(Andy Synn offers up three more prime Brtish exports for you to enjoy) Like I’ve said before, we like to keep you guessing here at NCS, which is why after spending the start of the week covering riff-happy ragers from At The Gates and Inherit the Curse I’ve decided to dedicate the end of the week to […]
The post BEST OF BRITISH: CHALK HANDS / SUGAR HORSE / VOID OF LIGHT appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.
SANTA BARBARA, CA — Groove metal icons DevilDriver have officially declared war on 2026. Frontman and mastermind Dez Fafara announced today, April 16, that the band will release their eleventh studio album, Strike And Kill, on July 10 via Napalm Records. The announcement marks a “carnivorous” return to the band’s California groove roots and features the highly anticipated return of founding bass legend Jon Miller.
Alongside the album reveal, the band has unleashed the lead single “Dig Your Own Grave,” which is an absolute vitriolic anthem and can be heard below via it’s official video.
After the success of the Dealing With Demons double-album saga, Fafara makes it clear that DevilDriver isn’t slowing down or “softening” with age.
“My headspace hasn’t changed,” Fafara stated. “I have not become complacent or soft in my view of the world or in my music… we focused on ‘getting it all out’ lyrically, and backing those lyrics with savage, relentless music that fuels the heavy California groove.”
The new single, “Dig Your Own Grave,” is described as a lyrical lambasting of those responsible for their own failures. Fafara warns: “Six feet ain’t deep enough for you… Be careful when you choose to make decisions at midnight.”
Fans are particularly vocal about the lineup for Strike And Kill. The album features the virtuoso guitar duo of Alex Lee and Gabe Mangold, alongside drummer Davier Ortega Perez. However, it is the return of founding bassist Jon Miller that has the “California Groove” purists buzzing, signaling a sonic homecoming for the band.
DevilDriver isn’t wasting any time taking the new carnage to the stage. The band has confirmed the “Strike And Kill” North American Tour 2026, featuring support from Upon A Burning Body and Ov Sulfur.
The tour kicks off in San Diego at the Observatory North Park and hits major markets across the West and Midwest, including Dallas, Chicago, and Las Vegas.
Aug. 14 – San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
Aug. 15 – Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl
Aug. 16 – Phoenix, AZ – Marquee
Aug. 18 – San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theater
Aug. 19 – Austin, TX – Come and Take It Live
Aug. 20 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
Aug. 22 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues
Aug. 23 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
Aug. 25 – Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
Aug. 26 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
Aug. 29 – Colorado Springs, CO – Sunshine Studios
Aug. 30 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot
Sep. 01 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall
Sep. 02 – Reno, NV – Club Underground
Sep. 03 – Sacramento, CA – Goldfield
Sep. 04 – San Jose, CA – The Ritz
Sep. 05 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
SECURE YOUR TICKETS: DevilDriver 2026 Tour Tickets are Available Here
DevilDriver has announced their 11th studio album, Strike And Kill, arriving July 10, 2026, via Napalm Records. The album marks the return of founding bassist Jon Miller and features the savage new single “Dig Your Own Grave.” A Western U.S. headlining tour kicks off this August with stops in San Diego, Dallas, and Chicago; tickets are on artist presale now.
The post ‘SIX FEET AIN’T DEEP ENOUGH’: DevilDriver Announces New Album ‘Strike And Kill’ and Massive 2026 US Tour appeared first on Loaded Radio.
It is one week until Elegant Weapons release their sophomore album, Evolution, and I, for one, cannot wait to see the reception it receives. I have been in its company for the last month, and it has equally thrilled, impressed and cemented itself into my soul.
Release Date: 24 April 2026
Words: Steve Ritchie
Bridges Burn is the single that has been doing the rounds as the album single. It is a cool song, but its placement on the album, following Evil Eyes and Generation Me, is where it truly shines, for Evolution is an album’s album that should be heard in order, old school style.
That is not to say that Evolution is some ’80s-style throwback, far from it. It is just that this is an album I had such fun listening to. The energy across the album is intoxicating, fun, and across 11 songs, this is an album you can really feel invested in.
Evil Eyes is the natural opener on Evolution. Built around a fantastic Richie Faulkner riff, drummer Christopher Williams pushes the track along, and this is where you begin to feel the impressive impact that Ronnie Romero has on the album.
The work of Ronnie, Richie and producer Andy Sneap in producing the vocals from the ground up is a key element on Evolution. “If there was a different technique that we wanted to use,” Richie told MetalTalk earlier, “or a different mic or a different vocal line or melody or harmony, whatever it might have been, we really built it out from the ground up, which we didn’t do on the first record.”
Naturally, the solo is awesome, and those with a keen ear for detail will spot the industrial drill-type sound that leads into the solo. “It’s one of those things where it was a sound effect that I got out of the guitar,” Richie said. “I tried to do it again and couldn’t do it.”
Evil Eyes launches into Generation Me, an equally impressive track. Here, bassist Dave Rimmer solidly follows the riff, and it is the run into Bridge Burn that gives you the sense that this collection of songs is a journey.
Holy Roller finds Richie Faulkner in great form. If there is a Robin Trower feel to the opening, especially with the way Ronnie sings, as the track progresses, you realise you have become immersed in the songwriting and presentation. I’ve said it before, but once you hit the main solo and beyond, and you realise the song is about the Jonestown Massacre, then the goosebumps have hit.
Track Five, and the ballad kicks in. This track is one Evolution that Richie spoke about for Elegant Weapons. “It’s one of those songs that has been around for a long time in various forms,” he said, “and seemed not to work. I had the chorus for a long time and hadn’t found a home for it.”
Here it has the perfect home. Adam Wakeman adds some wonderful keys here, and once again, Ronnie shines. This is another example of many where Ronnie brings everything to the song.
The Devil Calls, Thrown To The Wolves and Shooting Shadows run deep into the album, three excellent tracks that keep the majestic momentum going.
If you have gone this far with the album, the trio to finish, finish Evolution off in true album style. Rupture is one of those synth-driven instrumentals that just get lost in the streaming world. “Sometimes when you write music, you get a movie in your head,” Richie said. The heartbeat in Rupture hints at someone’s survival, but the song finishes with the person flatlining.
The track runs straight into Mercy Of The Fallen, with its wonderful riff. Here, we hear the reprise of the dynamic in Rupture, and when Ronnie sings “Redemption, see the light divine,” the emotions run high.
Elegant Weapons finish Evolution on Keeper Of The Keys. Again, I have said this before, but this is a beautiful song with a proper ending to cap a beautiful album.
For me, Evolution is a triumph of songwriting and a real throwback to when albums were albums and were meant to be listened to all the way through. Keeper Of The Keys has that really classic ending as well.
“It’s what we try to do,” Richie said. “You put an album together as an album. I don’t know if people do that anymore. Obviously, people of a certain age and above do. But it’s almost becoming a lost art.
“People listen to tracks or a couple of tracks alone. But that’s what we try to do, and Keeper Of The Keys is exactly that. I couldn’t find any other place to put it on the record.”
When it finishes, the Hammond is bubbling over, the rotary speaker is going, and it ends like that. The urge to lift the needle, flip the vinyl and start again is huge.
Evolution, for me, is one of those albums where the sum is almost greater than the parts. With no weak tracks, the care in the ordering, attention to detail in production, and Richie’s magic guitar dust in the right places, has made this the type of album that sucked me into Metal in the first place all those years ago.
It is all about the journey. The hope that we might see Elegant Weapons later in the year on tour is a mouthwatering prospect and, as Richie told us, there are discussions around this ongoing.
To see the band live? Then the journey would be complete.
Elegant Weapons release Evolution digitally and on CD on 24 April 2026 via Exciter Records, with a special edition vinyl pressing to follow later in the year. You can pre-save and pre-order Evolution from https://exciter-records.ffm.to/elegantweapons-evolution.
You can read the MetalTalk Elegant Weapons interview with Richie Faukner here: Part One and Part Two.
Crimson Glory hold a special place in my own personal Metal Hall o’ Fame. I was a huge fan of their 1986 debut with its classic Queensrÿche-style and larger-than-life energy. Midnight immediately became one of my favorite vocalists, and I was dazzled by the way the band took classic metal idioms and made them feel so grand and elegant. 1988s Transcendence took their sound even further, getting proggier, heavier, and more epic in scope. This is the album that essentially invented the progpower genre. At that point in time, the band seemed poised to achieve amazing things and conquer the metaverse. Then they dropped Strange and Beautiful in 1991, and the wheels came off the Glory cart hard. To call that album a dumpster fire of a sellout is an understatement, and it still makes me wonder what the holy fuck the band was thinking when they released it. It’s on the same par as Celtic Frost’s Cold Lake, Metallica’s St. Anger, or Krokus’ Change of Address, and it will forever live in infamy as a career killer. Unsurprisingly, the band fell apart after that, with Midnight departing for good, leaving disgruntled fans to reflect on what might have been. The band attempted a jump-start in 1999, but Astronomica was nowhere near the quality of the early albums, and the band sank back into self-inflicted oblivion. 26 years later, three of the original members are attempting a new comeback with Chasing the Hydra. The cynic in me wondered why they’d even bother. They created 2 all-time classic metal albums, and nothing they do now could come close to rivaling them. With great expectations as their eternal enemy, it’s much more likely they’d only diminish the luster of their stellar releases. Still, the naive teen in me hoped for a miraculous rebirth of the band I still love. Where does Chasing the Hydra fall between those polar opposite scenarios? As you might expect, somewhere in the middle.
Aided no doubt by a set of very low expectations, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Chasing the Hydra. Obviously, it can’t touch the classic albums with a 100-foot Poke Em Pole, but it’s effective, entertaining progpower with enough of the classic Crimson Glory sound to trigger nostalgic reminiscing. Opener “Redden the Sun” is aggressive and urgent as new vocalist, Travis Willis, shows off his impressive collection of pipes. The guitarwork from OG Ben Jackson and new axe Mark Borgmeyer is fluid and technical, and the song itself is decent, though it gets a bit scattered. The title track opens with the lead riff from Transcendence classic “Red Sharks,” which is either cool or cornball, I can’t decide. The song sounds more like something off Sanctuary’s debut than Crimson Glory, but it’s good nonetheless, although Willis overdoes it at times. The first real winner comes with “Broken Together,” which sounds enough like vintage Glory where you could imagine it appearing on the early classics. Wills sounds so close to Midnight as to be unsettling, and the whole package has that same strange power the old albums did. “Angel in My Nightmare” is a sprawling epic that plays out like a pastiche of “Lonely in Love” and “Azrael,” and it takes you on an interesting voyage through the various eras of the band (wisely excluding Strange and Beautiful). It’s a bit too long, but the goods are delivered.
“Indelible Ashes” is another success story, sounding like the love child of 80s Crimson Glory and Rage for Order era Queensrÿche. Wills moves between Midnight and Geof Tate homage vocals, and this is another cut that feels like the logical successor to the Transcendence material. “Beyond the Unknown” is a good song where Wills shifts tone to sound almost exactly like Lance King, and the winning chorus sounds like essential Pyramaze. The only song that doesn’t really gel for me is “Armor Against Fate” where the writing gets too herky-jerky and proggy, jettisoning transitions to skitter from idea to idea. Even then, it isn’t bad and the chorus sticks in the head. At 47 minutes, and with most songs in the 4-5 minute frame, Chasing the Hydra ends up an easy spin with a nice ebb and flow.
A lot of the success of Chasing the Hydra comes down to the vocal magic of Travis Willis. Yes, the guy can emulate Midnight, which is no easy feat, but he doesn’t spend the entirety of the album trying to be a clone. He shifts tones and styles to suit the material and generally does a bang-up job elevating the solid-to-above-average material. Ben Jackson and new axe Mark Borgmeyer do a great job of decorating each song with the right mix of burly riffage and pretty, ethereal harmonies, never drifting too far into Cheese Meadows. There’s a surprising amount of scrotal power on some of these tracks, which offsets the lighter moments.
If you ran into me at a drunken New Year’s Eve shindig last December and told me I’d be giving good reviews to Metal Church and Crimson Glory in 2026, I’d have denounced you as a fool and a charlatan. Here we are, though, and I underrated Metal Church! Chasing the Hydra is the album we should have gotten in 1991. It may be 34 years late, but better that than never. The Glory days may not be behind us after all. I hope that somewhere in the Great Beyond, Midnight is smiling.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: BraveWords
Websites: theofficialcrimsonglory.com | facebook.com/crimsonglory |
Releases Worldwide: April 17th, 2026
The post Crimson Glory – Chasing the Hydra Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
“I think the dancefloor is dead, so now we’re making rock music.” That’s the money quote. Charli XCX is the subject of a new British Vogue cover story, and it’s mostly about her work on the proper follow-up to her career-exploding 2024 landmark Brat. Charli has been extremely busy since Brat. She just released her Wuthering Heights soundtrack album in February, and she’s acting in approximately one million movies this year, but apparently she’s had time to work on another record amid all of that.
The post Charli XCX Says She’s Making A Rock Album appeared first on Stereogum.
Deloyd Elze plays “not a lick” of fiddle, but he’s practicing on a newly acquired instrument when we connect via video chat. “It’s a learning curve for sure,” says the singer-songwriter and producer, real name Jacob Henry Allen. “I’m honking and sawing.”
The post Artist To Watch: Deloyd Elze appeared first on Stereogum.
