No shortage of crush in the post-metallic take of Burial Clouds as the Portland outfit unveil the new single “Be Not Afraid” and announce the May 22 release of their second album, Burn Holy, but melody and texture aren’t far behind the sheer impact when it comes to the ultimate impression made. I didn’t hear the first record — I know you did; you’ve always been cooler than me — so this is my first exposure to the band, but you can hear the depth of purpose in what they’re doing and the feeling of exploration that coincides.

They’ve got preorders up and the video for “Be Not Afraid” is down at the bottom of this post. Maybe a bit of note-to-self here to keep an eye out for the promo of the album when it comes in, but I figure while I’m noting, sharing’s good too. Thus to the PR wire we go:

BURIAL CLOUDS: Portland Post-Doom Metal Collective To Release Burn Holy Full-Length May 22nd; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available

Portland post-doom metal collective BURIAL CLOUDS will release their stunning new full-length, Burn Holy, on May 22nd.

BURIAL CLOUDS’ music lives in constant tension between beauty and rage, crushing riffs and intricate expanses walking the lines between inner and outer worlds, healing ritual and seditious fire. Every song is a meditation on what it means to live with a gentle, livid heart in an inhuman age.

The band’s debut album – 2023’s Last Days Of A Dying World released via Church Road Records – was met with praise from both fans and critics alike.

Subsequently, they embarked on a successful run through their home turf of the Pacific Northwest, followed by a UK tour, culminating in an appearance at the renowned Arctangent Fest. The following year saw significant lineup changes. Founders Matt Mitchell and Flynn Hargreaves remain on guitar and bass respectively. Marina Lavelle, who was the central figure in the video for “Beirut Shores,” makes her debut with vocals that range from searing, unhinged hostility to delicate vulnerability and soaring expressiveness. Her introduction brings a new and enthralling dynamic to both the sound and perspective of BURIAL CLOUDS music. Bryce Ramsey, previously of Trials, a juggernaut of a player whose approach is as soulful as it is technical, has been recruited on guitar. The multi-talented Tim Iserman, of Salo and Beguile and formerly of Ritual Veil, brings their ferocious, feral energy to the drums. From the crucible of songwriting and DIY recording and production, a newly reformed BURIAL CLOUDS emerged with their best work to date: Burn Holy.

Elaborates Mitchell on the creation of Burn Holy, “We set out to make this record more intense in every direction than Last Days… Prettier and heavier, more gentle, vicious, intense, technically challenging, you name it. Having Marina on vocals has allowed us to highlight aspects of the music that might have otherwise been missed. She’s able to access dimensions of expression the rest of us just can’t. The depth that Bryce’s killer backups bring can’t go unmentioned either; the combination of the two creates greater than the sum of its parts. Burn Holy took more or less a year for us to write, starting about three months after the first record came out. There was no regular process. Some songs had the instrumental written first, vocals later. Some were all at once, some were a back-and-forth iterative process of rearranging, rewriting, rinse and repeat. As they developed, each song developed its own voice. We tried above all else to listen to what they told us was needed, and far more often than not, we all heard the same thing. Some songs went through upwards of 10 or 12 versions. It was a very intense process, and I think we all feel, because of that, that this is literally the best record we were capable of making at that point.”

In advance of the release, today the band unveils first single, “Be Not Afraid.” Offers Mitchell, “‘Be Not Afraid’ is ultimately about fear and awe and the consequences of their manipulation. We wanted to express our resistance to that, in the dynamics of the music, with a feeling of relentlessness and spiritual inevitability. Like erosive crashing waves or the fury of a mother protecting her young… You use whatever tools you have to rebalance the scales.”

Burn Holy was written, engineered, recorded, and mixed by BURIAL CLOUDS, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. The record will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats.

Find preorders at the BURIAL CLOUDS Bandcamp HERE: https://burialclouds.bandcamp.com/album/burn-holy

Burn Holy Track Listing [Digital]:
1. Burning The Olive Tree
2. Windflower
3. Ashen Altar
4. Negations
5. Be Not Afraid
6. Screaming, Drowning Pacified
7. Forget Me Not
8. Eyes Without Light

Burn Holy Track Listing [Vinyl]:
A Side:
1. Burning the Olive Tree
2. Windflower
3. Be Not Afraid
4. Negations
B Side:
1. Ashen Altar
2. Screaming, Drowning Pacified
3. Forget Me Not
4. Eyes Without Light

BURIAL CLOUDS:
Matt Mitchell – guitar
Flynn Hargreaves – bass
Marina Lavelle – vocals
Bryce Ramsey – guitar
Tim Iserman – drums

http://burialclouds.com/
https://burialclouds.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/burial_clouds

Burial Clouds, “Be Not Afraid” official video

The June 19 release date for Plaindrifter‘s Ripple Music debut and second full-length overall, Gestalt, should give listeners plenty of time to find it before the German trio travel to the US this Fall to appear at — wait for it — Ripplefest Texas. And if you, like me, have a thing specifically for seven-minute singles, then I might direct you to the bottom of this post where the textures and melodic outreach of “Moth Murmurations” await, more progressive and a tag like ‘heavy psych’ generally implies, but mindfully ethereal just the same.

