Posts Tagged ‘Heavy’

Listen: ‘an uttering of antipathy’ by BIG|BRAVE

Posted: 20 May 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

BIG|BRAVE, the Montréal/Berlin-based trio of guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie, guitarist Mat Ball, and bassist Liam Andrews, have unveiled the mountainous single ‘an uttering of antipathy,’ taken from their forthcoming album in grief or in hope, out June 12th. The single’s gargantuan, sublime chords feel gravitational as they unfold in plumes of darkened feedback. Wattie’s voice emphasises a sense of isolation inside the fray with stark clarity and at times auto-tuned undulations, culminating in a powerful conclusion: “god only blames me / you only blame me.”

Mathieu comments, "This track was actually one we performed during the past year of touring. These are the chords and instrumentation we used for the live rendition of “chanson pour mon ombre”. Given our fondness for this live track, we decided to incorporate the chord progression into a new song for this record. After several challenging days in the studio, when it was time to structure and record the track, Liam, Robin and I recorded the entire song in a single take in the live room. This was a highly encouraging moment. The vocals (with subtle autotune) effectively brought the song together, making it one of my favourites on the record." About the autotune Robin enthuses, "I’ve ALWAYS wanted to try it. i’m glad we did."

AA

in grief or in hope marks a shift for BIG|BRAVE towards denser, guitar-oriented compositions. With longtime touring bassist Liam Andrews (MY DISCO, Aicher) joining guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie and guitarist Mathieu Ball in the studio for the first time, the pieces are keenly layered with a rich tapestry of harmonics and tonal intricacies. Each piece is its own biome of distortions starkly contrasted with delicate, even tender, moments. The trio’s instinctual progressions are made more vivid through live recording, harnessing the gargantuan and storied sound of their performances. Within texturally maximalist loops and affected vocals, the pieces utilise the aesthetics of drone, electronic, and heavy music within a foundation of pop song form. Wattie writes: “I wanted to explore catchy, melodic phrasing weaved throughout the intensity of the instrumentation and drony chord changes. All that I could reflect on was grief and hope; death and life; cause and effect; shared experiences of being a human person.”

Together the trio deliver emotional momentum that vividly describes the complex and deep feelings of struggle, pain, and transcendence. in grief or in hope transmits that sense of humanity with every gesture.

BIG|BRAVE will begin their European tour in support of the album this week in the Netherlands, and will be embarking on an extensive North American tour with The Body this summer.

AA

unnamed1-990000079e04513c

Photo credit: Stacy Lee

A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers – Towers of Silence

Posted: 19 May 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Lay Bare Recordings – 9th May 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

One may be inclined to jest that a release like this should carry a warning – but the joke falls flat when technically, it does: the notes which accompany the release on Bandcamp sets the scene for the debut EP from Dutch experimentalists of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers thus:

Whilst most drone-metal outfits focus on creating atmosphere by composing ambient compositions with tremendous power and volume, the Lighthouse Keepers use more traditional doom/sludge metal as a starting point and explore its differences and similarities with genres such as free jazz, raga, noise and classical minimalism.

Elsewhere, they’re described as sounding like ‘a disturbed lovechild of OM, Sumac, Swans, Miles Davis, and Pandit Pran Nath, combining lengthy improvisations with ear-shattering explosions of intensity’. How could a lovechild of that lot be anything but disturbed?

And so it is that we enter by way of ‘The Massacre of Flour’, a title of which conjures images of a bloodbath in a bakery. What is sounds like is…. nothing short of wild. Its seven minutes leads the listener through a series of conjoined segments, arriving in a crazed blast of shrieking noise, a frenzied cacophony of feedback and squealing sax before lunging into a thick, sludge riff, which in turn yields to a slow, almost ambient drone passage with mystical swirls which rise like desert mirages. Each is gripping itself, and the transition to the next takes place almost imperceptibly: one moment you’re here, then, somehow, you’re there, in a completely different scene with no recollection of how you came to be here – rather like the way scenes change in dreams. And suddenly, the hazy serenity is torn asunder, lurching into a tectonic rift from which burst larval torture resembling Swans circa the Young God EP. It’s absolutely fucking brutal, the sound of pain, distilled and amplified

‘I Fuck People’, the shortest song on the EP, goes in hard on the avant-jazz noise chaos, forming a heavy undulation of bleats and shrieks by way of a backdrop to savage, ravaged, demonic vocals. It’s the sound of purgatorial torment. But all of this is simply a prelude to the main event, the nine-minute ‘Towers of Silence’, on which they really flex all of their muscles. Easing in gently with some abstract desert folk with hints of Eastern esotericism, it’s a slow, gradual build. There’s something meditative, spiritual in the vocals, until things begin to get twisted, mangled, and tangled. There’s anguish, there’s tension, and unease grows… breathe. But ululations which begin soothingly grow tense, and things spiral to a hypnotic cathedral of sound.

Towers of Silence may only contain three tracks with a combined duration of just over twenty minutes, but its range and intensity are something to behold. It’s drone metal, but not as we know it.

AA

AA

892210

Listen: ‘The Call Beneath’ by Urzah

Posted: 19 May 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Bristol based sludge metal band Urzah release their new album  ‘A Tranquil Void’ in just a few weeks on 5th June via APF Records (Mastiff, Video Nasties, Swamp Coffin). Today sees them share one final single before the album is out in the form of ‘The Call Beneath’.

You can check out the track here:

AA

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 ‘A 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.

Tom McElveen (vocals/guitar) comments on 3rd single ‘The Call Beneath’, “this track is about dealing with grief for the first time, and letting yourself be pulled into its depths so the earlier version of yourself can die and a new one can be reborn and ‘rise to the surface’. This process can only happen when you stop resisting it. We play with dynamics and moving time signatures to build and rebuild tension, taking us through to the final cathartic stage of rebirth at the pinnacle.”

AA

URZAH-album-session-2025-NaomiJanePhotography-276b(2)

Watch: ‘Viper’ by The Howlers

Posted: 18 May 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

The Howlers have delivered the first glimpse at their highly-anticipated sophomore album in the form of new single ‘Viper’. Carrying the band’s classic desert rock swagger, the track is accompanied by an epic video of a backlit frontman Adam Young, trusty fringe leather jacket in tow. “I’m not your usual type,” he shrugs, “but let’s pretend for the night.” Driving riffs and comparatively delicate vocals reintroduce the band, setting the scene for new album Heavy – an album exuding confidence and identity – which is set for release this autumn.

Speaking about the forthcoming new album, Young states:

“This album is those late night experiences, the after dark conversations, late night phone calls, the seductive nature of impulsiveness that seems so alluring and losing yourself in the addictive nature of recklessness, but it’s also the mirror in the morning, the wake up call, and the harsh reality of knowing those feelings won’t always last and it’s the moment you find yourself again.”

AA

The Howlers’ debut album What You’ve Got To Lose To Win It All earned the band a UK Official Charts Top 10 position and multiple chart positions across mainland Europe, where they also completed a headline tour last March. The record represented the emotional toll of personal loss, written and conceived by Young as a means to express and share his own experiences.

Outwardly the band was riding the high of success, but behind the scenes they were falling apart amidst the burden of independent releasing. But in the wake of the new year, Young set about working on the foundations of what would become the band’s second album. Galvanised by his newfound independence and reshaping the band into a two-piece, The Howlers recorded and released their rebirth singles ‘Night Crawling’ and ‘You Can Be So Cruel’.

This propelled the band across the continent, testing the waters on new material and rekindling a love for performing. The band have built a reputation as one of the country’s must-see bands, with plans to head back out on the road in the UK and EU surrounding their new album later this year.

Heavy, The Howlers’ sophomore album, is set for release via Frontiers Label Group on 9th October. Tour dates are soon to be announced.

AA

Howlers

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs / Meryl Streek – The Crescent Community Centre, York, 14th May 2026

Posted: 15 May 2026 in Live, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Christopher Nosnibor

Once again, I’ve returned to my home from witnessing fantastic acts performing live with a few photos, and barely any notes. This is what happens when the bands are so good you just spend the entire set, transfixed, and when between acts, when you might otherwise capture a few thoughts, you see people you know, and in between a piss and a fresh pint, the time’s gone. I can’t complain about any of this, of course, and I’m not going to. Because this summarises everything that’s great about going to see live music in grassroots venues – not just seeing great bands in close proximity and being able to afford not only a pint, but more than one (you can buy two decent hand-pulled pints of local / regional beer here for the price of a single pint of mass-produced stuff at The Barbican or Leeds O2), but running into familiar faces and being part of a community of people who support live music and are properly into going to see bands.

I’m writing this up now having just seen that The Crescent in York has been named by Time Out as one of the 42 greatest independent venues in the UK, making the Top 10, no less, sharing a bracket with the likes of The Brudenell, Café Oto, and Glasgow Barrowlands. And the more I reflect, the more I feel it’s more than deserved. It really is that good, in that it has everything you could possibly want from an independent gig venue – and tonight is exemplary. It’s sold out, and the bar’s packed a good half an hour before doors, plus there’s a queue, meaning it’s filled up nicely by the time Meryl Streek takes the stage at 8.

Meryl Streek is a revelation, and a world away from Pigs stylistically, sonically, in terms of performance… and this is a strong positive. For one man with a backing track, he sure does a good job of making up for the absence of a band, constantly pacing back and forth with a frenetic, kinetic, nervous energy. The set is strewn with samples and recordings of news items, predominantly about suicide and murder, prefacing or integrated within songs on the same. Real people are the subjects, and he pours heart and soul into every word. The vocal style is not exactly rapping, and certainly not singing, but essentially agitated ranting over electronic-based tracks with sturdy bass and booming beats. At times it’s near disco, others quite abrasive noise. He apologises for the content, and for – well, I’m not quite sure what for. The crowd’s behind him (even when he’s off the stage and in the middle of them, if you see what I mean) and deservedly so. Musically entertaining, lyrically harrowing, it’s a strong set.

DSC00265DSC00255DSC00315

Meryl Streek

AC/DC’s ‘For Those About to Rock’ is played in full as an intro before Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – or Pigs x 7 as they tend to be more commonly referred to, for obvious reasons – take to the stage. It’s an apposite choice: we are indeed, about to fucking rock.

Their back line is immense. The sound is beyond immense, and they blast out riff after riff after riff. They roll up all of the best of riff monsters and chuck in some space rock for good measure, resulting in a glorious hybrid of Sabbath, Mötörhead, and Hawkwind. And while on the face of it, there’s nothing unique on offer, when it comes to riffs, size matters, and these guys do riffs on a truly galactic scale. The delivery really makes it, though. The bass and drums are locked in tight, and the two guitarists swap effortlessly between lead and rhythm parts, sometimes both playing both.

DSC00384DSC00409DSC00417

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Matt Baty, in shorts and vest, dripping with sweat (and the copious water he pours over himself) adopts a stance like Henry Rollins as he hollers into a vortex of reverb. But given his build, and tendency to bounce lightfootedly and strike random poses, it’s more like watching Barry McGuigan doing Freddie Mercury on Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes. They’re a band who clearly don’t take themselves too seriously, and every three or four songs – hammered out back to back – there’s a pause for breath, during which he relays a tale in three or four parts which is more or less about the fact that they’ve never been invited to play Download Festival (cue pantomime booing and hissing from the crowd). This is very much Download’s loss. There’s also a reference to ‘The hardest man in Billingham’ – which happens to be a song by fellow northeasters IRKED, who we welcomed to York only last week. There’s some good stuff happening up there right now, and it’s great that we get to share in this. In fact, despite the fact that the world is insane and there’s war everywhere, the cost of living is crippling, and pubs and venues are closing at an alarming rate, this is a good time for new music.

DSC00342DSC00345

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

As they’re touring to promote their (fairly) recently-released fifth album, it stands to reason that the set should focus on that, opening with ‘The Wyrm’ and playing pretty much the album in its entirety, with occasional delves into the back-catalogue, with ‘Big Rig’, ‘Mr Medicine’ and ‘Ultimate Hammer’ from Land of Sleeper also making an appearance and ‘GNT’ from 2018’s King of Cowards being the oldest song in the set. No-one’s beefing about the setlist: the new album is a corker and live, they slay from start to finish. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs = Riffs Riffs Riffs Riffs Riffs Riffs Riffs, and tonight’s show was an absolute rip-snorter.

GURT – Survival of the Shittest

Posted: 12 May 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

5th June 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

I laugh, because the phrase ‘survival of the shittest’ was a phrase I used – a lot – in the late 90s, in my early years of being thrown into the corporate world after completing a degree in English literature. Back then, the belief still existed that a better education would lead to a better job, although in the three years between starting my degree and finishing it, a lot changed, and none of it for the good. ‘Graduate jobs’ stopped being a thing, meaning that it was a feat just to land a temp job doing data input work at an insurance company. It was fucking soul crushing, and Charles Bukowski’s Factotum became a book I came to relate to all too closely as I trudged my way through what felt like endless drudgery. And the managers, those who got promoted, those who did well? The common trait among them seemed to be that, when you boiled it down to the basics, they were all cunts. Backstabbers, self-promoters, overconfident wankers, twats with all the ambition but none of the skills… these bastards were killing it on the career ladder, while I sloughed away in a pit of despair. Scum floats, and all around me, it did. I wasn’t envious of their lives or their ‘careers’, but it was a gut-wrenching showcase of the shitshow that is capitalism and the greasy pole of corporate life: the survival of the shittest in sharp relief. This is now true of all aspects of life: as politics has become indistinguishable from business, and capitalism has taken over all aspects of existence, every bugger is using business-speak and striving to attain success not by means of hard work and talent, but by connivery and cuntishness. And it needs to be called out, and blocked wherever possible.

This new EP by GURT is nothing less than an absolute beast. With three tracks clocking in at ten and a half minutes, there’s no flab, no extravagant solos, no wanking about. They’re described as purveyors of ‘party doom’, but they’re a bit too uptempo to be doom and far too doomy to be party for most. Ultimately, their thing is a rabid racket, and at times, I’m reminded of the Leeds scene circa 2010 and shortly after, specifically around the emergence of crazed guitar noise acts like Pulled Apart by Horses and These Monsters. These were exciting times, particularly as it predated the need for professionalism to make it even onto a stage. Don’t get me wrong: these were great bands, but they were also wild, and things feel a lot more contained now.

GURT do not feel contained, GURT feel deranged, unhinged, rampant. ‘Live Nation, Dead Scene’ goes in all guns blazing, a rabid rager presumably targeted at the multinational ticket agency – operating what’s probably one of the biggest legal scams on the planet right now, with their exorbitant fees and dynamic pricing. The music industry has always sought to gouge every penny from fans while the artists themselves wallow at the bottom of the pile when it comes to benefiting from the proceeds, but Live Nation have hatched a whole new level of exploitatious robbery. They are literally – and yes, I do mean that – killing music for profit, and should be boycotted at all costs. I doubt this is a major issue for GURT.

The title track is a low-slung, sludgy, riff-driven roar, propelled by some ferocious drumming. The vocals are mangled to all hell, and it’s seriously gnarly.

Their cover of 2 Unlimited’s ‘No Limit’ simply shouldn’t work. It’s truly preposterous, audacious, and absurd. Metal covers of pop and dance tunes is old hat, predictable, corny… and yet they overcome all of this to conclude the EP with a ballsy, over-the-top take on a dance-pop song that’s as maligned as it was successful. This version’s not going to be making number one in a hundred countries around the world or filling dancefloors in perpetuity, but credit to GURT for the inspired choice. And now ‘party doom’ makes sense. Get on down, motherfuckers!

AA

AA

GURT_SOTS_Cover

Hellripper – Coronach

Posted: 3 May 2026 in Albums, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Century Media – 27th March 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

Pentagram-shaped goat heads adorn Hellripper’s website and Bandcamp. “All hail the goat” is a band slogan of sorts, and is emblazoned on the body of the compact disc, which depicts a goat in an approximation of a lion rampant stance, thus combining James McBain’s strongly Scottish identity (the album comes in ‘Wild Thistle’ pink, ‘Saltaire’ blue, ;’Highland Mist’ grey and ‘Black Cuillin’ vinyl editions’ and Baphomet, adopted as something of a mascot within the black metal community since the dawn of the genre with Venom’s Black Metal in 1982, and Bathory’s genre-defining eponymous debut in ’84. there’s a giant goat forged from mist and cloud on the moody, mountainous cover art, too.

The ‘one-man black/speed metal band formed by Scottish musician James McBain in 2014’ has been crowned ‘Scotland’s King of the arcane mosh’ by Metal Hammer magazine, with a style which is very much rooted in 80s black metal, and, as the Hellripper website states, ‘heavily inspired by witchcraft and the supernatural, Hellripper is also deeply rooted in its Scottish origins, using the landscape and historical events as a backdrop for its lyrics and imagery’.

Coronach is Hellripper’s fourth full-length album, and features eight riff-ripping songs with a total run time of forty-four solo-centric minutes. The instant ‘Hunderprest’ powers in at a hundred miles an hour, McBain is straight in with the flamboyant fretwork, and some of it is just wildly excessive. ‘Less is more’ is not a motto Hellripper abide by. But the riffs themselves are killer, and she snarling, rasping vocals may be of the genre, but add to the gnarliness of the dark whirlwinds which blast through each and every song. The pace is relentlessly fast and furious and the style cohesive throughout.

That said, as much as I say that this is ‘of the genre’, Coronach does show ambition and awareness when it comes to composition and arrangement: ‘The Art of Resurrection’ starts with a delicate, atmospheric piano passage, while the title track includes Sir Walter Scott’s poem of the same title (Scott was Scottish) and bagpipes (of course).

‘Baobhan Sith (Waltz of the Damned)’, the first of the album’s two bona fide epics, with a span of six and a half minutes, rounds of the first half, and with the fancy fretwork reined in (a bit, at least) in favour of driving riffery, it’s a powerful, pounding beast of a tune, while the title track, which draws the curtain on the album, is a towering, monumental nine-minute monster which goes all-out anthemic and which flies the flag of tartan black metal with pride.

AA

a4067992884_10

Picking / Gnarled Fingers – Picking / Gnarled Fingers

Posted: 25 April 2026 in Albums, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Cruel Nature Records – 27th March 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

This one’s been out for a bit, but was too good to let go without comment. Some will likely thank me for this: others may be less grateful as they sit, hands over their ears, wondering why they should ever pay heed to a word I write. It’s niche and it’s noisy – as the notes which accompany the release on Bandcamp make clear from the outset:

Gnarled Fingers and Picking are two artists drawn together by a shared love of bleak, crushing, low-end oblivion.

Picking is a new raw doom / noise / drone project from Charlie Butler inspired by lifelong incessant excessive picking of nails.

Gnarled Fingers is an experimental, ambient drone project, relentless wall of fuzz and atmosphere, no escape, created after growing up in Somerset Levels with stories of witchcraft and pagan superstition.

The Picking track, ‘Toenail’ sits in the droney doom bracket dominated by Sunn O))), but there’s something magnificently lo-fi about this, which adds a layer of filthy muck and treble distortion that conveys a performance which is of a volume just beyond the capacity of the equipment used to record it. It’s fourteen minutes of raw, howling guitar noise, and because of the way in which they seem to be struggling to contain the feedback while ploughing relentlessly at a loose semblance of a riff, the result is something along the lines of Earth 2 crossed with Metal Machine Music. ‘Uncompromising’ is a word that music journalists and bands alike chuck about, but this is the absolute epitome – although something about this recording is possessed of a primitivism that suggests they don’t know how to do it any other way. Is it uncompromising if that’s the case? Feel free to make that question a topic for debate next time you’re down the pub with your coolly opinionated music-loving mates, but whatever side of the fence you find yourself on, Picking make a gnarly noise, and if your toenails ever bear visual comparison to this, I would strongly recommend consulting a podiatrist, and sooner rather than later, before your entire foot rots off the end of your leg.

Gnarled Fingers showcase a more polished form and a sound which sits closer to the Sunn O))) template of ribcage-rattling density, whereby a chord struck every twenty seconds conjures an atomic detonation that hangs heavy in the air. Downtuned and distorted to the max, their track ‘Echoes from Futures Past’ is a wall of crushing devastation. Sixteen and a half minutes of guitar noise so weighty it feels like how one might imagine being trapped under rubble after a nuclear bomb. Feedback scrapes so abrasively that it strips the skin, and all the while you’re slowly suffocating. It’s brutal.

While some split releases benefit from contrast, this is one where similarity is strength. This type of music is most effective when subjected to prolonged periods of exposure, ideally at high, even extreme volume. The desired effect is complete immersion, to reach the point where your body feels detached, as if its floating. This is some heavy-duty drone shit, and it sure hits the spot.

AA

AA

a2050053662_10

Chaidura – Plastic Beauty

Posted: 24 April 2026 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

10th April 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

Postmodernism supposedly not only marked, but celebrated, the death of originality. Some time after the turn of the millennium, postmodern irony and the wit of parody began to evaporate, and now everything simply draws on explicitly stated influences. Art has become an endless treadmill of predictable recycling. There are rare exceptions, of course, and Chaidura is rare indeed.

Chaidura has been on the scene for a couple of years now, during which time he’s birthed an EP, Temple Paradise, and some standalone singles, showcasing styles ranging from JRock to emo, with his bio describing this work as ‘blending visual kei, emo, and alternative rock into a sound that’s heavy, emotional, and honest’.

Now resident in London, but raised in Asia, where, he says ‘beauty is often weaponized as a prerequisite for success’, ‘Plastic Beauty’ is the third single to be taken from forthcoming EP, Liminal. And what a single it is! It’s nothing short of an explosion of ideas– an entire album’s worth and more (hell, many bands with careers spanning decades don’t demonstrate this many ideas), packed into less than four minutes – leaping wildly yet also effortlessly and immaculately from one genre to another with each of the multitudinous segments.

And yes, the presentation is stunning – musically, of course, but also visually – taking cues from Adam Ant and Falco’s ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ – to forge something that is nothing short of spectacular, while at the same time presenting a strong message. Opening with a soft piano intro, we’re soon thrown into some loungey jazz with an understated drum ‘n’ bass beat before – a mere thirty seconds in – being hit with a ferocious blast of metal. The experience is akin to watching Roger Moore as James Bond being spun at organ-damaging speed in a centrifuge in Moonraker, one where you mind feels as if it’s been separated from your body and transported to another dimension. It’s like all of the new year’s fireworks from around the globe going off simultaneously. And yet, incredibly, it’s got a huge chorus with an instant hook that’ll be an earworm for a week. Nothing short of phenomenal. Now, excuse me while I go and lie down for a bit.

AA

AA

Landscape

Listen: ‘Desolation’s Wake’ by Restless Spirit

Posted: 9 April 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

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!”

AA

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.

AA

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

AA

08a79958-5f96-6bc5-1efe-8da0744fc49e

Older Entries