East Coast hardcore act NOWHERE ROADS (featured on IDIOTEQ at this location) have dropped a new music video for their song “The Earth is Still Flat”. The track comes from their latest album Toil Every Second, out now through Coin Toss Records.
Screamo/modern metalcore revivalists WRISTMEETRAZOR unleashed their blistering Prosthetic Records debut, Misery Never Forgets today, January 18, 2019. The new album is available now on all digital platforms, compact disc and limited edition LP in two colors: silver with blood red splatter and cream with blue, green and black splatter.
Immediately following the release of Misery Never Forgets, WRISTMEETRAZOR will embark on their release tour with special guests Heavens Die and God Program, performing their scathing new album in full as well as songs off their 2 previous EPs: I Talk to God…and…But The Sky Is Empty. Dates below .
January 18th – Hingham, MA @ Sons of Italy^
January 19th – West Haven, CT @ C***** H****
January 20th – Oakdale, NY @ Shaker’s Pub
January 21st – Brooklyn, NY @ Gold Sounds
January 22nd – Philadelphia, PA @ The Pharmacy
January 23rd – Baltimore, MD @ Sidebar
January 24th – Harrisonburg, VA @ Easy Greasy House
January 25th – Greensboro, NC @ New York Pizza
^No God Program
NWOBHC pack BLIND AUTHORITY have dropped a new EP “Death Dreams”, available now on Quality Control HQ. The London crew founded in 2013 and will perform live for the last time on March 16th at New Cross Inn, London.
Lorna Doom, bassist of the influential Los Angeles punk band THE GERMS, has passed away. GO HERE to learn more.
Formed in Barcelona in the summer of 2017, FATAMORGANA sprang to life from the hearts and minds of Patrycja Anna Proniewska and Louis Harding. What began as a bedroom project of sorts (monophonic synthesisers, 4-track cassette recordings) the project soon blossomed into a functional live unit. Following a self-released cassette single at the start of the year, the pair spent the latter part of 2018 touring continental Europe and the west coast of North America. Recorded at Holyrook Estudio in Barcelona, Terra Alta is the group’s first full-length effort.
The verse-chorus songwriting, the raw set-up of 2-synths-and-a-beat, and the primal rhythms nod to the duo’s background in punk. But Terra Alta has a pensive and mesmeric quality, provided in part by an outstanding production job (Studio AS One, Warsaw), but also by lyrics concerning themselves with themes of love, time travel, reflections on the future, the power of imagination and the mysteries of the natural world. If pressed for musical references the band could be pin-pointed somewhere between early DEPECHE MODE, YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and a rounder around the edges BORGHESIA.
Dreamlike synthesisers and echoed voices circle around danceable rhythms, inviting you to simultaneously contemplate and move your body. Allow yourself to be teleported from the majesty of Nature, to the glow of the discotheque.
Check out 2 tracks off this amazing LP below, courtesy of LA VIDA ES UN MUS DISCOS label:
“Love Is Home”, new single from BIRDS IN ROW’s Quentin Sauvé can be checked out below. Full album, “Whatever It Takes” releases February 1st through I.Corrupt.Records (Germany/Europe), Ideal Crash (France/Europe), Ugly and Proud Records (Bulgaria/Europe) and Skeletal Lightning (USA)! “Love is Home”, a song about actually being away from home, is the second single output and comes with an intimate and beautifully crafted video that can be seen below. Check it out and GO HERE to see our previous feature on his other music video for the song “Dead End”.
Since a couple of years Quentin Sauvé from Laval, France, is best known for being the bassist in the hardcore band Birds in Row. But the still under 30-year-old is also able to deliver a softer and very personal side in his solo musical efforts.
It’s 2011 when he first decides to branch away towards his blend of post hardcore infused acoustic folk under the various forms of the “Throw Me Off The Bridge” moniker. First being an intimate solo adventure, he is soon joined by band mates and the increasingly rich and colorful arrangements they brought with them. After more than 300 shows and festival appearances, the band calls it quits in late 2017 and now Quentin Sauvé is back to his solitaire roots through a pared-down voice and guitar dyad, carefully balancing elegiac chords and untethered, impassioned vocals. In pure folk fashion, Quentin’s songwriting will continue to divulge its melodic treasures with every play.
Catch Quentin live on his massive EUropean trek, kicking off this week in France!
17/01 Paris FR @ Le Pop-Up w/Cavetown tiny.cc/f7td2y
31/01 Rennes FR @ Le Bateau Ivre tiny.cc/47td2y
01/02 Nantes FR @ La Dérive tiny.cc/p8td2y
02/02 Angers FR @ Donald’s Pub tiny.cc/t8td2y
03/02 Tulle FR @ Le Conseil Général
04/02 Bordeaux FR @ Le Void w/Toundra tiny.cc/38td2y
05/02 Toulouse FR @ Cave à Rock w/Orbel tiny.cc/e9td2y
06/02 Montpellier FR @ Black Sheep w/Orbel tiny.cc/r9td2y
07/02 Lyon FR @ Kraspek Myzik tiny.cc/09td2y
08/02 Clermont-Ferrand FR @ Somme Toute
09/02 Limoges FR @ Le Phare
10/02 Tours FR @ Chapelle Saint-Libert tiny.cc/daud2y
21/02 Le Havre FR @ Mc Daid’s* tiny.cc/vaud2y
22/02 NEED HELP south UK
23/02 Leeds UK @ Santiago’s* tiny.cc/xaud2y
24/02 London UK @ Old Blue Last* tiny.cc/cbud2y
25/02 Dundee UK @ Conroy’s Basement* tiny.cc/2bud2y
26/02 Glasgow UK @ 13th note* tiny.cc/icud2y
27/02 Worcester UK @ Annie’s at The Courtyard* tiny.cc/8cud2y
28/02 Warrington UK @ Old Town House* tiny.cc/9cud2y
01/03 Cardiff UK @ Moon Club*
02/03 Canterbury UK @ TBC*
03/03 Boulogne-sur-Mer FR @ L’Horloge* tiny.cc/fdud2y
13/03 Strasbourg FR @ TBC°
14/03 Stuttgart DE @ TBC°
15/03 Munich DE @ Kafe Kult°
16/03 Scharnstein AU @ Die Moserei°
17/03 Vienna AU @ Venster 99°
18/03 Brno CZ @ Bajkazil°
19/03 Prague CZ @ TBC°
20/03 Dresden DE @ Hole of Fame°
21/03 Leipzig DE @ TBC°
22/03 Berlin DE @ TBC°
23/03 Jena DE @ Baracke° tiny.cc/mdud2y
24/03 NEED HELP Germany°
25/03 NEED HELP Germany°
26/03 NEED HELP Germany°
27/03 NEED HELP Munster DE°
28/03 Koln DE @ Private°
29/03 NEED HELP Bruxelles BE°
30/03 Lille FR @ TBC°
07/04 Laval FR @ Le 6PAR4 w/Emily Wells tiny.cc/tdud2y
25/04 Paris FR @ Le Supersonic
* w/Heavy Heart
° w/Flo Chmod
GOD’S HERITAGE, 90s Metalcore from Tokyo, with members of Statecraft, Loyal To The Grave, Canopus, have dropped a new reissue of their 2006 EP dubbed “The Age Of Agony”. Available on Bound BY Modern Age Records, Retribution Records and NERDS, the release is available for the first time ever on the 7″ Vinyl format. For fans of: Morning Again, Culture, etc.
London based hardcore band CHAOS REIGNS have dropped their new single and debut music video, ‘Peripheral’! Check it out below. For fans of Every Time I Die, The Ghost of a Thousand and Cancer Bats.
Bandcamp are going to open a brick-and-mortar physical store and performance space in Oakland, CA next month. GO HERE to learn more.
Hex Records has reissued the full discpgraphy by Syracuse hardcore band THE FUNERAL (2001-2004). Taste it below.
The Funeral were a hardcore band from Syracuse, NY that existed between 2001 and 2004. In that time they played throughout the Northeast and released two full lengths, as well as three different demos. The band released all their material themselves (with the exception of the “Ruled By None” full length, which was released via Endwell Records) and booked most of their own hometown shows, in the spirit of doing things for themselves.
The band started originally as a side project for members of other local bands Darker Day Tomorrow and Spark Lights the Friction to play dark and heavy hardcore in the vein of groups like From Ashes Rise and Tragedy, but also with the monstrous heft of groups such as Hope Conspiracy or Carry On.
When both Darker Day Tomorrow and Spark Lights the Friction decided to split up The Funeral became more of a priority for the group. Comprised of members Travis Hance, Andrew Williams, and Tony Tornabene- all from DDT, as well as Grant Johnson – from SLTF, and rounded out by local show promoter/zine scribe/record label person Ryan Canavan the band played frequently and recorded regularly. The band decided to split up in 2004 when guitarist Grant Johnson moved to California. The band reconvened for a single Halloween show in 2006 as well.
Until now the material on this discography was scattered about. Two demos that were self-released were on CDR format. A third demo was two songs on cassette where no more than 20 copies exist. The “Ruled By None” full length was only available on CD as well. The band’s second full length, simply titled “Final Recording”, was released at their last show on CD and only as a short-run pressing. An unreleased track, a cover of the Infest song “Judge Me” (from the “Ruled By None” sessions), was released via Hex Records in 2009 as part of a 10-year anniversary compilation from the label on CD.
The band always wanted to release material on vinyl but it had never happened. Now, all the material from the band’s entire existence has been remastered (by Jason Randall of Moresound Studio, who originally recorded the majority of the band’s output) and released as a double LP discography. This includes the demos, unreleased track, and the two full lengths. 30 tracks in total on a gatefold package with an accompanying booklet full of tons of photos, flyers, history, and an oral history of the band compiled by long time friend and Black Sheep Squadron vocalist Chuck Hickey.
For those interested in the history of Syracuse hardcore this is a small, but important, piece of it. Members of The Funeral currently play in The Flashing Astonishers, Difficult, and Dialysis.
Canadian hardcore act JOCK just dropped a kick ass new EP on Walk A Mile Records. Fast, cocky, and right in to the point. Dig it!
Today New York’s Hardcore Legends SICK OF IT ALL are releasing a lyric video for the track “The Snake (Break Free)”, which is off of their latest record ”Wake The Sleeping Dragon!“, out since November last year.
Catch the band live with IGNITE, Municipal Waste, Walls Of Jericho, Booze And Glory, Take Offense at the following stops:
17.01.19 (DE) Berlin – Astra
18.01.19 (DE) Hamburg – Grosse Freiheit 36
19.01.19 (DE) Dresden – Kraftwerk Mitte
20.01.19 (CZ) Brno – Sono Music Club
21.01.19 (DE) Munich – Backstage Werk
22.01.19 (DE) Lindau – Inselhalle
23.01.19 (CH) Lausanne – Les Docks
24.01.19 (DE) Wiesbaden – Schlachthof
25.01.19 (BE) Deinze – De Brielpoort
26.01.19 (DE) Oberhausen – Turbinenhalle
27.01.19 (UK) London – O2 Forum Kentish Town
After that they will be back in the US to tour with IRON REAGAN:
21.03.2019 Virginia Beach – Peabody’s (VA)
22.03.2019 Wilmington – Reggie’s 42nd St. Tavern (NC)
23.03.2019 Spartanburg – Ground Zero (SC)
24.03.2019 Atlanta – Masquerade (GA)
28.03.2019 Jacksonville – 1904 Music Hall (FL)
29.03.2019 Orlando – Soundbar (FL)
30.03.2019 Miami – Churchill’s Pub (FL)
31.03.2019 Ybor City – Crowbar (FL)
SICK OF IT ALL will be also back to tour Europe in April:
11.04.2019 Paris – Gibus (FR)
12.04.2019 Cambrai – Betzifest (FR)
13.04.2019 Fontenay le Conte – On a plus 20 ans (FR)
14.04.2019 Lyon – Ninkasi Kao (FR)
17.04.2019 Bordeaux – Kratatoa (FR)
18.04.2019 Vitoria/Gasteiz – Sala Jimmy Jazz (ES)
19.04.2019 Oviedo – Sala Sir Laurents (ES)
20.04.2019 Coruna – Playa Club (ES)
21.04.2019 Lisbon – RCA Club (PT)
22.04.2019 Madrid – Sala Mon Live (ES)
23.04.2019 Barcelona – Sala Razzmatazz 2 (ES)
25.04.2019 Marseille – Molotov (FR)
26.04.2019 Seregno (MI) – HT Factory (IT)
27.04.2019 Rome – Traffic Club (IT)
28.04.2019 Bologna – Freak Out Club (IT)
Summer festivals:
20.06.2019 Clisson – Knotfest (FR)
23.06.2019 Desselt – Grasspop Metal Meeting (B)
29.06.2019 Helsinki – Tuska Festival (FI)
The reformed Connecticut screamo band JEROMES DREAM are teaming up with LOMA PRIETA for a tour this coming Summer. There are 2 Brooklyn shows announced so far, with abunch more to come. GO HERE to learn more about the background of their comeback and these exciting shows to come.
AFI’s Davey Havok and Jade Puget have announced a March 15th release for “Only Things We Love“, the new album from the duo’s electronic alter ego, Blaqk Audio. They’re giving fans a first taste of the record with today’s release of lead track “The Viles”, which can be streamed below.
About “The Viles”, Puget says, “I’ve always loved that great 80s industrial sound – Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Babyland, etc., so I began this song with that era in mind. I even did something which we never do, which is to put ‘guitars’ on a Blaqk Audio song, although they’re heavily tweaked and sampled”.
As for the song’s lyrics, Havok says they were inspired “directly by the escapist culture of dark art, the nightlife that surrounds it, and the feelings of alienation that draw a certain kind to meet on the fringe to enjoy extreme behavior in contrarious attempt to both momentarily disappear and find connection”.
Produced and recorded by Puget, “Only Things We Love” is Blaqk Audio’s 4th release following 2007’s “Cexcells”, 2012’s “Bright Black Heaven” and 2016’s “Material”. Each has hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
Asked how “Only Things We Love” compares to its “Material” predecessor, Havok says:
“It feels starkly different. Because we were so happy with the many songs we wrote, the track listing continued to change up until a few weeks before it went to press. In the end, the futurepop elements of Blaqk Audio have a greater representation on this album than they did on the last. Synthpop and electropop still make up most of the record, yet these tracks have a uniquely modern feel. While even dancier than “Material”, “Only The Things We Love” offers a dreamy quality less present on any previous release”.
Havok says that Puget suggested the album title during the early part of the writing process and that he immediately fell in love with it.
“As a phrase, it begs qualification”, says the vocalist. “What question does it answer? Some will certainly find joyous meaning in the title. To me, as I feel it will be for many, the evocative phrase is quite confrontational, if not unequivocally bleak”.
Though best known for their work with multi-platinum rock band AFI, Havok and Puget’s shared love of electronic music runs deep. Havok, who counts Devo’s “Freedom of Choice” and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut among the first albums he owned, saw his tastes evolve over the years from the synth pop of Erasure and Pet Shop Boys to Depeche Mode and ultimately to the heavier, darker Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Lords of Acid. Later, Havok immersed himself in the “futurepop” genre, which combined dark dance-y electronica with melodic vocals.
Puget shared his bandmate’s long-standing love of electronic music, beginning with a passion for Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Ministry and Squarepusher, spending a great deal of time programming electronic music, which in turn led to a plan to start an entirely electronic side project: no organic instruments, just synths, keyboards, drum machines and software.
Punk rockers DIRECT HIT! have released a 3-track EP featuring songs by Nickel & Rose, recorded for Milwaukee Record’s Local Coverage 2019 event at Turner Hall, to benefit Milwaukee Women’s Center. All proceeds will be donated.
Munich, Germay’s post hardcore act WE TOO, WILL FADE have dropped a new track called “Finders”. The song comes wit a new music video that ca be seen below.
Lille, France based chaotic hardcore act BARQUE have finally unveiled their new 12″ EP “Pyre Builders”, teased on IDIOTEQ in November! Be sure to check out both our video feature and the massive EP below.
B.E.T.O.E. have a new 7″ coming out this October,5 tracks of raw punk against the dictatorship of the Venezuelan state, home of B.E.T.O.E. for any of you unaware of what take 5 minutes to fill yourself in here. The crisis is also conveyed in the atwork of this EP with all photos and images from Venezuela. This EP was recorded in the summer of 2016 by Dani fruits at the studio, Barcelona, and was mixed this summer of 2018 by Jonas Blakklodge in Sweden.
This will be B.E.T.O.E. fifth EP release after ‘Sometidos Sin Mañana’ was released earlier in 2018 and last years split 7″ with Besthoven as both bands paid tribute to Shitlickers. Their extensive discography also includes a split 12″ with ‘Ultimo Gobierno’ and numerous live and demo cassette.
Illinois post metal trio RUSSIAN CIRCLES has entered the studio to begin tracking their seventh studio album. The band will be heading for a tour with GOUGE AWAY and hen to Australia. See the dates below.
FEB 15 Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi
FEB 16 Louisville, KY @ Odeon
FEB 17 Birmingham, AL @ The Saturn
FEB 19 Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
FEB 20 Tampa, FL @ The Crowbar
FEB 21 Miami, FL @ Churchill’s
FEB 22 Orlando, FL @ The Abbey
FEB 23 Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
FEB 24 Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle Tavern
FEB 26 Nashville, TN @ Basement EastAUSTRALIA
APR 23 Adelaide @ The Gov
APR 24 Perth @ Rosemount Hotel
APR 26 Melbourne @ Max Watts
APR 27 Sydney @ Manning Bar
APR 28 Brisbane @ The Triffid
This spring, riot grrrl punk rockers BIKINI KILL will regroup to perform shows in New York and Los Angeles. The lineup of the band will be Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and guitarist Erica Dawn Lyle. Complete info is available via the band’s website.
Bikini Kill’s new re-release on Dischord Records, The Singles, was initially released in 1998 as a CD only compilation of all of Bikini Kill’s 7”s. It includes the band’s collaboration with Joan Jett on the New Radio (1993) single as well as the long out of print Anti Pleasure Dissertation (1995) and I Like Fucking (1995) singles.
BAKKARA, new Japanese/dbeat influenced hardcore band from the US state of Maine are streaming their self released EP, released last July. BAKKARA deliver a unique breed of bleak hardcore with ghostly, devilish vocals, not seen around very much these days. Check out their own brand of hallucinogenic, razor-edged and raw hardcore and share if you like what you hear.
Emotive indie punk rockers YOUTH FOUNTAIN is thrilled to announce that they will be releasing their highly anticipated debut full-length album, Letters To Our Former Selves, on March 08th via Pure Noise Records. The band has also shared a brand new video for lead single, “Deadlocked,” a brutally honest track about getting stuck in feelings of anxiety and depression. Fans can watch the video, as well as pre-order the album here.
“Letters to Our Former Selves is a record that holds pieces of the person I have been over the past decade. Within each track, there are impactful moments & experiences captured through lyricism – touching on topics about self-identity issues, isolation, relationships & mental health problems,” guitarist Tyler Zanon shares. “I hope it means something to you all.”
He continues: “Our single ‘Deadlocked’ is one of the more honest & blunt songs off the record. Feelings revolving around battling with depression and anxiety – It was written a few years back during a super dark place I was in while growing up / coming to terms with my adolescence. Sometimes you feel trapped in those negative spaces and there’s nothing anyone can do to fix that but yourself.”
Youth Fountain is a two piece Emo / Pop Punk band based in Vancouver B.C. Canada featuring members Cody Muraro (Vocals) & Tyler Zanon (Guitar/Vocals). The band has been around since early 2013, starting out as a solo act/musical outlet created by founding member Zanon. After a few years of having potential song ideas and demos tracked, he recruited Muraro to guest on the debut song “Grinding Teeth.” The chemistry worked out in a positive manor, so the two decided to undergo the project together moving forward.
Since the official release of the two track EP Grinding Teeth back in May 2017, both members have continued writing, recording & producing new music in anticipation of the release of their full length debut album along side playing a handful of shows across western Canada. The band released their self-titled Pure Noise Records debut EP in July 2018 and hit the road the following fall, touring the full US and cross Canada in support of the record.
Metalcore / mathcore act NORMA JEAN have dropped a new music video for their song “Children Of The Dead”, recorded during the sessions for 2016 album “Polar Similar“ andion of the album. The band is now writing a new record from with plans for a release later this year.
Milwaukee hardcore act LOW END have released a new music video for their crushing track “War for You”. Watch below and GO HERE to learn more if you like what you see. The band’s debut EP Steadfast is out now!
Columbus, Ohio based post-rock band, THE END OF THE OCEAN, released their sophomore full-length, -aire, today via Rude Records/Equal Vision Records. To celebrate, the band has also shared the official video for their single “desire”, which Revolver called “a sprawling and furious, yet pensive entry”. -aire, the band’s first release since 2012, balances rich, thoughtful melodic passages, high-energy riff-wielding and truly epic climatic outpourings. The End Of The Ocean have always been championed for their maelstrom of nostalgia, hope, beauty, melancholy, chaos and tranquility. Fans can now experience a bigger, bolder version of that tempest with -aire.
Speaking on the release of the album the band says:
“It has been roughly seven years that these songs have resided within us. Whether we consciously knew it or not, they were brewing and restless in our psyche. With this record now fully realized and recorded, we couldn’t be happier to share it. This record is for us. And this record is for you, too.”
After reaching a breaking point following the release of their highly praised 2011 debut full length, Pacific-Atlantic, the band had to pump the brakes for fear of tearing themselves apart. With so much going on in their personal lives, Tara Mayer (keys) says that they needed to “give ourselves a chance to hurt so that we could have the chance to heal” before even thinking about another release. The past few years forced the band to come to terms with their own humanity and mortality, as well as that of their bandmates and friends. Once they were finally in a place with their personal lives that allowed them to focus on new music, the collaborative experience of writing that would become their next album, -aire, ended up being a big part of their healing process. This undertaking forged a bond that is stronger than ever between Kevin Shannon (Guitar), Trish Chisholm (Guitar), Tara Mayer (Keys), Jason Han (Bass), and Wes Jackson (Drums), who make up The End Of The Ocean.
Swedish metallic hardcore band SNAKE TONGUE have teamed up with Svbterranean to reveal their video for “Corrupted Beat”. The song is taken from their upcoming EP No Escape No Excuse which will be released via The Sign Records.
JAWBOX (J. Robbins, Kim Coletta, Bill Barbot, and Zach Barocas) has reunited (!) and will be hitting the road in the US this Summer. The band broke up in 1997 and reunited for one show on Jimmy Fallon in 2009. GO HERE to check out their new website.
6.14 – Cambridge, MA @ Sinclair
6.15 – Cambridge, MA @ Sinclair
6.21 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
6.22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
6.28 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
6.29 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
7.9 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
7.10 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
7.12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
7.13 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
7.19 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
7.20 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
7.26 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
7.27 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
VITAL FORCE, vegan Straight Edge 90’s worship from Izhevsk, Russia, have dropped a new EP Fetus Of Mankind on Bound By Modern Age Records. For fans of Raid, Green Rage, Vitality, Excessive Force.
After their well received demo, VF are taking on a more metallic (90’s chugg) path – still spreading the xvx message, this time even in english.
Legendary independent record label Bridge Nine have teamed up with Ryan Hoffman of Chain Of Strength to launch a brand new imprint label dubbed Quiet Panic. The imprint will also showcase previous Southern Lord production manager and Cobra Music A&R extraordinaire Michael Messina.
Inspired by labels such as 4AD, Dischord, and Touch & Go, Quiet Panic are focused on delivering underground art from a diverse pool of talent who aren’t afraid to express themselves without limitations. Messina states “You can expect the unexpected. We might release a popular indie band, a kid making beats in his bedroom, or a Norwegian Black Metal band. Nothing is off limits. We just want to establish an environment of creativity and not be pigeonholed into one particular genre”. When it came to finding a home for Quiet Panic, Bridge Nine was a no brainer. Hoffman says “Quiet Panic partnering with Bridge Nine is a dream come true. Aligning ourselves with a label whose values and principals originate from DIY hardcore just as ours makes this an amazing collaboration. Bridge Nine offers Quiet Panic 23 years of experience built from the ground up launching essential artists such as American Nightmare, No Warning, Defeater, and Ceremony. This is monumental for us.”
The first artist joining the imprint is Philadelphia based BEACH SLANG, who just wrapped up recording with Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls. Since 2014 Beach Slang’s brand of punk tinged rock and roll has catapulted them into being one of the most recognizable and exciting names in underground music today. With a string of albums on beloved emo/indie institution Polyvinyl and even more EPs under their belt, Beach Slang are ready to unleash their next release via Quiet Panic/Bridge Nine.
KING APATHY (former THRÄNENKIND) release second new single ‘The Scars of the Land’!
Having released two albums under the name of THRÄNENKIND – “The Elk” (2013) and “King Apathy” (2016) – “Wounds” is the first full-length album under the new bandname. The songs of KING APATHY are still the kind of music for which the band is known and appreciated. They still draw their inspirations from a lot of different genres such as melodic metal, post black metal, doom, neo-crust, post rock, shoegaze and hardcore punk. Nevertheless the new album “Wounds” is more complex than its predecessors and you will have to listen several times before all its secrets are revealed. The atmosphere is dark and oppressive. On the surface it’s not a “violent” album, but the songs have an intense after-effect. They will leave you restless and will haunt you for quite some time.
Civilization kills: This is the opening track of KING APATHYs third record and there is no way around this frightening and sobering conclusion. Mankind is ruthlessly exploiting the earth. The downfall of our society is just a matter of time, because the planets’ resources are finite. Wether humanity as a species will survive the end of civilization as we know it is questionable. Will we destroy this world and make it uninhabitable for all life or can we find the strength to unlearn our destructive behaviours? Songs like The Scars Of The Land, Cleansing, Great Depression or Earthmother Rising are dealing with issues like this. One thing is sure: The “Wounds” we are inflicting are getting deeper and deeper and they definitely won’t heal on their own.
