Japanese metal band Bridear have just announced their brand new UK tour dates for 2022. Having become the first Japanese band to tour internationally last year, they blew UK & EU audiences away with their 2021 shows. Now, in celebration of their 10th Anniversary, they return this September armed with their brand new album Aegis Of Athena, which was released on May 13th.
 

The acclaimed five-piece will be performing as follows:
 

• Sept 6th – Glasgow, The Attic
• Sept 7th – Manchester, Academy 3
• Sept 9th – Huddersfield, The Parish
• Sept 10th – London, Boston Music Rooms
• Sept 11th – Birmingham, Castle & Falcon

 

Lead vocalist Kimi comments:-

     "The UK is very special to us and we can't wait to return! A lot has happened in the world but we are determined to keep moving forward as we have for 10 years now! 'Raise your voice for us' - we're coming back!”
 

Haru, the band’s bassist, continues:-

     "The new album has songs that will be so much fun live. The shows last year were amazing and this year will be even better, so I hope the UK is ready!”
 

Tickets will be available from www.bridear.world and at https://www.orionlive.co.uk/upcoming-events

     The new album Aegis of Athena is a blistering 11-track sonic assault perfectly blending traditional heavy metal, progressive arrangements, stunning technical prowess and addictive pop-rock hooks. Brimming with big riffs it features feature furious thrash passages, incredible lead lines and irresistible melodic sensibilities, showcasing J-metal like you’ve never heard it before.
 
​

• Check out the video for recent single ‘Determination’

Fans can order physical copies of Aegis Of Athena, including a special bundle with CD and t-shirt here: www.setsushop.com  
 
Check out full details here: www.bridear.world

EPIC APOCALYPSE UK & EUROPEAN TOUR DATES

OCTOBER

21st - Switzerland, Zurich, Komplex
22nd - Switzerland, Lausanne, Metropole
23rd - Italy, Milan, Fabrique
25th - Hungary, Budapest, Barba Negra
26th - Czech Republic, Brno, Hala Vodova
27th - Germany, Munich, Tonhalle
29th - Sweden, Stockholm, Berns
30th - Norway, Oslo, Sentrum
31st - Denmark, Copenhagen, Amager Bio

NOVEMBER

2nd - Germany, Hannover, Capitol
3rd - Germany, Hamburg, Docks
4th - Germany, Berlin, Columbiahalle
6th - Poland, Warsaw, Progresja
8th - Germany, Leipzig, Haus Auensee
9th - Austria, Vienna, Gasometer
26th - Portugal, Lisbon, Coliseum
28th - Spain, Murcia, Gamma
29th - Spain, Madrid, La Riviera
30th - Spain, Barcelona, Razzmatazz

DECEMBER

3rd - France, Paris, Zenith
4th - Belgium, Brussels, AB
5th - UK, London, Roundhouse
7th - UK, Bristol, 02 Academy
8th - UK, Glasgow, Academy
9th - UK, Manchester, Academy
11th - Netherlands, Amsterdam, Afas
12th - Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Dan Atelier
15th - Germany, Cologne, Carlswerk Victoria
16th - Germany, Wiesbaden, Schlachtof
17th - Germany, Ludwigsburg, MHP Arena
 
General sale will commence on Friday Feb 21st at  9am GMT, 10am CET. Apocalyptica VIP upgrades will also go on sale at the same time. Apocalyptica links for both VIP and regular tickets can be found in the following two locations. 
 
VIP -  https://apocalyptica.merchcowboy.com/tickets.html
REGULAR -  https://www.apocalyptica.com/#dates

Follow Apocalytica on:

www.facebook.com/Apocalyptica
www.instagram.com/apocalypticaofficial
www.twitter.com/apocalypticafi
www.apocalyptica.com

In January 2019, old school heavy metal newcomers Burning Witches will head out on an extensive tour throughout Europe, supporting Grave Digger on their Tour Of The Living Dead. All dates can be found below.

Today, the witches have unleashed an official tour trailer. Check it out, here:- youtu.be/olOYOnqofME

The band commented:-

     "We were really happy when Chris Boltendahl came up to us at the Bang Your Head!!! Winter Festival to ask if we might be interested in joining Grave Digger out on tour. This will be the first big tour for us and it's an honour to get a chance like this as a new act. Since our second record was just released in November, the timing of this run couldn't be more perfect! We're super excited & READY TO FIGHT!"

The Tour Of The Living Dead w/ Grave Digger
Presented by Rock Hard (D), Rocks (D), metal.de

11.01. D Hanover - MusikZentrum
12.01. D Andernach - JUZ Live Club
13.01. CH Pratteln - Z7
14.01. D Munich - Backstage
15.01. D Aschaffenburg - Colos-Saal
16.01. D Saarbrücken - Garage
17.01. D Bochum - Zeche

18.01. D Glauchau - Alte Spinnerei
19.01. D Neuruppin - Kulturhaus
20.01. NL Rotterdam - Baroeg
22.01. D Hamburg - Martkhalle
23.01. D Berlin - Lido
24.01. D Bamberg - Live-Club
25.01. D Regensburg-Obertraubling - Airport-Eventhall

26.01. D Memmingen - Kaminwerk
27.01. D Ludwigsburg - Rockfabrik
28.01. F Paris - Petit Bain
29.01. UK London - Camden Underworld
30.01. B Vosselaar - Biebob
31.01. F Lyon - CCO Villeurbanne
01.02. E Bilbao - Santana 27

02.02. E Madrid - Sala Mon Live
03.02. E Barcelona - Razzmatazz 2

Tickets: www.nuclearblast.de/tickets

The brand new studio album Hexenhammer recently entered the official album charts across Europe:

UK (Rock) #15
Switzerland #21
Germany #43
UK (Indie) #47
Belgium #148 (Wallonie)

Hexenhammer is available for order on a variety of different formats:

All formats: nuclearblast.com/bw-hexenhammer
Limited Digipack CD: nblast.de/BurningWitchesCD
Limited Edition Double Gatefold Black Vinyl: nblast.de/BurningWitchesVinyl
Digital album: nblast.de/BWHexenhammerIT

Burning Witches are:

Seraina | vocals
Romana | guitars
Sonia | guitars
Jay | bass
Lala | drums

Lovebites will unleash the sophomore full-length album called "Clockwork Immortality" on the 7th of December 2018.

The band consists of Asami (vocals), Miho (bass), Haruna (drums), Midori (guitars) and Miyako (guitars/keyboard). The Lovebites sound owes a debt to the many great overseas heavy metal bands that have directly influenced their writing. Coupled with their own unique take on music, taking a piece from each member’s eclectic background and experiences, everything has culminated into forging a truly formidable group.

Their first European tour, including stops in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK starts on the 13th of November this year!

Lovebites European & UK tour:

13.11.  NL  Haarlem - Patronaat
14.11.  D    Essen - Zeche Carl
16.11.  D    Hamburg - Logo
19.11.  D    Aschaffenburg - Colos-Saal
20.11  FR   Paris - Nouveau Casino
21.11. UK   London - O2 Academy Islington

Lovebites started working on their first EP at the end of 2016, joined by the amazing engineering team of Mikko Karmila and Mika Jussila from Finland who are known for their work with Nightwish, Children of Bodom and Amorphis to name but a few. The Lovebites EP was the end product of those sessions, which was released in mid-2017. In October 2017 they released their first full album, "Awakening From Abyss". In the aftermath of the release of "Awakening From Abyss" in October 2017 through Europe and North America; Asami, Haruna, Midori, Miho and Miyako performed their first overseas live shows in London.

On the heels of this success, in June 2018 the all-female band won the Best New Band award at the Golden Gods Awards held by the UK music magazine Metal Hammer, being the very first Japanese band to pull this off.

Lovebites released their second mini album "Battle Against Damnation" that same month, taking it on the road with them to the world’s biggest metal festival Wacken Open Air in Germany, where they drove a crowd of over 10,000 people into frenzy before appearing on the main stage at the UK’s Bloodstock Open Air headlined by Judas Priest.

