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Epica is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the biggest way possible. After selling out London’s Royal Albert Hall in under three days, the Dutch symphonic metal outfit has announced “The Symphonic Synergy” European tour, bringing a full orchestra and choir to some of the continent’s most striking venues across 10 countries.

The concept goes back to 2024, when Epica first performed with a full orchestra and choir across shows in Amsterdam and Mexico City, drawing more than 30,000 fans over four nights. That production is now returning, reworked and expanded to mark 25 years of the band. With only 11 European dates on the books, “The Symphonic Synergy” is shaping up to be one of the rarest events in Epica‘s history, a chance to catch the band’s music in its most cinematic form.

A taste of what’s coming is available now via a live clip from the original 2024 show, below.

Tickets go on general sale Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. CEST.

Epica‘s 25-year run stands as a case study in ambitious songwriting, technical chops and constant reinvention.

Symphonic metal runs on big ideas and high standards, and few bands have pushed the genre as far as Epica. Formed in the Netherlands in 2002, the band grabbed attention fast with its 2003 debut, The Phantom Agony, striking an early balance between sweeping orchestral scope and heavy, progressive metal grit.

A quarter century later, that sound has only gotten sharper. Simone Simons‘s soaring vocals remain the anchor, set against Mark Jansen‘s guttural growls for contrast. Isaac Delahaye‘s guitar work brings sharp, technical riffing, while keyboardist Coen Janssen builds the cinematic orchestral layers around it all. Holding it together is the rhythm section of drummer Ariën Van Weesenbeek, known for his precision, and bassist Rob Van Der Loo, whose low end grounds the band’s more complex arrangements.

Rather than coast on past work, Epica keeps pushing further, delivering the kind of sweeping storytelling and relentless energy that’s defined the band for 25 years, honoring where it’s been while still looking ahead.

The post EPICA Announces “The Symphonic Synergy” Tour As Part Of Their Upcoming 25th Anniversary appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Megadeth’s performance at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, on Saturday, September 5^th, for the sold-out opening night of Iron Maiden’s Run for Your Lives Tour was a display of precision, power, and sheer metal ferocity. The final chord of the opening song “Tipping Point” had barely faded from the stacks of Marshall amps and cabinets when the band made its intentions clear: the stage was theirs, and expect a blistering nine-song set.

The current Megadeth lineup features bassist James LoMenzo, drummer Dirk Verbeuren, and guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari. At the center of it all is founder Dave Mustaine, whose unmistakable guitar attack and devilish snarl remain as potent as ever. With his auburn hair framing his face, Dave taunted the crowd when delivering every song. He is not only an exceptional lead guitarist but also a formidable rhythm player, and you can see his right hand lock into the rhythm while the drums thunder underneath in unison.

Dirk played flawlessly in the pocket alongside James, locking into a driving rhythm that hit with the force of cannon fire. The two were locked together on every beat, giving the music its relentless momentum. Meanwhile, Dave and Teemu supplied the twin-guitar attack, with all four musicians operating with remarkable precision.

Those details may not always be obvious to a casual listener, but they make all the difference in a live metal performance. Megadeth‘s music is technically demanding, yet nothing about the performance felt clinical. Instead, it was a brutal display of musicianship and power, delivered with enough energy to keep fans crowd-surfing throughout the set.

Song after song, Megadeth kept the intensity at maximum velocity. “Tornado of Souls,” “Sweating Bullets,” and “Countdown to Extinction” gave longtime fans plenty to sink their teeth into during the hour-long set that flew by in a heartbeat.

Watching Megadeth perform live makes it clear his legacy isn’t built only on the songs he wrote. It is also rooted in the uncompromising musicianship he demands from the musicians around him. When Dave retires, hopefully he will form a new band, born out of the ashes of Megadeth like a rising Phoenix. Until then, Megadeth is at the top of their game.

The post CONCERT REVIEW: MEGADETH Delivers Precision, Power, & Sheer Metal Ferocity Opening For IRON MAIDEN in New Jersey appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

The Press Release: Fanhome, the leading producer of subscription-based collections announces the launch of the Spider-Man Masterpiece Collection, an extensive compilation of hardcover graphic novels celebrating one of the most … Continue reading Fanhome Announces The “Spider-Man Masterpiece” Collection →

90s-tinged and fuelled by delusional optimism, Royal Foundry describe themselves as your mom’s kid’s favourite band. After 13 years building a band the hard way eventually things clicked, with punters andradio warming to the bands indie-rock formula. Their forthcoming 2027 album, Actually, Honestly, dives headfirst into the eccentric, theatrical, and slightly unhinged parts of Royal […]

Nickelback is keeping the rollout going. Fresh off “Rattle The Cage” (featuring John 5), the Canadian rockers have dropped the official Timothy Hiehle-directed video for “Leave Me Behind,” the third single off their upcoming album, Everything Under The Sun, due Oct. 30, 2026 via Virgin Music Group.

Where “Rattle The Cage” announced Nickelback‘s next era with a wall of guitars and arena-sized bravado, “Leave Me Behind” shows a different angle, built around vulnerability and loyalty rather than swagger. The song is essentially a promise: turning heartbreak into something you can stand on, being the person who helps someone else find the pieces when everything’s fallen apart, and finally letting go of what’s been holding them down.

The hook boils it down to one line: “Spit out the poison and leave it behind.” But sitting right underneath that is a more personal ask: “just don’t leave me behind.” That tug-of-war between pushing someone forward and needing them to stay close is what gives the song its edge.

“There’s a lot of weight in this song, but there’s also a lot of hope,” says Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. “It’s about being there for someone when they’re dealing with the things that have broken them down, picking up the pieces, taking some of that weight off their shoulders, and reminding them they don’t have to go through it alone. At the same time, there’s that feeling of not wanting to be left behind. We liked that tension. It makes the song feel really personal.”

“Leave Me Behind” follows “Rattle The Cage” and the chart-topping “Bones For The Crows,” which marked Nickelback‘s first new music since 2022’s Get Rollin’ and kicked off the rollout for Everything Under The Sun. The album lands during a genuine resurgence for the band, coming off the success of the Hate To Love: Nickelback documentary and the record-breaking Get Rollin’ world tour, the fastest-selling and best-attended run of the band’s career.

Between the three singles so far, Everything Under The Sun is already showing its range, and true to the title, it’s built to cover the full spectrum of what’s made Nickelback one of the biggest rock bands on the planet: big arena hooks, massive guitars and the songwriting chemistry that’s defined the band for more than 30 years.

Starting out in Hanna, Alberta, Nickelback has grown into one of the biggest rock success stories of the 21st century. Since breaking through with Silver Side Up and the genre-defining “How You Remind Me,” the band has racked up Grammy nominations, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, JUNO Awards and international recognition to match.

With close to 60 million albums sold worldwide, billions of streams and more than 50 million monthly listeners, Nickelback remains one of rock’s most streamed and commercially successful acts, still pulling in new fans through streaming while holding onto a fanbase that’s kept arenas full for two decades running.

That momentum only built over the past few years. The Netflix documentary Hate To Love: Nickelback turned into a global hit, spending weeks in the platform’s Global Top 10, while the Get Rollin’ world tour broke attendance records and cemented the band’s reputation as one of rock’s top live draws.

Everything Under The Sun builds on all of that while looking ahead, serving as both a victory lap and a statement that the band’s creative drive hasn’t slowed down.

The album also marks Nickelback‘s first release through Virgin Music Group. Virgin Music Group president for North America, Jacqueline Saturn, commented on the new partnership: “Nickelback has built one of the most remarkable careers in music, and it’s a huge honor for everyone at Virgin Music Group to work alongside a band with such an enduring legacy and global impact. We’re thrilled to partner with them as they begin this exciting new chapter and can’t wait for fans to experience Everything Under The Sun.”

More than three decades in, Nickelback keeps evolving without losing what made the band recognizable in the first place. With Everything Under The Sun, the message is clear: the story isn’t finished, and the biggest chapters might still be ahead.

