Last week, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol announced a full-US run in the company of fellow Austinites and Permanent Teeth Records labelmates American Sharks. The latter are making a return after a five-year break and now have revealed a new album to coincide with the start of that tour in April. Titled Not Dead Yet, the record is introduced via first single “Going Insane,” which you can hear at the bottom of this post. It’s a classic shove, tense in chug and punk-rooted as American Sharks have been all along, with an earworm of a hook that’s in and out in just over three minutes, sharply executed but not indulgent at the cost of efficiency. Like the record from whence it comes, it sounds like American Sharks both are and definitely are not screwing around. That’s a good thing.

The tour dates with Rickshaw Billie‘s are below as well, if you didn’t mark your calendar already. Here’s the single cover art and info courtest of the PR wire:

AMERICAN SHARKS – Not Dead Yet

Pre-orders: https://americansharks.bandcamp.com/album/not-dead-yet

American Sharks is a three-piece band hailing from Austin, TX. Their punk-metal hybrid sound blends pop hooks with blasting-yer-face riffs resulting in something akin to if Weezer went Stoner Rock. Coupled with hook-laden singalong lyrics, American Sharks’ forthcoming 2026 album Not Dead Yet is a, uh, breathtaking return.

The band is joined on the album by special guest guitar soloists: Mike Derks (GWAR), Zach Blair (Rise Against), Kyle Shutt (The Sword), David Sullivan (Red Fang), and Leo Lydon (Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol).

Since the release of their 2013 self-titled debut album, American Sharks has toured extensively supporting the likes of GWAR, Clutch, The Sword, Red Fang, Big Business, Corrosion of Conformity and many others. After touring to support their debut album on The End Records, American Sharks took time off to write and record their self-produced follow up album, 11:11 on BMG. After a 5 year break, American Sharks are back with 9-fast paced, pummeling tracks.

Not Dead Yet will be available on LP, CD and download on April 17th, 2026 via Permanent Teeth.

Tracklisting:
01. I’m Not Dead Yet
02. Flowers For The Dead
03. Going Insane
04. Fuzz War
05. Give Me Blood
06. Band Yet Head
07. The Machine
08. Sunny Sunday
09. They Want Peace

AMERICAN SHARKS – TOUR 2026:
03/12 Austin, TX – Hotel Vegas – Hotel Vegas 15th Anniversary Party
04/16 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater *#
04/17 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge *
04/19 Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern *
04/20 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios *
04/22 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of The Hill *
04/23 Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon *
04/25 San Diego, CA – The Casbah *
04/26 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s *
04/28 Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge *
05/01 Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head *#
05/02 Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck *#
05/03 Omaha, NE – Reverb *#
05/04 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry *#
05/06 Milwaukee, WI – Falcon Bowl *#
05/07 St. Louis, MO – Blueberry Hill Duck Room *#
05/08 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle *#
05/09 Cleveland, OH – Mahall’s *#
05/10 Toronto, ON – The Garrison *
05/12 Montreal, QC – Cabaret Foufs *
05/13 Boston, MA – Sonia *
05/15 Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye *
05/17 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s *
05/18 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery *
05/20 Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre *
05/22 Atlanta, GA – The Earl *
05/23 Nashville, TN – The Blue Room *
* w/ Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol
# w/ Pink Fuzz

https://americansharks.bandcamp.com
https://linktr.ee/americansharks
https://www.instagram.com/americansharks/

American Sharks, Not Dead Yet (2026)

Certainly I could’ve found a more current live clip of YOB to include with this post about the band playing Desertfest Berlin 2026 in an exclusive-for-Germany appearance (they’ll also be at Obsidian Dust in Belgium, also exclusive) — at least something to represent the current lineup of the band with Dave French (Steve Von Till, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, etc.) on drums — but I didn’t, and the reason is I wanted to talk about the prospect eight years later of the next YOB record.

Up front, I’ll say I have no idea the status of such a thing, if it’s recorded and in the can or not even begun. There’s been word of YOB recording intermittently since 2018’s Our Raw Heart (review here), and the cosmic doomers have had live activity all the while (2020-’21 notwithstanding, of course), but it’s by far the longest stretch they’ve gone without an album release, and you know what? That’s fine.

I know. I should be complaining, griping like the entitled prick I am that 2018 was eight years ago, blah blah. It’s not that I don’t care. But YOB issued landmark after landmark from 2003 onward, and they don’t owe me, you or anybody else anything, and where some bands might take a break from writing or recording and it’s like what the hell, YOB are more likely to be that much stronger for doing so if that’s what they needed. Sometimes you need to live for a while as you sort out what you want to say about life. I don’t begrudge them the years. They’ve been around for more than 25 years. I’m just glad they still exist.

They’re in Australia this week, if you’re looking for more YOB news to coincide with this. Let the rest be sorted when it will, if it will.

From the PR wire:

DESERTFEST BERLIN Announces YOB for 2026

Exclusive Germany Show!

Barely has the dust settled from the latest band wave featuring Greenleaf, Toundra, Causa Sui and Gumm, and Desertfest Berlin is already raising the stakes again. The newest addition is a true heavyweight: YOB will play an exclusive Germany show in 2026!

For over 25 years, the Oregon doom masters have carved a singular path through heavy music – where colossal riffs, sky-bound vocals, and spiritual depth collide. Rooted in doom, stoner, and psychedelic sludge, their sound moves slowly yet hits with overwhelming force, pulling listeners into a transformative live experience.

This latest announcement further raises the bar on a line-up that was already operating at full volume: Red Fang, Russian Circles, Hermano feat. John Garcia, The Sword, King Buffalo, Acid King, Truckfighters, Crippled Black Phoenix, Nebula, Earthless, Rotor, Blackwater Holylight, Zerre, Pelican, High Desert Queen, and many more are set to appear.

Desertfest Berlin 2026 takes place from May 14–16, 2026 at Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater. Tickets and venue sleep-over options are available at:
www.desertfest-tickets.de

✨ARTWORK by Kuba Sokolski Illustration

www.desertfest.de
www.instagram.com/desertfest_berlin
www.facebook.com/DesertfestBerlin

YOB, Our Raw Heart (2018)

“Ceasing to Exist” was the nine-minute closing track of Craneium‘s debut album, Explore the Void, which came out in 2015. Its origins go back further, as the band explain below, and as they celebrate 15 years together in 2026, the Turku, Finland, progressive heavy psychedelic rockers have revisited the track with a new and expanded arrangement, a richer melodic take, and a fuller sound on the whole to represent who they are now, inherently providing a showcase for how the band have grown along the way over the last decade and a half.

The original, streaming below, feels more indebted to heavy psychedelia of the post-Colour Haze or Samsara Blues Experiment vein, and rolls out with a jammy fluidity. “Ceasing to Exist (Revisited),” on the other hand, is lush enough to feel like plunging into feathers (without all the pokey bits) when you put it on. Joined by Andreas Österlund on guitar and Lari Oksala on synth, the core four-piece of guitarist/vocalists Andreas Kaján and Martin Ahlö, drummer Joel Kronqvist and Jonas Holmström have a better sense of where they’re going — surely having already written and recorded the song 11 years prior has something to do with that — but make the journey all the more immersive for the patience they’ve taught themselves in the interim. They say they still play the song live. I would not at all mind seeing that, fleshed-out arrangement or no.

One imagines that the post-crescendo comedown at the end of the (new version of the) track is more accurate to the live experience, since in the studio original that was handled by a layered-in acoustic guitar, and while bands going back and redoing earlier works is always a touchy subject, as somebody on the internet is bound to be mad about it, I’ll say flat out that I like the new take for how it feels expansive in addition to big in tone. The Rhodes-esque sounds help convey the fluid melody of the verse, and the vocal trades between Kaján and Ahlö represent the dual-leads that have been an asset to Craneium all along, and only more so with time. If you heard 2024’s Point of No Return (review here) or the subsequent singles “Empty Palaces” (premiered here) and “The Flow of Time and Age” (posted here), it’s easy to argue they’re doing their best work to-date right now. Nothing in the eight-minute stretch of “Ceasing to Exist (Revisited)” strikes as contrary to that supposition.

Which is to say it sounds frickin’ rad, and I hope you dig it. If you decide to go the one-into-the-other route, I’d suggest starting with the new video, which is premiering below, and the dipping back to the original, which is further down by the links (after the blue text; you know this, I don’t need to say it). You’ll hear some semblance of the creative growth that’s taken place in the band over the last decade-plus, and perhaps even get a glimpse of how that will continue as they move forward.

Please enjoy:

Craneium, “Ceasing to Exist (Revisited)” video premiere

Craneium revisited their iconic track “Ceasing to Exist” in the studio, re-recording it to deliver a fresh, even more powerful version. This song originally ignited their career and established them as a standout name in the stoner/psych scene. The new take amps up the heaviness while making it even catchier and more crushing than the original!

“We wrote Ceasing to Exist when we first started Craneium and the song has followed us ever since. This year marks 15 years of playing together and to celebrate that we wanted to record the track as it has evolved on stage over time. For us Ceasing to Exist captures the core of what Craneium is about – weight and atmosphere, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, air and vacuum.
With added layers from our friends Andreas Österlund on guitar and Lari Oksala on droning synthesizers we are happy to finally present a studio version that comes close to how we have always imagined the song should sound live.” — Joel Kronqvist

“Ceasing to Exist is the essence of what Craneium is trying to achieve musically: softness and heaviness. At every gig I feel that once the intro starts, I know that I am home and everything is as it should be.” — Martin Ahlö

“The first thing I ever wrote for the band was Ceasing to Exist, Martin had the verse and some lyrics. I added the melody. Funny how it has become a staple for our little band. We still enjoy playing it, and people expect us to. We love the response every time.” — Andreas Kaján

Credits:
Video by Bike On Buss Production
All music written by Craneium 2011:
Martin Ahlö, Andreas Kaján, Joel Kronqvist & Axel Brink

Recorded by Jussi Vuola at V.R. Studio, Turku, Finland October 2025
Mixed and mastered by Kalle Lilja, Welfare Sounds
Artwork by Johan Erenius of Mangobeard Design Co.

Additional instruments by:
Andreas Österlund – guitar
Lari Oksala – synthesizers

Arranged and performed by Craneium:
Martin Ahlö – vocals & guitar
Andreas Kaján – vocals & guitar
Joel Kronqvist – drums and percussion
Jonas Holmström – bass

Craneium, “Ceasing to Exist” from Explore the Void (2015)

Craneium on Bandcamp

Craneium on Instagram

Craneium on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

I was fortunate enough to catch wind of Philly duo Deathbird Earth‘s Mission demo (review here) last year, and was glad I did for the weirdoblast anti-genre take on offer. The band’s debut album, Objective Consciousness, feels likely to be a brainmelter, and the first single from it, “Take My Blood,” bears that out with post-yourface wash and a powerful sprawl.

What’s in store for the rest, I don’t know, but even the whole album is just part of the story as in a truly avant garde decision as regards running the business end of your band, the two-piece’s first LP is just part of the story of their releases coming out this Spring. Detailed below are also two collaborative session offerings, one of which includes Yanni Papadopoulos of Philly instrumentalist legends (yes, this is the second time in the last weekd I’m calling them legends; will do every time from here on out; this is actually a decision I made a while back) Stinking Lizaveta in the mix, and that surely will be a thing to look out for. And if it seems like they’re running a risk of undercutting themselves — which they are — I don’t think ‘maximizing audience share’ is the top priority here. More creativity, less internalized capitalistic mindset in expectations. I dig that.

Shows are lined up and listed below, and if you get turned around in all the PR wire info, confusion is part of the intent. Go safely:

Philadelphia heavy space & noise rock duo Deathbird Earth announce debut album “Objective Consciousness” on SRA Records; lead single “Take My Blood” out now!

Debut album “Objective Consciousness” out April 3rd on SRA Records; Lead single “Take My Blood” released February 12th

Preorder: https://srarecords.com/shop/sra/deathbird-earth-objective-consciousness/

Collaboration session LPs out March 12th:
“Deathbird Earth + Planet-Y”
“Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi”

“Objective Consciousness” is the debut album from Deathbird Earth, a 2 piece band based in the city of Philadelphia on the planet of Earth, consisting of BJ (Hulk Smash, Dialer, Dangerbird) and Dave (Psychic Teens, Gholas, Exmaid). Deathbird Earth’s sound tends to eschew typical genre classification but is made from a mix of heavy drums and distorted bass layered with keyboard sounds that may or may not be lifted from your favorite classic science fiction films. The album is available from SRA Records (Soul Glo, Stinking Lizaveta, HIRS) on translucent “black ice” vinyl, CD and tape.

The album was recorded at Red Planet and features more collaborators than actual band members. On Side A, two tracks were born out of full-blown collaborative sessions. “Mission: Planet-Y” was recorded with experimental duo Planet-Y which features Yanni Papadopoulos (Stinking Lizaveta) & Pete Wilder (EDO), and “Mission: Nick Millevoi” was laid down with guitar virtuoso extraordinaire Nick Millevoi (Basic, Many Arms, Desertion Trio). Both sessions yielded a full 40 minutes worth of improved music and will each be released on limited LPs and cassettes (available via SRA Records!) March 12th.

In the band’s own words:

BJ:
“It was important to us that this record be raw and represent what we do live. To that end we didn’t use a click track, drum replacements or auto tuning. But we decided to take it a step farther and also did no drum edits at all, instead opting for doing multiple takes until we got it ‘close enough’. We are firmly against the use of AI in art and used none of it in our creative process.

Dave:
“The group of songs that make up ‘Objective Consciousness’ feels very immediate to me. BJ and I wrote them together in our practice space in just one year from first practice to the start of recording. I think it allows them to still feel fresh and not ‘overworked’ which is important in keeping the energy and original intent behind the songs intact.”

Upcoming releases:

Armed with an abundance of material born out of album recording sessions and late night collaborations, Deathbird Earth lead their descent upon Terra with:

Deathbird Earth Winter 2026 shows:

3/12: Two longform collaborations, with Nick Millevoi and Planet-Y

4/3: Album “Objective Consciousness”

More music video and single dates coming soon!

Fri Feb 13 @ 1901 House, Huntington WV

Sat Feb 14 @ UCRP, 2 Piece Fest Chiacgo IL

Sun Feb 15 @ Harmony Gym, Bloomington IN

Fri Feb 20 @ Flemington DIY, Flemington NJ

Sat Feb 21 @ Ukie Club, 2 Piece Fest Philadelphia PA

Sat Feb 28 @ Mobtown Ballroom, 2 Piece Fest Baltimore MD

Physical pre-orders on SRA Records:

Objective Consciousness (Vinyl, CD cassette): https://srarecords.com/shop/sra/deathbird-earth-objective-consciousness/

Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi (Vinyl, cassette): https://srarecords.com/shop/sra/deathbird-earth-nick-millevoi-collaborative-album/

Deathbird Earth + Planet Y (Vinyl, cassette): https://srarecords.com/shop/sra/deathbird-earth-planet-y-collaborative-album/

—

All songs written by Deathbird Earth except Christchurch 281 written by Deathbird Earth and Eleni Kostiopoulos. Mission: Planet-Y improvised by Deathbird Earth and Planet-Y. Mission: Nick Millevoi improvised by Deathbird Earth and Nick Millevoi

Deathbird Earth is:
BJ – Bass, Synthesizers, Vocals
Dave – Drums, Percussion, Synthesizer

[Photo by Dan Cohoon.]

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

https://srarecords.com/
https://srarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/srarecords/
https://www.facebook.com/SRArecords

Deathbird Earth, Objective Consciousness (2026)

As you’ll be able tell with all the atsigns and applicable emojis, the following lineup announcement for Hoflärm 2026 came out through social media and I was lucky enough that the algorithm put it in front of my eyeballs. Swedish rockers Blues Pills and Poland’s Dopelord — the latter of whom are on tour now with Napalm Death right now — headline the announcement, but with newcomers Kardeathian and Scott Hepple and the Sun Band as well as the doomly Void and the Nothingness and exploitation-themed heavymakers Mephistofeles rounding out, there’s plenty here to dig into even before you get to the context of the first announce, which brought Kylesa, Kadavar, Conan, Dead Meadow and others. You can see the full poster below. The names are many, varied, rad, and there are apparently more to come.

