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.”
It may have been out a few weeks now, but it would be remiss of us to pass on the opportunity to shout about the debut single from Hull trio Wench! following their blistering York debut…
Bursting out on to Hull’s vibrant live music scene are WENCH! & they’ve already made a massive impression at a handful of explosive gigs & local festivals. Fuelled by female rage, this angry punk trio now share their debut single ‘Shreds’ – a track about being wronged in a relationship & getting emotionally ripped to shreds by the experience.
Produced at Hull’s renowned Warren Records studio by local indie, alternative producer Adam Pattrick, ‘Shreds’ is about the courage it takes to allow yourself to be vulnerable in situations & how this is often disrespected by abusive people we come across in the everyday.
The band explain:
“’Shreds’ is a song for anyone who feel intimidated by social situations to an extent they don’t say what they mean. We believe in expressing ourselves in a raw & unfiltered way which can sometimes backfire but enables us to speak from the heart. As a band, although we feel our songs can have a deeper meaning, we like to describe said songs in just a few words, being direct while refusing to be polite & quiet about the issues we face”.
The innovative WENCH! comprises Kit Bligh (Lead Vocals, Drums), Hebe Gabel (Bass, Flute) & Sev Speck (Guitar, Backing vocals). Fusing Riot Grrrl punk with & alternative rock & pop, this all-female, all-queer outfit are actively speaking out about misogyny & mistreatment of women, ensuring their gigs are a safe space. Inspired by a whole host of artists including Eddi Reader, Steve Gadd, Patti Smith, Lambrini Girls & Hull’s burgeoning folk scene, the band were formed while at college, with each member coming from a differing musical background. Sev being influenced by folk, Hebe by blues & Kit by a mix of soul, jazz & rock, but with a common bond of aspiring to be in a riot grrrl-style band.
WENCH!’s music is for those who feel they’ve been mistreated, for the powerful women who’ve been tied down by the patriarchy, for the weirdos who’ve been told they don’t fit in, as well as anyone who wants to have a memorable time at a one of their sweaty gigs.
Ipecac is honoured to release the new album from legendary musician, composer and arranger, Jean Claude Vannier. Jean Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines, out on Feb 14th, 2025 is a playful album of beautiful reveries composed on mandolin and accordion, that are both poetic and unrestrained. As of now, the new track ‘Comme les enfants savent aimer’ is shared.
About the new track, Vannier comments;
“When I was a child, my parents often took us to dinner at the restaurant in Parc Montsouris. There was a bandstand by the lake, with a few mandolins playing fashionable tunes, and the moon was shimmering on the surface of the water, where an enigmatic boat was moored. I would have loved to have gone with the waves, with the mandolines. Later, I spent many a night lying in the boat, dreaming of this music of love. All these memories led me to record this album with my mandolinist friend, Vincent Beer Demande.”
A pinch of strings, a hint of childhood, melodies that touch the heart, orchestration that is always unexpected… these are just some of the elements to emerge from this album.
Hear ‘Comme les enfants savent aimer’ here:
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Photo credit: Léo Alestro
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The album title translates as Jean Claude Vannier and his mandolin orchestra, and this marks the first time that the ever-creative composer has written specifically for the mandolin. The album features fellow enthusiast Vincent Beer-Demander, whose mandolin is multiplied by an orchestra to form a singular sound palette, carefully combined with the accordion of Grégory Daltin.
Mike Patton, who collaborated with Vannier on the 2019 release, Corpse Flower, has this to say about getting to put out his new album on Ipecac, ”Jean Claude is a dear friend, mentor and a wonderfully gifted and decorated composer. Read: LEGEND. To have worked with him is an unmitigated honour. His writing and arrangements have influenced an ocean of artists and I call myself one of the lucky ones who have crossed his path. He was writing ground-breaking stuff before I was born. He has affected me deeply and I’m forever grateful and in AWE.”
