Weekly Roundup: July 3rd
Weekly Roundup: July 3rd
Featuring Luca Brasi, URNE, The Armed, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
King Stingray – “Lookin’ Out”
Northeast Arnhem Land rockers King Stingray are roaring back onto the scene after a huge 2022, building on the success of their critically acclaimed debut album, which earned them a slew of ARIA nominations (Album of the Year, Best Group and Best Rock Album) and a win for the Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist award. The group’s latest single, “Lookin’ Out”, is a track that takes time to celebrate the beauty of nature and the awe-inspiring magnificence of Mother Earth. As guitarist Roy Kellaway puts it:
“We have no idea what our future holds, but if we can find a way to work together, we’ll be on the right track! We are a band from a small place, and we’re singing about big things!”
Watch the video for “Lookin’ Out” below:
URNE – A Feast On Sorrow
London metal trio URNE are gearing up for the release of their sophomore studio album, A Feast On Sorrow, due for release on August 11th via Candlelight Records. The LP is billed as “a stark rumination on the grim inevitabilities of disease, dementia and deterioration in old age” and was recorded with Joe Duplantier (Gojira) at his Silver Cord studio in Brooklyn. “This isn’t a joyful or uplifting record,” Joe Nally, the band’s frontman adds, “it’s very raw and real, and when the opportunity to work with Joe came to be, we all knew he was the perfect person to capture the message of this record.” Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Stateside – “If You Were Still Here”
I’m a huge sucker for early 2000s pop-punk with melodic hardcore DNA—think Saves The Day, Taking Back Sunday, The Movielife, etc. California pop punkers Stateside deliver the goods in this respect, and the quintet are teaming up with the folks over at New Morality Zine & Extinction Burst Records for the release of their forthcoming EP. It's titled It's What We Do, and it'll be dropping in full on July 21st with production, mixing and mastering from Zach Tuch. So, if that sounds up your alley, too, go and listen to “If You Were Still Here” here.
Filth Is Eternal – Find Out
Seattle antagonists Filth Is Eternal are back with a charged-up new record. The band formerly known as Fucked and Bound (bet that was fun to book shows) will drop their new album, Find Out, on September 29th through MNRK Heavy. Going into recording with producer Paul Fig (Slipknot, AFI, Alice In Chains) at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606, the quartet had one primary agenda: “Immediacy must be prioritized.” The end result is a record that shaves down their trademark aggression and frenetic hardcore punk sound into something supremely vital and exciting. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Mouthbreather – “You Try To Die”
I’ve been a massive Mouthbreather fan since the Before Times of 2018, mainly due to the Massachusetts metallers having an excellent band name but also because they make stupid-heavy ignorant mosh music that sounds like a “KILL ALL NORMIES” meme bright to life: wild screams, crazy riffage, and crowd-kill-inducing breakdowns. While the quartet have been relatively quiet since the release of 2021’s I’m Sorry Mr Salesman, we finally have some new music to consume. Their latest single “You Try to Die” is exactly what its press release describes: unrelentingly heavy, crushing, and unforgiving. Listen here.
Luca Brasi – The World Don’t Owe You Anything
Tassie rockers Luca Brasi have announced their upcoming album, The World Don't Owe You Anything, out on September 29th via Cooking Vinyl Australia. Fresh off their tour supporting Alexisonfire earlier this year and their own recent headline run, the band’s sixth LP doubles down on the elements that have made them bonafide Aussie legends: big riffs, propulsive percussion, and immediate catchy sing-a-longs. The latest single and title track from the record is easily one of my favourite Brasi tracks in years, with impeccable vocal interplay and harmonies alongside frontman Tyler Richardson's heartfelt lyricism: “If I’ve already sung all the good words I have left, what good am I to anyone?” Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Final Gasp – “Mourning Moon”
I’ve been following Boston heavy merchants Final Gasp since 2021, with the release of their exceptional Haunting Whisper EP. Well, now the quintet have signed with the illustrious Relapse Records, and their debut album is already upon us. Mourning Moon promises “a harrowing journey through all things Hardcore, Metal, and Goth... [dragging] the listener through twelve thrilling tracks.” As vocalist and guitarist Jake Murphy explains:
“The whole record has to do with loss. The title comes from that anxious feeling you have when you go to bed and you’re thinking about everything all at once. You’re regretting decisions you’ve made—or didn’t make—and you’re up all night thinking about it.”
I’ve already copped a full listen to the LP and it’s superb: great songwriting, heavy riffs, morbid atmosphere, haunting vocals—the whole gothy package. Check out the video for “Mourning Moon” below:
The Armed – Perfect Saviors
This one comes highly anticipated. It’s the new record from “The World’s Greatest Band,” the mysterious rock collective The Armed. 2021’s ULTRAPOP brought a stylised modern sheen to their brand of maximal, amps-to-11 sonic delivery, and their upcoming fifth LP, Perfect Savoirs (out August 25th on Sargent House), promises to be the next stage in their chameleonic evolution. In his excellent feature for FADER,
author Dan Ozzi (go read SELLOUT, folks) described watching a performance of the band in Los Angeles like this:“The spectrum of catharsis is covered, like I’m watching Earth Crisis, U2, Radiohead, Taylor Swift, and an Evangelical megachurch sermon all at once.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2023 CUTS playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Loma Prieta – Last
When people talk about screamo in a contemporary context, they usually omit the work of Bay Area pioneers Loma Prieta—often to their detriment. Forming in 2005, the band came up alongside mainstays like Touché Amoré and Pianos Become the Teeth while also helping to push the subgenre forward with acts like Birds In Row and Envy. Guitarist/vocalist Sean Leary is now also pulling double duty as a member of legendary outfit Jeromes Dream, who recently dropped an incredible new album.
Loma Prieta’s new record is titled Last and is out now through Deathwish Inc. Standout tracks like “Glare” and “Symbios” act as perfect companion tracks to “Satellite,” the underrated closer of their incredible Self Portrait LP from 2015. They epitomise everything that screamo and Loma Prieta represent: raw vulnerability, catharsis, rays of hope and sunshine piercing through an otherwise bleak and enveloping darkness; a violent intensity that manages to evoke an expansive sense of space and texture.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
With their monstrous twenty-track World Domination LP on the way, Aussie pocket rocket and stage dynamo Nikki Brumen from Blood Command joined The Pitch pod last week to run through a chaotic sounding board for their upcoming album. Alongside her eclectic Hit List selections, I spoke with Nikki about moving across the world for the love of Norwegian death pop, the curious oddity of white metal, and the loss of bodily functions in mosh pits. Go follow the show over at Spotify so you don’t miss any uploads and have a listen below: