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Watch: ‘The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine’ by Orange Goblin

The new single from UK metalheads Orange Goblin’s hugely anticipated new album Science, Not Fiction is out today. The track, titled ‘The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine’, follows ‘(Not) Rocket Science’ and ‘Cemetary Rats’ as the third single to be taken from the album and is accompanied by a new lyric video by Matt Vickerstaff. Watch it here:

Speaking about the new track, singer and lyricist Ben Ward said, “We are very proud to present our new single ‘The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine’. We consider this a very ‘typical’ Orange Goblin song… uptempo, melodic and instantly catchy, with all the ingredients of classic Heavy Metal! it’s the perfect way to kickstart the new Orange Goblin album! Lyrically, it’s about how we can’t change our past, but as the rest of the world is seemingly falling apart, we all have a chance to change our future. We are very excited about adding this banger to the live set at future shows!”

Orange Goblin’s new album Science, Not Fiction is their first since 2018’s The Wolf Bites Back and marks the band’s arrival on legendary metal label Peaceville. The album is inspired by a diverse range of influences, including spirituality, science, religion, and the band’s love for the sci-fi genre – “The title ‘Science, Not Fiction’ to me summarises how the world and everything we know is based on 3 fundamental things: Science, Spirituality and Religion” says Ben Ward. “It’s no secret that the band and I have always had a strong interest in vintage science fiction (particularly the dystopian kind!) and cosmic horror, whether that is movies, literature or just plain old imagery”.

For the last 30 years, Orange Goblin, London-based hard rock lifers, have tirelessly flown the flag for all out heavy metal and maximum rock ‘n’ roll. Driven by passion, persistence and heartfelt love for metal’s dark magic, Orange Goblin have always been a vital force and a risk-free bet. But while some may be content to trade on past glories, Orange Goblin view heavy metal as a lifelong pursuit. In 2024, they open a new chapter in their heroic saga, marking it with the release of their tenth studio album: Science, Not Fiction.

Photo by Tina Korhonen, astrophotography courtesy of Giancarlo Erra

UPCOMING LIVE SHOWS

28 Jun – Tons of Rock 2024 Oslo, Norway

12 Jul – Loungefest 2024 Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands

18 Jul – Signature Brew Blackhorse Road London, United Kingdom

(Album launch show in conjunction with Rough Trade)

19 Jul – Brudenell Social Club Leeds, United Kingdom

(Album launch show in conjunction with Crash Records)

25 Jul – Rock im Wald 2024 Michelau In Oberfranken, Germany

26 Jul – Blue Moon Festival 2024 Cottbus, Germany

02 Aug – Krach Am Bach festival 2024 Beelen, Germany

09 Aug – Alcatraz Festival 2024 Kortrijk, Belgium

24 Aug – furiosfest 2024 Saint-flour, France

03 Oct – The Drill Lincoln, United Kingdom

04 Oct – Opium Dublin, Ireland

05 Oct – Limelight Belfast, United Kingdom

06 Oct – King Tuts Wah Wah Hut Glasgow, United Kingdom

08 Oct – Gorilla Manchester, United Kingdom

09 Oct – KK’s Steel Mill Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

10 Oct – The Fleece Bristol, United Kingdom

11 Oct – The 1865 Southampton, United Kingdom

12 Oct – The Dome London, United Kingdom

26 Oct – Margate Rock Festival 2024, United Kingdom

Listen: ‘NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER’ by WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN

Posted: 19 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Ada, BIG|BRAVE, bold, Efrim Manuel Menuck, epic, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, immense, Jonathan Downs, Mat Ball, NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER, Patch One, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, track stream, WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN

WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (WAWBARC) is the new quartet of Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jonathan Downs and Patch One (both Ada). On NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses.

Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: “We’re honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside,” says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas—Menuck met first them in 2015 when recording Ada’s final self-titled album at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango, the same studio where WAWBARC convened to make this record.

The album is out September 13th on Constellation. Meanwhile, you can hear the title track here:

Watch: ‘Chronopolis’ by Ian Williams

Posted: 18 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Architecture, Canary Wharf, Chronopolis, electronica, Ian Williams, J G Ballard, Single, Slaughterback, Slow Motion Apocalypse, video stream

London-based musician/composer Ian Williams has released a new single entitled ‘Chronopolis’ today. Taking its title from a J.G. Ballard short story, it is an edited version of a track from his current album, Slow-Motion Apocalypse.

An accompanying video was shot in Canary Wharf in London. It highlights the clock-watching and surveillance of the workforce (facial recognition, keystroke logging and anything else they can think of) that makes the vast multinational corporations located in this financial heart of the beast untaxed billions, leaving crumbs that the average worker is supposed to feel grateful for.

The epic soundtrack to this scenario perfectly encapsulates the colossal architecture and human hive of activity, with hyperactive sequencer lines agitating under soaring lead synths as towering piano chords and immense drumbeats propel the whole machine along.

Ian Williams began his music career in Edinburgh in the mid 1980s as a founder of Beautiful Pea Green Boat, whose ethereal, atmospheric sound pre-dated the vogue for dream pop by at least twenty years. Several collaborations with Lebanese choreographer Joumana Mourad and her contemporary dance company Ijad saw him fuse Arabic/classical/techno/ambient styles, following which he changed tack to work with singer Claudia Barton as Gamine, releasing two albums of dark, piano-led torch songs and lullabies.

Williams’ own releases include THE DREAM EXTORTIONISTS (2019), a debut solo album of dark piano and electronics; LES BLESSURES INVISIBLES (2019), an eclectic electronic soundtrack to a documentary film by French director Eric Michel, and ALL BECOMES DESERT (2021), an album of minimalist ambiences and warm analogue soundscapes.

Williams has also composed the soundtrack to Michel’s new WW2 spy documentary, LE MYSTÈRE LUCIE (Code Name Lucy), which will be released in July. Further details will follow in due course.

Watch ‘Chronopolis’ here:

Watch: ‘North Coast Megafauna’ by AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR

Posted: 17 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: And So I Watch You From Afar, music video, North Coast Megafauna, Pelagic Records, Post Rock, Progressive, Riffs

No hype needed: new material from AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR. Check it here:

Listen: ‘Naakt’ by Vuur & Zijde

Posted: 14 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: blackened post-punk, Boezem, Naakt, Prophecy Productions, track stream, Vuur & Zijde

VUUR & ZIJDE (‘Fire & Silk’) reveal the closing track ‘Naakt’ (‘Naked’) as the final advance single taken from the Dutch blackened post-punk outfit’s debut full-length Boezem (Bosom), which has been set for release on July 12, 2024.

VUUR & ZIJDE comment on ‘Naakt’: "In finality, the sorrow is laid bare, and its nakedness is shrouded in cosmic fragility", vocalist Famke writes in psychological riddles. "Steadily waltzing into a conflagration, dissonance creeps in and opens the gateway towards the light – sharing your burden of grief."

Listen to ‘Naakt’ here:

Love and heavy metal have always had a somewhat strained relationship as the former is at least nominally topic number 1 in pop music. It becomes even more complicated when black metal is involved, a genre in which hate is a major ingredient as much as blues musicians must have felt utter sadness.

This observation makes Boezem, the debut full-length of Dutch quintet VUUR & ZIJDE ("Fire & Silk") the more remarkable as the album revolves around themes of conditional and unconditional love – and the difference between those, the liberation of intimacy, and motherhood. This album politely abstains from going through the motions of tedious heavy metal clichés.

It might help that although the Dutch have deep roots in black metal and the five have been or still are members in such established bands as LASTER, NUSQUAMA, SILVER KNIFE, GREY AURA, WITTE WIEVEN, and TERZIJ DE HORDE, they have stylistically shifted from their 2020 split-album with IMPAVIDA in the meantime. Having grown from a trio to a 5-piece formation has brought a wider range of influences and ideas to the table. The changes are subtle but enough to locate a part of their sound in the evolving and exciting realms of post-black metal.

The black side of the music is mainly expressed through whirling drum attacks and buzzing guitar riffs. Yet there is a second strong pillar on which Boezem rests, as bands that started out as post-punk acts and developed into more dreamy, meditative sounds such as COCTEAU TWINS and even DEAD CAN DANCE are also named as a source of inspiration. And for the record, at least KILLING JOKE made the topic acceptable in the post-punk scene with their classic ‘Love Like Blood’. Synthesizer sounds and the beautiful voice of singer Famke naturally contribute to that side of VUUR & ZIJDE.

The vocalist is also responsible for various lyrics penned in Frysk (Frisian). The Frisian name and language go back to a North Sea Germanic tribe and survived through the middle ages. Today, the Frisian is still spoken in a few Dutch and German areas along the coast up to the Danish border. The other lyrics are written in Dutch.

With Boezem, VUUR & ZIJDE achieve a perfect balance between their contradictory poles. The aggressive side with elements of black metal that have been transformed into post-black metal contrasts with the light side of shoegaze, post-punk, and wave. Both are entwined in an endless dance that creates fascinating new music, which is at the same beautiful and yet full of thorns – just like a black rose.

Watch: ‘Dum Dum Bullet’ by PIG

Posted: 14 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Chris Connelly, Dum Dum Bullet, Fear Factory, Heroin For The Damned, KMFDM, Metropolis Records, PIG, Raymond Watts, Red Room, Single, Stabbing Westward, Tour, video stream

Raymond Watts aka PIG has just announced a mammoth ‘Heroin For The Damned’ US tour in the autumn. The 40 date itinerary follows a headlining set at Cold Waves XII in Chicago on 28th September. The announcement coincides with a video for ‘Dum Dum Bullet’, a standout track from his just released new album ‘Red Room’ (Metropolis Records). The song features a choir of notable guests that include Emily Kavanaugh (Night Club), Chris Hall (Stabbing Westward), Burton C Bell (Fear Factory, Ascension of the Watchers), I Ya Toyah, Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry), En Esch (KMFDM) and Marc Heal (Cubanate).

Check the video for ‘Dum Dum Bullet’ here:

The March Violets – Hammer the Last Nail

Posted: 13 June 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: Hammer the Last Nail, Metropolis Records, Post-Punk, Review, Single, The March Violets

Metropolis Records – 14th June 2024

Their Bandcamp bio presents a pretty fair an honest summary of the band’s career: ‘Original Post Punk drum machine band from Leeds. Started at the beginning, imploded, reborn for the 21st Century.’

They really were there at the start of that fermentation of post-punk that frothed its way out of Leeds, propelled by drum machines and a fuckload of attitude and came to define what would come to be defined as ‘goth’. The labelling was bollocks, but that’s the press for ya. The Violets may have been – for a short time – taken under the wing of Andrew Eldritch, who produced their first couple of records and put them out on his Merciful Release label, established for the purpose of disseminating The Sisters of Mercy’s releases, but also – equally briefly – home to fellow Leeds act Salvation, and much, much later, La Costa Rasa – but apart from the drum machine and attitude, you couldn’t really say that they sounded alike.

There were reports in the press of a falling out, although Violets front man Simon Denbeigh, who went on to front The Batfish Boys after the Violets, would later become a touring member of The Sisters as Nurse to the Doktor, before ill health curtailed any kind of musical activity.

But to backtrack a small way in a messy history, 2007 saw The March Violets reconvene, seemingly out of nowhere, with a reunion show at Leeds Beckett (which used to be the Polytechnic) and an EP and, not long after, an album. And they’ve been busy ever since.

The arrival of ‘Hammer the Last Nail’ is exciting because their first new material in a long time, and it’s a cracking tune in the vein of their later 80s works as well as the post-return releases. And it’s good, too. It SOUNDS like The March Violets. It sounds gothy, sultry. Rosie’s vocals are as strong as ever, and she’s still got so much charisma. The Violets minus Simon aren’t quite the same, and there’s no escaping that: the dynamic of the dual vocal defined their sound to begin with.

But… bands evolve, and shift lineups. This is a ripping tune and a great addition to their catalogue.

BMH – Killigrew

Posted: 13 June 2024 in Singles and EPs
Tags: Abstract, BMH, Collage, field recordings, geography, gulls, Killiegrew Monument, Killigrew, Life Files, Mortality Tables, Review, series, topographical

Mortality Tables – 7th June 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

Mortality Tables have continued to release titles from their ‘Life Files’ series at a remarkable rate, with instalments 18 and 19 landing in May, and hot on their proverbial heels, this, number 20, in the first week of June.

The premise remains consistent, namely ‘Recordings of places, people, objects, moments in time, environments and quotidian events [which] are shared with a range of artists working across different disciplines. Those artists are free to respond to the recordings in any way they like. And so, as ever, the field recordings, courtesy of Mortality Tables main man Mat Smith provide the foundation and inspiration.

Killiegrew Monument is a peculiar thing. Located in Falmouth, and intended as a memorial to the last surviving member of the Cornish family, the monument is a sharp obelisk constructed in 1738. It looks altogether more contemporary, and ultimately anomalous with its surroundings. And one might say that this release is similarly anomalous. I can imagine that beholding this curious construction would inspire an array or reactions. But why the fuck would you play a stone monument with a sharp stone? Is that really one of the responses you’d likely have to coming face to face with such a construction? Well, perhaps, if you’re possessed of an avant-garde mindset, whereby instead of reflecting on the origins of The Wind in the Willows, you find yourself contemplating ways of making unusual noises.

Once again, when it comes to the ‘Life Files’ series on Mortality Tables, we don’t know what the source materials actually sound like.

‘Killigrew Monument Played With A Sharp Stone (Part One)’ is an odd sound work: there’s chatter and ambient drift and scratches and shuffles and scrapes, but what on earth is going on? Seagulls wheeling and cawing – and on those squawks the sound echoes and reverberates, and the collage of sound collides with a strange rendition of ‘One, two, three four five, once I caught a fish alive’.

There’s lots of processed echo and cawing gulls at the start of ‘Killigrew Monument Played With A Sharp Stone (Part Two)’, as well, and it does, in some respects, sound like someone crooning abstractly into a child’s echo mic just to see how it sounds. The longer of the two pieces, at almost thirteen minutes in duration, it creates a deeply strange and disorientating atmosphere, which is likely evocative of this curious monument, which stands out of time and out of keeping with its surroundings as a testament to human folly, and, ultimately to vanity.

Too abstract to be ‘songs’, too much happening to be ‘ambient’, the result is a haunting and somewhat disorientating soundwork of a rare quality.

Watch: ‘The Seal’ by Beak>

Posted: 13 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Beak>, Invada Records, The Seal, Tour Dates, video stream

Beak> surprise released their first album in six years, aptly titled >>>> out on all formats via Invada and Temporary Residence Ltd from 28th May, and received a massive thumbs up from us here at Aural Aggravation. They’ve now shared the music video for ‘The Seal’, directed by Tom Geens.

"I fell in love with the house when I first laid eyes on it. It was falling apart but in a really beautiful way. It was begging for something to be shot there, but as it was going to get demolished soon, I had to act fast. The last time I worked with Beak> was about 10 years ago on the exquisite soundtrack for my film COUPLE IN A HOLE and I felt their sound and the house were somehow a great match.” – Tom Geens

Watch it here:

Beak> on tour:

Wed 30 October – UK Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
Fri 01 November – UK London, The O2 Forum Kentish Town
Sat 02 November – UK Brighton, Concorde 2
Wed 06 November – UK Manchester, New Century Hall
Thu 07 November – UK Glasgow, Saint Luke’s
Fri 08 November – UK Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Mon 11 November – FR Lorient, L’Hydrophone
Wed 13 November – FR Paris, Élysée Montmartre
Fri 15 November – FR Lyon, L’Epicerie Moderne
Sat 16 November – FR Nantes, Le Lieu Unique
Sun 17 November – FR Tourcoing, Le Grand Mix
Tue 19 November – BE Brussels, Orangerie, Botanique
Wed 20 November – NL Amsterdam, Melkweg – Oude Zaal
Thu 21 November – NL Nijmegen, Doornroosje
Sat 23 November – CH Winterthur, Salzhaus
Mon 25 November – DE Munich, Hansa 39
Wed 27 November – DE Berlin, Gretchen
Fri 29 November – DK Copenhagen, Pumpehuset
Thu 12 December – IE Dublin, The Button Factory
Sat 14 December – UK Bristol, SWX

Listen: ‘Seven Nation Army’ by Talia Keys

Posted: 12 June 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Seven Nation Army, single stream, Talia Keys

Salt Lake City singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/social-activist Talia Keys has released a cover of The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army.’

Though growing up an outspoken queer female musician in the conservative confines of Utah has come with a mountain of challenges, Talia Keys wouldn’t change a thing.

Through her sizzling guitar, pulsating drums, or bold, bluesy and ultimately believable vocals, she communicates the realities of her struggles and surroundings in song. On ‘Seven-Nation Army’, Keys’ third in a trifecta of tremendous cover songs, the activist-musician once again accomplishes this mission, revealing a magnetic reinvention of The White Stripes’ 2003 smash hit with all the venom, verve, and pizzaz we’ve come to expect from this fiery Salt Lake City siren.

“To me, ‘Seven Nation Army’ is about not giving up. If people are talking behind your back, you still push through. About fighting to exist, and then existing loud and proud.” explains Keys. “The track has always resonated with me; as I’ve pushed through barriers and biases just to be let into the music industry. I’ve been mocked, ridiculed, talked about and hated on since my career began. So to me, the song represents a battle cry – to not let anything hold me back.”

On Talia’s gritty reimagining, ‘Seven Nation Army’ is again driven by an assertive, four-on-the-floor drum beat, which introduces the tune faithfully, and powers a pulsating groove. It’s a humble nod to The White Stripes’ beloved drummer Meg White, who inspired Keys behind the kit as “a powerful woman owning her space.” The cut features a very-effective half-time switch-up on the bridge, creating an enormous pocket that just jumps inside your ear holes.

For our money, this beats the original. Hear it here:

Art: Gabriella Hunter

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