Photo Credit: Arising Empire

Swedish heavyweights thrown return with their brand new single ‘unwanted’, the latest track from their highly anticipated second album, UNWANTED, out 6th November via Arising Empire.

Listen to the new single here: https://arisingempire.com/unwanted 

Pre-order the new album here: https://arisingempire.com/thrown

Built around massive riffs, punishing grooves and a chorus that burrows straight into your skull, ‘unwanted’ captures everything that has made thrown such a standout name within the new generation of heavy music. Relentless yet addictive, brutally direct yet impossible to shake, the track once again proves the band’s ability to deliver maximum impact without wasting a single second.

‘unwanted’ follows previously released singles ‘split’, ‘rehearsed’ and ‘critic’, offering another glimpse of an album that sees thrown sharpening the formula that has taken them from underground newcomers to one of the most talked-about names in contemporary heavy music.

Formed in Sweden in 2021, thrown have built their reputation on brutally concise songs, crushing production and an instinctive understanding of what makes heavy music connect. Their sound pulls together hardcore aggression, metalcore weight and nu metal groove, delivered with an intensity that translates just as powerfully from headphones to a packed room.

The scale of that connection is difficult to ignore. Their 2022 debut EP EXTENDED PAIN surpassed 50 million streams across its five tracks and spent almost a year in Spotify’s Global Metal Top 200. Their 2024 debut album EXCESSIVE GUILT pushed the band onto an even bigger international stage, while thrown have since passed 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners and amassed well over 100 million streams worldwide.

Their rise has been equally rapid in the live arena. thrown have toured extensively across North America, Europe and Australia alongside Knocked Loose, Fit For A King, Counterparts, While She Sleeps and Wage War, steadily converting their streaming audience into an increasingly formidable live following.

That momentum has also been recognised by the wider heavy music community. thrown took home Best Breakthrough Live Artist at the Heavy Music Awards in 2024, before EXCESSIVE GUILT won Best Breakthrough Album at the 2025 awards.

At the centre of thrown are Marcus Lundqvist on vocals, Johan Liljeblad and Andreas Malm on guitars, and drummer and producer Buster Odeholm. Together, the Swedish four-piece have created something instantly identifiable: short, devastating songs, massive production, unforgettable hooks and a level of intensity that has made thrown impossible to ignore.

Now, with UNWANTED just weeks away, thrown are showing no signs of slowing down.

Catch the band live: 

11.12.2026 I Academy I Manchester, United Kingdom
12.12.2026 I O2 Academy Glasgow I Glasgow, United Kingdom
13.12.2026 I Troxy I London, United Kingdom

thrown online:

https://www.instagram.com/thrownband
https://www.tiktok.com/@thrownband
https://www.facebook.com/thrownband

Tracklist: 

1. critic
2. don't be fooled
3. unwanted
4. rehearsed
5. doing great
6. type of way
7. off
8. split
9. hard times
10. bare minimum
11. subpar

Photo Credit: Pelagic Records 

French cinematic metal visionaries Hypno5e return with 'Trame Noire', the haunting title track from their forthcoming seventh album Trame Noire, set for release on 6th November via Pelagic Records. 

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/gL6zTPezRiE

Stream and pre-order here: https://orcd.co/hypno5e

Directed by Hypno5e mastermind Emmanuel Jessua, the evocative new video mirrors the album’s exploration of memory, loss, dreams and the ghosts of the past, bringing its nocturnal world vividly to life.

On the new single and video, the band comment:  "With 'Trame Noire', the title track of our new album, I wanted to extend into images the themes that run through my music: memory, loss, dreams and the ghosts of the past.

"I directed the video myself, working with models, collages, drawings and various forms of superimposition. The journey through these shifting spaces, and the apparitions that inhabit them, are fragments of the character’s memories, condemned to wander through this world. He is confronted with the traces of what he has lived through, but also with his own image, which returns like another ghost.

"Memory becomes a material that repeats, distorts and endlessly resurfaces. A cycle from which there is no escape, like an intimate curse, where the past always finds its way back into the present.”

Since 2003, Hypno5e forged a singular path through progressive heavy music, combining crushing riffs with avant-garde experimentation, post-rock, immersive samples and Latin American influences to create their own distinctive brand of cinematic metal. Across six acclaimed albums, they have built a world that is as atmospheric and disorientating as it is heavy. Now, with Trame Noire, they enter their next chapter.

Named after the French term for ‘dark infrastructure’, urban architecture designed to preserve the darkness of night for nocturnal species, Trame Noire unfolds over the course of a single night. Its protagonist is forced to confront buried trauma as every insect, flap of a wing and shift in temperature triggers fragments of long forgotten memories.

The album arrives alongside a celebration of Hypno5e’s more than two decades of existence, a complete 13LP discography box set, featuring Trame Noire alongside Sheol (2023), A Distant Dark Source (2019), Alba (2018), Shores of the Abstract Line (2016), Acid Mist Tomorrow (2012) and debut album Des Deux L’une Est L’autre (2007), which will appear on vinyl for the first time.

Album opener ‘Lost Fires’ rises from lonely keys to a section driven by Jessua’s lush vocals, followed by hulking guitars. ‘Falmer’ offers some of the sweetest and hardest moments of Hypno5e’s career: a hypnotic detour evokes the prime of Pink Floyd, then crashes into a metallic thunder that sounds like Gojira gone black metal. ‘Molecular Angel’ channels old-school prog, drums clamouring beneath gorgeous singing and ambient instruments, and ‘Bare Bones’ is a guitar-powered attack, incorporating wild leads and hammering thuds. The 10-minute title track is a suitably dynamic finale, but it remains consistent in its utter, bittersweet beauty.

Trame Noire was approached quite differently to their previous work, opting for a more organic sound. The band limited their use of samples to reflect the lyrics’ focus on one voice and one character. Plus, they used a warmer, looser style of production: less traditionally tech-metal, more inspired by the masterpieces of 70s psychedelic rock.

Even the artwork – painted by Emmanuel’s father, co-lyricist and frequent collaborator Thierry Jessua – is a raw, unrefined sketch, more human than what was seen on past covers. “This time I wanted to discover another language,” Emmanuel commented. “Every album should tell its story differently. I never want Hypno5e to become predictable.”

All this evolution also reflects the fact that Trame Noire was the first album to be made from start to finish with Hypno5e’s current lineup, rounded out by co-guitarist Jonathan Maurois, bassist Charles Villanueva and drummer Pierre Rettien.

“The new lineup brings different atmospheres,” Emmanuel continues. “It doesn’t mean that Hypno5e is going to be this way forever now, but I think there was a more direct and free way of composing. Everybody had more of a say on the decisions and the structures we put on the album.”

Trame Noire is another bold statement in a career defined by non-conformity. Shorter, warmer and presented in a totally different way to previous works, it ensures that Hypno5e remain one of one, even after more than two decades.

Hypno5e are:
Emmanuel Jessua (guitar, vocals)
Jonathan Maurois (guitars)
Pierre Rettien (drums)
Charles Villanueva (bass)

Hypno5e online:
https://www.instagram.com/hypno5eofficial
https://www.facebook.com/hypno5e

Track list:

1. Lost Fires
2. Falmer
3. Molecular Angel
4. Bare Bones
5. Trame Noire

Stuttgart modern metalcore outfit MAVIS return with their brand new single 'Safe Place', delivering another powerful step forward for one of Germany’s most promising emerging heavy acts.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/go7pUqm4lyE

Built on crushing riffs, atmospheric depth and an emotionally charged vocal performance, 'Safe Place' captures the tension between isolation and connection. The track explores the walls we build to protect ourselves from the outside world and the unsettling moment when someone manages to break through them. At its core lies the realization that being truly understood can feel equally comforting and dangerous, especially when that understanding comes from someone carrying fractures of their own.

Lines such as “Are we really broken / Or just going round the bend” sit at the heart of the song, questioning whether the damage we see in ourselves is really something that needs to be fixed. As the narrator recognises his own struggles reflected in another person, vulnerability slowly becomes a source of connection rather than weakness.

Musically, 'Safe Place' brings together the qualities that continue to define MAVIS: uncompromising heaviness, cinematic atmosphere, infectious melodies and raw emotion. Massive guitars and hard-hitting passages collide with an immediate chorus, while vocalist Phil Donay moves between intensity and vulnerability to give the track its emotional weight. The result feels both deeply personal and built for the live stage.

Formed in Stuttgart in 2019, MAVIS have steadily established themselves as an exciting name within Germany’s modern metalcore scene. Following their signing with Arising Empire in 2023, the band released their acclaimed debut album Grief Is No Ally, a record that showcased their ability to combine devastating breakdowns, soaring melodies, atmospheric electronics and deeply personal songwriting. Since then, their momentum has carried them through packed shows across Germany and onto major stages including Summer Breeze Open Air, while subsequent releases have continued to sharpen and expand their sound.

