Because we’re barely even a full month into 2022 and there is still music to discover. And because you can’t get enough goddamn lists, here are 40 more from 2021 to chew on.
The post Here Are 40 Great Metal Albums You May Have Missed in 2021 appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

KITTIE vocalist/guitarist Morgan Lander has hinted more activity for the band following the previously announced reunion shows at Las Vegas’s When We Were Young festival. Joining Morgan and her sister, drummer Mercedes Lander, at those shows in the fall will be guitarist Tara McLeod and bassist Ivana “Ivy” Vujic.

Asked in a new interview with the “Talk Toomey” podcast what led to Vujic returning to KITTIE for the upcoming dates, Lander said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Ivy played on two of our albums, the last two albums that we did. She left the band right before the very last big tour that we ended up doing; she did the Soundwave Festival [in Australia] with us in 2012, and those were the last shows that we did with her. And she just kind of settled into her life, started a family, got married, and so that’s sort of been what she’s been up to. But Ivy’s a metal girl at heart and she’s always been super, super easygoing about stuff. I just sent her a message and I was, like, ‘Hey, can we talk?’ And we had a really, really great phone call and I just sort of explained the situation, explained what was going on. I asked her if she’d be into doing it, and she was, like, ‘Yeah. Sounds great.’ … It’s very much one of those things where you don’t talk that often anymore, you don’t see each other that often, but then, when you all get together again, that chemistry and that vibe is always there.”

Morgan continued: “I feel like that lineup of KITTIE in particular was always very super pro, super chill — no stress, no drama. Just, like, ‘You know what? We’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna sound amazing.’

“She’s an incredible bass player. I don’t think that Ivy gets enough credit. She is absolutely incredible. So it’s gonna be great.”

As for whether KITTIE may have some other things in the works beyond When We Were Young, Morgan said: “We’ve got the festival — lots to look forward to with that. There may be some other things maybe coming down the pike — one or two things — but you have to watch [the KITTIE social media]. We might have one or two cool things coming down the pike, but for now those are the only dates that we have. And we’re super looking forward to them. And I think this is just the beginning of… You’ll be seeing us around a little more.”

Vujic joined KITTIE in 2008 and appeared on the band’s fifth studio CD, 2009’s “In The Black”. She also wrote and recorded bass for KITTIE’s sixth album, 2011’s “I’ve Failed You”.

When We Were Young will be held on the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on the Strip on October 22, October 23 and October 29.

Officials said the “emo” festival will feature the same lineup on all three dates, with the exception of Alex G replacing Wolf Alice on October 29, and La Dispute will not perform on October 29.

The lineup also includes MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, PARAMORE, AFI, THE USED, BRING ME THE HORIZON, TAKING BACK SUNDAY, DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, ALKALINE TRIO, MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS, AVRIL LAVIGNE, WOLF ALICE, STORY OF THE YEAR, JIMMY EAT WORLD and many others.

When the lineup for When We Were Young was first revealed, KITTIE said: “Thanks for your patience with our silence friends. The truth is we’ve been in full on crisis mode the past week and weren’t sure if we’d actually be able to make this happen but it’s true and we’ll be there to melt your face off and we hope you got your tickets.”

After the third When We Were Young date was announced, KITTIE wrote: “Third show added! Super stoked that @whenwewereyoungfest has decided to add yet another date! October 29th 2022. We’ll see you there…tickets on sale January 31st”.

KITTIE has not performed since its reunion show at London Music Hall in the band’s native London, Ontario in 2017, celebrating the group’s documentary “Kittie: Origins/Evolutions”.

Last month, the original lineup of KITTIE — Morgan, Mercedes, Fallon Bowman (guitar) and Tanya Candler (bass) — reunited for an online chat to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of its gold-certified 2000 debut album, “Spit”.

Candler left KITTIE after the release of “Spit” in order to finish high school and was replaced by Talena Atfield.

Bowman exited KITTIE in 2001 and started her own industrial/electronic project, AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT.

After KITTIE completed the touring cycle for 2011’s “I’ve Failed You” album, the band entered a long period of inactivity during which Morgan focused on a marketing job for a chain of fitness clubs while Mercedes worked in real estate and more recently at a software company. The group also began work on a career-spanning documentary, “Origins/Evolutions”, which finally saw the light of day in 2018 via Lightyear Entertainment in North America.

