Meet New England’s Conclave, who probably don’t have a baseball jersey merch design. 

Two of the most respected labels in underground music today — 20 Buck Spin and Gilead Media — have combined their considerable heavy metal firepower to found and curate Migration Fest, a three day celebration of aural boundary-pushers and face-melters set to go down at the historic Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia, Washington this August. The stacked lineup includes Krallice, Christian Mistress, a The Body & Krieg collaborative performance, Thou, Vastum, Mutilation Rights, Kowloon Walled City, Pale Chalice, Vhol, Auroch, and a slew of others. 

Heads up, Charm City: Decibel will infiltrate Maryland Deathfest like a leprous plague from May 26th to May 29th. Come visit Decibel’s booth Friday through Sunday, within screaming distance of the Edison Lot.

Brazilian trio takes thrash beyond their country’s (bloody) roots on “Hostages.”

Celebrate Death‘s Scream Bloody Gore reissue with these never-before-seen interview cuts about the LP from limited edition Choosing Death book.

Speaking with Kriscinda Lee Everitt and Shawn Macomber for a behind-the-Monsters look at what it takes to put together such a righteous benefit anthology, which now spans two volumes!

Scream Bloody Gore
Eternal howl
dB rating: 9/10

A Piece of the End compiles four songs that coalesced unexpectedly during rehearsal, and Vidian have decided not to sit on them until the next album is ready, which is good, because sitting on anything this spiky-lumpy-grumpy would not be good for the posture.  Check it all out right here.

Guitarist/vocalist Jason Mendonça is excited and filled with positivity. And you should be, too. 

Digital artist Stephan Dreadford accidentally fell into the craft of animating famous heavy metal cover art. The single incident, which involved doing animated cover art for social media for his brother’s band, has now pushed Dreadford down a very cool path. Over a very short time, Dreadford has animated numerous cover paintings, turning them into moving pieces of awesome–by such artists as Ed Repka to Andreas Marshall–from static greatness. Dreadford’s vision has put into–well, actual–motion covers by Judas Priest, Sodom, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Pantera, Kreator, and many more. He sees the art like we all do… Living, breathing covers, but instead of using our imaginations to see where, for example, Mark Wilkinson (cover artist for Painkiller) wanted go, Dreadford does it for us. Read on as we extol the virtues of Dreadford’s GIF prowess.