Category: news

Launching in December.

The post Members Of Shinedown, Black Label Society, Ice Nine Kills, The Warning & More To Take Part In ‘Unwrapped’ Acoustic Tour appeared first on Theprp.com.

New album Keeper Of The Light arrives January 29, 2027 via PERCEPTION – A Division Of Reigning Phoenix Music

Following the recent announcement of their brand-new studio album, Keeper Of The Light, and its powerful first single “Last Man Standing,” power metal force SERIOUS BLACK are back with another new track. Today, the band has released the official music video for their new single “Party in the Sun,” taken from the upcoming record, which will arrive on January 29, 2027 via PERCEPTION – A Division Of Reigning Phoenix Music. In support of the release, the band will embark on an extensive tour throughout Europe with Rhapsody Of Fire and support bands; find all dates listed below!

Inspired by the incomparable atmosphere of Wacken Open Air and the worldwide heavy metal community, “Party in the Sun” is a celebration of everything that makes rock and metal culture so special: friendship, unity, live music and the unique bond shared by bands and fans across the globe. With its infectious energy and festival spirit, the song delivers a fitting soundtrack for everyone whose heart beats to the rhythm of heavy metal.

And if that chorus sounds like it was made for a rather big stage, SERIOUS BLACK happens to agree. The band have decided to throw their hat into the ring for the Eurovision Song Contest 2027, submitting “Party in the Sun” for consideration as Germany’s entry. Whether the road ultimately leads from the festival fields to the Eurovision stage remains to be seen, yet a song about bringing people together through music seems like a pretty good place to start.

Band mastermind Mario Lochert comments:
“Party in the Sun” tells the story of the worldwide heavy metal family, people from all corners of the globe whose hearts beat to the same rhythm. It is a song about unity, friendship, and the unique bond between musicians and their audience that makes the rock and metal scene so special. Inspired by the incomparable atmosphere of Wacken Open Air, widely regarded as one of the world’s most iconic metal festivals, the song is a tribute to this unique way of life. At the same time, its message represents the entire festival and live concert culture, because wherever people come together to celebrate music, this extraordinary sense of unity and the magic of rock and metal comes to life.”

“Party in the Sun” is a summer party that celebrates metal, friendship and unity.”

Stream the new single here: https://seriousblack.rpm.link/partyPR

Watch the official music video:

Pre-order Keeper Of The Light now at this location: 
https://seriousblack.rpm.link/keeperPR

Keeper Of The Light – Tracklist:
1. Last Man Standing
2. Final Ride
3. Guardian Of Eden
4. Majestica
5. Light Up the Sky
6. Keeper Of The Light
7. Party In The Sun
8. Little Bird Fly
9. Rise Of A Hero
10. Bad Surprise
11. Lords Of Metal

Since their formation, SERIOUS BLACK have established themselves as one of the leading names in modern power metal. Combining the experience of musicians from renowned metal acts with memorable songwriting, crushing guitars, anthemic choruses and emotionally charged melodies, the band has built a strong international reputation.

With multiple charting releases, more than 200 concerts worldwide, and acclaimed performances at major festivals and tours across Europe, Asia and beyond, SERIOUS BLACK continue to prove why they remain one of the genre’s most compelling live acts. Keeper Of The Light perfectly captures the band’s trademark blend of power, melody and passion while pushing their sound forward with renewed energy.

Marking the band’s next chapter, the album once again showcases everything fans have come to expect from SERIOUS BLACK: massive guitar riffs, driving rhythms, soaring melodies and the unmistakable vocals of Nikola Mijic, all wrapped in a powerful, modern production by Mario Lochert and Bob Katsionis.

All of the eleven songs on the album will see SERIOUS BLACK stylistically return to its roots. Straight, classic power metal. The sound the band once became known for reigns again.

“The return to what once characterized us was already indicated on “Vengeance Is Mine” and “Rise Of Akhenaton”,” Lochert explains the natural evolution of the band and adds: “Since joining five years ago, our singer Nikola Mijic has turned out to be a real jewel for us. Because of his expressive voice and his intuitive feeling for great melodies, the songs have gained more clarity and a more direct presence.”

SERIOUS BLACK Tour Dates:
07.01.27 – DE – ESSEN Turock
08.01.27 – NL – TILBURG O13
09.01.27 – DE – SIEGBURG Kubana
11.01.27 – UK – LONDON Underworld
12.01.27 – UK – MANCHESTER Rebellion
13.01.27 – UK – WOLVERHAMPTON KK’s Steel Mill
14.01.27 – FR – LILLE The Black Lab
15.01.27 – FR – VAUREAL Le Forum
16.01.27 – FR – LIMOGES CCM John Lennon
17.01.27 – FR – BORDEAUX Rocher de Palmer
19.01.27 – ES – MADRID Revi Live
20.01.27 – ES – BARCELONA Salamandra
21.01.27 – FR – MONTPELLIER Victoire 2
22.01.27 – FR – TOULOUSE Metronum
23.01.27 – FR – RIOM La Puce a L’Oreille
24.01.27 – FR – COLMAR Le Grillen
26.01.27 – DE – ERLENBACH Beavers
27.01.27 – CH – PRATTELN Z7
28.01.27 – FR – GRENOBLE L’Ilyade
29.01.27 – IT – MILANO Alcatraz
30.01.27 – DE – LINDAU Vaudeville
31.01.27 – DE – MUNICH Backstage
02.02.27 – HU – BUDAPEST Analog Music Club
03.02.27 – SK – NITRA JS Retro Bar
04.02.27 – CZ – PRAHA Futurum
05.02.27 – PL – KRAKOW Studio
06.02.27 – PL – WARSAW Stodola
07.02.27 – DE – LEIPZIG Hellraiser
08.02.27 – DE BERLIN Orwo Haus *
09.02.27 – DE HAMBURG Logo*
10.02.27 – BE KORTRIJK DVG Club*
11.02.27 – DE STUTTGART Wizemann *
12.02.27 – DE SELB Rockclub Nordbayern *

• Headliner Shows without Rhapsody of Fire

SERIOUS BLACK:
Nikola Mijic – Vocals
Mario Lochert – Bass
Dominik Sebastian – Guitar
Maurus Mayer – Guitar, Keys
Christian Widmann – Drums

More on SERIOUS BLACK:
https://serious-black.com

https://www.facebook.com/seriousblackofficial

https://www.instagram.com/seriousblack.official

https://www.youtube.com/@seriousblackofficial4392

Source: C Squared Music

Catherine Ringer, vocalist, songwriter, and co-founder of French new wave duo Les Rita Mitsouko, has died at age 68. Her children announced her death in a statement to AFP, confirming that she died from cancer on the night of September 14, 2026.

With her partner in music and life, Fred Chichin, Ringer made pop music feel large enough to accommodate almost anything: punk impatience, funk, cabaret, electronic experimentation, and the expressive possibilities of French chanson. A song could be funny, sensual, disconcerting, and profoundly sad within the same few minutes. Ringer gave each feeling its own physical presence, singing with a freedom that made conventional ideas of good taste seem rather timid.

Born on October 18, 1957, in Suresnes, near Paris, she was the daughter of painter Sam Ringer, a Polish-born Jewish Holocaust survivor, and an architect mother. She left school at 15 and pursued an artistic education through theatre, music, and dance. Among the formative figures in her life was Argentine dancer and choreographer Marcia Moretto, who became her teacher and collaborator. Those years onstage helped establish the connection between movement and voice that would distinguish her work with Les Rita Mitsouko. Nostalgie’s biography documents her early performances and work with Moretto.

Ringer met Chichin in 1979, beginning a partnership that would carry them from the Paris underground to international recognition. Their self-titled 1984 debut, recorded with Conny Plank, introduced a group whose appetite for experiment came with a formidable instinct for melody. As Coilhouse’s retrospective observed, Ringer’s background in avant-garde theatre remained visible in the duo’s performances and videos.

Marcia Baïla became their breakthrough. Written in remembrance of Moretto following her death from cancer, it joined the exhilaration of dance to the shock of losing someone whose life had been devoted to movement. Its popularity carried that private grief into public celebration. The song offers an especially poignant way to remember Ringer now: affection, anger, and delight sharing the same space, with no easy separation between them.

