Weekly Roundup: February 26th
Weekly Roundup: February 26th
Featuring Roman Candle, Gatecreeper, Stand Still, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Reliqa – “Terminal”
I’ve been hearing good things about progressive metal act Reliqa for a while now, and it looks like I’m not the only one. The Eora/Sydney quartet recently announced their signing to both Greyscale Records and Nuclear Blast Records and have celebrated this excellent news with the release of a new single called “Terminal”. The track features a slick modern metal mix bursting with technical, proggy riffage, pulsating keys/synths and soaring vocals from dynamic frontwoman Monique Pym. As the band shared:
“This process was very sporadic/stream-of-consciousness. Anything we were listening to, watching, reading or experiencing at the time, we took it and ran with it. It was very human in that way. Our songwriting style took a massive turn early last year as we switched from writing in a more remote, ‘production-line’ workflow to forcing ourselves to start from scratch, together, in the same room.”
Watch the video for “Terminal” below:
Aerial Salad – R.O.I
I’m a big fan of Venn Records, and when the UK label sent through a presser for “Madchester punk" outfit Aerial Salad earlier this week, I knew this would be, quote: “Extremely my shit”. The power trio’s upcoming album, R.O.I, is due on April 12th and features a raucous blend of harsh post-punk rhythms, punk rock sneer and alt-rock stadium choruses. As vocalist/guitarist Jamie Munro explains, recent single “Tied to Pieces of Paper”:
“[Was] inspired by something I read where Steve Ignorant from Crass was saying that basically, back in the day, humans had less reliance on money (not needing phones, broadband, and houses being affordable) meaning that, you could go and be a fuckin punk rocker and do a bit of cash in hand work and you'd be alright… These days the world is so driven by money and thus, employment, the song is a shout out to everyone that’s still trying to do creative endeavours alongside managing a fucking job.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Stand Still – “Steps Ascending”
You know a song rules when it simmers up in your brain soup multiple times in a week, and you annoy your wife by constantly humming the chorus melody (badly, I presume) under your breath. Long Island upstarts Stand Still have been anything but for years now, carrying the torch for the region’s vital brand of anthemic melodic hardcore, inspired by acts like The Movielife, Silent Majority, and Crime In Stereo. Their latest single, the utterly infectious “Steps Ascending,” is out now via DAZE and showcases the group’s evolution and penchant for high-energy sing-a-longs. (Debut LP in 2024, please.) Listen to “Steps Ascending” here.
AWOL – Tear ‘Em To Bits
Naarm/Melbourne hardcore bruisers AWOL are stepping things up with the release of their forthcoming debut album, Tear ‘Em To Bits, due out April 26th on Flatspot Records and Last Ride Records in Australia. This is monstrous, real-deal hardcore in the vein of genre antagonists like Madball and Biohazard. The quintet have already racked up shows with fellow Aussie acts like SPEED, Iron Mind, and No Apologies and had a national run supporting No Pressure in early 2022. As the band states:
“The only goal was to make a good hardcore record that we were proud of and that our friends could get behind.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Dream Inertia – “Wavering”
The good folks over at Team Glasses Records hit me up this week to premiere the newest track from Dream Inertia. The Meanjin/Brisbane trio have returned with a glorious new single called “Wavering,” which follows from their impressive 2023 debut Ephemeral EP. The track was recorded with Chris Brownbill at Underground Audio (Diploid, Idylls, Hanoi Traffic, Gil Cerrone, and more) and fuses the soundscapes of “skramz, post-hardcore, and shoegaze with a touch of blackened tremolo reminiscent of early 2000s Australian screamo.” Listen to “Wavering” here.
Atomic Life – Hit Me First
It’s a new week, so I’ve got another new band on my radar. Long Island alt-rock/post-hardcore outfit Atomic Life includes drummer Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ho9909, Thoughtcrimes), Cody Hosza (Glassjaw) on guitar, and Michael Sadis (NK, The Rivalry) on bass, alongside vocalist and performance dynamo Adea Frances, who describes their debut single “Hit Me First” as straddling “the thin line between forbidden desires and sinister intentions.” The one sounds like a punked-up take on mid-2000s indie sleaze—think the Yeah Yeah Yeahs covering The Blood Brothers. Obviously, it rocks. Stream their single here (Spotify).
Gatecreeper – “Caught in the Treads”
We’re finally starting to get new material from US metallers Gatecreeper, and I am here for it. I’ve been patiently waiting for news of their upcoming Kurt Ballou-produced album, one that frontman Chase Mason says has “[some] songs that sound exactly what people might expect, but the thing that excites us most is showcasing a new side of our band that nobody is expecting.” Their latest single, “Caught in the Treads,” is an HM2 buzzsaw barnburner in the vein of Entombed, Dismember and Bolt Thrower about “a supernaturally charged fleet of tanks that have been possessed by the souls of fallen soldiers.” Hell yeah, brother. Watch the video for “Caught in the Treads”:
Roman Candle – Can We Catch Something Happy?
I came across Las Vegas up-and-comers Roman Candle a few months after the release of their 2022 debut EP Discount Fireworks, which featured frenzied instrumentals and shrieking vocals from pocket rocket frontwoman Piper Ferrari. I’ve been hanging out for new material ever since, and now we have a furious two-track single titled Can We Watch Something Happy?. If you’re a traditional screamo-head, this band is for you. Hopefully, we’ll have word of a debut album on the way soon. (Fingers crossed.) Stream the two-track single in full here (Bandcamp/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.
Darkest Hour – Perpetual | Terminal
Washington, D.C. metallers Darkest Hour are no strangers to cycles of life, death, and rebirth. With guitarist Mike Schleibaum and vocalist John Henry holding things down from their mid-90s inception, the band have since rotated through numerous line-up changes while their sixth studio album, 2009’s The Eternal Return, not only yielded their career peak chart position but drew philosophical momentum from Nietzsche’s concept of the “eternal recurrence”: where existence endures in an endless, infinite cycle, as energy and matter shift and transform over time.
It’s hardly surprising then that the group’s tenth record and MNRK Heavy debut, Perpetual | Terminal—their first LP since 2017’s well-received Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora—returns once more to this conceptual wellspring, reviving and reinterpreting their American melo-death roots through the various stylistic explorations of their storied career. As Schleibaum notes:
“We keep killing parts of ourselves to make new parts and survive. The story of the record is the story of the band. We’re still here, and we’re giving the world a body of work that’s representative of our music today. We’ve realized relationships, tours, good times, everything that seems to give life meaning, is terminal and will inevitably end. Nevertheless, we’re 46-year-old dudes who love this music enough to put up with the trials and tribulations of being artists in a touring band.”
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
By the time you’re reading this, Alpha Wolf’s 2024 edition of CVLTFEST will be done and dusted. However, you can still relive all the highlights by tuning in to our episode of The Pitch with axe-man Scottie Simpson. We run through select cuts from the festival line-up, along with some chit-chat about the band’s upcoming third album, how sick Japanese bands can be, and what it was like to spend a day with Detective Sergeant Tutuola (aka MF’ing Ice T). Run it up, LFG! Check it out below: