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PROTRUSION Launch Full Album Stream for “The Last Suppuration”
Indiana death metal crew PROTRUSION is streaming their debut album, The Last Suppuration, ahead of it’s release later this week. This exclusive premiere comes via the Jimmy from the Block YouTube channel. Listen now at this location. PROTRUSION guitarist / vocalist Colin Foster comments on the album. “Once people hear The Last Suppuration I have no doubt that they […] -
Don’t Cha … Wish the Pussycat Dolls Would Go on Tour?
You’re in luck: The early 2000s girl group announced a new single and a reunion tour on Thursday. -
Track Premiere: Side Over – “Sorry”
If you are of a certain vintage, you have likely heard stories of “Wilkes-Barre, PA’s legendary hardcore scene” of the early ‘90s. Since I grew up there, I’ve often rolled my eyes my Podunk hometown’s revered, albeit niche, musical status. Maybe that’s because I spent a few of my teenage years avoiding karate kicks in the pit while those bands performed shows at decades-gone venues like the Factory and the Fire Hall.
In the sober light of adulthood, however, a few bands from the era do hold up. I’m not gonna list a bunch of them who won’t mean shit to anyone who didn’t come of age in the then-717 on a steady diet of Top Dog, but one was Ashley death metal freaks Ossuary, and the other was melodic hardcore crew Side Over.
The band reunited last year for a benefit show in honor former bassist and Northeast PA scene force Neil Husvar, who passed away suddenly at the age of 52. That was on the heels of losing a pair of ex-bandmates, Chris Pawloski and Brian Craig. The show proved to be not just a reunion and a benefit but an opportunity to reignite their passion for this and its unique community.
The result of that inspiration is Side Over – Loves You—out June 12 on La Société Expéditionnaire—a re-recording of the band’s early ’90s demos with the addition of a new song “Scars,” created from riffs from a 32-year-old practice tape. But today Decibel is proud to premiere the opening track “Sorry.”
“I wrote Sorry in ‘92 or ‘93, specifically about Brian, something I’ve never spoken about before.” says vocalist Aaron Ferranti. “We grew up together and were best friends. At that point he was going down a path I didn’t understand or agree with, and I felt like we were both changing but needed to stay close, which we did until the end.”
The post Track Premiere: Side Over – “Sorry” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
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Filth Launch Crowdfunding Campaign After Their Van And Trailer Were Wrecked In A Hit & Run
They escaped without significant injury, but face dire financial costs.
The post Filth Launch Crowdfunding Campaign After Their Van And Trailer Were Wrecked In A Hit & Run appeared first on Theprp.com.
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Interview: Randy Blythe of Lamb of God
Interview: Randy Blythe of Lamb of God
Interviewed by Adam Kennedy
We’re a couple of months into this year now. I think it’s always a good time to reflect on the last 12 months when you’re at the start of a new year. How was last year for yourself and the band?
It was way busier than I expected it to be. I’m not only a musician, I’m also an author. So, in February 2025 my second book, Just Beyond the Light came out and I went out on a two-leg, month long spoken word tour of America with two Canadian dates. And I went out every night and told stories for two and a half hours then did a 30-minute Q&A. Then signed books for two and a half hours and then flew to a different city and did it again. So that’s kind of how my year started off.
And then we went straight into writing. Maybe we had already started writing, I believe. So, I went back to writing the new record. And then I went to California to record the album. And we did a bunch of festival gigs and a cruise and ended the year in Mexico. It felt like it was supposed to be kind of a light year, but it wasn’t at all.
So, for me, it was a very busy, but a productive year, you know. I did some guest vocals with other bands as well, including Lacuna Coil. So, it was busy as always.
You’re about to release your new album in March, so it’s coming around very quickly. It’s called Into Oblivion and it’s the first full length release in four years for Lamb of God. How are you feeling ahead of the album release? Are you excited? Are you curious to hear what people think? How are you feeling in general about the release?
I feel pretty good about it. I mean, I try not to have really preconceived notions of how something’s going to go. You know, how it will be accepted in that particular moment, because sometimes records come out and they don’t immediately connect with people, and then later they do. But overall, I feel good about it. I think with this record we had some more time in between it and the previous record. The last record was supposed to come out in April 2020, but COVID happened, so we kept delaying it, but then it came out. Finally, we were like, we can’t delay this anymore. It came out in June 2020, I think. And then we didn’t tour it.
So, it was very strange to make a record and not tour it, because that’s been the entirety of my adult life basically – write, record, tour. And nobody was touring, and our record label was like, well, we’ll take another record. So, we immediately wrote another record. And to me, it felt rushed. And I understand why we did it, because my guys have kids and they’re expensive and nobody’s making any money not touring. So, we wrote that record. But this one, there’s more time in between. And I like it better than the last one.
Into Oblivion – I love the title of the record. I think when I hear that title, there’s just so many thoughts that go through my head, particularly with the kind of apocalyptic world we’re living in right now. Everything feels like it’s slipping into oblivion.
Chaos and dismay.
I can’t turn on the news without seeing some horrendous story. And so I was wondering, in terms of the title and the title track, were those the sort of things that you wanted to get off your chest to write about the political and cultural events that are happening in the world presently today?
Well, that’s what I get off my chest with every single record. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. And from the very first song I ever wrote for this band, it was sociopolitical commentary. We’re not a smooth R&B band. We don’t write love songs, you know? And as the late great Nina Simone said, it’s the duty of the artist to reflect the times. I think this record does.
Interestingly enough though, I wrote most of the lyrics on the record but my guitar player, Mark, he writes lyrics sometimes. And then sometimes we co-write. So, he started the song into Oblivion and that song, originally, from what I understand from him, from his initial verse and chorus, was much more an internal-looking song. It was much more looking at the inner psychological battles that we all fight in one way or the other, not so much external chaos.
When I got the song, I definitely turned it more towards external chaos. So, the song kind of has two meanings. He’s the one who suggested it as the title track, and we thought, well, it just fits. But I don’t think when he started writing the song, he was thinking about the apocalyptic world we live in, you know? I think he was thinking more internal stuff. I tend to write a bit more externally, a little bit more social commentary. He’s more of an inner artist kind of guy. So, it’s a combination of both. Of course, external chaos leads to internal struggle.
It’s interesting to hear there’s a duality to that song there. Sepsis was one of the first tracks to be released since 2022 and that song kind of pays homage to the early 90s Richmond, Virginia underground scene that you guys came out of. I’m quite interested in that era of the band. As one of the bigger metal bands in the world, how does it feel kind of looking back on that period of the band’s career and what do you recollect about those early days coming through as a band in the underground scene?
Musically, it certainly does reflect that era and what a lot of us were listening to in that era. Lyrically, not so much. It’s much more modern day. But Mark was referring more to the actual guitars and drums and bass. Although there is some vocal delivery that harks back to some of the stuff we were listening to then as well, to be fair.
I think in looking back on that time period, I just feel you don’t want to be the old man shaking your fist at the sky and saying how much better things were back in the day. Because it doesn’t really matter, we’re here now. You have to make the most of here right now.
But when I think of those times, there are certain things that I’m very, very grateful that I got to experience that simply doesn’t exist today. We got to become a band and learn how to be a band and write our songs back when the regional music scene still existed. I feel that with the advent of the internet and everything being available to anyone, anywhere, all the time, the regional scene is kind of dead. It doesn’t really exist anymore, at least not in rock so much.
When I came up in the 1980s and into the 1990s, there were very distinctive regional sounds, at least here in America, within the sort of underground punk, hardcore and metal scenes. New Orleans had a very specific sound, slower and sludgy; Washington, DC had Discord Records; New York had New York Hardcore; Chicago had Touch and Go and Amphetamine Reptiles, these weird noise rock kind of bands.
They all sort of stewed in their own creative juices and learned from each other and developed this sort of regional identity. Richmond definitely had its own regional identity, which has informed us. I feel very, very lucky to have experienced that rather than the data overload that is the world today.
I also feel lucky to have experienced discovering music at a time when to find new music, you had to go to the record store, or someone had to tell you about it. Even finding out about shows, there was no internet. You had to go to the record store and look in the window and see a flyer and you’d think who is that? Maybe you recognised one band, but you went there, and you got to hear whoever else was playing and you couldn’t go on your phone and be like, what do these guys sound like? Do I want to go give them a chance? You just had to go and pay your $5 and sometimes it was magic. Sometimes it wasn’t, but there was a mystery to it and an excitement to it that I think is absent in today’s world. I think when everything is accessible everywhere at all times, it kills the mystery and life is not much without mystery, I don’t believe.
Those things from our time growing up as a band, I cherish very much. I feel very fortunate to have become a musician during those times when they still existed. That being said, I don’t want to be the old man shaking his fist at the sky again because there’s a lot of stuff that sucked about those days too that I’m glad is gone. There are pros and cons to everything.
Did you ever think at that point in time, as a band coming out of the underground scene, that you could see the trajectory, the path?
Absolutely not. Are you crazy? No way. When we formed the band, our original name was Burn the Priest. You don’t join a band called Burn the Priest if you think you’re going to play in front of 100,000 people at a festival in the United Kingdom. You don’t join a band called Burn the Priest if you think you’re going to go play Madison Square Garden. You don’t join a band called Burn the Priest if you think, one day we’ll have our own cruise ship where we can invite all our friends for a floating festival. That’s not what you’re thinking. All of those things have happened to us, but it was never, ever a thought in my mind. I never thought we’d ever be able to make a living doing this stuff. It’s just something we enjoy doing. You make music because it’s in you.
From the underground days, one album that I wanted to touch upon was Ashes of the Wake, which is such a seminal album. It’s been rated by Metal Hammer as the fifth greatest metal album of the 21st century, which is an incredible thing to say.
Compliment.
Tell us a little bit about that period of time within the band. Did you know you were onto something special at the time?
