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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Machine Cult Ritual Announces Debut Album Occult Mechanics Out April 3
Denmark’s industrial underground is about to get a whole lot heavier.
Machine Cult Ritual will unleash its debut full-length album, Occult Mechanics , on April 3 via LÆBEL on all major streaming platforms and Bandcamp. A strictly limited edition cassette will also be available in the United States through Dungeon Squid Productions for those who still believe music should feel dangerous in your hands.
Founded in 2025, Machine Cult Ritual is the industrial death doom brainchild of Danish composer and producer John R. Mirland , also known as Mirland. If that name rings a bell, it should. Mirland has built an international reputation in the industrial and dark ambient scenes through a steady stream of solo releases and production work. Now he turns the dial toward the abyss.
Occult Mechanics fuses crushing doom riffs, punishing drum machines, corrosive synth textures, and cavernous growls into a sound that is as mechanical as it is suffocating. It is industrial death doom done with intent, not trend chasing. Fans of Godflesh , Paradise Lost , and the Filth Pig era of Ministry will find themselves right at home in this bleak, grinding landscape.
Lyrically, the album dives headfirst into folk horror and cosmic terror, weaving tales of ancient dread and mechanical inevitability. The result feels like ritual music for a post-industrial wasteland. Cold, oppressive, and strangely hypnotic.
Mirland’s first step into metal came with the 2021 black metal mini album Liv Uden Liv , released under the name Udpint. With Machine Cult Ritual, he pulls together every thread from his past work, from extreme metal to dark ambient to industrial noise, and forges it into something cohesive and unapologetically heavy.
Produced and mastered by Mirland himself, Occult Mechanics is not a side project. It is a statement. Precision engineered despair with weight behind every note.
Occult Mechanics drops April 3 on all major streaming services and Bandcamp:
https://machinecultritual.bandcamp.com/album/occult-mechanics
Digital and streaming release via LÆBEL. Limited US cassette edition through Dungeon Squid Productions.
Prepare accordingly.
For press inquiries, interviews, reviews, contact: zach@metaldevastationradio.com

Connect: 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588459781626
https://machinecultritual.bandcamp.com/album/occult-mechanics
Contact: machinecultritual@mirland.dk

Reportedly once again as a touring festival.

The post Sharon Osbourne Confirms ‘Ozzfest’ Will Be Returning In 2027: “We’re Gonna Do It” appeared first on Theprp.com.

KITTIE Announce First Full North American Headline Tour In Ten Years

LEGACY OF FIRE TOUR: 30 YEARS OF KITTIE

Set To Hit 15 Cities This June With Special Guests

Kingdom of Giants & Gore

 

Pre-Sales Begin Tuesday, March 3rd | Tickets On Sale Friday, March 6th at 10am Local

HERE

 

 

Canadian metal trailblazers Kittie are marking 30 years of unrelenting heaviness with the announcement of their “Legacy Of Fire Tour: 30 Years of Kittie.” The 16-date North American headlining run launches in June and signals their first full headline tour in more than a decade. The milestone trek celebrates the band’s 1996 formation while riding high on the success of their 2024 comeback album Fire and 2025’s Spit XXV, a re-recorded and reimagined anniversary EP revisiting their breakthrough era. Joining the celebration are special guests Kingdom of Giants and Gore, rounding out a cross-generational bill of modern and legacy heavyweights. The tour ignites June 6 in St. Louis and blazes through June 27 in Montreal, with stops in major markets including New York City, Nashville, Toronto, and more. Pre-sales begin Tuesday, March 3, with general tickets available at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, March 6.

 

Commenting on today’s epic announcement, the band share “We’re excited to announce our Legacy of Fire tour on the eve of our 30th anniversary as a band. Thirty years ago, we ignited a spark. Three decades later, that fire is still burning, stronger and more focused than ever. Legacy of Fire is a celebration of every stage, every struggle, and every fan who carried us forward. Coming back to the US + Canada for our first full headline tour over a decade feels incredible. We’re ready to honor our history while ushering in the next chapter!”

