STB Records is proud to present one of the smoothest splits your ears will hear this year. Sweden’s retro-laced Le’ Betre and New York’s king of doom blues, King Buffalo, have come together on a massive, riff-laden, blues blasted journey of a split on the titanic DIY record label, STB Records!  

All Them Witches, the Nashville band Native Magazine said “concoct a potent brew of dark, shrieking Delta blues that crackle with mystical psychedelic energy,” release the latest in an ongoing series of live albums with At The Garage, released independently on Feb. 10.  

Copperhead is a grimy, dusty mining town on a distant planet, not exactly the kind of place where a single mother would choose to settled down—but Clara Bronson is the new sheriff in town, and she has some secrets. And secrets won’t last long in a small town, especially when Clara’s profile is about to get a lot larger as she investigates a grisly massacre in COPPERHEAD, the new Image Comics space western series by Jay Faerber (GRAVEYARD SHIFT, NEAR DEATH) and Scott Godlewski (Dracula: The Company of Monsters).  

My love for splits is amazingly well documented, so it should come as no surprise that I am doing another one! This time its a ridiculously dirty little album out now on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, the Solanum/Epi-Demic split, Passages to Lunacy! Part punk, part noise,a third Thrash, all crusty and gross, its coming up!  

Famed Metal Maniacs editor Katherine Ludwig has passed away from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Katherine was the editor of Metal Maniacs, the only magazine at the time (early and mid 90’s) that covered extreme metal when no other outlets did.  

Legendary British classic rockers UFO are set to release their latest studio album A Conspiracy of Stars March 3rd in North America on SPV/Steamhammer.  Today UFO has partnered up with GuitarWorld.com the online home of Guitar World Magazine for an exclusive song premiere.  Check out a stream of the song “Run Boy Run” Here!   A Conspiracy of Stars will be available in jewel case, vinyl blue colored double LP and download through SPV/Steamhammer.  It is available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes.   Last week, the band released a new teaser for the upcoming album.  The trailer is available for viewing HERE.   Of course you don’t need to attach more importance to this piece of news than it... 

Los Angeles, California’s GOATSNAKE has announced further live dates in Europe, kicking off at the end of May with their set at Temples Festival, and taking the band through territories new to them. This news comes alongside the completion of the recording of the band’s new album, which will see release on Southern Lord this Summer.  

Fayetteville, AR’s SHAWN JAMES & THE SHAPESHIFTERS have launched a Kickstarter campaign in support of upcoming album The Gospel According to Shawn James & The Shapeshifters. Please pledge your support today  

Israeli metal outfit FERIUM are hard at work in the studio working on their upcoming concept album, Behind the Black Eyes, and have released some updates via their video collection on Youtube!  

Swedish dark metallers TRIBULATION will join CANNIBAL CORPSE, BEHEMOTH and AEON for an extensive North American trek through March. A limited 7″ from TRIBULATION, entitled The Death & Rebirth Of…, is also available at all shows while supplies last; this special single features a demo version of the new track “Holy Libations” on side A (to be included in its final form on the band’s upcoming studio album, The Children Of The Night) and another new track, “Laudanum Dreams”, on side B.  

Thrashened Black Metal unit FROSTHELM sign to Matt Hyde’s BLACK WORK (ALKEMY BROTHERS) label and are set to release their debut full length album, The Endless Winter, on March 22.  

Behemoth: Devil’s Conquistadors by Łukasz Dunaj serves as the definitive BEHEMOTH biography. The book, officially blessed, or rather damned, by BEHEMOTH, serves as an in-depth look at the history of the events that materially influenced the band. As Dunaj points out in the intro, this isn’t, “Poland’s response to Motley Crüe’s biography The Dirt.” Simply put, Behemoth: Devil’s Conquistadors is the story of BEHEMOTH, their music, their ultimate rise to the upper echelon of metal and becoming a household name in their native homeland, Poland.