Lacey Sturm has debuted a music video for her aggressively introspective new song ‘Reconcile’, a long-awaited follow-up to 2021’s ‘Awaken Love’. “My own humanity can be so divided. When I cling to my rights by pointing out the faults of others, I splinter myself. All of this division is rooted in my own pride,” Sturm shares. “Have I arrogantly supposed that I could somehow reconcile the world around me if I am not reconciled within myself?” Lacey’s personal process of looking inward to bring herself into congruence with her ultimate human purpose informs ‘Reconcile’. The track is an unflinching mirror held up to the uncomfortable ways in which she acknowledges her own contribution to the world’s brokenness through arrogant pride: personal pride, relational pride, religious pride. The accompanying music is equally visceral, with Josh Sturm’s careening guitar riffs and Lacey’s gut-punch vocals. The video is a visual representation of the singer’s inner fight for personal reconciliation. As always, the darker reflections are tempered by the hope that comes when she can integrate her ego’s death with the life that comes from resurrecting grace. Lacey says: “As soon as I cultivate peace within myself, the world around me starts falling into peace too— my kids, my family, my friends, the person at the checkout in the grocery store.” [via Blabbermouth]

Earlier this year, Svalbard released their single ‘Eternal Spirits,’ their first new track since the excellent 2020 album When I Die, Will I Get Better? Now, Svalbard have announced the impending release of their new LP The Weight Of The Mask. Svalbard recorded the new album with longtime collaborator Lewis Johns, and it’s all about turning depression into aggression. Svalbard have dropped the video for opening track ‘Faking It,’ which sounds tremendous. Here’s what bandleader Serena Cherry says about the track: “’Faking It’ is a song about feeling deprived of meaningful human connection due to depression acting like a wall that shuts you off from others. It addresses the ways in which those who suffer with depression can feel guilted into putting on a happy mask. The lyrics are a reflection on happiness as a social obligation and how scarily good you can become at deceiving everyone around you into thinking that you’re fine when you’re not. With ‘Faking It,’ we are both acknowledging the pressure for forced positivity, the fear that people won’t like you if you’re sad, and also questioning where the root of this intolerance towards depression lies.” [via Stereogum]

Hippie Death Cult is back with a crunchy new single ‘Arise’ and a new record Helichrysum due out on October 20. If you’re in the mood for slow-burning riffs and smoke vocals, then you’re gonna love this. “Lyrically, ‘Arise’ serves as a poignant reminder of the prevalence of grifters and self-proclaimed spiritual leaders who exploit vulnerable individuals searching for guidance, often leaving them even more disillusioned and adrift than before,” said bassist and vocalist Laura Philips. “The song narrates a tale of a devoted follower who finally sees through the charismatic manipulation and shatters the illusion. Another reminder to question everything and trust your own inner compass when navigating the path of truth.” [via Metal Injection]

Sweden’s female-fronted symphonic/industrial metal pioneers Rave The Reqviem are back with their new single ‘Doombreaker’, a catchier-than-catchy metal banger made to shake your core.With its perfect harmony between heavy shouts and beautiful female vocals, this track proves that Rave The Reqviem is back with vengeance, ready to claim their God-given right to the throne of symphonic/industrial metal. The song was written and produced by Filip Lönnqvist and the clip was directed by Petter Perseius and Daniel Yor Lindgren. [via Chaos Zine]

THE HELLFREAKS have released a new music video. The new music video, for the track ‘Rootless Soul Riot’, is taken from the Hungarian punk band’s latest studio album, Pitch Black Sunset, which was released back in April. Speaking about the song and its accompanying music video, the band says, “’Rootless Soul Riot’ is the ‘last and first’ music video to celebrate the release of our new album Pitch Black Sunset. This song was the very first video the band recorded for this album, and it’s the final one to be released from the tracklist… for now. Even back in high school, we always felt a deep camaraderie for the misfits, the freaks, and geeks – anyone that was not considered cool. That was our gang. That was our people. We gravitated towards them because these individuals were the ones who stood out, unlike the ‘cool kids’ who were too afraid to embrace uniqueness. In our eyes, the real souls with genuine hearts were the weirdos like us. That’s why our band, THE HELLFREAKS carry the name with purpose and see it as a badge of honor. Hand on heart, we all found solace in the community of metal, punk, or hardcore music because we rejected conformity and committed ourselves to living life on our own terms and being different personally and musically. We may not conform to any societal norms and definitely do not fit into one musical genre, but we have made it a point to be different because this is what we are.” [via Distorted Sound Mag]