Everything Under The Sun is available to pre-order here.

The post NICKELBACK Drops Third Single “Leave Me Behind” From Upcoming Album “Everything Under The sun” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Cradle of Filth frontman Dani Filth is putting his story on paper. His autobiography, The Filth: My Life in Devilry and Debauchery, arrives in June 2027 via Little, Brown Book Group, a division of Hachette UK. The book was co-written by British author Joel McIver, whose roughly 25 books to date include the bestselling Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, first published in 2004 and since translated into nine languages.

Filth broke the news himself: “Filthlings, I have some epic news, I’ve written a book!

“Publishing next June, in The Filth: My Life In Devilry And Debauchery, I’ll take you on a 50-year journey from an idyllic childhood in the witch county of Suffolk, through my tearaway teenage years of skateboarding, skulduggery and Satanic malarkey, through to my discovery of extreme metal, hardcore punk and a few mushroom-fuelled journeys into the realms of psychic chaos.

“We skip lightly over early bands of mine such as Carnival Fruitcake, Feast On Excrement, and Hash Gordon & the Drug Barons From Mars before the violent birth of Cradle Of Filth and the start of a four-decade battle campaign around the world.

“Along the way we visit the BBC’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks and MTV’s Viva La Bam, French policemen try to break my thumbs, murderers confess their crimes, I’m held at gunpoint at the Vatican, I very nearly get decapitated by an exploding tin of beans, and so much Jagermeister is consumed that my blood practically turns green.

“You may not finish this book with your sanity intact. I barely did!”

Formed in 1991 in Suffolk, England, a county with deep roots in witchcraft and dark folklore, Cradle Of Filth has spent more than three decades building a reputation as one of metal’s most successful and uncompromising bands. The group’s sound fuses the cold, anti-authoritarian edge of black metal with classic thrash energy, backed by an unmistakable visual identity built on gothic horror, vampiric imagery and unapologetic hedonism.

For the first time, founder, singer, lyricist, and chief architect Dani Filth (born Davey) tells his own story in full. The book digs into the macabre lore that shaped his childhood, the controversies and conflicts he’s weathered along the way, and his work outside Cradle of Filth, including Devilment, Temple Of The Black Moon, and various film and television projects.

Dark, vivid and unflinching, The Filth: My Life In Devilry And Debauchery offers a close look into the life and imagination of one of metal’s most recognizable figures.

Cradle of Filth recently confirmed the second leg of its “Majestic In Death” North American tour, set to run this fall with support from Moonspell, Worm, and Black Satellite.

The “Majestic In Death II” run marks the 30th anniversary of Cradle of Filth‘s 1996 album Dusk… And Her Embrace, with the band planning to work select tracks from the record into the setlist throughout the tour.

Pre-orders for The Filth: My Life In Devilry And Debauchery are open now at this location.

The post CRADLE OF FILTH’s DANI FILTH Announces Autobiography “The Filth: My Life In Devilry And Debauchery” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

We’re only a month away from @’s new album Autosmile. The Philly hyperfolk duo wowed us with the early singles, and #3 is splendid too. “Bird,” out today, is the kind of folk song that can rearrange your brain. It’s sparse yet intricate, leveling out into gorgeous simplicity at just the right times and never giving up its inherent eeriness. “I’m at the mercy of God,” Stone Filipczak intones.

The post @ – “Bird” appeared first on Stereogum.

On July 29, 2026, Universal Studios announced a new haunted house inspired by Ozzy Osbourne for Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and Hollywood. The announcement was met with excitement from many Ozzy fans – for them, an opportunity to step inside the mythology of one of metal’s most beloved figures, with an actor-led experience recreating highlights from his musical career, seemed like a dream combo.

There was, however, also a little cynicism. For some, the timing felt uncomfortably transactional. Is turning a recently deceased musician into a theme-park attraction simply another way of cashing in on their legacy while the grief is still fresh?

Going off the rails on the gravy train?

