Last week, excited by the turning of the clock from one year to the next (and finally rid of our January hangovers) we previewed a brand new song from Finland’s Hard Action.

Promising that we would keep up the pace with a steady onslaught of new bands keeping us on our toes for 2017, we now present you Hard Action’s fellow countrymen, IRON MAGAZINE.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why a band with a name like Iron Magazine might prick our ears. But beyond the slightly gushing adoration of a name not unlike our own, we would’ve been slathering over this regardless being that it features Mr Jussi Lehtisalo, the mastermind behind Ektro Records and also Aktor, a band that saw Jussi team up with master of modern metal Professor Chris Black to give us a wildly underrated, AOR-tinged, slightly bonkers, time-travelling heavy metal dream back in 2013.

Equally bonkers, nostalgic and oh so mighty, the brand new ‘Queen Of Hell’ EP is out March 17 via Ektro and features the one-and-only Danko and John Calabrese from Danko Jones along with Jussi and his Circle/Falcon bandmate, Tomi Leppänen.

This is sunglasses-at-night rock, leather jacket sleeves rolled up and lasers set … Read More

Crusty Death/Doom outfit Vallenfyre have returned to GodCity studio in Salem, MA to record the follow up to their second album ‘Splinters’ (2014). The new album, entitled ‘Fear Those Who Fear Him’, will be released by Century Media this summer and sees the band recording as a three-piece for the first time.

Joining Gregor Mackintosh (vocals and guitar – Paradise Lost) and Hamish Glencross (guitar/bass – ex-My Dying Bride) on the new record is Waltteri Väyrynen (drums – Paradise Lost) with production duties once again being helmed by Kurt Ballou (Converge).

Gregor Mackintosh says: “Twelve songs. No samples. No triggers. No bullshit. Instead you get crucifyingly loud amps, ferocious drumming, and vicious vocals spitting out hate and venom. Raw honest brutality. No conformity. No compromise. A murderous nightmare vomiting poisonous bile onto a twisted world. Yeah, that’s the bits I like…”

You can find more information at www.facebook.com/Vallenfyre or www.vallenfyreuk.bigcartel.com

We’ve got to admit something. We slept on Power Trip. We didn’t cover them with their debut album ‘Manifest Decimation’ back in 2013. We thought they were a hardcore band. They are a hardcore band, in ethics, culture and history, but they’re a hardcore band that plays furious thrash a la Sacrilege, Nuclear Assault and early Megadeth. We can feel Dan Lilker tutting at us from afar.

Frontman Riley Gale says he doesn’t mind. He understands. “You look at classic albums like ‘Behind The Realms Of Madness’ by Sacrilege or ‘Best Wishes’ or ‘Age Of Quarrel’ by Cro-Mags, that’s the apex of what I like about aggressive music and the band feels that way too, but we’re very much trying to be ourselves,” he says trying to make us feel good about ourselves, but still making us still feel like idiots for sleeping on such a vital new voice in thrash metal. “Any band wants to have their own identity but our band is almost based on not having an identity so to speak. It’s an interesting place for us to be in ‘cos as we’ve got bigger, people have asked, ‘Well, what are you about? What’s your image?’ and well … Read More

Biker-obsessed, heavy-rockin’ duo The Picturebooks have announced the release of their new album ‘Home Is A Heartache’ on March 10 via Another Century Records. The German duo – featuring Fynn Claus Grabke [vocals, guitar] and Philipp Mirtschink [drums] – perform blues-saturated heavy rock, with Fynn playing on obscure vintage guitars he bought from thrift shops around the world. Oddly, Phil has no cymbals whatsoever and instead includes a few self-made percussion instruments with huge chains and bells.

The Picturebooks explain: “We toured our first album ‘Imaginary Horse’ for more than two years straight with multiple runs in Europe and America – we traveled endless miles in small beat up tour vans on never-ending highways, and lived out of hotels, couches, and sometimes, just the back of our van. When we finally returned home, music started pouring out of us and we finished writing, recording and mixing ‘Home Is A Heartache’ in our garage in just a few months. To us it symbolises this journey we’re on and the music we want to spread, giving it our everything every day and every night.”

The band will soon head out on the road again, hitting these towns in the UK and Ireland (with Monster … Read More

Old school death metallers Memoriam (featuring ex and current members of Bolt Thrower and Benediction) are set to unleash their debut album ‘For The Fallen’ on March 24 through Nuclear Blast Records. It will contain eight tracks, including ‘War Rages On’, ‘Resistance’ (both featured on ‘The Hellfire Demos II’) and ‘Surrounded (By Death)’ (featured on ‘The Hellfire Demos II’).

The album’s impressive artwork was created by Dan Seagrave (Benediction, Dismember, Hypocrisy, Suffocation). He said: “[I started] from the band’s thoughts on visualising a kind of funeral procession with a theme of combat, war and in conjunction with the title ‘For the Fallen’. As with all my works, I then attempted to make the information evolve in my mind’s eye, and allow imagination to take over those elements, but retaining the core concept. The painting thus depicts a funeral procession moving through a long war torn cityscape; twisted shards of towers and buildings. A cathedral facade stands defiantly, yet riddled with destruction and decay. At closer inspection the structures all seem to be infected with an element of natural decomposition, as if organically inclined to fade with the demise of the season.

“The season itself lost in a timeless void. The figures appear … Read More

The Ajna Offensive have just announced that March 17 will mark the international release date for Venenum‘s highly-anticipated debut album, ‘Trance Of Death’, saying “It makes a difference in effort and time, either to dig six feet deep or to build a necropolis. Venenum decided for the latter…and it was worth every fucking second of waiting.”

Five years after the self-titled mini-album, Venenum strike with their debut full-length. According to the label, who will co-release the album with German death metal stable, Sepulchral Voice (the masters behind Degial and Charon); “The album presents Venenum on a new level of devotion and continues new and never-before-heard layers of darkness. The six new compositions and introduction theme are a grand melding of unique visions and unaltered traditions woven and blended into a complex unit of sacred horror. ‘Trance Of Death’ is far away from being another one-dimensional tribute to the grave: it is reverence and praise, a hymn to the impending end of all things.”

Artwork and layout is by Iron Fist favourite Timo Ketola (Dissection, Deathspell Omega).

From their debut mini-album:

Venenum by Venenum

In April, British heavy metal veterans Mythra will release a brand new studio album entitled ‘Still Burning’. The album will be available as a vinyl LP, CD and digital download, and will be released via High Roller Records.

“It’s the first time the band have gone into the studio and recorded a complete album all in one go. We flew out to Poland in October 2016 to work with Bart Gabriel (Crystal Viper) as producer. It was a superb experience and we all had a great time working with him.  We were totally blown away when High Roller Records signed us to record the album and cannot thank them enough. Their support has been incredible,” says vocalist, Vince High. “We intended to stay true to our NWOBHM roots and achieved our goal. The 11 tracks have tons of power and energy, twin lead guitar breaks, driving bass, thunderous drums and big choruses. Everything fans would expect from a Mythra album,” he adds. The album’s cover artwork was painted by Roberto Toderico, an Italian artist known for his previous collaboration with the band, as well as Tygers Of Pan Tang and Quartz.

Last year Mythra released the ‘Warriors Of Time: The Anthology’ album, which featured a collection of … Read More

Legendary US Power Thrashers Hexx have inked a new two album record deal with Germany’s High Roller Records. The band is currently working on twelve new songs with producer Bart Gabriel (Crystal Viper, Burning Starr), who also produced band’s latest single ‘Tyrants Of Steel’ (part of their split with Ruthless). The new album will showcase the band’s return to their roots, and the style they are known for from their early classic albums ‘Under The Spell’ and ‘No Escape’. The album will be entitled ‘Wrath Of The Reaper’, and has been scheduled for the release in the Spring/Summer of 2017.

Hexx, led by founding member and guitarist Dan Watson, features new vocalist Eddy Vega and Bob Wright (Brocas Helm) on second guitar. The lineup is completed by Mike Horn (who joined in 2013) on bass guitar, and drummer John Shaffer (who played in Hexx between 1986 and 1995, and returned in 2014).

In addition to releasing the ‘Tyrants Of Steel’ single, in 2016 Hexx also reissued their early albums ‘Under The Spell’ and ‘No Escape’ in the form of a 30th anniversary 2CD/DVD box set via Metal Blade Records, and the 1991 technical epic ‘Morbid Reality’ via Dark Symphonies Records.

Hexx originally formed … Read More

Thrash metal revivalists Havok are thrilled to announce the details of their upcoming new studio album, ‘Conformicide’. The Denver-based group will unleash their fourth full-length record on March 10 via Century Media.

‘Conformicide’ is the follow up to the band’s 2013 effort, ‘Unnatural Selection’. Discussing what fans can expect from the new record, David Sanchez (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) comments: “‘Conformicide’ is our most dynamic, heavy, thoughtful, musical, and sonically-crushing album so far. All four members feel that this is the best Havok album to date. There are a lot of truth bombs being dropped on this record and the music absolutely rips!”

Building on Sanchez’s comments, Reece Scruggs (lead guitar) adds: “This album swings for the fences in every way. Sonically stunning, technically proficient and lyrically pissed, we’ve never been represented at our best until this moment in time. We cannot wait for the world to react to ‘Conformicide’.”

Havok will also return to the road in 2017 with extensive touring schedules in both North America and Europe. Expressing the band’s level of enthusiasm to bring their fans an even heavier and more energized live show than ever before, Sanchez states: “We can’t wait to perform some new music live and present … Read More