Gestalt is the follow-up to 2021’s Echo Therapy (review here), and yeah, it takes “Moth Murmurations” a minute or two to get going — seven-minute singles! it’s a golden age! — but when it does it is as sure-footed as something can be and still count as exploratory on any level, its aggressive moments no less pivotal to the atmosphere than that shimmer on the quiet guitar drawing you along through its midsection.

I haven’t heard the full record — I don’t even know in what year June is happening, let alone what month it is now — but the single bodes well and the PR wire has details and preorder links and the art, which is rad, and so on:

German progressive stoner metal unit PLAINDRIFTER returns with sophomore album “Gestalt” on Ripple Music this June 19th; first single streaming now!

German progressive stoner metallers PLAINDRIFTER sign to Ripple Music for the release of their sophomore album “Gestalt” this June 19th, and reveal a towering first track with “Moth Murmuration” today!

🔥 Watch new lyric video for Moth Murmuration 🔥
+ listen to the single on all streaming services: https://lnkfi.re/mothmurmuration

With their 2021 debut Echo Therapy hailed, it is clear that Plaindrifter have impressed critics and fans alike, as few newcomers do.

Now, the quartet returns with their forthcoming sophomore album and Ripple Music debut; Gestalt. Pushed by a deep sense of self-criticism and a fear of repeating themselves, Plaindrifter have expanded their signature blend of tempo and key changes with bold new elements, including keyboards by Philipp Seitzer and guest vocals from Ryan Garney (High Desert Queen) and Lena Schneider. The result is an immersive, forward-looking heavy journey born from patience, passion, that should caught the ear of fans of Elder, King Buffalo, Howling Giant and Lowrider. The album was produced, engineered and mixed by Robin Stirnberg, mastered by Dennis Köhne, with a stunning cover artwork by André Tinibel.

PLAINDRIFTER “Gestalt”
Out June 19th on Ripple Music (LP/CD/digital) – Preorder: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/gestalt

TRACKLIST:
1. Moth Murmuration
2. Eternal Season
3. Hyborian Age
4. Respite
5. In Anima
6. Debaser

Hailing from Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr Area, Plaindrifter formed in 2017 to forge a brand of heavy psych that refuses to stand still. Blending hypnotic riffs, expansive soundscapes, and the restless spirit of stoner, prog, and post-rock, their 2021 debut Echo Therapy carved out a name in the European underground, winning over listeners with raw heaviness and unexpected melodic depth.

The band entered the studio in June 2025 with engineer Robin Stirnberg, but an unexpected setback forced them to relocate mid-session. Undeterred, Plaindrifter finished recording Gestalt in their rehearsal space. That resilience paid off quickly: through their friends in High Desert Queen (whose frontman Ryan Garney lends guest vocals to the track “In Anima”), the album’s master found its way to Ripple Music’s Todd Severin, who took the leap and instantly welcomed the band to the label’s roster. Now looking ahead with optimism, the band invites listeners old and new to dive into their anticipated new album Gestalt, to be released in the summer of 2026.

Plaindrifter is
Marcel “Uwe” Kloß — Vocals and Drums
Nils Stecker — Guitar
André Tinibel — Bass

https://plaindrifter.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/plaindrifter/
https://www.facebook.com/plaindrifter/

http://www.ripple-music.com/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/

Plaindrifter, Gestalt (2026)

Plaindrifter, “Moth Murmuration” official video

French heavy post-metallic psych-gaze rockers Occult Hand Order release their second album, Meaningless Monuments, through Totem Cat Records this Friday, April 17. The Lyon-based troupe made their self-titled debut in 2019, followed with an EP in 2021, and with these five songs cast their niche in atmospheric sprawl and impact. Opening with the longest of the inclusions (immediate points) in the 10-minute “Błędów” — named for Central Europe’s largest desert, in Poland — the album follows a thread of complex craft through the subsequent “Brno,” quiet and melodic almost to a point of minimalism until it turns around and crushes like YOB, shifting into and out of a pretty part to a last round of crush from there. The tradeoffs aren’t quite so stark as that sentence makes it seem, in “Brno” or “Błędów” or anything that follows — flow is in ready supply — but very quickly, Meaningless Monuments immerses the listener in its sense of journey and one experiences their dynamic in this feeling of going from place to place. I’ll allow that the songs having placenames for titles might be a factor there, but it’s in the music just the same.

Side B begins with the centerpiece “Mollerussa” (in Spain), which pairs quiet Isis fluidity with the stately flattening tonality of modern Author and Punisher, with a bit of Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks-style in the post-midpoint bass inherited from the opener. They call it ‘cinematic,’ and fair enough for a bit of drama, but more than that, Meaningless Monuments feels constructed out of marble for how solidified it is in its purposes, and ‘cinematic’ to my mind implies something soundtrackier and more ambient, and lush as they are, Occult Hand Order‘s songs are just that: songs. But the patience behind “Błędów,” “Mollerussa” and the album as a whole — side B’s “Mollerussa,” “Novo Mesto” (in Slovenia) and “Gerlach” (maybe Slovakia?) are shorter but still pointed in their atmospherics — is a key to what lets the band build the album’s world, skillfully and subtly laying out the tone and mood in “Błędów” and moving outward from there through “Brno” on side A.

“Mollerussa” ends with feedback and residual bass, and the drums that start “Novo Mesto” pick up directly as the shortest piece on the record begins, the guitar cutting out to allow space for the arrival of the vocal melody. It’s not long before the full tonal brunt is unveiled, layers of shouts worked in behind the melodic vocals, buried but there enough to do more than hint at aggression. The second cycle through, they depart into a speedier section before a last-minute roller crescendo finishes cold and lets the chug at the outset of “Gerlach” have its say. And before the closer’s six-plus minutes are done, Occult Hand Order have reinterpreted the gamut not as verse/chorus trades, but a swell in volume that let’s go into a vocals-and-drone midsection as a serene setup for the onslaught that soon enough follows, galloping on the drums like in “Novo Mesto,” but hitting with greater impact and a wash of a finish whose leftover echoes and feedback provide Meaningless Monuments‘ last stretch.

Taking its title from the lyrics of “Gerlach” — “Here’s what we need/The stones we carved for them/Left in ruins/Meaningless monuments” — the album moves through melancholic viewpoints and is largely vague in verbiage, and that speaks to the impressionist impulse of Occult Hand Order‘s creativity; the idea that not everything is going to be explained clearly. This does more to create mystique than one might first anticipate, and part of that is the clarity of vision that defines each one of these songs and the entirety they comprise. The album streams in full on the player below, followed by more info from the PR wire and tour dates.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Formed in the French city of Lyon in 2018, heavy psychedelic trio Occult Hand Order marry the crushing weight of doom, post-rock and ethereal soundscapes, all lifted by soaring vocal harmonies that conjure arcane rituals and otherworldly mysticism.

After a striking self-titled debut in 2019, the band teamed up with the aptly named Interstellar Smoke Records to unleash The Chained, The Burned, The Wounded. The EP was hailed by critics, and the roar from the underground blasted open the doors to Europe’s finest stages, where the trio now stands, locked in and levitating. They’re now ready to propel their unique soundscapes into outer space again, with the release of their sophomore album Meaningless Monuments on Totem Cat Records this spring.

With Meaningless Monuments, the band delves into themes of apocalypse, inner collapse and the search for meaning. Darker, slower and more cinematic, the record unfolds through long, hypnotic structures where massive riffs meet meditative, atmospheric passages. The mystical trio truly delivers a mind-elevating rock ritual — a journey through inner ruins, a quest for what remains when everything falls apart.

Tracklisting:
1. Błędów
2. Brno
3. Mollerussa
4. Novo Mesto
5. Gerlach

European spring shows
17.04 – Lyon (FR) Marché Gare – RELEASE PARTY
18.04 – La Fare les Oliviers (FR) L’Humus
19.04 – Bologna (IT) Freakout Club
21.04 – Ljubljana (SL) Channel Zero
22.04 – Milano (IT) Cascina Torchiera
23.04 – Vevey (CH) Le Bout Du Monde
24.04 – Köln -(DE) Valhalla
26.04 – Groningen (NL) Cafe Witte de Wolfe
29.04 – Le Mans (FR) Lezard Bar
30.04 – Paris (FR) Le Cirque Electrique
01.05 – Les Brouzils (FR) Chez Hervé
02.05 – Rennes (FR) Uzine Bar
28.05 – St Imier (FR) Toxoplasmose Fest
29.05 – Nice (FR) Altherax Music
26.06 – Manigod (FR) Namass Pamouss
28.06 – Bourlon (FR) Rock In Bourlon Fest
02.08 – St Maurice de Gourdans (FR) Sylak Open Air

Occult Hand Order Linktr.ee

Occult Hand Order on Bandcamp

Occult Hand Order on Instagram

Occult Hand Order on Facebook

Totem Cat Records store

Totem Cat Records on Instagram

Totem Cat Records on Facebook

Atlanta’s Insomniac haven’t been shy about getting out to support their 2025 album, Om Moksha Ritam (review here), and the momentum will carry them into this summer as they embark on a handful of shows starting tonight in North Carolina with Crystal Spiders headed through Legalize Lex this weekend and newly announce a stint in the Midwest with Slumbering Sun for July.

The impetus for the summer tour is Doomed and Stoned in Asheville, North Carolina, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the band have dates later this year pulling together their Northeastern appearances at In the Key of Doom and the upstate Joint Jam thereafter. Unless, you know, they want to take some time for themselves, enjoy the Finger Lakes or whatever.

All their dates were posted on social media with fancy fonts like so. Note that Insomniac recently took part in the inaugural Mojave Experience Festival in Joshua Tree. That was at the end of March, so these shows aren’t even the band’s first time hitting the road already this year. All the same, here you go:

MORE DATES ADDED! We must be dreaming. Extremely stoked to join our solsticesters SLUMBERING SUN on the road this summer. DON’T SLEEP!

🎨: @maliarifkin

𝙒𝙚𝙗𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣’ 𝙬/ 𝘾𝙧𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨
4/15 – Chapel Hill, NC / Local 506
4/16 – Harrisonburg, VA / Golden Pony
4/17 – Morgantown, WV / 123 Pleasent Street
4/18 – Lexington, KY / Legalize Lex Festival
4/19 – Knoxville, TN / Pilot Light

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 30 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨
5/9 – Athens, GA / The 40 Watt

𝑴𝒊𝒅𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒘/ 𝑺𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒖𝒏
7/10 – Shreveport, LA / Bear’s
7/11 – Tulsa, OK / Whittier Bar
7/12 – Lawrence, KS / The Bottleneck
7/13 – Omaha, NE / Reverb Lounge
7/14 – Davenport, IA / Raccoon Motel
7/15 – Indianapolis, IN / State St. Pub
7/16 – Nashville, TN / The End
7/17 – Asheville, NC / Doomed & Stoned
7/18 – Atlanta, GA / Boggs Social

𝑰𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒐𝒐𝒎
10/2 – Brooklyn, NY / The Meadows

𝑱𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑱𝒂𝒎 2026
10/10 – Saratoga Springs, NY / Putnam Place

INSOMNIAC is
Alex Avedissian – Guitar
Van Bassman – Vocals
Juan Garcia – Bass
Amos Rifkin – Percussion, Vocals

https://www.insomniacvibes.com/
https://insomniacvibes.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/insomniac_atl/
https://www.facebook.com/insomniacATL/

bluesfuneral.com
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/

Insomniac, Om Moksha Ritam (2025)

Some eight years after a studio return, Corrosion of Conformity… make a studio return. Good God / Baad Man is the 11th full-length in the 44-year narrative of the band, whose membership at this point draws from North Carolina, New Orleans, Texas and Chicago. Comprising 14 tracks over a sprawling 66-minute 2LP, Good God / Baad Man is both a reassurance and something of a reachout. It marks the studio debut of Bobby Landgraf on bass/backing vocals alongside founding guitarist Woodroe Weatherman, frontman Pepper Keenan on guitar/vocals and drummer Stanton Moore, who after appearing on 2005’s In the Arms of God (review here) returns to the band in place of Reed Mullin, who passed away in 2020.

The absence of founding bassist Mike Dean, who quit the band in 2024 and has a new project called Archaos, is notable. Keenan has spent the last 20-plus years going back and forth between C.O.C. and Down, in which Landgraf (also Honky, etc.) also plays, and has always brought midtempo groove to balance Dean‘s hardcore punk undertones. Even on a ripper like “Gimme Some Moore” here, which was the album’s first single and might be its most charged moment, is denser and more Motörheaded in its push.

That Good God / Baad Man has so much energy in its recording — the production details and little slices of life at the start or end of a track, short divergent intros and instrumental pieces like “Bedouin’s Hand” and “Mandra Sonos,” creating such varied, vivid pictures — stands alongside the compositional depth and an abiding sense that the band are having a party and everybody’s invited; it is the performances that most tie it together.

Another notable absensce is that of longtime producer John Custer. From 1991’s Blind (discussed here) through 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here), Custer helmed every C.O.C. studio album, eight total, and played a pivotal role in shaping their sound and influence. Warren Riker (Down, Cynic, Cathedral, etc.) debuts as producer and is served in the effort by his prior collaborations with Keenan in recording Down (it was before Landgraf was in that band, I’m pretty sure), and certainly Down are a relevant consideration particularly as Good God / Baad Man works its way toward the finish of its second LP, with songs like the funk-boogie D-side strutter “Handcuff County” and the backup-singers-included finale “Forever Amplified” feeling especially New Orleans blues-rooted in aesthetic terms. But Good God / Baad Man isn’t a Down record. It’s very much a C.O.C. record, and if you want to be more accurate, it’s two of them. It’s Good God and Baad Man.

One might’ve said the same of No Cross No Crown — that it broke into two distinct LPs — and been correct, but Good God / Baad Man revisits this idea with clearer intention. They’re not exactly even, but the first LP ends with the nine-minute mid-paced melancholy sprawl of “Run for Your Life,” catchy in kind of a sad way, and the second starts with the hook and shove of “Baad Man,” which isn’t necessarily held back by some problematic accenting, but kind of skirts the line there, not that political correctness matters under fascism.

The first of the two albums, with the whole-album intro-into-push “Good God Final Dawn” and “You or Me” and “Gimme Some Moore” offering familiar brashness and groove, choice riffing and striking flashes of aggression, torn-open solos from Weatherman and an abiding air of shenanigans, is the shorter. The powerhouse opening salvo shifts into purer Sabbathry with “The Handler” before “Bedouin’s Hand” departs to vague Middle Easternism and “Run for Your Life” digs in to tell its story in its own time, thank you very much.

This LP, the Good God portion of Good God / Baad Man, does a condensed take on the classic heavy rock A/B-sided 12″ progression. It rocks up front, branches out from there and finishes big. It’s not pushing boundaries for the band the way Baad Man is about to, but it effectively hints toward that in “Bedouin’s Hand” and “The Handler” without giving away where pieces like the penultimate “Brickman,” or the jammy “Swallowing the Anchor” just before it are going to go. The second LP, with four songs each on sides C and D, again starting with “Baad Man” and answering with “Handcuff County,” works not dissimilarly but digs in further for both its straightforward cuts and its branchouts.

“Asleep on the Killing Floor” is a destructive highlight, while “Brickman” is an unplugged contemplation kin to “13 Angels” or “Shelter” from out of C.O.C.‘s catalog, and “Swallowing the Anchor” — with that phone ringing intro bound to catch you off guard the first time you hear it — feels like a touch-ground to prior rockers like “Lose Yourself” and “Baad Man” at first but emerges as jammier. Curiously, the word “tits” is bleeped out of the line, “She had the tits of a witch,” as if to acknowledge that that’s not something they actually want to be saying in a song while at the same time saying it anyway. These are dark, dumb times to be a human male.

In many ways, and not the least of them the blowout they reserve for “Forever Amplified” at the end, Good God / Baad Man is the Pepper Keenan-fronted album C.O.C. fans have wanted since In the Arms of God. Where No Cross No Crown was framed around the comeback of the ’90s era of the band and thus set up to live in the insurmountable shadow of albums like 1994’s Deliverance (discussed here) and 1996’s Wiseblood (discussed here), Good God / Baad Man offers a revitalized, refreshed sound, rooted in live performance.

It is dynamic, encompassing, and speaks to the band’s past without trying to recapture it. Keenan‘s strength as a songwriter is well established and all over this material, but his is by no means the only personality on display here, between Weatherman‘s leads and Landgraf‘s bass kicking in for the burner finish of “You or Me,” or pretty much anything Moore touches throughout, be it the cowbell on “Swallowing the Anchor” or just the way he sits back and holds together songs that go to so many different places.

I won’t mince words or pretend I’m not a Corrosion of Conformity fan. One suspects that for most who hear it, Good God / Baad Man will not be their first exposure to the band. So much the better to become a fan all over again.

Corrosion of Conformity, “You and Me” official video

Corrosion of Conformity, “Gimme Some More” official video

Corrosion of Conformity, Good God / Baad Man (2026)

Corrosion of Conformity website

Corrosion of Conformity on Instagram

Corrosion of Conformity on Facebook

Nuclear Blast Records website

Nuclear Blast Records on Instagram

Nuclear Blast Records on Facebook

I’m just gonna go ahead now and save a spot in my top 10 albums of the year for Genghis Tron. Reserved place. There are a lot of records I’m looking forward to coming out between now and June — Monolord (also on Relapse), Elder, All Them Witches, Solace, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Nine Inch Noize, and so on — and amid the horrors of 2026, the music’s already proven a salve for idiotic times, but you’re telling me there’s a new Genghis Tron LP due June 12 and I’m not sure I’m as anxious to hear any of the above as I am what these Poughkeepsie electro-heavy specialists have come up with.

Genghis Tron‘s 2021 album, Dream Weapon (review here), largely departed the band’s more chaotic, grind-influenced early work in favor of lush melodies and progressive flow. The forthcoming Signal Fire — introduced to listeners with the single “I Am All,” streaming below — seems like it’s trying to bridge that gap a bit, playing between clean and screamed vocal dynamics and harsh and fluid progressions. It feels more immediate than much of Dream Weapon and still manages to be six minutes long. Sign me up.

The PR wire brought the best news of my day:

Genghis Tron return with new LP Signal Fire; Share first single / music video “I Am All”

Incoming June 12, 2026 on Relapse

Pre-order: https://orcd.co/genghistron

For almost two decades, Genghis Tron bandleaders Michael Sochynsky and Hamilton Jordan have gazed into the future and imagined what the world would look like after the extinction of our species— an outcome that has long troubled but also inspired them to steer the pioneering outfit in breaking new ground with each successive release, from the triumphant and genre-smashing electro-grind of 2008’s Board Up the House to the lush, pummeling hypnosis of 2021’s Dream Weapon.

Now, with their fourth full-length album Signal Fire (out on June 12), co-produced and mixed by Seth Manchester (Model/Actriz, Battles, Big Brave), Genghis Tron awaken us from the post-apocalyptic daydreams of their previous work with a violent— and most welcome —shove. This time, the distant-future reveries we first heard on Board Up The House give way to an unsettling awareness of the present we’re actually living, as our circumstances grow too pressing to try and escape.

“’Signal Fire’ envisions a Kojima-esque dystopia of endless proxy warfare,” says vocalist and lyricist Tony Wolski (The Armed), “where the deluge of available information has outmoded the human ability to parse it. A world where those amoral, shameless and cunning enough can literally reshape the reality at their whim through sheer insistence. Honestly, this is probably about, like, late 2027…”

Roaring onto the scene in 2004 with a uniquely demented blend of extreme metal, synthesizer textures, and drum-machine madness, Genghis Tron are no strangers to making a forceful impression. But Signal Fire marks the first time the band– joined again by Wolski and Nick Yacyshyn (SUMAC) on drums, plus newcomer Kenny Szymanski (The Armed) on bass– has captured this level of urgency with such visceral precision. “This album is very much rooted in the now,” confirms Jordan.

First single and album opener “I Am All” sets the table with a chest-throbbing synth pulse as Wolski declares “I’m on a tear, I’m on a tear,” over swirling industrial rhythms and creeping synthlines. Even as the gaping maw of Wax Trax!-inspired buzzsaw guitars breaks the surface and threatens to swallow the other instruments whole— and as Wolski switches from hypnotic melodies to agonized screams — the music speaks to the sway in your hips, to the allure of possibility and a taste of danger in the air. If Genghis Tron are calling us to dance until the decay of civilization, “I Am All” establishes that it’s gonna be one hell of a time.

Listen / share “I Am All” on DSP’s: https://orcd.co/genghistron

Twenty years into their career, having proven their ability to forge common ground between Ministry and Aphex Twin, between Brutal Truth and Boards Of Canada, between Cluster and Converge, ugly-beautiful new genre hybrids from Genghis Tron no longer come as a surprise. What’s remarkable, however, is how Sochynsky and Jordan have taken a project that started in 2004 as a dorm-room genre-pastiche experiment —”a chaotic, wild amalgamation of all our favorite stuff, literally slammed together,” says Jordan—and refined their songwriting craft to deliver a sound that is unmistakably their own. Sochynsky and Jordan acknowledge that their approach to songwriting is, at its core, the same it has always been: trading ideas, whether on synths, programmed beats, or guitars. The crucial difference is that Genghis Tron now sounds like, well, an actual band.

“That transformation would not have been possible,” Jordan insists, “without Tony, Nick, and Kenny.” Sochynsky agrees: “They’re amazing musicians and they all have killer songwriting instincts, which helps push everything to the next level.” Through their contributions to 2021’s Dream Weapon, Wolski and Yacyshyn— who joined the band in 2020, replacing former vocalist Mookie Singerman and the band’s drum machine, respectively— had already proven themselves to be indispensable to the full realization of Genghis Tron’s vision.

Wolski brings grace and emotional charge to Genghis Tron’s music, “and his vocal melodies are transformative,” says Jordan. Meanwhile, Yacyshyn’s uncanny ability to thread live drums that groove and sway and drive their way through Sochynsky’s electronic sequences has become the band’s rhythmic trademark. “And now that Kenny has joined, there’s an entirely new dimension,” adds Sochynsky. “We originally asked him to help with a few songs, but it turned out so well that he just kept going. Kenny’s playing is one of my favorite aspects of the whole record.”

On Signal Fire, Genghis Tron has never sounded more unhinged, more alive, and more free to continue upending everyone’s expectations in service of making compelling music.

Pre-order Signal Fire here (https://genghistron.bandcamp.com/album/signal-fire) or direct from Relapse here (https://www.relapse.com/pages/genghis-tron-signal-fire) and look for more information coming soon…

Signal Fire track list:

1. I Am All
2. Signal Fire
3. Future Worship
4. Like Fotocrom
5. Tomorrow Mirage
6. Nothing Blooms in the Hollow
7. Without Form
8. Born Prey
9. A Love So Pure
10. New Gods

https://linktr.ee/genghistron
https://genghistron.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.instagram.com/genghis.tron/
https://www.facebook.com/GenghisTron/

http://www.relapse.com
https://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.instagram.com/relapserecords
http://www.facebook.com/RelapseRecords

Genghis Tron, Signal Fire (2026)

Genghis Tron, “I am All” official video

Heyo, some open slots on Dead Meadow‘s upcoming European run. Maybe you’ve got a spot and a night. If you can help out, it is the moral thing to do.

As I think you can probably glean from the list of confirmations, the impetus behind Dead Meadow‘s Summer ’26 return to Europe is festival-based. They’ll be at Annibale, Krach am Bach, Blue Moon, SonicBlast, Sauzipf Rocks, Palp (in the Alps!) and finish off at Hoflärm. There are some righteous club shows between, but again, there could be more.

The Los Angeles trio head abroad in support of their 2025 album, Voyager to Voyager (review here), and I’ll note that before they go, they’ll be at Tee Pee Records‘ Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous in NYC next month, having already played Mojave Experience in Cali at the end of March. Catch them where and when you can.

From the PR wire:

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Booking to announce DEAD MEADOW European Tour 2026 !!

We are stoked to announce that our US psych-rock Legends DEAD MEADOW will tour Europe in July/August 2026.

!! STILL FEW OPEN SLOTS !!

*** DEAD MEADOW – Voyager to Voyager 2026 ***
Tue 21 Jul 26 IT ROMA – Monk
Wed 22 Jul 26 IT MARINA DI RAVENNA – Hana Bi
Thu 23 Jul 26 IT TBC
Fri 24 Jul 26 IT TBC
Sat 25 Jul 26 IT FIRENZE – Annibale Festival
Sun 26 Jul 26 IT TORINO – Blah Blah
Mon 27 Jul 26 FR MARSEILLE – Le Molotov
Tue 28 Jul 26 ***OPEN SLOT***
Wed 29 Jul 26 FR PARIS – Supersonic
Thu 30 Jul 26 ***OPEN SLOT***
Fri 31 Jul 26 DE BEELEN – Krach am Bach Festival
Sat 1 Aug 26 DE COTTBUS – Blue Moon Festival
Sun 2 Aug 26 PL POZNAN – Pawilon
Tue 4 Aug 26 DE HANNOVER – Faust
Wed 5 Aug 26 ***OPEN SLOT***
Thu 6 Aug 26 NL UTRECHT – dB’s
Fri 7 Aug 26 PL MOLEDO – Sonic Blast Fest
Sat 8 Aug 26 AT DOBRIACH – Sauzipf Rocks
Sun 9 Aug 26 ***OPEN SLOT***
Tue 11 Aug 26 DE KARLSRUHE – P8
Wed 12 Aug 26 CH BASEL – Wagenplatz
Thu 13 Aug 26 ***OPEN SLOT***
Fri 14 Aug 26 CH BRUSON – Palp Festival
Sat 15 Aug 26 DE MARIENTHAL – Hoflarm Festival

http://www.deadmeadow.com/
https://deadmeadow.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thedeadmeadow/
https://www.facebook.com/DeadMeadowOfficial/

www.heavypsychsounds.com
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Dead Meadow, Voyager to Voyager (2025)

There’s a lot of info below, and some of the reason behind that is I’d like to have it archived for when and if I want it later, like, as an example, to review. The roots of Liminal Sky lie in Messenger, in which Daniel Knight took part and Jaime Gomez Arellano produced, but the melancholy lush sound of their debut album, All Tomorrow’s Darkness, is its own kind of subdued pastoralia. The collaboration extends beyond the two as Knight and Arellano are joined throughout All Tomorrow’s Darkness by the likes of Hexvessel‘s Mat McNerny, Ulver‘s Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg, Karin Park of Årabrot and a handful of others, creating an invariably fleshed-out sound that seems at times to have its roots still in minimalism, but is all the more immersive for the worldmaking aspects of “Penance” or “Oar on the Mooring,” each of nine inclusions working toward its own developed ends.

Due out June 19 like the headline says, on Karisma Records, it gets to be pretty heady stuff, so if you’re not immediately taken by the single “Some Other Time” — audio/video below — give it some room to breathe, maybe take a breath yourself, and give it another chance before you form your opinion one way or the other.

The following came down the PR aire:

Liminal Sky announce new album and stream first single ‘Some Other Time’

Feat. guest appearances from Ulver, Hexvessel, Grave Pleasures and more

All Tomorrow’s Darkness due 19th June via Karisma Records

Liminal Sky is the rebirth of the creative partnership behind progressive post rock band Messenger, brought to life by producer Jaime Gomez Arellano and Daniel Knight. Their debut album All Tomorrow’s Darkness, featuring Mat McNerney (Hexvessel/Grave Pleasures), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and members of Årabrot, Ulver and Jaga Jazzist will be released on 19th June, via Karisma Records.

Liminal Sky are proud to release a their first single ‘Some Other Time’, expressing their beautifully bleak and vivid exploration of grief and illumination.

Watch the video for ‘Some Other Time’ here: https://youtu.be/VukiXVnKDRU
Stream and pre-order All Tomorrow’s Darkness here: https://orcd.co/some-other-time

Liminal Sky comment that the single is: “Written in the shadow of sudden and slow loss, Gomez losing a close family member to Covid, and Mat’s mother slowly disappearing through Alzheimer’s. Grief reshapes memory, not as an ending, but something that persists and evolves. This song is about the endurance of grief, and the pain of love without saying goodbye.”

Tracklist:
1. Some Other Time (feat. Mat McNerney, Lars Horntveth)
2. A Solitary Future (feat. Kristoffer Rygg)
3. In Some Secret Universe (feat. Mat McNerney)
4. Forget Me Not (feat. Mat McNerney)
5. Penance (feat. Karin Park)
6. The Weight of Heaven (feat. Kristoffer Rygg)
7. Algebra of Unknowing (feat. Mat McNerney)
8. Oar on the Mooring (feat. Mat McNerney)
9. All Tomorrow’s Darkness (feat. Mat McNerney, Daniel O’Sullivan)

Liminal Sky is the meeting point of two musicians searching for a way out of the darkness. Continuing their work from their previous band Messenger, Jaime Gomez Arellano and Daniel Knight channel sadness and loss into a shared musical language. The borderland between despondency and tear-stained hope has a name: Liminal Sky.

Progressive, widescreen guitars chime out, stark yet luminous, barren yet revealing as Liminal Sky layers and climaxes each song to a heady reverberating crescendo. The instrumentation on All Tomorrow’s Darkness is seamlessly eclectic, and spirited by a constellation of guest musicians and voices who appear throughout. Mat McNerney’s vocals and lyrics on six of the album’s nine tracks form the backbone of the record. Crafting the lyrics and vocal arrangements together with Gomez and Knight in Finland to establish the soul of their debut album, McNerney’s words articulate the album’s terrain. Having recently lost his mother, McNerney brought a profound personal resonance with songs like ‘In Some Secret Universe’ and ‘Algebra of Unknowing’ expanding the album’s honesty and depth.

Other voices move through All Tomorrow’s Darkness like spectral presences: Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) brings a fragile, shimmering intensity to two tracks, while Karin Park (Årabrot) adds raw emotional gravity to ‘Penance,’ and Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, Grumbling Fur, Årabrot collaborator) provides a haunting vocal invocation on the title track. Around them, instrumental colours bloom across the record’s expanse with Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist, The National Bank) threading saxophone, synths and lap steel, while Alicia Nurho (violinist/violist in contemporary classical & experimental music) paints the album with pale, trembling strings. Anders Møller (Kåre & The Cavemen / Euroboys, Ulver live percussionist) deepens the rhythmic pulse with ritualistic percussion, Tore Ylwizaker (Ulver) in one of his last recorded performances contributes a ghostly piano refrain, and Ole Alexander Halstensgård (Ulver) shadows the soundscape with dissolving electronic textures. Finally, Matt Rozeik (Necro Deathmort) (multi-instrumentalist/producer known for atmospheric electronic and alternative rock work) adds subtle, smouldering synth tones. Every collaborator adds texture without altering direction, held together by Gomez’s careful production and cohesive sonic identity for clarity and atmosphere.

Released worldwide by Karisma Records on 16th June, All Tomorrow’s Darkness introduces Liminal Sky as a music of fearless vulnerability. It is melancholic post-rock scraped down to bone, grief and beauty without resolution. For fans of Messenger, (early) Opeth, Jeff Buckley, Ulver, The Mars Volta, Anathema, Radiohead, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós, and Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden era.

All Tomorrow’s Darkness marks both an ending and a beginning: a final chapter in a long, difficult period for its creators, and the opening of a new path for Liminal Sky. Gomez has already begun writing the next Liminal Sky album. Whether out of necessity or instinct, the world of Liminal Sky continues to expand, bleakly, beautifully and lit by the faint glow that appears when all other lights have gone out.

Liminal Sky are:
Jaime Gomez Arellano
Daniel Knight

https://liminalskyband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/liminalskyband/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579289855890

https://www.karismarecords.no/
https://karismarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/karismarecords/
https://www.facebook.com/karismarecords

Liminal Sky, “Some Other Time” official video

Liminal Sky, All Tomorrow’s Darkness (2026)