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Progpower USA will return to Atlanta, Georgia on September 9–11, 2027, ushering in a new chapter for one of North America’s longest-running and most distinctive progressive and power metal festivals.

Following the retirement of founder and longtime promoter Glenn Harveston, co-promoter Milton Mendonça will take the helm of Progpower USA, carrying forward the festival and the community that has grown around it for more than two decades.

The 2027 edition will move to a three-day format while retaining the identity and approach that have defined the festival throughout its history. The newly announced lineup features Eluveitie, Wind Rose, Nevermore, H.E.A.T, Unleash The Archers, Lynch Mob, Masterplan, Metal Church, Vision Divine, Triosphere, Einar Solberg, Silent Skies, Ihlo, Royal Sorrow, Power Paladin, and Advent Horizon, with one additional band remaining to be announced.

For Mendonça, taking over the festival is deeply personal. He first attended Progpower USA 24 years ago before eventually becoming part of the team himself.

“Twenty-four years ago, I attended ProgPower USA for the first time, and I remember what it felt like the moment I walked into the venue. It was a feeling of belonging. I decided then that this was the place I needed to be every year, and I would do whatever I could to attend. Years later, as a co-promoter, I started having first-time attendees come up to me and share that same feeling. To me, that says everything about the atmosphere of this festival and why it has endured for so long,” says Mendonça.

“ProgPower has been part of most of my life. I met some of my best friends there, and I know people who met their best friends, their spouse, and people who first came as teenagers and now bring their kids. It’s the one weekend our community looks forward to every year. It means that much to a lot of people, and there was no way I could let that end.”

As Progpower USA enters this next era, Mendonça says preserving what Harveston built remains his priority.

“The most important thing to me is honoring Glenn’s legacy. Other than scaling the festival down to three days, my goal is to keep everything the same. The blueprint stays. Regardless of who is at the helm, ProgPower USA will always be ProgPower USA. There is nothing else like it anywhere.”

Since its inception, the festival has built its reputation by bringing together internationally established acts, sought-after North American appearances and emerging artists from across the progressive and power metal worlds. Just as importantly, the festival has developed a community that extends far beyond the stage, with generations of attendees returning to Atlanta year after year.

ProgPower USA 2027 takes place September 9–11, 2027 at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia continuing the almost 3-decade tradition of the festival being hosted at Center Stage.

For festival updates, ticket information, and additional announcements, visit the festival’s website.

The post PROGPOWER USA Announces 2027 Lineup As Long-Time Co-Promoter Takes Helm appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Grand Theft Auto 6 has shared previews of its in-game radio stations — and two 'Big 4' thrash stars are the hosts of the metal station. Continue reading…

– October 8th, 2026 –

New Video/Single Now Playing + Pre-Orders Available

Watch/stream CELESTIAL SANCTUARY’s “Lashed By Chain” HERE

There is a point in every band’s evolution when it becomes necessary to strip everything back and ask a simple question: What is it that makes us who we are? For UK death metal force, CELESTIAL SANCTUARY, that question became the foundation for Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul, a bold and uncompromising new album that sees the band refining their identity by refusing to conform to anyone else’s expectations.

Photo by Steve Dempsey

“Our intention this time around was to refine what actually this ‘CELESTIAL SANCTUARY thing’ is,” the band explains, “filtering out all the bullshit, ignoring trends and ignoring what people expect us to do, and we’re a way better band for it.”

The answer isn’t to abandon death metal, but to look beyond its boundaries. CELESTIAL SANCTUARY approached Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul, their Metal Blade debut out January 22nd, 2027 with an organic understanding of their complete metal DNA, retaining the violence and extremity at the core of the band while allowing a much broader spectrum of influences to shape the songwriting, dynamics and production. The band describes the album as roughly 25% death metal and 75% everything else that makes up their conception of heavy metal.

Across 47 minutes, the album unfolds as a violent and expansive journey through death, folklore, and the darkest corners of the band’s home territory. The story is a bastardization of the history and legends surrounding Bury St. Edmunds, drawing from centuries of local mythology, atrocities, and executions. The piercing and beheading of King Edmund, the spectral Black Shuck, the infamous Red Barn Murders, the Witch Trials, the Sunken Bells of Dunwich, the Lantern Man, and the many brutal executions that once took place throughout the region all become raw material for CELESTIAL SANCTUARY‘s twisted narrative.