Lovebites are:

Asami | vocals
Midori | guitars
Miyako | guitars
Miho | bass
Haruna | drums

www.facebook.com/LovebitesTheBand
www.twitter.com/lovebites_jp

Amberian Dawn's Europoan tour with Co-headliner Edenbridge and support Manzana is getting really close. The show on 9.2.2018 in Regensburg moves to Burglengenfeld (Vaz Pfarrheim)

AMBERIAN DAWN w/ Edenbridge
Presented by metal.de, Stormbringer, Lords Of Metal and Metal & Highheels

09.02.18 DE – Burglengenfeld / VAZ Pfarrheim
10.02.18 DE – Markneukirchen / Framus & Warwick Musichall
11.02.18 DE – Erfurt / From Hell
12.02.18 AT – Vienna / Viper Room
13.02.18 DE – Frankfurt / Nachtleben
14.02.18 CH – Pratteln / Z7
15.02.18 DE – Mannheim / MS Connexion Complex
16.02.18 DE – Cologne / Nachtleben
17.02.18 NL – Eindhoven / Dynamo
18.02.18 DE - Würzburg / Posthalle

TICKET LINKS AT WWW.AMBERIANDAWN.COM/GIGS

Russian sci-fi metal group Sunwalter head out on their first tour of 2018 taking 3 East European countries. Titled The Course Of The Alien King, this will be a joint tour with Polish group Lux Perpetua. The band are still heavily promoting their recent release, Alien Hazard, which has been getting extremely positive reviews. This is always a fun and colourful band to check out live and they hope to announce dates in Russia and wider afield very soon!

Here’s the Sunwalter tour announcement from their always entertaining Facebook page;

     “Earthmen! After the lengthy New Year holidays, we have finally returned to the habitual orbit around this planet. While the Earth celebrated the date, we have decided on the upcoming venues in terms of our next European tour, and we are ready to share the information with you. Unfortunately, there are no dates of Russian shows on the list yet, but we’ll try to persuade the Anunnaki race to consider that territory as landing site during the tour. Please, don’t hesitate to let us know, where else you would like to visit Sunwalter performances.”

Upcoming Tour Dates:

Mar 16 | Vilnius, Lithuania
Mar 17 | Kaunus, Lithuania
Mar 18 | Riga, Latvia
Mar 22 | Rzeszów, Poland
Mar 23 | Warsaw, Poland
Mar 24 | Iława, Poland
Mar 25 | Łódź, Poland

Band links: Official Website | Facebook | Youtube | On Sliptric

Marko Cipaktli (Drums / Harsh vocals)
Pat Cuikani (Vocals / Ocarinas)
Paul Belmar (Guitar)
Nakuset Gould (Bass)
Alex Navarro (Guitar)

Mexican symphonic folk metallers Cabrakaän will be hitting the road with Quebec's Valfreya and Alberta's Forsaken Rite for this year's "March Of The Frozen Western Canadian Tour". The tour will see the Mexican transplants whom now call Canada home and residing in Calgary, AB perform in three provinces during the month of February. During the tour, Cabrakaän will showcase new tracks from their upcoming 2018 full length "Cem Anahuac" due out in spring 2018 to follow their 2014 debut EP "Songs From Anahuac". 

Staying true to their roots, Cabrakaän's music combines elements of metal orchestrated with Mexican folklore along with a wide variety of instruments such as strings, acoustic guitars, Jarocha harp, marimba, ocarinas, Huehuetl, and Teponaztle. Their lyrics are in English, Spanish, Zapoteco, Nahuatl and other ancient Mexican languages. The band's name is based on a character from the Mayan sacred book known as the Popol Vuh, where Cabrakaän was the god of mountains and earthquakes. 

     "We are proud our roots and our culture and we want to share it with the world through our music. When we are on stage, we try to give our fans a great experience by creating an atmosphere from the time of the Aztecs, using costumes and make up. The purpose of our sets too is to give fans more of our culture visually and musically so they can connect with us and enjoy the performance even more." says drummer Marko Cipaktli.

