Backed by their defiant new album, Mawiza continue to serve as a guiding force for indigenous metal. By integrating tribal rhythms and ancient instruments into modern groove metal, these modern day Mapuche warriors have won the respect of the Chilean Grammys and scene elders like Mercyful Fate, Mastodon, Slipknot and Gojira. Now, ÜL is winning them new fans all across the globe.

In 2006, fresh off bursting onto the scene with their dark and fiery debut, Abysmal Dawn hit the road for the very first time alongside Krisiun. Now, almost two decades later, the LA band are reuniting with the Brazilian death metal devourers in honor of Conquerors of Armageddon.

Whether climbing to doomy peaks or bouldering through a radio-friendly banger, over the course of the past decade and a half, Stoned Jesus have left a mark on the world of rock as true trailblazers. “Five albums in, the band have grown well beyond their monolithic roots”, wrote Doom Charts, who named their last album one of the 2023’s best.

While they’ve shared bills with fellow Southern trailblazers, after 12 years, Bask still sound like they belong to their very own time and place. On their upcoming fourth album, the Asheville natives take their signature style of Heavy Americana to a whole new dimension. But as laid bare by its latest single, to reach The Turning, the band had to go through one hell of a trip.

Like smoke from a shaman’s pipe, Mawiza have risen as a guiding force for indigenous metal. Integrating tribal rhythms and ancient instruments into groove metal has won these modern day Mapuche warriors respect from the Chilean Grammys and scene elders like Mercyful Fate, Mastodon, Slipknot and Gojira. Now, with their third album and first for Season of Mist, the band are summoning a towering defense of their ancestral land.

Not every underground icon lives long enough to lord above death metal’s crypt three decades into their career. But Cryptopsy are proving once again why they’re the most vile band of them all. A year after winning their first JUNO Award, the brutal Canadians have graced the cover of Decibel, snatched Metal Injection‘s Artist of the Month honor and cracked the Billboard charts with their critically-acclaimed new album An Insatiable Violence.

Over the course of the past 16 years, Stoned Jesus have risen as true trailblazers. Whether it’s a radio-friendly banger or a 13-minute classic, frontman Igor Sydorenko has explored lush valleys of folk, proggy expanses, bouldering alternative rock and peaks of headbanging doom. Now, after a sneak peak at Hellfest, Sydorenko and his new bandmates are embarking on a three-part quest that will take their heavy progressive rock all the way to the sun, moon and back.

While only a year removed from winning a JUNO Award, Cryptopsy are already outdoing themselves. The most vile band in death metal have graced the cover of Decibel and snatched Metal Injection’s Artist of the Month, leading metal maniacs to quickly devour their latest offering. An Insatiable Violence has amassed more than one million streams while vaulting to #6 on the Billboard Current Hard Music Album chart in the U.S. So of course, they still have another shocking treat hidden up their longsleeves.

No matter how long or where the journey has taken them, Green Carnation have always sought to climb the highest mountains. While founded by Emperor’s former bassist Tchort in the early ’90s, the Norwegians quickly amassed a cult following while blazing their own trail through fields of symphonic doom, hard rock, acoustic plucking and progressive metal.

Integrating tribal rhythms and ancient instruments with modern groove metal has earned Mawiza recognition from the Chilean Grammys and respected elders like Mercyful Fate, Slipknot and Mastodon. But on their upcoming third album, these modern day Mapuche warriors are fighting to restore our balance with nature.

Summoning thunderous tribal rhythms and indigenous instruments within the fields of modern metal has earned Mawiza recognition from the Chilean Grammys and respected elders like Mercyful Fate, Mastodon and Slipknot. But this band of modern day warriors are still a force of nature when paired down to their rawest form.

More than three decades removed from their ungentle exhumation from the Canadian underground, Cryptopsy are truly more insatiable than ever. A year after winning a JUNO Award, the band have been reeling off cryptic teasers and blasphemous videos to feed pit-dwelling faithful ahead of their upcoming ninth album. While eerily prescient of our latest unholy obsession, An Insatiable Violence proves once more that Cryptopsy are the most vile band in death metal.

Ever since they came rumbling down from the Blue Ridge Mountains, it was clear that Bask are cut from a different neck of the woods than their fellow Southern trailblazers.