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Louder Than Words announces 2026 festival bill

The post Louder Than Words music and books festival announces Nov 2026 bill appeared first on Louder Than War.

So, there’s a thing that happens behind the scenes at Last Rites HQ called ‘Sunday Funday’ where we each pick a random album for the LR collective to listen to during the week, and then we reconvene over the weekend to offer up some words about said album. Any and all records are allowed entry, but so far the exercise does seem to sway toward highlighting releases considered to be lost / hidden gems. That, in a nutshell, is where this episode of Diamonds & Rust germinated and grew into the swollen essay you see below.

Prior to 1987, I was not terribly aware that punk was something I appreciated. In fact, based purely on the assumption that punk was the rebellious choice for those who “hated melody,” I figured I hated it because I loved, Loved, LOVED melodic guitar work. Still, with releases from bands like S.O.D., Zoetrope, Nuclear Assault, Whiplash, Tankard, Kreator, and even Slayer & Metallica in and around 1985 / ’86, I simply had no understanding of just how much influence punk rock had on the output from these ragers. Hell, even the fact that the NWOBHM bubbled into existence via the insistence of punk was 100% lost on me.

By 1987, though, I finally began to realize how strongly the two genres aligned, thanks both to the bands themselves making it quite clear via interviews, liner notes, promo pic shirts and because shows began drawing mixed crowds that included hair farmers, the mohawked and skins / shorthairs wearing flight jackets with orange lining. An Overkill pit in 1987? Not at all crazy to expect a ‘lockstep’ precursor to the wall of death where hardcore kids would lock arms and rush during “Deny the Cross.”

I have spoken of this before in these halls, but I owe a hell of a lot of my introduction to Hardcore with a capital ‘H’ to a friend of a great friend that tape traded with us for the better part of a year or so. We had some commonality via the bands mentioned above, but this dude bettered our lives with introductions to crews such as Agnostic Front, English Dogs, Attitude Adjustment, Token Entry, S.O.B., Murphy’s Law, the first Crumbsuckers, etc., and we floated him heavyweights like Nuclear Assault, Warfare, Zoetrope, Carnivore, Whiplash, Wehrmacht, et al. Suffice to say, it was a rather fruitful union, and both scenes seemed to cross-pollinate right alongside us, with the peak and sudden decline hitting just before we all careened into the ‘90s.

Was any of the work now commonly referred to as ‘crossover’ called ‘crossover’ before DRI released Crossover in March of 1987? Negatory. But like most any over-analyzed sub-genre floating in our sphere in the modern age, the term is now used to throw an overwhelming amount of bands / albums that simply meld any form of punk with some form of metal under one convenient umbrella. For me, and I assume for a number of others, most of what is now considered crossover from the mid-to-late ‘80s was actually a proper introduction to Hardcore with that capital ‘H’, and it felt different than straight-up punk because it was interested in both thrashing very metallically and occasionally being melodic. The second half of “The Eliminator” right out of the gate on Cause for Alarm (1986)? Oh, that was for me. So was Age of Quarrel, Attitude Adjustment’s American Paranoia, Crumbsuckers’ Life of Dreams, etc., all of which were widely accepted as Hardcore, pure and simple.

So, yeah, by 1987 the cross-pollination was very noticeable, with D.R.I.’s Crossover leading the charge and only getting eclipsed by Carnivore’s landmark Retaliation later that year. As a relevant aside, I cannot express just how much hubbub Retaliation garnered back then, both because of its strength as an effective Hardcore crossover record and because of how controversial some of the lyrics were. “These songs are simply a very dark and satirical social critique,” many would argue, and perhaps that was true, but it’s still the first time I recall feeling outwardly uncomfortable with the music I loved, which was significant. Blatant Satanic imagery and underscoring the glory of regurgitated guts just didn’t feel… quite as real, I suppose. Anyway, Retaliation also seemed to drop during a time when, as the two scenes became more and more hybridized, hostilities also appeared to rise, and I distinctly recall seeing the Crumbsuckers (with the desperately unheralded Joe Gizmo and the Spudmonsters) in early ’88 and watching bouncers levying strict rules to anyone in line with a shaved head.

A little more about 1988: I’m really not sure how even I found the time to care about Hardcore / crossover at this particular juncture on the timeline because straight-up metal was delivering banger after banger after banger, along with a handful of total disappointments that I still managed to obsess over (Candlemass, Celtic Frost, Death Angel and Metallica). Point being, in 1988 I was still largely metal-minded and metal-obsessed, but I absolutely did fuck with the following albums from that year that managed to connect with both sides of the metal and hardcore divide:

The Accüsed – Maddest Stories Ever Told
Bold – Speak Out
D.R.I. – 4 of a Kind
Erosion – Mortal Agony
Ludichrist – Powertrip
Num Skull – Ritually Abused
Nuclear Assault – Survive
Dr. Know – Wreckage in Flesh
Prong – Force Fed (yep, it’s crossover)
Slapshot – Step On It
Suicidal Tendencies – How Will I Laugh Tomorrow…
Vio-Lence – Eternal Nightmare
Warzone – Don’t Forget the Struggle / Don’t Forget the Streets

Beast On My Back, though? What a fucking wEiRd curveball that record managed to throw back in ’88. Clearly it was meant for the more adventurous, so it’s not all that crazy to assume that someone who was equally excited by a menagerie like, say, No Exit, Leprosy and History of a Time to Come would willingly dive in headfirst, which I absolutely did. But that album cover didn’t exactly help its cause when stacked next to loads of other records that understood just how much we all judged books by their covers.

Predictably, B.O.M.B.’s arrival produced rather mixed reactions, particularly within hardcore circles. To be fair, that side of the fence was no stranger to Hardcore / hardcore punk bands going too far with hard rock tendencies, thanks to hairpin turns from the likes of SSD (How We Rock in ’84 and Break It Up in ’85), The F.U.’s (who became Straw Dogs and released We are Not Amused in ’86) and Uniform Choice (Staring Into the Sun, also ’88). But what the Crumbsuckers brought to the table following a debut that resonated very loudly with Hardcore crews was just flat-out flipping strange.

Firstly, that album cover…

Band shots as cover art wasn’t exactly rare in punk, but metal-minded folks knew that if an album cover depicted just the players, something probably went wrong at label HQ (*cough* extremeaggression *cough*). B.O.M.B.’s cover essentially looked like a candid shot of five guys that worked at the local pizza joint near the harbor, and I’m guessing guitarist Chuck Lenihan (far left) was the delivery driver because he didn’t want to wear a goddamned hair net. The photo was taken in Long Beach, which is where Relativity sent the Crumbsuckers to record with the same feller responsible for Megadeth’s Peace Sells. Per an interview with bassist Gary Meskil:

“The idea for the cover basically came about as a result of some record company boardroom mumbo jumbo. They wanted the cover to be a band photo because ‘facial recognition’ was something they wanted to achieve for the band.”

Yeah, that did not work as expected. But the cover does feel weirdly iconic today because of its peculiarity.

More importantly, I don’t think anyone was expecting a Hardcore record that sounded… so proggy? Falling in line with crossover, thrash was of course there—you can definitely tell these guys listened to Master of Puppets and Peace Sells as often as they did Negative Approach and Siege. But this was like taking what they’d done with their seminal debut and filtering it through the PMA and sharpness of Bad Brains’ I Against I, plus the sheer boldness of a band like Mekong Delta.

The result: A much more crisp, melodic and swift approach to the riffing, a purposeful positive slant (doubled down via vocalist Chris Notaro’s religious upbringing), and a clear hunger and willingness to take crossover to places no one expected. I Against I might’ve been the closest living relative to B.O.M.B.—listen to the sheer optimism behind a track like “Charge” as an example—but I’d also say the record was tailor-made for anyone who jumped at DBC’s equally unexplainable Universe one year later.

So, yeah, beyond virtually every song’s willingness to turn on a dime and muddle time signatures to explore odd little riff ’n’ rhythm patterns, what you’ll find here is a work that unwittingly seemed like a precursor to… Rust In Peace? Is that fair? I mean, no, it’s really not, but holy crap does Robbie Koebler—a local guitar teacher who also happened to be an understudy of STEVE VAI—ever find a lot of room to shred like a bastard on this thing. The weirdly bright production really boosts his brilliance, too. There’s still plenty of HC stomp and punch to be had, particularly inside the first two cuts and with that wonderfully bruising title-track closer:

Sandwiched in-between, though, we get a smorgasbord of twists and turns that seemed rather opposed to Hardcore circa 1988:

» “Charge,” a song that sounded as if it belonged on Quickness before the Bad Brains managed to release Quickness.

» The instrumental “Initial Shock,” which lands like a legit gesture of pure reverence to Metallica’s “Orion.”

» A total head-scratcher in “I Am He” that twists and turns so often it feels like four different songs inside a very scant 3 minutes and 23 seconds.

» “Rejuvinate,” the forever unheralded cousin of Powermad’s equally unheralded thrash feel-good anthem “Nice Dreams.”

» And of course, whatever the collective decides to call “Remembering Tomorrow”—new age cyborgcore?

Also awesome: The fact that the album manages to reach all manner of strange new worlds and still operate under Hardcore’s strict “keep it under 35 minutes” rule. Get in, hit it, get the fuck out. Amen, sisters and brothers.

The band folded a year after the release of Beast On My Back because of the tried-and-true (and fully understandable) “musical differences.” It was a bummer, really, because they opted to hang it up it up amidst a really spectacular year for crossover, with 1989 not only producing the off-shoot’s apex predator in the Cro-Mags’ Best Wishes, but also slayers such as Excel’s The Joke’s On You, Killing Time’s excellent Brightside, Leeway’s leveler Born to Expire, Sick of It All’s cracking debut Blood, Sweat and No Tears, and Wrecking Crew’s under-appreciated Balance of Terror. So, 1989: Crossover’s peak? Quite conceivable.

The Crumbsuckers saw the writing on the wall, though, so bassist Gary Meskil, drummer Dan Richardson and guitarist Chuck Lenihan (current guitarist for Carnivore A.D.) went on to form a new project called Heavy Rain, whose purpose was to further plumb the depths of the Crumbsucker’s proggier face. Sadly, that venture produced such a quick collapse that nothing ever managed to be officially released, so Meskil and Richardson opted to return to crossover in the early 90s with a new project called Pro-Pain. That venture, plus Biohazard and the further musings from SoIA, continued to fly crossover’s flag for years to come. For many, though, our attention shifted to punk’s influence on metal in the more extreme realms of grindcore and death/grind. Still, for a relatively brief moment on extreme music’s timeline, crossover found its footing, embraced its spotlight, and whooped all our asses. And inside that span, no one did anything even close to what the Crumbsucker’s accomplished with Beast On My Back. A true unicorn of an album.

The post Diamonds & Rust: The Rise And Decline Of Crossover – Just How Weird Was The Crumbsuckers’ Beast On My Back? appeared first on Last Rites.

As the sun set over Knebworth House, standing on an elevated section of the field, overlooking the stage, it almost resembled a scene from the film The Wicker Man. All that was missing was Christopher Lee and his followers singing and laughing as they looked on at Edward Woodward screaming inside a flame-imbued, burning wicker Eddie. I am sure there was am Iron Maiden song about that. 

Iron Maiden

EDDFEST 2026 – Knebworth House – 10-11 July 2026

Words: Steve Kenton / Rhys Tagg

Photography: Manuela Langotsch

The field was packed, several different generations of people, all vying for prime position to watch the biggest Metal band on the planet. After 50 years and thousands of shows, it was hardly surprising that Iron Maiden’s audience range was from 2 to 92 (probably). But they are far from just an audience. The Maiden faithful are family, over 60,000 of them. God help us all at Christmas.  

