CMM HISTORY

While celebrating our 35th anniversary, we’ve received many amazing videos with lovely anniversary wishes from media partners such as Blabbermouth, BraveWords, or Deaf Forever, as well as international rock and metal giants such as Iron Maiden, Savatage, Overkill, the Scorpions, and many others. You can find these videos, alongside fascinating content from behind the scenes here at CMM, exciting gimmicks, and surprising fun facts from the music industry, as part of our thrilling anniversary campaign: “CMM – 35 Years in the Name of Rock!” on our YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@cmmgmbhyt?feature=shared).

Watch our anniversary campaign
“CMM – 35 Years in the Name of Rock!” here:
Part 1 - CMM History:

Part 1 - CMM History:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar80XrXw6-U

Part 2 - Axxis:
https://youtu.be/fUOYM224XNQ?feature=shared

Part 3 - Overkill:
https://youtu.be/-wae44GrWIQ?feature=shared

Part 4 - SAOL:
https://youtu.be/DCB3DRuDbH4?feature=shared

Part 5 - Bruce Dickinson:
https://youtu.be/qDrSoU9lTEg?feature=shared

Part 6 - Iron Maiden:
https://youtu.be/bAlbnvAMZ-o?feature=shared

Part 7 - CMM History II - Collabs & Companions:
https://youtu.be/u60nJaSSrwY?feature=shared

Part 8 - CMM History III - Behind the Scenes:
https://youtu.be/u1Ak-jw08Dc?feature=shared

Part 9 - Trans-Siberian Orchestra & Savatage:
https://youtu.be/dm4aTKn7n4Q?feature=shared 

Part 10 - 70000TONS OF METAL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9DjfYvK7_Q 

Part 11 - Festivals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBGeuoxkENo&t=2s

Part 12 - Anniversary Recap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTfqWOET00M

 

 

2024 – A Year in Review

Iron Maiden: Gold for Senjutsu

A special highlight for us in 2024 was the arrival of the gold album for Senjutsu, marking another milestone in our long-standing partnership with Iron Maiden. This added to the impressive collection of gold albums the band has accumulated with us ever since Brave New World was released over two decades ago. Even after many years of success together, it still feels extraordinary each time we celebrate a new achievement. Warner Music took the opportunity of Iron Maiden’s visit to Germany to present them with a Gold Award for Senjutsu, marking the latest achievement in a remarkable streak. The 2021 album, which debuted at No. 1, was a consistent presence in the Top 5 of the official German Album Charts throughout September, spending an impressive 29 weeks overall on the charts. The success of Senjutsu was further amplified by the band’s touring efforts, including the “Legacy of the Beast (World) Tour” (2018–2022) and the ongoing “Future Past Tour” (since 2023). By the end of 2024, “The Future Past Tour” had brought Iron Maiden to audiences in the USA, South America, Australia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and beyond, with WIZARD reporting an astounding quarter of a million tickets sold in Germany alone for both major tours.

 

70000TONS OF METAL

All aboard! The 12th edition of the legendary 70000TONS OF METAL set sail from Miami on January 29, 2024, and rocked its way to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. Over 3000 metalheads from every corner of the globe boarded the ship, ready to headbang across the Caribbean on a five-day voyage filled with non-stop musical mayhem! Onboard the ship, over 60 metal bands unleashed their fury across four stages – Fans were treated to unforgettable performances from legendary acts like Blind Guardian, Epica, and Sodom, as well as by our SAOL colleagues Left-Övr, and Noturnall, turning the ship into a floating fortress of pure metal madness!

 

 

ROCKHARZ Open Air

We had an amazing time at the ROCKHARZ Open Air in 2024. Known for being one of the most social and barrier-free metal festivals in Germany, the event was sold out as early as October 2023, and it definitely lived up to the hype. Despite its medium size, the festival delivered an impressive lineup, with legendary acts like Bruce Dickinson and Judas Priest headlining. Preparations for the next ROCKHARZ are in full swing, all bands have been announced (including acts like In Extremo, Powerwolf, Flogging Molly, and many more), and we are very much looking forward to a great event at the beginning of July 2025!

BMG/Motörhead

Singerman Entertainment and Motörhead have decided to partner with CMM on a long-term basis starting in mid-2024. Our retainer deal covers a range of services, including media relations and PR, as well as copywriting/editing, marketing, and media consulting. In 2024, CMM provided consulting support for various Motörhead releases and key moments, such as the “Lemmy Forever” ashes ceremonies, which transformed venues like the Bloodstock Festival into permanent memorials honoring Lemmy Kilmister’s legacy. Our team is excited for more incredible “Motörhead for Life Events” as we gear up to celebrate the British icons’ 50th anniversary in 2025.

 

SAOL: Digital vs. physical – the discussion was moved to the streets

In 2024 our independent label service SAOL was once again able to make a strong case for many artists operating at a very high level as well as their products – resulting in a release calendar for 2025 that already gives us many reasons to look forward to in eager anticipation!

Q1/24 SAOL titles with our long-term partner The Orchard showed a 25% increase in sales, and streams, all powered by a rise in clicks, likes, bits, bytes, bots and everything else the internet has to offer.

On the other hand New Jersey thrashers Midnite Hellion were offering their latest Kingdom Immortal as Compact Disc, Vinyl LP and MC (music cassette) by popular request.

Caribbean locals Left-Övr followed up their opening day performance at Wacken 2023 by representing Puerto Rico on 70000TONS OF METAL 2024, celebrating with fans from over 70 countries on board.

Also starting the year with the United Nations of Metal crew was Brazils’ Noturnall, making "Cosmic Live Touring" a reality with a 4 volume live album and DVD set.

During the months between May and August 2025 Noturnall will be supporting Edu Falaschi, passing through 30 cities in Brazil, followed by Shows in Japan, Thailand, South Korea and China, and more UK festivals and EU dates throughout the year.

Fellow Survivors Painful started celebrating 20 years of band history and a new album release cycle in 2024, while Seven Spires completed their 2nd European tour and were headed towards more USA dates, new music releases, and a tour of Japan to round out the year.

In the summer we saw Australian metallers Silent Knight making their debut in the UK with two club shows, and a return slot at the prestigious Headbangers Open Air in Germany.

Osyron returned to Europe for a series of festival and club dates, while fellow Canadians Hyperia hit the UK stages for the first time, turning 2024 into the best SAOL summer so far!

 

 

35 Years of CMM – In the Name of Rock

From the end of 2024 to the beginning of 2025, we celebrated a very special anniversary: 35 Years of CMM – "35 Years in the Name of Rock!"

In our anniversary campaign, we took an in-depth look back at CMM's history and reviewed the most important milestones, collaborations, and unforgettable moments in twelve exciting parts. You can find all episodes of our campaign, covering CMM History, Axxis, Overkill, SAOL, Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden, TSO & Savatage, 70000TONS OF METAL, and other festivals, on our CMM-YouTube-Kanal.

 

2023 – A Year in Review

BMG/Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project

After a long period of speculations and rumors, Iron Maiden mastermind Bruce Dickinson finally announced his seventh solo album The Mandrake Project with BMG Records for March 1, 2024, and unveiled a remarkable world tour. Once more, we at CMM have taken over the promotion for this project in German-speaking countries. Rarely has a campaign yielded as many positive surprises as this one! An already excellent product is now being presented in variants that offer fans something really special. And there's more: The album will be accompanied by a comic book series that will be available in stores from January 17. A prequel was included as a book insert with the first single Afterglow Of Ragnarok. And: Bruce added a perfect, moving performance on this theme at the Brazilian Comic Con! There was plenty to do, and it's been a hell of a lot of fun so far!

