There is one thing that I love about writing and working for Veil of Sound and it’s the utter scope of stuff we put out here. Let’s have a look at the last things I wrote about: Doom Metal, Oriental-infused Psych-Rock, Extreme Metal, Death Metal, Grindcore. So what has to come next? Of course - the premiere of an album full with Minimalist Shoegaze, Folk, bits of Ambient and all of that based on some really good singer-songwriter foundations. No, we are not talking about a new drowse-album, although I would love to premiere anything by Kyle Bates, but a new record by øjeRum.

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Alanis Morissette has written many hits over the course of her Alternative Rock career and many of us will be able to sing along to several of them. “Uninvited” is one of these and one of our favorite Post-Rock bands now took it and turned it into their own version: Thank u Black Flak and the Nightmare Fighters for giving us this track and you oughtta know that we are grateful for hosting this premiere for us!

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If you think Scratch Acid was a dissonant bastard band with a intelligent sense for melody and if you liked that, well, here you have you new favorite band - hepa. Titus. Those checking VoS on a daily basis know that hepa. Titus is Kevin Rutmanis’ band and that this is some of the most fun and yet sarcastic records around.

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The 90s were not all that bad. There were some bands, some songs and records that definitely stand the test of time. Vain Valkyries from Rouen surely heard the right stuff, condensed it into their own version of heavy, chunky Alternative Rock and will release their debut record on February 17. Here at VoS you can listen to the whole thing two days early!

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Cover Versions are always a difficult topic because of the necessity of changing but not changing too much. Which elements need be kept, which can be thrown away? Change the tonality or stick with it? Shall it be an homage or a total rebuilt? And that’s only the theoretical aspect before the execution. Kahrmalia did a good cover of an a-ha track and thankfully it’s not “Take On Me”, that track is dead. We give you Kahrmalia’s new single!

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How to describe a song or record that is as much Maserati as it is Carpenter Brut? Well, it’s electronic, for sure. But is it Electronica? No. Well, is it Post-Rock? To some degree, especially when we remember that the three band members all play the synth as well as a “regular” instrument. Sounds complicated? Not really in the case of Arhios! We present the video for their new single “Daria”!

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Someone in the ever-sandy vastness that is the American Southwest, there is a band of mariachis playing Whale Fall-covers. Then all of a sudden, they throw of their traditional clothes, put on a rather stylish flanell and start writing pretty sophisticated songs in the vein of Bright Eyes and ef! Sounds difficult to imagine? Not if we are talking about Often the Thinker and their newest record, Sincere Insanity which will be out in three weeks. Veil of Sound is proud to give you their next single right here, right now!

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Sometimes we are a bit late, true. However, we never forget things that are important to us. OAHK’s acoustic album is such an important thing. It is so important for us, that we do not want to keep you busy searching, we want you to listen to Bryan’s new versions straightaway and therefore we present you Numeric Hands “Revised Acoustic Memories in its entirety.

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A Reason To Travel was one of those underground tips for people who already have fallen in love with Post-Rock many, many moons ago, but still search a brand new song to fan the flames of pure content. And on the upcoming album we find that this project makes the next step out of the underground’s shadow and into the light! Their newest single is presented here by us today, so enjoy the “Dust Wanderer”!

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It seems as if this is the year, when Post-Rock or Post-Metal bands come back with new names - this time it’s Aortes, the band formerly known as Autism. VoS is happy to give you the second single of their upcoming album Devouring Gloom - and thus we are proud to share the awesome video for “With Me Forever”!

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I am not a particularly encyclopedic connoisseur of music. I much rather prefer hesitant, haphazard journeys through darkened corridors of style, letting chance encounters with inspiring musicians and powerful recorded statements reveal secret passages leading onward who knows where but toward some new recess or bejeweled cavern. Little can I foretell what might emerge from those depths - some phantasmal beauty, sentient echo, or half-glimpsed minotaurine fright of my subconscious - but if I’m lucky, the knotted thread I carry will sometimes afterward disclose woven patterns of delight. One such recent journey into the darkling wilds has led me to Mellowdeath, the wily Germany-based duo of bassist Isabel Merten and drummer Sara Neidorf, whose doom jazz/post-rock excursions avoid well-worn paths of ease for more adventuresome, hinky peril. Their EP, Deadly Stares, offers a foretaste of the labyrinthine experimentation and roulette risk we should expect from their first full-length, which is slated for release later this year.

