ZZ Top created one of rock’s most recognizable catalogs by combining Texas blues, boogie rhythms, hard-rock guitar, sly humor, futuristic production, and an unmistakable visual identity. This complete A-to-Z guide brings together the band’s 15 studio albums, bonus tracks, live recordings, early singles, compilation exclusives, and the 2022 soundtrack album RAW. ZZ Top emerged from Houston, Texas, in 1969 and developed into one of America’s most durable rock bands. Guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons formed the original group after the breakup of his psychedelic band Moving Sidewalks. Bassist Lanier Greig and drummer Dan Mitchell were part of the earliest lineup,
Onslaught are pleased to announce ‘The Force From Hell Tour’, a string of headlining shows over Europe. Scheduled in October, this trek features support from The Prophecy²³ and Toranaga. Read more…
Thrash metal veterans Toranaga have joined forces with Fireflash Records for the release of their next full-length effort. On top of that, the Brits are also proud to announce that they will be heading out on tour over Europe this October, alongside Onslaught and The Prophecy²³. Read more…
The Hu were formed in 2016 in Ulaanbaatar with an aim “to show the versatility of Mongolian ancient instruments and traditional music culture to the world.” With their new album HUN due out on 24 July 2026 via Better Noise Music, the band decamped for a long weekend in the UK, including an impressive performance at EDDFEST in Knebworth House.
The Hu at EDDFEST, Buckingham Palace and The Mongolian Embassy
The Hu arrived in London in the week leading up to EDDFEST, heading straight to the city’s tourist attractions, including a visit to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the British Army’s Household Cavalry in Whitehall.
The Hu in London. Photo: PHOTOGRAPHICGENIUS.COM
A Lance Corporal with the Life Guards Squadron recognised them on CCTV and persuaded his commanding officer to let them meet the horses and guards in the stables at Horse Guards Parade. The band were also introduced to Overlord, the biggest horse in the squadron.
“The other guys were asking who they were,” the Lance Corporal said, “and I knew immediately. I discovered them from their song Sugaan Essena in the game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I’ve been listening to their albums ever since.”
The Hu in London. Photo: PHOTOGRAPHICGENIUS.COM
The band then performed at the Mongolian Embassy in Kensington, treating an exclusive audience to intimate acoustic renditions of This Is Mongol, Black Thunder, and the newly released single Grey Hun.
“This album was made because of the great commitment of many, many people behind us also,” Galaa said. “We’re excited to be seeing you with the new album and on tour as well. We are The Hu!”
The Hu at the Mongolian Embassy. Photo: Aggie Anthimidou/MetalTalk
The Hu At EDDFEST
The Hu took the early evening slot at EDDFEST, landing right at the midpoint of the day, and they probably brought the heaviest edge of the afternoon with them.
They opened with Last Soul, its low, resonant throat singing rolling out over a thunderous sound driven by a crushing bass drum that you could feel through the ground.
The Hu – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
There was not quite as much singing along as there had been for Airbourne, but the crowd’s energy did not drop. Instead, people locked into the rhythm, responding physically rather than vocally, with huge waves of rhythmic clapping spreading across the field.
With much of the set built around new music from their upcoming album, HUN, the audience leaned into the atmosphere rather than familiarity, letting the weight and pulse of the songs carry them.
The Hu – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
The traditional Mongolian instruments added a raw, earthy texture that set them apart from everything else on the bill, while the band held a calm, almost immovable presence onstage.
By the time they closed, the audience was fully with them, chanting along to patterns many had never heard before and giving one of the day’s most distinctive sets a huge sendoff.
The Hu – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
The Hu – HUN
With a digital release on 24 July 2026 and vinyl to follow on 11 September, the excitement is building for new album HUN. The Hun means human being in Mongolian. The band were keen to emphasise that HUN in their album title rhymes with moon rather than pun, moving the emphasis away from the associations with Attila The Hun, although this will be hard to avoid for a Western Audience.
So far, Warrior Chant, The Men, The Real You, Lost Soul (featuring Jonny Hawkins of Nothing More) and Grey Hun have been released. To really appreciate these, it helps to watch the associated videos with English subtitles.
The HU draw heavily from Mongolian philosophy, and unless your Mongolian is good, the English subtitles really help.
HUN – The HU’s third offering is absolutely fantastic
The HU’s third offering is absolutely fantastic and, to our ears, their best so far. Thundering riffs and ethereal melodies mixing with galloping rhythms and the booming beauty and depth of the lead singer’s vocals take the listener on a journey into the Wild East.
The album pounds strength, resilience and fortitude into the listener’s heart. At the same time, this is done with good humour and passion for the positive side of mankind.
The Hu – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
The band’s work is grounded in the Mongolian worldview, played on some of the most beautiful traditional instruments and at the same time accessible to the Western rock and Metal audience.
The HU are carrying an important message to the world wrapped up in ground-breaking, brilliant and compulsively listenable music. This extended trip to the UK certainly endeared them to many more news fans.
The Hu are back in the UK for a tour at the end of September. For a full list of dates and tickets, visit the band’s website here. The HU’s third offering is out on 24 July 2026 via Better Noise Music and is available to pre-order from thehu.lnk.to/hun.
The Hu – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
MAIAH WYNNE ARRIVES ON KSCOPE WITH DEBUT SINGLE ‘BREATHE’
NEW ALBUM PENNED FOR AUTUMN 2026
Following the recent news of her signing to the Kscope, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maiah Wynne is back with her new single and video ‘Breathe’. With a new album on the horizon for late-2026, ‘Breathe’ is the first glimpse into what promises to be an exciting new chapter for the rising star.
Speaking about her inspiration behind the new track, Maiah shared “I wrote this song in a moment of overwhelm. Music has always been a calming presence in my life and has helped guide me through some of the most difficult moments. I remember sitting down with a guitar on the verge of a panic attack, and playing harmonics and reaching an almost meditative state while writing this track. It’s all about breathing through and working through anxiety. I wanted the music to find a balance between that storm of energy and the release of a calming breath.”
As part of their recently announced new studio album Never A Prophet In Your Own Land, due on September 25th, British veterans Cloven Hoof now present a lyric video for the first single titled “Iron Mask”. Read more…
There are currently nine bands named “Ripper” listed on ye olde Metal-Archives, but it’s tough to imagine any of them earning the moniker as well as the boys from Chile featured here. And no, it did not escape me that perhaps every review of Towards Rebirth would feature some discussion of the band’s apt name, but that’s what happens when you’re a death/thrash band that names yourself RIPPER.
Release date: July 24, 2026. Label: Dark Descent Records.
Towards Rebirth is the band’s third full length, and it more than lives up to both the band’s name and their established formula: delightfully regressive (not an insult) death/thrash that pulverizes everything in its path like it’s 1988 all over again. It’s admittedly a touch more on the thrash side than the death side, but the most obvious influences – Beneath the Remains, Pleasure to Kill, Persecution Mania, etc. – are those albums that were pushing thrash to its most extreme places back in the day.
And Ripper undoubtedly brings the goods in a way to honor their heroes. Riffs are more than rapid-fire–they’re positively blazing, and shift from brutally bouncing thrash to fiery tremolo lines throughout. The drums are relentless, constantly doing that ultra-fast thrash pattern – that, like early Kreator, always sounds just on the verge of flying apart – but not afraid to drop back into some ride cymbal goodness when the passage requires it. The bass provides a great rumble, aided by a supremely balanced production that sacrifices none of the violence. And the gruff vocals are just charismatic enough without distracting from the album’s main intention: complete and total destruction.
The record is almost entirely single-minded in its intent, with very little variation across its brisk 41-plus minutes. And that’s more than okay, because Towards Rebirth isn’t the type of album you put on for its subtlety. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few things to break up what is otherwise a near-constant maelstrom of violence, however. Some nice leads temporarily interrupt the onslaught in the title track; “Into the Coldness of Land of Dead” finds time to be ever-so-slightly hooky; the wicked great “The Source Exterminator” has a wildly cool, super fluttery lead duel (not to mention a bass solo); and the lengthy-by-comparison (it cracks six minutes) “The Secret Dawn” empties the bucket of riffs and ideas in the album’s closest flirtation with complexity.
But all of these brief diversions seem designed not really to give the record some sense of variation or depth, but only to amplify their furious surroundings. Make no mistake about it, Ripper is out to hurt you, and they’re doing on helluva job bringing the quality ruckus throughout. Towards Rebirth is an unrelenting onslaught of rampaging death/thrash that ought to appeal to both fans that just got into the style and those that have been enjoying it for the better part of 40 years. Ripper clearly understands their name, and they clearly understand the assignment. Get ripped.
Left To Die – Initium Mortis (Relapse Records) [Mark Young]
Ok, this has been one of the releases I’ve been tracking this year, a homage to one of the most influential acts ever to grace the extreme metal stage.
If you haven’t heard of Death, or Chuck Schuldiner then I suggest you have a dive online and then come back in a bit. I need to also preface the review by pointing out that the band comprise those who were involved during the very early moments of the Florida death metal scene, and so it has a certain flavour to it.
The songs here are early Death and Mantas tracks that have previously only been available as demo material, as far as I can see (happy to be proved wrong though!). The band themselves have some heavy weight metal credentials with Rick Rozz and Terry Butler onboard and have approached this with a serious intent. I know that there are those who might be looking at this as some form of cash grab, or worse using a legendary band as a leg-up. I think its dependent on how you approach it and if those involved have got something valid to say.
So rather than take you through each track which I think is largely irrelevant here. The music is built from a different time, when death metal was still finding its feet and trying to move beyond the thrash/speed style prevalent in the mid-80s. This isn’t the surgically precise material that would be released later in that decade, rather it takes the form of sonic bludgeoning, of riffs and arrangements that were densely packed and solid in effect.
The songs can be traced to the first two releases by Death, again where those involved were finding their feet musically and if you are fans of that period then this is for you. It sounds pretty good too, its brutal in the right moments and is like stepping back in time to when things were simple – your metal was heavy or it wasn’t. And if wasn’t, leave the hall.
Fans of ‘modern’ death metal might find this almost pedestrian in comparison, but I defy you not to be grabbed by Archangel (with a chilling vocal from Matt Harvey). Its material of its time, for sure but it’s a release that gets those early tracks out there in a legitimate way. It’s unknown if there are more albums planned from them, what that would look like.
I guess it is dependent on where that material comes from, if its original or re-recorded. In any event, I think this is something that is worth checking out, not just for the die-hards but for those who want to hear how death metal sounded back then. 8/10
Parker Barrow – Hold The Mash (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
If you’re getting a feeling of Deja-Vu then you aren’t as Nashville Southern Blues rockers have already released half of this record as the Hold The Mash EP back in 2025 before heading out on tour, however they’ve now released a full length with the same name as their sophomore full length.
Now all that’s is cleared up we can get down to the nitty gritty of this band named for Bonnie and Clyde, which features it’s own husband wife team of Megan Kane (vocals) and Dylan Turner (drums), however these two, along with their partner in music guitarist and musical Alex Bender, are less concerned with robbing banks, but prefer to steal the show with some big blues rock rhythms.
Build around the powerhouse percussion of Turner and the deep grooves driven by Kyle Priber’s bass. Parker Barrow bring a lot to the table musically with blues, rock, southern, soul and gospel, the guitars of Bender and Will Tipton cranking out the Zep-like riffs on The Healer, and slinky solos on Novocaine or My Morning Song which borrows from The Allman Brothers.
Eric Safka adding the organs on tracks such as Nothing Left To Save, keys to the acoustic Olivia Lane and generally adding those sweet layers of honey over the main riffs. The vocals of Kane are soulful, sultry with a roughness that comes through on the strutting Make It (cowbell alert) and the spiritual feel of Glass Eyes which is very Black Crowes due to the organ and slide guitar.
Nashville rocking that just oozes with the musical history of that town, Hold The Mash sees Parker Barrow defining the band they want to be with this second record of honest southern blues rock. 8/10
Stormhammer – Wrath Of The Hammer (ROAR) [Cherie Curtis]
German metal band Stormhammer presents us with 10 tracks of pure power metal that’s fierce and burning with melodrama. Their newest album Wrath Of The Hammer, is their ninth full length album following a brief hiatus and a few lineup changes over the 30 odd years of their career and it’s another great one.
This album and their current line-up bring a fresher, sharper and much cleaner sound but remains true to their roots, though this album is less raw and gritty, Wrath Of The Hammer is still powerful, thumping and anthemic like lots of power metal pioneers. Stormhammer’s sound is very similar to power metal bands like Sabaton with an Iron Maiden spin.
This album is very stylized and the word cinematic rings true to them as their lyrics are visual and the instrumentals are atmospheric and all together, they project the image that is Stormhammer. They could be excellent sci-fi fantasy film scorers in another life, the album itself comes together like a composition, and each track has a different feel but paint the same picture and maps out their narrative perfectly.
What’s good about this album is that they managed to showcase a fair amount of range, tracks like my personal favourite- Guardians Of The Night, balances balmy, breathless and sort of romantically powerful vocals with the slow thundering hammer of drums and bass which slowly builds tension with the added contrast fast springy riffs, there’s not really a sickening breakdown, but the energy does build and crest like a wave would in a storm. Whereas Ashes Of The Throne comes in all guns blazing and stays burning hot throughout so there are tracks to get your blood pumping and tracks for when you’d like to reminisce.
The only nit picky criticism I do have, and it feels especially harsh considering that Stormhammer brings a new vocalist for this album is that the vocals itself does fall flat, it’s not bad at all and it does glide along powerfully but it does so within one range and without textured layers we’re used to when it comes to power metal, it doesn’t have the kick or a gut punching feel other bands within this genre have.
I do however feel like a lot of power metal lovers will get a good kick out of this album anyway and it’s something everyone can enjoy to a certain degree, but it’s a hard one to love. Stormhammer doesn’t bring anything unique and I feel like it’s an album I’ve heard many times over the years. They are talented and they know their instruments as well as the genre and they have produced some great work, but it doesn’t really give you anything to write home about.
Overall, it’s a decent album. It’s well made, it’s not a chore to listen to and it’s well mixed and fun. If you feel like it’s something you can enjoy, check it out but I feel like there’s something missing. 5/10
Tomb Slab – Tomb Slab (Road To Masochist) [Joe Guatieri]
Tomb Slab are a Blackened Sludge Metal out of Nottingham, only forming last year. They’ve seen a very quick turn around, after only being around for a few months, they’ve already played quite a few shows and recorded their debut self-titled EP which I’m talking about today.
Tomb Slab are not a complete unknown as they have a legend in their band, that being Kez Whelan as their drummer, someone who’s spread their wings across UK extreme music, playing in great bands such as Thumbsucker, FILTHxCOLLINS and Shrykull. This lends the band a whole lot of credibility with a talented person like this being present and also being released by one of England’s premier indie metal labels, Road To Masochist.
The album opens up with Kingdom Of Tyranny, presenting the beautiful sounds of screeching feedback within its opening seconds, something that I will never grow tired of. The main riff that takes up the bulk of this song is evil and heavy, moving like a snake.
The track is boosted with its raw production, especially noticeable in the drums and bass, seemingly pinging of the walls. By 3:15 the track goes from dwelling in the darkness into a three day bender, increasing the energy in a punk style. It’s giving Electric Wizard, Grief and Eyehategod. Kingdom Of Tyranny is a a good introduction and it is my favourite song on this EP!
Next we go into The Butcher which presents a more upbeat sound compared to the previous number. Whilst it has a great groove and is fun to listen to, the only thing that’s really Black Metal here at all here is found in the vocalist Dean Lettice’s screaming performance.
I do enjoy his stylings a lot, he’s like a cross between Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone and Mike Williams of the aforementioned Eyehategod, also sounding similar to Russ Barr of the Bristol band Gnash. Maybe pulling out of a well of the same influences.
Track three is Rawhead. It brings out a more Black Sabbath flavour in Tomb Slab, you can imagine the singer clapping his hands wildly to the song as the melodic guitar phrases bring life out of old amplifiers.
Both this and the previous effort have established a pattern for me which continues throughout the entire listen.
This idea that though these pieces have rough edges and contain themes of the occult, catchiness is prioritised above all else, evidently the band wants people to have a good time with scenes coming to my mind of an audience drinking and enjoying themselves. This is where I think that Tomb Slab are coming across to me as a Party Sludge band. They don’t want to be put under this label, though they are very comparable to bands like Gurt and Battalions. Guys it’s nothing to be ashamed of and you don’t need to be dark and mysterious all the time!
Later on we get track five with Tomb Of Flesh. Again, I’m starting to sound like a broken record now but it’s very much in the vein of what we’ve heard before. It makes the listener want to headbang and it’s at a slower pace, it’s engaging enough but it finds itself hitting its head against the ceiling, refusing to bring anything new to the table.
Overall Tomb Slab’s first EP just barely gets over the first hurdle. It’s got great musicians, playing well and having fun together but it doesn’t have the staying power. It’s like arriving at a six band gig, late to the second band and you’re four drinks deep. Sure you’re having a good time but you’ll struggle to remember in the future what they’re name is. 5/10
coldrain are back with a new full-length album, their first since 2022’s ‘Nonnegative’, and expect plenty of devastating drama.
Titled ‘OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE’, it will be released on September 25 via Century Media Records.
The artwork looks like this:
And the tracklisting like this:
1. OPTIMIZE 2. CHASING SHADOWS 3. DIGITOLL 4. INCOMPLETE 5. FREE FALL 6. EX-HUMANITY 7. REST OF ME 8. POISON (feat. Bert McCracken) 9. G.I.A.I.G 10. SING 11. PICTURE PERFECT HELL 12. SAVIOR (feat. Kenta Koie)
You can check out a fresh taste of the album right now in the form of ‘EX-HUMANITY’, a sensationally catchy, brilliantly heavy and effortless vibrant piece of modern metal.
Vocalist Masato had this to say about the track:
“EX-HUMANITY is a song built on contrast. Musically, it’s energetic, powerful and alive. Lyrically, it’s intentionally simple, static and full of despair. That contrast reflects the tension between what it means to be human and what we could become if we lose the things that make us who we are. Is this song a cry for hope or a requiem for humanity. My hope is it will not be the latter.”
Turn my heart to stone Turn the sun away Feeling no desire Feeling no more pain
The phrase “cold-hearted” usually lands as an accusation, a verdict passed on someone who has withheld affection or placed too much distance between themselves and the world. Yet emotional exhaustion can make that same coldness sound almost merciful. When every thought presses too hard, and every feeling remains exposed, numbness begins to resemble some sort of shelter: a private fantasy in which the heart can be hardened before anything else reaches it.
Berlin post-punk quartet Agatha is Dead! enters that conflicted, icy state with “Cold-Hearted,” a collaboration with fellow Berlin artist SCHRAMM. The song’s accompanying video places both singers inside the crush of a darkened dance floor while the lyrics move between emotional exposure and the desire to feel nothing at all.
The fourth and penultimate single taken from Agatha is Dead!’s forthcoming debut album, Concrete, due September 11 via Duchess Box Records, “Cold-Hearted” follows the disorientation of the previous single, “Strangers,” with a more physical and immediate form of unease. Deep bass moves beneath sheets of atmospheric synth before a cold, zigzagging gothic-rock guitar figure cuts across the arrangement. Its sharp repetition gives the song an instant hook, while the drums maintain a steady dance-floor pressure, quaking underneath.
SCHRAMM takes the opening verse, delivering the words in a cool, velvety register that remains controlled even as the lyrics ask to be torn open and examined. The request is intimate and invasive at once: peel back the lies, expose what has been hidden, and keep the heart warm before it freezes beyond recovery. When Agatha is Dead!’s Lilly enters, her voice initially gathers beneath SCHRAMM’s before taking command of the chorus with “Turn my heart to stone” and “leave it all behind,” lines that launch the track into its dark dance groove.
The second verse reverses the exchange. Lilly explains that she has already tried to open the other person and now fears that the same scrutiny will be turned upon her. Each singer recognizes a version of themselves in the other: guarded, capable of cruelty, and frightened by whatever might remain beneath their practiced distance. The chorus turns that mutual fear into a fantasy of emotional anesthesia, with stone offering protection at the cost of love, desire, and pain alike.
Behind-the-scenes photo by Marvin Machler
In the accompanying video, SCHRAMM first appears as a solitary figure in a white shirt and black tie, nearly reduced to silhouette by a fierce light at the rear of a crowded, fog-filled room. Dancers continually cross between the singer and the camera, concealing faces and breaking bodies into fragments. Close framing, motion blur, and ghosted double images make the room feel unstable, as though the party were being recalled through a memory already beginning to fail.
As Lilly enters the song, the camera finds the two singers pressed together among the crowd. Their faces overlap in tight close-ups while hands, shoulders, and passing figures close around them. White backlight gradually gives way to deep blue, and the dancers’ movements grow less social than compulsive. The room offers physical contact everywhere, though little genuine comfort, turning the party into an apt setting for two people who want to be understood while recoiling from what such understanding might reveal.
In the video’s final third, the crowd disappears, and Lilly stands alone beneath a narrow column of white light, her arms held behind her back and her white blouse creased tightly across her body. Her rigid posture gives the chorus’s transformation into stone a physical form. For several long moments, the movement that has filled the room is suspended, leaving her isolated in darkness as the refrain circles through its promises of emptiness.
When the dance floor returns, it does so in a rush of blue and pale pink light. Lilly is absorbed once more into the surrounding bodies, singing and moving as the camera is jostled through the crowd. The release is temporary and deliberately ambiguous: the party provides motion, proximity, and escape, while the final backlit silhouettes leave the deeper question unresolved. The heart may survive by turning cold, but survival of that kind carries its own loneliness.
Watch the video for “Cold-Hearted” below:
Formed during the long winter of 2021, Agatha is Dead! began as a collaboration between Lilly and Noah, who developed their earliest songs in isolation before bringing them into the rehearsal room. Drawing from the emotional severity of Joy Division and the nocturnal romanticism of The Cure, the band balance melodic economy with mounting intensity. Joined by Joey Ramone Hansen on drums and Arthur on bass, the group soon established itself within Berlin’s live circuit.
Since signing to Duchess Box Records in 2025, Agatha is Dead! have played a series of sold-out headline shows, including a Berlin appearance at Lido that reached capacity months in advance. In March 2026, the band traveled to the United States for SXSW, introducing their music to a wider international audience. That rapid ascent has established Agatha is Dead! as one of the most exciting new bands in the international post-punk scene and one of the finest groups Berlin has produced in more than a decade. Their selection for the Wunderkinder program at this year’s Reeperbahn Festival further confirms the growing attention surrounding them.
SCHRAMM is the project of Berlin-based musician, photographer, and filmmaker Arne Schramm. Since releasing the debut EP I Made This for Myself (I Didn’t Make It for You) in 2022, SCHRAMM has developed a mixture of post-punk, new wave, and wiry UK indie rock, moving between German and English lyrics. The project’s latest EP, Something Smelling Funny, was released in February 2026.
Agatha is Dead! will celebrate the release of Concrete with a special album-launch performance at Rough Trade Berlin on September 11. Further appearances at Reeperbahn Festival and Waves Vienna will lead into an October European tour, followed by another run of German dates in February 2027.
Agatha is Dead! Tour Dates 2026
7 August — Bergfunk Open Air, Königs Wusterhausen
11 September — Rough Trade Berlin
13 September — BLOW Festival, Frankfurt
16 September — Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg
1–3 October — Waves Festival, Vienna
8 October — Café Glocksee, Hannover
9 October — Naumanns Tanzlokal, Leipzig
10 October — Nürnberg Pop at Club Stereo
11 October — Engelsburg, Erfurt
13 October — Bumann & Sohn, Cologne
14 October — Schon Schön, Mainz
15 October — Substanz, Munich
16 October — B72, Vienna
Agatha is Dead! Tour Dates 2027
18 February — KFZ, Marburg
19 February — Lagerhaus, Bremen
20 February — Die Trompete, Bochum
21 February — Molotow, Hamburg
23 February — Franz K, Reutlingen
24 February — Groove Station, Dresden
25 February — SO36, Berlin
