Where black metal and rock 'n' roll collide, it's not easy to find someone that does it better than Darkthrone. Old Star will be the veteran band's new album which takes the number of their total full lengths to an impressive eighteen, and it will be out on May 31, 2019 via Peaceville.

Old Star follows Darkthrone's excellent Arctic Thunder from 2016, and as Fenriz puts it, it will be a natural continuation from where they left things off. "Old Star — again we are here with the riffs!" he says. "A while after our previous Arctic Thunder, album it became apparent that we would continue in that same style, black old heavy metal with slow thrash, classic doom and slow death metal.

"As many have focused on the '70s sound over the last 20 years, the mix on our new album has ended up being more '80s than ever. The songs are more metal than ever! Ted's songs have alot of black metal in them, faster and slower but also doomier parts and reocurring parts. My songs are more linear written. It's an ancient '80s underground trick, with breaks, all slow heavy or slow thrash, classic doom or slow death."

The Hardship Of The Scots is an epic, seven and a half-minute piece which pretty much summarizes what the black metal old timer describes.

"All in all, it is our most '80s album so far," he concludes, "and our most metal one to date with drum sound typical for the '80s USA/German market and damned lyrics, which are all written by me. We feel that Old Star is the big brother of Arctic Thunder. More solid and with even better riffs."

The upcoming album was produced by the band's other half, Nocturno Culto, and mixed by Sanford Parker (Voivod).








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Darkthrone Facebook |  Instagram



peaceville.com




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After their successful reunion shows, a great album and a fantastic EP, Ride's new wind holds strong, so that it feels like the band never left. Recorded with Erol Alkan, the same producer as their previous album, the band's sixth full length, This is Not a Safe Place, will be out August 16th, 2019 via Wichita.

Very much characteristic of the harmonious ways of their post-reunion sound, and leaning near the lighter side of shoegaze, Future Love is a wonderful new cut. The new single verifies Ride's revitalization, and their enthusiasm for their upcoming steps as a band, and this exciting latest phase of their career. It even comes with a welcome direction toward traditional sixties pop, nodding charmingly to British Invasion.

"Future Love is a song about the beginning of a relationship, when everything feels possible," Andy Bell reveals about the new single's intent.










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Ride Website | Bandcamp |  Facebook | Twitter | Instagram






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A fourth single off Softie, the upcoming sophomore full length by Swedish dreampop act, Wy, has surfaced, and this time the duo take a janglier approach to express the usual wistfulness in their lyrics.

Juxtaposing its contemplative theme with a tad of a brighter and sunnier sound, delivered through rhythmic guitars and atmospheric synths, the new song feels different and more playful that the three singles which came before it, but still makes a fine match to Wy's well-crafted, low-spirited pop.

"Swedish Summer is about having too high expectations on yourself," Wy reveal in a statement. "It was actually one of the first songs we wrote for the album. We were growing tired of the tempo of our debut album and this track really helped us break away from it and have more fun with our songwriting."

Regarding the song's appealing title, the duo explain that Swedish Summer was just a working title. "We wrote it during the summer last year, but we kept it because it fit the sound so well. It’s a funny name, because the lyrics are kind of dark."

Softie comes out April 30th, 2019 via Hybris/Beatnik.







Wy - Upcoming tour dates:

25/5 - Landet, Stockholm
30/5 - Unit 12 Brixton, London
4/6 - The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham



Wy Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram



hybr.is





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Grunge pop rock 'n' roll is back, as veteran band L7 will soon be releasing their first album in twenty years. Scatter The Rats was co-produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Public Image Ltd, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc) and former Jack Off Jill drummer, Norm Block, and it will be out May 3rd, 2019 on Joan Jett's label, Blackheart Records.

Burn Baby, and the freshly unveiled, Stadium West are two new pieces off the coming LP which have received the music video treatment, totally reminiscent of the band's heyday during the nineties, and presenting the experienced band all reinvigorated and enthused for the new chapter of their career.

"Some of it’s dark, some of it’s funny, some of it’s ‘fuck you,’ but you can rock to all of it," drummer Demetra Plakas says of the new album. "I think it’s good for people to enjoy a meat-and-potatoes rock band for a change," adds vocalist and guitarist Donita Sparks. "We’re not rocket science, we’re rock 'n' roll. And there’s value to that, and we do it pretty well. So if you want to rock, come on back to L7."









L7 Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


blackheart.com





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On December 20th 1976, a band called Malice, comprised of Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst, Michael Dempsey and Porl Thompson, were booked to play a gig at St. Wilfrid's School Hall were Smith attended. He had previously misled the school's headmaster to believe that Malice were a jazz fusion band, and withheld the crucial information that he was a member of theirs, because he wasn't exactly the headmaster's favorite student. The band enlisted a guy named Martin Creasy, a journalist with The Crawley Observer for vocal duties, as Smith wasn't quite there yet, and they performed a setlist which included Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady, The Troggs' Wild Thing, David Bowie’s Suffragette City, Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak and an original by Smith, A Night Like This. It was a terrible performance. There were about three hundred people in the room, most of which walked right out. Malice were no more.




"We decided we needed another name if we were going to start playing again," Smith rightfully estimated. "One of our songs was called Easy Cure, a song written by Lol, and eventually, in desperation, we settled on that."

After the disaster of St Wilfrid’s, Smith still gave a shot at an academic career, passing nine O-levels and eventually planning to enroll at university, but he soon realized that a jobless life was a better match for him. He made a little money by flogging his father's home brew which he spent on records, and applied for Social Security, although he instructed the staff there not to try very hard to get him a job.

"It came to the point where I’d rather kill myself than get a job," said Smith. "I told Social Security to give the jobs to those who want them; I’d rather stay at home listening to music. But they’d tell me I had to work and I’d just ask, Why?"

More as a personal challenge, he passed the Oxford-Cambridge entrance exam, and showed up for his interview in a woman’s fur coat. Although he wasn’t accepted, Smith was offered a place at Sussex University. "It was supposed to be the best university for drugs in the country," he recalls.

Smith then was allowed by his parents to take a year off to explore more of his chances on a career in music.

"Once I started the group and they realized I was serious about it, I wasn’t just using it as an excuse to go around and get drunk all the time and pull women, they dropped all sort of ideas of me furthering my education."

In the end, it all worked out great in Robert Smith's life of unemployment. Happy 60th birthday!




Works consulted: Never Enough: The Story of The Cure by Jeff Apter, published in 2005 by Omnibus Press. Malice gig poster by Porl Thompson. Easy Cure photo (LR Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey and Porl Thomson) taken 1977 by unknown. Robert Smith photo taken 1978 by unknown.



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Southampton's Burning House are a rising shoegaze/indie rock band whose reputation keeps building with each new piece of music, and because of their distinguished live act. Mimosa is their first release after signing to MIOHMI (Yumi And The Weather), while the band are also in preparations for their full length debut, expected in summer 2019.

"It’s a song about the fall of an empire," says Aaron Mills, the band's guitarist, singer and songwriter, commenting on the inspiration behind the new track. "I wrote it as a big, self-conscious, opening rock song - the kind that would fill a stadium, but retaining ethereality; sonically a fusing of yin and yang/masculine and feminine. Lyrically, the song takes on themes of isolation, but also risk - the idea that risk is the only cure for isolation and despair. I was inspired by reading Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, and I learned about how one can hypnotize through consistency and repetition, and then all of a sudden break the 'spell' to dramatic effect."

For almost seven minutes Mimosa develops steadily and in a very impressive manner, through noisy textures, weighty and memorable guitar riffs and overall dense instrumentation, ably uniting heavy shoegaze and raucous grunge sounds.

Burning House are Aaron Mills (guitar/vocals), Patrick White (bass) and Dominic Taylor (drums).



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Burning House Facebook | Twitter | Instagram





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