MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Heavensgate – “Ratking”
Naarm/Melbourne bruisers Heavensgate are back with their most crushing track yet. New single “Ratking” coincides with an Aussie East Coast weekender the band just wrapped up, and will also get a workout on their upcoming run with The Amity Affliction alongside Ice Nine Kills & We Came As Romans in November.
Written by the band, produced with Erik Bickerstaffe (Loathe) and Cullen Forbes (Fallweather), with a mixing/mastering by Lance Prenc (Polaris), the track serves as an exciting taste of new sounds to come. (Listen to frontman Nazareth Tharratt discuss that in more detail here.) Watch the video for “Ratking” below:
Cursive – Devourer
Nebraskan force of nature Cursive have been a mainstay since the late 90s/early 00s, blurring the sounds of indie rock and post-hardcore on iconic records like Domestica (2000) and The Ugly Organ (2003). The now-septet’s tenth studio album, Devourer, arrives through Run For Cover Records on September 13th. According to frontman Tim Kasher:
“I am obsessive about consuming the arts. Music, film, and literature. I’ve come to recognise that I devour all of these art forms and then, in turn, create my own versions of these things and spew them out onto the world. It’s positive; you’re part of an ecosystem. But I quickly recognised that the term, Devourer, may also embody something gnarly, sinister.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Foxcult – “Gemini 4” (feat. Tom Weaver)
Last week, I featured Baltimore soul-punks nightlife, who are currently on tour with Seattle stargazers Foxcult, who coincidentally just dropped a new banger—perfect for placement in this week’s roundup. Their new track is titled “Gemini 4,” and it features a stunning guest spot from Casey’s Tom Weaver and an impeccably strong chorus refrain.
The all-trans group’s sound is billed as “a blend of powerful & contemplative post-hardcore with the crushing, dense soundscapes of shoegaze” with songwriting influences in acts like Circa Survive and Saosin. The track is featured on their forthcoming Watercolours: 0 combo vinyl release of 2 EPs, 2023’s The Indigo Fault, and a new collection, The Amethyst Drift, out July 19th through Adventure Cat. Listen to “Gemini 4” here.
Blind Girls – An Exit Exists
Aussie screamo sensation Blind Girls are roaring back with a brand new record. An Exit Exists will be released digitally on July 5th through Persistent Vision Records, with exclusive vinyl variants available from Secret Voice (Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm's label) and national staple Life Lair Regret Records. According to vocalist Sharni Brouwer:
“An Exit Exists was written during and after two separate instances dealing with abuse from those I loved. Each song is a reflection on the emotions and process I went through, from realisation, feeling trapped, guilt, defeat, acceptance, and eventually finding a safe way out.”
Bassist Mark Grant adds: “It’s our best yet. It’s the Blind Girls sound but expanded and pushed.” Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Fax Gang & Parannoul – “Lullaby for a Memory”
Here’s a chronically online artifact for you all. Scattersun is a new mashup album co-written “entirely through means of text chat… the product of a completely asynchronous operation in which no one shares a timezone.” It’s a collaborative effort between Internet-based collective Fax Gang (a multinational Cloud Rap group spread between Australia, Norway, the Philippines, the UK, and the US) and Parannoul (an anonymous shoegaze artist based in South Korea).
A genre-agnostic songwriting exercise that weaves “together intense strains of blown-out electronica that pull on a whole manner of stylistic threads, from two-step beats to flashes of breakcore, cloud rap passages, and pop serenity,” Scattersun will be available through Topshelf Records on June 12th. Listen to the lead single, “Lullaby for a Memory,” here.
Stick To Your Guns – Invisible Rain
Southern California outfit Stick To Your Guns have announced their signing to SharpTone Records with the release of the Invisible Rain EP. The two-track release delivers the impassioned hardcore sound the group have honed in on for the last decade, with engineering by Beau Burchell (Saosin) and guitarist Chris Rawson and mixing and mastering by Jeff Dunne (Knocked Loose, Currents). Diving into the release’s themes, vocalist Jesse Barnett explains:
“This EP is about the theory of alienation. The ways in which we have been alienated from ourselves, our work, our lives and ultimately each other… There is a lot to despair about in today's world, but our future has yet to be written. We can either write it, or it will be written for us.”
Stream the EP in full here (Spotify).
Heriot – “Foul Void”
UK metal innovators Heriot have announced their highly anticipated full-length album, Devoured by the Mouth of Hell, due out on September 27th on Century Media. The quartet’s debut LP was recorded with Josh Middleton (Sylosis, Architects) and Grammy Award-winning Will Putney (END, Fit For An Autopsy, Better Lovers) and promises ten songs of pure intensity, “weaponising metallic sludge and hardcore, unholy levels of distortion, speed and gut-punching talent.” Speaking on the record’s latest single, “Foul Void,” the band shares:
“‘Foul Void’ was one of the last tracks written for our debut album, Devoured by the Mouth of Hell. Sonically influenced by 90s and early 00s metalcore, the song delves into the inner struggle of an individual facing uncertainties about their faith.”
I’m eagerly filing this one under “long time coming”. Watch the clip for “Foul Void” below:
Mercury – Together We Are One, You And I
Mercury is the Tennessee-based project of singer-songwriter Maddie Kerr, who debuted their latest release, Together We Are One, You And I, last week via Big Loud Rock. This trio of new songs float between molasses grunge and shimmering indie rock as Kerr details the depths of human suffering and emerges resilient. The EP was recorded in Asheville, North Carolina, with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Snail Mail, Indigo de Souza) and premiered alongside an ambitious short film directed by Harrison Shook. Stream the EP in full 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.
All Under Heaven – What Lies Ahead Of Me
I’ve been reading a lot about the concept of “embodied cognition” lately and thinking about how we approach music through the process of imitation.
Have you ever listened to a song alone in the middle of the night, and, out of nowhere, without any real conscious awareness of your body or your spatial surroundings, you start air-drumming like a total maniac? No? Just me? Well, it turns out that’s something called a “mimetic motor action” response, and different styles/genres of music have been shown to invite or motivate different kinds of overt mimetic behaviour, such as toe-tapping, swaying, and dancing to music. (I’m looking at you spin-kickers.)
I bring this up to say that there’s a bit in “Always,” the fuzzed-up, six-minute-plus standout of All Under Heaven’s debut LP, What Lies Ahead Of Me (out now through Sunday Drive Records), that has mimetic motor action stamped all over it. Just absolutely-smashing-those-invisible-tubs-for-an-audience-of-exactly-one type shit. The whole LP is lush and glorious and so very air-drummable. Highly recommended.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Lochlan Watt of Australian blackened post-metalcore outfit RUN returned to The Pitch pod last week to run (get it?) through a track-by-track interrogation of the group’s latest six-track release, the colossal True Heaviness Is Time. We discuss the EP’s loaded philosophical themes, grand sci-fi vision, and prolific collaborators. Lochlan also goes long about confronting his own mortality, working through collective trauma, the liberation of a cosmic perspective, and tearing at the fabric of reality. It’s a stacked episode, and you can check it out below: