[Heavy News, Tue 2nd Sept]: SOULFLY Announce New Album CHAMA + Release Lyric Video For New Single 'Storm The Gates'! Brazil’s most metal família keep it tribal with a crushing new single and accompanying kaleidoscopic music vid. You can check out both here, with more details/bio on Chama, artist statement/links, merch/LP preorders and more! Groove on.

[Album Review: Condition Critical - Degeneration Chamber]. Nope, not even inclement weather, power outages or a dead first draft can keep this thrasher down! See here for latest review from ISC host Brady, exploring a ripping, technical affair via these independent New Jersey modern-thrash upstarts. One for the thrashers and mosh-fiends, Degeneration Chamber drops Sept 5th, 2025.

[Heavy News, 29.08.25]: Having admittedly been lacking in energy for doing full album reviews of late, I’ve nonetheless been scoping out what’s pinging the motion-tracker on the endless xeno-hunt that is new and upcoming releases. See within for press releases and some mini-review synopses for No Apologies (Aus hardcore), Hexrot (US experimental black/death), The Mansters (Norwegian fast-punk) & Now I’ve Done It (US… WTF-metal)!

[ISC Podcast] Far from the stereotypes you might associate with a nickname like, well, Old Nick, our latest vocalist-interviewee Nick Holmes was candid, mirthful and excited in our midnight chat (very goth-coded, I know) ahead of Paradise Lost's 17th (!) studio opus Ascension. Due for release on September 19th via Nuclear Blast Records, we caught up with Nick to discuss said album, but also branch out into directions ranging from the practical (touring, songwriting, etc) all the way through to the existential.

[Music Monday/ Heavy News - 25.08.25]: Join me in my ongoing spelunking through the immeasurably steep ascent up New Release Mountain with three particularly curious underground LP’s: US-based grunge-doom (CROP - S.S.R.I.) and self-style ‘Castle Metal’ (medieval black metal!) via Morke’s upcoming To Carry On and finally, sludge-laden, raw atmospheric black metal from Wales of all places in incognito-solo-artist The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate’s Suicide Forest. Most curious indeed, old bean!

Last Friday, Paula Damzal and Nik ‘Nikronomikon’ Satanik of famed Melburnian crust/death metal brutalisers KÜNTSQUAD caught up for a fantastic late-night podcast chat. We discuss everything from perennially family-friendly-titled June LP release Satan’s Cock, navigating challenging circumstances to celebrate success, the local/Australian death metal scene and more! Check the link for video/audio-only versions, artist/album links and more. Get crusted!

It’s been a while between Tabletop Thursdays articles, so we’ve got quite a few newly-released and upcoming hobby treats for you all! See within for details on what we’ve been up to (including fellow staffer Elodie Orlando’s launch of her on BRASS RPG: Redux) as a team, plus several sick new titles from Exalted Funeral, Nordic Weasel Games and Free League Publishing! Get your nerd on - we certainly do!

To commemorate a week (!!) since our coverage of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s firestorm set at Northcote Theatre, Melbourne last Wednesday, as well as that of fantastic industrial punk-hop act Ho99o9 - see within for our latest Gallery of Brewicide photo-gallery! Images courtesy of the talented Richie Black Photography.

Another Music Monday, another great selection of album releases happening over the next couple of months! See within for artist/album info/links, music videos, preorder links etc for upcoming LPs from: Norwegian post/blackgazers Sundrowned, Australian blackened disso-death brutality via Hebephrenique, UAE/Jordan melodic death-doom collab Falling Leaves, psychedelic blackened US robot-metallers Electromancy and Norwegian hardcore/psych/post-punks Haraball!

[Gig Reviews]: Truly a special blessing and an honour for Inner-Strength Check! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was joined on Wednesday, 13th August to witness The Dillinger Escape Plan’s final Australian procession in Melbourne, with a Calculating Infinity-centric set helmed by original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis! TDEP were joined by fantastic hip-hop punk/electro-heads Ho99o9 to make up one amazing evening!