[HEAVY NEWS] Roundup 14/07/25, Part II: Upcoming Releases
See here for Part 1, featuring some great newly released singles and albums!
Now, without further ado or my usual dithering fanfare, let’s launch straight into what’s headed our way on the international heavy/underground release radar.
Peace, Love and Grindcore xoxo - Brady.
THORNDALE (Ne) - Spiritual Chains (Independent Release, 12th Sept 2025)
Haarlem (NL) - Thorndale, the Netherlands-based heavy/stoner/doom metal powerhouse, is thrilled to announce the September 12 release of their sophomore album, Spiritual Chains.
This highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2024 debut, Lightning Spawn, promises a darker and more mature sound, showcasing the band's evolving artistry and the addition of a second guitar player to their lineup.
Comprised of seasoned musicians from notable acts such as Adarrak, Killing Darlings, Embers of Oblivion, Epinikion, and Primal Charge, their unique blend of heavy, stoner, and doom metal has resonated with fans worldwide, setting the stage for Spiritual Chains to be a significant release.
Spiritual Chains was recorded across various studios in North America and Europe, a testament to Thorndale's commitment to sonic excellence. Jeff Henson (Duel) lends his talent to the album, featuring a guest solo on the track "Exiles and Masters”. The album was mixed and mastered by Rickard Bengtsson and Stafan Karlsson at Sweetspot Studios in Halmstad, Sweden (Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars).
“If you hear a touch of the familiar here and there, that’s exactly what it is. Hints, reminders that there were Giants of Metal long ago, and that the fire of those forebears continues to burn bright in talented musicians today from the scene." - Billy Goate (Doomed & Stoned)
Link to Single ‘Veins of The Phoenix’ via Youtube:
Pre-order:
https://thorndale.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-chains
Track Listing:
1 - Veins of the Phoenix
2 - Battles Fought in Vain
3 - Gods of Pain
4 - Twenty Thousand Souls
5 - Spiritual Chains
6 - Exiles and Masters
Album Credits:
Cover Art - Costin Chioreanu.
Jeff Henson - guest guitar on "Exiles and Masters".
All music by Thorndale.
All lyrics by Gustavo Valderrama and Zigor Munoz.
Produced by Thorndale.
Recorded locally in Austin, Texas; Scarborough, Ontario and Haarlem and Den Haag, Netherlands across 2024 and 2025.
Mixed and mastered by Rickard Bengtsson and Stafan Karlsson at Sweetspot Studios in Halmstad, Sweden.
Line-Up:
Gustavo Valderrama - Vocals
Peter Shannon - Guitars
Maarten Jungschläger - Guitars
Zigor Munoz - Bass
Guest musician: Rob Stone - Drums
Photo Credit: Gustavo Valderrama (edited by Gonzalo Restrepo)
BIO:
Thorndale is a stoner/doom metal band from The Netherlands, formed by experienced musicians from the European and North American metal scenes. Known for their powerful sound, Thorndale has quickly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the heavy music landscape. Members include Gustavo Valderrama (Killing Darlings, Headcrusher, Adarrak), Peter Shannon (Primal Charge), Maarten Jungschläger (Embers of Oblivion, Epinikion), and Zigor Munoz (Adarrak, Ferkaad).
LINKS:
Official Artist Site:
2. DEFTONES (US) - Private Music (Reprise Records/Warner Music, Aug 22nd 2025)
DEFTONES TO RELEASE ANTICIPATED NEW ALBUM PRIVATE MUSIC ON AUGUST 22, 2025 VIA REPRISE / WARNER RECORDS
& SHARE NEW SINGLE
"MY MIND IS A MOUNTAIN"
Multi-platinum GRAMMY® Award-winning Sacramento band Deftones will release their anxiously awaited 10th full-length studio album, private music, on August 22, 2025 via Reprise/Warner Records. Pre-order/Pre-save HERE. To herald its arrival, the group also just shared a new single entitled “my mind is a mountain,” which Zane Lowe exclusively premiered as his latest “World Record” on Apple Music. Listen to “my mind is a mountain” HERE.
Lowe also sat down with members Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter, Abe Cunningham, and Frank Delgado at the iconic Canter’s Deli in Hollywood where the musicians spoke extensively about the creation of private music, shared memories, and discussed what the future holds. Watch/Listen HERE.
Now, they’ve officially begun their next chapter. Deftones notably recorded and co-produced private music in various locations in California including Malibu and Joshua Tree as well as Nashville, Tennessee with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz. It marks their third collaboration with Raskulinecz who had previously helmed Diamond Eyes [2010] and Koi No Yokan [2012].
private music once again sees the band pushing creative boundaries as only they can.
Check out the full tracklisting below.
In other news, Deftones have just received several new RIAA certifications, recognising recent sales milestones. White Pony is now RIAA certified 2x-Platinum, Diamond Eyes is RIAA certified Platinum and notable singles "Change (In The House of Flies)" is RIAA Certified 4x-Platinum and "Be Quiet and Drive" is RIAA Certified 2x-Platinum.
Earlier this year, Deftones launched their first North American headline tour since 2022 produced by Live Nation, and it proved to be their most significant and successful yet.
Deftones saw 100% sellout business of an extensive arena run, including legendary venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York, TD Garden in Boston, and even a two-night stand at Kia Forum in Los Angeles. Of the latter, Los Angeles Times raved, “Deftones have never been bigger, or more definitional for what young people want out of heavy music in all its gradients. A band ahead of their time for 30 years and counting.”
The next round of dates commences on August 22nd at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC and continues in arenas across Canada and the United States, including Rocket Arena in Cleveland, OH on September 10th and Ball Arena in Denver, CO on September 15th. This second leg comes to a close on September 17th at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO.
Deftones welcome Phantogram and IDLES as direct support on select dates. The Barbarians of California will open for all dates. Remaining tickets are available HERE.
private music is here on August 22.
TRACKLISTING
my mind is a mountain
locked club
ecdysis
infinite source
souvenir
cXz
i think about you all the time
milk of the madonna
cut hands
~metal dream
departing the body
2025 TOUR DATES:
Aug 22 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
Aug 24 – Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
Aug 25 – Calgary, AB @ Scotiabank Saddledome
Aug 27 – Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre
Aug 29 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
Aug 30 – Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
Sept 1 – Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
Sept 3 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium*
Sept 5 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium*
Sept 7 – Quebec City, QC @ Videotron Centre
Sept 8 – Montreal, QC@ Bell Centre
Sept 10 – Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Arena
Sept 11 – Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
Sept 13 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
Sept 15 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
Sept 17 – Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
Sept 19 – Atlanta, GA @ Piedmont Park %
Sept 20 – Louisville, KY @ Highland Festival Grounds at Ky Expo Center #
Oct 3 – Sacramento, CA @ Discovery Park !
*with System Of A Down
% Shaky Knees Mu sic Festival # Louder Than Life Festival
! Aftershock
ABOUT DEFTONES
Deftones’ culture is revered as one of the most fervent that exists—a GRAMMY® Award-winning multi- platinum sonic outlier whose originality and culture prove peerless. Formed by hometown friends out of Northern California in 1988, the Sacramento band have delivered a succession of seminal releases, sold over 10 million records globally, gathered 9.2 billion-plus streams, and inspired generations. Their catalog encompasses 2000’s RIAA certified 2X-Platinum White Pony—which earned the group’s first GRAMMY®—as well as the RIAA Platinum-certified Diamond Eyes [2010], Koi No Yokan [2012], and Ohms [2020]. The latter marked their fourth Top 5 debut on the Billboard 200. Their world also notably includes the annual Dia De Los Deftones, an immersive full-day festival experience of music and culture curated and headlined by the band at San Diego’s Petco Park for six iterations so far. In 2025, they release their 10th full-length LP, private music [Reprise / Warner Records]. It signals yet another artistic peak and once more affirms Deftones are forever.
Deftones are Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter, Abe Cunningham, and Frank Delgado.
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
3. BIOLENCE (POR) - Violent Obliteration (via Raging Planet/Doomed Records/Selvajaria Records, 1st Sept 2025)
Portuguese death/thrash veterans Biolence are set to return with their fifth studio album titled, "Violent Obliteration", due out on September 1st, 2025 via a triple-label collaboration between Doomed Records, Raging Planet, and Selvajaria Records.
Recorded and produced at Darkhammer Studios, who also oversaw all sound and visual elements, Violent Obliteration is described by the band as their most cohesive, direct, and violent record to date.
“This upcoming album is possibly our most cohesive, direct, and violent to date, a nuclear bomb of Death/Thrash Metal, with our signature lyrical themes such as the horrors of war, biological and mass destruction weapons, greed, human corruption, and its destructive impact on the planet,” says the band.
Formed in 1998 in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto, Portugal), Biolence have more than 25 years of carnage under their belt. With past appearances alongside top-tier national and international acts, and performances at nearly every major Portuguese metal festival, the band’s reputation for delivering no-frills, old-school intensity is well-earned.
Check out the music video for single ‘Pit of Degradation’ on Youtube:
Links:
Biolence Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blnce
Raging Planet
Official: http://www.ragingplanet.pt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ragingplanet
Bandcamp: http://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ragingplanetrecords
Selvajaria Records
Official: https://www.selvajariarecords.com
Bandcamp: https://selvajariarecords.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selvajariarecords
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selvajaria_records
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SelvajariaRecords
Doomed Records
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedrecords
4. Whitehorse/UBOA (Melb, AU) - The Dissolution of Eternity (via Tartarus Records/Sweatlung, 29th Aug 2025):
Australia’s heaviest force of nature Whitehorse teams up with sonic chaos conjurer UBOA for a split album that crushes, scorches, and transcends. The Dissolution of Eternity is not just an album, it’s a seismic rupture.
Emerging from the depths of Whitehorse’s pre-Death Weight sessions, the band delivers two sprawling, noise-drenched monuments to doom, thick with slow-moving devastation and world-collapsing intensity. Their side builds like tectonic pressure: unyielding, corrosive, and terrifyingly real.
On the flipside, UBOA (the endlessly creative and emotionally devastating alter ego of Xandra Metcalfe) picks through the rubble with a cathartic howl. Her contributions are towering cathedrals of industrial drone and harsh noise, blending suffocating dread with moments of unearthly, haunting beauty. It’s music that weeps, seethes, and ascends.
Together, these two acts conjure a split that captures the violent grace of annihilation and renewal, a soundtrack to worlds ending, and new ones clawing their way out of the wreckage.
The Dissolution of Eternity will be available on LP, CD, and cassette via Tartarus Records and Sweatlung on August 29, 2025.
Links:
https://uboa.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/uboatheflesh
https://whitehorsedestroys.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/thegreatunholybeast
https://tartarusrecords.com
https://www.instagram.com/tartarustapes
https://sweatlung.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/sweatlung_label
5. URSAWRATH (Seattle, US) - Emergence (via Independent Release, 29th August 2025)
Progressive thrashers URSAWRATH are set to release their debut album, Emergence. The Seattle-based quartet blends intricate song structure with unbridled aggression for an album that makes one simple statement – URSAWRATH has arrived.
Emergence Track List
1. Thawed By Hell’s Flames
2. Rot
3. Thrive in Destruction and Death
4. In the Abyss
5. Lies
6. And the Reckoning
7. Echo Chamber
8. Glass Tower
9. Sentenced to Life
10. Unstoppable
Emergence was recorded by USRAWRATH, and mixed and mastered by Max Barber of Singular Path Audio. Artwork by Riaj Gragoth (www.luciferiumwargraphics.com).
URSAWRATH was founded by vocalist and bassist Adam Schaefer in September 2023 after relocating to Seattle to pursue music and form a new band. To recruit members, Schaefer recorded a four-song demo featuring early versions of “Thawed by Hell's Flames,” “In the Abyss,” “Echo Chamber,” and “Sentenced to Life.” Shortly after, guitarists DJ and Lucas Robertson joined the fold, and the trio began rehearsing and refining material. Drummer Maximilian Onsager completed the lineup in spring 2024.
With the full band in place, URSAWRATH began writing new material and reworking the demo tracks, adding guitar solos, updated arrangements, and new drum parts. They started performing live around Seattle in May 2024 to establish themselves in the local scene. By October, the band entered the studio to self-record their debut album Emergence, which features reimagined versions of the original demo songs alongside new tracks written collaboratively. With Emergence complete, URSAWRATH returned to the stage, continuing to build momentum as one of the most exciting new voices in progressive thrash.
Line-Up:
Adam Schaefer – Vocals / Bass
DJ Robertson - Guitars
Lucas Robertson - Guitars
Maximilian Onsager - Drums
