It would seem easy to assume that for conceptual ideas come with the territory if all his works were as earthbound as a certain dilogy was, yet, fortunately, they’re not. With the ivories wizard’s link to other part of the … Continue reading →
British heavy metal Rattlesnakes have announced the release of their debut full-length offering, Shadows In The Night, on October 30th 2026 via Listenable Records. To promote this release, the band announced a special show at The Hairy Dog in Derby, UK. Read more…
After a privileged life seeing the best bands, it takes something out of the ordinary to get me freshly excited. However, an exception was a rare trip to these shores by Sammy Hagar- as a band member and solo artist … Continue reading →
Echo & The Bunnymen have announced the forthcoming release of Apples For Isaac, their first new album in 12 years.
The Liverpool indie veterans will release what will be their thirteenth studio album via BMG on September 18.
The album, the follow-up to 2014’s Meteorites, features late Blondie drummer Clem Burke – who passed away, aged 70, in April 2025 – on 10 of its 11 tracks.
In a statement accompanying the album news, the band say, “The mighty, legendary Clem Burke – longtime friend of Mac [frontman Ian McCulloch] – was integral to the making of the album, and heartbreakingly passed away during its completion… love you Clem X”
The tracklist for Apples For Isaac is:
1. Take Me By The Hand 2. Can’t Be Sold 3. Brussels Is Haunted 4. I’ll Be Your Sunshine 5. Hijacked 6. The Honey 7. Unstoppable Force 8. The Light That Surrounds You 9. Lab Rats Ran 10. Asimov 11. We Prayed In The Dark
As a preview, the release of the record is preceded today, July 16, by the release of its first single, Brussels Is Haunted.
The lyrics to the first verse of the single run:
“Here comes Plastique and Bert Bertrand We danced at The Classic all night long Enchanté Belgique et Le Place Grande We drank Rum and cassis and beer blonde”
Watch the video below:
The band have a brace of shows in London and Glasgow later this year.
They will play:
Sep. 22: London Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Sep. 23: London Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Dec 20: Glasgow Barrowland Dec 22: Glasgow Barrowland
The quintet were recently hand-picked to support My Chemical Romance at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium, with MCR frontman Gerard Way hailing Ian McCulloch’s band as “one of the great bands of all time.”
Eight long years after releasing their explosive debut Legends, Novareign returns with long-awaited follow-up Shifting the Axis of the World. In his glowing review of Legends, Doc Wvrmheartily compared Novareign’s potent shredfest to DragonForce’s unabashed technical prowess while simultaneously praising the Los Angeles power-proggers’ songwriting chops. And he wasn’t wrong—for over an hour, Legends unites anthemic, massively addictive power metal hooks with fret-scorching fireworks. Yet with such an incendiary debut comes dreadfully high expectations, and with such a long wait between releases and a couple of lineup changes, Novareign direly needs a worthy successor. Can Shifting the Axis of the Worldrekindle the stuff of Legends?
Largely, Shifting the Axis of the World maintains the formula that made Legends so damn fun. Long-form power metal awaits listeners, but this time the overarching album length ducks under the hour mark and feels shorter than its fifty-four minutes suggest. Legends nimbly avoided feeling scattershot, and Novareign whets their songwriting on Shifting the Axis of the World even further, constructing a rocket-fueled blast through seven tracks as they take their established power-prog base and add a heaping dose of heavy metal. During Shifting the Axis of the World’s runtime, Novareign crams the bravado and complexity of Angra or Ascensioninto the classic heavy metal sensibilities of Van Halen or Maiden,1 and the result is at once impressive and comfortingly familiar.
Though the technicality displayed on Legends persists, Novareign integrates it with more finesse on Shifting the Axis of theWorld’s compositions. The guitar tandem of Balmore Lemus and newcomer David Walston glitters across tracks “Sun & Moon” and “Mors Indecepta,” unleashing flurries of arpeggios and wrist-crippling riffs sure to please fans of high-velocity hijinks. Bassist Moises Galvez also steps into the spotlight (“Ode to the Masses,” “Sun & Moon,” “Blood of the Game”), adding a welcome depth of front ‘n’ center groove that Dr. Wvrm noted was wanting on Legends. Vocalist David Marquez supplies yet another improvement to Shifting the Axis of the World. A few moments on Novareign’s debut stretched the limits of his range, particularly when he added extra grit, but here Marquez sounds completely in control without sacrificing any dynamism. Shifting the Axis of theWorld supplies ample opportunities for Marquez, where he belts out in a tone that reminds me of Ronnie Romero (Lords of Black, Elegant Weapons) delivered with Bruce Dickinson’s theatricality and forges hooky as fook choruses (“Ode to the Masses” and “Sun & Moon,” especially). Lastly, Ulises Hernandez (Anubis) pummels and flits across his drums with precision clobbering, ensuring no weak links in the Novachain.
Even with Novareign addressing all the quibbles mentioned in their debut’s review, I come away feeling like Shifting the Axis of the World holds back just a touch. The performances are faultless, the songwriting has evolved, and the production never gets in the way of showcasing Novareign’s supreme musicianship—so what’s the rub? Ultimately, though the approach to compositions feels more considered, they sound a bit too safe as well. “Blood of the Game” demonstrates dynamic pacing with enticing peaks and valleys, yet it sprawls over seven minutes. It doesn’t drag, but it also doesn’t leave me wanting any more than it just gave me, either. Shifting the Axis of the World is cohesive and driving, yet its individual tracks extend long enough that none demand immediate replay or serve as a quick jolt of power.[Power Paladin’s “Sword Vigor” continues to be my go-to in 2026.] In the end, this is a meager nitpick, yet it inhibits my likelihood to return as often as I otherwise would. Still, after several plays, I continue to be surprised at how quickly the album goes by, and not once have I wearied of Novareign’s charms.
Without a doubt, Novareign supplies bountiful, jubilant fun on Shifting the Axis of the World. Even though it doesn’t have quite enough jet fuel to propel into list territory, I can’t deny that Shifting the Axis of the World stands as one of the best power metal albums of 2026 so far alongside Lovebites, Power Paladin, and Triumpher. If you’re a fan of progressive power metal or a fiend for gratuitous metallic cheese, don’t let Novareign escape your listening orbit.
Rating: Very Good!! DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3 Label: M-Theory Audio Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook Releases Worldwide: July 17th, 2026
In 1983, Ozzy Osbourne released Bark At The Moon, the album where he’s on the cover looking like a werewolf. That was awesome, and you couldn’t ask for a better twist on the whole Ozzy thing. Yesterday, the Montreal fuzz-pop auteur No Joy dropped a new track called “Barking At The Sun.” I don’t think she was necessarily trying to flip that Ozzy title, but the inversion still makes sense, at least to me.
Greatness can often follow a stern refusal to chase the latest trend, and in the case of German power metal veteran band StormHammer, it’s been business as usual for the lion’s share of their 3 decade career. Born out of the alternative rock-dominated wasteland of 1993, nonconformity was in this outfit’s blood from day one as they steadfastly stuck to their traditional heavy metal guns in a time when it was far from fashionable, paving the way for new horizons at the dawn of the new millennium.
Their 2000 debut Fireball would see them tied in with the then-exploding 2nd wave of European power metal, though stylistically speaking they were closer to the traditional template set by the likes of Grave Digger and Running Wild. Despite being continually subject to a revolving door of lineup changes that has found bassist Horst Tessmann as the lone founding member, they’ve continued to be an example of controlled evolution married to a firmly rooted traditional style, resulting in a consistently strong yet varied output, and their 9th studio LP Wrath Of The Hammer is no exception.
In many respects, this 10-part manifesto of hard-hitting metallic splendor could be seen as yet another rebirth of this longstanding power metal institution. Barring the aforementioned co-founder Tessmann’s integral work at the bass and lead vocalist M. Nox’s gravely wails reprising their role from the 2022 Never Surrender – 30 Years of Power compilation, the membership involved in crafting the sonic palace that rounds out this opus is comprised of new recruits.