Tour Dates:

Feb 15 - Kelowna, BC - Muninn's Post - info
Feb 16 - Calgary, AB - Distortion - info
Feb 17 - Edmonton, AB - The Forge On Whyte - info
Feb 18 - Regina, SK - Cloud 9 - info

Cabrakaän was formed in Toluca, Mexico in 2012 and have been calling Canada home since first performing in the country at the 2017 Metalocalypstick fest in Lone Butte, BC where the beauty of the North won them over and encouraged them make the grand decision to relocate.Their debut EP "Songs From Anahuac" was unleashed in 2014 and displayed a mix of death, folk, and symphonic European influences with Prehispanic instruments along with storytelling of Mesoamerican mythologies (Aztec, Mayan, Tlaxcaltecan, Olmecan) plus Mexican folklore such as La llorona, La Bruja, Day of The Dead.

Wasting no time in Canada, Cabrakaän are currently completing production on their follow up full length album entitled "Cem Anahuac" set for release in spring 2018. The album will be an expression of pride for their roots, history and traditions along with their love for metal and traditional music from their home country of Mexico.

http://www.facebook.com/cabrakaan  
http://www.twitter.com/cabrakaan 
http://www.youtube.com/cabrakaan  

Just in time for Halloween, Bloodstock is excited to announce four more spooktacular bands and add the 2018 Rock Society tickets to the ticket store.  


Watain will bring their black metal ritual to headline Sunday’s Sophie Lancaster stage in a UK festival exclusive. Frontman Erik Danielsson admits that their:-

      "last performance at Bloodstock in 2012 was also the final date on the ‘Lawless Darkness’ tour. The sun was setting while we played and the crowd was getting louder and wilder the darker it became. A very charged atmosphere. Eager now to return and see what the eventful years that have passed and the force accumulated since then has done to both us and the Bloodstock crowd. Furthermore, England is of course sacred ground when it comes to Metal in general, so when performing there, the stakes are always high. May all those that doubt be impaled upon them."  

Look out for the band’s long awaited sixth studio album arriving on 5th January 2018!

German power metallers, Orden Ogan also land a Ronnie James Dio main stage slot on Saturday.  The band released ‘Gunmen’, their fifth studio album, this summer via AFM Records.  Check out the video for ‘Gunman’ here and get a taster of what’s in store for their set in 2018 - https://youtu.be/JPm46Qgyn24.

Atlanta aggrotech outfit, Combichrist also join the main stage bill for an early slot on Friday.  The band have been working on new music after the release of their eighth studio album, ‘This Is Where Death Begins’ which landed in 2016. Check out the new track, ‘Broken:United’ at the following link - https://Combichrist.lnk.to/BrokenUnited.

Also landing an early main stage slot on Friday are British death/grind four-piece, Memoriam.  Combining ex-members of Bolt Thrower and Benediction, Memoriam’s pedigree is high.  The band of scene veterans are hard at work on the follow up to their debut, ‘For The Fallen’ released via Nuclear Blast earlier this year. Check out ‘Reduced To Zero’ taken from that opus here - https://youtu.be/Nmucoieg2Lc.

Bloodstock’s Rock Society tickets become available in the store on Halloween morning, 31st October at 9.00am! The ‘Rock Society’ is effectively the festival’s ‘Members Club’, offering not only a 10% discount on your weekend ticket (on top of the early bird discount if you purchase the Rock Society membership + ticket bundle option), but all sorts of other cool benefits like priority signing tent access, a Rock Society laminate, access to the VIP Serpents Lair bar, a tour of the backstage & production areas to see ‘behind the scenes’, the chance to meet with the festival organisers, a dedicated hangout area in the Rock Society tent on site, a Rock Society Facebook community where you can make friends and get to know your fellow RockSoc members and plenty more besides.  Full details can be found at http://www.bloodstock.uk.com/pages/rock-society.  Memberships are priced at £75, limited to 300 and sell out almost immediately, so don’t delay if you want to pick one up.

