Damage Control is an international electro-industrial group centred around a core quartet of Bill Barsby, Richard Thacker and Alex Wise (all based in Australia), plus Markus App from Germany. Barsby and Thacker are originally from the UK.
The group released an EP in mid-June entitled Master Of Silence on Metropolis Records that contained four songs recorded with Leæther Strip (the Danish musician Claus Larsen). They have followed it today with ‘Manifesto’, a new single resulting from another collaboration, this time with the Canadian duo OHMelectronic.
Consisting of Chris Peterson (Unit:187, Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Decree) and Craig Huxtable (Noise Unit, Landscape Body Machine), OHMelectronic issued two albums in the 2010s and recently resurrected the group to record new material.
The lyrics of ‘Manifesto’ have been written and sung by Huxtable. Exploring themes of sovereignty and personhood in the digital age, he states that “it is about sticking to your principles in an age of hyper disinformation. There is a lot of manipulation, false narratives and false idols out there. We are bombarded every day and we all need to stand strong in the face of it all. Declare your independency, set yourself free.”
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).
Emerging in the early 2020’s, Static Abyss is a monstrous hybrid of twisted, doom-laden brutal death, comprising of longstanding members of the US metal scene. The band consists primarily of the duo of Deathgrave’s Greg Wilkinson (Guitars/bass) & Chris Reifert (vocals), both also members of legendary American masters of sickness, Autopsy, with Chris also notably starting his career with genre pioneers, Death. The band’s debut, ‘Labyrinth of Veins’ was released in 2022, and their second album ‘Aborted From Reality’ followed in quick succession, surfacing in 2023.
Returning now for Static Abyss’ third studio album, and with the addition of Chad Gailey of fellow death merchants Necrot behind the drumkit for this release, The Dying Hunt plummets the listener again into the festering, psychedelic swamps of lunacy, with the spiralling melodies texturing the relentless savage riffs for an effective nightmare-inducing trip through the sonic abyss. Continuously and relentlessly flitting between brutal passages and hypnotic otherworldly craziness, The Dying Hunt reflects the ailing world & the unravelling of the psyche of its inhabitants in this darkly dystopian landscape, for a masterful descent into sick Death Metal combined with Crust and Doom elements.
Ahead of the album’s release at the end of August, they’ve shared a video for the album’s savage title track, which you can check here:
Of this new release, Electronic Producer and DJ Huw Cadwaladr, says, ‘I Believe’, never originally intended for public release, offers the first glimpse into the world of Cambria Nocturna. The track marks a departure from the electronic work Gruff and I previously created as Carcharorion, moving toward a more songwriting-driven and lyrically expressive approach. While evolving creatively, the project continues to explore our shared love of cinematic electronic sound through experimental tape loops, field recordings, analogue instrumentation, and richly textured production. Originally conceived as a post-punk composition before transforming into a driving techno piece, ‘I Believe’ evolved over many months into its final form — a confessional and emotionally charged work. Recorded by Gruff and myself, and mixed by Alexander Green at The Zoo, the track became the first true catalyst and creative foundation for what would eventually become Cambria Nocturna.
Cambria Nocturna itself emerged from a period of profound personal trauma. During this time, I reconnected with Gruff after more than a decade apart, and together we began experimenting once again. What started as artistic collaboration quickly became something deeper: a source of healing, catharsis, and genuine therapy.
Through channeling these emotions creatively, Cambria Nocturna was born — a sonic tapestry of deeply atmospheric electronic music shaped by raw emotion, human connection, and resilience. By merging analogue electronics with acoustic instrumentation, we drew from a broad spectrum of influences, spanning 90s trip-hop, techno, electro, 80s Italo, and alternative electronica, alongside the work of artists such as John Cale and Nick Cave.
‘I Believe’ marks the beginning of a new chapter: emotionally resonant electronic music rooted in vulnerability, transformation and defiant survival— with further releases set to follow.
Hear ‘I Believe here:
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Emerging from a period of profound personal upheaval, Huw has created a sonic tapestry of deeply atmospheric electronic music shaped by raw emotion, resilience, and human connection.
During a time of recovery and reflection, music became both an escape and a lifeline. Around this time, he reconnected with Gruff, his longtime creative partner in Carcharorion. After more than a decade away from creating together, the pair began experimenting once again, discovering that the process offered not only artistic fulfilment, but genuine therapy.
