Following recent albums from Grave Lines and Limb, London label New Heavy Sounds have signed self described ‘dark witch, doom duo’ BlackLab who hail from Osaka Japan. They will release ’Under the Strawberry Moon 2.0′ on 20th July. Ahead of that, they’re streaming ‘Black Moon’ as a taster of their ‘fuzz, fuzz, fuzz, doom, stoner, more fuzz’ sound. It packs some heavy trudge riffery. You can get your lugs round it here:
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Thou have announced their return with new full-length, Magus. With the impending release of Magus, the band have decided to take a different approach and release three EPs ahead of the full-length, each of which the band note “are all a complete sonic departure from Magus and from each other…”
Magus, Thou’s first full-length since 2014’s Heathen, will be released on 31st August by Sacred Bones Records. In the months leading into the new album, Thou will be releasing three drastically different EPs: The House Primordial on Raw Sugar, Inconsolable on Community Records, and Rhea Sylvia on Deathwish, Inc. Each record will focus on a particular sound-noisy drone, quiet acoustic, and melodic grunge-all of which is incorporated into the new record, subsumed in the band’s more standard doom metal.
‘The Changeling Prince’ will feature on Magus, and you can hear it here:
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Baptists have shared the mid-paced rock-stomper ‘Victim Service’, which is taken from their third album Beacon Of Faith, out through Southern Lord on 25th May.
Beacon Of Faith broadly follows the same trajectory as the album’s predecessors, Bushcraft (2013) and Bloodmines (2014) – combining raw adrenaline-fuelled emotion, venomous vocal delivery, gigantic guitar sound, and a visceral rhythmic propulsion – a sonic manifestation of desolate rage, bolstered by a palpable sense of urgency.
Beacon Of Faith is densely-packed yet Baptists’ sound is far from claustrophobic, there is melody amongst the dissonance, as the band more deeply explore the noise rock vistas that have always underpinned their sound.
Lyrics are drawn from their direct experience of a broken society and general discontentment with everyday life. A multitude of issues are in the firing line, from the Canadian court system, issues surrounding substance abuse, mental health, and how the more fortunate “tend to dismiss people who have been dealt a less-fortunate hand” – as guitarist Danny also reflects.
Listen to ‘Victim Service’ here:
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Brooklyn-based trio Spotlights are releasing Hanging By Faith, a five-song EP featuring remixes of tracks from their 2017 LP Seismic by Void Manes and ISIS/Palms’ Aaron Harris via Ipecac on June 15th. The fifth song on the EP, ‘Faith’, is a cover of The Cure classic. It faithfully captures the bleak atmosphere of the original while bringing new dimensions, additional weight, and and expansive post-rock vibe. Listen to it here:
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The London based alternative/indie rock trio Desert Mountain Tribe will release their second album on 1st June. Om Parvat Mystery is co-produced by the band with James Aparicio and was recorded in London and the Faroe Islands. Najma Akhtar, the well known British singer of Indian ancestry who has previously collaborated with the likes of Page & Plant and Jah Wobble as well as making several acclaimed solo albums in her own right, features on two songs.
Describing the new album, DMT say : “We’re very proud of this new record. It definitely shows a progression from our personal tastes in music and style of playing. We didn’t consciously make an effort to sound different from the first album but it felt like a natural development to a more experimental sound.”
Ahead of the album, and following lead single ‘Wide Eyes’, they’re streaming ‘High Drive’. Get your lugs round it here:
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Having released one of our favourite albums of 2016 in the form of Observed in a Dream, Norwegian band Mayflower Madame return with their new Premonition EP on 18th May.
Through four tracks of psych-theatrical ingenuity, shady shoegaze and 1980s dark romanticism, the EP conveys the wintry feeling of their home country – icy and gloomy, haunting and majestic.
Title track ‘Premonition’ is an apocalyptic love song where dark psychedelic post-punk combine with haunting vocals to create a feeling of impending doom.
Stream ‘Premonition’ here:
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With their debut album Valley of Thorns having landed last week and attendant single ‘Mind Games’ actually breaking the UK charts, it’s been a big few days for The Kut. And they’ve now announced an extensive UK tour in support of the album. We’re excited.
The dates are below, and you can watch the video to ‘Mind Games’ here:
Tour Dates –
27/07 – B2 – Norwich
28/07 – Mama Liz’s Voodoo Lounge – Stamford
29/07 – The Green Door Store – Brighton
31/07 – The Joiner’s Arm – Southampton
1/08 – Mole’s Club – Bath
03/08 – The Zanzibar – Liverpool
04/08 – The Bread Shed – Manchester
07/08 – TBC – Glasgow
08/08 – Bannerman’s Edinburgh – Edinburgh
09/08 – The Brickyard – Carlisle
10/08 – Trillian’s Rock Bar – Newcastle Upon Tyne
11/08 – The Soundhouse – Leicester
12/08 – The Verve – Leeds
13/08 – West Street Live – Sheffield
14/08 – Arches Venue – Coventry
15/08 – The Castle and Falcon – Birmingham
16/08 – The Chelsea In – Bristol
17/08 – The Moon – Cardiff
ZU93 is the effectively named new collaboration between David Tibet and the ever changing Italian group Zu, centred around Massimo Pupillo and Luca Mai. House of Mythology are proud to release their debut album Mirror Emperor on the 6th July.
“The album is the closing of a long circle for me,” comments Massimo Pupillo…“I’ve been following David’s work since the early days and count Current 93 as one of the main inspirations behind my work with Zu. For me his poetry and music is like a light in the depths of human experience, a soundtrack for one’s personal descent into the unconscious fields”. Tibet says of their union, “Zu made something very beautiful and very powerful for me to skip into. I love this album,” Mirror Emperor adds another chapter in Tibet’s ever expanding oblique vision, personal, dense and hallucinatory. A voice through a cloud, indeed.
On Mirror Emperor, the demiurge of our demise hides in the cracks of a broken world, beneath stones and moss, among the comets, in tears and things and on BloodBoats, as if a “cosmic melancholy” (Ligotti) is being articulated. More mourning than light. Tibet explains: "We all carry different faces, different masks, and all of them will be taken from us. We were born free, and fell through the Mirror into a UnWorld, a Mirror Empire. In this Mirror Empire we are under the Mirror Emperor, and there are MANY Bad Moons Rising. At the final curtain there is scant applause."
Ahead of the album, they’re streaming ‘The Absence of the Mirror Emperor’ as a taster. Get your lugs round it here:
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Dead Cross, the SoCal hardcore outfit featuring Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Misfits), Mike Patton (Faith No More, Tomahawk), Justin Pearson (The Locust, Retox) and Michael Crain (Retox, Festival of Dead Deer), have released a self-titled, four-track EP via Ipecac Recordings.
News of the EP arrives as the band premieres a video for ‘My Perfect Prisoner’. The clip was produced by Eric Livingston who also created the cover art for both the band’s full-length debut and this EP.
“I think part of Dead Cross’ motives are to bridge gaps between useless genres and definitions. Part also might be to just burn that shit down. It’s in our collective DNA. Either way, as long as people love it or hate it, we succeed.” – Justin Pearson.
Watch the vid for ‘My Perfect Prisoner’ here:
Based in Nottingham, UK, Bone Cult are a ‘Death-Electronic’ duo. To mark the fifth anniversary of the band, Bone Cult are re-releasing a selection of their standout tracks that follow the evolution of their sound.
‘Healed’ originally appeared on their debut EP Liber Phasma in 2014, but has remained one of their most popular songs, despite never being released as a single. The track recently featured in the online game Avakin Life where digital models of the band performed the track inside a virtual venue.
Listen to ‘Healed’ here:
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