Greetings, fellow metalheads!

There has been another break in Spotify summaries, caused by some unforeseen events which resulted in my change of address. At my age the spine doesn't take moving houses very well, so I needed some time to recover. Fortunately the new environment seems to be more friendly, which hopefully cause more frequent activity on my side. I've done my best to keep all playlists up to date, trying not to make longer than 2 weeks without an update. And I hope you've been checking the playlists and giving some of these bangers at least one try. Or at least the first 30 seconds (unless there's an intro, intros obviously don't count, right, Carl?).

I know it's already the second half of April, but let's have a look at the productions from March as we got quite a few which have to be written down and then posted here. Side note - I have a feeling that more and more of the big names which I like are moving to Reigning Phoenix Music and soon most of the mentions here will look like their advert, LOL. Trust me, it's not intentional, it just appears that Gerardo and Sven have some good ideas to convince some of the best musicians to join their roster. Seems like they are to become one of the major players in the metal scene soon. But, going back to the main subject - the albums. March was the month when full releases came from Ministry, Messiah, Firewind, Einvigi, Bruce Dickinson, Sonata Arctica, Skeletal Remains, Midnight, Judas Priest, Exhorder, VLTIMAS, Per Wiberg, Necrophobic, Aborted (with guest appearance in every single track, one of the top releases for me in March by the way), Khold, Hideous Divinity, The Absence, Rage (a double album), Carrion Vael and many, many more. Fantastic month, it seems. So if you forgot to check out these beauties, you certainly should check the playlist below. And wear some head protection as your mind is at risk of getting blown.

Now, the EPs seem to be more and more popular format or it's at least my impression. Maybe because there are no rules to these. You have 3 new tracks? EP. You have 6 new tracks? EP. You have some new tracks, but you're also proud of some live performances you recently had and want to release them as well? Well, you should have committed more either in the studio or on stage. But if you don't want to - EP. Jokes aside - definitely check out some of these Experimental Productions, we've got a nice set on the playlist below, including CroworD, Alienist, Abject Mentor, Municipal Waste, Pantheist, Born in Exile, Itus, Miehala, Jordsjuk, Downswing, Wrang, Sylvaine, Asterean, Septos, Ethereal Tomb, Dead Head and Korp. Enjoy!

Next section - the singles. As much as I like Spotify for making so much music available, it does behave like that person you want to talk to about the recent awesome band you found and they constantly interrupt you with "Oh, you should check out this one! It's much better than the crap you were talking about and I know better, because I'm better at everything." Even when you make a perfect list of your all-time favourites, the shuffle is driven by some background algorithm which forces you to listen to some of them so often until you're fed up with them and they're not your favourites anymore. And smart-shuffle? It's as smart as sticking a fork in a power socket. Fortunately you've got me and the singles playlist, which works better than any playlist with "Radio" you can find on Spotify. March brought us singles from Wheel, Haunt, Born a New, Benighted (full album on April playlist), Lucifuge (full album also already out), Full of Hell, Crownshift, Hour of Penance (album out already), Dark Tranquillity, Pain, Fleshgod Apocalypse, ACOD, Marty Friedman, Gatecreeper, Six Feet Under, Blaze of Perdition, My Dying Bride, Eye of the Enemy, Unleash the Archers, Dååth, NanowaR of Steel, Walg, Vredehammer, The Monolith Deathcult, Orecus, Disbelief, Bloody Falls, Stormcrow, Allegaeon, Accept, Rotting Christ, Lacrimas Profundere, Necrophagia, Party Cannon and a lot more. Don't let yourself being told what's good and go to the list below right now:

The splits playlist, as always, has some incomplete splits, so we have only Wynter Myst part of their split with Vegard, we have the full Sadistic Ritual/Wormwitch split though, same with Spell/Potergeist and Sequestrum/Sněť. All 16 tracks can be found below:

The live playlist has Arpeghy, Dreamwell, Hanging Garden, Harms Way, Jinjer, Jumpscare, Riot City, Sabire, Savage Messiah, Tygers of Pan Tang and Unantastbar. Just make sure you don't scroll too far down, because the "smart" Spotify recommendations based on what's in this playlist do not include a single live track. So if you listen to them by accident, it's not my fault. Join the crowd by clicking the link below:

The refreshed old releases which came to us in March were from Anachoret, Ataraxie, Black Sabbath (Headless Cross track finally on Spotify!), Blaze of Sorrow, Contrarian, CroworD, Doro, Enslaved, The Gathering, HOST, Invent Animate, Kreator, Michael Schenker Group, Midnight Bullet, Moonspell, Ne Obliviscaris, Pestilence, Prong, Shadow of Intent and Temperance.

Keep an eye on our Spotify profile for very irregular updates, give your favourites some appreciation either in words or money and always remember to mosh responsibly \m/

Your fellow metalhead,

Maciek