We’ve been bigging up York’s mighty riffmongers JUKU since their debut gig in the summer of 2023, because they’re simply fucking awesome, a real force to be reckoned with. Punky, new-wavey, but noisy, full-on, a sonic powerhouse.
Now, you don’t just have to take our word for it if you can’t see them live, as they’ve unveiled a video for ‘What?’ It encapsulates the band, and their sound, perfectly.
They write, ‘As a band, we sit in the place where creativity meets raw chaos. In our world, noise is harnessed as a form of expression. We channel frustration into sound. We take our discontent and transform it into energy. We outright challenge the notion of what it means to be seen and heard in the music industry, which often silences dissent… This track is a prime example of the things that motivate us to do what we do. Question everything and everyone, and do not allow your voice to be pushed into the obscurity of the background.’
Leatherette are back with brand new single ‘Itchy’ to mark the start of their recently announced EU/UK tour. The tour includes a show at London’s The Shacklewell Arms on 13th February.
After testing the song live during their second album Small Talk tour last year, they decided to record it themselves at home in a completely spontaneous manner, in messy rooms and using cheap instruments (including unlikely ones such as mandolin and bouzouki).”Being eternally dissatisfied, but also tireless explorers, we decided to return to our origins, seeking the expressive freedom that can be found in DIY”. The result was then entrusted for mixing to the usual collaborator Chris Fullard (Idles, Boris), and for mastering to Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher).
‘Itchy’ is a cathartic breakup song, blending the raw energy of post-punk with the angular charm of new wave. Written from the perspective of an inept and creepy protagonist, the track navigates the emotional chaos of a crumbling relationship, where frustration, anger, and reluctant self-realization collide. The song channels a blend of influences—from The Smiths’ melancholy to the frenzied urgency of The Pixies and the romantic nihilism of Tears for Fears. It’s a feverish exploration of love’s end, wrapped in an infectious, almost grotesque sonic landscape. Finally, it all resolves with a delicate, haunting arpeggio—like the quiet after the storm, offering a fleeting sense of clarity amid the wreckage.
Cool.
AA
EU/UK TOUR – FEBRUARY 2025
Thu 06 – Radio Rasa – Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Fri 07 – Le Rockerill – Charleroi, Beglium
Sat 08 – Zero Degree Est – Les Roches-L’Eveque, France
Robert Poss vs. Opollo is a new collaboration between Jarek Leskiewicz and Robert Poss (Band of Susans).
OTAGO is an expansive, textured, semi-ambient guitar work with some bold sounds and brooding atmospheres.
It’s available to stream or download via Bandcamp on a ‘pay what you feel’ basis. Check it here, along with the visual accompaniment to ‘Destroyed Wild Bird’:
UK Progressive Rock group Frost* is pleased to share a new stand-alone single titled ‘Western Atmosphere.’ This song was originally featured as a Japanese-only bonus track on the album ‘Life in the Wires,’ and sees band leader Jem Godfrey joined by Randy McStine (Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree – live guitarist), Mike Keneally (Devin Townsend) & Nick D’Virgilio (Big Big Train).
Godfrey says this about the track: “I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I stayed in bed 10 minutes longer than I did on Monday 11th of January 2010. Perhaps my life would have gone in a completely different direction and Frost* would have ended up with the lineup of myself on keys, vocals and bass, Mike Keneally on guitar, Nick D’Virgilio on drums and Randy McStine on guitar and vocals. We’ll never know, I guess.”
“Golem Mecanique touch[es] upon the ashes and fibres of back metal and the DNA of gothic music, literature, sorcery, and most of all—poetry.” – Stephen O’Malley
The last words that poet and visionary film director Pier Paolo Pasolini said in his final interview were “Siamo tutti in pericolo”; translated: we are all in danger. Pasolini was then brutally murdered on a beach in Italy, a case which is still cold today.
On this album, named after the man’s final public words, Golem Mecanique loses herself on that same Italian beach alongside his body and translates her observations and mourning into a devastating musical landscape. Siamo tutti in pericolo will be released via Stephen O’Malley’s Ideologic Organ label on 14th March.
Siamo tutti in pericolo is dangerous, conveying the darkness and uneasy nature of both the art Pasolini created when he was alive and the circumstances of his murder. In her early teens, Golem taped the Pasolini film Accatone when it was shown on television and watched it the next day after school. In her words, “it was an earthquake!”,
Immediately leaving a great impression on her as it was unlike anything she had ever seen before. She describes the feeling she has when watching a Pasolini film as “silent violence” – a cold and radical response which calls into question her beliefs about the behaviour of people and lies and truth. She hopes to evoke this feeling with her music – a melding of beauty and dread.
Today, she shares the track ‘La Notte’ from the album…
UK Post-Metal trio The Grey has unveiled a striking music video for their latest single, ‘Sharpen the Knife,’ featuring a powerful guest appearance by Grady Avenell of Will Haven. This track offers fans another glimpse into the band’s highly anticipated third album, Kodok, set to drop on February 28 via Majestic Mountain Records.
Building on the success of their acclaimed earlier releases—Dead Fire (2019) and The Grey (2018)—Kodok delivers a masterful blend of raw energy, deep emotion, and artistic evolution. With intricate layers, immersive textures, and an expanded sonic palette, the album pushes the boundaries of the band’s post-metal sound. Adding to the album’s depth are standout collaborations with Ace Skunk Anansie, Ricky Warwick, fattybassman, and dARKMODE, infusing the project with fresh perspectives and rich musicality.
One of Aural Aggro’s favourite bands of recent years, Pound Land have kicked off 2025 with a live album recorded late last year, available at the bargain basement price of Pay What You Like and free to stream.
Their third live release, it captures them almost a year and a half on from Live at New River Studios, which featured an altogether different – and one off – iteration of the band, and on storming form, a mess of feedback, thunderous percussion and dingy bass. The majority of the set is lifted from Mugged, with a full-on rendition of ‘Pistol Shrimp’ and the trudging grind of ‘Power to the People’ bringing the pace to a mid-set crawl. It also provides the first live airing of new song ‘Cunt Do It’, which comes on like The Anti-Nowhere League’s Animal fronting Swans as they tackle a Hawkwind cover.
It’s pretty bloody brutal, and absolutely bloody brilliant.
Norwegian world music collective Wardruna release a live video for the song ‘Heimta Thurs’. The video is a part of the band’s Live at the Acropolis show, which will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray alongside Wardruna’s new album Birna on January 24th.
Originating from Wardruna’s debut album Runaljod – Gap var ginnunga, the song ‘Heimta Thurs’ has grown into one of the group’s most iconic songs and a fan favourite. Set against the backdrop of the world heritage site Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Acropolis, the composition and visual experience reach ecstatic new heights.
The connections between the old and ancient, deeply human and natural at the same time can be felt at every live performance of Wardruna, resounding equally on stage and throughout the audience. Live at the Acropolis is a testament to that.
Aural Aggravation is extremely proud to present a new exclusive video premiere in the shape of ‘Opilione’ by Vomitriste .
We promise work from the furthest reaches beyond the mainstream, and this is it.
Vomistriste comment: ‘Opilione’ probably represents the darkest corners of Black Abyss Invocation as a whole, encapsulating the claustrophobic anguish and pervasive dread that discolours the entirety of the record. During the recording session, this is where everything ultimately clicked together seamlessly and solidified this new dismal and murky direction of the band. Murmuring words and uttering phrases that shall not be written on top of ever-evolving vortex-esque sonics… It’s apparently possible to scare yourself solely by being who you are and doing what you must.”
‘Opilione’ is dark and nasty – and we love it.
Vomitriste began their aural trek in 2022 by means of crafting colossal, noisy drones and profound dark ambient, and went on to release six albums under that motif during the following two years. While the duo’s visceral output was greeted with open arms by many and their signature sound found new aspects to itself through life shows, midway through 2024 the project came to its natural conclusion. With the aim of putting one last effort out under the moniker, the two musicians decided to instead leave all pre-conceived notions of what the band should be out of their mutual headspace, and begun composing the idea of doing something else entirely with a fresh approach and open mindset. The end result was something unexpected, which left the duo initially perplexed, but soon turned out to be a restart of sorts for the band. The previous records were lumped under the collective title of Droneworks (2022-2024) and now, a new chapter has begun.
Black Abyss Invocation is the first album under this newfound direction, introducing Vomitriste anew as a vessel of grating and pervasive cacophonous dread it was always meant to be. Certain aspects of their previous doings are present, but the seminal orientation across the record lies at the perimeters of black ambient and death industrial, taking elements from black metal and noise and mashing those together with dark ambient and electronics, with the inclusion of ritualistic and trance-inducing, jarring rhythms and waypast ominous atmospheres. The void has opened its maw once more, and instead of balancing on its rim, Vomitriste dove straight into the unknown without hesitation only to emerge from the opposite end speaking a malformed and atrocious language while sporting only motes of resemblance of its past self.
The six songs making up Black Abyss Invocation were created in a single session overnight, and left its creators in awe of what they accidentally stumbled upon. The sonic terrains discovered were nothing sort of hostile and unfathomably haunting, yet the kind that lures you deeper and deeper into its uncharted areas on every passing second. Where once stood a wall signifying the ultimate point of unease and anxiety, now a vast black ocean spread out, beckoning both the band as well as its listeners to wade into it until reaching neck-deep and suddenly being pulled down by something inexplicable and unnamed. Where there once was scarce light, now there is none.
Born from a love of experimental rock, noise rock, early industrial, sludge, and doom, Guiltless (featuring members of A Storm of Light, Intronaut, Generation of Vipers and Battle of Mice) heralds the coming of a heavy music which looks both inwards and out to convey the encompassing mixture of hope, despair and determination which comes from observing life as we know it today. Guiltless released their debut EP, Thorns, via Neurot Recordings in early 2024. Crushing and cheerless, it seemed to welcome the apocalypse looming on our collective horizon.
On March 7th 2025, Guiltless shall release their debut full-length album Teeth To Sky via Neurot, a record more pulverising, focused and introspective than what came before.
Today they share the bruising title track today, which combines the gnarled sensibilities of The Jesus Lizard, Cherubs and Barn Owl into a rumination on Mother Nature’s revenge. “The title track represents a surrender to nature’s unstoppable force,” vocalist Josh Graham says. “As climate extremes continue to grow and impact virtually everyone on earth, we are now facing the impact of our forefathers’ actions, and our children will live through a new and unprecedented future.”
Aural Aggravation 