I think the time period where I knew something special was happening was right before that. Several of our compatriots, that we used to literally play in people’s basements with and at house parties, were all touring together and we were playing larger and larger venues together. We were out with Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage, Unearthed and God Forbid. All these bands had been lumped under this moniker, the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, by some journalist. They invented it. We never said we’re the New Wave of American Heavy Metal or whatever. But I remember there was a lot of excitement around all those bands and around this self-contained scene we had created and these friendships.
I remember being on tour with those guys and thinking, something special is happening right now. This is a special moment in time. I was very aware of that. The next record that came out in 2004, about a year later, was Ashes of the Wake. The one before was As the Palaces Burn.
When Ashes of the Wake came out, we signed to a major which was very scary. It was a scary time because we were all still working straight jobs and touring. When we’d come home, we’d all go back to work in a restaurant or working construction, roofing, and so forth.
We signed with a major label to put out Ashes of the Wake, and we had to make a decision, like, are we going to try and be real professional musicians or is this going to be a weekend warrior kind of thing? We made the decision to take a chance and try and be professional musicians, which was very scary because it doesn’t work out most of the time. Statistically, it doesn’t. There is no secret you can implement that will guarantee I’m going to be a successful artist. It was frightening.
I thought what was going to happen was that it was going to be a Sex Pistols Great Rock and Roll Swindle situation where we got signed to them and they were like, what is this? And then they would drop us, and we’d take the money and run. And then go back to a small label. I thought that’s exactly what was going to happen. Astonishingly, it didn’t happen.
We went out on tour the summer of 2004 on Ozzfest. We had been invited to do that, and we were one of three headliners on the second stage. It was us, Hatebreed and Slipknot playing the second stage. We got exposed to a lot of people and the record came out while we were out on that tour. Something definitely shifted then within our lives as a band because it was like, holy cow, we can actually pay bills doing this. The crowds we were playing for at Ozzfest were big. It was a shift in the band. It was a shift within our lives. I mostly remember it as being exciting but scary at first. Because I’m used to working a job, dude. How am I going to pay my rent if this doesn’t work out?
I think with a lot of bands, people don’t realise that about going out on tour and then coming back and working in a restaurant. Everybody thinks they’re making money.
The joke in our old town in Richmond, was always what is a musician without a girlfriend? Homeless. That was the truth for me. I’d come off tour and we were riding in tour buses and I’m signing autographs. I’d come home and I’d be like, honey, can I have some money for a pack of cigarettes? Then I’d go back and work at a restaurant for a little bit until it’s time to do it again. I know bands that have been around for a long, long time, they have fans and so forth. These people still work regular jobs. You do it because you love it.
We were talking before about Into Oblivion and you mentioned that you liked this album more than the previous record. I was curious, how do you feel it sits within the context of the whole Lamb of God catalogue?
I don’t know yet. That’s impossible to know. It’s not out yet. We haven’t pressure tested the songs live yet. One of the most exciting things for me about releasing a record is going out on tour and seeing what songs are going to connect with an audience. But right now, I don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t know how it’s going to connect. I know personally that I like it better than the last one.
Other tracks came out and the fans have got to hear some of this stuff. Parasocial Christ, which has been described as a three-minute onslaught, is a great title for any marketing guy. It makes me immediately want to pick up the record and listen to it. Just tell us a little bit about that song and the inspiration behind it.
I don’t think the initial inspiration for that song would have happened in the UK but here in the United States, I don’t know if you heard, that they were going to make TikTok illegal at one point. Do you remember that? People lost their mind. They completely went crazy. They were like, this is the end of the world. They’re taking away my TikTok.
And you had people who were like, I’ve built my whole career around this; this is my way of expressing myself. How can you do this to me? And I was looking at this, and I thought, how ridiculous. How ridiculous that you have put all your eggs in this basket. This is your sole means of making money, of artistic expression, of communication, and such a huge part of your identity. You’ve placed all this within the control of a Chinese-owned corporation, that you have no stake in whatsoever. You have built your entire life around this thing that you have zero agency within. Zero. And I thought that was so ridiculous.
And in thinking about that, it led me to start thinking about how much attention people pay to other people’s lives online, whether it be entertainers or actors, musicians or politicians, and the sort of banal minutia of other people’s lives. It’s easy to pick on them, but you think of someone like the Kardashians. Why are they famous? Why does anybody care what they do? They are rich people who created this weird attention economy around them. They’re not rocket scientists. They’re not curing cancer. Who gives a fuck what they do? But there’s plenty of people that can tell you every single thing about them, and they’re just one example.
But it made me think about how much people pay attention to other people’s lives while releasing agency within their own lives, while giving up control over their own lives, over their time and over their attention. It seems foolish to me to pay that much attention to someone that you’ll never meet who doesn’t know that you exist at all. That’s what inspired that song.
It was this odd surrendering of time to something utterly pointless, in my opinion. Time is really the only thing we have, and it’s in a finite supply.
This record was recorded across multiple locations. You recorded at Total Access Studio in Redondo Beach, which was also the birthplace of records by Black Flag and Husker Du and the Descendants and such like. When you’re working in a place like that which has created such magic, what is it like recording there? How did it feel recording in such a key location with great musical history?
