Exclusive Album Premiere Of VIRAL TYRANT Brutal New Live Record LIVE AT HALLOWED HALLS

Sludgy, blackened, thoroughly doomed Portland riff masters Viral Tyrant are set to release live album “Live At Hallowed Halls”, recorded at the titular recording studio

Capturing the four piece in their live natural habitat, Viral Tyrant lay down five brutal slabs of heavy from their 2023 debut album “Vultures Like You”. 

IN THE BAND'S OWN WORDS:

Says Dylan Fields (Guitar):

“This live EP represents a transition point for us - it’s a celebration of our debut record as well as a turning toward what’s next. These songs will always be part of our catalogue and we love playing them live, but this record is very much a send off to the “Vultures Like You” era as we look toward the release of our new album next year, again in conjunction with Ripple Music.

We wanted to represent ourselves in a raw state - playing live is important to us and we want to be known as a band who puts out energy on stage and makes live performance meaningful for the audience, because it means a lot to us.”

Eric Wallace (Guitar/Vocals):

“This live record is raw and unfiltered. The energy we channel live was captured with honesty and power at Hallowed Halls - saturated and visceral, baking in the summer heat. From the shredded vocal chords to the blasting wall of guitars and the oppressive percussion of the drums, this live set represents an end of one era and the birth of another.”

Mitch Meidinger, Drums:

"For me it was an awesome show and exactly what I signed up for when I decided to dedicate my life to drumming. This show is as pure as music and Viral Tyrant can get, it's awesome we decided to do a live recording and I hope it's not our last!"

Casey Martin, Bass/Vocals:

"This is our band progressing from our first to our second record in real time. Even now, we are tighter and heavier than before. Live At Hallowed Halls is a bridge between our first and second albums; it’s a natural progression into MUCH heavier territory."

Thanks to the amazing folks at Good Boy PR we're excited to premiere the new record below:

Credits:

- Recorded live at The Bomber at Hallowed Halls Recording Studio in Portland, Oregon
- Mastered by Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain) at Wrong Way Recording in Portland Oregon
- Tracks Edited By Seanen McCollough at Helvete Studios in Portland, Oregon
- Live Photos by Eddie Brnabic
- Band Photos by Brittany Rose Hardcastle

Viral Tyrant is:

Dylan Fields - Guitar
Eric Wallace - Guitar, Vocals
Mitch Meidinger - Drums
Casey Martin - Bass, Vocals

Tracklist:

1. The Felling of the Doom Tree (10:44)
2. Beacon Omega (7:12)
3. Blunt Force and Sheer Ignorance (7:52)
4. A Savage, Ensnared (8:02)
5. Vosturan (7:42)

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram | Linktree

Thanks to Good Boy PR for the details.

Witch Hound - Second Summoning (Album Review)

Release Date: October 24th. Record Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Second Summoning - Tracklist 

1.The Talisman Speaks 03:09

2.At the Stake 05:26

3.Ash Walk 00:45

4.Black Procession 05:07

5.Buried Awake 01:20

6.Dragged Beneath 06:14

7.It Didn't Stay 01:03

8.Face the Wheel 06:05

9.What Still Stands 01:17

10.Battle Lust 06:47

11.The Second Summoning 01:56

12.All I Want For Christmas Is Doom 05:59

Members

Vocals - Jeramie Crabtree

Rhythm guitar - Raymond Palma

Lead guitar - Kenny "Doctor Nez" Charters

Additional guitars - John Hehman

Bass - Jason Carman

Drums - Nate Driggs

Special guest solo on "Battle Lust" by Maliciouz Doom.

Review

Second Summoning is the debut album from Doom/Stoner Metallers Witch Hound that operates with a classic Heavy Metal and Proto-Metal heartbeat that has a gloomy atmosphere giving the whole record a stripped back essence especially with how the album has been presented and recorded. This gives Second Summoning a distinctive underground metal feel which also gives this a grimy lo-fi delivery which is one of the album’s main strengths. 

Nothing feels over-produced or over delivered as Witch Hound get straight down to business in creating a direct style of Doom/Stoner Metal that should find a dedicated audience for fans of Black Sabbath, Uncle Acid & The Deaadbeats and Saint Vitus. Though, you could add Monolord and Electric Wizard to that list especially when Second Summoning dedicates a huge amount of time of the album playing a violent level of distorted fuzz which comes truly alive through the excellent batch of opening tracks of The Talisman Speaks, At The Stake and Black Procession. 

Witch Hound adds a lot of intricate Occult, Trippy and Gloomy sound effects which gives this record an almost seedy Seventies / Eighties Horror Movie soundtrack vibe. The Seventies Occult Rock and Proto-Metal vibes becomes an essential part of the album when Witch Hound write lyrics that taps right into the outlandish tropes of Heavy Metal with a layer of Doom Metal atmospherics being the real icing on the cake.

Witch Hound aren’t reinventing the wheel here but they’re delivering a classic style of Doom/Stoner Metal that’s been an essential part of the underground scene for the best part of half a century. Though, they do add modern sound effects which sometimes gives the album a truly contemporary feel. There is a lot to dissect and devour on this record as it contains twelve tracks which all have their own great stories to tell including the shorter tracks that act as musical interludes. These tracks sometimes even have the most fucked up sound effects within the overall storyline of the album especially on Buried Awake, It Didn’t Stay and What Still Stands.

The majority of the longer tracks sees Witch Hound playing with that soundtrack framework whilst blending Stoner Metal grooves against a musical landscape filled with distorted melodies, gloomy instrumental sounds and muscular vocals that never feel out of place. There’s also some sublime Psychedelic surroundings that veer into Drone and Sludge based dynamics whilst keeping that core Proto Metal and Occult Doom sound.

Other standout tracks to check out are: Dragged Beneath, Face The Wheel, Battle Lust and the awesome Christmas themed song All I Want For Christmas Is Doom which is perhaps my favourite track on the whole album. As it fucking beats any of the other festive songs any day of the week and I say that as a fully paid up member of the BAH HUMBUG crew. Plus that track acts as a perfect morality tale which I wasn't expecting at all.

 

Second Summoning is a highly accomplished and brilliantly entertaining album from start to finish. Witch Hound has great fun messing about with the dedicated lore of the whole Doom/Stoner Metal scene but also paying great love and respect which is a very hard thing to do. 

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Links

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Introduce Yourselves: Kilometro1

What is the name of your band?

Kilometro1. We are an independent Mexican rock and metal project based in Puebla, Mexico.

What genre of music do you play?

Our music moves between symphonic metal, progressive metal and melodic heavy rock, incorporating orchestral textures, folk influences and occasional gothic atmospheres. We prefer to let each composition develop according to the story and musical ideas behind it rather than follow a single formula.

Can you give a brief history of the band, how it came together and where it is today?

Kilometro1 has developed over more than a decade through the creative collaboration of Mexican vocalist, songwriter and writer Lily Kerrigan and Dutch musician and producer Alwin Marcel Rooijackers.

Our recorded work includes Sobreviviente (2017), Renacer (2019), and our fourth studio album, Circle of Nine, released in 2026. We have also performed in Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Today, we continue developing original music that combines powerful arrangements with research, writing and cultural storytelling. Lily contributes vocals, lyrics, narrative development and musical arrangements, while Marcel is central to the instrumental composition, guitar work and production. Our creative responsibilities often overlap through collaboration.

What can people expect from your music?

Listeners can expect contrasts: heavy guitars alongside orchestral passages, melodic vocals, changes in atmosphere and songs drawing on different languages and cultural references.

Our lyrics sometimes begin with historical or literary material, but we do not approach these sources as factual reconstructions. We are interested in what a story reveals about memory, identity, fear and the people whose voices survive in it.

What is the best release that people should check out from your band?

Our fourth album, Circle of Nine, released on May 27, 2026, is the best introduction to our current artistic direction.

Its first six songs are independent compositions, while the final four form a connected narrative sequence: “Witte Wieven,” “The Circle of Nine,” “The Trial,” and “The Silent Curse.”

Listen to the album:

https://open.spotify.com/album/52ORT8UagnYfn8aXz9xBnV

Watch “The Trial”:

https://youtu.be/S72w6Q1dskY

Where can people find you on social media?

Band website: https://www.kilometro1.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kilometro1.band/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kilometro1band
Lily Kerrigan’s website: https://www.lilykerrigan.mx/

Additional question: What inspired the connected story in the final four songs of Circle of Nine?

The sequence draws inspiration from the Witte Wieven traditions of the Netherlands. What interested us was not simply the supernatural imagery, but the transformation of women’s stories across generations.

These songs explore gathering, suspicion, accusation and the traces that remain when a community decides how certain women should be remembered.

We wanted the music to hold that tension without presenting our interpretation as a historical account. For us, folklore is also a question of language: who tells a story, who is believed, and what changes each time it is repeated?

Thanks to Lily at Kilometro1 for all of the details.

