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Strings personally curated a stage of metal and hardcore heavy hitters for his inaugural bluegrass event.

The post Watch: Bluegrass Star Billy Strings Joined Cryptopsy Onstage At His ‘Ionia Freak Fair’ appeared first on Theprp.com.

Under low-hanging grey skies, Edinburgh Summer Sessions was getting ready for its heaviest night yet. The lineup for the night was made up of Ecca Vandal, Idles, and headliners Deftones. Ecca Vandal took the stage at 6:00 pm. It’s impossible to pigeonhole her performance or her music, as she blends hip-hop, pop, electro, punk, and … Continue reading Gig Review: Deftones / Idles / Ecca Vandal – Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh (27th August 2026)

TRIVAN: VANJA ŠANTAK TALKS LOSS, INNER DEMONS, AND THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND ETERNAL SHORE

Croatian extreme metal band TRIVAN recently joined The Zach Moonshine Show on Metal Devastation Radio for a powerful conversation about music, loss, self-discovery, the band’s unique philosophy, and their upcoming debut album, Eternal Shore .
Vanja Šantak, the driving force behind TRIVAN, opened up about the deeply personal experiences that have shaped the band’s music, including the recent loss of his beloved dog.
The conversation began with “Abyss of Crawling Shadows,” an emotional track originally inspired by someone Vanja knew who was struggling with depression. At first, Vanja wanted to write about something he didn’t personally understand. That changed after his dog suddenly became seriously ill and was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Vanja was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to put his dog to sleep.
The experience gave the song an entirely different meaning.
For Vanja, dogs aren’t simply pets. They’re family, companions, and beings capable of communicating through a language of pure emotion. His loss became one of the major emotional forces behind the music he is now creating.
A STRANGE NEW BEGINNING

Not long afterward, Vanja encountered another dog under circumstances he described as almost impossible to explain.
He discovered a litter of puppies born on the same day as his previous dog. Among them was a black male puppy who wasn’t originally shown in the photographs.
When Vanja eventually met the puppies, that particular dog immediately ran toward him.
After bringing the puppy home, another strange thing happened. Despite being only a few months old, the dog seemed to know exactly where he was going and already understood basic commands.
The experience even caused Vanja to reconsider his previous disbelief in reincarnation.
The story has already inspired another TRIVAN song, which is currently being mixed and mastered.
WHAT DOES TRIVAN MEAN?

The name TRIVAN combines the ideas of triviality and vanquish , representing the band’s desire to defeat the trivial things that can consume our lives.
The band began taking shape in 2018 after Vanja had stepped away from music for several years. Following lineup changes and the disruption caused by COVID, he eventually returned to his original goal of creating darker and more extreme music.
By around 2023, the TRIVAN lineup had come together.
But the band wasn’t interested in simply repeating the usual black metal themes.
Instead, TRIVAN’s philosophy is about confronting your own darkness.
Vanja describes the band’s demons as the darker parts of ourselves that we often try to avoid. Rather than simply destroying those demons, he believes we should understand them, confront them, conquer them, and ultimately learn from them.
It’s a philosophy that runs through the band’s music.
FROM PERSONAL PRESSURE TO “BLACK AND HARD PLEDGE”

One example is “Black and Hard Pledge,” which came from a period when Vanja was working toward his PhD.
The pressure to become the best student of the year began consuming him. He stopped training, gained weight, and eventually realized he had lost sight of himself.
Looking in the mirror became the breaking point.
The song became a promise to himself to stop allowing outside pressure to destroy his inner peace and to become the best version of himself.
Another track, “Dance of Death,” takes a wider look at society, conformity, hypocrisy, and the constant pressure people face to follow whatever trend comes next.
The title references the medieval concept of the Dance of Death, where death dances with everyone regardless of wealth or status.
The message is simple: eventually, everything ends.
Ironically, just weeks after the song was released, Vanja had to say goodbye to his dog, making the song’s themes of mortality even more personal.
ETERNAL SHORE

All of these experiences eventually became part of TRIVAN’s upcoming debut album, Eternal Shore .
Originally planned as a 13-song album, the record was eventually reduced to eight tracks because of the length and depth of the songs.
The album is heavily influenced by Vanja’s own life.
One of its most personal songs, “Eternal Shore,” came from spreading his dog’s ashes on a beach where they had spent time together.
Vanja explained that he wants the same thing for himself someday.
Rather than being buried in a casket, he wants his ashes spread on that beach so he can symbolically spend eternity there with his dogs, watching the waves, sunsets, and sunrises.
It is a surprisingly peaceful image for an extreme metal record, but it perfectly captures what TRIVAN is about.
Darkness doesn’t always mean despair.
Sometimes you have to walk through the darkness to find peace.
OLD-SCHOOL METAL AND THE CROATIAN SCENE