With 'Safe Place', MAVIS push that evolution further. Rather than simply searching for shelter from the chaos outside, the song finds safety in another person who understands that chaos from within. The repeated confession “Somehow I let you in” becomes the turning point: a moment where control gives way to trust and isolation gives way to connection.

Heavy, vulnerable and unmistakably MAVIS, 'Safe Place' captures a band growing increasingly confident in their identity while refusing to sacrifice the emotional honesty at the core of their music.

MAVIS online:
https://www.instagram.com/maviscult
https://www.facebook.com/maviscvlt
https://mavisband.com

Following the strong first impression made by their debut single 'Gravity', German newcomers Neovise return with their second single 'Lifeline'.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/JrZaY1ZqQvE

While 'Gravity' introduced the band’s emotionally charged take on modern heavy music, 'Lifeline' pushes that identity further into darker, heavier and even more vulnerable territory. Where 'Gravity' was about the person who holds your life in orbit, 'Lifeline' explores what happens when that person is suddenly gone. Together, the two songs establish the emotional ground Neovise write from: love and fear.

'Lifeline' is not a song about giving up. At its core, it is about wanting to stay without knowing how. It captures the difficult space between having already made the decision to keep going and still searching for the strength to do so. A plea for a reason to stay runs through the track, turning its darkness into an ode to living rather than leaving. That conflict also manifests itself through self-sabotage. 

Daniel explains: “This is the most honest we've been. 'Lifeline' is that moment where you've run out of strength and the only thing left is to say it out loud: I need someone to pull me out. It’s the bravest thing you can do.”

Musically, Neovise translate that emotional tension into a dynamic collision of crushing heaviness, atmosphere and carefully placed moments of restraint. Instead of relying purely on impact, the band deliberately leave room for silence and vulnerability, allowing the quieter sections to hit just as hard as the song’s explosive peaks.

Neovise online:
https://www.instagram.com/neoviseofficial
https://www.tiktok.com/@neoviseofficial
https://www.facebook.com/neoviseofficial

Photo Credit: Duncan Lomax

Groundbreaking alt-metal visionaries Plague of Angels have unveiled a video for 'A Great Awakening', taken from their upcoming live album, Plague of Angels – Live at Huddersfield Town Hall, which will be released in full on 16th October 2026. Recorded live on 5th December 2025, the release forms part of the band’s ambitious Organic Metal: Two Worlds Collide project with internationally renowned pipe organist David Pipe, exploring the creative possibilities that emerge when contemporary alternative metal is combined with the immense acoustic power and resonance of a historic pipe organ.

Watch the video for 'A Great Awakening' here: https://youtu.be/oizwVAi1V08

An eight-minute epic that pushes progressive alternative metal into expansive, cinematic territory, 'A Great Awakening' takes the listener through an unusually broad landscape of textures, dynamics and emotional intensity. Down-tuned riffs collide with expansive orchestration and the immense natural resonance of the pipe organ, while soaring clean vocals contrast with powerful, chanted, anthemic throat vocals. The result is a performance that continually shifts between intimacy and overwhelming scale, building tension and emotional impact through contrast.

The band comment on the lyrics: "'A Great Awakening' explores bereavement and complicated grief, focusing on the disorientating experience of encountering emotions that have never previously been experienced. The title refers to this profound and painful awakening: an altered emotional reality in which grief becomes an unfamiliar landscape. Images of absence, drowning, trauma and phantom limbs evoke the fractured psychological experience of loss, while the repeated refrain of “A Great Awakening” becomes increasingly mantra-like."
 
Live at Huddersfield Town Hall captures Plague of Angels at their most ambitious and immersive, bringing together dark alternative metal, progressive songwriting, orchestration, pipe organ, piano in powerful live performance.
 
Throughout the concert, the pipe organ becomes an integral part of the musical architecture rather than simply an accompaniment, adding immense depth, resonance and physical presence to the band’s sound. The result is a distinctive fusion of contemporary metal and one of the UK’s most historic musical traditions.

Plague of Angels first turned heads in 2024 with their debut single, 'What Lies Beneath', and becoming the first metal band ever to perform on BBC’s The One Show. Their breathtaking live performance inside a church, complete with pipe organ accompaniment, earned critical acclaim from The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, whilst solidifying their reputation as pioneers of “organic metal,” blending classical grandeur with contemporary heaviness. 

Their follow-up singles ‘Beyond Salvation’ and 'Lazarene' deepened that vision, showcasing a remarkable range of musical and emotional dynamics.

The band made history once again with a sold-out performance at York Minster, one of the UK’s most iconic cathedrals. The monumental show saw their sound rise through the vast gothic arches of the Minster, merging the sacred and the extreme in a spellbinding display of light, sound and emotion. The event drew widespread national media attention, with coverage across BBC Look North, ITV News and BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, underscoring Plague of Angels’ reputation as one of the most ambitious and visionary forces in contemporary metal.

The concept of Organic Metal was born from guitarist Mark Mynett’s collaboration with Leeds Cathedral organist David Pipe, an experiment that bridged the sacred and the extreme. The project’s success, covered by local, national and international media, laid the foundations for Plague of Angels, a band devoted to exploring beauty, darkness and transcendence in sound.

Plague of Angels are: 
Vocals - Emilie Nox (Gravity)
Guitar - Mark Mynett (Kill II This)
Guitar - Oz Wright (Pythia)
Drums - Jeff Singer (Kill II This, Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride)
Bass / Piano - Caroline Campbell (formerly Cradle of Filth)
Guitar - Richard Shaw (formerly Cradle of Filth) - writing member (non-touring)

Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz

Los Angeles’ Drag Talk have released their new single, 'Would It Kill You', the second track to be unveiled from their debut album, Drink The Ocean, out 30th October via MNRK Heavy.  Built on walls of guitars, soaring vocals and breakneck drums, the track the track is a huge, visceral introduction to a record that finds the band pushing their hook-driven sound into even more expansive territory.

Watch the video for 'Would It Kill You': https://youtu.be/pGu61qJBxw0

Stream the single here: https://dragtalk.ffm.to/woulditkillyou

Pre-save the album: https://dragtalk.ffm.to/drinktheocean

Following lead single ‘Pony Up’, ‘Would It Kill You’ offers another glimpse into Drink The Ocean, an album where ’90s indie rock nostalgia, shoegaze haze and Britpop melodicism collide with towering hooks, lush atmospherics and the genre-fluid vocals of Jutty Taylor.

“The occupational hazards of doing one’s True Will," Taylor says of the track.

Formed in Los Angeles, Drag Talk built a cult following with their 2024 EP Rosy Crown, followed by sold-out shows on both coasts. On Drink The Ocean, they expand that foundation into something bigger and more ambitious, bringing together the fuzz, romance and restless energy of ’90s alternative music with their own distinctly modern take on dream-pop.

Nothing else sounds quite like Drag Talk. Built around vocalist Jutty Taylor, guitarists Ross O’Carroll, Matt Ripp Bennett and Neil Popkin, and drummer Hayden Scott, the band brings together musicians with long and intertwined histories. Taylor and Scott previously played together in Grammy-winning Swedish rock band Ghost, while Popkin and Bennett were formerly bandmates in War Tapes. The chemistry between them is palpable, a creative brotherhood forged through years of friendship and musical experience, but given a distinctly new shape through Drag Talk.

The band began to take form during the pandemic, when home demos recorded by O’Carroll provided the germ for what would become Drag Talk. They released debut single ‘Egyptian Flesh’ in 2022, followed by the Dogs EP in 2023 and Rosy Crown in 2024. By the time the latter arrived, the band had cultivated a devoted following, translating their hazy, immersive sound into sell-out shows on both coasts and ultimately signing with MNRK Music Group.

Drink The Ocean is a lovingly layered creation that connects on multiple levels, its recurring themes of injustice and femininity flavoured with Taylor’s spiritual and esoteric interests. Even the album’s title is open to interpretation: a dismissive kiss-off; an ode to one-life-to-live experimentation and excess; or an allusion to the struggles that beset the album’s creation.

Produced by Tom Syrowski, the band’s sole producer to date, Drink The Ocean was recorded between his Los Angeles home studio and Hollywood’s legendary Henson Studios. Drawing on the shimmer of Swervedriver, The Verve and The Jesus and Mary Chain while folding in dream-pop, psych and classic rock, the album finds Drag Talk pushing familiar ’90s guitar language somewhere stranger, more emotionally charged and distinctly their own. 

Guest appearances on Drink The Ocean include uber-producer Brendan O’Brien (RATM, AC/DC) playing Hammond organ on the album’s brooding title track, and Ghost’s Olivia Morreale singing backups on the stomping 'Welcome to the Aeon'.