The result is Cambria Nocturna: a deeply personal project born from vulnerability, reflection, and survival. Never originally intended for public release, the project became an honest exploration of emotional darkness, connection, and self-expression.
The debut single, ‘I Believe’, marks the beginning of this new chapter – emotionally charged electronic music rooted in atmosphere, honesty, and catharsis, with more releases set to follow.
Outside of his own music, Huw is also a presenter on Radio Sudd, where he hosts a show focused primarily on club-based electronic music.
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.
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.
Who Loves the Sun’s latest single, ‘PEN I S MALL’ is “…the heaviest Chat Pile song to date. The song and title refer to a stretch of time when Raygun was working as a maintenance man at one of the local shopping malls here in OKC. He screamed himself into a pretty brutal headache tracking this one if I remember correctly,” says Stin. Ray B. continues: “If survival wasn’t so brutal in the United States, a maintenance job at a local mall could in theory be a fun gig… Of course, the awful beast known as Capitalism is extremely rickety with not enough to truly go around in fair share as those in the lower and even middle positions know all to well.”
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While Chat Pile’s debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves the Sun now peels back the skin on how a collective indifference for a decaying world defines this new century. Touring off the back of their previous albums in part lent itself a confidence in the universality of their music. Stin comments, “I’ve always felt that Chat Pile is such an American concept thematically, but it seems like that’s not particularly true – people all over the world are resonating with what we have to say.” 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.
Reaching into the collective consciousness to commiserate and carouse, Chat Pile now dissects how the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence is an active, slow-motion apocalypse, threads of which are woven through the album’s ten tracks. The album is lyrically and sonically as aggressive and confrontational as ever, but here Chat Pile approached the record’s songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on the melodic tones of pre-2000s indie/alt-rock and new wave.
The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves the Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith of a building, looms alone high above the Oklahoma City skyline, while an unknown burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. Devon Tower was originally owned by the Devon Energy Company, who announced they were leaving Oklahoma last year. A monument to empty promises stands without a care in the world, while it’s only a matter of time before the blight it was responsible for swallows it up, too.
Live dates:
UK/EU 08/06 – Ancora, PT – Sonic Blast 08/08 – Katowice, PL – OFF Festival 08/09 – Prague, CZ – Fuchs2 ~ 08/10 – Budapest, HU – A38 ~ 08/11 – Vienna, AT – Arena (supporting HEALTH and Carpenter Brut) 08/12 – Munich, DE – Live/Evil ~ 08/14 – Col Du Lein, CH – Palp Festival 08/19 – Dublin, IRE – Button Factory ~ 08/20 – Dublin, IRE – Button Factory ~ 08/22 – Bristol, UK – Arctangent 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
XASTHUR premiere the track ‘Put You Out of Your Misery’ as the first advance single taken from the forthcoming new album Open to Misinterpretation. This self-made recording of Dark American Folk is chalked up for release through Prophecy Productions on October 2, 2026.
Xasthur comment: “Wherever you go, there you are – and you have to live with yourself”, mastermind Scott Conner writes about ‘Put You Out of Your Misery’. “This song revolves around reaching that inner crossroads where something has to give, and you either confront the issues that make you miserable or you are allowing them to destroy you.”
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The eminent French philosopher and Literature Nobel Prize laureate Albert Camus posed and taught that the key in dealing with the absurdity of life and the universe is acceptance. Xasthur founder Scott Conner, an astute chronicler of the dark side of the American dream, has come to terms with that idea in his own way.
Conner has learned the hard way that his work can confuse people and be misread. He has come to accept that. This notion is clearly expressed in the title of his new work Open to Misinterpretation. This insight has also firmed his resolve to neither change his artistic direction nor to attempt making his music easier for people to access. Conner is just not interested in chasing what has worked for other people or fitting neatly into a genre.
This does not mean that Xasthur are standing still. Open to Misinterpretation represents a deeper and more developed version of what Conner already does. He keeps honing his expression and to find new sounds and moods for his ideas. As a result, his songwriting has become equally more detailed as well as harder to predict at the same time. The bass is used more prominently and also more technical on this album. A greater variety of guitar tunings opens up new possibilities, while the drum programming has become a serious part of how the songs are built.