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For many people, Dungeon Synth and Black Metal are two completely different genres. Nevertheless, sometimes there comes an act along that can convince even those who don’t want to be convinced that both genres share several similarities. Wuodan’s Wunde from Austria is another act that can do exactly that, and thus we happily present you the new single “I” taken from the upcoming release Es glimmt empor aus ewger Nacht!

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A few months ago, we were taken by surprise by a little, mostly overlooked release by a small Northern England-based label called Utility Tapes. The record was Salt Pig’s The Chalk Circle and of course we couldn’t say “No”, when the label asked us if we wanted to do a premiere for their next release. So we are happy to give you Adam Zejnm’s Rusher Cutting, For Keji!

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Golden Antenna Records is one of those records with a superb roster - all killer no filler. Therefore it comes as no surprise that they are now releasing the second full-length by Leipzig, Germany-based Post-Rock hopefuls jeffk, who were one of THE surprises a few years back with their first Inadequate Shelter and who are now back with TAR. Therefore Veil of Sound proudly presents the next single off of that album for you here!

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Breach are Cult of Luna are two of the most iconic Swedish Post-Metal names ever. There have been loads since, one only needs to think of The Moth Gatherer or Norna. And from next week on, many of us need to think of KOLLAPS\E, because they will release their first full-length on January 13. And to give you an idea why we should bear KOLLAPS\E in mind we give you their second single “Anaemia” as an exclusive premiere! Enjoy!

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Ropes Inside A Hole might sound like a new name on the scene but actually it’s the former Post-Rock-hopefuls RIAH now forming a band to give meaning to what they now regard as an acronym. Veil of Sound is very happy to give you their new single “Loss & Grief”! And we are sure you will like this one too!

January 10 will see the release of the second album, A Man and His Nature, by Italian Post-Metal band Ropes Inside A Hole, and man, the record sure hits the spot with all its slow build-ups and wonderful twists and turns. Plus the band has something that many Post-Rock-based bands don’t have: A good singer, who can really carry a song with his voice somewhere between a whisper and a monologue and with a few minor eruptions. This addition of vocals also makes for a somewhat completely new chapter in their sound-book, so one should really give it a thorough listen!

“Loss & Grief”, the second single, is accompanied by a video showing old footage of a family (presumably one of the band members’ old family films). The connection of footage and song surely points out the loss of innocence, the loss of one’s past and the grief that comes along with losing that past and losing one’s beloved people. A never-tiring topic known by most of us, so we surely can relate.

The song and the video are both highly captivating and will grab your attention by the throat and spin in your head quickly - and endlessly. So you better get your pre-order now at Voice of the Unheard!

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Maybe old me is just reading (or rather listening) too much into this track, but I want to be struck dead if the new single by Bradford-based Worriedaboutsatan is not a TripHop track in disguise! Where can you find out for yourself? Well, here on VoS!

There is quite a lot of Bristol-sound to my ears in the back of “Hours Pass” when you listen to the little shuffling beat in the background of the track underneath the rather clean, droppling spaces that sparkle in the foreground. One might argue nevertheless, that it’s more like Underworld or Leftfield than Massive Attack or Tricky. However, it sounds like two tracks running simultaneouly sometimes, with the spherical elements shining in the sun and the deep, midtempo beats being in their shadow. Do achieve this effect and still keep those elements clearly distinctable is really a great achievement if you ask me. But then again, when you have an artist who has been doing so for 15 years and then get a magician like Aidan Baker (Nadja) to work his mastering wizardry, one shouldn’t be surprised the outcome is pure gold!

What do you say - is this track a miraculous homage to bands like Underworld or Massive Attack? Here is the track to judge my ears upon!