That sentiment was particularly pronounced on social media, where some fans accused Osbourne’s family of turning his name into a commercial asset:

“He died and his family IMMEDIATELY turned him into a theme park attraction!”

“His family is just using his name on everything they can to get paid!”

You get the gist. There’s a major problem with this argument, though: Universal Studios had been doing Ozzy Osbourne-themed attractions long before his death.

The theme park titans had already incorporated Ozzy and Black Sabbath into a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights more than a decade ago. In 2013, Universal Studios Hollywood featured Black Sabbath: 13, an attraction inspired by the band’s then-new album and its occult imagery. Ozzy himself even visited the attraction at the time, giving it his own seal of approval by saying it’s “great, scared me a couple of times.”

Ultimately, there’s only one way to find out if the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house is a loving tribute or a cynical cash grab, and that’s to head over to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando and experience it for myself. So I did.

No more fears!

Imagine being able to step inside your favourite piece of album artwork. The thrill of being surrounded by its dark beauty, taking actual footsteps within its brooding world. That’s exactly what the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house is. It’s the gothic fantasy visuals of heavy metal realised in tangible, 3D form.

The indoor walkthrough experience begins with a beautiful facade of gothic church ruins. Look down and there’s Ozzy’s face projecting through the water while Straight to Hell from 2020’s Ordinary Man plays in the background.

Then we jump back to 1988’s No Rest for the Wicked in the first scene, with Bloodbath in Paradise blaring as we walk beneath a temple of cloaked cultists wearing masks bearing Ozzy’S symbol.

Next, we tiptoe nervously through claustrophobic dungeons, strobe lights flash red and the soundtrack fittingly switches to Patient Number 9. Actors leap out to jump-scare from behind bars, disappearing back into the shadows too quickly to for us to fully appreciate their artfully crafted makeup and prosthetics.

From this point onwards, things descend into full-scale glorious madness in the most Ozzy ways imaginable. An enormous bat descends from the ceiling and bites the head off of the Prince Of Darkness (no, this isn’t a fever dream). Werewolves dressed as Ozzy leap out from behind giant tombstones as Bark At The Moon plays at full volume (no, this still isn’t a fever dream)

Then, lights on a full-sized train carriage flash brightly, illuminating a wide-mouthed Ozzy actor towering over us on stilts. He is dressed as a train conductor, and ushers us aboard. We are actually stepping on to the Crazy Train (at this point, is there anything I can possibly do to convince you this wasn’t a fever dream?).

Sure, stepping onto an actual crazy train is ridiculously literal. But it’s also ridiculously fun. And that’s, ultimately, is the tone that sums up the Ozzy Osbourne haunted house experience. It salutes his musical legacy in a theatrical, playfully dark way.

Despite the final scene featuring the throne from his very last concert, the attraction never feels like a sombre tribute that says “we miss you.” Instead, it’s a loud celebration that says “we loved you” with a wild grin on its face.

There’s also a variety of Ozzy-themed snacks for fans to enjoy at the event, including a milk chocolate bat with a raspberry-filled head, a mini black carrot cake (Ozzy’s favourite) and a Black Rain tequila-based drink, amongst others.

While the keyboard warriors will inevitably bemoan the Ozzy haunted house from a viewpoint that is, frankly, misinformed, the attraction itself champions his musical career in unique and special ways. It’s a legacy handled with love and respect. You suspect the man himself would have approved.

The Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness haunted house will be at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood until November 1, 2026

The first thing I learn about Mangata Festival is that it’s set in an absolute rabbit’s warren of interconnected venues. The second is that everyone – and I include the staff, bands, and vendors – seems to be here to have a good time. From the get-go, there’s a real sense that the organisers have … Continue reading Gig Review: Mangata Festival 2026 – Nottingham (5th September 2026)

Following Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour due to the rapper’s outspoken pro-Palestine activism, fellow openers Finneas and Aaron Rowe have dropped off the tour.

The post Ed Sheeran Openers Drop Off Tour In Solidarity With Palestinian People appeared first on Stereogum.