Summer has come to an end, all swallows have left the north, and autumn is already knocking on doors and windows with gusts of wind and rain. When the first leaves are falling, it is also time for melancholic tunes. WHISPERING VOID has the perfect offer for this darkening season: the eponymous song that gave the collective of renowned musicians from Norway’s west coast their name. ‘Whispering Void’ is taken from their forthcoming debut album At the Sound of the Heart, which has been scheduled for release on October 18, 2024.
WHISPERING VOID comment: “Lyrically, ‘Whispering Void’ combines all the elements of this album”, vocalist Kristian Espedal reveals. “The slow, gracious movements of the music evoke the innocence of natural beings moving through a forest, as acted out by the vocals in the verses. This song also features our third ‘outside’ collaborator, Matias Monsen from the band DROTT is playing the cello.”
Straight out of the Virginmays songbook ‘There Ain’t No Future’ is the next chapter in the duo’s heart felt message to the world, with their hearts on their sleeves and a fire in their belly this new single delivers the unashamed raw power of Rage Against the Machine with the swagger of peak Kasabian.
Frontman Ally states, “This is a track for the uninspired, for the unheard, those who crave truth and all that’s real. Those struggling day to day to make ends meet, yet still have love in their hearts to fight the good fight. Those who see the system is broken and choose not to punch down.
We’re really proud of this track, musically, we haven’t released a song like this before, it’s a further glimpse into an album we consider our best work to date.”
The House Beyond The Fires is the band’s first album since they reformed as a two piece in 2021, teaming up with Dave Draper to produce the drums and guitars (Terrorvision, The Wildhearts) and Karl Daniel Lidén from Sweden for the mix and mastering – an instant go-to after hearing his work (Dozer, Greenleaf) and this approach has certainly paid off.
Ally continues, “We have always been renowned for the power and energy of our live performances and strived to recreate that intensity through the production and mix of the records. I feel like we’ve really turned a corner with this album.”
The official video was the brainchild of Drummer Danny Dolan shot with Joel Gardner.
Watch it here:
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6 years in the making, and a worthy follow up to their previous Top 10 ‘Heatseekers’ Charting album Northern Sun Sessions – The House Beyond The Fires brings a collection of anthemic, hard hitting Alt/Rock tracks with a punk edge.
From the deep woods now emerges Birna, Wardruna’s sixth studio album. Through his restless dialogue with nature, main composer Einar Selvik has been searching for the voice of the bear, resulting in this upcoming release, scheduled for January 2025.
Birna – the she-bear in Old Norse – is a work of art dedicated to the guardian of the forest, nature’s caretaker, and her battles here on earth. Slowly driven out of her habitat by modern day societies, she has entered a stage of permanent hibernation. As a result, the forest is gradually dying, longing for its pulse and heart – its shepherd. Birna calls for her return.
“Where the previous album Kvitravn was a step conceptually from the past to the present, Birna even more so seeks to address the here and now and the way forward,” states composer Einar Selvik.
Alongside the album announcement is a new single and music video for "Himinndotter," the song constitutes a search and a calling for our lost sister of the woods. Composer Einar Selvik states “Himinndotter (Sky-daughter) is part of a six-song exploration of the bear on Wardruna’s upcoming album Birna (She-bear). The title plays on the globally common notion of the bears mythical origin as a celestial being. Himinndotter features a guest appearance of the Norwegian choir Koret Artemis.”
The video for ‘Himinndotter’ is filmed in Rondane National Park in Norway and is once again directed by Wardruna’s longtime collaborator Tuukka Koski, and produced by Breakfast Helsinki andRagnarok Film.
Watch the video for ‘Himinndotter’ here:
Wardruna live in 2024/2025
USA & Latin America 2024: 03 Oct – Morrison (CO), USA – Red Rocks Amphitheatre with special guest: Chelsea Wolfe 06 Oct – Mexico City, Mexico – Auditorio BB – SOLD OUT 09 Oct – Santiago de Chile, Chile – Teatro Caupolican 12 Oct – São Paulo, Brazil – Terra SP
Europe 2024: 07 Nov – Milano, Italy – Teatro Degli Arcimboldi 08 Nov – Zurich, Switzerland – The Hall 09 Nov – Paris, France – Salle Pleyel with special guest: Jo Quail – SOLD OUT 11 Nov – Hamburg, Germany – Laeiszhalle – SOLD OUT 12 Nov – Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom 14 Nov – Lyon, France – Amphithéâtre 3000 15 Nov – Frankfurt am Main, Germany – Jahrhunderthalle 16 Nov – Nürnberg, Germany – Meistersingerhalle – SOLD OUT 17 Nov – Wien, Austria – Konzerthaus 19 Nov – Brussels, Belgium – Cirque Royal – SOLD OUT 20 Nov – Halle, Germany – Händelhalle 21 Nov – Prague, Czech Republic – Forum Karlin 23 Nov – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg – SOLD OUT 24 Nov – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg – SOLD OUT 26 Nov – Düsseldorf, Germany – Tonhalle – SOLD OUT
Australia & New Zealand 2025: 23 Jan – Melbourne – Palais Theatre 25 Jan – Sydney – Enmore Theatre 27 Jan – Brisbane – Fortitude Music Hall 30 Jan – Auckland – Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre
UK & Ireland 2025 (with special guest Jo Quail): 17 Mar – Liverpool –Philharmonic 18 Mar – Birmingham – Symphony Hall 19 Mar – London – Royal Albert Hall 21 Mar – Bristol – Beacon 22 Mar – York – Barbican 23 Mar – Dublin – Olympia Theatre 25 Mar – Glasgow – SEC Armadillo
Norway 2025: 26 Apr – Oslo – Operaen – SOLD OUT 27 Apr – Oslo – Operaen – SOLD OUT 29 Apr – Trondheim – Olavshallen 02 May – Kristiansand – Kilden 03 May – Stavanger – Konserthuset 04 May – Bergen – Grieghallen
Europe 2025: 07 June – Reyjavik – Harpa 30 Jul – 03 Aug – Rasnov – Rockstadt Extreme Fest
After recently announcing their signing with Peaceville Records, California death-rockers New Skeletal Faces return today with a new single and details of their upcoming album, Until The Night.
The single, also titled ‘Until The Night’, is the first track from the band’s Peaceville debut and delves deep into the forgotten, dark underbelly of rock and roll. “Until The Night is about the ritualistic deviancies partaken by the lost souls of our planet” the band say. “It’s an anthem for the heathens that plague the night." The album, recorded and mixed by Bill Metoyer (Slayer/W.A.S.P.), is set for release on November 1st.
Alongside the single comes a raucous new video directed by Gaberealhell. Speaking about the video, the band said, “The video for ‘Until The Night’ captures the true essence of the song and lifestyle of the band. Done with little planning and no storyboard, you can feel the uncertain, spontaneous atmosphere”.
We reckon they sound better than they look, and arrive with a strong dash of vaguely gothy early post-punk in the mix.
Watch the video here.
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The band’s Peaceville debut, Until The Night (which follows in the path of 2019‘s Celestial Disease full-length release) further enriches New Skeletal Faces’ effortless blending of the spirits of old; with the seductive & spellbinding gothic prowess of bands such as Christian Death fused with the raw unbridled energy of early Swedish black metal legend, Bathory to create a bold new statement of intent, in stark contrast to the often overly-refined polish of contemporary metal. Until the Night is, as a result, something more akin to listening to the 1980’s Sunset Strip in an alternate universe from hell.
Formed in 2017, the trio of Errol Fritz, KRO, & Don Void present themselves as a cosmic abomination that tote the genre lines between all manners of darkness in music. New Skeletal Faces cast their own black light onto the long dormant corpse of Death Rock, shattering the mirror of modern Heavy Metal into fragments that reflect back a fresh new take on this form of music with an energised & outlandish conviction.
Recorded in the shadowy recesses of Hollywood, California, the opus was tracked, mixed and mastered by producer/engineer Bill Metoyer (Slayer, Wasp, DRI), capturing a richly crafted, organic sound authentic to the legends of the past, presenting all-new haunted tracks alongside a reimagined take on Bathory’s own Raise The Dead. Of the recording Bill Metoyer said “It was a pleasure working with New Skeletal Faces. A band who not only chose to NOT follow recent songwriting trends of so many other newer metal bands seem to do nowadays, but also the trends in the SOUND of their record.”
Pic: Becky DiGiglio
Record Release Shows:
Friday, October 18th – Til Two Club San Diego (Club Grave Beat)
Saturday, October 26th – Knucklehead Hollywood CA, (Club Rockit)
Friday November 29th – Lucky Liquor, Seattle, Washington
Ahead of its release this Friday, September 20, Andrew PM Hunt, aka Dialect, shares a final single from his new album Atlas of Green. For ‘Ancient Faith Radio,’ the second to last piece on the album, Hunt assembled a series of photo slides he acquired online many years ago that capture scenes from many more years ago in a saturated, sentimental haze of technicolor. ‘Ancient Faith Radio’ and its video, as with the album, is an excursion into fragmented memories both lived and yet to be lived, the past and future in a single moment.
Mapping new folds in the passage of time, Atlas of Green is traced with an aura of sonic urgency which arises through its process-led construction.The album embraces chance encounters within the malfunctions of physical media and glitching gear. Within these interwoven clusters of organic and blemished sound, Dialect reclaims the joyfulness of the inner amateur and creates a soft landing for new seeds of magical possibility – rooted in the bounds and abundance of realism.
Check ‘Ancient Faith Radio’ here:
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Dialect’s Atlas of Green will be released on vinyl, Japanese import CD, and digital editions on September 20, 2024. On behalf of Andrew PM Hunt and RVNG Intl., a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit The Greenhouse Project, an early years educational facility and after-school club in the heart of Toxteth, which supports the needs of all children to make exceptional progress and go forwards in their learning journey with pride and confidence.
Tour Dates
09/19/24 – London, UK @ Cafe OTO
11/12/24 – Barrow-in-Furness, UK @ Piel View House w/ Tashi Wada
11/13/24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Summerhall w/ Tashi Wada
With their final single in advance of their new album, the melancholia driven mid-tempo track ‘But Today’,
Soror Dolorosa present a different facet of Mond. Illuminated by a visualiser, this song channels classic Wave sounds into an expression of sorrow and regret. ‘But Today’ is taken from the forthcoming new full-length of the French post-punk gothic rockers, which is entitled Mond (the German word for ‘Moon’), and has been slated for release on October 4, 2024.
Check it here:
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Soror Dolorosa comment: “The last advance single ‘But Today’ is also the final song on our new album and one of my favorites so far”, mastermind Andy Julia writes. “Creating the different phases of the song was the result of a magnificent teamwork. It gave me particularly great pleasure to get my vocals and the choirs into harmony with the keyboards that you can hear in the chorus. This might well be our most progressive track on Mond that also has the most complex structure. We felt thrilled when we noticed that the complexity was not mitigating the efficacy of the groove and the brilliance of harmonies. Our producer James Kent told us: ‘This reminds me of the Fields of the Nephilim, what a smash!’. All of us in the band were rather thinking about Depeche Mode when we designed the sound and that particular tone of the guitar riffs. I could hardly visualise this song more efficiently than by unveiling the artistic process behind the creation of the cover artwork for Mond that was inspired by my muse. At the beginning of the shooting we had this idea of creating a mysterious character like the myth of the Ancient Greek seer Pythia. Therefore, we began to work with poses of a veiled lady who utters prophecies while having divine visions in a state of trance. Yet with the passing of each hour, the spirit of the moon goddess came over us and Angélique’s naked body finally reflected the light of the stars that are falling apart somewhere between the flame of the sun and the cold nocturnal light of the moon in a perfect symbiosis.”
Benefits blast in ahead of another substantial UK / EU tour with the release of the first new material since their debut album, Nails.
‘Land of the Tyrants’ features additional vocals by Zera Tønin of Arch Femmesis.
It may be more overtly dancey than previous outings, hitting an almost trance groove, perhaps even a bit KLF, and the rage is more simmering than roaring in in terms of delivery, but lyrically… as explosive as ever, ‘Land of the Tyrants’ tells it like it is. The video is more overtly produced, but it’s dark and stark. It’s grim up north, right?
Tour dates:
05/10 HUDDERSFIELD Parish
06/10 LANCASTER Kanteena
07/10 GLASGOW The Hug and Pint
08/10 EDINBURGH Wee Red Bar
09/10 ABERDEEN Tunnels
10/10 STIRLING Tolbooth
11/10 MIDDLESBROUGH Play Brew
12/10 LIVERPOOL The Shipping Forecast
13/10 PRESTON The Ferret
17/10 ROTTERDAM Left of the Dial Festival
18/10 UTRECHT ACU
19/10 ROTTERDAM Left of the Dial Festival
20/10 OSTEND Cafe de Zwerver
22/10 SOUTHAMPTON The Joiners 23/10 BRIGHTON Hope and Ruin
Edinburgh-based post-metal band Codespeaker is set to release their second album, Scavenger, on November 8th via Ripcord Records. This new release marks a significant evolution in the band’s sound, building on the critical acclaim of their 2022 self-titled debut, which was praised as “a richly textured tapestry of modern post-metal mastery” by Distorted Sound Magazine.
Ahead of the album release, Codespeaker has premiered their latest single, ‘Verte’. Check it here:
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The band explains the theme behind the song: “’Verte’ looks at our notions of sacrifice. The difference in expectations of the powerless and the powerful. The justifications we give for valuing one human life over another. ‘Verte’ was written at a time when people were being asked to make incredible sacrifices and the nature of these double standards was shown in stark light. It is an attempt to stand in the shoes of those who are deemed acceptable collateral damage.”
Scavenger promises to expand on the heavy, atmospheric sound that Codespeaker is known for. Featuring thunderous drums and colossal guitars reminiscent of bands like Neurosis and Cult of Luna, the album offers a towering sonic experience that shifts between mammoth-sized riffs and intense vocals, while also embracing quieter, more introspective moments.
Reflecting on the writing process, the band shared: “Scavenger was an interesting album for us. With 3 of 5 members joining since our last album, we wanted to create something that felt like a new incarnation of Codespeaker while remaining true to our sound. It was challenging, but we’re proud of how it all came together.” They added: “While our self-titled album had a certain warmth and wonder about the human experience, Scavenger is more pointed and aggressive. It reflects the darkening sociopolitical landscape we were living through—there’s a sense of desperation and anger. The lyrics focus on power structures and those who suffer under them. It’s an ode to the powerless.”
2024 is the year of Pythies, the musical project of Parisienne grunge fan Lise.L. While the Internet age has enabled countless acts to leap from bedroom conception to releases in a matter of weeks, she’s been rather more measured in her approach, and having decided at the end of 2022 ‘to form a new musical project lead only by women, which included influences of the grunge culture of the 90s (L7, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, Hole) and her taste for witchcraft’, debuting with an EP in May 2023, 2024 has seen the emergence of a couple of singles ahead of this EP release.
I will admit that I’m still coming to terms with this new model. In the 80s, 90s, and even 00s, you would either release a single or an EP. But digital has changed everything. Historically, whether it was a single or an EP, there would be physical formats, and a single or EP would both receive a release on 7” or 12” and a CD. Now, making a track available on Bandcamp ahead of the full EP’s release counts as a ‘single’, as does putting out a video for a song on YouTube.
Disillusion lands firmly on a personal level, then, because it’s hard not to feel disillusioned with the state of the industry, and, often, the state of music, period, and this EP’s five tracks articulate the sentiment with precision. But… acts like Pythies do bring hope, not to mention a real alternative to the mediocre, mass-produced, autotuned slop which dominates not only the charts but mainstream culture as a while.
There’s something wonderfully raw and exciting about this EP, blasting off with ‘Blondinette’, fast-fingered bassline that boasts some nifty runs racing hither and thither beneath a driving, gritty guitar, which does nothing fancy, but crunches hard, propelled by some energetic drumming and a fuckload of attitude.
The punning ‘I Pithie You’ is gentler and more melodic in the verses, but exploits the classic grunge quiet / loud dynamic with a ripping chorus. And did I mention attitude? Yeah, I know, but it needs emphasising: Pythies distils a blend of anger and nonchalance, while sonically they encapsulate the spirit of ’78 as much as ’92, and the title track positively roars.
Closing off with goth-punk tinged single cut ‘Toy’, Disillusion leaves you feeling exhilarated, excited: there’s nothing better than hearing a band channelling all the frustration, all the rage, all the angst into tight bursts of guitar-driven energy, and Pythies do it so, so well.
Hot on the sweaty trotters of Red Room, released in May, the Lord of Lard, Raymond Watts has managed to mine fresh truffles for a whole new EP ahead of embarking on an extensive tour of the US, which so happens to take its name from the first track on said EP, ‘Heroin for the Damned’. The fact that this isn’t a set of remixes
The title alone is glorious, and you can almost feel the relish with which Watts conjured up the phrase, wicked, perverse, dark, and equally ostentatious and grand, evoking an image within the realms of The Last Supper but with an S&M slant as the participants dine on an orgy of gore… or something. When it comes to relishing the richness of language and delighting in deliciously devilish wordplay and alliteration, sifting through PIG’s catalogue for titles and lyrics (there’s a suitably extravagant book containing all of them just out) provides abundant evidence that Watts really gets kicks from it.
It’s also clear he is absolutely loving the whole self-styled industrial rock-god posturing, hamming it up in leather and mesh, and simply the whole music-making thing, perhaps more than at any point in his career. Instead of being awkward about self-promotion, he’s fully embracing its absurdity, and in a genre that’s largely dominated by serious, angry people, PIG stand out as being rather less po-faced, and altogether more fun than your average industrial act. I’m not sure I’ve seen Al Jourgensen or Trent Reznor posting pics on Facebook hugging their pooches.
That doesn’t mean that the music is any less serious. Watts and his various collaborators really know how to bring a crunching riff and a stonking beat, and, occasionally, having taken early cues from the legendary JG Thirlwell, spin in some bombastic strings and grand orchestral strikes. And Feast of Agony is dark, heavy, intense, and marks a strong return to the more experimental 90s work following a pursuit of an altogether glammier sound of late.
‘Heroin for the Damned’ – the opium of the people for the 21st Century, perhaps – starts low, slow, and sinister, Watts’ vocal a croak amidst a dank electronic swamp before a steady riff, laden with grit, grinds in, rubbing hard against a lowdown pulsating synth groove. It’s a bit NIN circa The Downward Spiral, but equally it’s quintessentially 90s PIG, and lands a monster chorus that combines the raging roar of Sinsation and the grainy grooves of Praise the Lard with gushing gospel grandeur – something that really dominates the final track, the Jim Davies remix of ‘Baptise, Bless, Bleed.’ Piano and bold orchestral sweeps meld with stark synths and crunching guitars on ‘Fallout’, before Watts comes on like Bowie on the slow-paced anthemic ‘Comedown’, while the verses of ‘Hand of Mercy’ owe more to Prince.
It’s a PIG release and therefore it’s a pure [serial killer] thriller, alright – but even within the now-expansive catalogue, Feast of Agony is a strong entry.
Aural Aggravation 