“I’ve Failed You” sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 178 on The Billboard 200 chart.

A consistently enlightened force for creative good in the UK’s populous heavy music scene, ROLO TOMASSI have made a virtue of ignoring what everyone else is doing and following a singular path. Ostensibly borne of the hardcore scene, the Sheffield quintet embraced a liberated, come-one-come-all musical philosophy from the start. Early albums like “Hysterics” and “Cosmology” were rightly praised for their genre-slicing audacity, but it has been in more recent times that ROLO TOMASSI have evolved into the band they long promised to be. Both 2015’s “Grievances” and 2018’s “Time Will Die and Love Will Bury it” were widely acclaimed, both for the band’s seamless and symbiotic, post-everything approach to songwriting and for the undeniable fact that this band are still more than capable of taking people’s faces off from close range. Alternately beautiful and terrifying, “Where Myth Becomes Memory” completes a nominal trilogy of albums and seems to be the most strident and knowingly definitive of the lot.

Still skittering mischievously around between shimmering shoegaze, excoriating extreme metal, experimental electronics and balls-to-the-wall, left-field hardcore, ROLO TOMASSI sound more inquisitive and subversive than ever here. Opener “Almost Always” is a miniature masterpiece, imbued with the spirit of artful indie bands like LOW and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, but sited squarely in this band’s sonic world, it slowly unfolds like the ultimate post-rock symphony, drifting gently from maxed-out ambience to sweet, melodic restraint and on to an overwhelming barrage of guitars. On an equally high level of invention, a single, repeated piano note ushers in “Mutual Ruin”, a wonderfully lithe and bullish deluge of angular, snotty mathcore, with a grandiose and dramatic, multi-layered mid-section and a spine-tingling, solo piano coda. “Drip” is a deceptive beast, too. After a prolonged spew of feedback and snare, the song erupts into swirling, screaming bedlam, before another of those exquisitely askance melodic hooks drifts up from the maelstrom, Korman’s ferocious screams providing the only remaining foothold in the known world. Much more direct, “Cloaked” is a more streamlined expression of this band’s cherished blurred boundaries, with a thunderous, lurching groove, bursts of tooth-dislodging extremity and a delicately bittersweet vocal refrain from frontwoman Eva Korman.

Both “Prescience” and “To Resist Forgetting” fit that bill, too: each offers a more sophisticated and confident take on ROLO TOMASSI’s trademark savagery, but the intensity of the performances suggest that maturity hasn’t removed a single rough edge or deviant instinct. That something as seemingly incongruous as instrumental, treated piano interlude “Stumbling” should slot so neatly and naturally into the flow of these avowedly schizophrenic songs speaks volumes. A triumph for intuition and instinct, “Where Myth Becomes Memory” is another unique and relentlessly fascinating ROLO TOMASSI album, and arguably their finest yet.

Maggie’s 5-watt mighty mite bursts with black-panel- and tweed-Champ style sounds.

Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli discussed her new book, “Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today”, in a recent interview with Terrie Carr of the Morristown, New Jersey radio station 105.5 WDHA. Bertinelli reflected on the special relationship she had with her late ex-husband, saying: “I loved Ed from the deepest part of my soul. It may not have been the kind of love that two married people feel for one another any longer, but I had a great love for him.

“We weren’t gonna get back together,” she clarified. “Yes, he was living alone, Janie [his second wife] moved out and I was separated from my husband, but that didn’t mean that we were getting back together. It just was what it was. We had a love for one another.

“I find myself struggling to explain what it was, but love is love. And I can’t make somebody else feel more comfortable with the fact that I loved the man for 40 years even though I couldn’t live with him. It is just that. And we both loved our son.”

Bertinelli split with Van Halen in 2002 after 21 years of marriage. They officially divorced in 2007. Eddie then went on to marry Janie Liszewski in 2009, while Valerie also remarried, tying the knot with Tom Vitale in 2011. Valerie told People magazine that both marriages were struggling before Eddie’s death. She eventually filed for separation from Vitale in November 2021.

In “Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today”, Valerie writes about saying goodbye to Eddie when the legendary guitarist died from cancer. She and their son, Wolfgang, 30, were by his side in his final moments.

“I love you are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing,” Bertinelli writes.

Eddie died in October 2020 at the age of 65. The legendary VAN HALEN guitarist passed away at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

Eddie was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2000 and had tongue surgery. He later battled lung cancer and had been receiving radiation treatment in Germany. Things took a turn for the worse in early 2019 when Eddie got in a motorcycle accident. He was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and received gamma knife radiosurgery to treat the illness.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA has shared the official music video for the brand new song “Watchtower”. The track embodies everything Revolver recently said about the band: “THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA have proven time and time again that it’s possible to never stop sonically experimenting… and never lose their own crushing identity.”

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA vocalist Mike Hranica commented: “The idea of this song is about a person being intentionally difficult even though happiness wants to find him/her.

“In handling my own mental health struggles, I’ve found that I oftentimes never choose contentment on a fundamental basis: almost like I’ve skipped Step One. The narrator of ‘Watchtower’ is afraid to approach Step One and instead flees to perceive his/her life as a sort of passive overlooker instead.”

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA will be back on tour this spring, hitting the road with BEARTOOTH, SILVERSTEIN and ERRA. All dates are below.

In fall 2021, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA issued the video for the brand new, self-produced song “Sacrifice”. The band also released the “ZII” EP via Solid State Records, in May of last year. It was a discordant, dissonant exercise in excellence. The original “Zombie” EP dropped all the way back in August 2010 and remains an intense fan favorite. While not a chronological release in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA catalog, “ZII” was the next chapter.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA has positioned itself for meaningful reinvention. Following their 2005 emergence, they served up 2009’s seminal “With Roots Above And Branches Below”. In its wake, the group achieved two back-to-back Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200 with the “Zombie” EP (2010) and “Dead Throne” (2011). The group kept up a prolific pace on “8:18” (2013), “Space” EP (2015) and “Transit Blues” (2016) and “The Act” (2019). This output of new music garnered widespread acclaim from Kerrang!, Revolver, Rock Sound, New Noise and Alternative Press who proclaimed it “an impressive step forward.” In addition to selling out countless headline shows, the musicians toured with everyone from SLIPKNOT to SLAYER. Not to mention, their total stream tally impressively clocking over 200 million in 2022.

MACHINE HEAD bassist Jared MacEachern has confirmed to Primordial Radio that the band has completed work on its new full-length album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Mixing and mastering is done. It is ready.”

According to MacEachern, “there is a frontrunner” for the title of the new LP, which is tentatively due this summer. He also said the follow-up to 2018’s “Catharsis” will include the three songs that were featured on last summer’s “Arrows In Words From The Sky” single: “Become The Firestorm”, “Rotten” and “Arrows In Words From The Sky”.

Asked about his contributions to the new MACHINE HEAD album, Jared said: “I think that I was very aware from day one that Robb [Flynn, guitar/vocals] is the leader, he’s the creative leader, the musical leader… We all have our inputs but I think it’s always understood that ultimately the decision is up to him for how things go. But, yeah, I definitely made contributions and I feel great about those contributions and I’m asked about my opinion on certain things. But, like I said, I’m following his lead.”

As for the musical direction of the new MACHINE HEAD material, Jared said: “It’s a pretty — to use Robb’s word… I believe he used the word ‘colossal’ the other day. It’s a pretty big, epic-sounding album. We’ve been toying around with the order, but I’ve been listening, sitting down, taking the time to listen to it all the way through, and the way it goes, it’s a ride — a really great, heavy, beautiful, melodic, raging, thrashing ride.”

Much of the new MACHINE HEAD album was recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with producer Zack Ohren.

This past December, Flynn offered an update on the album’s progress during an episode of his “No Fuckin’ Regrets With Robb Flynn” podcast. He said: “I’m in the studio right now. In fact, we started yesterday — Zack and I were in the recording studio finishing up the new album, working on the new album. It’s coming along. Right now, they’re setting up in there. They’ve got Navene Koperweis [of] ENTHEOS, ANIMALS AS LEADERS and a million other bands — he is setting up drums and he’s gonna be laying down some heat with the drums. Yeah, it’s going really good — [it’s] been really, really productive. And we’re kind of getting towards the end here, man — we’re getting towards the finish line. The finish line is in sight, and I haven’t been able to say that for a long time.”

He continued: “If you recall, Navene is the dude who played on ‘[Become The] Firestorm’, ‘Arrows In Words From The Sky’, ‘My Hands Are Empty’, he played on ‘Circle The Drain’. Yeah, it’s comfortable. [He’s] a local guy, which really helps.

“We’re probably gonna be dropping some new songs pretty soon,” Robb added. “Then the record will be dropping probably end of summer. We’ve gotta wait till the vinyl all lines up ’cause the vinyl takes fucking forever now. Nine-month lead time on vinyl. Adele just shifted 130 thousand copies of vinyl first week. Dude, it’s crazy. All these fucking major labels are clogging up all of the vinyl pressing plants now. So, yeah, it’s been a challenge. But we’ll be dropping some songs on the DSPs, digital service providers.”

Flynn and MacEachern previously said that they were “making great progress on at least six different new songs, including a 10-minute-plus epic.”

In November 2020, MACHINE HEAD released a single, “My Hands Are Empty”, via Nuclear Blast. The song marked the first musical collaboration between Flynn and original “Burn My Eyes” guitarist Logan Mader in 24 years.

“My Hands Are Empty” was just one in a line of singles to be released by MACHINE HEAD, which issued “Do Or Die” in October 2019, “Circle The Drain” in February 2020, and the two-song digital single “Civil Unrest”, consisting of “Stop The Bleeding” and “Bulletproof”, in June 2020. “Stop The Bleeding” featured guest vocals from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE frontman Jesse Leach, and was written and recorded just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.

Flynn previously said all three tracks from the “Arrows In Words From The Sky” single as well as “My Hands Are Empty”, would be included on the band’s next full-length studio album. “And the other stuff is just gonna stay kind of in whatever void it came out in — and probably be released on a collection of songs with a bunch of other B-sides at some point, a physical version,” he told the “Behind The Vinyl” podcast last June. “But for now, these four songs, and then some future songs, are gonna make up the next record.”

Asked if the “turbulent” nature of the last couple of years was a good thing for him creatively, Flynn said: “Oh, totally. I’m an impatient man. [Laughs] I want it, and I want it now. And the music business can be mind-numbingly slow at times. And certainly with the pandemic now, just the lead time to set up a record is, like, seven months. Vinyl is fucking seven months. If I turned in a record today — done, mastered, finished, artwork, everything — we’re not gonna get the vinyl until seven months from now. I’m, like, ‘This is fucking crazy.’ And I don’t wanna wait; I just wanna put it out.

“When I started in the [1980s] thrash scene, bands put out demos and fucking rehearsals and new songs every month or two,” he explained. “I had every EXODUS song released just from bootlegs and from demos and stuff like that. Same with METALLICA. And it was just so much faster. And the world has just kind of shifted into this extremely slow — certainly the metal world has. And I wanted to bring it back to that… Yes, I’m not releasing a cassette tape, but yeah, I’m putting it out so that if the diehards wanna hear it, you can fucking hear it. And consistently do that — consistently put out music so that it’s constantly giving the fans, the diehard fans, the Head Cases, the ones who fucking live and breathe this shit, something to chew on every three or four months. And I really dig it. I think it’s amazing. And I think that we have the technology — thanks to Spotify and all the streaming services now — [so that] we can do this shit. So why not?”

Eight months ago, MACHINE HEAD announced that it was abandoning plans to resume its “Burn My Eyes” 25th-anniversary tour now that the pandemic is slowing down. Flynn said that the “Burn My Eyes” tour, which saw him and MacEachern play the band’s classic debut album in its entirety for the first time ever, with original “Burn My Eyes”-era drummer Chris Kontos and Mader joining in, would not pick up at such a time as MACHINE HEAD can continue touring. Flynn also confirmed that MacEachern is still a member of MACHINE HEAD alongside new recruits, guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Matt Alston.

MACHINE HEAD will team up with Sweden’s Viking metal overlords AMON AMARTH for a co-headline “Vikings And Lionhearts” European arena tour in September and October. Support on the trek will come from THE HALO EFFECT, the new band featuring five former members of IN FLAMES: Peter Iwers, Daniel Svensson, Jesper Strömblad, Niclas Engelin and Mikael Stanne.

“Catharsis” was the final album to feature guitarist Phil Demmel and drummer Dave McClain, who both left MACHINE HEAD in October 2018.

Demmel, who was in MACHINE HEAD for nearly 16 years, during which time he played on five of the group’s studio albums, told the “In The Pitts Of Metal And Motor Chaos” podcast that MACHINE HEAD ended up becoming a Robb Flynn solo project toward the end of his time with the group. “We weren’t a band,” he said. “That was Robb’s trip, and we were basically just being told what was gonna happen… Everything had changed over time. Shit, we were together for 16 years and stuff changes after that. It’s been the band that he started. So things shift, and as they weren’t what we agreed to or what we wanted to be a part of, [Dave and I] just left. So we do our own thing, and [Robb] does his thing.” Demmel also said that the musical side of MACHINE HEAD took a sharp turn for the worse during the writing stage for “Catharsis”, an album he said he hated.

David Schecter started Schecter Guitar Research in 1976. In the beginning, the company did repairs and sold parts in their Van Nuys, California, shop (much like their contemporaries, Charvel). But Schecter quickly developed a solid reputation among SoCal players and started selling complete guitars in 1979.Not coincidentally, Schecter Guitar’s rise to prominence aligned with the acsent of L.A.’s ’80s metal scene. And their Sun Valley Super Shredder guitars, originally released in 2017, offer a nostalgic ride back to when the super strat ruled the world. Since its inception, the Sun Valley Super Shredder product line has evolved consistently, even embracing unusual features like a Sustaniac pickup. More recently Schecter introduced the Korea-built Exotic version of the line, which is primarily distinguished by more unusual tonewoods, like zircote and black limba, with the latter featured on our review guitar. But it also introduced features like a Hipshot Ibby HM hardtail bridge. That might seem like heresy to shredders accustomed to dive bombing with a Floyd Rose, but as our review instrument revealed, the hardtail bridge, black limba tonewood, and Schecter’s excellent Sunset Strip and Pasadena humbuckers add up to a wealth of very cool tones that effortlessly span styles.Mic Centered 1″ Away — Dirty Bridge to NeckMic Centered 1″ Away — Clean Bridge to NeckMic Centered 1″ Away at 45-Degree Angle — Clean Bridge to NeckMic Centered 1″ Away at 45-Degree Angle — Dirty Bridge to NeckMic Right of Center 1″ Away — Dirty Bridge to DirtyMic Right of Center 1″ Away — Clean Bridge to NeckPicking Things UpGuitar customization is so common these days that many guitarists rush to switch out the stock pickups on relatively affordable guitars like the Sun Valley. The Sun Valley Super Shredder Exotic Hardtail Black Limba’s pickups, which include a USA Sunset Strip in the bridge and a USA Pasadena in the neck, however, are fantastic. And unless you are looking for a very specific tonality, it’s difficult to imagine a good reason for abandoning them. The alnico 5 Pasadena measures 8.4k ohms and has a vintage PAF vibe, while the ceramic 8 Sunset Strip is hotter, at 12.6k ohms. Interestingly, the Schecter pickups sell for around $129 apiece, so they’re far from outsourced cheapo components. In fact, they’re more expensive than many Duncans or DiMarzios.The SVSS EHBL has a simple control layout with one volume control and one tone knob. But the 5-way pickup selector switch deviates in cool ways from the traditional Stratocaster-style 5-position setup. You can select bridge humbucker, bridge and neck in split-coil configuration, bridge and neck in humbucking mode, neck humbucker with coils in parallel, and standard neck humbucker. It’s a very versatile setup that makes the most of the pickups’ already considerable potential.Fancy Lumber and Flat FretboardsThe SVSS EHBL’s build quality is impeccable. But the guitar is also a feast for the eyes. Rather than a typical mahogany or alder body, the SVSS EHBL’s black limba is an attractively grained hardwood that shares many tonal characteristics with mahogany. The neck is made from wenge (another uncommon wood in electric solidbody circles), bolstered with carbon fiber reinforcement rods and a 2-way truss rod, and shaped into a thin C profile that gets slightly thicker as you move up the neck (from 20 mm at the 1st fret to 22 mm at the 12th).The ebony fretboard’s 12–16″ compound radius is perfect for fast fretting and deep bends and features cool cosmetic touches in the form of offset aluminum circle inlays and glow-in-the-dark side dots that contrast nicely with the dark sheen of the fretboard and add a touch of subtle elegance. The guitar’s playability is further enhanced by 24 stainless steel jumbo frets and a nicely contoured heel that facilitates easy access to the highest frets. A Graph Tech XL Black Tusq nut and Schecter 18:1 locking tuners anchor the strings at the headstock.The neck humbucker in parallel-coil configuration has a quasi-P-90 vibe.As shipped, the Schecter’s action was a little higher than I like. The truss rod spoke wheel is situated in the space between the neck and body, and adjustments are a breeze. Having 24-frets on a super-flat fretboard is, of course, an invitation to work the upper registers with abandon. Happily, I could bend fearlessly on the highest strings at the 24th fret area without fretting out.Super Shredding SoundsWith amps set for high gain, the Schecter’s bridge pickup has an unmistakable vintage metal vibe with an aggressive edge. It’s got a slight scoop in the mids, which, to my ear, contributes extra picking definition. It’s also very open sounding, which makes it a killer for heavy rhythm parts. The neck pickup has a very appealing warm and round tonality. And with the tone rolled back it’s beautiful for sustain-heavy solos.The split- and parallel-coil sounds add a lot of tone and performance possibilities. The second pickup position, which combines the bridge and neck pickups as single-coils, has a very Strat-like quality without the hum, while the fourth pickup position, with the neck humbucker in parallel-coil configuration, has a quasi P-90 vibe. I loved playing semi-dirty, octave-driven, funk-rock riffs in this position.The lower volume of the split- and parallel-coil settings can also be the catalyst for dramatic musical moments. I enjoyed starting solos in position 2 and flicking to the bridge pickup for a boost, which feels a lot more organic than stepping on a boost pedal to get that last climactic push.The VerdictIn Schecter’s Sun Valley Super Shredder line, the Exotic Hardtail Black Limba model is an outlier of sorts. It eschews metal elements like Floyd Rose double-locking tremolos and EMG active pickups, which are fixtures elsewhere in the series. But these omissions actually make the SVSS EHBL more versatile in many respects, and between its inviting playability and the classy-to-raging tone range of its pickups, the Super Shredder is at home in just about any style of music.