The album was created as a music score for a non-existent silent film, and tells the love story of a young boy we follow through time. The second single tells more of the story…
So at night, during the week, I’d climb the facade of her building, we’d kiss through the glass and me hanging off her balcony.
On the third floor.
It felt like a condom, this cold tile between her lipstick and our two tongues working like crazy.
We loved each other like children know how.
As if for the last time.
Jean Claude Vannier, whom the press refer to as “the rare bird”, has worked over the past 60 years most famously with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, as well as artists such as Beck and Sean Lennon. He’s worked on countless soundtracks, released six solo albums and is a French pop-culture icon who’s composed for Eurovision, directed videos, exhibited paintings, hosted radio shows and published short stories.
This new album features mandolin virtuoso Vincent Beer-Demander, who has won multiple awards and collaborated with the French National Orchestra, Czeske Philharmonic, Mid-Atlantic Symphonic Orchestra and hundreds more around the world. Sounding like nothing else that either Demander nor Vannier has done before.
Also featured is Grégory Daltin, whose accordion playing brings another dimension to this beautiful album.
Shoegaze band Mondaze will release their second album Linger on 22 November via Bronson Recordings.
The opening track, ‘Lines of You’, showcases the recurring tension between presence and absence, reflecting how this internal struggle is ever-present in daily life. Haunted by lingering ghosts and memories that refuse to fade, Mondaze’s melancholy isn’t merely a stylistic element—it’s a deep exploration of the collective labyrinths faced by a generation longing for connection. It sounds as powerful as it is necessary in our times. There’s a strength that stems from reflection and observation.
The video was directed by Clement Pelo, and it stars Yannis Beck and Benedicte Bonpunt.
Watch it here:
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The band have previously released two singles: album title track ‘Linger’, a song that explores memory and nostalgia. and ‘Son of the Rambling Dawn’, a track that creates an immersive experience with intricate layers, smoothly blending different influences to convey a modern sensibility.
Since forming in 2018, Italy-based Mondaze have defined themselves as “heavy shoegaze”, taking inspiration from bands like genre-giants Swervedriver and Ride, but also contemporary bands pushing through the limits of the genre like Nothing and Ringo Deathstarr. With Linger, they aim to amplify the melancholy tones of their frustration and rage. These sonic characteristics drove them to work with Chris Fullard (Idles and Boris) on mixing, and Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher) for mastering. The result is an album with roots, yet distinctly modern featuring arrangements that skilfully blend contemporary styles with dreamy and eerie atmospheres.
Founded in 1994 by the Vancouver, Canada-based duo John Morgan and Tod Law, Unit:187 spent less than a year in their studio and playing live at local clubs before landing a record deal with 21st Circuitry Records. A solid debut album entitled Stillborn followed in 1997, with the promotion for it taking in several west coast tours that gained the band a respectable fanbase throughout North America.
Loaded followed a year later, featuring new band members Jed Simon (guitar) and Byron Stroud (bass) of Strapping Young Lad and produced by that band’s leader (and future prog icon) Devin Townsend. The album yielded instant industrial classics that included the title track and a remix of the song ‘Stillborn’ by Rhys Fulber (a member of Front Line Assembly and the producer of Fear Factory at that time).
The third Unit:187 album, Capital Punishment (2002), utilised the electronic programming and production skills of Chris Peterson (also of Front Line Assembly) on several tracks. Its title song kicked off proceedings with a killer groove and mix by Anthony Valcic (a producer of both Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly), the group’s trademark synth riffs, movie samples and driving guitars blazing full-tilt from the start right through to the conclusion of the album.
2010’s Out For Blood saw adjustments to the group line-up, with Chris Peterson becoming a permanent member and guitarist Ross Redhead (Decree) also joining. The album marked a turning point, as they worked tirelessly in the studio to produce raw heavy music that punched fist-first through what they perceived as ‘goth euro-cheese’ by coming up trumps with a solid dose of old-school industrial that hadn’t been heard in years. Mixed by producer Kent ‘hiwatt’ Marshall (another Skinny Puppy cohort), Out For Blood pulled out all the stops to sonically pound eardrums into a memorable pulp, while simultaneously offering its listeners sweet melodies to sing along with long after their sound systems had failed from transistor overload.
Unit:187 singer and frontman Tod Law sadly passed away in 2015, but left a legacy of music that has inspired the band to finally move forward. Now fronted by former backing singer Kerry Vink-Peterson, their upcoming KillCure album continues to pack attitude and punch, albeit with a dancefloor friendly edge. An opening salvo from the record, ‘Dick’, has been made available today as its first single.
Shoegaze band Mondaze will release their second album ‘Linger’ on 22 November via Bronson Recordings.
They have recently shared their new single ‘Son of the Rambling Dawn’, which adopts a visceral and physical perspective. It delves into “the fleeting nature of life and the unavoidable fate that accompanies it, where uncertainty reigns and everything is destined to change.”
The sound is a contemporary and dynamic take on shoegaze, with guitars returning as a central element that creates an immersive experience and intricate layers, smoothly blending different influences to convey a modern sensibility.
Listen here (click image to play).
Since forming in 2018, Italy-based Mondaze have defined themselves as "heavy shoegaze", taking inspiration from bands like genre-giants Swervedriver and Ride, but also contemporary bands pushing through the limits of the genre like Nothing and Ringo Deathstarr. With Linger, they aim to amplify the melancholy tones of their frustration and rage. These sonic characteristics drove them to work with Chris Fullard (Idles and Boris) on mixing, and Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher) for mastering. The result is an album with roots, yet distinctly modern featuring arrangements that skillfully blend contemporary styles with dreamy and eerie atmospheres.
Buñuel share the frenetic new single "Class" from their fourth full-length album Mansuetude, a co-release between SKiN GRAFT and Overdrive, arriving 25th October 2024.
About the track Eugene S. Robinson comments, “America is schizophrenic about class and class attributes. On the one hand we claim it doesn’t exist here, on the other hand like Paul Fussell lays out in his book on class it works its way through every aspect of American life and living. The song itself eviscerates the notion by placing it where it most needs to be placed: in the iD fuelled underworld.”
Listen to ‘Class’ here:
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BUÑUEL boasts the singular vocals and razor sharp lyrics of Eugene S. Robinson (ex-Oxbow) and a powerhouse Italian trio comprised of guitarist Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours, A Short Apnea), bassist Andrea Lombardini (The Framers) and drummer Franz Valente (Il Teatro Degli Orrori). Mansuetude was produced by Timo Ellis, and features guests including Jacob Bannon (lead singer of Converge), guitarist Duane Denison (the Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk,The Denison Kimball Trio), vocalist Megan Osztrosits (Couch Slut), cellist Andrea Beninati and David Binney on alto saxophone and vocals.
The title, Mansuetude – meaning “meekness” or “gentleness” – might seem like a juxtaposition when listening to the record that is, in Eugene’s words, “extreme but articulate”, however the record aims to convey a balancing of different forces and shades of being which make up the human experience. Throughout Mansuetude, Buñuel take every given opportunity to stretch out their musical tendrils towards discomfort, surrealism, and the deconstruction of tradition, as they reach absolute abandon. They go well beyond the realm of noise rock, encompassing many moods from post-hardcore to avant-noise, hard-blues to post-industrial, symphonic to trash metal and even free-jazz.
Drummer Franz comments that “Buñuel is a name that embodies a certain cultural and literary reference, which evokes an entire world. Like his films, our Buñuel is surrealism. We take the listeners into a place that’s suspended between dream and reality.”
“What we’re doing with Buñuel is to carve out a very specific glimpse… partly into hearts of darkness, but more specifically into the depth of our secrets,” says Eugene. “Secrets we keep from each other, ourselves and whatever futures we’ve imagined for ourselves. We are ultimately trying to communicate something direct and deadly about the human condition.”
