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Terror vocalist Scott Vogel tells Full Metal Jackie the big life event that is fueling the inspiration for their 'Still Suffer' album. Continue reading…

Anyone who tells you that a new Social Distortion album isn’t a big deal has no idea what they are talking about. Mike Ness is one of the genre’s longest-lasting figures. It’s been fifteen years since the last Social Distortion album, and a lot has changed in the world. It, in fact, feels like a completely different place, but one thing you can count on is that the sounds of Social Distortion haven’t changed. Mike Ness’s new batch of songs on Born To Kill are reflective of his personal journey through it. While the album doesn’t necessarily progress Mike Ness’s songwriting, I think it can be debated if that matters with a Social Distortion record.

Physical copies of the record are sold as a double LP with three sides. This doesn’t make sense on paper given the record’s forty-five-minute runtime, but will make sense artistically as you make your way through. Like most musicians, Mike Ness has a history of widening the spectrum of genres he pulls influence from while composing his songs. Think of the jump from *Mommy’s Little Monster* to *Prison Bound*. *Mommy’s Little Monster* is a great punk album, while the band’s sound from *Prison Bound* forward is very influenced by Ness’s love for Johnny Cash. There are moments where “Born to Kill” feels like the missing link between “White Light, White Heat, White Trash” and what their music has been missing since original member Denis Danell’s passing in 2000.

The title track, “Born to Kill,” is a fantastic Social Distortion song and opening track. It’s explosive, channeling the 1990s era of this band, which is arguably their strongest. “No Way Out” feeds off that energy and Mike Ness’s ability to channel the rough times in his life with music and lyrics. Songs like “The Way Things Were” and “Tonight” are nostalgic in their lyrics. While Ness has been somewhat open about his struggles, whether health or addiction, the long gap between releases can leave it ambiguous as to what the songs are referring to. However, with “The Way Things Were,” it’s very clear that this song is reflective of his punk rock past.

The second side of this album leans heavily into Mike Ness’s non-punk influences. Fans of Ness’s punk rock songs may be turned off by the band’s cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.” As usual, Mike Ness wears his honky-tonk heart on his sleeve with “Crazy Dreamer,” a duet between Mike Ness and Lucinda Williams. This far into his career, Ness is as adept at playing country as he is at playing punk rock. At one point, these songs would have fit on one of Mike Ness’s solo records. However, since the death of Dennis Danell, Social Distortion’s output and Mike Ness’s solo records are one and the same.

For as strong as this record is, the third side is definitely its weakest, with “Walk Away (Don’t Look Back)” being pretty bland, but it also features “Don’t Keep Me Hanging On,” a song leftover from the *White Light, White Heat, White Trash* sessions. As with most of Social Distortion’s songs, there is this throughline of redemption you’d get after getting clean and trying to make amends with those around you and your life. A couple of years back, Mike Ness was given the key to the city of Fullerton, California, where most of this debauchery took place in the 1980s. While the search for redemption continues through the last few songs, by the end of the record, it very much feels like he found it.

“Born to Kill” is a return to form in many ways for Social Distortion. While it doesn’t break new ground, it doesn’t need to. The last two Social Distortion albums felt very experimental for Mike after losing his longest-standing collaborator at the time. Since then, Mike Ness has carved a place in music that is undoubtedly his own. This record feels lived-in and reflective of the many lives this band has had throughout its decades-long career. The long wait between those periods of inactivity where Mike Ness opens the curtain and shows the world the results is meant to be special. This time, it was worth the wait.

Born to Kill is out now on Epitaph Records.

Fresh from the announcement of their sixth album ‘Cut A Silhouette’, Sparta have announced a run of headline shows across the UK and Europe.

The Texan alt-rock outfit will be heading overseas this October, and they’ll be joined by Hammok on all dates.

On the band’s return to international touring, frontman Jim Ward has shared:

“There is no better feeling than hopping on a plane to cross an ocean to play music. The gift of travel, friends, sweat and rock and roll is one that I’ll be forever grateful for. This new record is a special one; it’s something you can’t plan for, but when the stars align, and the songs come together, you’ve got to just go, go, go—so we will. We can’t wait to get back to some of our favourite cities with some of our favourite people.”

Take a look at the full list of dates below.

OCTOBER

4: DUBLIN The Sound House
6: BRISTOL The Croft
7: MANCHESTER Yes
8: NOTTINGHAM Rock City Beta
10: GLASGOW Stereo
11: HUDDERSFIELD The Parish
12: BIRMINGHAM Castle & Falcon
13: LONDON Downstairs at The Dome
14: BRIGHTON Patterns
15: ST ALBANS The Horn
17: PARIS Petit Bain
18: ARNHEM Willemeen
19: COLOGNE Garagen
20: BERLIN Neue Zukunft
21: HAMBURG Betty
22: KORTRIJK Wilde Western

Set to drop on May 29 via Equal Vision / Rude Records, Sparta’s latest full-length ‘Cut A Silhouette’ will include recently released single ‘Everything You Say’.

Take a listen to that below.

The post Sparta Announce UK/EU Headline Tour appeared first on Rock Sound.

Kissing .

The post Kissing Kaos unleash video for new single “Hey Sugar” from debut album ‘To Your Limit’ first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

Posted on May 11th 2026, 12:40p.m.

“He needed to do something which was such a departure it would destroy everything that went before”

Let’s be real now, we are living in not so perfect world. Every time you swipe through your

Ville Valo reflects on 30 years of HIM and horny, doomed gothic romance

Posted on May 11th 2026, 12:20p.m.

One of my absolute favorite articles of clothing in my closet is a beat-up, slightly holey, faded black Darkthrone t-shirt from 1998, with the band logo on the front, and “True Norwegian Black Metal” printed across the back. I share this, for what I hope are obvious reasons, to explain what initially drew me to Twin Serpent’s sophomore record, True Norwegian Blackgrass. That, and it was floating in an exclusive area of the sump pit reserved for those nuggets Steel specifically says need a review. Four years removed from their Loyal Blood Records 2022 debut, Feels Like Heaven, North Of Hell, which garnered comparisons to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Tom Waits, this “cute outsider band” from Trondheim has a new label, Svart Records, and on True Norwegian Blackgrass, Twin Serpent teases “12 songs about love, betrayal and black holes with country licks, rock ‘n roll kicks and heaps of punk attitude.” So, coif those multi-colored mohawks, strap on those bullet-belts and arm spikes, and pull those cowboy boots on as we take True Norwegian Blackgrass for a prairie ride.

True Norwegian Blackgrass is a punk-infused, crust-country bluesabilly-thon full of quirky energy. Ditching the corpse paint and blood baths, Twin Serpent’s aesthetic is born from deliberate artistic intent—just scope that cover art touted as “weird, rowdy, and just a little bit black metal.” Face paint? Pfffft! Full body snake paint and no fucks given come standard. Spirited from the start, album opener “Space Heater” glides in on a wave of Dick Dale-esque surf guitar before going full-on Dead Kennedys with oodles of punkish energy and roars from Timo Silvola and Hanna Fauske that would have Fenriz smiling. From there, however, True Norwegian Blackgrass traverses a more eclectic musical terrain without sacrificing its punk moxie. Silvola’s countrified banjo plucks and acoustic strumming bring Bridge City Sinners and The Goddamn Gallows to mind (“Stellar Suicide”), but can folk out too on tracks like “Kipu Kivi,” which also features him chanting in his native Finnish. Back-boning Twin Serpent’s “rock”ier side are Fauske’s driving bass lines, Tony Gonzalez’s electric riffs and leads, and the shifty, exactly-what-we-need-when-we-need-it drumming of Viktor Kristensen. Together, these three bring a bluesy, alt-rock flair that had me feeling everything from Violent Femmes (“Hundromshelvete”) and Days of the New (“Tusen Takk”), to The Cramps (“Radiophobia”). To say True Norwegian Blackgrass seems a scatterbrained stew of styles would be an understatement, but I’ll be damned if Twin Serpent doesn’t pull it off.

Twin Serpent write big hooks, stacking True Norwegian Blackgrass with memorable moments. Whimsical percussion, poppy bass lines, and fuzzy guitar work make “Ærlig Talt” an off-kilter, punky fun ditty, while the catchier-than-thou chorus of the hoe-down-ready “Freak Flag” is stickier than hell, and should inspire mass consumption of cheap beer. My favorite song, ballad “Ain’t Home No More,” features a great harmonic duet between Silvola and Fauske, sung over simple banjo and acoustic guitar before feathering in surging electric chords that, in a live setting, could easily trail off into a stellar jam section. “Holy Ghost,” another tavern-tier stand-out, features more of Silvola and Fauske’s vocal harmonizations and sports a chorus that will have you swaying on your bar stool, arm around your drinking buddy, belting it out while sloshing beer from your pint glass.

Twin Serpent’s versatility is their greatest strength. I imagine they’d fit in just as easily gigging at the local brew pub as they would a barn dance or even Chicago’s Riot Fest. Covering so many musical landscapes, an album like True Norwegian Blackgrass could have easily landed as an unfocused mess. But it’s the vocal interplay, harmonies, and trade-offs between Silvola and Fauske—reminiscent of early B-52’s—keeping things intact. As many different places as this record goes, it still manages to sound like Twin Serpent, and with twelve tracks spanning 37 minutes—most songs clocking in between two and three minutes each—it never loiters long enough to get boring or tiresome. Dubbed “the wizard technician,” Vebjørn Svanberg Numme harnesses all of the foursome’s idiosyncrasies and channels them through a production that perfectly captures everything that makes the Twin Serpent sound tick.

True Norwegian Blackgrass is a wonderful change-of-pace album you could totally spin when you don’t know what to listen to. Twin Serpent have added all the right ingredients to create a recipe loaded with eclectic energy and punk rock attitude. From note one, I was hooked and had more fun with True Norwegian Blackgrass than I’d ever guessed. I fully recommend you give it a try too.

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Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Svart Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: May 8th, 2026

The post Twin Serpent – True Norwegian Blackgrass Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.