LEGACY OF FIRE TOUR: 30 YEARS OF KITTIE W/ Special Guests Kingdom Of Giants and Gore   Sat, Jun 6 – St Louis, MO – The Pageant Mon, Jun 8 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre Tue, Jun 9 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot Fri, Jun 12 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues Sat, Jun 13 – Phoenix, AZ – Nile Theater Mon, Jun 15 – San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theatre Tue, Jun 16 – Houston, TX – House of Blues Thu, Jun 18 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Fri, Jun 19 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade Sat, Jun 20 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Sun, Jun 21 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage Tue, Jun 23 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza Wed, Jun 24 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium Fri, Jun 26 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall Sat, Jun 27 – Montreal, QC – Théâtre Beanfield

Download Tour Art HERE

On Sale Schedule Soundrink Pre-Sale: Tuesday, March 3rd @ 10am Local Spotify Pre-Sale: Thursday, March 5th @ 10am Local Venue/Promoter Pre-Sale: Thursday, March 5th @ 10am Local General On-Sale: Friday, March 6th @ 10am Local Tickets Available HERE

 

 

The post Kittie Mark Three Decades with Explosive Legacy of Fire Tour appeared first on Mayhem Music Magazine.

Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that Ozzfest is coming back in 2027. Speaking at MIDEM 2026 in Cannes on 02/06, she was unambiguous: “Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we’re gonna do it.”

She traced the gap back to the last edition, a New Year’s Eve show at The Forum in Los Angeles on 12/31/2018 — just weeks before Ozzy Osbourne fell ill. “There were no plans to stop it. We were still gonna do it, but Ozzy couldn’t. And Ozzy and I would talk about it, and he’d say, ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’ And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said, ‘We should do it.’”

That 2018 show drew 12,465 attendees and $1.2 million in ticket sales, with Ozzy headlining alongside Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Korn‘s Jonathan Davis on a solo set, and Body Count. Outside, a second stage was headlined by Zakk Sabbath, the Black Sabbath tribute project fronted by Ozzy‘s longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde.

The festival’s roots go back 30 years, when it became the first national hard rock touring festival in the U.S. It ran as a traveling event through 2007, then scaled back to scattered one-off dates before merging with Slipknot‘s Knotfest for a two-day run in 2017.

Earlier this year, Sharon told Billboard she had already been in talks with Live Nation about a revival, and that the next version would carry a wider musical scope. “I’d like to mix up the genres,” she said. Her pitch for bringing it back centers on what she considers Ozzfest’s original purpose: “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people. We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”

The financial reality of running a festival came up during a 2024 episode of “The Osbournes” podcast, when the family discussed the challenges of booking talent without getting priced out. Sharon was blunt about the problem: “It’s great. That’s what we wanted — everybody to do spin-offs and do their own festivals, and it’s great. It’s great for fans; it’s brilliant. But why is it when it comes to us that everybody thinks that we are trillionaires, and so that every manager who wants their band on our festival wants one of the fucking trillions they think we’ve got to put on the festival?”

Ozzy floated the idea of leaning into lesser-known acts, and Sharon pushed back gently, stressing that headliners remain a necessity while defending the smaller stage as the festival’s real identity: “You can do it for a baby stage, but you still need the headliners. It’s always great to have the baby stage, I mean, that’s what it’s all about — breaking new bands. That’s why we did it.”

She also spoke to the practical value of that developmental setup for newer acts: “It’s very hard for acts who are not known to suddenly go and be in front of 50,000 people on a main stage at a festival and understand what they’re meant to do. It’s very intimidating. You could have maybe five thousand people at that baby stage, and then to go from five to fifty to sixty thousand people, and it’s really, really hard for baby bands. They’ve pay their dues anyway. That’s what it’s all about.”

When son Jack noted that most recent U.S. rock festivals are “basically just Ozzfest,” Sharon took it as validation rather than competition: “Well, it’s the same bands just going around and around and around. But that’s what’s so good, because we started something, people have taken it, and it’s still great for the genre. It’s really good.”

The post SHARON OSBOURNE Confirms Ozzfest Return: “Yes, Absolutely, We’re Gonna Do It” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Clapton’s US dates are in addition to his previously announced run of European shows and Royal Sandringham Estate festival appearance

Metallica is adding six more shows to its “Life Burns Faster” residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, citing overwhelming demand. Full details are expected shortly.