The three-dayer helmed by Caspar Orfgen (also of Daevar) is set for Aug. 13-15 in Marienthal, Germany. Here’s the latest:

⚡️ @hoflärm 2026 – 2nd Bandwave – Day Tickets Available ⚡️

Alright… we’ve got some big news for you.

Our final headliner for this year is:

@bluespills – High-energy rock with soul, grit and serious stage presence. Fronted by the powerhouse vocals of Elin Larsson, they blend vintage psychedelia with modern edge and live, they hit even harder.

And the second wave doesn’t stop there:

@dopelord_666
Massive riffs, crushing doom and the kind of low-end that shakes you to the core. Pure heavy worship.

@mephistofelesmetal
Fuzzy, dark and beautifully trippy. These guys deliver gritty stoner rock straight from the underground.

@scottheppleandthesunband
Garage-psychedelic goodness with groove and heart. Catchy, wild and made for late summer festival nights.

@voidnothingnessdoom
After sharing the stage with Daevar multiple times, the young band is set to play their festival debut at Hoflärm 2026. FFO Uncle Acid & Electric Wizard – dark, hypnotic, riff-heavy.

@kardeathian.doom
We can’t wait to welcome this new trio, formed by well-known faces from the Dortmund scene, to their festival debut at Hoflärm. Expect fresh energy, heavy vibes and a set that will leave a mark.

🎟️ Day Tickets are available now – don’t sleep on it.

📅 Final Day Split + more band announcements are coming your way very soon.

Background Photos: @blackout_fg
Poster: @caaspar.o

https://www.hoflaerm.de/
https://instagram.com/hoflaerm/
https://www.facebook.com/Hofcafe.Hoflaerm

Dopelord, Songs for Satan (2023)

Wait? A heavy rock and roll band? From London? Please, give me a second to control my dryly sarcastic surprise.

Yes, Okay You Win emerge from one of the most crowded heavy underground scenes the world over — other places go in waves; London is constant and has been for at least the last 15 years — but my thinking here is, especially since the four-piece only have a 2023 live release out, that Blues Funeral Recordings knows something we don’t. And by that I mean they’ve heard the record in question here, and if you’re new to the band like me and haven’t seen them live yet — they’ll be at Desertfest London this year, with more shows reportedly to follow — and are wondering how they got picked up, I’m betting the record is what’s going to be the answer.

No audio yet, but keep an ear out, is my advice. This one came down the PR wire:

London heavy rockers OKAY YOU WIN sign to Blues Funeral Recordings

Blues Funeral Recordings are pleased to welcome London heavy rock quartet OKAY YOU WIN to their roster, with their debut album set for release later this year.

Four-piece heavy rock band Okay You Win came together in London in 2023. Over three years, the band has built a solid reputation on the UK underground heavy rock scene, bringing a double hit of heavy riffs and soaring vocals.

Rooted in influences from Seattle grunge, Californian desert rock, 90s alt-rock and classic British heavy metal, OKYW blends psychedelic stoner rock and doomy breakdowns with driving rock riffs. The band has just recorded its debut full-length album at The Nave in Leeds with producer Andy Hawkins (Psychlona, Grave Lines, The Damned) and mastered by Alain Johannes.

Okay You Win have had a stellar 2025, playing shows across the UK and a short run in Northern Spain, with a Desertfest London appearance confirmed for May 15th, 2026, and further UK and European dates to be announced shortly.

About signing to Blues Funeral Recordings, they state: “Our recent signing with Blues Funeral marks a major step forward for us, and in our journey together as a band. To be releasing our debut album on such a well-respected label, and alongside such an exceptional roster of heavy bands – bands we have literally ‘looked up to’ from the pit – is something we are extremely proud of. We hope that this album, and these songs, will help us to earn our own rightful place in the international heavy community.”

https://okayyouwin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/okayyouwinofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/p/Okay-You-Win-UK-61565193494648/

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

Okay You Win, Live From the Pit (2023)

