PopMatters' 20 Best Metal Albums of 2020

With 'Alphaville', the enigmatic New York City Extreme Metal trio has successfully broken with all genre conventions and elevated into a realm of Avantgarde Metal that is as fascinating as it is scary. Not that conventions ever held back Imperial Triumphant, but this album is certainly their most obscure and experimental yet. The good news is that it's not at the cost of intensity. The demanding, yet always intriguing clash of jarring atonality and gloomy Jazz fusion ('City Swine') finds its match only in the city it is so openly inspired by. There is plenty of both ends of the spectrum - and everything in between - on 'Alphaville', which will undoubtedly go down in history as the band's magnum opus. For fans of: Ved Buens Ende, Portal, Oranssi Pazuzu Under exclusive license from Century Media. TDW023

Featuring guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, ex-Isis), bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, ex-Botch), and drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists), Sumac is a metallic supergroup that specializes in bone-rattling riffs, lengthy compositions, and general uneasy listening. They’re also incredibly prolific: Since debuting in 2015, they’ve released four albums and an EP. *May You Be Held* is very much a continuation of the trio’s last album, 2018’s *Love in Shadow*. “Some of the foundation of this record was built off things that were recorded during the *Love in Shadow* sessions,” Turner tells Apple Music. “And there were lyrical themes I was working on with the last record that I felt didn’t cover the full extent of what I was trying to express. That record really came together right around the time of our last presidential election, which was, in my view, a turning point in our American culture. Everything that kind of started there has only grown and become more exacerbated in the intervening years, so I felt like there was more to say.” Below, Turner takes us through the twists and turns of *May You Be Held*. **A Prayer for Your Path** “This was the very last thing that was recorded when we were in the studio, and even before we mixed it I immediately felt like this had to be the opening to the album. Luckily, Brian and Nick agreed. It’s got an enveloping atmosphere but also this kind of peripheral tension to it. It seemed like a gentle opening into the world of this record, which is actually pretty tumultuous and even pretty caustic at a number of points. So we wanted to ease people into what is overall a pretty rough ride at times.” **May You Be Held** “The opening riff for the song just kind of sounds like an AC/DC riff, and I wasn’t sure how that fit into the parameters of what we do as Sumac. Yet the more I played it and the more I thought about the impactful simplicity of it, the more I felt that my discomfort with it was an indicator that it needed to be pursued. And by the time we had fleshed it out as a band, the AC/DC comparison had diminished quite considerably. Lyrically speaking, the song is kind of divided into two halves. The first half is centered around my fear of the future on an existential level, but also on an individual level, as it pertains to being a parent. After having brought a child into this world and looking at what the world is like at the moment, I can\'t help but think forward to what the future is going to be like for his generation. The second half of the song addresses the idea that regardless of what does happen, I have zero control over the path that we take collectively, and that my son has his own path before him.” **The Iron Chair** “Thrill Jockey suggested this song as a ‘single,’ and even though we are in no way a singles band, we agreed that offering this tangled piece as an introduction to the album felt like the right move. Given the climate that we’re all in currently, it also seemed appropriate because \[this song\] is a way of kind of harmonizing the inner state with our external world. Things are confusing right now, and nothing is familiar in the sense of what we\'ve been accustomed to up to this point. And for me, there\'s no immediately obvious emotional signifiers for this song. It covers a wide range in terms of the emotional directives in it, so I felt like that was a good way to sort of lay the groundwork for the record emerging into the world.” **Consumed** “Brian pointed out something interesting about the contrast of the two kind of pillars of the record, ‘May You Be Held’ and ‘Consumed,’ in that ‘May You Be Held’ starts off kind of frantic and then diminishes into this very bleak and almost barren anti-structure by the end, and this song is kind of the opposite—it starts out slowly and very minimal but by the end kind of escalates into this blown-out frenzy. That wasn\'t intentional, but when we look back on the record as a whole, it\'s kind of neat to see that arc having happened again on a totally subconscious level.” **Laughter and Silence** “It’s interesting to try to title instrumental tracks. This may seem like a trivial example, but there is something that I\'ve observed in children, and this was even before having a child of my own: The moment of greatest exhilaration and laughter and energy and exuberance is often immediately followed by a violent accident and tears. And I feel like that speaks to the human experience in a lot of ways—and also the present moment we’re in, which of course means different things for many people. But I just feel like we have had to take a prolonged silence and breath to look at where we are and more deeply consider the result of being thrust into isolation and separation—and also upheaval.”

“As an artist in this time of significant upheaval, society seemingly having reached the end of its current iteration, it’s of critical importance to absorb and interpret this process of dissolution - and of the transformation that hopefully follows it” says Aaron Turner, guitarist and vocalist for the expressionistic metal ensemble SUMAC. “While I don’t believe we’re on the brink of collective destruction precisely now, this is clearly a pivotal stage in the story of humankind - and there is something that feels right about this music at this exact and very uncertain moment.” In this case, the music in discussion is May You Be Held, the latest album for the American-Canadian trio. Picking up where the band left off with 2018’s Love in Shadow, SUMAC push further into the extreme polarity of their sound with their latest collection of long-form composition and free-form exploration. Meticulously detailed and complex one moment, rudimentary and repetitive the next, and completely untethered and unscripted at seemingly random intervals—it’s an album that fluctuates between extreme discipline and control on one end and an almost feral energy on the other. SUMAC’s work has always been about transition between different states of being. Our sense of normal, and indeed our sense of life, is now being shaken. We don’t know what is coming next. We are looking for pointers towards the future, as well as things to hold onto in the moment. This is a fundamental aspect of May You Be Held’s larger theme. Musically, it’s about continual unification and divergence—and is imbued with the uncertainty inherent in that cycle. In that uncertainty there is also hope, frustration, madness, and a desire for connection. All this too is part of this moment in our history—everything happening at once, the simultaneous emergence of humanity's best and worst characteristics. Lyrically, May You Be Held follows the humanistic themes explored on Love in Shadow, partially informed by Turner’s navigation of fatherhood and family life. “It’s clear humans have figured out many ways over the centuries to acclimate to adverse circumstances, and even to thrive in them,” Turner says. “My hope for our family, humanity and future generations, is that we find our way by doing what we have always done—invent, adapt, band together, and ideally, hold each other up through love and kindness.” This compassionate tone stands in stark contrast to the misanthropic and death-obsessed nature of most heavy metal music, and perhaps even seems diametric to the caustic and aggravated tone of May You Be Held. It may make more sense to approach the album as if it were a free jazz record or an abstract noise piece, where the emotional resonance isn’t bound up in melody as much as it is in performance. Here, Turner’s bellows and howls seem less threatening than wounded, primal, and mammalian. On guitar, his subversion of melody and penchant for noise seems less like aural punishment and more like an open horizon for frequencies and timbre. In a traditional metal context, drummer Nick Yacyshyn’s dexterous beats, exhilarating fills, and creative flourishes might seem like the pinnacle of rhythmic ferocity, but on May You Be Held there’s a kind of ecstasy in his performance, a fluidity and ability that conveys both urgency in purpose and joy in execution. Bassist Brian Cook glues it together with a heavy handedness that could be seen as hostile or malicious if it didn’t also provide the clearest path to navigating the band’s thorny arrangements. May You Be Held opens with “A Prayer for Your Path,” a composition culled from improvisational exercises centered on the interplay between Turner’s guitar drones and Yacyshyn’s bowing of a vibraphone. Threaded together with warming bass swells, it serves as the entry point for the album’s increasingly tumultuous and unpredictable strategies. The album’s title track is more in line with SUMAC’s established tactics: fusing heavy riffage, knotty structures, and expressionistic forays into an epic narrative arc that winds and weaves through so many peaks and valleys that it spills across two sides of an LP. The band’s free moments hit their apex with “The Iron Chair,” a fully unscripted spontaneous moment in the studio that sounds both completely uninhibited while also locking into some kind of alien logic. From there SUMAC launches into their second long-form orchestrated composition—the imposing “Consumed.” The track is perhaps their most ambitious work yet, morphing and evolving across multiple recording sessions at different locations over the course of several years until reaching its final form where SUMAC’s troglodyte force slowly ramps it up over its twenty-minute run time to a near panic-inducing frenzy. The album is bookended with a final improvisation exercise, the somber and subdued “Laughter and Silence.” While past SUMAC records have been concentrated efforts churned out in short flurries of activity, May You Be Held is a record that came from seemingly out of nowhere. Pieced together from vestiges of the Love in Shadow session with Kurt Ballou at Robert Lang Studio in Shoreline WA, a session at The Unknown recording studio in Anacortes with Matt Bayles at the engineering helm (where the band’s sophomore album What One Becomes was tracked), and supplementary work at House of Low Culture out on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, May You Be Held reflects the temporal shifts and protracted scope of its genesis. It’s a record that feels more human than anything else—at times flawed and wounded, at others, triumphant, purposeful, and pensive. The music is by no means a salve or anodyne, but neither is it nihilistic. Rather, its forceful approach and challenging timbres are like a confrontation, a baptism by fire, a therapeutic razing. Ultimately, May You Be Held is a reminder of the life force that binds us together and a clarion call to be an active participant in an evolving world.

Paysage D'Hiver are a phenomenon within the black metal genre. Wintherr, the Swiss project's sole and solitary member, has released ten albums and several splits within 20-plus years, all of which became underground successes and sought-after items while he kept mostly to himself, feeling no need to go public. Uninterested in flocking to the herd, the artist and his craft remain an enigma that never fails to surprise … which rings especially true with regards to his first full-length since 2013: "Im Wald" ("in the forest"), a monochromatic epic in the truest sense of the word. With 120 minutes playing time, "Im Wald" is not only Paysage D’Hiver's longest effort so far but also another chapter in the tale of winter travel (thus the French name Paysage D'Hiver) that runs through the project’s entire work like the proverbial golden thread. In the context of his highly detailed narrative, Wintherr locates it after "Steineiche" and "Schattengang" (both 1998) which describe the beginning of the travel, and before "Das Tor" (2013), "Kerker" (1999) and "Die Festung" (1998), which are set at the end. "Im Wald" is available as limited and hand-numbered 2MC (ltd. 300), 2CD (ltd. 500) and 4LP (ltd. 500) wooden box sets (all incl. 20-page booklet and poster) as well as non-limited 4LP box set (also incl. 20-page booklet and poster) and 2CD Digipak with 20-page booklet in black envelope. All products have been assembled by hand. Buy at our shop here: worldwide: en.spkr.media/label/kunsthall US/Canada: us.spkr.media/label/kunsthall

Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and Sam Karugu emerge from Nairobi's flourishing underground metal scene as former members of the bands Lust of a Dying Breed and Seeds of Datura. Together in 2019 they formed Duma (Darkness in Kikuyu) with Sam abandoning bass for production and guitars and Lord Spike Heart providing extreme vocals to the project. Recorded at Nyege Nyege Studios in Kampala over three months in mid 2019 their self-titled debut album fuses the frenetic euphoria, unrelenting physicality and rebellious attitude of hardcore punk and trash metal with bone-crunching breakcore and raw, nihilist industrial noise through a claustrophobic vortex of visceral screams. The savant mix of brutally adrenalized drums, caustic industrial trap, shredding grindcore inspired guitars and abrupt speed changes create a darkly atmospheric menace and is lethal on tracks like the opener "Angels and Abysses" , "Omni" or "Uganda with Sam". The gruelling slow techno dirges and monolithic vocals on "Pembe 666" or "Sin Nature" add a pinch of dramatic inevitability bringing a new sense of theatricality and terrifying fate awaiting into the record's progression. A sinister sonic aggression of feral intensity with disregard for styles, Duma promises to impact the burgeoning African metal scene moving it into totally new, boundary-challenging experimental territories. VIDEO FOR LIONS BLOOD HERE: youtu.be/zd35MhHqjhc VIDEO FOR OMNI HERE: youtu.be/ffxLsl8MWXE

With the release of ‘Cosmovore’ in 2018, Ulthar presented a twisted warped dystopia where furiously paced inverted Death Metal and scathing angular blackness defined a new way forward. Now the band returns with the grotesquely intangible ‘Providence’, whereby Ulthar stretch the fabric of previously trod worlds into idiosyncratic new forms and elevated levels of primal intellect. The unyielding Ulthar attack doubles down on ‘Providence’ with figures becoming more sickening and shapes more savage. An immensity like spiraling ancient monoliths too tall to comprehend and bending inward upon themselves envelops adherents to this realm. Duly diabolic voices guide this odyssey through the incongruous caverns of absurdity, obscure texts and manifold vitriol. Releasing at a time where our own world has devolved into a surrealistic nightmare of viral trepidation and encased solitude, Ulthar’s ‘Providence’ becomes a prescient view into the strange paradoxes that only months ago seemed unbelievable but now all too possible. Where horizons cease, where grace is dead, where nothing lives, so be it amen.

=== ORDER NOW! === on I, VOIDHAGER Records : metalodyssey.8merch.com 3xLP TRIFOLD SLEEVE (incl. Bandcamp Digital Download and Streaming) • Colors vinyls (marble or color in color) / black • Deluxe 6-Panel vinyl gatefold • Limited to 300 copies • Poster 3xCD DIGIPACK (incl. Bandcamp Digital Download and Streaming) • Limited to 300 copies • Deluxe 8-Panel Digipack CD • Booklet _________________________ Belgium's NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM (aka NNMM) is a community of “cultural engineers” with a variable line-up, mixing drone metal with spiritual free jazz and psychedelic music. The project was initiated in 2018 by multi-instrumentalist Guillaume Cazalet (Czlt, Jenny Torse, Aksu), who brought together veteran saxophonist Jean Jacques Duerinckx (Ze Zorgs) and two drummers, Sebastien Schmit (K-Branding) and Pierre Arese (Aksu). In 2020, Stephane FDL and Lukas Bouchenot took the drums. Reshma Goolamy (bass), Romain Martini (guitar), Alice Thiel (synths, guitar), Joaquin Bermudez (saz, setar), Didié Nietzche (soundscapes) joined in 2019, thus changing the band into a real drone orchestra. By exploring the evolution of the human species, NEPTUNIAN MAXMALISM question the future of the living on Earth, propitiating a feeling of acceptance for the conclusion of the so called "anthropocene" era and preparing us for the incoming “probocene” era, imagining our planet ruled by superior intelligent elephants after the end of humanity. As Guillaume Cazalet explains, “for certain scientists, if we hadn't rule the Earth, elephants were supposed to be at the top of the pyramid of terrestrial life.” The ambitious album trilogy of “Éons” is a musical experience of gargantuan proportions where each chapter is part of a fascinating ritual, a cosmic mass of light and darkness recalling the works of SUNN O))), EARTH, ALUK TODOLO, ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE, SWANS, MOTORPSYCHO, SUN RA and the late JOHN COLTRANE. The intoxicating bacchanal starts with “To The Earth (Aker Hu Benben)”, a heavy tribal music affair influenced by stoner metal, noise rock and free jazz. “It's a balance between sacred and profane, and resumes lots of human feelings or their consequences, such as love, war, hate, ritual dance, transmutation, strength, feminine/masculine juxtaposition, etc,”, says Cazalet. With “To The Moon (Heka Khaibit Sekhem)” the band opts for a slightly different approach, surrealistic yet brutal, occasionally steering towards black-doom metal. Cazalet: “Here the rhythm section plays an important role, fueled by an obscure power that plunges the listener into a magic, occult trance; this album is characterized by shamanic invocations and summonings of the ancients by using animal-like growls and the homo-sapiens' proto-language as reconstructed by Pierre Lanchantin, an English researcher/archeologist from the University of Cambridge.” The third and final chapter encompasses the interstellar meditations of “To The Sun (Ânkh Maât Sia)”, described by Cazalet as a solar drone opera: “We worked on the power of frequencies and tonality, chthonian deep vibrations and iridescent high lights by using huge amplified baritone sax and guitars, spectral soundscapes, antic cinematographic views and tribal percussions.” Wrapped in a phantasmagoric painting by Japanese master Kaneko Tomiyuki, NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM's “Éons” is with no doubt the quintessential mystical and psychedelic journey of 2020. 𓁹♆𓁹

OLD MAN GLOOM are: Caleb Scofield - bass/vocals Nate Newton - guitar/vocals Santos Montano - drums/talking Stephen Brodsky - bass/vocals/guitar Aaron Turner - guitar vocals electronics

Originating from Austin, TX, EXPANDER has subverted traditional band trajectories to receive global recognition of their unique brand of futuristic metalpunk since forming in 2014. With their second full-length album, “Neuropunk Boostergang”, the group aggressively channels the anxieties foisted on us from oppressive systems using every weapon at their disposal: pummeling rhythms, transcendent melodies and wild vocal deliveries that keep listeners on guard for whatever might come crawling from the wastes next. This record marks the band’s return to God City, again utilizing the state-of-the-art studio to capture every nuance of the raw energy contained within these potent audio capsules. The result is a glimpse into a barbarous future where traditional riffs get flipped on their head, anti-gravity rhythms pull you in different directions and supernatural voices jack-in to your skull to command attention. Should we retain our humanity in the face of constant neurological assault? Is the physical body altogether obsolete? What otherworldly landscapes plagued by grotesque overlords will we find ourselves surviving next? With Neuropunk Boostergang, Expander mercilessly answers these questions with the fist of flesh and mind of machine.

WAYFARER is black metal of the American West. A cavalcade of fury, melancholia, and dust-laden storytelling; the band is informed by the fierce and adventurous spectrums of heavy music, along with the stark Americana of the “Denver Sound” artists that carved the identity of their home. In “A ROMANCE WITH VIOLENCE”, their most fully realized effort to date, WAYFARER presents a searing silver-screen requiem for the myth of the West. This new work sees them at their most intense and triumphant, as well as at their most pensive. Bold, rhythmic and riff laden, the band’s pointed expedition across the frontiers of black and extreme metal are tinged with the grit and genuine air of artists like Sixteen Horsepower and Jay Munly, and the majestic heights of the Ennio Morricone/Sergio Leone collaborations. Through seven harrowing anthems of the high plains, the album paints a poignant exploration of heroes and killers, the setting sun on a romantic era, and the shadow it has cast on the world we live in today. Recorded in the midst of the pandemic by Pete deBoer (Blood Incantation, Dreadnought), A ROMANCE WITH VIOLENCE was mixed by the inimitable Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts), and Mastered by V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress). The album will see release on October 16, 2020, on CD/LP/Digital on October 16, 2020 by Profound Lore Records. WAYFARER, from Colorado’s “Queen City of the Plains”, has origins beginning around 2012. Guitarist/vocalist Shane McCarthy formed the band with drummer Isaac Faulk, bassist/vocalist James Hansen, and original guitarist Tanner Rezabek. They would release 2014’s “Children of the Iron Age” and 2016’s “Old Souls” via Prosthetic Records, after which they would replace the departed Rezabek with longtime collaborator Joe Strong-Truscelli as full-time guitarist. Partnering with Profound Lore Records in 2017, the band released “World’s Blood” in 2018 on the label, ushering in the current chapter and paving the way for this new release. The last few years have seen the band take their visceral live show across the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe, touring alongside artists such as Inter Arma, Saor, Krallice, Primitive Man, Falls of Rauros, Dark Buddha Rising, Thantifaxath and others. Taking the stage around Roadburn, Fire In The Mountains, and Northwest & Austin Terrorfests, WAYFARER have made a name for themselves as a live act, with the intensity of their performance leaving an impression among its audiences. With the release of A ROMANCE WITH VIOLENCE, the band fully manifests a sound that is uniquely theirs, and is unlike anything before it. Following its release, they will soon be seen bringing their shattered view of the American West to stages across the world.

Recorded January 2020 by Finn Keane at Headgap Recording Studio, Preston. Mixed and Mastered by Pete deBoer at World Famous Studios, Colorado. Cover painting, design and layout by Xavier Irvine. Insert art and layout by Ed Davis. Vinyl released by Me Saco Un Ojo Records. CD Released by Dark Descent Records. All songs written and performed by FACELESS BURIAL Alex Macfarlane - Bass/Vocals Max Kohane - Drums Füj - Guitars

New York's shape shifting, extreme metal quartet, PYRRHON announce their landmark full length album titled, Abscess Time to be released on June 26, 2020 via Willowtip Records. The 12 song album - running nearly 60 minutes - follows the bands 2017, critically acclaimed release of What Passes For Survival, and shows the band at their most sophisticated, alluring, and inventive. Poised with perpetual evolution, PYRRHON reveal how fearless, sonically explosive, and triumphant experimental death metal can be.

With their fourth album, metal duo Spirit Adrift wanted to create a sharp contrast to the doom and gloom of their first three. As such, *Enlightened in Eternity* is an upbeat and triumphant record that recalls the chalice-hoisting classics of a bygone era. “I\'ve put enough energy into making really emotionally devastating and painful music,” guitarist, vocalist, and founder Nate Garrett tells Apple Music. “That\'s been pretty much everything Spirit Adrift has done up to this point. So I wanted to make something that was a little more empowering and uplifting. It still deals with death and pain and suffering and trauma and all of this stuff I\'ve always been trying to unpack and analyze, but I feel like it focuses more on the solutions rather than just the problems.” Below, Garrett shows us the path to heavy metal enlightenment. **Ride Into the Light** “I didn\'t even know that I was working on a new album—I just picked up the guitar and started playing some of those riffs. But then I kind of realized that it was taking on a shape of what sounded to me like an epic, classic type of opening track to a heavy metal album. So it became this completely unapologetic, badass heavy metal song. I tried to make it really aggressive and intense, kind of in the tradition of the classic, epic album openers like \[Judas Priest’s\] ‘Electric Eye’ and songs like that.” **Astral Levitation** “When I started playing around with this, it was pretty obvious to me that I was drawing from the Iommi School of Riffs, but every era of Tony Iommi. It\'s taken me a little bit of maturity and more open-mindedness to appreciate the later stuff, like the Tony Martin era of Black Sabbath, so I wanted to represent the entire history of that school of thought. When I was trying to come up with fitting lyrical content, I thought about a story in his autobiography where he explains without a hint of irony that he has the ability to astral project. To me, it seems to explain a little bit how he is able to just keep cranking out these archetypical, powerful songs for so long. So I took that concept and applied it in a more general sense. The song ended up being about how to achieve and maximize your full potential as a human being.” **Cosmic Conquest** “I was getting tattooed, and I heard a certain drumbeat in the tattoo shop and I realized it was that straightforward, faster rock drum beat that we hadn\'t utilized yet. I don\'t even remember what song I was listening to, but I wanted to incorporate that. I was also listening to a lot of Rick Rubin-produced metal albums at the time, like Danzig and Slayer and Trouble. Then I tried to turn my mind into Rick Rubin\'s mind and produce a Spirit Adrift song. That\'s ‘Cosmic Conquest.’ Lyrically, I like to talk about science fiction and religion and spirituality and where they all intersect. I feel like it\'s a good literary tool to chip away at some deeper questions. I\'m definitely doing that on that song.” **Screaming From Beyond** “Track four on our last few albums has been important—we’ve been doing the track-four ballad thing that so many bands have done over the years. But I got really tired of tripping over my foot switch all the time to change from dirty guitar to clean guitar, so I decided I wasn\'t going to do a ballad on this album. That\'s why there\'s no clean guitar anywhere this time. But I still wanted to make track four special, so I decided to write what I felt like would be our radio hit in the vein of bands I grew up with, like Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC. And then I put a sludge ending on it, like a nod to New Orleans to not make it too much of a hit, you know? Lyrically, it’s a ghost story, but the real issue I’m trying to address is grief and death and what it means when a loved one dies and how that haunts people.” **Harmony of the Spheres** “I like to do things that are heavier and faster than anything we\'ve done before, and I like to do things that are slower and more melodic and more psychedelic than we\'ve ever done before. Obviously, this one is more towards the aggressive end of the spectrum. The lyrical content was inspired by a book I was reading about John Dee, who was into chaos magic and influenced \[Aleister\] Crowley. So that sort of mystical creepiness kind of ties it back to our last album.” **Battle High** “On this song, again, I was trying to put myself in Rick Rubin\'s shoes and also returning to the Tony Iommi School of Riffs. But probably it’s more from the perspective of the Matt Pike School of Even Chunkier Riffs. I was listening to a podcast and I heard someone use the phrase ‘battle joy’ to describe someone that is completely euphoric and at peace only when they are in the heat of absolute chaos and physical violence. I started thinking about that concept and I thought ‘battle high’ sounded cooler, like somebody literally getting a high off of violence and war. But the song is more about how the military programs people to get to a place emotionally and psychologically where can they turn off their conscience and experience that battle high. But then, when they come back from war, there’s nothing to deprogram them and turn them back into human beings. So it ended up being an anti-war song, which I think is an important statement to be making.” **Stronger Than Your Pain** “Much like ‘Harmony of the Spheres,’ I wanted to write a song that was pushing the limits of what\'s expected from us in terms of aggression and heaviness and tempo. As for the lyrics, I was reading this book—*The Power of Now* by Eckhart Tolle. At first, I didn\'t think that sort of self-empowerment type of stuff was necessarily the most metal subject matter, but then I started thinking about all of my favorite metal albums—*Vulgar Display of Power*, *Powerslave*, *Screaming for Vengeance*, *Heaven and Hell*—they all kind of have this underdog mentality that it\'s us against the world. So I realized that self-empowerment is metal as fuck.” **Reunited in the Void** “This started off almost as an inside joke to myself, because I get such a kick out of people trying to force labels on us. First they said we\'re a doom band, which at the time was probably accurate. Then they said we\'re not a doom band. Some people still call us ‘stoner doom,’ which I completely don\'t understand. So I figured it would be funny to make a whole album of these pretty concise, aggressive, upbeat metal songs, and then hit them with a song that\'s ten and a half minutes long. It\'s super slow and downtrodden and melodic. Lyrically, it’s about the hope for the possibility of some sort of reconnection with everything that you love after death. Both of our dogs died around this time, so we put their collars on the last half of this song as alternate percussion. If you listen close enough, you can hear it.”

Spirit Adrift refuses to slow down. With ‘Enlightened In Eternity’, Nathan Garrett, alongside drummer Marcus Bryant, has created yet another monument to the timelessness of heavy metal. And while ‘Enlightened…’ builds on the sizable foundation established by previous albums, it also sets itself apart in formidable new ways, widening the scope of what Spirit Adrift can be. What Spirit Adrift have mastered, where others have failed, is the ability to invoke the power of metal’s past, whether it be the 70s, 80s or even the 90s as we hear on ‘Enlightened…’, without ever feeling throwback or ’retro’. Spirit Adrift urgently represent the sonic and emotional zeitgeist of 2020. “Enlightened In Eternity” carries the same enormous magnitude of the most significant metal records of every era, but Nathan Garrett has carved out his own place among the greatest of songwriters, by crafting uniquely classic and instantly recognizable songs. Vocally, Garrett again showcases an obvious evolution of his already high-level ability with more soaring soul and snarling venom injected into his classic metal form. The gorgeous guitar leads, melodies, harmonies and unforgettably heavy riffs benefit from a huge, timeless production quality. Drummer Marcus Bryant has elevated his playing to new levels of intensity and tasteful subtlety. And as always, the tracks remain imprinted on the mind long after the album has finished. Whether it’s the ever-expanding catalog of incredible albums and songs or the searing live performances, the dominance of Spirit Adrift upon the current Heavy Metal landscape is now undeniable. And while ‘Enlightened In Eternity’ already marks the band’s fourth album, Spirit Adrift have only just begun. credits

Pre-order physical editions here: shop.dying-victims.de/de/ DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present MEGATON SWORD’s highly anticipated debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, on CD, cassette and vinyl LP formats. It was but November of last year when MEGATON SWORD unleashed their glorious debut EP, Niralet, via DYING VICTIMS. Arriving fully formed, virtually without warning – no prior demo recordings existed, at least not publicly – this Swiss quartet evinced an ages-old sound that was wise (and wizened) well beyond their young years. Already, MEGATON SWORD knew the mystery of steel…and wielded it with a startling confidence. And no one knew just how high they could fly, only that they were just getting started. Now, with the arrival of their imminent debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, MEGATON SWORD are marching into the halls of greatness, with no one to stop them. Retaining the same, well-named lineup – vocalist Uzzy Unchained, guitarist Chris the Axe, bassist Simon the Sorcerer, and drummer Dan Thundersteel – MEGATON SWORD maximize the strengths of the EP and then some, revealing new twists to that mystery of steel whilst retaining the charisma and crunch that endeared them to the true-metal underground the first time around. Indeed, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire is aptly titled, almost ridiculously so: this is true-as-steel HEAVY METAL drunk on high fantasy and the enduring themes of conquest and valor, triumph and tragedy, but rendered in a form even bloodier and possessing more bravado. It’s also more dynamic, maximizing drama between notes and from one passage to the next, each movement a narrative crucial to their conquest. Those notes are suitably wrapped in a production that’s powerful in its clarity and pure in its intention, revealing MEGATON SWORD as both craftsmen and warriors, and never sacrificing grit on the altar of perfection (or vice versa). Above all, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire is comprised of legitimately awesome SONGS that stick in your head immediately, even when traveling upon a winding, suitably epic path. Each one of the eight contained herein feel far vaster than their succinct track times suggest; credit is thus due to MEGATON SWORD’s firing-on-all-cylinders songwriting. Or perhaps it's the patient pacing they employ, which they first revealed on Niralet, allowing each bellow of bathos and push of pathos to ring out and as true as possible; perhaps it's the passion and machismo dripping from every element, every drop of blood, sweat, and tears tangible and intense; or once again, perhaps it's the band simultaneously sounding timeless and fresh, safely evading both rote "retro" throwback and over-modernity in kind, and doing it more effortlessly than ever. Either way, MEGATON SWORD have delivered an album both bold in its ambition yet urgent in its delivery – truly, the thing that classic debut LPs are made of. With Niralet, we made references to '80s Manowar, Warlord, and Manilla Road as well as early Running Wild and Nasty Savage, but with Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, MEGATON SWORD truly sound like no one but themselves: the growth is palpable, but not once overextended. And graced again with unforgettable cover art courtesy of Adam Burke, one of the best debut albums of the year is ready to be wielded!

to those who have drawn down the moon, joined in darkness in worlds without end, BLACK CURSE unfolds its evil. Combining ripping, violent rhythms with razor sharp riffing and trancelike pulses, BLACK CURSE creates true malevolence. The band rips open holy portals to times when Black and Death Metal shared the same principles, the same aesthetics, and the same diabolical wrath. Produced with the heaviest sound possible -Endless Wound- crushes into the world like the spawn of primordial chaos. Herein BLACK CURSE crawl on the darkest lava fields of Doom, revel in the infernal storms of Death, and levitate in the utmost Black.

OLD MAN GLOOM are: Caleb Scofield - bass/vocals Nate Newton - guitar/vocals Santos Montano - drums/talking Stephen Brodsky - bass/vocals/guitar Aaron Turner - guitar vocals electronics