The man behind Asterise Bartlomiej Mezynski International power metal band Asterise released a new single ‘Rapid Fire’ on May 15th 2026. The track is pretty short, simple and full of energy – around 3 minutes of guitar riffing, powerful vocals, and an overall fast, energetic vibe. This is the second collaboration with Herbie Langhans (Avantasia) on vocals and Ronny Milianowicz (Shadowquest) on drums.  LISTEN to […]

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Hard-rocking guitarist and vocalist Jared James Nichols is back with Louder Than Fate, out June 5 via Frontiers Music Srl. The 10-track collection is his most fully realized statement yet, balancing his signature crunchy guitar tones with a stronger focus on vocal melody and songcraft. Whether he’s delivering a fluid solo on “Running Hot,” burning through the lead track “Let’s Go,” or laying bare something more vulnerable on “Killing Time,” Louder Than Fate is a record that earns the weight it carries.

Two years is a long time to carry songs in your head, and Nichols sounds like a man who can finally breathe. “These songs have been floating around in my head in rehearsal spaces and sound checks for the last almost like two years,” he told Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives. “Finally, to put this together and not only compile these songs but also to get this record out, it feels like I’m finally just like getting a weight off my shoulders.”

That relief is audible in the record itself. Louder Than Fate moves between hard rock muscle and something more emotionally exposed, a range Nichols says came from a deliberate effort to let the songs go where they wanted rather than forcing them into a predetermined mold. Tracks like “Dustin Bones” and “Let’s Go” operate in full-throttle mode, while “Killing Time” and “Show Me” pull back into something closer to ache.

“One of the big things I’ve always had just because of the way I play guitar is it’s always been really, really guitar focused,” he said. “With this record, I feel like I was able to bridge that gap where there is that natural kind of rawness when you hear songs like ‘Dustin Bones’ and ‘Let’s Go.’ As a vocalist, I get my best vocal takes when I’m holding or playing my guitar. It’s like my blanket. But with songs like ‘Killing Time’ and ‘Show Me,’ it’s almost as if I was able to have the guitar play rhythm to a vocal and to a melody, which is something that I’ve been really, really focused on. This record, we finally captured that.”

The writing process was looser than anything Nichols had attempted before, leaning on co-writers based in Nashville and letting the material find its own footing. “Way Back” is a prime example, built around a chorus riff that simply fell into place once the right people were in the room. “The more it feels natural and the more it feels easy, the more it comes across as honest in me,” he said. “That thing basically wrote itself.”

That track also reflects the eclectic musical diet Nichols grew up on. Raised on a rotation of Steppenwolf, Mountain, Cream, and Led Zeppelin courtesy of his Vietnam vet father, AM radio softness from his mother, and Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots from his brother, he never really belonged to a single genre and stopped pretending otherwise around two years ago. “I said, let’s just write songs. Let’s just let it go where it’s going to go,” he said. “I have this weird kind of misfit of all this blues, rock, country, heavy stuff, and I just try and cram it all in there to try and sound like me.”

Lyrically, Nichols admits that while not every song is strictly autobiographical, each one carries personal elements that reflect his own experiences. “Killing Time” is where the personal and the universal collide most directly. The song started from a fractured family relationship rather than a romantic split, but the two threads ended up pointing in the same emotional direction. “Sometimes you have to let songs go where they want to go,” he said. He played it for Lzzy Hale of Hailstorm while it was still taking shape. “By the time we got through the chorus, she goes, ‘Oh, this is a good song.’ And I was like, got it. We’re doing that.”

The guitar work on that track also marks a personal milestone. Inspired by David Gilmour‘s melodic approach, Nichols went home the night before recording the solo, didn’t touch his guitar, and just listened back to the rough track on his phone, humming melodies rather than rehearsing licks. “I walked into the studio the next morning, fired up my amps, went through like three passes, kind of figured out where I wanted to go, and then we did it,” he said. “After we were done, the engineer looked back at me and went, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘I think we got it.’ That one was really special because I felt like I was really saying something with my guitar.”

That commitment to feeling over perfection runs through the whole record. Nichols and his team made a deliberate call to leave the imperfections in, no auto-tune, no going back to fix the rough edges. “If you hear the guitar and it goes or it scratches up, that’s me. That’s my mistake. And we left it because there’s an honesty there,” he said. “With ‘Killing Time,’ there are parts where I can hear a string kind of buzzing underneath it. But it was like it’s part of the energy. It’s the way it was captured.”

