DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS presents 3 albums due in November – MAD BUTCHER, MEGATON SWORD & TIME RIFT #madbutcher #megatonsword #timerift

Megaton Sword – Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire LP/CD/MC

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present MEGATON SWORD’s highly anticipated debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, on CD, cassette and vinyl LP formats.

It was but November of last year when MEGATON SWORD unleashed their glorious debut EP, Niralet, via DYING VICTIMS. Arriving fully formed, virtually without warning – no prior demo recordings existed, at least not publicly – this Swiss quartet evinced an ages-old sound that was wise (and wizened) well beyond their young years. Already, MEGATON SWORD knew the mystery of steel…and wielded it with a startling confidence. And no one knew just how high they could fly, only that they were just getting started.

Now, with the arrival of their imminent debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, MEGATON SWORD are marching into the halls of greatness, with no one to stop them. Retaining the same, well-named lineup – vocalist Uzzy Unchained, guitarist Chris the Axe, bassist Simon the Sorcerer, and drummer Dan Thundersteel – MEGATON SWORD maximize the strengths of the EP and then some, revealing new twists to that mystery of steel whilst retaining the charisma and crunch that endeared them to the true-metal underground the first time around. Indeed, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire is aptly titled, almost ridiculously so: this is true-as-steel HEAVY METAL drunk on high fantasy and the enduring themes of conquest and valor, triumph and tragedy, but rendered in a form even bloodier and possessing more bravado. It’s also more dynamic, maximizing drama between notes and from one passage to the next, each movement a narrative crucial to their conquest. Those notes are suitably wrapped in a production that’s powerful in its clarity and pure in its intention, revealing MEGATON SWORD as both craftsmen and warriors, and never sacrificing grit on the altar of perfection (or vice versa).

Above all, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire is comprised of legitimately awesome SONGS that stick in your head immediately, even when traveling upon a winding, suitably epic path. Each one of the eight contained herein feel far vaster than their succinct track times suggest; credit is thus due to MEGATON SWORD’s firing-on-all-cylinders songwriting. Or perhaps it’s the patient pacing they employ, which they first revealed on Niralet, allowing each bellow of bathos and push of pathos to ring out and as true as possible; perhaps it’s the passion and machismo dripping from every element, every drop of blood, sweat, and tears tangible and intense; or once again, perhaps it’s the band simultaneously sounding timeless and fresh, safely evading both rote “retro” throwback and over-modernity in kind, and doing it more effortlessly than ever. Either way, MEGATON SWORD have delivered an album both bold in its ambition yet urgent in its delivery – truly, the thing that classic debut LPs are made of.

With Niralet, we made references to ’80s Manowar, Warlord, and Manilla Road as well as early Running Wild and Nasty Savage, but with Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, MEGATON SWORD truly sound like no one but themselves: the growth is palpable, but not once overextended. And graced again with unforgettable cover art courtesy of Adam Burke, one of the best debut albums of the year is ready to be wielded!

Regular gatefold edition on black vinyl, with poster, sticker and download code.

Cd edition with sticker.
MC edition with button, sticker and download code.
https://www.facebook.com/megatonsword

Out 13th November

Time Rift – Eternal Rock LP/CD

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present TIME RIFT’s debut album Eternal Rock on CD and vinyl LP format.

If you keep your hair long, your leather tight, and your denim dirty, TIME RIFT have the heavy-metal-rock-and-roll you’re looking for. Formed on the damp streets of Portland, Oregon, TIME RIFT have been cranking out riffs to rev your Camaro to since 2014. With their first EP release, Cold Future, TIME RIFT established themselves as a band whose sound has one foot firmly placed in 1974 hard rock.

Fast forward to 2020 to their full length debut Eternal Rock – an 8-track-affair – and their other foot is suddenly kicking your ass with some NWOBHM bangers. A power trio with an emphasis on power, TIME RIFT features vocalist and bassist Levi Campbell handling the low end and high wails, Justin Kaye on the ripping licks, and Terrica Jennings holding it all together on drums.

If TIME RIFT shows the modern world of rock and roll anything, it’s that time is irrelevant, and rock is eternal.

Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker and download code.
Special edition on bone colored vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, download code and patch.
https://www.facebook.com/TimeRiftBand

Cd edition with sticker

Out 13th November

Mad Butcher – Metal Lightning Attack LP

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present the first release of its newly founded reissue sub-label, RELICS FROM THE CRYPT: a LONG-overdue of MAD BUTCHER’s cult-classic debut album, Metal Lightning Attack, on vinyl LP format.

While it would seem that MAD BUTCHER were inspired by Germany’s legendary Destruction, the truth is rather the other way around: MAD BUTCHER predated Destruction by a number of years, and began even earlier than Teutonic metal mainstays Accept, Steeler, Grave Digger, and Living Death. As such, they were one of the first real metal bands in Germany to pick up sonic influence from the burgeoning NWOBHM movement and the early US metal scene. And what they delivered with their ragged ‘n’ righteous debut album, 1985’s Metal Lightning Attack, stands immortal to this day even though it’s largely remained a cult curio among diehard metal collectors.

Begun in name in 1980, by band accounts, MAD BUTCHER arrived at their unforgettable moniker from a trip vocalist/bassist Harry Elbracht took to New York City and seeing a butcher’s shop sign lit up in big neon. Hailing from Essen, in the working-class Ruhr area, MAD BUTCHER were relentless scene members, travelling to all heavy metal festivals and shows across Europe and England. Curiously, they forewent doing a demo and subsequently became prolific on the live front, playing across Germany with the likes of Warlock, Sodom, Helloween, Sinner, Living Death, and the aforementioned Grave Digger and Steeler; in the United States, they played with Slayer, Exodus, Brocas Helm, and Lääz Rockit. Slayer even wanted MAD BUTCHER to open for them on their European Hell Awaits tour, but the band’s management refused it, thus nixing the band’s big break.

Nevertheless, MAD BUTCHER were well-rehearsed after all that live activity and were always prepared to go into the recording studio, but time and means always became an issue. When they were finally ready to go into the studio, in 1984, they lost their vocalist and Harry had to take the mic reins; they also had to write eight new songs, in a chaotic rush, to complete a full-length album. Exacerbating this stream of bad luck, “the technical side of the recording became a disaster,” says Harry, and the record-pressing plant damaged the master tapes to Metal Lightning Attack, resulting in a subpar sound. Still, there’s no discounting the raw energy and excitement across the record, which DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is honored to unleash in its ultimate edition.

Originally released in 1985 by the short-lived Earthshaker Records who also released Living Death’s first two albums – MAD BUTCHER’s Metal Lightning Attack is a crystallized snapshot of the times. In one sense, you could say the album was “behind the times” given that the band’s subgenre-defiant sound spanned ALL heavy metal of the day – from the aforementioned NWOBHM and early ‘80s US sound, before speed metal and then thrash splintered forth from that wider stylistic pool – but in another, more accurate sense, MAD BUTCHER here kicked out a largely speed metal-oriented sound that thankfully retained the most important aspect, the METAL, and thus retained a more timeless aspect. Guitars are never overdriven, just existing within that sweet netherworld between class and crunch, between rock ‘n’ roll and a harder place; drums bang along steadily whether the tempo’s fast (often) or slower, less often but deliciously hot-rockin’ when they do; and what Harry may’ve lacked in conventional technical prowess, his vocals more than make up for it in sheer attitude and aplomb. So, across the album’s 10 songs in 38 minutes, MAD BUTCHER indeed offer up a “lightning metal attack” that brings it from all corners, from speedy surge to down-tempo strut, and always keeping it wild ‘n’ loose whatever attack they chose. That balance, unselfconscious as it is – between the old tradition and the new traditions then being formed, of just being HEAVY METAL above all – has endeared Metal Lightning Attack to successive generations to this day, and the record remains an ever-relevant relic of times past and times yet to be forged.

And while MAD BUTCHER would disband in 1990, after two officially released albums and a third posthumously released in 2020, their legendry among the true-metal faithful was forever etched with Metal Lightning Attack. Now, for posterity, DYING VICTIMS will bring this lightning to the nations once again, using a powerful remaster by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, on the format it so deserves: vinyl!

Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker and download code.
Special edition on blood red vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, download code and patch.

https://www.facebook.com/Mad-Butcher-German-HeavySpeed-Metal-381731565191990

Out 13th November


Check out ALL the metal from DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS on Bandcamp https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/