Crown Compass Unleashes New Single

After a few years of silence, former Textures members Daniël de Jongh and Joe Tal have joined forces with former Pestilence and Exivious drummer Yuma van Eekelen (currently with Our Oceans) and former Cynic and Exivious bassist Robin Zielhorst (currently with Our Oceans) and founded Crown Compass, a progressive/eclectic power house.

The production of "The Drought" started in 2020. The album contains a variety of musical styles in which the band explores its dynamic range. The lyrics on the album are a selection of stories dealing with the individual within a group, within his society and within himself. The two-part story, "The Drought," is a tale of abuse and guilt.

The album has been mixed by ex-Cynic and Exivious guitarist Tymon Kruidenier (currently with Our Oceans) and mastered by Brett Caldas-Lima at Tower Studio. Artwork and logo design by Remko Tielemans.

Listen to the new single, "A Limited Number Of Heartbeats" below. More...

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Pathology Shares New Music Video

Gore-fueled death metallers Pathology released their 11th studio album, "The Everlasting Plague," last fall via Nuclear Blast. Today, the band release the music video for "Procession For Mangled Humans". Watch the video directed by DDD below.

Pathology comments: "We’re proud to announce the release of our brand new music video for 'Procession Of Mangled Humans' from The Everlasting Plague. Enjoy the video and we’ll see you on the road!"

"The Everlasting Plague" was recorded earlier this year at Sharkbite Studios. The album was produced by Zack Ohren who also handled engineering and mixing. The demented priest sometimes seen gracing the cover of other Pathology albums makes a reappearance here as an apex zombie ripping the flesh from his fellow dead man as he ascends to the top of a demolished city. Long-time artist companion Par Olofsson returned to the Pathology fold to design the piece. More...

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Satan Posts New Single Online

NWOBHM veterans Satan are set to release their sixth studio album, "Earth Infernal," via Metal Blade Records on April 1, 2022. Today, the band unleash "From Second Sight," the latest single off the album.

On the tracks lyrics, the band explains: "Wherever you care to look around the world, you‘ll find conspiracy theories and millions of people who actually believe in them. The denial of science is a very dangerous trend. In itself it is nothing new, but lately there‘s been a significant increase in the number of followers who‘ve now given up on proven fact and are ready to believe that 2+2 = 5 if it suits their purpose. Trust in authority is at an all-time low. Our world is on the brink of sliding into chaos unless people wake up and start to have faith in the smartest human beings on the planet. Established expertise must win the day or we are finished as a species." More...

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Die Apokalyptischen Reiter Unveils New Music Video

Germany’s Die Apokalyptischen Reiter are getting ready to release "Wilde Kinder" (=“Wild Children”), their new album due out on April 22. Today, the band shares the video for the new single, "Euer Gott ist der Tod". Watch below.

A harbinger of the apocalypse – where death and darkness unite in an invincible alliance. An epic masterpiece! Centre stage as a shining angel amongst the pitch-black chaos is former Deadlock singer Sabine Scherer.

Says the band: "Mors et nox in concordia invicta – United are Death and Night in invincible alliance. So shall it be - until the last sound is gone, all regret is washed away and the old earth is hanging dead in the sky." More...

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Syk Releases "The Hollow Mother" Video

Italian metal outfit Syk today unleash their new video for "The Hollow Mother." Now playing at Decibel Magazine, the track comes from the band’s latest full-length, "Pyramiden," out today.

Syk features founding guitarist and principal songwriter Stefano Ferrian (ex-Psychofagist), vocalist Dalila Kayros, rhythm/lead guitarist Marcello Cravini, and new recruit, drummer Mauro Maraldo (ex-Onirik). Led by the nihilistic vocal assault of Kayros, syk is at once grim and complex; relentless and alluring, fusing tight, technical rhythms with chilling melodies, and a dark sonic ambiance.

Notes Ferrian of the band’s latest single,
"'The Hollow Mother’ is about social apathy and how this human behavior affects society and nature. We should find a new way that does not include violence in the game because no one will ever evolve through violence, except global extermination."

"Pyramiden" is out now via CD and digitally, with a vinyl addition to follow at a later date. More...

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Sacred Son To Release New Album In May

Sacred Son return in 2022 with a new album, "The Foul Deth Of Engelond;" a black metal chronicle of the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt. Weaving historical record with speculative inversion, the album recounts this fierce and tragic Great Uprising as a proto-revolutionary moment in English history that echoes loudly into our own toxic and fragmented present. The story is presented as inspiration and allegory, with principal songwriter, Dane Cross, describing it as his ode to righteous leftwing political violence.

"The Foul Deth Of Engelond" marks a return to the expansive sound of their debut, whilst continuing the move away from the one-person insularity that began with the sophomore effort. The road-tested four-piece band was recorded in the cold dark winter of 2020 by tube-amp maestro Chris Fullard (Ulver, Sunn O)))), Boris) at the analogue-focused Holy Mountain Studios in London. These sessions were then mixed by Randall Dunn (Wolves in the Throne Room, Earth, Kayo Dot) at his Circular Ruin studio in NYC, resulting in a rich, physical, and enveloping sound of textural layered guitar, propulsive rhythms, caustic voices, and Dunn’s signature spirit-conjuring atmospheres.

Sacred Son have also shared first single, '‘Le Blakheth’ with Dane commenting:
"'Le Blakheth' is the third track from Sacred Son’s new album ‘The Foul Deth of Engelond’. It chronicles the bloodiest and most violent chapter of the 1381 Great Rising; when corrupt and sycophantic ruling figures were beaten and beheaded whilst their obscenely lavish buildings burned around them."

"The Foul Deth Of Engelond" is initially self released digitally and on CD on 13th May, with a vinyl pre-order to follow, as resources - and the fallout of Britain’s pathetically cantankerous estrangement from our European brothers and sisters - allow. More...

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Horizon Ignited Signs With Nuclear Blast

Finnish melodic death metal band Horizon Ignited have officially joined the biggest metal label in the world, Nuclear Blast Records. Over the past thirty frantic years, this passion-evoking heavy metal subgenre has undeniably evolved and changed, but some complaints have also been raised: where are all the magnificent new upstarts?
Well, as so many times before, kindly turn your face towards Finland - still the most metal country in the world - and meet melodic death metal's hottest newcomers... Horizon Ignited.

To celebrate the signing, the Finns have instantly released their single 'Towards The Dying Lands' which is accompanied by a music video, to launch this new phase of their career with a bang!

Horizon Ignited commented on the signing to Nuclear Blast:
"We are truly honoured beyond belief to join the Nuclear Blast family with our second album! We did set our goals high, but I don't think that any of us were expecting this.
It is truly a dream come true to have our music released by a legendary label that has housed many of our idols throughout the years.

"With Nuclear Blast we are able to take our first steps on this musical journey that allows us to bring our vision alive and to share our music with the world. This is the beginning so stay tuned!"

Nuclear Blast A&R Jaap Wagemaker adds:
"Nuclear Blast is stoked to announce the signing of the up and coming melodic death metal band Horizon Ignited from Finland. This band took us by surprise after we were introduced to them by their manager Maurizio Iacono from Kataklysm. Their sound although based in melodic death metal is also influenced by metalcore as well and has the potential to appeal to a very wide audience.
The band has already built up quite a following on Spotify with their self released album 'After The Storm'. Their new songs are even stronger which is proven by the 2 singles that we will release first. Later on this year the band will also make their debut on the European stages. This band is ready to take the world by storm!" More...

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Anvil Shares "Ghost Shadow" Music Video

Heavy Metal pioneers Anvil have announced the release of a brand new studio album, entitled "Impact Is Imminent," due out on May 20, 2022 via AFM Records. The Canadian trio belongs to one of the most distinctive bands of their genre, often cited as having influenced notable metal acts such as Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica or Anthrax. After 40 years in the music industry, touring the world in sold-out venues, and garnering critically acclaim for "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil" – the number #1 music documentary of every metalhead – the iconic band returns with their nineteenth album.

On "Impact Is Imminent," Anvil fires off merciless riff attacks, relentlessly driving drums and impressive bass grooves, complemented by vocal melodies and lyrics that inevitably drill themselves into the listener’s aural tract. As always, Kudlow and founding member and drummer Robb Reiner, are at the epicentre of this heavy metal extravaganza. For the past eight years, they have been supported by bassist Chris Robertson, who not only complements the Anvil fold on a personal level, but also enhances the tracks with his powerful low frequency bass parts and backing vocals.

Today, Anvil shared a first single alongside a music video for the full pedal-to-the-metal anthem "Ghost Shadow!" Says charismatic frontman Lips: "'Ghost Shadow' is my 6th sense telling me I'm being watched! Could be internet trolls or paranormal phenomenon! Either way the song is heavy as fuck!!

"None of our previous albums blends music and lyrics into as tight a unit as ‘Impact Is Imminent’," enthuses Lips on the fourteen songs on the group’s new album. "Everything comes together homogeneously. As a result, the new material sounds monolithic, right down to the very last details, both in terms of rhythm and harmonies. In the past, our studio sessions were sometimes like a little like jumping in at the deep end, with us having to improvise a lot and making decisions at short notice. Working on ‘Impact Is Imminent’, not only was there plenty of time for the songwriting process in the run-up to the recordings, but I also had the leisure to put all my ideas to the acid test and work on them until they were perfect." More...

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Conjurer Reveals New Album Details

The future of British metal lies in safe hands with Conjurer, who today have announced their long-awaited new album "Páthos," which will be released 1st July via Nuclear Blast.

Conjurer continue their journey as the country’s most exciting young metal band with the incredible new album. Celebrating the news, the Midlands quartet have also streamed the first single from Páthos, the mighty "It Dwells." You can check out the music video below.

A triumphant return from Conjurer following their world-renowned 2018 debut "Mire," "Páthos" is a band flexing their creative muscles, deepening their approach and thought, and expanding their sound.

Bassist Conor Marshall comments: "Excited to finally be able to share the album with everyone! I’m sure this is the same for every band trying to release an album during the pandemic but it feels like we’ve been holding on to it for so long, so it’s nice for it to not be my problem any more and to be able to actually talk about it!"

Opener "It Dwells" is the perfect introduction – earth-shatteringly heavy, unconventional, uniquely beautiful, and instantly recognisable as Conjurer. The track is centred on the contradictions of the emotion of fear – that fear can be comfortable and constant, haunting and crushing. It builds to a point of breaking – the need to end fear battling against your will to go on. The repeated screams "I’ll have peace" are an ambivalent declaration of defiance – give in, or fight, either way fear is gone.

Of the single, guitarist/vocalist Dan Nightingale states: "I think 'It Dwells' is a good introduction to the sound of the record, from the musical influences to the lyrics and how we’ve drawn from what’s been going on in our lives, it’s one of our most personal outings for sure. It’s nice to have been able to step up our game with the music videos for this album as well. Good album. Top track. Boss man." More...

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Interview

Schemata Theory Spreads "Unity In Time"

As soon as a band releases their first album, fans and critics alike can't wait to see, or more appropriately hear, what their next full length will be like. For a lot of groups, this comes pretty quickly, but the logistics and internal goings on can create more than a few issues when it comes to releasing an album. In 2012, British outfit Schemata Theory unleashed their debut, "Dry Lung Rhetoric," with an EP, "Words Not Seen, Read Or Seen" following two years later. However, only in the past few weeks has the Reading band been able to share their sophomore full length, "Unity In Time" and fans all seem to agree, it's been worth the wait!

With this new album, Schemata Theory display the massive changes that have gone on behind the scenes, channeled them all into some truly sublime music and expressed it in a fascinating way, with an album as rich and varied as any group could hope for. To find out more about "Unity In Time," Metal Underground caught up with guitarist Huw Roch and co-vocalist Luke Wright, who unveiled many of the inner workings when it comes to the album, as well as the themes, direction changes and much more. You can watch the interview in full below.

Diamond Oz: The new album, "Unity In Time" is now upon us. What was different about recording your second album compared to recording your debut?

Huw Roch: When we did the first album, the band was in a very different place. We had a slightly different lineup and we sort of had one guy, who's no longer with the band who wrote everything. It was very much a case of; come in, do what was written and then it wasn't until a year later that we did the vocals. That wasn't the intention, just sort of how it played out.

This time, it was much more collaborative in the sense that we went into the studio with room to improve the songs and collaborate with Justin Hill, who's a fantastic producer, as opposed to it being a bit more robust with what we were doing. The music itself lends itself to that too. The first album is much more technical than the newer album so the songs were sort of constructed in a way that we could craft them after they'd been written, as opposed to just, "This is the way they are." That's the only way we could have done it. The vocals were a bit more interesting.

Luke Wright: They were a bit. From my perspective... When I joined the band, it was during that year period between the music and the vocals being recorded and it was quite a challenge. The previous vocalist had stepped away and the guys were looking for someone to fill that space. Miles, who's currently the other vocalist, had recorded the drums for the album. I've known these guys since school so we had conversations and they asked if I was interested. I think they'd seen me at a late night karaoke, that classic audition technique that metal bands use! So I came into it and was told, "This is the entire album. We've written everything, we just need you to put vocals on top of it." I'd never written vocals before or recorded a full album in the studio before and essentially we had maybe a couple of months to write and record everything so that it would line up with the original release schedule that we'd planned at the time.

So, going from that to now, Huw mentioned working with Justin, I think that's a massive change since a different producer was used on the original album and Justin sits very much in that metal space, he'd recorded clean vocals of his own and it was a lot more collaborative. I was thinking about the album this afternoon, around the song "Mirrors," which is a seven minute track... The "Mirrors" that we walked into the studio with, is not the one that we walked out with! Obviously, we could go through the writing process more, but essentially, me, Huw and Miles would sit in his garage and go through vocals, workshop that together and then take those demos into the studio and trust Justin to put his flavour on it and give it his guidance, certainly around the vocals because that's an area that he really excels in. The two processes were night and day.

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Firewind Cancels European Tour

Greek power metal veterans Firewind has announced that due to a multitude of reasons, they have decided to cancel their scheduled tour across mainland Europe, having recently played the Iberian peninsula. A message from the band reads as follows:

"Hello everyone,

"The pandemic circumstances of the last 2,5 years and the war in the Ukraine make it impossible for us to tour Europe in May 2022. Apart the fact, that more and more countries are lifting restrictions and supposedly return to freedom, we are still dealing with a lot of different restrictions, terms and conditions in several countries and even counties.

"A safe and smooth travel is not a given and playing shows in Eastern Europe is currently impossible.
We are deeply sorry that we are forced to come to this decision, but the situation has been out of our hands. All bought tickets can be refunded from point of purchase."

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King Death Premiere Debut Single “Vicious Circle”

German slamming brutal death/deathcore band King Death premiere their debut single entitled “Vicious Circle”, streaming via YouTube for you below.

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Headline News

Alexisonfire Announce First New Album In 13 Years

Canada-based outfit Alexisonfire have announced a June 24th release date for their new album “Otherness” through Dine Alone Records. The track and music video “Sweet Dreams Of Otherness” has been launched as the first single from that outing, which is the band’s first studio full-length in 13 years.

Explains frontman George Pettit: More...

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Cancer Bats Premiere New Song & Music Video

Canadian hardcore outfit Cancer Bats premiere a Mitch Barnes directed music video for their new single “Lonely Bong”. The band's upcoming album “Psychic Jailbreak” will be out in stores on April 15th. Apparently Fever 333 guitarist Stephen “Stevis” Harrison (ex-The Chariot) has joined the group, filling the spot left vacant by guitarist Scott Middleton last fall.

Tells the band’s drummer Mike Peters: More...

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Motionless In White Premiere New Single & Video

Motionless In White will have their sixth studio full-length “Scoring The End Of The World” out on June 10th through Roadrunner Records. A first advance track and music video by the name of “Cyberhex” has premiered online and finds ex-Cradle Of Filth keyboardist/vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft guesting.

Several other musicians also guest on the outing, including Knocked Loose frontman Bryan Garris, Beartooth's Caleb Shomo.

“Scoring The End Of The World” track-list: More...

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Misery Index Premiere New Single

Baltimore-based death metal outfit Misery Index premiere the first advance track named “The Eaters And The Eaten“, from their seventh studio full-length “Complete Control“. A May 13th release date through Century Media has been slated for that album, which was mixed by Will Putney (Body Count, Every Time I Die).

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