Well, I didn’t know. I didn’t pick the studio, but our producer, Josh Wilbur, who’s basically the sixth member of Lamb of God, is very familiar with me as a person. He’s familiar with my musical taste. He’s familiar with my environmental preferences, which means nothing too fancy. I like things to be simple.
He told me, look, dude, I found this great studio. You’re going to love to come work here. I’m like, OK. Then I walked in, and I looked on the wall and the little room and the entrance and the foyer and you see several hundred records. You see Black Flag and Descendants and Husker Du and Minutemen and St. Vitus. I was like, oh, I’m home now because that’s the world I came from. I don’t come from the heavy metal world. I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock. I just thought it was a cool place. I really enjoy history, general history, but I also particularly enjoy the artistic history of locations.
When I’m in Paris, I will go to the cafes where Hemingway hung out because I want to soak up some of that vibe, because he was such a great writer. When I’m in Chile, I go to Pablo Neruda’s house, La Chascona, and walk around and feel the vibe of the poet there. Being in a place where records were created that I had listened to since high school was amazing. I enjoy soaking up that cultural vibe there.
The owner of the studio was amazing. I just sat there and bothered him all day for old punk rock stories. I’m like, tell me about when Black Flag did this. He’s telling me crazy stories about Henry Rollins freaking out and getting on the roof of the studio and the police being called one night. Just great stuff.
I was curious when you mentioned those locations, the cafes in Paris and such, have you ever been to Caffé Florian in Venice? That was where a lot of the Renaissance writers and poets went to. It’s in St. Mark’s Square and it’s very, very cool. It’s a very similar kind of vibe to the one that you mentioned.
No, I have not been to Venice yet and that is on my list. I know the cafe that you’re discussing, but I haven’t been to Venice yet. I’d love to go. But sadly, the Italians are disgusted with over-tourism from what I understand.
You mentioned there about your fascination with punk rock and those kinds of bands. I was just wondering as a punk rock aficionado, where did you love punk rock start?
In the sixth grade I went to a summer camp for gifted and talented students, at the University of Virginia. I went there in the summer of the sixth grade, and we got to study and get college credit. And while I was there, I was a skateboarder.
I met this other guy who was also a skateboarder, and he was asking about the music I was listening to, and I was listening to like basically what was available on the radio at the time because I lived in this little, tiny town with no record store. And he’s like, oh man, you need to check this out. And he gave me a dubbed cassette tape, and I put it in and the first song I heard was Holidays in the Sun by the Sex Pistols and it’s the first track, of course, on Never Mind the Bollocks. And instantly my life changed.
Instantly. I was like, OK, this is real stuff. I didn’t understand a lot of it because there were a lot of cultural references to Thatcher’s England. For instance, he sings about another council tenancy at one point. I’m like, I have no idea of what a council estate is at that time. I live in South East Virginia. I don’t know anything about London or England really, but I could tell that there was venom and vehemence in his voice, and he wasn’t a perfect singer, but it didn’t matter, and the music was aggressive and hard edged and that was the first punk rock I ever heard. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols immediately changed my life. Immediately and from there I started finding other bands and going to shows in high school and becoming involved in that scene and immersed myself within it.
Like you said, the Sex Pistols, they kind of came out of the glory days of the punk era here in the UK in 1977. The bands that were popping off like the Buzzcocks and the Clash, everything like that.
X-Ray Spex.
All those bands were really defining what that sound was and what that genre was. Obviously, coming from the States, how much would you say that the UK punk rock scene shaped your love for the genre?
Well, it’s funny because punk rock was born in America. It comes from New York City. It was born at CBGB’s and then it was much more of an arty kind of scene there with Blondie and the Ramones. I guess the closest thing to sort of UK punk that came out at that time would be the Dead Boys from Cleveland. But it was much more of an artistic scene, not so political in the 70s at CBGB’s.
UK punk, of course, speaking of Thatcher’s England, things were grim. Everybody’s on the fucking dole and they’re pissed. So, it added this sort of social commentary, the socio-political commentary to it and that was absent in the American punk scene at the time. So, that was funny, man, being in sixth grade and finding out about the Sex Pistols.
I thought that punk rock only came from England, and I was a snotty little kid and people started trying to play me stuff like Black Flag that I really love now, but I’m like, that’s not punk rock. That’s not English.
So, I was a snotty little kid then and, of course, eventually I came to love American punk rock and hardcore. But that sort of political awareness very much shaped me, and the political awareness in the UK punk scene, like Richard Hell and all those that went over to England and played and, of course, the Sex Pistols heard them. And then, of course, they brought heroin into the UK punk scene, which is not great either. But then the UK bands came over here and they shaped the American punk scene and made it more political.
