The Swedish black metal band Bathory was formed in 1983 and is considered a pioneer of black metal and Viking metal. Because Bathory is such an influential and intriguing band (they never even did a proper tour, as they stopped performing live early on in their career!), Spanish metal journalist José Luis Cano Barron decided to release an unofficial but definitive biography of Bathory. The book From Hades to Valhalla... BATHORY—The Epic Story by José Luis Cano Barron was originally written in Spanish, but fortunately, thanks to Pagan Records and Monomaniax, the book has now been translated into English for the first time, so it can reach a wider audience! The book dives into the history and career of the revered band Bathory's journey from their early black metal roots to their Viking metal mastery and makes for an interesting read across its 156 pages and also features rare photographs of the creative leader of the band, Thomas Börje Forsberg who was known as Quorthon, he was th
From wild, remote Scotland, North Atlas combine imagery from their Celtic pagan roots with a dynamic industrial rock sound. Fresh from their ‘Heathen Underground’ headline UK Tour, they have just released new single ‘Dead Tree’ which marks the beginning of a new era for the band and is the follow up to their 2023 EP ‘The Longest Shadow Attached To The Ankle’. The single has already received the acclaim of being featured as BBC R1 Track of the Week on Introducing Rock with Alyx Holcombe who said: “definitely my favourite era of this band yet”. ‘Dead Tree’ began with two brothers sequestered off-grid in Scotland, inspiring a song about the human psyche, written surrounded by their Celtic roots & the perilous beauty of nature. Their live shows have captured audiences across the UK with an athletic complement of performers energising stories of ancestral rituals. “‘Dead Tree’ is a song about being stuck in your own head, more specifically, stuck in the grey area in which your moral c