Archive for the ‘Singles and EPs’ Category

BONGINATOR have been busy setting up The New England Death Metal Fun Time Bonanza that will be headlined by legendary MORTICIAN and promises total devastation as well as a headbanging neck-trauma after three days of nonstop moshing at Charleez Hill in Lebanon, ME, USA from June 27 to 29, 2025.

To promote the event, these weed smoking death metal maniacs release a video single for the new track ‘All Cops Are Biomechs’.

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BONGINATOR comment: “Do you remember that movie where like… the cop died and became part man part robot and then he was like a cool cop… robot… thing and then he like totally fought crime?”, guitarist and vocalist Erik Thorstenn innocently asks. “Yeah, we made a song about that. He’s the only cop we like, I guess. I bet, he would totally smoke you out if he caught you lighting it up under the bleachers and shit. Remember, when he shot that dude in the wiener? Anyway, go listen to the song, and hate-mosh a poser who likes fully human cops who steal your drugs and shit. And by the way, if you got some time to spare and want to hang out with us, just come to our three day Death Metal Fun Time Bonanza at Charleez Hill in Lebanon, ME at the end of June!”

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Christopher Nosnibor

When it comes to formats and the strategies for marketing new releases, it’s clear – particularly in hindsight – that the 90s was the peak period for milking fans with myriad formats, each featuring different mixes or edits, B-sides, and artwork. Now, I am by no means a nostalgia nut, but as a collector, part of me does miss this – particularly when most releases aren’t even available physically anymore, and some aren’t even downloadable. Adding a track your playlist is… nothing.

The latest offering from Glasgow’s wonky lo-fi maestros, Dragged Up, sees a different approach, at least, with an edited version of the A-side being released to streaming platforms but a full-length version available to download via Bandcamp, with the B-side being released a week later, followed by a physical release via the ever-innovative label Rare Vitamin.

You really need the full five-minute version of ‘Blake’s Tape’ to take it all in, to bask in the glory of the epic intro of churning feedback and rumbling discord which eventually gives way to a stomping, rambunctious indie tune which brings in elements of post-punk and folk, a collision of UK 80s and US 90s, and with the verses and choruses sounding like they belong to different songs, the dynamic is strong, switching as it does from nonchalance to pumping energy. And both are magnificently executed.

‘Clachan Dubh’ is a fast-paced, high-energy blast of fizzy guitars and blissfully loose interswitching vocals, and again it’s a collision of Pavement and The Fall plus all the scuzzy indue acts you’d read about in NME and Melody Maker in the early 90s. It’s less a case of them sounding like this band or that band, and more about the way they distil these various zetigeists and amalgamate them into a magnificent alt-rock hybrid which sounds like so much that’s gone before, and at the same time completely unique.

Oh, and they’ve got songs. Great songs. Get stuck in. And maybe go and see them on tour in a small venue in August, because after touring as the support for Steve Malkmus’ new band in the summer, there’s a fair chance they’ll be playing bigger places by this time next year.

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Marking 35 years of boundary-shattering existence, Japanese avant-garde metal pioneers Sigh returned with I Saw the World’s End (Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV) – a fully re-recorded, reimagined version of their 2007 cult opus. Released last Friday via Peaceville, the album arrives alongside a brand-new video for the blistering track ‘Me-Devil,’ produced by Matt Vickerstaff.

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Unsounds – 4th July 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Oops. It seems I let things slide a bit. Just over two years ago, I provided coverage for the first ‘Handmade’ volume, and now, here we are, faced with the third instalment of a four-single series. And for those who mat be wondering, ‘A physical album of the collection will be released with volume 4’.

As the accompanying text outlines, ‘The Handmade series is an homage to craftsmanship through an exploration of the lexicons specific to traditional metiers. It unfolds over the course of 4 thematic volumes. With guest Yannis Kyriakides on electronics they create works where abstract notions mix with tangible ones by linking the arts of the hand with sound and poetry.’

Before we delve into the single’s two tracks, it’s worth relaying the contextual blurb, as it might as it might be to paraphrase, I always worry about missing something pivotal ad looking lame, so I prefer instead to lay it out as given: ‘Equipped with the “Method of Cutting and Assembling for Women’s Dresses, Children’s Clothes, Trousseau and Layette” by Mrs. G. Schérer, a work duly authorized and distributed in state normal schools and municipal schools at the end of the nineteenth century, Anne-James Chaton imagined a contemporary dance choreography in which « grand battement » and « pas chassé » were performed by following the instructions for the construction of a bodice with basques, a frock coat, a little boy’s jacket. Then he cuts, pleats and sews together a few letters of the alphabet – a, e, i, l, n, o, p, s, t, u – and writes a sentence that he borrows from the French poet Jean-Marie Gleize. In Tailles, the art of couture thus reveals its affinity with dance and literature.” Are you all on board?