As it’s drawn together by an overarching lushness of melody and a vinyl-minded warmth of sound that extends even to Pedro Lopes‘ snare drum, one would not accuse Portuguese psych rockers Summer of Hate‘s sound of lacking variety. Across the band’s second full-length and label-debut for Tee Pee Records, Blood and Honey, the Espinho-based six-piece tangle with ’60s pop, doom, shimmering shoegaze, Iberian folk and Middle Eastern sounds — the opening title-track and the finale “The Gospel (According to Summer of Hate)” have a bit of a goth infection, melodically — except that it isn’t a tangle at all. It’s a cogent, individual expression of purpose and songwriting, and from the outset of that same title-track, there is nowhere Summer of Hate go that they don’t either find or make into solid ground. Blood and Honey is the band’s follow-up to 2022’s Love is Dead, Long Live Love, and in its 48-minute/seven-track run, one finds disparate-seeming ambitions realized in pieces that work toward their own ends while unquestionably enriching the whole.

Vocalist Laura Calado and founding guitarist João Martins would seem to be the team leading the unit as regards songwriting, but with Xavier Valente and Ricardo Fonseca (also keys) on guitar, bassist Fábio Pereira, the aforementioned Lopes on drums, plus guest contributions from Thomas Attar (ex-Blaak Heat Shujaa), who produced the ‘Blood’ side, on second cut “El Saif” and guest percussion from Regina Faria, there is no want of persona throughout. And the breakdown into two sides, which isn’t even as it seems centerpiece “Mayura” — one of three longer inclusions with “Blood and Honey” and “The Gospel (According to Summer of Hate)”; they’re placed as landmarks along the way with two five-to-six-minute songs spaced between; none of it lacking substance or intent — ends the ‘Blood’ portion before the Rafael Silva-produced ‘Honey’ starts, may just owe its distinction to the shift in who recorded, but once you know, there is a perceptible shift as “Além” takes hold subsequent to the so-blown-out-it-that-in-another-context-it-would-be-black-metal crescendo and handclap finish of “Mayura” (they cover a lot of ground in that eight minutes, if you couldn’t tell), twisting into an organic wash that’s more ’80s than ’60s, more Duran Duran than Beatles, and catchy even in Portuguese for someone who doesn’t speak the language.

But even the turn from ‘Blood’ to ‘Honey’ — which moves into the penultimate “Joy” with an intro that had me wondering the first time on a blind listen if I was about to hear a cover of A-Ha‘s “Take on Me” (which no doubt Summer of Hate would nail) before the patiently-unfolding epic-strum expanse of “The Gospel (According to Summer of Hate)” rounds out — doesn’t necessarily interrupt the front-to-back fluidity that emerges from the moderated tempos, the melodies, and the noted warmth of tone. Summer of Hate aren’t pop, but they’re influenced by pop from across decades enough that my Northeastern ears can’t help but hear Type O Negative in the second half of “Blood and Honey” and the dreamy latter reaches of the closer — you’ll recall the Beatles-plus-Black–Sabbath formula there; it would seem to apply here as well, if only as part of the broader stylistic pastiche — and in “El Saif,” they speak to the history of Mediterranean psychedelia in the movement and scales employed, but Calado‘s voice ties the track to “Blood and Honey” just before, and here too, a hook helps. “El Saif,” immediately notable for its inflection in the guitar, is a big jump in physicality from the rolling chorusmaking of “Blood and Honey” as well, but it is executed artfully and in such a way as to make a statement early in the record that Summer of Hate aren’t going to be tied to a single idea or sound. Or if they are, they’re setting their own varied terms for what that means and how it manifests.

Thus is Blood and Honey often beautiful. It changes hue from moment to moment, but is never not rich with color, and as “Ashura” follows “El Saif,” some of that song’s Middle Easternism is answered in the guitar and rhythm, but as the second half unfurls, it’s as much about atmosphere as motion, and that leads into the foreboding start of “Mayura,” with more prominent bass and guitar pushed back in the mix for ambient effect behind the verse; a not-exactly-subtle-but-not-beating-you-over-the-head change and the beginning point of a build that happens creatively and smoothly as the tension mounts in the plunge of a chorus, “Chase me in circles/And tear me down/Chase me in circles/And wear me down,” and the memorable lines, “Hey, chase me around/And open every door in my house/Hey, what are you looking for/I’ve got nothing for you, nothing more.” They’re still a ways from the actual payoff at that point, which speaks to the whole side as much as its own progression, but the going is satisfying enough that when they let go into the drifting midsection, the distorted guitar that hits right at 5:37 after the quick stop is a clarion that immediately tells the listener ‘you have arrived.’ The rest of the song bears that out.

That’s a crucial moment of culmination, but upped a degree by “The Gospel (According to Summer of Hate),” which is the longest inclusion at nearly 10 minutes and caps Blood and Honey with an emotionality that reaches for authenticity like ’90s revivalism but is both working to a terrestrial structure (that is to say it’s played in a grounded manner) while being ethereal in its affect. There’s a plan, but one might be forgiven for closing ones eyes and just following along at that point in the album; the band make the going such an encompassing pleasure, after all. Perhaps most of everything, they underscore how much identity there is in their work — drawing influence from such a range of elements, it would’ve been easy for Summer of Hate to fall flat if the craft and effort weren’t there to draw their songs together — and just how much it is their own. I wouldn’t hazard to predict what they might do from here or when. I find myself genuinely unconcerned with these things while listening, and whatever else might eventually come or not, I’m just really happy this exists. Recommended.

Summer of Hate, “El Saif” feat. Thomas Attar official video

Summer of Hate, Blood and Honey (2026)

Summer of Hate on Bandcamp

Summer of Hate on Instagram

Summer of Hate on Facebook

Tee Pee Records website

Tee Pee Records Linktr.ee

Tee Pee Records on Bandcamp

Tee Pee Records on Instagram

Tee Pee Records on Facebook

As is their wont, Philadelphia experimental psych heads Rope Trick have lined up a slew of Northeast regional shows between now and the I-swear-it’s-going-to-happen-at-some-point beginning of summer. It’s a tour comprised of weekenders and nights out of town, and will take them as far as Richmond, Youngstown and Boston, so they’re covering a decent amount of ground, and you an see between the likes of Clamfight, Sinister Haze, Coma Hole, Almost Honest and the legends Stinking Lizaveta that they’ll be keeping sound company along the way.

They did some traveling as well around the 2024 release of their latest EP, Red Tide, which you can stream below, and I haven’t heard anything about new music from them, but either way, these will be good, weird gigs, and that’s the kind I like best.

Dates came down the PR wire:

ROPE TRICK, the heavy psych duo from Philadelphia, is poised once again to tear a new rift in the fabric of the Northeast US, bringing their acid-fried cosmic rock to 14 shows in 9 states, ranging from Boston to Pittsburgh to Richmond.

ROPE TRICK burst out with the acclaimed “Red Tide” EP in 2024, and rumour has it: they’ve just finished recording their first long playing studio album. Indy Shome (guitar/vocal) and Nate Totushek (drums) have been musical co-conspirators since 2010, including in QUEEN ELEPHANTINE. The pair has evolved a symbiotic sound that is so much more than the sum of its parts. The synergy is electric. The chemistry is explosive.

3.6 Philadelphia @ Cousin Danny’s Lounge w/ Clamfight
3.12 Washington @ Comet Ping Pong w/ Shadow Riot
3.13 Richmond @ Fuzzy Cactus w/ Sinister Haze
3.14 Baltimore @ Zissimos w/ Early American
4.10 Philadelphia @ Vox Populi w/ Sweepers
4.12 Brooklyn @ Hart Bar w/ Chaser
4.24 New Haven @ Cafe Nine w/ Human Fund
5.8 Boston @ Faces w/ Major Stars
5.9 Providence @ AS220 w/ Coma Hole
5.16 Philadelphia @ Common Beat w/ Stinking Lizaveta
5.22 Pittsburgh @ Brillobox w/ Rated Eye
5.23 Youngstown @ Westside Bowl w/ Rated Eye
5.24 York @ Collusion Tapworks w/ Almost Honest

(Photo by Ben Stas/Noise Floor)

Rope Trick are:
Guitar + Vocals by Indy Shome
Drums by Nate Totushek

http://ropetrickband.com
ropetrickband.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/ropetrickband/
https://www.facebook.com/ropetrickband

Rope Trick, “Neptune” live at Somergloom 2024

Rope Trick, Red Tide (2024)