Het Zweedse Evergrey komt deze maand met het nieuwe album Escape Of The Phoenix. Een album dat een nieuwe hoofdstuk inluidt voor de band na het afronden van de trilogie met The Atlantic. Voor de single Where August Mourns heeft de band een video beschikbaar gesteld.
Head Of Clay
Head Of Clay is een band die al eerder de etalage van Rockportaal sierde. Het lukt ze namelijk steeds om lekkere rockmuziek te produceren. Luister en geniet daarom nu van Janey.
Lunatic Soul
Steven Wilson
Sentinels
Na het rock en proggenre ook tijd voor wat meer ‘actie’ met de progressieve metalcoreband Sentinels die via SharpTone Records de video van de single Intertia online hebben gezet. De single is afkomstig van het debuutalbum dat later dit jaar uit moet gaan komen.
Drummer Dave Rucki : “We are beyond excited to announce our signing with Sharptone Records. The day the label launched, we knew that if there was a home for us, it was now realized. To have them backing us, and to even be writing this now is surreal. ‘Inertia’ perfectly represents the level of aggression we aim for in our music. With Josh’s voice, we were able to elevate that aggression and further convey the more emotional moments in the song. ‘Inertia’ is about suicidal thoughts and confiding in somebody close only to be told “that’s selfish”, then deciding whether to go through with it, or prove that you can overcome it to appease those around you. We have been a band since 2012, but now solidifying our lineup with Josh on vocals, we can confidently say, this is what we had always envisioned for Sentinels”.
Zanger Josh Hardiman voegt hieraan toe: “Sharptone, Sentinels, and the team behind the scenes have taken a huge risk on me, the gravity of which I most certainly feel, but the difference between this weight and my burdens since past, is that now with each passing day I become stronger and more alive. More and more equipped to handle and weather new storms for now I am living a life that I want to have gifted to me by those who believed in me. I will not fail with their continued support. This is a new beginning and I hope that everyone who listens to “Inertia” want to embark on this new chapter with us”.
Aviana
De alternatieve metalact Aviana laat ook weer van zich horen. Na de succesvolle release van het album Epicenter via Arising Empire besloot de complete band Aviana te verlaten in maart 2020, waardoor het voor zanger Joel Holmqvist, samen met de pandemie, een jaar werd om heel snel te vergeten. Hij is echter niet bij de pakken neer gaan zitten omdat hij gewoonweg het gevoel had dat hij niet klaar was met Aviana. En met ‘what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’ is hij weer gaan voortbouwen aan een nieuw hoofdstuk.
“I was in a dark place for a long time when my former band mates decided to leave the band. It was hard! I think this song as a start reflects all those feelings and thoughts that I had to fight during that difficult time,” zegt Joel Holmqvist. “I’m building this up with the new Aviana now. There’s a new chapter, a new story and a new era coming!”
Erra
19 maart ligt het nieuwe album van Erra via UNFD in de ‘winkels’. Voor de gelegenheid heeft de band alvast de single Scorpion Hymn uitgebracht. Erra bezorgt je een fikse portie progressieve metalcore. Zanger J.T. Cavey zegt over het geluid van de band:
“The song features almost the entire spectrum of my voice. Producer Grant McFarland and Jesse Cash [guitarist] assisted on creating an ominous chorus that gets stuck in your head. The title refers to the fable of The Scorpion and the Frog, about the nature of violent instinct. It lent a means of having aggressive lyrics to compliment the aggressive style of the instrumentals. The theme deviates in the middle section with about 8 lines about self-reflection, hazy identity, perhaps imposter syndrome, and as final group of lines that summarize the development of jaded feelings towards aged aspirations”.
Knoll
Hard, harder, Knoll. Deze deathgrindgroep laat met de single Earth’s Iron Lung meteen horen wat je mag verwachten van het album Interstice dat dat er eind deze maand aan zit te komen.
“This track is one of the oldest and moldiest in our writing catalogue. Definitely one of the filthier ones off of the album and one that we’ve always felt was easily picked out by crowds. We were lucky enough to work with Frank Huang again this time around – we told him the concept of this song being about rapture and the deliverance of unknowable truths, and he went nuts with it. A lot of the footage is from recordings of Aum Shinrikyo, a 90s Japanese doomsday cult, and is of course rendered with as much visual grime as possible.”