Echo & the Bunnymen formed in Liverpool in 1978 around singer Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant, and bassist Les Pattinson, with drummer Pete de Freitas joining soon afterward. The band became one of the defining groups of British post-punk, combining dark atmosphere, psychedelic guitar textures, dramatic rhythm sections, and McCulloch’s distinctive baritone. Their early records quickly established a sound that could be brooding and cinematic without losing the sharpness of a rock band playing in real time. Crocodiles arrived in 1980 and was followed by Heaven Up Here, Porcupine, and Ocean Rain, a run that produced songs including “Rescue,” “A
It feels like just yesterday that I was reviewing the Texas Headhunters’ self-titled debut album, and I was anticipating what would come next for the band. Well, my questions have been answered.
The three core members have remained together while touring, including dates with Samantha Fish, receiving widespread acclaim for the last album. More recently, they have been back in the studio recording their brand new album, Rise And Shine. It is set to be released on October 10th. Amazingly, as they did with their first album, they recorded this album in only five days.
Referred to by some as a blues-rock supergroup, the threesome of Ian Moore, Jesse Dayton, and Johnny Moeller each had their own careers when they formed Texas Headhunters. Each of them was also a product of the legendary Clifford Antone (Antone’s Blues Club in Austin, Texas), who provided guidance and influence to the trio.
Furthermore, all three are Texans and guitarists, and as a colorful saying about Texans goes, “this ain’t their first rodeo.” Ian Moore spent time in Joe Ely’s band in the early 1990s, the Ian Moore Band (his own group), and the Lossy Coils. Jesse Dayton was a member of Road Kings and Alamo Jets and did work on some Rob Zombie movie soundtracks. Johnny Moeller is a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
There is one unarguable certainty shared between Moore, Dayton, and Moeller. Each is a superb musician, a guitarist to be specific, and each shines throughout this brand new release. They are also supported by a couple of other great musicians: Michael Archer on bass and Jay Moeller (Johnny’s brother) on drums.
One great way to grab a listener’s attention immediately is to kick off an album with a “banger” of a tune, and Texas Headhunters do exactly that on Rise And Shine with “Cut N Run.” It’s also a preview of the great stuff to come. This one is a rocker, and the guitar work here is excellent, as it is throughout this whole recording.
Dayton sings, “I gave you everything I could possibly give. Still I know you’ll be leaving me soon,” and “this ain’t no more fun, baby’s gonna cut and run.” When that kind of thing happens, there is really only about one thing to do: say, “Fare ye well my darling.” This tune was released as a follow-up to their first release, which I’ll talk about a little later.
With a slow, smoky, bluesy start, “I Did It Anyway” offers up some useful advice that goes like this: “They say never get your honey the same place you get your money, but I did it anyway. They say never buy a house with a woman that’s ready to move out, but I did it anyway.”
Don’t we all know folks who don’t listen to good advice? They’ve just got to find out for themselves. This one picks up the pace and keeps offering plenty of good common-sense advice about what we shouldn’t do. But too many times, we have to admit that we didn’t listen and end up saying, “I did it anyway.” It’s a lighthearted piece that most of us will identify with and laugh along with as we listen.
The seventh track on Rise And Shine is the title track, “Rise And Shine.” This cut features Moore, Dayton, and Moeller sharing the vocal contributions. I really love the hand clapping in this song with that boogie beat that the band has going on. “Don’t let that devil get you down in his hole. Just rise and shine.” The song warns us to stay away from that devil and not let him get us down.
“That’s The Kind Of Fool I’ll Be” is a slow, bluesy song that makes us ponder if love can really make you crazy. “So I’m crazy people say. But love can make you feel that way. And if it’s crazy to be in love, I ain’t been crazy long enough.” The song continues with, “and if you’re still here with me, that’s the kind of fool I’ll be.”
Has love ever made you crazy? If it has, then you’ll have no difficulty understanding what this song is all about.
I would also encourage you to check out the instrumental “Funky So N So,” which really highlights the outstanding musicianship of the members of Texas Headhunters.
Texas Headhunters have delivered another high-quality, excellently performed recording with Rise And Shine, a perfect follow-up to their first album release. If, for some reason, you missed that self-titled release, give it a listen in addition to checking this new one out.
As I always do, I would also suggest catching them live if you have a chance. Check their social media for dates. There are also live clips of the band on YouTube, along with music from both of their albums and check out our recent interview with the band.
The Review: 8.5/10
Can’t Miss Tracks
– Cut N Run – I Did It Anyway – Rise And Shine – That’s The Kind Of Fool I’ll Be
The sophomore LP from the “bimboviolence”—deathgrindy powerviolence with a female vocalist, basically—quartet outta NOLA is less an evolution of their sound than a refinement of it: sharper songwriting, better and more confident musicianship, cleaner production, and more violence. In other words, Manslayer is the band’s second album but their true debut. The fantastically-named Liz Selfish emerges as the band’s proper lyricist, seething through revenge fantasies—e.g., “Castrated and forced to choke on the member / Dissembowled with dulled-down hedge clippers”—with the title track’s refrain acting as a makeshift thesis: “Hell hath no fury / Like a woman scorned / Hell hath no fury / Watch your back / You’ve been forewarned.” As the cover suggests, this band, and especially this record, will give you a fucking good kicking.
Vanessa Funke’s fifth album, Aura, brings melodic death metal together with ’80s electronic influences, and shows how much she can achieve on her own. Funke wrote and performed nearly everything herself, and her versatility is one of the record’s greatest strengths. “Last Dawn” opens with melodic guitar and a guest solo from Alicia Cordisco before “Fading Memory” pushes into faster, heavier territory, pairing melodic leads with Funke’s harsh vocals. Some of Aura’s most memorable moments come when Funke turns toward her own experiences. “Coherence” and “Infinite Skies” address her life as a trans woman, with the latter fighting through frustration and self-doubt to find the freedom in self-expression. That personal writing gives the melodies an added emotional pull. That’s all the more apparent on the closing track, “Into the Night,” where fear and defiance meet via keyboards deepening the riffs. It’s one of Aura‘s most direct tracks, showcasing both Funke’s love of Insomnium and the record’s profundity.
Sigh has never been constrained by boundaries. On Goh-Ka, they venturing further into prog and heavy psych rock territory than ever before while adding heavy elements from Japanese folk music. The result is a strange brew, alternating moments of beauty and melody with the unhinged black metal insanity that Sigh is mostly known for. The multi-part suite “Kuso-shi,” which spans four tracks over the course of the album, is probably their most progressive work yet. The band uses a wide range of traditional Japanese instruments, plus a Mellotron, to broaden their sonic horizon. Other tracks, such as “Anzenshokon,” showcase Sigh’s more psychedelic side, whereas “Unputenpu” is a more bouncy rocker. Odd-metered rhythms are scattered enough throughout the tracks to keep you on your toes. Goh-Ka is just as weird and theatrical as you could want a Sigh release.
Melodic Scandinavian doom is at the heart of Maunah’s Hjarta, with Nordic folk and modern metal mixed in. On their debut, Maunah use no lexical language. The voice follows the sounds and rhythms of human speech, allowing feeling to come through without conventional words. Against heavy guitars and overtone flute, the vocals become inseparable from the music. Note how “Heimaland” melds doom riffs with more melodic passages, the vocals rising and falling with the song’s changing intensity.
That approach fits an album connected to nature and physical sensation. Maunah describe their music through images of leaves underfoot, cold forest floors, sunlight on the face, and air filling the lungs. Hjarta carries that earthy quality throughout. Repeated melodies become hypnotic, and the contrast between thick guitars, flute, and wordless vocals gives the songs an unusual atmosphere. There is something instinctive about listening to Hjarta: you don’t need to understand a language to understand what Koldsen-Zederkof is communicating.
After revamping their lineup, The Ocean has returned refreshed and ready to conquer the world. The change clearly did the band some good, because Solaris is their best album in some time and possibly one of their best overall. Both new vocalists make an impressive mark. Lane Oshi (Elizabeth Colour Wheel) shows fantastic emotional depth, crooning, screaming, and wailing as needed. Meanwhile, the other new blood, Nrekh, is a deeply charismatic vocalist with an impressive emotional range in his own right. Drummer Jordi Farré is also a standout, providing dynamic and powerful rhythms that anchor the music while the other musicians soar above a cosmic ocean. Solaris strikes a balance between the light and shade. The beginning of the album is wreathed in shadow, the middle is an uplifting and contemplative ride, and then it closes out by retreating to the dark, quiet spaces, high above the world.
Judicator’s The Elector is only three songs long, two re-recordings and a cover, but there is plenty happening in those songs. Most importantly, founding guitarist Alicia Cordisco is back with the band, and hearing her play these songs again gives the EP a real sense of excitement. The title track is fast, melodic power metal with John Yelland’s vocals carrying the story of a leader trying to do right while facing judgment from every direction. Cordisco’s guitar solo is one of the highlights, coming in with plenty of speed without losing the melody. “Gloria” gets a new recording too, with rapid rhythmic guitars and a chorus that makes it easy to understand why Judicator wanted to revisit the song. Then they end with a cover of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” Francisco Javier Pérez turns it into a metal song without losing the melody that made the original so infectious. The Elector feels like a celebration of Judicator’s history and a creative and fun way to welcome Cordisco back.
Resolve have shared a new track from their upcoming new album ‘Spread My Ashes Into Space’, showcasing the more chaotic and cavernous side of their sound.
Titled ‘Godtier’, it finds the quartet bridging the gaps between nu-metal bounce, metalcore intensity and modern post-hardcore ebbing and flowing, all equating to a song that rips and tears as much as it grooves. A forward-thinking, at times brutal, and uniquely frantic addition to not just this album’s story but also their whole discography, this new era is really shaping up to be something special.
