FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUM OF SEVEN, GREG C. BROWN, ARCHFIEND, DRAGONBORN, DAY 40 & FALSE MESSIAH FEATURED IN LATEST ROCK HARD MAGAZINE
Six Metal Devastation PR Clients Earn Reviews and Feature Coverage Alongside Moonspell, Judas Priest, Acid Bath, Left to Die, and More
Metal Devastation PR is proud to announce that six artists and projects represented by the agency are featured in the latest issue of Rock Hard Magazine , one of Europe’s longstanding and respected heavy music publications.
The issue features Moonspell on the cover and includes coverage of major names including Judas Priest, Acid Bath, Left to Die , and many more. Among that impressive lineup, six Metal Devastation PR clients have secured their own space throughout the issue, with coverage ranging from album reviews and ratings to an extensive interview.
Featured artists include Sum of Seven, Greg C. Brown, Archfiend, Dragonborn, Day 40, and False Messiah , showcasing an impressive cross-section of progressive, traditional, epic, death, thrash, and symphonic metal.
SUM OF SEVEN
The Seventh Element
Finnish metal band Sum of Seven are featured with coverage of their new album The Seventh Element , a record built around seven different personalities coming together to express a shared musical vision.
Rock Hard describes the project as a combination of progressive metal with melodic and cinematic influences , with the album exploring human emotions and the constant search for balance between light and darkness.
The review characterizes The Seventh Element as an immersive listening experience , with each track representing a different facet of human existence. The band’s emphasis on authenticity and emotional depth is also highlighted, as the group seeks to create a personal connection with listeners.
The feature additionally spotlights the band’s collaboration with photographer Oliver Weber , whose visual work reinforces the album’s themes of introspection and transformation.
GREG C. BROWN
Solar Winds
Rating: 7.5/10
Acclaimed guitarist Greg C. Brown receives a 7.5/10 rating for Solar Winds .
Rock Hard praises Brown as an extremely eclectic guitarist with superb technique, noting the variety of his solo discography and his ability to combine virtuoso technique with emotional depth .
The review specifically points to the transition between Phobos and Deimos , highlighting guitar work worthy of the great guitar heroes, before moving into the cosmic and contemplative atmosphere of Theia .
Tracks including Solar Winds and Mist at Dawn reveal another side of Brown’s musical personality, with Rock Hard praising the delicate and dreamy sensitivity found within the record.
The result, according to the review, is an engaging record where quality and quantity coexist in balance , once again demonstrating Brown’s compositional and interpretive abilities.
ARCHFIEND
Lost Forever
Rating: 7/10
The solo project of singer and multi-instrumentalist Brian LaFave , Archfiend earns a 7/10 rating for Lost Forever .
Rock Hard describes Archfiend as rooted in solid, traditional heavy metal , while emphasizing the project’s dramatic tension and emotional weight.
At the center of Lost Forever is the story of Jenna Lee , a teenager attempting to leave behind a troubled environment and build a better future, only to encounter another series of difficult and painful circumstances.
The review praises the record’s dark, decadent melancholy , noting how effectively the music reflects Jenna’s increasingly troubled emotional state.
With arrangements recalling the atmosphere of the 1980s, combined with LaFave’s anguished vocals and straightforward but effective songwriting, Lost Forever delivers a strong nostalgic quality while maintaining its own emotional identity.
DRAGONBORN
No Mercy
Rating: 8/10
Turkish metal band Dragonborn deliver one of the strongest scores among the MDPR clients featured in the issue, earning an impressive 8/10 for No Mercy .
The release opens with an extended instrumental introduction filled with symphonic elements, immediately establishing the band’s cinematic direction.
Rock Hard highlights Warhorns for Liars , where the band’s grand and theatrical approach reinforces its preference for gripping narratives and medieval-inspired settings .
That cinematic and narrative quality continues throughout the four-track EP, which also features an instrumental interlude serving as a clear homage to fantasy literature and the battle imagery deeply associated with epic heavy metal.
Tracks such as Revenge of Pagan Storms and Execution allow Dragonborn to explore their passion for myths and legends through arrangements combining grandeur and majesty .
Rock Hard ultimately describes No Mercy as a true musical soundtrack , making the 8/10 rating a significant achievement for the Turkish quintet.
DAY 40
Phenomenon
London-based Day 40 , led by vocalist and guitarist Den Dimitrov , are featured in Rock Hard with coverage surrounding their latest album Phenomenon .
The article explores the long road behind the album, which began taking shape years ago before ultimately being reshaped following major lineup changes.
Dimitrov discusses the importance of the band’s current lineup and the chemistry that comes from four musicians sharing the same passion. As he puts it, when that combination comes together, “magic happens.”
Rock Hard also digs into one of Phenomenon ‘s most important strengths: its lyrical depth and substance .
Rather than relying solely on familiar metal subjects, Day 40 tackle ancient mysteries, conspiracies, philosophical questions, freedom of speech, and access to knowledge.
Musically, the band brings together death and thrash metal in their rawest and most traditional forms , with Dimitrov drawing equally from the classic 1980s thrash movement and the early 1990s death metal scene.
That combination of influences has helped Day 40 create a sound that bridges two important eras of extreme metal while maintaining its own identity.
FALSE MESSIAH
Seven
The mysterious international project False Messiah receives one of the issue’s most extensive pieces of coverage with an in-depth interview surrounding its debut concept album Seven .
The identities of the project’s members remain deliberately concealed. Instead, False Messiah describes itself as a “controlled creative entity” , placing the story and music ahead of individual personalities.
The project was created around a musical universe exploring themes including technology, artificial intelligence, social division, and the concentration of power , while deliberately approaching those subjects through speculative storytelling rather than political messaging.
According to the project, False Messiah was born in Montréal and has an international identity spanning Canada, Finland, France, and the UK.
Rock Hard’s interview explores the band’s description of its sound as symphonic dark metal , combining symphonic and cinematic elements with influences that reach from the darkness of Black Sabbath to the adventurous spirit of Iron Maiden and the melancholy of Sisters of Mercy.
At the center of Seven is a dystopian future where humanity has surrendered control to automated systems, power structures, and artificial intelligence.
But the album is ultimately not about machines.
It is about resilience .
Each song represents another chapter in a journey through fear, loss, courage, and ultimately hope, with False Messiah maintaining that even in its darkest moments, Seven leaves room for redemption.
SIX MDPR CLIENTS. ONE ISSUE. A HELL OF A STATEMENT.
For Metal Devastation PR, seeing six represented artists appear throughout the same issue of Rock Hard Magazine is a significant accomplishment.
The coverage demonstrates not only the international reach of the artists working with MDPR, but also the diversity of music coming through the agency.
Progressive metal. Cinematic metal. Traditional heavy metal. Epic metal. Death metal. Thrash metal. Symphonic dark metal.
Six very different artists. Six very different stories.
And all six are now represented in the pages of the same issue alongside some of the biggest names in heavy music.
With Moonspell commanding the cover and major features involving Judas Priest, Acid Bath, Left to Die , and many others, this latest issue represents exactly the kind of environment where underground and independent artists deserve to be seen.
Zach Moonshine of Metal Devastation PR states:
“This is what it’s all about. You don’t want every band you work with sounding the same or telling the same story. You want great artists with something to say, and you want to get them in front of the right people. Seeing six of our clients in one issue of Rock Hard, alongside bands like Moonspell, Judas Priest, Acid Bath, and Left to Die, is fucking awesome. And the fact that we’re looking at everything from an 8/10 for Dragonborn to a 7.5/10 for Greg C. Brown, a 7/10 for Archfiend, plus features on Sum of Seven, Day 40, and False Messiah, makes it even better. These artists earned this.”
Metal Devastation PR congratulates Sum of Seven, Greg C. Brown, Archfiend, Dragonborn, Day 40, and False Messiah on their appearances in the latest issue of Rock Hard Magazine .
This is another reminder that independent metal is alive, kicking, and still finding its way onto the pages of major international publications.
Rock Hard Magazine. Six MDPR clients. One issue. No small achievement.
ABOUT METAL DEVASTATION PR
Metal Devastation PR is an independent heavy music publicity and promotional agency dedicated to helping metal, rock, punk, and extreme music artists reach new audiences through press coverage, interviews, reviews, radio promotion, social media campaigns, and targeted media outreach.
Metal Devastation PR
Promoting the Underground. Supporting the Music. Destroying the Silence.
Grab a copy here: https://www.rockharditaly.com/
In 1979, after wrapping the recording of their fourth studio album, Eat To The Beat, Blondie signed a new management deal with Alice Cooper‘s manager Shep Gordon. A larger-than-life character who also handled the business affairs of comedian/actor Groucho Marx and actress Raquel Welch, Gordon’s first proposal to the New York band was that they take a cameo role in a new musical comedy film, Roadie, to which he’d already signed up Alice Cooper.
Roadie was produced by Carolyn Pfeiffer, formerly a PR who worked with The Beatles, Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand among others, and more recently, a partner at Shep Gordon’s management company. It was Gordon who suggested Meat Loaf to play the film’s central character, Travis W. Redfish, a Texan good ol’ boy who happened to possess unparalleled skills for fixing broken equipment, and who gets sucked into the rock ‘n’ roll world. Meat Loaf at the time was an international star thanks to the phenomenal success of 1977’s Bat Out Of Hell album, but he had never taken on such a high profile acting role.
In a refreshingly honest interview conducted with Australian TV host Molly Meldrum at the film’s Austin, Texas location in 1980, Meat Loaf admitted that he’d had some “emotional problems” dealing with the success of his debut album – still the biggest selling debut album of all time – admitting that he never wanted to be called a “star”, and revealing that the past few years had been “mentally tough” for him. But his enthusiasm for his new project was clear.
“The idea of the movie is to create the new American hero, or the new world hero, meaning me, which is sorta humorous to me,” he told Meldrum. “He [Travis W. Redfish] knows nothing about the music business at all, and he doesn’t understand why anybody makes records, and why anybody did since Buddy Holly died anyway.”
Giving a brief synopsis of the plot, Meatloaf revealed that his character “gets picked up by a girl named Lola Bouilliabase [actress Kaki Hunter] from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is a groupie and a virgin… so she takes him on this adventure, and he becomes a roadie. He doesn’t know what a roadie is when it first starts… They cut the power on a Blondie concert, and he uses hay wagons and horse manure and and all this stuff and puts it all together and creates this entire unit to run an entire concert…
“And I save Alice Cooper’s concert,” he adds. “Alice has got this brand new world famous sound equipment and nobody can fix it, nobody knows what’s wrong with it… but [Redfish] wants to go home because his sister’s getting married to his best friend, and Alice says, ‘Well if you fix my sound system I’ll get you a bus’.”
Intrigued yet?
Debbie Harry, meanwhile, had a very specific memory of her band’s time on set in Austin, during which the New Yorkers performed a cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire.
“The film had a number of dwarf actors,” she recalled in her excellent 2019 memoir Face It. “There was one scene in a café where a fight broke out with the dwarves and a few of us actually got roughed up, because those little guys were very active and very, very strong. It was chaotic and a lot of fun… Chris [Stein’s] hearing was never the same after he got squirted in the ear during the fight scene.”
Meat Loaf and Blondie share some on-screen time in the film, including a sequence where the band bundle a confused Redfish into their car after their show, and start spouting random lines such as “I love guns” and “Sometimes I travel 3000 miles just to spit on people!”
No doubt it all made sense at the time.
We’ll refrain from any more spoilers. Except to note that Roadie was not a commercial or critical success. It failed to recoup its reputed $5 million budget, and while critics heaped praise on Meat Loaf – “in his first starring role he doesn’t sing a note and still steals the movie” wrote People magazine – most found the film’s storyline weak, confusing and un-engaging.
Awarding the film one and a half stars out of a possible five, legendary US film critic Roger Ebert wrote: “If the movie had given us more of their songs, this could have qualified as a concert movie. If it had given us more of Meatloaf it might have developed into a character study. But Roadie never makes up its mind. The movie’s so genial, disorganized and episodic that we never really care about the characters, and yet whenever someone starts to sing the performance is interrupted for more meaningless plot development.”
But critics be damned, why not watch the film below and decide for yourself?