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Protest the Hero's Rody Walker speaks with Full Metal Jackie about the impact of modern messaging and how coming of age opened him up to sharing the 'Within' album. Continue reading…

The singer/songwriter (who's worked with Epica, Kamelot and other notable acts) is battling a "malignant and aggressive brain tumor," according to husband Sander Gommans (After Forever). Continue reading…

The clip sees Slipknot's Shawn "Clown" Crahan discussing the intentions behind and challenges of making the music video for "Arsenal." Continue reading…

Symphonic metal musician Talia Hoit recently released her second album, When The Skies Fall. I had the chance to chat with her about how the new record has been received and the challenge of putting her personal experiences out into the world.

Reuel

Hello Talia! I’m very happy to talk with you. How are you doing?

Talia Hoit

Hello Reuel, thank you so much! It’s great to talk with you! I’m doing well, there is so much going on!

Reuel

Congratulations on releasing When The Skies Fall in late August! It’s your second album. How are you feeling about the reaction this album has received so far?

Talia Hoit

It has been very positive so far, I mean you can’t make everyone happy all the time and probably shouldn’t anyway! So there will always be some critics, but for the most part what I’m hearing back about it has been really positive. And it’s opened some doors to really cool opportunities for me and my music!

Reuel

There are songs with very personal themes on your album. Was there one song on this record that was particularly difficult or terrifying to put out into the world, knowing that it was based on your own experience?

Talia Hoit

When you put it that way, I would say all of it is a little scary because not only are people going to judge the songs from a music perspective, but then you know you’re being a bit vulnerable about your life with all sorts of strangers. And I don’t know why we always get so scared to admit that we’re imperfect human beings who have gone through stuff and have feelings about it. It seems like it should be easier than it is. But I’m not really trying to tell my personal story to the world, I’m just trying to share the art that came out of it, and hopefully people will resonate with the music somehow in their own story!

Talia Hoit

If I had to pick just one, I would say maybe Prayer for Rain, because I had recorded a much different version of that song back in 2012, that album is not available publicly now, but I had played that song at some coffee shops and my friends and family maybe had gotten the recording, but some people at the time made me feel like I should be ashamed or embarrassed about that song. When I decided to record it with a professional producer for this album, I think it was probably the song I was most hesitant about doing just because one or two people criticized my life and my feelings and experiences and what I had to say about it 14 years ago. It’s funny how things that should realistically have no lasting impact over you can hang on to your vulnerabilities for so long.

Reuel

Even though many of the themes are personal, the songs still feel so relatable. How do you approach turning your own experiences into music in a way that allows other people to see themselves in it?

Talia Hoit

I don’t think I really had that intention to approach writing songs that way when I originally wrote them, I was just writing more for myself, but it was over time as I was seeing how people were resonating with songs my band Beyond Forgiveness was recording and releasing, that I realized other people might also really resonate with this stuff that I had written personally, which was just hidden away in my personal notebooks and files. That’s what inspired me to pursue recording my songs professionally and doing this solo project in the first place.

Reuel

It’s easy for huge orchestrations to take over a song. When you’re arranging a track, how do you know when it needs more heavy elements and when it’s better to leave the piano on its own?

Talia Hoit

This is a difficult question. I didn’t know how to best arrange these songs, which is why I worked with a professional producer who did the music arrangements. I have this overall vision in my brain for how I want the songs to go, but for the specific details of the arrangements I really needed help. So my producer/arranger, Frank Pitters, really helped a lot with this. I do hear my music a certain way in my head and it’s not always just piano, in fact it’s usually always heavier, but not always in the same way it ends up playing out in the actual sound. It never sounds quite like I hear it in my head, but if it conveys the same mood, emotion, and feel and the right musical arc to the song, then I consider it a success. But the piano is the instrument that I can play to bring the song to reality in a physical sense, so that’s why it’s based in piano. My ongoing personal work is constantly to try and understand what these sounds are that I’m hearing or envisioning in my own brain and how I might replicate that in real life.

Reuel

What things did you do differently on When The Skies Fall compared to your debut, and why did you feel those changes were needed?

