Spiritual Deception is an Italy-based brutal/technical death metal band. Fast and technical riffs run along with melodies, downtempo and groovy breaks, to deliver a complete and modern sounding death metal experience.
The band aren’t afraid to keep it weird with this record, chugging through odd time signatures and epic choruses and keeping it catchy and listenable while also showing off their technical prowess.
The album features guest contributions by death metal legends Karl Sanders (Nile) and Luc Lemay (Gorguts).

When you're 36 years and 17 albums deep into your career, it's a pretty safe assumption that you've achieved veteran status. Likewise, the stumbling block of sticking to what one knows becoming self-plagiarism looms all the more, yet for some reason Jeff Waters' flagship thrash metal enterprise Annihilator repeatedly manages to walk that tightrope with few incidents. With the days of 90s groove metal experimentation now two decades in the rearview, it can be safely stated that this outfit, which has tended to flirt with being a two person project with Waters doing it all minus the drums, is poised to make the 2020s a reprise of the consistent foray of technically-charged speed thrashing mayhem that defined the 2010s, at least insofar are Ballistic, Sadistic, Annihilator's 17th studio LP is concerned…

Metallica live at Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Madrid, ESP, 14 July, 2024.

For those unfamiliar, Hell:on plays uncompromising death metal embellished by ritualistic influences; they sound like Behemoth might if that band dropped the black metal influences, picked up an assortment of folk instruments from all across Asia, and threw in some throat-singing from the steppes for good measure.
Shaman succeeds because its various elements are exceedingly well-balanced. The album opens and closes wearing its tribalistic heart on its sleeve; opener “What Steppes Dream About” jumps out of the gates with folk instrumentation and throat-singing, while the closing title track finds the band overtly exploring their penchant for atmospheric mysticism. But while intermediate cuts like “Preparation for the Ritual” and “I Am the Path” keep the ritualism high, there are a couple of mostly straight-laced death metal bludgeoners to keep things from becoming too ethereal.

Metallica live at Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Madrid, ESP, 12 July, 2024.

Metallica live at PGE Narodowy, Warsaw, POL, 7 July, 2024.

Since 1989, Canada’s Annihilator have not stopped putting out records and touring the world. Despite the ever-changing climate of the Metal World (and releasing a series of "different" Metal records with various lineups along the way), Jeff Waters and company have consistently delivered strong albums since the band’s debut "Alice In Hell" (1989).
"For The Demented" (2017) captures some feel from Annihilator’s 1985-87 demos mixed with the first 4 Annihilator records. Back to the thrash meets melody but with some pure Waters guitar riffing, up-graded lead guitar shredding and vocals back to the demo-days meets the "King of The Kill" record.

The Tavastia club in Helsinki is truly a location steeped in history. One album that also has a great history is Tales from the Thousend Lakes by Amorphis.
To celebrate the album's 30th anniversary, Amorphis have performed their classic album in its entirety in chronological order and the result will be released in July 2024 as Tales from the Thousand Lakes (Live at Tavastia).

Since 2016, Indiana’s Wraith have been emitting their incendiary brand of blackened thrash and speed metal into the world. Summer 2024 will see them release their debut full length under the Prosthetic Records label banner; prepare for Fueled By Fear. What started as a one-man band many moons ago has evolved into a propulsive beast of a band. Channeling a reverence to classic metal from a bygone era, Wraith incorporate their distinctively blistering sonic signature to create something urgent and contemporary. The band have previously described their collective mission as follows: a war of aggression on the dour confines of the modern metal scene and total sonic annihilation…

When it comes to the most influential bands in the history of heavy metal, authorities on the subject regularly vote Anvil among the top positions. The group from Toronto, Canada, with its two masterminds, Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and Robb Reiner, and bassist Chris Robertson, not only looks back at an impressive career with countless highlights - as well as a number of well-documented difficulties - but has also had a lasting influence on lots of internationally renowned musicians, from Metallica to Slayer and beyond. Their latest studio album is aptly entitled ‘One And Only’: Anvil are and will always be one of a kind and are continuing to shape the contemporary metal scene just as impressively as they did at the beginning of their career. How they achieve this? Thanks to their straightforward metal fuelled by cutting riffs and catchy hooks, which the musicians continue to celebrate with admirable effortlessness and great passion…

Metallica live at HellFest, Clisson, FR, 29 June 2024.