11 bands and more than 5 hours of music

As live concert streams continue to flourish due to the ongoing viral pandemic that has sadly postponed or canceled all the 2020/2021 live tours and festivals across the globe, Adrian Sasu, the organizer, has decided to do something about it. He is the mischief-maker of Bloody News, a Romanian metal webzine. Within his passion for music, he slowly developed an interest in keeping in touch with artists and spreading their music to the world.

“After spending so much time in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic all over the world we decided that the best way to handle the situation is to bring back the Metal shows and there is no better way in this time to do it, then making a big online streaming Metal Fest.”

The organizer has distilled the atmosphere the metal webzine created and served it in a neat online package, where 11 bands will broadcast their live performances on March 26, 18.00 CET on www.bloodynews.ro

ARHAT [Groove Metal, Ukraine]

The band emerged in 2017, in Kyiv. It consists of experienced musicians. In a short period of time, the band composed several songs which were included in its first setlist. Lyrics of the band balance between cruel modern reality and oriental mythology. The musicians released their first demo, named “Mantra”, in January 2018. To promote the release, the band performed in Kyiv and some other Ukrainian cities. On June 17th, 2018, Arhat released the internet single, named “Stately Ruins”. The track has the band’s aggressive sound with oriental elements in the lead guitar line. In summer 2018, the band performed at the anniversary Black Sea Metal Festival. In autumn 2018, Arhat held gigs in the West and South of Ukraine. In summer 2019, the band performed at United Metal Festival in Belarus. The band released their debut album “Dead Life” in December 2020.


ANGER DOSE [Hardcore Punk/Melodic Black Metal, Romania]

The band is a DIY band from Bucharest, Romania, formed in 2019, playing a mix of Hardcore Punk with Melodic Black Metal and Sludge influences. They sing about the downfall of the modern world, with a bleak perspective on its future. They tackle subjects such as racism, corruption, destruction of the environment, police brutality, or general apathy of people to everything wrong in the world today. Members have played or play in bands like Mediocracy, Breathelast, Ropeburn, Church of Cthulhu, etc. In September 2020 they released their first album entitled “Aimless Generation”, available on all streaming platforms. It will also have a physical release by Overdue Records (Romania) on vinyl and on tape by Nosebleed Records (Belgium). It was recorded at Studio 148 and produced by Marius Costache. The band also released 2 videos for the songs “Cop Hunt” and “Death by Carbon”, both produced by the band themselves.

BEYOND FREQUENCIES [NU Metal, Swiss]

With more than half a million views, the YouTube channel of Beyond Frequencies has been on fire since the release of the first songs in spring 2020 – without any label power in the background an impressive debut for a brand-new act. It’s the fresh sound that is fascinating. Pop? Metal? Electro? In numerous comments, fans puzzle over the genre of the Swiss-based band. But who cares about the labels anyway? Everyone agrees: the songs really get under your skin. The blog “Female Metal Worldwide” recommends Beyond Frequencies for fans of Stone Sour, Within Temptation, and Evanescence.

Also, the Legacy magazine confirms in its current issue #128 that they have rarely portrayed such a fresh band as Beyond Frequencies. The discussion about the music genre is not surprising to the band, because Beyond Frequencies follow a vision to create their very own style as a hybrid of Metal and Pop, which they call “Heavy Pop”.As long as the music really gets under your skin, who cares about labels anyway? Strong vocals and catchy melodies with pop appeal give Beyond Frequencies their unmistakable cut and make the heavy sound accessible to a wide audience. With their unique style, the Zurich-based formation apparently not only appeals to music fans from Switzerland and Germany, but the numerous comments from all over the world also show that the band draws international attention.

Beyond Frequencies hit the mark of those music lovers whose playlists contain not only metal but also songs from other genres, because they enjoy the variety and fusion of different music styles.

TERMINATION CENTRAL [Death Metal, Ukraine]

Combat crew formed in January 2019 by four unidentified arrived from the future on the “Termination Central” space cruiser with the mission to preach new cosmic faith to humanity. The priests erupt blustering Industrial Death Metal masses and ready to destroy the stages and fight for the human brains in the name of the future gods.

RUNNING BOT [Synth Metal, Russia]

No one knows exactly when Running Bot was formed besides that they came from Novosibirsk, Russia. The guys themselves tell that they run away from a top-secret biohacking laboratory. The band members are RM1X v 1.3 (vocal) JSI v2.1 (guitar) AL5RF (bass guitar), IK3 beta (keyboards) and G2BB (drums). Recently, Running Bot released their debut single “Pandora”.

HORROR DANCE SQUAD [Metalcore, Estonia]

Horror Dance Squad has been blasting stages throughout the Baltics since 2014, unapologetically blending Metalcore and Punk with vibrant electronics and delivering it to their audiences with unforgettable ferocity. Their 2019 release, “Isn’t It Obvious”, introduced their fans to a new era of Horror Dance Squad, a band inspired to expand their horizons and explore new territory. And the momentum only continues to grow with the release of their singles “Party All Life Till Our Souls Go Home”, “Happy Face”, “Cancer”, “Callous Cage” and their debut album “No Flag Will Fly Forever” that was released in September 2020.

Hailing from Tallinn, Estonia, Horror Dance Squad has had the enormous pleasure of sharing the stage with bands international heavy hitters such as Siamese, Comeback Kid, Dead By April, Adept, Eskimo Callboy, We Butter The Bread With Butter, Deez Nuts, August Burns Red and One Morning Left. They also represented Estonia at the 2016 Wacken Open Air Metal Battle.

STEEL VELVET [Hard Rock, Poland]

Steel Velvet is a Hard Rock band that was formed at the end of 2008 in Strzyżów (Podkarpackie Province). The group’s music is a fantastic symbiosis of the sound of the late ’70s and 80s. The musicians draw inspiration from classics such as Whitesnake, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, DIO, and Rainbow. Since the beginning of their activity, the group has played a lot of concerts all over Poland, performing alongside such celebrities as Blaze Bayley, Paul Dianno (ex-Iron Maiden), TSA , Oddział Closed, Budka Suflera, or Turbo. In their phonographic output, they have “Demo 2009”, debut album “LuZ” from 2011, single “Leaving me”, album “Chwila” after which the band was hailed by journalists. The new hope of Polish Hard Rock, the album itself reached very high places in the lists of the best albums of 2014. Another release of Steel Velvet is the live album “Live”, which was recorded during a performance in the concert studio Tadeusz Nalepa in the Polish Radio Rzeszów.

DEVINE DEFILEMENT [Deathcore, Iceland]

In the short time since their inception, Devine Defilement has been hard at work to carve a path through the Icelandic underground and proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned with. Their blend of various Death Metal sub-genres makes for a ferocious mix of grooves, slams, blast beats, and even some moments of melodic dissonance. Their live show is energetic and gets heads banging and pits raging.

Their debut album “Obliviora” (Bleeding Music Records) was released to positive reviews, and the band toured Europe in support of Brutal Death legends Lividity. 2020 saw the release of the “Primitive Gospel” (self-released) with some plans to tour and appear on festivals around Europe and Iceland but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all plans were put on hold. Devine Defilement bunkered down and began writing more new material. Their latest single “Pus Covered” (self-released) was met with a lot of praise and the band is aiming for more singles in 2021. With all performances on hold, Devine Defilement has gathered a handful of songs to be released separately to keep a steady stream of new material. New filth is around the horizon get ready for the Icelandic Slam Crew.

GWENDYDD [Melodic Death Metal, Bulgaria]

Imagine a prime-time talent show on a major national tv channel. Pop starlet after pop starlet is giving their best to lull the audience with their favorite tearjerker. And then there is this innocent girly voice, performing Taylor Swift’s „Look what you made me do“. Both audience and jury feel safe and sound. Until the song reaches the first chorus. What happened then shocked and electrified the studio audience and a whole country in front of their TVs. With her brutal and angst-inducing Death Metal growls she seems to be ripping apart the original US Popstar and spitting her left-overs all over the studio interior. Shock and joy, Curiosity and fear melt into ecstatic cheering and a hurricane of applause. That girl’s name is Victoria Stoichkova and her performance quickly reached more than 3.5 million views on YouTube with a bursting comment section full of enthusiasm and cheering. This was the starting point of a career for sure.

After joining forces with producer, songwriter and friend Nikifor „Bambi“ Nikiforov they lock themselves in his studio. Reinforced by fellow underground musicians Tina Zhelyazova, Reni Angelova, and Sonya Radeva they work day and night and create what eventually becomes Gwendydd. Named after and inspired by both mystical and historical medieval figures, they are now the first female-dominated metal band in Bulgaria. Only months later Vicky and her partner and partners in crime release their first full-length album “Human Nature“. A genuine and brutal soundtrack to the disparity of reality, hopes, and dreams. Not coming from a gated community in Hollywood, but directly from the streets of Sofia, the capital of the poorest country in the European Union. Driven by a modern production, this hybrid of wrecking guitar riffs and adrenalizing drums builds up to an Extreme Metal avalanche. The perfect carrier for that brute death metal voice, which cuts deep into the flesh of modern society – not only with words but with a message. The album contains 10 songs, which can be found on most of the digital streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, and Deezer. Created in Sofia / Bulgaria in 2018 Gwendydd is amongst the fastest developing bands on the scene. And even though the 2020 pandemic has hit them hard and destroyed all existing tour plans, they won’t ever give up. Gwendydd is currently working on new material for their second album while preparing to set the post-pandemic concert world on fire again.

AVOID HUMANITY [Death Metal, Romania]

Formed in 2017, it feels like the name of this band is probably good advice these days. Influenced mostly by the hate, poverty, spite, corruption, and indifference of society, Avoid Humanity is made up of 5 introverts who want to scream/sing about everything that’s wrong. Oh, but they’re not trying to change it, they’re only trying to rub it in your face… which they do with a blood-covered flourish!

THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF [Hardcore/Old School Metal, Romania]

The Boy Who Cried Wolf started their activity as two local bands from Bucharest, Romania, collided (Chester & Breathelast), and Bogdan (Chester) and Mihai (Breathelast) reached out to Alex (PZFI, Backstage Hero) to give it a sincere go at writing some tunes that would better react to their primal needs to play some wild, fast-paced music, inspired by Old School Metal combined w/ Hardcore / Punk vibes. Other sounds may occur. The debut album was recorded at Studio148 (Bucharest) and it was released independently in 2013, “Bad Time Stories”. During the next 7 years, the band played a few gigs, opened up live shows for established local bands or for some cool names from abroad (Cancer Bats, Shai Hulud, Comeback Kid, etc), and managed to gather all their ideas in order to prepare their second full-length album. “Bellicose” was thus recorded at the same Studio148 in all this time, being officially digitally released in December 2020. TbWcW is now preparing a promo campaign in order to spread the news of the new material and they have started also looking into independently making a physical disc for the new album, “Bellicose”.

Bloody News Online Fest: Spring Madness is an event powered by the team Bloody News Metal Webzine / GlobMetal Promotions in collaboration with Patriot Label, Atrius Concert Agency, VARG MEDIA GROUP, and Cultartes.

Join the event: Bloody News Online Fest – Spring Madness

The following two tabs change content below.