Last February 3rd, Sao Paulo was the place for another performance from the German thrash metallers Destruction in the venue Via Marquês. With them there were invited to perform two Brazilian bands to open this concert.

It is amazing that bands that are considered legends keep themselves up to date with techonology and new ways to reach their fans. That is the case with Kreator the epic German thrashers, which is releasing a Smartphone App in order to keep in touch with their fans, for the best price of all: FREE. Currently the app is only available for iPhone and iPad, but versions for Android and Windows 8 will soon come out as soon as they are developed.

Commented Kreator frontman Mille Petrozza: "We are happy to announce our new Kreator app. Get breaking news, tour dates and more directly to your cellphone. You can find the app which runs on the iPhone and iPad in every app store for FREE! Enjoy!"

On November 9, 2012, Kreator released a new seven-inch single, 'Civilization Collapse' (retail version: Nuclear Blast Records mailorder-only version: red, yellow, white) and as a digital download. The single contains the title cut backed by the non-album track 'Wolfchild', which was featured on the 'Dark Symphonies - A Tribute To John Sinclair' album, released in September 2012 in Germany via Lübbe-Audio. The band also made a video for the song 'Civilization Collapse', which is said to be "mainly about the riots that took place in Greece most recently."

'Civilization Collapse' comes off Kreator's new album, 'Phantom Antichrist', which sold 3,900 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at No. 1 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

Whilst entering The Unicorn on a Saturday evening, a great feeling took over me. The feeling you get when you are in a friendly place, where people get together and become one; all in the name of awesome music. On that particular evening, 26th January 2013, Isengard Promotions put on a show of extreme which featured four spectacular acts: Scutum Crux, Aeternum, Ancient Ascendant and Abgott. While all were quite different, black metal roots were something which united them.

The first act to go on stage was Scutum Crux. A bold move on their behalf to decide to still play the show as their bassist was not present. The duo – guitarist/vocalist and drummer – gave out their 100% and I must say it was very enjoyable. While playing black metal they had a very thrashy edge to their music with a lot of rhythm and tempo changes which made the headbanging experience even more satisfying. Looking forward to the new release and seeing them again with the full line-up.

Aeternum put on a much darker and brutal show – as it was expected since they are tagged blackened death metal, however without abonding the clear necro black metal influences, which also showed in the vocalist's appearance: covered in (fake, I hope) blood. The vocals ranged from high pitched to deep low growls. An interesting band, worth checking out on stage!

The third act was Ancient Ascendant and they were my favourites of the night (along with Scutum Crux) – I even bought their newest release 'Into the Dark'. Because you know, you can't go to a gig and not buy some merchandise, right?! Although the headbanging music they played to us could be clearly labeled as thrash, they had a black sound to it. At times their music resembled that of Sodom which is always a great thing. Great catchy riffs, all band members performed really well and got the crowd into some serious headbanging. This is a band to look out for.

Shortly after, time was nigh for the headliner, Abgott, who presented to us their interpretation of black metal. The result was a quite atmospheric one with intros and black metal tremolo picking. Nevertheless, their music was very melodic and pleasant to listen to. They are definitely not one of those melodic black metal bands who bore you to death after the first 5 minutes. No. Their music had the atmosphere, the melody and the dark passion which we all damned metalheads look for. And the cover of Iron Maiden's 'Wasted Years' was a great surprise!

Overall, this was a great event which proved that the underground is still alive and booming. The Unicorn was packed and all bands gave out their best. Cheers should go to Isengard Promotions for organising this. Make sure to check out their future gigs here – the next one being De Profundis at The Black Heart in Camden.

Megadeth frontman, Dave Mustaine, has recently made it official via Twitter that the band had started work on their fourteenth studio album; stating:

Johnny made it in. Record 14 is officially underway. Clips to upload tomorrow. Thrashin' time!

— Dave Mustaine (@DaveMustaine) December 18, 2012

According to Mustaine's tweets, Johnny K is once again handling production duties, after working with the band on 'Thirteen'. It’s unclear at this time how the album will be released, as Megadeth recently split with Roadrunner Records.