Louder Than Fate also carries a bonus track that most Western listeners won’t find on the standard release: an acoustic version of “Killing Time” recorded on guitars dating back to the late 1800s. “When you hear it, right when it kicks off, you go, ‘That sounds different. That sounds old,’” Nichols said. “It’s not like it was made to sound old. It’s a microphone on a real old guitar.” It also marks the first time he’s attempted true acoustic soloing on record.

Nichols is taking the album on the road immediately after release, with shows lined up in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, and Berlin, playing the record front to back, in sequence, with the same band that recorded it. “When you listen to the record, and then you come to the record release show, it’s the same guys playing the songs,” he said. “To me, that means something.”

The post JARED JAMES NICHOLS Talks His New Album “Louder Than Fate”: “I Feel Like I’m Really Saying Something Here With My Guitar” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CYANIDE Releases New Single “Get Up and Dance” and Official Music Video Out Now
Las Vegas, NV – Las Vegas hard rock band Cyanide has officially released their new single “Get Up and Dance,” now available on all major streaming platforms including Spotify. The track is also available on CD through Kivel Records alongside the newly released official music video, out now.
Built on a foundation of classic hard rock energy with a modern punch, “Get Up and Dance” captures Cyanide at full throttle. Driving rhythms, bold vocals, and a straight-ahead rock attitude define the track, delivering a sound made for loud speakers and bigger crowds.
At the center of the single is a lyric that sums up the band’s connection with their fans:
“The power we get from you, it’s electric, you know it’s true.”
That line reflects the push-and-pull energy Cyanide thrives on, where the audience is just as much a part of the sound as the band on stage.
Recorded with the intent to bring a live-wire feel into the studio, “Get Up and Dance” leans into raw performance energy rather than overproduction. It is built to move bodies, shake rooms, and remind listeners what real hard rock is supposed to feel like.
With the single and official music video now unleashed, Cyanide continues to carve their path in the modern rock world by keeping things simple, loud, and honest.
Stream “Get Up and Dance” here:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/cyanide9/get-up-and-dance-feat-keith-robert/
Watch the official music video here:


 Connect: 
https://linktr.ee/Cyanide.21Gun
Contact: cyanidelv2003@gmail.com

Canadian heavy metal veterans Anvil have announced an extensive touring run across Europe. Scheduled for autumn, ‘Pounding The Past’ tour encompasses 48 shows in total. On this occasion, the band will perform songs from their first 3 albums: Hard ‘N’ Heavy (1981), Metal On Metal (1982), and Forged In Fire (1983).
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The post Citizen Smith Somewhere between leaving Review appeared first on Edgar Allan Poets – Noir Rock Band.

The post Sig And The Fire Pilots LITTLE BLACK DRESS Review appeared first on Edgar Allan Poets – Noir Rock Band.

“Defixiones”, the newest single from Opera IX‘s soon-to-be-released long player Veneficium, has premiered online in the form of an official music video.
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The post The Plastic Pals Decisions Review appeared first on Edgar Allan Poets – Noir Rock Band.

The work on Hulder‘s third studio album is completed. Details of the Verbolgen, tracklist and cover artwork, are at your disposal below. Official release date: August 7, 2026 (20 Buck Spin).
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Puscifer – San Diego Civic Theatre – May 13, 2026

I was completely unprepared for Wednesday night’s Puscifer show in San Diego.  I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard cleaner sound, with the possible exception of David Gilmour at the Hollywood Bowl in 2016, and that’s rarified air.  The lighting, choreography, and musicianship were off the chart, and the 3000 people packed inside the San Diego Civic Theatre got the show of their lives. 

Puscifer

I became aware of Puscifer almost 20 years ago when “Cuntry Boner” suddenly came blasting out of my satellite radio, and I almost crashed my car listening to the lyrics.  I had no idea they were a Maynard James Keenan project at first, but as I did a deep dive into them, I soon came to realize what an interesting venture it was.  Despite having the same vocalist and leader, Puscifer sounded nothing like Tool or A Perfect Circle – comedic at times, theatrical always, with live shows that could easily be considered performance art, they looked and sounded like no one else. 

The new album Normal Isn’t came out in February, and ten of the eighteen songs performed on this night were from it.  While leaning heavily into the new material, the evening’s setlist was curated like a favorite record from the 1970’s, where extreme care was taken so that one song would set up the next, and you’d be taken on a sonic journey as the evening unfolded and revealed itself.

