Just in time for Week Zero of College Football season 2026, we get Vista Blue’s first-ever football-themed (or as Mick Fletcher will insist, American football–themed) single! And once again, I’m reminded of why this is one of my favorite bands. Day 1 of college football season is practically a holiday for me. I’m decorating the house, stocking up on snacks, studying the two-deeps, and canceling all my prior commitments. And I’ll be pre-gaming with “Championship of Love”!
The energetic & very poppy title track is the kind of song Mike is so very good at writing: a song ostensibly about an aging football player hoping for one last shot at a ring that is really a love song (about a dude hoping for, uh, one last shot at a ring). The song is loaded with classic football references (contract incentives, playbooks, the trenches, plays under review, telegraphing moves, franchise tags, hail Mary passes) which contribute to the larger metaphor. It’s tough enough to find love when you’re young and at your peak. But what happens when you’ve lost a step and your game is in decline? There’s nothing worse than wanting something so badly and feeling in your gut that it’s out of reach. But still, you never give up. And that’s what this song celebrates. Even with me having won the championship of love a number of years ago, there was a long period of time when I wondered if I ever would. Twentysomething me is really feeling this song.
On the digital flip side, the punkier (at least two reviewers will call it Ramones-ish) “She’s My Taysom Hill” at first appears to be another song using football as a metaphor for romantic relationships. But upon further inspection, I’m sensing a flipped script! This sure seems to be a love song that’s really about a football player. What happens when that dependable & versatile quarterback/tight end/fullback/receiver/special teamer who has always been #1 in your heart parts ways with your favorite team? It’s a tough pill to swallow, especially when you have to think about him possibly going to the Broncos and finally winning a ring. Sports breakups can be brutal (I refuse to face the fact that Kyle Schwarber will someday not be a Phillie), and sometimes music is all we have to make them bearable. This is one of the sweetest dumb songs you’ll ever hear. And it pairs so perfectly with the A-side!
Alright! Vista Blue, as always, could not be any more on-point with its timing. Everybody loves football! Who’s ready for Week Zero? I was so pumped that I wanted to go back to the school paper for the fifth year I never had, but the Big Ten says it won’t take any former pros. I bet Lane Kiffin would hook me up. For the next 19 Saturdays, I will not be very productive. Something tells me my reviews will be getting a lot shorter. I don’t think anyone will be complaining.
We’ve barely recovered from the last one, yet Tuska’s line-up for summer 2027 is already shaping up so well that it couldn’t be better. Lorna Shore and Children of Bodom have already been announced as headliners, and now the line-up is rounded off by Judas Priest from England, one of the world’s most beloved heavy metal bands.
Other new additions to next summer’s Tuska line-up include American metalcore giants The Devil Wears Prada, Manchester-based hardcore band Guilt Trip, power metal Stratovarius, the highly entertaining Canadian hard rock trio Danko Jones, the Swedish modern rock phenomenon Smash Into Pieces, and Green Lung, who draw on British musical heritage to blend dark hard rock, prog and psychedelia.
Confirmed Tuska 2027 performers:
Judas Priest, Lorna Shore, Children Of Bodom Heaven Shall Burn, Kanonenfieber The Devil Wears Prada, Guilt Trip Stratovarius – Visions 30th Anniversary show, Danko Jones Smash Into Pieces, Green Lung, Fox Lake, Gaerea, Avralize, Sinizter
The dates of the artists’ performances will be announced at a later date. Further performers will be announced at a later date.
Few events manage to unite uncompromising heavy metal with such a strong sense of community and solidarity as Metal For Emergency. You can check out our photo report of the evening. A big thank you to the organization for having us there!
Death To All will be celebrating the music of Death with a recently-announced tour of Australia, set to take place in January 2027. Support will come from none other than legendary thrashers Dark Angel, who are continuing to support last year’s Extinction Level Event and reportedly already have been working on new material for another album. Drummer Gene Hoglan will pull double duties for both bands. Read more…
Here’s an unexpected surprise. A new album from Apocalypse. It’s titled Last Man Standing and due out via High Roller Records on 25 September 2026. Our New Wave of British Heavy Metal history reminds us that Apocalypse formed around 1980. They recorded a demo and the well-received Stormchild single back then before changing name to […]
A few years ago, one of the more obscure bands on my year-end list happened to be Germany’s Ch’ahom and their debut full-length LP Knots of Abhorrence. Released via Sentient Ruin Laboratories, I expected some sort of war metal record, and, of course, that’s what I found.
Release date: September 18, 2026. Label: 20 Buck Spin
However, the record also ventured into this weird, psychedelic territory — not due to the swirling riffs or wall of sound primarily — but because the songs were indeed seeping some actual DMT or ayahuasca-induced vibes into our little dimension.
Sadly, I did not encounter the machine elves.
Nonetheless, these folks have now signed with 20 Buck Spin for their second album, Anthropic Rites of Sublimation, which has an even more bizarre narrative; this time centered around humanity’s urge toward self-destruction and how that impulse shapes culture. Through themes of sacrifice, mutilation, enslavement, and surrender, it imagines societies built around an impending encounter with annihilation.
HAPPY STUFF, ya know? But also kinda relevant?
