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Here’s a list of some new releases for the week of June 13th, 2025. It’s okay to be a little stitious. Please feel free to jam the playlist and request reviews from the staff and contributors.
– List of Releases: June 13th, 2025 –

7038634357 – Waterfall Horizon
Genre: Ambient / Progressive Electronic
Label: Blank Forms

Altesia – The Somnambulist
Genre: Progressive Metal / Djent
Label: [self-released]

Annahstasia – Tether
Genre: Art Pop / Progressive Soul
Label: drink sum wtr

Apathy – Mom & Dad
Genre: Conscious Hip-Hop / Boom Bap
Label: Anchors Up Records

AVKRVST – Waving at the Sky
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: InsideOut

Baby Jane – A Grave Marked Strange
Genre: Electropop / Witch House
Label: Terem

Buckcherry – Roar Like Thunder
Genre: Hard Rock / Sleaze Rock
Label: Round Hill Records

The Bug Club – Very Human Features
Genre: Power-Pop / Slacker Rock
Label: Sub Pop

Byzantine – Harbingers
Genre: Groove Metal / Progressive Metal
Label: Metal Blade

Calum Hood – ORDER chaos ORDER
Genre: Synthpop / Chillwave
Label: EMI

The…

Here’s a small list of new releases for February 7th. Please feel free to request reviews from staff and/or contributors, impress everyone with your ability to use search engines and copy-paste in the comments, and let the community know what you plan on jamming this week.
– List of Releases: February 7th, 2025 –

Biig Piig – 11:11
Genre: Dance-Pop
Label: Sony

Dream Theater – Parasomnia
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: InsideOut

FACS – Wish Defense
Genre: Post-Punk / Krautrock
Label: Trouble in Mind

Guided by Voices – Universe Room
Genre: Indie Rock
Label: GBV Inc.

Heartworms – Glutton for Punishment
Genre: Post-Punk Revival / Gothic Rock
Label: Speedy Wunderground

Impending Doom – Towards the Light (EP)
Genre: Deathcore
Label: [self-released]

Inhaler – Open Wide
Genre: Indie Rock / New Wave
Label: Polydor

Jinjer – Duél
Genre: Metalcore / Alternative Metal
Label: Napalm

Larry June, 2 Chainz & The Alchemist – Life Is Beautiful
Genre: Jazz Rap / Drumless
Label: ALC

Low Roar – house in the…

Welcome back to another edition of the Weekly Releases feature, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter! That’s right — the points matter as much as pants to a toll booth operator or why your obscure Transylvanian dungeon synth band with 3 bandcamp followers didn’t make the list (because it will probably be in the comments). Feel free to request reviews from staff and/or contributors and let the people know what’s missing from this intentionally-not-thorough list.
– List of Releases: August 30th, 2024 –

Alora Crucible – Oak Lace Apparition
Genre: Chamber Music / Neoclassical New Age
Label: House of Mythology

Anciients – Beyond the Reach of the Sun
Genre: Progressive Metal / Sludge Metal
Label: Season of Mist

AWOLNATION – The Phantom Five
Genre: Alternative Rock / Indietronica
Label: Better Noise

Bent Knee – Twenty Pills Without Water
Genre: Art Rock / Chamber Pop
Label: Take This to Heart

CHELSEA WOLFE – Undone (EP)
Genre: Darkwave / Witch House
Label: Loma Vista

Deliver the Galaxy – Bury Your Gods
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Massacre

Destroy Lonely – LOVE LAST FOREVER
Genre: Trap / Southern Hip-Hop
Label: Opium /…

Here’s an intentionally non-exhaustive list of new releases for June 21st, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors; or, let the people know what else should be on the community’s radar this week.
– List of Releases: June 21st, 2024 –

Alcest – Les Chants de l’Aurore
Genre: Shoegaze / Post-Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast

The Aquabats! – Finally!
Genre!: Third Wave Ska! / New Wave!
Label!: Gloopy Industries!

Been Stellar – Scream from New York, NY
Genre: Shoegaze / Post-Punk Revival
Label: Dirty Hit

Black Veil Brides – Bleeders (EP)
Genre: Alternative Metal
Label: Spinefarm

Cavalera Conspiracy – Schizophrenia
Genre: Thrash Metal / Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast

Domestic Terminal – Sanctuary
Genre: Midwest Emo / Shoegaze
Label: [self-released]

Earthtone9 – In Resonance Nexus
Genre: Alternative Metal / Progressive Metal / Post-Hardcore
Label: Candlelight

Foreign Hands – What’s Left Unsaid
Genre: Melodic Metalcore
Label: SharpTone

Gracie Abrams – The Secret of Us
Genre: Synthpop / Alt-Pop
Label:…

Friday, April 15th, 2016
Artist: All Human (facebook) (twitter) (bandcamp)
Track: “And So Peter Dances”

I should be less surprised that All Human’s sophomore release has consistently been one of my favorite releases of 2016. Though Teenagers, You Don’t Have to Die! is my first exposure to the brainchild of Adam Fisher (Fear Before, Orbs) and Brian Ferrara (Trophy Scars), I should know by now that anything Adam Fisher has a creative voice in is going to stick with me. The man has one of the cleverest pens in modern music and a gift for slinging words together in the kind of rhyme schemes that should be studied in academic English classes, after all. But he also has a knack for composing and arranging music that just resonates with the same off-beat his lyrics hit. Or maybe the music just has to revolve around that lyrical beat. It beats me, but the point is, it always works.
It’s hard to single out a track on Teenagers to highlight since it’s an album full of high points stitched together with impeccable flow. But if we’re going to start, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
“And So Peter Dances” kicks off with a nice little spoken word bit about how much working sucks, which is particularly enjoyable whilst sitting in your cubicle. The music paints a dark and snowy street corner while Fisher’s lyrics complete the scene by adding in the lonely man freezing on that…

Friday, April 1st, 2016

It’s almost criminal that Steven Page’s post-Barenaked Ladies material hasn’t attracted more attention. Starting with Page One in 2010 and now continuing with Heal Thyself Pt. 1: Instinct (released March 11, 2016), Page’s solo career has yielded some of the most well-crafted and catchiest tunes of his career, including his tenure as a Barenaked Lady.
“No Song Left To Save Me” flirts a little more with Page’s serious side than other tracks on Heal Thyself, such as “Manchild” and “Linda Ronstadt in the 70s,” but this is also part of the appeal of Page’s solo career – a little more balance between serious songwriting and tongue-in-cheek tracks reminiscent of BNL mainstays. “No Song Left To Save Me” bounces on a feel-good Motown-inspired sound and showcases the real power of Page’s voice as it steers a vehicle full of soulful brass and on-point rhythm. It’s not hard to imagine a well-dressed Page filling an auditorium and trading smirks with a big band leader between his titular pleas to the crowd, living out the full Motown vibe, heart and soul. In combination with the power and authenticity Page projects on the track, it’s hard not to fall for “No Song Left To Save Me,” whether you’re a fan of Page’s solo stuff, a BNL fan, or a first time listener.
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Friday, March 18th, 2016

Chicagoland art/math rock quartet Oshwa are finally coming around to their sophomore album I We You Me, with a yet unspecified 2016 release and I’m here to present you with a track that should get you excited for it.
“Quirky” is probably the word that first comes to my mind when describing “Old Man Skies,” with Alicia Walter’s vocal delivery gleefully bearing the flag for that designation. Walter’s voice is a little jazzy, a little smoky, and with an uncommon high end that borders on a yodel, it’s a quirk that complements the playfully shifting tempo of the track in a way that beautifully ties its menagerie of jazz, pop, math, and indie influences together. She ebbs with the mellow lows, bursts and blooms with the rising bridges, and shines over the powerful chorus in a way that illuminates the song in a sea of similar content.
Though “similar” isn’t exactly how I’d describe the instrumental side of Oshwa or “Old Man Skies.” Others have described the track as sounding as though it was written forward and performed backward. It’s part of the allure and, again, quirk of the track that it has a bit of a backmasked sound to it, with Alicia’s forward-facing vocals keeping the listener on “play” even when the instrumentals are shouting “rewind.” There’s a lot of emphasis on complex harmony to be found amid the…

Friday, March 4th, 2016

The irony that I’d given up on ever hearing anything new from a band named “So Long Forgotten” is not lost on me. The band’s last full-length release was issued in 2009 – nearly 7 years ago. Now, nearly 3 years after launching a kickstarter to fund their latest efforts, there will finally be a new So Long Forgotten EP in April of this year.
And from the sounds of “Marahute” – the album’s first single – I’m quite excited for it. The song shows the post-rock meets post-hardcore band maturing their songwriting to a new boiling point that builds on the emotional and introspective sounds and thoughts of their debut. But while Beneath Our Noble Heads was unabashedly Christian in its philosophy, “Marahute” is intriguingly full of doubt, openly questioning the existence and purpose of a literal Hell and negative implications on those we love.
What else can I say? There’s plenty of driving melodies and tasty grooves here and I’m simply a sucker for sincere, well-delivered emotion painted with a hard-edged post-rock sound. It’s really just damn good to hear So Long Forgotten back at it again.
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I’ve been mulling a review of David Bowie’s most recent album, Blackstar, which, if you’re reading this, no doubt you’ve realized was released mere days before his passing on January 10th. He died in peace, surrounded by family, so we’re told by his publicist. Could there be a better way to go for a man who made himself so private? For all his fame and public adoration, Bowie died simply, in the company of family. It seems fitting that, for whatever reasons were, Bowie’s prolonged battle with cancer (over 18 months, from the brief obituary provided) was hidden, and his music was allowed to speak for itself. In my mind, that’s how David Bowie would want to go out – not on his knees as the subject of tabloid spectacle, but on his feet, shouting one last opus to the world. How grand a man, to suffer in silence and let the grandeur of his work tell his tale. That’s David Bowie.
I can’t claim to remember all that David Bowie had to offer the world – I’m no historian and Wikipedia and Rolling Stone and others who lived through all phases of his career can, no doubt, provide history lessons and the emotional impact of what it felt like to be there and see Ziggy Stardust in concert. The experience, for me, is far less grand, but still as personal, and if only to personally say “thank you” to one of the greatest musicians to have ever lived, I’d like to share those…
In case you’ve been sleeping (or ignoring those trending Facebook items like a good, red-blooded whatever nationality you are), rock god, virtuoso, musical authority, and in no way, shape or form, a mere cunning businessman who played rock ‘n’ roll to the tune of inflating his bank account, Gene Simmons (not to be confused with fitness guru Richard Simmons) declared rock music dead in an interview with Esquire magazine. While Ace Frehly (official doctor of rock medicine) declined to provide a time of death, he did pander a bit about his recent solo album. Which is more than Mr. Simmons can do. Meanwhile, Simmons, in his coroner’s report, officially declared that lack of funding was the ultimate cause of death.
According to Simmons’ reports, it would seem that none of the many rock and metal bands rising up through the modern day miracle of free, online publicity and simplicity of self-recording/releasing made an impact in attempting to revive the presently deceased genre. In fact, said modern realities were glossed over in acknowledging that rock died because “no one will pay you to do it.” The deceased bands counted in Simmons’ toll number in the tens of thousands, many of which will have to be told to cease touring and producing music due to the…
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