Scotland's PYROCLAST Sign Worldwide Deal with Rockshots Records
Rockshots Records announces a worldwide partnership with Glasgow-based heavy metal band PYROCLAST, encompassing the international distribution of their latest album, “Fractured State” (released independently by the band on September 4th, 2026), alongside their 2025 debut, “No Place for the Damned”. Both albums will be available in physical format worldwide starting December 11th, 2026.
To mark the announcement, the band has also unveiled the official music video for “Prisoner Game”, a track taken from “Fractured State”.
Regarding the new signing, vocalist Mark Reid states:
"We've worked incredibly hard over the years to get our music heard, but there's only so much you can achieve independently, regardless of how much time and effort you put into it. Signing with Rockshots gives us the opportunity to take that next step, reaching new audiences and bringing our music to parts of the world that would have been difficult for us to reach on our own. What really impressed us throughout our discussions was how much they understood what we're trying to achieve as a band, and how enthusiastic they were about working with us to make it happen. We're immensely proud of both No Place for the Damned and Fractured State, and we're genuinely excited to have Rockshots behind us as we introduce those albums to a much wider audience."
Formed in 2025 following the final incarnation of Scottish metal band Tantrum, PYROCLAST gave the musicians an opportunity to explore a broader songwriting approach. Rooted in traditional British heavy metal, their sound incorporates power, progressive and thrash influences, combining twin-guitar arrangements, driving rhythms and expressive clean vocals. Their music will appeal to fans of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Helloween.
Across eight tracks, “Fractured State” draws on psychology, history, mythology, literature and speculative fiction, with each composition developing its own narrative. This variety is reflected in the music, which moves between direct, riff-driven heavy metal and more intricate arrangements while maintaining a strong melodic foundation.
Among the album's tracks, “Prisoner Game” explores the relationship between individual identity and the influence of authority, drawing on the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in 1971 under psychologist Philip Zimbardo. The study placed participants in a simulated prison environment, assigning them the roles of guards and prisoners to examine human behaviour within an artificial hierarchy. Its methodology, ethical implications and conclusions have since been widely criticised and challenged.
Rather than recounting the experiment itself, the song focuses on the psychological questions it raised, particularly how assigned roles, social expectations and power structures can affect individual behaviour.
The subject has also returned to public attention through the Netflix docuseries “The New Stanford Prison Experiment”, a six-part reality-TV reimagining of the original study. Although entirely independent of PYROCLAST's music video, the production explores similar questions surrounding authority, group dynamics and human behaviour, highlighting the continuing debate around the experiment more than five decades later.
Speaking about the song, PYROCLAST vocalist Mark Reid explains:
“Prisoner Game is a dark, driving heavy metal track inspired by the Stanford Prison Experiment. It combines an aggressive opening guitar riff with shifting rhythmic sections, melodic vocals and a large, immediate chorus. The first song written specifically for "Fractured State", it was also conceived as the opening part of a trilogy exploring psychological experiments involving conformity, obedience, and the influence of authority.”