Formed in 2018 over a mutual appreciation for ugly rock music, MUSCLE VEST, have been making waves across the London alt rock scene with their brand of abrasive sardonic noise rock.
Comprised of veterans of London’s music scene (Massacres, Lull, Thunder On The Left, Bourgeois & Maurice etc.) and taking influence from bands such as Pissed Jeans, Melvins, McLusky, The Jesus Lizard and Whores, MUSCLE VEST aim to reflect the struggle of the average person against an exploitative system within a crumbling state.
After 2020’s debut EP Human Resources – described as “leading the charge for noise rock in the UK” (gbhbl.com) – MUSCLE VEST return in 2021 with follow-up EP Live Laugh Loathe, encapsulating feelings of worthlessness, anxiety and desperation endemic to modern working culture.
Like its predecessor, Live Laugh Loathe was recorded, mixed and mastered by Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad, Death Pedals) at Bear Bites Horse Studio in London.
Recorded in the final week of October 2020 under the spectre of increasingly harsh lockdown restrictions, sophomore EP Live Laugh Loathe sees Muscle Vest following in its predecessor’s footsteps, exploring oppressive elements of modern society from morals-free corporatism to toxic masculinity, cults of personality and a dash of Lovecraftian horror.
‘Creepy Crawlie’ provides a taste of the EP, and you can stream the video here:
Utopia, the technical metal group centred around guitarist John Bailey and Corrupt Moral Altar vocalist Chris Reese will let loose their debut album ’Stalker’ this August on APF Records.
Watch the video for first single ’Happiness’ here:
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The album see John and Chris joined by an impressive list of guest musicians such as drummers Billy Rymer, Baard Kolstad (Leprous) Lee Fisher (Fawn Limbs/Psyopus) and Si Blakelock (Tangaroa/Dream Troll) alongside guitarist Simon Peter King, bassist Arran McSporran (De Profundis/Virvum) and finally keyboardist Mike Moran (Ozzy Osbourne/George Harrison).
The initial idea for the band was formed by John Bailey, by day he’s a touring guitarist for the likes of Aled Jones and Russell Watson, a far cry from the extreme metal of Utopia, but with ’Stalker’ he wanted to bring together all the music he loves, creating something aggressive and intense but also well thought out and intelligent. He comments,
‘I wanted it to be super heavy and crazy but also really emotional. The music combines elements of jazz and various styles of metal. The songwriting is very important lyrically and structurally. The lyrics draw influence from philosophy, literature, art and film (particularly the films of Andrei Tarkovsky).
The concept of the name Utopia is a reflection of mental health/neurodiversity and social structures in the world we live in. The double edged sword of trying to lead a happy life in a world of conflicting ideology and bad faith between humans. I suppose the pitfalls of attempting a sophisticated life despite us being poorly evolved primates who are highly individual in their own rights. Its ultimately rooted in varying degrees of sensitivity, mental health and neurodiversity based on individuals trying to interface with one another in a constructive way.’
Utopia was started in March 2020. As John was coming off the back of a busy tour/session schedule and felt this was the time to finally start the band which he’d been thinking about doing for years. For a vocalist he had no one else in mind but Corrupt Moral Altar’s Chris Reese.
After 7 to 8 months of writing it was then just a matter of getting each person to record their parts which posed their own geographical problems with different musicians living around the world. However once all done the album was mixed and mastered by Rob Hobson at Silent City Records.
Across the 11 tracks ’Stalker’ spawns a vast array of subject matters, such as the opener ’The Bus Station Roof’ which John describes as a reference to ‘ the place in Preston where people go to throw themselves off when they’ve had enough. The image of what might be going through people’s mind when they make that decision is really the basis of the song. Truly disassociated from the world and no longer capable of interfacing with the world.’
‘Impotent Prophet’ is a genre bending social comment on religion and how it fails. While’ Smiledyawnednodded’ is a word taken from the book ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce. John adds, ‘It’s a great word used to describe the boredom of talking to someone who only talks about themselves and their own successes in life.’
’Stalker’ is released on 27th August via APF Records and will appeal to fans of Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, Converge, Mastodon, Botch and Strapping Young Lad.
UK based, anti-facist, black metallers Underdark have shared the video for new single, ‘With Ashen Hands Around Our Throats’, a track written in response to the injustices following the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017.
You can watch the video now:
After forming in 2015, Nottingham based black metallers Underdark are finally ready to present their debut album to the world. Following their recent ‘Plainsong/With Bruised & Bloodied Feet’ single release in 2020, ‘Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry’ is the sound of a new chapter of Underdark, set for release on 30th July via Surviving Sounds (UK), Through Love Records (EU) and Tridroid Records (US/CAN).
While still utilising a dreamlike and heavy mixture of black-metal, post-metal and shoegaze, Underdark’s debut album also packs a renewed punch alongside a ferocity and intensity matched only by the innovative and engaging song structures.
Recorded & mixed with Misha Herring at Holy Mountain Studio (40 Watt Sun, Inhuman Nature, Idles, Spiritualised, Puppy) & mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering (Emma Ruth Rundle, Southern Lord Records, Power Trip, Mizmor), the album captures five tracks of intense & emotional progressive compositions, not limited by genre to create a tidal wave of sound; that shift in emotions, drowning you between sections of crushing blast beats and ear splitting vocals to blissful, atmospheric soundscapes that engulf you within them.
Lyrically the album covers personal issues such as addiction & psychosis, to inhumane border control & the shameless exploitation of the lower classes at the hands of landlords such as on latest single ‘With Ashen Hands Around Our Throats’.Commenting on the video for the track vocalist Abi states,
“I wrote this about Grenfell like two years after the fire, and it’s been another two since and it’s fucking disgusting that there’s been no justice for it. The song is also about how landlords under the Tories have been given free rein to take the piss. We filmed the video with Morgan Tedd (Erase Creative) it was fun as fuck but I had to do a bunch of takes falling on my face which sucked.“
Underdark’s debut album Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry is set for release on 30th July via Surviving Sounds (UK), Through Love Records (EU) and Tridroid Records (US/CAN).
BrooklynVegan froths over the latest Demons album Privation as a set that “recalls ‘90s Touch & Go/AmRep type stuff (or newer bands like METZ) and puts a fresh, exciting spin on it." That was good enough to grab us, for a start, and now Demons have unveiled a music video for the track "Play Acting Virtue" which is now streaming here:
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Demons’ Zach Gehring says, "We are playing our first show in over a year this Friday, so we wanted to share this video from the last show we played back in March of 2020 with DOA and Dead Kennedys at the Norva."
The heavy, experimental project of Gehring (who also plays guitar in Mae) Demons dropped their latest album Privation, on April 30 via Spartan Records.
Of the album’s title, Gehring explains, "(it’s) concerned with loss, deprivation, and lack, In our context — this is reflective of where we are at personally, culturally, and politically. It’s a structural aspect of our lived experience — and it is particularly aggravated of late.”
Drawing from the spirit of bands like Metz, Gulch, Converge, Propagandhi, the Demons crew (the aforementioned Gehring, Chris Mathews [vocals/guitar], Jonathan Anderson [bass], Drew Orton [drums]) punishingly delivers ten tracks of raw and confrontational fury, motivated from within a spiraling sociopolitical landscape that evokes critical self-reflection and frustration
Warm Gadget, the recording trio made up of multi-instrumentalist/ producer Colten Williams, bassist Austin Williams and vocalist/part time instrumentalist Tim Vester has self-released a brand new alternative metal/industrial E.P. entitled Rituals.
The Rituals E.P. showcases five brand new, original songs, as well as remixes by notable electronic artists such as SNOWBEASTS and WITCH EYES. This E.P., which features the band’s signature blend of industrial and alternative metal, was released in digital format exclusively to the WARM GADGET Bandcamp page.
This new release, Rituals is filled with the band’s brand of hard-hitting songs, electronic beats, synth melodies, un-melodic synth chaos and hook-laden, crushing guitars. It also showcases the longing, bleak, dismal yet aggressive lyrics and deliveries that the band has perfected. Colten Williams has topped everything off in the studio by producing an album that sounds crisp, heavy, and intense. The Rituals E.P. also marks the band’s return to writing & recording together after a 3-year hiatus, showing that they have violently shaken the dust and cobwebs off and have come out swinging.
With strong hints of NIN and Filter, they’ve unveiled a video for ‘If Only I Could’. Watch it here:
Joe Cardamone (formerly of The Icarus Line) returns with his second solo offering: the soundtrack to his film series Quarentina. The album will be released physically on July 2nd via Sonic Ritual, and it’s available on DSP’s now.
Joe has now shared the video for new track ‘Baby Blue’. He says: "Crying on the dancefloor just to impress the woman that has already left the building. She’s checking her phone while you spill your heart out. Fuck it might as well put on a suit and sing your face off into the mirror".
Two decades into their journey as ritualistic black metal conjurers, Wolves In The Throne Room have emerged from the forest with Primordial Arcana, their most majestic album to date, and their first release via Century Media Records (outside of USA and Canada) and Relapse Records (USA and Canada) out August 20th.
Watch the ‘Mountain Magick’ music video, directed by Wolves In The Throne Room, here:
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Primordial Arcana is the band’s first completely self-contained work: In addition to composition and performance, brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver alongside guitarist Kody Keyworth handled all aspects of recording, producing and mixing at their own Owl Lodge Studios in the woods of Washington state.
Primordial Arcana is out August 20 via Century Media Records outside of USA/Canada and available in the following formats with the Ltd. Gatefold 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster variants being cut to 45rpm and coming with an additional track, “Skyclad Passage”:
Ltd. Gatefold olive green 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster (limited to 1.600)
Ltd. Gatefold deep blood red 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster (limited to 1.000) only available at Kings Road Merch Europe (Official Store)
Ltd. Gatefold clear 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster (limited to 300) available at Distro Wholesale EU
Ltd. Gatefold dark green 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster (limited to 200) only available at Supreme Chaos
Ltd. Gatefold transp. light blue 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster (limited to 200) only available at Evil Greed
Ltd. Gatefold creamy white 2LP & LP-Booklet & Poster (limited to 200) only available at EMP and Nuclear Blast
Ltd. brown LP & LP-Booklet (limited to 300) available at all UK Indie outlets
Ltd. transp. sun yellow LP & LP-Booklet (limited to 200) only available at Consouling Sounds
AMENRA share the official ‘Voor Immer’ music video from the forthcoming Relapse debut full-length De Doorn (June 25). Watch the full video on YouTube here:
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AMENRA vocalist Colin H. van Eeckhout comments:
“What you lose in the fire, you will find in the ashes”
"Voor Immer” (“For Ever”) was one of the first songs we have written for De Doorn. We played it for the very first time in 2018 on the city square of Dixmude, West Flanders Belgium. Accompanied by the carillon, its bells a typical instrument from Belgium and the low countries, we connected the earth with the sky. It was initially written for a commemoration ceremony of the ending of the first world war.
Images of widows and mothers bereft of their sons. Destroyed cities and whom was left to die. Finding strength and courage to rebuild what once was there, without what was theirs.
The last time we played it live was in Menen, West Flanders Belgium end 2019. That night we gathered and burnt all our unacknowledged loss. Revealing by fire the 20feet high bronze AMENRA statue glowing red, a symbol of hope.
This is a song about finding that hope, the strength to carry on. Its content ever present in the world today.
Additionally, AMENRA announce a livestream event celebrating the release of De Doorn. The fire ritual will commence on June 27 at 9pm CET. More info at tickets are available HERE.
Glasgow based darkwave/post-punk duo Hanging Freud have just unveiled their sixth full-length album Persona Normal. The band states: "We were living between the UK and Brazil, going back and forth. These were two societies going through extreme change. The whole world was changing in a way that felt scary."
Some themes of Persona Normal deal with detachment, dissociation, what it means to be human, political issues and about strong, irrational cults. These are approached in tracks like “I beg you” and “We don’t want to sleep”. Persona Normal is also a record about transformation, and growth, accepting losses and coming to terms with the loss of innocence.
Persona Normal is available now in physical and digital formats on HANGING FREUD’s label, Tiny Box. Persona Normal was written produced and recorded by the duo with mastering duties from James Plotkin (Khanate).
They’ve released a video for ‘Antidote/Immune’ by way of a taster for the album: watch it here:
A Place To Bury Strangers share new single/video ‘I Might Have’ from their forthcoming Hologram EP out 16 July onfounding memberOliver Ackermann’s labelDedstrange. Following lead single ‘End Of The Night‘, ‘I Might Have’ is a fuzz-soaked sonic disaster in the best possible way. Past reflections collide with the brutality of a disintegrating world, stories of personal trauma, acceptance, and human failings emerge from the rubble of noise and destitute motorik rhythms. This is A Place To Bury Strangers at its most honest and unfiltered. Hologram serves as an abstract mirror to the moment we live in and ‘I Might Have’ smashes that mirror into a thousand pieces.
“‘I Might Have’ is about the insecurities of life and growing up and when you just have to turn around and say ‘F*ck it,’” says Ackermann. “Life sucks so we may as well have a good time.” The accompanying video visualizes this mentality as it shows the band raucously hanging out together in New York City.
Watch the video here:
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A Place To Bury Strangers 2022 Tour Dates – Tickets on sale NOW
Wed 09 March – Hafenklang – Hamburg, Germany
Thu 10 March – Beatpol – Dresden, Germany
Fri 11 March – Klub Poglos – Warsaw, Poland
Sat 12 March – Futurum – Prague, Czech Republic Sun 13 March – Randal Club – Bratislava, Slovakia
Mon 14 March – Durer Kert – Budapest, Hungary
Wed 16 March – Control Club – Bucharest, Romania
Thu 17 March – Mixtape5 – Sofia, Bulgaria Fri 18 March – Eightball – Thessaloniki, Greece
Sat 19 March – Temple – Athens, Greece Mon 21 March – 25th of May Hall – Skopje, Macedonia
Tue 22 March – Club Drugstore – Belgrade, Serbia
Thu 24 March – Mochvara – Zagreb, Croatia Fri 25 March – Freakout Club – Bologna, Italy
Sat 26 March – Largo – Rome, Italy Sun 27 March – Legend Club – Milan, Italy
Tue 29 March – Bogen F – Zurich, Switzeralnd Wed 30 March – Backstage – Munich, Germany
Thu 31 March – Caves Du Memoir – Martigny, Switzeralnd
Fri 01 April – La Trabendo – Paris, France Sat 02 April – Lafayette – London, UK Mon 04 April – Kayka – Antwerp, Belgium Tue 05 April – Gleis 22 – Munster, Germany Wed 06 April – Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Thu 07 April – Vera- Groningen, Netherlands Sat 09 April – Hus 7 – Stockholm, Sweden Sun 10 April – John Dee – Oslo, Norway Mon 11 April – Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, Denmark
Tue 12 April Hole 44 – Berlin, Germany Wed 13 April – MTC – Cologne, Germany
Aural Aggravation 