 

BMG/Motörhead – Another Perfect Day

Our friends at BMG rightly describe the Motörhead album Another Perfect Day as one of the most controversial in the iconic band's eventful history.

Together with CMM as the promo team for the German-speaking countries, the album once again caused a sensation among critics in various high-quality editions for the 40th anniversary in the fall. The feedback from everywhere made one thing clear: This album is listened to with different ears today than it was back then! Whereas in the past the focus was on the clear musical break and this caused criticism, today it's highly valued as an undervalued contribution to the diversity of the band's work.

The moving dialog with our media partners on this topic feels so good (due to the appreciation it expresses) that it really needs to be mentioned here. Our partners at BMG have also pulled out all the stops to provide a wonderful fan service with this new edition in various, all appealing versions. These products show a high degree of respect and passion – and the scene recognizes this.

 

70000TONS OF METAL

Even though it is no exaggeration to say that 70000TONS OF METAL is a very special event in the CMM calendar every year, 2023 was even more special  it was the first time since January 2020 that our team came back to Miami after long months of preparation to support our international media partners on site in the press office on board and to coordinate interviews and meet & greets. During the trip to Bimini (Bahamas) and back, 60 bands from all over the world did the honors as always and played 2 shows each for the 3000 fans on board, who, once again, came from 71 nations. Nothing could show more clearly that it's true: The United Nations Of Heavy Metal at Sea are a strong, familial unit that won't let a pandemic get them down. It feels good to finally be back – for real! Because it is now clear that we can look forward to a completely new destination in 2024 (January 29 – February 2) with Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic). Marketing is already in full swing, the first bands have been announced and we are ready to set sail!

 

ROCKHARZ Open Air

Since the beginning of the year, CMM has been proud to be part of the ROCKHARZ family and will support the festival, which succeeds like no other in combining tradition in music and a modernity characterized by strong inclusion, with our consulting and active communication in the future.

The ROCKHARZ Festival at the Ballenstedt airfield was a special highlight for the entire CMM team in the festival summer of 2023, which was packed with dates as always. Fans celebrated the 30th anniversary of the festival, which was sold out months in advance, with bands like In Flames, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy and Blind Guardian. Our team was also there in full force this year and not only able to experience the festival live, but also hear from fans, employees and bands about what makes this festival so unique.

We are grateful to be part of the great ROCKHARZ family and very much looking forward to continuing to work together as we move forward towards the next (already sold out) edition of the festival from July 3 – 6, 2024, with artists and bands like Bruce Dickinson, Judas Priest, Amorphis, Hammerfall, Kreator (and many more!).

Fun Fact: Our friends in Goslar/Ballenstedt and we in Hanover each have 3 decades of cumulative experience coming together.

 

EMP Exclusive Merchandise Products

We continue to support our friends and partners EMP as their official press office. From consulting, copywriting, translating and sending out press releases to moderating joint marketing cooperations within the CMM network, there is always something for EMP's own PR department and us to do. For example, EMP recently became the official sponsor of 70000TONS OF METAL.

In cooperation with Universal Music and with us as the press office, EMP presented the Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds pop-up bus tour through Germany and supported the home venue in Lingen with its own special sale.

In addition, we created extensive text documents for the quality management of the market leader in merchandise.

Iron Maiden

Working for our longtime friends at Iron Maiden is always a very special thing that deeply moves our entire team. But with "The Future Past", we have a fantastic tour behind us, which has its own significance as a novelty: For the first time in decades, CMM not only stepped up to deliver the Germany-wide promo, but also took care of press inquiries and guest lists for the band throughout continental Europe.

We congratulate everyone involved on an excellent and smooth tour and look forward to working with them again in the future.

 

CREW Republic x Iron Maiden: Trooper Progressive Lager – the German version of TROOPER beer

Just in time for the tour (and the festival summer) came the launch of the first official German IRON MAIDEN beer TROOPER PROGRESSIVE LAGER. The tasty product of a collaboration between CREW REPUBLIC and the band itself had a fantastic market launch.

CMM supported both parties with consulting and promotion as well as copywriting, proofreading and editing for their own marketing activities.

And it wasn't just the craft beer aficionados in the CMM team who had reason to cheer during testing, as the signature of these highly esteemed Munich cult brewers is also unmistakably present in their first lager beer. TROOPER PROGRESSIVE LAGER is not only highly interesting and independent, but also quite palate-compatible - or, to say it in Bruce Dickinson's words: "dangerously drinkable". And that's not just something he said, as he himself took the opportunity to pay a visit to the CREW Republic brewery and see the quality for himself.

TROOPER PROGRESSIVE LAGER 2023 was rolled out very successfully in leading retail chains, including Aldi, Rewe, Penny and Edeka, just in time for the barbecue and festival season.

Savatage

The critically acclaimed reissue series of all Savatage studio albums by edel/EarMUSIC, for which CMM took over promotion in German-speaking countries and was partly responsible for copywriting, was successfully brought to a close at the end of last year. In the fall, however, there was a nice follow-up in the form of the Criss Oliva tribute record Ghost In The Ruins, which our team took over full GSA promotion for. In addition to discussions about further releases with EarMUSIC, CMM also remains active in an advisory capacity for Savatage's management.

 

 

Unantastbar/Napalm Records/Spinning Goblin Productions

Things could hardly be going better for the South Tyrolean rockers from UNANTASTBAR at the moment: #2 for their 9th studio album WIR LEBEN LAUT (their first collaboration with Napalm Records' rock subsidiary Spinning Goblin Productions), released at the end of 2022; the tour that started in spring reported "sold out" in the first cities weeks before the start, the band's first own festival turned out to be an instant success, and the halls also filled up rapidly for the last leg of the tour that started in fall. CMM took over the album and tour promo for Napalm Records and is looking forward to an exciting year of further collaboration – since summer 2023 also as a press team on behalf of the band itself for the time between campaigns.

 

SAOL – Service for Artist Owned Labels by CMM

CMM's in-house indie label service SAOL continues to shine with sophisticated bands and helps them grow steadily while preserving the original genre diversity. With their album Full Force, released in the last quarter of 2022, SILENT KNIGHT, for example, catapulted to the top of our top sellers of the year as a traditional metal act. Our progressive vintage heavy rockers ROOK ROAD received a unanimous accolade from international critics shortly before the end of the year with their SAOL debut and shared the festival stage with UGLY KID JOE in the summer.

The US prodigies SEVEN SPIRES, who started out with SAOL and were able to secure a record deal in no time after our debut album Solveig, finished their first and extremely successful European tour with Twilight Force at the beginning of the year, followed by an US tour with Eluveitie and Omnium Gatherum. To this day, songs from their SAOL debut keep storming to the very top of our SAOL streaming charts.

The otherwise so cozy branches Doom and Southern Metal also let themselves be heard at SAOL: Our Puerto Ricans LEFT-ÖVR won the Wacken Metal Battle with their live performance of the SAOL album Millennium in Darkness and celebrated an amazing show at the WACKEN OPEN AIR 2023. And our Australians RAVEN BLACK NIGHT also headed to Europe for festival appearances this year.

The symphonic proggers EMPRESS (USA), the progressive epic metal award hunters OSYRON (Canada) as well as the still very young and experimental post-metal debutants HEI'AN (Slovenia) excellently managed to touch the audience at 70000TONS OF METAL earlier the year. Enthusiastic critics' comments and last but not least the excellent performances of the three bands should not remain unnoticed: EMPRESS meanwhile completed a brute tour cycle, which let them share the boards with, among others, HAMMERFALL, in order to immediately focus on the pre-production of an upcoming new album. OSYRON continued collecting awards in their usual manner and played LOUD AS HELL festival. Our newcomers of HEI'AN played this year's editions of MetalDays Festival and ProgPower Europe Festival. The bands have told us about their experiences at the 70000TONS OF METAL in a joint report  – enjoy reading!

