Brazilski thrasherji Farscape so obelodanili naslovni komad albuma Purged and Forgotten, ki bo izšel 22. septembra pri Dying Victims Productions. Njihov četrti album po vrsti obsega naslednje naslove:

Purged and Forgotten
Leucotomy
The Last Solstice
Backing from the Hole
Miss Violence
Captivity of Souls
Vengeance of the Forgotten

Ameriški stonerji Nebula napovedujejo plošček Livewired in Europe. Ta zajema devet pesmi na vinilu in tri dodatne bonus komade na CD-ju, ki so bili posneti na Švedskem in Nizozemskem v okviru bandove letošnje turneje Transmission From Mothership Earth European Tour 2023. Tracklista:

na vinilu:
stran A
Man's Best Friend
Down The Highway
Out Of Your Head
Highwired

stran B
Giant/Clearlight
Full Throttle
Aphrodite
Messiah
Let It Burn

na CD-ju:
Man's Best Friend
Down The Highway
Out Of Your Head
Highwired
Giant/Clearlight
Full Throttle
Aphrodite
Messiah
Let It Burn
Transmission From Mothership Earth (bonus)
Let's Get Lost (bonus)
Warzone Speedwulf (bonus)

Danski progresivni metalci Advocacy so podpisali z založbo Uprising! Records, pri kateri bodo izdali svoj prvenec. Sledi izjava banda:

»We are very excited to become a part of UPRISING! Records and are very thankful that they see the appeal of an ambitious and challenging genre of music we love to play and listen to", the band comments. "It is our mission to try and show that complex, melodic music has a loyal and engaging audience out there and we want to win their favor!«

Nemški progresivni death metalci Alkaloid sporočajo, da so se razšli s kitaristom Dannyjem Tunkerjem. Spodaj lahko preberete celotno izjavo banda:

»We are sad to announce that Danny Tunker left Alkaloid almost 2 years ago. After going through some profound personal tragedies which had little to do with the band, he decided to adjust course and step away to focus on other endeavours. There was no drama and we all support his decision.

After some time for reflection, we decided to make this new album with the four of us. There was plenty of material as always, and we are delighted to have one of Danny's songs on the album at least. It's one of our more insane tracks, and we look forward to sharing it with you all soon!

Danny will be sorely missed. We remain good friends, wish him the best of luck in his new incarnation, and of course hope to work together again in the future in whatever form.«

Ekstremneži Pestilence sporočajo, da jih je zapustil basist Joost van der Graaf. Zasedba trenutno še išče njegovo zamenjavo, spodaj pa si lahko preberete celotno izjavo banda in Joosta.

»First off: family comes first, always!! Too bad this day had to come, because we were a very solid team and we will surely miss our good friend Joost van der Graaf. We respect his decision to spend more time with his family. Awesome he is offering to fill in from time to time, if needed.

Finski psihedelični dommerji Orbiter imajo nov video, in sicer za single Beneath, ki je del prihajajočega albuma Hollow World. Na ploščku bo osem pesmi:

Silence Breaks
Beneath
Kolibri
Hollow World
Raven Bones
Transmissions
Under Your Spell
Last Call

Po tem, ko so pred kratkim turnejo odpovedali White Ward, je ista usoda doletela blackened death metalce 1914 iz Ukrajine. Upamo, da se stvari umirijo in nas bo zasedba lahko obiskala letos poleti na festivalu Črna Loka. Sledi bandova izjava za medije:

»Many of you could have been noticing a recent wave of European tours cancellations by UA bands. Unfortunately, 1914 is not an exception here. With heavy hearts we must inform you that we cannot play for our fans this April and have to cancel our upcoming tour.

Just to make it clear, it is still a 'wartime' on the territory of our land, and this specific time makes it impossible to leave the borders by the men of a conscript age. How could we travel last year? It was possible to get a special permission from the state authorities for the artists to leave the country and do shows and other activities in order to aid the country and spead the truth about unprovoked and brutal war started by russia. There were some irresponsible people who used such permissions to leave the country and never come back, and after it became public and went through a media - the state authorities stopped granting the special permissions for the artists by artificially overcomplicating the process of getting all the necessary documents, by enlarging the list of the documents and making it impossible for bands to obtain what is needed. This affected a lot of different bands in UA.

Last couple of weeks for us were in a constant fight with that new stupid system trying to show that we had a positive experience of returning back home after foreign tours, trying to display the value of such tours for our country benefit, but no matter how hard we tried - we couldn't break that system and it made impossible for us to go and play this time. We want to apologize to our fans, other bands, promoters, but currently we are powerless here. We will work hard to be able to get to our other shows this year, maybe the ice will melt and we will see some easement in the future, but currently we just did everything we could.

Міністерство культури та інформаційної політики України - Thank you for nothing!«

Blaze Bayley, nekdanji vokalist zasedbe Iron Maiden, je prejšnjo soboto doživel srčni infarkt in bil zaradi tega hospitaliziran. Njegovo stanje je že stabilno, žal pa je zaradi tega moral odpovedati turnejo. Več lahko preberete v uradni izjavi:

»We sincerely regret to announce that Blaze had a heart attack at home yesterday evening & is now in hospital in a stable condition, awaiting news of further surgery/treatment. He is in good spirits in the circumstances but utterly disappointed to have to postpone our imminent shows due in March & April. Ticket refunds will be available at source but we truly hope you will keep your tickets & make it to the new dates which we will be announcing as soon as they are scheduled.

