Posts Tagged ‘New Heavy Sounds’

Shooting Daggers – Love & Rage

Posted: 1 April 2024 in Albums, Reviews
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New Heavy Sounds – 16th February 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

As a label, New Heavy Sounds really do what they say on the proverbial tin – giving a platform to heavy music, while seeking out new forms and styles. Yes, they’ve brought us a slew of stoner doom, but also vintage heard rock with contemporary spins – and, as Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard and Black Moth, representing each respectively, also illustrate, representing female-fronted acts, too. And so, next up, London-based queercore punk trio, Shooting Daggers.

Having debuted with an EP in 2022, they shared a split single release with intense and fearsome Ukrainian punk labelmates Death Pill last year – and it was a most fitting pairing.

Said single contribution, ‘Not My Rival’ features on this, their debut album, in remastered form, but still clocking in at under two and a half blistering minutes. This version isn’t really different, just cleaned up a bit and mastered at the same volume as the rest of the album. And what a fiery blast of rabid punk fury it is. ‘Give Violence a chance!’ they holler while the bass tears the flesh from your ribs and the guitar burns.

As a title, Love & Rage perfectly encapsulates the pounding ferocity of the album’s nine explosive cuts, the majority of which are comfortably under three minutes in duration. Sal’s vocal delivery is of that circa ‘79 / ’80 vintage, but at the same time contemporary, shouty, spiky, a dash of X-Mal but equally ragged and raw and without stylistic affectation. This is music played with passion, music made because it has to be, an act of catharsis, pure, unbridled venting.

The mid-album slowie, ‘A Guilty Conscience Needs an Accuser’, which closes side one on the vinyl version, not only provides some welcome respite from the incendiary fury, but also showcases their capacity for melody, harmony, and subtlety. There’s certainly not much of that to be found on the rest of the album. ‘Tunnel Vision’ is a gutsy grunger played at double speed, and ‘Bad Seeds’ pounds in a manic hardcore blast which tears your head off and is out the door in a minute and twenty-three.

The title track lands unexpectedly anthemic, energetic but considered, and even a bit Dinosaur Jr. It works, and it works well, and the final track, ‘Caves/Outro’ plays out on a ripple of piano and a note of tranquillity, a calm after the storm. And for all of the ferocity which defines both the album and the band themselves, there’s much positivity in the lyrics and an energy to the performance which is anything but negative.

‘Yeah! Do it! Do it!’ Sal encourages enthusiastically on ‘Dare’; ‘Just have a try’ she sings on ‘Smug’, and on the title track, the message is to ‘Turn the pain into power’. But this is no feeble stab at rabble-rousing or a cliché and ultimately empty bit of tokenistic fist-waving. Shooting Daggers appreciate that anger truly is an energy, and they bring it with full force. The result is an album that packs a punch, and when it comes to punk credentials, this is the real deal.

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Watch: ‘Wipe Out’ by Shooting Daggers

Posted: 27 March 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Queercore punk band Shooting Daggers released their debut album Love and Rage last month on New Heavy Sounds. This week they head out on a tour with U.S hardcore band Spaced. Before then though they have shared the new video for ‘Wipe Out’ which features a whole host of contributions from the queer skateboarding scene.

Check the vid here:

Sal, Bea and Raquel aka Shooting Daggers, are without a doubt burning it up at the moment.  Since releasing their EP ‘Athames’ in 2022, a split single with Ukrainian punk band Death Pill on late 2023 and their debut album ‘Love & Rage in February this year, the whispers are getting much louder.

New single ‘Wipe Out’ is about the queer skateboarding scene. Sal from the band comments:

"We wanted to show how fun, powerful and epic skating is. Even if it means eating shit and “wipe out” more than actually staying on the board.

With this video we wanted to show the collective sense of freedom and highlight queer skate communities from everywhere,that’s why we gathered footage online from all over the world and put it together.


I got into skateboarding during the whole”Skate kitchen” (all girl skateboarding film), “glue skateboarding” and “there” (queer punk skate crews) era. It influenced a lot of people in the UK back in 2018. There were girl skate sessions for free at House of vans, bay66 and hopkingdom every month in London.


It felt like all the girls started skateboarding around 2018, skateboarding was huge back then (all ages and all genders too). I remember seeing Beatrice Domond skating at HOV and she blew my mind.


We were all learning beginners tricks together, lifting each other up and evolving together at our own pace.


Many queer skateboarding collectives emerged and are still running like queerskatebristol, clumsy (toulouse France), siblings (london), transkaters (london), bronxgirlsskate who participated in this video, among many many others. Glad to see Trans and queer night in bay66 btw


My way of consuming skateboarding is primarily through instagram so Instagram skaters inspired the most like briana king, the girls from brixton baddest Stefani nurding, amy gillingwater, Marbie princess, Arin, Kien Caples too, atalimendes, palice (represent Birmingham), the girls from skate kitchen.


There are so many, I’m sure I will miss some. A lot of regular skaters girls and queers making sick edits and posting on IG inspire me to keep going everyday.

If I had to chose 3 from the top of my head I would say that my heroes are:


Cher Strauberry for the punk attirude

Savannah Stacey Keenan for the steeze

Vitoria Bortolo for the lines”

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The band will also support U.S hardcore outfit Spaced as part of their ‘Trippin Thru the UK Tour 2024’: 

29.3 Manchester @ Manchester Punk Fest 

30.3 Bristol @ The Exchange 

31.3 Southampton @ The Hobbit 

01.4 Brighton @ The Hope and Ruin 

02.4 London @ New Cross Inn

Listen: ‘In Your Night’ by Eye

Posted: 29 February 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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EYE – the new band from Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard (MWWB) singer-songwriter/musician Jessica Ball – has announced the arrival of their eagerly awaited debut album, ‘Dark Light’ set for release on 26th April via New Heavy Sounds (Shooting Daggers, MWWB, Blacklab)

"These songs have been many years in the making… Some of these ideas were crafted before MWWB, this is something I’ve always wanted to do. Over the last couple of years, I’ve spent some time on finishing and crafting these ideas and pieces of music into songs. Some were snippets of lyrics from my early twenties which reflect on what seems like a different person. I think it’s quite poetic how it’s all come together now.

I was also encouraged after finding musicians who understood the vision and style I was trying to achieve, and of course my experience of being in MWWB. I’m a guitarist above all, and I loved reconnecting with guitar again. It feels like all my influences and favourite styles have come together in this album. Shoegaze, doom, folk, dream pop… It’s a real mix bag but as a whole, it represents many different stages of my life and tells a story. 

The album ultimately is quite introspective yet lyrically loose enough to be open to interpretation – I’ve always been a fan of songs that seem to perfectly slot into the situation I’m experiencing and not too specific to one person’s experience… I think that comes across in this album.”

Jessica relocated from Wrexham to join her new partner, veteran Welsh musician Gid Goundrey (Gulp, Ghostlawns, Martin Carr), in Cardiff just as the pandemic era dawned. Confined to their small Grangetown flat, they quite naturally began making music together.

Having earned acclaim and a fervent fan following for her role in MWWB, Ball took the opportunity to compose songs that were all her own – nuanced, lyrical, and hypnotically distinctive.

Triggered in part by the existential dread looming outside as well as the sudden ill health of her dear friend, MWWB guitarist Paul “Dave” Davies, then fighting for life after a Covid-related stroke.

With Goundrey on drums (for the first time in his musical career) and joined by keyboardist Johnny TK, Eye experimented with sounds to match Ball’s melodic songs, traversing a diverse spectrum of dark folk, dreampop, IDM and psychedelic doom, to create sometimes heavy and foreboding drones, alongside spare but still richly textured sonics.

The result is their debut album ‘Dark Light’. An intensely atmospheric fusion of emotionally charged songcraft and inspired sonic energy. The clue is in the album’s paradoxical title. Chilling and even bleak melodies with arrangements daringly and deliberately stripped down and minimal. Revealing a kinship with sonic bed-fellows Mazzy Star, Chelsea Wolfe or even Portishead, which can be heard on first single ‘In Your Night’. Jessica comments,

"Our first release ‘In Your Night’ represents Eye musically, conceptually and lyrically and I’m proud for this to be the first song that everyone hears from us… Light and dark, night and day, quiet and loud is the running theme throughout this song and album as a whole. Whether you’re up close to a song, or listening to the album as a whole, these themes will be ever present throughout. We’re playing around with these two extremes sonically and what these represent emotionally and mentally. I feel that nothing takes you on a journey more effectively than a good build up, or something happening unexpectedly, much like real life. We are just the eye that witnesses it all."

Listen to ‘In Your Night’ here:

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GUHTS – Regeneration

Posted: 17 January 2024 in Albums, Reviews
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New Heavy Sounds – 26th January 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

It begins with a yawning, wailing drone, before thunderous bass, drums, and a rolling piano crash in tempestuously. But if you think this is just another heavy doom-leaning record with a dash of theatre, the arrival of Amber Gardner’s vocals changes everything. She brings an antagonistic, nihilistic punk vibe at first, but then, as the song transitions into a grand, sweeping expanse, reveals a softer side. And so it is that ‘White Noise’, the album’s eight-and-a-half-minute opener is a real shape-shifter, sliding back and forth between crushing weight and spellbinding atmosphere. But when it goes heavy, it’s utterly pulverising, and the sustained crescendo which occupies the last three minutes is gut-wrenching, annihilative, a rare exhibit of raw, chest-tightening emotional heft combining with the most punishingly brutal instrumentation, which leaves the listener feeling wracked, drained, ruined.

It may sound strange, but it’s often more difficult to write about albums which really hit you, which have the most impact. To scrabble for an analogy, it’s like being kicked in the chest and left lying breathless on the ground then being asked to describe the experience while still barely able to draw oxygen. It’s like… like… It leaves you stunned, numb, dazed, and at a loss. Regeneration is one such album. It’s all well and good clutching and comparisons and scratching for similes, but no words can really come close to articulating the spectrum of sensations which engulf your very being when faced with something so intense, so close to overwhelming. Yes, it’s dancing about architecture. What you want to do, more than anything, is to forcibly sit people down and say “listen to this! No, really, listen! Feel that!”

New York-based GUHTS (pronounced ‘guts’) declare themselves to be an ‘avant-garde post-metal project, delivering larger than life sounds through, deeply emotional music’. It’s the emotional aspect that hits harder than the punishing power chords, but it’s the combination of the two which really is the killer here.

The album’s seven tracks are incredibly ambitious in scope and scale, and in terms of balancing emotional depth and sheer brutal force. For the most part, the compositions extend beyond the five-minute mark, but are confined to under eight, and are effectively doom/goth epyllia – expansive, dense, cinematic. The prominence of piano – particularly notable on the slower, intensely wrought and dynamically varied ‘The Mirror’. One of those songs which sustains a surging sensation from the very beginning, it’s truly worthy of the ‘epic’ descriptor.

‘Till Death’ has hints of Cranes about it in Amber’s ethereal vocal delivery, but it’s paired with megalithic guitars of absolutely crushing weight, while the shortest song on the album, ‘Handless Maiden’ is monstrous in its unyielding heaviness. Gardner brings another surprise with her rabid howl, which is utterly petrifying.

There isn’t a weak track here, nor a single second that doesn’t feel utterly vital and doesn’t crackle with intensity, and Regeneration is an immense and powerful album. ‘Generate’ rolls into graceful shoegaze territory, with rolling drums and chiming guitars which wash and ripple mesmerically, gradually building to a sonic tsunami.

