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This is the sixth album from black metal band Fluisteraars, who are from the Netherlands. Jacht der Mysteriën blesses us with three tracks equalling 42 minutes of music. Fluisteraars have a well-developed personality, and Jacht der Mysteriën is surely one of their more idiosyncratic releases. The music may ultimately be atmospheric black metal, but it’s an … Continue reading “Fluisteraars – Jacht der Mysteriën (Review)”

Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has locked in the December 2026 leg of his Bass Warrior European tour. The run will find Ellefson and his solo band digging into cuts from his catalog of Megadeth classics, including a full performance of Countdown to Extinction, alongside solo material and other hard rock and metal songs that shaped his four-decade career.

Ellefson explained the move behind the tour: “We had such great fan requests for Countdown to Extinction from earlier this year that we are going to wrap up 2026 with some final shows across Europe, which also includes some new cities and countries to celebrate the music from one of my all-time favorite albums of my discography. The perfect holiday wrap-up for the year!”

Ellefson kicked off Bass Warrior back in 2024 with musical director Andy Martongelli (Ellefson-Soto, Artemis), building the tour as a way to bring his 40-plus years of recorded music to fans across Europe.

Bass Warrior 2026 European tour dates:

12/03 – Kill Joy – Roma, Italy
12/04 – Rock N Roll – Rho, Italy
12/05 – Del Vino – Orchamps-Vennes, France
12/07 – Music on the Hague – Den Haag, Netherlands
12/08 – Metropool – Enschede, Netherlands
12/09 – Iduna – Drachten, Netherlands
12/10 – Burghof Huhnerstall – Frankfurt, Germany
12/12 – Stary Dom – Domecko, Poland
12/13 – The Barrel Venue – Drogheda, Ireland
12/15 – JS Retro – Nitra, Slovakia
12/18 – Fest Club – Belgrade, Serbia
12/19 – Hard Place – Zagreb, Croatia

For more information, visit here.

Ellefson parted ways with Megadeth more than five years ago after sexually explicit messages and video involving the bassist surfaced on Twitter.

The post DAVID ELLEFSON To Play “Countdown To Extinction” In Full On December European Trek appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

You won’t come back for me
calling was an SOS
one more stop for me
one more stop for more 

There are songs about heartbreak that behave as though somebody ought to erect a marble statue afterward, and then there are songs like SOS, where Barcelona trio Low Blows seem more interested in the miserable logistics of having cared too much. You call. Nobody comes. You try again. Eventually affection begins to resemble a bad financial decision, and the sensible course of action appears to be locking your heart somewhere nobody can get at it, including yourself. That is a rotten way to live, of course, which is precisely why the song feels convincing.

Carlos Vergara’s bass carries a lot of the burden here, moving with the blunt authority of somebody dragging furniture across an apartment at three in the morning. Rubén Carballo’s drumming keeps the floor firm beneath it, while Andrés Silgado’s guitar scratches at the perimeter, sometimes bright, sometimes abrasive, never hanging around merely to decorate the walls. The electronics slip through the gaps, giving SOS a slightly unreal temperature. The band’s industrial, darkwave, new wave, and shoegaze tendencies remain visible, though Low Blows sound increasingly comfortable letting those elements collide without stopping to announce which shelf each one came from.

Vergara’s vocal delivery makes the emotional shutdown feel almost practical. Love has become excessive, softness carries consequences, and whatever emergency prompted the original cry for help has already curdled into weary acceptance. The final image of a heart shut inside a box sounds less like melodrama than somebody explaining the storage arrangements after the relationship has been cleared out.

Carlos Vergara’s video gets considerably stranger. He takes public-domain footage from Stella Simon and Miklos Bandy’s 1927–28 film Hände: Das Leben und die Liebe eines Zärtlichen Geschlechts and drops its expressionist hands into Low Blows’ world. Fingers grasp, palms open, bodies overlap, and images of the trio pass beneath these enormous gestures from another era. Suddenly a nearly century-old experimental film has become an accomplice to a post-punk song made by three musicians scattered between Ibiza, Mataró, and Vitoria-Gasteiz.

That accidental collaboration across ninety-nine years is wonderfully appropriate, as SOS revolves around reaching toward someone and discovering that the distance remains.

Watch the video for SOS below:

Since Cruel appeared in 2020, Low Blows have tightened their approach considerably. Go! brought producer Matteo Vallicelli of The Soft Moon into their orbit in 2024, followed by an OMBRA Festival appearance. Vallicelli returned for the trio’s new self-titled album, mastered by Maurizio Baggio at La Distilleria.

Low Blows have found an ugly, elegant little groove in which emotional damage can dance without pretending it has recovered.

Listen to SOS below and order the single here.

Follow Low Blows:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Bandcamp
• Soundcloud
• YouTube

The post “I Locked My Heart Inside a Box” — Barcelona Post-Punk Trio Low Blows Share Video for “SOS” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Hear our critic’s picks from Remi Wolf, Tinashe, Cameron Winter and more.

See where he's headed this fall. Continue reading…

This metal band located in Liège (Belgium) writes and plays its own music. Present on the Liège scene since 5 years, Baby and the Beats is now targeting a larger international audience. Their songs thematics include contemporary topics as well as timeless emotions, in a positive and humanist approach. The band is centered on the […]

In 2023, Bodywash caught our attention with their alluring sophomore effort I Held The Shape While I Could. The Canadian dream-pop duo returned with “Come And Go” in July, and now they’re announcing their new record Laughing At Noise. They’re sharing the exquisite second single “Lapsang” today.

The post Bodywash Announce New Album <em>Laughing At Noise</em>: Hear “Lapsang” appeared first on Stereogum.

