It wouldn’t be the first of the month without a new instalment of the open-ended album Songs From the Black Hat by Argonaut.
They describe ‘The Vulnerables’ as ‘a glorious glam tinged celebration of the sensitive souls who refuse to stay silent’.
Listen here:
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For 14 years Throat have been the sonic equivalent of forcing a square peg into a round hole; often abrasive, causing utmost irritation at times and on a rare occasion a feverishly pleasant dose of brooding darkness in one’s otherwise dull existence.
The peg now fits. We Must Leave You sees Throat dropping pegs of all shape and size through the same hole. The last confines of musical genres are behind them, resulting in an album which can be regarded as the easiest listening Throat has ever presented or simultaneously their most difficult and puzzling work to date.
“’Tiny Golden Murder’ stands as the life and death of the party on We Must Leave You. Already proven to be a floor filler on a few live occasions, it’s easily the closest Throat has ever come to a rock anthem. On the other hand, the refrain “Terminate us all” can be a sharp pill to swallow for the average party people. For Throat, that’s where the real party begins. It’s a last call for alcohol and a last call for everything”, band announce.
Listen here:
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Thematically what we have here is a breakup album. Never ones for thinking small, Throat breaks up with the world. Enough is enough. Bring back lockdown. No need for petty social commentary on how the world is burning. Let it burn. Throat is already walking away and it remains to be seen where they end up next. If anywhere.
Breakups always require dramatic music, and We Must Leave You more than fits the purpose. Throat have already hinted at new directions and new sounds on their previous two albums, but here it all breaks loose. Rooted in the same heavy, dark rock sound as always, but a touch of gothic drama from the 80s has been injected to the band’s sonic palette which obviously means a few deeper shades of black. The noise and dissonance remain, but this time it all has been dipped in honey and black grease paint.
We Must Leave You was written over a few years’ time and finally recorded in 2023 at Tonehaven Recording Studiowith Tom Brooke and the band’s own Amplified Human Audio. Once again, Andrew Schneider mixed the album at Acre Audio and Carl Saff handled mastering duties at Saff Mastering. Photography by Dorota Brzezicka and design by Stefan Alt of Ant-Zen.
Bring back lockdown. Bring back isolation. Heaven Hanged sums up these sentiments that are some of the key elements on We Must Leave You. We’re breaking up with the world. It’s not us, it’s you. No, we can’t stay friends. Musically Heaven Hanged offers a glimpse of the album going from morose and goth-tinged sound to more hysterical dark rock ruckus. Our intention has never been to keep treading the same tracks, so the direction of progress evident on the last few releases has brought us to We Must Leave You.
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Throat photo by Aleks Talve
Venera, the hypnotic, ambient duo featuring Atlanta-based composer/filmmaker Chris Hunt and James Shaffer (Korn), have shared a third, and final preview of the pair’s forthcoming album, Venera (Oct. 13, Ipecac Recordings), with today’s release of ‘Disintegration’.
“We hoped to explore drifting, gridless timelines of drums and guitars, which converge midway in a wall of harmony and chorale,” explains Hunt of the five-minute song that features drummer Deantoni Parks (Mars Volta, John Cale). He continues, speaking directly to the video, which also features words by author Blake Butler: “Blake’s text sees and explodes light and experience in a way that is deeply committed to density and emotion – an honest voice in ‘Disintegration.’”
Watch the video here:
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Several guests join Hunt and Shaffer on the self-produced Venera. Parks (Mars Volta, John Cale) also contributes to ‘Erosion’ and HEALTH’s Jacob Duzsik contributes vocals on ‘Ochre,’ and Alain Johannes lends his voice to ‘Triangle.’
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Photo credit: Rizz
LASTER did not only stun the audience at Prophecy Fest last weekend with their memorable performance, but the three masked Dutchmen have also revealed ‘Afgelopen tijd’ (‘expired time’ or ‘time run out’) as the final advance single taken from their forthcoming album Andermans Mijne. The stunning new full-length from the avant-garde metal trio is scheduled for release on October 13, 2023.
LASTER comment: “On ‘Afgelopen tijd’, we have pinned down our passion for a hybrid of swing and groove”, vocalist and guitarist Nicky explains on behalf of the trio. “Perhaps it’s the thrust of the drumming, which might wake memories of the ‘Stadsluik’ EP. Those two nocturnal tracks that seemed to be buried in the background of a wacky after-party. However, our guitars flow more than ever as crisp as high speed internet. They are accompanied by prominent bass lines that are eager to reject any atavistic dictate. So what does the clean singing command? Nothing. It should rather be perceived as a free roaming element that gets mixed up with an increasingly repressing harshness.”
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KEN mode has released ‘These Wires,’ the latest single from its upcoming album, VOID.
The sequel to last year’s acclaimed NULL album, VOID will be released September 22nd on Artoffact Records.
Stream ‘These Wires’ here:
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KEN mode frontman Jesse Matthewson gives this statement about the new song: "Why would anything feel right again? Do you get the sense that a lot of people have been fundamentally damaged by the pandemic? The psychological fallout of this event is going to be seen for years to come, and this is its anthem."
An 8-minute epic, building from an icy lament into a deluge of distress, "These Wires" is perhaps the song that best expresses VOID’s story of sorrow and dismay. Centered around a simple piano melody, courtesy of newest member Kathryn Kerr, and Matthewson’s fragile spoken words, the song erupts into thunderous rhythms, propelled by the machine-like interplay of bassist Skot Hamilton and Jesse’s brother Shane Matthewson on drums. Jesse’s pleas hit with all the directness of Henry Rollins (whose "KEN mode" acronym, described in his book, Get in the Van, provided the Matthewsons with the inspiration for their band’s name, almost 25 years ago) as he belts out the song’s crucial six-word phrase: "Why would anything feel right again?"
Released in September of last year, KEN mode’s eighth album, NULL, was inspired by the bleakest days of the COVID-19 pandemic and saw the band create some of the rawest, harshest material of its career. The album also marked the official debut of multi-instrumentalist Kerr, who helped install a new palette of No Wave and industrial-tinged sounds into the band’s trademark mix of metallic hardcore and noise rock.
Amongst other honors, NULL earned KEN mode the front cover of Decibel Magazine, wherein the music was described as "evocative, guttural, Howl-esque poetry laid over frantic, Godflesh-ian soundscapes." A review from Stereogum stated: "NULL is KEN mode at their peak as composers."
Arriving exactly one year after NULL, VOID is KEN mode’s ninth full-length album. More than merely the follow-up to NULL, VOID is a companion to that album, inspired by the same events, and written and recorded within the same time frame. Where NULL embodied the chaos and shock of the early days of the pandemic, VOID is the sound of disappointment and sadness that followed.
Upon VOID’s release in September, KEN mode will embark on a tour of Europe, including dates with Fange and Lingua Ignota, followed by US dates with Baroness and a slot on the next Decibel Metal & Beer Fest in Denver.
Tour:
Sep 24 – Porto, PT @ Amplifest
Sep 26 – Rouen, FR @ Le 106 w/Fange
Sep 27 – Lille, FR @ L’Aéronef w/Fange
Sep 28 – Paris, FR @ Point Ephémère w/Fange
Sep 29 – Angoulême, FR @ La Nef w/Fange
Sep 30 – Clermont-Ferrand, FR @ La Coopérative de Mai w/Fange
Oct 1 – Yverdon-Les-Bains, CH @ L’Amalgame
Oct 2 – Karlsruhe, DE @ Jubez w/Fange
Oct 3 – Dresden, DE @ Ostpol w/Fange
Oct 4 – Wroclaw, PL @ Klub Łącznik w/Fange
Oct 5 – Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree w/Fange
Oct 7 – Aalborg, DK @ 1000 Fryd w/Fange
Oct 8 – Aarhus, DK @ HeadQuarters w/Fange
Oct 10 – Liege, BE @ La Zone w/Fange
Oct 11 – Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat w/Fange
Oct 12 – Bruxelles, BE @ Le Botanique w/Fange
Oct 13 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
Oct 14 – London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall w/Lingua Ignota
Oct 31 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre w/Baroness
Nov 3 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile w/Baroness
Nov 4 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre w/Baroness
Nov 6 – Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall w/Baroness
Nov 7 – Calgary, AB @ The Palace Theatre w/Baroness
Nov 10 – Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos Cantina
Nov 11 – Winnipeg, MB @ Good Will Social Club w/Tunic
Dec 1 – Denver, CO @ Decibel Metal & Beer Festival
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Photo: Brenna Faris Photography
For this follow-up effort to their 2021 debut album Blacken the Skies, the Terminal formula of industrial glam has been updated with ‘more industrial, more glam.’ Mainman Thomas Mark Anthony also makes a strident case for being his genre’s best wordsmith, weaving grand themes of power, zealotry and corruption via complex rhymes and anthemic choruses. Picking up where its predecessor left off in its excoriation of society’s dangerous hypocrites, the very first line on the new record is “How many guns would Jesus buy?” Plato’s Republic provides the album title and theme – that an unjust society is a doomed society and democracy in itself is no defence against demagogues or tyrants – while Anthony’s sonorous baritone is prominent in the mix as he ponders existential themes of religion and mortality.
Compared to the rapid-fire delivery of Blacken The Skies, the new Terminal songs are wider in breadth and depth as well as longer in duration, while experimental influences are evident in the orchestral-inspired title track and in the hard glam of ‘Don’t Be Taken Alive’, which is believed to be the first industrial blues shuffle. The album includes four instrumentals among its thirteen tracks.
The New Republic is dedicated to the late Metropolis Records label founder Dave Heckman.
The soundtrack to a world unbalanced, reeling, spinning out of control and running out of time, Terminal allies industrial music and glam rock with trace quantities of dark techno, synthpop and raw machine recordings. Each of their songs is a broadside against the atrocities of lost humanity and the devastation of our planet.
Terminal is the work of singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Mark Anthony. A lifelong anti-apartheid and civil rights activist over a life lived in South Africa, Canada and the United States, Anthony is joined by the US-based Terminal Live Unit for his group’s powerful and confrontational live shows.
Check lead single ‘The Sin of the Sanctified’ here:
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We are living in troubled times and it is hardly surprising that this is reflected in any form of art including music. On Mazzaroth, SODOMISERY have spun a dark lyrical yarn about mental illness in society, religion, and the struggle of the individual, which is running like a red thread through their sophomore full-length. The Swedish melodic death four-piece are underlining their loosely conceptual approach with a remarkable musical evolution.
Check ‘Delusion’ here:
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SODOMISERY are expanding their original sound that combines the power and precision of death metal with the frenzied and cold aggression of black metal, and they have now added a layer of dramatic depth by including keyboards. It is hardly surprising that the Swedes, who are counting DIMMU BORGIR, CRADLE OF FILTH, and CHILDREN OF BODOM among their major sources of influence, came to steer towards such a course.
The band from Stockholm did not take this decision lightly. When all the new tracks were written and pre-produced, SODOMISERY decided to create two versions of the album. One mix included keyboards and orchestration, while the other version had no such additions. After an extensive period of deliberation and many listening sessions, the Swedes decided that the new dimension and cinematic feeling added by the keyboards was exactly what their songs needed.
The speed with which SODOMISERY expand and mature their sonic nature is breathtaking, particularly since the band was born out of a studio project originally envisioned by Stockholm based guitarist Harris Sopovic in 2015, who enlisted the help of NETHERBIRD frontman Johan Fridell, bass player Niklas Sandin (KATATONIA, LIK) and drummer Pär Johansson, who is best known for his work with CRAFT and DIABOLICAL This resulted in the eponymous 3-track EP "Sodomisery”, which was digitally released in 2017.
When the EP was heaped with massive praise, Sopovic recruited new members and decided to continue the band under the name SODOMISERY. Their debut album "The Great Demise" (2020) can be viewed as a deliberate statement of intent, not to blindly follow in the giant but also somewhat worn out footprints of the legendary Stockholm death metal scene. Instead, these Swedish newcomers favoured a more melodic and versatile approach.
In the short time period from their inception to the forthcoming second album, SODOMISERY have progressed by leaps and bounds and Mazzaroth is the audible proof of this bold statement!
