Vocalist Roy Khan (ex-Kamelot, Conception) will stage a unique and deeply personal event in Oslo, Norway this fall. On November 27th, at Rockefeller Music Hall, Khan will present Kamelot‘s 2006 live album One Cold Winter’s Night, performed in its entirety, marking 20 years since the recording of it. Read more…
A few weeks prior the official release of their The Crawl album, death doomsters Temple Of Void present a lyric video for their latest new single titled “Soulburn”. Read more…
Interview With Blood Red Lips – East Heat #2 Green Rooms 21.02.26
1. Please introduce yourself for anyone who may not know you. Tell us a little bit more about you as a band.
We’re Blood Red Lips, an original hard rock band from Caerphilly, South Wales. Formed in 2019, we’re a 4 piece band and our sound is rooted in the grit of classic rock and metal and delivered with our own flavour. We like big riffs, dark hooks, and choruses and melodies that stick in your head. We love leaning into a slightly gothic themes including mortality, obsession, folklore, and desire. Pulling this all together to form our sound and drive.
2. What made you want to participate in the Metal To The Masses South Wales 2026 campaign? Have you had previous experience? Or is this your first time?
The Metal To The Masses competition is something we’ve always respected because it genuinely champions bands from all avenues and promotes grassroots music and venues. We were lucky enough to be included in the heats a few years ago, and we had great fun playing at the bunkhouse in Swansea. But this year felt like the right time for us to re-enter. We’ve recently had a line up change and where we are now has resulted in us writing some of our strongest material yet and we can’t wait to get it in front of people. We’ve had experience playing competitive showcases before, but M2TM has its own legacy and reputation and being part of it this year is something we’re really excited about.
3. M2TM is all about supporting your local scene. How important is the local scene to you as a band?
The local scene is everything. South Wales has an incredibly passionate and supportive metal and rock community, and we wouldn’t be where we are without it. Playing shows with local bands pushes us to be better, keeps the scene alive, and builds real connections. Supporting each other is how scenes survive and thrive. Grassroots venues and artists need the recognition they deserve.
4. We have a slightly different set up this year with Heats/Quarters/Semis taking place at Bunkhouse/Green Rooms. Have you played the venue before or is this your first time? Are you excited to get on those stages?
We love the Green Rooms venue and the team there! We’ve played Green Rooms before and it’s a killer venue, great atmosphere, great sound, and always a strong crowd. Jonny and the team are fantastic and really supportive. It feels like the perfect setting for M2TM, and we can’t wait to get back on that stage and give it everything and turn the Green Rooms Red!
5. What are your expectations from being a part of M2TM?
Playing Bloodstock would be incredible, and that’s something that as a band would mean a massive amount to us, but M2TM is also about more than that. We’re looking to connect with new people, fans, build relationships with other bands, promoters, and people in the industry, and push ourselves as a band. It’s a chance to showcase our songs in front of people and grow as a band.
6. What would getting to our Day Of Wreckoning final and the possibility of playing Bloodstock Festival 2026 mean to you?
It would mean everything to us. Reaching the Day Of Wreckoning final would be a massive payoff and recognition of the work we’ve put in as a band and that our sound is respected by others. Playing Bloodstock would be a proper milestone moment. It’s one of the most respected metal festivals in the UK, and to represent Blood Red Lips and South Wales on that stage would be an honour.
7. We encourage all the bands in M2TM to try and check out the other bands, who are you most looking forward to? Who should your fans also try to catch? The South Wales music scene is strong and there’s always such a great lineup in South Wales M2TM. That’s part of what makes it special. There’s a few bands we’ve played with before but also some new bands we cant wait to see, from our heat, Excursia are a powerhouse and from other heats, bands like Manumit and Thawn are great! We’re also looking forward to discovering new bands as much as catching the ones we already know. Fans should come early, stay late, and support the whole bill. You never know who your next favourite band will be.
8. Tell us in five words why people should come and see your band?
I Am The Avalanche are back and have announced the details of their fifth full-length album, the first in six years.
It’s going to be called ‘THE HORROR SHOW’ and will be released on April 10 via Rude Records/Equal Vision Records. It follows up 2020’s ‘Dive’.
