Deathcorovci Chelsea Grin sporočajo, da je vrzel na bobnarskem stolčku zapolnil Josh Miller. Zasedba se je pred kratkim razšla z bobnarjem Pablom Viverosom in tako je nov polnopravni član zasedbe postal Josh. Izjava banda:

»We hope everyone has been doing well; we have some updates. We have parted ways with our fill-in drummer, Nathan Pearson. We sincerely value his friendship, as well as his devotion to furthering his craft and bringing his all to the stage. We truly look forward to watching his drumming career continue to blossom and advance, and value his time with us.

Furthermore, the band and Pablo have mutually agreed to separate. Pablo is one of our oldest friends, the life of the party, a masterful player, and a powerful creative. After Pablo spent some years away from the band, we all came together and realized that personal visions had diverged through time. We will always wish the very best for him, and seriously value all that he brought not only to the band, but to our lives. Nothing but tremendous love for him, always. We also encourage everyone to show support for him, Jaek and Alex’s new band, Ameonna.

Moving forward, we are proud and excited to announce that Josh Miller will be joining Chelsea Grin. It goes without saying that the future is bright – you will hear it in our music and witness it in our performances.

We keep very much to ourselves at this stage in our lives, but when we check in we want each of you to know that you are deeply and sincerely valued – we are so grateful for the opportunity to do what we love. We cannot wait to bring more of our vision to you all. Thank you for the years of support and love, and we will see you on our current tour supporting Fit For A King.«

Ameriški black metal dvojec Akhlys napoveduje peti album House of the Black Geminus, ki ga bo 5. julija izdal pri založbi Debemur Morti Productions. Album, o katerem je Alcameth več izdal v tretjem delu intervjuja za Bardo Methodology, obsega te naslove:

The Mask of Night-speaking
Maze of Phobetor
Through the Abyssal Door
Black Geminus
Sister Silence, Brother Sleep
Eye of the Daemon – Daemon I

Kanadski folk/black metal band SIG:AR:TYR po večletnem zatišju predstavlja svež material. Tukaj lahko prisluhnete novi skladbi Ascending the Stellar Throne s prihajajočega albuma Citadel of Stars, ki ga bo 31. maja izdala založba Hammerheart Records. Album obsega te naslove:

Awaiting the Last Dawn
Beyond the Stars Unknown
The Blood that Came Before You
Citadel of Stars
Ascending the Stellar Throne
I Sail on, Eternal
Who Will Guide Me Now
From the Land of the North
Where the Sun Never Sets

Ukrajinski horror black metalci They Came From Visions so pri Eisenwald izdali svoj drugi dolgometražec The Twilight Robes, iz katerega pa tudi predstavljajo svoj prvi videospot za skladbo The Blissful Defeat.

Finski doom/death metalci Swallow The Sun bodo 30. aprila pri Alone Records na vinilu izdali zbirko The Singles Collection (The Spinefarm Years). Kot pove že ime, bo izdaja pokrivala bandovo sodelovanje z založbo Spinefarm Records, natančneje te izdaje:

The Morning Never Came
Ghosts Of Loss
Hope
New Moon
Emerald Forest And The Blackbird
Plague Of Butterflies (EP)

Samael so objavili besedilni video za skladbo Moonskin s koncertnega albuma Passage – Live, ki ga bodo 16. februarja izdali pri Napalm Records. Tracklista:

Passage
Rain
Shining Kingdom
Angel's Decay
My Saviour
Jupiterian Vibe
The Ones Who Came Before
Liquid Soul Dimension
Moonskin
Born Under Saturn
Chosen Race
A Man in Your Head

Nemški melodični heavy metalci Reternity so posneli video za priredbo A Spaceman Came Travelling, ki jo v originalu izvaja Chris De Burgh.

Švicarski industrialci Samael sporočajo, da bodo 16. februarja pri Napalm Records izdali nov live album z naslovom Passage - Live. Album je bil posnet v Krakovu na zadnji dan turneje Passage 25th Anniversary Tour. Spodaj si lahko ogledate video za komad Jupiterian Vibe, live album pa bo zajemal naslednje komade:

Passage
Rain
Shining Kingdom
Angel's Decay
My Saviour
Jupiterian Vibe
The Ones Who Came Before
Liquid Soul Dimension
Moonskin
Born Under Saturn
Chosen Race
A Man In Your Head

Legendarni britanski thrasherji Xentrix so podpisali s francosko založbo Listenable Records. Spodaj si lahko preberete izjavo kitarista Kristiana Havarda:

»Xentrix are extremely excited to continue our relationship with Listenable Records by signing with them once again. Listenable is a label that is run by people who are incredibly focused, knowledgeable and more importantly, massively passionate about metal music. And it’s these differences that made it a no brainer when it came time to for the band to choose a label for new music.«

Brujeria, ki bodo nastopili prvi dan letošnje krstne edicije Tolminatorja, z novim vizualizerjem predstavljajo komad Mochado s prihajajočega albuma Esto es Brujeria, ki bo izšel 15. septembra pri Nuclear Blast Records. To bo njihov peti studijski dolgometražec po vrsti, prinaša pa naslednjih 16 komadov:

Esto es Brujeria
El patrón del reventón
Estado profundo
Bruja encabronada
G-A-K
Tu vida loca
Mexorcista
Bestia de la muerte
Políticamente correctos
Mochado
Perdido en el espacio
Odio que amo
Testamento 3.0
Covid-666
Lord nazi ruso
Cocaína

Belgijski doom/death metalci My Lament so podpisali za založbo Ardua Music, kjer bodo 22. septembra po več kot desetih letih ponovno izdali dolgometražni album. Ta bo nosil naslov The Season Came Undone in bo nasledil prvenec Broken Leaf iz leta 2009.

Iz tabora britanskih modernih metalcev Asking Alexandria sporočajo, da so bili zaradi zloma noge bobnarja Jamesa Cassellsa primorani odpovedati preostale nastope v sklopu njihove evropske turneje. Na tem mestu Jamesu želimo čim hitrejše okrevanje, spodaj pa si lahko preberete tudi izjavo banda v celoti.

»After seeing another specialist here in Estonia it has been advised that James rests his broken foot. Playing drums is just not an option for him at this current time.

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!«

Melodična death metal zasedba Ignea iz Ukrajine predstavlja drugi single Dunes s prihajajočega albuma Dreams of Lands Unseen. Album naj bi izšel 28. aprila, zajemal pa bo naslednje komade:

Téoura
Dunes
Camera Obscura
Далекі Обрії
To No One I Owe
Incurable Disease
Nomad’s Luck
The Golden Shell
Opiumist (feat. Tuomas Saukkonen)
Zénith

Newyorški progresivni metalci Sarmat so objavili izsek pesmi s prihajajočega EP-ja Dubious Disk, ki bo izšel 19. aprila pri založbi I, Voidhanger. Izseku lahko prisluhnete spodaj oziroma prednaročite EP na Bandcampu. Pri projektu, ki ga prežemajo vplivi jazza in sci-fija, med drugim sodelujeta Steve Blanco (Imperial Triumphant, Pak) in Oleg Zalman (Artificial Brain).

Člani Sarmat so:
James Jones – bobni
Cotter Champlin – kitara
Steve Blanco – baskitara, klavir
Andrew Gonzalez – vokal
Oleg Zalman – kitara
Cameron Carrella – trobenta, krilni rog