Risingfall

Rise or Fall – Kono Art: Velio Josto When I said that I am a typical Japanese person who does not have a very strong religious view, music might be my religion. I want to listen to good music and make good music myself because this is my purpose in life. So the most necessary…

Raptore

Blackfire – Rebecca Tovey Art: Lu Agudelo Bio: Formed in late 2012 by vocalist/guitarist Nico Cattoni, Raptore hailed from Buenos Aires, Argentina and released their first demo in 2014. In 2016, they released their debut album, Rage N’ Fever, which allowed them to tour South America and open for such bands as Exciter and Enforcer.…

Fate’s Hand

Self titled Fate’s Hand with band Art: Paolo Girardi With the roar of parting waves and the call of a thousand ravens, Australian heavy metal thunders into a new being bearing the ever-ominous moniker Fate’s Hand. Expect less, and your life is forfeit. Fate’s Hand draw the first sword. Creative rituals? When the ideas come,…

Armory

Mercurion – Cpt. P. Andersson, Anglegrinder Art: Anders Muammar HMA: Describe your lyrics. Cpt. P. Andersson: Obviously, our lyrics are mainly based around space, Science fiction and the vast depths of the cosmos, at least nowadays. We started out writing about whatever we thought of, but Sci-fi and space have always been our main topics.…

Animalize

Meat We’re Made Of – Niels ‘Coyote’ Bang Design:  Robin Chave “Harons” Like for our debut EP’s artwork, we did it ourselves. We called a photographer for the professional quality, but all the artistic process came from us. This one was made to embarrass the viewers. Nobody wants to have a human head on their…

Witchunter

Metal Dream – Witchunter Art: Paolo Girardi Bio: Founded in 2007, Italy’s Witchunter began as the manifestation of true heavy metal obsession. Foremost among those metallic obsessions were the NWOBHM, ’80s European heavy metal and speed metal, and especially 70s hard rock sounds and attitude. It all coalesced into a paradoxically refreshing time-warp where traditional…

Witch Blade

Månsken – Witch Blade Art: Joel Sundin Bio: Witch Blade was formed in 2012 by Witchlover and Witchhunter in Kristinehamn, Sweden. The two childhood friends had been playing together in other projects but wanted to form a band and write riffs to honour their heavy metal heroes; Angel Witch, Tokyo Blade, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.…

Witchseeker

Scene of the Wild with Witchseeker Witchseeker is a heavy metal band from Singapore. They were formed in 2012 by bassist/lead vocalist Sheikh Spitfire in late 2012, initially as a one-person project. Witchseeker has gone through different lineups, from a trio, a duo, a trio again and presently, a quartet. With Brandon Speedranger on guitars,…

Significant Point

Into the Storm with Gou Takeuchi, Kazuki Kuwagaki HMA: Any stories worth sharing in getting the album together? GT: It took us a year and a half to record the album due to covid. During the recording process, a state of emergency was declared, and there was a time when we couldn’t work on recording…

Soulcaster

A brand-new entity hailing from Belgium, the sword-swinging brigands of Soulcaster shall make their mark across the metal underground with their five-song Maelstrom of Death and Steel. In a swift-but-satisfying 22 minutes, Soulcaster erect towers of fantastical heavy metal might, evincing a stout grasp of epic-yet-punchy songwriting and a whole host of unique contrasts which…

Hexecutor

Beyond Any Human Conception of Knowledge by Jey Deflagratör Hexecutor name came from the idea to find a name that stands in one word. Short, simple, efficient. It’s a mix of two words, since the “H” is from Hexe, for witchcraft, but it still maintains the goal as mentioned above. It means what it means,…

Blackevil

Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire by Abyss, Deathinfektor Hailing from Bavaria, Blackevil has been forging fire since 2013. Their first demo, appropriately titled Hail the Cult, emerged from the darkness in 2015, auspiciously revealing a razor-sharp and endlessly salacious style of black thrash. Come Blackevil’s debut album, 2017’s The Ceremonial Fire, the power-trio up-ratcheted everything:…

Deathstorm

For Dread Shall Reign by Marco Stebich The band’s name Deathstorm popped up sporadically in my head when I Hate Records reached out to us after having heard our demo. Said demo was released in 2009 under the old band name Damage. Peter from I Hate suggested that we probably should change our name before…

Megaton Sword

Megaton Sword was founded in 2018. In 2019 the EP “Niralet” was released, and now in 2020 the debut album “Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire”. Megaton Sword is Uzzy Unchained on vocals, Chris the Axe on guitar, Simon the Sorcerer on bass and Dan Thundersteel on drums. Live from now on Seth Angel…

Aggressive Perfector

Havoc at the Midnight Hour By D. Shaw With one eye on heavy metal’s heritage and the other looking ahead to the impending Armageddon, Aggressive Perfector is classic heavy metal played with fire and fury that cuts deep in our fearful times. Released in 2016, their 4 track tape ‘Satan’s Heavy Metal’ established the band…