The dual guitar assault of Phil Meyers and Christos Efstathiou bears a rather uncanny resemblance to the masterful riffing display put on by Mani Schmidt and Thilo Hermann during the late 2000s era of Grave Digger, with some occasional Helloween-inspired technical flourishes. Yet the glue that truly holds this kinetic blast of mid-80s Teutonic speed and thrash metal mayhem with a consonant melodic gloss together is the drum work of ex-Benediction kit man Ashley Guest, who channels the militant aggression that Thomas Stauch brought to Blind Guardian throughout the 90s and proves to be the lynchpin in this album’s unique approach of blurring the lines between thrash and power metal.
In a structural sense, Wrath Of The Hammer embodies all the elements of a classic early 2000s 2nd wave album, perhaps even more so than the material that StormHammer originally contributed to that era. Breaking the silence with a massive symphonic overture dubbed “Beware”, this album proceeds to hit the ground running at full speed and takes very few opportunities to catch its breath. Between driving earworm anthems with plenty of bite like the title entry “Wrath Of The Hammer”, “Ashes Of The Throne” and “Wheels Of Eternity”, the first half of this album presents an unrelenting dose of high-octane, riff-happy fury. Throw into the mix a rerecording of the 2022 crusher “Light In The Dark” off the last album, featuring the vocal talents of Grave Digger’s Chris Boltendahl and Primal Fear’s Ralf Scheepers no less, and this entry leaves a massive crater in the earth before it’s halfway through.
The latter half of this raging metallic beast is no less formidable, though it does take a few more occasions to allow nuance to coexist with unrelenting power. The mournful power ballad “Guardians Of The Night” recalls the lighter side of the coin with a folksy and symphonic gloss, yet ultimately finds itself kicking up the tempo and the heaviness factor considerably at key points. The closing hurrah “The Dune” opts for a pace that could be considered close to mid-tempo, but often digs deep into the thrashing abyss for a few biting segments and lays on the symphonic and epic elements pretty thick. Yet in the same manner as the earlier offerings of this berserker offering, the lion’s share of time is spent flirting with the more insane side of the mosh pit with pummeling riff machines like “Veil Of Fire” and “Shattered Dominion”, to speak nothing for the harrowing speed thrashing masterwork “Scars Of The Abyss”, definitely a brilliant blend of melodic triumph and raw aggression to rival the title song for greatest standout of the bunch.
Insofar as power metal originals that have stood the test of time, StormHammer has had the bizarre disposition of being one of the most qualitatively consistent purveyors of the style but also has been comparatively obscure in relation to their contemporaries. Wrath Of The Hammer is the sort of album that brings the same level of speed, intrigue, and staying power as the better-known works of Stormwarrior and Paragon; yet they remain a lesser-known quantity even next to said bands despite having respectable runs under such noteworthy labels as Massacre Records and Century Media Records.
Then again, their present endeavors under the banner of Reigning Phoenix Music might solidify them as the true dark horse outfit of the 2020s. Any power, thrash, or old school heavy metal junkie worth their salt will want to hear what this opus has to offer, particularly if mid-2010s entries Echoes of a Lost Paradise and Welcome To The End found favor in one’s speakers at full volume. Make ready for the storm and the thunder of the hammer’s mighty wrath!
Release Date: July 17th, 2026 Record Label: Reigning Phoenix Music Genre: PowerMetal
Musicians:
Horst Tessmann / Bass
M. Nox / Vocals
Phil Meyers / Guitars
Christos Efstathiou / Guitars
Ashley Guest / Drums
Wrath Of The HammerTrack-list:
1. Beware 2. Wrath Of The Hammer 3. Ashes Of The Throne 4. Light In The Dark 5. Wheels of Eternity 6. Guardians Of The Night 7. Veil Of Fire 8. Scars Of The Abyss 9. Shattered Dominion 10. The Dune
Following the release of their debut single “Shame“, Italian melodic power metal band Aletheya unveil “Chasing The Sun“, the second single taken from their upcoming debut album “Chance To Reborn“, due out on next September 18th, 2026. Supported by an official music video, produced by Kinorama Studio, “Chasing The Sun” reflects Aletheya‘s own definition of power metal: speed, power […]
Eight long years after releasing their explosive debut 
