Weekly Roundup: March 3rd
Featuring Slim Krusty, Mercury, Dying Wish, and more.
Editor’s note: My apologies for tardiness yet again. I’m up visiting family on the Sunshine Coast, and they’re about to brace for Cyclone Alfred to make landfall. It’s all a bit grim…
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Not one, not two, but four bonus videos for y’all this week, so don’t ever say I’m not generous. As part of our rolling New Bloom Fest coverage for 2025, I had two excellent chats with Ned Russin (GLITTERER, TITLE FIGHT) and Ryan Savitski (ONE STEP CLOSER). Check out both of those below:
Canadian institution ALEXISONFIRE are returning Down Under this week for a four-show run with Underoath & GEL. Frontman and resident throat-shredder George Pettit dropped into the show mid-rehearsal to chat about the tour, playing old songs, and what art inspires him. This is a big one for longtime fans of 2004’s seminal Watch Out! (aka ME), and sixteen-year-old Owen is very stoked:
Lastly, our guest episode for last week featured the Lone Star State homies in DRUNK UNCLE. Will, Peyton & Jake jump on the pod to talk about their upcoming release, Fiction Years II (out on March 14th through Tiny Sounds Collective). The Texas boys chat about Metallica as a musical gateway, finding each other through a Craigslist ad, returning to a trio, the band’s creative evolution across releases, and the state of the (emo) union. Check it out below:
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Now, on with the words…
SIDE A:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Dying Wish – “I Brought You My Soul (Your World Brought Me Despair)”
There’s a section in “Lost In The Fall,” the closing track of DYING WISH’s 2023 album Symptoms of Survival, that felt like the hardest thing the Portland quintet had ever written. That is, well, until now. The group’s new, Will Putney-produced standalone single is an absolute rager and a relentless testament to just how eager the band is to dominate the metalcore scene. As frontwoman Emma Boster shares:
“This is the first step in the direction of our third LP, and the goal from this album is to challenge ourselves to create something different from the first two releases… we’re innovating our style to become the most authentic version of Dying Wish.”
Watch the video for “I Brought You My Soul” below:
Raue – too scared to explain
Contrary to popular song titles, the kids are, in fact, alright. California’s RAUE (pronounced Roo-AY), a powerhouse duo featuring Paige Kalenian on guitar/vocals and drummer Jax Huckle, already had a breakout viral hit last year with a grunged-up Radiohead cover.
Now, the two-piece are taking that fiesty spirit and channeling it into their upcoming EP, too scared to explain, out on May 9th through (dis)harmony Recordings. Stream the EP’s pre-release single/s here (Spotify).
Slim Krusty – “Sleep Doesn't Write Back”
Building on the success of his spectacular Endin’ On A High EP (one of my favourites of 2024), Naarm/Melbourne gutter folk troubadour SLIM KRUSTY returns with a new single that adds to his collection of gut-punchingly brutal sad songs. “Sleep Doesn't Write Back” explores themes of desire, loss, and insomnia while also evading those subjects entirely.
This release includes a new music video and a tour announcement for select dates in March. If you get the chance, I highly recommend experiencing a Slim live show, as it’s the only authentic way to appreciate his unique talent. Listen to “Sleep Doesn’t Write Back” here.
Indifferent Engine – Speculative Fiction
Until last week, I had no idea Cambridge post-hardcore outfit INDIFFERENT ENGINE even existed. While finding new bands isn’t a rarity in my business (and is ostensibly the remit of this newsletter racket), seeing that the quinet had garnered a co-sign from none other than the good folks over at Church Road Records for the release of their forthcoming debut full-length, Speculative Fiction (out May 30th), my interest was suitably piqued.
Described as falling “in-between the cracks of emotive post-hardcore, experimental rock and contemporary prog, filling the stage and floor with more CRT-TV monitors than guitar pedals,” I am now very interested in what the group have in store on record. Stream the LP’s pre-release single/s here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Gully Boys – “Love Me 2”
Minneapolis’ GULLY BOYS are another new band on my radar this week, and their latest single, the boisterous “Love Me 2,” channels anger and tenderness into a euphoric breakup anthem: a “fierce soundtrack for those brave enough to demand emotional maturity and mutual respect.”
The cut is overflowing with rumbling bottom-end, biting hooks, and vulnerable lyricism, while the accompanying video features a cheeky cameo from Justin Courtney Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack. Listen to “Love Me 2” here.
SIDE B:
More tracks for you. Deep cuts for the real heads. Still cool.
Valve – Family Trust
It’s wild to think that the nebulously defined subgenre of post-hardcore has been going strong for the last four decades. More than just a pointless prefix add-on, the sound remains vital and varied, especially in the hands of Brisbane young bucks VALVE. The group have served up the first taste of their upcoming EP, family trust, out this April through the good folks at Team Glasses Records, and it’s a seprentine, angular ripper in the vein of The Nation Blue, These Arms Are Snakes, and At the Drive-In. Stream the EP’s pre-release single/s here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Mercury – “Faster”
Last year, I featured Nashville-based artist MERCURY’s spectacular Together We Are One, You And I EP, which also came with an epic short film treatment. Off the back of that conceptual triumph, Maddie Kerr has returned with a new short-fire burst of mental anguish and tortured sonic energy:
“‘Faster’ is about being stuck in your head about anything and everything. I often try to make sense of everything that I’ve ever experienced, and sometimes that’s more overwhelming than the actual experience. It’s about not being able to let go.”
Hard relate. Watch the visualiser for “Faster” below:
Blackwater Holylight – If You Only Knew
It’s been a while since we heard from Portland post-psych doomlords BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT. The femme quartet is finally back with their forthcoming EP, If You Only Knew, which drops in full on April 18th through Suicide Squeeze Records.
After three full-length albums, the group are more than adept at cultivating an expansive, dreamy soundscape riddled with “devil’s note doom riffs, narcotic neo-folk melodies, lysergic psychedelic forays, and jagged art-rock abrasion.” Stream the EP’s pre-release single/s here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
FEATURE ALBUM:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks my boxes.
Architects – The Sky, The Earth & All Between
As Nietzsche once said, and season one of True Detective effectively memed into oblivion, “Time is a flat circle.” Now, I’m not going to get into the philosophical intricacies of the Eternal Recurrence here, but I’ll note that, yes, history does tend to rhyme rather than outright repeat itself.
Such is the pattern that British heavyweights ARCHITECTS seem destined (read: doomed) to follow. In my review of 2021’s For Those Who Wish To Exist, the band’s divisive ninth studio album, I wrote that the record was “sure to alienate some fans but will hopefully inspire others. Ultimately, however, it proves that Architects remain passionately committed to evolving as a musical collective and transcending genre limitations.”
In keeping with this idea of circularity and spirals, much the same could be said about album #11, The Sky, The Earth & All Between, out now through Epitaph. It’s a record that finds the Brighton quintet synthesizing two decades of musical evolution into a modern mix of metalcore, post-hardcore and assorted aggressive stylings. Some of it sticks, other elements don’t, but regardless of staying power, it’s clear that the band are nonetheless determined to break their own cycle, time after time after time.
Stream here: Spotify | YouTube