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Get all the details on the Metallica frontman's engagement. Continue reading…

Perth based melodic death metal outfit VANTA return with their debut full length album Perpetual Selection, a cinematic and concept driven record that explores humanity’s darker instincts through the lens of cosmic horror, mythology and dystopian sci fi. Perpetual Selection is a sonic and visual journey – Inspired by Indonesian dark folklore and survival horror […]

American death metal pioneers SIX FEET UNDER will unleash their Next To Die full-length on April 24 through Metal Blade Records. Next To Die marks a new creative high for SIX FEET UNDER, its dozen songs marking the band’s fifteenth album since 1995’s Haunted. “It started out as an album full of death metal songs […]

What you see in 2026 is very different from 2024's opening night. Continue reading…

Melbourne-based progressive rock project Fleeting Joy has unveiled debut single, Unravel, featuring Amariah Cook of Future Static. The debut is an energetic and chugging introduction to the collaborative vision of songwriter, guitarist and creative mastermind Jordan Lalchand. Blending progressive rock, metalcore and alternative influences into something cohesive, Unravel tackles the weight of carrying other people’s […]

Shat out of hell? Indeed. The epically unpronounceable, utterly indecipherable and altogether uncompromising gore merchants, Sanguisugabogg, are returning to Australia in June 2026 with special guests PeelingFlesh. And fans are loving it. Perth and Brisbane recently had their venues upgraded to fit more miscreants in and now Melbourne’s huge 170 Russell has officially Sold Out! […]

When old-school Traditional Heavy Metal looks fondly upon its family tree, it sees that it has birthed a host of sub-genre descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. And like most ancestors, it looks out upon its progeny with both pride and revulsion. For instance, it seriously doubts that “progressive dissonant blackened metal” can actually be related to it and eyes that genre’s mail/milk person with suspicion. But then it sees the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal and smiles at the straightlaced apple that didn’t fall too far from the proverbial tree. But even then, the Old Timer sees two different shades of its mini-me, one that incorporates all the bells and whistles of today’s newfangled production values, and one that wears the thrift shop aesthetic of olden days. I really dig bands that can pull off the latter effectively, bands like Century, Lord Mountain, and the gold standard of my recent memory, Legendry. ¹

Quebec’s Ravenspell is hoping to join that mighty new-olde company with their debut full-length effort, Obsidian King. Sample the embedded single and album opener “God the Watcher”, and you’ll hear Ravenspell chain its pocket watch to its three-piece suit as it tries to sound as long in the tooth as possible. The song blasts off like a saint out of hell with some rapid riffing and a siren wail from vocalist Alisander the Seer. Clocking in at under four minutes, it sets a blistering tone for an album that will constantly walk the line between classic and speed metals.

Like genre leaders Visigoth and Eternal Champion, these guys channel old granddads of metal Manilla Road and Iron Maiden as they serve up sword and sorcery sermons with sweet earworm choruses. Good luck getting “Onwards We March” or “Book of the Dead” out of your head—the latter earns bonus points for kicking things off with a sample from Army of Darkness. Interspersed throughout the more balanced tracks are sub-three-minute, cocaine-fueled speed racers(“Hellstorm” and “Battleaxe Apocalypse”) that hit you and disappear before you even know what happened.

This war wagon nearly made it to the finish line before one of the wheels began to fall off. “Atilla” positions itself to be the Obsidian King’s epic finale, and while it has some cool musical ideas, it ultimately falls flat. Literally. The main vocal lines and backing vocals try to harmonize, but end up clashing in a really unpleasant way. The track also breaks Ravenspell’s winning formula, the one they spent the previous 32 minutes perfecting: classic metal songs at four minutes, speed metal at three. “Atilla” is eight minutes, and in its current form, it just doesn’t work, hun. Production-wise, Obsidian King aims for that old-timey aesthetic of yesteryear, and it mostly hits, despite sounding overly loud to my ears.

Overall, Ravenspell has done the old geezers of metal proud. Obsidian King sounds like it could have been released in the 80s, and for the most part, it delivers the goods. While it may end with a doozy of a misstep, there is over half an hour of quality music here that should please fans of geriatric metal.

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Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Fighter Records
Websites: ravenspell.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/ravenspellofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 12th, 2026

The post Ravenspell – Obsidian King Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

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This is gonna be huge!

Korn have announced their return to the UK and Europe, where they will play some absolutely massive shows with an absolutely massive supporting cast.

The band are making their first trip over since last Summer, where they headlined several festivals, including Download, Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring. It’s their first proper run across the UK since a co-headliner with Limp Bizkit way back in 2016.

And to make up for the time away, they are bringing along some very special guests this time.

Support will come from Architects, Youth Code and Pixel Grip.

So that’s a bit of this for the second half of the tour:

Or a bit of this, for dates on the first half of the tour:

Before a whole load of this:

And then a whole load of this brilliance:

Here are all the stop-offs you need to know.

OCTOBER

18 – STUTTGART Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
19 – MUNICH Olympiahalle
21 – COLOGNE Lanxess Arena
23 – PARIS Accor Arena
26 – LEEDS First Direct Arena
28 – BIRMINGHAM Utilita Arena Birmingham
30 – NEWCASTLE Utilita Arena Newcastle
31 – MANCHESTER AO Arena

NOVEMBER

02 – DUBLIN 3Arena
04 – LONDON The O2
08 – AMSTERDAM Ziggo Dome
09 – ANTWERP AFAS Dome
11 – HAMBURG Barclays Arena
13 – HANOVER ZAG Arena
14 – BERLIN Uber Arena
16 – PRAGUE O2 Arena Prague
17 – KRAKÓW Tauron Arena
19 – VIENNA Wiener Stadhalle
21 – MILAN Unipol Forum

The post Korn Announce UK/EU Headline Tour appeared first on Rock Sound.