New York Death Thrash Juggernauts FINAL SIEGE Sign With WormHoleDeath

New York Death Thrash Juggernauts FINAL SIEGE Sign With WormHoleDeath

New York City’s death thrash titans, Final Siege, are stoked to announce their signing with WormHoleDeath Records for the release of their earth-shattering album, Nuclear Doom State, dropping December 27, 2024.

Final Siege comments: “We are incredibly excited to have signed with WormHoleDeath Records. It is an incredible honor to be part of such a well-renowned label that has helped so many bands and artists reach their full potential in their music careers. We are looking forward to what we can accomplish together and cannot wait to unleash our vision on the world.”

“The concept behind Nuclear Doom State was to shed light on what we are experiencing in societies all over the world,” states Final Siege. “The corrupt governments, the top 1% of the wealthiest individuals in the world, religious institutions, and social media platforms all play a hand in our collective suffering. The title track of the album serves as a sort of premonition of what’s to come if we continue down the path we’re currently on. While ‘W.A.R.’ is more of a rallying cry for the middle and poorer classes to unite as one to change the current state of our lives. Stylistically this album was heavily influenced by bands like Death, Exodus, Power Trip, Slayer, and Gojira. It took a little less than a year to complete the album even with a lineup change in 2022. When our newest members Rob Maldonado and Ameer ‘The Beheader’ Aljallad joined the band in April of 2023 we immediately went to work on all the songs that had been written over the years that would make up this album. Together we managed to come up with some great ideas for the songs to have them reach their full potential. Rob himself even contributed to the album with his song titled ‘Primordial Combat’ which was influenced lyrically by the anime series Baki Hanma.”

Nuclear Doom State artwork and tracklisting:

“The Day After…”
“W.A.R.”
“Nuclear Doom State”
“Psychological Maceration”
“An Insatiable Lust For Violence”
“Primordial Combat” 
“Taxed To Death”

“Taxed To Death” video:


MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN Offers Introduction To Brazilian Jiu Jitsu In Upcoming Streaming Film; Video Trailer

MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN Offers Introduction To Brazilian Jiu Jitsu In Upcoming Streaming Film; Video Trailer

“The Great In Between: An Introduction To Jiu Jitsu,” a Maynard James Keenan-hosted introduction to the dynamic sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, debuts on December 13 via Puscifertv.com.

Filmed at the Verde Valley Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy in Cottonwood, Ariz., the 90-minute class offers a hands-on seminar tailored for beginners and the Jiu Jitsu-curious. Led by Keenan and a group of skilled black belts, the team guides viewers through the essential development of stabilizing muscles and myelin connections, building a foundation for success in this confidence-building, puzzle-solving martial art.

“You can do this,” Keenan says. “We’ve got your back. Not literally. But we can also teach you how to get us off your back. See what I did there?”

Pre-orders of the film, which is available as a 72-hour rental, and various commemorative merch bundles, are available now via Puscifertv.com. A Cyber Monday special is available today only, featuring a 20% discount on bundles over $50 with the code VVBJJ24 (limit one per customer).

“The Great In Between: An Introduction To Jiu Jitsu” was directed by Chris Staab and features music by Puscifer.

About Verde Valley Brazilian Jiu Jitsu:

The Verde Valley Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studio, located at 1100 S. AZ-260 in Cottonwood, Arizona, was founded by Maynard James Keenan. The academy offers a wide range of classes for all ages and experience levels, with a mission to preserve and share the fundamentals of martial arts. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, much like life itself, is a journey – a path filled with obstacles that are worth overcoming. It’s a journey of self-discovery. Verde Valley BJJ was established to serve as a starting point for those journeys, for self-defense, competitive sport, and physical, mental, and spiritual development.

(Photo – Nicole Staab)


All hail the goth Led Zeppelin: Every album by The Cure ranked from worst to best

Robert Smith in 1986, studio portrait

(Image credit: Ross Marino/Getty Images)

For Robert Smith, black has always been the new black. In a career spanning almost 50 years, the haystack-haired singer has steered his band The Cure through the gloomy aftermath of punk, patented much of the goth aesthetic, dabbled in psychedelia, and recorded a huge canon of all-time classic alt-pop anthems. With the release of their first album in 16 years, Songs Of A Lost World, The Cure have reclaimed their throne as alt-rock elder statesmen, a seminal influence on multiple younger generations and musical subcultures, from shoegaze to grunge, emo to nu-metal and beyond.

The shorthand caricature of The Cure’s sound would be Smith’s whimpering adolescent angst set to a spangled churn of minor-key guitars, yet these perennial cult favourites have actually amassed a remarkably eclectic body of work over the decades. Their opening suite of youthful albums was rooted in the monochrome angularity of post-punk, but during the 1980s they also embraced roaringly romantic pop, jazzy textures and stadium-sized goth-rock dynamics. An enduring fondness for psychedelia also runs through Smith’s musical hinterland, as manifested in Hendrix and Doors covers, a fondness for trippy guitar effects, and a flair for phantasmagorical imagery that taps a rich tradition of English literary surrealism ranging from Lewis Carroll to Edward Lear to Mervyn Peake.

Alongside Def Leppard and Depeche Mode, The Cure were one of the few British bands to truly conquer America in the 1980s and 1990s. The panda-eyed, lipstick-smudged Edward Scissorhands of rock greeted each new creative rebirth with wild mood swings between bleak despair symphonies and fizzy, giddy, super-catchy jangle-pop love songs. On more accessible albums like The Top and The Head On The Door, the band stopped being sullen outsiders and blossomed into a universal cult that everyone could join. In the process, they became part of the global pop fabric, inspiring cover versions by everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to Adele, Dinosaur Jr. to Tricky, Mark Lanegan to Phoebe Bridgers.

As The Cure’s sole remaining founder, Smith has had boozy fights and fall-outs with numerous former members, reshaping the line-up multiple times. Over the last decade, the band has absorbed former David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels, whose avant-metal pyrotechnics helped re-energise their sonic palette on the huge-sounding Songs Of A Lost World. Once they were arty punk-pop outsiders. Nowadays, their multi-guitar-chugging assault can feel more akin to seeing Neil Young in full Crazy Horse mode, or even a kind of gothic Led Zeppelin.

Almost half a century on, Robert Smith remains one of British rock’s true originals

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Stephen Dalton has been writing about all things rock for more than 30 years, starting in the late Eighties at the New Musical Express (RIP) when it was still an annoyingly pompous analogue weekly paper printed on dead trees and sold in actual physical shops. For the last decade or so he has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock magazine. He has also written about music and film for Uncut, Vox, Prog, The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rolling Stone, The Times, The London Evening Standard, Wallpaper, The Film Verdict, Sight and Sound, The Hollywood Reporter and others, including some even more disreputable publications.

NORTHERN STRUM Feat. CARL DIXON And SEAN KELLY Perform RUSH, CONEY HATCH Classics; Video

December 2, 2024, 11 hours ago

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NORTHERN STRUM Feat. CARL DIXON And SEAN KELLY Perform RUSH, CONEY HATCH Classics; Video

Carl Dixon (Coney Hatch, The Guess Who, April Wine) and Sean Kelly (Nelly Furtado, Lee Aaron, Crash Kelly) join forces as Northern Strum, a classic rock duo reviving timeless tunes, Canadian music and classic rock.

In the new videos below, the duo perform the iconic Rush hit “Closer To The Heart”, as well as Coney Hatch’s “Hey Operator”:

In the previously posted clips below, Dixon and Kelly perform BTO’s “Let It Ride”, Trooper’s “We’re Here For A Good Time (Not A Long Time)”, and Anne Murray’s “Snowbird”.


TRISTANIA Founder Morten Veland’s MORTEMIA Release Cover Of THE DOORS’ “Riders On The Storm”; Audio

TRISTANIA Founder Morten Veland's MORTEMIA Release Cover Of THE DOORS'

Morten Veland (Sirenia, Mortemia, and founder of Tristania) has released the eleventh Mortemia song from The Covid Aftermath Sessions today. The track is a cover version of “Riders On The Storm” originally recorded by The Doors, featuring Emma Zoldan from Sirenia on guest vocals. The song is available on all digital platforms.

Says Morten Veland: “I’m proud and honoured to welcome my dear friend and collaborator through 20 years, my Sirenia colleague Emma Zoldan as my special guest for The Covid Aftermath Sessions. The song that we have done together is a cover version of The Doors’ classic song ‘Riders on the Storm’. I am thrilled with how the song turned out, I feel that me and Emma were able to make a very cool take on this awesome song who I have been a huge fan of for as long as I can remember. I feel truly privileged and thankful to have Emma back on board this project, as she already was part of the choir on Mortemia’s debut album back in 2010. We are really looking forward to sharing this song with you all. The song will be available on all digital platforms on Friday the 29th of November 2024”.

Emma states: “I have been very enthusiastic to be invited again to collaborate with Morten on his Mortemia project after so many years, and so excited with the choice he did with covering ‘Riders On The Storm’. It gave me lots of emotion putting my voice on this anthologic, dark and emotional song from The Doors, that we all know from our childhood. I Hope you’ll enjoy it!”

Stream the song here, and listen below:

After 11 years of silence Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, producer and artist Morten Veland activated his solo project Mortemia during the early stages of the Covid 19 pandemic, this time with a brand new concept consisting of collaborations with multiple guest singers. The Pandemic Pandemonium Sessions was a series of singles released on a monthly basis, each song featuring a well known and highly profiled guest singer from the metal scene. Now he is ready to endeavor on the next project entitled The Covid Aftermath Sessions, once more the project will feature multiple amazing guest singers.

So far the following singers has contributed for his collaborations:

Madeleine Liljestam (Eleine)
Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion, Ayreon, MaYaN, Dark Horse White Horse)
Alessia Scolletti (Temperance, ERA)  
Liv Kristine (Liv Kristine, ex-Theatre of Tragedy, ex-Leaves Eyes)  
Melissa Bonny (Ad Infinitum, The Dark Side of the Moon)
Brittney Slayes (Unleash the Archers)
Maja Shining (Forever Still)
Erica Ohlsson (Metalite)
Heidi Parviainen (Dark Sarah, ex Amberian Dawn)
Zora Cock (Blackbriar)
Linda Toni Grahn (Anima Veil, ex Follow the Cipher)
Caterina Nix (Chaos Magic)
Federica Lanna (Volturian)
Ulli Perhonen (ex-Snow White Blood)
Ambre Vourvahis (Xandria)
Fabienne Erni (Eluveitie, Illumishade)
Lindy-Fay Hella (Wardruna)
Margarita Monet (Edge of Paradise)
Marina La Torraca (Exit Eden, Phantom Elite)
Nicoletta Rosellini (Alterium, Walk in Darkness)
Maxi Nil (Jaded Star, ex Visions of Atlantis)
Capri (Amberian Dawn)
Emma Zoldan (Sirenia)

(Photo – Photorichelle)


FOCUS Created This Strange Yodeling Song To Diss Prog Rock, And Landed A Smash Hit; PROFESSOR OF ROCK Reports (Video)

November 29, 2024, an hour ago

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FOCUS Created This Strange Yodeling Song To Diss Prog Rock, And Landed A Smash Hit; PROFESSOR OF ROCK Reports (Video)

Professor Of Rock has released the new video below, along with the following intro…

“Coming up… It’s one of the most mind-bending tracks in rock history – a fusion of blistering guitar riffs, wild improvisation, and sheer audacity. ‘Hocus Pocus’ by the Dutch rock band Focus. Born from a mix of spontaneity and a wicked sense of humour, the guitarist Jan Akkerman played it as a send-up of all the rock bands of his time. He wrote it as a joke to take the piss out of them a bit and in the process, he created a rock classic that could hold its own alongside his contemporaries. ‘Hocus Pocus’ was an unexpected masterpiece and defied every convention of the time, proving that music could be both virtuosic and downright fun. It was never supposed to be a hit, and even though there’s plenty of singing in it, it doesn’t really have lyrics… yet it broke boundaries and climbed the charts, leaving audiences speechless on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the story of how a little madness turned into musical magic as the only yodeling orc song to hit the charts… next on Professor Of Rock.”


Sick New World Festival Featuring METALLICA And LINKIN PARK Is Officially Cancelled

November 29, 2024, an hour ago

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Sick New World Festival Featuring METALLICA And LINKIN PARK Is Officially Cancelled

Metallica and Linkin Park were set to headline the third edition of Sick New World, scheduled for April 12, 2025 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.

Organizers have cancelled the event, sharing the following via social media:

“It is with great disappointment that we announce that Sick New World will no longer take place in Las Vegas on April 12, 2025.

“Despite our best efforts, we’ve encountered unforeseen circumstances that we are unable to overcome for next year’s show. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the dedicated SNW fans who had made plans to join us for another cultural celebration of hard rock, goth, alternative and heavy music. Please stay tuned for further and future information regarding Sick New World.

“Tickets purchased directly from Front Gate Tickets will be automatically refunded to the original method of payment in as little as 30 days.”


DAVID LEE ROTH Releases New “Giddy Up” Video

November 29, 2024, an hour ago

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DAVID LEE ROTH Releases New

Van Halen singer, David Lee Roth, has released a new video for “Giddy Up”, a song he released in 2020 as part of his 17-chapter web comic book, The Roth Project. Check out the new clip below:

Roth previously released the video below, featuring a dance routine performed to Busy Signal’s “Balloon”:

Prior to that he shared the video below, featuring a dance routine performed to Van Halen’s classic, “Dance The Night Away”, originally featured on Van Halen II, the second studio album from the legendary American rock band.


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TESLA Release All About Love EP; Title Track Video Streaming

TESLA Release All About Love EP; Title Track Video Streaming

Tesla today release their All About Love EP, a special edition single on a limited collector’s 12″ vinyl. A video for the title track can be found below.

What you will hold in your hands is a one of a kind collector’s edition 12” vinyl EP that showcases Tesla’s new song “All About Love” in the three formats that Tesla the band is famously known for: electric, acoustic, and live performances. Multiple versions of this new song are presented here on this EP.

Music lovers will state that a great “song” will sound great played in any of these formats, so Tesla’s Brian Wheat and Frank Hannon have teamed up to produce this 12” vinyl EP of their new single  “All About Love” showcasing these different versions of the song.

Captured by Brian Wheat in his upstate NY recording studio, there is an electric version that shows how the band performs the song in full force, as well as two stripped down acoustic versions that showcase the dynamics of his mixes. Thus, Jeff Keith’s heartfelt lyrics about sharing love can be felt and to honor Tesla’s tradition of  adding an acoustic instrumental to their love ballads, Frank Hannon recorded here a new classically influenced acoustic guitar solo piece titled “From The Heart” that is a nod to their 1987 hit “Love Song”.

Furthermore, to present the “live in concert” element of Tesla, a rendition of “All About Love” segues into James Gang’s classic song “Walk Away”, both were recorded live at a Las Vegas concert earlier this year. They are included here as bonus tracks.

Throughout their nearly 40 year career, Tesla the band has performed diligently showing their prowess in these diverse environments. Both their electric and acoustic formats are received with love and acceptance by their loyal fanbase and Tesla the band is still selling out concerts to this day.

Order here.


10 brilliant vinyl deals you won’t want to miss this Black Friday

There’s no better time than Black Friday to look to pick up some excellent deals on new music. No, seriously. Whether you’re looking on Amazon, EMP or Townsend Music, there’s a frankly absurd number of offers flying around that could see you save massive amounts on vinyl.

So how do you wade through such a packed landscape? Well, that’s where we come in. We’ve hunted high and low, far and wide to find some of the best deals we can find this Black Friday, covering a litany of styles and genres.

To kick us off, how about the most talked-about reunion of 2024? Granted, it’s technically not happened yet, but if you’re one of the thousands who didn’t manage to bag tickets for the Oasis world tour in 2025, you can still make some big savings on the 30th anniversary edition of their landmark Definitely Maybe vinyl. Reduced by 24% on Amazon UK, the box set is now just £47.24.

Wind the clocks back a decade further though, and Mötley Crüe ruled the world. Granted, it took until 1989’s Doctor Feelgood until they hit the very top of the US charts, but their notoriety and image made them a trend-setting force in glam metal. You can now pick up a red & white splatter variation of that vinyl via Townsend Music for £25.

Opeth have only just released their superb new album The Last Will & Testament, so no surprise that one hasn’t popped up with any deals yet (but it certainly won’t stop us from looking!). That said, you can get a massive 24% off the soundtrack to Netflix’s Clark on EMP. Clark is an impressive work even by Mikael Åkerfeldt’s lofty standards and for £21.99 is well worth exploring.

So let’s talk about a reunion that has happened. Slayer made a very welcome comeback in 2024 with live festival appearances in the US, and if that’s stoked your love for thrash metal legends, you’ll want to pick up a copy of The Repentles Killogy on amber vinyl. Amazon UK currently have it at just £21.06, a 31% reduction from its original price.

You can also find a special Gold & Black splatter variant of Sleep Token’s Take Me Back To Eden on Amazon UK. 20% off means you can pick up the band’s global breakthrough for just £28.08, though given the sheer scale of the band’s success in recent years we’d say you’ll want to pick up a copy of this as soon as possible.

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That’s a lot of deals for UK music fans, but how about the US? Let’s start with the regal red vinyl of The Hu’s sophomore record Rumble Of Thunder. With 15% off at Amazon US, you can now pick that up for just $29.73, a fine sum to part with in exchange for the finest sounds of Mongolian metal.

Metallica had massive celebrations of their seminal Black Album in 2021 and with good reason – it’s no mystery how it became one of the best-selling rock and metal albums of all time. You can pick up your own copy of that legendary album for just $23.94 on Amazon US, a 20% reduction from its original price.

Another iconic record you can pick up with savings is Green Day’s Dookie, practically a steal at less than $20 on Amazon US. The 22% saving should be all the persuasion you need to own your own copy of the album that helped revive punk rock in the 90s (and kickstarted a subsequent generation of pop punk bands).

Also in the sub-$20 club is the remastered vinyl of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning. Vinyl connoisseurs will tell you there’s no better way of hearing this iconic metal release than in LP format, and Amazon’s Black Friday deal means you can now pick it up for just $17.82.

Closing us out is Type O Negative’s Dead Again, the iconic doom metal band’s final record from 2007 that is now available for $32.23 in Green/Black splatter vinyl variant. Unavailable for years, the fact you can now pick this up for such a low price should make it an absolute must for any doom/goth metal fan.

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