Photo Credit: Joe Dilworth

After three years hard at work, German hard rockers Wucan return with news of new album Axioms - showcasing their characteristic artistic ingenuity, and continuing the transformation first hinted on their charting Heretic Tongues record.

Axioms, the fourth studio album from the Dresden rockers, will be released on 29th August 2025 via Long Branch Records and is now available for pre-order here: https://wucan.lnk.to/axioms

True art is characterised above all by its constant renewal - a combination of the tried and tested with the innovative. Like all influential artists who follow this golden rule, Wucan demonstrate their capacity for artistic evolution with their new album, Axioms.

On the new record, the four-piece heavy rock outfit led by frontwoman Francis Tobolsky blend the distinctive elements of their previous studio records - Sow The Wind (2015), Reap The Storm (2017), and Heretic Tongues (2022) - with fresh ideas, resulting in a broader stylistic range and a more clearly defined conceptual approach. While the band continues to reference hard rock, krautrock, East German rock, and metal, the eight new tracks are also infused with touches of progressive rock, isolated electronic elements, and a playful jazz attitude. Or as Francis Tobolsky aptly puts it: “The foundation of our music is international 70s hard rock enriched by contemporary influences – this time with even more bombast, brutality, and complexity.” 

The already released singles 'KTNSAX' and 'Irons In The Fire' give a first taste of the new album. Watch the two music videos here: https://wucan.lnk.to/axioms/youtube

"The title Axioms stands for the fundamental convictions our band is built upon, convictions we no longer question," says bandleader Francis Tobolsky. "After ten years of making music together – seven of them in this lineup – there were moments when everything could have fallen apart. This album was created during a time when each of our lives was changing significantly, and it bears the imprint of those personal experiences. The fact that we’re still making music together is neither a coincidence nor a matter of convenience – it’s our axiom."

For more:

http://wucan-music.de
https://www.facebook.com/wucanmusic
https://www.instagram.com/wucantheband
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FsZ5HKdtDFJ1xmK6NICBO?si=nlHnoldOSsaJehcl_jC3Zw

Wucan are:
Francis Tobolsky - Vocals / Guitar / Flute / Theremin
Tim George - Guitar
Philip Knöfel - Drums
Alexander Karlisch - Bass

Tracklisting:

1 Spectres Of Fear
2 Irons In The Fire
3 Wicked, Sick and Twisted
4 KTNSAX
5 Holz auf Holz
6 Pipe Dreams
7 Axioms
8 Fountain Of Youth

Photo Credit: John Gyllhamn

Swedish rockers Smash Into Pieces have revealed their new single 'A Sky Full Of Stars', their most heartfelt ballad yet. A soaring tribute to love, distance, and connection that transcends time and space, this song wraps emotion in a blanket of cinematic sound. With haunting lyrics and celestial melodies, it’s a reminder that even in darkness, we shine together.

Listen: orcd.co/smashintopiecesaskyfullofstars

​This summer, Smash Into Pieces will electrify audiences at over 25 major festivals, including Rock am Ring, Graspop, and Download Festival - where they will take to the Avalanche stage on Saturday 14th June.

They continue their meteoric rise, building on their last single 'Paradise' [ft. Amaranthe], and the momentum of their chart-topping hits 'Six Feet Under' (double platinum) and 'Heroes Are Calling' (Gold-certified within weeks of release). Their futuristic, apocalyptic aesthetic and immersive storytelling—evident in their cinematic ‘ARCADIA WORLD’ series—set them apart in the rock scene, creating a unique fusion of music and visual storytelling.

With over a billion streams and views, the band has solidified its global presence. Their 2023 and 2024 tours saw them perform worldwide, including a major North American tour and headline runs across Europe and Scandinavia. Their groundbreaking Swedish Eurovision performances, with 'Six Feet Under' securing #3 in 2023 and another top placement in 2024, cemented their status as one of Sweden’s biggest rock exports.

