Tag: heavy metal

LUNAR SHADOW To Release Highly Anticipated Third Album, ‘Wish To Leave’, in March. Repressing of debut album “Far From Light” available in February.

Enrico

German metallers LUNAR SHADOW will release their third studio album, “Wish To Leave” on March 19 via Cruz Del Sur Music.

“Wish To Leave” marks a change in direction for LUNAR SHADOW — after two well-received albums of heavy metal-meets-Scandinavian black metal, founder, guitarist and songwriter Max Birbaum had other, more experimental things in mind, namely, taking the band into indie/post-punk territory:

“It certainly sounds different and I suppose many people won’t like it,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to the release; a little controversy in difficult times might just be what everyone needs right now.

“The guitars are taken back a little this time, the gain on our amps is lower, the bass is more prominent. No fast shredding, no wild riffing. But our pants are still tighter than they should be and our boots are pointy — it’s a good album to have a drink to and forget about your problems. Or make them worse… that depends.”

The follow-up to 2019’s “The Smokeless Fires” was recorded from July to November 2020 in Leipzig under the careful eye of engineer/producer Max Herrmann; V. Santura of DARK FORTRESS and TRIPTYKON fame is responsible for mastering. The artwork was created by renowned Russian artist Denis Forkas Kostromitin.

Birbaum previously announced plans to cease all LUNAR SHADOW live activities after their now-postponed appearance at the 2020 Party.San Open Air festival.

“Wish To Leave” track listing

  1. Serpents Die
  2. Delomelanicon
  3. I Will Lose You
  4. To Dusk And I Love You
  5. And Silenced Screamed
  6. The Darkness Between The Stars

At the same time, Lunar Shadow and Cruz Del Sur Music decided to repress the long-sold out debut full length of the band in February. “Far From Light” repressing will be available in BLACK VINYL, LMT 400 copies, INSERT & DOWNLOAD CODE.

Pre-order: https://tinyurl.com/y373lt6v – available on Feb 15, 2021.

CORONARY “Sinbad” to be released on Feb 19, 2021

Enrico

Raise your fist and bang your head — the golden age of metal lives on through Coronary!  

“Coronary refuse to reinvent the heavy metal wheel.” This quote — attributed to Metal Crypt — appropriately sums up everything this Finnish quintet stands for. While there are still some who balk at the idea that metal should have both of its feet firmly planted in its glory years, there is a growing consensus that this was the time when metal was at its best. Without all of the mindless, if not grating sub-genre tags that exist today, 1980s heavy metal was pure, raging, and, most of all, fun. Coronary recaptures those elements and more on their first full-length album and initial release for Cruz Del Sur Music, Sinbad.

Coronary came together in 2017 when guitarist Aku Kytölä and drummer Pate Vuorio happened to be browsing in the same second-hand vinyl section at a Tampere flea market. The two instantly struck up a connection over their shared love of music and over time, started making plans to form a band of their own. The band was soon rounded out by Korpiklaani bassist Jarkko Aaltonen, second guitarist Jukka Holm and vocalist Olli Kärki, and got to work on writing original material. The freshly-branded Coronary promptly issued Demo 2018, an effort so promising that Gates of Hell Records paired the band with emerging Canada metallers Traveler for a highly-regarded split release the same year.

Recorded at Headline Studio in Tampere under the guidance of producer/engineer Jari Latomaa, Sinbad picks up where Coronary left off their debut demo. Fans were treated to a handful of sneak previews earlier in 2020 with songs such as “I Can Feel This Love,” “The Hammer” and “Reflector,” but taken as a whole, Sinbad is a consummate pure metal album complete with an array of scorching guitar leads, fiery lead vocals courtesy of Kärki and memorable compositions. The Sinbad album title is a reference to Sinbad the Sailor, the fictional traveler and his amazing journeys. But, look further and it’s also an amalgamation of the words “sin” and “bad,” both of which, in Coronary’s estimation, are “perfectly suitable life goals.”

Sinbad track listing:
01. Sinbad
02. Firewings
03. The Hammer
04. Bullet Train
05. I Can Feel This Love
06. Reflector
07. Burnout

Philadelphia Rockers SONJA Sign With Cruz Del Sur Music

Enrico

Cruz Del Sur Music is proud to announce the signing of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania rockers SONJA. The label will release the band’s first full-length studio album, “Loud Arriver”, in early 2021.

SONJA formed in 2014 when vocalist/guitarist Melissa Moore and drummer Grzesiek Czapla started to look for new musical avenues beyond their extreme black, death, grind and thrash backgrounds. Instead of entrusting an outsider with the vocalist position, Moore took it upon herself to learn how to sing. Along the way, the band added bassist Ben Brand, completing a lineup that is rife with musical diversity with influences stretching from classic and doom metal, all the way to Goth and post-punk.  

In 2018, SONJA released the “Nylon Nights / Wanting Me Dead” demo, a hook-laden display of metal that was immediately lauded for its catchiness and heaviness. The demo caught the interest of Cruz Del Sur Music.

“We immediately got a good feeling and it was obvious that we were dealing with a label that was about the music above all,” says Moore. “Despite our past bands, we had never toured with SONJA and didn’t have an official release, so Cruz Del Sur to be able to ‘discover’ us meant something. A very sick label found Sonja based on our songs only, and that’s the kind of omen we respect.”

“From day one this band has had a strong vision, and we consider it our duty to serve that vision,” she continues. “As a result, we take a long time to make sure that what we are crafting is totally on point. It’s a cohesive sound and we prioritize hooks above all. Real heavy metal fire has to be there in every song along with sensual dark rhythms. No one shows up to the dojo with a full song and says ‘play this.’ We write the music together in the same room. This is a band about songwriting and the songs are bigger than anything else about us.”

Speaking of songwriting, “Loud Arriver” will feature eight songs of “beautiful, dark, mighty and wicked” heavy metal and is the product of a tandem recording process with the music being recorded by Daniel Kishbaugh and the vocals being recorded by Arthur Rizk in Philadelphia at Creep Recording Studio. As 2020 starts to draw to a close, Moore and her bandmates leave with some words of encouragement for 2021:

“Whatever is going on in the world, whether it be death and misery, or MORE death and misery, SONJA will accompany you to the end.”