Comments CELESTIAL SANCTUARY vocalist/guitarist Tom Cronin on lead single, “Lashed By Chain,” and the accompanying video, “This was the first song to be written for this album and an immediate statement of intent for what to expect. Tight, fast riffing, a brutal slam that jumps out of the shadows to piledrive you into oblivion and a big dual guitar solo that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Maiden tune. The lyrics follow the story of a knight who has one hand crossed with gold and riches, and the other with iron symbolizing that he’s sold his destiny to fight an unwinnable war. The theme treads the line of yearning to return to the things you love, the drive to survive, and the cruelty of false hope – being driven to survive in the most hopeless of times. Don’t be fooled… there is nothing positive about this and there is no happy ending.

“Musically, we wanted to channel a tighter rhythmic sound on this record. We really wanted to push the limit of what we could do with syncopated riffs and sudden time signature changes.

“We wanted to make a video that felt real, gritty and tactile,” he continues. “As a video producer by trade, I see a lot of videos that feel like an afterthought, so we took a considered approach with every element of the video. As I was directing and producing it myself, I felt a responsibility to make this as fucking cool as I possibly could.”

“We filmed it in a 9th century, deconsecrated church that was built on a burial site in England’s first city. We composed every shot of us playing meticulously and complimented that with high contrast lighting to match the colours in the animation and album artwork. We shot, graded and edited in such a way so you can feel the energy and aggression of our performance pouring out of your screen and into your face!“

“When it came to the animation element of the video, we purposely wanted something tangible, so we worked with Ben Amos Cooper to create visuals that compliment James Bousema’s album artwork in their own way. While they each have their own identity, the two are so undeniably entwined.”

Watch CELESTIAL SANCTUARY‘s “Lashed By Chain” video HERE

CELESTIAL SANCTUARY‘s Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul will be released on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:

Weeping Old Flesh (US)
Rotting St. Edmund (EU – Ltd. 500)
Milk Of The Haggard Teet (EU – Ltd. 250)
Frozen Frothed Gob (EU – Ltd. 250)

Find pre-orders at: metalblade.com/celestialsanctuary and additional merch at: celestial-sanctuary.com/store

Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul Track Listing:
01. Where the Blood Flows
02. Bonestorm
03. They Worm Their Way In
04. Cradle of the Rotten
05. Shrine to Those Most Foul
06. Enter the Sanctuary
07. Lashed by Chain
08. A Dogged Act
09. Subhuman Scum

CELESTIAL SANCTUARY will support Khemmis on their upcoming EU/UK tour beginning this weekend. See confirmed dates below.

CELESTIAL SANCTUARY w/ Khemmis:
10/10/2026 Die Tropete – Bochum, DE
10/11/2026 Metropool – Hengelo, NL
10/13/2026 The Flapper – Birmingham, UK
10/14/2026 The Bread Shed – Manchester, UK
10/15/2026 The Underworld – London, UK
10/16/2026 Kola – Portsmouth, UK
10/17/2026 Backstage by the Mill – Paris, FR
10/18/2026 Desertfest – Liege, BE
10/19/2026 Naumanns – Leipzig, DE
10/20/2026 Subzero – Prague, CZ
10/21/2026 Cassiopeia – Berlin, DE
10/22/2026 Monkeys – Hamburg, DE

CELESTIAL SANCTUARY:
Tomás Palmer-Cronin – vocals, guitar
Matt Adnett – guitar
Jay Rutterford – bass
James Burke – drums

https://www.celestial-sanctuary.com
https://www.instagram.com/celestialsanctuarydeathmetal
https://www.facebook.com/CelestialSanctuaryDeathMetal
https://x.com/csdeathmetal
https://www.youtube.com/celestialsanctuarydeathmetal

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Although the birth of ‘indie’ in the United Kingdom can be traced back to the 1970’s, with elements of the sound traceable in everything from David Bowie’s Berlin period to Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram album to Buzzcocks‘ hugely significant Spiral Scratch EP, it was the 1980s that is considered the true golden age of the genre.

The mod revival, new wave and post-punk movements that were spawned from the punk scene continued to evolve throughout the decade, ultimately coalescing into the cache all term of indie, in the process giving us one of the broadest, most eclectic and creatively fertile periods in British guitar music.

Whether it was borrowing from the experimental sounds of 60’s psychedelic rock, the dark, dour feel of goth, the strutting glam of Roxy Music or even the explosion of a brand-new style in acid house and electronic music, the amount of classic records released in this period is quite staggering. Here is that story in five albums.

Orange Juice – You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever (1982)

As tempting as it would be to pick a massive selling or iconic artist like The Jam or Echo & the Bunnymen here, you’d be mad to sleep on Scotland’s Orange Juice if looking for a band with a long lasting and clearly evident influence on the sound of indie-rock here in the UK.

Although their second album Rip it Up, released later the same year, is almost certainly the one they’ll be remembered for as it features their most well-known song in the form of the album’s title-track, the band’s debut album is arguably more ahead of its time and features more signposts as to where the genre would travel throughout the decade and beyond.

Frontman Edwin Collins is now rightly revered as one of Britain’s finest ever songwriters, and You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever expertly nails everything from the pure pop that would make Blur superstars on Wan Light, the weird garage jangle so beloved of Franz Ferdinand on Tender Object, the mod-revival sound of basically half of the Brit-pop bands on opener Falling and Laughing and indulge in the dry wit and sarcastic pomposity that Morrissey would end up making a career out of. It may be the lowest seller on the list, but, song for song, it can compete with any album here.

The Fall – This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985)

For decades The Fall have been the United Kingdom’s ultimate cult band. The late Mark E. Smith and his ever-revolving cast of musicians gobbled up an endless number of musical styles and genres over the years, but their eighth studio album, This Nation’s Saving Grace, could well be the one with the longest lasting impact.

Unsurprisingly, line-up changes had plagued the band prior to the recording of the album, with their rhythm section, brothers Paul and Steve Hanley, leaving in 1984. Still, Smith had a good relationship with producer John Leckie, who seemed to have a knack for bringing out the pop sensibilities in guitarist Brix Smith, whilst also keeping the chaotic punk rock edge that had come to define The Fall. The result is an album that is full of swerving post-punk and Smith’s distinctive yelping, but also is catchy as hell. Songs like the jangly dance noise collision of Bombast, the slow hand blues goes post-punk of Vixen or Spoilt Victorian Child, which is a both a fantastic ear-worm and a disorientating noise freak out, are all fantastic.

Within a few years, Pavement, Sebadoh and more would adopt similar principles, and Blur sold a shit load of records a decade down the line copying this exact blueprint.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy (1985)

If Orange Juice showed how pure pop could be utilised in an indie framework and The Fall pointed the way toward more discordant and angular sounds, both being hugely influential in the process, so The Jesus and Mary Chain did the same by taking the harshness of noise rock and giving it a melodic, marshmallow quality.

The result of Jim and William Reid’s desire to mix harsh Stooges guitars with sunkissed Beach Boys melodies and a Phil Spector-esque wall of noise, Psychocandy did that to a tee, leading to them doing as much as anyone (possibly bar Cocteau Twins) to invent a design for the shoegaze bands that would begin to spring up in their wake. Beyond its influence though, this is just a perfect noisy, indie rock record: when The Jesus and Mary Chain rage on In a Hole they sound magnificently raw and gutsy, the riff on The Living End wouldn’t be a million miles away from Black Flag were it not for the chamber pop vocal, and when they’re delicate, such as on the goth Isley Brothers swing of Cut Dead, they as fragile as music can be. Wonderful stuff.

The Smiths – The Queen is Dead (1986)

The Smiths were already a cult favourite who had begun to fully cross over into the mainstream when their third album was released. And there’s no real radical change to their approach on The Queen is Dead, but the sheer strength of songs here dictate that this is the album that had to be included.

Where previous darlings of the UK indie scene like Robert Smith or Ian Curtis were glumly downbeat (the former) or genuinely tortured (the latter), frontman Morrissey brought an arch sense of the hopeless romantic to the scene. His palpable sense of disappointment, distain even, mixed with wonderfully overdramatic lyrics, such as comparing himself to Joan of Arc on Bigmouth Strikes Again, brilliantly give real emotional heft to these songs. That plus the unique guitar work of Johnny Marr and the superbly underrated rhythm section of drummer Mike Joyce and late bassist Andy Rourke created a perfect balance of power and pathos, influencing everyone from Suede to Pulp to The 1975 to an entire generation of US emo artists in the process.

The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)

Somewhere there is an alternate universe where The Stone Roses were able to follow their remarkable debut album up quickly and, most importantly, with a similar level of quality, and they go on to be the definitive band of the 90’s. That’s obviously not what happened, but, nonetheless, The Stone Roses have more of a legacy than many artists with 40-year careers and multiple albums could dream of achieving.

As the second summer of love blossomed in mid-1989, as the barriers between guitar music and the euphoric sounds of the free party, acid house movement crumbled away and as young fans found common ground in sharing the pure joy that music can bring, there couldn’t have been a better world for The Stone Roses’ debut album to be born into. Their mix of 60’s psychedelia, most notably in the sublime guitar tone and playing of John Squire, the throbbing, beat filled pulsing rhythms of bassist Mani and drummer Reni, and Ian Brown’s brilliantly breathy, wonder-filled vocals, utterly encapsulated everything that felt revolutionary, beautiful and special about that time.

If the track listing reads like a greatest hits set, that’s because it basically is: Made of Stone, Waterfall, I Wanna Be Adore, She Bangs the Drum and, of course, the breathtaking closing I Am the Resurrection are all iconic songs. From the look, to the influences they were bringing to the genre, they created the blueprint for the Brit-pop explosion that would follow in the 1990’s. An explosion they sadly went AWOL for, but, regardless, their influence was inescapable.

Their ongoing fall tour continues into November, but the band is already looking ahead. Continue reading…

(written by Islander) Those of us who dwell in the moldering and morbid halls of NCS were first attracted to the Scottish death metal band Penny Coffin through their Conscripted Morality EP in 2023 (they had released two others before that). Our sewage-loving DGR penned some paragraphs about it at that time, including these: “Playing […]

The post AN NCS PREMIERE: PENNY COFFIN — “BIOLOGICAL SENTIENT HORROR” appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.

Aldi Ho and Josie Silverman, the two members of the UK electroclash duo Lifeloose, met while studying opera and electronic music, respectively, at London’s Guildhall Middle School. Apparently, they became a live sensation before they even released anything, and they finally dropped their debut single, which is also called “Lifeloose,” earlier this year. Today, they follow that one up with a new song that’s got the catchy, memorable title “07XXXXXXXXX.”

The post Lifeloose – “07XXXXXXXXX” appeared first on Stereogum.

VESPERIAN WELCOMES THE MOSAIC WINDOW, ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ANSWERED PRAYERS

Black Metal Project Led by Andrew Steven Brown Returns to Its Rawest Roots With New Single “What Sage Could Not Cleanse”

Vesperian has officially welcomed The Mosaic Window , the black metal project of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Andrew Steven Brown , to its roster. The signing arrives alongside the release of the project’s new single, “What Sage Could Not Cleanse,” which serves as the first preview of the forthcoming studio album Answered Prayers , due November 13, 2026.
With Answered Prayers , The Mosaic Window takes a deliberate step away from the more polished, progressive approach heard on 2024’s Hemasanctum , returning instead to the project’s original foundation of first and second wave black metal.
The result is described as a rawer and more stripped-down expression of the project, built around atmospheric rasps of despair, buried death growls, and an intentionally unpolished sense of darkness.
At the heart of Answered Prayers is a bleak nihilistic concept. Across ten tracks, the album explores a world in which humanity is erased retroactively, centuries before the Industrial Revolution, presented as the only possible cure for a poisoned world.
It is a concept that fits naturally with The Mosaic Window’s increasingly bleak musical identity.
“What Sage Could Not Cleanse”

The newly released “What Sage Could Not Cleanse” offers the first glimpse into this return to the project’s roots.
An older composition revived for Answered Prayers , the track represents the direction Brown wanted to take with the new record. Raw, atmospheric, and stripped of unnecessary polish, it establishes the album’s central philosophy: some things cannot be purified once they have already crossed the point of no return.
Rather than chasing a modernized or overly polished interpretation of black metal, The Mosaic Window embraces the genre’s darker traditions, allowing atmosphere, aggression, and bleakness to carry the weight.
The accompanying video for “What Sage Could Not Cleanse” is available now.
A Return to the Beginning

Answered Prayers follows a progression that has seen The Mosaic Window evolve across three previous releases.
Brown first introduced the project with the Hollow EP in 2021, followed by the full-length Plight of Acceptance in 2023. The 2024 album Hemasanctum expanded the project’s sound into a more progressive death/black metal hybrid.
With Answered Prayers , Brown is intentionally looking backward rather than forward, returning to the raw black metal foundation that originally shaped The Mosaic Window.
The album features Brown handling all instruments and vocals , with Dmitry Kim , known for his work with Jinjer and other projects, contributing session drums.
Production duties were handled by Alex Sedin of Ghostalgy Productions , who mixed and mastered the album. The cover artwork comes from Luciana Nedelea , whose work has also appeared on releases from Mare Cognitum , Sepulchral Curse , and others.
The Mosaic Window

The Mosaic Window remains a one-person black metal project centered entirely around Andrew Steven Brown, allowing the project’s musical and conceptual direction to remain firmly under his control.
The upcoming Answered Prayers continues that approach while stripping away much of the polish of its predecessor in favor of something harsher, colder, and more rooted in the foundations of the genre.
For listeners drawn to the atmosphere and uncompromising spirit of early black metal, Answered Prayers looks to be a significant return to form for the project, while “What Sage Could Not Cleanse” provides the first dark glimpse into what awaits in November.
Answered Prayers will be released November 13, 2026 via Vesperian .

Line-Up

Andrew Steven Brown – All Instruments, Vocals

Listen & Follow The Mosaic Window
Bandcamp: https://themosaicwindow.bandcamp.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themosaicwindow

More From Vesperian
Website: https://www.vesperian.world
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vesperian.world

Producer Andrew Watt shares in a new interview why a potential Black Sabbath album didn't happen. Continue reading…

Trivium have revealed all of the details of their brand new full-length album ‘Crown In the Grave’, and it is arriving very soon, indeed.

The record will be released on November 20 via Roadrunner Records, and serves as the follow-up to 2022’s ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’.

Bassist Pablo Gregoletto had this to say about the making of the album and what they were pulling influence from:

“Crown In The Grave is our eleventh record, and when you get this far into a career, it’s easy to rest on what you’ve already done – or to reinvent yourself just for the sake of it. With this record, we wanted to find the space between those two things: Take everything we’ve learned and everything that makes Trivium what it is, but present it in ways we hadn’t before.

“We also wanted the record to exist within its own world. That began with the title track, inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, and led us deeper into Japanese horror and cinema from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. That influence grew into this darker, ghostly atmosphere that became a set of guardrails for the music, lyrics, artwork, and overall identity of the record.

“We built our studio so we could give ourselves the time and space to figure out exactly what an eleventh Trivium record should be, and Crown In The Grave is the answer we arrived at. It honors where we’ve been without living in the past, and pushes into new territory without abandoning what makes us Trivium. I think when you hear it, it’ll somehow feel both new and like a return.”

The artwork looks like this:

Whilst the tracklisting is more like this:

1. Jorōgumo
2. Crown In The Grave
3. Dead Inside Of Me
4. The Terror
5. The Haunting Never Ends
6. Lie Of It All
7. Blackout The Dawn
8. Paradise Of Sinners
9. Death Throes
10. The Agony
11. Devour Your Dreams
12. Serpent In The Flame

The band have also shared the title track, a punishing, technically demanding and powerful piece of chugging modern metal. A headbanger of the highest calibre.

Trivium are set to hit the road for a co-headline tour across the UK and Europe alongside In Flames at the start of 2027. Here are the dates:

MARCH 2027

29 – DUBLIN 3Arena *
31 – GLASGOW The OVO Hydro *

APRIL 2027

01 – MANCHESTER Co-op Live *
03 – LONDON Alexandra Palace *
04 – CARDIFF Utilita Arena Cardiff *
06 – BRUSSELS Lotto Arena
07 – PARIS Zénith
09 – HAMBURG Sporthalle
10 – DRESDEN Messe Dresden
11 – BERLIN Velodrom
13 – ESCH-SUR-ALZETTE Rockhal
14 – BERN Festhalle
16 – FRANKFURT Festhalle
17 – DÜSSELDORF PSD Bank Dome
18 – AMSTERDAM AFAS Live
20 – PRAGUE O2 Universum
21 – VIENNA Stadthalle
23 – STUTTGART Schleyer-Halle
24 – MUNICH Zenith
25 – BAMBERG Brose Arena
27 – COPENHAGEN K.B. Hallen ~
29 – OSLO Spektrum ~

MAY 2027

01 – STOCKHOLM Avicii Arena ~
03 – TAMPERE Nokia Arena ~
05 – RIGA Xiaomi Arena
07 – KATOWICE Spodek

* Trivium headline, In Flames special guests. 

~ In Flames headline, Trivium special guests. 

All other dates: Trivium and In Flames co-headline. 

The post Trivium Announce New Album ‘Crown In The Grave’ appeared first on Rock Sound.