Vanja also talked about discovering metal growing up in what was then Yugoslavia.
His uncle played in a rock band, so guitars, drums, bass, and rehearsals were part of his childhood.
Later, Alice Cooper’s Trash became a major influence, followed by bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Marduk, Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, and Immortal.
In the 1990s, discovering new music meant listening to radio programs, visiting record stores, and actually hunting down physical CDs.
Vanja reflected on how different that was from today’s streaming world, where virtually every band on Earth is only a few clicks away.
The Croatian metal scene itself remains active, with concerts happening regularly and international bands frequently passing through the country.
TRIVAN hopes to eventually expand beyond Croatia, with plans for shows throughout Slovenia and Austria and, eventually, the United States.
MORE THAN 10 MILLION VOTES

TRIVAN also made serious noise recently by winning a Battle of the Bands competition with more than 10 million votes .
Vanja explained that the band’s massive support network stretches across the globe, including Croatia, Chile, Japan, and elsewhere.
He even mobilized people in his own apartment building and neighborhood, including a local Facebook group with tens of thousands of members.
The band’s supporters didn’t simply click a button once and walk away.
They went to war.
And the results were undeniable.
THE ROAD TO AMERICA

TRIVAN is currently preparing Eternal Shore for its planned February release while continuing to release singles and build its audience.
The band is also working with Blood Red Covenant Records to expand its presence in the United States.
And Vanja has one particular American goal in mind.
Tennessee Metal Devastation Music Fest.
After watching footage and a documentary about the festival, Vanja said he and the band would love to make the trip to Tennessee, experience the festival’s raw energy, and eventually share a stage there.
That would be one hell of a way to bring this story full circle.
TRIVAN’s Eternal Shore is shaping up to be more than a metal album. It’s a musical journey through grief, pressure, darkness, self-discovery, mortality, and ultimately finding your own path.
As Vanja Šantak puts it, the goal isn’t simply to run from your demons.
Conquer them. Become friends with them. And come out stronger on the other side.
Listen to the full conversation with Vanja Šantak of TRIVAN on The Zach Moonshine Show below:
Full Track List: 
Battle Of The Bands Top Six Winners:
1 – Okl’s FruitLoops – Scream Of Silence – (1,096,368 votes)
2 – Soul Of Sheol – Paradise Is Not For Us – (60,371 votes)
3 – Rage of Justice – Digital Prison – (17,728 votes)
4 – Heidbekka – Völva – (9,670 votes)
5 – Leach – Serpent Of Time – (5,540 votes)
6 – Mistress – Terrified eyes – (4,271 votes)
The Zach Moonshine Intro
7 – Ozzy Osbourne – See You On The Other Side
8 – Dolly Parton – Purple Rain
9 – Heaven & Hell – Heaven And Hell
Trivan – Interview featuring Abyss Of Crawling Shadows/Dance of Death/Dark Malicious Desire
10 – Ola Englund – DOGMA PROGMA
11 – Smoulder – Water Wars
12 – DOWN – Blood Oath
13 – Superjoint Ritual – Everyone Hates Everyone/Fuck Your Enemy/Dress Like A Target
14 – Burnt Witch – We Hate You – (Electric Wizard Cover)
15 – Hellripper – Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm
16 – Starved of Light – Wander the Holler
17 – Soothsayer – Catfish
18 – THE BLEEDING – Immortal Flesh
19 – Wildfire – Sweet Sensation
20 – Megaton Communion – Echo’s in Time
21 – Dread Witch – Cult
22 – Lord Gryphus – Troops of Doom (Sepultura)
23 – Netherdred – Necrodancer
24 – The Red Mountain – N.I.B.
25 – Webb Of Deceit – Hellswithin (Feat. Dave Frost & Jason Aaron Wood)/In My Wake (Feat. Raven & Jason Aaron Wood)
26 – NEMESIS – Hell’s Last Kiss
27 – Stryfe – Breathe
Full show streaming on Mixcloud: 


The interview is also available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple..


Check out the band on bandcamp and support: 

Abyss Of Crawling Shadows by Trivan
Super huge shout out and thanks to the 279,001 metal maniacs from around the world that tuned in to the live broadcast! 

Maryland-based Clutch are streaming a brand new single, “The Drifter Returns”, accompanied by an official lyric video. Check it out.
Read more…

Deathcore institution from California Carnifex has announced the release of their new long player, More Than Misery. It is set for release on November 6th, 2026 via Sumerian Records. Alongside disclosed details you can check out a video for the first single-title track.
Read more…

“There are only two kinds of music: good music and the other kind,” wrote Duke Ellington in a 1962 essay. Metal didn’t even exist then – imagine that – and six decades on, it would be interesting to find out what the jazz legend would think of metal off-shoots like cybergrind and funeral doom.

In an attempt to make sense of the continually sprawling world of metal and all its subgenres, here’s a comprehensive list of some umbrella terms that may have passed you by.

Atmospheric Black Metal

If the sound of eternal torment recorded on a battered cassette player wasn’t atmospheric enough, this frostbitten subgenre reimagines the black metal blueprint and adds swathes of dense ambient layers to the mix, replacing verses about Gamle Erik with screeching vocals about nature and general melancholy.

Notable bands: Wolves in the Throne Room, Drudkh, None

Blackened Crust

Marrying the relentless hectoring of crust punk and the relentless sonic pummel of black metal, blackened crust combines anti-establishment lyrics with raw power. Imagine Old Scratch writing a strong letter to his local council, then screaming it over the most unforgiving wall of sound.

Notable bands: Martyrdöd, Dödsrit

Cybergrind

This offshoot of grindcore delivers short blasts of glitchy noise over a frantic drum machine, creating time signatures the average human mind could scarcely comprehend. Bear in mind, there is no suitable time to put a cybergrind album on, other than when you’re cornered by robot gangs in a dystopian city war.

Notable bands: Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Genghis Tron

Drone Doom

Slow and low, that is the tempo. Drone doom is the preserve of the patient, with its proponents playing resonant riffs which move at a glacial pace and shake the calcium from your bones. Guttural screams optional.

Notable bands: Sunn O))), Khanate

Electronicore

Here’s a mix of the deliberate chug of metalcore and the world of electronic dance music. In fact, electronicore’s reach is vast, with heavy bands mixing wobbly synths, sub-bass, and pop sensibilities. On paper, it should wind up metal purists, but the genre’s irresistible charm goes a long way at outdoor festivals. Exceptionally good at helping indoor cycling enthusiasts ‘dig deep’ or whatever during a Peloton session.

Notable bands: Electric Callboy, Enter Shikari

Funeral Doom

Amateurs may describe this genre as simply slow and repetitive, but they’d be wrong. It’s doom, but with the added vibe of a winter burial on the outskirts of a desolate industrial town.

Notable bands: Bell Witch, Ahab

Goregrind

An overwhelming and disturbing amalgam of grindcore, death metal, and the sort of imagery that you’d find on the now-defunct Rotten website, goregrind is the most abrasive of all metal. Unless you count gorenoise, which is an elitist subgenre for people who think goregrind is ‘soft’.

Notable bands: Carcass, Repulsion

Heavy Negative Wizard Metal

Australian artist Bob Nekrasov’s solo project, Rebel Wizard, is an unholy blend of power metal, black metal, and New Wave of British Heavy Metal. All the metal, basically. He calls it an “anarchic alchemical process of outsider energies respecting the power of traditional triumphant metal into a unique sound to smash out the coerced gloom and banality of our times.”

Notable bands: Rebel Wizard

Industrial Black Metal

It’s the frosty sound of black metal with all the percussive charm of a foundry. Lovely stuff.

Notable bands: Mysticum, Blut Aus Nord

Jazz Metal

In 1958, legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk said: “Where’s jazz going? I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to hell.”

Almost seven decades later, we can safely say the genre is firmly in the big pit of hot punishment, taking the genre’s swing and improvisational techniques and marrying them to heavy, distorted riffs, the raspy honk of a sax, or a squeaky trumpet parp. Nice.

Notable bands: Shining, Naked City

Kawaii Metal

Named after the Japanese word for ‘cute’, kawaii metal effortlessly blends catchy J-pop with propulsive, aggressive riffs. Metal purists scoffed when Babymetal first arrived in 2010, but the Tokyo-based band took the genre worldwide and introduced their unique take on metal to a whole new audience.

Notable bands: Babymetal, Hanabie

Medieval Metal

If you’ve got a mate who says stuff like ‘my liege’ and bows, there’s a massive chance they’ll be into this music. If they’re not, they’re a time-traveler. It’s metal for people who yearn for the hand-cranked riffs of a hurdy-gurdy, the painful wheeze of the dudelsack, or even the dull thud of a frame drum. If that sounds appealing, then there’s a whole world of minstrel music waiting for you.

Notable bands: In Extremo, Saltatio Mortis

Nintendocore

Thanks to 8-bit computer processors, early console users could enjoy a handful of beeps which soundtracked their games. Nintendocore takes those technologically primitive noises and combines them with rock and metal. HORSE the Band frontman Nathan Winneke is responsible for this particular genre’s name: “It amused us to say that the keyboards in our songs sounded like a Nintendo game. So we said we were ‘Nintendocore’. And now it’s stupid.”

Notable bands: HORSE the Band, Powerglove

Pornogrind

Remember our evocative description of goregrind earlier on? Well, if you swap out the lyrical obsession with disease and death for pornography, then you’ve got yourself a whole new take on extreme metal. It’s cock rock, but not as we know it.

Notable bands: Cock and Ball Torture, Anal Blast

Red And Black Anarchist Metal

Red and Black Anarchist Metal, or RABM, is black metal with left-leaning lyrics that opposes everything National Socialist Black Metal stands for.

Notable bands: Dawn Ray’d

Symphonic Black Metal

Doing away with the genre’s embedded nihilism and general mischief, here we have a focus on gothic and fantasy themes, while adding lush, sweeping strings and crisp production to produce an altogether epic take on black metal. Tuxedos not included.

Notable bands: Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir

Tech Death

With a name that sounds like some sort of a computer calamity, this subgenre takes death metal’s blueprint and adds a sweep-picking virtuosic element to its complex chaos.

Notable bands: Death, Archspire

Unblack Metal

This subgenre has all the hallmarks of traditional black metal – shrieked vocals, cold washes of tremolo-picked guitar, and monotone, Olde English font logos. But here’s the twist: it’s performed by Christian musicians. Horde, one of the genre’s leading bands, are from the frostbitten forests of, um, Australia. Their album Hellig Usvart is the Christian black metal equivalent of Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky.

Notable bands: Horde, Crimson Moonlight

War Metal

While some purists call this subgenre bestial black metal, war metal is basically sonic hostility. While we’re extremely lucky not to have been caught in an actual war zone, we can only imagine it sounds like this.

Notable bands: Blasphemy, Archgoat

Yodel Metal

Metal was forever tainted by this viral guff that combined Alpine singing with heavy riffs. While it’s not strictly a genre, we’ve heard it and now you must too. We could lump Korpiklaani in with this section for including traditional Sámi singing, which sounds a bit like yodelling to the untrained ear.

Notable bands: The Institute of Quackology (sort of)

Zombiecore

We’re on the last letter of the alphabet. There’s a ton of thrash bands obsessed with and inspired by horror films. Take Washington thrashers The Accüsed, who pioneered splattercore, or Leeds’ Send More Paramedics, who named themselves after some dialogue in The Return of the Living Dead and dressed up like zombies.

Notable bands: The Accüsed, Send More Paramedics

All told, the show employed five different lead singers. Continue reading…

Album Review: Accept – Teutonic Titans 1976-2026

Reviewed by Beatriz Pereira

Half a century of Accept deserves a proper celebration, and Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 certainly looks like one!

Instead of just giving us another greatest-hits album, Accept have invited around fifty musicians from the rock and metal world to give 19 of their classic songs a fresh twist.

And with names like Rob Halford, Phil Anselmo, Kirk Hammett, Tobias Forge and Sebastian Bach involved, there are plenty of reasons to be excited.

“Fast as a Shark” comes in fast and loud, with Phil Anselmo, Kirk Hammett, Billy Sheehan and Mikkey Dee adding their own energy to the classic. It’s aggressive, fun and sounds exactly like the kind of track you want to turn up loud.

Then there’s “Balls to the Wall” featuring Rob Halford. Two legendary metal voices coming together on such an iconic song? Absolutely yes!

What I really like about this album is that Accept aren’t trying to replace the original versions. They’re simply having fun with them and celebrating the music that has been part of their journey for five decades.

With so many different musicians involved, every track has something a little different to offer. A mixed of emotions and such a brilliant work put together!

The full album arrives on 4 September, and from what I’ve heard, Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 sounds like a fun, loud and very fitting way to celebrate half a century of Accept.

After five decades, they’re still making plenty of noise and will definitely make fans love it — that’s exactly how it should be!

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Album Review: Accept – Teutonic Titans 1976-2026 appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

The drummer/vocalist dives into how the title of Mastodon's latest LP represents loss, relationships and gratitude. Continue reading…