Norway’s avantgarde metal heroes ENSLAVED have released their new single ‘Homebound’ from the upcoming record Utgard, that will be released in spring 2020.
“Homebound‘ is about the greatest reward of exploring and travelling intounknown territory – to “go viking” if you will, turning Homebound at the end of the journey. It is a song that takes Enslaved on a musical journey that is as much an homage to those who dared so we could play our very own style of music: from nurturing blackened roots to nodding at zeppelins in the sky, beholding teutonic thrash titans and watching speeding motorpsychos take off into the futures.”
The band recently revealed new details about the upcoming record – propelling the listener deep into their world, the musicians explain:
“Utgard bears countless meanings to us; an image, metaphor, an esoteric ‘location’, a word on its own etc. – on different levels and layers. From Norse mythology we know it as a landscape where the giants roam; where the gods of Asgard have no control; dangerous, chaotic, uncontrollable and where madness, creativeness, humour and chaos dwell.
The album is a journey into and through Utgard. It is a place of unification of that which is above and that which lies below. It is not about avoiding fear of the pitch-black darkness (it will keep on growing until the next confrontation), but to go into the darkness itself. This is the rebirth of the individual. In a world that has become so obsessed with the false lights of greed, jealousy and egotism this is a necessary journey.
Utgard is not a fairytale, it is a vital part of both your mind and your surroundings, and it has been since the dawn of mankind. Acknowledging that this realm exists and is a vital part of the self, has inspired us deeply since the early days of our lives. Enjoy our journey to the outer limits.”
ENSLAVED will be releasing the new single on a Limited Edition 7″ vinyl format, limited to 500 pieces. The single will be out on June 26th and can be pre-ordered here: http://nblast.de/HomeboundVinyl
The tracklist reads as follows:
1. Homebound [A-side]
2. Knights Of The New Thunder (TNT Cover) [B-side]
The B-side of the “Homebound” Vinyl is an exclusive to this format.
CURRENTS have just dropped the new song “Monsters.
“‘Monsters’ is about taking responsibility for the toxic relationships in your life and using past failures as fuel for the future,” says singer Brian Wille. “The track features some different sounds for the band and I’m stoked on the riffs [guitarist] Chris [Wiseman] put together on this one. We hope you enjoy it!”
The song appears on the Connecticut band’s upcoming second album The Way It Ends, out June 5 via SharpTone Records.
The Way It Ends is the thematic and spiritual successor to Currents’ dense, bludgeoning, and smartly constructed full-length debut, The Place I Feel Safest (2017), and a direct follow-up to the blistering and diverse EP, I Let The Devil In (2018).
Those well-versed in Meshuggah, Humanity’s Last Breath, Vildhjarta, and Architects have embraced Currents with full-throated passion. A combination of their contemporaries and influences, channeled through unique perspective and personal experience, resulted in something revolutionary. It’s why they were handpicked for tours with August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, We Came As Romans, Fit For a King, Born of Osiris, and the Impericon Never Say Die! Tour.
As New Noise declared: “CURRENTS is a band not to be ignored.”
Currents second studio album, ‘The Way It Ends’, will be available everywhere Friday June 5 through SharpTone records. New single “Monsters” is available to purchase and stream now at https://shrptn.co/monsters.
Australian animated film 100% Wolf is to be released on VOD platforms on the 29th May. The film was created by Australian company Flying Bark Productions and tells the story of a young werewolf who is surprised that on his 14th birthday he turns into a poodle.
Freddy the werewolf is voiced by actor and Triple J radio host Ilai Swindells and has a stellar supporting cast of Samara Weaving, Jai Courtney, Magda Szubanski, Jane Lynch, Rhys Darby and Akmal Saleh.
100% Wolf will be released on premium VOD on May 29th.
Successful author Veronica Henley finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it’s too late.
ANTEBELLUM is a terrifying new thriller from the producer of the acclaimed films GET OUT and US, and groundbreaking directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz (Bush+Renz) – an exciting new voice in filmmaking.
ANTEBELLUM is directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz and stars Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Keirsey Clemons and Gabourey Sidibe
Actor-comedian Jamie Kennedy’s new stand-up comedy special Jamie Kennedy: Stoopid Smart will premiere exclusively on the #1 free streaming app Tubi TV on Monday, May 25, 2020.