With their anticipated new album, VOID, just a few months away, KEN mode has given us another look into what to expect from the full-length, out Sept. 22nd via Artoffact Records. Today, the band shares a new single, true to their unforgettable and unique sound – ‘He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer’!
On the new track, Jesse Matthewson comments candidly that it is, "perhaps a little more post-punk than people are used to hearing us – but we had fun playing with synth and pushing the boundaries of the emotionality of this track. Is this noise goth? I don’t know. Does that sound stupid? Did I just invent a new genre? There are equal parts Bauhaus and Unsane on this, so maybe?"
‘He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer’, follows the band’s absolutely bone shattering single, ‘The Shrike’, which last month gave us 4 minutes and 10 seconds of sheer energy, fueled by the frustration of the ‘lost years’ of the pandemic, pelting fans’ eardrums with blissfully crass instrumentals and a vocal approach like no other.
Listen here:
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With their anticipated new album, VOID, just a few months away, KEN mode has given us another look into what to expect from the full-length, out Sept. 22nd via Artoffact Records. Today, the band shares a new single, true to their unforgettable and unique sound – ‘He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer’!
On the new track, Jesse Matthewson comments candidly that it is, "perhaps a little more post-punk than people are used to hearing us – but we had fun playing with synth and pushing the boundaries of the emotionality of this track. Is this noise goth? I don’t know. Does that sound stupid? Did I just invent a new genre? There are equal parts Bauhaus and Unsane on this, so maybe?"
‘He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer’, follows the band’s absolutely bone shattering single, ‘The Shrike’, which last month gave us 4 minutes and 10 seconds of sheer energy, fueled by the frustration of the ‘lost years’ of the pandemic, pelting fans’ eardrums with blissfully crass instrumentals and a vocal approach like no other.
TOUR DATES:
09.24.23 Porto, PT @ Amplifest*
09.26.23 Rouen, FR @ Le 106
09.27.23 Lille, FR @ Aeronef
09.28.23 Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
09.29.23 Angouleme, FR @ La Nef
09.30.23 Clermont-Ferrand @ La Cooperative De Mai
10.01.23 Yverdon, CH @ L’Amalgame*
10.02.23 Karlsruhe, DE @ Jubez
10.03.23 Dresden, DE @ Ostpol
10.04.23 Wroclaw, PL @ Klub Lacznik
10.05.23 Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree
10.07.23 Aalborg, DK @ 1000 Fryd
10.08.23 Aarhus, DK @ Headquarters
10.10.23 Liege, BE @ La Zone
10.11.23 Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat
10.12.23 Bruxelles, BE @ La Botanique
10.13.23 Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin*
10.14.23 London, UK @ Perpetual Flame Ministries w/Lingua Ignota*
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Photo: Brenna Faris Photography
Another month, another new song from Argonaut, as they continue to expand their open-ended album Songs from the Black Hat.
This time around, ‘We Burn Bright’ is a nifty little tune that brings some indie jangle and a dash of 60s-inspired pop to the band’s quintessential DIY sound. Hear it here:
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New York experimental noise duo Cinema Cinema unleash their latest sonic exploration in the shape of Mjölnir in July, and this time they’ve got none other than polymath percussionist Thor Harris joining them. The album was recorded at historic BC Studio in Brooklyn, NY, with legendary noise producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, John Zorn, Boredoms).
Inviting multi-instrumentalist Harris into the fold inspires new direction for the ensemble. Exploring his creative repertoire, Thor makes use of BC’s synth collection along with an assortment of drums and arcane percussion pieces to leave his fingerprints on the proceedings. The trio submerge themselves in the strange beauty of chaotic sound, captured inside BC’s cavernous recording space.
Tracked just before the pandemic, Bisi spent time cultivating the sessions in the months that followed, helping shape one of the band’s most expressive records to date. This marking the third time that CINEMA CINEMA and Martin have worked together (2014’s A Night at The Fights and 2017’s Man Bites Dog), the familiarity breeds wild results.
The first flavour of those results can be heard on ‘War on You’. Hear it here:
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Aural Aggravation 