Italian heavy metal project Konquest returns with a third album of hard-rocking hits. Out via No Remorse Records on April 24th.
Melodic guitars kick right in, building anticipation with this instantly epic mood, accentuated by the marching drums. Firing on all cylinders, the true heavy metal attack picks right up where the previous albums left off. Powerful vocals punch through the leather clad riffing and tight drums; a strong foundation for a classic sound. Alex handles all the instruments, vocals, production and mixing and he seems to be killer at all of these tasks. Arthur Rizk adds the final touches in the mastering stage to ensure maximum warmth and this ties it all together beautifully. Additionally Zeero’s cover art mixes the serene with a sense of danger but also adventure and intrigue. This represents the music perfectly. It’s catchy, uplifting and emotive yet with sombre and melancholy touches to it that counterbalance the record stunningly. The dynamics are strong, taking those mid-tempo sections that have a very Swedish heavy metal feel to them, mixed with NWOBHM and Alex’s own flair. Building on the pounding glory, there are these wailing moments that add an evocative atmosphere to things. Furthermore the guitar solos feel really well crafted and see more flourishing lead moments creep into the album than before. First impact will likely be one you won’t forget due to the sheer memorability of these songs. While akin to the first two albums, there is more of an atmospheric tendency here that goes further than straight hard-rocking anthems. Whatever Konquest are doing, they do it damned well on both fronts.
Of course in the realm of traditional heavy metal a lot of bands worship the altar of Judas Priest, but Konquest have a bit more of the bands 70s approach and mix this with the likes of Heavy Load, Angel Witch and Thin Lizzy while maintaining an original identity of their own, surpassing mere revivalism. This simplistic and yet infectious approach ensures any rocker will be banging their head to this record from start to end. I can already picture how great these songs will sound live with a good crowd. It’s been a couple of years since I saw Konquest at Keep It True Rising but I still remember it as an excellent show. It feels like the band have achieved what they wanted to initially on their first to LPs and now wish to push things a bit further afield with more progressions, variations in mood and overall a larger emphasis on changing the structure. Their debut, to me, was very strong Heavy Load worship that I loved. Its follow-up took this further and kept that vibe but with a more anthemic assault. Now that they have nailed these elements it felt only natural to try and experiment a bit with more otherworldly and unique expansions on their core sound which I have to say has worked really well here. One does not outweigh the other, but each album has its own appeal and strengths which is preferable over hearing the same thing three times in different packaging. I respect that about Konquest but even more so I respect them adhering to their own traditional principles that have stayed as true as steel here.
The sheer amount of phenomenal riffs, strong drumming and wonderful vocals hooks is impressive enough. But remembering it is all performed by one individual is simply ludicrous to me. Alex clearly sweats music and his mixing lives up to his performance. “Dark Waters” is a wicked sounding record that you want to crank until you feel it in your bones and begin submerging yourself in these trepidatious lochs. With exciting pacing throughout, we jump from their sleazy studded rock anthems to these enormous passages of sonic exploration and all the time feel satisfied by the sense of adventure and conquest that permeates every single bar. Writing a record that is so memorable and yet still has a daring twist to it is not easy, so commendations for doing so are due. Doing this while keeping your roots and forebears displayed proudly on your sleeves is even more respectable. Once again Konquest has proven to be a real gem in the heavy metal underground of today. I think their personality shines through as something special that may not have the hyped status of some of their contemporaries (perhaps this endears them to me further) but as such feels so much more authentic and sincere as a result. “Man with a Stone” is a perfect example of how heartfelt heavy metal still reigns supreme with an indomitable spirit. Right ’til the end; this record kills with power.
Konquest has returned, bolder than ever. If their prior efforts of straightforward heavy metal captured your heart, then that facet is unchanged. What has changed is their sense of adventure, delving into new territories to present a more expansive and diverse listen while keeping it to-the-point and most importantly; rocking hard. I don’t think I need to sell this further. If you truly love heavy metal from the heart which is unpretentious, sincere and authentic then you will most likely dig this record and the bands previous works. Konquest have impressed me with all three of their albums and I continue to sing their praises with no doubts they will keep achieving wonderful things. Let these dark waters flood your home via your sound system and partake in one belter of a heavy metal album!
Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
We’ve all been waiting so long for a new Bedouine album, and Azniv Korkejian has finally delivered. Last month she announced Neon Summer Skin, her first album in half a decade, and shared its lead single “Long Way To Fall.” This week she’s got a splendid second single to share, a string-laden grownup lullaby called…
The post Bedouine – “Always On Time” appeared first on Stereogum.
