The credits here speak for themselves, as Patriarchs in Black — at its root, the collaboration between guitarist Dan Lorenzo (Hades, Vessel of Light) and drummer Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Danzig, etc.) — continue to embrace the methodology of swapping out frontmen as they go. Home is the band’s fourth long-player, and they welcome back Karl Agell (Lie Heavy, Legions of Doom, etc.), DMC from Run DMC, Kyle Thomas of Trouble, Exhorder and Alabama Thunderpussy fame, as well as Mark Sunshine of Unida, RiotGod, and so on. There are others — it’s a packed house — but cool to see “Iron Lou” Strachan of Iron Man/Spiral Grave show up on bass. That’s never gonna hurt your LP.

All the info came down the PR wire. No audio yet, but Patriarchs in Black released both a studio album and a covers EP last year, so you’ve got plenty to go on between those. Here’s the latest:

PATRIARCHS IN BLACK set release date for new METALVILLE album, reveal cover & tracklisting – features members of DANZIG, TYPE O NEGATIVE, HADES

Metalville announces August 15th as the international release date for Patriarchs in Black’s highly anticipated fourth album, Home.

Former Type O Negative / Danzig drummer Johnny Kelly and guitarist and riff-writer Dan Lorenzo (Hades / Non-Fiction) founded Patriarchs in Black at the end of 2021. Their debut single “Demon of Regret” was released in January 2022, and the debut album Reach For The Scars was released in July 2022. Their second album, My Veneration, was released in October 2023, followed by Visioning in July 2024.

As with their previous releases, Dan and Johnny managed to secure some outstanding artists as guest musicians for their fourth long-player, Home.

Dan Lorenzo says about Home: “Did you ever see the movie Groundhog Day? Bill Murray is forced to live the same day over and over. How boring, right? I love pizza, but I don’t want to eat it every meal. With our new album, you will find our ‘usual’ doomy riffs, but we also took some chances. There’s acoustic guitars, violin, flute, and of course, lots of heavy riffs. Diversity – it keeps things interesting.

“I picked the title Home because as much as I love to travel, it’s always nice to come home.

“Johnny’s mom died last year. Some would say the Lord took her Home.

“Johnny and I recorded 17 new songs, but we couldn’t fit them all on this album.

“We are honored that some of the best vocalists and bassists worked with us to lend their talents. We hope you love Patriarchs in Black’s Home.” Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Patriarchs in Black’s Home
1. Hymns for the Heretic
Written by Lorenzo/Thomas
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars
Kyle Thomas – vocals
Dave Neabore – bass

2. The Call
Written by Lorenzo/Agell
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars
Karl Agell – vocals
John “JD” DeServio – bass

3. Burn Through Time
Written by Lorenzo/Sunshine
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitar/bass
Mark Sunshine – vocals

4. Frisson
Written by Dan Lorenzo
Dewey Bragg – vocals
Johnny Kelly – drums
Jonathan Eng – viola
Eric J. Morgan – strings

5. Kaos
Written by Lorenzo/Abe
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars
Kelly Abe – vocals
Rob Moschetti – bass

6. Storm King
Written by Lorenzo/Ferrara
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitar
Joe Ferrara – vocals
Johnny Araya – bass

7. Celestial Yard
Written by Lorenzo/Sunshine
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – acoustic guitar
Mark Sunshine – vocals
Emma Smoler -violin
Damon Trotta – bass

8. Where You Think You’re Going
Written by Lorenzo/DMC
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars
DMC – vocals
David Freis – vocals
Sarah Sovak – vocals/flute
Damon Trotta – bass
Jonathan Eng – violin

9. Beline
Written by Dan Lorenzo
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars
John Kosco – vocals
Eric J. Morgan – bass/string arrangement

10. Pointed Fire
Written by Lorenzo/Sunshine
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars/bass
Mark Sunshine – vocals
Emma Smoler – violin

11. Enough Of You
Written by Dan Lorenzo
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars/bass/backing vox
Frankie Diaz – lead vocals

12. Ready To Die
Written by Lorenzo/Abe
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitars
Kelly Abe – vocals
Damon Trotta – bass
Kelly, Dan, JROD – gang vox

13. Shadows Grasp
Written by Lorenzo/Traynor
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitar/bass
Rob Traynor – Vocals

14. Sweet Blood
Written by Lorenzo/Sunshine
Johnny Kelly – drums
Dan Lorenzo – guitar
Mark Sunshine – vocals
Iron Lou Strachan – bass

https://instagram.com/patriarchsinblack
https://patriarchsinblack.bandcamp.com/

www.metalville.de
www.facebook.com/metalville

Patriarchs in Black, “Destroyer” (Twisted Sister cover)

Sleep on this band and it’s your loss. At this point, London’s Black Helium are three-for-three in my mind, and the only reason that’s not four-for-four is I haven’t heard the due-next-month The Animals Are Coming yet. News of its impending, however, I take as an absolute win all the more because it comes with the streaming audio of the penultimate “Up on a Hill,” which is catchy like ’90s keep-it-casual Britgaze but then gets a nasty round of fuzz in its second half to embiggen (a perfectly cromulent word) the riff, the nod, the feeling that you’re melting, and so on. It’s got a little shake to it but is still roilingly tripped out. Very much Black Helium‘s weirdo wheelhouse.

Maybe you know these guys, maybe you don’t. I don’t know if they’re super-hyped in stoner rock circles or what, because I’m not that cool, but I’ve dug everything they’ve done to-date — their latest LP is 2023’s Um (review here) — and if you need something on this wretched planet to look forward to, I find that good music is among the most affirming of options.

Accordingly, this comes from Riot Season‘s Bandcamp page for the record:

Black Helium – The Animals Are Coming

Preorder link: https://riotseasonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-animals-are-coming

With this, their fourth album Black Helium find themselves widening the parameters of their take on heavy psychedelic rock, with probably their most baked and hook-laden material to date.

From the no-safety-net freak out of ‘Return the Curse’, to the sawtooth groove of ‘Up on a Hill’, ‘The Animals Are Coming’ LP is Black Helium at their most exploratory and focused.

Recorded one sun-drenched week in late June 2024, this time at Axe and Trap Studios with Ben Turner (Hey Colossus, Part Chimp). ‘The Animals Are Coming’ is the band sweating it out in a room, fueled by “party foods “and vintage amps. Digging deeper towards the source, no matter how transcendent, no matter how dark.

Black Helium are a psychedelic power trio, based in London. Never afraid to stray from the beaten path, they traverse aural hallucinatory soundscapes; from detuned Neanderthal rock to deep oceans of introspective blissed out psychedelia.

The band consistently gig across the UK (including a two week tour with Japanese label mates Hibushibire late 2024), and have recently started ventures into mainland Europe. And plan to continue this path.

Tracklisting:
1. Return The Curse
2. Saviour Destroyer
3. Worm Vision
4. They Have Bodies
5. Up On A Hill
6. Inside The Horror Mask

BLACK HELIUM are
Stuart Gray (vocals, guitar)
Beck Harvey (bass, vocals)
Diogo Gomes (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/blackhelium
https://blackheliumband.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/blackheliumband

http://www.riotseason.com
https://riotseasonrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/riotseasonrecords

Black Helium, The Animals are Coming (2025)

Six full-lengths deep, Borracho are pretty secure in their awareness of who they are as a band. They’ve known all along — the slogan “heavy repetitive grooves” endures — but it’s refreshing to hear them continue to put together songs in a spirit of camaraderie and expression, whether it’s wondering where they world went wrong or embracing classic tropes like in “Succubus.” They are a riff rocker’s riff rock, and the first word of their bio tells you much of what you need to and probably already know about them: they’ve consistent. A Borracho record — any record, not just the upcoming Ouroboros in question — is going to be made to a standard of sound and songwriting that, as a listener, you’re right to expect from the band. And I’ve heard the record so I’ll tell you right now, they deliver again on exactly what you came for. To do less would not be Borracho.

I’ll hope to have more to come before August — I have a pretty decent history of writing about this band at this point, have done bios, etc., will probably ask to premiere a track if that’s a thing they’re doing — but you can dig into the initial info below, which I admit is pretty preliminary:

Borracho – Ouroboros

Preorder link: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/ouroboros

Consistency. Quality. Consistent quality. What more can you ask of a Stoner/Doom band these days? In a time when more than one thousand stoner/doom albums are released in a year, it’s hard to stand out, let alone do it with every single release. But that’s just what veteran Washington DC riff-masters BORRACHO have done over more than 15 years of bringing the heavy.

BORRACHO is a heavy rock trio hailing from Washington, D.C. Over more than a decade of consistently strong releases and live appearances they have become a staple of the stoner/doom scene and earned a large international following. With five critically acclaimed LPs, a compilation of non-album releases, and numerous single and split releases, the band has sold thousands of records all over the word, and shared stages with some of the genre’s most popular and influential acts. Their sixth LP Ouroboros will be released on Ripple Music in August 2025.

Tracklisting:
1. Vegas, Baby
2. Succubus
3. Lord of Suffering
4. Vale of Tears
5. Machine is the Master (Human is the Slave)
6. Freakshow
7. Broken Man

BORRACHO:
Steve Fisher – Guitar, Vocals
Mario Trubiano – Drums, Percussion
Tim Martin – Bass, Backing Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/pg/BorrachoDC/
https://www.instagram.com/borrachomusic/
https://borracho.bandcamp.com/
http://www.borrachomusic.com/

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

Borracho, Ouroboros (2025)

Borracho, Blurring the Lines of Reality (2023)

Don’t let me come in here trying to be all like ‘Oh yeah this is definitely a band I knew existed three months ago,’ because yeah, no. However, I was lucky enough to rend my pitiful physical form such that it was in front of the Koepelhal stage while Pygmy Lush were playing at Roadburn last month (review here), and that was an encouraging enough first impression that here we are. The Virginian grunge-infused Americana/dark-folk troupe will release the recorded-in-2016 Totem album on July 11 through Persistent Vision Records. If preorders are your thing, they exist.

I’m not sure if they played “February Song,” which is the first streaming track from Totem — pick your player below — but the song rules either way in that addled-at-night-someplace-open kind of way. There are at least four different bands I wish had evolved to this kind of sound, among them Nirvana.

From the PR wire:

Persistent Vision Records announces the July 11th release of Pygmy Lush’s TOTEM.

Recorded and mixed by Converge’s Kurt Ballou in 2016, the album has remained unreleased for nearly a decade. Active again now after a long hiatus, the revitalized band has made the decision to unearth this lost masterpiece.

Pre-order the album, here: https://persistentvisionrecords.com/products/pygmy-lush-totem

Pygmy Lush was founded in Northern Virginia in the mid-2000s by brothers Chris Taylor and Mike Taylor as an experimental offshoot of their band Pageninetynine. Beginning with the debut album, Bitter River, released on Robotic Empire in 2007, Pygmy Lush’s output ranged from Pageninetynine-caliber screamo, to fragile Americana; from the basement show to the campfire and back again, the songs all hit with equal conviction.

Following the release of 2011’s Old Friends album on Lovitt Records, Pygmy Lush faded from view, reemerging in 2024 to many fans’ surprise and delight. Reentering the limelight by way of an NPR Tiny Desk Concert in August 2024, the newly reignited band was a standout of the inaugural Dark Days Bright Nights festival in September of that year, and went on to wow the crowd at this year’s Roadburn.

With an appearance at Toronto’s Prepare the Ground festival booked for May, and shows in the works with the likes of Young Widows, Pygmy Lush now prepares to reveal the long-buried TOTEM. Mike Taylor explains why this nine-year-old masterpiece has not yet seen the light of day: “Frankly, we lost momentum shortly after recording the album. It was a very transitional time for Pygmy Lush where we were trying hard to figure out what this group wanted to do.”

He describes the upcoming 2025 release of TOTEM as a necessary step in Pygmy Lush’s progression toward its next phase: “I personally have wanted to release TOTEM as a document of this era of the band, in order to continue moving forward.”

While TOTEM’s belated release might give the Taylors a sense of closure on the past, it is more than a snapshot of bygone days. It is a monumental work of art that feels absolutely fresh and vital in 2025. A feast for the ears and the heart, TOTEM is an engrossing display of musical freedom, backed by authentic emotion. There are songs that rage, songs that rock, and songs that cruise hypnotically. From bruising noise rock, teetering on the edge of hardcore, to meditative refrains that roll along like trains through moonlit valleys, it moves in its own ways, unhindered by genre.

“The album became a bridge between the two completely different sounds of the band, the quiet and the loud,” states Mike Taylor. “It was very collaborative. We were all trying out as much stuff as we could. It’s a very eclectic album.” He offers up Born Against, PJ Harvey, and Brian Eno as three reference points. First single “February Song” is a heavy, haunting lullaby that ravages, serenely, evoking the quieter moments of Sonic Youth and Pavement alike.

The common denominator beneath TOTEM’s songs is the urgency, the realness, fueling every note and lyric. Chris Taylor states: “The lyrics desperately look for answers that aren’t there, and deliberately mock themselves. We sing and we write and we play, as the world becomes more and more obviously horrific. We admire, or argue over, the patterns of our battle flags while the fort is burning.”

Furthermore, TOTEM’s rich, warm production unites the disparities into one whole. With longtime collaborator Kurt Ballou overseeing the recording and mixing at his hallowed GodCity Studio, mastering was handled by the great Carl Saff (Bambara, Bonnie Prince Billy).

The cover art, created by Paul Nitsche, consists of hand sculpted organic elements and mixed media collage, photographed using traditional tintype photography and darkroom methods. Nitsche is known widely for his artwork for Dazzling Killmen’s Face of Collapse album.

With TOTEM set to be released to the world on July 11th, the path is cleared for whatever Pygmy Lush chooses to do next. “Yes, we will be writing new music ASAP,” declares Mike Taylor.

Tracklist:
1) House of Blood (Butch’s Monster)
2) It Wasn’t a Compliment (Martial Law Blues)
3) A Little Boy and His Bulldozer
4) Algorithmic Mercy (Prayers Printed Directly into a Shredder)
5) A Famous Jock (The Rest of Us)
6) February Song
7) Band-Aid on a Bullet Wound
8) The Puppeteer
9) Post-Punk in the Wrong Hands
10) Artistic Blood / Blanket Out the Sun (in a world of better things)
11) Nonsensical Whimper

Upcoming shows:
May 30 – Toronto, ON @ Prepare the Ground (w/ Baroness, Yob)
June 8 – Richmond, VA @ The Warehouse (w/ Young Widows)

TOTEM recording lineup:
Chris Taylor – vocals, bass
Mike Taylor – guitar
Mike Widman – guitar
Erin McCarley – bass, vocals
Andy Gale – drums

2025 lineup:
Chris Taylor – guitar, vocals
Mike Taylor – guitar
Mike Widman – guitar, bass
Johnny Ward – guitar, vocals
Andy Gale – drums

https://pygmylush.bandcamp.com/
https://pygmylush.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pygmylush/
https://www.facebook.com/pygmylush

https://persistentvisionrecords.com/
https://persistentvisionrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/persistentvisionrecords/

Pygmy Lush, “February Song”

Pygmy Lush, Totem (2025)

Toronto’s Lammping are setting forth on a four-album cycle of releases to come in the next, I don’t know, year and a half?, with Never Never, a collaboration with Montreal rockabilly solo artist Bloodshot Bill. It’s not Lammping‘s first outside-genre collaboration and it’s not the last of the cycle. They’ve got a hip-hop record coming too, plus a regular ol’ Lammping record presumably to assuage the listener contingent less down with all that dub, though really, if that’s the case, you probably didn’t get on board with Lammping in the first place.

Dub comes in here too, duh, as well as classic hip-hop, psych guitar and nuanced hypercool, an urbane sound but not placeable to anything other than sound collage or Lammping‘s own expanding vibe. They know (and I know) this isn’t going to be for everyone, but it’s 15 solid minutes of potentially stepping partway out of your comfort zone as a listener, and it’s cool besides. I feel like maybe you can handle it. If you need me to be your dad and tell you it’ll be okay, it’ll be okay.

From the PR wire:

LAMMPING Announces Never Never – First of a Four-Album Sonic Voyage

New Album Never Never Releases June 27, 2025

Pre-Order Link: https://lammping.bandcamp.com/album/never-never

Toronto’s shape-shifting psych project LAMMPING will release Never Never – the first in a four-part album series – on June 27 via We Are Busy Bodies. Lammping started as a heavy psych band, but things shifted when producer Mikhail Galkin returned to the kind of hip-hop production he was doing in his teens. Remixing records for Badge Époque Ensemble and Uh Huh under the Lammping name cracked the project wide open-what began as a one-off stylistic swerve became a long-term permission to make anything, in any genre. Now, whether it’s boom-bap, fuzzed-out folk, beat tape interludes, or full psych freakouts, it all fits. This upcoming cycle is their most ambitious yet: four LPs released over 12-18 months, each one exploring a different corner of their increasingly unpredictable universe.

The series kicks off with Never Never, a collaborative LP with rockabilly wildman Bloodshot Bill. The record blends psych-rock textures with ‘90s-style boom-bap, turning lo-fi samples and breakbeat drumming into cinematic, genre-dissolving cuts. “Never Never” (the lead single) and the follow-up “Won’t Back Down” showcase Lammping’s ability to reshape a voice like Bill’s into something strange and mesmerizing. Think LL Cool J meets Spacemen 3 – if they were trapped in a twilight zone rerun.

“I always loved Bill’s voice—it’s harsh, elastic, and super expressive,” says Lammping’s Mikhail Galkin. “We just hit the studio one day and one song turned into three. From there, the album built itself around those sessions.”

The second album, currently in production, brings together longtime Toronto collaborators Drew Smith (Dr. Ew, The Bicycles) and Chris Cummings (Marker Starling). The result is something Galkin describes as “CSNY harmonies over early-’90s hip-hop drums, fuzzed-out guitars, and synth textures.” What began as a pretty, melodic record soon took a heavier turn: “It’s like a heavy-psyched out yacht rock album – if the yacht was slowly sinking.”

The third LP will be a return to the full Lammping band-a stylistic microcosm that threads together acoustic folk, beat interludes, blown-out psych riffs, and off-kilter bops. Tracks range from soul-sampled boom-bap in the style of Madlib to poppier moments reminiscent of Real Estate or QOTSA. “I’ve always loved albums like Paul’s Boutique or Prince Paul’s De La stuff-where you throw everything at the wall but it still somehow works.”

The fourth and final album will land as a full hip-hop collaboration with rapper Theo 3, a Toronto underground legend and longtime collaborator of Galkin’s from his DJ Alibi days. It features Lammping flipping their own recordings, alongside obscure Soviet records from Galkin’s production roots. The goal? A surrealist homage to golden era Toronto hip-hop—filtered through Lammping’s psychedelic lens.

Together, the series represents a full-circle moment for Lammping, who began as a heavy psych band before veering boldly into sample-based production and remix culture. Their 2022 and 2023 remix projects (for Badge Époque Ensemble and Uh Huh) confused early fans but in hindsight, those left turns became permission to go anywhere.

“Once people got hip, they stopped being surprised—we could do anything and it still felt like us,” Galkin says. “Now people expect the left turns.”

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.

Pre-Order Link: https://lammping.bandcamp.com/album/never-never

—

Lammping is a Toronto-based psych project led by composer/producer Mikhail Galkin and drummer Jay Anderson. Galkin has a diverse background, having produced for hip-hop legends like J-Live, Boldy James, and People Under The Stairs, as well as releasing a critically acclaimed solo album as DJ Alibi and working as a film/tv composer. Anderson is a seasoned figure in the Toronto indie scene, playing in bands such as Badge Epoque Ensemble, Biblical, ROY and many others.

The two first connected after seeing each other perform in different projects and bonding over their shared love for ’90s New York hip-hop, skate videos, DIY culture, Beach Boy harmonies and everything in between. The project was born from their desire to create music without limitations – driven by a spirit of exploration, embracing all kinds of genres, sounds, and influences under the Lammping umbrella. The result is a uniquely eclectic project where anything goes, as long as it feels true to their creative instincts. The live version of the band is a 5-piece, with Toronto musicians Colm Hinds, Scott Hannigan and Matt Aldred lending their talents on vocals, guitar and bass.

https://www.instagram.com/lammping
https://lammping.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZrzRmbuxvCeFSpEbFpbXZ

Lammping, Never Never (2025)

Note the butt-load of fests included in the upcoming round of European touring for Austin, Texas, heavy rollers High Desert Queen. As their recent-enough-to-call-it-new new video for “Time Waster” demonstrates, that’s par for the course for when they get out, and if you’ve seen them before, you know the good times that ensue from there. Big riffs, communal vibes, the whole nine. You get that in the video plus a bit of behind-the-scenes whathaveyou, light shenanigans and make-your-own-fun waiting around. Tour, in other words. It was shot on tour.

I know we’re just about at a year out from Palm Reader (review here), their second LP and first for Magnetic Eye, but I can’t help but be curious what their third album might tell in terms of their sound. Seems like a band who’ve hit every big ‘moment’ they’ve had to face thus far in their tenure absolutely head-on. So what’s that ‘next step’ like for that band? That’s what I’m wondering, despite the fact that I have no idea when we’ll find out. I wouldn’t expect a third LP in 2025, but they do seem to enjoy a bit of momentum.

As seen on socials, posted by Magnetic Eye:

You can take the Europeans out of Texas, but you can’t keep the Texans out of Europe! (Not our best, but might be a viable joke in there) Our own HIGH DESERT QUEEN will head back across the pond this summer for a massive run of club dates and festival appearances as they continue to spread their addictive 2024 slab of heaviness ‘Palm Reader’ to receptive minds and ears far and wide 🎸👍🔥 Celebrating the occasion, they’ve released a new tour footage video for the album track “Time Waster” which is live now on our YouTube 👀 Go check out the video featuring the legends in Faso Jetson and get your tickets now for High Desert Queen’s upcoming European dates:

HIGH DESERT QUEEN Europe Summer Tour 2025
25 JUL 2025 Karlsruhe (DE) Das Fest
26 JUL 2025 Gent (BE) Gent City Festival
27-31 JUL 2025 TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
01 AUG 2025 Beelen (DE) Krach am Bach Fest
02 AUG 2025 Porta Westfalica (DE) Festivalkult
03 AUG 2025 Amsterdam (NL) De VerbroederIJ
05 AUG 2025 Bremen (DE) Meisenfrei Blues Club
06 AUG 2025 Recklinghausen (DE) Backyard Club
07 AUG 2025 Hannover (DE) Perle
08 AUG 2025 Sudwalde (DE) MuTaChi Fest
09 AUG 2025 Wedehorn (DE) Eekboom Open Air
10 AUG 2025 Dresden Chemiefabrik
11 AUG 2025 Bamberg (DE) Live Club
13 AUG 2025 Cham (DE) L.A. Club
14 AUG 2025 Kusel (DE) Kinett
15 AUG 2025 Stemwede (DE) Stemweder Open Air
16 AUG 2025 TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
Poster by @72826_

HIGH DESERT QUEEN are:
Ryan Garney – vocals
Phil Hook – drums
Morgan Miller – bass
Rusty Miller – guitar

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

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

High Desert Queen, “Time Waster” official video

High Desert Queen, Palm Reader (2024)

If you’ve followed this site for a while or found yourself going down a specific rabbit hole, you might know I’ve covered Montréal’s Vision Eternel a fair amount. The solo drone project of Alexander Julien, mostly through a series of short releases and explorations, honed a specifically evocative, cinematic sound, and consistently stood in ready demonstration of the point that just because something is ethereal, that does not need to preclude it from also being emotional.

Most of the sounds were vague, impressionistic, but it was always fun to see where Julien‘s whims and cinephile noir vibes were taking him. Vision Eternel was never super-hyped as far as bands go, but I enjoyed writing about the music and could hear in it a resounding commitment to growth and human expression. The songs were never overly accessible nor overly harsh, but set themselves more to worldbuilding and immersing the listener in texture, soft melody, and transient frequencies.

Julien‘s farewell is typically vague. There’s no grand explanation of self or reasoning, just a couple namedrops — Brandi Rayne Hoke was an ex-girlfriend who helped inspired the initial Vision Eternel music; Rain Frances has directed videos and shot photos along the way — and references. No mention of future intention, but one doubts Julien will actually stop making music, even if he does stop doing it under this name. Whatever form his next work, musical or not, takes, I wish him luck and thanks for the sounds. Seems like something of an irony to feel nostalgic about it.

From the PR wire:

Vision Eternel has completed its purpose.
From Brandi Rayne Hoke to Rain Frances.
This is the end.

I always did prefer Rainy afternoons.
So thanks for the memories; the wonderful and the miserable.
Now good-bye.

Alexander Julien
Founding Band Member

https://www.visioneternel.com
https://facebook.com/visioneternel
https://instagram.com/visioneternel
https://soundcloud.com/visioneternel
https://play.spotify.com/artist/52WyoEAtuPS2QJ2qYOmb6u
https://visioneternel.bandcamp.com

Vision Eternel, “Pièce No. Trois” official video

Note the cover art with its various iconography culled from the song titles. Whatever you do, don’t miss the Mars rover. Classic ’80s metal vibes there that have me somewhat curious as to how Birmingham heavy rock trio Margarita Witch Cult will have progressed from their well-received 2023 self-titled debut (review here), but there’s no audio yet to begin to get a sense. They’ll get there, I’m just impatient with this stuff.

Whatever the three-piece are up to in pieces like “Conqueror Worm” and “Crawl Home to Your Coffin,” the safer bet is it’ll be over the top, as that’s where the self-titled spent a good portion of its time. There’s still the better part of two weeks before the first single gets posted though, so really what they’re doing is laying the groundwork and getting those who dug the first record to snag the second one on spec, which honestly probably isn’t a bad call to make. I’m sure when one pressing sells out they’ll do another, because why not, but if you don’t look at this cover and want a first pressing, I feel like maybe you need to re-up your appreciation for the absurd.

From Heavy Psych Sounds via the PR wire

MARGARITA WITCH CULT – Strung Out In Hell

– sophomore album for the UK proto metal – doom riffers –

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the MARGARITA WITCH CULT upcoming sophomore album STRUNG OUT IN HELL !!

RELEASE DATE: JULY 18th

ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS360

USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

FIRST SINGLE COMING OUT ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS MAY 28th

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD SIDE A – SIDE B YELLOW/ORANGE/RED VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD HALF-HALF TRANSP./RED TRANSP. + SPLATTER BLACK VINYL
400 LTD GOLD NUGGET VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

TRACKLIST
SIDE A
Crawl Home To Your Coffin – 4:07
Scream Bloody Murder – 3:41
Conqueror Worm – 4:21
Witches Candle – 2:38
White Wedding – 4:45
SIDE B
Mars Rover – 4:53
Dig Your Way Out – 2:27
The Fool – 3:24
Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm – 6:46

ALBUM DESCRIPTION
Margarita Witch Cult captured lightning in a bottle with their 2023 debut- a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it behemoth that saw the band thrash and burn through Europe and the UK, picking up legions of fans and touring with the likes of Cancer Bats, Monster Magnet and Nebula.

Now, the Birmingham trio are set to pick their teeth with the bones of their own past- as their second LP ‘Strung Out In Hell’ takes everything that was so compelling about their debut and turns the knob up to 11; rips off the knob; throws the knob into the fires of hell and cackles maniacally in the wake of its demoniacal glory.

From top-to-tail, ‘Strung Out In Hell’ is a cloven hoof to the chest; a dizzying descent through infernus. It will caress you only to chew you up and spit you out. It is the soundtrack to the afterparty of all life on earth. Succumb to its sordid siren song. Bolder, stranger, and downright more mean, there’s no better time to jump on the Margarita Witch Cult train- and it’s going straight down, fast.

CREDITS
Recorded & Mixed by Mark Gittins at Megatone Studio, Birmingham, UK
Mastered by Scott Middleton at High Wattage Cottage, Ontario, Canada
Producer – @mark_gittins_sound / @megatonerecordingstudio
Artwork by Dirt Wizard.
All songs Copyright Margarita Witch Cult 2025 except Track 5.

Guest Performers
Alicia Gardener-Trejo – Baritone Sax on ‘The Fool’
Sam Wooster – Trumpet on ‘The Fool’

Writing Credits
All songs written by Scott Abbott except:
Track 3 – Conqueror Worm – James Brown / Scott Abbott
Track 5 – White Wedding – Billy Idol
Track 7 – Dig Your Way Out – James Brown / Scott Abbott

MARGARITA WITCH CULT is:
Scott Abbott – Vocals & Guitars
James Brown – Bass, Vocals, Synth, Mellotron, Guitars
George Caswell – Drums & Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/margaritawitchcult
https://www.instagram.com/margaritawitchcult/
https://margaritawitchcult.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/margaritawitchcult

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

Margarita Witch Cult, Margarita Witch Cult (2023)