The Smashing Skull Sessions

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...

Formed in Eastbourne in 2023, Believe In Nothing bring together Caine Hemmingway (vocals/noise), Lawrence Rodriguez (guitar), Steve Collier (guitar), and Jasper Lyons (drums). With a history of playing in various heavy South Coast bands, the members hit the ground running, sidestepping the usual growing pains of a new project and quickly locking into a vision of crushing, apocalyptic sonic ritual....

Hailing from Norwich, UK, Birdwitch are a self-described “Dream Violence” band, blending elements of doom, shoegaze, post-metal and prog (amongst other influences). Birdwitch offer an emotional, spiritual melting pot of rage, pain and catharsis, introspectively exploring in an attempt to heal, learn and grow in this short life. Their debut EP, 'bless the spark that found its home', was released on...

Desertion draws inspiration from ‘90s punk greats like Seaweed, Knapsack, or Dear You-era Jawbreaker, and filtering them through a punchy modern lens to create visceral post-hardcore that's sure to inspire stage dives and catharsis in equal measure. "10 Days" follows earlier singles "Stale Change" and "Desert" (which drew attention from Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, and more), and the hard-hitting tra...

French bruisers ten56. have announced the arrival of their brand new album, IO. The highly anticipated follow-up to their earth-shattering debut Downer will drop on 5th September via Out Of Line, presenting a more calculated, more aggressive and far darker version of the band than ever before. Pre-order and pre-save the album here. To celebrate the news, ten56. have also shared a music video for t...

Emerging from the vibrant underground music scene, K L P S is a force to be reckoned with in the realms of post-metal, sludge, and post-hardcore. Drawing inspiration from luminaries such as Breach, Burst, Converge, Neurosis, and ISIS, the band melds complex rhythms with emotive soundscapes, crafting an auditory experience that is both powerful and introspective. Since their inception, K L P S has...

We Lost The Sea is a cinematic instrumental band from Sydney, Australia. Formed in 2007, friends came together to create a new collection of noise that gathers relentless crushing guitars together with post-rock atmospherics and brooding melody. The group's debut full-length, 'Crimea', engineered and mixed by Cult of Luna's Magnus Linderg, was released in 2010. The group played several successful...

The future of British Metal lies in safe hands with Conjurer, who announce their long-awaited new album Páthos, to be released 1st July 2022 via Nuclear Blast. Páthos is not an album for the half-hearted or faint-hearted. Elements of sludge, death, doom, black metal and hardcore influences clash and collide throughout, all masterfully finished by Will Putney's exquisite mix and master. The fifty-m...

The Rising Tide are a 4 Piece modern deathcore band based out of Manawatu, New Zealand. Originally formed in 2012 and disbanding in 2016, the band returned in 2021 with a new line up and improved heavy sound. The Risings Tide’s sound consists of stupidly low tuned guitars, crushing sub drops, emotional orchestral elements and over the top harsh vocals. Their debut album, 'Trauma', came out the 21s...