MANOWAR’s new studio album, The Lord Of Steel, will first be released worldwide on June 16, 2012 exclusively on iTunes and on the band’s own online store, The Kingdom Of Steel.

On the same date, Metal Hammer UK will release a special ‘Steel Edition’ of Metal Hammer #233, including the CD and a digital copy of the album.

The Lord Of Steel is blazing with pure power, untamed energy, and a sound as raw and wild as a force of nature. Track titles like Annihilation and Hail, Kill And Die! set the tone for a record that is packed with surprises.

In contrast to the 2007 release Gods Of War, this new album is not a concept album, yet each song tells a different story, retaining the MANOWAR vision of righteousness, honor and everything MANOWAR fans have come to know and love.

MANOWAR fans should expect to have “their heads completely blown off” said MANOWAR bassist Joey DeMaio in a recent interview, and explained that “…this album is all about brutality and raw power!”

Known for their adventurous spirit and for never releasing the same style of album twice in a row, MANOWAR have this time tapped into the world of action heroes and their stories, writing their first song specifically for a Hollywood movie, EL GRINGO and another one, Expendable, inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s action movie franchise ‘The Expendables’.

The band recently announced that El Gringo will be the theme song of the action western EL GRINGO, featuring Scott Adkins (‘Expendables 2’, ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’) and Christian Slater and produced by After Dark Films (‘An American Haunting’) and Joel Silver’s (‘Matrix’, ‘Lethal Weapon’) Dark Castle Home Entertainment.

“We were talking about a concept album but then got inspired to go in a different direction. This is where we are right now,” explained Joey DeMaio. “I’ve been doing research on getting the best microphones and pre-amps for the guitars. The bass sound is death defying. We’ve done a lot of work on drums too, giving Donnie room to stretch out. And Eric will simply sound bigger than life as always.”

The album will be mixed and mastered at the legendary Wisseloord Studios by long-time collaborators mixing engineer Ronald Prent and two-time Grammy award-winning mastering engineer Darcy Proper.

Upcoming MANOWAR headlining tour dates:

Sat, June 16, 2012 – Ost Fest – Bucharest, Romania
Thu, June 21, 2012 – Gods Of Metal – Milan, Italy
Fri, July 6, 2012 – Getaway Rock Festival – Gävle, Sweden
Mon, July 9, 2012 – Dortmunder Music Week Festival – Dortmund, Germany

More info:
www.manowar.com
www.facebook.com/manowar
www.magiccirclemusic.com

1. Jess and the Ancient Ones – Sulfur Giants
   
2. Imprecation – As Blasphemy Reigns/Vomit Flood of Christian Remnants
   
3. Demoncy – The Arcane Aristocracy
   
4. Divine Eve – The Ravages of Heathen Men
   
5. Beherit – Demon Advance
   
6. Neptune Towers – The Arrival At Empire Algol
   
7. Cianide – Human Cesspool
   
8. Ceremonium – Serenity
   
9. Prong – Carved into Stone
   
10. Goatcraft – Culling in D minor
    
11. Sarcofago – Crush, Kill, Destroy
    

Recorded back in the hazy 1990s, The Dying Truth is a morbid sort of grindcore-influenced death metal that takes a death-doom pace with an eclectic but primitive approach to riffs.

The re-issue of this death/doom classic from 1992 with its original intended track order and “Funeral” (Demo 1990) and “Second Life” (Demo 1991) tracks as bonus.

Release date: May 18th.

CD $7.50
T-shirt $12.75
Combo $18.75

• Cianide – The Dying Truth re-issue pre-order

Neptune Towers’ rare 1994 debut of Ambient Soundscapes available on Peaceville for the first time.

Bleak and evocatively atmospheric, Neptune Towers was the brainchild of Darkthrone’s Fenriz.

The music takes its inspiration from the likes of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Kraftwerk.

This edition of Caravans To Empire Algol contains liner notes by Fenriz.

Pre-order now for 11th June 2012 release date.

1. Caravans To Empire Algol (24:32)
2. The Arrival At Empire Algol (12:37)

Glad to see this classic ride again. It’s like a darkwave version of Tangerine Dream, deep cosmic music that came out at a time when all black metal bands were experimenting with ambient. This is better than most however.

• Neptune Towers – Caravans to Empire Algol Preorder (£8.99 GBP)

DJ Cherrysthorne brings you the Dark End metal show and The Metal Trip show every week at the following times:

• The DarkEnd Metal Show ( Tuesdays 7-9pm EST)
  Thrash, speed, power, doom, black thrash and all kinds of 80’s metal
• The Metal Trip Show ( Mondays 10-Midnight EST)
  Atmospheric ambient metal, progressive rock and metal, and very dark doom.

Listen to Core of Destruction radio via javascript or winamp MP3 stream.

If you want your band or advertisement on the show, mail to:

CherrysThorne
501 Omar Drive
Killeen, TX 76542
cherrysthorne -at- gmail.com

SARCOFAGO’S Decade Of Decay was initially released in 1995, and official copies of it are virtually impossible to find anywhere… until now. Bearing a total of 20 tracks spawned over the band’s career, this reissue of the compilation album weighs in with over an hour and twelve minutes of blasting SARCOFAGO mayhem and debauchery, and even includes three songs from the Satanic Lust demo, two songs from The Black Vomit demo and two songs from the Christ’s Death demo. This represents the first time that SARCOFAGO demo material is available officially. The entire reissue process for this compilation album has been overseen by SARCOFAGO’s Wagner “Antichrist” Lamounier himself!

The first release in a series of SARCOFAGO albums set for official reissue through 2012 and beyond, the first stateside release of Decade Of Decay will take place in North America on June 5th as a 6-panel/full color digipak CD imported directly from Brazil, featuring a full-color fold-out poster with information on all of the songs included. The packaging features never-before-seen photos from SARCOFAGO throughout their various stages, going from INRI all the way to the Hate album. An ultra-limited deluxe 2xLP edition is to be released later in the Summer with details to be confirmed shortly.

Decade of Decay Track Listing:
1. The Lost Of Innocence
2. Orgy Of Flies
3. Hate
4. The God’s Faeces
5. Song For My Death
6. Midnight Queen
7. Screeches From The Silence
8. Piercings
9. Crush, Kill, Destroy
10. Nightmare
11. Rotting
12. I.N.R.I.
13. Desecration Of Virgin
14. Recrucify
15. The Black Vomit
16. Satanic Lust
17. Christ’s Death
18. The Anal Rape of God
19. Satanas
20. Third Slaughter

Florida-based Greyhaze Records is now the official North American distributor for Brazilian label Cogumelo Records. Cogumelo is well-respected throughout the extreme metal world, having been founded over thirty years ago, and having released a steady arsenal of quality death, thrash and grind from acts including Sarcófago, Mutilator, Holocausto, Sextrash, Impurity, Chakal, Psychic Possessor, Ratos de Porão, Vulcano, Headhunter DC, Drowned, Defacer, Calvary Death and more. Cogumelo was responsible for the initial release of the Sepultura’s seminal first three albums — Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions and Schizophrenia — now exclusively under license to Roadrunner Records.

http://www.greyhazerecords.com
http://www.facebook.com/greyhazerecords
http://www.cogumelo.com

• Sarcofago – Decade of Decay Digipak CD $15

The debut album of Jess and the Ancient Ones now available for pre-ordering as CD and LP. Will be released on May 19 and shipped the day before. Featuring Antti Boman of Demilich and other talented stalwarts of the Finnish uebermetal pool. Rumored to be psychedelic/funeral doom crossover.

• Jess and the Ancient Ones – S/T CD, LP and Tshirt
• Jess and the Ancient Ones website
• Jess and the Ancient Ones logo tshirt

There is no “Houston sound,” but Houston bands are converging on a sound that is pure old school doom/death metal with a tendency to praise Satan. Part of it must come from living in the Bible Belt, surrounded by heavy refinery machinery and the incessant roaring of traffic. Another part may be that mythological hell is actually in Houston. Hell is described as a blazing hot place full of demonic beings, horrible stench and infernal rage. If you’ve ever driven on I-45 during a Friday afternoon…

Much like spinoff bands Blaspherian and Morbus 666, and fellow old school death metal worshippers War Master, Imprecation makes violent death metal that is not especially fast so much as it is varied in dynamic and tempo. These songs approach like a vaporous ghost, then enclose the listener and then clench them into tight sequences of dark cadence. Simple power chord riffs fit together like an apocalyptic Jenga puzzle and bring the listener through labyrinthine contortions to a place of inner clarity and, quite honestly, Satanic hatred.

With its use of selected keyboards to highlight the evil of particular passages, and extensive variation in riff shape not only between songs but through the life of each song, this style of old school death metal fits best with bands like Infester or Sinister who bent simple but twisted riffs into a language of their own. Nonetheless, the release has a distinctive middle-of-the-United-States sound, with broad open spaces and lurching trudge rhythms that sound like malevolent demons summoned to battle. These songs are carefully layered, with voices and lead guitar complementing the underlying action, but with the Malevolent Creation-style (think “Multiple Stab Wounds” off The Ten Commandments) interplay between vocals and muted chording that lures you into a delirium of hypnosis.

Released on the 20th anniversary of the recording of the first Imprecation demo, “The Order of Nine Angles,” this four-song testament to brutality will convince even cynical observers that an unspeakable evil exists in Houston. Luckily it’s also a highly listenable evil that may represent not only this band’s most mature work yet, but their most inspired.

‎!!!!!! PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!
I’M NOT ONE TO GET CAUGHT UP IN DRAMA BUT I WANT PEOPLE TO SEE WHAT CHILDISH SHIT RICK AND I ARE DEALING WITH!!!
THIS WAS POSTED ON THE FORMER VOCALISTS FACEBOOK PAGE A FEW DAYS AGO….

people need go and and give Butler and Rozz SHIT about it… they are the ones who desrve to get blastered with HATE MAIL… not me. Plus… you know… they are the one’s going to be touring soon… so now is your chance people… if you really feel that pissed off about them reforming with out me… NOW is the chance to go and let them know how you feel… go to show… and confront them… but – who am I kidding right… most people are too chicken shit to voice their opinions to people face to face. BUT- if you do have the balls to do it… PLEASE video tape it… and put it up on YOUTUBE. – Kam Lee

WHAT A COWARD,ASKING WHAT FANS YOU HAVE TO GO ON YOUTUBE AND BASH US…..CLASSIC – Terry Butler

I remain a Kam Lee fan. But after dishonorable dealings on his part, I’ll never have anything to do with him again. It’s not personal and if he wants, I will say it to his face. It’s also not acrimonious. I deal with professionals only.

I am calling this new genre post-black-metal. It is the spirit and mood of black metal, the rhythms of 1980s EBM and industrial, the samples and collage technique of martial industrial, the atmosphere of neofolk, the sweeping epic point of view of soundtracks, and that sense of world music evoking the spirit of ancient tribalist folk songs from Europe that Dead Can Dance had going. Mix all this together, and you get a new genre which has a few members such as Kreuzweg Ost, later Burzum, Arcana, Lord Wind and even the Beherit ambient albums.

This is a natural progression for black metal. It admitted its 1970s synthpop and ambient cosmic music influences. Even more, it was influenced by Danzig’s Black Aria and other soundtracks like those from Vangelis and Basil Poledouris. Metal itself was influenced by the soundtracks to 1960s Italian horror cinema. Beherit put out two ambient albums, Burzum two, and Darkthrone released its Tangerine Dream tribute band Neptune Towers. Even Emperor released that keyboard version of “Inno a Satana,” and Ildjarn put out three ambient landscape music albums. It’s in black metal’s blood, and with the end of the innovation of the style itself in the mid-1990s, the bands turned to the next step. More instruments, longer songs, more modes, more complexity.

Rolling on the success of bands such as Blood Axis and Lord Wind, the newest entry into this field is Winglord, a Scandinavian produce that hopes to rebirth the ancient spirit of Europe through synth-piano music. As mentioned above, it’s poppy like old Ministry or VNV Nation, but it has more musicality going on, like a Dead Can Dance track. It’s easy to listen to and yet melancholy, yet brings forth a message of not “small hopes” in the way modern music is “uplifting” but does nothing about the larger crisis of living in an insane and dying society, but instead shows us a way we can conquer the disease of this time. First in our hearts, then in our minds, then with our hands. It’s inspiration not through external forces, but through a sense of power, which is where it is most like black metal.

These tracks are built on a foundation of martial industrial and industrial dance (EBM). Verse-chorus loops are broken by interludes; layers extend melodies with different conclusions and beginnings. Melodies themselves, in a manner much like the way Summoning expands its riffs into soundtrack-style phrases, unfurl from lush keyboard layers into linear variation which then outlines the themes of each songs. It’s highly organized however which makes the entire listening experience a controlled, evocative process.

The Chosen One is a huge improvement over earlier Winglord, and shows us one future for this genre. It doesn’t aspire at all to the trends and individualistic ego-drama of the modern time. Instead, it creates for us a vista of a land outside of time, in which eternal values obliterate all of our temporal concerns, and lets us get lost and swept up in this majestic wave of power. For those who like good music, and want to see some new motion in the underground, this is a vital and impressive undertaking to be enjoyed.

Winglord
The Chosen One
Arktos, 2012, 43 minutes, $17.