Southern Italy’s riff-wielding power trio King Potenaz have officially signed to Majestic Mountain Records for the release of their highly anticipated sophomore album Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 1, due out June 27th, 2025 on both vinyl and digital formats.
To mark the occasion, the band has just unleashed their blistering new single and video for ‘Rivers of Death’, a 10-minute descent into fuzzy doom, psychedelic dread, and scorched-earth riff worship.
“We’re back with a vengeance, unleashing our long-awaited second album, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 1! Says the band. "This is our heaviest, most intense work yet — a sonic onslaught that’ll blow your mind. We can’t wait for you to crank it up and dive into the chaos!”
With a sound steeped in the grimy tradition of Electric Wizard, Sleep, and Monster Magnet, King Potenaz blend occult doom, stoner fuzz, and eerie psychedelia into a swirling ritual of sound. “Rivers of Death” is the perfect first taste of what’s to come: hypnotic, devastating, and weird in all the right ways.
After the announcement and pre-order start of their sophomore album Waving at the Sky and the release of their first single ‘The Malevolent’ featuring Ross Jennings from Haken, Norwegian prog rockers AVKRVST reveal their second offering – ‘The Trauma’.
Simon Bergseth, vocalist, shares about ‘The Trauma’:
“‘The Trauma’ is the heart of the story— the origin of everything. A harrowing act triggered a wound that never should have been inflicted. This is where it all begins.“
The single comes with a brand-new music video in established AVKRVST aesthetics – a continuation of the story of the lonely, bleak soul in the cabin. Watch the video here:
Greek-Finnish doom metal collective Aeonian Sorrow has unveiled the official video for ‘Harbinger of Ruin’, taken from their brand-new EP From The Shadows, out now on all platforms.
‘Harbinger of Ruin’ puts the band’s signature blend of sorrowful doom and enchanting melodies on full display, a slow-burning, emotionally devastating track that channels themes of isolation and grief.
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Released in late March, ‘From The Shadows’ marks Aeonian Sorrow’s latest chapter, following their acclaimed debut album Into The Eternity A Moment We Are (2018) and the A Life Without EP (2020). After touring with Swallow the Sun and Oceans of Slumber, and navigating lineup changes, the band returned with renewed purpose, delivering one of their most intimate and emotionally raw works to date.
The EP sees Kill Your Boyfriend experimenting with new sounds that lean towards electronic music, creating a more rarefied space for the guitars while maintaining the dark atmospheres that distinguish them. It features 6 songs drawing inspiration from past greats such as Kraftwerk, Moroder, and New Order, while also keeping an eye on artists like the Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, and Paul Kalkbrenner.
Kill Your Boyfriend have confirmed a series of European live dates in May and September this year, with more to be announced soon.
Fri 30 May - PMK – Innsbruck, Austria w./ New Candys
Sat 31 May - Rockhaus – Salzburg, Austria w./ New Candys
mclusky released their first album in 20 years, the world is still here and so are we, last week. they’re sharing another video today which is directed by remy lamont, and that’s for the track ‘autofocus on the prime directive’, which is one of the songs from that album. there are also a lot of live dates coming up which you can look at below if you like.
falco offers; “autofocus on the prime directive is a series of patently untrue statements set to music by a man who can barely dress himself. the title is not a reference to star trek in any way but if it was I hope you’d understand.”
San Francisco punk rock band M.U.T.T. has unleashed their blistering new single ‘Runnin’ with the Devil’ a snarling anthem about embracing sin, seizing chaos, and stepping into the Devil’s shoes to rule the underworld. And the band isn’t stopping there. M.U.T.T. has also announced their brand-new LP, Toughest Street In Town, dropping June 20 via Quiet Panic Records.
The new album is a love letter to the band’s gritty San Francisco neighborhood—a place many outsiders fear, but where M.U.T.T. finds their strength.
Frontman John Jr. says, “I don’t fear my neighborhood, I am inspired by it. I find myself thriving in the mayhem. I walk around the blocks at night ’cause I know I can take care of myself. You gotta have a tough presence and a tough mind in order to survive in this part of the city. Some of you couldn’t last a week on my street. Maybe that’s why I love it so much.”
‘Runnin’ with the Devil’ captures that raw energy and streetwise perspective in full force. As No Echo puts it, the song sounds “like Appetite-era Guns N’ Roses trying to channel the Circle Jerks”—a perfect storm of sleazy glam rock swagger and unfiltered punk attitude. It’s rock ‘n’ roll that doesn’t compromise your punk cred.
Formed from the remains of the critically acclaimed band Culture Abuse, M.U.T.T. includes John Jr., Matt Walker, Isa Anderson, and Shane Plitt—four ex-touring punks with empty pockets and no plans to slow down. Their debut LP Bad To The Bone made noise across underground circles and was praised for its unrelenting, four-chord punk anthems and gritty authenticity.
With Toughest Street In Town, M.U.T.T. continues their journey—hardened, loud, and fiercely loyal to the place that raised them.
NYC-based producer indie music veteran Charlie Nieland presents his new single ‘Drown’, a stunning reverb-laced offering and the first taste of his forthcoming The Ocean Understands EP, set for release on June 20. The expansive and visceral music video was directed by NYC-based multi-faceted artist Hypnodoll.
“The track ‘Drown’ was inspired by Monique Vescia’s book Hole In The Sky, which I read for the Bushwick Book Club songwriter series in 2021. It depicts a dark world, where an authoritarian won the US presidential election of 2020. So I made this mythical tale from the past, told in the future, where all the stories are jumbled up – a celebration of destruction,” says Charlie Nieland.