Admitting that 75% of the lyrics were written after the sudden passing of his best friend, vocalist Vinne Caruana had this to say about what he hopes the record will mean to people:
“This record can become a lifelong companion for those who let it in. The message is simple: You are stronger than you think you are, and you are not alone.
“My only hope is that performing these songs on stage will repair the part of my soul that broke during the writing process. If that doesn’t happen, that’s okay. I achieved my mission, and I’ll happily die tomorrow with a full and simultaneously broken heart.”
The artwork looks like this:
Whilst the tracklisting looks like this:
1. GOD’S TRAVEL PLANS 2. THE HORROR SHOW 3. LAUGHING AND BLEEDING 4. I’M NOT DEAD (I JUST BLINKED AND NEVER SAW THE LIGHT AGAIN) 5. OSPREY 6. 5:55 7. I MISS CALIFORNIA AND EVERY DOG I’VE EVER MET 8. TRUE LEGENDS NEVER DIE 9. ALIVE ON 14TH STREET 10. ROGUE KNIFE 11. TRÉBUCHET
The opening two tracks have also been released, showcasing exactly what sort of record this is going to be. ‘GOD’S TRAVEL PLANS’ serves as an atmospheric overture of the feelings that will linger throughout, whilst ‘THE HORROR SHOW’ kicks things into life in shirt-tuggingly intense fashion. Wonderfully frantic and beautifully stark, it’s every ounce of the band’s passion and power, presented in its most tear-stained form.
Vinnie had this to say about the songs:
“Immeasurable loss is something all of us will endure, if we haven’t already. Like when a grenade explodes in a war movie, all you hear is the ringing in your ears and see the world in front of you with a different tint.”
The band will be making their way back to the UK later this year to play at 2000trees Festival.
They will join the likes of Alkaline Trio, Funeral For A Friend, Cancer Bats, Superheaven, Glassjaw, Dinosaur Pile-Up, House Of Protection, High Vis, Marmozets, Arcane Roots, Militarie Gun and many more.
It will be taking place at Upcote Farm, Cheltenham from July 8-11. Tickets are available from right here.
English is fairly adequate for basic communication, but it falls short for niche communities. In the same way that skiers repurpose “powder” or “carve” and gamers repurpose “own” or “sweaty,” metal fans break and contort language to suit our needs. We talk about “filthy” guitar tones and “razor sharp” riffs, discuss “cavernous” production and “suffocating” weight, and use violent imagery—bleeding ears, caved in skulls—to denote quality. So when I read phrases like “slow, painful march,” “soporific1 dirge,” and “empty decades between chords” on the promo sheet for debut Dark Thoughts with Lights Out, I thought Cattle Hammer was just employing a little dialectical variance, speaking the lingo. Joke’s on me, though. They weren’t.
Based in Birmingham, UK, Cattle Hammer was formed by vocalist/guitarist Duncan Wilkins (Fukpig, Mistress) in 2023. He’s joined by I Cartwright on drums, J Wyles on guitar, and D Von Donovan on bass. Together, they mix a caustic brew of drone, doom, and sludge, but each track on Dark Thoughts with Lights Out has its own identity. “Gloomsower” leans stony, and Wilkins oscillates between deep roars and strangled croaks reminiscent of Weedeater. “Rotting” features short tremolos, although they don’t do much besides check the “blackened” box on the PR sheet. The ambient, noise-tinged intro to “Watchmen, Alone” caught my attention, but repetition of the vocal sample stunts its ability to build tension. Similarly, “Body Puzzle” ends on some interesting synths, but it’s a tough sell so late in the album. If you can’t tell, I’m really reaching for positives here, but there’s not a one that isn’t ultimately a disappointment.
Every time I thought Cattle Hammer might do something interesting or better texturize Dark Thoughts with Lights Out, they shrank from the occasion. The early lead guitar in “Gloomsower” is a bright change of pace amidst thick, doomy passages, but instead of playing a countermelody or variation on the theme or literally anything else, it just plays the same fucking riff in a higher register. This same-riff-different-instrument/key tactic is fairly common (“Rotting,” “Watchmen, Alone”). Organ (“Watchmen, Alone,” “Body Puzzle”) and piano (“Rotting”) make appearances, but fail to deliver anything justifying their inclusion. Static and feedback crop up frequently, but in Cattle Hammer’s hands, they are merely unpleasant and banal. While I was intrigued by the first sample2 and always appreciate Sheri Moon Zombie,3Cattle Hammer’s sample usage is ham-fisted and melodramatic. Each of these ornaments gave me hope that I might soon feel something besides boredom and frustration, but invariably, Dark Thoughts with Lights Out dashed my hopes and shuffled on.
What astounds me most on Dark Thoughts with Lights Out is how avoidable many of these blunders seem. Percussion is a little lackluster, and the instruments seem a bit compressed in the mix, leaving the vocals too far in front. These aren’t deal breakers, but playing fewer riffs—I’m being generous, calling them that—in 45 minutes than I have fingers is. Structuring the front half of a song to sound like a narrative climax with no build-up or release is (“Watchmen, Alone,” “Body Puzzle”). Rhythmic density rivaling the emptiness of space is. Ambient, feedback-laden outros enough to compile an EP is. This album is ostensibly meant to convey misery and suffering, but devoid of creativity or artistic abstraction, it misses the mark that acts like Primitive Man, The Body, or Sumac hit so well. It’s as if Cattle Hammer has crafted some misguided meta experience, in which the act of listening to the music imparts the misery normally communicated through the music itself.
If there’s one thing Cattle Hammer truly excels at, it’s squandering potential. Every criticism in this review is a place where I saw an opportunity for Dark Thoughts with Lights Out to get better, only for it to stay the course. What’s even more frustrating is that, if any one of these problems weren’t a problem, it could have at least partially salvaged the album. Amidst deeply uninteresting riffs played slow enough for inter-note naps, song constructions that fail to launch, underutilized instrumentation, an impressive lack of variation, repetition ad nauseum, and a totally unjustified runtime, Dark Thoughts with Lights Out isn’t simply unremarkable or uninteresting; it’s a literal chore to listen through. Based on the promo sheet, maybe that’s the point, but whether Cattle Hammer achieved their goal is irrelevant.4Dark Thoughts with Lights Out is a bad album.
Little Angels have expanded their long-awaited return to the stage, adding three more UK dates to their November 2026 run after tickets for the London show at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire sold out within days.
The newly announced dates are Newcastle O2 City Hall (Tuesday 17 November), Cardiff Depot (Monday 23 November) and a second London show at O2 Forum Kentish Town (Sunday 29 November).
The band will hit the road with the full classic line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, keyboardist Jim Dickinson, bassist Mark Plunkett and drummer Mark Richardson, plus the Big Bad Horns.
“Back in the Kentish Town Forum,” Toby Jepson said. “Absolutely incredible. It’s hard to put into words what this means to us. Selling out the Shepherds Bush Empire is wonderful. Adding another show due to demand is, quite frankly, astounding.
“And now also adding iconic Newcastle O2 City Hall, a venue and a city we’ve had a long-term love affair with ever since the very inception of the band, and the same goes for getting back to Cardiff – one of the first cities we played outside of Scarborough and a new venue for us, Cardiff Depot.”
Keyboardist Jim Dickinson has acknowledged their “incredible” fans. “We haven’t played live for 13 years, and when those tickets went on sale, we honestly didn’t know what to expect.
“But we are absolutely blown away by the response to all the dates. I can’t believe we’re adding a second London Show after just 24 hours. You truly are the Angels Army – let’s rock.”
MetalTalk will have an interview with Toby Jepson soon. “Magical stuff is happening,” he said, “and we are delighted. See you down the front.”
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring
Event Details
Having been teased on social media for some time, UK hard rockers Little Angels are Big, Bad & Back with an ultra-rare run of UK dates in November 2026, featuring the full original line-up: vocalist Toby Jepson, guitarist Bruce Dickinson, Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and drummer Mark Richardson.
The legendary goregrind band Impetigo have shared sad news. Their original guitarist Mark Sawickis has passed away. Mark played with the band from its formation in 1987 until its disbandment in 1993, as well as at the 2007 reunion. Read more…
NWOBHM favourites Vardis have announced a brand-new archive album, 100 M.P.H. ’79 Revisited, bringing together unreleased late-’70s studio sessions and the band’s earliest self-released recordings all reissued for the first time.
Recorded between 1977 and 1980, the collection captures Vardis at full throttle as they fuse hard boogie and Heavy rock into the beginnings of their New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sound.
100 M.P.H. ’79 Revisited will be released on 24 April 2026 on CD and LP via High Roller Records, plus digital via Hoplite Records. With fully restored audio from the original master tapes, the package contains archival material and new liner notes by bassist Alan Selway.
“This album represents our journey,” Selway says. “From hopefuls to recording artists, plotting a course of licking stamps, building speaker boxes, wielding spanners and screwdrivers in greasy hands and endless late nights in motorway services after triumphant performances in all manner of venues, from grotty pubs with their sticky carpets to tour date rock clubs filled with denim, leather and shaking heads.
“It represents a friendship forged in a common goal: to progress and ultimately succeed. From a boy to a man, I grew up with this band, with these comrades, these songs.”
Vardis release 100 M.P.H. ’79 Revisited on 24 April 2026.
The CD version of 100 M.P.H. ’79 Revisited contains three exclusive bonus recordings of Blue Rock, Dirty Money and The World’s Insane, recorded at Ohm Studios in July 1978.
“With some inventive overdubbing of acoustic guitar, tambourine and double-tracked vocals plus my harmony vocals on the first recorded version of Blue Rock, we were beginning to explore arrangements and expand the band’s capabilities beyond our usual live loud straight- down-the-line three-piece boogie,” Alan Selway says.
Tracklisting
100 M.P.H.
Blue Rock
Destiny
The World’s Insane
If I Were King
Out Of The Way
Dirty Money
Situation Negative
Rock ‘n’ Roll Lullaby
CD bonus tracks: Blue Rock / Dirty Money / The World’s Insane (Ohm Studios, July 1978).
Line-up
Steve Zodiac – guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
Alan Selway – bass, piano, backing vocals
Phil Medley – drums (tracks 1-4)
Gary Pearson – drums (tracks 5-6)
Paul Wadkin – drums (tracks 7-12)
Vardis
Vardis’ debut album 100 M.P.H. (recorded live at the Electric Ballroom in London and issued in 1980) is widely regarded as a milestone of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal era. The band’s story stretches back to 1977 in Wakefield, where they first formed as Quo Vadis, cutting early demos and releasing the raw 1979 7″ EP 100 M.P.H., now a prized collector’s item.
““”The 100 Club was the only venue back in the day that we never played in London,” Steve Zodiac told MetalTalk. “I mean, we did every venue in London over that sort of five/six-year period from ’78 to ’86, and that one gig stuck out as the one I’d never done. Yet my heroes from yesteryear have all played it, Chuck Berry or the Stones, all these great blues players. I think in the ’70s, it was seen as a punk/new wave sort of venue.”
100 M.P.H. ’79 Revisited was mastered (with additional audio restoration) by Patrick W. Engel at Temple Of Disharmony in September 2025.
Vardis release 100 M.P.H. ’79 Revisited on 24 April 2026. For more info, visit linktr.ee/vardis.
English is fairly adequate for basic communication, but it falls short for niche communities. In the same way that skiers repurpose “powder” or “carve” and gamers repurpose “own” or “sweaty,” metal fans break and contort language to suit our needs. We talk about “filthy” guitar tones and “razor sharp” riffs, discuss “cavernous” production and “suffocating” weight, and use violent imagery—bleeding ears, caved in skulls—to denote quality. So when I read phrases like “slow, painful march,” “soporific1 dirge,” and “empty decades between chords” on the promo sheet for debut Dark Thoughts with Lights Out, I thought Cattle Hammer was just employing a little dialectical variance, speaking the lingo. Joke’s on me, though. They weren’t.
