Alright, so here’s the deal. I’m drafting this literally 12 hours before posting time. I’m about to hit the road for a long weekend away, but of course as I was doing a morning scrubbing of the inbox I did in fact find a few things worth sharing. Will this miss the overwhelming majority of today’s new? You betcha. Do I care? Not in the slightest. So on that note, what popped up in the first few hours of this lovely Friday?

• Off to a flying start, Zeal & Ardor dropped the new track titled “Fend You Off”, a visualizer for which can be seen here. Grief is still a couple months away (out August 23 to be specific), but is it just me or have we already seen a good deal of material from that this far out? Note: not a complaint.
• Out of Hammerheart Records, Ereb Altor released a new single titled “Midvinter”. This is good shit. They’ll be performing at Graspop this weekend, if anyone is fortunate enough to be there.
• Up next, the latest from Dark Tranquillity. Pre-orders are live for Endtime Signals, which is out on August 16 through Century Media. For another taste of their new album, check out the third single “Not Nothing” here.
• Powerwolf is always a good time. We’re about a month away from the release of Wake Up The Wicked (Napalm Records), so today they offered up the new track and video titled “Sinners of the Seven Seas”.
• And to close out, a new clip from Movements. Taken from last year’s album Ruckus! (Fearless Records), “Afraid to Die” can be seen below.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb