It probably has been dark outside for a couple of hours already. I haven’t really been paying much attention to the outside conditions. Not much daylight filters through the plastic covered windows anyway. The only source of light I have is a construction lamp placed in one corner of the room and the only source of heat available is a small heating fan I’ve placed on the floor on the opposite side of the room. If the frequency with which the fan starts and the prolonged periods it stays on is anything to go by, it’s probably getting below zero (that’s Celsius for ya, you Americans) outside.
I’ve recently bought a house in the middle of nowhere, originally built in 1876 and judging by the state it’s in, that’s about the last time someone took care of it. I have taken two weeks off from work to get some things done around the house. It’s late, I’m tired and this is the last Sunday before I’m supposed to be back at work. I haven’t gotten as much done around the house these past two weeks as I initially hoped I would. But before I call it a day, I’d really like to get the roof painted in the nursery.
I decide it’s time to listen to Goldstar. I’ve been wanting to do that for the last week, but I haven’t really been in the mood for what I imagine is…
Welcome, metal afficionados, inquisitive readers and everyone in between, to the premiere of Extreme Measures, a new monthly format where Sputnik users and artists come together to take a long, hard lo-, ahem, briefly check overlooked (and some overly looked at) extreme metal and adjacent releases that came out in the previous month and offer their thoughts on select songs. This has been a long time in the making, and we’re excited to finally share our findings with you. For this first edition, some very, very special guests did themselves the honor of joining in. We hope you’ll have as much fun jamming and reading as we did crafting this. Let’s dive in.
Sput jammers (spammers?) this month:
evilford, DM hypeman extraordinaire
Yours truly, humble host
And our surprise guests for this episode are:
Vaughn, Jacob, Josh and Lille (Defeated Sanity, left to right)
– Calendar week 10 –
Innermost Intestinal Exposure by Chordoma — Josh’s pick
Easter is right around the corner, and you can finally spend your hard-earned dineros on overpriced molded chocolate to your heart’s content — we won’t judge. Alternatively, here’s some music for your consideration. Wait a second… How did all that exquisite metal get in there? Don’t give me that look! As always, please feel free to use the comment section to request reviews, let us know us what we missed, link to photos of your home-cooked rabbit stew (or plant-based equivalents) and/or tell everyone what you’re hyped for.
– List of Releases: April 18th, 2025 –
Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution Genre: Death Metal / Death Doom / Prog Label: Profound Lore
Beirut – A Study of Losses Genre: Indie Pop / Indie Folk Label: Pompeii
Charles Mingus – In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts Genre: Post-Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz Label: Resonance
Crypts of Despair – We Belong in the Grave Genre: Deathcore / Death Metal Label: Transcending Obscurity
Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail Genre: Death Metal / Black Metal Label: Willowtip
Iron Lung – Adapting // Crawling Genre: Powerviolence Label: Self-released
Julien Baker & TORRES – Send a Prayer My Way Genre: Singer-Songwriter / Indie Rock Label: Matador
Karg – Marodeur Genre: Blackgaze / Atmospheric Black Metal Label: AOP
Back in the early-to-mid 2000s, Earshot were key players in spearheading the American alt-rock movement, releasing massive hits like “Get Away”, “Not Afraid” and “Wait” respectively, with their influence and success getting them significant radio airplay, as well as being featured on a number of video games including Madden ’05, MX vs. ATV Unleashed, and Project Gotham Racing 2. However, despite all the success of 2002’s Letting Go and 2004’s Two, the band would go through several line-up changes and their momentum would gradually wane, not releasing their third LP, The Silver Lining, until 2008. After this, the band would recede into the shadows for over a decade, releasing only a 4-track EP in 2015 and a couple of singles during Covid. Thankfully, all of that is about to change: with a brand-new line-up that includes ex-Breaking Benjamin guitarist, Aaron Fink, Earshot are set to make a massive comeback in 2025 with their first new album in 17 years. The band’s first single “Where Were You?” recently dropped to a strong reception from fans, and the band are currently in the throes of planning their next moves. I recently caught up with the band’s founding member and frontman, Wil Martin, who candidly discusses the band’s history, its tribulations, and the bright future that lies ahead of them, so I hope you enjoy it. (Please note: the transcript from this interview was edited and some of the wording changed for a more concise reading experience. For the definitive version of this…
Greetings sputnikers and welcome to your weekly reminder that there are people out there with the audacity to release new albums despite music peaking with Jane Doe in 2001. I know, kinda cringe. Big hitters this week include a load of metal bands I vaguely recognise and the second half of that Bon Iver project that dropped last year, plus the new Ken Carson album that will definitely release on time. For sure. No doubt in my mind. Oh and Wu-Tang apparently, although the chances of that being real give Bigfoot some competition. Anywho, as usual let us know what you are hyping and why we all should definitely check the new Neptunian Maximalism album – those genre tags look tasty. Feel free to sample a few of these releases in the playlist below. ‘Til next week!