“Of course, it all feels quite prescient as we sift through our present wreckage, searching for grace in the violent forces underneath. It’s a white-hot psychedelic siren song with an oceanic undertow.”
It’s been four years since Nieland released his 2021 widely acclaimed Divisions with its sweeping melodies and restless rhythms. Renowned for tastefully blending post punk, dream pop and progressive rock, he has been writing, playing and producing music for decades, with a focus on the atmospheric and the imaginative. Nieland’s musical backstory is extensive, having played dream pop with Her Vanished Grace for over 20 years before establishing himself as a solo artist with a mix of nuanced songwriting and sonic exploration, initially releasing Ice Age (2014) and Hopeful Monsters (2016). He is currently half of the literature-inspired songwriting and performing duo Lusterlit with Susan Hwang and produces and participates in the podcast ‘An Embarrassment of Prog’.
Along the way, Charlie wrote and produced material with such notable artists as Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Dead Leaf Echo, Blondie and Scissor Sisters. He scored the feature film The Safety of Objects (starring Glenn Close), the pilot episode of ‘The L Word’ on Showtime and the VH-1documentary NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell. Charlie was awarded a Gold record (UK) for his production work on Blondie’s ‘Greatest Hits Sight & Sound’ and achieved a Top 10 Billboard Dance Chart Position with Debbie Harry’s single ‘Two Times Blue’, which he co-wrote and produced.
Charlie Nieland shares his impression of the accompanying video: “With its mind-melting imagery, the video for ‘Drown’, created by NYC multimedia artist Hypnodoll, is beautiful and deranged. She conjures storytelling just out or rational reach, playing tag with the ancient and futuristic in a way that perfectly compliments the song. Collaborating with her is such a thrill”.
Portuguese heavy sludge hitters Vaneno have just dropped the official video for ‘Sludgehammer’, the crushing second single from their forthcoming album Chaos, Hostility, Murder, due out May 26 on Raging Planet Records.
Shot in black and white, ‘Sludgehammer’ embodies everything Vaneno stands for: heavy, unrelenting riffs, cavernous grooves, and a primal energy that feels like it could destroy entire brick walls. The track delivers a punishing blend of sludge, stoner, and death metal, the kind of sound that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.
KAYO DOT have revealed the video single ‘Oracle by Severed Head’ taken from their forthcoming new album Every Rock, Every Half-Truth under Reason, which is scheduled for release on August 1, 2025.
Watch it here:
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KAYO DOT comment: “The song ‘Oracle by Severed Head’ is about prophecy, but not the clean, transcendent kind that we’ve been taught to expect”, mastermind Toby Driver reveals. “This is prophecy as defilement – a sacred voice ripped from the past and forced through a severed head – a voice no longer truly its own, but distorted, fragmented, bleeding into the present. It is a song that interrogates the ways in which manipulated versions of the past continue to invade the present, asserting themselves in violent ways. These voices might be real and they might speak some truths, but who, through the obscene fracture that brought them back, are we really listening to? And at what cost? Musically, ‘Oracle by Severed Head’ pulls us into that space of rupture. It is built on a large ensemble – guitars, drums, bass, strings, woodwinds, trumpet, and vocals – an orchestration that calls back to the earliest Kayo Dot works. The song is a perfect choice for a first single, as it celebrates our return to form while marking the passing of time since ‘Choirs of the Eye’. The music is expansive but controlled, allowing tension and release to breathe in real time. Its beauty is at odds with its plaintiveness, as aching melodies and delicate harmonies evoke a sense of loss and longing. The climaxes feel inevitable, yet somehow unexpected. In these moments, the music mirrors the emotional intensity of our most powerful moments, but also speaks to the underlying disquiet of the present – trapped between what was and what is yet to come.”
dälek share a new track ‘The Essence’ ahead of European tour dates this May. The experimental hip-hop pioneers are currently in the studio working on their follow up to Precipice and have given fans a taste of what’s to come in this new single.
“The Essence is a window to where me and Mike are at right now. We quite literally took it back to the essence on this joint. Straight up me on the MPC 3000 and Mike on Processed guitar, playing off of each other as we created the track. Lyrics and flow are central to the joint and dictated the direction of the production and how we sculpted the arrangement.
As always there are layers to the meaning but I also wanted to be crystal clear on what I was spitting. There are minimal to no overdubs. We somehow kept the heavy “wall of sound” feel but stripped away superfluous layers to just the parts and pieces that were needed to complete this as a “dälek” song. This is just a taste of what is coming.” – Dälek
The lyrics of ‘The Essence’ are full of defiance and energy, something which the band will no doubt bring to their live shows; "We had civilizations interconnected throughout history/Our art and architecture composed with sacred symmetry/I’m seeing these past lives vividly/Refuse to let them kill our joy wit bigotry."
dälek live 2025:
May 20th – Berlin, DE – Neue Zukunft May 21st – Vilnius, LT – Kirtimai Cultural Center May 22nd – Tallinn, EE – Paavli Kultuurivabrik May 23rd – Helsinki, FI – Sonic Rites Festival May 24th – Budapest, HU – Instant-Fogas May 26th – Prague, CZ – Palac Akropolis May 27th – Brno, CZ – Kabinet Muz May 28th – Vienna, AT – Flucc
Aural Aggravation 