Equally entrancing on late night home-alone headphones or at packed, immersive shows, Drag Talk has conjured a sonic and emotional niche just when none seemed left to discover. A rare creative brotherhood steeped in personal and musical chemistry, they’re a band for alt-rock fans who want to nudge the familiar forward, refract the comfortable and respectfully reframe tradition.

Drag Talk online:
Website | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Facebook | Bandcamp

Drink The Ocean tracklisting:

01. Pony Up
02. Kingdoms
03. Breath and the Blood
04. Welcome to the Aeon
05. SY About it 
06. Drink the Ocean
07. Mr. High Life
08. Don’t Be Long
09. Would It Kill You
10. Redline 

Banks Arcade unleash their new album SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR, a bold and emotionally charged statement from a band that has never been interested in fitting neatly into one genre.

Stream/Order here: https://arisingempire.com/banksarcade

Blurring the boundaries between modern metal, alternative electronic music and hip hop, the record captures Banks Arcade at their most ambitious, unpredictable and personal yet. Built on contrast, SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR moves effortlessly between crushing heaviness, infectious melodies, electronic experimentation and moments of striking vulnerability. Rather than settling into a single sound, Banks Arcade use the album to push their identity further, bringing together the raw physicality of metal with the maximalist energy of contemporary alternative music. 

Catch the band live: 
​24.09.2026 I Second Place Superstar Album Party w/ SHOTKICKERS I Thornbury, Australia
26.09.2026 I Second Place Superstar Album Party w/ AMPM I Darlinghurst, Australia
09.10.2026 I From Ashes To New I Marrickville, Australia
11.10.2026 I From Ashes To New I Melbourne, Australia
13.10.2026 I From Ashes To New I Adelaide, Australia
15.10.2026 I From Ashes To New I Newstead, Australia
17.01.2027 I Hellbound 2027 I Sydney, Australia

Banks Arcade online:
https://www.instagram.com/banksarcade
https://www.tiktok.com/@banksarcade
https://www.facebook.com/banksarcade

With their brand new album Saferooms & Healing Frequencies, PLUME step fully into a world of their own. Blurring the boundaries between modern metal, hyperpop, alternative rock and electronic music, the band deliver a record that feels as emotionally exposed as it is sonically ambitious. Glittering electronics collide with crushing guitars, fractured rhythms and huge melodies, creating a sound that constantly shifts between vulnerability and impact. In celebration, the band have released a brand new video for the track 'Frankincense'.

Stream/order here: https://arisingempire.com/plume
Watch 'Frankincense' here: https://youtu.be/l8iJACfCQZI

At the heart of Saferooms & Healing Frequencies lies the search for safety in a world that rarely stands still. Across the album, PLUME explore anxiety, emotional overload, pain and the need to find somewhere to breathe, process and heal. Rather than separating heaviness from beauty, the band allow both to exist side by side, turning moments of fragility into explosive releases and intimate thoughts into towering choruses.

Catch the band live: 
19.09.2026 I Le Petit Salon I Lyon 07, France

PLUME online:
https://www.instagram.com/plumeofficial
https://www.tiktok.com/@weareplume
https://www.facebook.com/weareplume

Swedish heavyweights thrown have officially launched the pre-order for their highly anticipated new album UNWANTED, set for release on 6th November via Arising Empire.

Pre-order here: https://arisingempire.com/thrown

Few bands in modern heavy music have experienced a rise quite like thrown. In just a few years, the Swedish four-piece have gone from one of the scene’s most exciting new names to a genuine international phenomenon, building a massive global audience with a sound that is instantly recognisable, relentlessly heavy and impossible to ignore. Now, UNWANTED captures thrown at the height of that momentum.

Following the impact of their acclaimed debut album EXCESSIVE GUILT, the new record takes everything that has made thrown one of today’s most exciting heavy acts and pushes it even further. Crushing grooves collide with hardcore aggression, nu metal swagger and an almost instinctive sense for hooks, creating songs that are brutally direct without sacrificing their infectious quality.

Catch the band live: 
11.12.2026 I Academy I Manchester, United Kingdom
12.12.2026 I O2 Academy Glasgow I Glasgow, United Kingdom
13.12.2026 I Troxy I London, United Kingdom

thrown online:
https://www.instagram.com/thrownband
https://www.tiktok.com/@thrownband
https://www.facebook.com/thrownband