We had the honor to welcome the two lads and ladies of the deathgrind powerviolence crew Escuela Grind on our stage at Asgaard last year, and let me tell you: our venue barely got through the bombshell they dropped! After 2022’s massive full-length ‘Memory Theater’, they are now releasing the third volume in their ‘An Ode to Tradition’ EP series with ‘DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL’. Four killer tracks of all under 4 minutes long that will rage over you in sheer brutality. And on the closing track ‘Meat Magnet’, they even have a guest appearance from the rather legendary Barney Greenway (Napalm Death). What is not to love about this?

Green Day is back with another album! And going on the handful of singles they already released, it’s looking like ‘Saviors‘ might be another monumental album for them. After releasing some albums that were received somewhat lukewarm by a lot of people, getting to hear that they’re somewhat going back to both the sound and vibe of their legendary period in the nineties (for instance the tracks ‘One Eyed Bastard’ and ‘Look Ma, No Brains!’) or the gravitas of their career defining album ‘American Idiot‘ (with ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’) is reason enough to get excited. Especially if those albums from the nineties or ‘American Idiot’ means as much to you as they meant to me. About 2 decades after ‘American Idiot’, it was about time for Green Day to really hit it out of the park again and prove that there’s a reason why they’re the huge (punk) rock band they are nowadays.

Ever since we made Finland our second home, there have been a bunch of bands that are somewhat consistent returnees for our people operating there. And one of those bands is the rock outfit The Empire Strikes. Since we caught them live for the very first time over half a decade ago, we’ve covered shows and single releases of them as good as every year. Live you can always count on a proper old school high energy rock ‘n’ roll show and even on record that kind of old school vibe comes across really obviously, though with a modern touch of course. So when they’ve scraped together enough songs to finally release that next full-length album, we can’t help it but get excited. ‘Motell Scandinavia’ is their 4th full-length release and the first one since 2019. And the already released singles go back all the way to 2021 (with ‘License To Thrill’), so it seems to really have taken some time to get this one primed and ready. Shortly before the end of last year, they still hit us with the single ‘Take It Easy’, and going on that track and the earlier released ones, this album is yet again going to be a stellar piece of rock music that feels like the perfect soundtrack for a roadtrip.

The legendary masters of NWOBHM are back at it again! It very much seems like there is no slowing down for Saxon even after almost 50 years of existence, 25 full-length albums and nonstop touring. It’s rather impressive that they still release albums at such a high rate, looking at the fact that they’re coming with a new full-length while their last album ‘Carpe Diem’ was released in 2022 and last year they released another cover album with ‘More Inspirations’. With a Saxon album you kind of know what you’re going to get, but you won’t hear anyone complain about that, because their brand of traditional heavy metal is always on the same stellar high quality level. This album also marks the first official release with Brian Tatler from Diamond Head on guitars since he recently joined the band as a replacement for longtime guitarist Paul Quinn, and we’re curious to hear if we can pick up on some signature touches from this talented dude in the new Saxon music!

‘Sticky’, the last album of Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes was one of my personal favorite albums back in 2021 and really turned me onto the genius of these guys. So when it was announced that a new album was coming, I could hardly contain myself. That punchy, at times upbeat, punky style of rock ‘n’ roll just really does it for me. And then came those first singles… They caught me totally unaware and at first didn’t know what to think of it, but I just couldn’t help myself from turning them back on, especially their latest single ‘Brambles’. It feels like a more refined and more contained kind of Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, bringing maturity and putting the rawness they’re known for rather in the lyrics and emotionally laden sound filled with stellar riffs and musical compositions instead of pure punk raunchiness. What an unexpected, and pretty much epic evolution that made me looking forward even more to what is coming…

When Wayne Static passed away, it left quite the whole in the metal community, and here we thought that we’d never hear any Static-X anymore. But the other original guys from the outfit got together, dug up some of Wayne‘s recordings he had been working on before his unfortunate passing, brought in Edsel Dope to produce, and got to work with the blessing of his loved ones to puzzle the pieces together into 2 albums under the label ‘Project: Regeneration’. Approaching the first release with somewhat hesitant feelings, they completely blew us away. They really managed to bring the “evil disco” that was Wayne’s pride and joy back to life, and at no point it felt like a gimmick or any such thing. And now finally, about 4 years after the first part, comes volume 2 of ‘Project: Regeneration’! Going on the singles, we can expect another banging set of tracks!

3 former members of the highly successful Swedish rock machine that is Thundermother, apparently wanted to stick together after their unfortunate exit and make music still. So there we are: The Gems. And just like their former band, these galls are rocking hard! The singles they released already, really shows that they got something very promising going for them wide a nice diversity going from straight out rockers to almost melancholic songs. It’s always a pity when a successful band splits up, amicable or not, but in this case it feels rather like a blessing, getting twice the amount of killer rock music from some highly talented ladies. And the 3 that form The Gems, truly rose from the ashes like a ‘Phoenix‘, showing the world that they have their own sound and skill set!

Lucifer has been one of our favorite bands for quite a moment now. Their bluesy and vintage approach to rock music and the occult themes, just really strike a chord. Even though they already released 4 full-length albums and have been around for a while, it always felt a little bit like they were that kind of well-kept secret. But 2023 was a pretty big year for these guys and lady, having toured with Ghost, one of the biggest contemporary rock bands for a handful of dates, and it feels like they might be on the verge of really properly breaking through to a bigger crowd. We truly wish it for them and if we go on the singles they released already, and especially the latest ‘Maculate Heart’, 2024 might be THE year for Lucifer…

Danish metal outfit Manticora is really something unique. They’re often marketed as a power metal band, but they’re so much more. Yes, they do have that clear power metal drive in their music, but add to that a proggy approach to everything they do, both musically and the fact that most of their releases are concept albums in some way, but also a very thrash metal oomph you don’t often find in other power metal bands, and you get Manticora. It’s one of those bands that will easily get appreciation from people who usually keep power metal at a fair distance from them, and they honestly should be a bigger name than they are right now. Their upcoming new album ‘Mycelium’ will yet again be an absolute banger and some of the already released tracks only confirm this. Just check out ‘Beast Of The Fall’:

When the German melodeath band Dawn of Disease split up in 2020, 4 out of 5 of the members wanted to stick together, found a new vocalist with Britta Görtz, and brought the new band Hiraes to life. Their debut album ‘Solitary‘ in 2021 was quite the statement and had some absolutely killer songs. And now early 2024, they’re back with their sophomore full-length ‘Dormant‘. When they released the first singles, it showed that they are nowhere near dormant with absolutely brutal tracks that slayed. Honestly, with the quality of their new songs, they can easily rival with some of the greats like for instance Arch Enemy. And maybe even are taking a shot at the crown with some proper melodic death metal tracks that are actually heavy as fuck! You won’t want to sit on this one…