You can also settle your pre-orders for the strong-magenta vinyl now via Wolves And Vibrancy, and maybe one of you also wants to buy the bundle?

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Whenever the year spins towards its end all the nerds run around basically pulling their hair and asking their fellow companions What‘s your Album Of The Year? all the time because that’s one of the hardest things - to narrow down all the great records one has heard in the last twelve months into one list.

Well, even though that is not any easier for us here at Veil of Sound, we do not to disappoint you! Thus, we will present you with one of those lists every day until Xmas! Every author will give you his Top Five Records that encapsulate 2022 for him plus five further suggestions for your deep listening pleasure! Merry Xmas everyone!

• Joshua's albums of the year.

• Dan Dolby's albums of the year.

• Knut's albums of the year.

• Stephan's albums of the year.

• Simon's albums of the year.

• Sebastian's albums of the year.

• Ajay's albums of the year.

• Gene's albums of the year.

• Brayden's albums of the year.

We also have a playlist with all the favorite tracks for each album on Spotify - as long as they’re available there.

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Johnny Cash’s “Hurt“. Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love“. Jimi Hendrix‘ “All Along The Watchtower“. But also Travis‘ “Baby One More Time“. Type-O-Negative’s “Cinnamon Girl“. Clem Snide’s ”Beautiful” Or even worse, The Calling’s ”London Calling”. U2’s ”Fortunate Son”. Limp Bizkit’s ”Faith”. Yes, I know that you know – all of these are cover versions. Of course you know, as the title to this special already implies. Today we want to have a look at cover versions and what makes them good or when do they turn sour? There is also a cause for us to do so: the release of a really great EP by some friends of ours. Årabrot from Scandinavia, whose Heart-EP is out today. We have a lot of goodies, so just move along and enjoy!

When we heard about Kjetil and Karin doing an EP full of cover versions it manifested right before our eyes - ’We gotta do a bit more than just a review, we gotta dissect the art of cover versions!’ Well, of course the ONE question always connected to cover versions is a simple and simultaneously most difficult one – what is a good cover version? Must it be a complete homage not changing too much, like Peter Gabriel did it with The Magnetic Fields’ classic ”The Book Of Love” or the Faith No More cover of ”Easy” (which only differs in that remarkable ”uuurrghhhhhhhnnn” moaner Patton gives at 1:54)? If covering artists want to show their respect for a song which, in their opinion, is perfect – then this way is the way. Listen to Nirvana’s version of the Bowie-classic ”The Man who Sold the World” and you can hear that the only thing they changed is the tuning more or less. Nevertheless, the track gains a completely unknown quality when performed by Kurt Cobain who at that point already had suicidal tendencies. And to make it clear, even if a band like In Flames covers Genesis’ ”Land of Confusion” there is not that much of a change, in my opinion, only because they riff it out much harder, speed it up one notch and switch the vocals into Melo-Death-mode. It’s basically the same structure just in a different notion. A good cover, even if it is not a real change to the song; however, converting a song’s genre is not always easy, because the novelty factor only goes such a long way.

