Aural Aggro faves Hammok follow a brace a monster EPs – Jumping/Dancing/Fighting and Now I Know with a new single, with ‘Seance’ providing the latest taste of their upcoming debut album look how long lasting everything is moving for one. The single is served up with an explosive one-take music video produced in the childhood home of vocalist Tobias Maxwell Osland.
‘Seance’ shows the band’s most direct side yet. The song barely rounds out two and a half minutes and at that time gives you a masterclass in hardcore chorus flair. The soundscape is controlled by a constantly forward-propelling drum machine and a metallic synth bass where vocalist Tobias Osland is given plenty of room to dominate the listener’s eardrum.
With fragmented images inspired by horror films and occult traditions, ‘Seance’ brings out a deeply dark and disturbing reality where the protagonist finds themselves in their worst nightmare. A feeling of being haunted or persecuted, a life where your reality is terrorized. Where it all began, in a SEANCE.
AUSTERE have revealed ‘Faded Ghost’ as the first single taken from the black metal duo’s forthcoming new album Beneath the Threshold. The band from Wollongong in Australia’s east coast state New South Wales will release their fourth full-length on April 5, 2023.
Watch the video here:
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AUSTERE comment: “Initially, ‘Faded Ghost’ was written as a ‘breather’ for the record, but while we were working at the details during its creation, the song evolved into what we now consider to be the second part of ‘Just for a Moment…’ – an older song of ours”, guitarist and singer Mitchell Keepin explains on behalf of the duo. “The material featured on Beneath the Threshold was always meant to be more riff-based and driving, while we were also determined to keep our multi-layered guitar and keyboard parts. In order to retain the feel of an open, atmospheric song, we structured ‘Faded Ghost’ in more or less the same manner as ‘Just for a Moment.…’ Once again, we employed clean vocals and additional harmonies for the entire track. Lyrically, we are delving into an obscure and dark subject, with all personal elements seemingly removed. You are invited to speculate what it’s about.”
Beneath the Threshold represents AUSTERE in the here and now. With their fourth full-length the Australians have taken a long step into the present and embrace their musical future in a way that might have been expected after a 13-year hiatus.
When their voluntary break ended with the release of Corrosion of Hearts in 2023, the duo consisting of Mitchell Keepin and Tim Yatras returned with a more mature and defined version of their own particular style of black metal, which reflected both their greater experience and evolution as artists. Both musicians had been active in other bands during the hiatus of AUSTERE.
While Corrosion of Hearts formed the bridge between the band’s musical history and the artists’ fresh vision, Beneath the Threshold takes a leap of expression. AUSTERE’s sonic heritage is still alive. Even though their roots in early Norse black metal and its depressive Scandinavian offspring continue to shine through, it is also apparent that the Australians have audibly strengthened their emotional expressiveness and previous blackgaze leanings beyond the point where a stylistic shift towards the latter needs to be diagnosed.
On Beneath the Threshold, AUSTERE offer more hooks and melodic harmonies to complement the multi-layered, harsh and dreamlike guitar textures expertly woven by Keepin with the aid of Yatras’ emotive drumming. This development is emphasised by a suitable production that lets each of the elements shine and does not try to blur the riffs.
AUSTERE evolved out of a solo-project run by multi-instrumentalist and singer Desolate alias Mitchell Keepin who joined forces with drummer, keyboard player, and vocalist Sorrow aka Tim Yatras in 2005. Signature frost-bitten guitars, alongside high-pitched screams and wails marked AUSTERE’s debut album Withering Illusions and Desolation (2007) as well as the two split-releases Only the Wind Remembers / Ending the Circle of Life (with LYRINX, 2008) and Bleak… (with ISOLATION, 2008), which AUSTERE reissued partly on the EP Only the Wind Remembers (2008). The sophomore album To Lay like Old Ashes followed in 2009 and still featured a raw sound but with a refined production.
The same year, AUSTERE entered a voluntary hiatus until activities were resumed in 2021. During their absence the number of followers continued to grow through word of mouth.
For AUSTERE the stars under the Southern Cross have newly aligned and the harsh majestic beauty of Beneath the Threshold calls out to everyone to raise their eyes up to the night sky around the globe and behold the finally unleashed Australian band in its full musical glory.
BIG|BRAVE have announced their new album A Chaos Of Flowers, out 19th April. Along with the album’s announce, the elemental Canadian trio have shared the video for single ‘i felt a funeral’. BIG|BRAVE have also announced an extensive tour in 2024 throughout the UK, and mainland Europe, including sets at Les Nuits Botanique in Brussels and Portals Festival in London.
‘i felt a funeral’ borrows from the poetry of Emily Dickinson, BIG|BRAVE embodying the inner turmoil of her words with a bold mixture of frothing chords, arcs of bending drones, delicate brushwork, and guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie’s resolute voice.
On the creation of the video, guitarist Mathieu Ball notes, “The making of this video employed a similar process as we do when writing music. As we’ve learned to let the flow of ideas take its course, the act of creating works whether with fully formed concepts or an unfinished notion, starting the work itself acts as a sort of guide to where the final outcome may land. We realised that something more visually minimal than what we first imagined was the way to go.”
By using a single-take that loosely follows Wattie’s movements, with moments of imperfection, lost focus, and fluctuations in lighting, “the performer (Robin) and the audience both partake in this visual and aural conversation together creating a more intimate visual space. The audience is led in and out of her intimate space all while being kept at safe distance. Paired with the lyrical content, it can be considered an apt representation of the elements of mental collapse – a simplified visual dance with the inner and outside world.”
Watch ‘i felt a funeral’ here:
BIG|BRAVE’s music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasise their music’s frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio’s work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential to A Chaos Of Flowers, an album that builds on their ferocious 2023 album nature morte.
Lyrically, the songs explore the most vulnerable of human experiences, how marginalisations manifest internally and externally, the inner struggles of isolation, and co-existence in nature. A Chaos of Flowers draws on catharsis and beauty as well as the quagmire of disorientation and othering. The album is a monument of simultaneous serenity and disquiet, a subtle maelstrom of internal life.
Gothic rock band, Sirens Of Light have just unveiled their cover of the Led Zeppelin classic song, ‘In The Evening’.
Says Sirens Of Light main member, Andy J. Davies, “I have always thought this was possibly their best work and has always seemed to be underrated. This version is based on the original studio recording and the live version from the Knebworth concert in 1979… which I listened to live from the garden of my home as I was too young to be there!”
Check the video here:
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Sirens Of Light is a gothic rock band from London, originally formed in 2004.
Drawing on influences from the earliest days of gothic rock and the 80’s/90’s London Goth and Glam scenes – Sisters Of Mercy, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Southern Death Cult, March Violets, Rose Of Avalanche, Bauhaus etc. Their first album, Nullus Magis Gothica was recorded in 2004 and saw a very limited release in 2005. It is now almost impossible to find……
Sixteen years later, in 2021, after the lost original recordings were discovered by chance, a new re-mixed version of the record was released on November 8th, 2022.
Standing alone in the cold north, militant DIY dance punk duo, Polevaulter toil and labour to explore the limits of underground achievement. Known the land over for their hypnotic live performances home and away, the Northern noisemakers have built from nothing something few can argue with.
The sonic assault the two create is almost arrogant, fathered from the marriage of seismically sharp bass and loin-grinding beats. The words are quipped and brayed atop the aural landscape. They are boastful, accusing, repellent and inviting, they question and skewer the veins of masculinity, sexuality, the order of things, the music industry and the miserable reality of the North. Toured with JOHN, shared a stage with Thank, Mandy Indiana, Pink Turns Blue, Bambara, A Place To Bury Strangers, VR Sex, and others.
New Polevaulter single ‘Violently Ill’, is as the title suggests, a hard-hitting dark and fiercely off-kilter slab of awesome sickly noise and follows recent acclaim for the duos work from the likes of The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano and Louder Than War. The track combines pulsating beats and glitchy electronics with intense repeating shouts to create an intoxicating and exhilarating experience. With the track, Polevaulter announce their debut album ‘Hang Wave’ for release on 26th January and UK/EU tour dates starting February.
On ‘Violently Ill’, Polevaulter’s Jon Franz explains- “I created the track out of a sample I found from a free library, it was inspired by our trip to Tallinn in April. I demoed the track pretty much as is as soon as we got back, and Dan liked the sampling a lot, so we moved forwards. The lyrics were the first things I thought out at practice, and I like the fact that it has more sparse vocals than most of our tracks, gives our music chance to shine. Its maybe my favourite song on the album.”
Watch the video here:
Alongside the single release, Polevaulter are set to perform the debut album on repeat for 8 hours straight from 4pm to midnight on 13th January via a livestream to raise funds for the Gaza Sunbirds, a para cycling team based in the Gaza Strip. The team is currently providing emergency food parcels and aid to families sheltering around the Gaza Strip. For more info and to donate visit: https://www.justgiving.com/page/polevaulterforgazasunbirds
What timing! Getting up and starting work on the dayjob in the dark, on a cold, cold morning on what felt like the Mondayest of Mondays ever, my day suddenly took an unexpected upturn on the arrival of the news of an imminent new album from Pissed Jeans – and best of all, a video for the first track to be released from it.
On 1st March 2024, Pissed Jeans will release Half Divorced, their incredible sixth album, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The band is sharing the official video for indelible lead single “Moving On” from director and frequent collaborator Joe Stakun (“The Bar Is Low,” “Bathroom Laughter,” “Romanticize Me”).
Watch it here:
Pissed Jeans’ Half Divorced is the follow-up to 2017’s Why Love Now, an album that took aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life. The album and its singles received praise from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Uncut, Stereogum, and more.
The twelve songs of Half Divorced skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood. Pissed Jeans’ – Matt Korvette (vocals), Bradley Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass), and Sean McGuinness (drums) – notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer.
Half Divorced includes the previously mentioned “Moving On,” the omnidirectional piss-take “Everywhere Is Bad” (Spoiler alert: “Seattle is soaking wet”), shrinking debt-to-credit ratios in the bracing “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt,” and the harsh truth-telling in the bruising “Cling to a Poisoned Dream.”
Half Divorced was produced and mixed by Pissed Jeans and Don Godwin and engineered by Mike Petillo at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (co-producer and mixer for Why Love Now).
Pissed Jeans’ previously announced international tour dates in support of Half Divorced span end of February to April. New shows include Friday, 29th March 29th in Schijndel, NL at the Paaspop Festival. Additional live dates will be announced soon.
Thu, Feb 29 Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR Tickets
Chicago-based electronic pop artist Brittany Bindrim has released her debut single, ‘Obelisk’, today on Metropolis Records, accompanied by a beautiful yet dystopian video directed by Simona Noreik. Known for her catchy melodies and powerhouse vocal performances in the post-industrial rock band I:Scintilla, Bindrim now ventures into foreign sonic terrain as a solo artist with this hard-hitting, edgy song packed with punishing beats and harsh synthesisers.
This new chapter of Bindrim’s career takes her into experimental territory along with producer Matt McJunkins (A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Eagles of Death Metal, Poppy). While the lyric for ‘Obelisk’ explores themes of tribalism, political divides, collective trauma and a surrendering to peace, Bindrim states that its music “is an interplay between the words and harder-edged, percussive musical elements. The heavier drums and the main driving bass synth line were written first, which then inspired a pleading vocal melody. I had previously written a lyrical seedling that was close to what ended up in the chorus lines, which I thought fit perfectly and helped spawn the rest of the lyric in conjunction with the harder, marching energy of the music.”
‘Obelisk’ is included on an album entitled ‘Velella Velella’ that is set for release on 8th March 2024. “The songwriting process for every song was a little different, but I didn’t try to force ideas or overthink things,” she continues. “Each song developed very naturally and instinctively."
From moody, ethereal ballads to gritty dance bangers, ‘Velella Velella’ showcases both the versatility and evolution of Bindrim’s work. Channelling transformation, sociopolitical climates and explorations to understand the darker side of human nature, her vulnerable and unapologetic lyrics showcase themes of self-discovery, empathy, apathy, disillusionment and growth.
Two years following the release of their Dead End EP, Portuguese melodic death-metal group KARNAK SETI are ready to drop a new EP titled Restos on January 12th.
