HARD NOISE: BUCKSHOT // Amon Amarth Fight Like Gents + More

Welcome to this edition of Hard Noise: Buckshot – your blast of little bits and pieces of metal! First up, Amon Amarth:

The AMON AMARTH lads scrubbed up like lovely jubbly in their latest video for The Way of Vikings. The Peaky Blinders inspired piece sees them get up to all sorts of illegal activities in a 1920s themed gambling hall. A departure from the Valhall indeed. It’s taken from their latest album Jomsviking, released last year via Metal Blade. The video was directed by collaborators Grupa 13.

The heads of the “metal family” Max & Iggor Cavalera of CAVALERA CONSPIRACY have announced their fourth studio album, Psychosis, set for release on 17th November via Napalm Records.

Max & Iggor Cavalera // Photo: Renan Facciolo

Max Cavalera told us earlier in the month: “Yeah, no, the album’s all done, man, you know. It’s being mastered, actually, tomorrow. It’s a beast of an album, it’s my favourite. Of all the three Cavalera’s albums, this one is my favourite one. It’s a really- it’s a really cool record because I think we explore the best of Max and Igor world, and we had this really cool producer, Arthur, really helping get stuff out of us. And I think that there’s a real cool mix between thrash metal, and death metal, and noise metal type shit. And we’ve even a guest song from Justin from Godflesh, he’s a guest in one off the songs, so its kind of a Godflesh–Nailbomb type song. But the rest of the record is really powerful, a lot of fast stuff like you can imagine, with a lot of great thrash breakdowns. So I think it will be great for everyone that loves the stuff that we did, especially with the Arise era stuff, they will be very happy with this record.”

You can view the teaser trailer from their Phoenix, Arizona studio below:

Founder and CEO of Metal Blade Records Brian Slagel has written a history of the legendary label, For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records with Mark Eglinton. The book features a foreword by Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, one of Metal Blade’s foundation members.

According to a statement, the book “[Celebrates] the storied label’s 35th anniversary, For the Sake of Heaviness is an inside look at how Slagel built Metal Blade from a one-man operation in his mom’s non-air-conditioned garage to the preeminent international home of heavy music that it is today.”

“Slagel reveals the early advice he gave that helped guide Motley Crue‘s career; how he helped Metallica replace their bassist – twice; his detailed work on Thin Lizzy and Alice Cooper re-issues; his behind-the-scenes role in the careers of Slayer, GWAR, Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Goo Goo Dolls, and Lamb of God; and his unlikely ventures with kindred metal heads – from hockey star Ken Baumgartner, to celebrity chef Chris Santos, to The Howard Stern Show‘s Richard Christy, to comedians Jim Florentine, Don Jamieson and Jim Breuer.”

The book also comes with a special mixtape (on an actual compact cassette) featuring Metal Blade artists past and present. Pre-orders are available now.

German power metal veterans ACCEPT will release their fifteenth studio album Rise of Chaos this week, marking a thematic departure from their usual heavy metal fare.

Wolf Hoffmann told us in an interview this week, the album was inspired by current events. “Now, every day when you watch the news, it’s like yeah, it’s getting more and more chaotic – we were kind of lucky that it fits the mood of the world. Funnily enough, all the time now I read and see that word “chaos”, I never used to see it that often so it must really be in the air.”

The album is out 4 August via Nuclear Blast Records.