Weekly Roundup: August 12th
Featuring Neon Nightmare, Balmora, Many Eyes, and more.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Bailey Schmebri and Aden Young of Naarm/Melbourne metallers Gravemind joined the show last week. With their bold new album, Introsphere, finally out in the world, we discussed the years of creative struggle the group faced in bringing their dark sonic vision to life.
We also touched on how Gravemind were determined to push the boundaries of their sound, embracing melody and collaboration to craft a record that dares to ask: “Can you find the balance between right and wrong? Love and hate? Real or make-believe?”
Additionally, I also had a brief catch-up with Full of Hell vocalist and all-around legend Dylan Walker. We discussed the band’s creative legacy, the purpose of art over time, and how they approach their collaborative endeavours.
This video is part of a new mini-episode series called “Dispatch Bay,” which will feature shorter promo interviews that aren’t quite long enough to be included as full episodes.
TPD Patreon members will get these a week early (for as little as $5 AUD/month) before I upload them to the main YouTube channel. If you like what I do here, signing up for the Patreon is the best way to support me, support the show, and help keep the lights on.
Now, on with the words…
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Make Them Suffer – “Oscillator”
Perth metalcore juggernaut Make Them Suffer have announced their fifth studio album. The group’s self-titled full-length will arrive on November 8th via Greyscale Records in Australia and SharpTone Records. Spanning 11 ferocious tracks, the record is billed as quote:
“Bound with lashings of melodic light and blistering shade, the album also fearlessly steps into new creative waters that embrace yet boldly expand upon the group's foundational symphonic, progressive, and blackened textures.”
The band will embark on their “Suffer Forever” Australian tour later this month with Bury Tomorrow (UK), Spite (US) and Bloom at the end of the month, which follows four months of touring across North America and Europe. Watch the video for “Oscillator” below:
Regional Justice Center – Freedom, Sweet Freedom
Militarie Gun’s Ian Shelton is bringing back his hardcore outfit Regional Justice Center for their third full-length album, Freedom, Sweet Freedom, due out on September 20th via Closed Casket Activities.
Started in 2016 by Shelton shortly after the incarceration of his younger sibling, Max, RJC have dropped two new tracks from the record, both offering perspectives on incarceration and liberatory acts; the first written by Shelton, and the second by Max, who has now been brought into the RJC fold following his release in 2022. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Many Eyes – “Harbinger”
With Better Lovers announcing their forthcoming debut LP last week, it’s hardly surprising that we also now have full-length news from Many Eyes, the metallic hardcore project fronted by Keith Buckley (ex-ETID).
The group’s upcoming debut full-length, The Light Age, will be released on September 6th via Perseverance Media Group. Following some recent line-up changes, which saw the exit of founding member Charlie Bellmore, the group have now dropped a new single, which, according to Buckley, “feels like the end of the world…, so that’s what the lyrics are about.” Listen to “Harbinger” here.
Locked Shut – The New Chaos
The new band on my radar this week is Locked Shut, a hard-style quintet hailing from the Midwest. I was served a few videos taken from the group’s forthcoming album, The New Chaos, out Aug 23rd through independent release, and I liked what I saw/heard. Thanks, almighty YouTube algorithm.
The band deals in fast and furious hardcore with catchy hooks and fun mosh parts akin to Comeback Kid or Stick To Your Guns at their most charismatic. It’s good stuff. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Spotify).
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers – “Dull” (feat. Softcult)
Rising Aussie stars Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have announced a deluxe edition of their critically acclaimed 2023 debut album, I Love You, simply titled I Love You, Too, due out on September 20th via Domestic La La.
The deluxe edition features three brand new songs: “Please Me,” “we thought it would be a good time but it was a bad time,” and “Dull,” featuring Canadian ‘riotgaze’ twin sibling duo (and two-time F.O.T.S.) Softcult. The quartet are also making their US debut next month as part of Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival alongside Pearl Jam, Alanis Morissette, Idles, Kim Gordon, The Breeders, and more. Listen to “Dull” here.
Balmora – One Scene Unity: A Hardcore Compilation
Mosh metal revivalists Balmora have been featured on the 4th volume of the One Scene Unity compilation series from From Within Records. The comp also includes tracks from acts like SCARAB, Killing Frost, Blow Your Brains Out, Firestarter, and more. It’s a sick selection of up-and-comers and offers a great survey of hardcore/metalcore prospects for the years to come.
I was a big fan of Balmora’s split EP, Six Pacts Etched In Blood, with Since My Beloved from earlier this year, and this track definitely scratches that same itch. If you’re a fan of late 90s/early 00s metalcore, these guys are some of the best doing it right now. Stream the compilation in full here (Spotify).
Neon Nightmare – “Lost Silver”
Here’s a mysterious new project coming from the good folks over at 20 Buck Spin. “Lost Silver” is the debut single from Neon Nightmare, and it appeared early on Friday morning along with a curious press release bio:
“Neon Nightmare’s particular shade of sonic darkness initially arose from the war-scarred industrial landscape of Birmingham, England. Or was it the Mississippi Delta? Either way, pain and heartache seem to be an essential element. This vibrational current crawled across continents, shaking the basements of Red Hook, Brooklyn and haunting the graveyards of Lodi, New Jersey. The sound has lived in many forms, some colored by psychedelic experimentation and others raw and real.”
All I will say is that it’s clear from the sonics, the visuals, and the cover artwork aesthetic that whoever is behind this project is surely an accomplished scholar of the horned-up Peter Steele variety. Watch the evocative clip for “Lost Silver” below:
House of Protection – GALORE
House of Protection, the project of former Fever 333 members Aric Improta and Stephen Harrison, has announced details for its debut EP, GALORE, which will be released on September 13th via Red Bull Records. The duo’s latest single, “Pulling Teeth,” was filmed in India’s infamous “Well of Death” velodrome:
“After 30 hours of travel, including cancelled flights, flooding in our connecting airport (Dubai), a cancelled location (due to a political rally), and an additional 16 hours of driving round-trip through the desert to the backup location… we finally found ourselves in the Well of Death… We did nine takes with a live audience, all while our director was throwing up between shots and one of the motorcycles died in the middle of the performance. That said, we came out with something better than we ever could have expected and had an incredible team on the ground that made it all possible.”
Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Spotify).
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2024-7 HITS playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Fucked Up – Another Day
Early last year, I wrote about One Day, the sixth LP from experimental Canadian hardcore punks Fucked Up, saying:
“[One Day] represents both a creative challenge levelled directly at a unit of time and a literal evocation of temporality as a force that shapes human phenomenal experience.”
That record’s self-imposed time constraint—writing and recording an album in an unbroken 24-hour block—must have been productively compelling because the Toronto quintet have seemingly doubled down on it twice this week (quadrupled down?), releasing not one but two new full-length records.
Alongside Another Day, which, as the title suggests, is a spiritual successor to the aforementioned One Day, the band also live-streamed themselves in the studio for 24 hours straight, which in turn yielded Who’s Got the Time & a Half?: a release that was available on Bandcamp last week for 24 hours before promptly disappearing into the digital ether. As Brad Sanders put it for SPIN:
“The Fucked Up catalog is forever in conversation (and conflict) with itself… Hell, they just risked kneecapping their own album release campaign by spontaneously rushing out a competing LP. Context is everything with Fucked Up, and the more context you have, the better their records work.”