Their ever-growing fanbase and consistent global radio presence—with 40,000+ spins in 2024 alone—prove that Smash Into Pieces is more than just a band; they are a movement. 

With 'A Sky Full of Stars' Smash Into Pieces invite fans to dive even deeper into their world, where dreams and reality blur into an electrifying musical journey.

"Anything standing between us and our dreams, we Smash Into Pieces."

For more information:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2vhrwzjf9H3icunkVFi9tq?si=WcGyc23hQoKl8JkY2s-XCw&nd=1&dlsi=b65b2cd54c954fca
https://www.instagram.com/smashintopiecesofficial
https://www.facebook.com/SmashIntoPieces
https://www.tiktok.com/@smashintopiecesofficial

Freshly signed metalcore outfit Lost in Hollywood have released a brand new track and video 'The Fire'. The song is taken from their upcoming second studio album, which will be released later this year via Arising Empire. 

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/ktpHsB4I1xM
Stream here: https://arisingempire.com/thefire

Lost in Hollywood started in early 2023 and quickly made a name for themselves in the metalcore scene. Their first album The Beauty of Death was a huge success, with over 1.5 million streams to date.

For their single 'The Fire', the band worked alongside notable names, including Jules Mitch from SETYØURSAILS, who assisted with songwriting. Buenyamin Minareci and  Max Ivory co-produced and mixed the track. Christoph Wieczorek, one of the most wanted producers in the scene, mastered it - his other credits include hit albums with Electric Callboy, Future Palace, and Annisokay.

For more: 

https://www.instagram.com/lostinhollywood.official
https://www.arising-empire.com/artists/lost-in-hollywood

Photo Credit: Chris Sikich

Hiroe, the new darlings of the American post-rock underground, have revealed their latest single 'Collider', taken from their forthcoming debut album, Wield, due 20th June via Pelagic Records.

Watch the new video here: https://youtu.be/a4UbQXwywj8
Pre-order Wield here: https://orcd.co/hiroe

'Collider' is a 10-minute epic, presenting listeners with a sonic journey into the heart of modern existence, reflecting life's often opposing and overwhelming demands. Its elaborate structure provides the band with an opportunity to showcase diverse instrumentation, from the resonant standing bass and the delicate chime of a glockenspiel to captivating guitar tapping sections that crescendo into a powerful three-part harmony. Embodying a musical representation of the contradictory elements in balancing life's competing priorities, it evokes the moment when all facets of life come to a head, resulting in a profound convergence, just as its title, 'Collider', implies.

Hiroe's guitarist Eric Kusanagi comments: "'Collider' is a song that when we play live seems to be a crowd favourite.  It's the longest song in our catalogue, at about 10 minutes long, and we wanted to take the listener on a journey that goes through a lot of peaks and valleys."

The single is another glimpse of the forthcoming album Wield, showcasing the Philadelphia-based quintet mastering their craft, of creating compelling melodies that sound larger than life.

2022 saw Hiroe burst onto the scene with an explosive debut EP full of soaring anthems and sublime soundscapes. Combining the sonic expansiveness of Deftones with the dynamic heaviness of bands like Isis and Caspian, Hiroe immediately already figured out how to make the most majestic sounding post-rock early in their career. "Our first album, Wrought was a statement of creation," explains principal songwriter Eric Kusanagi (guitars).
 
For the recording of Wield, Jill Paslier moved from bass to guitars, with Brian Kong (guitars), Jon Seiler (bass) and Dan Sagherian (drums) joining to complete the lineup. Produced once more by Mario Quintero (Spotlights) Wield capitalises on everything the band learned in the creation of its predecessor, adding to it a new focus on textural intricacies and compositional detail.
 
“We wanted to show a larger range of musical themes on this record,” continues Eric. “You’ll hear us dive into some synth work, some piano work, some really interesting effects that Mario helped us dial up.” Wield as a result packs in a huge range of details, which reveal themselves over repeated listens. 
 
