“Aeon of Cold” was shot at Summer Breeze Festival in Germany’s Dinkelsbühl.

Shadow World is available for pre-order here. Pre-orders with merch is available here.

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Krysantemia commented about the video and the track:

The whole video has been filmed by Pier Nicola Arena in the old part of my house before the work of its renovation. ‘Not Alone’ is very important because Alex [Ruggeri, guitar] wrote it in memory of his father who died when he was 8 years old. We tried to translate the anger of that moment to music.

Regarding the quote above, please note that Alex’ father probably wasn’t 8 years when he died, but rather Alex was 8 years old when his father died. Since he’s Italian, we’ll forgive him for his English grammar.

Finis Dierum was released earlier this year and can be purchased here.

Finis Dierum Track Listing:

1. In Corpus Diaboli
2. Finis Dierum
3. At last
4. Not Alone
5. Sadistic Possession
6. Incarnation
7. When the Sun Dies
8. Shadow of Fault
9. Try to get Lost
10. Six Feet Away
11. Saint Evil

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Veteran Greek/Swedish melodic death metal band, Nightrage, has launched a new digital single, “Foul Vile Life,” from their recently released sixth studio album, The Puritan. Check out “Foul Vile Life” now at Soundcloud.

Guitarist/founder member Marios Iliopoulos commented on the track:

This song is pure Nightrage style with thrashy riffs and ethereal melodies. I like the straightforward metal driving vibe of the song, and I remember this one was really easy for us to compose. Great vocal hooks here on the chorus from Ronnie, choir like, strong and powerful. The song has the signature Nightrage harmonies and tight signature riffs. The lyrics speak about this endless fight to get over your inner demons and break away from all the negativity and fear from the fake promises and lies. It’s a journey trying to find your inner self from all the dark past.

The Puritan can be purchased here.

The album was produced by Daniel Bergstrand (Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, Soilwork) and George Nerantzis at Dugout Productions in Uppsala, Sweden.

The Puritan Track Listing:

01. The Puritan
02. With a Blade of a Knife
03. Desperate Vows
04. Endless Night
05. Foul Vile Life
06. Stare into Infinity
07. Lone Lake (Instrumental)
08. Son of Sorrow
09. When Gold Turns to Rust
10. Fathomless
11. Kiss of a Sycophant

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Greek/Swedish melodic death metal band, Nightrage, is streaming its new single, “Desperate Vows,” over at MetalSucks. The track, featuring guest vocals from Lawrence Mackrory (Darkane, F.K.Ü.), comes from the band’s upcoming sixth studio album, The Puritan, due out April 24th.

Go check out the song and let us know your impressions. Personally, I think the mix sounds off and it sounds a little rushed.

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Decibel Magazine has teamed up with Arbitrator to premiere their latest track, “They Will Worship This Fire of Agony,” which is off the band’s upcoming debut album, Indoctrination of Sacrilege, due out on February 13th.

Head on over to decibelmagazine.com to feast your ears on “They Will Worship This Fire of Agony.”

Band founder, Robert Kukla comments on the track:

Those that hunger for massive, anthemic-like death metal of the blasphemous variety will be pleased to find indulgence within ‘They Will Worship This Fire of Agony’. Grand orchestras complement an onslaught of pummeling rhythms with distorted guitars, and unearthly vocals chime in the grand apocalypse in this electronically infused opus. This was the obvious ‘album-opener’ choice, as I felt it gave listeners a well-balanced introduction into the Arbitrator sound.

The album is produced by Sacha Laskow (ex-Divinity, Every Hour Kills) plus mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy) along with album artwork done by Colin Marks (Exodus, Scar Symmetry, Jeff Loomis). Arbitrator is a project that began in late 2010 as the brainchild of Robert Kukla and officially debuted in 2011 with the release The Consummate Ascendancy with former drummer Corey Chernesky. The new arsenal of Arbitrator features Robert Kukla on rhythm guitar, bass, and vocals, with drummer Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork, ex-Devin Townsend Project, ex-Aborted), Myles Malloy on lead guitar, and Connor ORT Linning for programming.

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After 20 years, Moonspell is still delivering the dark metal goods. Their latest endeavour, Extinct, is due out in March 2015, via Napalm Records. Extinct was produced by Jens Bogren (Katatonia, Amon Amarth, Opeth, and Paradise Lost).

Extinct Track Listing:

1. Until We Are No More (Breathe)
2. Medusalem
3. Funeral Bloom
4. Domina
5. La Baphomette
6. The Last Of Us
7. A Dying Breed
8. Malignia
9. Extinct
10. The Future Is Dark

Extinct will be available in Mediabook, Jewel Case, Special Limited Deluxe Edition, and LP.

Moonspell will embark on European headliner tour (Road to Extinction) with special guests Septic Flesh in March of 2015. Also confirmed are two Portuguese dates. March 27th marks a homecoming gig at the prestigious Lisbon Coliseum followed by a much anticipated return to the great city of Porto, on the 28th, at Hard Club.

Moonspell European Road to Extinction Tour:

w/ Septic Flesh
12.03.15 NL – Nijmegen / Doornroosje
13.03.15 NL – Haarlem / Patronaat
14.03.15 BE – Vosselaar / Biebob
15.03.15 DE – Darmstadt / Steinbruch Theater
16.03.15 DE – Essen / Turock
17.03.15 DE – Hamburg / Knust
18.03.15 DE – Berlin / K 17
19.03.15 DE – Munich / Feierwerk
20.03.15 CH – Pratteln / Z 7
21.03.15 CH – Vevey / The Rocking Chair
22.03.15 IT – Romagnano Sesia / R’n’R Arena
23.03.15 FR – Lyon / Ninkasi Kao
24.03.15 FR – Toulon / Vox
25.03.15 ES – Barcelona / Razz 2
26.03.15 ES – Madrid / Shoko
27.03.15 PT – Lisbon / Coliseum
28.03.15 PT – Porto / Hard Club
29.03.15 ES – Santiago de Compostela / Capitol
30.03.15 FR – Toulouse / Metronum
31.03.15 FR – Paris / Trabendo
01.04.15 LU – Esch sur Alzette / Kulturfabrik
02.04.15 UK – London / Underworld
03.06.15 DE – Geiselwind / Out & Loud Festival – Napalm Records Label Night

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Ensiferum has completed work on their upcoming new album, One Man Army. The band spent the last few weeks at Astia Studio in Lappeenranta in Finland with producer Anssi Kippo. The album is scheduled for release on February 24th in North America, and February 23rd/20th in the UK/Europe. New music, art, track listing, and video clips from the studio will be online within the next few weeks.

Next week, Ensiferum will be filming a brand new music video with Grupa #13 in Poland. Grupa #13 is the production house behind some of the most spectacular music videos in metal, including videos from Behemoth, Amon Amarth, and more.

Vocalist/guitarist Petri Lindroos comments:

We worked hard and long days one after another while Kippo kicked our asses to make us do the very best, and you can hear that in this album. It’s a killer album with killer sound. I’m very proud to a part of this masterpiece!

Bassist Sami Hinkka adds:

We are extremely proud to announce that the album is 100% done! The recording session was incredible experience for us. We can’t express our gratitude enough for Mr. Anssi Kippo, who never lost his nerves, was full of crazy ideas and worked like a madman for weeks! The shortest working day was 12 hours and the average was around 16 hours! After all ‘blood, sweat and tears’ it feels great to tell you that the result for years of hard composing and weeks of intense recordings is without a doubt the best Ensiferum album song- and soundwise. Material is pretty diverse and each song tells a tale of it’s own instead of being a crappy copy of previous song so no fillers included. Next week we go record the new music video, but that’s another story… Stay tuned!

Ensiferum will be on tour this autumn and already has shows and festival appearances confirmed for next year. The band plans to return to North America in May 2015.

Ensiferum Tour Dates:

+ special guests
11/03/15 DE – Bochum – Zeche
12/03/15 DE – Ludwigsburg – Rockfabrik
13/03/15 DE – München – Backstage
14/03/15 CZ – Zlin – Masters of Rock Café
15/03/15 HU – Budapest – Club 202
16/03/15 AT – Wien – Szene
18/03/15 IT – Milan – Live Club
19/03/15 CH – Lausanne – Les Docks
20/03/15 FR – Strasbourg – La Laiterie
21/03/15 CH – Pratteln – Z7
22/03/15 FR – Lyon – Ninkasi Kao
23/03/15 FR – Paris – Le Bataclan
24/03/15 UK – London – O2 Academy Islington
25/03/15 NL – Haarlem – Patronaat
26/03/15 NL – Zwolle – Hedon
27/03/15 BE – Vosselaar – Biebob
28/03/15 DE – Bremen – Tivoli
29/03/15 DE – Hamburg – Grünspan
30/03/15 DK – Copenhagen – Vega
31/03/15 SE – Stockholm – Göta Källare
01/04/15 SE – Gothenburg – Sticky Fingers
02/04/15 NO – Oslo – Inferno Metal Festival

w/ Orphaned Land
26/11/14 JP – Tokyo – Club Duo Exchange
27/11/14 JP – Osaka – Mamba Rocket
29/11/14 CN – Shanghai – Mao Livehouse
30/11/14 CN – Bejing – Yu Gong Yi Shan

