WARMEN

WARMEN was for many years something like a solo project with band character of the then Children Of Bodom keyboardist Janne “Warman” Wirman. WARMEN 2023 provide a maximum of variety – and not expected hardness – in their musical reorientation. HERE FOR NONE heralds a new era – freely following the motto “The king is dead, long live the king” WARMEN are not only musically setting out for new shores – due to the new line-up it can now be rightly said that WARMEN are now spectacularly taking over the musical heritage of Janne’s former band. HERE FOR NONE is brutally varied, but in itself extremely coherent – and thus the new reference work in terms of melodic hardness from Finland!

Sonata Arctica frontman Tony Kakko

There is great power in secrecy. Detached from the world, brewed under a strict code of confidentiality, a new lifeform came into existence. Led by none other than Sonata Arctica frontman Tony Kakko, this new beast of his gained momentum in the massive shadow of his wildly successful power metal superheroes, slowly, steadily, biding its time, waiting for the right moment.

 This moment is now.

With his self-titled debut, Tony Kakko opens the curtains into this strange new world of his just enough to take a first peek – and instantly hunger for more. A master story teller and a wizard of conjuring musical emotions, Himmelkraft stages Kakkos trademark talents in a wholly new, unexpected and thrilling way. “I don’t think it would make any sense releasing Sonata-type music through another band,” he says. “People would just assume the album is full of Sonata outtakes or leftovers. I don’t operate that way.”

Melodic Death From Finland

Finland is still considered “the land of metal” and regularly sends impressive bands out into the world. This undoubtedly includes the band HORIZON IGNITED, founded in 2017 by guitarists Johannes Mäkinen and Vili Vottonen. With their albums “After The Storm” (2019) and “Towards The Dying Lands” (2022), the guys already were able to impressively demonstrated this. The latter has now been streamed almost 4 million times.  

Heavy Metal From Japan

Four years after the world-wide released and critically acclaimed album “Nucleus” in 2019 (a re-recording of their classic hits with English lyrics), leading Japanese Heavy Metal band, ANTHEM have used the pandemic downtime wisely and are now ready to unleash their brand new studio album called “Crimson & Jet Black”. All songs are once again performed in English, and the album will see a global release.

After finishing not one, but two anniversary tours in 2021 (= the band’s 35th anniversary tour, which had been postponed due to the pandemic restrictions, as well the 20th anniversary of their reunion tour entitled “ANTHEM vs ANTHEM 2001”), ANTHEM pursued this new album to jumpstart their next chapter. Originally scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 2022, the band’s leader Naoto Shibata, being the perfectionist that he is, decided to enrich the songs’ quality even more and pushed back the recording schedule to Summer / Autumn, so that pure brilliance may unfold. Just like on past albums, Naoto is the main producer of the album, but this time renowned Swedish producer Jens Bogren, (known for his work with the likes of Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir and Opeth, to name but a few) who had previously mixed and mastered “Nucleus”, is credited as a co-producer.

Topping each of their past works has been ANTHEM’s goal for the 21st century, and they’ve outdone themselves yet again with this album! “Crimson & Jet Black” is unmistakably “ANTHEM”, yet it sounds fresh at the same time. The band has proven yet again that they are one of the world’s most competitive Heavy Metal bands, and a force to be reckoned with. Don’t miss their new chapter that has only just begun!!!