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This was the nexus point between what could have been the end of group and an entirely new beginning. Continue reading…

With his family and bandmates confirming he passed away surrounded by loved ones in Australia

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Heavy metal band Anthrax is back with its much-anticipated new album, “Cursum Perficio.” It’s a ranging set of heavy music.

The post Anthrax, ‘Cursum Perficio’ Album Review — A Thrash Metal Triumph appeared first on Audio Ink Radio.

In the spirit of Noctule—Svalbard frontwoman Serena Cherry’s solo meloblack/Covid lockdown project—and their video game theming, I have lore with this band. Noctule’s debut, 2021’s Skyrim tribute Wretched Abyss, was the subject of my audition review for this very blog. Given the assignment was to review an album you’d rate as mixed/2.5, you can infer my assessment of it. So, why then was I so excited to relieve Dear Hollow of reviewing Noctule’s follow-up, Extinguish Thy Flame? It’s not because it’s tackling Elden Ring this time,¹ a game Cherry credits in the promo with saving her life.² It’s because, though Wretched Abyss was a one-note record, that one note was massive. Noctule’s coiling melodies kick ludicrous butt on that album, and I had long hoped Cherry would give her side-project another swing. Well, here it is: Extinguish Thy Flame. Does Noctule seize upon their potential, or is their flame more meager than I had believed?

Rest assured that the aspects that made Noctule’s debut compelling remain untarnished on Extinguish Thy Flame. Wretched Abyss’s formula of interwoven hyper-melodic leads soaring over pummeling drums and Cherry’s commanding bellows was potent in 2021, and you’d best believe it works just as well today. Behold “Become My Blade Once More” and true opener “Devour the Gods;” disregarding Extinguish Thy Flame’s clearer production, these songs could’ve been off the debut. Noctule is still an approachable, hook-first project, typified by surefire bangers like “Grafted,” swapping between chuggy chops and spacious melodies and “Hallowhorn Grounds” with its surprisingly bright atmospheres. The only strength of the debut that takes a minor backstep on Extinguish Thy Flame is in its pacing, as two brief interludes in “Welcome to Limgrave” and “O’ Death” delay/interrupt the action a smidge more than Wretched Abyss ever did. Even so, Extinguish Thy Flame is still a tight and vital listen, and Noctule’s approach to melodic black metal is just as enjoyable as before.

However, Extinguish Thy Flame improves on Wretched Abyss’s greatest weakness: monotony. Where Noctule struggled in refreshing their formula before, an injection of melodeath into their style drastically ups Extinguish Thy Flame’s memorability. Adopting the school of InsOmnium Gatherum sad boi gorl melodeath riffing, Noctule sounds supercharged on emotional barnburners like “Lord of Blood” and “Age of the Stars,” sounding more precise and simply bigger than ever. “Age of the Stars,” “Devour the Gods,” and “Become My Blade Once More” alone have better-quality melodeath riffing than most bands not named At the Gates in 2026. “Big” is ultimately the word for Extinguish Thy Flame; Noctule embed gravitas into cuts like “Lament of the Omen King” and “Grafted” through rich and capacious arrangements, tom-heavy fills, and synth-backed symphonics. Where Wretched Abyss had few moments that broke its mold, every song on Extinguish Thy Flame has its standout aspect. Although monotony does show somewhat in Extinguish Thy Flame’s mostly uniform tempo, Noctule only needed a touch more diversity to level up their game.³

Against the opulence of Extinguish Thy Flame, Noctule casts a shadow of sadness across its runtime. It’s a Serena Cherry album, after all. Noctule manifests as a less confessional, more grandiose version of Svalbard on Extinguish Thy Flame, bearing Cherry’s signature burden of sorrow across its fiery tracks. Overt mourning weighs heavy on “Goddess of Rot”‘s slower tempo and tortured wails, while “Hallowhorn Grounds” wields Svalbard’s bittersweet post-hardcore riffing with conviction. Clean and acoustic guitars coil and harmonize like their distorted counterparts across Extinguish Thy Flame, most noticeably in bridging “Grafted” and “Goddess of Rot,” and succeed in evoking sadness as convincingly as the distorted harmonies do in raising hell. Lyrically, Cherry succeeds in drawing out the tragedy of Elden Ring’s various storylines (“Goddess of Rot,” “Age of the Stars”), proving further the beauty of a bad time. Noctule is as easy-listening as black metal gets, but that doesn’t mean Cherry’s not gonna try and pluck at your heartstrings on Extinguish Thy Flame.

Just as I’d hoped, Extinguish Thy Flame is Noctule better realized. Stronger arrangements, stronger musicianship, a more varied songwriting approach; there was no question that Noctule could weave a killer hook, but their sophomore outing proves the project has legitimate staying power. If you like your extreme metal big and melodic, you owe yourself a listen to Extinguish Thy Flame. If I discover future wannabe N00bs auditioning with this record, I will personally see them snuffed promoted back into the readership expeditiously. Detractors of Extinguish Thy Flame, I brook thee no quarter.

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Rating: Very Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: noctule.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/noctuleband
Releases Worldwide: September 25th, 2026

The post Noctule – Extinguish Thy Flame Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

KIDPUNK have launched into their next chapter with a new label and a scorching new single.

The Newcastle punk band have signed to Easy Life Records, and their first opening move comes in the form of rallying track ‘Surrender’

Speaking about the single, vocalist Shaun Wright has shared:

“Surrender is a song that can be interpreted in many ways, but to me it’s a metaphor for those moments when defeat or heartbreak feels inevitable, but there’s something more honourable going down swinging rather than surrendering without a fight.”

It might be the first track released via their new label home, but KIDPUNK have been very busy this year.

Since the arrival of their 2025 EP ‘BLACKEYE’, they’ve shared a handful of singles, each showcasing a slightly different side of their raucous high-energy sound.

Take a listen to the incendiary ‘BREAK A LEG’ below.

The post KIDPUNK Sign To Easy Life Records, Unleash Rallying New Single ‘Surrender’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

After nine years, Europe returns with Come This Madness, the band’s 12th studio album, as a powerful new chapter for the Swedish rock icons. Set for release on September 25th via Silver Lining Music / Hell & Back Recordings, the album finds Europe continuing to evolve musically while retaining the hard-rock foundation that has defined the band for decades.

Europe, featuring frontman Joey Tempest on vocals and rhythm guitar, John Norum on lead guitar, John Levén on bass, Mic Michaeli on keyboards, and Ian Haugland on drums, explores themes reflecting the world around us while balancing fresh energy with elements that reach back to the band’s earliest days. Recorded at Stockholm’s RMV Studio and produced by Tom Dalgety, the album features guest appearances from Ghost’s Tobias Forge and Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt, with legendary engineer Mike Fraser handling the mix.

As Europe prepares to unveil Come This Madness, the band is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Final Countdown with an extensive tour beginning September 30th in Glasgow.

Come This Madness will be available on vinyl, CD, and digital formats; you can order your copy here.

In my engaging conversation with Joey, he opened up about the long creative journey behind the band’s new album, with the title song deliberately exploring the tension between disorder and control, mirroring the global mood he observed while sitting with his acoustic guitar, watching the news.

Nearly nine years have passed since Walk the Earth, and Joey explained that the gap gave the band a chance to approach this album differently than ever before. Unlike the faster recording processes behind Bag of Bones, War of Kings, and Walk the Earth, the band wanted to rework demos, experiment with arrangements, and allow the songs to develop naturally.

Joey pointed out that the band’s musical history has always included heavier and more progressive elements, even before the commercial success of The Final Countdown. The new album, he said, reconnects with the past while still carrying the weight and depth of their later work, with a strong sense of melody.

The post EUROPE’s JOEY TEMPEST Looks Back On “Come This Madness” Album, Says It “Might Be One Of The Best Records In Our Career” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Fawning, we’re brighter, we’re cautious,
Falling like fighters, we’re caustic.
Cracked up like actors, we’re lying.
Daydreams and nightmares. 

Sharing cigarettes and leather trousers can feel like a promising start to eternity, until eternity begins to resemble an argument neither person can leave. Berlin’s Night Nail take that unhappy prospect to the dance floor on Vile Train, a gothic rock seduction in which two lovers become so absorbed in each other that escape begins to seem as impossible as happiness. The attraction is considerable; so is the damage.

The song previews Infinite Fountain, Night Nail’s fourth studio album, due November 6, 2026, through Icy Cold Records. Its accompanying video reunites the band with director and editor Jean De Oliviera, whose previous collaborations include Hollow Day, Little Armenia, and Narcoleptic Dream Catcher.

Vile Train begins with a noise suspended somewhere between a buzz and a screech, while cold guitar tones gather around it with considerable menace. The drums establish their footing before a heavier, sustained riff saws through the opening, its melody making the abrasion strangely inviting. Around the thirty-second mark, the bass enters with a deep, brooding groove, and the guitar shifts into a lower, more resonant register. That change gives the song a mournful richness, setting the scene for Brandon Robert’s dark, swaggering delivery.

Repeating synth figures tighten the tension beneath his voice, and roughly a minute in, the chorus sends the arrangement into a more urgent gothic dance beat. The construction is remarkably assured: each entrance increases the pressure, while the bass keeps enough melodic independence to make the groove feel alive. By the three-minute mark, its intricate phrasing has become a hook in its own right, moving beneath Robert’s breathy repetition of “Daydreams and nightmares” as a feminine voice echoes the words in whispers. The song’s pleasure comes from those relationships between the instruments, the way an ominous opening develops into something so physically persuasive.

Robert found the initial inspiration during a visit to Pompeii, where a fresco depicting an angel and a demon in an embrace suggested a romance with a particularly poor prognosis. In the song’s conception, two dreamers inhabit separate modern realities until their fantasies bring them together. They exchange clothes, cigarettes, and intimacies, gradually making a prison of the connection that first seemed to offer freedom. Robert describes the result as “dark and brutal truths about love sung in a twisted but beautiful way.”

The lyrics give that deterioration a nasty intimacy. Caution sits beside fawning, attraction beside aggression, and the lovers seem increasingly aware of the roles they have been playing. “Some days I wish I was her” carries the confusion further, towards the point where wanting another person begins to erase the distinction between their identity and your own. Against the recurring admission of lies, the fantasy of America offers another possible elsewhere. Every imagined exit seems to lead back to the same two people.

Vile Train was mixed and post-produced by William Faith at 13 Studio in Chicago, with co-production by Night Nail in Berlin and additional vocals and guitar from VV & the Void. That combination serves a song whose writing and arrangement make its gothic excess feel earned, with a chorus capable of turning private misery into a crowded dance floor.

Directed and edited by Jean De Oliviera, the video gives Vile Train a stark black-and-white treatment, cutting between Robert and bassist Ilija Gavrilenko performing among amplifiers and outdoor shots framed by stone arches and fountain basins. Black leather, dark glasses, and severe makeup give the pair a suitably funereal glamour, while tight shots of fingers on strings bring the song’s instrumental interplay into focus. Robert’s face repeatedly fills the frame, his dark lipstick and pale features isolated against the black background.

Grain, scratches, and superimposed silhouettes of reaching hands disturb that severe simplicity, spreading across faces and instruments until the musicians seem caught behind the image itself. Robert’s own gestures towards the lens make the camera feel uncomfortably close, turning performance into something between an invitation and an accusation. The recurring close-ups and grasping hands give the song’s obsession a physical form, suggesting an intimacy that has become impossible to escape. It is an effective visual rendering of what the band calls the “afterlife of relationship hell,” where the desire to hold someone close has acquired a distinctly claustrophobic meaning.

Watch the video for Vile Train below:

Formed in Los Angeles in 2013, Night Nail relocated to Berlin in 2018, the year their debut album LA Demons appeared on Cleopatra Records. March To Autumn followed through Cold Transmission in 2020, with Fates Explained arriving on Metropolis Records in 2023. The archival release Early Demons and Demos and remix album Fates Remade followed in 2024. Their earlier work with producer Pete Burns of Kill Shelter helped establish a catalogue that connects darkwave electronics with gothic rock’s appetite for emotional extremes.

Infinite Fountain also includes mixing and post-production work by Sven Wolff of Patenbrigade: Wolff. Night Nail plans to support the album with shows across the US, UK, and Europe during 2026–2027. In the meantime, explore their back catalog on Bandcamp.

Follow Night Nail:

• Bandcamp
• Spotify
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Website

The post “Daydreams and Nightmares” — Night Nail Turns Desire Into Damnation in Video for “Vile Train” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Sleeping With Sirens have shared a reprised version of the first song they ever wrote for the band, ‘I’m Coming Home (Big Gulps)’.

Following the release of their latest album ‘An Ending In Itself’ earlier this year, the band are taking a little trip down memory lane.

The first song they ever wrote and the first video ever posted to the band’s YouTube channel back in 2009, this version of ‘I’m Coming Home (Big Gulps)’ is the first time the track has ever been recorded in a professional studio.

With the original recording filmed in one take on a laptop, the song found new life this year when dedicated fans pushed the song to spontaneous virality on TikTok, 17 years on from its initial release.

Speaking on the fresh recording, Kellin Quinn has shared:

“Big Gulps was the very first Sleeping With Sirens song ever written, so it’s pretty amazing to see our fans digging through our old content on YouTube and watching it take off on TikTok. That said, the original recording was literally recorded on a MacBook back in 2009. So, I wanted to get back into the studio and properly rerecord a new acoustic version of the song. Thank you for being such incredible fans for so long and we hope you enjoy this new version of Big Gulps.”

Take a listen below.

And for a sweet blast of nostalgia, you can check out the original video below.

Sleeping With Sirens will be back over in the UK and Europe in early 2027,  bringing along Arm’s Length and Like Roses for the ride.

Check out the full list of dates below.

FEBRUARY

16 – PARIS Le Bataclan
17 – STRASBOURG La Laiterie (Great Hall)
18 – VILLEURBANNE CCO La Rayonne
20 – ZURICH Xtra
21 – MILAN Alcatraz
22 – MUNICH Tonhalle
23 – BERLIN Astra Kulturhaus
25 – HAMBURG Docks
26 – STUTTGART LKA- Longhorn
27 – COLOGNE Carlswerk Victoria
28 – TILBURG 013 Poppodium

MARCH

02 – BRISTOL The Prospect Building
03 – GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
05 – MANCHESTER Manchester Academy
06 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy
07 – LONDON O2 Academy Brixton

The post Sleeping With Sirens Share Reprised Version Of First Ever Track ‘I’m Coming Home (Big Gulps)’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Heavy metal ensemble Ram have premiered an official music video for “Abattoir”, the third single from their forthcoming long player Against.
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After recent US tour announcement with Coroner, death metal masters Nile now disclose a newly confirmed touring plan across Europe in December. Support on select dates will come from Intrepid, Redsphere and Orecus.
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