But SAOL doesn't shine in glorious metal only: Internationally acclaimed Irish blues-rock icon EAMONN MCCORMACK released his self-titled brand new album on SAOL in late winter 2022, garnered rave reviews from blues, rock and even metal media, andhas been thrilling fans with a steadily growing European tour since.

The planning of further high quality SAOL releases for 2023 and beyond is in full swing. The exciting international mix will remain with this collective, as the as the recently released album Sacred & Profane by US-Americans ORYAD already underlines as a critics' favorite.

All aboard! The 12th edition of the legendary 70000TONS OF METAL set sail from Miami on January 29, 2024, and rocked its way to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. Over 3000 metalheads from every corner of the globe boarded the ship, ready to headbang across the Caribbean on a five-day voyage filled with non-stop musical mayhem! Onboard the ship, over 60 metal bands unleashed their fury across four stages – Fans were treated to unforgettable performances from legendary acts like Blind Guardian, Epica, and Sodom, as well as by our SAOL colleagues Left-Övr, and Noturnall, turning the ship into a floating fortress of pure metal madness!  

 

 

2022 – A Year in Review

The year that finally gave a glimpse at a post-covid era ended with bigemotions, and our copywriting and creating stories caters to that as could be seen with brands and artists such as EMP, Smith/Kotzen, Iron Maiden, Savatage, Unantastbar or Leatherwolf, April Art or Osyron. Our prior successes have once again proven our firmest belief: Never underestimate the power of a well-written story with strong content and visuals. Here’s our trip in the wayback machine through the remarkable year of 2022.

EMP

As we have entered our third business year as the official press office for our partners and friends EMP, we have once again been through another successful, teaching and invigorating time. It was even more of a pleasure to be able to celebrate our joint accomplishments during a meeting at Wacken’s EMP Backstage Club Area – and we had a lot to be proud of: From press releases for signing sessions and preparation of interviews with artists up to articles about EMP’s fashion brands and sustainability efforts as well as the announcement of a tv show that was presented by EMP – we really did it all. At least that’s what we will believe until our next adventures with EMP come around, which surely won’t take long. We are more than thankful for EMP’s trust and partnership and we will surely rock on together!

70.000 TONS OF METAL

Due to covid restrictions, there’s been missed opportunities in 2021 and 2022 to attend The Original, The World’s Biggest Heavy Metal Cruise – clearly a frustrating time for all the metalheads out there. However, all that has changed with 70.000 TONS Of METAL coming back again, bigger as ever, as the cruise has set sails Monday, January 30th through Friday, February 3rd, 2023. Destination this time ‘round: Bimini, The Bahamas!

Iron Maiden

After Iron Maiden’s successful release of their 17th studio album Senjutsu (topping the charts in Germany), the metal beasts toured worldwide with bands such as Airbourne, Powerwolf or Lord of the Lost supporting on selected dates. The Legacy Of The Beast Tour 2022 stopped in 5 cities in Germany to deliver an outstanding performance for a crowd that has been waiting for a return of The Beast. CMM did the tour promotion in Germany, and the campaign report showed stellar results: Not only local newspapers, but also big national outlets such as FAZ, mdr or taz have covered the Legacy Of The Beast Tour, providing euphoric feedback. Radio stations like Radio Bob or star fm presented the concerts, which drew more than 160.000 fans in Germany alone to the arenas and stadiums of the country.

Raving reviews followed, where the band was being praised for their solid shows by fans and editors alike. And our team had a hell of a time at the sold-out concert in Bremen – Thanks!  ;) 

Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) | Consulting

TSO has been a massive institution in the USA for more than 20 years. A million tickets sold, gold and platinum albums under the belt, four generations of fans behind them – this head-turner of the rock musical scene has become a vital part of American Christmas celebration. Over here in Europe, holidays are different: a bit quieter and relatively toned down, focusing on spending a cozy time with the family. The European venues – for the most part – aren’t up to spec for TSO’s gigantic stage and its numerous effects either, so the orchestra gave touring just one shot with a down-scaled show a couple of years ago. However, many fans of Savatage, the root of TSO, visited the tour and brought their families along, bumping the European TSO fan base up.
Today, the whole catalog of TSO studio albums is digitally available worldwide. With the Christmas season 2022, CMM and TSO helped promote the orchestra’s extensive work that features a huge amount of brilliant Christmas songs to radio stations and playlist editors for the German audience – and we cannot wait to spread some TSO christmas spirit in 2023, too!

BMG

We are more than happy and proud to see how the partnership between BMG and CMM is ever-evolving: After providing online, radio and print promotion in the German-speaking sector for Smith/Kotzen, the debut album of Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and music icon Richie Kotzen, we once again worked with BMG for the CD release of Better Days …And Nights. Providing translations of press releases, scheduling interviews and making sure to spread the word on the new release of these exceptional guitarists widely has been nothing but a pleasure for the second time around.

BMG has also trusted us with the re-releases of the first four albums by Norwegian prog masters Conception – after taking care of the campaign for their last album State of Deception as well as its Deluxe Edition, not only us but also our media partners from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were more than glad to be able to work with the quartet once again. The successful re-release of the four albums has been another terrific experience for us – which we pleasantly enjoyed with remarkable results and placements in some of the biggest German-speaking news outlets.
It’s been an awesome time once again, BMG, Smith/Kotzen and Conception! We can’t wait to be on board for the upcoming releases of these and more artists yet to come.

Savatage Katalog with earMUSIC

From Sirens all the way to The Wake Of Magellan, CMM and earMUSIC continued the fruitful cooperation on the vinyl reissues of Savatage’s whole studio album catalog. All mastered for vinyl and released on heavy duty 12” double-LPs, equipped with gatefold, lyric books and extended artwork, these collector’s items quickly became fan favorites again even decades after their initial releases.
CMM took care of print and online promotion in the German-speaking territories and lent a hand when it came to copywriting. Resonance was huge and exceptionally positive for re-released catalog material, and we all felt deeply moved seeing beloved masterpieces such as Gutter Ballet and Streets – A Rock Opera take the German Album Charts by storm once again, ranking #7 and #9. And with the whole Savatage reissue cycle wrapped up until late 2022, we’re already looking forward to working on other exciting projects with our friends at earMUSIC in Hamburg.

Unantastbar/Napalm Records/Spinning Goblin Productions

Just before the year was out, we had the pleasure of promoting the latest Unantastbar record Wir Leben Laut, entering #2 of the German Album Charts! Following the successful campaign, we dove straight into promoting the band’s 2023 tour. Consulting, copywriting and promotion: We did (and still do) the whole thing.

April Art | Copywriting | worldwide print- & online promotion

While we all love and appreciate working with the big names of the industry, accompanying up- and coming artists on their way up the bills of this continent can be just as exciting.
German-based alternative outlet APRIL ART decided to join forces with CMM after completing a successful Europe tour, including gigs with Dark Funeral and Ensiferum as well as appearances at renowned festivals such as Rockharz (Germany) or Alcatraz (Belgium). For the Deluxe Edition of their second full-length effort Pokerface, the band put their trust inour copywriting as well as our worldwide print and online promotion. A placement on Spotify’s carefully curated All New Metal playlist, an impressive amount of airplay and broad media coverage beyond Europe has proven April Art’s ability to rise high – and CMM is very proud to escort the band on their way.

Leatherwolf | Copywriting | worldwide print/radio/online promotion

One of the most underrated classic heavy metal bands in the world celebrated a stellar return from a 6 year release hiatus in 2022, and CMM was not only blown away by the sheer musical excellency of both the new LEATHERWOLF line-up and new album, we also took the international promotion to heart, starting with the second album single. And once again, bi-lingual copywriting by CMM paved the way for our own promo team.

Osyron

Canadian power proggers Osyron entered the European market releasing through CMM/SAOL, but emancipated themselves over the years, going fully independent today. Too good to change, though: CMM promotion is still their top choice, and the band’s gain of recognition in the last year with us marks it a good one. Osyron were nominated for Metal/Hard Rock Artist of the Year at the WCMA (Western Canadian Music Awards) 2022, and took home the Metal Recording of the Year of Canadian YYC Music Awards.
Spotify was also playing nice with our shooting stars and the campaign: Osyron’s music got featured on the acknowledged All New Metal playlist twice in 2022 alone, even months before the actual album release.
On top of all that, the band's metal version of O Canada (2020) was chosen for a Destination Canada ski video ad to be shown globally to targeted audiences on social media. Osyron had the chance to play at festivals too, e.g. at Loud As Hell Festival in 2021 and 2022. We at CMM are proud of Osyron’s achievements. It’s just great to see when hard work pays off like this – and we are confident that we will see more and more artists who are or once were under the wings of our SAOL family to conquer the big stages of the world.

SAOL – Service For Artist Owned Labels

We’re astounded to see that, despite 2020 and 2021 being difficult for anyone in Europe, our fans were being true to their favorite acts at all times, allowing SAOL CD sales to keep a steady pace during the year. New releases and catalog titles have reached customers via retail, mail order and online shops. Digital sales with the Orchard all solid, too for catalog and new releases. Meanwhile, we’ve grown more into making use of new and advanced marketing and analysis tools offered by The Orchard, which link together and track the activities on social media and online for every product.
But there’s been more, and this is where stuff got crazy: Our vinyl LP sales increased 10-fold due to overwhelming interest from fans, old and new. Find out more about the latest additions to SAOL:

Empress (SAOL)

Philadelphia-based metal outlet Empress has been another great example of a rising artist under our wings: With the debut-album Fateweaver being released on CMM’s label service SAOL, the band has taken the hearts of many lovers of symphonic metal by storm.
With euphoric reviews from instances such as metalinjection.net (“They compose and perform with a unified vision that (...) should immediately take them to the forefront of the modern symphonic metal movement”) or Banger TV, we are beyond proud of Empress’ achievements that they have accomplished with a little of our help. Being a part of their journey is a true delight!

Hei’An + Silent Knight + Figure Of Speechless (all SAOL)

Another member of the SAOL-family, Slovenian-based progressive metal outfit Hei’An, got off to a skyrocketing start as well: Who else could claim that their third single has been covered by iconic drumming machine Raja Meissner? With the advertising and promotional expertise of CMM, Hei’An’s start in the music industry has been backed up bulletproof – and the rise of the newcomers still won’t stop, proving: When you are joining forces with CMM and SAOL, you get a rock solid ladder to climb up on. ;)

Australian-based and well-established power metal band Silent Knight also trusted in the services of SAOL and received top-notch reviews across all promotional fields around the release date, as well as Figure Of Speechless, an allstar combo featuring present and former members of Fates Warning, Guns’N’Roses, Dream Theater and many other acts.

Seven Spires (SAOL catalog)

Another prime example of an up-and-coming American band to benefit from engaging SAOL as a stepping stone into the European market is Seven Spires. By releasing their debut Solveig (2017) with CMM’s SAOL to critical acclaim, the band received recognition by record labels and entered a deal. Fast forward and Seven Spires completed a 37 date North American tour with Dragonforce, drummer Chris Dovas got to help Testament out on stage, vocalist Adrienne Cowan toured European festivals as a member of Avantasia as well as doing the head-turning Vikings vs. Zombies performance at Wacken Open Air to announce the 2023 line-up. Steep ladder, right?