For Malcolm Pardon, there’s beauty in our universal, inescapable demise. Like the romantic notion of the orchestra on board the Titanic playing their repertoire as the ship went down, on his second solo album Pardon looks past the bleak or macabre to observe death as a multi-layered, lifelong acquaintance.
“It’s not meant to be threatening or horrific in any way,” says Pardon of The Abyss. “There’s this constant dialogue we have with ourselves about how we’re going to die at some point. It’s like a constant companion, so you might as well get to know it, and befriend it.”
As one half of Roll The Dice, Pardon worked alongside fellow Stockholm resident Peder Mannerfelt on brooding fusions of electronica and classical composition. By contrast, his 2021 solo debut Hello Death saw him take a much more stripped-down approach, placing the emphasis on plaintive piano composition with only the subtlest of sonic treatments in the space around the notes. Without intentionally setting out to record a conceptual follow up, as he developed the sketches which would become The Abyss, Pardon found himself contemplating unknown futures and the artists’ quest into unexplored territory.
“For me, on a musical level The Abyss represents exploring your own capabilities,” he says, “Starting from an empty canvas, then slowly finding the way forward by connecting the right notes. It’s almost a subconscious experience. I sit down by the piano, and if I’m lucky I find something that takes me down the vortex.”
The lilting romanticism of ‘Enter The Void’ serves as a perfect distillation of Pardon’s approach, balancing a delicate piano refrain with a low, rumbling blast of noise before being carried aloft by swooning strings that echo down a distant hall. There’s beauty and hope shot through with foreboding in the particular treatment of each sound, the harmonic interplay between the musical elements and the gentle rise and fall of the arrangement.
US-based occult doom rock trio Hail Darkness are set to enchant listeners with their debut full-length album, Death Divine, scheduled to be released on August 15th via their own label, Vatican Records. Ahead of the album release, the band is now thrilled to premiere the video for their haunting new track ‘With Horns of the Beast’, which you can watch here:
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The band had this to say about the video: “‘With Horns Of A Beast’ is the first video from our debut album Death Divine, the video clip portrays the psychedelic trip of a persecuted woman hunted by masked wild animal humans lost in the depths of the forest and is inspired by ‘70s horror, Mansonic clans and exploitation movies. Death Divine was recorded over a period of more or less four years during different recording sessions, it compiles and captures our vintage lo-fi occult doom rock with pinches of ‘60s psychedelia and exotica creating our own musical time-warp trip”.
Comprised of ten songs, Death Divine sees Hail Darkness incorporating elements of occult 70’s rock, psychedelia, doom and folk to take listeners on a magical and dark cosmic journey, while the lyrics talk about occult themes inspired by old occult movies and some personal experiences.
Hail Darkness was founded by bassist Joshua in Phoenix, where the first songs were recorded and produced around mid-2020, alongside Jez on guitar and vocals and Emmet on drums. The trio later relocated to Jez’s home in South Carolina, setting up a home studio for an extensive three-year recording session that resulted in four hours of material. Their initial goal was to recreate the vintage sound of their idols—T-Rex, Jefferson Airplane, Pentagram, Shocking Blue, Focus, Jes Franco soundtracks, Black Sabbath, Lucifer Rising, Mountain, and Captain Beyond—while blending the sounds of modern favorites like Cathedral and Electric Wizard.
In the studio, Hail Darkness is accompanied by a host of friend multi-instrumentalists, known as the Hail Darkness Coven, who contribute various instruments to craft the expansive and psychedelic sound that defines the band.
HAUJOBB reveal the new video single ‘Opposition’, which is featuring guest vocals by the outstanding Emese Árvai-Illés from the Hungarian pop noire duo BLACK NAIL CABARET. The track is taken from the Electro-Industrial act’s forthcoming new album The Machine in the Ghost. The German duo’s tenth full-length has been slated for release on September 20, 2024.
HAUJOBB comment: “Adding guest vocals towards the end of the song was basically the idea of a Saturday afternoon”, programmer Dejan Samardzic explains on behalf of the duo. “Emese is such a reliable artist, she delivered her impressive vocals within 24 hours. Maybe she sensed the urgency this had for me. I could hardly wait to add that new element to the arrangement as it brought a strong organic feel to it.”
Emese Árvai-Illés adds: “Dejan had some wordless singing in mind, like the side vocals of the Eurythmics’ classic ‘Sweet Dreams’, and he asked me to just improvise”, the Hungarian singer reveals. “I recorded a couple of takes and did some random Adlibs at the end. That gave me somewhat of a Massive Attack ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ feel, but in a more industrial way.”
Today, the trio are pleased to confirm details of their new album BERRIES.
Due for release on 18th October via the Xtra Mile Recordings label, the album is preceded by its lead single ‘Watching Wax’, which is available to hear – and watch – now:
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With its scrawled-out staccato guitar licks, spidery basslines, and venomous lyrical stings, first cut ‘Watching Wax’ signals a deadly return from London trio.
Dripping with a febrile intensity and packed with scattergun hooks to match, ‘Watching Wax’ finds BERRIES reflecting on the restlessness of anxiety and the constant cloud it can cast over our day-to-day. As the band state:
“‘Watching Wax’ is about escaping your worries for the day and attempting to give your mind a rest. The lyrics touch on fears for our future selves, looming anxieties that you can’t suppress and the desire to have a perfect day without your daily stormy thoughts.”
The first indicator of how the follow-up to their acclaimed debut, How We Function is shaping up, the single finds BERRIES honing their art for the unpredictable and growing in confidence. And as its eponymous title, ‘BERRIES’, may already make clear, this is a band determined to make a statement with their second full-length outing. While the band have never shied away from brutally honest admissions or difficult subject matters like struggles with mental health, ‘BERRIES’ finds them weaponising them into a set of fearlessly assertive tracks that seize strength from darkness. As BERRIES explain:
“This album is about battling intrusive thoughts and finding contentment in your day, however big or small those moments are. It’s a journey to finding your own space and being comfortable in it. We haven’t held back with this album – it’s raw, honest, and a true reflection of BERRIES.”
Teaming up with production legend Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, Everything Everything), who took on mixing duties for the record, listeners will almost certainly feel that turbo-boost coursing through the veins of BERRIES 2.0.
While veering between Riot Grrrl-esque discordance and thunderous grunge-rock anthems ripe for the big rooms, ‘BERRIES’ also finds a band spreading their wings with sonic explorations into shapeshifting math-rock (as on opener ‘Barricades’), epic post-rock nods (on closer ‘Crumpled Clothes’), through shades of Power-Pop (as on the infectious ‘Narrow Tracks’), and even tender, unadorned acoustica (as on ‘Balance’). Reflecting of making ‘BERRIES’, the band add:
“We really pushed ourselves creatively and out of our comfort zone, especially with the acoustic track and working with mixing engineer Adrian Bushby. We’re super proud of what we’ve written and created.”
Following a spate of recent shows road-testing new material in support of punk/rock legends the likes of The Subways, Skinny Lister, Feeder, and Sleeper, plus Newcastle noiseniks The Pale White, BERRIES are now ready to take their latest work out on the road for a series of headline dates of their own.
With 8 dates planned for October and November, following the release of ‘BERRIES’, catch the band performing new material and more at these fixtures as follows:
Industrial metal band, DERISION CULT has announced the release of their new single & video, ‘Warning Signs’. The video made its premiere at Glitch Mode Recordings immersive cyberpunk showcase, Tech Noir on July 20th, 2024.
‘Warning Signs’ is an industrial metal fast paced romp that features heavy and almost spoken word vocals thrash metal guitars, pounding cyber beats and the skittering guitar pyrotechnics of former David Bowie guitarist, Reeves Gabrels.