Regarding shows already booked for June-November this year, we understandably have to wait a short while to see how quick Blaze’s recovery will be, so please stay tuned & meanwhile most importantly we're sure you will join us in wishing him a complete & speedy recovery.

Blaze misses you, cannot wait to regain full health & see you all again.

Every Storm Ends… ‘your heart will heal’

Thank you so much everyone for your understanding & support.

Mark Appleton & Christopher Appleton (management / bookings)«

Ukrajinska post/black metal zasedba White Ward je bila zaradi situacije v Ukrajini žal primorana odpovedati vse načrtovane nastope in turneje. Spodaj lahko preberete izjavo banda:

»Dear friends,

With a heavy heart, we need to inform you that our April tour is canceled. Last 2 weeks we fought for the fate of the tour. We tried all the possible ways, but the system proved to be stronger.

So, let's make it clear about what happened and about the reasons for the cancellation.

Right now “wartime” restrictions are applied in Ukraine, and they include limitations for men in ages 18-60 to cross the border, because it is a range when men are available for military service. So, there is a need to get special permission from state authorities to travel out of Ukraine. During the year 2022 the Ministry Of Culture helped Ukrainian musicians and different artists and assisted in acquiring such permits (for a limited time) and that is why we, and many other bands, were able to play in Europe last year.

But a working algorithm that allows to control the “way back” was not created and responsibilities related to the violations of the permission terms - were nowhere written. And that is why some impudent people just used this opportunity to run out of Ukraine and decided not to come back. Very few cases are known, but after the last one, which raised a lot of noise and dissatisfaction in the media, the Ministry Of Culture decided to implement immediate changes and new rules, even for artists who have already sent a request for permit weeks before an accident - we have sent such request on February, 20th. That is the reason why many Ukrainian bands like Schizogen, Bezlad, The Hypnotunez, Kazka, and many more have already canceled or almost canceled their tours. Some bands were affected when they were already at the border and shows should take place the next day, but due to new rules, they were not allowed to leave Ukraine!

The new rules suppose some additional documents to a request. In our case, every member of the band has his own difficulties in acquiring that, even with an immediate start - there is no guarantee that the process will be successful and accomplished in time. Also, that is anyway not a guarantee that the request will be approved - our colleagues` request was refused even with all the requested documents. So, we just can't get this permission and it is over.

We have tried everything, and the media noise was our last hope. But it hasn’t worked, unfortunately. Months of work, preparations, money - all this is now in vain.
We sincerely apologize to our fans, promoters, and everyone who helped us with this tour. We hope that one day we will make this tour real, and you will wait for us. We will still try to figure something out before Hellfest and August festivals, but no new tour announcements till the end of the war will be made.

But, the one and only responsible for this is russia. They broke everything by invading our country, killing our children, bombing our cities, destroying our culture, and applying all fascist methods to destroy us and we will never forget what they DID and are still DOING!«

Škotski simfonični power metalci Gloryhammer napovedujejo izid četrtega dolgometražca Return to the Kingdom of Fife. Album bo izšel 2. junija in bo zajemal naslednje skladbe:

Incoming Transmission
Holy Flaming Hammer of Unholy Cosmic Frost
Imperium Dundaxia
Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol
Brothers of Crail
Fife Eternal
Sword Lord of the Goblin Horde
Vorpal Laserblaster of Pittenweem
Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernethy
Maleficus Geminus (Colossus Matrix 38B - Ultimate Invocation of the Binary Thaumaturge)

Ameriški deathcorovci Abaddonia iz Missourija so izdali EP z naslovom Dawn of the Serpent. Za naslovni komad je band posnel videospot, ki vas čaka spodaj.

Italijanski black metal avantgardnež Derhead s komadom The Death of Now napoveduje EP z naslovom The Grey Zone Phobia. Tracklista:

The Missing Stars
This Chaos is for You Only
The Death of Now
Kingdomless
Drops of Storm
Containing the Whole

Italijanski thrasherji Adversor in Martin Missy (Protector) so skupaj izdali besedilni video za Purifying Hate, drugi single s prihajajočega tretjega albuma Portrait Of A Wasteland. Seznam pesmi:

Purifying Hate
Outcast
Throwback To Darkness
Les Miserables
Entangled
Seven Years
Under Siege
Greed
Samsara
Portrait Of A Wasteland

Italijanski doom metal veterani Abysmal Grief so podpisali s kultno založbo Avantgarde Music, pri kateri bodo konec marca izdali kompilacijo Despise The Living, Desecrate The Dead. Ta obsega neizdan material, ki je nastal med letoma 2016 in 2021:

White Coffins (2021)
Mortician (2020)
A Forest Mass (2019)
Missa Est (2018)
March Macabre (2018)
The Curse Of The Toad (2018)
Estremo Dolore (2017)
Arcanum Magisterium (2017)
Ancient Obituaries (2016)

Švedi In Flames so petkovo izdajo najnovejšega albuma Foregone pospremili z vzporedno izdajo besedilnega videospota za komad End The Transmission.