The stage had two levels, and the show started with Maynard and Carina Round atop the upper level in front of a video screen displaying “Puscifer” and behind the drums and dual Moog keyboards.  They descended the stairs during the second song, and both spent most of the night close to the audience.  The lighting was moody and theatrical, and continually shifting in intensity, color, and what was being hidden or revealed.  The third full-time member Mat Mitchell on guitar and keyboards sounded incredible – I can’t stress how amazing the musicianship was at this show, further complimented by Gunnar Olsen on drums, and Josh Moreau on bass.  As mentioned earlier, the sound was superb, with each instrument and voice clearly definable, with nothing getting muddied in the mix.  The stellar acoustics provided exactly the right atmosphere for Carina’s haunting and ethereal voice to form a textured and symbiotic bond with Maynard vocals, creating an unreal sonic experience.  In addition to the next-level acoustics, the visuals and choreography between Maynard and Carina demanded your full attention, with the only decision required was who to look at. 

While “Cuntry Boner” was nowhere to be found in the setlist, Maynard did bring out a Shake Weight during “Mantastic”, and opening act comedian Dave Hill appeared on stage during “The Remedy” to present a wooden box holding two Nerf handguns for a duel between Maynard and Carina.  Both faced off, before taking ten paces, turning, and firing.  When toy pistols proved ineffective, Maynard moved to a crossbow, while Carina emerged holding a large, over-the-top Nerf gun to get in the final word. 

A cool element was the no photo/video policy.  Signs were posted everywhere, and security was roaming the theater to keep people from pulling out their phones and causing a distraction, both to the performers and the audience.  I’ve been to shows where phones were placed in a sealed bag for the duration of the show, but this version using the honor system proved to be effective, with zero phones coming out from my vantage point.  It was a welcome addition – while we’d all like to have a souvenir to take home from the show or to post online, being in the moment and enjoying the incredible visual showcase without someone in front sticking their arms up in the air to get their phone higher than the person in front of them was refreshing. 

This was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen.  The musicianship was outstanding, and the setting it was presented in was more like a Broadway show than a rock concert, and I mean that in the best possible way.  Every element was considered and thought of, and the spectacle was unlike anything I’ve seen at a concert, making for a truly memorable night. 

Puscifer is:

• Maynard James Keenan – Vocals
• Carina Round – Vocals
• Mat Mitchell – Guitar/Production
• Gunnar Olsen – Drums
• Josh Moreau – Bass

Setlist:

1) Thrust

2) Self Evident

3) Bad Wolf

4) Normal Isn't

5) The Algorithm

6) The Quiet Parts

7) Pendulum

"Bangers and Mashups" Short Film

8) The Arsonist

9) Mantastic

10) Bullet Train to Iowa

11) The Remedy

Intermission

12) Horizons

13) ImpetuoUs

14) Momma Sed (Versatile Mix)

15) Seven One

16) Grand Canyon

17) Conditions of My Parole

18) A Public Stoning

Dave Hill

I discovered Dave Hill a few years ago while scrolling on Instagram.  Suddenly there was some awkward guy riding his bike poorly, doing sad parkour, ripping sweet guitar solos, and knocking over and flipping off traffic cones…all to a Pantera soundtrack.  Who is this guy? 

Not to bore you, but my wife and I went to Europe a few years ago to see concerts.  I paid the guitarist of the band we were traveling to see to make a Cameo video to surprise my wife with details of the trip, but it was terrible.  Unsolicited, he sent a second video, which was also hilariously awful.  Determined to make things right, I hired Dave to do a Cameo video for $40.  Dave was great, and went on and on for about six minutes, culminating by suggesting I take my wife to a restaurant in Stokholm Sweden called Rolfs Kök (sound it out phonetically), which we made a point of Ubering to when we were in Stokholm.

Dave’s humor is slightly off kilter, nervous, and uncomfortable.  Tonight’s show was filled with an unmotivated demonstration of nunchucks, a rundown of local San Diego locations, pushups, berating his band, and (as he described them) “sweet ass bike tricks” that I would describe as semi-underwhelming and child-like BMX tricks executed in slow motion.  I couldn’t gauge if the audience initially knew what was going on, but if not, they figured it out quickly and were soon cheering wildly.  He was a perfect fit for Puscifer, and I can see why Maynard chose him to open. 

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