The Smashing Skull Sessions

"This is the end of an era,” states The Cartographer’s vocalist and frontman Jay Roberts. That’s how he and the rest of the Derby based metal force view their debut album, 'The Collapse of a Bitter End'. The quintet - composed of Roberts, guitarists Dan Gorman and Josh Pearson, bassist Tom Broadhead and drummer Josh Woodhouse - have endured both internal and external turmoil to reach this point. T...

Japanese metal pioneers Sigh are back today ‘Unputenpu’, the first single to be taken from their upcoming new studio album 'Goh-Ka', alongside a stunning new music video created by Costin Chioreanu. Speaking about the new track, frontman and Sigh mastermind Mirai Kawashima said - “Honestly, I have no idea at all how the song sounds to other people. Shuffle is the world-widely used rhythm and Japan...

Since their live debut in early 2022, Burner have rapidly ascended in the UK underground scene. Their impressive performance history includes a full UK tour supporting Employed To Serve in Spring 2022, multiple headline tours across the UK and Ireland, and notable festival appearances at Bloodstock, ArcTanGent, 2000Trees, Mystic and Incineration. They also supported UK metal heavyweights Sylosis d...

Every Hell are a Brighton/Bristol-based five-piece blending crushing riffs, melodic urgency, and fearless experimentation into something entirely their own. Fronted by vocalist and saxophonist Will Gardner, with Toby Stewart (guitar/vocals), Andrew Gosden (bass/vocals), Mark Roberts (drums/production), and Jules Maas-Palmer (guitars and synth) the band’s sound draws from their shared history in ac...

Very few bands survive for four decades. Even fewer are those that continue to reach new creative heights, long after legendary status has been achieved. Voïvod were never like other bands: even as the thrash metal scene exploded in the early ‘80s, the Jonquière, Québec crew stood apart, both as unique visionaries and as proud subverters of the metallic norm. From early prog-thrash classics like K...

A band is only as strong as the bond between its members… An unbreakable brotherhood, shared personal history, and proven creative chemistry fortify the bond at the heart of OBEYER. Leveraging the strength of their union to maximum effect, the Northampton, UK quartet—Carl Brown [vocals], Jamie Steadman [guitar], David Bartlett [bass], and Lewis Niven [drums]—pummel with unmatched power, fusing bon...

Swedish Death Metal force, One Day In Pain have announced the release of their fourth studio album, Devouring The Gods, set for release via Awakening Records on June 19th, 2026. Forged from the cold, uncompromising foundations of classic Scandinavian Death Metal and sharpened with a heavier, more technically ambitious edge, Devouring The Gods marks a significant step forward for the Stockholm-base...

Driven by a relentless hunger for creating new and mind-blowing sounds, Shane Embury is the metal underground’s premiere prolific polymath. With a career stretching back to the mid-’80s, he is best known as bassist with UK grindcore legends Napalm Death: a band he joined way back in 1987. But over the last three decades, Shane has demonstrated an unwavering enthusiasm for exploring every possible...

Hammok is the trio of vocalist/guitarist Tobias Osland, drummer Ferdinand Aasheim, and bassist Ole Benjamin Thomassen. 'When Does This Place Become Our Scene' is driven by their idiosyncratic blend of pop production and the vivacious energy of hardcore. Throughout, experimental textures fully blossom, placing them on the vanguard of forward-thinking punk. It ranges from tongue-in-cheek ragers to t...

NASHVILLE, TN — He screamed his way into metal history. Then cancer tried to silence him for good. Now, for the first time, Chuck Billy—the iconic frontman of Bay Area thrash legends Testament—tells the whole truth in his unflinching memoir, Holding My Breath: The Two Testaments of Chuck Billy, publishing November 10, 2026, from Permuted Press. This is not your typical rock memoir. Structured as t...

More than the sum of their parts and born again through perseverance, grit and cosmic horror, Kent’s INFECTED DEAD marks their arrival into 2026 as a newly fine-tuned and reincarnated beast. Having regrouped with a new line-up in 2024, the five-piece technical death metal band boasts alumni from the likes of Pupil Slicer, Dawnwalker and Overthrow. Gelling as a unit on stages throughout their home...

Growth wear their pain on their sleeve when it comes to their creative output. A lot of these strong emotions stem from vocalists LF's career in social work which often has him faced with the darker side of humanity, the kind of stuff that your average person can be blissfully ignorant to. His career, coupled with his own personal life hurdles, has set the scene for what listeners will find on 'Un...

Loud, angry, nihilistic; Gout is the doom-inducing metal project from members of Glasgow bands Lucia & the Best Boys and The Ninth Wave. A far cry from these projects, however, Gout distils the intensity of hardcore with the low, driven crush of sludge forebears. In 2025, following the release of its debut EP ‘Born Rotting’ and a buzz-generating debut show at Glasgow’s Core Festival, the band...

Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home is the fourth full-length from Melbourne, FL deathcore outfit Bodysnatcher. It follows 2024’s brutal Will Putney-produced EP, Vile Conduct and serves up another powerful barrage of uncompromising deathcore across 10 incredible tracks that see the four-piece—Kyle Medina (vocals), Kyle Carter (guitar), Kyle Shope (bass) and Chris Whited (drums)—turn the catharsis up as lou...

Indian metal veterans Demonic Resurrection who are celebrating 25 years have just announced the release of a new EP on 6th February 2026. The new EP is titled 'Apocalyptic Dawn' and comes packaged with phenomenal artwork by Gaurav Basu aka Acid Toad. The EP features 3 songs recorded by the new lineup featuring Demonstealer, Aditya Swaminathan, Nikhil Rajkumar and Swarnava Sengupta. The band also r...

Heaven Shall Burn, the metalcore band founded in Thuringia, Germany in 1996, has evolved into one of the most influential forces in the international metal scene. Comprising Marcus Bischdff (vocals), Maik Weichert (guitar), Alexander Dietz (guitar), Eric Bischoff (bass), and Christian Bass (drums), they have gained global recognition for their aggressive sound and politically charged lyrics. Their...

Starting out on the floors of squats and basements, SHORELINE have played pretty much every venue in Europe that has provided them with a power outlet over the past ten years. Since then, they have played shows with scene legends such as FOUR YEAR STRONG, KNUCKLE PUCK, and SILVERSTEIN. This February, they will be touring the UK with ARM’S LENGTH – and just recently, they played a sold-out, acclaim...

Blaze Bayley- Metal Hall of Fame inductee - is a singer/songwriter born 29th May 1963 in Birmingham, England. Having started his professional music career in WOLFSBANE in 1984, he was elevated to global heights when he joined IRON MAIDEN with whom he released two albums ("X-Factor" and "Virtual XI") and toured worldwide between 1994 and 1999. After leaving IRON MAIDEN, Blaze embarked on a solo car...

Hailing from Finland and known as messengers of melancholy, ATLAS forge a uniquely Northern strain of modern metal where emotion meets cinematic scale. Mixed and mastered by Buster Odeholm (Silent Planet, Vildhjarta, Born Of Osiris, Thrown), the album extends ATLAS’s sonic bridge between old and new. Early singles 'Anodyne', 'Salt and Sulfur' and 'I Whisper Your Name Like a Curse' have already pav...

Imperial Slave is a thrashy death metal band from New Zealand, formed in 2020, with two critically acclaimed albums and extensive live experience across their home country, Europe and Japan. The band has steadily built its reputation through both headline and support performances. Formed in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 2020 by vocalist Sam Sheppard, formerly the drummer for influential New Zea...

Leisure Hour is an Emo Rock band who has taken the scene by storm, creating an authentic and diverse communities of baddies through their music. Their upcoming record “… and to think .. “ comes out January 30th via Counter Intuitive records. The band has many plans to tour across the country promoting their record and making a ton of friends along the way. I got to sit down and chat with their dru...

Hailing from the musical landscapes of Swedish coastal city Gothenburg, EF emerged already in 2003. This post-rock ensemble quickly captivated audiences with their emotionally charged instrumentals which they skillfully blended with northern melancholy, indie rock riffs and infusing the short energetic bursts of hardcore into their compositions. What truly did set them apart from other bands at th...

Containing members of Dead Swans, Throats, Brutality Will Prevail, Last Witness and Bring Me The Horizon (to name a few!), Still In love is the brainchild of UKHC’s brightest talents. Following their acclaimed Withdrawal Symptoms EPs, Still In Love have carved out a distinct identity within the UK hardcore scene. Their music blends raw aggression with introspective lyricism, drawing comparisons to...

Formed in Essex in the UK in 2018, Beyond Extinction have brought the brutality with their debut album, 'Where They Gather'. With magazines like Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Distorted Group to name a few writing reviews about the album, the band are solidifying their place in heavy music with their brutal breakdowns and hellish soundscape they've created with this album. I got to sit down with all fo...

“There’s no point in dressing it up. We’re a meat and potatoes heavy metal band. There are so many genres around these days, people have funny ideas about what heavy metal is. But to me, it’s an attitude, it’s a lifestyle, it’s not something you decide to dip into. You either are or you’re not. And it’s for life.” Honest, hard-working, humble and true, Orange Goblin are easy to spot in a world fue...