MILITARY SHADOW "Metal Vigilante" [from 'Deathly Ambush' LP 2026]

HELLS HEADBANGERS is proud to present MILITARY SHADOW's highly anticipated second album, "Deathly Ambush," on CD and vinyl LP formats. Pre-orders to be announced later. Since their formation in 2017, Japan's MILITARY SHADOW have been crafting the finest metalpunk around. Whether they're metalheads at heart who love punk or punks at heart who love metal, it's immediately obvious that they deeply understand both genres as only true maniacs can, and thusly set forth on writing a RIPPING addition to the canon. No wink-wink irony here: MILITARY SHADOW are the real fucking deal, and prolifically proved it on countless splits and EPs and especially 2020's modern-classic Blood for Freedom. And while it's been nearly seven years since that decisive debut album, guitarist Branded Rebel brought his other back VERDALACK over to the HELLS HEADBANGERS stronghold, and now does so with MILITARY SHADOW. The first fruit of that unholy union is Deathly Ambush, MILITARY SHADOW's long-awaited second full-length. Proving that Blood for Freedom was no fluke, the quintet bring everything to a boil on Deathly Ambush: guitar solos are both more numerous and more triumphant, the songs both catchier and more ripping, and the all-around attack somehow more metal and more punk. Imagine such Burning Spirits templars as Deathside and Bastard crossing DNA in Germany with Tyrants of the Netherworld-era Desaster and Nocturnal's more-recent rough-as-fuck speed metal, compound it with some star-power charisma akin to Western-breakthrough Loudness, and you're getting closer to the modern MILITARY SHADOW experience. Add in the gruff-yet-expressive vocals of Hellbrain Venomizer (who also hits falsettos in the keep-it-true metal of Risingfall) and an authentically analog recording that's just raw enough - Deathly Ambush is everything it promises in its title, and then some. "Metalpunk" should never be a dirty word; it's just that some charlatans have been a bit too vulgar with it recent years. MILITARY SHADOW have returned, ready to wipe the slate clean with their Deathly Ambush!