With wildly successful ‘Dungeon Siege’ events already in place in the Northeast [read our 2024 recap here] and Texas, it definitely makes sense for a similar event to take place in the land of wood-paneled basements and GenCon. The Great Lakes Dungeon Siege Fest has just been announced and tickets are available for sale — bringing together just about 30 artists in one hallowed gathering, this is probably the best way to dip your feet into the world of live dungeon synth for the uninitiated and a massive collection of favorites for longtime fans. The fest will be held in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at ..read more

Photo credit: Ben Stas via BrooklynVegan – full article/gallery here. It was sometime in 2003 or 2004 when I was spending a lot of time holed up in my house, self isolating with as many books on music scenes and history as I could find, when I came across Michael Azzerad’s (now seminal) Our Band Could Be Your Life.This was a period of my life where I was fairly lost (one of many) and I was searching for something. I just didn’t know what it was. I was already obsessing over Black Flag, Mudhoney, and Sonic Youth and had passing familiarity with a few of the other bands but one that was complete ..read more

Netflix’s The Witcher series is set to conclude after its fifth season, and it seems like nobody will mourn its passing. It squandered Andrzej Sapkowski’s beloved book series, sparked unanimous fan umbrage, and destroyed Henry Cavill’s fanboy enthusiasm. You can see how it broke his heart by comparing how giddily he spoke about the show before it aired and his disappointment after he walked away from it. Of course, the television series wasn’t the only large-scale adaptation of The Witcher, with CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt igniting a flame in English-speaking countries that h ..read more

British Columbia’s favorite power metal band, Unleash The Archers, are set to release Phantoma their first new record since 2020’s Abyss, with the newer record taking on a notably darker tone than its predecessor since it was written in the darkness of Pandemic seclusion. Frontwoman Brittney Slayes and her partner Scott Buchanan welcomed a little girl into the world in the fall of 2022, but the band was still able to crank out a record, albeit with all-new life experiences and challenges afoot.  I chatted with Brittney about the process behind writing Phantoma including the dystopian stat ..read more

Chrome Waves has always excelled at making post-black metal emotional — unerringly personal and evocative, they turn brooding themes and secret fears into beautiful vignettes. It’s hard to say without seeing them live exactly how that translates to an in-person setting, but their new live album Lost Horizon Live 1/5/2024 provides a strong argument to it translating very, very well. Captured in Syracuse, the new album captures the band in top form, anchored by live drummer Garry Naples (who’s also just been announced as Trouble’s new drummer) providing impeccable, pounding time. His driving for ..read more

Here are all the new releases for May 5th through May 11th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging. Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media. New Releases 5/5-5/11 Dødsferd — Wrath | Hypnotic Dirge Records | Black Metal | Greece (Crete) Dødsferd are extremely pissed off o ..read more

Sharing their name with the Latin word for ‘night,’ it shouldn’t be surprising that Nox is a project steeped in darkness. But more specifically, it’s really a project that taps into the energy of the night: synth-heavy darkwave that pulses with the quick heartbeat of a city awash in moonlight, stirring deep fears and delights alike. Both of the duo’s members have extensive backgrounds in extreme metal — the lineup being Inmesher (Rope Sect) and Lykaois (Hemelbestormer, Lhaäd) — but Nox’s debut album Entity operates in an entirely separate world. In Nox’s world, the speaker-testing sawtooths of ..read more

Ghoul are well known for their wild stage shows and insane lyrical content – think a heavy metal version of The Muppet Show meets The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. In asking the band to chronicle their Brainsqueeze Tour, which featured fellow ragers Municipal Waste, death metal denizens Necrot, and relative neophytes Dead Heat, we at Invisible Oranges knew what we were getting into. Little did we know, however, that it would actually be worse than we expected.  Drummer Digestor provides a vivid retelling of specific events that either happened on the road or at the actual shows thems ..read more

Here are all the new releases for April 28th through May 5th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging. Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media. New Releases 4/28-5/4 Crawl — Altar of Disgust | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Sweden From the logo and art to ..read more

Philadelphia’s Morgul Blade just released their new album Heavy Metal Wraiths which is an excellent follow-up to the already praised debut, Fell Sorcery Abounds and another notch in the band’s belt. The new album runs the gamut in terms of what we consider to be heavy metal; there are sections that are more traditional heavy, some black and some doom dirges help to balance all of that out.Just when you get comfortable, there’s even some punk sections that continue to keep you guessing.  I spoke with vocalist Lord Klauf about the time between albums, The Lord of the Rings as lyrical conten ..read more