Talia Hoit

We actually started recording this album before the Oceans album was released, so we did not have the benefit of any feedback from my first album to incorporate into this one. One of the decisions my producer made was a little change in the guitars. On Oceans, Max had done both the bass and rhythm guitars, and Mat performed solos, but on When the Skies Fall, Mat did all the guitar riffs and solos. He has a bit heavier of a style, so it added a new dimension to the sound. Also, the orchestration vibe was less complex, and we left in more of my original piano parts (some of which may have been transferred to various electric keyboards, but there is a lot more of what I literally played in my demos that comes through). When I started my solo project, my focus was on the songs. I really wanted to bring my songs to their best life as possible, and it was less about me being an artist, I even considered at first if I wanted to just be the songwriter and trying to pitch the songs to other singers. So the first singles and album was really focused on bringing great musicians and producers in to create the full vision for these songs and make up for all that I lacked in not having the skills myself to play all the instruments and things like that. But through the process I realized that it actually is supposed to be more about me expressing what I wrote in my own voice and way of making music, and so more and more am trying to keep as much of me in this as possible even while collaborating with other people so that the music can have the full band arrangement I envisioned.

Reuel

When people listen to When The Skies Fall from beginning to end, what emotions or lessons do you hope they carry with them afterwards?

Talia Hoit

I hope people enjoy listening to it, and then maybe they find a few songs or moments that really resonate with them, and that they let themselves feel whatever it is they’re going to feel about it, but to never get stuck in any sort of despair. The whole underlying theme is the resilience and depth of meaning to all of the loves and joys and devastations that happen in life.

Reuel

Brilliant! Thank you for your time, Talia! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Talia Hoit

Thank you so much! I would just add to everyone reading – thank you for listening to my music, I hope you loved it! And everything is more fun in community with other people, so please check out my social media pages, and get in touch with me through my website. I would love to hear from you!

The post Interview | Talia Hoit: “I’m just trying to share the art that came out of it” first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

Red Fang, Brant Bjork, Mondo Generator and more will also be descending upon Joshua Tree in early 2027 for the fest.

The post Clutch, Corrosion Of Conformity, Fu Manchu, Etc. Booked For 2027 ‘Mojave Experience’ Festival appeared first on Theprp.com.

The Trivium frontman broke down his picks by metal, death metal and metalcore bands. Continue reading…

And further artists are pending.

The post PeelingFlesh, Skycamefalling, Weekend Nachos, Etc. Booked For 2026 ‘No Sleep Fest’ appeared first on Theprp.com.

Dirty Honey has a third album on the way. Catch My Butterfly lands January 15, 2027, and the band is previewing it with two new singles, “Lights Out” and “Butterfly.” The pair is meant to show a band with no plans to ease off the gas.

Producer John Feldmann (Yungblud, Blink-182, Korn) worked on the record, which stretches the band’s sound while holding onto the grit and energy that got it noticed. The lineup is vocalist Marc LaBelle, guitarist John Notto and bassist Justin Smolian.

“I’m very proud of our perseverance. Any band has to really survive to make a third record,” said LaBelle. “We’ve made mistakes in the studio, gotten over past regrets, lived more, and become better songwriters. All of those things snowballed into Catch My Butterfly.”

“Catch My Butterfly shows the width of what we can do as musicians and songwriters. We’re no one-trick pony,” added Smolian.

“Lights Out” opens the album like a roller coaster creeping up its first climb, built on open chords, delay-soaked staccato, bouncy bass and a steady beat. It then swerves into corkscrew riffing and an ominous warning about the lights going down, before Notto wraps it up with a solo that nearly sets his fretboard on fire.

“”Lights Out” was the first banger,” said Notto. “It’s one of those rare times when I got the solo right on the demo! It’s only one flavor of the album though. There’s so much more.”

“Butterfly” goes the other direction, with wistful acoustic guitar and gentle strings. LaBelle leans into the soulful end of his range, and the bright arrangement masks a heavy subject: a search for someone lost to addiction.

“There are addiction issues in my family,” the frontman revealed. “I tried to write from a different perspective — either that of a father to an addicted child or the family member of an addict. In this scenario, you’re so overcome with worry about whether or not your loved one is alive or dead at any given moment. My thought was, ‘If you don’t get high, there’s no way that you’re going to catch this person who is so beautiful in your eyes, but so broken at the same time.’”

Together, the two songs preview what the band calls its most dynamic album yet.

Dirty Honey emerged in 2019 with “When I’m Gone,” which became the first song by an unsigned act to top Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart. The band issued its self-titled debut, Dirty Honey, in 2021, followed by Can’t Find The Brakes in 2023, which opened at No. 2 on Billboard‘s Top Hard Rock Albums chart. A refreshed version of “When I’m Gone” also turned up in 2025’s A Minecraft Movie. Along the way, the band has toured with Guns N’ Roses and The Black Crowes and sold out multiple headline runs of its own.

Critics have taken notice. Loudwire, Classic Rock, Spill, and Rolling Stone have all applauded the way the band channels classic rock while adding something fresh. Rolling Stone said the group can “harken back to the days of the rock gods but add a modern twist.”

The post DIRTY HONEY Announces Third Album For 2027 & Drops Two New Singles “Lights Out” & “Butterfly” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Nevermore will hit Europe next spring for the Liminal Spaces headlining tour. The 21-date run opens April 29 in Berlin and closes with a pair of Turkish shows on May 27 and 28. The finale is a neat bookend, since Turkey is where this latest incarnation of the band first appeared on stage.

Rivers Of Nihil and Urne are along as special guests, except at the Athens, Istanbul and Ankara stops. Before the tour begins, Nevermore will keep working on its new album, so fans who show up may get an early taste of the fresh material.

Liminal Spaces European Tour 2027 Dates:

04/29 – Berlin, Germany – Festsaal Kreuzberg
04/30 – Hamburg, Germany – Gruenspan
05/01 – Frankfurt, Germany – Batschkapp
05/02 – Prague, Czech Republic – Meet Factory
05/04 – Warsaw, Poland – Proxima
05/06 – Munich, Germany – Backstage
05/07 – Leipzig, Germany – Täubchenthal
05/08 – Cologne, Germany – Carlswerk Victoria
05/09 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar
05/11 – Antwerp, Belgium – Trix
05/13 – Dublin, Ireland – The Academy
05/14 – Manchester, England – Academy 2
05/15 – London, England – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
05/16 – Paris, France – Elysee Montmartre
05/18 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z7 Konzertfabrik
05/20 – Barcelona, Spain – Sala Salamandra
05/21 – Madrid, Spain – Wagon
05/22 – Lisbon, Portugal – RDM Republica da Musica
05/24 – Athens, Greece – Gagarin 205 *
05/27 – Istanbul, Türkiye – Volkswagen Arena *
05/28 – Ankara, Türkiye – Milyon Performance Hall *

*Without Rivers Of Nihil or Urne

Get your tickets here.

The band came together after the split of Sanctuary and built a reputation on tight musicianship, daring songwriting and raw emotion. Its 1995 self-titled debut and landmark records like Dead Heart In A Dead World and This Godless Endeavor earned Nevermore a global following and a spot among modern metal’s most distinctive acts.

Guitarist Jeff Loomis and drummer Van Williams now steer the band, with guitarist Jack Cattoi, bassist Semir Özerkan and vocalist Berzan Önen rounding out the lineup. After years apart, the original spark is back, and Williams says the timing feels right.

“It’s been brewing for quite a while and has just started to manifest itself into the now,” Williams says. “So what better time is there to kick things off than now?”

New music is already taking shape, and Williams is happy with what he has heard so far.

“If the new music had to be described by one word, that would have to be delicious,” he says. “Because it’s so good it’s gonna leave you hungry for more.”

Songwriting is running alongside stage rehearsals, with equal attention on the classic catalog and the next chapter.

Bringing Önen aboard marked a big shift. Loomis recalls watching his audition video for the first time. “He really stood out in so many ways upon a first listen,” the guitarist says. “I could really feel the emotion and passion when I heard him sing for the first time. He wasn’t just going through the motions.”

The connection was instant, according to Loomis: “I could tell right away that he was a fan of (late Nevermore singer) Warrel‘s (Dane) singing just by the way he delivered and said certain words. I was really blown away at first watch.”

A long list of players has shaped the band’s story. Guitarists Pat O’Brien, Tim Calvert, Steve Smyth and Chris Broderick each left a distinct mark on the catalog and the live show, while bassist Jim Sheppard helped define the band’s identity during its peak years.

After Nevermore went dormant, Loomis put out the solo albums Zero Order Phase and Plains Of Oblivion, co-founded Conquering Dystopia and spent close to a decade in Arch Enemy, appearing on records including Will To Power and Deceivers. Williams stayed busy with Ashes Of Ares and Ghost Ship Octavius. Dane kept creating until his death in 2017, leaving behind work that still inspires fans and musicians.

Heading into 2027, Loomis says the goal is honesty and intensity. “Van and I are super passionate about the band. What we deliver and bring back to the audience is us wanting to hear those old tracks again just as much as the fans. We obviously want our old fans there every step of the way, but also look forward to meeting a new generation of fans as well.”

The post NEVERMORE Lines Up 21 European Dates for 2027 With Support Of RIVERS OF NIHIL & URNE appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Slipknot have what appears to be a new webpage, while their fans have a whole bunch of new questions about what exactly is going on with the band. Continue reading…