DAUGHTERS, who saw their new album, You Won’t Get What You Want, place on year-end best of lists from NPR, Pitchfork, and more, kick off the new year with the premiere of their video for “Less Sex” via Rolling Stone.
The clip was directed by former bandmate Jeremy Wabiszczewicz. Singer Alexis Marshall said of the enduring partnership, “More than a decade after Jeremy was a founding member of Daughters, he proposed an intriguing concept for a ‘Less Sex’ video, dark and unnerving, to match the mood the song carries with it. To say we are pleased with the end result would be an egregious understatement. Our dear friend has gone all out and with that, provided us with a visual accompaniment that, quite simply, floors us with every viewing.”
The video arrives as the band is prepping for their first North American tour in support of You Won’t Get What You Want, with the four-week outing kicking off on Feb.16 in Philadelphia.
We are thrilled to today share a video for Less Sex.
More than a decade after Jeremy Wabiszczewicz was a founding member of Daughters, he proposed an intriguing concept for a Less Sex video, dark and unnerving, to match the mood the song carries with it. To say we are pleased with the end result would be an egregious understatement. Our dear friend has gone all out and with that, provided us a visual accompaniment that, quite simply, floors us with every viewing.
It was my pleasure to work with Jeremy for the first time since his departure from our graces more that a decade ago. His professionalism guided me through the awkwardness of my first video – the soundstage formalities. His positive energy and direction got me through 110 degree desert heat, that sucked the life from my sweating pores. Thank you to Jeremy for his incredible work ethic and astounding vision. We are blessed with this stunning video, Less Sex.
British vegan straight edge metalcore act xSERVITUDEx have dropped a new EP called ‘Bringing Your Hell’. Check it out below!
From the severe metallic assaults of xCanaanx, Unborn and Slavearc to the new breed of vegan edge hardcore defined by Renounced, Abolition and gone too soon xRepentancex, the militant straight edge scene in the UK has spawned some heavier than thou arrangements over the last two decades. This scene is still a tight knit of friends who have created a solid foundation of metallic hardcore; grounded in uncompromising beliefs and elevated social consciousness.
Sparsely scattered across Scotland and England, xServitudex formed a couple of years ago from the ashes of a band called Gaia Bleeds. Since their debut “Path to Amnesty” EP, their sound has been compared to the the early H8000 edge-metal scene in Belgium. Bands like Arkangel, Congress, Sektor and Deformity easily come to mind when listening to their earth-shattering riffs and tough-as-nails breakdowns.
The five new tracks on “Bringing Your Hell” are well worth the wait. Here they improve upon heaviness and punishing vocal delivery while keeping the hardcore groove alive. Loaded in hefty double-bass beatdowns and full-throttle thrash shredding, “Bringing Your Hell” is heavier, darker and more aggressive than its predecessor. / DIY Conspiracy
Pop punk rockers BLINK 182 are in the studio, potentially recording their eighth album, a follow to their 2016’s LP “California”.
Refuse Records has announced the second edition of the acclaimed “Warsaw’s Burning” compilation. The new 7” marks the 150th release on the label and comes 10 years after the initial part. The new compilation will feature 8 songs from GOVERNMENT FLU, HEATSEEKER, NEGATIVE VIBES, MORUS, BRAINEATER, CAST IN IRON, JAD and GLAMOUR. Pre-order now via [email protected] and see the cover art by Maciek Wolański below.
ARCHOTE, militant vegan straight edge 90’s style metalcore from Brazil, are streaming their debut demo Vegan Straight Edge. Check it out below, courtesy of Vegan X Merch, Animals X Kingdom & Bound By Modern Age Records. FOr fans of Purification, Sunrise, Maroon.
GAUCHE, a new Washington, DC-based band featuring members of Downtown Boys and Priests, just dropped a new single called Conspiracy Theories, available via Merge Records.
DEAFKIDS announce Metaprogramação their third full length release, and first studio album to be released with Neurot Recordings due for release on March 15. While their previous release, Configuração do Lamento, captured the group delving deep into their own diverse and discordant musical world, Metaprogramação pushes these elements to entirely new extremes. DEAFKIDS imprint a future-primitive psychic scenario into their music by weaving a fabric of electronic pulses, barrages of delay and noise, wailing guitars, and frenzied rhythms that ricochet aggressively across the speakers. Songs are urgent yet fluid, melting and dissolving into one another, culminating in a wild psychedelic journey that’s bound to reach one’s mind through the body while intoxicating both.
About Metaprogramação, the band offer the following statement…
Deceived by perceiving our so-called individuality as a form of freedom, we are programmed to live and continue living as a fragmented and binary model of nature. Experimental numbers in a worldwide political power-game where human lives and its complexities, connections, necessities and environments are lowered in terms manipulated by algorithms, mind control and brutal force upon our conditions, our rights and our true will. Shaping, overwhelming and fragmenting our tunnels of perception to the point where the excess of information becomes diffused and the whole contained within each being is more and more dispersed, confused and disconnected, reflecting an insane image of ones identification with an artificial reality – where in some bizarre way, all these schizophrenic, corrupted and truculent theatres of domination and submission that appears all over human relations seems to make some sense – and of non-identification with what would be our inner reality, the telepathic level behind the veils where boundaries and divisions between us and the plane of consciousness, between you and the other don’t really exist. A level of reality where we might have the power to start learning how to reprogram ourselves by our own tools, being able to visit our internal hall of mirrors beyond space and time and deal with the negative roots of our condensed emotions and traumas trough a new perspective of relation and control with our thoughts, paths and everything we’re connected with. We must unite as one and resist against the violent symbols of oppression, including what’s imprinted on our own self, that must be daily sacrificed.
Metaprogramação offers a vertiginous, sensory insight on these inner conflicts and aspects of the animal being.
Do not allow yourself to be programmed.
APR 11 THU – Roadburn Festival 2019 -Tilburg, Netherlands
APR 12 FRI – Roadburn Festival 2019 – Tilburg, Netherlands
APR 16 TUE – DK. Luksus – Wroclaw, Poland
APR 17 WEN – Underdogs – Prague, Czech Republic
APR 18 THU – Urban Spree – Berlin, Germany
APR 19 FRI – Merleyn – Nijmegen, Netherlands
APR 20 SAT – The Lexington – London, United Kingdom
APR 21 SUN – Soup Kitchen – Manchester, United Kingdom
APR 22 MON – The Hope & Ruin – Brighton, United Kingdom
APR 23 TUE – Moon – Cardiff, United Kingdom
APR 25 THU – Rough Trade – Bristol, United Kingdom
APR 26 FRI – TBA – Paris, France
APR 28 SUN – SWR Barroselas Metalfest 2019 – Viana do Castelo, Portugal
APR 29 MON – Mag4 – Bruxelles, Belgium
MAY 03 FRI – Les 3 Pieces – Rouen, France
MAY 04 SAT – Het Bos – Antwerp, Belgium
MAY 05 SUN – Donau Festival 2019 – Donau, Austria
…and more dates to be announced
SWEDISH punk / metal / HC quartet HORNDAL present their colossal new single and video ‘Wasteland’ today and have announced their Prosthetic Records debut album Remains set for official worldwide release on February, 22 2019.
HORNDAL comments, ‘Wasteland is the first single from our debut album ”Remains” out February 22. We’re honoured to release it on the fine label of Prosthetic Records. The video was shot in old closed steel mill in the Swedish rust belt, a few miles from Horndal. It’s directed by genius filmmaker Jonas Hong Soo Eriksson.”
Distinctly Scandinavian; HORNDAL fuses the driving rhythms unique to the best of Swedish forward-thinking hardcore whilst preserving the venom of their punk scene alongside the heaviness of the country’s finest. But it’s in the song-writing that HORNDAL really excel; effortlessly weaving their narrative of urban decay into their dynamic and immediate fist-to-the-face anthems.
‘Remains’ tells the true horror story of the devil’s destruction of their hometown of Horndal in the 1970’s. A small, industrial centre found amongst the woods of Sweden – the steel mill which was the lifeblood of the community was threatened with closure. This was dramatised in protest as social allegory and depicted the devil casting his shadow over the town to send their exploited workers to an early grave. Sadly, the story came true…the livelihood of the people was indeed closed down and the town was left for dead. “Anecdote: the intro of the video features the father of the brothers in the band. He also played the devil in a theatre play based on th
NJ hardcore act PARCH have posted their final track “Bloodletting / Dwelling Room” and offered the following commentary. We featured them 2 times in the past: GO HERE to check it out.
“Two songs about vampires. Yes. Recorded prior to “Hell In These Eyes,” these songs were to be released on a lathe cut record with Sin Eater Records, but then the band took a stake through the heart. We’re not saying that like our vampiric friends that we won’t raise back from the dead one day…but for now…this is it. Thanks for your support, freaks.”.
WARDEHNS, a three-piece crust/sludge band from small-town Wisconsin, is coming out swinging with their new full-length Now Cometh The Foul. Comprised of vocalist and guitarist Adam Geurink, bassist Brad Beilke, and drummer Thomas Sorbet, the trio delivers eight grimy, brick-wall tracks in this follow-up to their 2017 self-titled EP. As Blessed Altar Zine puts it, this is “brutal, sludge-laden riffage that has a somewhat melodic drive about it, yet can’t help but rip your head off.” Channeling the likes of High on Fire, 3 Inches of Blood, Converge, and many more divergent influences, Wardehns pummels listeners with just the right mix of groove and force.
Now Cometh The Foul was recorded by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recording in Minneapolis and features cover art by David Paul Seymour. The album will be released on March 15th 2019 on CD with a vinyl release to follow. Digital version is already out via Bandcamp.
For their latest release Ill, Gothenburg’s atmopsheric post punks MAKTHAVERSKAN push the boundaries of the punk inspired dream pop they’ve masterfully executed for years. The band is back with a brand new 2 track EP, available on Through Love, Luxury and Run For Cover Records.
The A-side is the band in classic form: jangly guitars, memorable bass lines accompanied by a driving drum performance all help to push vocalist Maja Milner’s soaring words into the stratosphere. On the opposite end, “Onkel” is faster paced, building up into a crescendo that recalls influences like the Cranberries and the Cocteau Twins.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, the post punk five-piece roused a worldwide following with the single “No Mercy” and the release of their sophomore album II via Boston’s Run For Cover and Sweden’s Luxury Records. The failure of love and loss of innocence that punctuated II and “No Mercy’s” searing condemnation of “fuck you for fucking me when I was seventeen” later gave way to a new worldview on follow up LP Ill (2017), and continue on two brand new singles “Demands” and “Onkel.”
With the band navigating through their mid-to-late twenties, closer “Days Turn Into Years” encapsulates the visceral shift in how time is felt and internalized. The band subdues its lilting chords ever so slightly and Milner slips into a lower register for the refrain. This is Makthaverskan settling in, but not relinquishing to complacency.
Wyoming punk rockers TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET are streaming “I Wanna be a Dog”, a new track off their new LP “Stay Rad!”, to be released on March 15th via Fat Wreck Chords!
Let’s be honest. Teenage Bottlerocket has always been rad. Formed in Wyoming in 2000, they were rad when they released their debut album, Another Way, in 2003 and almost two decades – as the title of this eighth studio album suggests – they remain just as rad. Following on from 2017’s Stealing The Covers – which, funnily enough, was a record of cover versions – these 14 short, snappy and stylish punk songs are centered around the songwriting chops of guitarists/vocalists Ray Carlisle and Kody Templeman and overflow with Teenage Bottlerocket’s typical mix of humor and poignancy, silliness and melancholy. But it’s also the first album of original material that the band – completed by bassist Miguel Chen and drummer Darren Chewka – made following the death of former drummer and Ray’s twin brother Brandon in 2015.
“I’m definitely proud of it,” says Ray. “It’s cool how we all came together through something so tragic and made one of our best records. I think Brandon would really love it. Stealing The Covers really helped us get back on our feet and it was a cool in-between, but this record was something we wanted to make as excellent as possible.”
“I think we all had him in the back of our minds while writing and recording it,” adds Kody. “I’d like to think that he would be happy with how it turned out.”Recorded at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Stay Rad! – which will be released on March 15 – was produced and mixed by longtime collaborator Andrew Berlin and mixed by Jason Livermore. And in keeping with its title, it finds the band channeling the same riotous energy it had at the start. Its members might be older now, some married and with kids, but when it comes to writing songs together as Teenage Bottlerocket, absolutely nothing has changed. “We’re doing what we’ve always done,” says Kody, “which is writing fun songs and having a good time. It doesn’t feel any different than it did when we started.”
Not only that, but their infectious youthful enthusiasm has remained full and intact. “That’s just something we’ve always held on to,” says Ray. “I think it’s pretty obvious whenever you see a band that looks like they’ve clocked in, like they’re at their job right now. We’ve never really looked at it that way. There’s always been a degree of excitement that’s encapsulated us before we’ve gone onstage and it’s the same in the studio. We wanted to make something that our fans would love and we would love and Brandon would love, too.”