Fan club presale for the new dates opens Wednesday, 03/04 at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Existing Legacy or Fifth Member codes will work for access. Single-Night Tickets, 2-Night No Repeat Weekend Tickets, Enhanced Experience Tickets, and Travel Packages will all be on offer.

The residency was announced on 02/25, following months of heavy speculation. The original eight-show run is set for 10/01, 10/03, 10/15, 10/17, 10/22, 10/24, 10/29, and 10/31, 2026. Like the band’s “M72” world tour — which launched in spring 2023 and has drawn more than four million attendees across Europe, North America, the Pacific Rim, and the Middle East — the residency will follow the No Repeat Weekend format, with no songs duplicated between Thursday and Saturday performances.

The band’s Sphere residency will see live staples and surprises spanning the Metallica catalog, enhanced by the venue’s immersive technologies that will allow fans to experience the sound and fury of the band’s live performance in new experiential dimensions. Whether you’ve seen Metallica from the upper reaches of a stadium or arena, at an intimate club or theater gig or from the famed Snake Pit surrounded by the 360-degree “M72” stage, Sphere’s technology, including the world’s highest resolution LED display that wraps up, over and around the audience; Sphere Immersive Sound, which delivers audio with unmatched clarity and precision to every guest; and multi-sensory 4D technology, will present a wholly unique and entirely new Metallica experience for all who attend — including James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.

Ulrich was direct about how the idea took shape: “About 12 seconds into the opening night of Sphere with U2 back in ’23, I thought, ‘We have to do this. It’s completely uncharted territory!’ This residency gives us another chance to reinvent how we interact with our fans in a live setting. We are beyond excited to share this with the world in six months’ time, and way fuckin’ psyched to go next level!”

The residency is produced by Live Nation and presented by inKind.

The post METALLICA Adds Six Shows To Residency At Sphere In Las Vegas After “Unbelievable Demand” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

London-based teenage metalcore crew Within Reach are kicking off 2026 with a bang. After making a fair bit of noise last year with their massive singles “Armageddon” and “Drip Fed”, the five-piece are back with a fresh track titled “Hesitate”. It’s out now, and it shows a slightly different side to the band while keeping … Continue reading Within Reach drop new single / video “Hesitate” and announce April UK tour dates

“Rock is probably the most dominant ticket-selling thing in the western world, and yet there’s almost no representation of rock in culture.”

The post The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan: “I Think That Rock Has Been Purposely Dialed Down In The Culture” appeared first on Theprp.com.

A tabby cat is what you get when you let nature take its course. Nearly every stray is a tabby because, without selective breeding from human interference, cats just end up looking like that most of the time. Similarly, Atlanta’s Malefic feel to me what you’d get if you let the faster variants of extreme metal reach their natural conclusion. Playing a style that draws from thrash, black and death metal, Malefic formed in 2007 with the stated goal of modernizing black metal. In doing so, they’ve imbued in their slow-cooked debut Impermanence, an intensity and drive befitting a genre-forwarding record. But is Impermanence the cat’s meow, or did Malefic cough up a hairball?

Like how tabbies are genetically diverse but visually similar, Malefic’s many ingredients blend into a kind of extreme metal slurry on Impermanence, all present but difficult to identify individually. Sure, some riffs are more typically one thing than another, like the Testament-like thrash chops opening “In Darkest Dreams,” or the Dissectionesque blackened trems on “Blood of the Throne,” or the Opethian deathly grooves of “It Haunts.” But taken as a whole, Impermanence doesn’t lean towards one sub-genre over another. Instead, Malefic’s mutt-metal manifests into an off-kilter, volatile force of hostility, recalling heavily of the genre-blending approach Xoth take. Xoth are actually probably the best comparison to Malefic, as drummer Aaron Baumoel’s rasps and screams sound a lot like both of their vocal duo, and guitarists Jason Davila and Sam Williams’ solos follow the melodically rich, whammy-friendly stylings of Xoth (“Idiocracy”). Bolstered by a rhythm section of Baumoel and bassist Andy McGraw, who both know how to lay down some serious groove when needed (“Deserter”) and a dynamic mix, Impermanence shows that those years of honing their style have paid off for Malefic. It’s a good sound!

