 This fall Melbourne's symphonic folk metal warriors Stormtide will hit the road across Australia in support of their epic debut album "Wrath of an Empire" released on Metal Hell Records Aug. 1st, 2016. The first dates are announced: 27th Aug - Melbourne, W/ Anna Murphy, Evelyn Hotel 2nd Sep - Geelong, The Barwon Club 10th Sep - Sydney, The Valve Bar 17th Sep - Canberra, The Basement W/ Lagerstein 22nd Oct - Melbourne, Headlining Metal To my ears, The Bendigo 26th Nov - Brisbane, TBA Label Bandcamp Website
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 Epic Celtic Death Metal outfit Steignyr have recently confirmed the complete amount of shows that will compose the European Tour "The Prophecy of the Highland 2016". SHOWS: 15/07 - Lille / Le Midland (Fr) 16/07 - Leuven / Rock Café Leuven (Be) 17/07 - Geleen / Cafe Zaal de Reunie (Nl) 21/07 - Berlin / Chesters (De) 23/07 - Prague / Exit Us (Cz) 24/07 - Budapest / Showbarlang (Hu) 29/07 - Kiev / Carpathian Alliance (Ua) 21/09 - Barcelona / Bóveda (Es) The band recently unveiled their latest video "Hammer of Agony (Live)" extracted from this last album and you can watch it by clicking HERE! "The Prophecy of the Highlands" is available on: AGR Online iTunes Amazon Spotify Apple Music www.artgatesrecords.com  Mongolian folk metal group Tengger Cavalry recently released their new "Mountain Side EP", which can be ordered here. This Sunday, May 15, the band will kick off their U.S. headline tour in support of the EP, beginning in Philadelphia, PA at Kung Fu Necktie. The tour will hit 18 cities, closing at Webster Hall in New York City on June 4. See below for all currently confirmed tour dates. To prepare for the tour kick-off, head to Metal Injection now to watch an exclusive stream of Tengger Cavalry's recent acoustic-only performance at NYC's Joe's Pub: http://www.metalinjection.net/video/tengger-cavalry-plays-a-fantastic-unplugged-set Keep an eye on www.tengger-cavalry.com for show information and updates, and get your tickets here: www.bandsintown.com/tenggercavalry www.facebook.com/tengger0cavalry Who would have honestly thought that on this cold, dark and weary mid-Winter's night, that three bands from both sides of Europe would ignite a sweat-pit so hot and steamy in the 02 Islington Academy, that everyone would be clambering around for their ice cold beers? Well you could blame the incessant rampaging of the crowd, or you could blame the magical wizardry of Londoners Pythia, Estonia's Metsatöll and Finland's Ensiferum for their encapsulating and unrelenting assault of metal at it's finest. A night full of bard, folkloric anthems and continual salutations towards the bands unfolded. Let us indulge in the night's gig and diverge from the near verbose verbiage given above.
. A lot was expected of Londoners Pythia at tonight's gig that the overall reaction post-performance was one of slight disillusion and disappointment, despite the heroics of keeping their cool intact and letting themselves go, Pythia never managed to shift out of third gear. Sure their pedigree of late ought have safeguarded their show from criticism, but they seemed out of sync at times, failed to keep the crowd on their toes and above all (which actually isn't their fault) did not fit in tonight's themed gig that well. Power / Gothic Metal? Folk Metal? You get the idea, it's like putting a Black Metal band with a Glam Metal band, there again imagine a Blackened Glam Metal band? Deviating here, much like what Pythia did at times during their set. It wasn't completely pretty and yet whilst there were glimmers of hope that could have lead to something magical sparking, the fire just did not ignite and this meant that the crowd were left in a state of boredom to the band's dismay. On another night Pythia may well have blasted the ceiling, but this night it was not meant to be, surely there needed something folkloric to not only get this crowd (and pit) open, cue Metsatöll [7]
Metsatöll brought with them their folkloric antics and atmospherics that would almost certainly have resulted in them being awarded the coveted 12 points at Eurovision, if this was Eurovision that is. Instead the crowd might as well have given them maximum points as they swayed, moshed and ritualistically headbanged to the beauty of Estonian Folk Metal. Here is a band who despite their language differences; they sing in Estonian, managed to ignite the venue without any restrictions. Not strangers to the British shores, this Baltic horde mix Folk Metal with Thrash Metal to develop something that's fast, heavy, danceable, even funky if you wish to call it that. They even weaved a traditional Pagan song into their set, which was prominently instrumental and was well received by the crowd. Harking back to the band's antics, one such antic was Varulven playing the Estonian bagpipes behind his back, we've all seen guitarists do this trick (Varulven is one too) but bagpipers? That little trick got a wow from the crowd, however there was an even bigger wow directed towards to the whole band as they laid down the foundations for their Finnish neighbours Ensiferum, and closed their performance with a song about love and beer; the latter of which was flowing like a gushing stream. For a band who has been knocking around for 17 years, they certainly showed no signs of stopping. [8]
* FYI that is not our meme.
Ensiferum, having celebrated 21 years activity and 15 years since their debut self-titled album dropped, were never destined to set a foot wrong in this most audacious of nights (you know the references). Having just released their latest effort "One Man Army", this show as part of their tour of the same name (as the album) could equate to a thousand-strong horde running riot, crashing into and smashing everything in sight, including you. That was the sheer force exerted by the Finnish sextet tonight, a full-on onslaught of 'Finnish folkloric anthems' and by that came the bards in metal form, reciting their majestic scripts that will have no doubt be spoken of and sung to on this night. Whilst the pits opened and closed, the headbanging became rhythmic and the dancing ensued due to the band's uncanny nature of knowing what makes their fans tick. Ensiferum have been there and done it, they know what it takes to make a night unforgettable and as they unleashed song after song, the crowd did not appear to show any signs of slowing down. Joined on stage by their new live musician Netta Skog (ex-Turisas) of whom took part on the tracks 'Cry For The Earth Bounds' and 'Descendants, Defiance, Domination' on the band's latest album, Ensiferum signed off each song played in style and as the night drew closer and closer to the end, it was apparent that despite the disappointing start by Pythia, both Metsatöll and Ensiferum drew out their swords and did battle, leaving the crowd gasping for air and emerging as valiant warriors born. Ensiferum this night justified their worth as Finnish Folk Metal leaders as well as pioneering idols, this was a night that everyone in attendance would never forget. [9] RHYS STEVENSON http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pythia/12587806334 http://www.facebook.com/Metsatoll http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Ensiferum/332 
Asgard Event Promotion are pleased to unveil an early christmas-ish present to fans of Moonsroow, Northern Oak and Sellsword. It comes in the form of a show hosted in York as part of the Jorvik Viking Festival 2015. Since 2012, Asgard Event Promotions have hosted Faroese Folk Metalles Tyr and progressively organized show after show to mark the Jorvik Viking Festival. Support will come from Sheffield's flute-orientated folk metal Northern Oak, as seen at festivals such as Bloodstock and Warhorns, and local mercenary metal troupe Sellsword. The show will take place Friday 20th February 2015 at Fibbers in York. Tickets for the show are priced at £16 and will be available from Asgard’s website www.asgardonline.co.uk and other ticket outlets. The show is 14+. Further details on the show can be found at www.fibbers.co.uk Venue: Colchester Arts Centre Location: Colchester Date: 13th July, 2013 Genre: Black Metal  < Jotnarr set the tone for the evening, shrieking black metal On what many perceived as a hallow night in the abyss of Colchester's back streets, three bands were tuning up their apocalyptic sounds to unleash a blast of ghastly horror on the attending crowd. Summoned first to the graceful stage in the Colchester Arts Centre was home-boys Jotnarr with their gnarly mix of crust music with Black Metal. However as much as they tried they did not seem to pip the crowds reception as much as they had hoped, much is the case when big bands play but when bands like Jotnarr explode with a rapturous sound that ironically did catch the attention of the other bands performing that night it seemed all too good to be true. Sure this was my first time actually watching the lads and so judgements were retracted to no availing conclusion, putting it into simple paraphrasing: yes they were good and delivered a stellar performance, but they need to improve on stage presence, it's fine playing the music but without any movement the performance is near enough dead. However referring back to my point about catching others attention, this is something Jotnarr will do in the near future as I feel they could go far. As soon as their set was over and the atmosphere died down, a new form of Black Metal was being woken up and as Jotnarr left the stage to the sound of applause, Eastern Front were shining up their shells and manning their anti-aircraft weaponry.  Nagant's 'playing dead' impersonation did not go down well > War-Torn Black Metallers Eastern Front were the next ensemble to blast holes in the glass-stained walls of this historic church, how fitting is it that churches were bombed on the Eastern Front and yet come nearly 70 years later Eastern Front do their own bombing. Fueled by the unrelenting crowd and a dousing of kerosene in the form of a nuclear beer cocktail, the lads from Ipswich murdered senses mercilessly and with their full commanding assault bearing down upon the crowd, the even stronger line-up featuring the band's new members Zeichen and the unknown and yet illusive drummer of whose name remains a mystery, so who is this mystery person? No he is not a descendant of Georgy Zhukov although he certainly had the drumming velocity of said war veteran. Eastern Front did not disappoint on what could be considered their best performance in a major venue to date. Already in transit in creating their second album, this performance was a sure sign that the band are going to keep the furious side of the music flowing freely whilst the lyrics do the job of setting the scene for the crowd to cower at. As for the stage presence, Eastern Front nailed it through the use of barbed wire, an illuminated gas mask, military style clothing and search lights, developing a dark and bitter feel to their presence, something that would set the headlining band up well for, but with a little twist in it. So as soon as the battle cries fell silent, it was time to kick off the folkloric atmosphere that Winterfylleth bring with them.  It was time for Chesire folk-influenced Black Metal ensemble Winterfylleth to grace the stage and deliver the punters their just reward, a full on face-smacking punch of old English black metal, my only hope was that they didn't get apprehended by the green party, mind you it does justice to sing about traditional English heritage (well the Norwegians sing about Norway, so). No sooner did the lads board the stage did they unleash a ferocious barrage of unorthodox Black Metal, I say unorthodox in the sense they they like Jotnarr did not dress in the basic Black Metal way, no corpse-paint, just insanely epic music. With that firmly set in stone and the ballads flowing lusciously over the crowd and into the night sky, it was justified that tonight was without a doubt the best Black Metal concert that Essex has seen for sometime. As soon as the last riff of the night let rip did the crowd disperse to leave Colchester well and truly annihilated.
By Rhys Stevenson [6.5] + [8.5] + [8] |
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