CRUCIVORE unveil the crushing music video ‘Depths of Despair’. This brand new track is the first advance single taken from their forthcoming debut full-length Desecration. The Portuguese’s first album has been scheduled for release on November 13, 2026.
Crucivore comment: “The track ‘Depths of Despair’ carries a distinctive sense of eerie darkness”, vocalist Ricardo Proença explains on behalf of the band. “This unsettling atmosphere is created by a melodic foundation that is contrasted with powerful grooves and precisely placed slams, which add crushing weight to the track. Lyrically, this song explores the feeling of being trapped within your own despair, with no apparent way out. Heavy, dark, and captivating, ‘Depths of Despair’ combines a cinematic feeling with brutality to a powerful and immersive experience.”
Check the video and prepare to be devastated here:
For decades & centuries, musicians have used their art to plant a flag in the ground & stand against the tide – from Lead Belly to Pussy Riot … from the broadside ballads of eighteenth century England to Beethoven’s call for equality ‘Ode To Joy’. There will always be a need for people making visceral musical statements questioning the status quo.
Enter Nrvs’ latest offering ‘The Tanks Are Coming Out’. While we’re all busy putting out fires in our everyday lives, governments & leaders around the world are accumulating tanks, bombs & drones. “You think they are just gonna leave them parked up on a backlot somewhere forever?”
The rise of authoritarianism, censorship, community collapse & impending apocalypse are upon us. Nrvs expand on the idea saying “So yeah ‘The Tanks Are Coming Out’ is about Ukraine, Gaza & the rest of the shit-shows. But zoom right in and it’s also about the war that can break out when two people’s hearts get broken”.
Written while Nrvs spent time in jail for peaceful protest, ‘The Tanks Are Coming Out’ is sonically inspired by the music of Brian Eno, John Cale & in particular Faust’s ‘Rainy Day Sunshine Girl’, while production duties fall to band member Matt Allchin whose production credits include Florence + The Machine, Joy Crooks & Mark Ronson. As for the artwork, photomontage artists & Professor of Political Art Peter Kennard, empathising with Nrvs’s mission, has offered them use of his iconic artwork, giving added context to the band’s agenda. There’s a long-form video too, directed by Emmy Chitty & featuring Josef Altin (Pypar in Game of Thrones). Shot in the “bleeding heart of suburbia”, the video perfectly captures their concept of the “everyday horror of the end ”.
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When asked what makes them different, Nrvs says “Many artists like to project an image of rebellion / bad boys / bad girls / fight the power / I’m some kind of cool like pirate or whatever the fuck. Nrvs actually ARE all those things and live that life. I mean several current UK laws were written specifically to try to block Nrvs from doing things (they failed!)”
So where has Nrvs been these last few years? “Nrvs were building pink boats and breaking into places and supergluing ourselves to things. Nrvs were saying No to the bastards and meaning it. Nrvs were in jail, sisters and brothers. Where the hell were you?”
Reflecting on their previous work including the apocalyptic sci-fi tinged psych-rock EP I Like You, Nrvs are shaping “a nightmare-normal vision of the near future, that you can dance to”. Ideologically they are confrontational, unapologetic, existentially on the edge & uncompromising in their beliefs – all of which is reflected in their creative output, whether it’s music, visuals or their involvement in Extinction Rebellion & similar protests against the status quo.
Many artists have been shrouded in mystery: the music & the visuals should strike you first, whether you’re ready for them or not. Looking to the future Nrvs aim to spell out the writing that’s already on the wall – the story continues…
BESVÄRJELSEN let it rip on their new music video ‘Accelerating Hearts’. Putting their pedal to the metal, the Swedish forest rockers deliver a fuzz-fuelled single that burns rubber on their forthcoming third full-length Till Glömskan Ad Oblivionem (Into Oblivion).
Till Glömskan Ad Oblivionem is slated for release on August 28, 2026.
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Besvärjelsen comment: “In the middle of writing this album, I found out that I was pregnant, which of course changed everything”, vocalist Lea Amling Alazam reveals. ”During my first writing session after that, I was confronted by myself with how much my creative process had always been tied to my vices. There was usually something there like a glass of wine, a cold beer, and of course also coffee, cigarettes, and snus. Suddenly, all of that was gone. ‘Accelerating Hearts’ became, in a way, a love song to that rush of everything that heightens your senses and pulls you forward – this thrilling sense of acceleration. From the start, I knew that I wanted this song to be a duet. At the top of my list was Fred Burman of Satan Takes a Holiday, who is an incredible vocalist and one of the most compelling voices in Sweden. I was beyond happy when he agreed, and what he brought to the track is nothing short of magic.”
Chat Pile’s heralded debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavour of dread, and their 2024 LP Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence. Now, Chat Pile return with Who Loves the Sun, an album that peels back the skin on how a collective indifference for a decaying world defines this new century.
Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities as a result of inaction on climate change, the dread of working dead-end jobs, and the species’ collective submission to data-driven inauthenticity, Who Loves the Sun depicts the common experience of existing in a doom loop which feeds the malaise that permeates all aspects of our lives.
The album”s latest single ‘Same Rules’ is lyrically and sonically as aggressive and confrontational as ever, but Chat Pile approach songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones. Bassist Stin says it’s the “…first real Chat Pile song mostly recorded on 4-track cassette. Ray B. had given us the challenge to write a trip hop song and this is what we came up with. Unfortunately he’s rejected ‘Same Rules’ from the challenge as he claims it’s not trip hop at all and that we have to try again. Perhaps we’ll get it right next time.”
Reaching into the collective consciousness to commiserate and carouse, Chat Pile dissect how the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence is an active, slow-motion apocalypse, threads of which are woven through the album. Vocalist Ray B. adds: “Everyone needs to read as much as possible. There is so little emphasis put on knowledge right now— it is your most important tool. Engagement with the world might lead to death, but shutting off and staring at your phone all day is suicide.”
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Since Chat Pile’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet has grown from a scrappy passion project of four local film and music enthusiasts into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground.
Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums)’s crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock resonates in a cracked reality. Their music captures a raw, undeniably human essence that’s increasingly fleeting in an age marked by ceaseless torrents of algorithmic slop, technological overreach, and the cold, crestfallen state of society. Nothing about their forthcoming third LP, Who Loves the Sun, feels synthetic. In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answers with something defiantly real and organic.
Live dates:
UK/EU 08/11 – Vienna, AT – Arena (supporting HEALTH and Carpenter Brut) 08/12 – Munich, DE – Live/Evil ~ 08/14 – Col Du Lein, CH – Palp Festival 08/17 – London, UK – Bush Hall ~ SOLD OUT 08/19 – Dublin, IRE – Button Factory ~ SOLD OUT 08/20 – Dublin, IRE – Button Factory ~ SOLD OUT 08/22 – Bristol, UK – Arctangent Festival 08/23 – Hasselt, BE – Pukkelpop Festival
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09/12 – Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre = (SISU Fundraiser Fest) 09/17 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue +^ 09/19 – Chicago, IL – Riot Fest 09/20 – Englewood, CO – The Gothic Theatre +& 09/23 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Metro Music Hall + & 09/25 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo + & 09/27 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall + & 09/29 – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades + 09/30 – San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom + & 10/03 – San Diego, CA – Music Box + & 10/04 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco + & 10/06 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile Theater + & 10/08 – Austin, TX – Radio/East + & 10/09 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall + & 10/10 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater + & 11/05 – Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theatre + % 11/06 – Millvale, PA – Mr. Smalls Theatre + % 11/08 – Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall + % 11/10 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel + % 11/11 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer + % 11/12 – Washington, DC – Black Cat + % 11/14 – Charlotte, NC – Underground + % 11/15 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade + % 11/16 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl + % 11/18 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall + % 11/20 – Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe at Old National Centre + % 11/21 – St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall + % 11/22 – Lawrence, KS – The Granada + %
~ with Ragana + with Soul Glo ^ with Prize Horse & with Virga % with Shallowater = with Portrayal of Guilt, Nightosphere, Traindodge, Primal Brain
Most artists begin with a single. Eilir Pierce waited until his 40th album.
Released on July 10th, 2026, ‘Do-List’ is the first official standalone single from the Welsh artist and filmmaker after more than 30 years of music-making, 39 self-released albums and over 500 songs.
Having spent much of his career operating outside conventional music-industry structures, Pierce recently moved from Wales to Glasgow to begin his most ambitious project yet.
His forthcoming 40th album, Half-Time, is a synth-pop musical about moving to a new city and attempting to become a pop star in middle age. Featuring guest appearances from Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap and Mercury Prize-nominated Welsh artist Gwenno, the project will also become a live stage show and film, with Pierce performing a full run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.
‘Do-List’ captures the overloaded mind behind those plans.
The song races through tasks, ambitions and unfinished ideas as Pierce tries to impose order on everything he believes he needs to achieve. Each completed tick provides a smaller reward. Meanwhile, the jobs continue to multiply.
“I make lists because I’m overwhelmed,” says Pierce. “Then the list becomes another thing overwhelming me. I tick something off, feel satisfied for about three seconds and immediately notice the other 27 things I haven’t done.”
He adds: “I also refuse to call it a ‘to-do list’. The ‘to’ is completely unnecessary. That kind of inefficiency is exactly how lists get out of control.”
Built around tense piano and an increasingly agitated vocal, Do-List developed with Glasgow producer Gavin Thomson into a darker arrangement of drum machines, synth textures and strings.
Its clipped, spoken verses carry the blunt repetition of The Fall and the deadpan detachment of Dry Cleaning. The chorus opens into something more exposed, with echoes of early Daniel Johnston and the eerie consolation of the Lady in the Radiator from David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
At the centre of the song is Pierce’s hope for an afterlife free from unfinished admin: “Heaven is a place with no list.” For a moment, the song escapes the pressure of constant productivity. Then another task arrives.
‘Do-List’ is Pierce’s attempt to write a direct pop song after three decades of working largely on his own terms. It is also the first item in an increasingly unreasonable plan involving an album, musical, film, Fringe run and bid for middle-aged pop stardom.
Perhaps Pierce was born in the wrong era.
Or perhaps releasing a debut single after 39 albums is exactly the point.
Fun, funky and fabulously 80s-influenced, Argonauthave just released their latest video single, ‘Hats Off’, filmed and produced by Dave Meyer.
The single is taken from their new album, Interrupted, that despite the upbeat single in contrast plunges into the past year’s abyss, documenting breakdown, burnout, dementia and depression, alongside nostalgia, hope and healing.
The extended mix single of ‘Hats Off’ is out today.
Here’s Lorna to tell you all about it: “’Hats Off’ is the sound of the summer past and present, memories bought back by looking at old photos from when I was younger. I found a hat in a charity shop which reminded me of one I wore in a picture from when I was 15. Around this time I also took a photography course so I incorporated the camera and darkroom imagery into the lyrics. The synth sounds and bass are influenced by 80s bands such as Japan, Duran Duran, INXS, Human League – which worked well with the words.”
Norwegian cult act ULVER return again to the track ‘Hollywood Babylon’ from their previous album Liminal Animals (2024) for the best of all reasons: a stunning music video that has been long in the making. Following a fascinating remix by Gazelle Twin aka Elizabeth Bernholz that offered a brooding reinterpretation, the Norwegians now add this beautiful clip to the growing corpus around the original track.
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ULVER comment: “Working with our wonderfully mad old friend Christian Mona from the Bogus Blimp days never disappoints”, mastermind Kristoffer Rygg writes on behalf of Ulver. “He started to create this video before we released our last album (sorry about that) and he has finally delivered a splendidly grotesque little gem from within his Automated Bathroom. ‘Hollywood Babylon’ has never looked better! It is a distorted mirror of our times. Please feel free to stare into it a little too long.”
The Norwegian visual artist collective AKFF! adds: “2025 marked 20 years since Ulver made the animated music video ‘It Is Not Sound’ in cooperation with us”, Christian Mona states. “It has been a hypnotic journey through the Sea of Sorrows all the way to the Pinnacle of Truth. Thinking back on what a great experience it was to visualise and expand on Ulver’s universe, we started wondering why AKFF! hadn’t made more videos with Ulver. As it turns out, Ulver had been thinking along the same lines! And so the making of ‘Hollywood Babylon’ began.”
Los Angeles-based alternative rock quartet Cascades have released their debut single and video, ‘in moments’, offering the first glimpse into their upcoming EP liminality, due September 25 via Many Hats Endeavors. Blending post-hardcore intensity, shoegaze atmosphere, and alternative rock melody, Cascades arrive with a sound that is both expansive and deeply personal.
Check it here:
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Featuring Jeremy Hernandez (guitar, vocals), Bobby Kay (bass), Jenna Terranova (drums), and Shane Burns (lead guitar), Cascades craft songs that move seamlessly between vulnerability and aggression, atmosphere and impact.
Fans of Thrice, Deftones, and Circa Survive will find plenty to connect with in the band’s approach.
“It’s heavy until it isn’t. It’s quiet until it isn’t. And that’s kind of the whole point,” says bassist Bobby Kay.
While the members bring decades of collective experience to the project, Cascades is less a continuation of past endeavors than the start of something new. Hernandez is known for his work with Fearless Records bands Big Wig and Near Miss, while Kay previously recorded as a Universal Republic artist, shared stages with artists including The Roots and Bleachers, and currently tours with Interscope artist Lady Radiator. With punk-inspired Terranova anchoring the songs’ momentum and Burns weaving layers of expressive leads throughout, Cascades has forged a chemistry that feels collaborative and intentional.
“It’s been exciting to reconnect with Jeremy and then to meet Jenna and Shane to create this,” says Kay. “It just feels like it’s the right timing, but it doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
Recorded with veteran producer Steve Kravac (MXPX, Less Than Jake) and mixed and mastered by John Naclerio at Nada Studios (My Chemical Romance, Brand New), liminality captures the band’s dynamic intensity and emotional depth in a sound that is raw, immediate, and cinematic.
LEPER COLONY drop the first brutal advance track ‘These Blades’ taken from the deadly international trio’s new full-length Back to Primal Sludge. The third album of these death metal fanatics has been slated for release on October 9, 2026.
LEPER COLONY comment on ‘These Blades’: “This ferocious track whips uptempo filth your way and opens up a new breathing hole in your neck”, shred-master Rogga Johansson claims. “Meaty, fully fleshed-out riffs, mercilessly pounding drums, and a brutal vocal delivery deluxe are included. For us, ‘These Blades’ creates a perfect equilibrium between the American and Swedish approaches to death metal.”
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LEPER COLONY hold firm and relentlessly soldier on in their unholy quest to create the perfect equilibrium between the Floridian and Stockholm styles of old school death metal on their third full-length Back to Primal Sludge.
This defines Back to Primal Sludge in many ways as a direct continuation of their sophomore album Those of the Morbid (2025). Yet, there are twists and tweaks in the details. While the previous release offered a handful of references to deadly German influences, these have been further reduced just as the second album had dropped the classic thrash elements from the self-titled LEPER COLONY debut (2023).
Crumbling Ghost recently announced their return after a number of years away with the release of new album Four on 7th August via New Heavy Sounds. The group’s core idea is deceptively simple: traditional folk material rearranged and refracted through the haze and heft of heavy, fuzzy stoner rock with a chunk of psyche and a smattering of doom.
Today the band have shared the video for new single, the slowcore/grunge inspired ‘Last of All Sleep’ which you can check out now:
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Within the broad church of ‘rock’ or ‘alternative’ and its many offshoots – it remains a minor thrill to stumble across a group who seem to exist at a slight tangent to everything else.
Crumbling Ghost is one such anomaly and an irresistible one at that: a group who feel less like a discovery than a secret belatedly shared. Their new album Four set for release on 7th August (New Heavy Sounds) was announced last month.
Crumbling Ghost are not newcomers. They’ve been operating for some time, releasing records sporadically, Four is in fact their fourth release. Along the way they’ve accumulated a fervent coterie of followers, not to mention the occasional nod of approval from tastemakers such as Stuart Maconie, Stewart Lee and Tom Ravenscroft. And though they’ve appeared at Roadburn, shared stages with Hawkwind and even Damo Suzuki, they remain (possibly by design) curiously under‑the‑radar. That might change with the quite wonderful ‘Four’.
The group’s core idea is deceptively simple: traditional folk material rearranged and refracted through the haze and heft of heavy, fuzzy stoner rock with a chunk of psyche and a smattering of doom. But crucially, this is done without the costumery and theatrical tics that often accompany such collisions. No mock‑pagan pageantry, no graveyard cosplay, no cartoon Satanism.
What Crumbling Ghost latch onto is not folk as a museum piece, but as a lived experience, the dramas rooted in the culture, stories, and daily lives of ordinary people, the folklore, the tales of love and death, murder and adultery, freedom and oppression.
On Four those narratives are dragged into the present via churning distortion, hypnotic repetition and a sense of looming atmosphere. Fairport Convention with fuzz. Trees with heft. A pastoral Sonic Youth.
The result is a set of murder ballads, supernatural reckonings and cautionary tales, all wrapped in slabs of heavy, thumping fuzz and atmospheric sonics. Harnett’s voice sits at the centre: unmistakably folk‑rooted, but shorn of prettification, melodic yet capable of real bite. There’s no “hey nonny nonny” here.
Musically, it’s a combination that really does work, and it’s delivered in some style too. And to fully appreciate the world of Crumbling Ghost, listening closely pays dividends, and those stories come to life.
New single ‘Last of All Sleep’ is not a Crumbling Ghost reinterpretation of a dark and distant folk murder ballad, nor a cover of a little known 90’s SubPop grunge downtuned, downtempo album-track-that-should-have-been-a-single, but it feels like a song you’ve wanted to hear and yet known for years, in other words, an instant classic.