Is it okay to have genre cover records like the Reggae series by the Easy Star All-Stars who already did whole albums with songs from one band like Radiohead (named Radiodread) or also releasing albums covering one record from beginning to end like Dub Side of The Moon? The answer is “YES of course it is okay!” However, if you consider the fading novelty factor, it becomes obvious that using the same concept over and over again for six, seven, eight or more times will erode the first time it was done. This has nothing to do by the way with the question whether a certain level of humor can be good for a cover. There are several examples of artists who have built their entire career on such cover versions: Richard Cheese, who’s the perfect embodiment of a Swing and Jazz crooner doing covers as diverse as ”Creep” or ”People = Shit”, ”Insane in the Brain” or ”Relax”. Eläkeläiset, from Finland, whose versions of classic rocksters in their own Polka-affiliated Humppa-style are sometimes so hard to distinguish that I have seen friends bite their hands because “Oh I know it, it is… it is…. Oh man…. Shit!” If you want to know what I mean just listen to their record Werbung, Baby! and believe me, not all of them are as easily distinguished as ”Hump” or ”Hotelli Helpotus”! Or the master of novelty covers, Weird Al Yankovic, who has been using the same strategy of either changing a song’s genre to Polka or keeping the structure but changing the lyrics (prime examples here: ”The Saga Begins”, which is a complete narration of Star Wars – Episode 1 The Phantom Menace laid atop of ”American Pie” or ”Amish Paradise” where he took the music of ”Gangsta’s Paradise” but talking the Amish people of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania). Humor doesn’t necessarily imply a lack of originality or quality. As long as the new version has its own musical right of existence that is totally fine, but remember that repeating the same formula over and over again can be too much of a good thing. Originality on the other side doesn’t always imply a higher level of acknowledgment because if you completely slash an original only for slashing’s sake then beware because taking a song, stripping it of its melody and maybe also its lyrics will make it indistinguishable and isn’t that also part of fun of these versions? If you wanna make it hard for people to recognize the original, fine. No problem. But beware, if you make it too difficult to recognize it, then people surely will not listen to it for a second time because they feel as if they have not been outsmarted but led astray. Therefore one of the nicest covers I know is for example The Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy’s version of the old Dead Kennedy’s track ”California Uber Alles” - easily recognizable, but great because of turning the hardcore-punk classic into a mellow 80s Native Tongues-like HipHop-track. Oh, by the way, when HipHop-artists use a sample from a song – that doesn’t necessarily count as cover because, to me, a cover implies that more than two or three seconds of a track for your own version. These tracks to me are more of an interpolation, but not a real cover. A second awesome example of such a cover version is the very spooky Alkaline Trio-version of the Misfits’ track ”Halloween” which they recorded for and released at a Halloween show decades ago back in Chicago.

Now some of you might wonder, why even bother that much about cover versions? Well, first of all, because they are really fun and second of all, because sometimes one can discover awesome original artists because of a good cover. For this, let me give you a personal experience: I had never heard of N.W.A. until I heard Stretch Armstrong cover ”Express Yourself”. As I knew that the emo-band had a certain calling to end their records by adding an unlikely cover (they had covered The Counting Crows’ ”Angels of the Silences” and Pink’s ”Get The Party Started” two years before) it was clear that this track was also a cover. And so I went ahead to find out about the original – and bamm, I had found another amazing act I had never heard off before.

However, we still have not gotten to the real answer here, right? So when is a cover version a good one? I would say it takes two things: the new artist doesn’t try to ridicule the original artist and is aware of what to do with the new version – give it a new twist or stay true. Both are fine with me, but a mix of both is not necessarily a good idea. If the original is already a funny thing, don’t try to “out-fun” it. If it is a really, really sad track, don’t try to make it even more suicidal. And don’t butcher it to the completely unrecognizable bloodbath.

And now there is not much left for me to say apart from: Enjoy the Heart EP, listen to our detailed interview with Kjetil, listen to our playlists, read Stephan’s review and then tell us which is your favorite cover version ever?

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Review

In the ideal case, a good cover version will sonically or substantially re-contextualize the original. In that spirit Årabrot start their covers EP with a snippet of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je t’aime”, taking it even further by stripping it off everything but a church organ and rather corporeal sounds of love. Yeah, I watched season two of Fleabag, you guys! But that’s just the “Preludium” to the actual full songs. “Lightning Girl” seamlessly queues into Årabrot’s own repertoire, while it also shows another desired quality of covers: They simultaneously can get you hooked on the original artist – and thus one might realize that Nancy Sinatra’s recordings in the 1960’s were actually surprisingly sick and heavy in their own way.

Diving deeper into the past, “Green Fire” from the 1954 Grace Kelly-movie obviously departs the farthest from the original, with a much more revolutionary feeling, yet without ever disrespecting composer Miklós Rózsa’s intent. Speaking of revolution: Previously released on Morten Traavik’s Elitism sampler, T-Rex’ “Children of the Revolution” lends itself (almost too) naturally to Årabrot’s Post-Punk/Hardrock-furor and immediately feels like the quasi title track of the release.

Their true artistic Heart however beats in the twelve-minutes challenge of interpreting post-industrialists Coil in an again very organ-heavy cover of “Going Up”. There isn’t much to add to the original’s density, but Årabrot are not only good at keeping up with the instrumental, but they crown it with a piercing standout performance of Karin Park, whose wailing has never reminded me that much of Elizabeth Colour Wheel-singer Otay:onii before. Goosebumps! Heart works as an artistic statement summing up a great part of Årabrot’s range and spirit in a compact format, yet also invites you to revisit – or discover – its sources and gladly stumble into these seductive rabbit-holes.

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Our interview with Kjetil

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Kjetil's further inspirations that aren't on Spotify or Bandcamp:

Big Black - “The Model” (originally by Kraftwerk)

Klaus Nomi - “You Don’t Own Me” (originally by Lesley Gore)

PS: Our response playlist will follow this weekend - there are just way too many to choose from!

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There is a certain pride in accompanying a band along their way for a longer time, especially when the initiation point for this shared voyage lies in the band’s early days. One of these bands to us is Quebec-based Post-Metal-juggernauts À l’ombre d’Héméra - and the next chapter is their new album Saison de déceptions which we are proud to give to you in full-length a week ahead of its release. Nod your head to this!

Not only are the guys in this band super-nice sweethearts but there is also something in their take on Post-Metal that a lot of you will surely find highly appealing! The sceptics will proclaim they heard it all before. Somewhat true, but good songwriting is good songwriting is good songwriting - and some of the guitar loops and pickings are way above average. The septics will say the sound is not dirty enough, but did you also complain about this when you listened to Isis all the time, nah, there you said it was al so well-produced and the same can be said about Saison de déceptions. The decepticons will proclaim is al just smoke and mirrors because there is too much post-rock and not enough crunch on this one. Those are also often the same people who proclaim their love for Post-Metal was based on the versatility and floatiness of Russian Circles.

What does VoS say? Easy! We love this band. We like their sound, their songwriting, their balance between lofty spherical Post-Rock and crunchy, sludgey Post-Metal.

And you? Well, you can judge for yourself:

You can also settle your pre-orders now via Ripcord Records, say hi to Charlene from us while doing so!

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Synthwave is not a common thing here on Veil of Sound, but Ultra Balance and their debut record is more than a simple exception. It is somewhere in the middle between House and Synthwave and therefore quite exciting!

One might remember the BigBeat era when Drum’n’Bass became even more accessible and bands like The Chemical Brothers had a huge hit like “Hey Boy Hey Girl” and we might remember how that sound was dominating the dancefloors. Fast forward 20 years and the newest big thing is Synthwave and acts like Perturbator, Trevor Something or Neon Indian dominate the scene. France has another remarkable dice in the game now with Ultra Balance from Nantes, whose debut Mental Escape can be heard here today and which will be released on Friday by Frozen Records. And now, move y’all!

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We have to apologize to all you Post-Rock lovers out there for not having given you our roundups in collaboration with WherePostRockDwells but we give you a double-edition to make up for it! Let us take you a passage through time and space with the four records of the two months. And don’t miss out on our honorable mentions as well!

Star-Guided Vessel - Tethered/Severed (Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Ambient)

Okay, everyone aboard! The tanks are full! Please make sure, that you are correctly strapped into your seats. Our direction is clear, we’re shooting for the stars. The record quickly takes over control of one’s senses by simply blending out all other thoughts because the songs are just so good that in order to keep track of all the little shifts and turns of the drums one has to pay full attention to what is going on. The force of the record is just like the catapulting ignition of the hinted at spaceship. And when tracks like “Lest We Wake” make use of another guitar line above all the riffing then that line is an astounding new layer which seems to enable us to look at planet earth from a few miles up, where gravity is still a thing but where the point of view itself is already completely different. Much vaster, wider, brighter and definitely calming. Space-Post-Metal.