Nevertheless, Wield is still an affair of instant gratification for fans of guitar driven post-rock. From the soaring leads of 'Tides' to the epic finale of 'I’ve Been Waiting For You All My Life', Hiroe show they’ve upped their game in every department, but especially that which tugs at your heartstrings.

Wield presents the brave new future we all need in these confusing times. A new American frontier on which we can build our wildest dreams and our most daring ambitions.

Watch Hiroe live:

JUN 06 – Baltimore – Monument City Brewing
JUN 07 – Washington, DC – The Pocket
JUN 13 – Brooklyn – Gold Sounds
JUN 14 – Boston - Deep Cuts
JUN 20 – Harrisburg – JB Lovedraft’s
JUN 21 – Lancaster – The Upside
JUN 27 – Philadelphia – Kung Fu Necktie
JUN 28 – Pittsburgh – Ormsby’s
JUL 23 – Indianapolis – Black Circle (Post-Fest Pre-show)

Hiroe are:

Eric Kusanagi – Guitar
Jill Paslier – Guitar
Brian Kong – Guitar
Jon Seiler – Bass
Dan Sagherian - Drums

For more: 
INSTAGRAM • FACEBOOK • BANDCAMP • PELAGIC ARTIST PAGE

Track-list

Side A
1. The Calm
2. Tides
3. Collider

Side B
4. Dancing at the End of the World
5. The Crush
6. I’ve Been Waiting For You All My Life

Photo Credit: VD Pictures

Lord Of The Lost are back with the beautiful darkwave-metal epic, 'I Will Die In It', the second single released from their upcoming full-length album, OPVS NOIR Vol. 1, out 8th August, 2025 via Napalm Records. The track weaves through melancholic soundscapes, echoing a call to rise above stagnation and fleeting comfort, to become the architect of your own fate. It is accompanied by an official music video that perfectly complements the song’s dark, mystical and hard-hitting atmosphere.

Watch the video to 'I Will Die In It' here: https://youtu.be/SQI1HKn31Q4

Pre-order OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 here: https://lnk.to/LOTL-OPVSNOIR/napalmrecords

In the world of Lord Of The Lost, inspiration comes from everywhere, and the #1 charting band havereturned to their darker, atmospheric roots after their glamorous Blood & Glitter chapter, where the band represented Germany in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) finals and broke into mainstream press. OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 is Lord Of The Lost’s first album of an exciting album trilogy, featuring several strictly limited special editions. 

Vocalist Chris Harms comments: “'I Will Die In It'” is a musical motivational speech to find the strength to pursue happiness that is self-determined and born of one’s own will. No matter the circumstances we were born into or raised in, we all carry the power within us to change our lives and the world around us, to give love and to receive it. At least, this is what I want to believe in – because without that belief, everything would be hopeless.

“I was not born in love, but I will die in it.”

What is the essence of Lord Of The Lost in 2025? That is one of the questions OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 fearlessly begins to answer. Once again, the band proves not only musical excellence but also masterful craftsmanship: Produced by Chris Harms, recorded, mixed, and mastered at the legendary CHAMELEON STUDIOS in Hamburg, the 11 tracks hit with a force and brilliance that immediately transport us into a dark yet colourful ballroom. From there, the tone is set: Dark Wave Metal on an amphitheater scale.

Chris Harmscomments on the album: “Darkness, melancholy, loneliness - all words that often have negative connotations, that we may associate with danger, sadness and loss, and not without reason. But darkness can also be security, melancholy the warm and sentimental feeling of our memories, and loneliness becomes necessary silence, peace and inner contemplation. OPVS NOIR is a travel guide, or perhaps also a travelogue, through the dark sides of our inner world, which so often move precisely in the area of tension between what we emotionally categorize as positive or negative. And with Vol. 1, all of this is just the beginning of this 3-part journey...”

Lord Of The Lost will tour the UK in November with support from UK metal outfit Skarlett Riot and the synth-rock pioneers JULIEN-K (featuring Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh of ORGY) from the US. Dates:

30.10.25 UK - Wolverhampton / KK’S Steel Mill
31.10.25 UK - Manchester / O2 Ritz
01.11.25 UK - Whitby / All Tomorrows Ghosts
02.11.25 UK - Glasgow / Garage
04.11.25 UK - Belfast / Limelight 1
05.11.25 UK - Dublin / Academy
07.11.25 UK - Bristol / The Prospect Building - Crane
08.11.25 UK - London / Electric Ballroom
09.11.25 UK - Southampton / Engine Rooms

Lord Of The Lostare:
Chris Harms – Vocals, Guitar
Pi Stoffers – Guitar
Class Grenayde – Bass
Gared Dirge – Piano, Synths, Percussion, Guitar
Niklas Kahl – Drums

Lord Of The Lost online:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Tiktok 
Napalm Records 

OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 will be available in the following formats:

Wooden Book Collectors Box

3 CD Digipak in cross format, containing OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 CD plus two placeholders for the upcoming OPVS NOIR Vol. 2 and OPVS NOIR Vol. 3, 48 pages booklet, Bonus Live CD (details to be revealed later) plus 80 pages notebook with handwritten album lyrics by Chris Harms – Napalm Records Mailorder Europe & LORDSHOP exclusive (strictly limited)

Earbook Collectors Edition with 48 pages, containing OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 CD plus two placeholders for the upcoming OPVS NOIR Vol.2 and OPVS NOIR Vol. 3 – Napalm Records Mailorder Europe & LORDSHOP exclusive (strictly limited)

1-LP Liquid Gatefold Vinyl NOIR & MOONSHINE SILVER with 12p booklet – Napalm Records Mailorder Europe exclusive (strictly limited)
 
1-LP Gatefold Vinyl Deluxe SPLATTERED DARK NIGHT BLUE (translucent) with 12 pages booklet – Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive (strictly limited)
 
1-LP Gatefold Vinyl CRISTALLO with 12inch booklet - LORDSHOP exclusive (strictly limited)
 
1-LP Gatefold Vinyl Recycled NOIR
 
Music Cassette NOIR WITH SILVER PRINT – Napalm Records Mailorder Europe & LORDSHOP exclusive (strictly limited)
 
1-CD Digisleeve with 16 pages booklet
 
Digital Album

OPVS NOIR Vol. 1 track list:
 

1 Bazaar Bizarre
2 My Sanctuary
3 Light Can Only Shine In The Darkness (feat. Sharon den Adel)
4 I Will Die In It
5 Moonstruck (feat. Stimmgewalt)
6 Damage (feat. Whiplasher Bernadotte)
7 Ghosts (feat. Tina Guo)
8 Lords Of Fyre (feat. Feuerschwanz)
9 The Things We Do For Love
10 The Sadness In Everything (feat. Anna Maria Rose)
11 Dreams Are Never Alone

Photo Credit: @germauxvisuals

British metal heavyweights CONJURER have announced a UK headline tour in November 2025, with support from Pijn and Death Goals.

Dates:

Nov 09 - Damnation Festival, Manchester (CONJURER only)
Nov 11 - The Joiners, Southampton 
Nov 12 - The Underworld, London
Nov 13 - Strange Brew, Bristol
Nov 14 - Asylum, Birmingham
Nov 15 - Cathouse, Glasgow

Tickets will be available on Friday 30th May from: https://www.conjureruk.com/live

The tour is part of a wider run of dates across Europe, where CONJURER will be joined by Frail Body. Full dates can be found at https://www.conjureruk.com/live

CONJURER comment: "It’s been a long time since we headlined around the UK and Europe, and to be able to do it with 3 bands we are extremely excited about is a real privilege. We’ll have plenty to share with you between now and then…"

Páthos (2022, Nuclear Blast) is not an album for the half-hearted or faint-hearted. Elements of Sumac, Gojira, old Mastodon, and Oathbreaker, their last record is a multi-layered beast – sludge, death, doom, black metal, and hardcore influences clash and collide throughout, all masterfully finished by Will Putney’s exquisite mix and master.
 