2015 Festival Appearances
13/12/14 NL – Eindhoven – Metal Meeting
22/01-26/01/15 US – Miami – 70,000 Tons Of Metal
13/08/15 RO – Rasnov – Rockstadt Extremefest
13/08-15/08/15 DE – Dinkelsbühl – Summer Breeze Festival

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First, a bit of background. Laika hails from Canada and took their band name from the Soviet dog that was one of the first animals to be sent into space. They formed in 2009, independently released a self-titled album in 2010, hit the road and played alongside some pretty big heavyweights in the metal circuit, and finally took a small hiatus.

As a whole, Somnia has excellent pacing. It has a somber intro, a series of blistering melodic death metal tracks, a power-rhythm thrasher with tons of horror elements, a haunting instrumental, a punk-inspired track, more melo death, and closed out with a track that could easily fit into the Cradle of Filth catalog. Clearly, this is an ambitious album, and it’s surprisingly accomplished. While Laika’s inspiration is evident, there’s not a single point where they sound like a clone or like they’re trying too hard.

Somnia opens with “Restless Mind,” which will at first have you thinking of Doc Brown’s lab in Back to the Future. However, once the melancholic piano and synth work start up you know that you’re headed down a much darker path. Then, suddenly, the album breaks into track two, “Escalation of Terror,” which is a frenzy of Gothenburg-like metal. Lyrically, the track criticizes our complacency, while Jordan Dorge’s choppy vocal delivery demands our ears. What a hell of an opener!

The next two tracks, “Somnia” and “Fidelity,” are Laika’s melo-death bread and butter. It’s what they excel at, however, these songs serve as a primer for what is quite possibly the best song on the album, “Caligae A Galea.” There are really three parts to this track, which seem to correspond to the narrative. It starts off with a rhythmic, almost joyful sway, and some playful notes on the keys, but by the time we get to the second verse we’ve entered darker terrain with the melodic death led by an eerie guitar lead. Shortly thereafter, we enter the track’s second, and totally awesome, second phase. This part is horror. For some reason it reminds me of a Dario Argento film with a Goblin score. But that shift in everything leads to the track’s “rebirth” in fire as the intensity has doubled. The third part of the track is furious with the drums being beaten twice as fast, the guitars on fire, and the bass holding the chaos together.

After that masterful track you’d think we’d be ready for some more bread and butter, but no, Laika take us on an instrumental ride with “Dream of Nothing.” Here you’ll have over five pensive minutes to decide what to do with the rest of your life. While everyone gets their turn in the spotlight, it’s Blair Garraway on drums and Mike Mason on bass who really get to shine.

And still Laika doesn’t give us complete dedication to Gothenburg after “Dream of Nothing.” Nope. Instead we get the very punk-inspired “The Immortal.” At times I get a very Misfits vibe from this track, although most of you will disagree with me, since it does meet the melodic death metal requirements.

After all that diversity of sound, now we get some bread and butter. Good thing we’re hungry because “Predictions (Tide Bearer)” is a full serving. Bass and guitars are like a choppy ocean and the solos are like light, drifting birds on an updraft.

Somnia’s closing track, “Invaders,” is the most jazz-like, techie death song on the album. It’s really well crafted, but it’s not my thing. I do like the Back to the Future bookend though.

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Canadian black death band Idol of Fear has dropped their crushing new track, “Morningstar,” which can be heard at Bloody-Disgusting.com.

Vocalist/guitarist Austin Myers explains the inspiration behind the song:

‘Morningstar’ was inspired by and is in tribute to the allure of dark art, and the path taken by individuals who choose to explore its depths.

Check it out and you’re sure to find your head exploding with dopamine. The blackness is tangible, but you’ll definitely find a enough melody here to clasify this as melodic death. In essence, it’s inspired and it rocks!

“Morningstar” comes off the bands upcoming album, All Sights Affixed, Ablaze, due out November 18th.

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Karkaos has already announced Boyer as their new vocalist and have re-recorded the track “Leap of Faith” from Empire to show off her skills. Get a taste of it for yourself in the player above.

If you’d like to check out the Karkaos show, get tickets and additional information here.

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