Emerging from the bleak beauty of Bordeaux, French post-metal collective Year of No Light unleashed their debut album Nord in 2006, a monolithic statement of intent that fused crushing sludge, atmospheric doom, and cinematic post-rock. With towering walls of distortion, haunting melodies, and instrumental passages that evoke both desolation and grandeur, Nord established the band as a formidable force in the underground scene. A sonic journey through light and shadow, Nord is not just an album — it’s an elemental experience.

Mare remains one of the enigmatic entries in the Hydra Head roster
of artists, as this eponymous EP represents the band's one and only recording. This Canadian trio consisted of vocalist / guitarist Tyler Semrick-Palmateer, Rob Shortil on bass, and drummer Caleb Collins. The band had a short run from 2004 to 2007, emerging out of Toronto's death / tech-metal community with Semrick-Palmateer had cut his teeth on vocals in The End. On the five songs of Mare, the band assembled a menacing composite of styles and forms -- sludge-metal, math-rock, classic prog idioms, and the diaphonic harmonies from Bulgarian chorals. Film and musical theatre also work into chimera of influences with the band mentioning that both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jesus Christ Superstar had been in heavy rotation during the writing and production of the album. Sonically, Mare concentrates on monolith of trudging rhythms and densely packed riffs squeezed through numerous time signature changes and sudden shifts in velocity. Semrick-Palmateer's vocals are a unique feature to Mare's aesthetic, throat-scraping with bellowing howls and harrowing screams before gliding into the form of a silver-tongued crooner such Jeff Buckley or even Chet Baker. "They Sent You" and "Tropics" situates the beatific facet of the vocals in concert with gilded arrangement for French horn before the trio locks into a formidable post-hardcore groove of dissonance and crushed chord progressions.

"Following his unique path of tortured dementia, the band delivers an ultimate 6 tracks of epic intensity, a burst of pure sludgy hardcore combined with perfect melodies and walls of massive aggression."

"Finnish Psychedelic Black Metal innovators ORANSSI PAZUZU are pleased to announce that their latest mutational meisterwerk, Muuntautuja (or Shapeshifter in English) is set to be released on October 11th, 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records. A boa constrictor of slithering, warping, interdimensional cosmic horror, the band's sixth full-length Muuntautuja is in a world of its own, seeping through the speakers like irradiated sand. Ever transmuting, unsettling chords that raise the hairs on the back of your head and then pummel it with nauseating rhythms that both transport and destroy you.
Drawing inspiration from eclectic sources ranging from Death Grips to Portishead, Nine Inch Nails (Downward Spiral era), Beherit and My Bloody Valentine, ORANSSI PAZUZU are a feast for those who dig deep, heavy and strange. With inhuman and biological sound, Muuntautuja is electronically charged, both organic and inorganic in origin." Source: <a href="https://www.nuclearblast.com/blogs/news/oranssi-pazuzu-announce-new-album-muuntautuja-to-be-released-october-11th" target="_blank">Nuclearblast.com</a>

“What we’re doing with Buñuel is to carve out a very specific glimpse… partly into hearts of darkness, but more specifically into the depth of our secrets. Secrets we keep from each other, ourselves and whatever futures we’ve imagined for ourselves. We are ultimately trying to communicate something direct and deadly about the human condition.” - Eugene Robinson

"Like the towering mounds of toxic waste from which it gets its namesake, the music of Oklahoma City noise rock quartet Chat Pile is a suffocating, grotesque embodiment of the existential anguish that has defined the 21st Century. It figures that a band with this abrasive, unrelenting, and outlandish of a sound has struck as strong of a chord as it has. Dread has replaced the American dream, and Chat Pile’s music is a poignant reminder of that shift – a portrait of an American rock band molded by a society defined by its cold and cruel power systems." Source: <a href="https://chatpile.bandcamp.com/album/cool-world" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>

While the members of AWOLNATION had already been sailing straight into their heavy-music past via new side project the Barbarians of California, they've now linked up with Snapcase vocalist Daryl Taberski to deliver their most whip-cracking thrasher yet. Today (June 6th), the band debuted their latest smoked-out single, "Far Out, Bro." Source: <a href="https://www.revolvermag.com/music/awolnation-barbarians-california-far-out-bro">RevolverMag.com</a>

“As we played together and revisited songs from our back catalog that meant so much to us, we were inspired to write a new song that channeled those feelings and that energy. We had an incredible time making our C.L.S.M. side project/offshoot album that was released last year, but ‘You Might Be Dead’ connects directly to the sound and trajectory we forged when we solidified our identity as a band throughout ‘House With A Curse’, ‘Sister Faith’ and ‘Anxiety’s Kiss’.” <a href="https://coliseum.bandcamp.com/track/you-might-be-dead" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>

"Contrasts such as those on display in "Funeral Dyke" are what make Contempt the engrossing, dynamic affair that it is. The band's foundation rests on the scorched earth between Unsane's pounding NYC hate-rock and Darkthrone's mournful metal, but Contempt is filled with surprises. The songs are peppered with odd instrumentation – the aforementioned saxophone and tambourine, as well as tuba, trombone, accordion, viola, and concert bells – and tend to begin on one path and end on another. A cold dirge erupts into a chugging thrashfest; a sludgy rocker slides into a wistful jam recalling Sonic Youth's more tender moments." Source: <a href="https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/contempt" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>

On The Healer, the new full length from Northwest-based trio SUMAC, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner, bassist Brian Cook and drummer Nick Yacyshyn, the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of 4 tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC presents a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth.
This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record - narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group's interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors our ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which we may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of “The Healer” may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence. Source: <a href="https://sumac.bandcamp.com/album/the-healer" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>