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Desbot - Pass of Change (Kraut’ish Space Rock, Post-Metal)

So, our spaceship has left earth now but the weight of gravity is still strong and keeping us close to the ground, we witness a certain struggle between the strength of the (post-)metallic heaviness and the bright light of the orbit whose swirling, open guitar and synth-lines are filled with just the right amount of hall and reverb in order to create a sound that is very close to Cave-In’s master-prog-core era of Jupiter and Antenna. That Desbot is the brainchild of Jakob’s bassist Maurice Beckett might explain the perfection with which Desbot are performing their songs Space-Rock’ish explorations of space all the while still being connected to our home here on Earth. This record should be on everyone’s list if you like your prog harder than usual and your Post-Metal more open-minded than the average loud-vs-quiet-dynamics. Pass of Change is as much Can as it is Postvorta! As much Kungens Man as it Giants Chair

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Exxasens - Le-Voyage (Post-Rock, Space-Rock)

Exxasens has always been a pretty special band with a unique sound and this new record, their seventh full-length (!) since their inception 15 years ago, is just another proof for that. Maybe it is just my imagination, but this record shows their love for underrated Los Gatos-prog-band Dredg best. The swirling, slightly over the top circling guitars of Carles Sucarrats and Jordi Ruiz, the shiftiness of drummer Oriol Planells and the keys by Sergio Ledesma (btw is it just my imagination or do all of these names sound like straight from a Barca-roster?!) combine for a wonderful listening experience with the songs floating light as a breeze and taking us on this mesmerizing voyage. The kind of Le Stijl-cover artwork shows a band ready to leave some of their trodden paths and that also shows in the progginess of some tracks especially the masterpieces “L´Etoiles” (the horn section!) or “Cosmos” (straight up post-rock meets prog-metal) can only be measured by the two-fold miracle that is the title track - maybe one of the few times that the track title is an understatement when it comes to space-travel-adventures!

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THE V.O.I.D - Into the Void (Cinematic Post-Rock)

So, if you are keeping attention and have listened to the three albums above you might notice that there is a certain chronology to it. From the harsher to the spacier sounds and finally into space itself! And that is surely where THE V.O.I.D are taking us with their highl cinematic record whose cover might seem like Synthwave at first sight. Nevertheless, the content is pure Post-Rock meets light Classic Rock and the result is pure bliss. Several of the songs open with very light picking and then some shifty beats join in - a perfect example for that would be “Lilium” which exemplifies very well, how the incorporation of a guitar solo can contribute to the sound structure in general and not stand out as they normally do. The supporting lght spots painted by the keys just take us away from solid ground and into orbit. Music from Planet Earth for those traveling onward to find a new home for all on mankind. Maybe a bit farfetched but - the roots of this music are earthbound but their heads are definitely reaching out into space. Maybe they find us a new home?

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Here are our honourable mentions:

18 Seconds - À l’ombre des cyprès (Post-Rock, Ambient, Experimental)

BUZZ - Blissful Dystopia (Post-Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Space Rock, Instrumental)

Carved into the Sun - The Earth Fell Away (Post-Rock, Instrumental) Be sure to check out Thorsten’s review here.

Coldworld - Isolation (Post-Black Metal, Blackgaze)

Dérives - FERAE SEVES (POst-Rock, Neoclassical, Ambient)

Frayle - Skin & Sorrow (Doom Metal, Stoner Rock) Be sure to check out Gene’s review here.

girih - Ikigai (Post-Progressive-Rock, Post-Metal) Be sure to check out Knut’s review here.

Holy Fawn - Dimensional Bleed (Post-Hardcore, Shoegaze, Post-Rock)

Il Giardino degli Specchi - Monstrum (Post-Rock)

In-Dreamview - Spires (Math-Rock, Post-Rock, Jazz)

In2Elements - It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn (Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Instrumental)

Kamyki - Coal Rock (Post-Rock, Progressive Rock, Instrumental)

Lorimer Burst - VOYAGER (Post-Rock, Space Rock)

Lost in Kiev - Rupture (Post-Progressive-Rock, Electronica)

Mind Spun - Bloom (Post-Jazz, Progressive Rock, Math-Rock)

Montear - The Hunt (Cinematic, Indie-Rock, Post-Rock)

Mountainscape - Atoms Unfurling (Post-Metal, Post-Black Metal, Instrumental) Be sure to check out Simon’s review here.

My Education - EMKA (Indie-Rock, Post-Rock)

Noise Raid - Cosmic Radiations (Post-Metal, Krautrock) Be sure to check out Knut’s review here.

Rædsel - Determined to End (Post-Rock)

Random Forest - Ascension (Cinematic Post-Rock, Ambient)

Rintoul - Amokura (Post-Rock, Ambient)

Rýr - transient (Post-Metal, Doom, Sludge-Metal)

The Lightsenders - Derek Is An Astronaut (Post-Rock)

The Mantra Discord - Relapse Into Silence (Post-Progressive Rock, Art Rock)

Walls Of Ashes - According to Your Will (Post-Rock, Ambient, Drone, Experimental)

We Stood Like Kings - Away (Neoclassical, Cinematic Post-Rock, Ambient)

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Repetita Iuvant is a kinda mathy Post-Rock band from La Spezia, Italy. They have already been featured on VoS before and we are happy to show you the video for their latest single today!

When listening to “Albinus” one might not imagine a certain political agenda behind it, but be assured - there is. The song itself is a somewhat dreamy but nevertheless on-point track with swirling guitar sounds, some straight-forward riffs and some very mellow beat which swells up during the course of the song in order to highlight the absurdity of war and fighting on the one side but also the necessity of it for the greater, common good. Repetita Iuvant show us what they are capable of creating and that is surely something that genre-lovers should behold, especially the somewhat free form in the middle section of the track where the instruments seemingly run counter to each other. When they again join forces to the end the video suddenly shows the former black and white pencil pictures against a full-color background. As if trying to say ‘Well, look, those were real people, not just drawings!’ - a powerful and daring move which demands respect for both - the dead and the artists honoring them. Enjoy the track as much as you can - but do not forget the serious background it has!

Dedicated to the memory of Edy and Orso who gave their lives in order to protect ours from any form of dictatorship and fascism!

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There might be no better time for a new track by Asphodel Wine than the fall, and maybe even more precise, than Halloween. Therefore we are very happy to give you just that a new track by Sarah Pendleton and Zachary Livingston called Jesus Piece!

The couple from different parts of the US and from two pretty famous bands (do your own research!) have recorded a new record and “Jesus Piece” is a really good example of what makes the duo such an interesting act: A lot of Gothic atmosphere which makes one reach for the candles and lit many of them in order to establish the right environment for these dark rock songs with a lot of violin support for the melodic guitar lines. That is something the two are really good at, establishing a mood somewhere between The Castle of Otranto and Dracula, between The Watcher and The Witcher. Their formula is to take the best from Folk Rock, some classic Heavy and Doom Metal and enrich it with the Gothic elements that they throw in seemingly effortlessly and it has been ever since their debut Slowdance Macabre (which we also reviewed).

But now follow this link here, you can listen to this new track!

PS: you might want to check their Bandcamp-page soon!

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Compilations are surely a difficult thing - either the tracks are way too homogeneous and becoming blurry and boring or the songs are way too diverse and the audience cannot see a red line in the compilation. With Sounds To Make You Shudder that is different and therefore we happily premiere one of its tracks!

One might say that it’s easier for a Halloween-themed noise-compilation to establish that red line because of the genre-elements, and when you then add legends like David Yow, Jim O’Rourke, John Dwyer or the Flying Luttenbachers to the equation - well what could go wrong?!

However, it’s not the tracks by these legends that make this compilation such a spectacular journey through sound and noise, one of them is Berlin-based project Cuntroaches. Their addition is called “Borborygmus” and it sparks my interest in their upcoming record to such great heights that I can hardly wait to hear more of their quite radical mix of swirling, gurgling noise, switchblade riffs and black metal-related vocals. All of that ends in a beautiful cacophony of dirt and glory. And now without much further ado, listen to the overpowering wave that is “Borborygmus”:

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