Swedish melodic death metal band Thermality releases their brand-new single Concept 42 today – the title track from their upcoming album of the same name.
With deep roots in ’90s and early 2000s melodic death metal, the band has crafted a sound that both honors the genre’s legacy and pushes its boundaries. Thermality’s unique blend of raw nostalgia and modern precision has earned them a growing fanbase across the globe. Concept 42 brings back the intense energy and memorable melodies of the genre’s golden era, while adding a fresh, contemporary edge. The bass takes center stage, powerful and relentless, while the drums are more technical than ever before – complex, dynamic, and full of detail.
The title is a nod to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where the number 42 is famously “the answer to life, the universe, and everything.” In the same spirit, the track is an existential sonic journey – dark, beautiful, and unrelenting.
“The answer to life, the universe, and everything is… 42.”
Chicago (IL) – Long-running Blackened Melodic Death Metal quartet, Withering Soul, are set to release their fifth album, Passage of the Arcane, November 14 on Liminal Dread Productions!
Passage of the Arcane is a convergence of blackened atmospheres and sweeping song structures. A mystifying journey that exceeds boundaries while remaining fun and exciting. The overall theme of the album involves human experiences traversing into cursed oblivion. Each song explores its own story, ranging from unexplained disappearances to the supernatural. While variation is abundant within the soundscapes, it is with a cohesive direction. Each chapter takes on its own “passage” through channels of cursed lore and harrowing experiences of the past. A seamless balance of crushingly heavy riffs and chilling melodies.
FFO: Dark Fortress, Windir, Hypocrisy, Dissection, God Dethroned.
The album’s first single, “Attrition Horizon,” is available at:
A manifestation in the form of chilling soundscapes, foreboding atmospheres, contagious melodies and tortured chants echoing above an onslaught of calculated percussion. Withering Soul creates a musical elegy that is both majestic and haunting.
Conjured into existence by founding members Christopher (guitars and vocals) and Mykil (former lead vocalist) with the release of their debut album Apparitions of the Surreal in 2004, the band was later featured on “ReUnation – A Tribute to Running Wild” with a cover of “Firebreather” via Germany’s Remedy Records earning “Best Song on the Album” by WeRock (SWE). A few years later saw the release of their follow-up album, No Closure via Mortal Music (MVD Distribution). The album promptly landed a spot on Apoch’s Metal Review: “Top 50 Albums of 2011.”
The band eventually recruited Rick Hernandez on drums and Joel Miller on bass guitar. Following an array of live shows brought the release of their third full length album Adverse Portrait (2015). It was later labeled “Album of the Month” by Metalreviews.com. The band made a few festival appearances such as Full Terror Assault III and Artifact Metal Fest in 2018.
Over the course of the 2020 world shutdown the band resolved to continue forward with Christopher on vocals and released its fourth full length effort Last Contact. The album reached an unprecedented level of acclaim not limited to earning the 3rd spot in World of Metal’s top albums of 2021. The band immediately followed up with a busy live schedule both locally and out-of-state including a performance at Legion ov the Order festival in Tacoma, WA, Merciless Metalfest in Nova Scotia, Canada and Desecration Rituals VI and VII in Fort Wayne, IN.
Withering Soul has just recently finished its 5th album to be released at the end of 2025 and plans to continue transcending the boundaries of metal‘s darker genres while maintaining its own distinctive sound and leave its audiences spellbound for more.
With this latest descent into the aether, we are immensely proud to bring you Revelator’sLight the Devil’s Fire. We love this release because it a truly unique lesson in necromantic black metal, forging a sound both regal and ruinous. If you seek the pure, riff-driven black metal of the ’90s European scene then this album is a must listen!
Our fiends at No Clean Singing premiered the album earlier this week and wrote a fantastic feature, describing the album “sounds like an infernal orgy, a whirling and darting fretwork extravaganza pierced by shrieks and delirious squirming from the lead guitar.”
They praised how the band’s “fiendishly addictive riffing” and “elaborately filigreed guitar-leads” create “melodic manifestations entirely in line with the band’s statement of what the album is all about.”
We encourage you to experience this unholy ritual. The flames are ready to consume all.
Wormholedeath is proud to announce the signing of Swedish melodic death metal icons IMPERIAL DOMAIN to its global roster. The band’s highly anticipated new full-length album, Portentum, will see the light of day on 14 November 2025, ushering in a bold new era for this seasoned force from Uppsala.
To mark this milestone, Imperial Domain has unleashed their crushing new single “History Repeating”, accompanied by a striking official music video that captures the band’s trademark mix of aggression, atmosphere, and melodic depth.
Watch the video:
“We are proud to announce that we have signed with Wormholedeath! This marks an exciting new chapter for the band, and we are thrilled to join forces with a label that shares our passion and vision for our music,” the band states. “Our upcoming album Portentum explores dark historical and contemporary themes—from ancient omens to modern dystopias. It’s a record born from reflection, unrest, and unrelenting creative fire. We can’t wait to share this body of work with you all and begin this new era together with Wormholedeath.”With Portentum, Imperial Domain delve deep into humanity’s cyclical nature. From the ominous tension of the title track to the brutal realism of “History Repeating” and the bleak futurism of “New World Order,” the band carves a sonic path through the ruins of civilization—past, present, and speculative.
About Imperial DomainFounded in the mid-90s, Imperial Domain quickly made waves in the Swedish death metal underground with their debut demo The Final Chapter (1995), followed by In the Ashes of the Fallen (1996)—a release that earned them national acclaim. Their full-length debut In the Ashes of the Fallen (1998) on Pulverised Records marked the band as a rising force, followed by the critically acclaimed The Ordeal (2003) via Konqueror Records.After a brief hiatus and the tragic loss of vocalist Tobias Heideman in 2014, the band reemerged stronger than ever with The Deluge (2016), reaffirming their place in the melodic death metal pantheon. Now, Imperial Domain return with Portentum—an album that’s as uncompromising as it is thought-provoking.
Charleston, West Virginia metal veterans BYZANTINE are pleased to unveil their video for “Harbinger.” The track comes off the band‘s latest full-length, Harbingers, released last June via Metal Blade Records.
Offers vocalist Chris Ojeda on the stop motion clip, “This video has taken months to curate. We wanted to continue our path of handmade original artwork for this new album. My daughter Mallory and I wrote the script for the story, hired a young Claymation artist from Mexico named Adrian Venti to hand build every scene out of clay and brought Holly Grayson with Screaming Butterfly Entertainment (Justinian Code, The Cicada Tree, The Agonies) to edit all the footage to make this beautiful music video about a boy who, after losing his father, searches for his importance in life, only to be lured in by a voracious Wolf who steers the boy down a path of greed and selfishness. The boy is eventually saved by one random act of kindness towards a lone Raven. Ravens never forget.
“Mallory and I are fans of all things stop motion. Movies like Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline, James And The Giant Peach, and music videos from Peter Gabriel, Bjork, Tool, and Primus. We modelled the main character after my six-year-old son, Henry. I hope you guys enjoy this labor of love and appreciate the amount of work and symbolism that has gone into the script, the Claymation, and the brilliant editing. Our team decided to push the creative aspect as far as we can and tell this story of a boy who just wants to be important.”
Nameless Grave Records is proud to announce the signing and upcoming release of Apocryphal Verse, the highly anticipated new album from death metal powerhouse ADUANTEN. Featuring members of acclaimed acts Obsequiae, Vex, Panopticon, and Horrendous, ADUANTEN delivers a blistering yet sorrowful masterpiece that pushes the boundaries of the genre. Apocryphal Verse is set for release on October 24th.
Born from a desire to explore the darker, more aggressive side of melodic death metal, ADUANTEN’s music is a relentless storm of punishing riffs and intricate melodies. While the band’s sonic foundation is built on ferocity, their sound is imbued with a profound sense of melancholic beauty, creating a unique and captivating atmosphere. The band’s lineage, including drummer Eoghan McCloskey of Obsequiae, ensures a level of musicianship and compositional depth that will immediately resonate with fans of sophisticated extreme metal.
On Apocryphal Verse, ADUANTEN masterfully blends the searing aggression of classic death metal with the atmospheric introspection of melodic black metal. Tracks on the album weave a narrative of decay and despair, driven by a maelstrom of intricate guitar work and a pummeling rhythm section. The album’s lyrical themes of destruction, sorrow, and hopelessness are perfectly mirrored in its dynamic and emotionally charged soundscapes.
Apocryphal Verse will be available on all major streaming platforms, as well as physical formats, on October 24th.
Fans of Dissection, Sacramentum, and Obsequiae will find ADUANTEN’s new offering to be an essential addition to their collection.
SLYTHER return with their brand new single, “Flask N’ Bone”, offering another fierce taste of their upcoming debut album “Chronicles of Despair”, due out October 10th via Time To Kill Records. The track sees the Italian thrashers firing on all cylinders, delivering a whirlwind of cutting riffs, hardcore-fueled aggression and infectious groove.With “Flask N’ Bone”, SLYTHER sharpen the contrast between razor-edged thrash precision and the wild, unhinged energy of crossover. The single channels the ferocity of Overkill while injecting the irreverent spirit of Municipal Waste, capturing the band’s ability to honor thrash tradition while pushing it forward with a raw, youthful intensity.
The band comment:
“’Flask N’ Bone’ – Remorse, self-destruction, and the emptiness left by a corrupted conscience . Opening the concept album Chronicles of Despair, Flask N’ Bone tells the downward spiral of a corrupt lawyer, a symbol of power wielded without justice or ethics. The turning point comes with the suicide of a mother to whom he denied custody of her child and any means of support, marking the beginning of an emotional collapse where guilt becomes overwhelming. Crushed by the weight of his actions, the protagonist seeks refuge in alcohol and addiction, spiraling into a self-destructive cycle that leads to depression and ultimately suicide. Yet even this final act offers no redemption: he realizes that nothing will erase the harm he has caused. Within the album’s broader narrative, Flask N’ Bone introduces a deeply personal reflection on the abuse of power and the failure to leave behind anything meaningful. The very title “Flask and Bone” becomes a symbol of the emptiness he leaves behind: no values, no legacy, just the physical remains of a life marked by moral decay”.
“Chronicles of Despair” is a powerful and visceral concept album that explores, track by track, the darkest tensions of the human soul and contemporary society. In a world marked by war, corruption, media manipulation, and existential crisis, the album unfolds a journey that moves from despair to inner awakening, tackling pressing themes with raw, direct, and emotionally charged language.
The journey begins with “Flask N’ Bone”, an intense narrative of self-destruction and remorse, portraying a corrupt lawyer haunted by guilt—a symbol of a conscience that finds no peace. From there, the album expands into a collective dimension with “Madness”, a denunciation of nuclear war insanity, and “Shut The Fuck Up”, a rebellious track targeting disinformation and the dominance of media power.
“Violent Fist” gives voice to the blind rage that fuels conflict, while “Visions” pulls the listener into the haunting realm of sleep paralysis—a metaphor for the unconscious fears triggered by global tension. The inner journey turns more intimate with “Memories”, a melancholic instrumental that evokes childhood recollections and lost innocence.
“Awake-4” marks a turning point: a painful awakening from nostalgia, necessary to confront harsh reality. The final chapter, “The Sleepwalker”, closes the album with a powerful allegory of insecurity and illusion, culminating in a clear and resonant message:
“Awake from the lies, pursue the good, and never surrender.”
“Chronicles of Despair” is a scream, a reflection, and a call for awareness. An emotional chronicle of the afflictions of our time, but also an invitation to inner resistance.
Tracklist:
1. Flask N’ Bone 2. Madness 3. Shut The Fuck Up 4. Violent Fist 5. Visions 6. Memories 7. Awake-4 8. The Sleepwalker
SLYTHER is a young thrash/crossover band hailing from Pescara, Italy, and active since 2020. Formed by musicians born between 2005 and 2007, the group delivers a direct, high-energy sound rooted in modern thrash with strong crossover influences.
Since 2022, SLYTHER has been active on the live circuit, performing at major events such as the Day 0 of Frantic Fest 2023 and sharing the stage with well-known names in the Italian underground like Game Over and Fingernails. Among their first releases is the single “Shut The Fuck Up” (July 2023), which has surpassed 10,000 streams and offers a taste of the debut album currently in the works.
Shortly after the release of their most recent studio album Knightclub, FEUERSCHWANZ are back with another highlight! Today, the band unleashes the powerful Epic rendition of “Valhalla” – reimagining this infectious anthem, featuring metal queen Doro, through a majestic new orchestral lens, elevating the song’s theatrical drama and empowering message to a whole new, opulent level.
“Valhalla (Epic Edition)” is cut from the limited editions of the new album Knightclub (#2 on the Official German Album Charts), which was released on August 22 via Napalm Records. Having undergone an impressive transformation in recent years, FEUERSCHWANZ are more successful and in demand than ever after 20 years as a band and multiple #1 albums. Their participation in the German pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 brought them to the attention of millions and gained massive media recognition far beyond genre boundaries, and now with the release of Knightclub, the medieval heroes continue to prove their versatility.
Fans can experience the new songs live this October, when FEUERSCHWANZ hits the road with LORD OF THE LOST on their huge LORDS OF FYRE co-headline tour (dates below)!
With Knightclub, FEUERSCHWANZ released their first studio album with an English title – and for the first time, several tracks feature English lyrics. Knightclub is characterized by catchy hits, absolute party mood, great anthems and hard metal riffs. Once again, the band manages to incorporate their unmistakable humor into songs bursting with energy.
Produced by Simon Michael (Subway to Sally) and mastered by Jacob Hansen (Evergrey, Arch Enemy, Volbeat), Knightclub features artwork by Peter Sallai (Powerwolf, Sabaton, Saxon, Hammerfall).
FEUERSCHWANZ about the album: “Knightclub – for us, it’s a consistent continuation of our previous albums, taken to the next level both thematically and musically! Expect something truly epic, wild, and downright crazy! This album has something for everyone: fans of grand fantasy, heroic tales, and all-out partying, as well as lovers of massive guitar riffs and lively folk instruments. Become part of the Knightclub and join us on this next step of our unparalleled journey!”
