Italian alternative prog metal band Red Code has released a brand new single and accompanying official music video titled “Toxic Karma.” The track serves as the latest preview from the group’s forthcoming extended play, Traces of Unease and Discomfort, Pt. 1, which is officially scheduled for release on September 25 via Epictronic.
Thematically, the new song explores the destructive cycles individuals create for themselves and the difficult process of breaking free from those limitations. To visually capture this concept, the accompanying music video operates as one chapter within a larger sci fi thriller short film titled An Archive of Us. Set in a dystopian environment, the overarching cinematic piece examines the human need for control, with additional chapters built around other tracks including “Quarantine.” The visual project was produced by S@NGIORGIO 2020 with technical support provided by Infinity Digital.
Operating out of Trieste, the band was originally founded as a strictly live act by vocalist Lenina, drummer Ivo, and the late bassist Andrea Bossi. Dedicated to preserving their authentic live energy, the group performs without the use of backing tracks or studio sequencing. The upcoming Traces of Unease and Discomfort, Pt. 1 project marks their first official studio release after years of establishing their reputation on the live circuit. Musically, the new record blends the raw aggression of alternative metal bands like System of a Down and Godsmack with the complex progressive structures of acts such as Dream Theater and Fates Warning.
UK all female rock band JoanOvArc has released a brand new single titled “Money Machine.” Arriving on August 12, the track serves as the first of two planned single releases as the group enters a fresh creative chapter.
Musically, the new release combines driving rhythms and heavy guitar riffs with soaring vocal melodies and direct rock hooks. Thematically, “Money Machine” explores concepts surrounding fame, material wealth, and the personal sacrifices demanded by the pursuit of success.
Operating out of the United Kingdom, the band continues to build upon their reputation for high energy live performances and authentic songwriting. “Money Machine” is currently available to stream across all major digital platforms as JoanOvArc prepares for the arrival of their second upcoming single.
Massachusetts thrash death metal force Maidenhead has officially released their crushing sophomore full length album, Maximum Clonage. Released independently, the record combines relentless thrash speed with old school death metal precision, marking the most technically accomplished work of their career.
Mixed by legendary producer Randy Burns, the new eight track release features a massive production alongside impressive guest guitar solos from former Megadeth members Chris Poland on “Kill Or Be Killed” and Glen Drover on “False Masked Hero”. The record also boasts session bass work by Rich Gray of Annihilator across six tracks. Featuring a refreshed lineup with guitarist Vance Simmons and vocalist Zeping “Bella” Song, the band has introduced an expansive visual presentation centered around their gas mask wearing mascot, Nada. Maidenhead is currently supporting the release on the road for their Maximum Clonage Tour across the East Coast.
Rush’s “Fifty Something” reunion tour — the band’s first in more than 11 years — launched June 2026 and has since expanded to 58 shows across 24 cities, with more than 500,000 tickets sold. Joined by German fusion drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold, founding members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have taken the stage for the first time since the death of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, who passed away from brain cancer in January 2020. South American and European dates are confirmed for early 2027.
In a new interview with Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Lee discussed his decision to perform as many Rush songs as possible in their original keys. “It was important to me to do as many original versions for our audience as we could,” he said. For Lee, who turns 73 in July, that commitment meant rebuilding a voice that had spent years in partial retreat.
“I didn’t play bass on a regular industrial level for 10 years,” Lee said. “I thought I was in shape, ‘cause I would go down to the studio, and I would play one of my zillion basses, and I would go, ‘Ah, this is great bassing!’ You’d think you’re in shape. You’re not. That’s not playing shape. That’s not touring shape. Not until you get calluses on calluses on calluses and your fingers are sitting there at night sizzling. That’s getting in shape.”
The task ahead on the vocal side was even more daunting. In the Seventies, Lee sang in a speaker-melting shriek he unleashed entirely from instinct, without coaching or conscious technique. As the decades passed, he found his old banshee wail increasingly difficult to access, and occasionally lowered keys to compensate. This time, after more than five decades of singing professionally, he decided to take his first formal vocal lessons. He began Zoom sessions with veteran vocal coach Mitch Seekins, who works remotely from the small town of Ilderton, Ontario.
Seekins, a longtime Rush fan, knew right away that his new client had significant ground to cover. “It was shocking,” Seekins said. “I mean, it was horribly out of shape. The muscles weren’t responding in the top end anymore.”
But the coach had good news as well. “I could hear that it was there, he just couldn’t do it yet,” Seekins said. “He wasn’t sure if he was ever gonna be able to do what he did when he was much younger… But there was no degradation at all, even due to age.”
“The hardest part of the repair part is the psychological end of the thing,” Seekins added. “Because it is subconscious, and if you’ve convinced yourself that you can’t do something, well, guess what? You can’t.”
Lee approached the challenge the same way he approached the bass. “It’s no different than going to the gym and getting strong,” he said. “You have to get this muscle strong, and that’s what I’ve worked on — and to take a more forensic look at how a voice makes a sound, and apply it. I was nervous to try some of those songs.”
As his confidence built, new possibilities opened up — including returning “A Farewell to Kings” to the live set for the first time in decades. “You kick off the verse, and I have to sing in this f***ing stratosphere,” Lee said. “There’s a lot of insecurity that comes with bringing back a song from that long ago… When you’re at this age, people expect you to be a lesser version of yourself, and that’s just not acceptable to me.”
The band did elect to drop the keys on “2112” and “Anthem” — a decision Lee frames as both practical and artistic. “It’s partly an excuse and partly the truth,” he said, noting both songs sound heavier in the lower register. But “Freewill” was a different matter. “There’s no way I would do that song unless I could hit that third verse,” Lee said. “Which is really the highest verse that I sing all night.”
Night after night, he’s making it there. “The cats,” Lee said, “are meowing.”
Neil Peart had been a founding architect of Rush’s sound since joining the band in 1974, serving as drummer and primary lyricist across all subsequent studio albums. His death left his former bandmates uncertain whether Rush could or should continue. Nilles — a 43-year-old fusion drummer from Aschaffenburg, Germany, previously known from her work with Jeff Beck — was brought in after Scully, Lee’s longtime bass tech, flagged her playing during the Beck tour. The first Rush concert without Peart since his debut on Aug. 14, 1974 took place June 2026 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
Bloodstock 2026: Thursday Review – Ronnie James Dio Stage
6th August 2026 Words: Dan Barnes Photos: Tim Finch
How time flies! It barely feels any time at all since we were all here watching Gojira and Obituary bringing the curtain down on Bloodstock Open Air 2025, and now we’re back at Catton Park for the festival’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations.
And, in honour of that quarter of a century milestone, Bloodstock have opened the main arena for the first time on a Thursday evening, splitting the pre-show across two stages, and hosting something for all ages.
Opening up the Ronnie James Dio for 2026 is Heavysaurus, four dinosaurs and one dragon whose family-friendly brand of metal is squarely aimed at the younger section of the crowd. Laser Ninja is such an earworm that it’s going to be with me until Cryptopsy; Millie the triceratops proves girls can rock as hard as the boys and reinforces the band’s sense of unity; a bass-playing stegosaurus blasts out Seven Nation Army, taking the dinos into a melody that includes snippets of Highway to Hell, The Final Countdown, We Will Rock You, Enter Sandman, and Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. They even paraphrase Churchill’s speech before cranking into some Bloodstock-approves power metal. By this stage I’m starting to think Heavysaurus might not be real dinosaurs; but I’m no Palaeontologist, so what would I know? It’s inoffensive fun to get the weekend off to a rockin’ start.
Having damn-near become the Bloodstock house band over the years, it seemed impossible to conceive these twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations would go off without Evil Scarecrow making an appearance. Having made their way from the New Blood stage to the S.O.P.H.I.E. and onto the Ronnie James Dio over the years, the band is the epitome of Bloodstock’s mission to promote and nurture the future of the genre. They have brought with them a dedicated and growing fan base who turn out in numbers for these shows, today being no exception. The Nottingham crew have songs about mythical sea beasts, when to put your green bin out and even build toilet breaks into the set. A large inflatable spider scuttles its way across the heads of the crowd and who were led to believe is Avril Lavigne pops out of a bin at one point – more convinced by those dinosaurs, to be honest – but it’s all part of the fun. The Ballad of Brother Pain seamlessly adds an extra syllable to Antarctica, Shoptimous Prime rages against the capitalist model of society and comes with a reminder to check out the band’s merchandise, Hurricanado and End Level Boss are lapped up by the crowd and it all comes to a close with Crabulon, which sees the crowd skuttling to the left and then to the right, hands like pincers, for the inevitable set closer.
Returning to headline Bloodstock for the first time since they closed out the inaugural show at the Assembly Rooms back in 2001, NWoBHM stalwarts, Saxon, hit the stage ready to deliver a heavy metal masterclass and set the standard against which all else will be judged. Fifty-years of doing this thing has honed Saxon into a devastating music machine, the introduction of Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler back in 2023 giving them an additional spark; but Saxon have been together for so long and have enough miles beneath their feet to take Bloodstock 2026 in their stride.
Opening with Hell, Fire and Damnation from the 2024 album of the same name, the show feels like it’s hit the ground running., then it’s straight back to 1983 for Power and the Glory. Biff is in a good mood as he announces Saxon can play as long as they like due to being headliners; Dogs of War proves they never deviated from the path, no matter what the pressures of the industry during the Nineties threw at them; Never Surrender comes along next and should be Saxon’s signature song.
Madame Guillotine, Sacrifice and an ever-popular Motorcycle Man have come and gone before the arrival of the eagle lighting rig dropping from the ceiling, eyes blazing red and wings of blazing white brilliance, proving Saxon have the theatricality of their contemporaries. The triple-whammy of Strong Arm of the Law tunes hit like a combination of deadly punches: Heavy Metal Thunder, Dallas 1pm and the title track; 747 (Strangers in the Night), Denim and Leather and Wheels of Steel bring the set to a close and sees Biff taking to social media and live streaming the singalong. He reminds Bloodstock that the footage can be seen as far afield as London, Wacken and Barnsley.
Encores of Crusader, Solid Ball of Rock and And the Bands Played On – which was one of the first singles I bought with my own money back in 1981 – prove Biff to have been correct in saying the band can play for as long as they want; but all good things must come to an end and the inevitable Princess of the Night brings the set and the stage to a close. Biff suggests Bloodstock should keep the two-stage Thursday idea going into next year, and I’m inclined to agree with him. He even suggested Saxon come back in a couple of years and do it all again, and I definitely agree with him on that!
Nuclear Winter Records is proud to announce the release of River of Slumber, the debut album from Greek death metal band CASKET DWELLER, set for release on October 22nd, 2026 on CD format (LP and tape version to follow later).
The first single “Voodoo Incants” is streaming at THIS LOCATION.
Hailing from Athens, Greece, CASKET DWELLER deliver a deeply rooted take on traditional death metal. Formed in 2022, the band quickly established itself within the Greek underground through a series of live appearances across the country.
From the beginning, CASKET DWELLER have built their identity around more than just music: their visual aesthetic draws heavily from classic horror cinema of the 1940s and gothic literature, influences that also permeate the atmosphere of River of Slumber, creating a world where darkness, decay and heavy riffs come together.
The band’s debut album is a tribute to the foundations of death metal while maintaining a strong sense of personality. Built around memorable, riff-driven compositions, River of Slumber showcases a band with a clear understanding of the genre’s traditions and the ability to transform those influences into songs that flow naturally from start to finish.
While the production carries the unmistakable imprint of the Swedish death metal school, the album’s musical DNA reaches further, incorporating elements from the classic Florida scene and the heavier Dutch tradition. Echoes of bands such as Death, Pestilence and Asphyx can be found throughout the record, not through imitation but through a shared appreciation for powerful riffs, dynamic arrangements and songwriting that puts the song at the center.
With a careful balance between crushing passages, darker atmospheres and more melodic moments, River of Slumber presents CASKET DWELLER as a new force within the contemporary old school death metal movement. A band focused on the essentials: memorable riffs, strong compositions and the timeless appeal of death metal.
Track-list:
Chapters
Dust Off the Shovel
He Rows
Fangs of the Vampire
Creatures of the Night
Embalming Slime
Burnt at the Stake
Voodoo Incants
Requiem
Line-up:
George Karvouniaris – Guitars Chris Pallas – Bass Vangelis Deligiorgis – Drums/Vocals
Swedish heavy metal band Ram will release their new full-length, Against, on October 9 via Metal Blade Records. The album is the band’s first in nearly seven years, following The Throne Within, and arrives alongside the debut of lead single and music video “Ghost Emperor.”
Against is thematically focused on the experience of being pushed beyond reasonable limits and refusing to comply — “that fire of defiance,” as the band collectively states, “which ultimately defines its title and message.” Sonically, the record draws on the early works of Dio, MSG and Sweet in pursuit of an honest, unpolished approach to classic heavy metal. In a music landscape increasingly divided into subgenres, the band positions itself deliberately outside categorization.
For the production, Ram reunited with longtime collaborator Johan Reiven, who previously worked with the band on Lightbringer (2009), recording at Studio Recordia in Varberg, Sweden. Vocalist Oscar Carlquist described the sessions: “At first, I wasn’t really comfortable not being in my own domain. But Johan is a far better sound tech than me and he did a wonderful job. We recorded the solos in a cool new way, as we set up two amps, one wet with a lot of effects and one dry with no effects. They were both mic’d up separately and they played into the enormous recording room in Recordia that is 150 square meters, where we placed two room mics (left and right).”
On where Ram stand in relation to the current metal landscape, Carlquist was blunt: “We do not give a f**k about all these new strange subgenres popping up. We try to play heavy metal in its purest form. We try to hang on to the center of that energy, and we are completely uninterested in 99% of the metal scene.”
Of the lead single, Carlquist said: “This is the opener of the album, a straightforward classic heavy metal song and pure Ram. Lyrically, it deals with how our power structures exist to conceal the true rulers, the ones we will never see or know, pulling the strings behind the curtain and controlling us all.”
Against has drawn advance praise from Erik Danielsson of Watain, who calls the album “passionate, Luciferian, antagonistic, and musically overpowering,” Sebastian Ramstedt of Necrophobic and Nifelheim, who declares it “elite” and Ram “the only band in Sweden making classic heavy metal without it sounding like a pastiche,” and Christian Lindell of Portrait, who calls the album the band’s strongest material to date.
Against will be available on CD, digital and vinyl. LP color variants include 180g Black, Clear Lilac Marbled, Purple Melt (limited to 300), Crystal Clear Blackdust (limited to 300) and Silver Black Splatter (limited to 250). Preorders are available at Metal Blade’s official store.
Ram upcoming live dates:
Sept. 12, 2026 — Candelabrum Metalfest — León, MX
Oct. 9, 2026 — TBA — Gothenburg, SE (Release Show)
Dec. 4, 2026 — Spectrum — Murcia, ES
Dec. 5, 2026 — Peter Rock — Valencia, ES
Dec. 6, 2026 — Upload — Barcelona, ES
Dec. 7, 2026 — Urban — Vitoria, ES
March 12–13, 2027 — Heavy Metal Thunder Fest — Pisek, CZ
May 20–22, 2027 — Iron Fest — Ohmbachsee, DE
Ram is:
Oscar Carlquist / Vocals Morgan Pettersson / Drums Harry Granroth / Guitar Martin Jonsson / Guitar Tobias Petterson / Bass
