Seattle-based industrial/goth/post-punk artist MORTAL REALM is proud to release the new single ‘With A Heavy Heart’ via Negative Gain Productions, following the album Stab In The Dark released last year with the same label.
‘With A Heavy Heart’ is accompanied by a visualizer video that you can stream here:
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MORTAL REALM is the multi-genre, industrial-driven project of Adam V. Jones, known for his work in Haex and Sterling Silicon. Following the debut album Stab In The Dark, the project expands on Jones’s blend of heavy electronics, melodic textures, and esoteric atmospheres.
Darkwave band, RELIGION OF HEARTBREAK delivers Lunate, a four-track EP blending detached romanticism with pounding EBM rhythms.
Mikal Shapiro and Dedric Moore perfect their dark disco formula across tracks like "Love Tourniquet" and "100 Degrees," creating ideal soundtracks for fog-drenched nightclubs. Desire becomes ritual and heartbreak transforms into dancefloor salvation.
The EP moves from intense desire to late night reflections replicating a night on the town filled with highs and lows and back. It is an honest look at the thrill of our night club experiences that end in reflection of what could have been.
As a taster, they’ve released a visualizer for the title track. Check it here:
Backxwash, aka Ashanti Mutinta, is a Zambian-Canadian rapper & producer based in Montreal, Quebec. She is most noted for her 2020 Polaris Music Prize-winning album God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It.
Her work includes a culmination of themes around the intersection between faith, identity, and queerness. The poetry of her lyrics are the beginning of a cathartic healing process in which she is granting herself permission to be angry.
Backxwash’s critically acclaimed trilogy—God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It (2020), I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses (2021), and His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering (2022)—has cemented her as a visionary in experimental hip-hop. The trilogy reflects different points in her life and delves into themes of identity, spirituality, and personal struggle, blending haunting beats with unfiltered, introspective lyricism.
Backxwash emerges from the shadows of her trilogy with Only Dust Remains, a new direction that showcases her evolution into a broader and more diverse sonic landscape. The record details the experience of life and death all occurring at once, while embracing a more melodic and complex soundscape.
Lyrically, the verses on Only Dust Remains are more complex, word-heavy, and poetic. The album touches on themes of mourning, reflection, and hope, exploring them with a sincerity and depth that deepen her storytelling. This is a work that balances light and shadow, crafting a narrative that is as introspective as it is outward-reaching.
Only Dust Remains stands as a testament to Backxwash’s ability to evolve while maintaining the raw emotional power that defines her music. This is an album that demands to be felt as much as heard, inviting listeners to engage deeply with its intricate layers and striking themes.
‘Pagan Synth’ band, ESOTERIK has just dropped the latest single from their forthcoming EP, Archetypes.
For their latest single, ESOTERIK brings light to the archetype known as the ‘Shadow.’ The silent observer always watching from behind the scenes, waiting with indifference for what comes to pass. They say you must make peace to move forward, but isolation has always tasted better. Nothing is inherently good or bad and imbalance provides perspective. Without a light to shine the subconscious feeds eternally. However, in absence of light a shadow cannot exist.
On the upcoming EP, Archetypes, ESOTERIK examines the tropes that have weaved a thread across societies for centuries. “It’s such an interesting topic and really highlights the power of language whether written or passed down via word of mouth. The legends hold a commonality that span through time and culture. Before the world was connected by technology, these stories held the experiences and wisdom for generations to come. Whether they are steeped in symbolism or ritual, the lessons are still infused and if sensational that only ensures the survival beyond our limited life spans.”
Portugal’s heavy hitters, Vaneno, have returned with a vengeance, unveiling the video for ‘Necropotent,’ the first single from their highly anticipated new album, Chaos, Hostility, Murder. This track marks the band’s first release since their 2020 offering, Struggle Through Absurdity, and it’s nastier, louder, heavier, and darker than anything they’ve done before.
“‘Necropotent’ is a caustic and maddening vision of a world that intertwines with our own. We all know who you are. The real necro lords who thrive in misery, pestilence, and chaos, forever feeding the abyss with the eternal rest of the fallen.” Says the band. This powerful and unsettling message is matched by the song’s crushing riffs and relentless rhythms, delivering an intense auditory experience that will leave listeners reeling.
Watch the video here:
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The upcoming album, Chaos, Hostility, Murder, was mixed and mastered by Pedro Mau at SinWav Audio, who also worked on the band’s debut EP. The album is set to be released through Raging Planet Records, further solidifying Vaneno’s place as one of the most promising Portuguese metal bands of today.
Vaneno’s journey began in 2017 when three friends — Miguel Nunes (drums), Eduardo Cunha (guitar), and António Tavares (guitar) — started jamming together, laying the foundation for what would become their distinct sludge-infused sound. By late 2019, the band expanded to a five-piece with the addition of Pedro Fernandes on bass and Alexandre Fernandes on vocals, marking a turning point in their commitment to bringing their music to the masses.
Since then, the band has undergone a lineup change, with Eduardo Cunha stepping down and Felipe Peraboa taking over on guitar.
Their previous release, Struggle Through Absurdity, showcased four powerful tracks that blend sludge, stoner, and death metal influences, creating an aggressive sound full of heavy, muscular riffs and pummeling rhythms. Vaneno’s raw, unrelenting style continues to evolve, and Chaos, Hostility, Murder promises to take their music to even greater heights.
Pagan Synth duo, ESOTERIK have just unveiled their new single, ‘Hero’.
For the new single, ESOTERIK explores the beauty in evolution and transformation. The hero’s journey is one of introspection with an effort to shed light on the flaws that stifle forward progress. But this process can also lead to rumination without the balance of right action. There comes a point in every hero’s journey where they feel as though they aren’t ready to take on the momentous call to duty that lies ahead of them. But it soon becomes clear that a path less-followed is the only option left. The trial by fire truly cleanses the mind of all doubt giving way to an unfounded strength and focus to achieve their purpose.
Diving headfirst into one of the more well know archetypes, the ‘Hero’ is front and center in their new single. The listener will immediately notice a more guitar-oriented arrangement which is a slight departure from recent releases, although still retaining the band’s synthpop formula. Like a melodic freight train going full throttle, this track is steady in propelling the hero into uncharted territory.
Watch the promo clip – or visualiser, if you will – here:
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Founded in 2013, US Dark Pop outfit, ESOTERIK, have steadily evolved into what fans have lovingly coined as Pagan-Synth. The band, comprised of Allison Eckfeldt and Brady Bledsoe, is known for their heady potion of soundscapes that highlight the melodic side of 80’s synthpop alongside the intensity of rock sensibilities. With lyrical content that explores the human condition and how we experience life with senses known and unknown, each compassion beckons the listener towards deep exploration of shadow and light. Their last release, Alchemy, has been described as ‘an album which has mystical folk tendrils, spliced together with electronic synths and rhythms. It is beautiful and danceable with a spiritual center, calling back to a time when our ancestors were more in-tune to the world they walked in and the earth was far more listened to.’
Today, Thou share ‘Unbidden Guest’ from their upcoming album, Umbilical.
About the track, Bryan Funck comments, “Physical deterioration by way of psychological disarray. Retreading a well-worn path of self grievance. Othering mental illness and learned behaviour in order to crush them under the dominance of epistemic willpower. ‘The last time you cried, who’d you think was inside?’”
Listen to ‘Unbidden Guest’ here:
Thou has always been a force of raw energy and unapologetic dissent, defying easy categorisation and challenging listeners to confront the complexities of existence. Their forthcoming album, Umbilical, is their firmest nod to the raw intensity of obscure ’90s DIY hardcore punk. It’s a record filled with mosh-ready riffs, heavy breakdowns and scathing vocals. The band’s aesthetic and political impulses have always been punk and like anyone embroiled in the subculture Thou have been exploring what it means to exist within and without a rigid morality. That exploration takes thematic centre on Umbilical and their self-assessment is as harsh as that of the world around them.
Experimental metal group Imperial Triumphant release a visualiser video for the track, ‘Metrovertigo’ which appears on their newest album Spirit Of Ecstasy, which we recently reviewed.
"Plutocratic myths exist in the shadows of the divine. Placed upon the middle sector as shackles of the unknown. A giant wave pool claims the livelihoods of many, while still many wilfully hand it to the Plutocratic gods as unrealised gains. Bow down and eat dirt. Welcome to a new era. Welcome home"; says Imperial Triumphant about ‘Metrovertiogo’.
Aural Aggravation 