[Heavy News]: ENSLAVED (NOR), BLACK LABEL SOCIETY & AUGUST BURNS RED (US).
Welcome to another Music Monday here at Inner-Strength Check!
We have some gig photography coming up shortly, but for now I’d like to share several bits of heavy music news. From the rollin’ seas off the fjords o’ Norway, all the way across to Americas yonder, beseech thee a gander at these three: Enslaved (Norway), Black Label Society and August Burns Red (US).
Peace, Love and Kraken-crackin’ Riffs, Me Hearties - Brady.
Today’s ADHD Writing-Assistant Helper Album:
Yawning Man - Pavement Ends LP (Released 14th November, 2025 via Heavy Psych Sounds Records)
Link to LP Stream:
ENSLAVED Reveal Sea Shanties 'Fire Marengo' & 'Anna Lovinda' + 'ENSLAVED & STORM WEATHER SHANTY CHOIR' 2-Track Digital Single Is Out Now
Photo credit: Marlene Grygo
Left to right: Grutle Kjellson (Enslaved), Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved), Roald Kaldestad (Storm Weather Shanty Choir), Haakon Steinar Vatle (Storm Weather Shanty Choir).
Today, Norwegian progressive trailblazers Enslaved are honoured to reveal their latest creation - two unique recordings of sea shanties, made in collaboration with the Storm Weather Shanty Choir, who hail from Bergen, Norway's great sailing ship the Statsraad Lehmkuhl.
The shanties are titled 'Fire Marengo' and 'Anna Lovinda'. 'Fire Marengo' is a traditional shanty, whilst 'Anna Lovinda' was written by the late sailor and Norwegian cultural figure Erik Bye.
Enslaved explained the collaboration:
"Enslaved was formed on the western edge of Norway, where mountains fall into the sea and history is carried by wind and tide. Bergen is not simply a coastal city; it is a threshold — between land and ocean, between myth and lived experience. The sea is not scenery here. It is memory, labour, departure and return.
Among the most powerful living symbols of this heritage is Statsraad Lehmkuhl, the great Bergen tall ship that still sails the world’s oceans. Around this vessel lives and breathes the shanty tradition — songs born of rhythm, rope, salt, and collective effort. From this environment emerged Storm Weather Shanty Choir.
Our connection to the ship began in 2014, when the Tall Ships Races concluded in Bergen. We were invited to compose and perform a commissioned piece on the deck of Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Metal echoed across the harbour that evening — a meeting of ancient wind-powered technology and modern amplified ritual. It felt less like contrast and more like continuity.
Since then, a friendship has grown — particularly with Haakon Vatle, director of the ship’s foundation and one of Norway’s most devoted custodians of the shanty tradition. He often remarks that sailors were the first metalheads — people who faced elemental forces daily and answered them with song. There is truth in that. Shanties were not entertainment; they were functional incantations — rhythm as survival.
In November 2025, during the choir’s 20th anniversary concert in Bergen, we joined forces on the traditional “Fire Marengo” and the Norwegian shanty “Anna Lovinda,” written by the late sailor and cultural figure Erik Bye. The collaboration felt less like fusion and more like recognition — two expressions of the same coastal inheritance meeting at the centre.
After the performance, it was clear that this convergence should not remain ephemeral. We met again in early 2026 to record the material — not as novelty, but as continuation. Because at the centre — at mið — we find not isolation, but shared origin. Wind, rhythm, voice. The same pulse that once moved sails now moves amplifiers. The same call-and-response that coordinated labour now shapes modern ritual. The sea remembers. And so do we."
Stream the tracks here:
https://enslaved.bfan.link/shanty-songs
Watch the visualizer for 'Fire Marengo' here:
Enslaved & Storm Weather Shanty Choir
01. Fire Marengo
02. Anna Lovinda
Never faltering, Norway’s iconic Enslaved continue to exist as one of the most original and dependable components in our scene's indestructible backbone. Possessing the reputation as one of the most riveting live acts around, they never fail to offer us talent of the highest calibre, always doing justice to their signature black/progressive sound. Enslaved was formed in 1991 by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson, releasing their first demo Yggdrasill in the summer of 1992, their legendary mini-album Hordanes Land coming out in 1993, and with their debut full-length Vikingligr Veldi arriving in the spring of 1994.
Enslaved are a band in stellar form - a band at its most existentialist and self-conscious, proud Bergeners bearing the torch of their hometown’s extraordinary musical history. Their most recent material shows Enslaved at their most unleashed and thought-through - a lethal combination unfurling a potential that’s easily rekindling the furor of their early works while dancing gracefully through their most ambitious, most haunting and most musical tunes yet. A contradiction? Life itself is a contradiction. And yet we all live to prove it wrong.
Enslaved are:
Ivar Bjørnson | guitars
Grutle Kjellson | vocals
Arve 'Ice Dale' Isdal | guitar
Håkon Vinje | keyboards, clean vocals
Iver Sandøy | drums
links:
Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | Apple Music
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Releases Highly Anticipated Album ENGINES OF DEMOLITION + Music Video for ‘Ozzy’s Song’ a homage to Ozzy Osbourne.
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, led by Zakk Wylde, has released ENGINES OF DEMOLITION across all major streaming platforms and retail stores worldwide.
Get the album here:
https://blacklabelsociety.ffm.to/enginesofdemolition
The band has also unveiled the official music video for the closing track, ‘Ozzy’s Song,’Zakk’s deeply personal and standout moment on the record via YouTube. The track has already generated significant anticipation among fans and serves as a fitting and emotional finale to the album.
Watch ‘Ozzy’s Song’ here:
“[Black Label Society] delivers the hard-rockin’ riffs, bluesy grooves and soulful ballads that have consistently marked the heavy metal outfit fronted by Zakk Wylde for nearly 30 years.” 4/5 - Associated Press
“…this is the most sure-footed and focused Wylde has sounded for a long time…this is plainly their strongest album since ‘The Blessed Hellride’,” - 8/10 Blabbermouth
“...the final result is as bold and bombastic as anything BLS fans could want. - Spin Magazine
“Zakk Wylde doing exactly what he does and doing it brilliantly.” 9/10 – Maximum Volume Music
“Their breed of relentless rock is a welcomed rarity among the modern landscape, making Engines of Demolition a true tour de force that is bound to stay on repeat.” – Spill Magazine
ENGINES OF DEMOLITION Tracklist:
Gatherer of Souls
The Hand of Tomorrows Grave
Better Days & Wiser Times
Above & Below
Back To Me
Pedal To The Floor
Broken Pieces
The Stranger
Ozzy’s Song
About Black Label Society:
Zakk Wylde will tell you that everything Black Label Society begins and ends with the riff.
For more than 25 years, Black Label Society has stood as one of heavy music’s most unshakeable pillars, delivering album after album of blues-soaked grooves, hard-hitting riffs, and soul-baring ballads. “Engines of Demolition” makes no exception to the steady rule of unrelenting commitment to pure, uncompromising, hard rock.
In 2022, Wylde was invited to honor his fallen brothers, the late great Dimebag Darrell Abbott and his brother Vinnie Paul, as part of the Pantera Celebration. Writing and recording with Black Label Society over these last four years is when Engines of Demolition was born.
Engines of Demolition follows the release of four singles, ‘The Gallows’ (2024), ‘Lord Humungus’ (2025), ‘Broken and Blind’ (2025) and ‘Name In Blood’ (2026) and marks the first full-length album release since DOOM CREW INC. (2021).
Black Label Society is the pure expression of the paradox of Zakk Wylde's darkest, loudest riffs and softest soul-crushing ballads. BLS is a relentless, heavy, bluesy, unhinged hard-rock-metal circus quartet summoning caffeine-fueled cacophony on records and the stage. BLS songs are odes to celebration and mourning from the darkest depths to the highest of highs.
A charismatic hard rock and metal marauder recognized as a living legend and guitar icon, Wylde rose to prominence when Ozzy Osbourne chose him as his loyal axe man. Multi-platinum albums, countless guitar magazine covers, World-wide sold-out tours, his own guitar and coffee brands add to Wylde’s ever-growing legacy. He gets as much joy from fronting his Black Label Society as he did playing on stage with his hero, Ozzy Osbourne, in his Black Sabbath cover band, Zakk Sabbath.
“Less is more with everything, “Except the guitar solos and coffee!”
Black Label Society and Zakk Wylde online:
Instagram: @ZakkWyldeBLS
Facebook: Black Label Society
Youtube: @ZakkWyldetv
TikTok: @zakkwyldebls
AUGUST BURNS RED
ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM SEASON OF SURRENDER OUT JUNE 5 VIA FEARLESS RECORDS
BAND SHARES LYRIC VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE THE NAMELESS
Photo Credit: Paxton Powell
August Burns Red — Jake Luhrs (vocals); JB Brubaker (guitar); Brent Rambler (guitar); Dustin Davidson (bass); and Matt Grenier (drums) — need no introduction. For over two decades, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based act has been crafting its own unique brand of metalcore that has established ABR as one of the foremost acts in the genre. Their career milestones speak for themselves: Multiple placements in the top 10 on the Billboard Top 200; tours with everyone from Bullet For My Valentine to A Day To Remember; and an accumulation of 600 million streams.
However, the band — nominated for Best Metal Performance Grammys in 2016 for the song Identity and again for Invisible Enemy in 2018 — has never stopped pushing the limits of their sound.
And that fact has never been more prevalent than on their forthcoming new album SEASON OF SURRENDER, which will arrive on June 5 via Fearless Records, the label to which they recently returned. Pre-order it here.
ABR have also just shared the lyric video for new single The Nameless.
The Nameless accomplishes more in under three minutes than most heavy bands do over the course of an entire album. The track boasts the band's signature complex rhythm section, alongside dark and moody guitars, with an unrelenting vocal assault. This song is ABR stripped down to the absolute core of their sound: Intricate, crushing, and ferocious.
"The Nameless is a hard-hitting, heavy bruiser that doesn't let up for one moment,"statesDavidson."It combines classic ABR elements with dark moody technical rhythms, and fast paced vocals to keep the intensity up for the full three minutes of the track. To me it showcases our roots of where we've come from, and the future path of where we're heading."
Luhrsfollows,"Lyrically, The Nameless is a song about not wasting your life away for the sake of acceptance and comfortability. Sometimes it takes detaching from what you’ve been told, or from the beliefs you are no longer aligned with, in order to face your own weaknesses. In doing so you can break free to live a life you are proud of.”
Season of Surrender features guest appearances fromThe Devil Wears Prada's Mike Hranica,Polaris' Jamie Hails, and Make Them Suffer.
ABR will hit the road on a co-headline run with The Amity Affliction this April and May in North America.
Season of Surrender Track Listing:
01. Legions [Feat. Mike Hranica]
02. The Nameless
03. Behemoth
04. Den of Thieves
05. Sonic Salvation [Feat. Jamie Hails]
06. Cerebral Malfunction [Feat. Make Them Suffer]
07. Tear of the Clouds
08. Whispers Like Splinters
09. S.O.S.
10. New Horizons
11. Forged by Failure
THE NAMELESS - OUT NOW
https://agstbrnsrd.ffm.to/thenameless
SEASON OF SURRENDER - DUE OUT JUNE 5
http://seasonofsurrender.net/
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Peace, Love and Grindcore - Brady.