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

Wow. With Monolord releasing their new album, Neverending, on May 29, that puts new Elder, Monolord and All Them Witches all out on the same day. I can’t remember a recent release date so packed in recent memory. The Sylvia Massy-helmed Neverending was recorded in the Pacific Northwest last Fall, and the video for the first single “You Bastard” by renowned photographer James Rexroad comes from that time, showing the band recording and doing a bunch of American-type things. They go bowling. They watch things go by in a car. They hang out by train tracks. Essential experiences.

The song, unsurprisingly, is catchy as hell in addition to its corresponding weight of riff. Unabashedly Sabbathian as ever, the new LP is something of a coming-back-together for Monolord, as each of the three members of the band have had solo-projects to some degree or other in the works over the time since 2021’s Your Time to Shine (review here). They’ve never quite made the same record twice, but they remain recognizable here as well. That balance is how they do.

I’ll hope to have more to come soon. For now, fresh off the PR wire:

MONOLORD RETURN WITH NEVERENDING; FIRST FULL-LENGTH ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS; OUT MAY 29 VIA RELAPSE RECORDS

PRE-ORDERS: https://www.relapse.com/pages/monolord-neverending

“YOU BASTARD” OUT NOW

U.S. TOUR EXTENDED, DATES BEGIN JUNE 11

Monolord return with Neverending, their first full-length album in five years, arriving May 29 via Relapse Records.

To create Neverending, Monolord decamped to Ashland, Oregon to record with legendary producer/engineer Sylvia Massy (Tool, System of a Down, and Johnny Cash). The collaboration began when Massy asked vocalist/guitarist Thomas Jäger to send everything the band had ever written. “She asked me to send her everything we had—not just songs written for the album, but every stray riff and idea,” he says. “I even sent her stuff I’d written ten years ago. She listened to all of it and sent us a list of what she wanted to work on.” The band rehearsed 12 songs, recorded 11, and ultimately selected eight for Neverending. The result captures a focused but expansive version of Monolord’s sound.

An introduction to the album comes with today’s release of “You Bastard” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-dfIpmX-xo), alongside a video by James Rexroad during the recording sessions. Driven by a propulsive groove, the track points to a shift in the band’s approach. “This isn’t really what people would call a doom album,” Jäger adds. “It feels like a mix of that and something new.”

Reflecting on the band’s trajectory since forming in 2013, drummer Esben Willems adds: “It’s been a wild ride and still is. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished along the way, and in many ways, this album feels like the essence of everything we’ve done so far. My mindset is the same it’s always been, to be the absolute best the three of us can be.”

Album pre-orders, including multiple limited-edition vinyl variants, CD and cassette, as well as digital pre-saves, are available now (https://www.relapse.com/pages/monolord-neverending).

Neverending album cover featuring a painting by M.K. Cooper

Neverending tracklisting:

1. Iodine
2. You Bastard
3. Inside A Collider
4. Crystal Bridge
5. Oozing Wound
6. The Masque
7. Invisible
8. It’s Neverending *
*-features vocals by Jörgen Sandström (ex-Entombed)

The band has simultaneously announced an expansion of their U.S. tour plans, adding a late Summer leg for the East Coast. Mizmor opens the Western U.S. dates, Khemmis opens on all Eastern U.S. dates with the exception of the Muddy Roots Festival. Tickets for all dates are on-sale now via Monolord.com.

Monolord U.S. tour dates:
Mizmor opens on all Western U.S. dates
June 11 San Diego, CA Casbah
June 12 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
June 13 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
June 14 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s
June 16 Eugene, OR John Henry’s
June 17 Portland, OR Nova PDX
June 18 Seattle, WA Substation
June 19 Bellingham, WA Structures Brewing
June 20 Tacoma, WA Airport Tavern Music Hall
June 23 Denver, CO Marquis Theater
June 24 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
June 25 Las Vegas, NV Bizarre Bar
June 26 Pioneertown, CA Pappy & Harriet’s
June 27 Los Angeles, CA The Regent Theater

Khemmis opens on all Eastern U.S. dates
August 27 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall
August 28 Louisville, KY Portal
August 29 Atlanta, GA Garden Club
August 30 Asheville, NC Eulogy
August 31 Columbia, SC New Brookland Tavern
September 2 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
September 3 Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere
September 5 Baltimore, MD Labor Daze
September 6 Cookeville, TN Muddy Roots Festival
September 8 Columbus, OH Ace of Cups
September 9 Detroit, MI Sanctuary
September 10 Indianapolis, IN Black Circle

European tour dates:
May 28 Malmö, SE Plan B
May 29 Stockholm, SE Slaktkyrkan
May 30 Gothenburg, SE Monument
July 30 Ghimbav, RO Rockstadt Extreme Festival
August 7 Kortrijk, BE Alcatraz Festival
October 6 Hamburg, DE Bahnhof Pauli
October 7 Haarlem, NL Patronaat
October 8 Eindhoven, NL Effenaar
October 9 Sint-Niklaas, BE De Casino
October 10 Paris, FR La Maroquinerie
October 11 Nantes, FR Le Ferrailleur
October 12 Toulouse, FR Le Rex
October 13 Lyon, FR Jack Jack
October 14 Aarau, CH KIFF
October 15 Munich, DE Backstage
October 16 Osnabrück, DE Bastard Club
October 17 Cologne, DE Gebäude 9
November 4 Copenhagen, DK Stengade
November 5 Berlin, DE Columbia Theater
November 6 Dresden, DE Beatpol
November 7 Warsaw, PL Hydrozagadka
November 8 Krakow, PL Hype Park
November 9 Brno, CZ Kabinet Múz
November 10 Budapest, HU Dürer Kert
November 11 Vienna, AT Arena
November 12 Zagreb, HR Vintage Industrial Bar
November 13 Milan, IT Legend
November 14 Bologna, IT FreakOut
November 15 Karlsruhe, DE P8

Monolord are:
Thomas V Jäger – Guitars & vocals
Esben Willems – Drums
Mika Häkki – Bass

monolord.com
monolord.bandcamp.com
Instagram.com/monolordofficial
facebook.com/MonolordSweden

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

Monolord, “You Bastard” official video

The video below was recorded on Nov. 2 at VooDoo Club in Warsaw, Poland, as San Diego/Philadelphia-based duo Author and Punisher celebrated the release of this Fall’s Nocturnal Birding (review here) on a European tour that took them from Amplifest in Portugal on a nearly-month-long loop that wound up at Damnation in the UK. Founding programmer/producer, vocalist and songwriter Tristan Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick (who’s also been ripping it up this year with noisemakers Plaque Marks and whose hard-psych rock outfit Ecstatic Vision has plans in place for 2026 including Mojave Experience in CA in March), have more touring ahead of them, likely more than is listed for the February/March stint on the US East Coast which will mark their first for the new LP.

Looking ahead at spending however much of the next year on the road, a live video makes sense, but I don’t think this is so much a marketing calculation as an opportunity that came along. The film crew was local, I suppose is what I mean by that. Obviously the foundation of the piece is the live performance of the song, which was written in collaboration with France’s Fange and features them on the studio version. Here, Shone covers that part with duly harsh throat. He and Sabolick make an interesting contrast on stage. Shone is surrounded by midi keyboards and self-made machine interfaces — the striking onstage visual impression that Author and Punisher have always made — while Sabolick stands adjacent, entirely in the open, guitar in hand. Tension and release, the two of them. And both furiously heavy.

Yeah, it being December, I’m in year-end mode, so this won’t be the last time I talk about Author and Punisher in 2025, and I hope to see them on a stage somewhere, sometime, in 2026. Those East Coast dates and the video credits follow below, as hoisted from the YouTube page where the video appears. Nocturnal Birding streams at the bottom. Enjoy:

Author & Punisher, “Black Storm Petrel” live at VooDoo Club, Warsaw, PL

Video by ‪@flouwejett‬. Author & Punisher performs “Black Storm Petrel” LIVE in Warsaw, PL at VooDoo Club.

Camera: ‪@flouwejett‬ & Wum Panik (@wum_panik_video)
Editing: ‪@flouwejett‬

Author & Punisher’s new album Nocturnal Birding is OUT NOW 🦅 Listen here: https://orcd.co/authorandpunisher

Experience Nocturnal Birding LIVE! All tour dates and tickets here: https://bnds.us/d2z1t9

North American Feb/Mar 2026 Nocturnal Birding Dates:
Feb 20 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club ^
Feb 21 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies Rock Club ^
Feb 22 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle ^
Feb 23 – Detroit, MI @ The Sanctuary ^
Feb 25 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison ^
Feb 26 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB ^
Feb 27 – Cambridge, MA @ Sonia ^
Feb 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows ^
Mar 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ukie Club ^
Mar 2 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery ^
Mar 4 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall ^
Mar 5 – Raleigh, NC @ Chapel of Bones ^
Mar 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Boggs Social Supply ^
Mar 8 – Austin, TX @ The Far Out Lounge ^
Mar 9 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada ^
^ w/ King Yosef, Black Magnet

Author & Punisher, Nocturnal Birding (2025)

Author & Punisher website

Author & Punisher on Bandcamp

Author & Punisher on Instagram

Author & Punisher on Facebook

Relapse Records website

Relapse Records on Bandcamp

Relapse Records on Instagram

Relapse Records on Facebook

They’re announcing the tour. What they’re not announcing yet is the album that the tour will support. Recently recorded in the US Pacific Northwest with producer Sylvia Massy, the impending Monolord full-length — which maybe is being mastered while we speak if it isn’t done already; that’s kind of exciting in a nerdy way — has the grim duty of following 2021’s Your Time to Shine (review here), but I’m looking forward to hearing where Monolord are at circa 2026, after all three of them have done the solo-projects thing and after the band has toured multiple times over with Per Wiberg as a fourth member, continuing to branch out as they’ve done all along since the first record.

My curiosity here is what Monolord will be doing before this, since if the album’s out in Spring they’ll likely tour then too. Eurofests? The US East Coast seems like a lame place to launch your first record in five years, but I only think that because it’s where I live, so I guess that’s a possibility as well. They’ll be somewhere, certainly.

So yes, the tour. All part of the process. The wait begins.

From the PR wire:

MONOLORD ANNOUNCE FIRST U.S. TOUR DATES SINCE 2022

SWEDISH DOOM TRIO RETURNS TO STATES NEXT JUNE AS NEW ALBUM NEARS COMPLETION

Monolord return to the U.S. next June for their first North American tour since 2022, traversing the western United States with performances that include stops at The Regent Theater in Los Angeles and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

The news arrives as the trio of Thomas Jäger (guitar/vocals), Esben Willems (drums), and Mika Häkki (bass), wraps up work on their highly anticipated fifth album.

“The new album is a wrap! Recording with Sylvia Massy has been a fantastic experience and we can’t wait to bring these new songs on the road,” the band shares, collectively.

Tickets are on sale this Friday, December 5, at 10 a.m. local time via Monolord.com. Mizmor supports on all dates.

Monolord U.S. tour dates:
June 11 San Diego, CA Casbah
June 12 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
June 13 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
June 14 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s
June 16 Eugene, OR John Henry’s
June 17 Portland, OR Nova PDX
June 18 Seattle, WA Substation
June 19 Bellingham, WA Structures Brewing
June 20 Tacoma, WA Airport Tavern Music Hall
June 23 Denver, CO Marquis Theater
June 24 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
June 25 Las Vegas, NV Swan Dive
June 26 Pioneertown, CA Pappy & Harriet’s
June 27 Los Angeles, CA The Regent Theater

Monolord have released four critically acclaimed albums: Empress Rising (2014), Vænir (2015), Rust (2017), and Your Time to Shine (2021). Their sound combines monolithic heaviness, psychedelic expansiveness, and meticulous production.