While “I Never Knew”, which was written by Miguel, is the only song on the record about a girl – “That’s weird,” laughs Ray. “We must have grown up a little, because we don’t write about girls as much and when we do think about them it’s positive thoughts!” – it’s still a quintessential Teenage Bottlerocket album. “Creature From The Black Metal Lagoon” charts the story of Norwegian black metal while also ripping on metal band du jour Deafheaven, “Night of The Knuckleheads” turns a Friday night out into a Misfits-esque horror story and “The First Time That I Did Acid Was The Last Time That I Did Acid” is an all-too-real cautionary tale about a bad trip. Elsewhere, “I Want To Kill Clint Carlin” is an affectionate yet homicidal ode to the band’s longtime roadie full of black humor, “Everything To Me” is Ray’s touching but hilarious tribute to his son, and “Stupid Song” is a not-so-stupid song about the drudgery of day-to-day life and using music to escape it. That song was written at the last minute, as was penultimate track “Little Kid”, a poignant ode that Ray wrote about his brother that charts the joys of their childhood together while also lamenting his loss.
Originally, Ray wanted to call this record The White Album – a nod to both The Beatles and Weezer – but when Kody remembered a phrase on the hat a former roadie would always wear, it just made sense. That’s because, like every Teenage Bottlerocket record, Stay Rad! has a good mix of the silly and the sad, but the overriding sentiment is one that echoes its title. It’s a reminder that, despite all the things that can and often do go wrong, being alive is something that should be enjoyed and that there’s always some sort of hope for the future. “Life will throw its stones at you,” says Ray, “and sometimes it’s hard to keep your head up and be yourself. I’ve always thought the most important thing was having something to look forward to. And right now, I’m looking forward to this record coming out and playing some shows and playing these songs live. That’s always the important thing – the next thing on the horizon.”
One of the next things on the horizon is a short tour of the US that starts at the end of March before they head to Europe in the second half of April. And as for their hopes for this record? Well, they’re both modest and ridiculous, down-to-earth and sky-high, hilarious and serious. But then, what else would you expect? “I hope that people check it out,” says Ray. “You’re always going to have fans that are like ‘I stopped listening to them after Total or whatever, but there are some who stuck with us the whole way and I think they’re going to love this record. I hope that everybody gives it a chance.”
“I want to sell a bazillion copies and spend all the money on useless shit,” laughs Kody. “But really, we do this band because it’s fun and it’s what we’re good at. We’re all close friends and I couldn’t imagine why we would ever stop.”
Toronto, Ontario’s very own punk powerhouse PUP are proud to announce their new album, “Morbid Stuff“, set for release on the band’s brand new label Little Dipper, in partnership with Rise Records/BMG on April 5th. Produced, recorded and mixed by Dave Schiffman (Weezer, Cass McCombs, The Mars Volta), “Morbid Stuff” is everything that PUP fans have grown to love about them, but dialed up to 11. It’s gang’s-all-here vocals, guitarmonies, and lyrics about death. Lots of them.
‘Kids’ is a love song from one nihilistic depressive to another”, explains Stefan Babcock. “It’s about what happens when you stumble across the only other person on the face of this godless, desolate planet that thinks everything is as twisted and as fucked up as you do. And thanks to them, the world starts to seem just a little less bleak. But only slightly – it’s still pretty fucked up to be honest”.
This April, PUP will embark on Europe tour in support of “Morbid Stuff”. Pre-sale tickets will be available tomorrow, 16th Jan at 12:00 PM local time at www.puptheband.com, and $1 of every ticket sold through the pre-sale will go towards The Trevor Project, a leading organisation providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Sign up NOW through 11:30 AM local time tomorrow at the band’s website to receive the pre-sale password. General tickets are on sale 18th Jan at 10:00 AM local time. European tour dates can be found below.
In addition to album pre-orders, which are available now HERE, you can also pre-order “The PUP Morbid Stuff Annihilation Preparedness Kit”, which includes a CD or limited edition coloured LP, a long sleeve shirt, a backpack with sewn-on patch, custom band aids, a waterproof container, and a multi-tool with fork, spoon, etc. A very limited edition version of the Annihilation Preparedness Kit also comes with a real full-sized inflatable boat.
Formed in Toronto five years ago, PUP – comprised of Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula, and Steve Sladowski – quickly became favorites of the punk scene with their first two, critically-beloved albums, winning accolades everywhere from the New York Times to Pitchfork, from NPR and Rolling Stone, and more. Their last album, “The Dream Is Over”, not only debuted at #1 on the Billboard “Heatseekers” chart, but also catapulted them into international waters, selling out shows across the world throughout 2016.
With “Morbid Stuff”, PUP grew up, then doubled down on everything that made you love their first two albums. Fitting to their ethos, their new album takes the dichotomy of fun and anguish in their songs and blows it up, projection-style, onto the biggest wall possible, teetering between gleeful chaos and bleak oblivion while wielding some of the best choruses the band has ever written. It’s also a pretty intense foray into singer Stefan Babcock’s fight with depression, an album dressed up with heartbreak, broken dreams, self-loathing, and castigating yourself for thinking you matter enough to even bother hating yourself. And in perfect PUP fashion, taking responsibility of his own depression lead him to… Laughter. Admitting his depression allowed him to laugh in its face, and the result is that marriage of suffering and joy that made PUP who they are, but in a brand new way.
Indeed, despite its dark subject matter, at times “Morbid Stuff” is funny as hell, even in the music. Often times a heavy barrage of hardcore is coupled with a light, folky guitar that lives quietly in the background. Rollicking choruses disappear into nothing but a hopeful group chant, echoing through until the end of the song. PUP’s rage isn’t pure rage anymore; it’s rage being taunted by the reality that the rage is its own fault.
It’s all the fury and celebration you’ve come to know, but rooted in understanding where that fury comes from. It’s the most insightful, sweetest, funniest, sickest, angriest, saddest and most inescapably desperate collection of songs they’ve recorded to date. If their self-titled record was the fuse and “The Dream Is Over” was the bomb going off, “Morbid Stuff” is your family sifting through the rubble, only to find you giggling in the wake.
Toronto hardcore punks THE NEW ENEMY have dropped another new single from their upcoming new LP Illusion of Choice, to be released on Friday, January 25. It features five original songs and three covers (Leonard Cohen, Snapcase, Gob). The release was self-recorded, with mixing by Will Killingsworth (Fury, Full of Hell) and mastering by Arthur Rizk (Code Orange, Power Trip). Check out the new track “Thread” (featuring Jessica Meers) below.
Since forming, The New Enemy has donated all Bandcamp revenues to charity. For past releases, this has varied from youth shelters to cancer research. For Illusion of Choice, we’ll be raising funds for YMCA Sprott House, the first LGBTQ2S transitional housing program for youth in Canada.
“Truly infectious while remaining heavy and confrontational” – New Noise Magazine
“A mix of Sick Of It All, Verbal Abuse and Tool” – Maximum Rock & Roll
“A keen awareness of political and social issues” – Exclaim Magazine
“Supports the scene and puts out great tunes” – Amp Magazine
London math/emo/shoegaze quartet THE YACHT CLUB are pleased to be streaming ‘Glue’ this morning—another new single from their forthcoming debut album, The Last Words That You Said To Me Have Kept Me Here And Safe, which is set for release on 25th January 2019 via Beth Shalom Records.
Whilst the rest of TYC’s debut album deals with grieving, loss and closure, ‘Glue’ is a song about finding some goodness in the chaos of life. It’s also one of the band’s more experimental and collaborative songwriting efforts, that hints at wider influences and richer musical horizons on newer material.
“It’s about two people who have been through hell and back finding something new and beautiful in each other, even if it’s a little scary and intimidating,” says frontman Marcus Gooda. “I think emo—or math rock, or whatever genre you want to call us—has very few positive love songs, and this is exactly that: a love song.”
“Whilst this is only one of two songs on the album that doesn’t have any guitar tapping in it, it’s also one of the more musically dense. There are three guitar parts, Rhodes piano and two drum kits. We had an absolute blast tracking all the extra instruments and vocals. Starting life off as a demo of just my vocals and piano, it’s a real testament to how we’ve evolved and now create as a band. This is a real team effort.”
The Yacht Club will play a special album launch show planned for 26th January 2019 at The Sebright Arms in London, with further live dates TBA.
Melodic alt pop punk rockers WITH CONFIDENCE have released a new music video for “Icarus”, off their recent album “Love and Loathing”, the band’s second full length, out on Hopeless Records.
Guitarist Inigo Del Carmen said: “The idea for the song ‘Icarus’ came from the Greek Mythology story and is about a person getting caught up in their own glory, living selfishly and carelessly until they eventually cause their own downfall”.
A few months ago, With Confidence shared the original music video for “Moving Boxes”, and in June released “That Something”. They also released an ASL (American Sign Language) music video for “Moving Boxes” late last year.
“Love and Loathing” was produced by Mike Green (All Time Low, Paramore) and is an album filled with soaring melodies and emotive lyrics, carrying you through first loves, blistering breakups and everything in-between.
ANEURYSM: Boston punks drop new melodic anthem, gear up for “Awareness” album release and US tour. “Newport” appears on debut full-length Awareness, out February 1st. Recorded at GodCity Studio in Salem, MA, by Chris Johnson (bassist of Deafheaven and Doomriders), Awareness is ten tracks’ worth of swaggering, melodic, noise-rock that charges forward through the same sewers as Nirvana, Unsane, and Turbonegro. GO HERE to learn more.
Burly drums and distorted bass pound out frantic punk rock rhythms, as dual guitars weave ragged blankets of noisy melody. Vocalist Michael McGee (who spent much of the ’00s fronting noise-core blasters the_Network) snarls, screams and croons, with lyrics that are raw and poetic – world-weary reflections on sex, drugs, cops, death, and rock n’ roll.
Awareness was mastered by Will Killingsworth (The Body, Magrudergrind). The artwork and layout were created by Mark McCoy,whose work has graced the covers of albums by Pig Destroyer and Full of Hell.
The album’s release is a joint effort between Tor Johnson Records (vinyl), Constant Disappointment Records (vinyl and CD), and Suspended Soul Records (cassette).
Thousand Islands Records is thrilled to announce the addition of pop punk infused alt rockers 30 MILES to its roster. The band from Italy and the Montreal-based label will be working on releasing new material in the future. For now Thousand Islands Records will be handling the North American CD distribution of the band’s most recent album, “Short Tales For Braves”, that came out last year. The music video for the album opener “The Forest” can be seen below. “Short Tales For Braves” was originally released in 2018 via Ghost Factory Records, Disconnect Disconnect Records, Far Channel Records and 20 Chords Records.
30 Miles shaped in the Florentine and Pisan provinces during february 2010, the year in which “Wasteland” was produced, the first d.i.y. EP from which the two singles Pills In 2099 and Nobody were extracted and included in the compilation n ° 6 of Indiebox Music 360 ° – The Punk Network (2011).
In 2012 the band leaves Italy for its very first european tour for the promotion of “The Smiles Of Rage & Paranoia”, the debut album produced by Tai Fronzaroli at 7Studios (Florence, Italy) and published for This Is Core Music / Bells On Records Japan opening the doors to the european and japanese market powered by Andromeda distribution/ Believe Digital / Disk Union Japan. The album receives excellent reviews and the single “Dancing In Her Eyes” and the title track “The Smiles Of Rage & Paranoia” are included in several independent compilations in various parts of the world (England, Ireland, Canada, Italy, South-est Asia). After over 50 italian dates and other 20 in mainland Europe + U.K. 30 Miles gets a pause period for the re-pressing of the record that has been re-published for the historical Ammonia Records that commits the band in Italy for a new tour, sharing the stage with national artists such as Shandon, L’invasione degli Omini Verdi, but also international as Upon This Dawning, Useless ID, Atlas Losing Grip with Rodrigo (Satanic Surfers) and many others.
While the band took a break to write the new album Samuele has been featured into an anthology of poems published by Pagine Edizioni (Rome) and in 2017 wins the “One Week Records european contest”, label founded by Joey Cape, who invites him to play the italian show in Treviso at Benicio Live along side members of Lagwagon, Pears, Versus The World, Scorpios.
On september 27th 2018 “Short Tales For Braves” has been released in Europe, the second album of 30 Miles produced by Alessandro Gavazzi at the Hell Smell Studio in Rome and published for Ghost Factory Records & Arts (EU) and Disconnect Disconnect Records (UK). The Japanese release sees the light of day on October 17 in online stores (November 1 in physical record stores) thanks to Far Channel Records with Ultra Vybe Inc. / Disk Union distribution, while 20 Chords Records is in charge of the south-american release that takes place in Durango (Mexico) the 20th of October 2018.
At the end of october the band leaves the Old Continent for their first overseas tour presenting the new album in Japan and being received with pleasant surprise by the Japanese people. In December 2018 Thousand Islands Records signs 30 Miles to represent their music in Canada and North-America, closing the year in the best way possible to get ready for 2019.
NOVARUPTA: Blackened Sludge Project Featuring Current/Past Members Of The Moth Gatherer, Dark Tranquillity, Entombed, Domkraft, And More To Release Disillusioned Fire Debut Via Suicide Records This April; New Track Streaming!
The main constant in NOVARUPTA is Alex Stjernfeldt. In his broken past he has played in bands like The Moth Gatherer and Mr. Death, which both have critical acclaim in the international press. He has also collaborated with Terra Tenebrosa on their album The Reverses. When he left The Moth Gatherer, Stjernfeldt stood disillusioned while facing an uncertain and bleak future. Fueled by depression and frustration and a need to explore a deeper and darker musical direction while also returning to the roots from which he came, the foundation of NOVARUPTA was born.
Blurring the lines between Band and Project, Collective and Art, NOVARUPTA was manifested. With themes of living with depression, society, and a world veiled in monochrome colors and trying to turn something destructive into something creative, the music and art took form. The creation of the debut was a collective effort between old and new friends, coming together in an open and creative forum, contributing to what was to become Disillusioned Fire.
The record features a host of notable vocalists including Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity), Jörgen Sandström (Krux, ex-Entombed, ex-Grave.), Martin Wegeland (Domkraft), Tomas Liljedahl (ex-Breach, The Old Wind), Claudio Marino (Tid), Joel Segerstedt (The Open Up And Bleeds), Jonas A. Holmberg (This Gift Is A Curse), and Ossian Reynolds (Lola Zaza), each adding his own dark tinge to a record wrought with deep, dismal emotion.
Disillusioned Fire was mixed by Kristoffer Folin (Domkraft), mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén (Terra Tenebrosa, Greenleaf, Crippled Black Phoenix) and comes swathed in the cover renderings of Arjen Kunnen (Amenra).
Notes Stjernfeldt of the offering, “To me, this album is the painful beauty that shines through the prisms of imperfections of mankind in a world on the verge of collapse, a journey into the dark parts of the soul and mind, but also a journey of survival, realizing that it is ok to feel this way, that you are stronger than you think. The music is drawn from these places where the esoteric oppression thrives on your psyche. The world took me for a freak, so I used that to create a frequency.”
NOVARUPTA’s Disillusioned Fire will see release on April 29thon CD, LP, and digitally via Suicide Records. Preorders will be available in the coming weeks.
Minnesota’s mathy indie emo rockers TINY MOVING PARTS have just announced a new two-song single “For the Sake of Brevity” / “Fish Bowl,” out now on Triple Crown Records. Premiering now is a music video for “For the Sake of Brevity,” directed by Brendan Lauer. The two-song single is available for physical purchase as a limited edition one-sided 7″ with a screenprint on the back.
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” That well-known quote, often attributed to Dr Seuss, could also be the mantra that Tiny Moving Parts live by. It’s certainly a philosophy that the trio – who hail from the incredibly small town of Benson, Minnesota and were formed in 2008 by brothers Matt and Billy Chevalier (bass and drums, respectively) and their cousin Dylan (vocals/guitar) – applied while making their fourth full-length record, Swell. For while it’s an album that’s full of absence – lost love, lost friends, lost time – it looks for the positives. Instead of dwelling on those empty spaces, Swell instead recalls what was once in their place.
“The album is about trying to be the best person you can be,” explains vocalist/guitarist Dylan Mattheisen, “and being as happy as you can in the world we live in. That’s been kind of the overall theme of our band – just trying to find the positive in shitty situations and keeping your head up.”
To that extent, Swell is the next natural step in the Tiny Moving Parts catalogue. But if 2016’s Celebrate was almost unadulterated in that positive outlook, Swell finds the band – completed by Mattheisen’s cousins, drummer Billy Chevalier and bassist Matt Chevalier – a little bit darker, a little bit sadder. Its songs still manage to conquer and overcome those emotions, but there’s no denying that some of the situations described within them are pretty bleak.
Take album closer “Warm Hand Splash”, for instance. It’s about a piece of trash at the bottom of a wishing well that adores a coin, which someone eventually steals away, leaving the piece of trash forever alone and heartbroken in the dark. Of course, as awful as that sounds, there is still a bright side. Of course there is – this is Tiny Moving Parts.
“There’s two ways you can look at that song,” says Mattheisen. there’s two ways you can look at it. A) you’re stuck for life in that well and that’s really depressing and dark after having your favorite thing taken away. But, B) being happy that even happened, that the happiness it brought you through those days could be happiness that certain people – or pieces of trash! – haven’t seen or felt ever in their life.”
It’s not the only song on the record that plays with the idea of conventional narrator. “Smooth It Out” tells the story of an old stray cat in a city who meets a newly stray – and terrified – cat while “Whale Watching” is a story of isolation told from the eyes of a fish that’s been swallowed by a whale and is trying to find a way out. “It’s Too Cold Tonight” is about watching foxes playing outside, the song’s narrator trying to work out – as Mattheisen explains – whether they’re “glowing so bright from the happiness that you don’t have, or if it’s headlights coming towards them.”
Of course, while these songs might not be sung from conventional points of view, a tidal wave of human emotions flows through them and the lyrics are malleable enough for them to relate to the listener’s own life, experiences and emotions.
“I find it fun and interesting to write from someone else’s shoes – or, with animals, I guess it’d be their paws,” chuckles Mattheisen, “but I purposefully write them a little vague. I write about specific things but I give the listener their own paint tools so they can color in their own picture and relate to it the way they want to.”
How they do that – whether they give into the dark or choose to look on the bright side of things – is up to the listener, but the music is so life-affirming, so full of uplifting energy, that they may not have a choice. Recorded in Blaine, Minnesota by Greg Lindholm – with whom they recorded 2010’s The Couch Is Long & Full Of Friendship and Celebrate – its ten songs are a rush of blood to both the heart and head, raucous, desperate songs that are fevered and frenzied but infused with the band’s trademark math-rocky guitar licks and playful, shout-a-long choruses. It’s enough to make you forget all your woes and fill your heart with warmth and love. Which was precisely the idea. Taken from a lyric – “May your brain cells swell” – that’s repeated emphatically at the end of “Wishbone”, the idea of Swell’s title is an incredibly visceral one that the band hopes will have a powerful and positive effect on anyone who listens to it.
“The idea,” explains Mattheisen, “is about following that raw happiness in your brain and allowing it to expand and grow to overcome your doubts. It’s about your brain cells expanding and swelling up and swallowing the negativity in your head to serve an overall better outlook on life. If we can impact people and make them more optimistic in life and be nicer to each other, that’d be amazing. We want to let others know that they’re not alone. Because shit can go wrong and everyone has their bummer days, but in the long run were all going to pass away someday, so we want to make sure we live a good life and do the best we could to ourselves and towards others.”
Profound Lore will deliver the introductory wrath from blackened hardcore outfit TOTALED in late March. The new outfit’s debut album Lament will see release on March 29th, and this week the label has issued the cover art, track listing, and initial single, “Transience.”
Exhaling the ashes from acrimony, TOTALED materialized in 2017 and recorded its ferociously blackened-hardcore debut album, Lament. While lyrically ruminating in the abstract emptiness of an impervious void and grappling with paradoxical duality, the auditory gloom of Lament conjures sorrowing burial strings that furiously discharge into an onslaught of punishing resonance wrought with crushing despair, depression, and scavenging hopelessness. Pummeling blasts and d-beats pound into peripherally orbiting shadows of the pixelated black, beneath the pulverizing density of nihilistic bass distortion in a mournful offering of somber funeral strains; the digested celestial nothingness of the eaten, frozen in dimensions of cyclical nooses and gnawing bacterial ether. Conceived incarnations of sorrowful mists from the harvest, bereaving the morbid light in which we suffer.
Dispatching eight tracks in less than thirty-seven minutes, Lament is completed with ominous cover artwork by Andrew Tremblay. Profound Lore will issue the album on LP, CD, and digital platforms on March 29th. Watch for preorders and additional audio previews in the bleak weeks ahead.
Transcending Obscurity Records has released a MASSIVE new sampler featuring 50 (!) metal bands representing all kinds of styles, from death metal, to grind, doom, and a lot more! Be sure to give it a listen!
This is our most ambitious sampler yet. It includes many new signings that we’ve worked hard on and which we hope you will enjoy. These are but songs off some very good albums to serve as a microcosm for what’s to come. It’s going to be our biggest year without a shadow of doubt. Like before, it starts off with the focus on death metal and grind, then to some very selected black metal and lastly, slowing things down in style with some expansive doom metal from all over. Each band brings its own sound to the sampler, further enhancing the overall appeal of what we’re striving to achieve with the label, working with variety and depth culled from the underground and taking it higher. The keyword here is ’emerge’ and if any of these acts get better noticed after we’re done with it, our purpose will have been achieved.
Punk rock act LE BUTCHERETTES unveil their latest video “give/UP” from forthcoming studio album “bi/MENTAL”. The single will be available on all digital platforms on Friday, January 18th. The new album “bi/MENTAL” will be released on February 1st via Rise Records. The band will also head to Europe for a tour next March/April. Check out the dates below.
“’give/UP’ is an ode to letting go of a loved one that has never believed in you and made it very difficult to the self to be free. Sometimes it is okay to move on after years of pleading for a change. If they don’t fight for you why continue fighting for them? Using that energy for a positive change instead”. – Teresa Suárez Cosío (Teri Gender Bender).
The video was shot in Los Angeles, CA in an abandoned warehouse in DTLA and was directed by Gus Black (Gary Clark Jr., Sheryl Crow, The Used, Deftones) who has directed the last four videos for the new album. Le Butcherettes deliver a strong performance that is sure to leave you wondering the meaning behind this new video.
The band worked on new album with iconic Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison (No Doubt, Violent Femmes, KD Lang) as the producer, adding a new creative environment and creating another dimension to the band’s sound.
The band dissect the meaning of family on their fourth full-length album, “bi/MENTAL” and first on Rise Records. Themes of internal and familial strife hang over the opener and first single “spider/WAVES” (feat. Jello Biafra). The song is a ticking timebomb of riffs, clicks and clacks as Teresa Suárez howls falsetto swings towards a searing screech punctuated by spoken word from the Dead Kennedys frontman.
“bi/MENTAL” is a personal ode to mental health and filled with equal parts cerebral poetry, art assault, and primal punk cacophony. The album includes 13 tracks that represent the Guadalajara-born and El Paso-based group at its most incisive and infectious album to date and includes additional features by Latina punk-rock demigod, Alice Bag on “mothers/HOLD” and a feature by alternative pop darling, Mon Laferte from Chile on “la/SANDÍA”.
Bluesy, noisy progressive punks RECIPROCATE have dropped a new interesting demo on Krimskramz label. Listen below and get inspired, cause this stuff is really authentic and serves a great reflection of so many aspects of soulful DIY music.
Hardcore hit squad TURNSTILE have announced more US dates, this time alongside TURNOVER and REPTALIENS. See the dates below.
4/5 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
4/6 Dallas, TX @ Canton Hall
4/7 Austin, TX @ Mohawk
4/9 Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
4/10 San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park
4/23 San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
4/25 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
4/26 Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret
4/26 Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
4/30 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
5/2 Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
5/3 Detroit, MI @ The Majestic
5/4 Cleveland, OH @ The Agora Theater
5/5 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
5/7 Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
5/8 Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
5/9 New Haven, CT @ College St. Music Hall
5/10 Philadelphia, PA @ The TLA
5/11 Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
5/12 Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live!
Garage punk rockers VAN DAMMES (featured on IDIOTEQ a couple of times) just released their fourth EP, Risky Business. The first single of the EP is also called Risky Business and its music video is now available below.
The Risky Business EP contains six unforgettable garage punk hits. Despite the fact that it was recorded in freezing Helsinki in the vicinity of polar bears, the record takes you on a hot and risky spaceship journey to a place where people live fast, have blast and still appreciate 90’s tennis. The EP is released by German Rockstar Records.
The band is also embarking on a European tour. See the dates below.
25.01. Hamburg, DE / Menschenzoo
26.01. Brussels, BE / Chaff
27.01. Tübingen, DE / Münzgasse 13
28.01. Zürich, CH / Dynamo
29.01. Saarbrücken, DE / Tante Anna
30.01. Köln, DE / Sonic Ballroom
31.01. Kladno, CZ / Auto da Fe
01.02. Nitra, SK / Mariatchi
02.02. Berlin, DE / Schokoladen
Kentucky melodic post-hardcore outfit SOFTSPOKEN has released their brand new video. “Paradox” comes as the band’s first new material since the impressive debut EP ‘Pathways’, which debuted last year. For fans of Underoath, Thrice, As Cities Burn, Slaves.
Vocalist Sam Scheuer discusses the thought process behind the new track: “The idea behind “Paradox” is that every person has a different perspective or idea of not only who they are, but how the world is. Digging even deeper, the lyrics touch on the “left brain/right brain” idea, where each side controls different functions of our bodies, and different parts of who we are as people. The overall message is that broadening one’s perception to see situations from another angle will lead to self-growth, better understanding, and hopefully more compassion.”
Formed in December of 2015, in Florence, Kentucky, Softspoken came together to embody a single idea – that people should take pride in who they are, and never be afraid to let their voice be heard. This message is reflected in their expansive and melodic post-hardcore sound.
Softspoken engages the listener with a finely honed array of influences from metal, punk and alternative. Striking a smart balance of instrumentally astute, melodically engaging and lyrically insightful, Softspoken offers a fine balance of heavy and melodic throughout their progressive debut EP.
On the heels of announcing their upcoming tour with HOMEWRECKER; North Carolina’s most dangerous and explosive band FUNERAL CHIC will continue their live assault across the U.S. into the Spring, joining INTEGRITY on tour. Also joining the trek on select dates is TOXIC HOLOCAUST as well as special guests ALL OUT WAR and FROM ASHES RISE. All dates below. FUNERAL CHIC’s crusty blackened death debut, Superstition was chosen in Dom Romeo of Integrity’s Top albums of 2018 for Brooklyn Vegan and continues to receive high marks following its official release on November 16, 2018.
FUNERAL CHIC live w/ HOMEWRECKER
2/02/08 Louisville, KY – Riot Skatepark*
02/10 Charlotte, NC – Skylark Social Club*
02/11 Atlanta, GA – 529 Bar*
02/12 Jacksonville, FL – Nighthawks*
02/14 Houston, TX – The White Swan*
02/17 Oklahoma City, OK – 89th Street*
02/18 St. Louis, MO – The Sinkhole*
02/19 Cincinnati, OH – NSYC*
*w/Homewrecker
FUNERAL CHIC live w/ INTEGRITY
04/18 San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick**
04/19 Los Angeles, CA – Catch One**
04/20- San Francisco, CA – Oakland Metro**
04/21 – Sacramento, CA – Colonial Theatre**
04/23 – Reno, NV – Jub Jubs*
04/24 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge^
04/25 – Boise, ID – The Shredder^
04/26 – Portland, OR – Dante’s^^
04/27 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon*^
^w/ Integrity
^^ Integrity, From Ashes Rise and Incendiary
*w/ Integrity, Toxic Holocaust, From Ashes Rise and All Out War
**w/ Integrity, Toxic Holocaust and All Out War
^*w/ Integrity and Incendairy
Buffalo, NY oi infused hardcore punks THE ELITE are streaming their debut demo.
[Voalist] Julie might not be fronting a straight-up hardcore band anymore, but she’s carried over her gruff vocal style for The Elite and it works in a big way. While all three tracks on the demo are ear nuggets, I’ve gone with opener “Feel the Heat” today because it captures all of the sonic attributes I listed above in a really powerful and compact way. / NoEcho
Hopeless Records AFTERLIFE is celebrating the release of their debut album “Breaking Point”, released on January 11th. On the release, front man Tyler Levenson shares: “I was able to talk about subjects that are incredibly personal to me and subjects that need addressing in the world through many tracks on this album. We believe that this album has something for everyone. We tried to grasp every genre and make it into something that has never been done before and we believe that ‘Breaking Point’ is just that”. “Breaking Point” is available to stream and purchase here.
Blending singing, screaming and rapping over a heavy, yet satisfyingly melodic landscape for a unique sound coupled with socially conscious lyrics, Afterlife are poised to influence this generation of heavy music.
Following up their fast and in-your-face “Vicious Cycle” EP, the highly anticipated album ambitiously tackles a variety of impactful topics from mental health and domestic assault to political apathy and the weight of guilt over the course of 10 unique tracks that blend influences like Slipknot, Linkin Park and modern hip-hop. “Breaking Point” is the band’s debut album and their first release on Hopeless Records.
“We are so excited that ‘Breaking Point’ is finally here! We spent so much time to make sure that these songs were perfect and our producers Zakk Cervini and Zach Jones really helped to bring us to a place that we only dreamed of musically and we couldn’t have done it without them. Thank you to Hopeless Records for believing in our vision, allowing us to create the best record possible and most importantly THANK YOU to the fans who without you this wouldn’t be possible!”.
New York, New York-based ambient guitar/bass only post-rock influenced duo BRAVE THE WATERS recently announced their second album, Chapter II: Days of Solitude which will see release on February 1st. The album is the groups follow up to their 2015 debut, Chapter I: Dawn of Days. Chapter II: Days of Solitude will appeal to fans of the group’s core influences which the bands cite as largely being inspired by Pink Floyd, Mogwai, Anathema, Sigur Ros, and Sun Kil Moon.
Brave the Waters consists of New York metal scene veterans Tom Anderer (2018 live bass for Artificial Brain at times) and Rick Habeeb who’ve spent years building up musical chemistry together in groups such as doom metal outfit Grey Skies Fallen and experimental deathgrind outfit Buckshot Facelift which is fronted by Artificial Brain vocalist Will Smith.
Like their prior works, the new album is built upon a hybrid improvised and carefully written approach that layers the duo’s talents into lush soundscapes which mirror the feeling of winter upon us and tap into feelings of solitude, mourning, self-reflection, hope, and solace. All electric guitar was improvised by Rick Habeeb and supported by written acoustic guitar and bass from Tom Anderer with a more structured approach to the compositions this time on Chapter II: Days of Solitude.
Brave the Waters band statement regarding Chapter II: Days of Solitude
“These songs are sad and somber but reveal hope in the darkest places of self-consciousness and are very thoughtful. The album tells a detailed story without words, allowing the listener to evoke the settings and characters their imagination creates from the ambient soundtrack. Artwork again is amazingly-handled by Travis Smith (Amorphis, Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, Megadeth, etc.), and we hope to release this both in digital and physical formats.”
São Paulo’s LABIRINTO are not the spearheads of a vivid local scene, but to stay within the realms of post-rock metaphory, more of an isolated island within a vast ocean of nothingness. There is not much contemporary instrumental heavy music anywhere in South America. There are hardly any record labels and international bands seldomly make it over on tour. All the more surprising that this island of LABIRINTO has been releaseing records for 13 years already.
The band just released a new epic track called “Agnus Dei”.
“They have crafted an epic post-rock album in the truest sense of the word – six songs, 70 minutes running time, but none of it wasted“, Rock-A-Rolla wrote about their debut album „Anatema“, and Rolling Stone praised their live show as “one of the most powerful experiences in the Brazilian independent scene”.
„Divino Afflante Spiritu“ is already the band’s 10th release, but only the 3rd full-length album. The band’s back catalogue is made up of a number of EPs and splits (with THISQUIETARMY among others), a detail which showcases the band’s strong roots in the DIY scene. Guitarist Erick Cruxen and drummer Muriel Curi, a long-married couple, have learned how take control of every aspect of the band’s universe themselves: from running their own record label to booking their own tours to running their own recording studio, the internationally renowned Dissenso Studios in São Paulo.
The result is an album of dense and menacing atmospherics, textural drones carefully layered over and blended into the heavy guitar riffs’s shimmering, beautiful distortion-scapes – and for the first time ever, vocals make their debut on a LABIRINTO album, on opening track „Agnus Dei“. „We invited Elaine Campos, she’s been singing in Brazilian punk and crust bands for over 20 years“, comments Curi. „It’s a huge pleasure for us to have such a veteran from the punk scene, a feminist and anarchist, guest on the track.“
It’s clear from the first synth drones inaugurating the opening track that doom lurks on the horizon, that „Divino Afflante Spiritu“ is not going to be a soundtrack to a tropical paradise – it’s a dark, cold record. „This album has a great emotional weight,” explains Cruxen. „It flourished during a very difficult phase in which we lost a very dear entity. It was a whirlwind of emotions that are materialized whenever we play the songs. This album, more than anything, represents for us loss and suffering, but also, passion and friendship.“
Oulu, Finland’s punk rock band DEPOSIT MAN have released their debut album called “Frustrate”. The album has 9 tracks of melodic punk rock and the lyrics deal with this post-truth time, where people sit safe in their own bubbles, acting as if they live perfect lives while shouting out their opinions, which typically follow some group’s pre-defined agenda. There is also one song about football.
The Frustrate album is available on CD, cassette and on digital platforms, released by Fast Decade Records from Helsinki, Finland and Upper Class Twat Tapes from Oulu, Finland.
Deposit Man was formed in 2014 by four Oulu based punk dads in their 30’s. Front man Lance Fono is originally from New Zealand and guitarist Elias Casanova hails from Catalonia, Spain. Deposit Man’s 2016 released EP and its single “Tyranny” gained attention from punk media around the world.
Boston pop-punk trio A CRASH REPUBLIC will release their debut EP Homewreckers: Sweet Apathy on February 1st, but today you can hear the new single “Overture.” The A Day To Remember-esque track is about hating your town and all of the people you find yourself around.
The new EP Homewreckers: Sweet Apathy is the first part of a planned trilogy of releases under the concept of a character who commits to counterculture. “Overture” positions that theme front and center with the character giving a middle finger to their zip code.
“‘Overture’ was a song I wrote while still in high school and trying to deal with the angst that comes with being a creative ‘edgy’ kid with some sort of fire in his heart (as cliche as that sounds),” says vocalist/guitarist Nick Tello. “While ‘Homewreckers’ is supposed to be a concept trilogy, a lot of the lyrics draw inspiration from my own internal struggles. From the story’s perspective, this is our first glimpse into the main character’s state of mind and claiming individualism over society and his ideas towards how he does not want to ‘fall in line.'”
Brisbane melodic post hardcore rockers DAYS LIKE THESE are giving you a heavier welcome in new track ‘The Absolute’. The single was recorded, mixed and mastered by Cory Judd (A Night in Texas) at Colossal Tracks Studio. It is the first time the band have not self-produced their music and, not only did it make the band work harder, it also allowed them to expand creatively. The video was filmed by Elliott Sauvage (Whitechapel, Alpha Wolf, & The Comfort) at Sauvage Photo and Film. The band have worked with Elliot previously and are stoked with the finished product he has created.
Callen Batson, Lead vocalist for the band, said “The song is about realising who you are is not who you want to be and that you are extremely unhappy with that. The more you dig into yourself, the more you realise that most of what you are unhappy with is your own fault. It is very pessimistic and does not have a resolution.” Following on from their debut EP, Days Like These put together the tracking, video and master all in the space of two months.
This track is a stand alone to show how the new single creates a genre shift, moving the band from pop-punk participants, into post-hardcore participators. Having toured with Stepson, Awaken I Am and Picturesque (USA) the guys in Days Like These are not shy to the live stage. Having just secured an opening slot for Secrets (USA) Brisbane show, on February 9th at Crowbar, this will be the first time ‘The Absolute’ will be performed live.
The Absolute is out today (Friday 18 January) and available on all digital and streaming platforms.
Pacific Northwest hardcore/powerviolence practitioners ENDORPHINS LOST will release their scathing Seclusions full-length next month via the newly-launched From The Head Of Zeus Records, helmed by Bay Area punk veteran Athena Kautsch (Six Weeks Records, Voetsek, The West Coast Power Violence Project). Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Deathgrave, Graves At Sea) at Earhammer Studio in Oakland, California, Seclusions finds the band in their most ferocious form yet boasting fourteen tracks of audio acrimony; the sound of end times incarnate.
Seclusions will be released on CD, vinyl, cassette, and digital formats on February 16th. Preorders are currently available in the player below, where first single, “Caduceus Rising” can be streamed.
ENDORPHINS LOST will pillage stages throughout 2019 beginning with a record release show February 16th with Black Queen, Great Falls, and City Of Industry. The band will blast this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest as well as Montreal Earslaughter. Additionally, ENDORPHINS LOST will be announcing a West Coast tour with French grind fiends Whoresnation as well as a Japanese live takeover in the waning months of 2019. Details to be announced in the months to come. Stay alert.
2/16/2019 Highline – Seattle WA * record release show w/ Black Queen, Great Falls, City Of Industry
4/19/2019 Top Knot Fest – Seattle, WA
4/20/2019 Little Devil’s Lunchbox – Port Angeles, WA w/ Turian, Noose
5/25/2019 Maryland Deathfest – Baltimore, MD
6/01/2019 Montreal Earslaughter – Montreal, QC
“A trial of our strength. A testament to our anger.” This is the embodiment of ENDORPHINS LOST, a fierce and manic powerviolence outfit based out of the Pacific Northwest. The band has continually evolved since its conception in 2009, increasing in speed and intensity while
amplifying its rudimentary overtone of misanthropy and the inherent dysfunction of mankind.
2013’s debut release Blood Pact (What’s Left/Bad People/Nuclear Ass Records) was a steamroller of crusty grindcore mixed with pummeling d-beat and was immediately followed by a split seven-inch with Indonesia’s Tersanjung 13. A lengthy southeast Asia tour soon followed. In 2014, the band then released a split seven-inch with Indiana grind violence maniacs Flvx Capacitor (Rotten To The Core Records) before touring the West Coast and Mexico in 2015.
After drafting new personnel, ENDORPHINS LOST released their most relentless display of audio violence yet with 2016’s split with San Jose riff merchants Deathgrave (Rotten To The Core Records). More touring ensued before the release of their full-length debut, Choose Your Way later that year via Six Weeks Records. They rest of the year was filled out with regular gigs throughout the Northwest followed by Canadian bombardments in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. Upon these regular assaults, they teamed up with Canadian face breakers OSK and hatched a plan that again took them into the studio. This time to record a split seven inch with OSK (2017; Rotten To The Core Records, Delusion Of Terror, Agromosh Records, New Age Pyrate Punx, All You Die Records). This was proceeded by a blistering western US tour before yet another trip to Earhammer Studio to fashion the sonic demolition that is this year’s Seclusions.
Long-running Mesa, AZ-based melodic punk/rock/reggae act AUTHORITY ZERO have dropped a music video for their song “Ah Hell” off of their latest album Persona Non Grata, their first studio self-release since their debut EP album Patches in Time over 17 years ago.
Frontman Jason Devore says, “”Ah Hell” is a “well, why the fuck not “ in life scenario. Idealistically it stems from when I was a kid. A lot of the older teenagers and younger kids that looked up to them would all go and ride BMX in a small town I lived in. The area we went to had a giant dirt bowl, killer terrain, and one big wicked kicker (jump) at the bottom. One day the teens pressured this little kid by bullying him into flying down the hill to make the jump and fit in. End result, the kid did a double backflip unintentionally and ended up landing on his face shattering all his teeth and bone structure. All that said the idea the final result is to stand up for yourself, don’t give in to pressure or bullies, take chances, but also take things at your own pace and do what you feel right for you.
Since ’94 Authority Zero has brought their unique blend of anthemic melodic-punk, ska, and reggae tone to the masses. A lot has changed in their 20 plus years since the band’s inception but they have always found a way to persist and thrive in todays ever-changing music landscape. “It’s been a long and adventurous trek”, says Jason Devore (singer/songwriter). The band was formed in Mesa, Arizona by a group of high school friends with ample ambition but no lofty expectations of what the project could become. With the release of their debut album, A Passage in Time (2002, Lava Records), the band’s career gained momentum and they quickly found themselves on the road, touring extensively with acts such as Pennywise, Sum 41, Flogging Molly, H20, and many more. Over the past ten years Authority Zero has gained international acclaim, spending time on the European festival circuit as well as stints in Australia, Russia, Japan. They have released a total of six full length studio albums, many holding spots on Billboard’s Chart and their music has been featured in numerous video games, tv shows, and movie soundtracks. The band’s many successes have been accompanied by a few bumps in the road including a slew of line-up changes, music industry letdowns, as well as having their van, trailer and equipment stolen while on tour in Texas. The secret to their longevity is simple; keep it pure and believe in your music.
Now, 24 years since the band’s inception, the future remains as bright as ever for Authority Zero, consisting of singer Jason DeVore, bassist Mike Spero, guitarist Dan Aid and drummer Chris Dalley. In June of 2018, the guys got back to work at legendary Fort Collins studio, The Blasting Room (Rise Against, Descendents, NOFX) to record their seventh full-length album, Persona Non Grata with producer and iconic punk drummer, Bill Stevenson (Black Flag/Descendents/ALL).
New Jersey Blackened Death Metallers HATH will release their full-length debut album, Of Rot and Ruin, April 12 on Willowtip Records. Of Rot and Ruin doesn’t just live up to the promise of superb 2015 debut EP Hive; it more than surpasses it with impressive songwriting growth and a sonic intensity that penetrates deep into the bones.
HATH released the following statement concerning the giant steps the band took to reach Of Rot and Ruin:
“For the new record, we wanted to take everything we learned with the first EP and build off of it. ‘Hive’ was really a learning experience for us. AJ was in the process of building a proper studio and we were all figuring out the best ways to record and engineer an album. Once AJ’s studio was up and running and with a few album releases under his belt, we felt confident in what we’d written and in his ability to produce a great album. The writing process for Of Rot And Ruin was much more deliberate than Hive. We really wanted to focus on songwriting and give special attention to how the songs and dynamics worked together. We strove for diverse yet cohesive songs. The result is a collection of songs that each have their own identity, yet all have the distinct Hath sound.”
Hath started in 2014 as a project between Frank Albanese and AJ Viana. Greg Nottis joined on bass during the writing of their first EP Hive, which released in 2015 to generally high praise.
In early 2017 Hath began recording their first full-length record. 2018 saw a lot of changes for the band. Hath signed a deal with Willowtip Records, added guitarist Peter Brown to the band, and finished Of Rot and Ruin.
The long awaited new album from folk rockers McDermott’s 2 Hours Vs. Levellers & Oysterband, entitled Besieged, has landed online!
When writers wax lyrical about the rugged Celtic beauty that came to fruition with The Pogues and Shane MacGowan, they often seem to suggest that time has stood still and that Irish music had been sitting,waiting, since the mid-sixties ballad boom of The Dubliners et al for something suddenly to connect the urgency of punk with the heart and soul of traditional music. But out in the rough and ready bars of Hamburg and a hundred other German hostelries a band was carving out and whittling its own take on the beauty of Irish folk music; adding fire, vitality and punk-style energy while handling the travails of fights and frolics, women, dark streets and the drink. This was before it was trendy or cool to take Irish folk music and add a rock edge, long before Pogue Mahone turned it all upside down.
The band morphed into McDermott’s 2 Hours in 1986 (named after a wonderfully unexpected happening on pirate radio during the Battle Of The Bogside as recalled in Eamonn McCann’s War And An Irish Town) ‘being Irish and in the wrong place and at the wrong time’ – to paraphrase MacGowan. In the pubs and clubs of Brighton and London they built a reputation for their incendiary live performances that have become legend. Among their wild and youthful admirers were a gaggle of friends who, a few years down the line, influenced by the spirit, fire and camaraderie of Nick Burbridge and McDermott’s 2 Hours, would strap on guitars and call themselves The Levellers. Those in the know realise that Nick Burbridge has been, and continues to be one of the best songwriters in the Anglo-Irish tradition. He fashions songs that, as well as perfectly capturing the gritty underbelly of the Irish experience in 60s/70s mainland UK, beautifully capture the longing for home and reality of the Troubles with all the evocative magnificence of Beckett or Joyce.
But that was then and this is now.
Besieged is not so much a final curtain as a magnificent encore, serving as the last instalment of a magnificent career. Singer, songwriter, poet, playwright and frontman with folk, rock, roots and punk outfit McDermott’s 2 Hours, Nick Burbridge releases his final album with the band on 8 February. Besieged sees Nick again team up with members of The Levellers (Jeremy Cunningham and Simon Friend), Oysterband (Dil Davies and Al Scott),Ben Paley (son of the late folk music giant Tom Paley), plus Tim Cotterell and friends, for the album’s twelve tracks. Released via The Levellers’ On The Fiddle Recordings, advance orders will also secure a bonus CD, Anticlockwise, featuring a fourteen-track ‘best of’ McDermott’s 2 Hours.
I left in the autumn and settled in Camden, Two in a room with a flute and accordion, Site-work was hard and the foreman a bastard, But we’d rakes in our pocket and hours our own, At the end of a long day we’d wander round Archway, Fit for the tunes and the women as well, When I called home I lied for now I knew why, I always believed I’d bid Erin farewell
– ‘Erin Farewell’-McDermott’s 2 Hours
American bluesy rockers RIVAL SONS have shared “Look Away,” the fourth new track to be released from their widely anticipated Low Country Sound / Atlantic Records debut LP, FERAL ROOTS. “Look Away” – which is available now at all DSPs – unfolds in a scorching social commentary over a soaring guitar anthem. Furthermore, “Look Away” is currently serving as the sonic backdrop for PBR’s (Professional Bull Riders) Unleash the Beast series, airing on CBS and CBS Sports Network.
Rival Sons are set to celebrate FERAL ROOTS with their first-ever full North American headline tour. The dates begin April 4th at Dallas, TX’s Trees and include stops at New York’s Brooklyn Steel, Philadelphia’s Union Transfer and Los Angeles’ Henry Fonda Theatre. Support on all US headline dates comes from The Sheepdogs. Following the North American headline run Rival Sons will head to Manchester, TN for the 2019 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival where they will perform on Friday, June 14th. For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.rivalsons.com.
Produced by GRAMMY Award-winner Dave Cobb at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A, and the equally legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL, FERAL ROOTS arrives everywhere on January 25th via Low Country Sound/Atlantic Records;
Following its digital release in early 2018 and the vinyl release later in the year, Dark Operative now presents POWER TRIP‘s Opening Fire: 2008-2014 on CD. The CD drops as the band is featured on the cover of Decibel Magazine, and days before the premiere of “Wayne,” the new YouTube series, featuring music from POWER TRIP.”
A collection of the band’s earliest non-LP output, the compilation documents POWER TRIP’s self-titled 7″, the “This World” single from The Extermination Vol: II LP compilation on Flatspot Records, the “Hammer of Doubt” 2010 version from America’s Hardcore LP compilation on Triple B Records, and the entirety of The Armageddon Blues Sessions. All tracks have been here been remastered by the band’s longtime producer Arthur Rizk and the release completed with bold artwork by illustrator Matt Stikker.
A track from POWER TRIP has been used in an episode of the YouTube Premium series Wayne. The show follows fifteen-year-old Wayne who sets out on a dirt bike with his new crush Del to take back the 1978 Pontiac Trans Am that was stolen from his father before he died. It is Wayne and Del against the world. The series launches on Wednesday, January 19th, on YouTube Premium.
POWER TRIP’s Southern Lord-released breakthrough album, Nightmare Logic, has earned praise from The New Yorker to a Pitchfork’s Best New Music, to countless best-of/year-end lists. The band was awarded the Best Metal Album Of The Year from Loudwire and song placement in the WWE. Touring relentlessly, the band has headlined tours across North America, Europe, and Japan last year, recently supported Danzig on several US shows, and is and confirmed to support The Original Misfits alongside Fear and Venom Inc. in Chicago this April.
4/13/2019 White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX @ Hell’s Heroes II w/ Razor, Exciter, more
4/20/2019 The Park Theatre – Winnipeg, MB @ Manitoboa Metalfest
4/27/2019 Allstate Arena – Rosemont, IL w/ The Original Misfits, Fear, Venom Inc.
6/16/2019 Donnington Park Circuit – Derby, UK
6/23/2019 Plein Air – Dessel, FR
6/28/2019 Suvilahti – Helsinki, FI
Lithuania based post-rock / post metal band AUTISM have shared a new single called “No Word” from their upcoming album. Two years ago the four from Vilnius, Lithuania surprised listeners with their remarkably mature and thorough album “Film Noir”. Today the post metal band Autism has created something novel: connoisseurs of music are coming back with a brand new conceptual album “Have You Found Peace?”, which premieres on the 4th of February.
Up until now Autism was only interested in creating instrumental music, yet one event made the band to move forward and take a step into unfamiliar territory. Krzysztof Traczyk, the vocalist of the post metal band ROSK from neighboring Poland, has the honor of – even if as a guest and only periodically – being the first person behind the microphone to conduct the instrumental band. This story began at one of the Autism concerts when at the time the new song “No Word” was performed by improvising and merging playing with singing. After this memorable evening it was clear that the next band’s record will include a vocal element. Moreover, the process of creating the new album brought even more interesting names: post industrial music warlock Povilas Vaitkevičius (Oorchach, Vilkduja), Lithuanian experimental music guru Laurynas Jukonis (Girnų Giesmės, Anubi), another member of ROSK Mateusz Szymanski and the Erdve musician Valdas Voveraitis. Thus it is apparent that Autism is stepping out of their stylistic comfort zone by intuitively seeking for an unplanned, captivating and ingenious result.
20 Buck Spin is preparing to release the annihilating third LP from Baltimore’s rising grind/thrash outfit NOISEM. Their recently completed Cease To Exist is now slated for a March 15th release on all platforms, and this week, the label has dispatched the dominating “Eyes Pried Open” track for public infiltration.
NOISEM returns from the dead with Cease To Exist; leaner, meaner, with a new label and new life. After heavy momentum with their second LP, Blossoming Decay, and subsequent touring including the 2015 Decibel Magazine tour supporting Carcass, Gorguts, and The Black Dahlia Murder, the band seemingly disappeared. However, 2018 saw them return in new form, ready to resume their place among the most promising young bands in metal. This was met with a late-2018 non-album single, “Sin Rash,” released through the Adult Swim singles series.
Keeping with the tradition of the most classic grindcore albums, Cease To Exist is an immediately aggressive attack of confrontational energy, pushing the pace with a withering ten tracks over twenty-two minutes. An eruption of grinding blastbeats, unceasing death-thrash riffs, and an acidic vocal snarl to rival prime Jeff Walker, Cease To Exist quells any notion that NOISEM would ease up with time. If nothing else, the band’s third LP is their most seething, vicious, and inwardly dark album yet.
Far from being a typical grindcore record, Cease To Exist is a cacophony of grind, death, thrash, punk, and hardcore, seamlessly blended, blistered, and set ablaze. Having now re-emerged with a furious new album and live actions, with Cease To Exist, NOISEM make a full circle statement of intent; a savage declaration in the face of an ever more bleak future.
Cease To Exist was recorded at Developing Nations by Kevin Bernsten (Integrity, Full Of Hell, Magrudergrind), mastered at Audiosiege by Brad Boatright (Obituary, Integrity, Black Breath), and completed with artwork by Ethan McCarthy/Cool Ghoul Ltd. (Primitive Man). Fans of early Carcass, Repulsion, Napalm Death, Exhumed, Nasum, Terrorizer, Mammoth Grinder, Black Breath should get on board.
After spending part of 2018 sharing the stage with Neurosis and Converge, AMENRA is hitting the road yet again, this time joining Yob and Voivod across North America this Spring. The band has also announced a forthcoming documentary chronicling the band’s twenty-year legacy.
Filmed and edited by Bobby Cochran, the documentary provides viewers with a glimpse behind the veil that shrouds one of metal’s most spellbinding acts. Oscillating between high-octane live clips, intimate interviews, and never-before-seen footage of the band in their hometown and across the globe, the Amenra XX Documentary casts a light on a band that continues to conjure beauty from the world’s shadows. The full documentary will premiere in Summer 2019 via Revolver Magazine.
AMENRA’s music is a disciplined study of contrasts that has been ongoing for nearly two decades. Torturous darkness coexists with luminous artistry, thunderous crescendos are hightailed by tiptoeing refrains. With 2017’s Mass VI, AMENRA highlighted those contradictions with a captivating boldness. Colossal riffs shake listeners to their core while singer Colin H. Van Eeckhout shrieks so agonizingly that one can almost picture him onstage, clawing at himself, back turned to the world. It is this boisterous isolation that makes AMENRA one of heavy music’s most captivating acts.
3/26/2019 Fine Line – Minneapolis, MN
3/27/2019 Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL
3/28/2019 Ace Of Cups – Columbus, OH
3/29/2019 Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
3/30/2019 Phoenix – Toronto, ON
3/31/2019 Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY
4/02/2019 Geno’s – Portland, ME
4/03/2019 Royale – Boston, MA
4/04/2019 Warsaw – Brooklyn, NY
4/05/2019 Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA
4/06/2019 Broadberry – Richmond, VA
4/07/2019 Kings – Raleigh, NC
4/09/2019 Concourse – Knoxville, TN
4/10/2019 Masquerade (Hell) – Atlanta, GA
4/11/2019 One Eyed Jack’s – New Orleans, LA
4/12/2019 Warehouse – Houston, TX
4/13/2019 Barracuda – Austin, TX
4/14/2019 Gas Monkey – Dallas, TX
4/16/2019 Marquis Theater – Denver, CO [no Voivod]
4/20/2019 Catch One – Los Angeles, CA [AMENRA only]
Henry Rollins is launching his new comedy special “Keep Talking, Pal” on February 12 via the Comedy Dynamics Network.
Revolver Magazine is hosting the premiere of “Predatory Animals,” the new single from CHROME WAVES and their impending debut LP, A Grief Observed, set for release through Disorder Recordings on March 1st.
CHROME WAVES, formed by former members of Wolvhammer, Nachtmystium, Abigail Williams, The Gates Of Slumber, Amiensus, and more, makes its return with a new lineup and their first full-length album, A Grief Observed. The record was engineered by Niko Albanese and the band’s James Benson and Jeff Wilson and finished with artwork by Wilson.
With their premiere of “Predatory Animals,” Revolver Magazine writes in part, “Despite the cathartic, scream-oriented vocals, CHROME WAVES strive to be more Catherine Wheel than Darkthrone, and even the focus of the latest track ‘Predatory Animals’ is on the melody. Utilizing the tough vocals as another layer in the multi-dimensional approach rooted in metal, CHROME WAVES explore what it means to be emotional while maintaining muscularity and grace. It’s a beautiful track that delves into both sides of despair at once, calling out into the void while keeping a modicum of inner strength.”
The band offers,
“While not everyone is interested in eight-minute, fuzz and reverb drenched epics, most people can enjoy the catchier tune. Since we do as well, we added a couple shorter and more to the point bangers on the record. This one has it all, your verse/chorus/verse structure, your vocal hook, and it’s even got a guitar solo. This is ‘Predatory Animals.'”
CHROME WAVES has announced a run of tour dates through the Midwest at the end of February into early March. Running from February 27th through March 3rd, with shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Milwaukee, the five-city trek sees the band joined by Without Waves.
CHROME WAVES w/ Without Waves:
2/27/2019 Hexagon – Minneapolis, MN
2/28/2019 Livewire – Chicago, IL
3/01/2019 Black Circle Brewing – Indianapolis, IN
3/02/2019 Open Community Arts Center – Louisville, KY
3/03/2019 Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI
After departing Wolvhammer and Abigail Williams in 2018, Jeff Wilson set out to finally make CHROME WAVES a full-time endeavor and brought in new guitarist/vocalist James Benson (Amiensus) alongside the returning Bob Fouts on drums. With a renewed sense of inspiration, the revamped lineup began recording immediately, with their sights set on completing their long-awaited debut full-length, A Grief Observed. In October, the trio issued the first new CHROME WAVES track in six years with “Burdened,” the first single from the impending LP. Several weeks later, the outfit released a non-album cover of Slowdive’s “When The Sun Hits” while continuing to wrap-up production on A Grief Observed.
Formed in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, an area colloquially known as Canada’s Bible Belt, alt rockers / post punks BLESSED have always been an unlikely DIY success story. Purveyors of an anarchic and cerebral brand of roiling post punk, the band has self-released two EPs that have been praised by outlets like FADER, Noisey, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, DIY and GoldFlakePaint, and toured relentlessly playing over 200 dates with artists like Preoccupations, The Courtneys, Chastity, and The Austerity Program, and today, they are announcing their long awaited debut LP, Salt.
Due out April 5th the album was recorded and mixed over three weeks in Montreal with producer Jace Lasek (Suuns, Wolf Parade, Land of Talk), and finds this already expansive group pushing the boundaries of their sound. Having incorporated a fifth member on guitar/keys, they explore the nuances only touched on in previous releases, with songs that range from short, staccato, punk-tinged flares to lengthy escapades that recall Deerhunter’s noise-rock freak-outs and Do Make Say Think’s lush cinematic passages.
To mark the announce the band have shared the first single “Disease” via Paste. Paste highlight the blend of post punk with new wave textures on the track, which captures the band in a moment of doom-laden theatricality, as ominous synth leads flow into with layered guitars to deliver a sound somewhere between the spiny sharp edges of Josef K and the dour synth pop of Depeche Mode.
In conversation with Paste the band reveal the typically meticulous process that went into the track’s creation.
“We had created two versions of the song while recording it, because we felt unsure of the direction we wanted to end up with,” the band tell Paste. “Everybody tracked this song twice, structurally the same but with very different aesthetic choices regarding the sound design. We happened to be in the same place at the same time as our friends The Avulsions at the time as well, so Josh stopped in to track a couple moments on this track. One was much safer, cleaner, and almost completely devoid of effects in any form. We mixed the album in the middle of a lengthy tour, swapping headphones in the back of the van and during downtime between soundchecking and bands starting. When we were ready to start mixing this track, Jace Lasek, who engineered our album, sent us this version. It was the first track on the record that we sent back with zero notes and felt needed nothing done. After spending so much time going back and forth while recording, we had gone too far into our own heads to realize one felt overbearingly better than the other.”
In support of Salt Blessed will be touring extensively in 2019. Their first set of dates, which begin in March and will include a stop at SXSW are detailed below.
03/07 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Underground
03/08 Denver, CO @ Nude City Relief Center
03/09 Albuquerque, NM @ The Fly Honey Warehouse
03/10 Denton, TX @ TBA
03/13 – 03/16 Austin, TX @ SXSW
04/05 Abbotsford, BC @ Rugby Club
04/06 Vancouver, BC @ Red Gate
04/09 Calgary, AB @ The Palomino Smokehouse & Social Club
04/10 Lethbridge, AB @ The Slice
04/11 Edmonton, AB @ The Buckingham
04/12 Saskatoon, SK @ SK Indoor Skatepark
04/13 Winnipeg, MB @ The Handsome Daughter
04/15 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium
04/16 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry*
04/18 Iowa City, IA @ Iowa City Gabe’s (Downstairs)*
04/19 Madison, WI @ Art In*
04/20 Milwaukee, WI @ X Ray Arcade*
04/21 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean (Downstairs)
04/22 St. Louis, MO @ FOAM
04/23 Fayetteville, AR @ Backspace
04/25 Nashville, TN @ Drkmttr Collective
04/26 Lexington, KY @ Best Friend Bar
04/27 Cincinnati, OH @ The Comet
04/28 Pittsburgh, PA @ Black Forge
* w/ Tunic
“Dominated by the high-fructose riffing pioneered by Deerhoof, giving way to a darker, propulsive jam that’s just as chaotic, yet well-controlled.” The Fader
“Late-00s indie filtered through the spasticity of Thee Oh Sees or Emperor X. As a whole, the whole thing carries a peripatetic weight that’s not dissimilar from the Liars records of yore, and resonates as both more playful and more robust.” Consequence of Sound\
Post-punk blown out to a prog-rock scope / Stereogum“Blessed’s sound is weird, noisy and harsh, drawing from surf, rock and post-punk in equal measure. It’s if Radiohead decided to go back to playing guitars and singing actual words with a Siouxsie and the Banshees twist.” Noisey
“It’s a nonchalant take on the weirder side of post-punk – one that’s impossible to look away from as it takes every approaching corner at high-speed.” DIY MAG
“Like Devo spliced onto Marquee Moon, cut and diced and reassembled into something even greater – diabolically wrong, but so good.”
Gold Flake Paint
“Judas Kiss” is the second single release from the upcoming “Metamorphosis” album by experimental metal/rock act DEFYING DECAY. The video is a visceral abstraction of a Metamorphosis, the transformation of matter to a hybrid consciousness. You can watch the video for “Judas Kiss” here.
Speaking about the single and video, vocalist ‘Jay’ Poom Euarchukiati says:
“This song was the first song we finished writing for the album. It was originally on a 8-bit sounding synth and it was the first time that I decided to experiment more with electronic elements. With vibes of urgency, aggression and mystery, I’d say this is definitely something on the more heavy side of this album we’ve worked on
In regards to the video, I wanted something different – I feel like band performance music videos are getting boring, especially as we have a few of those. The video footage that we used was actually supposed to be for the narrative for our previous single ‘Ghost’ but when it was done, myself and our director Stuart thought it was too good on its own so we kept it and used it to make our short film ‘APEX’. We then later used it to develop a music video for ‘Judas Kiss'”.
The visuals feature excerpts from a critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning short film “APEX”. The film, directed by Stuart Birchall, was executive produced by Jay. Stuart and Jay have worked on a number of short conceptual films, including “Dominion” & “Holding Company” – both are to be released later in 2019. The duo share an affinity for the arts, anime and science fiction. Jay was keen to work with filmmaker Stuart after following his ongoing work with Architects, Kerrang! winning-work with Bring Me The Horizon, and a series of films with Bullet For My Valentine.
“APEX” is a dark experimental sci-fi that has received over 50 awards since its release in 2018 and continues to inspire audiences worldwide. It’ll be featured in Slamdance later this month, and can be seen at a variety of online festivals this year.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will kick their long-anticipated North American headlining tour Saturday January 19th in San Antonio, Texas. Sponsored by Revolver Magazine, the month-long journey will run through February 27th in Nashville, Tennessee and features support from Crowbar and Mothership, as well as Weedeater and The Obsessed on select shows. Additionally, the tour includes a free CORROSION OF CONFORMITY solo performance at Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut February 15th. Upon the tour’s conclusion, band will play a special show Mardi Gras weekend with Crowbar at Southport Music Hall in New Orleans, Louisiana. GO HERE to see the full itinerary.
In October, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will appear on the inaugural MegaCruise alongside Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, and so many others with more shows to be announced in the months to come. See all confirmed dates below.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY released the critically-adored No Cross No Crown full-length early last year via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Recorded in North Carolina with longtime producer John Custer, the record marks the first studio recording with vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan in over a decade and, earning the #67 spot on the Billboard Top 200 Chart, #12 on the Billboard Top Current Albums Chart, and #3 on the Top Hard Music Albums Chart upon its first week of release, is the highest charting album of the band’s career. Hailed Decibel Magazine of the release,
“The record is filled with the kind of Sabbath meets Black Flag meets Lynyrd Skynyrd jams that were so infectious and wildly influential back when Bill Clinton seduced interns…COCdoesn’t try to change direction but instead revisits the approach that made the Keenan-fronted version so successful: powerful hooks, instrumental asides that will remind you of Sabbath’s ‘Planet Caravan’ and a rich use of textures and dynamics.”
