New Singles On Nuclear Blast
Check out these new single releases on Nuclear Blast…
Progressive heavy metal vehicle, INTERLOPER has returned to present their debut, full-length album Search Party which will be released on June 11 via Nuclear Blast Records. The band releases the music video for the second single, Search Party.
The deep cohesiveness of INTERLOPER’s writing process for Search Party allowed for a creative project with no real boundaries or restrictions. The album was produced by the band and Joey Virrueta. Drums were recorded at Big Bad Sound LA by Jack Ruley and Zach Fisher, with the mixing and mastering completed once more by Andrew’s brother Joey Virrueta. The album artwork was created by Caelan Stokkermans.
WHITE VOID’s debut album Anti, is out now and the eclectic Norwegian hard rock band have another audio visual treat for their fast-growing fanbase in the form of a stylish new music video for the hauntingly beautiful second track on the record, There Is No Freedom But The End!
Front man Lars Nedland comments:
“Sometimes all we need to feel alive is a drive on a lonely road towards Neon Hell. ‘There Is No Freedom But The End’ is all about contrasts. Light and darkness. Life and death. Rural endlessness and urban loneliness. Monochrome despair and neon panic. It’s also a song for driving: Music to accompany the freedom movement sometimes makes us feel. The video was created to capture all this. It’s Drive on LSD and Lost Highway exploding into Neon Urbanity. You want some colour in your life? Here you go!”
The wait is finally over! Dutch Symphonic metal band EPICA have released their new album Ωmega! To celebrate the release , EPICA present a brand-new video for the song Skeleton Key:
Welcome to the Skeleton Key multi-layered dreamworld. Don’t forget to bring your Skeleton Key to unlock all the secrets within yourself! I hope this song will haunt you until we can see each other again” says vocalist Simone Simons.
Swiss/Dutch heavy metal coven BURNING WITCHES are proud to unleash an epic new single, Flight Of The Valkyries, taken from their upcoming fourth full length album, The Witch Of The North, which will be released on May 28th, 2021, through Nuclear Blast.
Pure witchery: barely twelve full moons after the release of their third opus, Dance With The Devil, Burning Witches return steeled and superior with The Witch Of The North, their most fiery and thunderous work to date. An album equipped to become a modern metal classic, a work of reference for honest, true steel. It’s obvious: anyone who manages to deliver such a Witch Hammer after just one year has to have the magic touch. Black magic that is!
While concerts and cheering crowds seem to be a long-lost echo from the past these days, melancholic progressive metallers AMORPHIS bring back some of the life and incomparable energy that many of us have been missing so desperately. Recorded during a special hometown show that took place on December 7th, 2019, little did the Finns know that this would be one of their last concerts before the pandemic outbreak in early 2020. With 15 tracks in total and a running time of over one and a half hours, AMORPHIS take you on a journey through their past, showcasing their best songs from the last 30 years that saw the band turn into one of Finland’s finest metal exports.
“Helsinki Ice Hall, what can I say… the very same venue where we used to see bands like Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Metallica and many many more back in the 80’s when we were kids”, Tomi Koivusaari contemplates when thinking of the show. “I’m sure we all dreamed about playing there someday. In our hometown Helsinki, where it all started with AMORPHIS 30 years ago. So I’d say we had a special feeling at that gig, the last one of the tour in Finland for that year. I guess this recording is a very honest picture of us playing live, nothing is fixed afterwards, except mightily mixed and mastered of course. When I listened to it a while ago, I realized how much I miss playing live. And yet we have no idea when it will be possible next, in this crazy situation with Covid and all… So, stay healthy, take care and shine on you all, see you hopefully soon on tour. We will.”
And in the end we all dance, laughing, into our doom: with a stirring coup de grâce of artful short film and extended song, the Swiss band CELLAR DARLING herald a new, furiously audio visual era of their work.
Already a few weeks ago, CELLAR DARLING released their new piece DANCE about the mysterious dancing plague of 1518, an eleven-minute mammoth project that resembles a Celtic prog symphony more than a conventional rock song. Equally courageous and visionary, the trio of Anna Murphy, Merlin Sutter and Ivo Henzi is now breaking new ground visually, as well: the corresponding video could not be further from a typical clip. Instead, CELLAR DARLING take us into a nightmarish forest scenery, somewhere between TOOL and Shakespeare, between dark fairy tale and contaminated apocalypse. But in this case, we ourselves are the virus.
Victor Smolski’s ALMANAC present a previously unreleased version of Kingdom Of The Blind, which originally was part of 2017’s Kingslayer album featuring vocalist Frank Beck (GAMMA RAY) as well as new arrangements.
Victor Smolski comments:
“On our European Tour 2020, Frank Beck became the main singer of ALMANAC. ‘Kingdom Of The Blind’ was his favourite song from ALMANAC. So, we decided to do a new version of this song with great support from Belarus Symphony Orchestra, which brings the song to a new level.”
Canadian melodic death metal heavyweights KATAKLYSM unleashed their 14th full-length studio album, UNCONQUERED, on September 25, 2020, via Nuclear Blast Records. Today. marks the 6 month anniversary of the release which garnered the band a Juno nomination. With the world still in a state of chaos 6 months later, the message they would like to convey to fans is to Become Defiant via the music video directed by Scott Hansen / Digital Thunderdome.
Maurizio Lacono comments, “March 25th, marks six months since the release of what we call our quarantine album, UNCONQUERED. There were many songs to pick from but after consulting with our label we both came to the conclusion and agreed that ‘Defiant’ was the song to pick for this video. The reason is that it’s what we need to be at the moment as we face a chaotic and unstable world. It’s an intense song that screams out strength in the face of the unknown. ‘Defiant’ was filmed by acclaimed director Scott Hansen in the Atlanta area and the storyline deals with a soldier dealing with PTSD after experiencing the horror of war. Unfortunately, due to Canada’s strict COVID-19 travel rules, bassist Stephane Barbe couldn’t make it to the video shoot so we decided to still shoot some parts with myself and J-F so we could still have some sort of band presence in it. The song is dedicated to the ones who sacrificed everything in order for us to have the freedoms today that so many take for granted “
Recently, Swiss rockers JACK SLAMER released their new album Keep Your Love Loud, that quickly reached #8 of the charts in their home country. But instead of taking a break after the successful release, the band already prepared a new treat for their fans:
JACK SLAMER has announced the live EP Live At Hardstudios, that will be released on April 23rd via Nuclear Blast. The EP is like a live best-of from the album Keep Your Love Loud, containing four powerful songs.
The debut album of SILVER LAKE by ESA HOLOPAINEN is available on May 28th via Nuclear Blast Tonträger Produktions- und Vertriebs GmbH and comes not only with the legendary guitar riffs of Esa Holopainen from AMORPHIS, one of Finland’s biggest guitarists and metal songwriters, but also seven famous rock and metal vocalists such as Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Einar Solberg (Leprous), Björn “Speed” Strid (Soilwork), Anneke Van Giersbergen and many more, that dive you into a world of catchy, progressive metal masterpieces that breathe the beauty and melancholy of Finland.
SILVER LAKE by ESA HOLOPAINEN have released their first single and video clip for the emotional song Storm feat. Håkan Hemlin. Esa Holopainen comments: “Storm” is out now and it is the first release from the Silver Lake by Esa Holopainen album, hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. Check out the amazing video directed by Owe Lingvall. It was filmed in the Canary Islands where Håkan and Owe spent a lot of time finding perfect locations. ”Storm” itself is a catchy and emotional song where Håkan did an incredible work. I am really honoured that I got him on board and this song is a good proof that he is still one of the top vocalists. Shine on friends!”
Blackened avant-gardists Enslaved have launched into their 30th year with thunder and flames. Although their Utgard European Tour will now take place in spring 2022, with support coming from Intronaut, Obsidian Kingdom and Crown, the band are proud to announce four new live albums/DVDs. Out June 25th, the audio and visuals for these releases have been taken from their revered Cinematic Tour 2020, with physical pre-orders launching now.
Ivar Bjørnson commented:
“We are so stoked about how these Cinematic Tour releases turned out; the sound is great and the packaging is beautiful and unique like the shows themselves. The crown jewel for old vinyl collectors like ourselves has got to be the wooden box – handmade, numbered and named individually. That is simply… metal!”
Arizona’s GO AHEAD AND DIE will release their self-titled debut album on June 11th via Nuclear Blast Records. GO AHEAD AND DIE is a raw, urgent, unrelenting, thrillingly shocking, and vibrant new band. The band releases the animated music video for the second single, Toxic Freedom.
Max Cavalera comments, “‘Toxic Freedom’ is about police corruption, police brutality, and police racism. It can be seen and felt all around the world. It is about authority killing minorities.”
Igor Amadeus states, “Our leaders abuse their power while thousands are imprisoned and more are murdered every day. ‘Toxic Freedom’ is a protest for those that have suffered at the hands of wrongful police brutality.”
Progressive, technical death metal collective ALLUVIAL has released a cataclysmic new single titled, Thy Underling from the band’s highly anticipated sophomore album, Sarcoma, that’s due out May 28th from Nuclear Blast.
Guitarist Wes Hauch comments on the single:
“The first half of the song is from the perspective of a scornful entity. The idea is that a wraith and aims to confuse and debilitate the host ‘Until he rots and lies stinking in the earth’, a line borrowed from one of my favourite movies. The second half is from the perspective of the host. The content is based on an ongoing experience I have, but I think anyone could apply it to something familiar to them.”
The Duke of Spook and his devilish ghouls, WEDNESDAY 13, have returned from the crypt to release a new digital EP titled Necrophaze – Antidote that’s out now from Nuclear Blast. The EP features rare and unreleased music from recording sessions for his latest full-length, Necrophaze, including two new songs Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks In Hell and Screwdriver 2 – The Return and two previously released covers of INXS’ Devil Inside and Gary Numan’s Films (featuring Calico Cooper).
Commenting on the EP, Wednesday 13 states:
“While recording the last record we had a couple of extra tracks that we didn’t know what to do with. Re-recorded version of 2 songs from my former band Frankenstein Drag Queens and 2 cover songs. The idea of putting out an EP tied in with Necrophaze with these songs seemed like the best way to get them out to the fans. The new recorded version of Screwdriver is as loud & energetic as the original from 1998. ‘Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks In Hell,’ was another classic that needed to be heard again.”
Recently, OCEANS released their second single Voices from the upcoming digital EP WE ARE NØT OKAY, that is due to be released on April 30th. The third single, Shark Tooth, once again features a very special guest at the microphone: Christoph Wieczorek of the German Post-Hardcore pioneers ANNISOKAY.
In contrast to the dark and depressing topics the band usually deals with, SHARK TOOTH, a powerful nu metal-infused banger, acts as a hopeful anthem for every lost soul out there.
LAMB OF GOD has premiered a scorching cover of the Bad Brains classic I Against I featuring FEVER 333 vocalist Jason Aalon Butler in a new live quarantine video that captures the raw energy and spirit of this cult classic.
LAMB OF GOD vocalist Randy Blythe states, “The idea to cover ‘I Against I’ goes back at least 20 years to a camping trip the band was on. Mark & I were sitting in the back of our buddy’s Jeep ripping through the mountains, Bad Brains was cranking on the stereo, & I was singing along to that particular song. Mark looked over at me & said ‘We should cover that tune.’ So we thought about it for a couple of decades and finally got around to doing it for the Burn The Priest Legion: XX record (hey, sometimes we move a little slow…).
As we all know, this pandemic has sucked for live music, but the quarantine jams bands have been doing have been pretty fun, especially when you bring in guests. I saw FEVER 333 for the first time at the Sonic Temple fest— I had never listened to them, but I was blown away by their live show. I remember thinking ‘Man, these dudes are WILD- their energy reminds me of the punk shows I saw in the 80’s’ and I’ve been friends with those dudes from that day. I even texted Darryl from Bad Brains that afternoon to tell him to check them out. It was only natural to ask Jason to join us & bring that energy to this song by the almighty Bad Brains, my favorite band of all time.”
The UK based Post Hardcore outfit DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL added another promising chapter to their very own story as a with their new long player Loss, the band seized their ultimate act of liberation and celebrates this ground shaking stepstone with the release of a visualiser for Signal Fire.
Singer Paul Green states on the release of Loss:
“It’s been 9 years of waiting for this day for our loyal fans and we couldn’t be happier to finally have ‘Loss’ out in the wild, we’re hugely grateful for their patience and support throughout these years. We’re incredibly proud of this record and we hope everyone enjoys what is a truly personal account of our lives over these last 3 years. We have endured the same hard times as many of you out there and for those navigating your own grief and mental health journeys, we hope ‘Loss’ helps you in some way.”
German Metal Commando PRIMAL FEAR release their new 5-track single I Will Be Gone and present the videoclip for the beautiful title-track, featuring Tarja Turunen.
“There were three famous vocalists on our final wish list,” Mat Sinner comments. “That it was Tarja who got involved in this song is a matter of pure joy for all of us. Working together on the song and video was totally relaxed and professional – a great experience also because Tarja’s and Ralf’s voices go together incredibly well. Now, we can expand the ‘Metal Commando’ saga with a unique chapter. We’re all really proud of this single.”
The Finnish icon Tarja Turunen can only agree: “I was very happy to receive the invitation to take part in PRIMAL FEAR’s beautiful song ‘I Will Be Gone’. We started our careers nearly at the same time many years ago, and finally got a chance to work together. I love the song and personally it helped me to stay connected and rock again, even if at the studio this time. I really hope that people will like this collaboration and that it will bring them joy especially during these difficult times we are living through at the moment.”
After the huge success of SABATON’s latest single Livgardet, the Swedish metal giants return and add a cherry on the cake on their homage to the Swedish Royal Guard. The band releases the English version of the song, The Royal Guard.
The limited 12” Vinyl edition of The Royal Guard, that features the new track as well as the Swedish version ‘Livgardet’, comes with a beautifully etched B-side, noble gold foil prints and embossed artwork. For a strictly limited edition, the band has even visited the pressing plant and created a special vinyl that will contain real gunpowder!
HELLOWEEN release the first single Skyfall along with an amazing video clip! Written by Kai Hansen, Skyfall is a storming more than 7-minute ride into the HELLOWEEN universe (and beyond!) The epic track describes an alien landing on earth and a dramatic chase while Michael Kiske, Andi Deris and Kai Hansen duel each other in a breathtaking manner and create a vocal broadband adventure. Produced by Martin Häusler, it is the most elaborate video clip in the history of the band, shown with 3-D animation and having a cinematic look, this video is a real high end experience.
ROB ZOMBIE has released the second instalment of the animated interview series titled Zombie Interviews Zombie, where Sheri Moon Zombie talks to Rob about his new album. The second episode on the journey of The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy is live now…
LIGHT THE TORCH — Howard Jones [vocals], Francesco Artusato [guitar], and Ryan Wombacher [bass] — will release their new album and second full length You Will Be the Death of Me on June 25 via Nuclear Blast. The band has dropped the video for the first track, Wilting in the Light, which was directed by Ramon Boutviseth in L.A.
“You Will Be the Death of Me has been a journey — even without the pandemic,” says Jones. “This album has been emotional and rewarding in every way, and we couldn’t be more excited to finally release it. Maybe there was a bit of desperation writing and recording these songs.”
He shares, “Going through personal turmoil and watching Francesco deal with injuries, we knew this could change things drastically for us. The album was a welcome distraction, and we dumped every emotion we had into YWBTDOM. To watch Fran heal and become an even more complete artist in front of my eyes has been amazing to watch. Everything we went through individually and together with this album drew Fran, Ryan, and I together. I couldn’t be more proud of this album knowing I made it with my family.”
San Diego deathcore pioneers, CARNIFEX, are proud to release their cover of KORN’s Dead Bodies Everywhere single off 2009’s Follow The Leader.
CARNIFEX comments, “KORN was one of our original influences and inspired us greatly as young musicians. Each time we do a cover, it’s our way of saying thank you to the musicians that came before us, and just maybe we added our touch of brutality! Enjoy!”
For more info head over to Nuclear Blast…