– List of Releases: April 11th, 2025 –
AIR & Vegyn – Blue Moon Safari Genre: Downtempo / IDM Label: Warner Music France
It’s incredible how the most groundbreaking movements can be started from the smallest sparks. Take, for instance, a young guitar player who lost his fingertips in an accident at a sheet metal factory. Despite being told he would never play again, he found a way, melting down plastic bottles to create homemade thimbles, and tuning down his guitar to make the strings easier to hold down. I’m sure you can guess where this is going: that guitarist was none other than Tony Iommi, and that one accident would inevitably lead to the birth of a whole new genre of rock music: heavy metal.
Welcome to The Look Back (title still somewhat in progress), a look at the classic albums of old through modern ears. This is a little project I’m embarking on to see how albums that are held up as classics in their genres fare in the modern day, when so much has built on their foundations, all through the ears of a Gen Z kid who listened to plenty of these newer albums before checking out the classics. And for the inaugural installment, I felt it was only right to look at the album that indirectly inspired so many of Sputnik’s favorite albums, the progenitor of heavy metal, Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album.
WHY IS THIS A CLASSIC?
I mean… do I really even have to ask this? While other bands such as Led Zeppelin are sometimes…
What’s up everyone! Welcome to my first interview that I’ve done for Sputnik, and hopefully the first of many. This week, I was able to sit down on a Zoom call with Jackal Twins to discuss their debut record, Cuzco. These guy were absolutely amazing to talk with, they all had great senses of humor, and they all genuinely love the work they have done with Jackal Twins. If you haven’t listened to their debut album yet, or this is the first time you’ve heard their name, let me give you a quick introduction.
Jackal Twins is a three-piece band based out of the New England area, with Ben Trussell on drums and vocals, Mike Palumbo on guitars and vocals, and Dante Lamusta on bass. Their Bandcamp profile describes their music as “psychedelic noisy tunes for the hopeless romantic.” Good luck trying to pin a particular genre down, though. They tend to focus on the mathcore side of their music, and lean into the aggressive style. However, there are numerous genre influences that shine throughout, with a great balance of heaviness with melodic songwriting.
But I’m not here to explain the band myself. No, I’m here to let you guys hear from the band themselves. Please, enjoy this interview with the Jackal Twins! You can either read the interview, listen to the recording, or follow along with both.
NOTE: The transcript below was edited for brevity. Some of the wording has been changed or…
Welcome to my first time doing the weekly releases! Feel free to give my performance a rating on a scale from 1 to 10, comment every single release not here that I didn’t even know existed, and let everyone know what you’re jamming to this week. As always, feel free to request reviews from staff and/or contributors, be sure to skim the release playlist for any songs that catch your eye, and have a great week!
– List of Releases: March 21st, 2025 –
Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Century Media
The Darkness – Dreams on Toast Genre: Hard Rock / Glam Rock Label: Cooking Vinyl
Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power Genre: Black Metal / Blackgaze Label: Roadrunner
Dean Wareham – That’s the Price of Loving Me Genre: Indie Rock / Dream Pop Label: Carpark
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie Genre: Indie Rock Label: Merge
Decrepisy – Deific Mourning Genre: Death Metal / Doom Metal Label: Carbonized
Envy of None – Stygian Wavz Genre: Alternative Rock / Electronic Label: KSCOPE
girlpuppy – Sweetness Genre: Indie Rock Label: Captured Tracks
Great Grandpa – Patience, Moonbeam Genre: Indie Rock / Alternative Rock Label: Run for Cover
Invent Animate x Silent Planet – Bloom in Heaven Genre: Progressive Metalcore Label: UNFD
SAYA wasn’t the album I was expecting from Saya Gray. Given the direction of her QWERTY EPs, it seemed like she was diving deeper into the fragmented songwriting approach of 19 Masters—instead, she took a different route. Sonically, SAYA still plays in the same blurry space between r&b, pop, electronic, and folk, but where her past work felt like a chaotic patchwork of ideas, this album has a clear throughline. The genre-hopping, effortless melodies, eccentric vocal yips—it’s all still there, but every twist and turn feels deliberate.
Tracks like “PUDDLE (OF ME)” and “H.B.W.” showcase her ability to turn eccentric vocal patterns and unconventional structures into something that fits seamlessly within more traditional frameworks, while lead single “SHELL (OF A MAN)” offers a calmer, more streamlined indie/pop sound without compromising the emotional depth of her songwriting. There are only 9 proper songs on this album, but they all work to form a cohesive sound that balances the quirky with the accessible. And sure, one could make the argument that in so doing, Gray loses a bit of the unbridled creativity that her previous stream-of-consciousness approach to songwriting afforded, but it’s hard not to be impressed by her ability to channel all her creative chaos into something so deliberate and guided. In hindsight, SAYA seems like the logical evolution of Gray’s sound; it takes fewer risks than its predecessors, sure, but as a result, it refines her vision into something more focused and palatable.
“I really love jazz, but I will never be a jazz musician as much as I dream.
But, I think that the jazz music I love is there in my music.” – Laura Mvula
The spirit of jazz has been guiding house music since its inception in 1980s Chicago, when artists like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy first used primitive DJ mixers and other electronic instruments to create on-the-fly combinations of different musical styles. What began as their soundtrack to dance floors in clubs and warehouses – an eclectic, improvisational fusion of jazz-funk, euro-pop, rock and disco – then spread throughout the states and the rest of the world. The sound evolved, compartmentalized, and ‘house’ music became a kaleidoscopic genre unto itself.
Some of these permutations eschew organic sounds completely, like acid house, which opts for a raw, rhythmic approach propelled by squelchy basslines from the Roland TR-303. Other styles emphasize a more soothing atmosphere, like deep house, which often includes jazz chords and soulful vocals in its propulsive mid-tempo rhythms. But jazz-house, true to its name, keeps jazz music front-and-center. Whether through samples or live organic instrumentation, jazz-house seeks to replicate the atmosphere of jazz in a house track, sometimes even creating 1:1 mixtures of electronics and jazz soloing.
Therein lies the key to distinguishing it from even the jazziest deep house. Broadly speaking, jazz-house sounds like…
For any Sputnik regulars that have interacted with me in the thirteen years I’ve been on this site, you may already know that I play the bass and have done for nearly twenty years. So with that context in mind, for no reason at all, I woke up this morning and decided I wanted to pick out a bunch of tracks I think have awesome basslines. The criteria for the chosen ten songs on this list is rather arbitrary, but essentially the main purpose is to highlight some subtle (and not-so-subtle) basslines that aren’t immediate if you’re not a bass player yourself, maybe prompting you to listen to these songs and hearing the magic unfold within them from that perspective. Maybe you’ll even listen to them and never again be able to look at them the same way. After all, that is the beauty of the bass guitar – an instrument that has been treated rather thanklessly throughout history, but is nevertheless an essential ingredient needed to make a good song even better. With that, I hope you enjoy the playlist I’ve created and my thoughts on these fantastic songs.
Jennifer Paige
Let me tell you, as a guy riding hard in his 30s, basslines in pop tracks tend to have some of the best grooves you’ll ever hear. Of course, when you’re an impressionable teenage contrarian, or a knuckle-dragger in your early 20s like I was, looking for edgy NU-metal angst, putting-the-world-to-rights…
Welcome, denizens, to the fourteenth edition(!) of A diagnosis from a (faux) Doctor. Today’s examination is going to be a bit of a nostalgia trip, walking back into a liminal period where you crippled the family computer downloading music off Limewire after discovering a choice band you discovered playing a video game. In the case of Earshot, like the vast majority of us, I discovered this LA-based rock unit playing the classic Madden game: Madden…
3, 2, 1, Weeklies! Unless you’re using the DD/MM format, in which case you’ll be delighted to learn that the number 213 is part of Levine’s sequence. You already knew!? We’ll try to make up for the lack of educational value by surprising you with some of the upcoming releases below. Please feel free to request reviews from staff and/or contributors, let the community know what we’ve missed, brag about your PhD in Mathematics and/or post your jams.
– List of Releases: March 21st, 2025 –
Bloodywood – Nu Delhi Genre: Nu Metal / Rap Metal Label: Fearless
Cradle of Filth – The Screaming of the Valkyries Genre: Symphonic Black Metal Label: Napalm
Disarmonia Mundi – The Dormant Stranger Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Coroner
Dissocia – To Lift the Veil Genre: Progressive Metal Label: Willowtip
Drudkh – Shadow Play Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal Label: Season of Mist
Embrional – Inherited Tendencies for Self-Destruction Genre: Blackened Death Metal Label: Agonia
Floodlights – Underneath Genre: Indie Rock / Post-Punk Label: PIAS
Greentea Peng – Tell Dem It’s Sunny Genre: Neo-Soul / Alternative R&B Label: AWAL
The Horrors – Night Life Genre: Neo-Psychedelia / Gothic / Synthpop / Post-Punk Label: Fiction
Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar Genre: Avant-Garde Metal / Dissonant…
As someone who was mercilessly ribbed for liking NU-metal at the height of its popularity in the late 90s and early-to-mid 00s, as well as Limp Bizkit themselves being one of the main punching bags for the movement, it’s somewhat bizarre and vindicating to see Limp Bizkit being one of the most revered live metal acts in the industry today. The funny thing is, even with the vitriol for the band at the time, my friends would haughtily dump on the band whilst occasionally letting out a gritted-teeth concession that they hate them, but “Break Stuff” is pretty “fun”. All of this cognitive dissonance and tribal nonsense out of the equation though, Limp Bizkit have always been a very talented band, with an unbelievable set of musicians making memorable songs with gargantuan payoffs, and a charismatic frontman who’s able to bring it all together. It’s this dynamic and chemistry that has, ironically, galvanised their sustainability and relevance for over thirty years, where other “more respected” bands in rock and metal have long since capitulated and fallen into the void of irrelevance. One of the main reasons for Limp Bizkit’s success, outside of their arsenal of classic tracks, is their reputation for putting on incredible live shows.
Despite loving their music for almost two-and-a-half decades, I’d never actually seen them perform live, which, getting straight to the point, they didn’t disappoint. One of the most alluring qualities was Fred Durst himself, who was once known for being the infamous, edgy…
I hadn’t heard of this band until now, but definitely a strong relative new-comer to the brutal death metal…
