Ron Coolen uploads exclusive bonus tracks to streaming services

Dutch multi-instrumentalist Ron Coolen released the album "Here to stay" some time ago in 2023. Having had a listen I was blown away by the full metal intensity this recording spread. It's not that often that you get to hear new songs that have this massive feeling without just being mixed to full volume. It's the performance of the artists that gives you the feeling of listening to a real full blown metal flagship.

The cover of Ron Coolen's "Here to stay" album.

Some time passed since this listening session but it remained very vital in my mind. These days Ron Coolen came back to me telling me that he added the three bonus tracks of the physical edition to several streaming services.

Those tunes give you the chance to hear a extended, high-energy version of Heavy Metal Till I’m Dead, a powerful remake of Sin City, and the captivating instrumental piece Reprise.  These tracks showcase an impressive lineup, featuring legendary vocalist Keith St John alongside world-class guitarists Joey Concepcion (Arch Enemy), Satchel (Steel Panther), George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), and Timo Somers.

The new tracks go the same route than the album does with the exception of the track "Sin City". This one in particular came around to me a bit more relaxed. It's still metal all the way but with more groove than heavyness, something warmly welcomed by me as I had missed this some time now. But at one point the roughness still came through: when the guitar solos rush in you know this is still a hard music release.

If you want to support the artist further please have a look upon the website that holds info on how to take hold of some merchandise. Any purchase helps to keep musicians motivated to create new content for all of us. 

Christmas gift: Headbangers India Sampler Vol. 1

A heartfelt thank you very much goes out to all the readers of my blog! Hope you guys are having a great chrimas time, too. Please keep coming back to my site and to all the bands out there: please keep the superb music coming. Hope all of you are having a full blast headbanging session around the x-mas tree today. ;-)

As a little gift here's a link to download a 15 track sampler called "Headbangers India Volume I" featuring a overlook on the metal scene of India. Little is know so far from this country as far as it goes for the metal scene. Nevertheless there are bands out there that play Heavy Metal in this country also the circumstances for political and religious reasons aren't quite easy making the life and activity of those bands quite harsh. It's with even more respect that goes out from me to these bands that they don't give in but instead do what they believe in is important.

The cover for the Headbangers India Vol. 1 sampler, (c) Headbangers India web portal www. headbangers.in, used with kind permission

As far as I can judge from this sampler the bands out there play a very powerful and often even brutal interpretation of out beloved music. Having heard the tracks they feature a lot of power and energy that isn't quite easy to come along with even when you decide to play metal songs.

Besides the great download there's also the chance to stream the songs on the website for all those of you who prefer streaming over downloading. While you are listening or downloading the music please take the time to have a look around on the Headbangers India portal and read their "About us" section.  If you're looking for a metal concert to go to especially in India and the area around it don't miss out the "Gigs" section. You should easily be able to find a place where you can have a good time.

This site is not "only" a  portal to all the metal stuff happening in this country but also a fine website to keep a look on news, album releases and interviews from metal bands all around the world so make sure to check it out to get a full overlook on all the things going on in todays Metal scene. It's all kept in english language so you don't have to worry about any problems with understanding the content.

CD Review: El Yeti - Born Dead

Note: If you have a own band or project that you think might fit in well here for a review or as a presentation / introduction please drop me a line or two in a E-Mail. Please see my profile for my E-Mail adress. I appreciate new suggestions very much so please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm also interested in band news / updates so please keep the stuff coming. Thanks!

If you're having troubles writing in English please send me a E-Mail in your preferred language or use the free Google Translator to transfer your message to English. I also use that tool, it's of course not perfect but I think it will mostly likely work out for our purposes.

Short Introduction

El Yeti is a stoner rock duo from Barcelona, Spain. Formed in 2011 by brothers Edko Fuzz and Marc Rockenberg. Their shared passion for bands like Black Sabbath, Corrosion Of Conformity, Alice In Chains, Fu Manchu or Clutch brought them together and so El Yeti was born.

(c) El Yeti, used with kind permission

After some rehearsing the band produced and recorded their first demo with 4 songs. It came out in 2012 to very good reviews (Metal Hammer Germany, Sludge Lord...). After the release X-Wong joined the band playing bass. They opened for bands such as hard-rock french stoners The Socks or the swedish stoner-metalheads Deville. They also played at Red Sun Fest in Barcelona and have done lots of local gigs, gaining a live reputation.

(c) El Yeti, used with kind permission

In the beginning of 2013 the band started recording their new ep. The fact that the bass player X-Wong left the band in the middle of the recording process didn't help and caused a big delay. Finally Edko Fuzz decided to record the bass lines himself. 5 new songs in which you can hear stoner riffs, metal breakdowns, grunge melodies, hard rocking choruses and lots of groove and fuzz. Born Dead was finally out on March 8th 2014.

Marc told me that the band is looking for a new bass guitar player. So if you think you have what it takes to play the bands songs please don't hesitate and contact the band through Facebook or Bandcamp.


Short Summary / Player / Purchase Link

The band reminds me in a positive way of Rage against the machine. These five tracks have something similar to that, they have many details in them that you will only discover the longer and closer you listen to them. But once you have found out what makes them so special I think you'll like them. Each of the songs comes with a lot of diversity and shows a different musical side of the band so the songs aren't kept monotone at all.