What began as a farewell has become a resurrection.
Lost and Amsterdamned, the debut EP from the Netherlands’ one-man Black/Death Metal project, El Muerto, is set for release on November 21!
The official video for the EP’s first single, “Enthroned in the Tower of Shadows (The Witch),” is available at:
El Muerto was born in the depths of personal crisis, a raw and unflinching document of depression, trauma, and the desire to disappear. Conceived as a final message from an artist who had lost the will to live, each track captures a chapter of that darkness. But this record is no longer a goodbye. It’s proof that even in the shadows, something can still survive.
El Muerto is the alter ego of a multi-instrumentalist whose journey spans continents, from the underground metal scene of Mexico (Sekhmet) to experimental projects in Australia (Conscious Comma), now anchored in the Dutch landscape. With Lost and Amsterdamned, he delivers a fiercely collaborative black/death metal EP shaped by the frostbitten influence of Immortal, the grim atmosphere of Darkthrone and Mgła, and the progressive shadows of Opeth and Emperor.
Driven by guitar-forward compositions and visceral vocals, the record balances old-school extremity with cinematic vision. Each track is both a personal exorcism and a descent into archetypal horror, as described by below by El Muerto.
“A Song for Ran” – A melancholic invocation of the Norse sea goddess, casting despair into the sea’s cold embrace. Melodic and mournful, it drifts between surrender and transcendence beneath crashing waves and whispered death. Where the final rest in the most peaceful as well.
“Enthroned in the Tower of Shadows (The Witch)” – A theatrical black metal tale of the witch-queen reigning from a tower of obsidian. Ritualistic, grand, and venomously lyrical, it reads like folklore soaked in blood and fire. Betrayal, treason and lies.
“Lich King” – A blighted anthem of death’s dominion. With imagery of skeletal monarchs and ruined worlds, it’s a march into the void, full of oppressive riffing and funereal dread.
“Blood Crypt” – The EP’s most venomous moment: a burial rite soaked in bile and loathing. A brutal poem of closure through decay, it turns memory into rot, laying ghosts to rest in a cathedral of scorn.
“Ghosts of Torment” – An inner war against unseen forces. This track is a descent into madness where haunting spirits represent trauma, anxiety, and mental illness. Dissonant and despairing, it’s a song about being torn from within—and haunted from without.
“Wolves of Den Haag” – Inspired by the real-life cannibalistic murder of Dutch statesman Johan de Witt in 1672, this track uses historical horror to reflect modern betrayal and societal rage. Gnarled riffs and spectral tension echo through The Hague’s ghost-soaked streets.
Each song speaks in the language of metal, but beneath the corpse paint and distortion lies something deeply human—anguish, defiance, and ultimately, release.
Each of these songs reflects personal trauma through the lens of myth, horror, and metal’s harshest language turning lived experience into sonic ritual. Lost and Amsterdamned no longer marks an ending. It is a violent testament of survival, memory, and transformation. A cathartic howl from the pit—and the sound of someone crawling out of it.
The album’s rhythm section features guest musicians from international metal acts, such as downunder’s Norse and Europe’s Adarrak.
Mixed by the legendary Tomas Skogsberg of Sunlight Studios in Sweden and mastered by Ricardo Botello. Recorded in studios across the Netherlands.
Hot on the heels of their latest studio album “Plead The Fifth” (released in July via ROAR here), Austria’s high-voltage glam metal renegades Mädhouse turn the volume all the way up with their explosive new video for “Mad To The Bone”.
The track and video are a full-throttle showcase of the band’s identity: raw riffs, wild energy, and pure sleaze, attitude and hooks that cut deep. Visually and sonically, “Mad To The Bone” distills everything Mädhouse stand for: unapologetic, untamed, and impossible to ignore. Step into the Mädhouse, and see why glam will never die!
Drawing inspiration from legendary acts like Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, and Ratt, Mädhouse blends the raw energy of classic glam metal with a modern hard rock edge. Their sound is unmistakable—gritty riffs, anthemic choruses, and an unapologetic attitude that demand attention. Since their debut, the band has continuously evolved while staying true to their wild, rebellious spirit. “Plead The Fifth” pushes the boundaries even further with heavier riffs, bolder lyrics, and an electrifying presence.
Known for their explosive live performances and larger-than-life stage presence, Mädhouse continues to captivate audiences worldwide. The current line-up features Tommy Lovelace on vocals, Mikky Stixx and Thommy Black on guitars and backing vocals, Rickey Dee on bass, and Bobby B Bastard on drums. Together, they keep the spirit of glam metal alive, delivering high-octane rock that never backs down. With “Plead The Fifth”, they prove once again that glam metal is far from dead — it’s louder, bolder, and wilder than ever. Turn up the volume, join the madness, and let rock ‘n’ roll reign!
Metal Planet Media 