Lyrically, ‘Warning Signs’ delves into our turbulent cultural climate, serving as a stark reminder of the warnings surrounding us. The gripping chorus line, “Is it getting real enough yet?” draws inspiration from a harrowing true story shared by frontman Dave McAnally’s brother, a Naval EOD officer. During a raid, a Hollywood director, witnessing the aftermath of a firefight, was shaken to his core. As a Navy SEAL carried the body of a Taliban member past the director, he chillingly remarked, “Oh, is it getting real enough yet?” This powerful moment underscores the song’s message about the peril of ignoring warnings until they become undeniable.
‘Warning Signs’ showcases appearances from Glitch Mode stalwarts and contributors including Jim Marcus, David Kultgen, Justin Broadrick, Chris Harris, Pete Berwick Don’t miss out on experiencing the raw energy and thought-provoking intensity of ‘Warning Signs’.
The visually-captivating video for ‘Warning Signs’ was created by Vancouver-based, Empire Animae – the creative minds behind DERISION CULT’s video for ‘Deaf Blood’
“We had so much fun with the ‘Deaf Blood’ video we couldn’t wait to work with Empire Animae again," DERISION CULT founder, Dave McAnally says. "This time around we wanted to do a whole different setting and just go crazy with influences from ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,’ Martini Ranch and do things with animation that wouldn’t be possible in a live action video.”
Magic Wands is a dream pop duo originally formed in Nashville by guitarists / vocalists Chris and Dexy Valentine. Now based in Los Angeles, the group is known for its shimmering and dreamy sound, which incorporates elements of shoegaze, post-punk and goth.
Characterised by heavily-textured guitars, synth drones and ethereal vocals, these elements in combination produce music with an otherworldly atmosphere that has been widely praised for its euphoric quality, especially evident in live performances.
Dedicated to creating music that is both imaginative and emotionally engaging, Magic Wands have issued five studio albums to date, the most recent of which is Switch (2023). Its songs were also remixed by guest artists and released as Switched later in the year.
Seattle ‘turbowave’ pioneers, DUAL ANALOG have dropped their new single, ‘Dharmachakra’ – a raw reflection on modern day apocalyptic hellscape of independent artists. It’s an autobiographical anthem that captures the frustrations and struggles of today’s independent musicians.
With introspective lyrics that resonate deeply with anyone who has faced the uphill battle of booking gigs and finding an audience, DUAL ANALOG paints a vivid picture of the modern-day challenges faced by independent artists. This also comes though dynamic instrumentals, showcasing the band’s unique sound and unyielding spirit.
Says DUAL ANALOG co-founder, Chip Roberts, “We wanted ‘Dharmachakra’ to reflect that struggle and the sense of futility that often accompanies it. It’s a raw and honest portrayal of what it’s like to pour your heart into your art, only to feel like you’re shouting into the void.”
Fans of DUAL ANALOG can expect a visceral listening experience that not only highlights the band’s diversity but also speaks to the collective experience of struggling artists everywhere. With ‘Dharmachakra,’ DUAL ANALOG invites listeners to share in their journey and reflect on their own battles within the music industry.
With every movement of American Standard, Uniform peels off a new layer and tells the story inside of the one that came before it. It’s Uniform’s most intimate work to date, tackling themes of self-destruction and with a particular focus on vocalistMichael Berdan‘s lifelong struggle with bulimia nervosa. His lyrics sink down into the core of the innermost self, the small human being crushed in the grip of sickness. His bandmates join him, applying majestic droning that becomes both mechanical and omniscient. As the rhythms continually pulverise, Uniform gives themselves over to the grinding gears of an uncaring universe.
The thematic content behind American Standard can be divided down the middle into two distinct sections. While the A-side of the record deals with an individual who exists in a purgatorial state of physical and psychic crisis, the B-side serves to address how a lifetime of dealing with an eating disorder has impacted those around him.
“Permanent Embrace,” available today, is the album’s final statement. Berdan tells, “It touches on a facet of the disease that I’m incredibly wary of facing. Built on a narrative foundation laid out by author and lyrical collaborator Maggie Siebert, the song revolves around the idea of a person holding a loved one as an emotional hostage. Seeing perverse beauty in a story about a car crash, the narrator relates the analogy of two automobiles twisted together to that of his last standing relationship. As he has broken down over time, so has the one who continues to stand by him. The object of his manipulative guilt trips remains locked in a hopeless situation, terrified of what he may do to himself if they were to finally leave.
The music reflects the psychic violence of the lyrics, as riffs and rhythms that wouldn’t feel out of place in the Unsane catalog careen into giant synth melodies before collapsing into itself. This is kind of our misguided interpretation of what Faith No More were doing on ‘Angel Dust’, and we hope that our tip of the hat to those masters of madness can hold a candle to their horrific splendor.”
For “Permanent Embrace,” Uniform teamed up with director Sean Stout on the single’s compelling visual. Stout tells, "Without sounding trite, when we first read Mike’s lyrics to the record our reaction was extremely visceral. They are brutally introspective and beautiful at times and we wanted to try visually to convey that range of emotion in a sequence of single images that unfold narratively and potentially shift their own meaning over time. Our concept was to intertwine images of an outer world-overgrown, rusting and moving on in its decay-with an inter-world that is largely going through the same process as a result, but is markedly separate as well. We never see one observe or interact with the other, yet they are the same and of the same world."
Watch the video for ‘Permanent Embrace’ here:
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Uniform wants to find what’s underneath. And what’s underneath the underneath. And what’s under that. American Standard begins with a shock. A voice, a room, a face in a mirror. In the mirror stares a visage, doubled and staring back. Each line comes back to him: reflected and refracted in the unsympathetic glass. Forget for a moment that Berdan has been destroying his throat in Uniform for over a decade. Forget his highly stylised delivery on the band’s acclaimed collaborative work (alongside experimental doom titans The Body and Japanese heavy rock powerhouse Boris). Forget the entire tradition of abrasive vocals in aggressive music. Look for what’s underneath the songs, the form, and the style.
To help peel away this narrative of eating disorders, self-hatred, delusion, mania, and ultimate discovery, Berdan sought assistance from a towering pair of outsider literary figures. Alongside B.R. Yeager (author of the modern cult-classic Negative Space) and Maggie Siebert (the mind behind the contemporary body horror masterpiece Bonding), the three writers eviscerate the personal material to present a portrait of mental and physical illness as vividly terrifying as anything in the present-day canon. The result is an acute articulation of a state beyond simple agony, capturing the thrilling transcendence and deliverance that sickness can bring in the process.
American Standard is surely Uniform’s most thematically accomplished and musically self assured album to date. Sections spiral and explode. Motifs drift off into obscurity before reasserting themselves with new power. Genres collide and burst open, forming something idiosyncratic and new. There’s a grandeur, due in part to the addition of Interpol bassist Brad Truax alongside the percussive push and pull of returning drummer Michael Sharp and longtime touring drummer Michael Blume, marking his Uniform recorded debut here. However, this magnificence is most clearly attributable to the scale and power of guitarist and founder Ben Greenberg’s arrangements, matching ever elegantly to the intense lyrical subject matter.
Underneath it all, what remains is trust. A record of this range and depth, a piece of art so far out on a ledge, can only be attempted with an extreme and almost foolish amount of understanding between collaborators. American Standard stands firmly on the bedrock that Uniform’s two original members, Michael Berdan and Ben Greenberg, have been building on for over a decade.
In Greenberg’s words, “When we started this record, Berdan told me: ‘I trust you to come up with a solid foundation for this, however you envision this thing. I want you to realize it completely, because I believe in you.’ So I wanted to write something overwhelming and all-encompassing for Berdan to lead his narrative through… because I trust and believe in him.” For an album to defy simple genre exercises and become a work of art, the musicians behind it must push themselves so far beyond the frayed ends of an established comfort zone that they might never return. Without a shred of doubt, American Standard is a work of art, agonising in its honesty and relentless in its pursuit of sonic transcendence. It is hideous. It is beautiful. It is necessary.
Press Photo By Joshua Zucker-Pluda & Sean Stout Pictured: Founding Members Ben Greenberg (Guitar), Michael Berdan (Vocals) Not Pictured: Mike Sharp (Drums), Brad Truax (Bass), Michael Blume (Drums)
The collective of renowned musicians from Norway’s west coast henceforth known as WHISPERING VOID is releasing their first ever video single ‘Vi finnes’ (‘We Exist’) taken from their forthcoming debut full-length At the Sound of the Heart. The album has been slated for release on October 18, 2024.
Watch the video here:
WHISPERING VOID comment: “The main lyrics in this song are in Norwegian, more specifically in an Eastern dialect of Norwegian, and this creates a slippery and almost untrustworthy character”, vocalist Kristian Espedal writes. “The title, ‘Vi finnes’ means ‘we exist’, but the lyrics are about us never existing. The words are about the morning, which is an opportunity, and about the hours, which are the repetition of everything that happens all the time but is never the same. There is much hopefulness in this song, and at the end even a bit of suffering. When the lyrics move into English, they steer into a different direction. Ferrucio came up with the idea for the video. The lady in this film is observing life from the past. I like the very subtle connection to the lyrics.”
Lindy-Fay Hella adds: “I love the vibe of the video”, the vocalist enthuses. “I like that there is a connection with the song’s lyrics, but it also adds a new dimension to it. The haunted house in this video is situated in my neighbourhood and the lady in the video is one of my best friends. She really fits this song. I feel somewhat reminded of the fairy tale ‘Goldielocks and the Three Bears’.”
Black metal legends Mork have announced their new album Syv today, set for release on 20th September on Peaceville. Alongside the news, the band have shared the album’s first single ‘Utbrent’. Speaking about the new single, Mork creator, frontman and mastermind Thomas Eriksen said “Utbrent is a depiction of getting burnt out and the struggle of holding oneself standing. Even whilst silently knowing the day will actually come and break you down…the harsh punishment of living as life breaks you down and burns you out”.
Watch the lyric video for ‘Utbrent’ here:
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Following on from Thomas Eriksen’s self-titled Udåd project debut earlier this year; a dark release which explored the more underground & murkier-sounding waters of primitive black metal from a by-gone era, Syv emerges as the new pinnacle of Mork’s and Eriksen’s ever-evolving journey, as well as a creative expansion both sonically & compositionally over all prior works.
Syv also undoubtedly represents Mork’s most expressive and diverse works to date, with exquisite melodies interspersed with brutal and even occasionally progressive riffs amid an ever-present air of melancholy. This forms a perfect backdrop for Eriksen’s thematic dive through the contemplations of looming mortality, and digressions through the depths and contrasts of human existence; from the blackness of despair, to the pride & strength in overcoming, as well as absorbing additional inspiration from tales of old.
“We have reached the seventh chapter of the Mork saga. As I have stated earlier, it has been important for me to let the music evolve over the span of albums. It has really been a rewarding couple of years writing and recording “SYV”. When listening back the finished product I felt a great satisfaction. Brutal riffs meeting melancholy and melodic passages with a slight progressive approach. Lyrically scraping the bottom of human existence and frailty as well as touching an immense pride and strength. This is probably my most varied album to date. Which in my mind makes a perfect outcome and addition to the Mork catalogue.” – Thomas Eriksen
Syv was performed, recorded & mixed by Eriksen himself, with engineering assisted by Freddy Holm (who also contributes with strings and synths). Mastering work on the album was carried out by studio mastering guru Maor Appelbaum (Sepultura) in collaboration with Jack Control at Enormous Door (Darkthrone).
Aural Aggravation 