Posts Tagged ‘Metropolis Records’

Listen: ‘Oblivion’ by Damage Control with Leaether Strip

Posted: 13 April 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Damage Control is an electro-industrial music project centred around its current core members Bill Barsby, Richard Thacker and Alex Wise, who are all based in Australia, plus Markus App from Germany. Both Barsby and Thacker are originally from Birmingham, England.
The group have experimented with custom Kemper guitar amps and layered synth textures for ‘Oblivion’, their second recent collaboration with the Danish musician Leæther Strip aka Claus Larsen. Aiming to capture introspection and depth, the atmospheric and immersive song reflects their commitment to sonic diversity and emotional resonance. It is produced by Chris Peterson (Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit, Unit:187) and engineered by Greg Reely (Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory), both respected names in the Canadian industrial music scene.

‘Oblivion’ is the follow-up to ‘Rage’ which also featured vocals by Leæther Strip and was issued in January. Barsby commented at the time that “we like working with guest singers and have always loved Leaether Strip since the early ’90s industrial and darkwave club scenes. We were curious to hear what the combination of our song, Claus’ vocal and Chris’ production would sound like.”

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Watch: ‘Sex & Suicide’ by PIG

Posted: 12 April 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Industrial glam kingpin Raymond Watts and his chief songwriting partner in swine Jim Davies (ex-Prodigy and Pitchshifter) recently announced that PIG has given birth to a healthy new album, Hurt People Hurt. Weighing in at 10 tracks, this latest addition to the PIG bloodline will be released into the wild on 22nd May 2026.

‘Sex & Suicide’ came out on Friday (10th April) as a new single ahead of the album. “This is a song of pain, pleasure, obsession and possession, written for the departed, the broken-hearted and the newly started,” states Watts. “It’s a walk on the high-wire blade of want for something so bad you beg for release.”

The second track to be lifted from the upcoming album, it follows the recently issued ‘Tosca’s Kiss’, a song inspired by Watts’ well-known love of opera. Watch the lyric video here:

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The new album follows the dirt directly to the dustcart where misfits and reprobates can both lose and find themselves in a full fat emporium of ecstasy, naked words and momentous music. Plucked and sucked on the fruits of pain and bliss, this prime slice of PIG provides a light space for dark spirits. Enter bruised, leave changed.

PIG will be performing in the US on the opening day of the Dark Force Fest in Parsippany, New Jersey on 1st May, plus just announced September shows in Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin as part of the Cold Waves XIV festival. In Japan, a date in Tokyo on 26th June sold out immediately, with another to be added soon.

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PIG | Raymond Watts 2026 photo by E Gabriel Edvy: Blackswitch Labs

Listen: ‘Cruel’ by SINE

Posted: 3 April 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Electronic artist SINE (aka Rona Rougeheart) has today released ‘Cruel’ as a new single on Metropolis Records. It follows the recent ‘Blood + Wine’ as her second self-produced track of 2026, with Rougeheart stating that the song “about people who purposefully choose to be cruel to others. The words are both sarcastic and serious and I like the contrast of the lyrical content against the upbeat nature of the music, which otherwise makes it a fun dance track.”

Mastered by Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated), ‘Cruel’ remains true to Rougeheart’s ‘electronic boom’ style while remaining modern and club-ready. It is the final single to be issued from La Mordre, a brand new SINE album out on 22nd May that also includes the previously issued ‘Trauma Bondage’

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Watch: ‘Tosca’s Kiss’ by PIG

Posted: 9 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Industrial glam kingpin Raymond Watts and his chief songwriting partner in swine Jim Davies (ex-Prodigy and Pitchshifter) are proud to announce that PIG has given birth to a healthy new album, ‘Hurt People Hurt’. Weighing in at 10 tracks, this latest addition to the PIG bloodline will be released into the wild on 22nd May 2026.

‘Tosca’s Kiss’ is out today as the album’s first single. Inspired by Watts’ well-known love of opera, it’s a song for the strong of stomach but not the faint of heart.

The album follows the dirt directly to the dustcart where misfits and reprobates can both lose and find themselves in this full fat emporium of ecstasy, naked words and momentous music. Plucked and sucked on the fruits of pain and bliss, this prime slice of PIG provides a light space for dark spirits. Enter bruised, leave changed.