The fifty-minute runtime of Páthos is not without its moments of the sublime, with post-metal nods to Conjurer and Pijn’s acclaimed Curse These Metal Hands project throughout. That a band can be at once so triumphantly beautiful and gut-punchingly heavy is a testament to Conjurer’s quality and a surefire sign of their future longevity at the top of Britain’s heavy music scene.

Conjurer are:
Brady Deeprose | guitars, vocals
Dani Nightingale | guitars, vocals
Conor Marshall | bass
Noah See | drums

Conjurer online:
https://www.facebook.com/conjureruk
https://x.com/ConjurerUK
https://www.instagram.com/conjureruk
https://www.conjureruk.com

Belgian post-doom quartet Hemelbestormer have just revealed a new single titled 'Turms', featuring Philip Jamieson of Caspian. Their upcoming album, The Radiant Veil, will be out on 25th July through Pelagic Records.

Watch 'Turms' here: https://youtu.be/sb8r1EXel7w
Pre-order The Radiant Veil here: https://orcd.co/hemelbestormer

On 'Turms', the band comments:
"'Turms' is without a doubt the leading track and beating heart of the album. Hemelbestormer is known as a pure instrumental band, but this track will surprise you, as Phil from Caspian did some phenomenal and hauntingly beautiful sounding vocals for this track, lifting it to another level."

Drummer Frederik Cosemans describes The Radiant Veil as "a journey through our solar system as perceived by the Etruscan civilization. Each track bears the name of a planet in the old Etruscan language, starting with the Sun (Usil) and ending with Saturn (Satre)."

Hemelbestormer has been a commanding entity in the heavy music scene for over ten years, with their idiosyncratic take on the merger of post-rock, doomgaze, and black metal. Made up of veterans from the Belgian hardcore and metal community, the four-piece from Hasselt create intricate sonic journeys through space and time built over punishing riffs and spine-chilling climaxes. With their fourth full-length album, The Radiant Veil, Hemelbestormer take their songwriting and production to new heights, honouring their name as trailblazers on the intersection of dark and light, the crushingly heavy and the hauntingly beautiful.
 
Having appeared at many of Europe’s finest music festivals – from Roadburn festival to Dunk! festival to Graspop Metal Meeting – Hemelbestormer feel right at home on stages with a wide variety of heavy and experimental acts. The road combining ethereal post-rock with seething black metal has been travelled by many groups, but with Hemelbestormer, that winding path has taken a different turn. Facing away from shoegaze or indie rock influences, the band finds a more sophisticated way of incorporating unsettling melodies, blast beats, and lo-fi synthesizers to emulate the dark void of space and eerie cold light of stars.
 
Powered by HM-2 pedals and a Lovecraft-ian use of retro synths, The Radiant Veil is driven by an old-school mentality that appears both learned and sincere. Produced by main songwriter Filip Dupont alongside drummer Frederik Cosemans, the eerie space noises coalesce like a celestial respiration between the bouts of metallic riffing and tremolo-picked riffs. 
 
Album opener 'Usil' is a compositional masterpiece from start to finish, combining seismic riffing with ice-cold guitar leads, as if Russian Circles had been formed in a small Norwegian fishing village in the early 90s. Meticulously building up to a double kick-driven finale, the band carefully lays the groundwork for the following hour of transformative music.

Hemelbestormer is a sight to behold on stage, and with The Radiant Veil, they penetrate deeper than ever into the farthest reaches of their sonic space ethos. Once more, the Belgians capture the cavernous expanse between the cold lights of the universe, but also our power as humans to explore it, proving their mastery as storytellers in sight and sound.

Line-up:
Filip Dupont – Guitars, Keys, Vocals
Koen Swerts – Bass
Jo Driesmans – Guitars
Frederik Cosemans – Drums

For more Hebelbestormer: 

INSTAGRAM • FACEBOOK • BANDCAMP • PELAGIC ARTIST PAGE

Tracklisting:

Side A
1. Usil
2. Turms (feat. Philip Jamieson of Caspian)    

Side B
3. Turan
4. Tiur

Side C
5. Cel
6. Laran    

Side D
7. Tinia
8. Satre

Photo Credit: Nicolas Alban

French post-metal collective Year of No Light return with their highly unique, evocative live album Les Maîtres Fous, out today, 23rd May, via the esteemed Pelagic Records.

Stream the album here: https://youtu.be/P2Ww6ZkjgIk
Order Les Maîtres Fous here: https://orcd.co/yonl  
 
Haunting, discordant and deeply unsettling, Les Maîtres Fous (‘The Mad Masters’) was written by the group in response to French filmmaker Jean Rouch’s controversial 1950’s docufiction of the same name.
 
Captured live in 2015, this arresting piece of music is now available to hear for the first time in a decade.

Commissioned by Musée Du Quai Branly in Paris for their 2012 ‘L’Invention Du Sauvage’ exhibition, Year of No Light approached the ritual practices of the Hauka movement as depicted in the original film and responded with their uniquely hypnotic heaviness.
 
Performed only twice, once at the exhibition on the 6th January, 2012 and again in Bordeaux on the 29th January, 2015 - this release is a live recording of the second and final performance of Les Maîtres Fous. Whilst Year of No Light have a long history of collaboration with forward-thinking filmmakers and visual artists, the sensitivity of this documentary’s problematic subject matter and the intensity of the band’s performance made this performance both a physically and emotionally demanding experience; something that can be keenly felt upon listening.

Founded in September 2001 by a collection of Bordeaux’s heavy scene stalwarts as an ongoing side project encompassing elements of sludge metal and shoegaze, Year of No Light released their debut album, Nord, in 2006 to critical acclaim. The subsequent years however saw a significant line-up change, with the band replacing their vocalist with a third guitarist to become a fully instrumental sextet, incorporating aspects of black metal, drone electronica and dark ambient into their already formidable sound.
 
2010’s four-track epic Ausserwelt and the 2013 follow-up Tocsin saw Year of No Light distilling their punishing sound even further; stalling the tempo to a glacial crawl and tuning guitars ever downwards to new uncharted depths. Consolamentum, the band’s first full-length release in nine years and their first with Pelagic Records, brought the outfit’s crushing double-drumming percussion to the fore - as a masterclass in dynamic control saw Year of No Light embrace the highest highs and the lowest lows of the intervening years.
 
Now approaching their 25th anniversary, Les Maître Fous is a pressing reminder that, despite the band’s long and ongoing journey, Year of No Light have never been afraid to experiment, to take risks, to square up to life’s ugliness and look it straight in the eye.
 
For more:

https://www.instagram.com/yearofnolightofficial
https://yearofnolight.bandcamp.com
https://pelagic-records.com/artist/year-of-no-light
https://www.facebook.com/yearofnolight

Year of No Light are: 
Bertrand Sebenne
Shiran Kaidine
Mathieu Megemont
Pierre Anouilh
Johan Sebenne
Jerome Alban

Tracklisting: 

1 Part 1
2 Part 2

German metalcore outfit ACCVSED just unleashed the scorching title track 'Dealers of Doom' from their upcoming debut. The album is set for release on 1st August via Arising Empire. The track is a straight-up assault - raw riffs, savage breakdowns and vocals that'll stick in your head for days.

Watch 'Dealers of Doom' here: https://youtu.be/twT4Bdhvpqw
Stream here: https://arisingempire.com/accvsed

ACCVSED has been making noise for a while now with singles like 'Day of the Locust', 'Avoider', 'Never Enough', 'Don't Let Me Fall Apart' and 'Killer of Minds', gradually building a solid rep as one of the most promising heavy acts coming out of Germany. Each release has only added to their momentum, with fans digging their emotionally raw songwriting and explosive live energy.

'Dealers of Doom' feels like ACCVSED laying down their mission statement – unfiltered, intense, and diving headfirst into the darker side of life.