Swedish symphonic dark metal powerhouse Eleine definitely have the world at their feet: Not only have they just been confirmed as support act for industrial metal icons Pain’s upcoming European tour, the group have also finally unleashed their long-awaited new opus We Shall Remain via Atomic Fire Records. In addition, Eleine has prepared another music video — this time for the album’s title track. Band founding members, lead singer Madeleine Liljestam and Rikard Ekberg (guitars, vocals), comment, “This song combines all important elements that Eleine are known for: Chuggy riffs, groovy rhythms as well as a smashing chorus while its empowering lyrics breathe the spirit our legions keep following us for.” [via Metal Underground]

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U.K. mathcore trio Pupil Slicer are gearing up to release their sophomore album, Blossom, which is already sounding like a major level-up from their also-great 2021 debut, Mirrors. Last month, they dropped the record’s grunge-y, head-spinning title track, and now they’ve unveiled another, much heavier single called ‘No Temple.’ The track begins with a touch of drum ‘n’ bass before the band comes roaring in with their own jagged rhythms, blistering guitar work, and the spine-cracking power of singer-guitarist Kate Davies’ vocals. Pupil Slicer cap this new single off with a new video that tells a quick and bloody sci-fi horror tale that takes unfolds while the band is roaring away onstage. “Blossom is a story that encapsulates a wide gamut of intense emotions and a rollercoaster of events over the 47-minute runtime,” Davies said about the new album. “Likewise, the musical elements are also equally diverse whilst maintaining a cohesion to what’s going on at that point in the album. The feedback we received for our first single has been overwhelmingly positive but let’s face it — not what a lot of people were expecting from a band named ‘Pupil Slicer’. Here is a sample from the opposite end of the musical range that Blossom encapsulates. ‘No Temple’ is the heaviest song we’ve ever written.” [via Revolver]

The Hellfreaks have released a new music video. The new music video, for the track ‘PBSS,’ is taken from the Hungarian punk band’s upcoming new album, Pitch Black Sunset, which is out now. Speaking about the song and its accompanying music video, the band says, “today we also reveal the video for the abbreviated title track: ‘PBSS,’ which covers the most meaningful opposites: LIFE AND DEATH. The song is about thanatophobia, the fear of the death of a loved one and the common sense of impending doom. It is a longing for escape from the hardships of life, a plea to the heavens above for inner strength, but at the same a battle cry not to let this fear reign supreme. ‘PBSS’ is about the natural circle of life and mortality, something no one can avoid and all of us have to go through it in the end.” [via Distorted Sound]

Vintersea premiere their new single and music video titled ‘Unveiling Light’, taken from the group’s upcoming new studio full-length Woven Into Ashes, due out on May 5 through M-Theory Audio. The clip was once again directed by the band’s bassist Karl Whinnery. Explains guitarist Riley Nix: “When we set out to write this album, we challenged ourselves to make the brutal music heavier, and the beautiful music more breathtaking. What I didn’t know is that we would be doing both on the same song! ‘Unveiling Light‘ highlights the extremes of what we do, and I think it is going to stick with people in a very primal way.” Adds Whinnery: “‘Unveiling Light‘ kicks our new album off in proper fashion so we knew we wanted the video to match that vibe – chaotic, dissonant, and full of intense energy – but with splashes of beauty and depth. As far as our songs go, the song is pretty stripped down, so we wanted to match that with the video and keep it focused on performance. We took full advantage of the gnarly warehouse we filmed in, and had a blast with the Texas Chainsaw sliding door and Hellraiser chains!” [via Metal Underground]

