I’ll never forget that my first real show back from the pandemic was to see Finnish melodic death-doomers Swallow the Sun at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey, in November 2021 (review here). Not that they were lacking status in my mind as a sentimental favorite before then, but the truth is I was apprehensive getting back out in the era of plague, and they delivered the reminder that as soon as the music starts and I’m standing in front of the stage — even masked, in sweatpants as I was — everything’s okay. Their early 2025 return to the States in celebration of their new album, Shining (out Oct. 18 on Century Media), will find them hitting Gramercy Theater in NYC, headlining alongside Harakiri for the Sky, Ghost Bath and Snakes of Russia. The first single, the tightly-composed, lushly produced “What I Have Become,” came out a couple weeks back and can be streamed at the bottom of this post.

Hoping to have more to come on the album as we get closer to the release, but here are the tour dates for now so you have an excuse to mark your calendar early:

Finnish Death-Doom Masters SWALLOW THE SUN Announce 2025 North American Headline Tour

New Album ‘Shining’ Out October 18th via Century Media Records — Pre-Order HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Shining

Finnish death-doom pioneers SWALLOW THE SUN are set to embark on a highly anticipated North American headline tour supporting their forthcoming album, ‘Shining,’ which drops on October 18th via Century Media Records. The tour features support from Harakiri For The Sky, Ghost Bath, and Snakes of Russia. Kicking off on February 20th in Detroit, MI, the tour will bring the band’s signature blend of despair, beauty, and crushing heaviness to audiences across the continent, wrapping up on March 15th in Chicago, IL. The artist pre-sale is going on now; general tickets go on sale August 30th, at 1:00 PM EDT / 10:00 AM PDT.

“What a great line-up we have on this tour. Join the happiest tour of 2025 and secure your tickets immediately,” says vocalist Mikko Kotamäki

SWALLOW THE SUN
With Harakiri For The Sky, Ghost Bath, and Snakes of Russia
2/20/25 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary
2/21/25 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
2/22/25 – Montreal, QC – Fouf’s
2/23/25 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
2/24/25 – New York, NY – Gramercy Theater
2/25/25 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
2/26/25 – Greensboro, NC – Hangar 1819
2/27/25 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
2/28/25 – Orlando, FL – Conduit
3/1/25 – Pensacola, FL – Handlebar
3/2/25 – Houston, TX – Parish Room @ House of Blues
3/3/25 – Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live
3/4/25 – Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad
3/5/25 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel
3/6/25 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick
3/7/25 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
3/8/25 – San Francisco, CA – Neck of The Woods
3/9/25 – Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom
3/10/25 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
3/12/25 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
3/13/25 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
3/14/25 – Omaha, NE – Reverb
3/15/25 – Chicago, IL – Reggies

The tour announcement follows the release of the band’s latest single, “What I Have Become,” a powerful track that delves into themes of transformation and rebirth. Produced and mixed by Dan Lancaster (Bring Me the Horizon, Muse, Enter Shikari), the song showcases SWALLOW THE SUN at their most intense, both sonically and lyrically.

More than two decades of despair, beauty, and heartache have not only shaped but fueled Finnish melancholy torchbearers, the chart-topping and two-time Finnish Grammy nominated SWALLOW THE SUN.

Formed in Jyväskylä in 2000, the quintet has enjoyed numerous fan-lauded music videos (10+ million YouTube views) and streaming dominance (50+ million Spotify plays), while also embarking on a four-continent, 900-show run over the course of their 20-year career.

Their new music, however, is the group’s first step on the new path to the unknown.

SWALLOW THE SUN are:
Juha Raivio – Guitar, Keys
Juho Räihä – Guitar
Mikko Kotamäki – Vocals
Matti Honkonen – Bass
Juuso Raatikainen – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
https://www.instagram.com/swallowthesunofficial/
http://www.swallowthesun.net/

https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
https://www.instagram.com/centurymediarecords/
http://www.centurymedia.com/

Swallow the Sun, “What I Have Become” visualizer

Swallow the Sun, “Innocence Was Long Forgotten” official video

Best known as the founding guitarist and vocalist for Berlin-based heavy progressive innovators Elder, Nick DiSalvo released the first instrumental exploration from Delving in May 2021. Titled Hirschbrunnen (review here), it was insular in its aural concept, trying ideas and digging into sound in a way that, for DiSalvo allowed a focus on playing without having to sing, and let him follow whims that, for one reason or another, didn’t fit and didn’t have to fit with expectations for his main outfit. It was a true side-project. A delve. Shows happened that Fall, including Desertfest Belgium, and afterward, DiSalvo went back to Elder and put out a career album in 2022’s Innate Passage (review here). Of course the vocals were a highlight.

The point is that sometimes these things tie together for artists in ways that a given listener doesn’t necessarily know about or that anyone realizes, and while DiSalvo‘s alternately winding and sweeping style of guitar play is recognizable in Delving, it’s obvious the project’s progression at least to the point of putting out the first record brought some level of satisfaction, otherwise this follow-up, All Paths Diverge, likely wouldn’t exist. Recorded in Berlin with co-producer Richard Behrens (who also mixed; Carl Saff mastered), the 62-minute collection finds DiSalvo once again handling the bulk of the work himself. Perilymph‘s Fabien de Menou contributes Rhodes and upright piano — I don’t know if that’s the keys on opener “Sentinel” used to add flourish to the signature proggy twists of lead guitar, but fair enough — and a guitar spot from Elder‘s Michael Risberg on “Zodiak,” which is the longest of the seven songs included at 13:38.

Not appearing on All Paths Diverge are bassist Ingwer Boysen (also Weite, High Fighter) or drummer Uno Bruniusson (also Maggot Heart, ex-Death Alley, In Solitude), who join DiSalvo and Risberg in the live incarnation of Delving, and it might be interesting if at some point in the future the band does a live record or an everybody-inclusive recording, but the heady nature of the project to this point — the exercises in composition, arrangement, balance and mood taking place across All Paths Diverge — benefits from the implied intimacy of a solo perspective. That is to say, “Sentinel” and “Omnipresence,” which follows and veers into a bit of crunch in the second half to offset some of the Mellotron shimmer, set an expansive tone for the rest of the record’s sundry divergences — none of which are especially radical, unless you count the penultimate “The Ascetic” turning to drone or the krautrock electronic beat in closer “Vanish With Grace” as such; neither feels out of place or like too much of a reach in the front-to-back listening experience — and DiSalvo‘s crisp but fluid style of performance helps the material create an overarching impression of flow.

This proves central to the proceedings as “Chain of Mind” loops its way into an intricate rhythm and opens up to a chorus like a ringing church bell (but not literally) before diving into keyboard noodling and rebuilding around that in its second half, shifting into the patient and prog-funky build-up in the first four minutes of “New Meridian,” which sweeps in a louder guitar only after casting its hypnosis to a point of bursting, the drums answering the breakout moment with mixed-low-but-still-there snare that sounds like it’s making up for those restful initial minutes. Topped with keys leading a relatively straightforward melody — DiSalvo‘s method of pairing complex underlayers with a standout forward instrumental melody will be familiar to fans of his work with Elder; the balance in the arrangement is a distinguishing factor for Delving, as much as it needs to be — and unfolding a dynamic course of mellow progressivism, “New Meridian” lives up to its title’s hint toward shifting paradigms, but especially as the centerpiece, it brings to light just how much of the playing style is recognizable as his own.

Which is to say, short of singing on it, it would be hard for Delving to come across as more DiSalvo‘s own in terms of character. That doesn’t mean he’s not trying new things or following different inspiration — just the opposite. That’s part of it, too. As the most expansive piece in terms of runtime, “Zodiak” maintains the energy of “New Meridian” before it in this kind of angular pastoral brightness of tone and movement — the shimmer noted above is multifaceted and consistent — even as it would seem to mark the break between the first and second of All Paths Diverge‘s two component LPs. The procession — two songs each on side A and B, “Zodiak” by itself on side C, and “The Ascetic” and “Vanish With Grace” tucked away on side D — holds the album’s most experimentalist fare for last, and that’s reasonable, but by the time he gets there, “Zodiak” has both built momentum and offered a resonance of guitar and keyboard melody and shifted into an extended ambient drone to which one assumes Risberg also contributed, so the palette is already pretty broad.

That is revealed as a strength as “The Ascetic” picks up with standalone guitar and is mellow-unfurled to gradually build tension in the keyboard rhythm before live drums or something programmed close enough to them arrive approaching the halfway point. As a concept, ascetism avoids indulgence, and if that’s the goal I’m not sure effects-laced instrumentalist psych-prog with interwoven lines of synth and guitar and repeating cycles of tom fills is going to get one there, but the payoff that starts at 8:03 speaks to a simpler ideal in its heavier shove. “Vanish With Grace” has some of that as well, countermanded by a dub finish that, even as the devolving final movement of an hour-long record, comes across as somewhat daring. Nonetheless, it is a suitably divergent delve for Delving‘s All Paths Diverge, and as much as the sound of the ‘band’ is typified by elements familiar from DiSalvo‘s songwriting for Elder, so too does this sophomore effort seem to be laying claim to ideas specifically and pointedly outside that sphere.