The menacing overture of a cacophony of sound, the tapping of somebody strolling down a tired old East End street, the rattle of a tube train – then The Ides Of March blast through the speakers like a death march for the damned.

Meanwhile, the graphics on the big screens accelerate and decelerate like a Formula 1 car, stopping at various Maidenesque waypoints. The Cart & Horses, Acacia Avenue, The Blind Beggar, and The Ruskin Arms, all hidden down those dark and dirty little streets. OK. A bit of artistic licence going on there, given that the three pubs are actually on busy main roads

Then gentle, melodic tones fire up before a drum roll heralds the breakneck barnstormer that is Murders In The Rue Morgue, the first of four songs that originally featured the mighty Paul Di’Anno on vocals.

Let’s be honest, Wrathchild, Killers and Phantom Of The Opera are bona fide classics. It is hard to believe that these songs are around 50 years old. To put that into perspective, 50 years before they were written would have been 1926.

Think about that for a moment. Heavy Metal did not exist, the bass guitar would not have been born for another 25 years, and Laurel and Hardy would have just embarked on their career as a double act. Those tracks have not just stood the test of time. They have become more popular than ever.

The musicianship was a masterclass, as you would expect from a group of Iron Maiden’s stature and as for Bruce’s vocals, they were excellent given the difficulties that he faced from the heat and humidity. The legendary vocalist was not averse to having a bit of fun with the audience, with a bit of the devil-may-care about him, Dickinson addressed the audience, saying, “Apologies to all the Norwegians in the audience. We can argue about it after England have won.” The crowd then erupted with a mixture of laughter and cheers.

“Anyway, here we are at the end of the first bit of the Run For Your Lives Tour,” he continued. “It has been 50 years, and here we are in this amazing place with all this grass. The stuff you stand on, not the kind you smoke.” The crowd erupted yet again, breaking into laughter and cheering before ‘Arry and the boys broke into Number Of The Beast.

Those who have regularly attended will know that this number is the very soul of what Iron Maiden are. Fast, vibrant, it does not matter how many shows this track has been played at, it always sounds as fresh as the day it was first played. It iis the ultimate crowd-pleaser, and although the lads are getting older, and some of the set is played at a slightly slower pace, when playing live, Number Of The Beast just does not alter or shift. 

Then came the song that had not been played on tour for 38 years. Out went The Clairvoyant and in came Infinite Dreams. This was a real omission in my opinion and should have featured decades earlier, on other tours. It is a brilliant live track, and despite the vocal challenges of the song, Bruce absolutely batted it out of the park (or field).

Make no mistake, it is an incredibly difficult song to sing, but the vocals were flawless. The beautiful guitar intro, from the Hendrixesque feel to the verses, was pure perfection. Maiden did not have to alter any of the graphics when swapping out The Clairvoyant, which was a bit of a bonus too. 

With old familiars such as Powerslave and Two Minutes To Midnight, following, the crowd erupted. The opening drum sequence on Powerslave does differ from previous live performances over the decades, and the guitar solos differ from previous ones, but Powerslave is one of the great live numbers and is adored by the fanbase. This was never more apparent than at Knebworth. Then down it came – THE BIG ONE.

Now, I love Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, every single note of it. But playing this at Knebworth, with the most incredible graphic display you will ever see, just catapults it to another level. The audience was utterly immersed in a display of sheer wonderment. And those six lads up there on that stage? Well, there are not enough superlatives to describe the performance and the display.

With such a striking graphic display, it does draw your attention away from the band themselves. But that is not a criticism. So much work and care has gone into the track that the audience were quite frankly, blown away by it.

Another old favourite in Run To The Hills was served up, prompting the usual crowd interaction and high-octane bass-playing from possibly the best bass player on the planet. This was, however, followed up by something quite extraordinary. 

Now I want you to sing a high single note and then hold it for 25 seconds. Now do it with a bug, in heat and humidity and in a field. Not quite as straightforward, eh?

Bruce ended up apologising to fans for his raspy voice, saying he had picked up a bug in Spain. Yet even while struggling with his voice, he still managed to perform a massive setlist that singers half his age and fully fit would struggle with. He was immense.

Here, they stand, brothers them all. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son erupted with that wonderful keyboard intro. This number had only been played on one other tour since it was first played in 1988, so it was time for this one to have another run-out. Messrs Smith, Murray, and Gers, with their triple guitar attack, were all on top form as you would expect, but it was Bruce who once again shone like a beacon in the fading light.

Just before the quieter mid-section of the song, leading into the spoken word part, Dickinson held a single note for almost 25 seconds. That is not his personal record, incidentally. He has managed 30 seconds before. But to hold a note for around 25 seconds is extremely difficult, yet he manages to make it sound easy.

Knebworth went ballistic, and rightly so. Then the chugging, staccato, distorted guitar, Harris’s melodic bass playing, always leading, Dawson’s high hat and symbols leading up to an explosion of light-speed fretwork. An awesome track, brilliantly played. Then came the Trooper and everybody’s favourite decomposing corpse entered

Look, we’ve all seen him turn up, generally during the same song in the set, but we all love him, wielding his sword around like a guitarist flinging his axe around (yep, that means you, Janick). Obviously, Maiden absolutely rocked this one as they always do, playing with their usual sense of urgency and vigour, Steve Harris playing those triplets like a man possessed, Murray Smith and Gers with fingers flying around the fretboard.

A sight to behold, indeed. Maiden loved it, the crowd loved it, Eddie loved it.

For me, the next track was one of three which stood out, not just because of the absolutely thunderingly brilliant musicianship, but the sumptuous graphics. Alongside Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, that £2m digital backdrop made you feel like you were on an epic film set. The way that Dickinson disappears into the screen and emerges as an avatar fighting the image of death itself is utterly enthralling. A magic trick worthy of Simon Drake of Raising Hell fame, himself.

There was a little disappointment at this point in the night’s wonderful proceedings as a bit of an exodus started to take place to watch the Norway v England World Cup quarter-final. The lads, however, were not deterred from putting on a blistering performance of Iron Maiden, followed by a three-song encore led by Churchill’s Speech, breaking into the third standout number of the night, Aces High.

Again, those graphics enhanced an already brilliant song. The display of Squadron Leader Eddie T Head flying his Spitfire, rolling over and spinning around to come up behind a Messerschmitt or two and blast the bejesus out of them was incredible. In fact, it was so convincing, it would not have surprised me if one or two members of the crowd tried to get a sick bag from an air steward. 

Fear Of The Dark was then followed by the ever-popular Wasted Years, bringing up the rear.

After half a century of not just leading the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal charge, not just dominating the rock and Metal genre, but actually influencing the entire music industry worldwide in some way, it is impossible to overstate the importance of this band and their incredible team.

From Rod Smallwood and Dave Shackleton in the management team to crew members like George Marinov and the Killer Krew, everything is done with precision and purpose. Otherwise, they just could not function in the way they do. The whole EDDFEST weekend is a testament to that.

Iron Maiden do not just produce songs, they tell epic stories that demand your attention. Festivals do not come any bigger or better than this.

Iron Maiden are the Rolls-Royce of the music industry. 

The post Iron Maiden Crown EDDFEST With A Masterclass 50 Years In The Making first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

CRAWLERS have unleashed a new track, taken from their upcoming EP ‘TURN OFF YOUR TV’.

Titled ‘COOL’, it is a bass-heavy tune full of catchy poetry and shimmering admissions. It shows off the band at their most cheeky and confident, every second dripping with decadent intent and thoughtful prowess. Ebbing and flowing between spiky and caramel smooth, it’s a sign of just how little they are holding back in this brand new era. Because the world is burning, so why would we just sit back and let it happen?

Vocalist Holly Minto had this to say about it:

“COOL” is all about the pressure to constantly keep up appearances and pretend everything’s fine, even when you’re falling apart inside. Peers’ encouragement when you’re indulging in self-harming behaviour, then being stuck in this performance of having it all together, using distractions like alcohol and trying to stay “cool” to cope with the weight of it all. But it’s exhausting and unsustainable.

“It’s about being self-aware enough to know that the obsession with being “cool” is a way to survive, but it’s also a facade. There’s a constant battle between wanting to be real and honest versus staying fake to protect yourself. But the pressure is building, and they can’t keep up the act forever. There’s also a strong awareness of the world’s problems—the climate, politics, everything is burning up—and asking, “How can I keep playing it cool when everything’s falling apart?”

‘TURN OFF YOUR TV’ will be released on August 14 and can be pre-saved right here.

The artwork looks like this:

Whilst the tracklisting is more like this:

1. AFRAID TO DIE
2. STAY ALIVE
3. COOL
4. ALL WE HAVE IS US

The band will also be playing a special show at London’s Village Underground on November 20. Tickets are available from right here.

The post CRAWLERS Share Smooth New Track ‘COOL’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Metalcore would not exist in its current form without Detroit legends WALLS OF JERICHO.  With genre defining records like

Today, New York duo Content Blocks unveil their new single and accompanying music video, “Beach Resort,” the latest glimpse into

The new record releases on August 28 via Better Noise Music

Source

Stand Atlantic have announced the details of their new full-length album, the follow-up to 2024’s album ‘WAS HERE’.

Set to be titled ‘GODBREATH’, it will be released on October 23 via Virgin Music Group.

The artwork looks like this:

Whilst the tracklisting is a little bit more like this:

1. LUCID
2. NEXT2U
3. Velcro
4. SO COOL
5. Favourite Flavour
6. finger
7. d.L.M.A
8. EDGE OF VEGAS
9. teeth
10. HeadRush
11. Gimme A Show

As well as featuring recent single ‘Velcro’, you can also check out the opening track right now as well.

That is ‘LUCID’, a bright, breezy and bold piece of crossover pop-punk that speaks as much to the band have been in years past as who they have been in recent times. Finding a suitable middle ground, it is an irresistible and iridescent slice of catchiness.

Vocalist Bonnie Fraser had this to say about it:

“This was a hard track to figure out. ‘LUCID’ was one of the last songs we wrote for this record and I was kind of done. I felt like I was running out of things to say that wouldn’t feel super contrived. So I went plain and simple, I thought ‘I’m not going to overthink this, let’s go with what self-sabotage feels like’, and explored that lyrically.” 

The post Stand Atlantic Announce New Album ‘GODBREATH’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Lost Fire started by recording raw demos in a room by the crashing waves of the Chilean coastline. They then moved to a recording studio in San Francisco, where they laid down the final record in just four days. The album features Josef’s powerful vocals and Tomás’s intense guitar work, supported by a solid rhythm section that includes Gawain Mathews on bass and Kyle Caprista on drums.

Rejecting the sterile, over-edited, and hyper-quantized trends that dominate modern airwaves, Lost Fire remained committed to the classic analog philosophy of “first take, best take.” Driven by pure and unfiltered improvisational synergy, they captured almost every track on the album in just one or two takes. It is 100% human, recorded live, and bursting with kinetic, physical energy.

“We had an incredible amount of fun tracking these songs, and you can feel that absolute freedom and exuberance in the playback,” Josef reflects. “We just let the tape roll and let the music explode. It’s the ‘Lost Fire’ songwriting style, stripped down to the bones with the volume turned all the way up.” 

Veterans of the late ’90s and early 2000s emo and indie rock scene Time Spent Driving have announced their new