The Buffalo hardcore band Spaced hasn’t been around for long, but they’ve come out of the gate with a vengeance. The band’s sound is straight-up hardcore, done with bounce and verve and swagger, with enough little stretches to set them apart — catchy melodic bits, smeary reverb, blazing guitar solos. Frontwoman Lexi Reyngoudt is a charismatic force of nature. Spaced formed during the pandemic and dropped their demo in 2021. They followed that release with a steady stream of short releases, and they collected all their songs on the LP Spaced Jams last year. They’ve just banged out two supremely catchy new songs, ‘Boomerang’ and ‘Cycle Killer.’ Watch the video for the former below. [via Stereogum]

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Halifax, Canada’s Kilmore are gearing up for the release of their new EP From The Inside at the end of March. It’s six tracks of groovy, stoner rock with metal elements. Its lyrics were written at a time when there was a real change around the world and an internal bittersweet struggle. Along with that, vocalist/guitarist Heather Harris became a new mother and was trying to find her place in a new reality really speaks loudly in the emotions on the record. Some themes are of destruction while others of hope, each song has its own theme/feel. The quartet unveils their next single ‘Firestone’ accompanied by a music video. The song is about feeling broken and alone and looking for the light through the darkness. This was an old song the band rehashed when drummer Jon MacIsaac joined the lineup. The song locked in the right direction lyrically with the new groove and the band felt they have created a fierce and intense track. The video was filmed after a snowstorm and showcases a magnificent Canadian winter.

The SoCal hardcore band Initiate have shared a new track plus details on a new album. Cerebral Circus — Initiate’s first record since the Lavender EP in 2020 and their first full-length since 2018’s Before Long… — will be out in a month on Triple B. New single ‘The Surface’ toggles between intense verses spearheaded by Crystal Pak’s harsh demonic rasp and a chorus so harmonically rich it basically qualifies as pop-punk. Watch the song’s music video below. [via Stereogum]

Metal quartet, The Dark Side Of The Moon, have released their first original song, the harmonic ‘The Gates Of Time’. The fourth single from debut album, Metamorphosis, highlights Melissa Bonny’s distinctive voice, combined with the beautiful harp playing by Jenny Diehl. The Dark Side Of The Moon on ‘The Gates Of Time’: “We are beyond proud to present to you the very first song we’ve ever written together as a band! We started this journey with covers of famous songs from movies, series, and video games but soon we realized that writing our own stories and melodies was a must. Four creative minds with so many ideas to share – ‘The Gates Of Time’ is just the beginning!” [via Brave Words]

Finnish pagan metaller Vermilia releases a new music video for ‘Marras’, which is taken from her latest album Ruska, originally released on September 9. In Finnish, the season of autumn colours and fall foliage is called ruska where the name of the album comes. The video was mainly filmed in Kemiönsaari, except the aerial videos were filmed in Häme. As before, the video is directed by Vermilia herself. [via Kronos Mortus]

Hungary’s The Hellfreaks are ready to serve another dose of their skillfully-combined modern metal blend, featuring heavy post-hardcore and skate punk influences galore. Topped with a mix of delicate clean vocals and aggressive screams, they are primed to drop jaws around the world. The Hellfreaks are off to a flying start with their upcoming fifth album, Pitch Black Sunset, out April 14 via Napalm Records. Showing off the band’s versatility and unquestionable talent, their third single, ‘Weeping Willow’, leans towards modern electronic metal. With a drastic change towards the end – the dark and eerily atmospheric track surprises the listener with extraordinary vocalist Zsuzsa “Shakey Sue“ Radnóti’s impressive core-breaking shouts. ‘Weeping Willow’ comes along with a smashing, highly-energetic official video, proving once more that The Hellfreaks don’t compromise on any rules and defy norms. Waving the flag of a new generation of metal and punk, The Hellfreaks are experts in the fusion of punk sub-genres and chart-storming modern metal. The Hellfreaks state on ‘Weeping Willow’: “Do you ever feel like you’re in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by waves, and even though you know how to swim, you still can’t find the shore? Do you know how it feels being haunted by your own mind or when your memories feel more alive than yourself? ‘Weeping Willow’ is a raw and brutally honest portrayal of the battle with our inner demons. This song reveals the darkest and vulnerable side of the album that we wanted to reveal it with the most cinematic video we’ve ever shot by using symbolism and imagery, that truly captures the essence of the song. We wanted our fans to know that they are not alone in their struggles. Mental health is a battle that many people face, including us and ‘Weeping Willow’ is a reminder that for some of us it is normal to feel overwhelmed and to ask for help. We believe it is an important release that deserves to be heard, and we are proud to share it with our familys, fans and supporters. Stay strong, and remember, you are not alone!” [via Brave Words]

London’s Pupil Slicer will follow their great 2021 debut LP Mirrors with their sophomore album Blossom on June 2 via Prosthetic. It was produced by Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Svalbard, Employed To Serve), and singer/guitarist Kate Davis says it’s a “hard sci-fi/cosmic horror concept album” that covers a lot more musical ground than the mathcore-inspired Mirrors. They say: “‘Blossom’ is the culmination of 2 years spent with razor focus on crafting a journey like no other. We are incredibly proud of the feats we have achieved on our sophomore album, building upon the experience and feedback from our debut to further break down the walls between metal, hardcore, shoegaze, electronic music and pop. We have delivered the most concentrated Pupil Slicer experience yet. A hard sci-fi/cosmic horror concept album, the story told across ‘Blossom’ draws on some of my favourite media to craft these 10 tracks where instrumental, lyrical and visual elements have been cohesively refined to serve the world I have created.” The first single is the title track, which closes the record, and you can very much hear the band going in a new direction on this one. It’s got a much greater use of clean vocals than we’ve heard from Pupil Slicer in the past, and it goes in a handful of new directions for the band. Sometimes it hearkens back to the era of 2000s flamboyant post-hardcore, but Pupil Slicer do it in a way that feels futuristic. Kate calls the song “the final point beyond time and space, a nexus of everything that could have been and a vantage point into everything that came before.” Check out the track and its David Gregory-directed video below. [via Brooklyn Vegan]

Rock duo Janet Gardner and Justin James have announced that their brand new album, No Strings, will be released via Frontiers Music Srl on June 9. A first single from the record, ‘Don’t Turn Me Away’, is available now. Their most exciting and memorable release to date, No Strings is the follow-up to Synergy. “Mine and Justin’s work flow has become so effortless that the creative process never gets bogged down in the technical aspects until it comes time to mix and master,” states Gardner. [via Metal Planet]

Following their newly developed sound for their next album, coming in September 2023, Calva Louise release their next single ‘Feast Is Over’. The song deals with the circumstances that keep pushing us back to square one. Inspired by Sci-Fi movies and comics, Calva Louise’s songs are linked to a story about the duality of the human being. ‘Feast Is Over’ sets the mood of a dysopian world at the outset – the track launches with industrial , Metropolis-esque sounds that are heavy and hit hard. This is off set with melodic harmonies which are interspersed with furious, raging vocals. “It reflects our rebellion against feeling convinced that the best thing to do is to start over again, and instead we choose to keep on going forward, fighting and assuming the consequences of our own decisions, it feels like accepting a new challenge so we can get out of a loop once and for all,” say the band. The video for this latest single is a direct sequel to their last – ‘Third Class Citizen’. [via Loud Women]

RedHook have released a new single featuring fellow Aussie scene favourites Yours Truly. The two bands join forces for ‘Imposter’, which is taken from RedHook’s upcoming debut album Postcard From A Living Hell (due out on April 21). Says Emmy Mack of the song: “There’s no head-fuck quite like discovering that the person you love most, and who you think you know better than anyone else, has been lying to you and manipulating you the entire time. At first, it feels like death, you grieve for the person you loved as if they’ve died, and yet somehow they still exist. It’s almost as if some kind of evil, alien life force has taken up residence inside their body and is walking around wearing their skin. Eventually, it causes you to question your own sanity; you question whether that person who meant so much to you ever really existed at all.” [via Kerrang!]

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Melbourne Crustmetal/Deathpunk band Küntsquäd are excited to announce they have inked a record deal with European label Wormholedeath for their upcoming debut album release. The self-titled album will be released worldwide on February 24. With the announcement comes the release of the first single ‘Gods Of War’.

Visions Of Atlantis returned strongly with their studio release, Pirates, in 2022, followed by extensive touring through Europe and the US. There’s no time to rest for the Pirates, so they start 2023 with the release of a brand new high-quality official music video. Capturing their dedicated fans in the video, the rousing single ‘Clocks’ will make every symphonic metal enthusiast’s heart pound faster. Fixing itself in the minds of the crowd forever, catchy harmonies are underlined by bouncy metal beats. The single comes just in time for the band’s announcement of their Pirates Over Europe tour, featuring support from Autumn Bride, and kicking off in Germany on April 4. The tour will follow their Pirates Over North America tour, featuring support from The Spider Accomplice and beginning on February 7 in Los Angeles, CA. Clémentine Delauney: ”We are so excited to be able to release a video for ‘Clocks’ as we love this song and we noticed that it quickly became one of our fans’ favorites as well! We could tell from the crowd’s response every time we started to play this song live last year! So here is a fun portrait of what enjoying life as a pirate can be about, remembering the clock is ticking… Let’s all make a golden play out of 2023!” [via Brave Words]

In 2022, Delain strode boldly forwards, announcing a revitalized lineup and plans for a new studio album, entitled Dark Waters, to be released February 10 via Napalm Records. The album is a sonic rollercoaster ride of catchy tunes with explosive elements, ranging from pop to film score-inspired to blistering, room-shakin’ metal, and even includes a special guest or two. Unveiled this week, the new, emotionally-driven single ‘Moth To A Flame” also showcases Delain’s versatility, offering up a pop-induced hymn, and proving that the globally respected band are at the top of their game. The official video for ‘Moth To A Flame’ draws listeners even deeper into the Delain universe. [via Brave Words]

Waving the flag of a new generation of metal, alternative and punk, The Hellfreaks are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of their fierce new album, Pitch Black Sunset, set for release April 14 via Napalm Records. The curtain has finally fallen again as the budding band unveils their addictive first heavy rock-infused single, ‘Hit Me Where It Hurts’. Jumping right into the pit, the quartet blends metallic punches with a sound echoing the likes of genre visionaries Muse, accented by electrified guitar leads and raspy punk vocal attacks by singer Shakey Sue. Representing the relentless atmosphere of the song, the Hungarian musicians strap on their boots to celebrate a never-ending night in their official music video. The Hellfreaks state on ‘Hit Me Where It Hurts’: “’Hit Me Where It Hurts’ is about hope and despair. Hope is able to move mountains. But what if the desired dream stays a dream? Then hope turns to prison. Intoxicated by a desire that never comes true, we reach the dead end, where the brain clearly sees the way out, but our heart won’t let us make the necessary steps. All that’s left is suffering. This song is an invocation for the metaphorical punch to eliminate the last piece of false hope, the real culprit in such a situation.” [via Brave Words]

Symphonic metal band, Beyond The Black, have released their fifth studio album, which is self-titled, via Nuclear Blast Records. The band also deliver a music video for the track, ‘Free Me’. Jennifer Haben comments: “This album is the epitome of Beyond The Black and it’s arrived finally where it belongs: with our fans! We couldn’t be happier, and today we’re celebrating this release with the powerful, reassuring message of our new single, ‘Free Me’: Never think you need to go out alone and solemnly carry the weight of the world. We’re in this together and we are many!“ [via Brave Words]

It’s gonna be really tough for any metal song this year to be more exhilarating than ‘Pardon Me, I Have to Go Now.’ Hanabie‘s latest stunner is a distinctly modern update on the garishly fun electronic-core that took off in the late 2000s; neon party synths, breakdowns with the jingly catchiness of a radio hip-hop beat, and wheel-screeching turns between throat-searing screams and buttery cleans. Hanbie add flecks of traditional Japanese instrumentation and notes of hyperpop onto that pile, and the result is a blindingly fun anti-work anthem that’ll make you want to slam your computer shut and gleefully stomp it to pieces. [via Revolver]

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