Fascinating metal innovators DORDEDUH have unveiled a new live video for the track ‘Timpul întâilor’, which was recorded during their show at the prestigious ProgPower Europe festival at the Sjiwa in Baarlo, the Netherlands in 2023.
While the Romanians were playing, their compatriot and renowned artist Costin Chioreanu created a live painting at the venue, which was directly inspired by the music. His artistic process was projected onto the backdrop behind the band.
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DORDEDUH comment: “First I need to mention that ProgPower is a very special festival with a particularly nice vibe to it”, frontman Edmond “Hupogrammos” Karban writes. “It is very intimate but feels like a big family meeting. There were great shows and great bands, but the afterparty at that castle-like hotel that accommodates both the musicians and the audience is something else entirely. We had a really great time there. Therefore, I am especially glad that we did something special there with our amazing friend of so many years now, Costin Chioreanu. Everybody involved deserves that and we are grateful for this opportunity. This kind of memory, this kind of beautiful moment will stay in our memories. Luckily, this one memory got immortalised for all to see in this video. Hopefully, you will enjoy it, too!”
The track ‘Timpul întâilor’ is taken from the album Har.
With mainstream music, all you have to do is stay tuned to prominent radio channels, watch TV, let Spotify recommend the next tune, and it lands in your lap. The further away from the mainstream you get, the more it becomes about keeping your ear to the ground, word of mouth, groups and forums – and occasionally, press releases and inboxing. Despite being a fan of a number of the acts involved, I discovered this one quite by fluke via a share in a Facebook group, which announced that ‘OMO DOOM , the Glasgow group who comprise members of Mogwai , The Twilight Sad , Desalvo , Areogramme and Stretchheads put out a new track this week, an intensely claustrophobic cover of a Head of David track – the brilliant late 80s UK Blast First act who everyone seems to have forgotten now’.
I’m perhaps one of the few who not only didn’t forget Head of David, but has a near-complete collection of their releases – and I can tell you it’s taken some years to assemble. While their first album – LP, released on Blast First in 1986, and later reissued as CD in 1990 isn’t too hard to find, and has a buzz around it on account of the fact that Justin Broadrick drummed with the band between leaving Napalm Death and forming Godflesh (although he didn’t actually play on any of their releases apart from their 1987 Peel Session, which features on the nigh-on impossible to find White Elephant compilation), their other releases are like rocking horse shit (as they used to say at record fairs in the 90s.
Their second LP, Dustbowl, which featured ‘Bugged’, was produced by Steve Albini and released in 1988. It’s a belter. While I snagged a vinyl copy in the 90s, I have never yet seen a CD copy in the wild, and it’s never been reissued, either. ‘Bugged’ also appeared on one of the 7” singles in ‘The Devil’s Jukebox’ Blast First 10-disc box set, and that’s hardly common or cheap either.
H.O.D.I.C.A. was a semi-official live album which captured Head of David playing at the ICA in London, delivering a purposefully unlistenable set with the explicit purpose of repelling EMI music execs who were sniffing around, and their final album, Seed State, released in 1991 lacked the same brutal force as its predecessors.
The reason for the history lesson is that they’re largely forgotten because their music is so hard to come by, and because Stephen R. Burroughs has pursued a very different musical trajectory subsequent to their demise, with both Tunnels of Ah and FRAG sounding nothing remotely like HoD.
But if you can hear Dustbowl, it’s aged well, a snarling mess of noise driven by pulverising drums and snarling, grinding bass that tears you in half. And this is where we resume the story, I suppose.
OMO DOOM’s version of ‘Bugged’ is slower, starker, more malevolent and menacing than the original which was ferocious in its unbridled brutality. Here, we get thick synths and punishing drum machines dominating the sound. The bassline is twisted around a way, and sounds for all the world like ‘Shirts’ by Blacklisters, and at around the two-minute mark is slumps into a low-frequency range that’s unsettling to the bowels as well as the ears. This sure as hell brings the dirt. The vocals are rabid. It’s gnarly, alright. Fans of Mogwai and The Twilight Sad and the late, lamented Aerogramme may be drawn to this, but probably won’t like it: it’s the work of a bunch of musicians trying something that’s nothing like their regular work, and it’s unfriendly and inaccessible and noisy and horrible… and of course, I absolutely love it. And maybe it could spearhead a Head of David Renaissance… We can hope.
AZURE EMOTE present the video clip ‘Disease of the Soul’ as the next single taken from their new full-length Cryptic Aura. The fourth studio album of the American progressive death alchemists has been slated for release on July 25, 2025.
AZURE EMOTE comment: “The dichotomy of silver and gold is forever entangled in our lives and pulling our proverbial strings”, mastermind Mike Hrubovcak states. ”This world suffers from an oppressive wealth corruption that engulfs every human soul. A landscape of crushed hopes is polluting our intentions and confusing our innate senses. When we relinquish control over to fear, the uncertainty slowly erodes our focus from what is meaningful to that which is an endless struggle. Much like the quick glimmer of silver and gold, it quickly passes like our reflection in the mirror over time. This hell that we try to erase, reflects on us face to face, as we observe this daily calamity and struggle with the agony of reality.”
New Hampshire indie rock outfit Replaced by Robots presents ‘Since You Broke My Ouija Board’, a haunted love story where heartbreak crosses over to the other side. The final audio-visual gem showcasing their powerful debut mini-album The Experiment, here we have a surreal blend of eerie visuals, vintage séance aesthetics, and emotional rawness.
The video brings the supernatural fallout of a shattered connection to life. Who knew losing someone could silence the spirits, too? As a bonus, the video begins with ‘The Air of Uncertainty’, an instrumental interlude – a pause to welcome the spirits.
Replaced By Robots formed as a sound and vision laboratory, where they search through the wreckage and noise of modern life to find unusual combinations and create moments of beauty. Goolkasian (The Elevator Drops, The Texas Governor, Lovesick) and Heather Joy Morgan initially met guitar maestro Adam Wade (Funeral Party, The Uprisers) at a Chameleons UK show they hosted in their living room, a fateful meeting that led to the musical chemistry we know as Replaced by Robots.
“’Since you Broke My Ouija Board’ was a spontaneous expression of grief and longing to connect, for Goolkasian broke my antique oujia board, hurling my spirit telephone into oblivion. And I can’t talk to ghosts no more,” says Heather Joy Morgan, adding, “Adam Wade really stretches out on guitar and shines on this track.”
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For this album, they worked with legendary producer Paul Q.Kolderie (Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, Throwing Muses, Radiohead) and Josh Hager (Devo, The Elevator Drops), as well as mastering engineer Terry Palmer.
“We got to work with Paul Q. Kolderie, who instinctively did a lot of weird things. He pushed the bass and guitars to the max, giving this record an undeniably glam-era feel and a rhythmic pulse, driving songs like ‘All The Lonely Nights’”, says Goolkasian.
The Whimbrels is an outer-borough masterpiece. The sound is dense, polyrhythmic, hard, and sweet, hooks and riffs to save your soul pop out at unexpected moments. The players’ credits — The Glenn Branca Ensemble (dating to the 1980s), The Swans, J. Mascis — predict the guitar-driven, sonic onslaught of The Whimbrels, captured on their startling debut – and as a taster, they’ve unveiled a video for the song ‘She is the Leader’.
A Whimbrels show involves racks of guitars, tuned in different and unconventional ways with the players constantly switching between them. ‘The Whimbrels’ album showcases this. There are counterpoint choirs, dueling e-bows phase against each other, chunking, poly- and cross-rhythmic interludes, soaring arias of distortion from Westberg and Evans’ strangely melodic and inventive guitar. Evans’ and Hunter’s vocals front a three-guitar line up tuned every way but normal. The ax men are veterans with contrasting styles that come together in a potent whole. The beats are smart and unrelenting. The album concludes with the instrumental Four Moons of Galileo, four short sections with the inner two framed by shimmering walls of descending, slowly evolving harmonies. The title recalls the four moons discovered by Galileo, suggesting the many more then lurking unknown in space.
ARAD EVANS (guitar, vox, primary songwriter) was a member, recorded and toured with Glenn Branca’s ensemble from the 1980’s until Branca’s death a few years ago. He is founder and still performs with Heroes of Toolik. In addition to Branca, he has played with Quiet City, Rhys Chatham, Ben Neill, John Myers’ Blastula, The SEM Ensemble, The New Music Consort, Virgil Moorefield’s Ensemble and many other groups. “A truly inventive and surprising guitar player.” (Rick Moody, The Rumpus Aug. 25, 2016).
NORMAN WESTBERG altered the course of rock as the main guitarist of the Swans over 35 years, contributing "overwhelming waves of volume with a mix of the rhythmically slashing and the harmonically sensual." He has a busy career as a solo artist and with other projects, such as Heroin Sheiks, NeVah and Five Dollar Priest.
LUKE SCHWARTZ is a New York guitarist and composer to watch; he also toured and recorded with Branca, and he performs in a wide range of groups, including Rick Cox, Joh Hassell, Lotti Golden, Wharton Tiers and with several of his own projects, The Review and the improvisational Hive and Quiet City and is in demand for film scoring work.
MATT HUNTER (bass, vox, songwriter) is a co-founder of New Radiant Storm King and plays or has played with a galaxy of cool projects, including J. Mascis & the Fog, King Missile, Silver Jews, SAVAK, and his own Matt Hunter and the Dusty Fates.
Drummer STEVE DiBENEDETTO, is a widely shown and collected fine art painter but also in in high demand for his music. ("The Spinless Yesmen" 1984—89, "Wonderama",aka "The Shapir-o-Rama" 1990—95, Airport Seven from 2010 to 14). He frequently collaborates with Dave Rick (Bongwater, King Missile, Yo La Tengo, Phantom Tollbooth) and Kim Rancourt (When People Were Shorter and Lived by the Water).
LIBBY FAB (drummer on That’s How It Was) is a founding member of the noise duo Paranoid Critical Revolution. She was technical director of Glenn Branca’s Symphony 13: Hallucination City from 2006-09 and toured as drummer for his ensemble on the Ascension: The Sequel tours. Her own electro acoustic and video works have been featured in festivals in Europe, North America and the Caribbean.
JIM SANTO (producer) partnered for many years with Wharton Tiers in the fabled The Kennel studio. At his own Tiny Olive, Santo has worked with a wide range of clients and projects. As a guitar player, his credits include The Sharp Things, George Usher and Harley Fine.
The New York Times once placed Arad Evans on “an index of creative or experimental electric-guitar-based music in America — young lords of the wild in the post-rock tradition.” That description fits The Whimbrels perfectly. You may need earplugs.
Cardiff Indie-gaze band Wylderness release their brand new and highly anticipated EP Safe Mode via digital streaming platforms.
The concept for this EP is reimagining the software and tech boom of the 90s. But instead of being centred on the west coast of America, it takes place in the south coast of Wales.
About ‘What Happens To The Rain’ single:
This is the closer to the EP and really it’s another two songs in one. The title could be a question or a statement. The first half has a Real Estate vibe and the second half goes in a more trippy Brian Jonestown direction.
It’s a song about going back to where you grew up, retracing memories and finding that they don’t quite add up to how you remember them (“Seeing faces you had forgotten / Crying for no-one / Recollections made of concrete / Fade in the sun”).
Woozy sun-drenched pop wrapped in a wall of stabbing fuzzy guitars and mesmerising shoegaze, echoing the sounds of Ride, DIIV, Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo. Wylderness’ eponymous debut album, released in 2018, was championed by SteveLamacq (BBC 6 Music), Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1) and was part of Radio 1’s Best of BBC Music Introducing.
It garnered critical acclaim from Clash, DIY and Drowned inSound, with the song On a Dais being featured on the US version of the TV show Shameless.
Wylderness have played shows for Huw Stephens, Sonic Cathedral, Swn Festival and support with Acid Mothers Temple.
The Cardiff band’s second album, Big Plans for a Blue World (2022), was recorded with an expanded line up and featured added layers of vintage synths and clarinet. It placed no.28 in Far Out Magazine’s Best Albums of 2022 and charted in the North American College & Community Radio Chart.
2025 will see the release of their much anticipated new Safe Mode EP recorded with producers Andrew Sanders and long time collaborator Rory Attwell.
Wylderness are: Ian (guitars/vox), Jim (bass/guitars), Ben (drums/percussion), Dan(guitars/vox), and Harri (clarinet/keys)
Me Lost Me – the project of Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent – delights in experimenting with songwriting, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully push the boundaries of genre. She ‘s now shared ‘Ancient Summer’, taken from This Material Moment (out 27th June via Upset the Rhythm), which she describes as “emotionally raw”, and deems it her most honest and vulnerable album yet.
About "Ancient Summer", Jayne comments that "This was the first song I wrote for the album and the first time I’d made a mesostic poem. Taking words from a tourism leaflet for Pont du Gard, a Roman Aqueduct and art museum near Nimes, France, I wrote this song that’s got so much wonderfully hyperbolic and excited language. It reflects quite well how I felt at the time of visiting, I was so moved to be swimming in a river in this beautiful valley under an ancient monument. It’s a song that comes from suddenly noticing your place in time and space, that feeling of being in communion with a past and a future, of being a part of something bigger than yourself. Visiting historical sites is one of my favourite things, and this is a bit of a love letter to the places that I’ve been lucky to visit over the years."
“The music video,” she says, “is a kind of nod to ancient Roman Spring/Summer festivals and the English folk traditions I grew up with, like May Day celebrations, Morris dancing and well dressings. In summer 2024 I worked on some music for a dance project with some incredible performers including Lizzie Klotz, Rosa Postlethwaite and Alys North, which was on the theme Abundance. The process was really beautiful, and I knew I wanted to work with them on this video because it had a similar theme and feeling, plus I knew I could trust them to throw themselves into whatever daft thing I suggested we do! Videographer Amelia Read joined us on Newcastle’s Town Moor to film us dancing and playing games, it was very collaborative and intuitive which was perfect, as I wanted the video for this song to be joyful and light (with a hint of folk horror elements going on too of course!)”
From San Diego California Sledges is a four piece Alt-metal/Heavy-shoegaze band that blends genres like grunge, metal, shoegaze, emo/post-hardcore, and alternative to craft songs with catchy hooks and big riffs. The band’s goal is to create emotional/ heavy songs that you can sing along to.
Sledges is Philly Gomez (vocals and guitar), Alex Angulo (bass), Julian Romero (guitar), Mason Haidar (drums).
Sledges’ origin starts in mid 2020 taking place in the area of Chula Vista California. From the boredom and freetime during the pandemic Sledges started as a three piece and wasted no time writing original material. During 2020 Sledges recorded and released their first single ‘Melting Lives’ which helped them start playing shows in San Diego and grow a local fan base. The group recorded and released more singles throughout 2021-2023 and added a fourth member to play lead guitar. Some notable singles during that time include ‘Headwinds’ (2022) and ‘Disgusting’ (2023).
In mid 2023 Sledges began to record their EP Losing Pace with Mike Kamoo who engineered, mixed and mastered it at Earthling Studios. Losing Pace is a four track EP that is catchy and ambitious yet heavy. The group took inspiration from bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Nothing, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Hum with its heavy but lush wall of guitars while adding their own flavor. Sledges experimented with acoustic guitars, melodic choruses, drum samples and My Bloody Valentine-esque leads. The group wanted to simply write strong songs that can stand on their own.
Singer/songwriter Philly Gomez says Losing Pace is about a period when he felt broken from the struggles of balancing life and in the process realizing you are falling apart. With heartfelt lyrics and contagious riffs, Losing Pace was released on May 2nd 2024. With great reception the EP led the band to get signed by the label Quiet Panic and open for larger bands like From Autumn to Ashes, and Ringo Deathstarr.
Finnish progressive heavy psychedelic rockers Craneium have just released a music video for their latest single ‘The Flow of Time and Age’, marking their second track under the Majestic Mountain Records banner.
Leaning heavily into their signature riff-laden fuzz and heavy rock energy, the song delves into themes of mortality and the quiet urgency of time slipping away.
“Lyrically, we’ve often returned to the subject of mortality and the choices that shape your life. You only get one,” reflects guitarist Martin Ahlö.
“Another track that we decided to save for later on. We felt like it could stand as a single on its own. It started out with an acoustic intro that turned into something else completely when the bass-riff came along. Droning guitars and dreamy mellotron-melodies on top. It’s different but definitely Craneium.” Shares guitarist/vocalist Andreas Kaján.
When on tour we listen to the classic Pink Floyd track ‘Time’ a lot, and I think it is safe to say that ‘Flow of Time and Age’ is a not so distant relative, musically and lyrically,” adds Martin.
“Our new track dives into the weight of memory, the slow collapse of what we hold dear, and that urgent need to act before the moment slips away. It’s heavy, melodic, and it hits like a truth you weren’t ready to face,” concludes drummer Joel Kronqvist.
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To celebrate the release, Craneium have also announced a new European tour, kicking off this June. Check out the full itinerary below: CRANEIUM – EUROPEAN TOUR 2025
5 JUNE – Copenhagen, DK @ Lygtens Kro (w/ Dunes, Grinding Eyes) 6 JUNE – Berlin, DE @ Pump Track (w/ Black Magic Tree, Zen Bison) 7 JUNE – Frankfurt am Main, DE @ Ponyhof (w/ The Black Cat’s Eye) 8 JUNE – Göppingen, DE @ Zille (w/ High Priest of Haze) 10 JUNE – Prague, CZ @ Sally O’Neals (w/ The Winter Sounds) 12 JUNE – Leipzig, DE @ Black Label 13 JUNE – Słupsk, PL @ Motor Rock Pub 14 JUNE – Łomża, PL @ Pub "Pod Ratuszem
“I see too many echoes of the 1930s in what’s going on in the world, which I see as being extremely dangerous both for the country I’ve chosen to live in and the Western world in general,” says vocalist/bassist Vox (Mark Burgess) of Chameleons when talking about his band’s brand new single, ‘Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing’. Out today (29th May) via Metropolis Records, the song is taken from their recently announced and long-awaited album Arctic Moon.
“It was the last song to be completed for the album,” he continues. “I’m particularly pleased with the way it turned out, because it was our guitarist Stephen Rice who initially brought the rough idea to the table and we all then collaborated on it to produce the final song.”
Capturing Chameleons’ innate flair for crafting exquisite guitar textures and merging them with Vox’s tight grasp of melody and wordplay, ‘Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing’ harbours a dark message about the current political climate amid its thoroughly engaging sound. Further enforcing this theme, an accompanying video splices live performance footage with kaleidoscopic images of war and its effects, as well as the propaganda surrounding it, making for a compelling statement overall.
“The lyrics came to me quite quickly,” Vox explains. “They reflect what has been happening globally and how senior officials line up to kiss the rings of clowns who regard themselves as self-proclaimed kings rather than elected statesmen.”
Aural Aggravation 