Fire and brimstone from Icelandic Black Metal band Altari, as their volcanic new album Kröflueldar erupts via Svart Records on 14.04.23. Named after a series of eruptions that happened at Krafla in Iceland in 1975, Kröflueldar represents the constant threat of ash that Altari’s music lives under. Kröflueldar was a 9 year series of eruptions, and since the album took almost 9 years to create, Altari felt that it was a fitting title for their scalding and ferocious music.
Now the band have shared the Virus inspired new single ‘Leðurblökufjandinn’ with Óskar Þór commenting, “It’s the oldest song on the record and by far the strangest one considering the overall time pattern. I thank Virus for the inspiration, since it’s from the time I spent most of my listening time on Virus and Ved Buens Ende.
There’s not much to say really, other than the lyrics from that point on became more romanticized throughout the record. It deals with an entity bent on stealing your beauty, be it inner or outer whichever is preferred.
I can safely say that it deals with my past addictions, which prompted me to steal myself away from those closest to me.”
Following the first single of ‘Bortgang’, Mork reveal ‘Tilbake Til Opprinnelsen’ the second offering of Dypet.
Representing a musical journey that reveals more as the track goes on, ‘Tilbake Til Opprennilsen’ begins with melancholic Black Metal tones that are accompanied by an eerie synth theme, which as Thomas Eriksen describes “is representative of the nerves running through the earth.”
The concept of regeneration is key to idea of the song which continues to gather momentum until the atmospheric breakdown which is a sonic representation of the beginning of the rebirth.
Eriksen mentions: “‘Tilbake Til Opprinnelsen’ is an epic track about the world as a whole regretting everything it has made and become, resulting in it erasing everything on its own to then rebuild it all from scratch. The breakdown represents the shift. where the world starts to retract everything and everyone. The high point is when the vocal choir sets in. That is when the oceans are filled, rivers are made, mountains are raised, and the moon is hung upon the night sky yet again. A fitting epic to finish off the album.”
Accompanying the single comes a visualiser created by Matthew Vickerstaff.
Watch the video here:
‘Dypet’ sees Mork create a miasma of grim and frost-bitten riffs and harsh vocal melodies, marking the next logical evolution to come from the brilliant mind of Thomas Eriksen. The album simultaneously pushes new ideas forward yet still retains the signature foundations of ice cold hypnotic Black Metal.
Eriksen comments “It is with great pride that I am able to present and experience the release of my sixth full length album. I put every single drop of myself into the process of shaping MORK’s music. Perhaps even more so with this new album. As the album title, which translates to “The Deep”, something from the depths has been brought to the surface, “Dypet” was inspired by my life over the last couple of years, the thoughts, feelings, passion and the evolving of creative free will. Dive in and let yourself sink into the abyss. “
The album also features a special guest appearance from HJELVIK, the former singer of fellow Nordic legends Kverlertak, on ‘Hoye Murer’. It also delves into the world of analogue synth’s adding a different but no less hellish soundscape to Mork’s palette.
‘Dypet’, Norwegian for ‘abyss’ promises to ring true to its name delivering eight brand new tracks that feature Thomas Eriksen’s signature Black Metal howls and caustic guitars. The album was once more performed, recorded and mixed by Eriksen with engineering assisted by Freddy Holm whilst mastering was carried out by Jack Control at Enormous Door (Darkthrone).
David Thiérrée also makes his return now on his third collaboration with Mork. His artwork that has become just as synonymous with Mork’s sound. The piece is inspired by the album’s theme of “Draugen/Cthulhu”; also featured within the art is a crest created by Jannicke Wiese-Hansen.
The inspiration behind the album’s title track lies in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos but with a Nordic twist. Using the Norwegian coastline as it’s setting, the artwork illustrates a mysterious cult that now worships the ‘Draugen’ (a mythical sea ghost in Norwegian lore) paying homage to the sea dwelling beast of Cthulhu.
‘Dypet’ is not a concept album and the themes of hatred, death, betrayal, inner demons and misanthropy will find fans of Black Metal right at home.
Singer-songwriter and visual artist Emma Ruth Rundle has released her new video ‘In My Afterlife’ today. Self-directed with John Bradburn, the visual is “an expiration of insanity, a lot of Sagazan and influence from Julie Taymor’s circa 2000 film rendition of Titus,” Rundle tells.
“I developed the character, makeup and costume myself, which I made by painting and modifying found articles while I was in the UK. This mask or character is supposed to represent what is left after life ends, wandering the halls of their own existence, reliving little joys, and sufferings. They are a demented and unsettled character.”
Watch the video here:
Rundle’s latest and riveting album Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that’s endured trauma and grief, there’s a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanize that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and timbre. The album captures a moment where a masterful songwriter strips away all flourishes and embellishments in order to make every note and word hit with maximum impact, leaving little to hide behind.
Rundle has always been a multifaceted musician, equally capable of dreamy abstraction (as heard on her debut album Electric Guitar: One), maximalist textural explorations (see her work in Marriages, Red Sparowes, Nocturnes or collaborations with Chelsea Wolfe and Thou), and the classic acoustic guitar singer-songwriter tradition (exemplified by Some Heavy Ocean). But on Engine of Hell, Rundle focuses on an instrument that she left behind in her early twenties when she began playing in bands: the piano. In combination with her voice, the piano playing creates a kind of intimacy, as if we’re sitting beside Rundle on the bench, or perhaps even playing the songs ourselves.
New Zealand singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Fazerdaze (real name: Amelia Murray) has shared an addictively hooky new song ‘Flood Into,’ making the previously vinyl-only track available across all platforms for the first time.
‘Flood Into’ appears on Fazerdaze’s first project in over five years – the powerful and cathartic ‘Break!’ EP – out now via section1.
Listen here:
In Amelia’s words, “‘Flood Into’ is about a deep love and loss, and the reclamation of myself at the end of that cycle. It’s the feeling of my own energy rushing to fill me back up again. I wrote Flood Into in anticipation of a break up. The song embodies all the melancholy I felt from letting go of someone I loved in order to walk my own path and learn to stand in my own frame again.”
Fazerdaze’s debut LP, 2017’s Morningside, launched Amelia onto the global stage with rave reviews from publications like Pitchfork and Mojo and tours to the other side of the world from her previous home base of Auckland. But the wheels were coming off behind the scenes. A combination of unhealthy personal relationships, feelings of unworthiness regarding her burgeoning success and general mental exhaustion soon began to manifest in her musical output; for years, Amelia found she couldn’t finish a single song. That is, until she relinquished resilience as a badge of honor and let herself crack open.
Break! was completed during a three-month long lockdown in NZ while Amelia was living in solitude for the first time, and directly in the aftermath of a nine year long relationship. Taking stock at an emotional bottom, the EP crafts an empowering portrait of surrender and personal reclamation. Break! is a vital release for Amelia, who wrote it whilst on a journey of rediscovery as both musician and human.
Philadelphia rockers Soraia have dropped a music video for "Jokers, Thieves and Liars" off their recent LP ‘Bloom.’
Check out the video here:
Filmed December 10, 2022, at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia, PA.
"’Jokers, Thieves, and Liars’ is the kickoff track to our newest album, "Bloom" (October 2022). It’s about all the personalities I encountered when I was falling in love with one guy, in particular. And about getting caught up in playing the game back," says front woman ZouZou Mansour.
The band will kick off their ‘Bloom’ Spring Tour on March 9th in Wayne, PA. The trek runs through May 6th, and features support from special guests The Idiot Kids.
BEBORN BETON reveal ‘Last Chance’, a cool new clip taken from their forthcoming full-length Darkness Falls Again. The performance video of the groovy synth pop hit ‘Last Chance’.
BEBORN BETON comment:”Troubled boy meets emotionally depraved gynoid beneath silvery moon which then, for no adequately explored reason, fails to explode”, vocalist Stefan Netschio writes on behalf of the trio. “Last Chance!”
Nothing last forever. Yet moments are timeless and will always have existed. This is the song’s central theme. The video, directed by Jason P. Schumacher features Volstead’s Emporium, an underground speakeasy in Minneapolis. The video plays off of the lyrics which address feeling trapped in a melodrama.
"It’s about my divorce and all. The whole album is. I was feeling like a character at the time, like I was stuck in a movie where the end was clear, and my feelings were larger than life. I realize now I did have control and responsibility but in a lot of ways it feels like fate too.” – Carrellee
‘Stay’ is the hazy, electro-ballad from electronic artist Carrellee’s latest album, Scale Of Dreams. Watch the video here:
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CARRELLEE’S 2023 SCALE OF DREAMS TOUR
2/23 Indianapolis, IN @ State Street Pub 2/24 Louisville, KY @ Art Sanctuary 2/25 Lexington, KY @ The Green Lantern 2/26 Johnson City, TN @ The HideAway 2/27 Savannah, GA @ Lodge of Sorrows 3/1 Gainesville, GA @ Portal 4 3/2 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub w/ Vision Video 3/3 St. Augustine, FL @ Sarbez! 3/4 Tampa, FL @ New World Music Hall w/ Vision Video 3/5 Jacksonville, FL @ 1904 Music Hall 3/8 Tallahassee, FL @ The Bark 3/9 Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box 3/10 Atlanta, GA @ Sweetwater 3/11 Huntsville, AL @ Gold Sprint w/ Snooper 3/12 Chattanooga, TN @ Exit Off Main Street 3/13 Nashville, TN @ The East Room 4/1 Madison, WI @ Mickeys Tavern w/ Scott Yoder 4/22 Madison, WI @ Crystal Corner 4/27 Tulsa, OK @ Sound Pony 4/28 Norman, OK @ Opolis 4/29 Wichita, OK @ Private Party 4/30 Colorado Springs, CO @ Fritzys 5/3 Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Mezzanine 5/4 Tucson, NM @ Groundworks 5/5 San Diego, NM @ The Comet 5/6 Los Angeles, CA @ Luna Negra Goth Nights 5/7 Oakland, CA @ The Golden Bull 5/9 Eugene, OR @ Old Nick’s Pub 5/10 Olympia, OR @ Le Voyeur 5/11 Seattle, OR @ The Cherry Pit w/ Scott Yoder 5/14 Vancouver, Canada @ Verboden Festival 5/18 Portland, OR @ Coffin Club 5/20 Boise, ID @ Boise Hive 5/23 Salt Lake City, ID @ Kilby Court 5/24 Fort Collins, CO @ Lyric Cinema 5/25 Denver, CO @ The Crypt 5/26 Kansas City, MO @ recordBar 5/27 Omaha, NE @ The Sydney 5/28 Ames, IA @ The London. Underground
ME LOST ME led by Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent announces a new album RPG via Upset The Rhythm on 7th July, and is touring across the UK including support dates with Pigs x7 (dates and details here). RPG (recorded in Blank Studios with Sam Grant of Pigs x7) is ME LOST ME’s fourth outing as a collective, having transitioned from an ambitious solo project in 2017, Jayne now regularly collaborating with acclaimed North-East jazz musicians Faye MacCalman and John Pope.
ME LOST ME delights in experimenting with songwriting and storytelling, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully weave together disparate genres, drawing influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music. Hauntological in part, RPG is concerned with tales and with time – are we running out of it? Does insomnia cause a time loop? Do the pressures of masculinity prevent progress? Jayne Dent asks these questions and more on RPG, her homage to worldbuilding and the story as an artform, calling back to those oral traditions around a campfire, as well as modern day video games – bringing folk music into the present day as she does so.
Ahead of the release of their sprawling double-album 93696, out March 24th, Liturgy shares new single ‘Before I Knew The Truth’. Bounding with an incalculable momentum, "Before I Knew The Truth" exemplifies the new album’s equilibrium between meticulous composition and unbound ecstasy. Incendiary guitars glitch and fracture throughout, contorting and stuttering at lightning speed as keening vocals reach toward the sublime.
Following the release of 93696, Liturgy will be touring worldwide, including U.S. dates with support from labelmates BIG|BRAVE and sets at Big Ears Festival, Long Play and ArcTanGent. The music of Liturgy is in a constant state of searching. In pursuit of larger truths, be they philosophical or personal, Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix and her band imbue their music with a sense of urgency and ceaseless longing.
93696 is a number derived from the religions of Christianity and Thelema, a numerological representation of heaven, or a new eon for civilization. Hunt-Hendrix composed the album as an exploration of eschatological possibility divided by the four “laws” that govern her own interpretation of heaven, “Haelegen”: Sovereignty, Hierarchy, Emancipation, and Individuation. These laws constitute the four movements of 93696 which act as dramas all their own within the framework of the record. Throughout the movements Hunt- Hendrix invokes the album’s myriad of personal and conceptual themes through the ensemble’s sheer force of sound, her will and intent blossoming from each bombarding gale.
Taken in its entirety, 93696 reflects the awe of the unknowable and celebrates what revelations and mysteries lie ahead.
Listen to Liturgy’s 93696 single ‘Before I Knew The Truth’ here:
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Liturgy 2023 tour dates:
Mar. 23 – Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye (93696 album release show) Mar. 30 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival May 7 – Brooklyn, NY – Long Play Festival Jun. 10 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB * Jun. 11 – Toronto, ON – The Garrison * Jun. 13 – Buffalo, NY – Mohawk * Jun. 14 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop * Jun. 15 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary * Jun. 16 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle * Jun. 17 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club * Jun. 18 – Fargo, ND – The Aquarium * Jun. 21 – Calgary, AB – Sled Island Festival * Jun. 23 – Vancouver, BC – Vancouver Jazz Fest * Jun. 24 – Seattle, WA – Substation * Jun. 25 – Portland, OR – Star Theater * Jun. 27 – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial * Jun. 28 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent * Jun. 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Resident * Jun. 30 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile Underground * Jul. 1 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar * Jul. 3 – Austin, TX – The Lost Well * Jul. 4 – Houston, TX – The End * Jul. 5 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa * Jul. 7 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl * Jul. 8 – Raleigh, NC – The Pour House * Jul. 9 – Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy * Aug 16-19 – Bristol, UK – ArcTanGent Festival * w/ BIG|BRAVE
From Coma To Catharsis is the second full exploratory mission in the current five-piece incarnation of NYC / NJ-based instrumental ensemble, The Royal Arctic Institute.
At present, The Royal Arctic Institute comprises five musicians who have played extensively with other groups and/or as backing/session musicians: drummer Lyle Hysen (Das Damen, Arthur Lee, The Misguided), guitarists John Leon (Roky Erickson, Summer Wardrobe, Abra Moore) and Lynn Wright (And The Wiremen, Bee And Flower, Shilpa Ray), bassist David Motamed (Das Damen, Two Dollar Guitar, Arthur Lee, Townes Van Zandt), and keyboardist Carl Baggaley (Headbrain, Gramercy Arms).
What are the first things you would feel coming out of a coma? Would it be cathartic, a full release of all your emotions? What would that sound like? From Coma To Catharsis tries to capture that auditory experience replacing the steadfast emotions expressed on From Catnap to Coma with the sounds of dreaming, then awakenings.
All the pieces were created communally, deconstructing then reconstructing material mainly composed by guitarist John Leon with a couple written by other band members. McNew recorded the band in a live setting with no digital magic and minimal overdubs except for pedal steel work by John.
This record also highlights the band’s musical development after a further year of playing together. This includes songwriting contributions by Dave (‘Angleman’s Lament’), and Lynn (‘The Elated World’) as well as more input from Carl. “This is the third record I’ve played on,” explains Baggaley, “and on this one we really broke the songs down to the bones. I was able to bring in new influences like King Crimson-style mellotron and electric piano inspired by the late Billy Preston performances during the recording of the Beatles’ Let It Be album.” Besotted by 2021’s Beatles documentary series stemming from those sessions, Lyle draped his drums in tea-towels ala Ringo for the song ‘Passover Bucket.’
Regarding that same title, John says, “During the COVID lockdown, everyone’s kids were home and parents were scrambling and grasping at straws to entertain them. A Jewish friend of mine decided to celebrate Easter with her children to give them something to do. They were fascinated by the concept of Easter baskets. The following year, instead of Easter baskets, the children were given Passover Buckets to keep them quiet.”
‘K-Style Circuit’ provides a flavour of the album, and you can watch the video here:
Aural Aggravation 