German thrash metal veterans KREATOR will release a new single, “Hate Über Alles”, tomorrow (Friday, February 4) at 10:00 CET / 1:00 a.m. PST / 4:00 a.m. EST. A short teaser for the song’s official music video is available below, along with the single cover artwork, which was created by Eliran Kantor, who has previously worked with HATEBREED, SOULFLY, TESTAMENT, ICED EARTH and SODOM, among others.

KREATOR will release its new album in the summer of 2022. The follow-up to 2017’s “Gods Of Violence” was recorded at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, Germany. Helming the sessions was Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP and SOULFLY, among others.

Last year, KREATOR frontman Mille Petrozza told the official podcast of Italy’s Metalitalia.com about the musical direction of the band’s new LP: “It’s definitely different. It’s hard for me to describe, but I think it’s definitely more thrash again. It has a lot of melody, and it has a lot of traditional parts, and it has a lot of ingredients of the last four or five albums. But it also has some very old-school moments. I think it’s definitely the next step.”

KREATOR’s next album will mark the band’s first with bassist Frédéric Leclercq, who joined the group in 2019.

In September 2020, KREATOR guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö described the sessions for the band’s new album to Italy’s Poisoned Rock as “a lot of fun,” adding that the “mood” in the band “is great. And the general vibe and the atmosphere is very good,” he said. “[These are] creative times for KREATOR at the moment.”

In March 2020, KREATOR surprise-released a new single, “666 – World Divided”. The song was produced by Andy Sneap and Markus Ganter and was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios.

The music video for “666 – World Divided” was created under the direction of Jörn Heitmann, who was responsible for the music videos for “Radio” and “Ausländer” by RAMMSTEIN.

KREATOR played its first show with Leclercq in October 2019 in Santiago, Chile.

Before joining KREATOR, Leclercq rose to fame with U.K.-based extreme power metallers DRAGONFORCE for whom he handled bass duties from 2005 until August 2019.

KREATOR’s previously announced “State Of Unrest” European tour with LAMB OF GOD has been rescheduled for November/December 2022 in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

KREATOR released a new live set, “London Apocalypticon – Live At The Roundhouse”, in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The effort was professionally filmed and recorded on December 16, 2018 at the Roundhouse in London, England.

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