Buñuel makes music for those of us willing to take a closer, unflinching look at the depths of human instinct, and on Mansuetude the band extend their reach farther than before, creating an album that is akin to a powerful impulse, or perhaps even an exorcism.
Mansuetude is a double album with three sides. A balancing act performed for and by the unbalanced.
‘Pagan Synth’ band, ESOTERIK has just dropped the latest single from their forthcoming EP, Archetypes.
For their latest single, ESOTERIK brings light to the archetype known as the ‘Shadow.’ The silent observer always watching from behind the scenes, waiting with indifference for what comes to pass. They say you must make peace to move forward, but isolation has always tasted better. Nothing is inherently good or bad and imbalance provides perspective. Without a light to shine the subconscious feeds eternally. However, in absence of light a shadow cannot exist.
On the upcoming EP, Archetypes, ESOTERIK examines the tropes that have weaved a thread across societies for centuries. “It’s such an interesting topic and really highlights the power of language whether written or passed down via word of mouth. The legends hold a commonality that span through time and culture. Before the world was connected by technology, these stories held the experiences and wisdom for generations to come. Whether they are steeped in symbolism or ritual, the lessons are still infused and if sensational that only ensures the survival beyond our limited life spans.”
Buñuel recently announced their fourth full-length album Mansuetude, and first release outside their outlandish trilogy of albums. Today, they share a second preview of the album in the form of ‘Fixer’, a track featuring the snarls of Couch Slut vocalist Megan Osztrosits.
Listen here:
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The music on Mansuetude warps and buckles with complexity, freedom, tenderness and primaeval energy all at once. The album includes a handful of exciting collaborations, with ‘Fixer’ being the first taster of this combined energy. About the track the band comments;
“Following a Breaking Bad trajectory and owing this account largely to a friend of his who had been called The Crystal Meth King of Oklahoma by the FBI, the FIXER follows a drug czar’s Man Friday as he cleans up that which inevitably needs cleaning up when you’re living a life of crime.”
Megan Osztrosits of Couch Slut adds;
“When Eugene hit me up to ask if I wanted to do vocals for a track, I said yes without even hearing it. He rules and I am psyched for this absolute ripper of an album.”
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(BUÑUEL, L-R: Franz Valente, Xabier Iriondo, Andrea Lombardini, Eugene S. Robinson | By Annapaola Martin
Huge Molasses Tank Explodes will release their new album III on 6th September via Tidal Wave Records.
They have now shared ‘Distant Glow’, a track that starts with a slow and soothing mood reminiscent of 60’s psychedelic pop, accompanied by layers of mellotron and Farfisa, and it later evolves into space-rock, where fuzzed-out guitar echoes and trippy synths take over. The song’s soundscape is simultaneously melancholic and colourful, creating a perfect canvas for its themes of isolation and distance.
Listen here:
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‘Distant Glows’ follows previous singles ‘Bow of Gold’, a track built upon contrasting kraut-derived sequenced synth lines, spacy textures, jangly guitars drenched in reverb and full psych fuzz-driven drone walls, and ‘Indeterminate’, a song driven by a motorik rhythm sustained by a stubborn synth bass sequence on top of layers of synths, spacey guitars and vocoder vocals.
An immersive psychedelic reverie. This is what Huge Molasses Tank Explodes has to offer: a liquid continuity of landscapes, as envisioned by the minds of Fabrizio De Felice (voice, guitar, synth), Giacomo Tota (guitar), Luca Umidi (bass) and Gabriele Arnolfo (drums, now played by Michele Schiavina). The Milan, Italy-based band offers us a kaleidoscopic experience, ranging from rugged and evocative beats to dreamy soundscapes, inspired by post-punk and psych-wave. With a hypnotic and almost serene sound in mind, transfiguring humanity with new electronic streaks and vocal blends, the brand-new album ‘III’ showcases ethereal, yet powerful, musical canvases that celebrate the band’s influences, taste and psychedelic vision.
Aural Aggravation 