What happens when the release of a band’s debut exceeds their wildest dreams of what’s possible? 12 months ago, Cwfen (pronounced ‘Coven’) released their first album, Sorrows, which emerged from attempts to demo some material at a friend’s studio in a remote Scottish farmhouse. The results received instant and widespread acclaim, enjoying glowing reviews in the heavy music press (Metal Hammer, Kerrang!) and featuring in album of the year lists at the close of 2025.
Fast forward 12 months and the band have toured extensively with Paradise Lost and Faetooth, and played countless festival stages, crushing audiences and gaining new fans with consistently powerful performances of the Sorrows material.
To mark the first anniversary of the release of their debut, and the whirlwind 12 months that have passed since, the band are making two special releases of the album available for the first time. The first is a digital deluxe edition of Sorrows, which presents the original tracklist alongside more than 40 minutes of previously unheard music, including blistering live tracks from their early shows and recent touring, early demos of key songs, and eerie sonic experiments composed during the making of the album. The second new release is a special 3rd edition vinyl repress of Sorrows on neon violet vinyl, limited to 300 copies.
Fresh from a performance this week at Download Festival, the band are excited to share these releases, as they look ahead to a summer of festival performances across Europe, and then to beginning the process of preparing album number two.
MISSOULA return with their latest single, ‘Ted Dollop’. The track is the third preview of the band’s upcoming debut album, Death Doula, due June 26 via Org Music.
Featuring drummer Brooks Wackerman (Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion), guitarist John Konesky (Tenacious D), and bassist/keyboardist John Spiker (Tenacious D, Beck), MISSOULA have quickly established themselves as a unique instrumental force, blending cinematic composition, heavy grooves, and adventurous musicianship into something that feels both technical and wildly imaginative.
If previous singles ‘Love Bombs’ and ‘Crimson’ introduced listeners to the band’s dynamic range, ‘Ted Dollop’ showcases another side of the project—playful, unpredictable, and driven by an irresistible rhythmic pulse.
Konesky explains:
“Much that was known of the legend of Ted Dollop is lost to the annals of history, but those that still speak to his glory will often hear his name in the rustling leaves and fields of wheat as the wind calmly blows rhythms of 7/8 o’er this great land. On June 3rd Missoula releases Ted Dollop in honor of the best to ever do it.”
Like much of Death Doula, the track balances virtuosic musicianship with a sense of fun and exploration. Rather than treating instrumental music as an exercise in technical excess, MISSOULA focus on memorable compositions, unexpected turns, and the chemistry between three accomplished players who know exactly when to push forward and when to leave space.
The forthcoming Death Doula expands on that approach across eleven instrumental tracks that move between crushing riffs, melodic passages, and cinematic arrangements. Built around Wackerman’s powerful and precise drumming, Konesky’s expressive guitar work, and Spiker’s inventive low-end foundation, the album feels less like a side project and more like a fully realized artistic statement.
As Konesky previously described the band: “Missoula is what happens when you take the reins off and let yourself run free, naked and fearless, thru an infinite universe.”
What happens when the release of a band’s debut exceeds their wildest dreams of what’s possible? 12 months ago, Cwfen (pronounced ‘Coven’) released their first album, Sorrows, which emerged from attempts to demo some material at a friend’s studio in a remote Scottish farmhouse. The results received unexpected and widespread acclaim, enjoying glowing reviews in the heavy music press (Metal Hammer, Kerrang!) and featuring in album of the year lists at the close of 2025.
Fast forward 12 months and the band have toured extensively with Paradise Lost and Faetooth, and played countless festival stages, crushing audiences and gaining new fans with consistently powerful performances of the Sorrows material.
This journey is captured beautifully in the form of a new video for the song ‘Whispers’, perhaps the most gut-wrenching and dynamic track from the band’s debut. Juxtaposing the stunning landscapes of northern Europe in winter shot from Cwfen’s tour van, with footage of the band’s dynamic live performances across Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland, the Whispers video shows the band doing exactly what they love – presenting their songs to wrapt audiences while they reach new musical and emotional heights. Shot and edited by Amy Greenbank, the video shows the band at their very best.
The release of the ‘Whispers’ video is accompanied by specially designed ‘Whispers’ merchandise, which comes with previously unheard live and studio recordings of the song.
‘Hell, they were great before. Now they’re on another level.’ Out of Rage, review of Cwfen at Desertfest 2026.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Agnes Alder said:
"It’s taken a while to feel comfortable releasing Whispers as its own thing. The song itself, lyrically, came from a very personal place, in contrast to the broader themes elsewhere on the record. This, for me, is a song that cuts right to the bone; it might not be too obvious in the lyrics themselves, but it’s taken a year of seeing the fans respond to it, watching it become one of their favourites, to really have the courage and the confidence to give it some of the love it deserves.
The screams weren’t planned. They weren’t on the first version, but when we went back into the studio after a few weeks, that’s what had to come out, so what you hear in this song is the depth of that feeling. It’s one of the most cathartic, tender, and ultimately visceral songs on the album, and deciding to release it now feels like the acceptance of a direction in my songwriting that I feel ready to explore on the next record.
We were so lucky that our Creative Scotland funding allowed us to take this tour and to bring Amy Greenbank with us. We got to work with an incredibly talented videographer, and we made a friend for life. She’s someone who will always be part of the Cwfen family. We made incredible memories on this tour and it’s so lovely to see some of them here.’"
Guitarist Guy DeNuit had this to say:
"Following an unexpectedly busy and wonderful 12 months since the release of Sorrows, we’re proud to share our new video for ‘Whispers’. This song has become a live favourite with the band and audiences, and we are so fortunate to have had this documented and beautifully presented by our videographer and dear friend, Amy Greenbank.”
Watch the video now:
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Forthcoming shows:
Wed 10th June – Download Festival, Donington, UK
Sat 6th July – Resurrection Fest, Galacia, Spain
Sun 16th Aug – Dynamo Metalfest, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Experimental-rock band Abrasive Trees have announced their latest offering via Italian doom label Argonauta Records. ‘Tao To Earth’ displays the band at a spiritual and psychedelic edge, revealing more of their emotional centre.
Band leader Matthew Rochford said of the release:
“This track is based on a lucid dream and points to themes of finding meaning amidst a chaotic and confusing world. The lyrics were originally written as a poem and we just expanded that to go into an uninhibited slightly prog-rock blast.”
‘Tao To Earth’ is out on all platforms and features an incredible video by visual artist Jess Wooller. There’s an exclusive remix by producer Niall Parker of Gravity Machine via Bandcamp too.
Swiss noise-rock collective Coilguns have returned with their powerful new single ‘Peace Trader’, out now via Humus Records, accompanied by an official video.
The accompanying video, directed by Louis Jucker and shot and edited by Valentin Lurthy, reinforces the track’s raw and unfiltered energy, with DIY lyric subtitles further amplifying its message.
Check it here:
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Recorded by Scott Evans (Thrice, La Dispute, Neurosis), with additional production from Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe, The Armed), and mixed by Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Pixies, Royal Blood), the track hits with a new level of urgency and emotional intensity.
Built to be both punchy and deeply reflective, ‘Peace Trader’ confronts the growing dissonance between ideals and reality. As the band put it: “What is the meaning of laws, when our nations negotiate all?”
Rooted in their own reflections on Switzerland’s shifting identity, from a perceived safe haven for human rights and diplomacy to a more conflicted and ambiguous role on the global stage, the track channels frustration, disillusionment, and a stubborn sense of hope.
The band elaborates: "We grew up being told that our country was a safe nest for human rights conventions, a historical hub for humanitarian organizations, a neutral haven for diplomacy, a sheltering home for those in need, and a centuries-long advocate for peace. Yet, the older we get, the more frequently we see this image turn into a Dorian Gray portrait. We recently witnessed our federal representatives minimize dual-use goods exportations or support partial views on major international law violations. We discovered that our asylum system had silently turned into a racist and humiliating discouragement plan, and we still haven’t been able to make our international enterprises accountable for their colonialist crimes. Looking back at our school history manuals, we wonder where this whole fairy tale has gone, or if it ever existed, but we’d like to allow ourselves, and invite you, to keep believing in the idea that a peace-making Switzerland might one day become an actual thing.”
Musically, ‘Peace Trader’ expands Coilguns’ already wide sonic palette. For the first time, a bass player was involved from the earliest stages of writing, reshaping the interplay between instruments and adding a broader, more fluid dynamic to the composition. From warehouse-recorded drum textures to tightly coiled bursts of noise, the track balances abrasion with atmosphere.
“We wanted ‘Peace Trader’ to be punchy and sad, something that could carry urgent empathy and hope,” the band explain, highlighting the deliberate tension that defines the song.
Either the members of Karobela – who are jointly credited with the lyrics – have had some really shitter personal experiences, or they’re keen when it comes to observing some of the more negative aspects of relationships and social interaction.
Whereas previous single,‘Afterthought’, which came out in December, dealt with being dropped, forgotten, kicked to the curb, ‘Love Letter To No One’ explores, as they put it, ‘the profound emotional turmoil caused by the contemporary issue of ‘ghosting’, capturing the lingering heartache it leaves behind’.
In name, ‘ghosting’ is very much a contemporary issue, and certainly, it’s easier to vanish virtually than in real life. It’s hard to ghost someone who works in the same office or whatever. But in the pre-Internet days, people would just stop writing, stop phoning, and you couldn’t even search on Facebook to see if they were still alive. But one difference in that is the time delay, in that you’d wait days, weeks for a letter, and the time span of the uncertainty was something which elongated gradually: there were no messages unread, no disappearing profiles. And as we’ve come to depend on immediate back-and-forth, even a minute waiting for a message to be picked up can feel like a lifetime. And it’s this angst which is the subject of ‘Love Letter to No One’.
It’s a step up in terms of ambition for the band, being the first track in a projected four-part narrative following the romantic experiences of a female protagonist, and musically, it’s got some beef to it, with a chunky riff and strong vocal delivery that does convey emotional turmoil. In many ways, it’s rock music of the kind that you don’t hear so much at the moment. That said, it’s driven by a disco-tinged beat and has more of a dance-leaning breakdown in the middle.
With a chorus that’s all hook, and tightly packed into a fraction over three minutes, ‘Love Letter to No One’ is a work of precision, and a first-rate single cut.
There’s quite a unique pleasure in learning of a new release by a band you assumed had called it a day long ago – and perhaps did. It’s even sweeter when it’s a band you really dig. And so it is that New Zealand noisemongers Lung have a new album out. It’s taken a while to percolate through to me – which isn’t entirely surprising given that they’re little-known even domestically, let alone on the opposite side of the world.
For context on a personal level, I first encountered Lung in 1992, playing in the upstairs room at The Duke of Wellington in Lincoln. This was before the city had a university or any dedicated venues, meaning proper gigs, were fairly rare. I’d have been sixteen. They were supporting some goth act – possibly Children of a Lesser Groove. Their drummer had experienced visa troubles or something, so they had a stand-in – and they blew me away. I recall them not only being pretty heavy and intense, but also devastatingly loud. When my dad came to pick me up, I had him bring money (I’d spent what little I’d taken on vodka, because it was still possible to get served without ID if you looked like you might be 18), and legged it back into the venue to raid the merch stall, taking home debut album Cactii on CD and the 7” single, ‘Swing’.
A year or so later, I practically creamed my pants on finding 3 Heads on a Plate on vinyl in Track Records in York: I simply had no idea of its existence. This was a long way pre-Internet, and they weren’t the kind of band who would be getting acres of coverage in Melody Maker or NME. I still have all three of these releases, and they still get played, too. These albums have a raw, visceral quality, and a seething darkness pervades them.
Consequently, I was beyond excited to learn about Fog (and during the course of my research for this review to learn of two more albums, released in 2022 and 2024)
Described by founder and frontman, Dave White, as their “most raw, fucked up, brutal, honest work to date”, and “possibly the most punk we’ve become”, Fog was recorded over just two days at The Surgery in Newtown, Wellington, with producer Lee Prebble at the helm, and explores more overtly the underlying punk roots of the band’s core influences.
White isn’t wrong, but it hits like a body slam with opener ‘Isolated Gun’, a thick, sludgy and seriously radical reworking of ‘She’s Got a Gun’ from Cactii where the squally, spindly lead guitar of the original is replaced by a full-on face-melting wall of noise that’s nothing short of devastating. It sets the tone for the album’s twelve tracks, too – and reminds me of that show back in ’92 when they were absolutely pulverising in volume and density. The production here conveys that volume, that grainy, gnarly, low-slung guitar filth. On Fog, not only have Lung lost none of their intensity, but they seem to have channelled years of pent-up rage into a most furious document of everything they were ever about.
The raucous laughter at the end of ‘eXtra Spank’ shows they’ve lost none of their warped humour, but then the album immediately rips into ‘Blue Ai’, a savage roar of noise, which in turn sounds tame besides the raging blitzkrieg of ‘Recycle Man’, and the snarling, gnarly ‘Panda’ is not pretty. ‘Firestarter’ is not a cover, but it is overloading, distorted, riffy and incendiary, with a skin-shredding bass ripping through the bone-breaking climax.
‘TR-UNT’ finds them venturing into the crossover territory of squalling industrial and black metal territory – and gritty noise, the drums being straight up attack, evoking the spirit of Fudge Tunnel, and after the delicate interlude of ‘No Idea Yet’, they conclude the album with the rackatacius ‘Deaf in Both Ears’. It’s nothing short of a guitar-driven blitzkrieg, and Lung at their best.
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.
Following the success of their debut single Bad Odour, Hull’s explosive punk outfit Culture Clash return with the dramatic new single Sanitizer inspired by 70s & 80s slasher horror movies like Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), Basket Case (1982) & Maniac (1990).
Produced by renowned local indie producer Adam Pattrick & released on Warren Records, the track follows a serial killer called “The Cleaner”, a school janitor who, having been driven mad by years of messy teenagers, kills anyone who doesn’t clean up after themselves. With this song, the band were keen to create something grungier & heavier than their normal punk sound, which was initially inspired by Nirvana’s album Bleach, with songs like Swap meet & Floyd the Barber being a key focus, as well as The Misfits, with its horror-based theme.
Vocalist Kaii states “This song is important to me as it represents a shift in our song writing format. ‘Sanitizer’ takes Culture Clash as a group of vague floating ideas & shoves those ideas into a bag creating a tight concept of what we are as a band & what we want to do – in short, it gave us a sense of direction”.
The video’s a direct homage to various horror movies & follows the band being murdered by The Cleaner for various crimes against cleanliness! The deaths are mainly carried out practically with real fake blood & each is a reference to a different horror movie – Rymer’s death relates to The Evil Dead 2 (1987) with lots of blood, intense camera movements & facial expressions, Freddie’s death is a homage to Psycho (1960) with him being killed in the shower & Kaii’s death is inspired by Death Becomes Her (1992) as he gets a hole cut through his torso.
Comprising of Kaii Boulton (guitar, vocals), Freddie Abbott (bass, guitar, BVs) & James Rymer (drums, BVs), Culture Clash describe themselves as a three-piece noise making machine that mixes various musical influences with a big serving of distortion in a witch’s cauldron, who then serve it up straight to their audience. They focus on mixing many elements from their influences (The Misfits, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, Bikini Kill, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Pixies, The Cure & Talking Heads) to tell a narrative that they hope people will relate to.
According to Kaii, Culture Clash exists as a band because “the sky looked nice one day” & he thought it would make a good album cover! Having spent 30% of an early recording session talking with their producer about Star Wars (a mistake they will not be repeating), this determined group have learnt from their mistakes! Headlining gigs in their local area during 2025, Culture Clash are definitely on the rise. Be sure to keep up ….
Parisian fuzz fanatics Electric Jaguar Baby kick off 2026 with the release of a brand-new live video for their latest single ‘The Fastest Ride’.
For this track, Electric Jaguar Baby lean hard into the desert rock side of their sound, transforming the Paris hood into a dust-blown Rancho de La Luna fever dream. Razor-sharp riffs, a frenzied, chant-ready chorus and a psychedelic breakdown turn ‘The Fastest Ride’ into one of the album’s defining moments, all played as if tearing down the highway in a beat-up ’65 Chevy.
The live version was captured by Cockpit Prod as part of their session series, and perfectly bottles the raw power, sweat and unfiltered energy that Electric Jaguar Baby are known for.
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“The Fastest Ride” is taken from Clair-Obscur, the duo’s wildest, heaviest and most electrifying album to date, released on September last year via Majestic Mountain Records (Kal-El, Saint Karloff).
Formed in 2015, the duo comprised of Franck (drums/vocals) and Antoine (guitar/vocals), have spent the last decade distilling garage, stoner, punk, psych, pop and grunge into pure fuzz-fueled chaos. Known for their explosive live shows and no-rules approach, they’ve shared stages with everyone from Sepultura to Death Valley Girls.
Now, Clair-Obscur marks their third full-length and most fearless outing yet. Recorded live and drenched in distortion, the album rips through 11 unfiltered tracks of raw sonic adrenaline, with killer guest appearances from Lo (ex-Loading Data) and Chris Babalis Jr. (Acid Mammoth).
Aural Aggravation 