This week’s featured Massive Metal Monday track comes to us courtesy of Metal Blade recording artists Redemption whose new album, The Art of Loss, was released this past Friday February 26, 2016. The song is entitled “Damaged” and features guest guitar work by former Megadeth virtuoso Marty Friedman.

The Art of Loss is the sixth full-length entry in the band’s discography, which dates back to 2003. In addition to Friedman, the album features guest appearances by two other former guitarists for Megadeth, Chris Broderick and Chris Poland, as well as Armored Saint/Anthrax vocalist John Bush.

We’ve spoken before in this column about how the upper Midwest is fast becoming a hotbed of U.S. black metal. Reinforcing that notion is this week’s Black Metal Friday featured artist. Spektralaeon is a one-man project from Wisconsin that is preparing to release its inaugural EP Crushing the Monolith on March 3, 2016. The EP was written, recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by sole member Uraeus with guest Sean Currington contributing some lead guitar work.

The first single from the project is entitled “Deviant Scion” and it showcases Spektralaeon’s brand of blackened death metal. You can check out the track right here below and, as always, if you like what you’re hearing, head on over to the band’s Bandcamp page and help support great, underground metal by pre-ordering “Crushing the Monolith.” You can also pre-order over at Amazon.

Polish death metal band Decapitated is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a band this year. It is a career that has been filled with major triumphs and devastating tragedies.

Formed in 1996 by 15-year-old guitarist WacÅ‚aw “Vogg” KieÅ‚tyka and his 12-year-old brother Witold “Vitek” KieÅ‚tyka, the band would sign their first record deal before the members were out of their teens. Over the course of their first four albums, Decapitated established themselves as one of the preeminent technical death metal bands in the world.

Sadly, tragedy stuck the band while touring Eastern Europe in 2007 when their tour van collided with a logging truck. Vitek was killed at the age of 23, while singer Adrian “Covan” Kowanek was left in a coma. He has not fully recovered from his injuries to this day.

Quiet Riot was a staple of the late 1970s club scene in Los Angeles, contemporaries of the likes of a young band by the name of Van Halen. But whereas the big-time came calling on the latter band, Quiet Riot was left to languish by record companies, who were by then busy trying to cash in on disco and new wave. After releasing two records in Japan only, the band would temporarily go on hiatus when, in 1980, their superstar guitarist, Randy Rhoads, was selected to be the sideman to recently fired Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. Tragically, Rhoads’ life would be cut short just two years later in a plane crash while on tour in Florida. But, not before he had turned the world on its ear with his fiery, classical-inspired lead playing on Osbourne’s first two solo records.

Greek black metal legends Rotting Christ are gearing up to release their thirteenth full-length album on February 12, 2016. The record is called Rituals and continues the band’s tradition of releasing some of the most interesting material in the genre. They have already blessed us with a sneak preview in the form of this week’s Black Metal Friday track “Tou Thanatou.” The title is taken from the Biblical passage Romans 7:24 (the King James version) and translates to “body of death.”