Throughout four new tracks, the four-piece now comprised of António Jesus on guitars, Cláudio Aguiar on bass, Luís Erre on vocals and Luís Freitas on drums, continue to churn out a powerful and melodic combination of thrash and death metal elements.
Listen to leading single and title track ‘Restos’ here:
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Since 2001, Karnak Seti have consistently blended all the very best elements of thrash and melodic metal, having released three demos, four studio albums and their latest EP Dead End, proving they’re one of most resilient and determined coming from the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Cold in Berlin steps back into the spotlight with the second track taken from The Body Is The Wound EP … aptly entitled ‘Spotlight’.
Once more combining the tribal post punk beats of 80s goth with a crushing chorus of doomy fuzz, CiB delivers another gothic anthem for the ages.
The band comment, “’Spotlight is a lullaby about a haunting. We took the metre of a Victorian dirge and added our potent mix of post punk and gothic doom. We knew the visuals would have to feature a dancer and we’re very grateful to Amanda Dufour for her mesmeric performance. (Instagram @mandymakesshapes )
We found the perfect filming location at The Cavendish Arms – South London’s best pub and venue! There we could lean into the retro Music Hall vibes and Twin Peaks colour schemes.”
New Heavy Sounds recently announced a new multi-record project by Cold in Berlin ‘The Wounds’’ Consisting of an EP, The Body is the Wound, and an album, due in 2024, The Wounds is a musical vade mecum of what is to come in a fresh era for the band. The Body is the Wound EP launches the next chapter in CIB’s journey.
Released on 19th January (New Heavy Sounds), the four tracks cover diverse musical ground, drawing ideas from krautrock, post-punk and doom, but always with the requisite amount of weight.
The Body is the Wound EP is the first new material from the band since the lauded 2019 album Rituals of Surrender.
The lyrical themes dance around sex, murder, suicide and broken dreams, brought together in loose storytelling that allows listeners to add their own experiences and bring personal meaning.
“I wanted to loosely tie the lyrics around two ideas,” explains Maya. “Psychology, which tells us the body houses the trauma we experience and carry with us – and Buddhism, which suggests there is no growth unless from pain; we choose to hold on to suffering even though we can learn not to, and so we continue in disillusionment – aware but not aware.”
The Body is the Wound was recorded at Dalston’s Bear Bites Horse studio by Wayne Adams (Green Lung – Woodland Rites) and is an exciting precursor to a new album in 2024.
Bedless Bones is Kadri Sammel, a singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and interdisciplinary artist from Tallinn, Estonia. As Bedless Bones, Sammel presents what she describes as ‘incantations of nocturnal rapture’, building bridges and bending borders in her experiments with electro-noir sub-genres such as darkwave and EBM and marrying them with techno beats, industrial sounds and otherworldly atmospherics.
Mire Of Mercury is the third album by Bedless Bones and was released on Metropolis Records in early November. A Kenneth Anger-style video for a song from it entitled ‘Solar Anumus’.
"The video is directed and edited by me and filmed by [Bedless Bones drummer] Anders Melts,” explains Sammel. The song is inspired by the contrasexual archetype in the unconscious. The predominance of the shadow extends to a possession, a chronic eclipse of the sun. Animus in anima. So she has to transform her Eros."
Watch ‘Solar Animus’ here:
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Sammel’s influences are vast and varied. She has spent a decade singing in choirs and has studied cultural theory, audiovisual media and photography. She is a member of Estonian avant-garde deathbeat/outdustrial outfit Forgotten Sunrise and the singer in the UK/Estonian dystopian industrial band Deathsomnia. Additionally, under the alias DJ Dirt Vessel, she has been a crucial part of Beats From The Vault, an underground event series in Estonia that has been in existence since 1998. Her captivating and transcendental live sets see her performing dark industrial techno, EBM, darkwave and post-punk.
As Bedless Bones, Sammel has performed at festivals that include Wave-Gotik-Treffen (Germany), Cold Hearted Festival (Germany), Castle Party (Poland), Kalabalik på Tyrolen (Sweden) and Tallinn Music Week. She has shared stages with acts as varied as She Past Away, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, New Model Army and Sex Gang Children.
Aural Aggravation 