GOZER Unveil New Single “Wayward” And Announce New Album "Twilight Fortress"; Out December 11

US heavy rockers GOZER unleash their brand new single “Wayward”, offering another glimpse into their forthcoming second full-length album, Twilight Fortress, officially set for release on December 11 via Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records, available on vinyl and digital formats.

Listen to “Wayward” now: 

Marking a significant step forward for the Upstate New York four-piece, Twilight Fortress sees GOZER exploring new sonic territory following a lineup change in 2025. Bigger, heavier and more dynamically ambitious than their previous album The Far Realm, the record brings together infectious stoner and doom grooves, desert rock influences and an unmistakable fantasy-driven atmosphere.

Built around the band's trademark emphasis on powerful riffs and irresistible grooves, the album unfolds as an immersive musical journey inspired by fantasy storytelling, mythology and the imaginative worlds of role-playing games. GOZER approach these themes not simply as escapism, but as a way to explore human truths through metaphor, adventure and larger-than-life narratives.

The album's creative process is rooted in collaboration, with each member contributing ideas and arrangements to serve the songs. The result is a collection of tracks that balances crushing heaviness with memorable hooks, epic vocal harmonies and atmospheric passages. Production and engineering were handled by Tim Lynch at The Recording Company, with additional mastering by Alan Douches at West West Side Music.

From the driving energy of previously released singles “Time Walk” and “Morningstar” to the newly unveiled “Wayward”, Twilight Fortress captures a band embracing its creative freedom and building a distinctive sonic universe of its own.

GOZER – Twilight Fortress

Release date: December 11, 2026
Formats: Vinyl & Digital
Label: Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records

Tracklist:

The Big Empty
Monolith
Time Walk
Wyndol's Omen
Morningstar
Sun Seeker
Storm Giant
Wayward
Beyond Sand & Sky
Constellations

For more info:

​https://www.gozerny.com/​
​https://www.argonautarecords.com/​
​

Thanks to Grand Sound Promotion for the deteails.

Sod The Earth - Touch Grass (Album Review)

Release Date: November 06th 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Touch Grass - Tracklist 

1.Fight Your Dad 04:15

2.Cracked Plastic Throne 04:58

3.Divorced From Reality 02:44

4.Touch Grass 05:06

5.Peen Greig 02:46

6.Red Dye 40 Hands 05:06

7.Can't Get To Heaven With Soft Hands 03:39

Review

Sod The Earth is a Sludge/Stoner Metal band focusing upon the later stages of adult life or as the band calls their style of music - DADCORE. That description that fully fits the whole tone Sod The Earth taking a very sly and critical eye at life at suburban divorced fathers everywhere. The lyrics are quite grounded but also superbly funny, a dark WEEDIAN humour hidden behind the scenes. 

The music itself is influenced by the likes of The Sword, WEEDEATER and CLUTCH with a dark Psychedelic Stoner Rock/Metal style that develops throughout the album. Their second album Touch Grass could easily be taken as multiple different meanings which allows Sod The Earth to play a highly distorted style of fuzzed out grooves and doomed out sounds.. The songs can be quite emotional until you Sod The Earth punch in you the gut at how bleak life can be though the superb humour always lightens the mood.

Sod The Earth do start to move further into the world of Grunge at times echoing bands such as Melvins, TAD and Soundgarden which appears superbly well in tracks such as Fight Your Dad, Cracked Plastic Throne, Touch Grass and Red Dye 50 Hands. The sound is quite seedy but Sod The Earth always plays with a determined focus with an aggressive sound that’s quite melodic in a classic Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal kind of way.

Touch Grass has a warm hearted attitude especially within the title track which is perhaps my favourite track as it showcases a different flavour of Psychedelic Stoner Rock that becomes quite therapeutic but still relying on that fantastic WEEDIAN humour. Though, Sod The Earth injects some catchy Post-Stoner, Post-Doom and Post-Rock melodies.

Touch Grass is an addictive groove based record with Sod The Earth creating an immensely entertaining album that has all the right ingredients to become a firm favourite / cult classic within the underground WEEDIAN METAL scene.

Words by Steve Howe

Links

Official | Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

The long-awaited new album by Doom Legends LORD VICAR announced on Svart – Watch the video for the new single “Open"

Lord Vicar is an international doom metal band formed in Turku, Finland, in 2007 by guitarist Kimi Kärki (formerly known as Peter Vicar) following the breakup of his previous band, Reverend Bizarre. The band members live in four different countries: Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden. They are all veterans of heavy metal, bringing experience from several prominent underground metal acts such as Angel Witch, Centurions Ghost, Count Raven, Reverend Bizarre, Saint Vitus, and Witchcraft. The band’s recognizable identity and sound were developed by heavy inspiration from classic doom pioneers like Trouble, Pentagram, The Obsessed, and Witchfinder General, as well as classic and progressive rock.

2027 will be the 20th anniversary of the band, and it will be celebrated with a new, punishing album. On ‘Fist', their fifth studio album – to be released on February 28, 2027 by Svart Records – the band observes this world of rising authoritarians, and dwell on the rituals and history of the misuse of power. 

The video for the album’s first single Open is out now on Svart’s YouTube channel. Watch it below:

The single is released on digital platforms on 13th November.

Expect to see the band a lot more on the road in 2027.

Lord Vicar is:

Kimi Kärki (guitar, backing vocals)
Chritus Linderson (vocals)
Gareth Millsted (drums)
Fredrik Jansson (bass)

Lord Vicar – Fist

Open
Wave Men
Faustian Bargain
The Fascist, including Resting Place
Spirit of the Earth
Mos Teutonicus
Closed

Lord Vicar live (more to be announced in early 2027)

13.11.2026 The Abyss, Gothenburg, Sweden
14.11.2026 Encore, Sundbyberg, Sweden

26.02.2027 Lord Vicar: Fist (LP/CD): https://www.svartrecords.com/en/product/lord-vicar-fist/15044

Lord Vicar: Open (Single): https://orcd.co/vicaropen

Links

https://www.facebook.com/lordvicar
https://www.instagram.com/lordvicar_doom/

Thanks to For The Lost PR for the details.

Stoner Metallers DESCARADO Premiere New Single A Little Fun (To Keep Us Going) From Upcoming New Album "NORM"

Swedish heavy-rock quartet Descarado make a welcome return with a brand-new album packed with stoner-rock, desert-rock grooves and fearless punk-fuelled energy.

Formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2013, Descarado are gearing up for the next chapter in their already impressive underground run with the release of their new album, Norm. Drawing on the raw swagger of ’70s rock, the grit of ’90s grunge and the fuzz-drenched power of stoner and desert rock, the band continue to carve out their own space in the European heavy-rock scene.

Built around hefty riffs, dirty grooves and a healthy disregard for taking themselves too seriously, Norm brings together blues-inflected guitar work, pounding drums and fuzzed-out tones with melodic hooks and psychedelic detours. Perhaps best exemplified on recent single, ‘Happy Pappy’. Balancing the sheer weight of rock ’n’ roll with a restless energy that refuses to stand still, Descarado offers up grit, groove and a touch of madness at its core.

The band's previous album, Odd, helped establish their credentials in the underground rock scene, earning positive reviews from publications including Teeth of the Divine and ExtremeUndergroundMusicZine. Praised for its melodic sensibility, hard-hitting riffs and dynamic songwriting, the record demonstrated the band's ability to bring fresh energy to the traditions of heavy, groove-driven rock.

Now, with Norm, Descarado returns with renewed appetite, building on that foundation while exploring the possibilities of atmosphere, melody and psychedelia. The result is another statement of intent from a band who have spent over a decade doing things their own way.

After years of making noise, questionable decisions and, occasionally, actual music, Descarado are back and have just one thing to ask of you: turn it up, get weird and stay heavy.

Norm will be officially released on 4th December 2026 via Rawflot Records.

DESCARADO

Bob (Bass)
Bro (Drums)
Drev (Vocals)
Uno (Guitar)

TRACK LISTING

1. Spiritwalker
2. A Little Fun (To Keep Us Going)
3. Happy Pappy [Listen]
4. Death Rattle
5. Homage
6. Steakhouse
7. Creosote
8. Beaten Track
9. Bladeboy
10. Wishbone

Artist: Descarado
Album: Norm
Label: Rawflot Records
Format: Digital/Vinyl
Release: 04/12/2026

Thanks to the great folks over at Sheltered Life PR we're happy to premiere the new single A LITTLE FUN (TO KEEP US GOING) which you can hear below:

The band say this about the song;

“Our new single, ‘A Little Fun (To Keep Us Going)’, is about finding our way back to the things we love and refusing to let anything or anyone get in the way. It’s about resurrection after feeling a little lost — a reminder to reconnect with what makes us feel alive. Perhaps with a nod to Charles Bukowski’s famous words: ‘Find what you love and let it kill you.’”

Links

Web | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify

Thanks to Sheltered Life PR for the details.