WHITEHORSE is the new band from Thomas Haywood, the former frontman of The Blinders. Their new single ‘Red Riptide’ is released on the 2nd of September, riven with urgency, with guitar licks like knives being unsheathed, dexterous basslines, scampering drums and a vocal that simmers, broods and reaches crescendo. It’s about being completely clear-headed and in a place of certainty in your mind, and the rushing feeling of violence that comes with determination when you’re cutting through the chaos and staying true to a vision you’re so certain of.
They say “It’s as heavy as we go at the moment and to me describes desire in a tune and screams ‘fucking come on then’ to anything thrown your way "It was written when heavy rains burst the waters of a riverbank and the whole thing was just gushing all over the place and it set me off big time.” Formed in Sheffield in late 2024 by Haywood alongside Bobby Bouché, John McCullagh & Nathan Keeble, and James Keith.
From the cold depths of Norway, Uaar emerge with their punishing debut full-length: Galger og brann (“Gallows and Fire”), a brutal, blackened slab of d-beat hardcore that pulls no punches.
Written and produced by Jon Schaug Carlsen and the band, the album is set to be released on October 17th via Fysisk Format, on vinyl and digital formats.
The band has dropped the new video for the track ‘Galgeås.
Fans of Tragedy, Skitsystem, From Ashes Rise, and Sibiir will find themselves right at home in the storm: crushing riffs, pulverizing d-beats, and an atmosphere so suffocatingly dark it feels like the world collapsing in real time. This is the soundtrack to disorder, decay, and the slow grind toward oblivion.
Lunatic Soul, the Polish outfit lead by Riverside’s main composer and vocalist/bassist Mariusz Duda is pleased to announce their 8th studio album The World Under Unsun, to be released on October 31st, 2025 worldwide (excluding Poland) via InsideOutMusic.
A second, new single off the upcoming album is being launched today. Check out ‘The Prophecy’ – which features music and lyrics composed as well as all instruments performed by Mariusz Duda, except drums by Wawrzyniec Dramowicz – in a video created by Sightsphere here:
Mariusz Duda checked in with the following comment about the song: “’The Prophecy’ is one of the more “rock-oriented” tracks on the upcoming Lunatic Soul double album The World Under Unsun, closer to what I usually offered in Riverside. At the same time, it’s also among the most melodic ones, especially thanks to its catchy chorus. Lyrically, it speaks about the situation when an artist only gains fame after their death. We’ve all probably encountered this phenomenon – when, after an artist’s passing, their work suddenly attracts more attention, new fans appear, and the number of streams and album sales rises. The song’s protagonist is therefore an artist who has just learned, from ‘The Prophecy’, that he will only achieve the fame he longed for after his death. Fortunately, the composition itself is not pessimistic. You can hear hope in it. Musically, the track is epic, emotional, and uplifting.”
Three years after releasing their 2022 debut Infinite Death, an album that earned them a Spellemann nomination (Norway’s answer to the Grammys), Norwegian crossover outfit Cult Member are back from the frozen north with another hard-hitting ear-bleeder titled GORE.
A tongue-in-cheek strike at social unrest, draped in blood-soaked ’80s slasher imagery, GORE rips forward with the fastest, sharpest riffs in thrash, powered by the relentless fury of a true hardcore D-beat backbone.
Recorded by Ruben Willem, GORE is set for release on September 19 via Loyal Blood Records, and it’s blistering slab of thrash/hardcore sure to ignite fans of Cro-Mags, Power Trip, Slayer, and D.R.I.
‘Skull Smasher Psychic’ is the first single. Hear it here:
Industrial metal legends DIE KRUPPS have announced an exclusive tour EP. This hand-numbered collectors’ item, which is entitled Will nicht – MUSS! / On Collision Course, will be sold by the multiple genre-defining band on their upcoming 45th anniversary tour, which will kick off at the DVG Club in the famous Belgian medieval battle-town of Kortrijk tonight, on August 27.
The Will nicht – MUSS! / On Collision Course EP contains guest contributions and remixes from prominent musicians of renowned acts such as MINISTRY with whom DIE KRUPPS have just successfully toured in the US. As a first taste of the EP as well as of the upcoming new album, the Germans have released the advance single ‘On Collision Course’.
AA
DIE KRUPPS comment: “You may be forgiven to think that ‘On Collision Course’ and ‘Will nicht – Muss!’, which translates into ‘don’t want to – have to’, could have been the working titles for our upcoming European tour”, Ralf Dörper quips. “In truth, the 45 years of influential sounds from Düsseldorf has been our guiding theme. In celebration of this anniversary, we have created this exclusive EP as a treat for all the dedicated fans coming to our concerts. It will give you an impression about what sound is currently happening in our steelworks as the above mentioned singles of the double-title will also provide a first and second taste of our upcoming album. The EP also includes some sonic glimpses of the experiences and friendships made on our recent US-tour with Ministry. Watch out for those remixes!”
Following the demise of Needlework, who we absolutely loved here at Aural Aggravation, front man Reuben Pugh has been keeping busy and keeping creative, with the swift emergence of lo-fi slacker country act Troutflies.
Ahead of an imminent debut album, The Dancing Years, they’ve dropped the song ‘Cross on a Hill’, which has hints of Pavement and Silver Jews, blended with the drawl of Mark E. Smith, and is accompanied by a video that matches the loose, low-budget feel of the song. We dig.
It’s not hard to grasp why this track has been picked up on: it’s kinda grungy, but also has that Britpop indie energy and a strong sense of melody, and I’m reminded of the time the first EP by Asylums landed on my doormat pretty much the day before they got a track played on Sunday Brunch. There’s no direct correlation or correspondence, of course, but it’s one of those songs that has a particular energy that makes you sit up, prick up your ears and grabs in an instant. It’s a rare event because while the format of pop has moved on to accommodate the era of the short attention span by essentially starting with the chorus and whittling songs down to two and a half minutes of little other than chorus, other genres still persist in incorporating things like intros and verses and bridges. ‘Pencil Chewer’ is a slice of classic 90s indie / alt rock, with hints of The Wedding Present and that fuzzy, lo-fi vibe of Dinosaur Jr circa You’re Living All Over Me or Bug but with breezy Ash-like melody dominating, and then things turn really Pavement in the final third. The delivery is lovely, boisterous, even, and it hits so sweetly as a summer smash that so nearly made it. It’s clear they’ve struck gold with this formula.
But Strange Pink clearly don’t do formula, as listening to this EP evidences this as fact: ‘Wonderland’ is Disintegration era Cure with vintage shoegaze vibes – think early Ride or Chapterhouse, but also The Charlatans at that time. It’s a slice of dreamy, wistful melancholia with a psychedelic hue, and it’s achingly magnificent. Joh n Peel would have been all over it. In contrast, ‘My Friend and You’ drives in hard with thumping drums, murky bass and squalling guitars, landing between The Jesus and Mary Chain and Nirvana. None of this is to say that it’s derivative, but it’s clear that they’re drawing on their influences here. Every band does to a certain extent, but Strange Pink balance appropriation with quality songwriting – and the latter counts for a lot.
‘Boy’s Club’ (also a single) is a killer slacker anthem, and absolutely nails one of the troubles of our time in the opening lines: ‘You don’t have to be such a dick / Just because your daddy thinks that he’s rich / Don’t have to be such a jerk / just because your daddy don’t have to work.’ It succinctly stabs a finger at entitlement and inherited wealth, and the shitty behaviour that almost invariably follows. Fuck that, and fuck that kind of people. But in the hands of Strange Pink, this is a magnificent anthem.
The seven-and-a-half minutes closer, ‘Nowhere’ is truly magnificent, and worthy of the term ‘epic’. It’s a soft, mellow, indie song, marking something of a departure… but departure is good. Strange Pink keep things evolutionary
In 1993 or 1994 this would have had critics frothing and fans clamouring. Now… sadly not so much, although amidst the nu-metal revival, they may be on the cusp of leading a cultural turn here, because ultimately, quality always rises, and it does seem that the long-threatened grunge revival may be happening after all. I hope so. This is the good shit. Get your lugs round it now.
Sporting a new-look line up, a long-awaited second studio album, its lead single, and a smattering of rare live shows too, the universe of Hello Cosmos is thriving right now.
With Come Out Tonight slated for release this Autumn, the band’s ambitious sophomore album is confirmed to feature over a long list of collaborators, and takes influence from all corners of the globe with its studio recording sessions taking place in New York City, Los Angeles, Kampala, Leeds, Stockport and Manchester. Produced by Jamie Lockhert at Greenmount Studios in Leeds, who has produced all of their studio records to date, it arrives as Hello Cosmos’ first studio album proper in over 5 years, following their acclaimed debut Dream Harder in 2020. Of the upcoming record, frontman Ben Robinson teases:
“A lot of the upcoming record is about finding the strength to switch off digital screens and go out and live. It’s becoming more and more normalised to stay in, comatosed by ultraprocessed food and algorithms firing shallow dopamine hits, keeping us all hooked on a short wavelength, gradually becoming dumber, hopeless and unhealthy… We all need to wake each other up, get off the cool aid of digital apps, social media and algorithmic scrolling.”
Come Out Tonight is preceded by the single ‘Grind Into The Shrine’, an insurgent statement of searing post-punk and sneering lyricism that rails against the banality of imposed social structures.
“The single is about adulting, parenting and looking for those slim moments of paradise that take a lot of the daily grind to find. It’s about not letting the world get on top of you and finding the time to live, to get out of the house and celebrate life… Life can be so visceral if you get off your arse and go enjoy it. It’s literally there waiting for you. As with most my lyrics I’m telling myself this as much as anyone else” explains Robinson.
HELLO COSMOS – LIVE DATES
AUGUST
23 – Solfest (Main Stage), Cumbria
SEPTEMBER
13 – YES Pink Room, Manchester
OCTOBER
10 – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
11 – Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal (w/ special guests Seven Seals)
FÏX8:SËD8 unveil the nightmarish video clip ‘Oathbreaker’ as the next single taken from the forthcoming sixth album of the German dark electro act. Octagram has been slated for release on October 3, 2025.
FÏX8:SËD8 comment: “The track ‘Oathbreaker’ builds up menacingly over four minutes before it explodes in a thunderstorm of metallic distorted drums and a bass-line that rattles your bones”, mastermind Martin Sane writes. “This song is somewhat unusual in its heaviness for us and it represents the future development of the project – while it also keeps all the elements that have characterised our sound until now such as atmospheric pads and pleasing sequences.”
KHNVM drop the visually lush lyric video ‘Purgatorial Pyre’ as the final advance single taken from their forthcoming new full-length Cosmocrator. The fourth album of the German death metal act with Bangladeshi roots has been chalked up for release on August 29, 2025.
KHNVM comment: “A celestial masquerade collapses into ash as mortals kneel, deceived, their cries devoured by a silent, indifferent deity”, singer and guitarist Obliterator oracles. “The album’s opening track ‘Purgatorial Pyre’ does not sing of redemption, but of the cruel theater that mankind mistakes for grace – where each prayer drips with despair and the divine remains an elusive phantom.”
Aural Aggravation 