'Adrift / Tending the Embers' marks Pelican's first new music since 2019 and the first songs written with the band’s original lineup since 2012. The EP marks both a reunion and a departure, eschewing the caustic bombast of 2019’s 'Nighttime Stories' for more delicate and nuanced territory that imbibes their pastoral Midwest post-rock tendencies with triumphant riffs that feel indebted to the classic Dischord pantheon. Source: Bandcamp

Acclaimed instrumental post-rock band IF THESE TREES COULD TALK is back with a new single, “Trail Of Whispering Giants,” the group’s first new music in eight years, out today and streaming via Metal Blade Records. “Trail Of Whispering Giants” marks the anticipated return of the Akron, Ohio-based lineup spearheaded by drummer Zack Kelly and his guitarist-brother Cody Kelly. IF THESE TREES COULD TALK has been praised by Metal Hammer for, “uplifting post-rock that layers cascading guitars over tight drums with a deep emotional resonance,” while the lineup’s third LP and Metal Blade debut, 2016’s The Bones Of A Dying World, was called, “a fluid-flowing masterpiece that builds upon complex, progressive dreamscapes.” . Source: Earsplitcompound.com

Rising from the depths of hell with fury, wrath, and rage, Danava – Portland’s hard rock anti-heroes – return with the release Nothing But Nothing, their first album in over a decade and a devastating collection of songs to soundtrack the inevitable decline of western civilisation.
Scheduled for release this April on Tee Pee Records, Danava, who formed in 2003, will mark their twentieth year of collective existence while seeking to deliver a sound that incorporates hard rock, heavy metal and a fire forged in the spirit of Iommi and Schenker. Ever since the release of their debut album in 2006 the band has adopted a scorched earth approach that has blazed brightly through psychedelic metal solos, glam-rock flair, fret-board wizardry, 70s prog and a white line fever reminiscent of Lemmy at his most lethal.

Sharp, honest, and fun, Crack a Light is the punky, noisy album that will kick your ass straight back into enjoying life. Source: Everythingisnoise.net

It’s been nearly eight years since the last Mondo Drag album came out. In that time, the Bay Area psych-prog band toured the US and Europe, performed at major festivals and—once again—reformed their rhythm section. But in the context of the band’s nearly two-decade existence, this period may have been the most fraught. Vocalist and keyboardist John Gamiño lost friends and family members. Meanwhile, humanity suffered the throes of a global pandemic.

Anches En Maat is the first new album from Grails in over a half-decade – following the masterful Chalice Hymnal in 2017 – and their first album recorded with all members in the studio together since Doomsdayer’s Holiday in 2008. With every Grails album released since Doomsdayer’s Holiday being a sprawling double-album endeavor, Anches En Maat was conceived as a return to the comparatively efficient single LP runtime. With that, Grails set out to craft the same sonically dense world that their longer albums showcased, while trading singular indulgences for live collaborative interplay. The core group of founding members Alex Hall and Emil Amos (Om, Holy Sons) joined Jesse Bates, Ilyas Ahmed, and AE Paterra (Zombi, Majeure) in Atlanta, GA to record Anches En Maat together – a novel event for a band who had become so accustomed to recording separately and then laboring in post-production for months or even years on end. An improbable blend of melted 1980s softcore and daytime soap opera soundtracks, cosmic minimalism, aching Westerns, melancholy electronic pulses, and massive soul-disco strings, Anches En Maat is one of Grails’ most ambitious albums of their 20+ year career.