Phoenix, Arizona shoegaze trio, Citrus Clouds, took their time to flesh out and release their new full length, Collider, which will finally arrive on March 5th, 2021 through Lolipop Records. First single, A Pastel Sky, was unveiled several months ago, and since then the band has also put out a pair of notable tracks, all of which indicate the impending album's propitiousness, and its placement among the genre's freshest.

Like its title suggests, A Pastel Sky, comes all colorful, balmy and idyllic; an artful exploration of beautifully distorted guitars and warm vocals, not very far from the sounds that made Slowdive stand out back in the day.

The rest of the musing shoegaze psychedelia which Citrus Clouds have to offer expands in the ten-song entirety which makes Collider a much enjoyable, loud and tuneful debut which isn't defined that much from its highlighted singles, but more from the band's capability of capturing the listener's attention en masse.

Straight from post rock's front lines, Godspeed You! Black Emperor return and announce their new album, the follow up to 2017's Luciferian Towers. The new full length, G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!, will be out on April 2nd, 2021 via Constellation.

The new album is composed of two 20-minute pieces and two six-minute ones, and it was recorded and mixed in Montréal in October 2020 at the group’s studio, Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango by Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) with whom the band worked together for the first time.

The album's announcement comes with a long statement from the band which follows after a 4K audio-visual clip that also serves as a trailer for the album.

A wild video of colorful surrealistic visuals, analogous to the unconventional spirit that's all over the band's genre defying musicianship, comes with Average Death, the second example off Ultrapop, the coming album by The Armed which releases on April 16th, 2021 via Sargent House.

"We hope this video is equal parts mesmerising and uncomfortable," says guitarist and vocalist Dan Greene.  The new song features guest performances from True Widow's Nicole Estill and singer Jess Hall, and a little after the first single, All Futures, it becomes the second good example of the band's hardcore/noise rock sound filtered through contradictory pop art aesthetics.

The Exbats return to action for the first time since the release of their last album, Kicks, Hits, and Fits, and the demise of their former label, Burger Records. 

The standalone single, Coolsville USA, emerges a little differentiated from the hardiness of the garage rock sound for which The Exbats have been mostly known, but it's still true to the band's vintage sixties pop aesthetics, and it sways through its surf pop approach, its inviting vocal harmonies, and an overall sweet sound which serves as a first indication of their next material.

Coolsville USA is out now on limited edition flexi discs available via Leisure World Tapes.

Clouds is the second single off In Observance, the coming debut album by British noise rock band, Concrete Ships, expected out on March 26th, 2021 through Trepanation Recordings. Following the intense first single, Flotilla, the new song presents an equally acute, yet, more psychedelic, progressive and space rock orientation of the band's sound and songwriting, with their punk rock footing still complete.

In its nine-minute grandiosity Clouds epitomizes Concrete Ships vision for a more elaborate, multifarious sound, and its parallels to the obscure hard rock of the seventies are noticeable, well established and ultimately estimable, since the band seem to be drawing from some pretty eclectic sources to craft a sound that's their own. 

Clouds experiments without going far out, and with no risks of coming across as incohesive. All this intricacy is counterbalanced by a very straightforward climactic point in the song's final minute for which the wait is totally worth.

Having mastered the art of fleshing out a solo project, multi-instrumentalist, F., has brought his extreme metal act, Maudiir, to a culminating point with the release of new EP, La Part du Diable. Recently out and demonstrative of the musician's fitness for bringing together different styles, the new release bases most of its darkness and heaviness on black metal and thrash, yet, it also tends to surprise more than often in its 25-minute long brevity.

Newest single, Spirit of Sulfur, leans more on Maudiir's raucous punk side, and much like the previously unveiled, The Slumber, it comes with a rare kind of hard edginess akin to penetrating thrash of Voivod, formed on enormous riffs and a general sense of radical tension.

Elsewhere, La Part du Diable, impacts with the punchy haste of opening number Fracture, the blackened genre amalgamation of The Fortunate Few, and the ambitious progressive metal of closer The Crowning Hour, generating a pretty splendid release which overpowers its predecessor and towers above most of its contemporaries in underground/unconventional metal.

Eleven months ago dreampop band Glaare introduced their coming, anticipated sophomore album, Your Hellbound Heart, with first single and video, Mirrors. A second offering off the coming full length, Young Hell, comes with another picturesque visual which showcases more of the band's charming dark aesthetics.

An act composed of experienced members, founders Brandon Pierce (Ancestors, Buried at Sea, Black Mare, Soft Kill) and Rachael Pierce who cut her teeth demoing pop songs for major labels, together with Marisa Prietto (Wax Idols, Bizou) and Rex Elle (Black Math Horseman, Animato), the Los Angeles-based Glaare continue fleshing out their vision for a gothic pop sound which mingles elements from many different aspects of the dark underground.

"We were going through a terrible time," the band comment on their new material. "Life kicked our ass and made us swallow. Then our peers came and threw tomatoes in our face. We wrote this while our psyches were shattering into dust. Realizing that nothing and no one has ever been the way you saw it, that’s what madness is truly made of. None of us have ever nor will ever say the direct seeds of our creations. It’s irresponsible and we are way too reclusive for that. It’s also tacky. What we will say is recording this was like getting peeled alive. We do this because we have to. Because we can’t survive without it. But make no mistake about it, it’s excruciating."

Your Hellbound Heart will be out on April 30th, 2021 via Weyrd Son Records.

Fresh signees to the gothic rock and darkwave powerhouse that is Cleopatra Records, Brooklyn's A Cloud of Ravens have been making their presence felt since their formation in 2018 through a few early releases, including a full length. The band composed of Beth (bass guitar) and Matthew (guitar, vocals) will be releasing their new album, Another Kind of Midnight, on March 16th, 2021.

Obviously well placed within the gothic realm both creatively and aesthetically, A Cloud of Ravens impress not only for the dark poetry which forms and develops in the band's lyrics, and expands in their alluring titles, but the duo also rivet through their gritty and immediate sonic scheme which feels pitch dark and hard as nails.

New single, When It Comes, represents immaculately the darkness of a band which declares itself "children of the seventies and eighties," but whose qualities feel more enduring than stubbornly stuck to the past.

Pulsations is a darkwave/post punk act from Denmark, led by musician and producer Hadrian Esteves whose dark musicianship shows a lot of affinity for the genre, its tropes and its past. The new single, Of Vultures And Sickles, follows the head turner that was the act's double A-side debut, released through Crunch Pod in August 2020.

Densely structured and all the way memorable, the new single comes with a radical punk rock spirit as to its lyrics, its cover art and general philosophy, all resulting to a fine juxtaposition to the track's polished production and its tuneful approachability, while the warm and well articulated vocal delivery by Esteves is another of the track's most distinguishing features.

The Copenhagen-based act has emerged in a downright impressive manner, and it seems to be continuing well grounded and on a very right track.

Swedish heavy rockers, Kråkslott, take their psychedelic metal heaviness to the next level, and achieve a more refined and realized sound compared to their earlier offerings. The band's new 20-minute/two-song EP, The Witchhammer, sees the ambitious band following the genre's essentials, and has them looking really able for their future.

The two lengthy tracks which compose The Witchhammer abound with excellent riff-laden doom metal and gritty sludge akin to stoner rock classics, and coming forth like a dynamic compound of Electric Wizard and High On Fire.

Still early in their path, with their new release Kråkslott prove that they are not late in the stoner metal game, and that some of the descendants of Black Sabbath can still be capable of coming up with reinvigorating sounds and ideas which can keep the style thriving.