Anthropic Rites of Sublimation was unleashed with the single “Cult of Xaman.” In many ways, it keeps the same tone and ferocity as the debut. The tribal drum patterns, vocals sitting just behind the rhythm section and guitars in the mix, and chaotic lead playing maintain that otherworldly tone — think of it as a combination of Timeghoul and Profanatica. Meanwhile, “Reign of Nohol” allows Ch’ahom to incorporate technicality in the vein of Gorguts’ Obscura, built upon a foundation of weird time signatures, ping-ponging between blastbeats and breakneck grooves, all while lathering it up with a juicy bass tone straight out of the ‘Guts playbook.
While not out of the ordinary for contemporary extreme metal bands to incorporate influences from the groups mentioned above, the German outfit finds a way to really capture individuality, and much of that, as you’ll find, lies within the tasteful addition of South American native instrumentation — see “Priests of Lik’in.” I mentioned the drum patterns earlier, but all of that, combined with heavy emphasis on reverb, captures the ritual of sound the band leans into. The cosmic tech-death leads are sick on this track, too, and not to mention the breakdown reminiscent of something off Blood Incantation’s Starspawn weaves its way in there.
Overall, the album sits around 30 minutes, and a third of it lies within the confines of the final track, “Insemination.” The most cinematic offering on the record, throughout the first half, chants of “sacrifice” build up to an atmospheric instrumental break before an onslaught of straight war metal drowns the sound waves, akin to the Sri Lankan cult-favorite Genocide Shrines. From their EPs, demos, and first full-length, this one sounds like everything they’ve been building towards. If there’s any track that truly captures the essence of Ch’ahom, it’s this one. And I understand that isn’t a hot take considering the more than 10-minute runtime. But it’s done really well, especially with the interlude to break things up.
Anthropic Rites of Sublimation is a welcome second full-length from Ch’ahom and, honestly, a pretty damn strong statement from, in my humble opinion, one of the strongest up-and-comers in the scene. They’ve taken what worked on Knots of Abhorrence and expanded on it without losing that weird, ritualistic quality that made the debut so interesting in the first place. It’s chaotic, psychedelic, technical and, at times, just downright strange.
Exactly what the shaman ordered.
There’s much more than this plane of existence, and after two full-lengths, Ch’ahom is getting closer and closer to proving it.
Germany is definitely one of my favorite places to go to for shows and festivals. And also because they have the best bands ever, like Wüstenberg, which I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing during Wacken Open Air.
Benedetta
I’m here with the amazing Wüstenberg. You are playing in the 35th anniversary of Wacken Open Air. How does it feel?
Wüstenberg
Well, it’s insane obviously, because this festival has so many legendary stories. I mean, people all over the world know this festival for obvious reasons. So we’re very lucky that, you know, hard rock gods and metal gods invited us to play at their festival. And I’m fairly sure at this point I got more congratulations messages than for my wedding.
Benedetta
So since you have a lot of experience in playing in live shows, but you also have experience in studio and recording, do you think that the life of an artist is lonely? Is lonely? Yeah.
Wüstenberg
If you want to spend time with your family, yes. If you want to spend time with good people, no. Yeah, I think it depends on in which state you are, because I think you meet so many great people, but you only meet most of them for a short amount of time. In a festival you meet people, you say hi, you drink a beer, and that would be the long version of meeting people. And then you travel further. I mean, it has some loneliness aspects to it, but then again you’re in your band, you’re in your peer group, and those people are closest to you, and most bands I guess for a reason say this is my second family, because you share a lot, you fight a lot, because there’s so much closeness and you have to agree on things. So I wouldn’t say it’s lonely, it’s very special. For me, in a way of looking at it, we are very lucky, because we are traveling with at least 12 people, so it’s a lot of good people around, you’re never lonely, no. And I think a very great aspect of that is, I don’t know if you know the feeling, but when you’re in a group of people, it can drain your social battery a lot, and it feels exhausting. But the great thing is, with this group, it feels like it recharges my batteries. Being with these folks is amazing.
Benedetta
Do you think that we will ever reach equality between men and women in the metal world?
Wüstenberg
Honestly, I don’t have the feeling that it’s unbalanced. I come from classical music, that’s why I know a lot of women, like Anne-Sophie Mutter, or Hilary Hahn, Julia Fischer, those are my idols. For me, it’s not unbalanced. In metal, there are a lot of men, but I can’t really think about it. It’s not my world, that’s why I can’t really think about it. I don’t really know. I think in the last years, it got closer to equality. But I’m not sure if we’re going to reach equality. So, I’m a lot on tour as a sound engineer, which is always like, “What’s going on? A woman on sound?” It’s always like, “Yeah, so what?” I’ve got the same ears as a man. And it gets more accepted. So, I started maybe 10 years ago, and it was way more often to get those questions than it is now. So, I guess we’re getting closer. Yes, definitely. Because, I don’t know why. So, I would at least hope that we get to equality sometime. Metal started off very chauvinistic in the 70s, 80s. The funny side note is that Rob Halford brought in all the looks, and he brought it from the gay scene. But that put aside, it started off very chauvinistic. And for the musicians, it left the heads at least around 2000, with metalcore and stuff. Men came in who weren’t looking at it like that. But as you said, it’s stuck in the heads with promoters, with labels and all that. If they see women, maybe it’s not conscious, but they think it’s not as worthy. And it’s terrible, absolutely terrible. Because women can do everything that men can. I mean, to state it for this year, there was Thundermother, which is a band only of women. I like them very much. They’re more hard rock than metal, I guess. But still, it’s a fantastic band. I guess I would have liked Nightwish too.
Benedetta
Guys, thank you so much for taking the time to do this with me. Is there anything else that you want to add to our readers of FemMetal?