Also now in the store are tickets for our new Vanaheim campervan field. Due to increasing demand each year, we've made some site adjustments to allow for more pitches. As such, the new Vanaheim site is located across the road, directly adjacent to Serpents Lair VIP parking, allowing an increase in size to accommodate 240 campervans, as opposed to just 130. Campervan pitches always sold through very rapidly, so this allows for more of our metal brethren to join the campervan club. Tickets for campervan pitches will remain at this year's price of £60.  

With Friday night headliners, Judas Priest, Saturday night headliners, Gojira and Sunday headliners, Nightwish already announced, along with Emperor, Devildriver and Nails, 2018 is shaping up to be another stellar year for Bloodstock.  

Bloodstock.’s first wave of Serpents Lair VIP tickets are now Sold out! The final allocation, the last batch of VIP deluxe packages and a limited amount of VIP upgrades priced at £145 (for those who’ve already bought ‘early bird’ tickets) will then become available on 16th December at 9am in the ticket store. Mark your calendars and don't delay if you want to join us in 2018’s VIP Serpents Lair, as they’re moving faster than ever before!

Standard weekend tickets are currently available at ‘early bird’ prices (just £125 for four days of metal fun) so grab yours now at the ticket store if you want to save £20! In order to keep up with inflation and extra costs in 2018, standard weekend tickets with camping will increase from last year's £139 to £145 once the ‘early bird’ allocation is gone.  

Bloodstock will take place at Catton Park, Derbyshire on 9th-12th August 2018. Get additional information over at www.bloodstock.uk.com.

The Metal On The Hill festival in the heart of the Austrian hills is getting ready for its 3rd edition! Between August 17th - 18th 2018 heavy music fans will celebrate a high class line-up at the probably most beautiful venue Austria has to offer – the Kasematten in Graz.

Napalm Records are proud to announce another stunning band and welcome Van Canto to next year's Metal On The Hill!

Founded back in 2006 as a studio project by Stefan Schmidt, nowadays Van Canto sure enough belong to the most unique and special acts in the heavy metal scene: With their unique trademark of a- cappella metal and the power of voices, Van Canto set the stages on fire and convince even the hardest metalhead! After the successful release of the band's latest album 'Voices Of Fire' and their only Austrian show in 2018, we are very looking forward to welcome Van Canto to Metal On The Hill 2018!

Many more top class acts such as Epica or Sodom have confirmed their only and exclusive Austrian shows at Metal On The Hill! Alongside death metal band God Dethroned, who also announced their only Austrian live gig for 2018, the highly praised Jinjer as well as Belgian Thrash Metal up-and- coming Evil Invaders will make their way to Graz. Local matadors Ellende are currently rounding up the line-up for 2018, but many more bands and news will be announced soon!

VIP-tickets are already sold out! Get your hands on the last available festival passes for THE metal event in 2018 at: www.metal-on-the-hill.com, www.ticketzentrum.at and www.oeticket.com.

See you on the mountain!

www.metal-on-the-hill.com
www.facebook.com/metalonthehill

After their most successful festival to date in 2017 and first ever weekend sell-out at a capacity 15,000 tickets, Bloodstock is thrilled to announce Gojira and Nightwish as its first headliners for 2018's event which will take place at Catton Park from 9th-12th August.

Gojira had this to say:-

     "We are excited and honoured to headline Bloodstock festival in 2018. One of our favourite festivals in the world. We had such a great time in 2016 with the Bloodstock crowd and are sure that 2018 will be even better. We are already planning what we can do to make it the most awesome  GOojira show yet. We can't wait!"


Nightwish had this to say:-

      "We can't wait to hit the mighty Bloodstock Festival in 2018! By then we'll be in full flight on our 'Decades' World Tour (a retrospective) so expect an unusual set-list with a bit of nostalgia for the old fans, but some recent epics for the new. We will throw ourselves into it with everything we've got so be there!"  

The bands were revealed at the festival this weekend, on the big screens at the Ronnie James Dio main stage. See the video reveals at: https://youtu.be/CIwPDJsr3bg and https://youtu.be/X2eTzwnZrk4.

Early Bird tickets are available now from http://bloodstock.seetickets.com, priced £125 plus booking fee. VIP tickets will be available from 1st September.