Directed by Philippe Gautier, the music video for Marcia Baïla gave the song an equally extravagant visual life, with costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler.

Watch the video below.

The duo’s collaboration with Tony Visconti on The No Comprendo in 1986 brought Andy, C’est comme ça, and Les Histoires d’A. The album won at the 1987 Victoires de la Musique, as did Jean-Baptiste Mondino’s video for C’est comme ça. These songs remain an excellent introduction to Ringer’s range: the teasing insistence of Andy, the sharp attack of C’est comme ça, and the ease with which she could make a repeated phrase feel like an argument, an invitation, or a joke.

Their creative world extended well beyond records. Jean-Luc Godard included the duo at work in his 1987 film Soigne ta droite, while collaborations brought them together with fellow musical eccentrics. Sparks joined them for Singing in the Shower, from 1988’s Marc & Robert, a meeting of artists who understood how much pleasure could be found in pop’s peculiar corners. Later, Iggy Pop appeared on My Love Is Bad, preserved alongside their other collaborations in the band’s collected catalogue.

The apparent playfulness could also carry terrible knowledge. Le Petit Train addressed the deportation trains of the Holocaust, a history bound closely to her father’s survival. Its video, filmed in Bombay, placed Ringer amid exuberant dancing while the words described people being carried toward their deaths. The tension between the music’s invitation and the lyric’s meaning remains deeply unsettling. She understood how a familiar pleasure could open an audience to something painful.

Chichin died from cancer in 2007, aged 53, the year Les Rita Mitsouko released Variéty. Ringer continued performing their songs while building a solo catalogue that included Ring n’ Roll in 2011 and Chroniques et fantaisies in 2017. With Plaza Francia, alongside Gotan Project’s Eduardo Makaroff and Christoph H. Müller, she explored tango on 2014’s A New Tango Song Book.

Her later work also returned to the intimacy of spoken language. In L’Érotisme de vivre, she performed the poetry of Alice Mendelson, accompanied by pianist Grégoire Hetzel under the direction of Mauro Gioia. The scale had changed, but the curiosity remained: another writer, another setting, another way to give words a body.

Ringer leaves music full of appetite and contradiction, open to beauty without becoming polite about it. She made eccentricity feel generous, something an audience could participate in. Our thoughts are with her family, friends, collaborators, and everyone who found freedom in her voice.

Follow Catherine Ringer:

• Instagram
• Facebook

Follow Les Rita Mitsouko

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Bandcamp

The post Catherine Ringer, the Extraordinary Voice of Les Rita Mitsouko, Has Passed Away at 68 appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Including a hometown concert.

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They had originally been set to tour with Polyphia this fall.

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Finnish melodic metal act After Infinity releases their new single "Whisper In The Air," offering one of the most intimate and emotionally charged moments from their upcoming sophomore album "Beyond Eternity," due out October 23rd, 2026 via Rockshots Records. Featuring guest vocals from Mika Tauriainen (Entwine, Shamrain), "Whisper in the Air" m… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com

200 Stab Wounds returns in 2027 with "Lowest Form," set for release on February 19th via Metal Blade Records. The highly anticipated follow-up to their acclaimed "Manual Manic Procedures," 200 Stab Wounds' eight-track "Lowest Form" full-length was produced, mixed, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Cavalera), features artwork by James Bous… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com

Desertfest London has announced the Melvins as the first headliner for their 2027 edition, taking place next May 21st-23rd in the heart of Camden Town. Formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington, the Melvins are a band that need little introduction at this point in their career. As true pioneers in heavy music their status as one of modern music’s mos… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com

Fiercely sinister and heavy as ever, Danish heavy hitters Konvent return with their third album, "Firesky," on November 6, 2026 via Napalm Records. Embellishing their compositions, five songs is all it takes the four-piece this time around to prove how incomparably weighty their sonic soundscapes can be. "Firesky’s" tracks are significantly longer … Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com

Denmark‘s Metal commandos Baest released their massive 4th studio album "Colossal" last year worldwide via Century Media Records and continue to promote it with further relentless touring. After a busy summer of live performances and in order to stress the start of their comprehensive headline tour of European and the UK at the end of this week,… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com