But what confuses me about Impermanence is that it feels aimless in many places, but not because Malefic can’t edit. To the contrary, every song on Impermanence is tight and focused, only running past five minutes on “It Haunts.”¹ Malefic also aren’t indulging in extraneous instrumentals or soloing, as songs like “Of Gods and Man” and “Disembodiment” showcase the band’s restraint within their buck-wild playing. The issue is that Impermanence doesn’t stick with an idea long enough. “Blood of the Throne” and “Obsidian Earth” have, like, five riffs in their first minutes or so each; instead of expounding upon a few ideas, Malefic often churns through ideas before they’ve settled into something sticky. This pattern especially stinks when they land on something great and don’t develop it, like the swinging, discordant riff in the second verse(?) of “Echoes of Silence” or the guitar runs opening “Obsidian Earth.” Impermanence sees a band on a mission, but maybe also a band in too much of a hurry.

What this amounts to is that Impermanence possesses a sound I can’t say I’ve heard before, but also, confusingly, one that’s somewhat indistinct from other extreme metal albums. Malefic’s aforementioned style-soup is so dense with expansive inspirations and somewhat progressive tendencies (“Disembodiment,” “It Haunts”) that, besides some serious Xothisms here and there, it adds up to something not exactly like the sum of all of their influences. But at the same time, Impermanence’s loose structuring and lack of purposeful repetition hampers Malefic’s ability to craft lasting hooks. By and large, most songs start with some fanfare, rage for three-to-four minutes straight while Malefic tear through riffs with reckless abandon like a more evil, more succinct Trivium and end with little resolution. It can be very exciting and enjoyable in the moment, but I’m left with little to remember Impermanence by the time it’s over.

But there is nothing wrong with a tabby cat,² and there’s nothing wrong with Malefic. They’ve carved out a great sound for themselves that more purposeful songwriting could harness into a truly hog-wild time. But where Impermanence excels in thrills, it lacks staying power, mostly in part to Malefic’s restless pursuit of riffs above all else. Fans of blackened thrash, blackened death, death thrash or bethrashened black death could do a lot worse than giving Impermanence a spin, but it’s probably not the genre-shaking game changer the band wanted. There’s always the sophomore album, however…

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Rating: Mixed
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Terminus Hate City
Websites: maleficband.com | malefic.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/MaleficBandATL
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026

The post Malefic – Impermanence Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Titan Arum Unleash “The Phantom of the North” Out Now via Camazots Records
Release Date: February 27, 2026
FFO: Blind Guardian , Ensiferum , Falconer
Genre: Power Metal, Melodic Death Metal
Titan Arum have released their brand new single, “The Phantom of the North,” the first of several upcoming tracks set to arrive in 2026. Blending soaring power metal heroics with a sharp edge of melodic death metal, the band continues to carve out a sound that feels both epic and untamed.
Rooted in a deep appreciation for their local arts community in Peterborough, Titan Arum enlisted artist Nyx to create the artwork for the single. Given full creative freedom, Nyx channeled the band’s dark fairy tale themes and animal-driven imagery into a striking visual companion piece that perfectly mirrors the music’s atmosphere.
Musically, “The Phantom of the North” is an owl-themed power metal epic with a flash of the band’s signature melodic death metal intensity. The lyrics tell an original tale of a mystical owl pursued across dimensions by relentless enemies. The track also features audio sampling from The Secret of NIMH , whose own mysterious owl mythology made it a natural fit for the song’s narrative world.
For production, Titan Arum once again turned to the trusted ears of Tyler Martin at Electric Alchemy for mixing, with mastering handled by Steve Kilpatrick. The result is a polished yet powerful track that captures both cinematic scope and raw metal energy.
Stream / Download:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/titanarum/the-phantom-of-the-north
Label: Camazots Records
Production Credits:
Mixed by Tyler Martin at Electric Alchemy
Mastered by Steve Kilpatrick
Media Contact: zach@metaldevastationradio.com

Connect: 
https://linktr.ee/Titanarumband
Contact: titanarumtheband@gmail.com