(Andy Synn has some grim delights to share with us today, from an album set for release tomorrow) The weather here in the UK has recently taken a turn for the worse, shrouding us in a grey cloud of damp and humidity that somehow manages to combine Meditteranean swelter with Scandinavian chill at the same […]
“Wait And See”, the second preview tune from Kai Hansen‘s soon-to-be-released sophomore long player Born With A Hammer, has premiered online in the form of a music video. Read more…
Improvised drums assembled from stools and chairs, a tennis racket used as a microphone and intimate performances in a home basement eventually developed into something far more substantial. Five years after those beginnings, Polish family band WOLIERA are preparing to release their debut album. The record’s title track, “Bagienny Stan,” is now accompanied by an […]
To celebrate the album’s release, Justin Hawkins & Co. will play the Moth Club in East London on September 17. The club has a capacity of just 300, whereas the band’s next scheduled appearance in London will be staged at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena.
Pre-sale tickets for the show at the Moth Club will go on sale via Dice at 10am UK time on Tuesday, September 8, with the general sale kicking off 48 hours later.
“The first rule of Moth Club is, don’t fly into the lightbulb,” says Justin. “Just kidding – nocturnal Lepidoptera rejoice! We’re coming to play at the Moth Club. That thing about burning yourself to a crisp is more of a guideline than a rule, so come celebrate The Darkness on this special night and listen upon our works ye mighty and rejoice!”
Due to what Dice are describing as “an error”, tickets to the show originally went on sale on Friday, prior to the band’s official announcement. These orders have been cancelled, and purchasers will be refunded.
Crock Of Hits will be available in four different configurations – single vinyl, double vinyl, single CD and triple CD – with the extended formats containing live tracks, radio sessions, and a new edition of the Masters Of The Universe theme featuring Queen’s Brian May. Full tracklists below.
“Crock Of Hits will startle you,” proclaims Justin. “Hold you as you tremble. And gently force you to succumb to its aural splendour. A ‘best-of’ curated by us, so you can be certain it’s the bestest of the bestiest. Suck it up, people!”
The band will promote Crock Of Hits with a UK and Ireland arena tour in December, with support from American country rock band Brothers Osborne and fellow Lowestoft rockers A at the Scottish, English and Welsh shows. Full dates below.
(Image credit: Warner Music)
The Darkness: Crock Of Hits tracklist
Vinyl LP 1. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Single Version) 2. Growing On Me [3:30] 3. Love Is Only A Feeling 4. One Way Ticket (Radio Edit) 5. Barbarian (Radio Edit)
1. Open Fire (Radio Edit) 2. Heart Explodes 3. Nobody Can See Me Cry 4. The Longest Kiss 5. Rock And Roll Party Cowboy 6. Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)
Double LP 1. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Single Version) 2. Love Is Only A Feeling 3. Growing On Me 4. Get Your Hands Off My Woman 5. Friday Night [2:56] 6. One Way Ticket (Radio Edit)
1. Is It Just Me? 2. Every Inch Of You 3. She Just a Girl, Eddie 4. Barbarian (Radio Edit) 5. Open Fire (Radio Edit) 6. Solid Gold
1. Japanese Prisoner Of Love 2. Rock And Roll Deserves To Die 3. Heart Explodes 4. Motorheart 5. Nobody Can See Me Cry
1. The Longest Kiss 2. I Hate Myself 3. Rock And Roll Party Cowboy 5. Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) 6. Masters Of The Universe (Full Version)
Single CD 1. I Believe In A Thing Called Love 2. Love Is Only A Feeling 3. Growing On Me 4. Get Your Hands Off My Woman 5. Friday Night 6. Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) 7. One Way Ticket 8. Is It Just Me? 9. Every Inch Of You 10. She Just A Girl, Eddie 11. Barbarian 12. Open Fire 13. Solid Gold 14. Japanese Prisoner of Love 15. Rock And Roll Deserves To Die 16. Heart Explodes 17. Nobody Can See Me Cry 18. The Longest Kiss 19. I Hate Myself 20. Rock And Roll Party Cowboy 21. Masters Of The Universe (full version)
Triple CD 1. I Believe In A Thing Called Love 2. Love Is Only A Feeling 3. Growing On Me 4. Get Your Hands Off My Woman 5. Black Shuck 6. Friday Night 7. Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) 8. I Love You 5 Times 9. One Way Ticket (Radio Edit) 10. Is It Just Me? 11. English Country Garden (Live) 12. Knockers 13. Every Inch Of You 14. She Just A Girl, Eddie 15. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (BBC Session)
1. Barbarian 2. Open Fire 3. Hammer & Tongs 4. Million Dollar Strong 5. Roaring Waters 6. All The Pretty Girls 7. Buccaneers Of Hispaniola (Live) 8. Solid Gold 9. Japanese Prisoner Of Love 10. Lay Down With Me, Barbara 11. Rock ‘N Roll Deserves To Die 12. How Can I Lose Your Love 13. Heart Explodes 14. We Are The Guitarmen 15. Confirmation Bias
1. Welcome Tae Glasgae 2. Nobody Can See Me Cry 3. Motorheart 4. You Don’t Have To Be Crazy About Me… But It Helps 5. Speed Of The Nite Time 6. The Longest Kiss 7. I Hate Myself 8. Rock And Roll Party Cowboy 9. Hot On My Tail 10. Walking Through Fire 11. Masters Of The Universe (Full Version) 12. Mortal Dread 13. Masters Of The Universe (Featuring Brian May)
The Darkness The Best Of… UK and Ireland tour 2026
Dec 01: Belfast The Telegraph Building, UK Dec 02: Cork The Savoy, Ireland Dec 03: Limerick Live At The Big Top, Ireland Dec 08: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK Dec 09: Leeds First Direct Bank Arena, UK Dec 11: Manchester AO Arena, UK Dec 12: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK Dec 13: Cardiff Utilita Arena, UK Dec 15: Brighton The Brighton Centre, UK Dec 16: London The O2, UK
Back in the day, before streaming or downloading, many people (most, perhaps) discovered new music by browsing record stores. While fine for artists that were easily categorized, that presented a problem for groups that were mashing together genres and trying to create a new sound. Austin was one epicenter of that creative experimentation, and one […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TALIA HOIT SET TO TAKE SYMPHONIC METAL TO THE HIGH SEAS AT 70,000 TONS OF METAL 2027
Following the Release of Her Acclaimed New Album “When The Skies Fall,” Talia Hoit Joins a Stacked International Lineup Featuring Exodus, Wolfheart, Brymir, Avaland and More
JACKSON, TN – September 3, 2026 – The timing couldn’t be better for Talia Hoit .
Just days after the release of her powerful new full-length album “When The Skies Fall” via SAOL, a division of CMM GmbH , symphonic metal artist Talia Hoit has been officially confirmed for 70,000 Tons of Metal 2027 , bringing her music to one of the most prestigious and unique metal festivals in the world.
Hoit’s appearance aboard the 2027 sailing comes at a pivotal moment in her career. Her second full-length album, released August 28, has already received international attention, including an impressive 8/10 rating from legendary German metal publication Rock Hard Magazine .
Now, she is taking that music to sea.
70,000 Tons of Metal 2027 will feature 60 bands performing two sets each , bringing thousands of metal fans together for an unparalleled festival experience aboard the ship.
And the lineup is getting seriously heavy.
Among the latest wave of artists announced alongside Talia Hoit are legendary thrash metal veterans Exodus , Finnish melodic death metal powerhouse Wolfheart , Finnish melodic metal act Brymir , cinematic metal project Avaland , and Famous Strangers , adding even more international firepower to an already massive 2027 lineup.
For Talia Hoit, being selected for the festival represents a major new chapter following the release of When The Skies Fall .
The album finds Hoit pushing her deeply personal songwriting into a larger symphonic metal landscape, combining intimate piano and vocal compositions with sweeping orchestration, powerful metal instrumentation, and emotionally charged performances.
Rock Hard Magazine’s Iberis praised the album as an “even more powerful and evocative evolution” of Hoit’s 2024 debut Oceans , ultimately describing When The Skies Fall as:
“A work as powerful as it is fragile.”
The publication also characterized Hoit’s songwriting as “art born from urgent necessity, not commercial calculation.”
Those words speak directly to the heart of Hoit’s music.
Long before the songs became fully realized symphonic metal compositions, many began as personal reflections, poems, melodies, and emotional processing. Hoit describes this foundation as her “piano confessional” , where deeply personal experiences become the starting point for songs about identity, transformation, love, grief, loss, resilience, and emotional survival.
Now those songs are headed to one of metal’s most legendary stages.
And in the case of 70,000 Tons of Metal, the stage just happens to be floating in the middle of the ocean.
FROM “WHEN THE SKIES FALL” TO 70,000 TONS
The release of When The Skies Fall marks a significant evolution in Talia Hoit’s artistic journey.
Following her 2024 debut album Oceans , Hoit has expanded her sound into a cinematic and emotionally expansive form of symphonic metal while maintaining the intimate songwriting foundation that makes her music uniquely personal.
Singles including “All You Want” and “Again” have already introduced listeners to the album’s emotional world, while the complete ten-track record tells a much larger story of what happens when everything familiar begins to crumble and the struggle to discover what remains.
That journey now continues aboard 70,000 Tons of Metal.
For an artist whose music explores the tension between devastation and hope, there may be no better setting than a ship filled with thousands of metal fans, surrounded by ocean, with some of the world’s most respected metal acts performing just steps away.
Talia Hoit is going to sea.
And she’s bringing When The Skies Fall with her.
70,000 TONS OF METAL 2027
70,000 Tons of Metal is the world’s largest heavy metal cruise, bringing 60 metal bands and thousands of metal fans together for an unparalleled festival experience at sea. Every band performs two sets during the voyage, giving fans an opportunity to experience their favorite artists in an intimate and completely unique environment.
The 2027 lineup continues to expand, with recent announcements including Talia Hoit, Exodus, Wolfheart, Brymir, Avaland, Famous Strangers and more.
For official festival information and the latest lineup announcements:
https://70000tons.com/home/
WHEN THE SKIES FALL
Artist: Talia Hoit Album: When The Skies Fall Genre: Symphonic Metal Release Date: August 28, 2026 Label: SAOL, a division of CMM GmbH Format: Full-Length Album Tracks: 10 Status: OUT NOW
For Fans Of: Nightwish, Within Temptation, Epica, Delain, Evanescence
LISTEN TO “WHEN THE SKIES FALL”
https://orcd.co/wtsf
Listen to “Again”:
https://music.suricatemusic.com/Again
ROCK HARD MAGAZINE REVIEW
8/10
“A work as powerful as it is fragile.”
“Art born from urgent necessity, not commercial calculation.”
Rock Hard Magazine – Iberis
PRESS / MEDIA
For press inquiries, interviews, reviews, premieres, features, and coverage: zach@metaldevastationradio.com
The name may be unfamiliar, but the musicians behind VIOLENCE ONLY are anything but newcomers to brutal death metal. Drawing personnel from Between The Killings, Stabbing, Flesh Hoarder, Horrific Visions, Embodied Torment and Enfrenzied, the US-based group will release its self-titled debut EP on November 6 through Comatose Music. After several delays, the five-track recording […]
“Disaster Dawn” opened the campaign for Abomination of Mind. Its follow-up now pushes SAGITTARIUS further into the darker and more progressive territory promised by their debut album. The Polish heavy metal band have released “Voice of Myst,” the second single taken from Abomination of Mind, which arrives worldwide on October 9 through Wormholedeath. Built around […]
Within the independent music world, there’s been a growing enthusiasm this year for Historic New Jersey, a recording collective and/or record label in Philadelphia making retro-tinted pop-rock, scrappy yet finely crafted, familiar but seemingly beamed in from an alternate timeline. The hype started to build in February, when Emily Moales graced us with her brilliant Star Moles album Highway To Hell, and it intensified this summer, when siblings Sam and Louise Sullivan released their charming and inspired Love & Devotion. Kevin Basko, whose home studio plays host to all this creation, has been regularly name-dropped in coverage of these projects, and it’s left me wondering when we’d get a potential breakthrough release from his own project, Rubber Band Gun. Without notice, that time has come.
It always stops me in my tracks a little bit when I’m reminded that the same Martin Rygge that is responsible for one half of the guitar insanity in Oslo avant-grinders Beaten to Death is also responsible for one half of the chin-stroking technical wizardy in Oslo progressive metal trio Grant the Sun. The band took a small corner of the prog metal community by surprise with their debut, Voyage. Comparisons were drawn to Meshuggah, post-SYL Devin Townsend, newer Cynic and the like, none of which anyone in their right mind would dispute. Three years on and the band — also consisting of drummer Håvard Sveberg and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Markus Lillehaug Johnsen — are ready, set and itching to offer up their latest work, Biomes. Set to be issued by Mas-Kina on October 16th, Biomes continues in the same vein, though with an increased expansiveness in the chord selection and arrangement department and a greater sense of melodic maturity.
“Tedium” is the album’s first single (and second track) and today we’re offering an advance listen. Says the band about the song: “‘Tedium’ is about the endless desert, a barren and boring landscape that never changes. It was one of those songs we had no idea how to approach when it came time to record the drums. The track is a bit all over the place, with an early Pantera vibe running through it, but somehow all those different elements came together in the end. We felt ‘Tedium’ became the perfect single to showcase what this record has to offer: unpredictable, restless, and heavy.”
For more info, pre-orders and all that jazz, connect at: