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Enervate is one of my favorite bands to come out of the Midwest in a while representing the exploding DIY scene in Milwaukee. All I have to say about this band is if you don’t know them you’re going to be stoked on them by the end of this article.

I found Enervate initially because they were opening up for one of my favorite bands at the time, Buggin, at Schubas in Chicago. Like most hardcore lineups this one had five to six openers with Enervate’s set in the middle. I try to listen to all the openers before a show to hype myself up and get a sense for how the night is going to go.

“My Own Piece of Mind” picks right up where their previous projects left off. Their hard nosed sound is driven by lyrics that exude anger and frustration coming from state of the community and the haters that pretend to be a part of it, and the feeling of being stuck in life with no way out. While the EP airs a lot out its also combined with a sense of optimism that through it all you can change your situation through determination. This sense of hopefulness comes through in a more subtle way as songs like Pass Me By and Keep My Flame show the band’s sense of self exploration both personally and musically.

I had a chance to catch up with bassist, Tom Hively, about the new EP and here is what he had to say about inspiration and behind the scenes process of recording the project.

Milwaukee has a really cool hardcore scene, but I feel like it’s not as well known outside of the Midwest. What was it like coming up in that scene and how do you feel like it helped to shape your identity and sound?

“Milwaukee has always been a scene where you have to work hard for what you want and nothing is handed to you. Whether it’s getting bands to come play here, finding venues to even book shows at, or to get people to come to your shows. I feel like Enervate has always kept that DIY mindset in the approach to the band. We started the band to play local shows and to have fun with our friends. Nothing more. And we are very thankful for anything that we get to do besides that.” 

How did you guys get started?

Adam (guitar) and Sean (drums) had been jamming together a little bit in 2019 in between tours of their previous band Low End. I had always wanted to do a band with Adam so the 3 of us started jamming together. We had met Lan (vocals) the previous year and thought he would be the perfect person to front it. We recorded the first demo in Feb 2020 with plans to play the first show in March 2020 and well, we all know what happened there. By the time we were able to play our first show in September of 2021, Marcus (guitar) had joined us to solidify the lineup. 

What is/was your song writing process? Where were you guys pulling inspiration from for the EP? What are your inspirations in general as a band?

“Typically, someone will have a song written (or at least an idea) and bring it to practice and we’ll all provide feedback / input. It’s a collaborative process for sure. A Lot of the times what we start out with is not at all how the song actually ends up.  
I personally don’t write any of the music but for inspiration, we always pull from the NYHC sound but try to insert our own flair to it. We want our songs to be simple and groovy and get stuck in your head. We’re not a dance hard band but if you want, that’s cool; if you want to just bob your head and have a good time, that’s cool too.” 

What was the recording process like? Who was the EP recorded with? Are there any good stories you have from the studio?

“We recorded the EP with Collin St Mary at 19 Stars Recording in Northwest Indiana. He has recorded everything we have put out thus far besides the first demo. I believe we were able to get everything done besides vocals in 2 days. Collin always offers advice / input but isn’t pushy or anything and just lets us do our thing. No crazy studio stories or anything but I did make Adam record the bass parts because I wanted them to sound better than if I did it.”

Songs like Pass Me By and Keep My Flame tease a little bit of a new direction for the sound. What was the intention there? What’s the vision for the sound going forward?

“We wanted to try something new without totally changing the sound up. Don’t worry, we won’t ever write a pop punk record or anything. But every now and again, Lan would throw in some melodic vocals live and we knew we could do something cool with it. We didn’t have a goal to do more melodic parts really, it just kind of happened. We want it to feel organic and not forced and I think we captured that feeling.”  

Overarching themes are pretty strong and seems to be a fear of getting stuck, both literally and metaphorically, and a determination to not let people or circumstances get in your way. What’s the story behind this or if there are a bunch of things where are they coming from?

“Lan writes all of our lyrics but he actually provided some insight in our interview with Tyler from LDB Records and I will provide that here. 
“I tried to write on topics that occupied my mind a lot in the time leading up to recording. No Turning Back was a song of frustration – people that love to critique things from the outside but claim to be in it. Never actually contributing to a solution and eventually moving on to the next thing to critique. Whether it’s hardcore, real-life shit, whatever. Pass Me By was a reflection of how I felt in my own life experience at the time, feeling stagnant. I wish there were cooler stories behind some of it, but that’s how this record developed lyrically. Felt a lot like venting”.”  

It’s really cool you teamed up with Hold My Own for the title track. How did you guys get linked up with them/what was it like working with them? Any good stories there?

“We’ve known Anchit for a long time, I want to say like 2011 or 2012. I met Greg in 2021 when I booked Hold My Own in Milwaukee. We’ve played a bunch of shows with them and love their band and them as people. We wanted someone to feature on My Own Peace Of Mind and Greg was one of the first people we thought of. We asked and he immediately said yes.”

*All photos are from their first show in Chicago post relase.

Color Of Noise’s Sling It Back channels the experience of recovering from a painful past into a confident, guitar-driven alternative rock track. Written after the completion of the debut album Noise Therapy, which explored the personal fallout of a destructive relationship, the song shifts its focus toward moving forward and rebuilding with the support of people who can genuinely be trusted. There is a sense of resilience running through the track, balancing the weight of its subject matter with a more determined and forward-looking energy. Rather than remaining caught in the past, Sling It Back captures the feeling of reclaiming confidence and finding strength in genuine connections. It works as a natural continuation of the story established on Noise Therapy, turning personal hardship into a message of recovery, trust, and renewed independence.

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British death thrashers The Bleeding have unleashed “Immortal Flesh”, the newest preview tune from their upcoming record Godless Communion set to be out on the 18th of September (Redefining Darkness Records).
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Today, Melbourne-based post-punk upstarts Sex Mask have shared a high adrenaline new single titled “Lockjaw”. The track is

Live Coverage: Bloodstock Festival – 2026

Festival Preview

We look ahead to what is in store at Bloodstock Festival 2026

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Reviews: Ronnie James Dio Stage

All the action from the Ronnie James Dio stage from the UK’s best heavy metal festival.

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Reviews: S.O.P.H.I.E. Stage

All the action from the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage from the UK’s best heavy metal festival.

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Galleries: Ronnie James Dio Stage

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Galleries: S.O.P.H.I.E. Stage

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Interviews

All our interviews from Bloodstock Festival 2026

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Live Coverage: Bloodstock Festival – 2026 appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Vengeful trickster fairies, a realm of impenetrable cold and boundless frost, a dragon gnawing away at the roots of the World Tree; Norse iconography is intense, and metal bands have known this at least since Led Zeppelin. Sweden’s Fejd, a folk metal group formed in 2001 from the folk duo Rimmerfors and the prog-thrash band Pathos,¹ have been weaving Norse history and mythology into their acoustics-forward heavy metal for decades. They were last heard with 2016’s Trolldom, followed by a decade of inactivity as far as new music is concerned. But now, drummer Esko Sallow, keyboardist Lennart Specht, bassist Thomas Antonsson, vocalist/moraharpa player Niklas Rimmerfors, and multi-instrumentalist Patrik Rimmerfors² have taken the Fejd banner to Nifelheim, the Norse realm of ice and an album steeped in mist-wrapped mystery. Fejd sing in Swedish and, being a Swiss-cheese-brained American, I can’t tell you if they capture their “Nordic melancholy” in lyricism. But can they musically?

“Folk metal” encompasses a lot of different sounds; the way Fejd do it, Nifelheim is folk, folk metal. Fejd’s approach immediately reminded me of The Hu’s early material, where amidst the great score of acoustic instrumentation, keyboards, and drums, not one distorted guitar appears. This is no issue. The lively, drone-noted strumming on “Edsvuren” and “Sköldborg”‘s Amon Amarthesque fighting riffs prove Fejd can bring the goods without them. Nifelheim’s acoustic soundscape—beautifully captured in a warm and dynamic mastering job—smells of sea salt on “Älvagrimmar” with its wind-swept majesty and “Strilja”‘s medieval jauntiness and Sgàile-like grandeur. On first listen, I was quickly and easily engrossed. Nifelheim doesn’t actually sound Nordic—like most Viking-y folk music these days, Fejd mostly play a hodgepodge of Asian and Eastern European instruments—but it nonetheless sounds like a dip into the primordial world.

Fejd use a lot of instruments on Nifelheim, and brother, you better believe they’re using them all in the same song. “Nidhögg” navigates between mouth harp,³ a plethora of strings, synthesizers, and group vocals while the title track opens to a cavalcade of drums, horns, and synchronized string riffs to bombastic effect. Nifelheim is just about always like this. But what’s crazy is that Nifelheim never sounds overly crowded. This owes partly to its aforementioned mix but also Fejd’s delicate songcraft, which sees pieces sliding in and out of the music in seamless, natural transitions. But what’s similarly baffling is that, though Fejd weave such big compositions together, Nifelheim still sounds kinda thin. This is in part due to a lack of low end, which is mostly handled by Salow kicking the dookie out of his drums, because Antonsson’s bass basically stands in the back of the mix sipping a beer mead. Regardless, in tying Nifelheim’s anachronistic musical identity together into a cohesive package, it’s safe to say these Swedes left no “Ø” uncrossed or “Ä” undotted.

But with how spirited Fejd’s musical identity is and how rich Nifelheim’s compositions can be, it’s a bit surprising how much steam the record loses by the end. Nifelheim keeps to a mid-pace throughout its runtime, and though Fejd can play briskly—Salow really lets loose on the kit when he wants to (“Edsvuren”)—the music nonetheless feels stuck in one speed. Similarly, I’d describe Rimmerfors’ vocals as workmanlike on Nifelheim, serving the music well but being too constrained to stand out or elevate it. Factored together, these two problems conspire to give Nifelheim a feeling of déjà vu. When closer “Svarta Tjärn” rolls out its big conclusion in hopes of a true Viking funeral, a track worthy of one in a vacuum, over-familiarity dims its flame to a serviceable campfire instead. Nifelheim is smooth sailing, but perhaps the trip would’ve been more memorable had Fejd challenged some choppier waters.

Nifelheim is a fun and expertly crafted album the whole way through, but a lack of exciting highs keeps me from giving a full-chested recommendation of it. Fans of folk metal will likely enjoy what Fejd offer on it, and genre diehards are likely to rate it more highly than I. I hear all the essence of a great album in Nifelheim, from Fejd’s expert chemistry to the record’s effortless fluidity. But I also hear the potential for something to really blow the roof off with Nifelheim gone unrealized. A few stronger hooks or up-tempo moments would’ve really gone a long way. But regardless, Nifelheim is a sound warship for Fejd to get back on the warpath with, and more than worthy of your consideration for listening. Skol!

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Rating: Good
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Black Lodge | Sound Pollution
Websites: fejd.se | facebook.com/Fejdofficial
Releases Worldwide: August 21st, 2026

The post Fejd – Nifelheim Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Pressure Set have shared “Binge Watch On Mute,” the second single off their forthcoming self-titled album, due out on

There are many types of Chelsea Wolfe; the doom folk poet, the goth overlord, the master of all things hypnogogic. Wolfe’s covered a vast landscape of mystery and occultism over the past two decades, distorting genre lines into uniquely amorphous collections of songs. ‘The Dark’ is her newest and 9th of these. It’s not her loudest, heaviest or most rustic. It is however one of her boldest. With ‘The Dark’, Wolfe becomes the unashamed songwriter that her previous albums have always hinted towards. By minimising the historically all-consuming components of her music – like the layers of distortion on ‘Abyss’ and the lo-fi scuzz of ‘The Grime and the Glow’ – Wolfe’s voice sounds bullishly stark. ‘The Dark’ is thus the closest there’s ever been to Wolfe the singer-songwriter. It’s also a high watermark for Wolfe the storyteller.  

The Californian has described the album as a love letter to the dark. This may sound grim but it’s strangely charming too. Yes, the darkness can be a metaphor for the emotional nadirs of life, but it is also where resilience lies. This is best explained by Wolfe herself via the title track’s gentle defiance. Keen to imbue the darkness with a sense of renaissance, Wolf has developed a newfound positivity. “Seeds grow in the darkness/our love glows in the darkness”, she sings. It’s a striking viewpoint – newfound fortitude is obtained only when at our weakest. Wolfe’s vocals support this further, with her sounding both weathered and imperious. 

Her voice is a focal point throughout ‘The Dark’. In near-conversational speak, opener ‘Cold’ has Wolfe conversing with someone (or something) that she fears, but from whose grasp she escapes. She’s not running away though, but rather “running back home” in an endeavour to discover “who I am without you”. The subject of Wolfe’s address is ambiguous but never impersonal. Rather, it’s surprisingly relatable, making ‘Cold’ one of Wolfe’s most accessible songs to date.  

This goes for the rest of ‘The Dark’ too. While lacking the spooky crunch of Wolfe’s most revered albums, ‘The Dark’ may become a future entry point for the unconverted.  

There nonetheless remains enough of an eerie allure to keep Wolfe loosely tethered to her musical roots. ‘Turn the Key’ opens with grandly strummed guitars, sounding like the strings are hanging by a thread, as if precariously perched upon the instrument. Wolfe’s tendency towards the ghostly is also present, evidenced through her Kate Bush-esque head voice that anchors the chorus to ‘Seethe’ with a crisp breathiness. The song’s final moments dissolve structure, making way instead for atmosphere. While emotionally warm, much of the album feels instrumentally cold as a result of this penchant for ambience, as gales of sound amplify the music’s intensity. 

‘The Dark’ is Wolfe at her most accessible but she remains capricious. ‘Death Is Not the End’ is a tale of two Wolfe’s. The acoustic whisperer conducts the first half before the distorted warrior battles through the second, the yin and the yang of Wolfe’s musical palette. The muscular grandeur of the song is potent. It also carries an inherent finality. So much so that when ‘Dancer in the Sky’ follows – with its watery pianos and icicles of pizzicato strings – it feels less of a finale and more the end credits. Its group-sung chorus instils the song with something of a Broadway feel too. The result is less of a sprint and more of a stumble to the finish line, but Wolfes make it out of ‘The Dark’ in anthemic style all the same.  

The album is nonetheless Wolfe, yet again at her most conceptually consummate. Her paean to the darkness is captivating, but it’s the enchantment of Wolfe herself that ensures an ember of light has us drifting through ‘The Dark’.  

BEN WILLIAMS

As Motionless In White hit 20, we find out how they’ve evolved from metalcore wannabes to an arena band who are headlining Bloodstock next year – and it’s partly down to the determination of their only original member, frontman Chris Motionless.

In our emotional interview, Chris reveals the highs and lows of their journey so far, why making new album Decades took four years, and how it was the closest he’s ever come to walking away from the band.

“I ground myself to the bone for this record,” he says. “I was going into these toxic cycles of workaholism and just burnt myself out. It took a little bit of my passion away, because it felt like a job for the first time, so I definitely wanted to walk away and come back to it. That’s part of why it took so long.”

We also go inside Ghost’s massive new concert movie, 2 Big To Rig. Tobias Forge tells us about how they captured the epic Skeletour stage show, the unfortunate incident that nearly derailed it, and his “extracurricular” future plans.

Elsewhere, Mastodon open up about the death of guitarist Brent Hinds, just months after he split from the band. They explain why they’re moving forwards with new album Marrow Deep, and a brand new outlook.

Zoltan Bathory gets The Hammer Interview treatment, explaining how he arrived in the US with little more than a Hungarian-English dictionary, braving cockroaches and judo throws to steer Five Finger Death Punch to the top.

Meanwhile, seven years on from his throat cancer diagnosis, Dave Mustaine revisits his journey in an exclusive interview and an extract from his new book, In My Darkest Hour.

Green Lung take us on a tour of London’s graveyards and occult hotspots, Halestorm power couple Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger tackle your questions about love, keytars and… killer farts?! And Snot explain why they’re back in the studio, almost 30 years after the tragic death of frontman Lynn Strait.

Sleep Theory’s Cullen Moore shares his soulful playlist, Mudvayne/Hellyeah veteran Chad Grey delivers the lessons he learned from hanging out with a young Slipknot and meeting James Hetfield, and Godsmack give us the inside story of their blockbuster anthem, I Stand Alone. Plus, we meet Decessus, the Chilean death metal band led by a beauty queen.

All this, along with Eddfest, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Sigh, Rory, System Of A Down, Acid Bath, Duff McKagan and much, much more.

Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door