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“Nashville-based rock band Cinema Stereo are pleased to announce their headline November and December 2026 UK Tour. Tickets are on sale via The Gig Cartel and Cinema Stereo. To coincide with the news, on Wednesday April 22nd, the band have released their new single ‘Lean On You’. The single is available on all streaming platforms […]

The post Cinema Stereo Announce 2026 UK Headline Tour & New Single ‘Lean On You’ appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.

Shred majesty that could melt steel

Though now a bygone era, one can’t help but hear the echoes of a brilliant up-and-comer from Greece landing in America to pursue a musical education and instead opting to help jumpstart heavy metal’s revival as a cultural force whenever the name Gus G comes up.

Whether it was contributing to the formative works of such noted early 2000s metal staples like Mystic Prophecy, Dream Evil, Nightrage, or his own flagship project Firewind, Gus has continually proven to have the Midas touch not only when it comes to showering the air with impressive virtuosic guitar solos, but also in composing highly accessible and gripping anthems to clue the general public in on his technical prowess.

Initially his own name would only be attached to a 2001 instrumental showcase dubbed Guitar Master, but during a highly auspicious stint in the 2010s with famed godfather of heavy metal Ozzy Osbourne, his eponymous solo project would take on new life as a partly instrumental, but otherwise more rock-focused foil to Firewind. Now with most of these accomplishments in the rearview, a new manifesto of metallic bombast with rock radio sensibilities has come to light under the fitting title of Steel Burner.

In keeping with the character of Gus‘s work under his name since rebranding it as a more commercially viable venture in 2013, the music contained within this 39-minute sonic fist to the sky comes with an assorted cast of prominent vocal characters. Yet while in the mid-2010s this would entail an equal share of prominent mainstream rock figures and fellow-travelers from the European metal scene, this time around Gus has stuck noticeably more to the latter camp and has crafted the sonic template to cater to their specific talents.

The result is an album that is both rich in variety, yet firmly rooted in heavy metal traditionalism that tends to parallel the dual modern heaviness and slight AOR character typical to several projects coming out of Frontiers Records in recent years. Granted, compared to the likes of Magnus Karlsson and Aldo Lonobile, Gus’ approach has more of a guitar-centric character that is heavier and far less reliant upon keyboards and/or symphonic pomp in order to achieve a sense of atmospheric depth and power.

Not one to ever deceive his audience, Gus foreshadows the character of his latest opus brilliantly with an explosive shred display on top of a driving metallic groove that is the opening foray and title entry “Steel Burner”. Shades of a modern heavy/power metal approach after the spirit of Primal Fear and Sinner is subsequently laid down with reckless abandon in “Nothing Can Break Me”, featuring the gritty pipes of iconic metal queen Doro Pesch and enough crazy guitar high-jinks to orbit Paul Gilbert, yet somehow managing to clock in at just under 4 minutes despite bursting at the proverbial seams with climactic moments.

Nipping on its heels is a massive stylistic left-turn into haunting balladry mixed with power thrashing aggression after the spirit of late 90s Iced Earth in “Dancing With Death”, a highly fitting musical eventuality given that none other than Matt Barlow is featured on vocals and puts on a master class in how to mesh deep, gravely rage with a vintage Halford-inspired banshee counterpoint. On the more rocking side of the coin is a sleazy set of mid-paced grooves with a bluesy edge in “No One Has to Know”, which sees Croatian sensation and modern rock hero Dino Jelusic taking up the microphone and holding his own alongside Gus’ surgical genius at the six-string.

Naturally, there is a fair bit more going on here than impact-based rock and metallic fervor, though that is the overwhelming rule from start to finish. Star metal front man and one-time vocalist of Rainbow, Ronnie Romero underscores the versatility factor at play here by taking on two very different stylistic endeavors, the first being a shred-happy 80s rock anthem in “Frenemy” that could almost be a tribute to Whitesnake were it less bottom-heavy, while the latter “My Premonition” veers more into the melancholy, quasi-epic realm of Dio and comes the closest to taking a page out of the Frontiers Records book of mixing metallic force with an arena-like atmosphere.

Both songs naturally function equally well and speak to Romero’s sonic affinity to Ronnie James Dio, though ultimately the latter is more memorable in spite of Gus taking a slightly more toned-down approach. Rounding out the equation is a healthy helping of instrumental offerings with Gus in top form; and be it the power balladry of “Closure”, the jazzy turned mystical journey without words “Confession”, the Joe Satriani-inspired rocking good times of “What If”, or the power metal-infused magic of “Advent”, all of it plays perfectly to Gus’ indomitable ability.

Of the various albums that have come out since 2014 bearing Gus G’s name, Steel Burner lands the closest to what he normally brings to the table under the Firewind moniker and is sure to play well with heavy and power metal enthusiasts. Though the guitar work on display rivals what most of the shred world would consider the pinnacle of the excess that it consumes like candy, the resulting streams of rapid fire licks and runs have an air of tastefulness to them that transcends said fringe market.

Like the other titanic names that have taken the stage alongside the iconic and now dearly departed Ozzman, Gus proves that a balance of technical flair and concisely structured songwriting is a winning formula in any context. This chapter in Gus’ ongoing career may come courtesy of a smaller indie label that might not boast the roster of his past associations via Century Media and AFM Records, but Metal Department is definitely an apt title for whichever outfit counts this album as part of its catalog.

Release Date: April 24th, 2026
Record Label: Metal Department
Genre: Heavy Metal

Musicians:

• Gus G / All guitars, bass, keyboards, drums
• Andrea Arcangeli / Bass on tracks 6 and 8
• Dennis Ward / Bass on track 2

Steel Burner Tracklist:

1. Steel Burner
2. Nothing Can Break Me (Featuring Doro Pesch)
3. Dancing With Death (Featuring Matt Barlow)
4. Advent
5. What If
6. Frenemy (Featuring Ronnie Romero)
7. No One Has To Know (Featuring Dino Jelusick)
8. Confession
9. My Premonition (Featuring Ronnie Romero)
10. 10. Closure

Order the album here.

The post GUS G – Steel Burner (Album Review) appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Judas .

The post Judas Priest to release career spanning compilation album ‘The Best of Judas Priest’ on June 19th first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

And Fieldy’s son is also in a nü-metal band.

The post Korn’s Brian “Head” Welch Shows Love To Deftones While Hanging With Fieldy’s Son appeared first on Theprp.com.

Over their long ass career, Judas Priest have had some banger cover art in their discography. British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, Painkiller… the list goes on. Well, you can add one more kick ass cover art to the list, as their new greatest hits compilation The Best of Judas Priest has some sick art as well.

Set for release on June 19 via Sony Music, the collection will be available in three different formats: a CD version featuring 16 tracks and both a standard and online-exclusive picture disc vinyl featuring just 10 tracks.

Of course, die-hard Priest fans will know that June 19 is an important date in the band’s history, as it’s not just the release date of the 50th anniversary of their album Sad Wings of Destiny, but it’s also the date the band’s documentary The Ballad of Judas Priest will come out as well.

As for its tracklist, this compilation will span all 50 years of the band’s history, going back to their 1974 debut Rocka Rolla until their 2024 album Invincible Shield. You can check out the killer art, as well as the tracklists for each version, below.

The Best of Judas Priest Track List:

CD

01. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
02. Lightning Strike
03. Breaking The Law
04. Beyond The Realms Of Death
05. Painkiller
06. Hell Bent For Leather
07. Rocka Rolla
08. Turbo Lover
09. Electric Eye
10. Crown Of Horns
11. Living After Midnight
12. Night Crawler
13. Heading Out To The Highway
14. Better By You, Better Than Me
15. The Sentinel
16. Diamonds And Rust

Vinyl

Side A
01. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
02. Breaking The Law
03. Painkiller
04. Hell Bent For Leather
05. Turbo Lover

Side B
06. Electric Eye
07. Crown Of Horns
08. Living After Midnight
09. Heading Out To The Highway
10. The Sentinel

The post Judas Priest’s Career-Spanning Greatest Hits Collection to Have Some Badass Cover Art appeared first on MetalSucks.

If there ever is going to be a Tampa Bay death metal encyclopedia under the term of “flown under the radar,” there should be a picture of Monstrosity, a group often overshadowed by the more commercially successful bands in the Tampa Bay death metal scene, deserving of more recognition and a fair handshake in their formative years, especially during the Jason Avery era.

With over 30 years of existence, the band has released seven albums and navigated numerous lineup changes, yet they remain overshadowed by the legacy of former vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, who went on to join Cannibal Corpse. Indeed, a lot of members who were in Monstrosity went later to join “bigger acts,” leaving them in the wider populace as the band George was in before joining Cannibal Corpse, like a trivia badge.

It’s fascinating to note that their line-up history reads like a who’s who of Tampa Bay’s death metal scene, featuring several musicians who have made significant impacts elsewhere. Despite this, Monstrosity has rarely received the recognition it deserves for its relentless energy and technical prowess, which are more or less consistent in their overall discography.

Excuse the long rant; we got a gig to cover and what this illiterate narrator and other 80+ people in the audience saw last night.

Quick disclaimer, I will try to be nice to the first two opening bands.

The venue of the latest sonic assault organized by the lovely people of Nasty Abyss is Vintage Industrial Bar, which is, in my opinion, one of the best places for this kind of gigs and alternative events in general. Great sound and space to fit 200 people without an issue.

But unfortunately, it was Tuesday, and I can feel it in the vibe. From the opening doors at 19:00 and with a small number of attendees, this is going to be a slow night.

The first opening band, Deadwood from Canada, started at 19:15 sharp, in front of eight people, including me and the photographer. Nevertheless, the timetable will be respected, as it is a strict tradition under the Nasty Abyss office.

The first sign that Deadwood will not be my cup of tea is that there is no bass guitarist, but yet again, you can’t complain that you don’t hear the bass if the band has no bass player (insert meme here).

Despite the quite impressive stage equipment, the sound of the band was too modern & muddled, and the riffs were too narrow. The thing that positively stood out was the drums, more precisely its sound. This must be one of the most effective drum sounds I heard live in recent memory; every part can be sonically distinguished: the toms, the snare, and even the cymbals. It caught my attention that the drum tech is female, which is an awesome piece of trivia in my opinion. I would love to hear her nerd talk about drums.

Despite its shortcomings, Deadwood played a tight set, especially the vocalist, who, again, sounded too modern for my taste. He performed its vocal track apparently with ease, and the vocals were pretty much all over the place in their songs.

At 19:50 their set ended, and the line check for the second pay-to-play is in process; this time Reject the Sickness from Belgium. The venue is gradually becoming more animated as people trickle in. The first positive note is the vocalist Guy’s—yes, that’s really his name—enthusiasm as soon as he steps on stage. After the band’s collective fist-pump, the show kicked off. Reject the Sickness is less a modern metal slug than Deadwood but only by a certain mile. The performance is much more energetic and, dare I say, playful in attitude, especially from the vocalist. His approach to the audience is still good, despite our less than stellar attendance. Nevertheless, it was a good set, although it was not that style of metal that the audience had come for.

50 minutes later we are free of pay-to-play bands, as Bio-Cancer was next for the stage. The venue, by numbers of human waste on two legs, had passed the embarrassing mark, and it started to look like a proper crowd. It has a good reason; despite being a band a bit on the younger side, these Greek thrashers have a strong following, giving us gut-punching thrash metal that is obviously meant to be performed live.

And they performed live very well; performance and presence-wise, they owned the stage. Despite Vintage not having the biggest stage on earth, the band used every centimeter to dominate.

Bio-Cancer is that style of thrash metal that shines mostly live, and maybe I would say that they stole the show from Monstrosity… if Donald Duck were not on the vocals. Yes, I said it.

If Bio-Cancer had any other type of vocals, and I fucking mean any type of vocals, I would be in the first mosh pits that occurred during the performance. Instead, half of their performance I was staring at angry Donald Duck GIFs. Anyone in the audience who has seen it had the same reaction: “Holy shit, it’s the same voice.”

Perhaps I would go over the fact that the vocalist is doing a faithful voiceover of an angry cartoon character; we all know that this genre has a shitload of crazy vocalists. The other problem is that the vocals are opaque and monotonous as hell.

It did not kill the full impression of the band; like I mentioned, their performance was awesome and really fully animated the “It’s Tuesday and I just came from work” crowd, but I’m still dreading the scenario if Dave Mustaine and Bio-Cancer do a collaboration.

Time for the headliner, finally. I said my opinion on Monstrosity in the beginning of the report, so I will cut to the chase; it was a good, professional performance but not the headliner quality. I might say that it was at times awkward, as the band did not really want to be there.

Lee Harrison (the last original member, drummer, and hell of a cheesecake maker, according to Jason Avery) is a hell of a presence, but it was sometimes too hard to see him upfront in the first rows from Ed Webb, who is their newest vocalist. Unfortunately, Ed is a few kilograms away from having a heart attack or appearing in the new Godzilla movie. By god, Ed, eat a salad.

The setlist, at least on paper, was awesome; it had a solid balance of the excellent new album Screams from Beneath the Surface, three tracks from the In Dark Purity record, and bits from the first two albums. By simply looking at the setlist, you are sure as hell that you are in for a killer show, at least on paper.

I have their setlist from last night on my desk, and this is not the songs nor the order they played them. It looks like this list was more like a suggestion piece for what to play next than anything else. The fact that it did not help is that Ed barely had any communication with the audience and rushed one song after another like they were in a hurry for a bathroom break. Especially after some 40 minutes when they started to look at each other like, “Should we do one more? ”. Luckily, there was an encore where they played Angel’s Venom, which is personally one of my favorite songs.

You will really think, if you are going to perform Total Destruction of Bathory, you will hype it or maybe just tell the audience.

Nope, they popped out the song, and who did not notice? Oh well.

The only guy who showed some enthusiasm was ironically their session guitarist Sam Molina, who was in Monstrosity from 2001 to 2006 as a full member and later joined Terrorizer.

I really wanted this report to be a nice tribute to Monstrosity and give them high praise, but that is not the case unfortunately. This gig was half-measured and by the numbers. Well performed but lacked the enthusiasm that would make me run home and put on the In Dark Purity CD I bought last night on my stereo and wake up the neighbors.

Tuesdays still suck.

Look, it’s a Grouper tour! These days Liz Harris rarely goes on the road in North America; when she does play shows, she tends to stay closer to her native West Coast. But today she’s announced a run of six tour dates this September, kicking off with an appearance at Chicago’s Sound & Gravity Festival before hitting the East Coast. She’ll make stops in Toronto, Montreal, Kingston, New York, and DC. See those dates below.

The post Grouper Announces Rare North America Shows appeared first on Stereogum.

Riding the momentum of the record announcement, Bolan keeps the energy high and the buzz building with the release of his second single ‘Anything But You‘ – giving fans another glimpse of what’s ahead and another hook that sticks! After four decades as a driving force behind Skid Row, bassist and songwriter Rachel Bolan steps […]

The post Bolan (Skid Row) – New Single ‘Anything But You’ Out Today appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.