Monolord are:
Thomas V Jäger – Guitars & vocals
Esben Willems – Drums
Mika Häkki – Bass

monolord.com
monolord.bandcamp.com
Instagram.com/monolordofficial
facebook.com/MonolordSweden

Monolord, It’s All the Same (2023)

Monolord, Your Time to Shine (2021)

Monolord are done recording their next album. The Gothenburg, Sweden, three-piece tracked their impending sixth full-length in Oregon with Sylvia Massey, whose decades-long career has seen her work with hundreds of acts, among them Tool, Green Jellö and Machines of Loving Grace, and with the mixing and mastering process presumably still ahead of them, a release in March or April doesn’t seem out of the question for what will almost certainly be one of 2026’s most anticipated heavy albums. I’m pretty sure they’re still on Relapse Records, but they mention ‘a new era of Monolord‘ below, so I’ll wait for a confirmation of what that means before I start any real rampant speculation.

Obviously, the prospect of a new Monolord release brings questions of where the band are at sound-wise. While known for and retaining a physically lumbering nod, there’s no question the trio of guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jäger, bassist Mika Häkki and drummer Esben Willems have grown more dynamic. “Empress Rising” might still finish out a set with all due steamroll, but the band have shown time and again that they have more to offer sound-wise. Their 2023 two-songer EP, It’s All the Same (review here), continued the band’s forays into psychedelia and post-heavy atmosphere-making, and to my remembering, this is the first time Monolord will have come back together to make an LP that all three members have active solo-projects under their respective names.

Monolord‘s most recent full-length is 2021’s stellar Your Time to Shine (review here), which you’ll find streaming below along with the 2023 EP. One looks forward hopefully to the dry sarcasm of what their next title might be. ‘I’d Rather Walk the Dog Than Tour This Record’ or some such.

Unlike mine, their announcement was short and sweet. From socials:

We have finished recording our new full-length album with the legendary Sylvia Massy in Ashland, Oregon!

Stay tuned in 2026 for a new era of Monolord…

Photo by James Rexroad.

Monolord are:
Thomas V Jäger – Guitars & vocals
Esben Willems – Drums
Mika Häkki – Bass

monolord.com
monolord.bandcamp.com
Instagram.com/monolordofficial
facebook.com/MonolordSweden

Monolord, It’s All the Same (2023)

Monolord, Your Time to Shine (2021)

If the notion of Author and Punisher putting out a record themed around birds seems counterintuitive, fair enough. Nocturnal Birding wasn’t on my Bingo card either. In 2022, the San Diego-based, mostly-solo outfit of auteur and machinist Tristan Shone released Krüller (review here), which was a consuming soundtrack for the apocalypse humanity had just lived through in the years immediately preceding, and not only the lyrics, but the feel of the production seemed to embody a sci-fi analog for the times. Obviously the mission across the eight-song/34-minute Nocturnal Birding is different, and well it should be.

Each track represents a species — the exception is “Titmouse” and its pluralized counterpart “Titmice,” which follows — and while “Meadowlark” feels like a departure in some ways, it functions across its four and a half minutes not unlike Krüller opener “Drone Carrying Dread,” establishing the atmospheric backdrop against which the album will take place. Here, that involves birdsong. Some of it is manipulated digitally as one might expect, some of it echoes over imaginary canyons, but it is one of a few threads running throughout Nocturnal Birding, and it starts early over the first, clean-sung two minutes of “Meadowlark,” from which the lead cut transitions to the hard-chugging guitar that — guess what — is another thread.

In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote a bio for Nocturnal Birding and as part of that spoke with Shone about his experiences in volunteer groups near the Mexican border, handing out water bottles to migrants and helping people in the hyperspecific ways that wouldn’t also get him arrested by a government that consistently seems to get off most on its own cruelty. Those times, outdoors, at night, hearing the birds, inform not only the lyrics — handwritten in the album’s liner notes — and themes of “Meadowlark,” the closer “Thrush,” and other pieces, but they underline the core message of the work on a meta-level as well, which is that no one is coming to save you. There is no Jesus on the way, no white knights to come make things ‘right,’ whatever that even means in an era that’s nullified and commoditized truth, and the only way we get through is together. Collaboration.

This is shown not only in “Mute Swan,” where Megan Osztrosits of Couch Slut adds vocals, or “Titanis” where Indonesia’s Kuntari contribute live drums, or “Black Storm Petrel,” which was written together with French industrialists Fange, but in the deepening of the collaboration between Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick (also of Ecstatic Vision, A Life Once Lost, Plaque Marks, etc.). The latter joined Shone in the wake of the last record to help bring that material to life onstage, and in addition to the head-spinning leads in the second half of “Titmouse,” his stamp can be heard in throughout the LP, whether it’s following the rolling procession of “Titanis” or in a more forward role, casting notes into the bleak ether about a minute into “Black Storm Petrel” or setting the bed of drone that becomes the undulating riff of “Rook,” penultimate to “Thrush,” where an omegachug bookends with “Meadowlark” righteously.

The expression of togetherness — which is to say nothing of breaking with the expectation of Author and Punisher as being a solo-project, even if Shone‘s still driving the songwriting — further extends to the construction of the album itself. While not at all devoid of ambience, whether that’s the soon-contrasted minimalism that opens to such breadth in “Thrush” or the echoing, otherworldly birds at the outset of “Mute Swan” joined by high-end wubs as it begins moving toward its also-clean-sung culmination, the airy aftermath in the end of “Titanis,” etc., this collection of songs was very clearly composed with the live presentation considered. To put numbers to that, Krüller had two tracks under five minutes long; Nocturnal Birding has seven. The shorter they are, the more you can play live, and the more generally direct they’ll be perceived as being. This puts Nocturnal Birding more in line with 2018’s Relapse Records label debut, Beastland (discussed here), but the context is different in sound and concept. The lessons of Krüller haven’t been forgotten so much as refined as part of an ongoing creative evolution.

Physical presence becomes important, the physicality of the songs, whether that’s Shone and Sabolick working through ideas together or the audience in front of the stage waiting to be flattened by the results. Author and Punisher remain largely in an echelon of their own when it comes to conveying aural weight in industrial music. The ‘kick drum’ alone in “Black Storm Petrel” conveys this superlative heft, as one layer goes to 16th notes — double-kick — and that core thud remains in place underneath, a punctuation unto itself. It grounds the angularity of “Titmice,” which tempo-wise moves away from the lurch in “Titanis,” and amid the stuttered verse hooks of “Mute Swan” and the cacophony that backs the arrival of Osztrosits‘ spoken part, it remains central to the movement of the piece. Complemented by the higher-register synth in the last crescendo of “Thrush,” it is another element tying the work together. A crucial difference is the corresponding prominence of the guitar.

Godflesh have always been a touchstone for industrial metal anything, and especially with the increased focus on live, by-human guitar, that lineage can be heard in “Rook,” the extreme-feeling middle of “Black Storm Petrel” and the way “Meadowlark” makes the riff the basis of its final build. But more than 20 years on from Shone‘s outset with the project, Nocturnal Birding finds Author and Punisher less beholden to aggression even in some of the outright nastiest stretches. “Meadowlark” is fierce and yells into the void with barking vocals up front as it resolves, but in the conclusions of “Mute Swan” and “Titmice,” leading into the apex of “Rook” and the Steve Von Till-esque beginning of “Thrush,” Shone sings soulfully and with no less striking a presence than one finds in the harshest, noisiest reaches of “Black Storm Petrel.”

Perhaps, then, the ultimate message of Nocturnal Birding is that as much as Author and Punisher have a core, identifiable sound, no two records issued under the moniker have ever been the same, and that the progression of craft has led Shone (and now Sabolick) to a place where notions of breadth and pinpointed impact can combine. “Thrush” is the longest inclusion on the album at 5:49, and sets forth mournfully into the slow churn of its first half, with maybe too much longing for it to have opened, but an apparent answer to “Meadowlark” just the same. And like the opener, it grows fiercer with the guitar, transitions via birdsong and shifts into a finish that feels like a summary of the album as a whole; complete in ways that go beyond just bringing back the earlier movement after the chug and building it out to end.

Between the themes, worldmaking, continued development of sound and complexity of the songs, Nocturnal Birding isn’t lacking for ‘stuff going on’ at any point. It is a testament to Shone and Sabolick on a compositional level that it’s also engaging in a way that music so outwardly bludgeoning rarely is. The mix is vast and there is room for you in it, should you also want to be a part of the collaboration just through the experience of listening. In doing so, one might even find comfort of a kind, as well as catharsis.

Author & Punisher, “Titanis” official video

Author & Punisher, “Thrush” official video

Author & Punisher, Nocturnal Birding (2025)

Author & Punisher website

Author & Punisher on Bandcamp

Author & Punisher on Instagram

Author & Punisher on Facebook

Relapse Records website

Relapse Records on Bandcamp

Relapse Records on Instagram

Relapse Records on Facebook

Obviously, it’s Boris, so these aren’t just straightforward reissues. Pink is a three-sided 2LP with a box set of six more 12″s of unreleased whathaveyou, and Dronevil, the complement, has a new mix, is on vinyl for the first time, and has been retitled dronevil – example –. If you’re a collector or a fanatic — and I’m not sure Boris has casual fans — no doubt Oct. 17 will be marked on your calendar.

The underlying message I take away from this is Boris have been a big deal for a long time. Pink was part of an untouchable succession of Boris albums when it came out and is a piece of defining their legacy. If you’d asked me if that was 20 years ago, I would’ve said no way. Because I’m old.

There’s tour dates below as well. Don’t miss those. From the PR wire:

BORIS: Announce 20th Anniversary Reissues of Pink + dronevil -example-

See BORIS on tour throughout North America in October + November

Pre-Order / Listen: https://www.relapse.com/pages/boris-pink-dronevil-example-20th-anniversary-reissues

Japanese experimental rock legends Boris are celebrating the 20 Year Anniversary of landmark albums Pink and dronevil with special editions of each release, incoming October 17 from Relapse.

The iconic album Pink will be available for the first time in a decade as a 20th Anniversary Reissue featuring the original CD sequence as a 2XLP for the first time ever, with an exclusive D side etching on the vinyl. Additionally, Pink will see a deluxe reissue box set with a limited edition 6XLP collection including 3 LP’s worth of unreleased music. The deluxe box set features the original vinyl version of Pink, expanded “Forbidden Tracks” from the Pink sessions, live material never before released on vinyl and previously unreleased rough mixes.

Boris’ classic album dronevil will be available for the first time since its original release; two different albums of soaring ambient space and frenetic headbanging rock n’ roll meant to be played at the same time. This new edition is a joint 2XLP mix available for the very first time on vinyl and is titled dronevil – example -.

Pre-orders are available from Relapse direct and on Bandcamp (Pink, dronevil). Stream Boris performing Pink in its entirety— Live at Shindata Fever 20160924 (from the deluxe reissue box set) here and dronevil – example – here.

Additionally, Boris will embark on a 20th Anniversary Tour this October and November in North America where Pink will be performed by the three-piece lineup from that era. The tour will feature the very setlist that once boldly repainted the map of heavy rock with its vivid sonic colors.

Watch / share “Do You Remember Pink Days?” tour teaser video

Boris, “Do You Remember Pink Days?” tour dates:
Oct. 23 Solana Beach, CA — Belly Up #
Oct. 24 Phoenix, AZ — Crescent Ballroom #
Oct. 25 Tucson, AZ — La Rosa #
Oct. 27 San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger $
Oct. 28 Austin, TX — Mohawk $
Oct. 30 Atlanta, GA — Masquerade $
Oct. 31 Saxapahaw, NC — Haw River Ballroom $
Nov. 01 Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore $
Nov. 02 Philadelphia, PA — Union Transfer $
Nov. 04 Brooklyn, NY — Brooklyn Steel %
Nov. 05 Boston, MA — Paradise Rock Club %
Nov. 06 Montreal, QC — Le National %
Nov. 07 Toronto, ON — Phoenix Concert Theatre %
Nov. 08 Detroit, MI — St. Andrew’s Hall ^
Nov. 09 Chicago, IL — Metro ^
Nov. 11 Minneapolis, MN — Fine Line ^
Nov. 13 Englewood, CO — Gothic Theatre &
Nov. 14 Salt Lake City, UT — Urban Lounge &
Nov. 16 Portland, OR — Revolution Hall &
Nov. 17 Seattle, WA — The Crocodile &
Nov. 20 San Francisco, CA — Great American Music Hall
Nov. 21 San Jose, CA — The Ritz
Nov. 22 Los Angeles, CA — Belasco ~
Nov. 27 Santiago, CL — Club Chocolate
Nov. 28 Buenos Aires, AR — El Teatrito
Nov. 29 Cordoba, AR — Club Paraguay
Nov. 30 Sao Paulo, BR — Fabrique Club

# with Suppression
$ with Agriculture
% with Uniform
^ with Bongzilla
& with Cloakroom
+ with special guests
~ with Lack of Interest

Boris is:
Takeshi: Vocals, Guitar & Bass
Wata: Vocals, Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Vocals, Percussion & Electronics

[Band photo by Yoshihiro Mori.]

http://borisheavyrocks.com/
https://boris.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/borisdronevil/
http://www.facebook.com/borisheavyrocks/

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

Boris, Performing PINK in its Entirety – Live at Shindaita Fever 20160924 (2025)

I’ve been waiting for this announcement. I was asked a couple months ago to write the bio for the upcoming Author and Punisher album, Nocturnal Birding, because somebody out there liked my review of the San Diego industrialist’s 2022 album, Krüller (review here). Had a chat (my first) with A&P auteur Tristan Shone for it and everything, talking about the album’s themes of immigration, the natural world, human cruelty, and so on. Turned in a draft that was a little more out there and was met with a fervent “meh.” Turned in a second draft and looks like part of it is used below, so I guess my last couple weeks of feeling like I’d outright failed at the project were premature. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised in this manner, if it’s one or the other.

All of this, however, is just to tell you that I’ve gotten to be fairly familiar with Nocturnal Birding, which packs theme upon theme while at the same time absolutely burying you with the heaviest audio you’ve heard since, let’s say, Krüller, and that it’s a contender in my mind for album of the year. Shone, working in closer collaboration with guitarist Doug Sabolick, has tightened the songs with live presentation as the ideal, and they hit more directly accordingly, without giving up the atmospheric flourish that made the last record feel like so much of a world.

I have more to say and will say it in due time. The following came down the PR wire today. For my own future reference, my portion starts with “After celebrating 20 years…” and ends at, “…mechanized sounds,” which was a fun interplay for me to point out on this one because I was on an album earlier this year that did the same thing. Go figure.

From the PR wire:

AUTHOR & PUNISHER: Announces New Full-Length Nocturnal Birding Out October 3, 2025

Shares “Titanis” Music VIdeo (ft. Kuntari)

EU Nocturnal Birding Tour Through Oct / Nov 2025

US Record Release Shows Nov 12 + 13 in California

PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE / WATCH: https://orcd.co/authorandpunisher

After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding.

TRISTAN SHONE comments on the new album:

“When I sat down to start writing this album, I knew I wanted to make songs based on birdsong. The actual first guitar riff is one of the meadowlark’s songs. When you listen to ‘Rook,’ that melody is the rook’s sound. That track is us mimicking one of the rooks’ many songs. I wrote all my tracks around the rhythms and melodies of birds I researched or heard in the wild.”

Today, AUTHOR & PUNISHER shares the official video for Nocturnal Birding’s lead single “Titanis”. The video was filmed this past Summer in Bali, Indonesia live with Kuntari who performed on the studio recording of “Titanis”. Directed by Manda Selena and Ican Harem.

Watch on the Relapse YouTube Channel HERE.

Kuntari comment on the creation of the “Titanis” video:

“its hard to imagine the organic local sequence from us blend with monstrous industrial sound from Tristan. After many hours of discussion we instantly clicked and agreed where the song ended up. The results are beyond our imagination, Tristan easily fluids into fresh territory and we don’t have a border to break to. By far this is one of the most awe inspiring experience for us, not to mention our video production which is insanely epic and hilarious at the same time. The most memorable moment is we share a good laugh along the process”

Nocturnal Birding is out October 3, 2025 on LP/CD/Streaming via Relapse Records.

Pre-Order via Relapse.com HERE: https://www.relapse.com/pages/author-punisher-nocturnal-birding

Pre-Save / Listen HERE: https://orcd.co/authorandpunisher

Tracklisting:
1. Meadowlark
2. Titanis (ft. Kuntari) 03:01
3. Mute Swan (ft. Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut)
4. Black Storm Petrel (ft. Fange)
5. Titmouse
6. Titmice
7. Rook
8. Thrush

After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding.

In addition to the strong and poignant messaging contained throughout the music, lyrics and artwork, Nocturnal Birding sees Tristan Shone synergizing with an array of artists from across the globe like never before in his career. From the artwork, meticulously designed by French artist Lucile Lejoly (Chat Pile, Roadburn Festival) to the mixing and mastering by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Heriot, Body Count, Machine Head) to the musical guest appearances from France’s Fange, Indonesia’s Kuntari, and New York City’s Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut, these outer creative inputs shine throughout the work.

Shone has welcomed collaborators in the past, but guitarist Doug Sabolick (Ecstatic Vision, Plaque Marks, A Life Once Lost, etc.) is the first genuine bandmate in AUTHOR & PUNISHER contributing creatively on guitar in ways that shape the persona of Nocturnal Birding, complementing Shone in melody and wrought tonal heft.

Removing himself from an artistic comfort zone proved fruitful inspiration. There is literal birdsong all over Nocturnal Birding, and transposing those melodies and rhythms to guitar became the root of the material, representing a rare coming together of the natural world and mechanized sounds.

Author & Punisher announce their Europe 2025 Tour, with Bong-Ra on select shows! Find all confirmed dates below.

Tickets are on sale now at AuthorandPunisher.com.

18/10/2025 – Lisbon (PT) – Amplifest #
20/10/2025 – Madrid (SP) #
21/10/2025 – Barcelona (SP)
22/10/2025 – Marseille (FR)
23/10/2025 – Montpellier (FR)
24/10/2025 – Nilvange (FR) %
25/10/2025 – Maastricht (NL) – Samhain
26/10/2025 – Hamburg (DE)*
27/10/2025 – Aarhus (DK)*
28/10/2025 – Oslo (NO)*
29/10/2025 – Goteborg (SE)*
30/10/2025 – Copenhagen (DK)*
31/10/2025 – Berlin (DE)*
01/11/2025 – Gdansk (PL)*
02/11/2025 – Warsaw (PL)*
03/11/2025 – Poznan (PL)*
04/11/2025 – Leipzig (DE)*
05/11/2025 – Frankfurt (DE)*
06/11/2025 – Paris (FR)*
07/11/2025 – Bruxelles (BE)*
08/11/2025 – Lille (FR)*
09/11/2025 – Manchester (UK) – Damnation Festival

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

http://www.relapse.com
https://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/
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Author & Punisher, “Titanis” official video

Author & Punisher, Nocturnal Birding (2025)