Sydney’s Utopia Records Plans Midnight Opening For Record Store Day

A sweaty crowd suitably warmed up by our local Gravemind and Brisbane’s legendary death metal stalwarts Disentomb packed into 170 Russell when right on cue, the band everyone was here to see - New Jersey’s Lorna Shore - hit the stage. They launched into ‘Oblivion’ from their two-month old album ‘I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me’ and it was on.

Tool's return to New Zealand has offered Australian fans a preview of what to expect when the band arrives later this month. The Los Angeles progressive metal innovators performed two consecutive nights in Auckland on 22 and 23 November, delivering setlists that diverged sharply across the two shows and included a remarkable selection of rarely played catalogue deep cuts. For a group renowned for its precision, its disciplined touring cycles, and its aversion to nostalgia, this was a significant display of musical archival excavation.

Disturbed have announced an indefinite hiatus following one of the most turbulent years of their career, bringing a sudden pause to a band that once defined American metal's modern resurgence.

Finnish metal powerhouse Battle Beast have returned with their seventh studio album, Steelbound, an audacious and high-energy record that stakes a claim for sheer theatricality and headbanging euphoria. Released as the band embark on a European run, the 38 minute album fuses power metal muscle with pop hooks and party-ready anthems, showcasing a group that have turned resilience into their signature sound.

Multi-million streaming phenomenon PRESIDENT have dropped their long-awaited debut EP King of Terrors - a brooding, cinematic and heavy-hitting body of work that cements their place as one of the most exciting new names in global heavy music. The release coincides with the announcement that PRESIDENT will make their Australian debut this December, joining British giants Architects on their national tour.

Slipknot’s self-titled debut album landed on 29 June 1999 like a pipe bomb in the middle of the metal world. Twenty-five years later, that same record – the one that introduced nine masked maniacs from Des Moines, Iowa to the world – has been reimagined in a definitive deluxe edition, Slipknot (25th Anniversary Edition), out now via Roadrunner Records.

Australian metal titans Parkway Drive will mark two decades of chaos, fire and stadium-sized riffs with a very different kind of show. On 17 September 2025, the band will play a one-off warm-up gig at Berlin’s legendary Metropol.