The production has audibly been cleared up, even though Conner still aims for the recording process to feel live, organic, and real. Open to Misinterpretation probably feels more complete because these songs have already been performed live on stage due to Xasthur’s prior touring activities on both sides of the Atlantic. This means that the reactions of the audience have become a part of the tracks.
French progressive rock outfit HamaSaari have shared a stunning live performance video for ‘Frames’, one of the standout tracks from their acclaimed sophomore album Pictures, released earlier this year via Klonosphere.
Captured at the iconic Le Petit Bain in Paris during the band’s recent European tour supporting Norwegian progressive rock veterans Gazpacho, the video showcases HamaSaari at their most accomplished, translating the cinematic atmosphere of the studio recording into a powerful live performance. The footage was filmed by Pascal Van Beurden and edited by guitarist Jordan Jupin.
Reflecting on the experience, the band comment: “Le Petit Bain, floating on the Seine, is one of those Parisian venues with a soul all its own. Playing that stage, in that setting, felt like something special. That’s where we laid down ‘Frames’ that night, on our date with Gazpacho. We were already a week into the tour by then, well drilled, and it was their team, Pascal on sound and Jael on lights, who had our backs that night. It made for such a comfortable show. They even let us play one extra song, a gesture that really touched us. We’d also like to thank Lena Hemp (Uxcr Official / Hemp Prod) for capturing the footage and letting us loose in the edit room. And thank you to everyone who was there and shared that beautiful night with us.”
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Their latest album, Pictures, expands upon the foundations laid by their debut Ineffable, exploring themes of perception, memory, mythology, dreams, and the invisible boundaries between reality and imagination. Rich in atmosphere and emotional nuance, the album invites listeners to reflect on the images we choose to preserve, the stories we inherit, and the beliefs that shape who we are.
Fresh from touring alongside Gazpacho, HamaSaari will continue bringing Pictures to audiences across Europe throughout the year, with appearances at clubs and festivals in France, Germany, and the UK. Check out the confirmed dates below:
04.07 — Holzbunge, DE — Woodbunge Festival 16.07 — Lille, FR — High Voltage Bar 17.07 — London, UK — The Camden Club 18.07 — Abingdon, UK — Prog For Peart Festival 19.07 — Manchester, UK — The Peer Hat 21.07 — Middlesbrough, UK — Café Etch 22.07 — Nottingham, UK — Mist Rolling Inn 25.07 — Xanten, DE — Rhine Ent . Festival 29.08 — Tresboeuf, FR — La Charrue Festival 17.09 — Nantes, FR — Prog Night (la carriere) 14.10 — Lyon, FR — Rock N’ Eat 24.10 — Amiens, FR — La Filature
After fifteen years of relentless sonic punishment, Dutch grindcore outfit Suffering Quota return with Sisyphean Life, their fourth full-length album and their most conceptually ambitious and sonically uncompromising work to date. The album will be released on September 25 via a collaboration between 7 Degrees Records and Tartarus Records.
To mark the announcement, the band have recently dropped the album’s first single, ‘Head, accompanied by a video that premiered via Invisible Oranges, who described the track as: “Whiplash tempo changes ultimately send this roiling edifice crashing down into a miserable avalanche of suffocating grind shrapnel. Razor-sharp production gives ‘Head’ a level of sonic depth and power that further illuminates the song’s fierce, desperate energy.”
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The band had this to say about this new track: “For me, this was the first song where the full concept began to click. I was going through a period of complete lack of motivation or desire, where the days seemed to blur into one another without a clear beginning or end. ‘Head’ became a frantic reflection of that state of mind and ultimately encapsulates everything the album is about.”
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For more than fifteen years, Suffering Quota have carved out their own space within the European grindcore underground, crafting music that values tension, power, and physical impact over excess. Their songs are not merely fast or abrasive; they are deliberately oppressive, built around repetition, density, and an overwhelming sense of momentum that mirrors the emotional and psychological pressures of everyday life.
Inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphean Life examines the endless cycles that define the human experience. Like the mythical king condemned to push a boulder uphill for eternity, the album reflects on depression, monotony, and the perpetual search for fleeting moments of relief, only to find oneself back at the beginning. Rather than offering catharsis, Suffering Quota embraces the uncomfortable truth that some struggles are destined to repeat themselves.
Aural Aggravation 