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Raymond Watts has an impressive resumé. Aside from fourteen albums as PIG, he has worked with stalwarts of the global industrial scene such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Foetus and Psychic TV, in Japan with the bands Schwein and Schaft, and was a founder member of electronic rock band KMFDM with a key writing and vocal role on their best known songs of the ‘80s/’90s.

Watts has also written music for film, TV, advertising and fashion shows in Europe, Japan and America. His work in fashion includes ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ (Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York) and ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ for the late fashion icon Alexander McQueen, which was reprised as ‘Savage Beauty’ (MMOA and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London).

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Listen: ‘Blood + Wine’ by SINE

Posted: 28 February 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Electronic artist SINE (aka Rona Rougeheart) has released a new single entitled ‘Blood + Wine’ on Metropolis Records. Modern and club-ready, and featuring a vocal that is playful, frenetic and seductive, it is an upbeat dance track with bold electronic basslines accented by sub-bass drops. “Creating this song was about capturing the tension of chasing something that always feels just out of reach; the feeling of an endless pursuit,” states Rougeheart.

Her first totally self-produced song, ‘Blood + Wine’ also marks a key moment in the evolution of the SINE sound. “There was little time to focus on making my new album in 2025, as I was often away on US tours with Clan of Xymox, PIG and Nitzer Ebb,” she explains. “However, being around them taught me a lot. Once home, I started applying the knowledge I had absorbed, which led to this new track. It became a first real test of self-producing, and I was genuinely happy with the result. I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made.”

Mastered by Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated), ‘Blood + Wine’ remains true to SINE’s self-described ‘electronic boom’ style.

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Originally from New York but based in Austin, Texas, Rona Rougeheart blends dance beats, sub-bass, rhythmic synths and industrial elements. Her live show as SINE blends high-fashion aesthetics with synths, drumming and vocals, led by a strong female-fronted presence and cinematic visuals that entertain and empower.

She has collaborated with Adrian Sherwood, Meat Beat Manifesto, Clan of Xymox, Chris Connelly (Pigface, Revolting Cocks), Mark Pistel (Consolidated), Andee Blacksugar (KMFDM, Blondie), Xiu Xiu and the late Mark Stewart (The Pop Group).

A multi-instrumentalist, Rougeheart has been endorsed by Gretsch Drums, Gibraltar hardware and Roland.

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SINE | Rona Rougeheart photo by Bobby Talamine

Listen: ‘Viral Decay’ by Dawn of Ashes

Posted: 27 February 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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The dark electronic/aggrotech act Dawn Of Ashes (DOA) have released a new single entitled ‘Viral Decay’ today. The second track to be issued from forthcoming new album Anatomy Of Suffering, it captures the ugliness, exhaustion and isolation of inner decay while fully embracing the classic DOA sound – harsh synths, aggressive rhythms and oppressive atmospheres – and paying homage to their genre’s old-school brutality.

“‘Viral Decay’ is a confrontation with inner darkness; not a glorification of death, but a sonic descent into mental corrosion,” explains DOA founder and frontman Kristof Bathory. “It explores the slow mental collapse caused by overwhelming despair and suicidal ideation. Through visceral imagery and repetition, it portrays a mind infected by hopelessness, emotional numbness and self-destruction, exposing the brutal reality of living inside a breaking mind.”

‘Viral Decay’ follows the recent ‘Penumbra (feat. Suicide Commando)’, a powerful collaboration with the veteran Belgian artist Johan Van Roy. Both songs are available on ‘Anatomy Of Suffering’, a new album by DOA out on 20th March. A darker, heavier, and more focused chapter in the group’s evolution, it brings together raw atmosphere with precision production and features some notable collaborations.

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Watch: ‘Wishing Well’ by Magic Wands

Posted: 21 February 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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US dream-pop duo Magic Wands have released a brand new single, ‘Wishing Well’. With an insistent rhythm and swirling guitars, plus a vocal that adds to its hazy atmosphere, the song sounds like an immediate post-punk meets shoegaze classic.

“The lyric came to me when I was a guest of a guest at a wedding one summer,” explains vocalist Dexy Valentine. “There was an obvious sense of excitement at the event, but I didn’t really know anyone there so I snuck off outside and sat by a wishing well fountain and started writing on a napkin. When we came up with the music for this song I thought these words would fit perfectly.”

Co-written and produced by Dexy with her partner Chris Valentine, ‘Wishing Well’ is the title song of an EP scheduled for late April. It follows the January release of ‘Sacred Mirrors’, a collaborative single with Psychedelic Furs guitarist John Ashton.

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MAGIC WANDS | photograph by John Charter

Watch: ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ by Love Ghost

Posted: 13 February 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Founded by vocalist/guitarist Finnegan Bell, Love Ghost is an enigmatic Los Angeles-based act known for its distinctive blend of grunge, indie/alt-rock, emo, metal and trap rock coupled with mature, poetic lyrics. Their raw, energetic sound has earned numerous plaudits, while a series of collaborations with a wide variety of other artists have broadened the group’s cross-genre appeal.

Their version of ‘Rock Me Amadeus’, a global smash hit in 1986 for the Austrian musician Falco, is available as a single now. Turning the classic yet fun song into something darker with an industrial rock flair while preserving the pop brilliance of the original version, it is a must hear for any fan of Rammstein or Marilyn Manson.

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Founded by vocalist/guitarist Finnegan Bell, Love Ghost is an enigmatic Los Angeles-based act known for its distinctive blend of grunge, indie/alt-rock, emo, metal and trap rock coupled with mature, poetic lyrics. Their raw, energetic sound has earned numerous plaudits, while a series of collaborations with a wide variety of other artists have broadened the group’s cross-genre appeal.

The song is the second to be lifted from ‘Anarchy and Ashes’, a new EP out on 27th March. It follows ‘Vengeance’, an uptempo hard rock track with an anthemic quality released in mid-January, the music video for which has already racked up almost 300,000 YouTube plays.

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Listen: ‘Lighthouse’ by Hunter As a Horse

Posted: 31 January 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Hunter As a Horse (HAAH) is the South African musician and vocalist Mia van Wyk. Based in the Western Cape, she has spent the last few years self-releasing a diverse series of singles and EPs that combine electronically-focused songs with intense, melancholic lyrics that are given a darkly cinematic production.

Having recently signed to Metropolis Records, the first HAAH single for the label is ’Lighthouse’, an extremely personal song that weaves together mythology and psychology. Inspired by Carl Jung and ‘shadow work’, it is about how only the broken can truly understand each other. “But, one who was broken and is now healed has greater power to lead the broken through the dark night of the soul because they know the territory,” explains van Wyk. “It’s like if someone who died came back to guide the lost back home. I’m ignoring every warning about how you can’t save someone and declaring that I can. It’s about fearlessly challenging somebody else’s demons.”

Seamlessly genre-hopping between alternative, indie, electronic and dream-pop, with diversions into alternative dance and even nu-goth, the songs of HAAH have been described as mysterious, apocalyptic soundtracks for the strange happenings of our time, with the UK newspaper The Guardian commenting: “Brings to mind the mesmerising atmospherics of Lamb and Zero 7. Dark and very lovely indeed.”

The song lyrics of van Wyk are a mystical ride through her strange and synchronicitous life. Deeply authentic, they are inspired by death, addiction, astral visions, CPTSD, melancholia, nostalgia and magical thinking.

Hear ‘Lighthouse’ here:

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HUNTER AS A HORSE | Mia van Wyk

Listen: ‘Rage’ by Damage Control with Leæther Strip

Posted: 30 January 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Damage Control is an electro-industrial music project centred around its current core members Bill Barsby, Richard Thacker and Alex Wise, who are all based in Australia, plus Markus App from Germany. Both Barsby and Thacker are originally from Birmingham, England.

Having collaborated with a number of other like-minded musicians from all over the world on their well received 2017 debut album, Ultranoia, they have repeated the trick for its long-awaited follow-up, Oblivion Grid, a release date for which will be announced shortly. As with the first record, they have also retained the skills of Canadian producer Chris Peterson (Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit, Unit:187) and engineer Greg Reely (Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory).

‘Rage’ is released today as the first single from the new album and features the Danish musician Leæther Strip aka Claus Larsen on vocals. “We like working with guest singers and have always loved Leaether Strip since the early ’90s industrial and darkwave club scenes,” states Barsby. “We were curious to hear what the combination of our song, Claus’ vocal and Chris’ production would sound like.”

Peterson adds: “Ever since my first conversations with Bill Barsby over a decade ago that led to the first Damage Control album, I believed in the project and that he was making music from his heart that was something special. This is also the case the second time around and holds true with the artists we were lucky enough to have come on board; we all wanted to help and be a part of it. The result is a wonderful release with a variety of songs that is their best work yet. It is a testament to the creative spirit and joy of making and sharing music that attracted so many valuable contributors to lend their talents over the time it took to realise.”

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