Lucifer Drop “Slow Dance In A Crypt” Single, and Add Attic to Upcoming European Tour


Heavy rock megalith, Lucifer, have released a new single called “Slow Dance In A Crypt.” The song is the third track taken from the new album, Lucifer V, due out January 26th, on Nuclear Blast Records. The band also revealed that Attic will be joining them on their coming European tour, which also features Angel Witch and The Night Eternal. Keep reading below for the video and more.

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KK’s Priest Will Play an Exclusive Show At Time To Rock Festival 2023


In 1969, the first edition of one of the world”s biggest bands within the New Wave of British Heavy Metal – Judas Priest – was formed. One of the founders was guitarist KK Downing. KK was in the band until 2011 and over the years, he was one of the songwriters for most of the metal world”s biggest songs as “Breaking the Law”, “Living After Midnight” and “Painkiller”.

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Time To Rock Festival 2023 Books Saxon, Michael Schenker Group, D-A-D, Tom G Warrior, Ross The Boss, and More


Time To Rock Fest 2023 has booked 17 of 40 planned bands for the summer-time Heavy Metal and Rock Festival! Headliners Saxon will be joined by, Michael Schenker Group, D-A-D, Tom G Warrior- performing three special sets with Triumph of Death and Triptykon, Ross The Boss, Molly Hatchet, Toy Dolls, Sham 69, Bourbon Boys, Uli Jon Roth, Angel Witch, Masterplan, Tungsten Tygers of Pan Tang, and Knogjarn! Taking place in Knislinge, Sweden July 8-10 2023, tickets are on sale at the link below. Continue reading


Wooden Fields (members of Witchcraft, Angel Witch, Siena Root), Three Seasons) Signs with Argonauta Records


Swedish Stoner rock supergroup Wooden Fields has signed to Argonauta Records and will release their debut album later in 2021. The band features members of prominent stoner bands such as vocalist and guitarist Sartez Faraj (Three Seasons, Mouth Of Clay), Siena Root- bassist Sam Riffer, and Fredrik Jansson Punkka (Witchcraft, Angel Witch) on the drums. The band has shared a teaser from the studio which you can see here.

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Emperor, Mayhem And Enslaved Team Up for Exclusive Beyond The Gates Festival 2021 Appearance


Three of the most legendary names in Black Metal will unite for an unforgettable event at next summer’s Beyond The Gates Festival in Norway! Emperor, Mayhem and Enslaved will perform at Grieghallen MCMXCIV as part of the fest with full-album performances of their classic works; Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse, and Enslaved’s Vikingligr Veldi. All three monumental albums were recorded in the legendary Grieghallen Studios in Bergen. Tickets can be purchased at the link below and the full festival lineup, headlined by a reunited Mercyful Fate is here as well! Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Cattle Decapitation – Death Atlas


The Extreme/Grindcore/Death Metal act, Cattle Decapitation has been pleasantly surprising modern metal listeners for nearly a decade. Since their record, The Harvest Floor (Metal Blade Records) in 2009, this quintet from San Diego has been pushing barriers in several different metal genres. Their relentless resilience and unabashed creativity throughout the years has been unexpected and still surprises fans today. The band is getting ready to release their eighth studio album, Death Atlas (Metal Blade Records) and the genius that is Cattle Decap is once again pushing the norm. Continue reading


RAISE YOUR FIST! Heavy Metal Album Reviews Round up: Royal Hunt, Satan, Beyond The Black, Cauldron, and more


As summer swings round towards autumn, there are no shortage of odes and tributes to the Gods of power and glory that brought us traditional and classic Heavy Metal. Ghost Cult dives in amongst the raised fists and studded wristbands to round-up the latest album releases.

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Emperor Booked To Headline Netherlands Deathfest 2018


Continuing a string of headline appearances at European metal festivals, Emperor will headline Netherlands Deathfest 2018. Nine other bands have also been added with more bands and details to follow.Continue reading


Carcass, Angel Witch, 1349, Skinless And More To Play Netherlands Deathfest 2018


 

Carcass, by Meg Loyal Photography

Having just completed its latest edition three weeks ago, Netherlands Deathfest 2018 has announced its first wave of bands! Carcass is the first named headliner along with Angel Witch, 1349, Sadistic Intent, Skinless, Broken Hope, Devourment, Rotten Sound and more! Details below: Continue reading


Desertfest UK: Various Venues, Camden, London UK


desertfest london-camden

These days the London borough Camden is mostly just a tourist trap; full of tourists, and overpriced beer. It is, however, still home to some quality venues, and is the perfect place to let Desertfest UK take over for a weekend of stoner rock in all its forms. Special thanks go out to Jessica Lotti Photography for sharing her images of the weekend with our readers.

Saturday:

Opening the proceedings over at the Electric Ballroom is Icelandic trio The Vintage Caravan. Boasting some decent rock star shapes on stage, front man/guitarist Óskar Logi Ágústsson clearly has an affinity for the late 60s/early 70s, delivering a boogie-filled set full of riffs and jams Jimi Hendrix and Cream would be proud of. A nearly full Ballroom is bouncing long before their set is over.

Over at the Jazz Café’s Prog stage, London five-piece Sumer aren’t afraid to show off their love of Tool. Clearly a talented bunch with a talent for combining thick riffs, vocal melodies and subtle dynamics all into one crunching ball. Unfortunately, while they fill the stage with numbers there’s not a lot of stage presence. But their debut album, The Animal You Are, is well worth checking out if you like your post/progressive metal.

The Black Heart boasts not only the best range of beers and ales Desertfest has to offer, but also the sweatiest venue. A tightly packed and perspiration–drenched throng squeeze in for the excellently-named Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus. The Swedish quartet deal in retro-psychedelic stoner and deliver an enjoyable set of classic rock, but their secret weapon is the wailing vocals of Karl Apelmo. Not a million miles away from the Scorpion Child’s Aryn Jonathan Black, he lifts decent music to something a lot more impressive.

Next up are Ten Foot Wizard, who deliver one the best sets of the weekend. Sporting some glorious Hawaiian shirts, the Mancunians take an already hot and sweaty venue into even wetter territory with their blend of dirty, fuzzy riffs and good time rock’n’roll. The band clearly know how to have fun on stage and that translates into one of the liveliest crowds of the entire festival. Mixing riffs of Clutch and early Queens of the Stone Age with a dirty groove of Alabama ThunderPussy, chuck in some megaphones, Theremin solos and songs about tits, and you’ve got a winning combo. TFW are a hoot and far better than their (fairly decent) debut record Return to the Infinite suggests.

Brant Bjork And The Low Desert Punk Band, by Jessica Lotti Photography

Brant Bjork And The Low Desert Punk Band, by Jessica Lotti Photography

After such a party, returning to the cool and spacious Ballroom for Brant Bjork is something of a comedown. The set is full of quality tunes drawn mainly from his latest album, Black Power Flower, but the chilled out desert rock vibe, combined with a fairly static performance from Bjork – with his Low Desert Punk Band in tow – is kind of underwhelming. Bjork’s solo material is severely under-rated, but the former Kyuss drummer’s laid back style fails to really the get juices flowing.

Brant Bjork And The Low Desert Punk Band, by Jessica Lotti Photography

Brant Bjork And The Low Desert Punk Band, by Jessica Lotti Photography

 

Sunday

Opening Sunday is Belgian psychedelic rockers Moaning Cities at The Purple Turtle. Sporting funky dance moves and the only sitar of the weekend, this Belgian outfit combine hypnotic atmospheres with 60s psychedelic pop and still manage to make a lot of noise. Trippy, intense, loud, and not a bad way to start the Sabbath.

Over at Koko, we’re treated with back-to-back instrumental bands with Karma in their name, but very different approaches. German four piece My Sleeping Karma do their best to create an atmosphere; employing eerie visuals [which unfortunately didn’t seem to be working right for much of the set] with soundscapes that create a nice audio-visual experience that’s easy to get lost in. It’s almost the opposite of Karma to Burn’s approach. The US power trio only deal in thunderous noise, punching their way through sonically crushing set that pounds your eardrums repeatedly for 60 minutes. There’s no subtly, but it is invigorating and gets and keeps the crowd’s attention throughout. This is how instrumentals bands should be done; Guitarist William Mecum is a one man riff machine that’s few on words but has stage swagger that makes up for the lack of verbatim, while drummer Evan Devine is an absolute powerhouse.

Karma To Burn,

Karma To Burn, by Jessica Lotti Photography

 

It’s not all quality however. Despite hailing from Hampshire, XII Boar really, really wish they were from the deep south of the US. The trio’s bland brand of cowboy metal is a concoction of groove, whiskey-soaked “YEAAAH!”s and unsubtly-recycled Pantera riffs. The kind of racket you’d expect at a keg party in a Bam Margera video, it’s really, really, really dumb fun at best, and a poor man’s Hellyeah at worst. The Underworld, meanwhile, has been wasted as stage dedicated to originally NWOBHM bands such as Quartz and Angel Witch along with a bunch of thinly-veiled tribute acts. Londoners Amulet fall unashamedly into the latter category. Sporting tight denim, bad moustaches and the Iron Maiden riff-book, Amulet definitely aren’t cool, but they clearly don’t care. An over-abundance of enthusiasm and a decent selection of riffs & solos ripped off from the likes of Maiden, Diamond Head and Angel Witch means by the end of the set it’s hard to dislike them. Painfully original, but harmless fun.

Back at the Purple Turtle, there’s a double bill of Doom. Despite some initial sound troubles, Sweden’s The Order of Israfel combine classic Black Sabbath-esque 70s doom with an almost Thin Lizzy-like appreciation of twin leads and guitar solos to create something evilly epic on a medieval scale. The Wounded Kings, by contrast are a bit of a let-down. Despite being chronically heavy on riffs, they’re surprisingly light on songs. They might be able to rattle the foundations of the building with the same kind of Earth shattering reverb as Electric Wizard, but vocalist George Birch is lost in the mix and things never really go as far as entertaining.

Sleep, by Jessica Lotti Photography

Sleep, by Jessica Lotti Photography

 

It wouldn’t be a proper stoner festival without the riffs of the mighty Matt Pike, and with Sleep he delivers spades of them. The stoner legends were under-appreciated during their original run but a rammed Koko goes crazy for ‘Dragonaut’, while new song ‘The Clarity’ get a rapturous response. More involved in their own playing than the audience, the band stomp through barely ten songs with no encore in an hour and a half set, but there no complaints. The likes of ‘DopeSmoker’ and ‘Holy Mountain’; manage to be both crushingly heavy, yet at the same time hypnotizing. An appropriate ending for a weekend of Black Sabbath-and-bong worshipping.

Sleep, by Jessica Lotti Photography

Sleep, by Jessica Lotti Photography

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WORDS BY DAN SWINHOE

PHOTOS BY JESSICA LOTTI PHOTOGRAPHY