Does that mean Delving are going to get weirder going forward? There’s always hope, but a specific thoughtfulness and cognizance of audience is no less a part of what DiSalvo does than any particular bit of sonic adventuring, and All Paths Diverge boasts plenty of that as well. Still, the unspoken message of Delving finding its own way as a project distinct from Elder shines through like the guitar tone, and whatever comes as a result of these willful turns of plot will only be stronger for the paths being carved out in these songs.

Delving, All Paths Diverge (2024)

Delving on Facebook

Delving on Instagram

Delving on Bandcamp

Full Earth on Bandcamp

Stickman Records website

Stickman Records on Facebook

Stickman Records Linktr.ee

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings on Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

The new Alma Sangre single “Dame Dolor” is — I’m pretty sure I read somewhere; yup, it was on Instagram — a herald for a new EP from the duo of Antonio Aguilar and Meg Castellanos, both of whom one might recognize from melodic heavy rockers All Souls and/or their maybe-kinda-reunited-well-it-was-a-couple-shows-who-knows-what-happens-next prior outfit Totimoshi. I don’t know the name of that release, but with Spanish guitar and lyrics, flamenco claps and dancing, and influences from their respective Mexican and Cuban heritages, Aguilar and Castellanos both depart from and reaffirm aspects of the outwardly heavier musical side and, with this single, not only tell a story, but delve into some psychedelic acoustic/electric guitar blend as well.

With regular contributor Fredo Ortiz (Los Lobos, Beastie Boys, etc.) adding drums and percussion as he has intermittently since circa-2016, Castellanos on cajon and live-dance and backing vocals, and Aguilar‘s introverted but passionate lead vocal, the song builds as it moves through its sub-four-minute runtime and twists deftly around its electric solo when it gets there, and it’s fascinating not only in the arrangement but also the way it brings together different cultural aspects to find individual expression. Aguilar‘s voice is well suited to melancholic longing, and for those of us not on the West Coast where they live — Alma Sangre played San Diego this past weekend, have gigged around Los Angeles and so on for years — the video gives a chance to take in some of the performance aspect that coincides and intertwines with the music itself. An essential, not separate, part of the aesthetic.

I don’t know the release date of the Alma Sangre EP, if it shares its title with “Dame Dolor” or is called something else, but after trickling out singles for years — the prior one, “Bruja,” came out in June and is Aguilar in standalone solo fashion — even an EP release would be significant. While I’m talking about things I don’t know, I don’t know the status of All Souls in the wake of their third album, 2022’s Alain Johannes-produced Ghosts Among Us (review here), which was brilliant and consistent with the rest of the Castellanos/Aguilar oeuvre in being underhyped, let alone Totimoshi‘s maybe-return, but if Alma Sangre is something to focus on while the other bands breathe as they maybe need to for a while, as a project it offers a richness of melody and texture that stands gorgeously, assertively on its own.

Credits follow below. Enjoy the video:

Alma Sangre, “Dame Dolor” official video

Dame Dolor is a meditation on child abuse. The perspective is from the abused child who absorbs the abusers pain and suffering in hopes that it will be remedied.

Song written and performed by Alma Sangre
Video by Meg Castellanos
Recorded at Total Annihilation Studios, Los Angeles.
Engineered by Eddie Rivas

Alma Sangre:
Antonio Aguilar – guitar, vocals, bass
Meg Castellanos – percussion, backing vocals
Fredo Ortiz – drums, percussion

Alma Sangre, “Bruja”

Alma Sangre on Facebook

Alma Sangre on Instagram

Alma Sangre on Bandcamp

First of all, this lineup is pretty badass. This year’s Rain City Doom Fest was originally billed as the release show for the new Year of the Cobra LP, but my understanding is the album has been delayed. It’s great, keep an ear out for it. In any case, the Seattle two-piece are still playing, alongside Bell Witch, who’ll headline in their particular morose, crawling, consuming fashion, and The Well, who will trek up from Austin as they do from time to time, presumably to remind everybody in attendance how fucking underrated they are. Those three alone make it quite an evening.

Those three also rest at and near the top of a 10-band bill with Ape Machine, Sorcia, Sun Crow and others showcasing from Washington/the Pacific Northwest, and the uniting factor is heavy as two stages play out over the course of one packed evening. This is the fourth year of the fest — I thought it was five, but I recall being very wrong about that last year — and it’s set for Dec. 14 at El Corazon and Funhouse. I don’t anticipate being in that part of the world at the , but it would be one to see if you are.

The PR wire has details:

Rain City Doom Fest announces lineup for this years festival in Seattle on December 14th!!

2 stages, 10 bands, One night of Doom.

TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 8/30!
https://wl.seetickets.us/event/bell-witch/616791?afflky=ElCorazon

Rain City Doom Fest 2024 will be held at El Corazon/Funhouse in Seattle on December 14. This is the 4th year of this annual festival that showcases heavy music of the PNW and beyond. This year’s lineup will include some of the Seattle areas most esteemed active doom bands including Bell Witch, and Year of the Cobra who will be making this show their album release party. The festival is also pleased to welcome The Well as special guests from Austin, TX.

For more than a decade, Bell Witch have sent tides surging over the seawalls of the song form, unraveling conventional expectations about the ways music stations itself in time to absorb a listener’s attention.

Dynamic duo Amy and Jon Barrysmith make up the doom-y twosome that is Year of the Cobra, a Seattle-based sludge metal band. Moaning vocals accent what reeks of Black Sabbath coming back through a long, dark tunnel. The rippling hums of Amy’s ever-expanding bassy tones are complimented by the dynamics in Jon’s drumming, shifting effortless from laid back grooves to pushing, driving climaxes. Amy’s easy voice over Jon’s steady splashing lulls you in, only to hit you with the surprise, brutal left-hook!

A heavy psych rock/proto-metal power trio based out of Austin, Texas, The Well’s lethal blend of knotty prog, punk, and bluesy doom rock invokes names like Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Sleep, and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. Citing a desire “to blend different musical styles as diversified as Joy Division to Blue Cheer”, the band, which consists of Ian Graham, Lisa Alley, and Jason Sullivan, came together in 2012 out of a shared love for extreme music, cult horror films, and dark mysticism.

Completing this incredible lineup are some of Pacific North West’s finest doom bands. Each bringing their unique twist on the genre:

Witch Ripper

Washington’s WITCH RIPPER have seamlessly welded together the contemporary heaviness of such hard-hitting acts as MASTODON, GOJIRA, and BARONESS with the anthemic bombast of classic artists in the vein of QUEEN and DAVID BOWIE from the start.

Slow Goat

Gamy riffs cut from the flank of the Pacific Northwest

Ape Machine

The name APE MACHINE is a nod to the days of reel-to-reel magnetic tape audio recording; a fitting moniker for the heavy-hitting quartet as the band plays through vintage tube amplifiers and lays down its songs using exclusively throwback quality studio equipment.

Sorcia

SORCIA hails from the Snoqualmie Valley in the backwoods of Seattle, Washington. Combining blues-laden groovy riffs, heavy doom and raw grunge with the added dynamic of dual vocals, they deliver their own method of Pacific Northwest stoner sludge metal.

Sun Crow

Rain-soaked doom blues, moss-covered stoner rock, grey sky heavy psych, whatever they call it, SUN CROW summons the old spirits of high volume heavy rock into close quarters and paints the ceiling and walls with magnets, wood, and glass.

Melancholia

True to its name, MELANCHOLIA explores dread and anguish in all of its malformed glory through the lenses of crushing doom/sludge, ferocious black metal/death metal and raw, primitive crust punk.

Mother Root

Two brothers making noise in the backwoods of the Snoqualmie Valley.

https://wl.seetickets.us/event/bell-witch/616791?afflky=ElCorazon
https://www.instagram.com/raincitydoomfest

Bell Witch, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate (2023)

I’ve been waiting for these rescheduled Mars Red Sky and Howling Giant dates in no small part out of self-interest. That is, I want to see the bands. I was selfishly hoping for a Jersey show somewhere, but doing so in December in Brooklyn — or maybe Philly if I feel like driving just as long in the other direction — should be fine too. I’m not sure what the timing concern was that required these shows to be re-booked for after the two bands are out together starting this week in Chicago, en route to Crucialfest and Ripplefest Texas, but whatever works. The good news is they’re happening at all.

These dates — not the new ones — have been posted a couple times by now between posts about Mars Red Sky and posts about Howling Giant. If you want to come at me for redundancy, go for it. Take me down a peg. I’m sure I could use it. Or maybe even better, just go to a gig instead and let Mars Red Sky‘s richly melodic progressive heavy textures and Howling Giant‘s infectious heavy-pop bounce wash away what might really be bothering you for a while. If you need me I’m gonna go put on Dawn of the Dusk (review here) again. It will have been out for a year by the time they get to Brooklyn. How about that.

From social media:

Hey there!!

