Pitter-patter, splinter-splatter, RAVAGED BY THE YETI unleash the monstrous opening track ‘Vengeance in Fur’ taken from their forthcoming new full-length Snowbound Horror as the first advance single in the shape of a gory music video.
The release date of the sophomore full-length by the frost-bitten death metal trio has been set into stone for July 10, 2026.
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Ravaged By The Yeti comment: “The opening track of Snowbound Horror delivers classic midtempo death metal riffage that gives way to an old school heavy groove”, frontman Rogga Johansson explains. “Punishing vocals put the icing on ‘Vengeance in Fur’. This is a headbanger through and through.”
Damage Control is an electro-industrial music project centred around its current core members Bill Barsby, Richard Thacker and Alex Wise, who are all based in Australia, plus Markus App from Germany. Both Barsby and Thacker are originally from Birmingham, England. The group have experimented with custom Kemper guitar amps and layered synth textures for ‘Oblivion’, their second recent collaboration with the Danish musician Leæther Strip aka Claus Larsen. Aiming to capture introspection and depth, the atmospheric and immersive song reflects their commitment to sonic diversity and emotional resonance. It is produced by Chris Peterson (Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit, Unit:187) and engineered by Greg Reely (Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory), both respected names in the Canadian industrial music scene.
‘Oblivion’ is the follow-up to ‘Rage’ which also featured vocals by Leæther Strip and was issued in January. Barsby commented at the time that “we like working with guest singers and have always loved Leaether Strip since the early ’90s industrial and darkwave club scenes. We were curious to hear what the combination of our song, Claus’ vocal and Chris’ production would sound like.”
Industrial glam kingpin Raymond Watts and his chief songwriting partner in swine Jim Davies (ex-Prodigy and Pitchshifter) recently announced that PIG has given birth to a healthy new album, Hurt People Hurt. Weighing in at 10 tracks, this latest addition to the PIG bloodline will be released into the wild on 22nd May 2026.
‘Sex & Suicide’ came out on Friday (10th April) as a new single ahead of the album. “This is a song of pain, pleasure, obsession and possession, written for the departed, the broken-hearted and the newly started,” states Watts. “It’s a walk on the high-wire blade of want for something so bad you beg for release.”
The second track to be lifted from the upcoming album, it follows the recently issued‘Tosca’s Kiss’, a song inspired by Watts’ well-known love of opera. Watch the lyric video here:
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The new album follows the dirt directly to the dustcart where misfits and reprobates can both lose and find themselves in a full fat emporium of ecstasy, naked words and momentous music. Plucked and sucked on the fruits of pain and bliss, this prime slice of PIG provides a light space for dark spirits. Enter bruised, leave changed.
PIG will be performing in the US on the opening day of the Dark Force Fest in Parsippany, New Jersey on 1st May, plus just announced September shows in Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin as part of the Cold Waves XIV festival. In Japan, a date in Tokyo on 26th June sold out immediately, with another to be added soon.
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PIG | Raymond Watts 2026 photo by E Gabriel Edvy: Blackswitch Labs
Nottingham band KEE. are back with new single ‘The Party’. After the release of their debut single ‘Sound’ in late 2025 which garnered acclaim from the likes of The Noise Magazine, this new single released on the 3rd of April has already been scheduled for airplay by BBC Introducing East Midlands. The band recently played at Rough Trade Nottingham and The Water Rats, King’s Cross and have upcoming gigs booked at The Dublin Castle, Camden and festivals in Spring and Summer.
Restless Spirit present the final advance single, ‘Desolation’s Wake’, taken from their forthcoming self-titled album. Restless Spirit is chalked up for release on May 8, 2026.
In further news, Restless Spirit have announced a massive co-headling US-tour with GOZU to take place in May & June this year.
Restless Spirit comment: “We’re beyond excited to take the new songs on the road after working so hard to create what we feel is our best album to date”, vocalist and guitarist Paul Aloisio states. “We’re already curating a setlist that will cater to fans of all eras of the band, both old and new. By joining forces with Gozu there will be an abundance of heaviness each night and that we know for a fact!”
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Restless Spirit comment on the new single: “With ‘Desolation’s Wake’ we present the fastest song of our new record”, Paul Aloisio writes on behalf of the band. “This track is pure energy and fury, and it comes with one of my favorite choruses that we’ve ever written. Interestingly, ‘Desolation’s Wake’ was pretty difficult to nail despite it being one of our simpler tracks – at least, we thought it was that! Everyone will be able to hear it live on the upcoming US tour that we’re co-headlining with Gozu.”
With their self-titled full-length, Restless Spirit have reached a point in their career where the band of friends from Long Island, New York knows exactly who they are and where they stand. As the eight tracks on Restless Spirit are the most distilled version of what the trio is about, they saw no need for further explanation in the title.
So, what are Restless Spirit about? Pure metal, no more, no less. Born from the steel mills of Birmingham this musical style has deep English working class roots that the East Coast outfit translates into an American sonic slang with elements from desert and stoner metal and even the occasional progressive flourish. As a result, they seamlessly merge classic heavy solos with roaring guitars and a pinch of psychedelic fuzz.
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RESTLESS SPIRIT live US 2026 with GOZU 24 MAY 2026 Providence (US) Alchemy 26 MAY 2026 Rochester (US) Photo City 27 MAY 2026 Erie (US) Centennial Hall 29 MAY 2026 Lansing (US) The Green Door 30 MAY 2026 Chicago (US) Reggies Music Joint 31 MAY 2026 Minneapolis (US) 7th St Entry 02 JUN 2026 Kansas City (US) The Record Bar 03 JUN 2026 Denver (US) HQ 05 JUN 2026 Boise (US) The Shredder 06 JUN 2026 Seattle (US) The Funhouse 07 JUN 2026 Portland (US) High Water Mark 09 JUN 2026 Sacramento (US) Cafe Colonial 11 JUN 2026 Los Angeles (US) Knucklehead 16 JUN 2026 Austin (US) The Lost Well 17 JUN 2026 New Orleans (US) Siberia 18 JUN 2026 Nashville (US) Eastside Bowl 19 JUN 2026 Atlanta (US) Bogg’s Social & Supply 20 JUN 2026 West Columbia (US) New Brookland Tavern 21 JUN 2026 Raleigh (US) Chapel of Bones 23 JUN 2026 Richmond (US) The Camel 24 JUN 2026 Baltimore (US) Metro Gallery 25 JUN 2026 Brooklyn (US) Gold Sounds 26 JUN 2026 Philadelphia (US) Nikki Lopez 27 JUN 2026 Cambridge (US) Middle East Upstairs
I happen to know a fair few people who suffer from gout – which may be an indication of my age and the people I associate with – and they will all attest that it really is an ‘actual bastard’. But the title of this EP is also so, so Glaswegian. Living in Glasgow for four years, I came to appreciate that not only is Scotland culturally very different from England – something tourists probably don’t get to absorb in a week or two – but Glasgow has a culture, and a dialect, and countless turns of phrase which are unique to Glasgow. Following my time there, ‘Actual Bastard’ sounds like Glasgow, and the only way it could sound more Glasgae is if it was called Pure Bastard, Pure Wee Bastard¸ or maybe Fuckin Bawbag Cunt Bastard. Glasgow’s probably the only place on the planet where you can call a colleague a cunt in the office and not get into trouble because it’s a term of endearment as well as an insult.
Gout features members of Glasgow bands Lucia & the Best Boys and The Ninth Wave. As the bio notes, though, Gout is ‘a far cry from these projects, however’ (And having caught The Ninth Wave at Live at Leeds (I think) many moons ago, I can attest to this), Gout distils the intensity of hardcore with the low, driven crush of sludge forebears’.
No two ways about it: Actual Bastard is an absolute rager, with rabid, throat-ripping vocals raving and raw over filthy, low-slung churning riffs. The first track, ‘nmate’ lurches headlong into punishing, sludge-laden dirt, calling to mind The Jesus Lizard and the like, but scratcher, heavier, more overtly metal. ‘Too Bleak’ ratchets up the savagery, making for an eardrum-busting assault – but it’s tame in the face of ‘I Am A Beacon of Health and Wellbeing’ which sees the riffery go straight-up Godflesh and the tuning go way down to conjure the most ferocious hybrid of 90s noise rock and extreme metal.
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If ‘Junk Sick’ goes a bit easier, with clean chorus-tinged guitar and a slugging bass, it’s not without a brutal lurch into extremity, going early Pitch Shifter meets Fudge Tunnel around the midway point.
‘Tarmac’ brings peace at last with a spoken word narrative and clean guitar strum. ‘I’m the eldest of two / You’re the youngest of three / I’m just tarmac to you / you can walk all over me… just walk all over me’, Ally Scott mutters tensely. Here, it registers that this is not just a band doing it for a bit of a laugh: there’s real emotional depth buried amidst the tempest of noise. But of course this revealingly introspective moment is swiftly swallowed in a welter of noise. What does cut through is pure rage and anguish, a cathartic offloading of trauma, amidst a swirl of metal meets shoegaze. The impact level is high, and ‘Tarmac’ only elevates the power of Actual Bastard. I’m foraging for words here, in the face of overwhelming musical might.
Gout sure as hell don’t hold back, and Actual Bastard is a flailing, furious, rampant, relentless beast of an EP.
Bristol based progressive sludge metal band Urzah are set to release their new album A Tranquil Void on 5th June via APF Records (Mastiff, Video Nasties, Swamp Coffin). They’ve just shared 2nd single ‘Hunter in the Veil’, a track which draws on mythic symbolism and elemental imagery to explore cycles of power, death, and renewal.
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Formed in 2020, just before the pandemic hit, Urzah’s intensely collaborative and productive writing process was immediately evident, leading to the quick release of self-titled EPs ‘I’ (2020) and ‘II’ (2022). These laid the foundation for Urzah’s unique brand of ‘progressive sludge’. Inviting comparisons to Neurosis, DVNE, Mastodon and Elder, their forward-looking sound combines the abrasive elements of punk and post-hardcore with atmospheric post-metal passages and soaring melodies.
Urzah’s vision of ‘Earthen Heaviness’, combining oppressive darkness with moments of transcendence and cosmic awe, was realised on their critically acclaimed debut LP The Scorching Gaze (2024, APF Records). The band’s sonic world draws on both the intensely personal – rage, loss, grief and self-doubt – and a profound awe and vulnerability in the face of the celestial and natural worlds, framing visceral human struggle within vast cycles of death, decay and rebirth.
Since their debut, Urzah has refined their live shows across the UK, playing festivals and headline shows, and sharing stages with a diverse roster of heavy bands including Bongzilla, Tuskar, Mastiff, Greenleaf, OHHMS and Dopelord, as well as progressive atmospheric bands such as Hidden Mothers, Underdark and Nadja, demonstrating their strong cross-genre appeal.
The band recently announced that they are set to release new LP A Tranquil Void on 5th June 2026 via APF Records. The record marks a defining moment for the band, following up their critically acclaimed debut The Scorching Gaze (2024, APF) with an even more assured, mature and ambitious full-length. Conceptually, The Scorching Gaze and A Tranquil Void function as a visual, musical and thematic diptych; where their debut burned brightly with the rage and destruction of an erupting volcano, their new LP captures the cathartic, contemplative still that follows.
2nd single ‘Hunter in the Veil’, according to the band, “draws on mythic symbolism and elemental imagery to explore cycles of power, death, and renewal. A graceful but menacing feminine presence, the Wolfess evoked in the track exists between worlds as an archetypal force. Death and transformation are portrayed as sacred processes rather than endings, and the sombre outro expresses how our bodily ash returns to the soil and our memories feed rebirth.”
Exit Void represents the coming together of no fewer than six notable names from the Austrian scene. Some may even designate them the title of ‘supergroup’. Their bio spins it that ‘EXIT VOID functions as a spontaneous search for sound, where the distinct artistic signatures of Manfred Engelmayr (Bulbul), Katrin Euller (Rent), Alex Kranabetter (Drank), Wolfgang Lehmann (Voyage Futur), Anja Plaschg (Soap&Skin), and David Reumüller (Reflector) collide in productive friction, giving rise to music that remains open to the unpredictability of the moment.
For context, they first played together in September 2025 at Dom im Berg in Graz, and first came together to work on a soundtrack for a video installation, and we learn that ‘the ensemble combines electronic and acoustic instruments with structured compositions and open improvisational passages’.
There’s little room for experimental passages on this single release, though, with ‘Void of Escape’ clocking in at just over four minutes, and virtual flipside ‘Residual Breed’ at a minute and a half.
The former is an off-kilter and intriguing composition that builds – from a lone, mournful trumpet, subsequently joined by slow drumming which is simply immense, positively industrial… but is nothing compared with the powerful vocal performance. The lyrics themselves are sparse, but Anja Plaschg’s delivery is nothing short of devastating in its power.
Lately, I myself have struggled to articulate the thoughts circulating – or moreover frothing in a wild frenzy – about my mind. I can’t keep pace with the news. I lived through and watched – compulsively – the Falklands War, and the first Gulf War. I was a kid, and it felt exciting, especially living near an RAF base and during the Falklands I would the planes take off over the back garden, and later see them on the news. But right now is the worst and most scary shit we’ve ever seen unravel in real time on TV, streaming live 24/7, and then there’s social media… It’s hard to find the words.
On ‘Void of Escape’, Exit Void keep it simple and focused ‘War in the East… War in the West…’ Plaschg sings, with all of her lungs. And that’s it – succinct, simple, direct: there is war everywhere: the world is at war.
‘Void of Escape’ hits hard, a powerful musical experience and a statement of… of what, exactly? It feels like music for the apocalypse. It’s music of the moment.
Chicago alt-rock outfit The Joy Thieves are back with ‘The Wrong End of Your Rifle’, the first single from their full-length album Apocalypse Pending, out June 5th via Armalyte Industries. Featuring Chris Connelly (Fini Tribe, Revolting Cocks, Ministry, Pigface) on vocals, this ripping track addresses the intense frustration we’re all feeling over corporations and billionaires seemingly able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, without consequence.
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Revolving around musicians-producers Dan Milligan and James Scott (a.k.a. Joy Thieves Productions), The Joy Thieves is a musical supergroup that includes current, former, and touring members of Ministry, Stabbing Westward, The Rollins Band, Killing Joke, Pigface, RevCo, PIG, David Bowie, Blue October, Machines of Loving Grace, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, Naked Raygun, Foetus, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Pegboy, Nitzer Ebb, Die Krupps and more.
A jagged, cynical critique of the intersection between state violence, corporate greed, and digital voyeurism, ‘The Wrong End of Your Rifle’ portrays a world where human life is devalued and even the most violent acts are packaged as content or conveniently filtered, filmed yet ultimately ignored by the screen-numbed masses.
“When the billionaires are accountable for nothing, and force their will by suppression in the streets, we have to become inventive. As we are forced to watch corporations create for-profit prisons, we must remember that we can’t argue or reason with bullets,” says Chris Connelly.
Since signing with legendary London alternative-industrial label Armalyte Industries in 2018, The Joy Thieves have delivered 11 critically-acclaimed releases. Produced, engineered and mixed by Joy Thieves Productions at Populist Recording + Mastering, Apocalypse Pending is the newest record to blaze a mind-bending trail.
Joy Thieves Productions crafts their surprisingly cohesive signature sound from the contributions of its ever-growing 80+ roster of members, drawn from a diverse range of genres, including industrial, rock, punk, darkwave, hip hop and experimental music, they produce a sound that The Joy Thieves describe as being created by “all of us. And yet, none of us”. This approach has allowed the band to create a sound all its own. Aggressive, yet precise. Confrontational, but refined. Harsh, yet layered with melody.
Many of the songs on the new album began with producer-drummer Dan Milligan re-recording iconic hip hop breakbeats with modern drum sounds. ‘The Wrong End of Your Rifle’ began exactly that way — with a modern re-imagining of the one of the most famous breakbeats of all time (‘Ashley’s Roachclip’ by The Soul Searchers). This formed the basis upon which the entire track was built.
Swedish extreme metal project Since The Death have unveiled a brand new video for ‘The Blackest of Days’, taken from their upcoming album Entangled, due out on April 24 via Nordic Mission.
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Founded in 2016 in Linköping by multi-instrumentalist Oscar Rask, Since The Death has operated as a singular studio vision, blending the ferocity of death, thrash, and black metal into a sound that is both razor-sharp and overwhelming.
With Entangled, the project reaches a new level of intensity and precision, pushing its fusion of extreme genres into darker, more intricate territory. ‘The Blackest of Days’ offers another glimpse into this evolution, relentless, aggressive, and tightly controlled, while still carrying a strong sense of atmosphere and tension.
The upcoming release also marks a new chapter for Since The Death, as the project prepares to step out of the studio and onto the stage for the first time, with a full live lineup and a confirmed appearance at Light The Dark.
Aural Aggravation 