Weekly Roundup: October 21st
Weekly Roundup: October 21st
Featuring WARGASM, unpeople, Anxious, and more.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
“Cyber-pop metalcore” outfit The Last Martyr are gearing up to release their new EP, Requiem (out independently on October 23rd), which follows a period of creative renewal for the Naarm/Melbourne quartet and a reaffirmation of their dark sonic intent.
Frontwoman Monica Strut joined the TPD Pod last week to discuss reflecting on rejection, finding collective solidarity and strength in her bandmates, and using narrative metaphors to emphasise dystopian lyricism. Check out my chat with Mon below:
Question: Have you subscribed to the TPD Patreon?
It’s the best way to support me, support this newsletter, support the show, and help keep the lights on. We’ve got hours of bonus content, perks and fun stuff, with plenty more on the way. So, please do me a solid and check it out.
Now, on with the words…
SIDE A:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
unpeople – “the garden”
I last heard from alt-rockers unpeople when they dropped their debut S/T EP earlier this year through SharpTone Records. The UK quartet have followed up that release with a brand new rager, “the garden,” which arrives just in time for the band’s first-ever headline show in London. On the track, the band states:
“‘the garden’ started off as a joke. An actual musical joke. A musical joke that we couldn’t stop singing for weeks on end. Lyrically I wanted to keep it very simple and borderline surface level nonsensical. There is meaning but I’d rather leave that up to the listener to discern and interpret for themselves. Sometimes you want to get away from it all but simultaneously have a feeling of familiarity and a sense of security.”
Watch the video for “the garden” below:
Whispers – Yom-Ma-Lok
Like some, you might be inclined to roll your eyes when you read that a band called Whispers describes itself as “Bangkok Evilcore,” but I implore you to watch this hard-as-hell video and then come back with your opinion suitably well-adjusted.
The quintet continue to hold it down for Thailand hardcore worldwide (currently as part of the Flatspot World European tour alongside Speed, End It, and Life’s Question, among others), and their forthcoming EP, Yom-Ma-Lok (out December 13th) is a seven-track document of weapon-ready fight songs. Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Anxious – “Counting Sheep”
While I thoroughly enjoyed Little Green House, the 2022 debut full-length from alt-rockers Anxious, it lacked the staying power for multiple listens and end-of-year list mileage.
That said, the Connecticut five=piece are back with a massive new banger, and this one is so urgent and ear-wormy that their follow-up LP, Bambi (out on February 21st via Run For Cover Records and Civilians), might just stick the landing. Listen to “Counting Sheep” here.
Harakiri For The Sky – Scorched Earth
It might be easy to fire up a YouTube search and stumble across an obscure band from a foreign locale dealing in the tired-but-oh-so-effective “blackened melodic post-rock” playbook. However, how often does one directly reference “the glorious times of the Grunge and Indie Rock era”?
I would hazard to bet that Austrian duo Harakiri For The Sky are the first, if not only, ones to do so. The twosome’s upcoming record, Scorched Earth, is due out January 24th through Art Of Propaganda Records and follows on from 2021’s well-received Mære LP. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Southguns – “Breaking The Grey”
Speaking of obscure bands from foreign locales, this one comes courtesy of a recommendation from Chris W. in the TPD Patreon last week. Southguns are a new band on my radar, hailing from Depok, Indonesia.
As best I can tell, the group was formerly a strictly pop-punk outfit; however, they recently underwent a lineup shift, declaring via Instagram: “New vibes, new start.” The quartet’s latest single is catchy and fun and leans right into some welcome post-hardcore, melodic hardcore influences. Listen to “Breaking The Grey” here.
SIDE B:
More tracks for you. Deep cuts for the real heads. Still cool.
L.S. Dunes – Violet
Yes, that’s right. Once again, I’m featuring post-hardcore supergroup L.S. Dunes in this humble newsletter. (Sue me.) The quintet have announced their highly anticipated sophomore album, Violet, due for release on January 31st via Fantasy Records. On the new album, guitarist Travis Stever (also of Coheed and Cambria) shares:
“Violet is a sonic journey into the depths of every band member of L.S. Dunes. The collaborative efforts to bring each song to its full potential came naturally. It’s the album that has always lived in us individually but could only be made together. It has melodies that have lived within me since I was a child. It was only with this band I would be able to find a place where they could find a home in song.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
WARGASM – “CIRCLE PIT // BAD SEED”
Sonic provocateurs WARGASM have dropped not one, but two new ragers this week: “Circle Pit” and “Bad Seed” are out now via Slowplay/Republic and paired with a double release, joint music video. On the tracks, the duo (Sam Matlock and Milkie Way) state:
“The world is apathetic and lonely, and music is our coping mechanism. Anger is our energy. ‘Circle Pit’ (a rework of a track our Japanese family might already know) is all about the cycle. You can't break it, so why be part of it? Get in the pit, come out to the coast have a few laughs.
‘Bad Seed’ on the other hand.... that’s for those that choose to make the cycle worse. People who waste time being small and hating when there's so much to create. We’re going back to the start. There’s an intimate club tour coming up that craved some new riffs.”
Watch the clip for “CIRCLE PIT // BAD SEED” below:
Blood On My Hands – Echoes of Remorse
Naarm/Melbourne mosh lords Blood On My Hands have had a busy year. They’re fresh off coveted international support slots for Californian staples such as Seeyouspacecowboy and Bleeding Through while working hard on the follow-up to 2023’s impressive Tears From The Dying three-track.
Their new single, “Echoes of Remorse,” recorded, mixed and mastered by Lewis Noke-Edwards, is a nostalgic, mid-2000s metalcore cut that makes me want to get my nose broken in an All Ages mosh pit again. Stream the track in full here (Spotify).
FEATURE ALBUM:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
High Vis – Guided Tour
In a feature profile for Kerrang, writer Ian Winwood references a survey by the Sutton Trust, which shows that 19% of recent BRIT Awards winners “attended private schools (a percentage that is almost three times higher than the national average).”
This information highlights why High Vis are both necessary and an anomaly in UK alternative music: they’re both from and, most crucially, for the working class. On their brilliant third studio album, Guided Tour, produced by Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Home Front) and engineer Stanley Gravett, the London five-piece offers socially conscious post-punk odes to the lived experience and economic reality of the working poor.
As frontman Graham Sayle notes, even the band’s unassuming moniker is a firm nod to a simmering class consciousness that steadfastly refuses to be snuffed out:
“It is the unifying clothing item of the working class. [But] it also just alienates you completely if you put a high-vis on. Nobody wants to see you or to speak to you unless they want something.”
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify