BLACKGOLD are about to head out on the road, and they have shared a new track that they most definitely will be playing.
Titled ‘KILLAZ’, it sits on the more hip-hop side of their expansive and celebratory sound, allowing them to have some real fun between the beats and the bars. Funky as it comes and full of fun little jabs and references, it’s very much a song that represents the essence of the band whilst also showing off some of who is behind the mask.
It also features an appearance from rapper Woes, who the band discovered whilst out in Austin for SXSW earlier this year.
Vocalist Spookz had this to say about it all:
“‘KILLAZ’ feels like letting the mask slip just enough to show a different side of what BLACKGOLD can be. It’s bouncy, chaotic, full of attitude and doesn’t sit still for a second. Finding Woes busking in Austin and then ending up making a track together felt completely in the spirit of this band – unexpected, a bit unhinged, and somehow exactly right.”
BLACKGOLD will be making their way around the UK and Europe later this month. Here are all the dates:
OCTOBER
28 – BRISTOL Thekla 30 – LONDON Underworld 31 – TORQUAY The Foundry
NOVEMBER
05 – MANCHESTER Ambers 06 – GLASGOW Classic Grand 07 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute2 18 – UTRECHT DB’s 20 – COLOGNE Artheater 22 – HAMBURG Logo 23 – COPENHAGEN Pumpehuset 24 – BERLIN Badehaus 26 – WARSAW Hydrozagadka 27 – BIELSKO BIALA Rude Boy 28 – PRAGUE Cafe V Lese 30 – VIENNA Viper Room
DECEMBER
01 – NUREMBERG Club Stereo 02 – ANTWERP Kavka 03 – PARIS Backstage By The Mill
“What a fucking lineup! It’s good to be back,” shouts vocalist Björn ‘Speed’ Strid, as we ride into tonight’s Swedish universe.
It is a testament to the greatness of Sweden’s Metal exports that just two years after Soilwork last graced London’s soil opening for In Flames and Arch Enemy – at this very same venue, no less – they are back again, leading the charge of another strictly Swedish Melodeath bill with Orbit Culture and Amon Amarth.
Soilwork – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
Tonight may feature more horns, hammers, and armour-clad miscreants battling on stage, but the smorgasbord of Swedish Metal is just as delicious.
Thirty years of Soilwork may not have been long enough to see them take their own headline tours to venues the size of tonight’s Eventim Apollo, but that does not diminish their staple position in Sweden’s Melodic Death Metal scene.
Soilwork – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
It is just hard to argue with the power of the Vikings, isn’t it? Speed moves about the stage with the flamboyant arms of a ringmaster, the chill of a surfer, and the sky-scraping vocals of a Metal-screaming siren.
Under his watchful eye, a pit opens for the punching grooves of Figure #5, before the hook-heavy Distortion Sleep takes over, ever a fan favourite.
Blast beats and epic melodies rip through the venue in Death Diviner, before it’s time for Stålfågel to bring the first course of tonight’s feast to a close.
Soilwork – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
Like lullabies layered into huge skull-knocking anthems, Soilwork are extraordinarily easy to listen to and put on a rapturous live show.
Orbit Culture
Out of the soil and into orbit, the stage becomes an industrial chamber of strobe attacks and pummelling synths as the youngest band of tonight’s bill, Orbit Culture, get started.
Anyone who is not immediately sucked into the whirling pit works hard to keep their organs inside their chest, so visceral is the Swedes’ wall of chug straight off the bat.
Orbit Culture – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
From the depths of the eye-squinting darkness onstage comes an onslaught of sinewy groove-laden riffs, crackling roars and anarchic rhythms that it should be illegal not to headbang to.
When the lighting guy allows it, lead guitarist Richard Hansson and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Niklas Karlsson can be seen windmilling like maniacs, and when the lighting guy does not allow it, Orbit Culture infuses all your remaining senses with an enticing modern Metal bite.
Orbit Culture – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
When Niklas tells the crowd to jump for The Tales Of War, it is a wonder no one ended up hitting the 35-foot-high ceiling. His bluesy clean rasps in Strangler immediately call to mind the comparisons to Metallica’s James Hetfield, and all the swagger that comes with it.
But then it is time to see how big of a circle pit the Eventim Apollo can churn up for While We Serve. “Are you ready to go apeshit banana?”
Did the Orbit Culture frontman really just say that? This is not a song that needs any help building tension, with its fade-in loop intro that boomerangs around the room before the neck-snapping riffs assassinate with relentless force.
But the challenge of a giant circle pit is never to be passed over by hammer-wielding Metalheads, so apeshit banana they do indeed go.
Orbit Culture – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
Every time Orbit Culture do something, be it release a new album, dominate the world on tour, or even just talk about dominating the world on tour, you are always left wondering just how big this Swedish Melodeath quartet is going to get.
Amon Amarth
“London, you are Vikings,” Amon Amarth frontman and Norse mythology expert Johan Hegg bellows out more than once. For tonight, everyone is a Viking. And with the way they have transformed the stage and the sheer world-altering power of Amon Amarth’s storytelling, it is impossible not to believe him
Especially since every time the frontman opens his mouth, the sonority of a Viking god incarnate booms out.
Amon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
The all-new theatrical stage production that was promised for The Allfather Awakens tour leaves more than a few jaws on the floor. There are towering pillars and mystical archways emblazoned with runes.
A giant billowing sea monster puppet, which Johan battles with his hammer. Demon-eyed guardians of Asgard statues that almost get defeated by a curtain. Two dragon figureheads that flank Jocke Wallgren’s drum kit, and a backdrop that displays a different mesmerising visual as every epic battle (song) takes place.
Amon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
The other thing that was promised was an extended headline set, so imagine how many battles, feasts, quests, and rows across the “sea” that entails.
Spoiler alert: still not enough to make you want to do anything other than turn around and see it all over again once the night is over.
As Sweden’s Melodeath legends storm through their armoury of crowd-stirring, thunder-conjuring anthems, each song and onstage snuffing of the Deceiver Of The Gods takes the London crowd one step closer to wondering if they’re even still in London at all. “Welcome to Valhalla,” Johan roars.
Amon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
Drenched in the aurora borealis (seriously, give this lighting tech a raise) and videos that alternate between a raging sea and crowd close-ups, Put Your Back Into The Oar whips up its usual magic of turning hundreds of adults into kids playing make-believe as they take their places on the beer-soaked floor to enact rowing in a Viking longboat.
Even the balcony chairs can be seen swaying in time with the booming chants of “ROW!”
Amon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
But possibly one of the most surreal moments comes during Amon Amarth’s first-ever acoustic track, Upphaf, from their new album, which sees the Vikings trade their axes for acoustic guitars and, in Johan’s case, a baseball cap.
They sit around a firepit on tree stumps and transfix the Eventim Apollo with a different kind of Norse epic, one of mythically-laced harmonies and a stripped-back melody made for post-battle melancholic reflections around a longhouse hearth.
Amon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalk
After thanking the crowd for sharing this Viking feast with them, the five legends raise their horns and down them, a drinking battle that Johan loses. Perhaps that is why he has been battling so many trickster gods and armour-clad mascots onstage.
Before they can bring the night to a begrudging close, there is time for one final guest, Saxon’s Biff Byford, whose face appears blown up on the screen to take part in the medieval warrior sing-off, Saxons and Vikings.
The Amon Amarth commanders and their army of eager fans are as mighty as ever, with another monumental night of Heavy Metal wickedly etched into the history books.
Amon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalkAmon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalkAmon Amarth – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalkSoilwork – Eventim Apollo, London – 10 October 2026. Photo: Dominic Beaven/MetalTalkThe post Amon Amarth / Horns up for An Eventim Apollo Viking Spectacle first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.
Zac Brown Band emerged from Georgia’s live-music circuit in the early 2000s, blending country songwriting with Southern rock, bluegrass, reggae, and the improvisational energy of a touring band. Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Zac Brown founded the group, and its developing lineup brought together the fiddle playing of Jimmy De Martini, John Driskell Hopkins’ multi-instrumental musicianship, and later contributions from Coy Bowles, Chris Fryar, Clay Cook, and other band members. The combination of close vocal harmonies and adventurous arrangements helped make their music stand out in contemporary country. The band released the independent Home Grown in 2005 before reaching a national
Working from a classic build of vocalist/guitarist, bass player, and drummer, the appropriately minimalist design of Germany’s Midnight Prey works in their favor as they charge through seven songs of the kind of hybrid hard rock and heavy we’ve come to expect from the band’s record label, Dying Victim Productions.
Release date: September 25, 2026. Label: Dying Victims Productions.
Jenseitsritt, the band’s sophomore effort, arrives seven long years after their debut, Uncertain Times—which begs the question: if times were uncertain in 2019, what is this time, exactly? Anywho, right out the gate, Jenseitsritt is a marked improvement over the debut based on the art alone; mostly because the art for Uncertain Times was a photo that I think was intended to assure us listeners that these fine gentlemen were sufficiently committed to a retro aesthetic. Now having convinced us of that, they’ve advanced to a more artful presentation, which I appreciate. I am still not entirely sure what the art represents, but the watercolor and color palette sure does look cool.
To the substance of it all—the music. Undoubtedly, the two more immediate thoughts anyone will have listening to Jenseitsritt will be about (1) the vocals and (2) the production. And this is where I think Midnight Prey has a distinct advantage over other bands playing in this same general style. The vocals—the more predominant clean ones, anyway—have this vaguely sad, everyman, and almost indie rock (see “Witch King”) quality to them; the earnest tone works. And the warm, almost washed-out production is a good venue for all that earnestness. I wasn’t sold on it at first. The try-hard potential is astronomically high, generally. But it sounds very natural here. A tough landing but they stick it.
Maybe my ears deceive me, but what I am hearing on Jenseitsritt is equal parts hard rock, college rock, and something vaguely metallic. The general jangliness to some of these songs, particularly “Kaspar Hauser” and “Witch King,” was what shocked me the most. Where most similar bands would be some blend of hard rock, psych rock, and metal, the jangliness and slightly repressed sort of sadness in Midnight Prey’s sound is, well, striking, and makes them easily distinguishable from their peers.
My expectations were not met here and I couldn’t be happier. What I expected, frankly, was a quick and easy, retro-themed hybrid type album with a ton of speed and some punk influences. And, man, was I off. Thankfully. I’ve had my fill of those. Jenseitsritt has some depth to it. A ton of charm. Melody. It sounds reflective. Cathartic, too. I imagine I’ll be coming back to this one, often.
Los Angeles-based Downset. will be hitting the road across the European lands in March, 2027. Confirmed dates and venues are available via flyer below. Read more…
Daytime TV have revealed all of the details of their new era, embodied in their upcoming full-length ‘Rodeo’.
The record will be released on February 17 2027 via Marshall Records, and serves as the follow-up to 2022’s ‘Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching’.
Vocalist Will Irvine had this to say about the album:
“When you come close to losing everything, all your inhibitions disappear. You stop caring about trying to fit into a specific genre or pleasing anyone else. Rodeo is about stepping boldly into who we really are as a band and as people. It’s an album built on energy, survival, and pure conviction.”
The artwork looks like this:
Whilst the tracklisting is more like this:
1. Sun 2. Pause 3. Feels 4. Creature 5. Meditate 6. Power 7. Love Isn’t That Simple 8. Messiah 9. Rise 10. Anger Mgmt 11. Faithless
The announcement comes alongside the release of new track ‘Meditate’. A shimmering, soulful piece of late-night neon-soaked pop-rock, it’s a perfect summation of everything that the album is set to represent in sound and stature.
Will had this to add about how it was conceived:
“Written during a heatwave, ‘Meditate’ is a nostalgic look back at what could have been. A chance missed, the ‘what if’ of THAT relationship. Maybe we could’ve done better. Everything was there for us but we let it pass us by and now our lives have gone in different directions. Dreaming about how life would’ve been different if things had worked out, then snapping back to the present day reality to “meditate & medicate” which is what I was prescribed to reset my nervous system at the time we wrote the song.”
The band are on the road across the UK as we speak. Here is where you can catch them:
OCTOBER
14 – HULL New Adelphi Club 15 – COVENTRY Tin Music and Arts 16 – NEWPORT Le Pub 17 – MILTON KEYNES Crauford Arms 18 – BOURNEMOUTH Bear Cave 28 – LIVERPOOL The Quarry 29 – SHEFFIELD Yellow Arch 30 – EDINBURGH Cabaret Voltaire