Loved by audiences for his ‘90s classics Kickin’ It Old School and Malibu’s Most Wanted, Jamie Kennedy takes center stage in this one-hour installment directed by Kurt Kubicek. Stoopid Smart features Kennedy’s hilarious jokes about life as an unmarried man, being recognized in an Olive Garden, Alexander Graham Bell’s thoughts on sexting, and America’s most bizarre college majors.
The comedy special was filmed in Orange County’s REC ROOM when Kennedy embarked on a nationwide headlining stand-up tour.
To coincide with the release and his 50th birthday on May 25, Kennedy will participate in a CYA livestream HERE: https://www.cya.live/event/1970 Jamie Kennedy: Stoopid Smart will also be available on Amazon, iTunes and Digital platforms in June 2020.
Today, Disney+ and Walt Disney Animation Studios launched the new, 10-episode animated short-form series and soundscape experience, “Zenimation.”
Unplug, relax, and refresh your senses for a moment of mindfulness with Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Zenimation” – an animated soundscape experience.
Whether it’s baby Moana being called by the ocean, Anna and Kristoff walking through an icy forest, or Baymax and Hiro Hamada flying over San Fransokyo, these iconic scenes become an aural experience like no other with the sounds of ocean waves, an icy forest and soaring flight.
“Zenimation” pays tribute to both the visual and sound artists who have created Walt Disney Animation Studios’ legacy of films. Created and edited by David Bess. From Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Stan today announced the brand new series P-Valley will premiere on Sunday, 12 July only on Stan, with new episodes weekly — same day as the US. Stan also released two first look images and a new teaser trailer for the eight-part series.
Down deep in the Mississippi Delta lies an oasis of grit and glitter in a rough patch of human existence where beauty can be hard to find. This southern-fried, hour-long drama tells the kaleidoscopic story of a little-strip-club-that-could and the big characters who come through its doors—the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful, and the damned. Trap music meets film noir in this lyrical and atmospheric series that dares to ask what happens when small-town folk dream beyond the boundaries of the Piggly Wiggly and the pawnshop.
Based on her play Pussy Valley, creator Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) serves as showrunner as well as executive producer.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be bringing this passion project into living rooms all across America,” said Hall. “For too long, exotic dancers have been dismissed and shamed, while their culture has been appropriated by the mainstream. This project moves past the blue lights and haze of the main stage, where dancers take to the air like super-sheroes, to the locker room and beyond, where these women—inspired by the dozens of dancers I’ve interviewed—live their lives unapologetically.”
The series also features an all-women director lineup, including award-winning music video director Karena Evans (Drake: Nice for What, SZA: Garden), who directed the premiere episode, as well as Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry), Millicent Shelton (30 Rock), Tamra Davis (Single Ladies), Geeta V. Patel (Superstore), Tasha Smith (Black Lightning), Sydney Freeland (Grey’s Anatomy) and Barbara Brown (Scream Queens).
P-Valley stars Brandee Evans (The Bobby Brown Story) as Mercedes, Nicco Annan (This is Us) as Uncle Clifford, Shannon Thornton (Power) as Miss Mississippi, Elarica Johnson (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) as Autumn Night, Skyler Joy (Ma) as Gidget, J. Alphonse Nicholson (Chicago P.D.) as Lil’ Murda, Parker Sawyers (Southside With You) as Andre, Harriet D. Foy (Elementary) as Pastor Woodbine, Tyler Lepley (The Haves and the Have Nots) as Diamond, and Dan J. Johnson (Underemployed) as Tyler. Chernin Entertainment also serves as Executive Producer.
P-Valley premieres 12 July only on Stan, with new episodes weekly — same day as the US.
Respected standard bearers for 21st century metal, DEVILDRIVER have spent almost the last two decades pursuing a course of uncompromising artistry and nonsense-free dedication to the road. Led by the prolific Dez Fafara, the Californian crew have earned their reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the planet, while issuing a steady succession of brutal but distinctive albums along the way.
Their focus has remained laser-sharp, and never more so than on the monumental upcoming double album, Dealing With Demons. The first volume of the double album offering – entitled Dealing With Demons I – is set for release on October 9, 2020 via Napalm Records and will be available in several must-have formats.
Dealing With Demons I (the band’s first release of new, original material since 2016’s Trust No One) represents the onset of a final purging of the demons that have long haunted Dez Fafara and DEVILDRIVER’s music. From its eerie, ominous intro and the self-explanatory, explosive opener “Keep Away From Me” to the seething, poignant “Nest Of Vipers” and the chilling imagery of “Iona”, each track on Dealing With Demons I illustrates a different demon to be dealt with, or released.
