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  • Jupe Jupe Release New Single “Down With The Setting Sun,” New Album King Of Sorrows February 27 On No-Count Records

    Seattle-based darkwave band Jupe Jupe is excited to release their new single “Down With The Setting Sun” and its accompanying band-created music video. The track is the latest single to be released from the band’s album King Of Sorrows on No-Count Records on February 27 (pre-order). “Down With The Setting Sun” marks the fourth single from King Of Sorrows, delivering an aggressive take on a […]

  • Shoreline Released New Single And Video

    Emo punk/hardcore outfit SHORELINErecently announced their new album, Is This The Low Point Or The Moment After? is due for release on 13th March 2026 on Pure Noise Records and now they release single ‘Youthfully Naive’ as they start their UK tour with label mates Arm’s Length, Koyo and Ben Quad.  ‘Youthfully Naive’ is about seeing someone you look […]

  • Praying Mantis: Official Bootleg Box Set Vol 1 Due April 2026

    Praying Mantis have a four CD box set of archival live recordings due to be released on 26th April 2026. Titled as The Official Bootleg Box Set Vol 1 – Live in Japan, it contains two performances from Nagoya. Two CDs made up a show from 1993 and the other two discs from 1998. It’s […]

    The post Praying Mantis: Official Bootleg Box Set Vol 1 Due April 2026 first appeared on New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

  • Erik Klinga: Hundred Tongues – album review

    Erik Klinga – Hundred Tongues (Self Release) DL available here January 23 2026 Swedish composer Erik Klinga creates an inspiring and regenerative ambient album, full of subtle contrasts and tough melancholy. The Flemish master painter Peter Paul Rubens often used expanses of dun colours or light greys to highlight the suspense happening elsewhere in his […]

    The post Erik Klinga: Hundred Tongues – album review appeared first on Louder Than War.

  • DUK: Dani Urbane Kulture 2015×2025

    When you think about the cultural landscape of Serbia, it’s far too easy to get tunnel vision and focus solely on Belgrade. But if you’ve been paying attention to the cracks in the pavement and the vibrant colors crawling up the grey concrete of the provinces, you know that the real revolution has been brewing […]

  • Cobweb – Cobweb EP Review

    [Cobweb Logo by Tanya Finder]

    As an individual who’s spent the better part of the last four decades venerating and meditating over the works of Mercyful Fate (and King Diamond), I have made my stance on imitators fairly clear over the years: Best to leave it alone, because the formula is entirely unique and there’s really no safety net if you botch one or more of the necessary cauldron ingredients. Take a couple elements as primary influences similar to, say, early In Solitude? Yeah, that can work. Nail that cold, cavernous upside-down church vibe the way the Negative Plane debut did back in 2006? Definitely on board with that. Take things one or three steps further like Portrait, Attic or Them? Nowwww I’m starting to get itchy. To be clear, I understand why people dig such crews, but I’ll stick with the magick meteor strikes at ground zero from King & amigos because there’s a lot of it, all of it ranks from good-to-perfection, and I happen to be a loyalist chud.

    Release date: January 11, 2026. Label: Independent.
    Right. So, Oakland, CA’s freshly minted Cobweb is clearly obsessed with Mercyful Fate. What they do very flipping right, though—which quickly (and thankfully) assuaged my anxiety inside its earliest moments—is rooted in the way this introductory EP launches from the dark like some lost raw Fate demo circa 1982. Like, holy shit do I ever wish King could hear something like this and suddenly remember that getting down to the business of rocking like your comped drink tickets depend on it far eclipses 666 layers of studio sparkles and being the textbook definition of a fusspot. Attack your instruments and microphones like they’re trying to hide the secrets to eternal life, and do so from what sounds like some sort of eeeeevil crypt that’s surrounded in cold, unforgiving stone and septic lichen.

    This is a 25-minute EP with three songs, so each track is long and fairly knotty in a “Satan’s Fall” kind of way, even if opener “Mourning Blood” eventually tromps out a quiet interlude that sounds 2 degrees shy of a much more sinister “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” segue.

    Again, this is clearly motivated by early Fate cave drawings, so take a healthy measure of the punkier side of the NWOBHM, add several shakes of the next level of extreme that upped the intricacy and tacked a handwringing form of fiendishness to the formula, and finish it all off by pounding ten metric tonnes of fiery melody on top of it all. So, expect 90º turns from hot rockin’ into genuine heaviness, usually at the behest of a grubby riff breakout, and get ready for loads and loads of torrid lead battles that, if I’m honest, attach the most satisfying Fate-ism to this little kick-ass EP. Point of fact related to that last detail: Of all the bands that have attempted a similar pathway as this, it is Cobweb that manages to conjure the authentic spirit of that classic Denner / Shermann interplay, thanks to guitarists Mike Flory and Sam Edelman’s excellent soloing up and down these 25 minutes.

    Regarding the vocals, I would say Alex Kalpakoff does a really good job of capturing the vibe of early King, but I appreciate how he manages to sound like—and I hope this doesn’t come across unfavorably—a huskier version of KD: More emphasis on the sinister lows than the falsetto, and with enough gravel in the delivery to make the listener wonder if he could just as easily front a band like Scissorfight (Balls Deep!) or Orange Goblin. It works!

    Nuts and bolts: If you appreciate classic sinister heavy metal with heaps of lead battles and a vibe that underscores loads of nuns having absolutely ZERO fun, the debut EP from Cobweb will absolutely launch itself into your fiery playlist.

    Photo by Tash de Valois

    The post Cobweb – Cobweb EP Review appeared first on Last Rites.

  • V/A – Current Affairs CD (Subunderground C.A.)

    When you think about the DNA of the underground, it’s rarely about a single band or a single city. It’s about the connective tissue, the fanzines, the tape trades, and most importantly, the compilations that bridge the gap between different scenes. Freshly landed on the desk is Current Affairs, a massive 17-track collection released just […]

  • Reviews: Wolverine, Paganizer, Sleeping Giant, Qasu (Matt Bladen, Rick Eaglestone, Mark Young & Joe Guatieri)

    Wolverine – Anomalies (Music Theories Recordings) [Matt Bladen]

    When I saw the name Wolverine I did think that perhaps I’d be in for some heavy metal about everyone’s favourite Canadian X-Man but no siree bub as this Wolverine are a prog metal band from Sweden. Anomalies is their first album in a decade and the line up that recorded 2016’s Machina Viva remains in tact, Stefan Zell the soaring, emotive, vocalist in the mould of Damian Wilson via Einar Solberg. He brings passion to massive classic prog metal tracks such as My Solitary Foe and a closer more intimate delivery on Circuits which twitches with insistent electronic drums, horns and ambience. 

    Behind him the band all play with virtuosity, Jonas Jonsson’s guitar jangles with gothic overtones right out of the Katatonia songwriting school, the drumming of Marcus Losbjer gives Nightfall it’s potency and anchor. The album is anchored around a trilogy of songs (A Perfect Alignment, Circuits and A Sudden Demise) all linked by the concept of passing time and going back over your life from the prospect of it getting closer to ending. This repeating pattern of thought reflects the repetition that is used in the riffs for these songs, most of which are directed by Thomas Jansson’s bass grooves.

    The keys of Per Henriksson, are the keystone to many of these songs, be it the synthy electronic thumps, the swathes of 2000’s down tempo/ambient, atmospherics on The World And All Of Its Dazzling Lights or the classical piano on the beautiful Automation. Like many of their peers, Wolverine started out in the death metal scene but then shifted towards the gothic and gloomy prog metal and with Anomalies they are still finding ways to make it enthralling. 9/10

    Paganizer – As Mankind Rots (Xtreem Music) [Rick Eaglestone]

    Drawing from the Stockholm sound’s grittiest traditions, Swedish death metal veterans Paganizer return with their crushing assault As Mankind Rots
    .
    Opening title track As Mankind Rots wastes absolutely no time – a battering ram of buzzsaw guitars and pummelling drums that very much establishes the template for what follows, this feels like a great progression that maintains the elements that have seen Paganizer endure as a staple of the Swedish death metal scene for years.

    Devoured finds the album hitting its stride early – guttural vocals, tremolo riffs tinged with melody – this right here is quintessential Paganizer, this is exactly how they’ve maintained their status as underground death metal royalty – this hasn’t been a quick rise but a well-measured campaign of consistent, quality brutality that is very well executed and more importantly, authentic. The band’s tight performance throughout contributes such hard-hitting elements, if you need an example of this then go and put Aftermath Bleeder on very loudly – nothing short of crushing with its mid-tempo groove that absolutely punishes.

    Only Maggots serves as a brief but necessary intensity shift and introduction to Put On Your Gasmask which features devastating vocal patterns with a great grinding tempo that alongside some brilliantly executed riff progressions ticks all the boxes for me, and this is why I consider this the album’s absolute highlight. This is followed by the most relentless and aggressive delivery on Hollow.

    A Testament To Madness brings the album back to where it had been previously, again using a wealth of dynamic shifts which on this occasion delves more into the tremolo-heavy passages, but again power, gut-wrenching vocals combined with chaos is certainly a cocktail that Paganizer delivers so well. The guitar tone throughout is absolutely filthy in the best possible way. 

    Shades of Entombed and Dismember fire through via Afterworld which instantly appeals to the nostalgic death metal enthusiast, but there is very much a fresh stamp to it, very much in keeping with the overall aesthetic of the album. Rogga Johansson’s riffs here are particularly inspired, managing to feel both familiar and ferocious.

    The Rotting End has a nice, doom-laden vibe overall, but the bleakness is never too far away and sweeps through into One Way To The Grave, and if you’ve been following the Swedish death metal resurgence, I don’t think you would disagree that this would fit in perfectly alongside the genre’s modern classics – the leads into the chorus passages are just so well developed and executed with precision.

    Vanans Makt closes the album with a track sung in Swedish, adding a nice touch of authenticity to proceedings whilst maintaining the absolutely devastating heaviness that’s been consistent throughout – again using the classic Swedish death metal buzzsaw tone that really lifts it so that when the more crushing mid-tempo parts cut in, they are even more impactful, demonstrating the musicianship as a collective with clever dynamics and absolutely devastating groove.

    Now, if there have ever been any questions about Paganizer’s commitment to pure death metal devastation, this album should fully cement their legacy, and quite frankly not only from what I have heard on this album but previous efforts, it’s abundantly clear that Paganizer more than deserves the respect and attention in this space as honestly its wave upon wave of razor-sharp riffs all wrapped in a ball of unbridled Swedish death metal fury.

    The production here is absolutely monstrous, thick as concrete but still allowing every riff to cut through with surgical precision.

    A relentless display of old-school death metal fury. 7/10

    Sleeping Giant – The Beauty Of Obliteration (Octopus Rising/Argonauta Records) [Mark Young]

    A long time coming, The Beauty Of Obliteration is the debut release from Icelandic heavies Sleeping Giant. With a list of influences that take in Down through to early Mastodon and genres from Stoner to Extreme metal, this is a release with many facets and is a rewarding one too. There can be no doubt at all that this is a band that bring you what you want most, gloriously thick riffs, battering drums and super guttural vocals that do that rare act of being both extreme but you can understand as the same time. 

    Conqueror starts, and it has a filthy groove to it, especially once it hits halfway and I defy anyone not to nod along to this. Like early Grand Magus, it has that swing to it where the riffs chosen are just perfect. Mobilizer Of Evil drops next, its riffs tightly packed and its one of those songs that you want to jam on. Its been awhile since I’ve said that, and like Conqueror it has that movement to it, tempo changes that come and go without sounding out of place. You can hear their influences at work here, but its not shameless in its execution. 

    They take the best and make it their own, building their songs to suit. As opening 1-2’s go, it’s a cracking start and one that continues through the album. They consistently find the right riff, the best arrangement on each track and once we get into it, they show that they are not afraid to go down a progressive route with song lengths to match. The Monk, is quality, with a build that goes where it wants to, constantly moving and taking in a touch of thrash here and there. They are so precise it is easy to forget that this is their debut, such is the way each song drops on you.

    Closing the album out is the 3-minute rager, Venom Ripper, Gorgon Blaster which tears along nicely with one of the coolest names you will see and is like a reset switch before they drop in what I believe will be a smasher live: Abysmal Flame.

    Bringing that groove in and detonating it to full effect, this is what I consider to be feel good metal. Its hard to explain what I mean by this, its something that you would need to hear yourself to get it. Imagine something that makes you want to dance, delivered with energy and an eye on classic rock. Now imagine that its 9 minutes long and just flies by, its power to make you nod along undeniable. It’s the perfect antidote to a crappy day at work, and if you are of that persuasion you can smoke to it. Personally, it’s one of those songs that I would to learn, the buzz coming from blasting it out.

    It sounds great, everything is positioned well and there is no jockeying for position in terms of what you can hear. As debut’s go this is a stormer, as mentioned their influences loom large without dominating and the songs themselves stand tall. Hopefully, it gives them a platform to push on from, and I hope we see them tour the UK soon. 8/10

    Qasu – A Bleak King Cometh (Apocalyptic Witchcraft Records) [Joe Guatieri]

    Qasu are a three-piece Experimental Black Metal band based out of both the UK and the US. Their debut album which I’ll be reviewing today, A Bleak King Cometh, was made remotely, across the globe from each other. The band has put nothing out before this, I haven’t heard of any of its members before and as far as I’m concerned, there wasn’t much press surrounding this release either and all of that mystery really does fascinate me. I’m going into this record as blind as it gets.

    It’s difficult to describe the experience, the seven tracks that are presented here contain these Blackened soundscapes which are terrorised by meteor showers of ideas. Much like with the opener, The Bitter Waters Of The Abyssal Sea, it feels like that three or four songs are all being played at once of completely different genres. To name a few different flavours, you’ll be encountering the likes of, Ambient, Darkwave, Pop and even Harsh Noise and somehow it all fits together miraculously.

    The songs as a whole have a habit of washing over me, collectively they are all five minutes in length at least, I enter through a portal into a new world but by the time I’m connecting with a sound that I like, I’m transported into somewhere else. The album as a whole is more focused on the journey then what it is the destination, it’s always searching, never settling.

    If I could point to a moment which I enjoyed the most it would be within Jewels Where The Eyes Once Were. The vocals are animalistic and there is a piercing noise that pops up as well, matching the intensity shown, so much so that it’s hard to know where one ends and the other begins. They are not even at battle with each other, they’re just together as one. It paints a picture in my mind of a bear being woken up by accident from hibernation, it’s immediately on the attack and you now have no hope of survival.

    Credit to Wayne Adams who mastered the album as it’s honestly so loud, if you turn up the volume of your headphones your brain is going to rattle around in your skull, it’s tinnitus inducing and I love that about it!

    Overall, with A Bleak King Cometh, Qasu has constructed a unique listen that always keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. The biggest compliment that I could give the record is that it’s like a soundtrack to a movie that was never made. I’m impressed by what Qasu have done here and will look forward to seeing what they do next. 7/10

  • Re:O – Reverie

    Some music outlets release full-length albums, while others are bound to share singles, which is perfectly fine if those tracks are catchy, memorable, and engaging. If you compare those two formats, you can notice that it’s far more difficult to release standalone singles than albums, mainly because there is no room for mistakes. The separate […]

  • People with Passion – Stefan Franke

    With this series of upcoming articles we want to introduce you to some fine folks behind the scenes of the “music-industry”. As most of you might have guessed, the records you are listening to are a result of the work of a lot of people. So enjoy our small peek behind the work of a product manager at Nuclear Blast Records.

    Interview with Stefan

    Who are you and what’s your job?

    My name is Stefan Franke and I work as a project manager (abbreviated PM) at Nuclear Blast Records in Germany.

    How does your work look like?

    I am responsible for setting up and coordinating releases and album campaigns from the moment an artist delivers the audio masters, artwork, and metadata up until the moment the vinyl spins on your turntable, you play the CD or stream it. I have to communicate a lot with artists/managements as well as with the label’s team to ensure a variety of departments in our company (Sales, PR, Marketing, Layout, Accounting, Production, Distribution etc.) all have the right parts and information they require in order for them to be able to do their job. It is a very diverse type of work, with a lot of tiny steps required to reach the goal of making new music available and a mix of creative and logistic aspects as well as a lot of data management, plus understanding of product details, contracts, the metal scene and audience we ultimately want to reach.

    How did you end up doing this job? What has been your career so far?

    I got into the music industry by chance. Over 25 years ago, I studied German and English literature as well as Social Psychology in Bochum and got a bachelor’s degree. I originally intended to become a journalist but an internship I had to do during this time was at a PR agency called Verstaerker in Witten. I was writing for some underground metal zines and webzines at the time already and a friend of mine recommended me to apply for this internship. It made me realize that records do not just happen but are being made by a lot of folks working behind the scenes, which was a real eye-opener. The same guy told me to get an internship at Century Media Records in Dortmund, I got it and in 2005 I had to do driving duties and pick up a workmate after a show of Slipknot and Shadows Fall in Amsterdam. On the way back he just asked me if I would be interested in becoming a trainee since my writing skills – everyone in the PR department where I was working during that internship hated writing press releases – and I said yes since I loved writing. Of course, my tasks became more diverse over time, and my official job education title translates to salesman for audiovisual media.

    After dragging myself through the time at university, this job education really motivated me, I finished it with great grades and it gave me a career perspective. I worked as a publicist, as a sales assistant, did artist sales, found my true home in product/project management, had the chance to meet artists that I was a fan of, and workmates that are family to me. Then, Century Media was sold to Sony and a few years later, in 2020, moved partially to Berlin. With my family life in the Ruhr Area, moving to Berlin was never an option, and a friend got me in touch with Nuclear Blast who were fine with home office arrangements, and I am working there in my sixth year, alongside two other former Century Media fellows and a great bunch of people.

    Was it always your goal to do a job like this?

    No, it never was. It all happened by accident or luck, and a lot had to do with bumping into the right people at the right time and learning that behind every album there are passionate, skilled people who help release it, and that my very nerdy interest in this genre could actually serve a purpose.

    What was the first band you took care of? What the latest? Has there been any “fave bands” among them?

    The first release I have ever made was a tape by the death metal band Drawn And Quartered from Seattle in 2004 for the Ancient Spirit Terror label a friend of mine was doing besides the mag of the same name for which I was writing before joining Deaf Forever. It was completely DIY. The guys had sent me a CDR with the master and some files for the layout. I did my best to photoshop a design and dubbed the tapes on my home stereo. It looked like crap but I loved doing that. The first professional releases I did as PM during my Century Media days were reissues of French death/thrashers Massacra, and for Nuclear Blast the latest is the new Immolation record, a band I personally like a lot and is super pleasant to work with.

    The new Kreator record and the Dismember discography are highlights, because I know I have invested a lot of time and dedication in making those as perfect as possible. Working on the last Paradise Lost album was also special since they have been a favourite band of mine since 1993. I also love Blood Incantation and doing “Hidden History…” for Century Media with them was fantastic, such great musicians and premiere league level nerds. My daily task is to deliver a service that assists an artist to have a professional release and well-planned campaign, to me it does not matter much if it is an album by Steve Hackett or Watain, I have the privilege to support creative human beings, and do that with pleasure and respect for any type of artistic expression.

    The nicest parts of the job are…

    Hearing an album for the first time. The moment of being more or less the first to hear a song or an album months before it is released, is something that I enjoy a lot, in that moment I feel artists/managements trust me to now start doing the right things to ensure a new release becomes a great product and the label works hard to make it successful. I feel responsible to honor that and try to show that through the level of quality work I can offer. Also, holding the finished LP or CD in my hands is something I really love. Even though I am happy if a release looks good on Spotify, Apple, Deezer, Tidal, Amazon Music etc., holding a LP or CD in my hands and checking if the print and pressing quality are fine is what I love most about this work. I am the first to check a product, even before a band or fan has it, and consider it my responsibility to make sure it is worth buying. Just as an example, on one of the albums I worked lately, in the document with the lyrics the artist had sent me, I noticed one paragraph they did not use, this part could have been accidentally printed if I would not have compared master versus the lyrics, I want to be that guy who helps avoiding such flaws.

    The most annoying sides of the job are…

    Waiting for the parts to arrive. Honestly, it doesn’t matter which band it is, if I personally like it or not, I always want to get started and must watch deadlines and I am very enthusiastic with getting hands-on with a record. So, if a band is late or delivers a master just on deadline – that kept me busy today actually – it can be a bit annoying since you have to be mindful of lead times for distribution both digital and physical. It’s a bit like working on a construction site, if the guy with the bricks shows up late, you’re going to have a long day.

    Furthermore, you have to become very resilient to stress and the frustration of artists or management when things do not work out as planned. Conversations can get pretty intense then, this work can easily take a toll on your mental health as it does not come with a manual on how to react in such situations so developing the experience and empathy to be able to give professional advice and not take it too personal if someone is unhappy with results is quite important. Being honest, being supportive and respectful is key to a good relationship between label and artist, and I do my best to provide that.

    Which 3 records have influenced your musical taste the most and why?

    Just three? Haha, that’s almost impossible. Metallica – The Black Album is of course super important. I was 12 when my mom bought me the tape and my whole room was covered in posters of them. The first five Metallica albums are the best.

    Next up is Death, even though Dismember were the first death metal band I heard. Death is probably the band I listened to most in my life and death metal my favourite style of music.

    Third would be Dissection as they paved the way to get myself used to the snarling vocals and atmosphere of Black Metal. But I am happy to have nerdy talks about everything from Townes Van Zandt to Morbid Angel anytime. I like old stuff from the 60’s as well as current releases, music just has to move me somehow. 

    Check out the Bandcamp-page of Nuclear Blast Records to listen to some of the bands Stefan is working with.