Yautja carry the weight, Grande Fox are not down with the kids, Witchthroat Serpent take a nasty spill, Inhuman Condition pace themselves, Nefariym are not seeing things clearly — but as always, your Tuesday Roundup is right in focus. Cover your left eye and read the bottom line for me, please:
29 | Yautja | The Weight
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Nashville underground trio Yautja will drop their new album The Lurch on Friday. Today the band unveil a video for The Weight, directed by Jerry Roe. Says Roe: “Yautja have been one of my favorite local heavy bands for a while and they’re a group I consider truly unique and energizing in Nashville, and in heavy music in general. Up to this point, I’d only directed videos for my band Friendship Commanders and my bandmate’s solo music, so I was really excited when they asked me to make this video. I’ve long been proud to consider them peers in our local music scene here, so I was overjoyed to work on something with them together as members of this loud but small heavy music community here in Tennessee.”
30 | Grande Fox | Rottenness Of Youth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grande Fox’s Empty Nest is the second album and fourth release for the four-member space / psychedelic / stoner / heavy / rock band from Thessaloniki. Rottenness Of Youth is the latest single and video from the February release. The song refers to the rot that characterizes youth today. Here the position of expression is in an ego which has awakened and refuses to follow the common currents. He opposes the defeatism of the individual and makes his position clear by spitting in the face all this sick condition in which the young people of our society are swamped. Three elements that characterize the sound and the style of this track are riffs, grunge vibes and the intense feeling of anger.”
31 | Witchthroat Serpent | The Fall Of Whitewood
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French stoner doom merchants Witchthroat Serpent premiere the song The Fall Of Whitewood, from their upcoming Doom Sessions Vol. 666 EP. It finds the French foursome deliverking two tracks that clock in at nearly 10 minutes each, and will fill all ears with the utmost doom savagery, feedback and bloodcurdling lyrics. The band explain: “These two new tracks deal with the theme of human sacrifice and mass manipulation. The Fall Of Whitewood is inspired by the movie The City Of The Dead, and Cyanide-Laced Flavor is inspired by the biggest mass suicide ever, the famous Jonestown massacre perpetrated by Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple cult.”
32 | Inhuman Condition | Killing Pace
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Earlier this year, Inhuman Condition announced their arrival on the scene. The group, comprised of former Massacre members as well as current members of Obituary, The Absence, Goregäng and Fore, have already released two singles from their upcoming album Rat°God, and now debut their third, Killing Pace. The video was filmed and edited by drummer Jeramie Kling, with additional footage from director Max Raven’s The Abomination supplied with permission. “This song turned out to be such a ripper! Once we got Paul to write some gnarly lyrics and catchy vocal patterns, it really developed into a bit of an anthemic song, and it’s very mosh-able. It was also so cool that Jeramie was able to talk to director Max Raven and get permission to use the footage from The Abomination — it’s just a classic slasher video!”
33 | Nefariym | A Morbid Delusion
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Old-school death metal band Nefariym are set to release their debut album Morbid Delusions on Sept. 24. The band formed in Melbourne in 2019 around Mark Kelson & Richie Poate, both of the melodic doom band The Eternal. What started as an idea to pay homage to the golden era of early ’90s death metal led to a fully fledged band and the crushing album Morbid Delusions. First single A Morbid Delusion is out today and Kelson comments: “Mankind’s demise is nearing completion. As the fabric of society disintegrates society approaches is impending doom. A festering depravity of sickness and filth will be all your children ever know.”
34 | Waking The Sleeping Bear | Nouvelle Dissidence
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French metal/fusion/rapcore gang Waking The Sleeping Bear just premiered the latest track from their upcoming album with the video of Nouvelle Dissidence. It will be featured on the band’s full-length debut ‘P*rno Future, out on May 28. They say: “The music of Waking The Sleeping Bear is an all-angers crossoad. It’s about time passing, past adolescence too quickly disappeared, about the anguish of the future by the ones that are dismayed by the past … Dressed sometimes with tribal sounds, sometimes with suffocating synthetic ambiences, the nü-metal of WTSB hammers with rage some powerful convictions over a frenetic French-speaking phrasing, sometimes sung, rapped, shouted.”
35 | Dark Tropics | Keep Searching
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ireland’s Dark Tropics return with their soulful third single Keep Searching. Exploring a more vintage sound than previous releases, Keep Searching once again showcases some solid songwriting from this rising Belfast duo, masterfully blending frontwoman Rio’s dreamy vocal with lush strings resulting in an almost mantra-like refrain to ‘keep searching / keep breathing.’ “Keep Searching was inspired by the vibrancy and romance of ’60s American soul music,” say the band. “It’s about not wanting to be left behind and having the strength and resolve to chase a dream no matter what.”
36 | Gina Naomi Baez | Uniqueorn
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Gina Naomi Baez is a singer-songwriter from New York City. Pushing boundaries and defying genres, Baez’s music beautifully blends pop, country and folk, creating a sound reminiscent of Sia meeting Taylor Swift. Her latest single Uniqueorn is a feel-good, uplifting, sugary-sweet track certain to pull you out of any funk. Inspired by the movie Funny Girl, the single is about embracing your uniqueness, aimed to erase any self-doubt or insecurities. The songwriter shares: “Funny Girl reminded me of that innocent little girl with big, bright dreams. As you get older and reality sets in, it’s hard to keep those dreams bright and alive. You start doubting yourself, your talent, the way you look, are you too different? Are you too unique? I wanted the music to feel like you were flying through a glittery sky, bouncing cloud to cloud, without a care in the world, sippin’ pink champagne!”
37 | Sia Shells | 3%
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto singer-songwriter Sia Shells rhymes about the everyday magic we find through relationships, self love, reflection and dreams. Her juxtaposition of emotive, contralto vocals against upbeat dream-pop sounds will instantly transport you to another world. Sia’s moody, self reflective and intimate new track 3% is out today, highlighting the all too common feeling of phone separation anxiety. This past year has resulted in no other means of really communicating with our friends and loved ones than from a distance. Our attachment to devices is felt through the low percentage we experience and the chaos that ensues.”
38 | Penfriend | I’ll Start A Fire
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I’ll Start A Fire is a song about causing a ruckus even while everything is going wrong, cutting bad connections and ignoring all the noise in order to be free and express ourselves honestly. Taking whatever personal power we still have and making something with it, stopping ourselves from stopping ourselves … Giving yourself permission to be you can be one of the hardest things, and has really been a process for me, but it’s brought great joy and fulfilment to my life in recent years. I highly recommend giving it a try.”
39 | Booker Stardrum | Bend
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Percussionist and electronic producer Booker Stardrum shared Bend, a new single of patterned chaos from his forthcoming album Crater, releasing July 2. “I titled this one Bend after my natural relationship to pulse and rhythm, an elastic flow state that I strive to achieve in my playing. I love the feeling of stretching time in and out of groove, stumbling, and snapping back into it. Playing freely is a meditation on listening and awareness, and the embodiment of flexibility. I always attempt to capture these types of moments in my recordings, then enhance them with other gestures in a similar spirit. Bend features trumpet bending by the always inspiring Jaimie Branch.”
40 | Brother Valiant | Wander
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brother Valiant were founded by singer-songwriter Alex Amsterdam in the spring of 2013. During that time, he and his friends would track demos huddled inside a small suburban basement in northern New Jersey. What started with simple folk songs paying homage to artists like Paul Simon and Conor Oberst, the project began to take a shape all its own. On their latest track Wander, Amsterdam’s penchant for emotive storytelling shines through with folk infused foot-stomping soundscapes and a rousing anthemic chorus. “Writing as brutally honest as I can helps me make sense of moments lived, and how to grow from them,” Amsterdam states. “It can be very cathartic. That was certainly the case with this song.”
41 | King Zebra | Wall of Confusion
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Swiss hard rockers King Zebra have released Wall Of Confusion, a sizzling hard rock track that features stunning guest vocals from Guernica Mancini of Thundermother! If there is anyone left out there that believes that you can trust all that you hear, then this slamming song might be good medicine for you.”
42 | Montezuma’s Revenge | Sleeping Beauty (Exhumed)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Originally formed in Moscow in 2004, Russian quartet Montezuma’s Revenge are not only a formidable and highly impressive sludge rock machine, they’re also quite possibly one of Eastern Europe’s best-kept underground secrets. This July will see the official release of S.W.I.M., the Muscovites’ third studio album and first new music since their phenomenal 2017 sophomore effort Them. Launching an attack with a slow swirling hammer blow of riffs and transcendental doom, Sleeping Beauty is a reimagining of an early recording by the band which tells the tale of an ethereal snow maiden, freezing everything in her path. Weighted like pendulum swinging menacingly between celestial rock and relentless stoner metal, it showcases a distinct elaboration of the band’s earlier sound. Explains guitarist Ilya Boots: “There’s never a shortage of new material but we’ve been playing this older song in our new lineup, and it’s slowly transgressed into an entirely different beast.”
43 | Warped | Match Fit
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Geelong Australia, Warped are a trio that have been around the traps for 30 years and are highly respected veterans. Warped have now released their single Match Fit — a blast of maximum volume, fuzzed out rock ‘n’ roll reminiscent of all the classic power trios. Another banger from the house of Warped riffage, Match Fit is a high-energy anthem with lyrics such as “match fit for rock ’n’ roll, the doctor told me so.” How can you go wrong?