Live Review: Gaerea – Club Academy, Manchester

11th September 2026
Support: Conjurer
Words: Oli Gonzalez
Photos: Rich Price 

The music industry thrives on change and the landscape is ever shifting. There are very few guarantees and certainties, though we can agree that if you stay stagnant and refuse to change, you’ll almost certainly fall into obscurity!

Enter Gaerea!

We don’t often think of Portugal as a hotbed for metal, but Gaerea is the hottest thing to come out of the Iberian nation since…well, ever. Maybe. The world was introduced to their chaotic and aggressive black metal infused post metal sound in the shape of early albums “Limbo” and “Mirage”, before “Coma” came in autumn 2024, representing a change in style. That blackened edge was slowly being phased out for a more accessible style with cleaner vocals and choruses. Tonight, they returned to Manchester to kick off the UK leg of their headline tour, 10 months since they closed Damnation’s Holy Goat Brewing stage in the city. Since then, they added “Loss” to their discography, characterised by a more anthemic and melodic style with choruses designed to get arena’s singing along in unison.

So, what could we expect on this headline set? More stadium-like anthems or an homage to their older sound? Let’s find out…

Following a similar trajectory, Conjurer burst onto the scene roughly a decade ago and have also seen their style change over the years. At a rather late 8.10pm stage time, they calmly took to the stage. Having seen them tear apart Techfest and Radar Festival on prominent card placings, seeing them open a show seemed unusual at a rather late 8.10pm stage time. Though this provided a rare golden opportunity for people to finish work and arrive, head to the merch stand and get their first drinks in hand. The net net of this was a very healthy crowd before the band had even played a note! Almost 1 year on from releasing “Unself”, it was inevitable that the set was going to be filled with songs from this, opening with ‘All Apart’ before progressing to ‘Hollow’. These songs represent Conjurer’s low and slow sludge infused doom style they’ve become known for. A far cry from the blistering intensity and energy of songs from their early albums.

Though pinning Conjurer to one genre is pretty useless; they’ll just smash out of any genre labels you try to pin on them and make you feel stupid for trying. Though no matter what songs they play, there’s always constants in the sound. The savage dense and nasty tones roaring out from their amplifiers, and the dual vocal assault of Dan and Brady despite also holding down these neck snapping riffs! Riffs that may not have resulted in any pits but plenty of headbanging, as well as the biggest reaction of their set within a few seconds of ‘Let Us Live’, thus showing that connection was real. 50 minutes flew faster than 50 minutes should!

Gaerea are always one for the theatrical and stretched out walk ons – like at Fortress of Damnation festivals – and tonight was no different. This was a cue to quickly get into position and lock in for the ride.

Kicking off with ‘Luminary’ seemed fitting given that this is the opener for new album “Loss”.

“There’s a gap inside my mind,
Where faces fade away…”

Within minutes, the whole venue had locked in in unison, singing along to this infectives ballad! This was quickly followed by ‘Hellbound’ and ‘Cyclone’. It was the first night so you wouldn’t expect breaking voices nor vocal chord fatigue. Though it seemed like Gaerea’s frontman was struggling up there! Backing tracks should be used sparingly, not as a crutch for a strained voice, which is what it felt like here, especially when trying to hit those higher notes and deliver them with the crushing energy on record.

The set continued to plow through the band’s newer era, though songs like ‘I Am The Nomad’ and ‘World Ablaze’ felt like a nod to Gaerea’s older, earlier aggressive sound. The pits were in motion now, but things were just getting started when Phoenix represented a new peak energy and chaos! Though things came crashing down to earth with the more introspective and somewhat melancholic ‘Submerged’. Though you couldn’t exactly become submerged in the ambience of this number due to the incessant chatter and loud talking.

IF YOU’RE GOING TO TALK THROUGH THE SET, LEAVE!!

Rant over before it begins. Though the chorus provided no opportunity for any loud talking to ruin this, giving the overwhelming wall of sound washing over Club Academy! The crowd provided additional reverb for the band, and in doing so demonstrating the biggest engagement of the night. Gaerea walked off…we knew they were coming back though. They did, for one last number; ‘Stardust’. Very little if any acknowledgement of “Mirage” or “Limbo”, expect for the token offering ‘Laude’. This is a sign that Gaerea have all but moved away from that sound now, and songs like ‘Salve’ remain a distant memory in their set list. Though it has to be said no matter what form their set list takes, they always sound flawless with their ‘ampless’ set up, being a joy for any sound engineer to mix, as well as human connection being always being the central cog in their machine. Especially when the anonymous frontman expressed his deep gratitude for the city of Manchester, citing their first show in Rebellion and being blown away at the idea of playing to 300 people that night. They played to nearly double that tonight, and will play to even more when they headline Bloodstock’s Sophie Lancaster stage in the summer of 2027!

Overall, a solid show and glimpse into the future of metal. Could we have had an opening act? There would be no shortage of local bands in Manchester who’d sell their souls to the devil for a slot like this! This feels like an opportunity wasted in some ways, though the night flowed well with indulgent deeper dive sets and less stagnant time waiting between bands.

Photo credits: Rich Price 

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The post Live Review: Gaerea – Manchester appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Vinyl reissues, expanded digital availability and more are planned.

The post The Catalog Of Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society Has Been Acquired By MNRK Music Group appeared first on Theprp.com.

As couture symphonic metal band ANA storms across the United States on tour with Danzig, Twin Temple and Burning Witches, they drop this electrifying new music video for Following the Wind. Directed by Aaron Mak and filmed during their recent Japan Tour, this music video captures the visceral energy of a band hitting their stride […]