So excited by upcoming USA tour with special guest Howling Giant!! Some tiny updates to declare… Baltimore, Brooklyn, Boston, Philly and Detroit are postponed to December and additional dates are added to a second leg in Winter – including a short Canadian trip!!

TICKETS https://marsredsky.rocks/tour

09.03 CHICAGO, IL – Reggies
09.04 MILWAUKEE, WI – X-Ray Arcade
09.05 MINNEAPOLIS, MN – First Avenue & 7th St Entry
09.06 SIOUX FALLS, SD – Club David 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞!
09.07 RAPID CITY, SD – Fairgrounds/Left of the Dial
09.08 DENVER, CO – Hi-Dive Denver
09.10 PORTLAND, OR – High Water Mark Lounge
09.11 SEATTLE, WA – Substation
09.13 SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Crucialfest
09.14 LAS VEGAS, NV – Sinwave Vegas
09.15 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Bottom of the Hill
09.16 SACRAMENTO, CA – Cafe Colonial
09.17 LOS ANGELES, CA – El Cid on Sunset
09.19 ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Launchpad
09.20 EL PASO, TX – Rosewood
09.21 AUSTIN, TX – RippleFest Texas
12.05 BALTIMORE, MD – Metro Baltimore
12.06 BROOKLYN, NY – TV Eye NYC 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞!
12.07 CAMBRIDGE/BOSTON, MA – Middle East
12.08 PHILADELPHIA, PA – MilkBoy
12.09 RICHMOND, VA – Cobra Cabana 𝐧𝐞𝐰!
11.12 LOUISVILLE, KY – Portal Louisville 𝐧𝐞𝐰!
12.12 DETROIT, MI – Sanctuary Detroit
12.15 MONTREAL, QC 🇨🇦 Foufounes Electriques 𝐧𝐞𝐰!

More dates to be announced soon…

Tour poster artwork by Carlos Olmo Art.
Cheers Heavy Talent, 3C, The Obelisk, Vicious Circle Records, Mrs Red Sound.

MARS RED SKY are:
Julien Pras : guitar, vocals
Jimmy Kinast : bass, vocals
Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau : drums, vocals

http://www.facebook.com/marsredskyband/
https://marsredsky.bigcartel.com/
http://www.marsredsky.net
https://mrsredsound.com/

https://www.facebook.com/mrsredsound33
https://www.instagram.com/mrsredsound/
https://mrsredsound.com/

https://www.facebook.com/viciouscirclerec
https://www.instagram.com/vicious_circle_records
https://viciouscircle.bandcamp.com/
https://www.viciouscircle.fr/

Mars Red Sky, Dawn of the Dusk (2023)

Chapeaux-clad Belgian troublemakers Gnome are set to release their new album, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, in less than two weeks. Polderrecords has preorders up now. I haven’t heard the record yet, but I hope I get to, especially after seeing the band play live at the second day of this summer’s Bear Stone Festival (review here) in Croatia. They were, in short, a hoot, and I’m pretty sure “Golden Fool” — the latest single from their third LP to come — was in the setlist. I had been hesitant in approaching the trio’s second album, 2022’s King (review here), because some of the hype around it turned me off, but after taking that on it was easy to be won over.

“Golden Fool” was preceded by the first streaming track “Old Soul” that was posted in June. Both cuts from Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, and King for good measure, are streaming below. If you haven’t caught onto these cats yet, it might be a good time. Info from socials:

Pre-order Gnome – Vestiges Of Verumex Visidrome online now

Preorder link: https://polderrecords.be/product-category/gnome/

The Antwerp powertrio Gnome piles riff upon riff on their third release Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome. These normal sized Belgians rip, bang and rumble through a landscape of stoner, prog and heavy metal, inhabited by mythical creatures and full of unexpected twists.

Recorded and mixed at Bear Bites Horse studio in London by the brilliant Wayne Adams, and seasoned to perfection by Larsson Mastering, this album showcases Gnome sounding larger and greasier than ever, all while dripping in a unique blend of silliness and tongue-in-cheek vibes.

Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome is a must for anyone who loves their rock with a sense of humor, but mostly with heroic passion in the quest for the golden riff. Set to drop on Friday, September 13th, 2024, via Polderrecords!

Release show: September 19th at De Studio, Antwerp (BE)

Tickets: https://www.destudio.com/nl/project/gnome

http://www.facebook.com/officialgnomeband/
https://www.instagram.com/gnomeverse/
https://gnome.bandcamp.com/
https://fanlink.to/PR033-Gnome

https://www.facebook.com/polderrecords
https://www.instagram.com/polderrecords/
http://www.polderrecords.be

Gnome, “Golden Fool”

Gnome, “Old Soul”

Gnome, King (2022)