The opener "Ludum" is the best way to start out on the EP you will quickly get inside of the mood. I wouldn't too quickly go over to the other songs, discover them one by one then you'll have the most joy out of it.

You can listen to the songs right here for free. The band offers their recordings on Bandcamp. You can decide what they are worth for you by entering a amount of your choice. You can also download it for free if you want to. Please keep in mind that recoding and mixing music takes not only time but also money. Not to mention all these countless hours they spent writing and practising the songs before. 

If you want stay up to date on all the latest about the band jump over to Facebook or Bandcamp and make sure you hit the follow buttons on the pages of the band.

Track-by-Track Review

1. Ludum
Very powerfull start of the song with much drums and guitars. A change shortly takes over to the main theme of the song. A very groove dominated track. The guitars and drums form a good mixture together. The refrain stays in your ears for a long time and pleases you to sing along. Can imagine this going down live very well. The end of the songs comes along more slowly than exspected but you can tell that the band jammed much together to find out the best ending for this.

2. Gimme Da Groove
Short riff intro with some vocals then a very compressed and heavy part that leads over to a groovy track. The refrain once again invites you to sing along. This gives some good feelings to the listener. The intermezzo introduces some darker and heavier riffs before the rhythm changes to a very hacked part at the end. Short and hard riffs come with this. A song with many details and changes in them that come as a surprise.

3. 653-9X
Some soft notes at the beginning before more groove takes over the stage. This one goes along with more speed in the rhythm than the previous two songs. The refrain some with some slowness underneath the vocals before a very powerfull riff gives back some motion. We hear the refrain at the end for a second time again before the track comes abruptly to an end.

4. Master of Black
A song a bit out of the ordinary. Whilst the opening comes common with the powerfull chords the vocals are set on two ways. One a bit high note while at the same time some background vocals run through it at the same time. Then again we hear the typicall rhythm and riff structure of the band with some more speed. Rough and rude guitars dominate the following parts that come as riff hacker again along with the fitting drums with it. A song with a lot of experimental structures in it.

5. Asteroid Keloid
Soft notes and a slow start at the beginning before this one's break up into a tight riff-monster. The rude guitars rush trough this instrumental track of the EP before once again there's a change in the riff and a solo part can be heard. The drums come through very hard and direct as if you're in the rehearsal room but I like how this sounds. A good way to round out this EP and I am left behind with the hope that more of this will come in the future..

The big three: new stuff from Megadeth, Black Sabbath and Sodom on the horizon

Currently the more big names in the world of Heavy Metal are going to put out new stuff for us. That's whay I decided to put their stuff up here as well. I think a lot of you guys out there are waiting for their albums to be available as well.

Megadeth have set up a video on youtube with the title track of their upcoming CD "Super Collider" which will be spread through store's and download shops on June 4, 2013. You can also see the cover of the album and listen to a preview of the track "Don't turn your back" while visiting the band's
official website.


Black Sabbath have finsihed recording their next album entitled "13". Obviously the fans can't wait to hear something from the new record. The last time they did put out a preview video they did talk a lot about the new CD, but there wasn't a chance of hearing even a single note. That was the only thing I disliked about the video. Meanwhile they've set up a track for listening and I've included it in this update as well. Risk an ear on 'God Is Dead?' from the album that is up for release on June 7, 2013.
And finally thrashers Sodom have released today their brand new album "Epitome Of Torture". Hear the track 'Stigmatized' right here right now.

Metal Hammer unfolds upcoming Mob Rules album

The german section of Metal Hammer megazine presents each day one song from upcoming Mob Rules album, that is set for release on 2012/10/19. You can find the main-site here. Just click on one of the headlines under the main article and it will lead you to one of the new songs. The title of each track is included in the headline.

But there is already more stuff up there for you to check out, so I decided to seize the possibility and give you a round-up here on what has been released so far. First of the record company gives away the title-track of the album "Cannibal Nation" as free download!  Just follow this link ,register and enter the code "MG52K2V". It's well worth it - a typicall Mob Rules awaits you.

Following the fine tradition of putting out a single the band has picked the song "Ice & Fire" this time and also filmed a video to promote the song. Watch it below.



The song has been cut for the video, but the band was so kind to put up the full song on soundcloud for streaming, so here you go.

The digital single does contain the following stuff and can be ordered here. 
1. Ice & Fire (Radio Edit) 2. Ice & Fire 

Update 2012/10/20: This weekend Amazon is giving away the full album as mp3 download for only 5 Euro. Here's the direct link for purchasing "Canninbal Nation" as digital download.

Full new Megadeth album Th1rt3en up for free streaming

Wow,this one is about a band that's part of the legendary 'The Big 4' lineup that toured around the globe not too long ago and recently celebrated the anniversary of such classic thrash metal releases as Rust in peace and the Peace sells...but who's buying CD.

And now Megadeth are back with a brandnew album entitled Th1rt3en. On this record we can see and hear the return of bassist Dave Ellefson,the only remaining founding band member besides Dave Mustaine,the mastermind himself.

IMHO the last album Endgame was great,combining all the strenght in songwriting skills with the best sound/production so far. Wanna.hear how the new album turns out? Go in here and hear the full album in it's entirely:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.de/page/webwheel+Megadeth