And it’s kind of like; it’s a circular relationship that I’ve found really beautiful. But the UK punk scene is hugely important to me, and hugely important, and the latter stuff, to what we call extreme metal or thrash metal, because I know the guys who created that too. I’m friends with Metallica, and I know Slayer, and all those guys listen to punk rock. One band that across the board you’ll hear them talk about is Discharge. And they’re mates of mine as well. So, it’s like this circular thing. It was born in the Lower East Side of New York and then kind of swirled over to England, and then it came back. It’s a beautiful thing.
So, yeah, all that UK punk most definitely shaped me in a big way, and I still listen to it this day. I just watched a beautiful film the other night with my girlfriend called I Am a Cliché, about Poly Styrene. I don’t know if you’ve seen it? X-Ray Specs. Her daughter did it. It’s a beautiful film and I highly recommend it. And it made me listen to some old UK punk immediately after.
It’s interesting you mention Discharge. I can’t remember if I was either interviewing Max Cavalera, or if it was when he was performing the last time I saw the band, and he had a leather jacket …
Max loves Discharge.
… with Discharge across the back.
Yes, Dude. Their speed and aggression, it informed the playing of those early thrash metal guys. It really did. It informed the later guys, like the dudes in At the Gates in Sweden. I know the twins, because I toured with them as Haunted. I would talk to them about Discharge, and they were like, oh yeah, fucking Discharge. Great band. Shout out to Stoke on Trent’s Finest.
In terms of your record collection, what would you say are your go-to punk rock records? If you had to pick five, which are your favourites?
Ooh, if I had to pick five? Well, Discharge – Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing; Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols; Bad Brains – self-titled cassette.
God, this is tough, dude. Corrosion of Conformity – Animosity. It’s a little outside of the box, but still considered punk rock. Big Black – Songs About Fucking. Or Atomizer by Big Black.
After the album release, you’re going on tour. I guess that’s the end product of releasing an album, you hit the road. So, you’ve got some shows coming up in North America. How much are you looking forward to touring with this record?
It’s interesting, as I get older, before the time comes to tour, I’m just like, oh my God. Because it hurts, you know? I just turned 55 and I’m a pretty aggressive frontman. But once I’m out on stage, once we’re out on tour and the machine has started, I really enjoy it.
And that’s really the coolest thing. I mentioned it, though, that for me, the thing about releasing records is the pressure testing of the songs in front of an audience and seeing what will connect. So, I have no idea of how the record is going to be taken, really, until I go out and play the songs. I think that’s the proving ground, I think that’s where it matters. You know, can this translate live?
From a UK point of view, you’re going to be coming over here to headline Bloodstock, which is obviously one of the biggest metal festivals in the UK. How much are you looking forward to Bloodstock? And how important is the UK market to Lamb of God?
The UK market is really important to us. We’ve done extremely well right there from the beginning. The first time we ever played the UK, we got asked to open up for Slayer, two shows at London Astoria. I think we had been to Canada, maybe, but other than that, we hadn’t left the country and that doesn’t really count because you can drive to Canada. But we flew to London and played two sold-out shows opening up for Slayer at the London Astoria. And people actually knew the words and stuff. We were kind of freaked out. We were like, whoa, they actually know about us all the way over here.
And they were big shows, sold-out shows. Slayer did Reign in Blood in its entirety. And then we stayed and played three more shows, Nottingham, Oxford and Leeds, I think, playing in pubs. And of course, 50 people showed up. So, we realised, OK, we’re not huge. They were just there for Slayer.
But knowing that people actually knew of us was a big deal. So yeah, the UK has always been great to us, just a lovely, lovely place. One of the earliest international audiences we connected with, for sure.
And then as far as Bloodstock, it’s going to be great, 25 years. The last time we played was amazing because I got to watch Killing Joke. They played that day, and I got to stand right there, on stage right by Geordie and just watch him make that insane sound with his guitar. It was just lovely. And Bloodstock is cool because it is massive. It’s a big festival, but it feels really independent. And it’s run by, I don’t know, people who just love that particular genre of music. So, it’s going to be a good time.
Well, the last question I’ve got for you, Randy. You’ve obviously got a busy year ahead with this record coming out. Do you know how the rest of 2026 looks for the band? Have you kind of got the year mapped out?
Yeah. Let’s see, the record comes out. We tour the States. We play some festivals. Then we go to the UK to do festivals, some more festivals in the us. Then we have a cruise we do every year, Headbangers Boat. And I think there’s one other thing thrown in there that’s not announced yet. Hopefully that’ll get announced soon, but it’s going to be a busy year all the way to the end of 2026.
Well, thank you so much for the time. It’s been lovely chatting to you and thank you for all those insightful answers. And good luck with the record release, we’ll see you over here in the UK for Bloodstock.
Yes, sir. Cheers to you.
The post Interview: Randy Blythe of Lamb of God appeared first on The Razor's Edge.
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AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRAGOS — “BELLICUM”
(written by Islander) We’re about to lead you off our usual well-beaten paths, or rather the French band Tragos will do that through their debut album Bellicum that will be released by Fetzner Death Records on March 13th. Gazing at the album’s cover art will give you a hint about the music within, which is […]
The post AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRAGOS — “BELLICUM” appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.
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Deadsy’s Elijah Blue Allman Now Facing Charges For Two Separate Arrests In A Three-Day Period This Year
After being arrested at a prep school in late February, Allman now stands accused of breaking into a home on March 01st.
The post Deadsy’s Elijah Blue Allman Now Facing Charges For Two Separate Arrests In A Three-Day Period This Year appeared first on Theprp.com.
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ALLEGAEON Drops âImperialâ Lyric Video; Band To Kick Off US Tour With Obscura
Photo by Stephanie Cabral Technical death metal architects ALLEGAEON today unveil a lyric video for âImperial.â The track comes off the bandâs latest full-length, The Ossuary Lens, out now on Metal Blade Records. Watch ALLEGAEONâs […]The post ALLEGAEON Drops âImperialâ Lyric Video; Band To Kick Off US Tour With Obscura appeared first on INFRARED MAGAZINE.
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Stryper frontman Michael Sweet releases new single, ‘Again,’ from upcoming solo album
Stryper frontman Michael Sweet releases new single, ‘Again,’ from upcoming solo album was originally published on HM Magazine by Nao Glover.
Today, acclaimed singer-songwriter Michael Sweet, best known as the frontman for the multi-platinum rock band Stryper, is proud to release his new single “Again,” the third single from his upcoming solo album, The Master Plan. His most personal and spiritually resonant solo album yet is set for release on April 3, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl. Sweet shares more about his new single: “We’ve […]
Stryper frontman Michael Sweet releases new single, ‘Again,’ from upcoming solo album was originally published on HM Magazine by Nao Glover.
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13 Best New Female Fronted Metal Bands Right Now, Ranked (2026)
The best new female fronted metal bands aren’t a subcategory anymore; they’re a lot of the main event. In 2026 women are fronting the Grammy-nominated metalcore band that’s about to open for Metallica, the Ukrainian institution finishing a farewell lap for its last record, the Houston death metal band that just signed to Century Media, and the Tokyo quartet that sold out its first North American headline tour.
This list ranks the thirteen who matter most right now, by influence, touring and streaming weight, and impact on how modern metal sounds. The legends have their own list: our best female-fronted metal bands of all time. This one is about who’s setting the pace today.
How We Ranked Them
Three things, weighted in this order: influence on the current scene (are other bands copying them?), real-world scale in 2025–26 (tours, charts, festival slots, streams), and how much they’ve changed what modern metal sounds like. ‘Current’ means active and releasing now. Arch Enemy, Nightwish, Halestorm and Evanescence are giants; they’re on the all-time list, not this one. Every band here has released new music and headlined since 2025.
13. Frayle
Cleveland’s Frayle are the slowest band on this list and the only one that sounds like a séance. Gwyn Strang sings in a near-whisper over Sean Bilovecky’s doom riffs, and the effect is less ‘metal show’ than ‘something is in the room.’ Their third album, Heretics & Lullabies, arrived on Napalm Records in October 2025 and is their most fully realized: occult, melodic, patient, and heavy in the way weather is heavy.
They’ve toured with Cradle Of Filth and spent spring 2026 on the road with Dogma, and they’ve never once chased a trend. On a list full of breakdowns and blast beats, Frayle are proof that the current wave has room for a band whose loudest moment is a held note.
11. Vana
Vana is Yvonne Winckel, born in Anaheim, California, raised in Auckland from the age of ten, and now signed to Sumerian. Her thing is metalcore with industrial grit and dark-pop instincts: screams that turn into hooks mid-bar, trap hi-hats under drop-tuned guitars, and a stage presence built on confrontation. The EPs Die For Me! and Trial & Terror got her noticed; ‘Pray,’ her Sumerian debut, and 2026’s ‘In Your Name’ got her booked.
In 2026 she opened for Linkin Park, played Warped Tour in Long Beach, and launched her first headline run. There’s no full album yet, which is the only reason she’s this low. When it lands, this entry moves.
11. Cage Fight
Cage Fight were formed in 2021 by TesseracT guitarist James Monteith, which tells you nothing about how they sound. Rachel Aspe, formerly of French metallers Eths, fronts a band that plays hardcore with metal’s muscle and none of its patience: two-minute songs, no solos, every lyric a grievance.
Their second album, Exuvia, came out on Spinefarm in May 2026, with a sold-out London release show and a spring UK tour supporting Employed To Serve behind it. They aren’t the biggest name here and may never be. They’re on the list because every song is a fight they intend to win, and because Aspe is one of the most physically convincing vocalists in British heavy music right now.
10. The Pretty Wild
Sisters Jyl and Jules Wylde moved from Indiana to Las Vegas, formed The Pretty Wild in 2022, and went viral before they had an album: ‘sLeepwALKeR’ and its cough-into-breakdown moment spawned more than 87,000 fan-made TikToks. Sumerian signed them. The debut, zero.point.genesis, finally arrived in November 2025, with ‘sLeepwALKeR’ tucked on as a bonus track for the people who got them there.
The sound is theatrical and unpredictable, pop structure with metalcore violence, and the live show is already ahead of the recordings. They supported In This Moment in 2025, toured with Bloodywood and Sleep Theory in 2026, and played Download. They sat down with us on The Loaded Radio Podcast earlier this year. Early in the journey, highest ceiling on the list.
9. Wargasm
London’s Wargasm are two people, Milkie Way and Sam Matlock, trading vocals over a sound that treats nu-metal, digital hardcore and rave as the same thing: drum-and-bass drops into drop-tuned riffs, screams into pop hooks, and a live show built for a crowd that wants to be hit by it. Their debut, Venom, went to No. 3 on the UK Rock & Metal chart in 2023, and they’ve been the support act every bigger band wanted since: Limp Bizkit, Corey Taylor, Babymetal, Poppy, Korn at Gunnersbury Park.
2026 is the reset. After a year independent, during which they cut ‘Cannibal’ with Pendulum, they signed to Hopeless Records in the summer, released ‘Get Down’ and ‘Swallow,’ confirmed a second album is nearly finished, and spent September and October crossing the US with Scene Queen. Way is the most magnetic frontwoman in British heavy music right now, and the band’s own line sums the appeal up: ‘You can feel good when you’re being bad.’
8. Hanabie.
Tokyo’s Hanabie. call what they do ‘Harajuku-core,’ and it’s as accurate as a genre name gets: metalcore breakdowns, hardcore tempos, J-pop melody and a visual sense that treats a stage like a candy store on fire. Yukina fronts it, Matsuri handles guitar and clean vocals, and nobody in the band seems to have been told that any of this shouldn’t work together.
The HOT TOPIC EP came out on Sony Music Japan in January 2026, and that spring they played their first North American headline tour: twenty-one shows, Boston to Los Angeles, after a 2025 festival run that included Lollapalooza. They’re the clearest sign on this list that the old rules about what counts as ‘serious’ heavy music have stopped applying.
7. Stabbing
If anyone still thinks women front the melodic end of metal and leave the brutality to the men, Stabbing exist to correct them. The Texas band’s 2022 debut, Extirpated Mortal Process, was old-school brutal death metal with a technical spine and Bridget Lynch’s gutturals as the main weapon, and it earned them a deal with Century Media.
The follow-up, Eon Of Obscenity, arrived in January 2026 as their Century Media debut, with Devourment’s Marvin Ruiz on guitar. Nothing has been sanded down for the bigger label. It’s slam, it’s grind-adjacent, and Lynch is doing things with her voice that make seasoned death metal fans check the credits. Stabbing are the heaviest band on this list by a distance, and that’s the point of their being here. Seriously man they are awesome. Especially if you like your metal pulverizing and brutal.
6. Crypta
Fernanda Lira left Nervosa in 2020 and started Crypta in São Paulo with drummer Luana Dametto; within eighteen months Echoes Of The Soul had made them one of the most talked-about death metal bands in the world. Shades Of Sorrow, in 2023, confirmed it: riff-forward, melodic where it counts, and fronted by a bassist-vocalist who plays like the genre owes her money.
2025 brought a lineup change, with American guitarist Victoria Villarreal made permanent in April 2026, and the band confirmed it’s writing album three. They toured Europe and Brazil through 2026. Crypta are the proof that the shift this list describes isn’t a trend; it’s a band from Brazil becoming a death metal institution in five years.
5. Poppy
Yes, Poppy. The purists will object, and they’re wrong. She has two Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance, for ‘BLOODMONEY’ in 2021 (the first solo woman ever nominated in the category) and for ‘Suffocate’ with Knocked Loose in 2025. Her 2026 album, Empty Hands, produced by Jordan Fish, hit No. 2 on the UK Rock & Metal chart and No. 7 in Australia, and the Constantly Nowhere Tour has run from Brisbane to Cologne to San Francisco this year.
She took Dying Wish out as support in 2025. She’s recorded with Amy Lee and Courtney LaPlante. Modern metal is wider than it was, and Poppy is one of the people who widened it. That’s influence, which is what this list measures.
4. Employed To Serve
Employed To Serve have grown every year since 2015 without losing the hardcore abrasion they started with, and Justine Jones is the reason: a vocalist who sounds like she’s reading you a verdict. Fallen Star, their fifth album, arrived on Spinefarm in April 2025 with Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos guesting on ‘Atonement,’ and it’s the sharpest thing they’ve made.
Since then they’ve put out standalone singles on Church Road Records, the label Jones runs with guitarist Sammy Urwin, headlined the UK in March 2026 with Cage Fight supporting, and booked a 25-date co-headline run through the UK and Europe with Cabal for November and December. Dependable isn’t a glamorous word, but it’s rare. Employed To Serve are the band you can set your watch by.
3. Dying Wish
Portland’s Dying Wish are what metalcore sounds like when the conviction is real. Emma Boster fronts them with a voice that holds hardcore and melodic metalcore in the same breath, and 2023’s Symptoms Of Survival made them necessary rather than fashionable.