Here, ‘The trio push the boundaries of traditional rock music incorporating spoken word, electronics with experimental angular guitar riffs to produce unconventional but infectious, beat driven music that embraces dissonance and distortion.’

And yes, a lot happens a mere nine and a bit minutes: ‘Pas De Danse’ for a start, being a dark stark whir and clank and chank and clatter of electronica which intimates an industrial edge. It’s the whipcrack of a vintage drum machine that provides the spine for ‘Pas de Danse’ – the sound of a Roland TR606 or thereabouts delivering a crisp, relentless snap that keeps metronomic time for a spoken word narrative, delivered in French, in a muttering monotone ., there are swipes of distortion and squalls of disruptive noise which interrupt this, intrude on the relentless swell of sound.

The five-minute ‘Ecrire un Phrase’ (that’s ‘write a sentence’ in translation) brings jagged drones shards odd angular noise – including shards of dissonant guitar reminiscent of Gang of Four. There’s something of a DAF vibe about this relentless, dissonant, drone attack.

Immediate it is not. Droney and difficult, it is. Just the way we like it.

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Legendary bass player and vocalist Jah Wobble presents ‘Tyson Dub Remix’, a song dedicated to his dear departed Staffordshire bull terrier. This heralds his new exclusive dub album Dub Volume 1, a solo effort that sees him write, play and arrange everything. The album features full-colour outer and inner sleeves based on paintings by Wobble himself, with the Limited Edition vinyl edition being clear with yellow and red colours dropped in to reflect the artwork.

‘Dub Volume 1′ marks Wobble’s first solo release via Peckham-based label Dimple Discs, although he had earlier participated in other collaborative releases put out by the label with Telefís (Cathal Coughlan and Jacknife Lee), and also The Ukrainians, along with former Siouxsie & The Banshees and Specimen member Jon Klein.

Expertly mastered by Anthony Chapman (Collapsed Lung) and cut to achieve maximum clarity and volume, this record boasts astounding top layer sonics, This solo deep dive into dub is guided by the influence of sonic pioneers like Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and King Tubby, the result being a rich, immersive listen, full of low-end weight and intricately layered textures.

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“Tyson was a very stalwart, typical staffy and very, very resolute. Yeah, he was, the governor, but full of love, full of fun. And he was a rescue dog. We got him from Battersea Dogs Home, and we knew who we wanted. We’d seen him online. I said, “He’s—” and they said, “Well, nice. He’s not dangerous or anything, but he’s just absolutely sort of delinquent, you know, like you have to be. You have to be a very experienced dog handler." But we held out and held out. We were there all day. I had an Uber waiting, we were coming back up north—me, the missus, and me boys. And in the end we got him. My missus and her dad used to just get strays off the street in Liverpool. You don’t really have stray dogs now, but he used to love strays —and he loved Tyson, you know. So that swung it,” says Jah Wobble.

“I’d walk 10–12 miles some days up the hills, and he’d come with me. He’s the family dog, but he was just with me all the time, you know. When I went on tour he couldn’t wait for me to get back. He was lovely. So he had a serious kidney thing. And then a year later, he got sick again. Staffies are so tough. So it turned out he was riddled with cancer. Within a week or two, he had to get put down. And when he had to go, he just went to sleep in my lap. So that was it.”

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The Norwegian–Swedish collective Orsak:Oslo returns with Silt and Static, their most emotionally intense and musically ambitious record to date. Set to be released on September 5, 2025 via Vinter Records, the album marks a profound new chapter for a band long celebrated for their introspective blend of psychedelic haze and dystopian post-rock.

Recorded spontaneously, Silt and Static captures the band at their most stripped-down and unfiltered, balancing atmospheric fragility with crushing depth. With tape rolling and no roadmap, the album emerged naturally, giving shape to a sound that’s both deeply personal and bleak yet beautiful.

“This is the most honest and emotionally charged record we’ve made to date,” says the band. “Silt and Static is not a concept album, but it still carries a distinct atmosphere that sticks with you. It maintains a fragile balance between friction and flow, born in this session that at times felt like it was on the verge of collapse, yet somehow kept enough momentum to find a winding way forward. None of the songs were written with a specific audience or genre in mind, they simply emerged while the tape was rolling. The entire album came about spontaneously, and we did our best not to get in the way of where it wanted to go. It’s not meant to be perfect, but it is meant to be real.”

“We hope there’s something, somewhere, in the space between the ugly, the fragile, the beautiful, and the unbreakable that stays with the listener as the needle approaches the runout groove on the final side of this double vinyl.”

Following the album’s gripping first single, ‘084 Salt Stains’, the band now unveils the second single, ‘083 Petals’, a brooding and hypnotic track that reveals the emotional tension at the heart of the new album. A track built on contrast and collapse, it begins with a sense of control before slowly disintegrating into distortion and desperation.

“For us, ‘083 Petals’ was an exercise in contrasts,” the band explains. “It began with confidence but quickly unraveled — a mask slipping, dignity hanging by a thread. It had to almost fall apart before it could come back together. Somewhere between muted cries and atonal screams lies this track.”

From the slow-burn psychedelia of their earlier work to the more introspective and improvisational textures of Silt and Static, Orsak:Oslo has never sounded more cohesive or more exposed.

Formed between Norway and Sweden, Orsak:Oslo has firmly built a loyal following over the years, with a sound that channels post-rock, krautrock, doom, and ambient psychedelia into captivating sonic landscapes. Their ability to stay unpredictable, while always sounding unmistakably like themselves has set them apart in the post-rock underground.

Silt and Static is a culmination of that journey: a double LP that breathes, fractures, mourns, and moves forward.

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Industrial Sludge Metal Band WORST ONES Unleashes New EP Cold Case Against Institutions Carrying Out Cruelty.

Philadelphia’s industrial sludge metallers WORST ONES are ready to come back with a new EP, after releasing the single ‘Vex’ in March this year. The new effort is called ‘Cold Case’ and it is composed by the title-track and a remix version of the same.

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‘Cold Case’ is a searing indictment of power, complicity, and the violence hidden in plain sight. Built on punishing industrial grooves, a 303 bassline, and layers of moody textures and noise scorched guitars, the track hits with a menacing, high energy momentum that channels the raw intensity of Twitch era Ministry and Skinny Puppy, the gritty pulse of Die Warzau, and the impactful aggression of The Prodigy.

Lyrically, it exposes how institutions carry out cruelty with precision while society turns away, pretending not to see the blood on its hands. The phrase “just another cold case” becomes a symbol of willful ignorance, where injustice is not buried because it is unsolvable, but because it is inconvenient. The chorusʼ imagery – “up against the wall / going in for the kill” – evokes violent repression and execution, while the line “every sick and nightmare reason comes to life” suggests how dark motives are brought to the surface and acted upon. Even in the face of horror, the masses “rally in their fervor,” a reference to mob mentality and blind nationalism. Violence is not just permitted; it is ritualized. Power is the culture, and the aftermath is “a feast for vultures.”

But at its heart, ‘Cold Case’ is a protest. It ends not just in defiance with “I wonʼt fall in fear,” but with a warning: “Now you’re sick, their eyes can see it.” The mask has slipped. Itʼs a refusal to be complicit and a demand to confront the truth, even when it burns.

‘Cold Case’ was written and recorded by Drew Ew. Mixed and mastered by Jared Birdseye. Promo Photography by Luz Karolina Sanchez. Live photography by Vinny Barreras. Cover and logo by Drew Ew except “deathmetallogo” by Darren Adcock. Music Video by Drew Ew.

WORST ONES is:

Drew Ew – Vocals, Guitar, Programming

Doppleganga – Drums, Programming

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Canada-born and LA-based singer-songwriter Andy Stochansky makes a heartfelt return with his new single, ‘500 Symphonies,’ a moving preview of his forthcoming solo album, Poetry of Birds. Known for his evocative lyrics and organic instrumentation, Stochansky once again weaves emotional vulnerability with poetic clarity.

“’500 Symphonies’ is about telling somebody that someone is interested in them, when they do not know about it,” says Stochansky. "If they feel the same way, then I am telling this person that it will feel so real and magical—just like 500 symphonies."

Poetry of Birds marks a return to introspection, shaped by Andy’s deepening connection with nature and a longing to quiet the chaos of modern life. The album invites listeners into a reflective sonic space—where small moments become epic, and stillness carries weight.

With a career that spans decades, Stochansky’s journey has taken him from the stage — touring for seven years with Ani DiFranco —to the studio, writing hits like Shannon Noll’s chart-topping ‘Shine’ and collaborating with artists such as Goo Goo Dolls, Dragonette, and Lola Lennox. His music has graced major film and TV soundtracks, including The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.

In 2020, he launched the acclaimed experimental project White Elephant Orchestra, earning a spotlight from NPR’s World Café. Now, he returns to his solo roots with Poetry of Birds—an album inspired by poetry, film, everyday people, and the natural world.

Other standout tracks include’“Beautiful Sky,” a tender meditation on digital fatigue, and ‘Champion,’ a tribute to the quiet strength of a diner waitress.

“I want people to walk away with a sense of hopefulness,” Andy shares. “I put a lot of care into these stories, and I’m excited to finally share them.”

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Andy Stochansky 500 Symphonies

Heddlu is the new musical project by Rhodri Daniel. The Ceredigion native was a founding member of renowned Welsh band Estrons who had a major impact on the industry having gained rave reviews from the likes of NME, Vice, DIY and Clash to BBC Radio, Radio X, Ultimate Guitar, The Guardian and Independent.

After finishing the band in 2019, Rhodri became aware that his hearing was severely damaged. Years of touring the live circuit had taken their toll, Rhodri ultimately being diagnosed with hearing loss, tinnitus and severe sensitivity to noise. The effects were so acute, Rhodri was unable to play live music, leading to him composing his critically acclaimed debut album (Cantref, 2022) in his head whilst completing the entirety of the Wales Coastal Path (900 miles). His family and namely his sister, were great sources of comfort and hope during this difficult period. Serendipity led Rhodri back to music, and heddlu was born. Meaning ‘Police’ in Welsh, from the words ‘peace-force’, heddlu’s music has been true to its’ name, offering a force of peace to the songwriter.

Rhodri spent the next few years writing and experimenting with new sounds and instruments as his hearing slowly recovered. Whilst writing and recording his 2nd album, life found a way of both disrupting and influencing the creative process, leading to multiple re-writes and an entire album being erased. Eventually, despite the interruptions, heddlu’s 2nd album, Tramor – was completed.

Meaning ‘Overseas’ in Welsh, Tramor is series of intimate and volatile songs, detailing years of loss, estrangement, trauma and hope.

‘Wish You Were Her’ is the 2nd single from heddlu’s 2nd album Tramor, it is a raw emotionally charged track that pleads for someone close to grow into a better version of themselves—driven by equal parts frustration and love. Both confrontational and compassionate, it’s a self-aware lament that blurs the line between calling someone out and looking inward, capturing the messy beauty of caring deeply and hurting honestly.

‘Wish You Were Her’ is out 12th June 2025 on Zawn Records.

Futureless – 13th June 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Formed in Brooklyn in 2019, Cash Bribe have released a couple of previous EPs, showcasing a sound that brings together a number of elements, but above all brings the riffs. And they’ve really turned things up a way for their latest offering, a few tracks from which we’ve already aired here at Aural Aggravation.

While it’s something of a vogue right now for bands of heavy, and particularly a metal, persuasion, to open an EP with a short intro track that’s delicate and atmospheric, and eases the listener in before hitting the pedals, Cash Bribe aren’t here to piss about with pleasantries or conventions, and the minute-and-a-half long opening track, ‘Feral’ arrives in a ferocious wall of feedback and hammers in hard and fast, a frenetic blast of raw and raucous hardcore punk that’s nothing short of savage.

Single cut ‘Bay of Pigs’ powers in before the feedback’s faded, and it’s propelled by some mighty drumming: Larry Koch is a hard-hitter, but what’s more, the drums are up in the mix and drive the track hard.

These are dark and difficult times globally, but America… America, WTF? Where to begin? It’s hard to articulate, and this is precisely why this EP is perfect, a spitting, savage roar, equal parts rage and nihilism. More often than not, I would unpack the social or political context, and perhaps explore my own reaction to the material in a reflective fashion. But sometimes, the task feel too great, and what’s more, the material speaks for itself. It’s positively explosive, and bludgeons the listener without mercy..

The title track is the longest, clocking in at exactly four minutes, and is maintains a hundred-mile-per-hour pace for its duration. There is no let-up on this EP: it is truly relentless, and the fury flames unabated. It’s all killer, alright.

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