There’s something inevitable and completely perfect about the way it all leads the way to the ten-minute ‘The Wounded Healer’, which comes as a truly monumental finale. And what a finale! It begins delicately, ringing xylophone or glockenspiel chiming out mellow tones, before a grinding low-end grinds in and from here, the build is slow and inexorable. Gardner traverses the sonic space, shifting mood and tone in a flicker. The guitar twists and spins, tense and serpentine against the ever-swelling wall of booming bass and by only halfway through, you’re drowning, the air pressed form your lungs… and then… then… Christ. Gardner is possessed, and the guitars pulverise and you feel your skull beginning to compress. Finally, around the seven-minute mark, there is levity. Clawing for aa comparison, I arrive at Amenra, although it’s less than half the story of a song, and an album, which is utterly peerless and completely beyond spheres of comparison.

Regeneration is special, hard-hitting, unique. Really. Listen! Feel that!

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Cold in Berlin – The Body is the Wound EP

Posted: 19 December 2023 in Singles and EPs
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New Heavy Sounds – 19th January 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

Cold in Berlin’s latest project, The Wounds looks to see the band scaling new heights of ambition, being a multi-record work consisting of an EP, The Body is the Wound, and an album, due in 2024, and promises ‘a musical vade mecum of what is to come in a fresh era for the band.’

I was gripped by Cold in Berlin from day one, on the release of their White Horse EP, a tense and intense burst of spiky goth which was razor-sharp and raging, bringing a zippy electro element to jagged guitars and a vocal that drew clear influence from Siouxsie and Skeletal Family. I must have conveyed my excitement pretty well, since my review is quoted on the BandCamp for the release, some twelve years on. Their debut album, Give Me Walls, still stands as a latter-day goth / post-punk classic.

Over the course of three further albums, the band have further defined and refined their style, becoming doomier, darker, heavier, but still with a clear commitment to concise and focused songwriting, proving that doom doesn’t have to be all about formless seven-minute dirges. I’m a fan of formless seven-minute dirges, but variety is the spice of life, and Cold in Berlin are one of those rare acts who’ve succeeded in creating their own niche in not one, but two crowded genre spaces.

Two of the EP’s four tracks have already been released as digital singles, both accompanied by visually striking videos. It so happens they’re the first two tracks on the EP, and they’ve been released in the order they appear. But the rest of the EP is absolutely on a par.

As the band write, ‘The lyrical themes dance around sex, murder, suicide and broken dreams, brought together in loose storytelling that allows listeners to add their own experiences and bring personal meaning.’ The words only begin to emerge after a few listens, after you’ve shaken your head clear from the initial impact. It’s a proper punch in the face, a full-force kick in the eye. The Body is the Wound packs four songs of equal quality back to back, and is as strong a document of the band’s work that they’ve laid down to date.

‘Dream One’ is a towering monolith which combines pulverising power chords with stark, icy vocals, and the effect is spine-tingling. Maya’s vocals have never sounded more powerful, more commanding than here. Then again, ‘Spotlight’, which slows the pace and amplifies the weight matches it, while emphasising the band’s doom leanings. It’s some heavy shit, alright, and hits with a punishing intensity.

The cuts which haven’t yet been unveiled are every bit as strong as those which have. ‘When Did You See Her Last’ twists stark synths and gothy guitars behind a chilling set of lyrics – the most spine-chilling I’ve encountered since ‘Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting’ by The Twilight Sad.

To describe the final cut, ‘Found Out’, as ‘poppy’ might be slightly misleading, but it’s a question of context. There’s some stealthy picked reverby guitar that’s pure 1985 goth that laces the verses with some fine texture before the thunderous chorus blasts in on a tidal wave of distortion. And in some ways, it very much recalls their earlier works, only thicker, denser, more driving, more powerful on the riff front, and they deliver all-out epic compressed into less than five and a half minutes.

Not only is there not one remotely lesser track on this EP, but it’s consistent and utterly relentless from beginning to end: no breathers, no ballads, no instrumental interludes. In short, The Body is the Wound is an utter blinder and absolutely blistering, and if the album is half as good, it’ll still be their best yet.

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Watch: ‘Spotlight’ by Cold in Berlin

Posted: 6 December 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Cold in Berlin steps back into the spotlight with the second track taken from The Body Is The Wound EP … aptly entitled ‘Spotlight’.

Once more combining the tribal post punk beats of 80s goth with a crushing chorus of doomy fuzz, CiB delivers another gothic anthem for the ages.

The band comment, “’Spotlight is a lullaby about a haunting. We took the metre of a Victorian dirge and added our potent mix of post punk and gothic doom. We knew the visuals would have to feature a dancer and we’re very grateful to Amanda Dufour for her mesmeric performance. (Instagram @mandymakesshapes )

We found the perfect filming location at The Cavendish Arms – South London’s best pub and venue! There we could lean into the retro Music Hall vibes and Twin Peaks colour schemes.”

New Heavy Sounds recently announced a new multi-record project by Cold in Berlin ‘The Wounds’’  Consisting of an EP, The Body is the Wound, and an album, due in 2024, The Wounds is a musical vade mecum of what is to come in a fresh era for the band.  The Body is the Wound EP launches the next chapter in CIB’s journey.

Released on 19th January (New Heavy Sounds), the four tracks cover diverse musical ground, drawing ideas from krautrock, post-punk and doom, but always with the requisite  amount of weight. 

The Body is the Wound EP is the first new material from the band since the lauded 2019 album Rituals of Surrender.

The lyrical themes dance around sex, murder, suicide and broken dreams, brought together in loose storytelling that allows listeners to add their own experiences and bring personal meaning.

“I wanted to loosely tie the lyrics around two ideas,” explains Maya. “Psychology, which tells us the body houses the trauma we experience and carry with us – and Buddhism, which suggests there is no growth unless from pain; we choose to hold on to suffering even though we can learn not to, and so we continue in disillusionment – aware but not aware.”

The Body is the Wound was recorded at Dalston’s Bear Bites Horse studio by Wayne Adams (Green Lung – Woodland Rites) and is an exciting precursor to a new album in 2024.

Watch the video for ‘Spotlight’ here:

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Watch: ‘Dream One’ by Cold in Berlin

Posted: 21 October 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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New Heavy Sounds is stoked to announce a new multi-record project by Cold in Berlin The Wounds.

Consisting of an EP, The Body is the Wound, and an album, due in 2024, The Wounds is a musical vade mecum of what is to come in a fresh era for the band.

Vocalist Maya explains: “The Wounds started as an idea about bringing together stories of loss and the idea that wounds can be growth, healing and that slow burn you use to fuel other fires.”

The Body is the Wound EP launches the next chapter in CIB’s journey.

Released on 19th January (New Heavy Sounds), the four tracks cover diverse musical ground, drawing ideas from krautrock, post-punk and doom, but always with the requisite  amount of weight. 

Watch the video for new single ‘Dream One’ here:

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Watch: ‘Would You Marry Me’ by Death Pill + UK Tour Dates for June

Posted: 2 June 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Death Pill, the hardcore punk trio from Ukraine, released their debut album on 24th February, a year to the day that Russia invaded their country.

Tracking started during Covid and was completed in late 2021, only three tracks were mixed before the war hit. However the band and their production team were able to somehow continue and finished everything including the artwork in 5 months whilst the Russian invasion rolled on. A testament to their drive and single mindedness.

The band are currently mid-way through their ‘Over My Dead Body’ European tour, which defiantly began in Kyiv, Ukraine on 20th May. Now the band have shared a new video for ‘Would You Marry Me’ with the bassist Natalya commenting, “This is a song about a rejected wedding proposal. Mariana wrote it after she proposed to her boyfriend and he turned her down. I shot this video when I moved to Barcelona and my best friend came to visit me. She became the main character, and I did the whole production. It took me about 72 hours to finalize the idea, shoot and edit it. I put my pain and suffering into this video, it’s a reflection and experience of personal rejections, dedicated to all the broken hearts.”

Watch the video now:

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DEATH PILL ‘OVER MY DEAD BODY TOUR’


JUNE

2nd – Germany, Bochum, Wageni

3rd – Germany, Ellerdorf, Wilwarin Festival

9th – UK, Bradford, 1 in 12

11th – UK, Manchester, Retro

12th – UK, Bristol, Louisiana

13th – UK,  Brighton, Green Door Store

14th – UK, London, Lexington  w/ Shooting Daggers

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Death Pill by Tementiy Pronov : Slippy Inc.

Watch: ‘On The Fields Of The Moon’ by They Watch Us From The Moon

Posted: 4 May 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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With touchdown imminent for Cosmic Chronicles: Act 1, The Ascension their debut album on May 12th, Kansas’ cosmic doom crew They Watch Us From The Moon are ready to fire off another track from it.

‘On The Fields Of The Moon’ is the opening number and pretty much nails the band’s unique sound and what they’re about. Cosmic space opera with heavy layered riffs ’n’ textures. Plus the fabulously melodic dual vocal harmonies of Luna Nemesis and Nova 10101001, which really take their sound to another level.

Think ABBA ‘with riffs’. It sums up the scope of their debut perfectly.

The band has this to say about the track.

’On The Fields Of The Moon’ is an epic ditty about the tide of an intergalactic battle turning against our human heroes. A war march with soaring vocal harmonies reminiscent of Alice In Chains/ABBA/OTTN-era Def Leppard.

Plus, there is a trippy and fittingly space age new video to go with it.  50’s sci-fi movies mixed with glam rock and an 80’s vibe in this psychedelic tale of alien abduction. All clashing colours and ‘Liquid Len’ (of Hawkwind fame) lightshow visuals, one can imagine that this lot are quite something to see live.

Watch the video for ‘On The Fields Of The Moon’ here:

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Death Pill – Death Pill

Posted: 15 April 2023 in Albums
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New Heavy Sounds

Christopher Nosnibor

Death Pill most certainly aren’t signed to a major label, aren’t pop-punk, and truly understand adversity. If you want authenticity, then this is the band you need. The Ukrainian all-girl hardcore power trio sell themselves as having a ‘Riot Grrl’ vibe while citing ‘the classic punk of Black Flag, The Distillers and Circle Jerks, to modern outfits like Axe Rash and the thrash metal of Nervosa and Exodus’ as influences.

And fucking hell, do they work with all of those influences and distil them into something raw and powerful! Their self-titled debut contains nine tracks, none of which runs for more than four minutes, and they blast hard.

The fact they are an all-female act is significant and noteworthy. Writing as a white, middle-class male, it hard to write about this without sounding like a patronising patriarchal toerag, so I’ll simply quote singer/guitarist Mariana here:

“Just imagine: You are a 20-year-old girl. Society constantly puts pressure on you: you should find a nice husband, have children and at the same time build a successful career. But no one asks what do you really want? What are exactly your interests and ambitions?

Because maybe you want to be a punk rock star?

Yes, I do and even against it all. I can create a female non-commercial band, play heavy high-quality music, and ignite the crowd. After all, rock is not only about brutal men with curly long hair, right?

Some do it with weapons in their hands, some volunteer and help in any way they can. Hard times, but right now we have a real chance to change lives for the better.”

Death Pill address issues: they address political issues, they address female issues, they address human issues. They do so without fear, without self-censorship, and consequently, deliver an album that rages hard. A couple of the songs have previewed here – ‘Расцарапаю Ебало’ and ‘Miss Revolt’, and both showcase the band’s raw metal-infused style perfectly.

The album delivers more of the same, from the whiplash-inducing brutal chug and churn of the opener, ‘Dirty Rotten Youth’ to the closer ‘Would You Marry Me’.

‘Die For Vietnam’ is as frantically-paced full-throttle driving punk-metal you’re going to hear, and Death Pill don’t go easy for a second. ‘It’s a Joke’ may lift from spiky post-punk reference points, but it comes with near-demonic vocals and draws together black metal and goth. ‘Kill The Traitors’ is perhaps the most furious song you’ll hear all year. It goes beyond political and is utterly punishing.

Overall, as an album, Death Pill is fucking gnarly. It’s dominated by driving guitars, thrashing out three or four chords at a hundred miles an hour. It’s proper punk alright.

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