In conjunction with the announcement of Dealing With Demons I, DEVILDRIVER have unleashed a searing, propelling new track, “Keep Away From Me”, alongside a new lyric video – a thought-provoking time capsule that paints a picture of positivity at its end.
Watch the stimulating visual, directed by Vicente Cordero, now!
Frontman Dez Fafara states about “Keep Away From Me” and its accompanying visual: “I’ve been social distancing since I was born. I’ve learned to try and embrace my Agoraphobia all my life. This is what the lyrics are about as we are all sheltered in place. They seem very clear. Now is not the time bands should shy away from the obvious by trying to push the narrative through their art as if everything is alright with the world and ‘it’s metal video visual as usual time’, as it is clearly NOT that time.
We as artists should speak up, inspire and change lives, or paint a picture – a time capsule if you will – by the narrative we push in uncertain times. This video is one such art piece as my band and thousands of others are forced into quarantine – cannot rehearse, take photos, or perform – to make a music video for the very people that have supported us for years. It’s trying times for the world and my outlook through this video is simply this: ‘here’s what we are going through as a family on this planet and as we embrace what is yet to come… please Stand Together’.”
Dealing With Demons I showcases the supreme form of the band – Dez, guitarists Mike Spreitzer and Neal Tiemann, drummer Austin D’Amond and bassist Diego Ibarra. This isn’t just some of the most vicious DEVILDRIVER material to date, but some of their most lethally memorable too. Co-produced by Steve Evetts and guitarist Mike Spreitzer, it’s a triumph for teamwork and tenacity.
Dez Fafara says about the band’s writing and recording process: “I said to the guys, ‘if we just met today, what kind of music would we make? How would we stand the test of time, stand apart from others and stand above the competition? Let’s not focus on the past sound. Instead let’s kick into the future together.’”
With new milestones like Dez Fafara’s eerie verses on “Wishing” and the frontman’s first co-authored lyric (“Nest Of Vipers” was written by Dez and Neal Tiemann), Dealing With Demons I ferociously delivers the goods while kicking open several new doors for DEVILDRIVER to power through in the future. It’s a vital and violent clearing of the emotional decks, but it’s also powerful evidence that Dez and his band mates have given DEVILDRIVER a volatile, visceral kick in the ass. Demons are getting dealt with in the harshest of manners.
Dez Fafara adds: “It’s time to lay it all out, on two records. I’m never gonna revisit these subjects again. I’ve been writing about this sort of human nature, disloyalty and dishonesty, love and loss, since the beginning of my career. I am going in a more lyrically woke direction in the future. A lot of people say my music gives them strength. But what they don’t realize is that these topics haunt me. Over the course of these last few years we fled from wildfires, my wife battled cancer and now we are going through a pandemic… so it is what it is… let’s dump it all on the table and purge. I want to go through different topics in the future, so here we are now. I’ve laid it all out on a double record for all of you to hear.”
This is just the beginning – fans should be prepared for the onslaught of what is to come with the impending second volume of the double album, which promises to go even harder. This is a two-part acceleration into the future – after witnessing Dealing With Demons I, listeners will be clamoring for the second half!
Dez adds about the upcoming remainder of the Dealing With Demons saga: “Volume two will get into some very heavy topics as well. You’ll see the band progress even further musically as we finish this ode to the purge of all things Demonic.”
Dealing With Demons I Tracklist:
1. Keep Away From Me
2. Vengeance Is Clear
3. Nest Of Vipers
4. Iona
5. Wishing
6. You Give Me A Reason To Drink (feat. Simon Blade Fafara)
7. Witches
8. Dealing With Demons
9. The Damned Don’t Cry
10. Scars Me Forever
An array of must-have merchandise, bundles and music formats are available via both the Napalm Records and DEVILDRIVER official stores, including CDs, exclusive vinyl in various colors, picture discs, cassette tapes, skateboards, notebooks, clothing and more.
Plus, pre-order any format of Dealing With Demons I via the Napalm store and you’re automatically entered in a giveaway to win one of two exclusive Dealing With Demons I banners.
Emmy Nominated and Golden Globe® Award-winning actress Tracee Ellis Ross has released the official music video to “Love Myself”. This is the first single to the upcoming film The High Note in which Tracee Ellis Ross stars in as recording artist “Grace Davis.”
Last week, Tracee Ellis Ross debuted “Love Myself” on Instagram Live to fans and friends including, Michelle Obama, Janelle Monáe, Lena Waithe, Sarah Paulson, Kerry Washington and her incredible mother Diana Ross.
Written by Australian Sarah Aarons [Alessia Cara, John Legend, Khalid] and Greg Kurstin [Paul McCartney, P!nk, Céline Dion], “Love Myself” is a pivotal song in the movie performed by Tracee Ellis Ross as “Grace Davis.” This notably marks the first time the actress has released a song, which highlights her dynamic voice as “Grace Davis” and sets the stage for both the record and the upcoming film.
Produced by GRAMMY® Award-winner Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins [Michael Jackson, Beyoncé],the 15-song Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features new recordings by cast members Ross and Kelvin Harrison, Jr. Beyond “Love Myself,” Ross delivers stunning performances of “Bad Girl,”“Stop For A Minute,” “New To Me,” and a duet with Harrison, Jr. on “Like I Do.” Additionally, classics from Donny Hathaway, Maxine Brown, and Aretha Franklin as well as the single “Mind Over Matter” by Anthony Ramos round out the tracklisting.
The High Note, coming to Australian cinema soon, is set in the dazzling world of the LA music scene comes the story of Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), a superstar whose talent, and ego, have reached unbelievable heights, and Maggie (Dakota Johnson), her overworked personal assistant. While stuck running errands, Maggie still aspires to her childhood dream of becoming a music producer. When Grace’s manager (Ice Cube) presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her career, Maggie and Grace come up with a plan that could change their lives forever.
One of the things I have noticed while still interviewing artists during this Covid-19 lockdown is that they seem to have very wide reactions to the lockdown. Either they have found themselves to be in a very creative space or have found that creativity has completely dried up and they have concentrated on re-charging their batteries so they can hit the road running when the lockdown is finally over.
One of the bands that have been most creative during this time though have been Italian heavy metal band Secret Rule who fuelled by requests from fans have delivered an album of covers during the lockdown. With the band covering the likes of Ozzy Osbourne through to Placebo I decided to sit down and have a chat with front woman Angela Di Vincenzo.
“We just wanted to challenge ourselves,” says Di Vencenzo laughing when I ask her where the idea for Quarantine: The Other Side of Us came from. “Everything really started from requests. During the pandemic we thought about releasing something new and we thought about covering the Ozzy Osbourne song “Get Me Through.” That was a song that we had already played live three years ago when we were touring in the UK, so it was more or less ready.”
“After the release of that we thought about doing another cover,” she goes onto explain. “We thought about doing the Placebo song “Bitter End” which had already been on my mind for a long, long time. We had a very positive response to those with some of the comments on the music videos. Some people said it would be great if we recorded a whole album with cover songs so we decided to think about what songs could work for us and in only two weeks the album was ready.”
With such a wide variety of artists covered on the album I ask Di Vencenzo how the band decided on which tracks would be covered. “It was actually quite simple,” she says. “Everyone has a very different background so during the choosing stage we had a very long list of songs then we tried to keep those that we thought were morning interesting and ones that we could record in our style of course. In any case we would never have done cover songs similar to the originals, we hate that way of approaching songs. We think if a listener wants to listen to a cover song they will expect to listen to something different and new otherwise it is better to just listen to the original version.”
Of course the secret to creating a great cover song is to make it sound like it is your own so I asked Di Vencenzo how Secret Rule went about making sure that is what happened. “We started with the melodies,” she explains. “Then we worked on the arrangements without even considering the original songs – that was very important. In that way we were not influenced by the original songs, but at the same time the songs didn’t lose their essence.
“We set out to record the album in just two weeks,” she says laughing loudly. “We did that because we didn’t know when the quarantine would end. But it was very important for us to do it before the quarantine ended otherwise the title would not have made sense. No doubt the biggest challenge was to work on so many different songs that all required very different approaches. But working with Andy is always full of so many surprises because you will never know what he is going to create in a song.”
“For example it was crazy for me to sing an Eminem song,” she explains again laughing. “It was a real tongue-twister especially when it wasn’t in my native language. I remember when Andy sent through the arrangements I said ‘and who is going to sing this song?’ then with some help from some dirty words I succeeded in singing it. It was a great challenge for me that song.”
