GRÀB unveil the lyric video ‘Kerkermoasta’ (English ‘dungeon keeper’) as the first single taken from their forthcoming new album Kremess (English: ‘funeral feast’’ German ‘Leichenschmaus’). The sophomore full-length of the Bavarian black metal duo has been scheduled for release on February 21, 2025.
GRÀB comment: “Our first advance single ‘Kerkermoasta’ is probably the most in-your-face track of the album”, vocalist and lyricist Grànt states. “It also shows a wide range of basically everything that makes our sound unique. Some parts remind me of the best days of such bands as the Norwegians Gehenna. There is also a dulcimer that introduces the melody, mid-tempo, blast beats, groove, and a slow ending. On the lyrical side the Bavarian word ‘Kerkermoasta’ literally translates to ‘Dungeon Master’. The dungeon keeper in question is the Grim Reaper himself. In other words: Life creates the doorway, death holds the key.”
We Are Bodies is the British duo of Dave Pen and Robin Foster. They create anthemic electro-prog soundscapes that combine guitars and electronics with lyrical subjects inspired by love, loss, paranoia and…. robots.
Dave Pen is a south coast-based vocalist and guitarist who is also one half of the alternative/electronic group BirdPen and co-frontman with the experimental trip-rock collective Archive, who have built a huge continental fanbase during three decades of activity that has seen them sell out arenas and achieve significant album chart success in multiple territories.
Based in north-west France since the late 1990s, Robin Foster is a composer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for creating brooding soundscapes packed with lush cinematic textures, underpinned with his signature guitar sound. He has written scores for award nominated movies, Netflix and Amazon Prime dramas, numerous TV commercials and has released several acclaimed solo records with guest vocalists that have included Pen.
The duo began collaborating in 2011 and released an eponymous debut as We Are Bodies in 2015. Its long-awaited follow-up, the genesis of The Love Was All We Had was as a pandemic project with ideas emailed back and forth across the Channel themed around what was occurring in the world at that time. Its focus then switched to the present, with the lust for power and war taking centre stage. The album finally took shape, its songs primarily concerned with love and loss, both on a personal level and for mankind as a whole.
The music is a mixture of the stridently luxurious and atmospheric, with Pen’s lyrical subject matter describing love from different perspectives. This includes new single ‘Dancing In The Midnight Howl’, a song about a pair of lovers torn apart, with the male protagonist having a recurring image in his mind of his partner dancing and longing to escape the mess of modern society to be with her. It follows ‘Lost’, an upbeat earworm about a twisted relationship that was released in early October.
You may not require any introduction to the members of ROACH SQUAD, or at least one or two of the band. Needless to say, Hugo Mudie (The Sainte Catherines), Frankie Stubbs (Leatherface), Graeme Philliskirk (Leatherface) have all graced the Paradise Gutters around the Punk Rock world for some time. Joining them is Alex Keane (The Murderburgers), along with another local Sunderland Lad, Sim Robson.
As with many of the members previous works, a DIY approach to writing and recording their new album was taken. The bulk of the recording took place at their own Rocket Studios in Sunderland, UK with the exception of Hugo laying down the vocals at Mixart Studios, Montreal (Quebec, Canada).
Little Rocket Records are absolutely bouncing at releasing the lyric video for ROACH SQUAD’s first single ‘Wax & Dust’ off their upcoming debut album which will be available for pre-order starting Monday 3rd of February, 2025.
Phoenix-based metal band Buried has just released a gripping lyric video for their single ‘No Saviors,’ off the band’s forthcoming debut EP, Infect and Replicate.
‘No Saviors’ is just a taste of what’s to come from their debut EP, set for release in early 2025. With this powerful introduction, Buried is poised to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the metal world.
Watch the video here:
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Founded by the creative forces of Preston Wilson (bass) and Alex Valdés (guitar), they sought to channel their vast array of influences into a sound that melds multiple genres. In search of like-minded bandmates, they brought on Erik Scott, a powerful drummer with a diverse style, and Ben Rosputni, a fierce vocalist who had shared the stage with Preston in a band 15 years prior. Their reunion added a layer of depth and history to the band’s formation, grounding Buried in both experience and renewed passion.
Buried’s music can be described as a mix between the heavy, doom-laden riffs of Black Sabbath and the aggressive intensity of Burn the Priest. Infect and Replicate is set for release in early 2025, promising to introduce their powerful sound to metal fans everywhere.
Following the announcement of their new album Syv and the release of the wonderfully brutal first single ‘Utbrent’ last month, Norwegian black metal masters Mork are back today with their latest instalment of filth and misanthropy, ‘Heksebål’. An epic and progressive piece journeying back to the old times of judgment, fear and witch burning, ‘Heksebål’ arrives alongside a haunting new video by Matt Vickerstaff.
Watch the video here:
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When asked about the new single, Mork creator, frontman and mastermind Thomas Eriksen said “A depiction of mankind destroying what they don’t understand. Witch-hunts and witches at the stake burned to a crisp. Probably one of the more progressive songs with spellbinding riffs of witchery. May the spell curse those in doubt to a lifetime of bad luck and misery!”
Now marking twenty years since inception – which has seen a strong rise through the tiers of the black metal scene – Mork was created by Thomas Eriksen in 2004 & was primarily a side-project from inception until the debut album, Isebakke, in 2013. Since then, with a constant flow of releases and live performances spanning various continents including a hugely successful slot at this year’s Hellfest, the band has rightly earned the accolade as one of the top Norwegian black metal acts of recent years.
UPCOMING MORK SHOWS
14th September – Royal Metal Fest, Aarhus, Denmark
21st September – John Dee, Oslo, Norway (SYV release show)
28th September – The Bell Festival, Enebakk, Norway
12th October – California Deathfest, Los Angeles, USA
30th January -> 2nd February – 70.000 Tons Of Metal, Miami, FL – Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Norwegian grindcore innovators Beaten to Death have recently shared a video for a brand new track off the ban’’s forthcoming sixth full-length studio album Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis, which is scheduled to be released on May 31st via Mas-Kina Recordings.
Watch the ‘Enkel Resa Till Limfabriken’ video here:
As always, the record was recorded live and mixed by guitarist Tommy Hjelm, and just like the previous two releases, William Hay signs the amazing illustration that adorns its cover.
The Oslo-based five-piece claim that they have all “aged horribly” since the band’s acclaimed last album, Last Maar, Ik Verhuis Naar Het Bos, was released in 2021 and have embraced that natural process and its theme within this new effort, but dismiss any thoughts of a band slowing down and settling into a more relaxed acceptance of things though for Beaten to Death are as uncompromising and voracious as ever and Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis ensures no one will have any doubts. Unleashing their familiar and fiercely individual torrents of grindcore dispute with melodic discord, the new offering is Beaten to Death at their most physically merciless, creatively ravenous and gleefully mischievous.
Unleashed on the grindcore scene back in 2011, Beaten To Death has quarrelled with and dismissed expectations of the genre and the boundaries of any hardcore fury from day one. It has seen their five full-lengths from debut Xes and Strokes through to Last Maar, Ik Verhuis Naar Het Bos greedily welcomed and frequently acclaimed. Of course their sixth full-length holds nothing back in its dismissal of trends and expected processed procedures in its making either, broadly grinning at both and having fun with the themes it takes apart.
German post–modern ensemble ZAHN have today shared a lyric video for instrumental track ‘ZEHN’. Yes, you read that right.
“The video to our new song ‘ZEHN’ is a poem for instrumental music enthusiasts. A silent movie. A song for the deaf. Nina Walser (Friends Of Gas) is singing you a ditty but you won’t be able to hear it. Just read along and listen and it all will make perfect sense.” – ZAHN
It’s a proper headfuck, and proper good too, and you can watch it here:
French/Irish alternative rock-metal outfit MOLYBARON, known for their energetic, hard-hitting sound, will release their new album Something Ominous on September 15th on InsideOutMusic/Sony Music. The announcement of the new album comes following the success of the recent single and video ‘Something Ominous.’
Over the course of two subtly radical records, 2017’s self-titled debut and 2021’s acclaimed The Mutiny, this eclectic quartet have casually bent and broken all the usual rules of modern heaviness.
In 2023, they return with their third and most fervently diverse record to date, Something Ominous: further evidence that MOLYBARON are operating in a field of precisely one.
When MOLYBARON released The Mutiny in 2021, the world was still reeling from the effects of a global pandemic. Nonetheless, the album struck its mark with ease, garnering countless glowing reviews and comparisons to the likes of System Of A Down, Tool and Muse. Two years on, Something Ominous reveals a band that have sharpened their focus and found their groove. Comprising ten succinct and characterful songs, which range from thunderous acts of aggression to noirish, mutant balladry, MOLYBARON’s third full-length is invigorating and immersive in equal measure.
“I don’t think our sound can be defined by one genre,” says guitarist/vocalist Gary Kelly .“It’s certainly not by design. I write and produce all the music in the band, but I’m strange – I never really listen to music. I have no idea what’s hot or what’s not these days. I suppose this makes it easier for me to create songs, I’m not trying to mirror any one style, I just write as it comes to me, probably based on what I hear floating in the ether; in the cinema, on the TV, on the elevator, it really doesn’t matter!”
MOLYBARON are also pleased to share the second single from the album.
You can check out the lyric video for ‘Breakdown’ here:
Louisville KY alt-duo Feral Vices take on abusive religious systems on new single ‘Lock & Key’.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Alexander Hoagland says, “’Lock & Key’ is about the abusive religious systems that I think a lot of us grew up in where leaders were taking advantage of their positions for money, power, sex, or some combination of those. Being in that world, you’re taught that this is a blessing or that is a blessing when in reality you’re being taken advantage of and are forced to experience the evils of it alone because once you start tugging at the strings of that, the whole system falls apart. It’s a very hard and lonely place to be even though you’re surrounded by people and I think that makes it even harder to get out of or acknowledge the reality of. So, this song was my way of talking about that and processing it for myself.”
Watch the video here:
As a two-piece alternative rock band out of Louisville, KY, Feral Vices has created a sound and feel all their own. Drawing from influences ranging from Queens of the Stone Age to Refused to The Jesus Lizard and even The Dillinger Escape Plan, lead singer and guitarist Alexander Hoagland and drummer Justin Cottner bring a feel to the world of two-piece bands not yet well tread. Constantly touring and releasing new music, the prolific duo has earned spots on the stage with bands like Four Year Strong, Microwave, Save Face, and more. As well as having their song "Mass Produce Your Revolution" as the end credits to the Scott Adkins and Ray Stevenson film Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday, Feral Vices is a band to keep an eye on.
SWANS have announced details of their sixteenth studio album, The Beggar, due for release on Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 23 June 2023. In addition, Swans have announced further dates for a tour across the UK, Europe and North America – full details below. The Beggar will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve with a download card for accessing an additional 44 minutes of music (also included on the album’s CD version), as a double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, as well as digitally.
Listen to the first track from the album, ‘Paradise is Mine’:
SWANS LIVE DATES – 2023
20 May – Leipzig DE, UT Connewitz – SOLD OUT
21 May – Poznan PL, CK Zamek – SOLD OUT
23 May – Katowice PL, Kino Teatr Rialto – SOLD OUT
25 May – Zilina SK, New Synagogue
26 May – Ljubljana SL, Kino Siska
27 May – Innsbruck, AT, Heart of Noise Festival, Treibhaus
29 May – Bologna IT, Teatro Duse
31 May – Lyon FR, Transbordeur
2 June – Barcelona ES, Primavera Sound Festival
4 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest – SOLD OUT
5 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest
6 June – Faro PT, Teatro Das Figuras
9 June – Madrid ES, Primavera Sound Festival
11 June – Athens GR, Vraxon Theatre
13 June – Thessaloniki GR, Moni Lazariston
15 June – Antwerp BE, Bourlaschouwburg
16 June – Utrecht NL, Hertz Theatre – SOLD OUT
11 Aug – Brighton UK, St George’s
12 Aug – Manchester UK, Albert Hall
15 Aug – Newcastle UK, Boiler Shop
16 Aug – Glasgow UK, St Luke’s
18 Aug – Bristol UK, Arc Tangent Festival
19 Aug – Leeds UK, Belgrave Music Hall
21 Aug – Dublin IE, The Academy
23 Aug – Norwich UK, Waterfront
24 Aug – London UK, Troxy
26 Aug – La Tour-De-Peilz CH, Nox Orae Festival
2 Sep – Dallas TX, Granada Theater
3 Sep – Austin TX, Paramount Theatre
7 Sep – Phoenix AZ, Crescent Ballroom
8 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
9 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
12 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
13 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
Aural Aggravation 