of Australia’s longest-running and most respected punk bands, 28 Days, celebrate three decades of doing things their own way in 2026. With their major city shows across June selling out in record time and due to overwhelming demand, the guys have set their sights on the heartlands […]

Posted on July 6th 2026, 1:39pm

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Italian symphonic power metallers TEMPERANCE reshuffle the pack with their seventh album, ‘Arcani‘, coming October 16th, 2026 via Napalm Records. Structured around the divinatory practice of Tarot, each of the new songs follows a different card of the Major Arcana deck. Pouring their passion into 13 spellbinding songs with even catchier symphonic melodies than before, […]

The post Italian Symphonic Power Metallers TEMPERANCE Announce New Album, ‘Arcani’ appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.

Words by CECILIA PATTISON-LEVI Pix by SARAH GILPIN PHOTOGRAPHY Chocolate Starfish kicked off their major regional tour of Australia with a self-contained performance of the old and the new at Caloundra’s Kings Theatre. The concert was in two parts. The band presented a documentary Between The Cheeks: The Unfinished Story of Chocolate Starfish that acknowledged […]

Avatar Announce Royal Albert Hall Show

The heavy metal visionaries collectively known as AVATAR are elated to announce a monumental evening of music, pipe organs, dancers and theatrics at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall on March 30, 2027. The band will present ‘10 Years of Feathers & Flesh’, a one night only performance celebrating the tenth anniversary of their landmark concept album.
 
“Feathers & Flesh changed the entire trajectory of how we work,” explains vocalist Johannes Eckerström. “Once you’ve started to think of the big picture in your work, you can’t put that genie back in the bottle. We’ve done all kinds of albums since then, and we will continue to do whatever the muses tell us to do. The thing they have in common, whether they’re comedy concept albums or satanic sock hops, is that we view them as paintings. They are cohesive pieces of work with a point.”
 
Following the acclaim of their latest studio album, Don’t Go In The Forest, a triumphant summer supporting Metallica across Europe on the M72 World Tour, and a blistering run of headline shows across the world on their Don’t Go In The Forest 2025-2027 Headline Tours, AVATAR intend to mark their territory by taking over one of the world’s most iconic stages.
 
On March 30, 2027 the band will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Feathers & Flesh, the landmark album that defined their cinematic vision, with an exclusive, one night only performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Fans can expect the album to be performed in its exclusive entirety, augmented by orchestral arrangements, dancers, a live choir and the members signature visual storytelling.
 
John Allfreddson, the band’s dream weaving drummer and founding member states, “I end up in a rollercoaster ride, emotions run through every bone of my body,” while reminiscing on the recording process of this record. “Half my mind ends up in another time and life in Dresden with this crazy lady laughing, painting owls, playing with microphones and water, hysterically and joyfully clapping her hands. The other half is in this dreamlike forest that only exists in my own mind… I ask myself, did we really create this?”
 
And so the anticipation and expectation builds of what we will come to witness on March 30, 2027. 

Standard Tickets for this exclusive event go on sale via the band’s official website, AvatarMetal.com

Wednesday, July 8 at 13:00 BST. Limited VIP “Parliament Packages” and, “Talon Tickets” are available now through the band’s official fan club website, AvatarCountry.com

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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INSCAPE – C.I.T.R.U.S (Self Released)

Released one day prior to them winning the South Wales Metal To The Masses final 2026 at Day Of Wreckoning, Electronic/Alternative rockers INSCAPE have booted up their A.I inspired concept EP ready for it to take over the world.

C.I.T.R.U.S is the story of a renegade A.I that corrupts the minds of androids forcing them to kill their human overlords, inspired by the 2004 film I, Robot which has loose connections to the Asimov book of the same name. Essentially this EP is a dystopian story that has some parallels to the very quick integration of A.I we face today.

Science Fiction is a the perfect themeing for the music of INSCAPE as fans of Enter Shikari and Don Broco will find a lot to like here as INSCAPE are an act on the cutting edge of what modern rock/metal can be, musical virtuosity wrapped up in energetic, involved music that makes you want to move, balancing the lighter moments with heavier ones brilliantly.

Distinctive vocals that soar to high cleans and dive down into guttural screams, while the guitars and rhythm section bring groovy riffs and breakdowns. Everything though is shaped around the pulsating synths and electronics that sit omnipresent like the titular A.I, a synthetic backbone to the organic expression.

Formed over 14 years ago, it seems that now is the time for Ethan Shields, Joel Williams, Luke Morgan, Alex Murley and Liam Hawkes, to show the world who they are. Watch INSCAPE storm the New Blood Stage, but delve into the world of C.I.T.R.U.S beforehand. 8/10

Struggler – We Must All Fade To Black (Self Released)

South Wales melodic metalcore heroes Struggler have released their debut album after a long time coming. Since the last time I saw them they have had a change from frontman and a few health issues, that really allowed them to record these tracks, but these hardships have only seemed to have bolstered their position on the South Wales scene gaining them some high profile supports and countless headline shows in their own right.

With the likes of Killswitch Engage, All That Remains or any band that brings together breakdown heavy metalcore, melodeath-like guitar prowess and vocals that are distorted screams, there’s plenty to like about We Must All Fade To Black and if any of those things appeal then you’ll be drawn in from the slow build intro of Omen.

I’m not sure if this is needed, as the title track which opens the album properly has its own atmospheric intro so Omen feels jarring but the title track definitely establishes who Struggler are, start-stop moments made for pits, an anthemic chorus and shifting rhythms that are backed by some synth/string things.

The influence of groove metal acts such as Lamb Of God (The Abyss) and even the more extreme deathcore which comes on Do You Walk With Me, the pace quickening for Invisible String Theory while Gone By Not Forgotten is probably the most emotive song on the record, adding clean vocals into the mix for the first time.

Politically charged, emotionally resonant modern metalcore, Struggler show their strength and resilience on We Must All Fade To Black. 8/10

Mould – Bayou Dweller (Hyrbid Dwellers)

I’m not sure if there’s a Bayou in Swansea but Mould are a band you could definitely call Bayou Dwellers. Their sludgy, down-tuned and rage filled style of heavy doom is exactly the sort of music anyone who loves Eyehategod, Iron Monkey and Acid Bath will play at full volume while they imbibe substances for enhanced relaxation.

Locked into massive basslines from Tom George, I Am The Mould brings the volume and is a kick in the nether regions as the fuzz of Elliott Rees is overdriven to ridiculous lengths and the throat shredding vocals of Amos Davies are screamed at the loudest they can be.

This is a band who like their music with as much volume and bile as they can, taking sludge to the extreme end of the genre though Self Preservation has a riff that does some Sabbath worship.

They never scrimp on the aggression with Bayou Dweller, every track, even the ones that have a bit more clarity and groove such as Damnation Under The Sun (we’ve all been feeling that lately) the vocals will need a lozenge.

It’s not all long form, slow death either as Psilocybin Suicide gains speed though this is followed by Crippling Cold/Pompeii a massive sludge/doom machine driven by Henry Frend’s drumming.

The spirit of NOLA is alive near Neath as that Bayou scene bleeds through this debut record from the Mouldiest band in town. 8/10

Verletzen – Usurping The Throne Under The Crown Of Blasphemy (Wulfhere Productions)

Welsh band, German name, West Wales black metal trio Verletzen emerge from the rugged and windswept vistas if their homeland with their sophomore album Usurping The Throne Under The Crown Of Blasphemy.

Released through Wulfhere Productions, on tape (of course), on CD and digitally Verletzen are a band who bring black metal back to the roots of the genre. Unstoppable blast beats from Dementae, furious tremolo picking and squawking vocals from Nazgul all come from a general feeling of frustration helped by the rawness that comes from the very limited production values.

Now usually I would be critical of this, as I’ve been a fan of something that sounds like it was recorded in a toilet however Verletzen have done this as deliberate homage to the bands that inspired them, because of that you can pick out the individual instruments, the bass playing of Azog especially, rather than it all folding into one treble heavy mess.

Verletzen play nihilistic black metal, so it’s not music for a sunny day, unless of course you hate the heat, rather they’re a band whose music creates images of rain soaked mountains and ruinous castles with spectral visitors and ancient legends that will scare the local children, this blackened trio packing in a lot across just 31 minutes.

Usurping The Throne Under The Crown Of Blasphemy is an intense, raw, visceral record from Verletzen, fans of trve cvlt pay worship. 8/10