Flesh Stays Together, their third album, came out on SharpTone in September 2025, produced by Will Putney, and it’s heavier and more confident than its predecessor. They opened for Poppy that fall, headlined the US in November and December, and this autumn they’re on Spiritbox’s UK and European tour alongside Jinjer: three bands from this list on one bill, which is the whole thesis in a poster. Boster has talked about the vocal technique Courtney LaPlante taught her. The student is closing the gap.
Check This Out – EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Emma Boster (Dying Wish) Reveals the “Vocal Hack” Courtney LaPlante Taught Her
2. Jinjer
Jinjer have made the move from rising act to institution. Tatiana Shmayluk remains one of the most technically complete vocalists in heavy music, switching between a clean register and a guttural one without a seam, and Duél, released on Napalm Records in February 2025, showed a band in command of groove, progressive structure and songwriting at once.
In 2026 they played a 37-city North American headline tour that Shmayluk called ‘our farewell lap with Duél in North America,’ then joined Spiritbox across Europe this fall. From Donetsk to arenas, through a war that displaced the band, with no drop in output: that’s not a trend, that’s a career. Jinjer are No. 2 only because No. 1 is having a once-in-a-generation run.
1. Spiritbox
Spiritbox are the defining metal band of this era, and Courtney LaPlante is the reason the phrase ‘female fronted’ is starting to sound dated. Tsunami Sea, released in March 2025, debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Hard Rock Albums. The band has been nominated for Best Metal Performance at three consecutive Grammys, for ‘Jaded,’ ‘Cellar Door’ and ‘Soft Spine,’ and performed the last of those at the February 2026 ceremony.
This year: a UK and European headline tour with Jinjer and Dying Wish in support, and on November 21 they open for Metallica at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. Heaviness, atmosphere, hooks and feeling in one band, with no part of that in tension with the rest. That balance is why so many of the best modern metalcore records now sound like they’re answering Spiritbox. No. 1, and not close.
The Bigger Point
None of these bands is here to tick a box. Frayle and Hanabie. are pulling heavy music in opposite directions; Stabbing and Crypta are dragging death metal somewhere more brutal; Poppy and Vana are dissolving the line between metal and everything else; Spiritbox, Jinjer and Dying Wish are simply the best at the center of the genre right now. The common thread is not who’s singing. It’s that, in 2026, if you want to know where metal is going, this is who you listen to.
TL;DR
- The best new female fronted metal bands in 2026, ranked: Spiritbox at No. 1, Jinjer at 2, Dying Wish at 3, Employed To Serve at 4, Poppy at 5.
- Eight of the thirteen have released new records since April 2025: Dying Wish (Flesh Stays Together), Employed To Serve (Fallen Star), Poppy (Empty Hands), Stabbing (Eon Of Obscenity), Hanabie. (HOT TOPIC), The Pretty Wild (zero.point.genesis), Cage Fight (Exuvia) and Frayle (Heretics & Lullabies).
- Spiritbox have three straight Grammy nominations, a Billboard 200 top-30 album and a Metallica support slot in November 2026.
- Current means current: legacy acts like Arch Enemy, Nightwish and Halestorm are on our all-time list instead. Wargasm are the newest arrival, in at No. 9 after signing to Hopeless Records and touring the US this fall.
- Ones to watch move up next: Vana (debut album pending) and The Pretty Wild.
FAQ
Who is the biggest female fronted metal band right now?
Spiritbox. Tsunami Sea debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart in March 2025, the band has three consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance, and in November 2026 they open for Metallica at Mohegan Sun Arena. No other current band fronted by a woman matches that combination of chart, award and touring scale.
What are the best new metal bands with female singers?
The strongest newer acts on this list are Dying Wish (Emma Boster), Stabbing (Bridget Lynch), Hanabie. (Yukina), The Pretty Wild (Jyl and Jules Wylde), Cage Fight (Rachel Aspe) and Vana, all of whom released music between 2025 and 2026. Spiritbox and Jinjer are the established leaders; Crypta and Employed To Serve sit between the two groups.
Is Jinjer still one of the top female fronted metal bands?
Yes. Duél, released on Napalm Records in February 2025, kept Jinjer’s momentum, and in 2026 the band played a 37-city North American headline tour before supporting Spiritbox across Europe. Tatiana Shmayluk remains one of the most technically accomplished vocalists in modern metal.
Why is Poppy on a list of metal bands?
Because the genre’s own institutions count her: Poppy has two Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance, for ‘BLOODMONEY’ in 2021 and ‘Suffocate’ with Knocked Loose in 2025. Her 2026 album Empty Hands, produced by Jordan Fish, and her touring with Dying Wish as support place her inside modern heavy music, not beside it.
Why aren’t Arch Enemy, Nightwish or Halestorm on this list?
This list covers current-wave bands that broke through or peaked in the 2020s. Arch Enemy, Nightwish, Halestorm, Evanescence and the other long-established names are ranked on our separate list of the best female fronted metal bands of all time, which is linked at the top and bottom of this page.
Want the legends? Start with the 13 best female fronted metal bands of all time, then come back and tell us in the comments who we left off this one. The next edition will have changes; it always does.
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