Vocalist Anthony Dilibertohad this to say about the track:
“While a lot of the Spread My Ashes Into Space ideas and concepts are about wanting to step back and escape, Godtier could be almost the polar opposite. It’s about willingly flying straight into the fire. The lyrics are telling this story of a character steering a spaceship into a dying sun, but the core meaning of this is deeply human. It’s about chasing a thrill that you know is eventually going to break you.
Whether it’s the physical and mental toll of what we do, or simply pouring every ounce of yourself into a passion, you’re eventually reminded that pushing yourself to the absolute limit comes with its price. You know the crash that follows the euphoria is going to hurt. But there is an undeniable, almost addictive beauty in experiencing that level of intensity.
Instead of fearing the inevitable collapse, this track is about embracing it. It’s that moment where you stop fighting the exhaustion, look at the vibrant chaos around you, and decide the rush is simply worth the damage. It’s a surrender to the beauty of not always being in control.”
‘Spread My Ashes Into Space’ is set for release on January 15 2027 via Arising Empire.
Here is previous offering, the album’s title track:
Lorna Shore, Watain, Converge and Green Lung are four bands that you know quite well by now. All different yet equally masterful in their respective genres. As you will get to see during Mystic Festival 2027, in Gdansk Letnica.
Since we’re talking hell already, Watain are coming to bring hell on earth to the stage one last time. It is one of tho… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
Newly formed avantgarde black metal formation Malignant Spirit will be releasing debut full-length, A Serpent To Devour, A Servant To Abhor, on November 6 through I, Voidhanger Records. Alongside unveiled details, you can also give a listen to the first single “The Inheritance Of Her Ruin”. Read more…
It’s October, a month whose suitability for seasonal comments is eclipsed only, perhaps, by December. Pumpkins and their spiced lattes, sweaters, lawn decorations, and costumes provide a nearly bottomless well of small talk from sea to shining sea. Searching for a timely promo to review as a chill worms its way into the air and the leaves blaze in the weeks before death, I stumbled across Los Angeles-based trio Pegzilla and their debut LP, Disobedience. This follows an EP in 2022 and a slew of singles in the intervening years. If the promise of witchy stoner rock and riot grrrl energy didn’t sell me, reading their Spotify bio did.1 Will Disobedience be the album of this year’s all-too-short spooky season?
After nostalgic intro, “Pay the Toll,” Pegzilla pop the clutch and burn rubber on first proper track “Troll on Speed.” With a lip-snarling opening riff, hopes are set quite high. If Joan Jett joined Queens of the Stone Age, you’d get something very like Pegzilla. Vocalist/guitarist Olivia Saperstein rips riffs fit for both endless road trips (“Troll on Speed,” “Bootlicker”) and western shootouts (“Virginia Werewolf”) while her crooning vocals tempt and coax you past the underlying danger that suffuses all of Disobedience. Far from a simple bass walker, Juan Barsse drives the crime noir atmosphere of “Pistola” and the aquatic psychedelics of penultimate track “Hell Ya Brother.” Together, Saperstein and Barsse brew a delightful, soulful groove, best heard on “Troll on Speed” and “Pistola.” Of course, were it not for drummer Ryan Swain muscular fills and impressive pacing, much of Pegzilla’s weight and intensity would evaporate like an early fall morning fog.
Each member of Pegzilla plays well, and each section of each song lands anywhere from fine to very good in a vacuum, but on the track level and as a whole, Disobedience struggles for cohesion. The album often feels like a puzzle with nice pieces that’s put together in the most flabbergasting way possible. With the exception of “Chelsea,” every track on Disobedience abruptly shifts from fast to slow and back again with little to no warning. It’s a lot like riding shotgun with someone who hasn’t driven a manual in a decade. That riffs or passages struggle to relate to each other tonally or in pacing further hampers Disobedience’s ability to build momentum and inertia, making this 29-minute album feel much longer. This is exacerbated by a couple of tracks that overstay their welcome (“Pistola,” “Virginia Werewolf”) and a baffling outro track (“Troll Reprise”). Instrumental “Hell Ya Brother” isn’t the strongest album closer, but “Troll Reprise” feels like a directionless add-on that’s only made me think, “hey, remember 27 minutes ago when you had high hopes for this album?”
For all this criticism though, I still think Pegzilla shows a lot of promise. While the chorus on “Chelsea” is pretty clunky, the song keeps on the gas all the way through, and the bridge after has a great Nirvanan flair to it. Saperstein’s solo work on “Troll on Speed,” “Pistola,” and “Virginia Werewolf” are all great, and “Bootlicker” is probably the album high point with its punky riot grrrl bent that wouldn’t be out of place in Joan Jett’s more aggressive work. We don’t hear Swain really let loose until it’s almost too late, but his kit work on “Hell Ya Brother” is nothing short of stellar. And while the faster instrumental section of “Pistola” loses its novelty when it’s repeated a minute later, it’s got some kick and launches well out of the track’s noir-tinged beginnings.
The score below may be a little misleading. As a whole, so many of Pegzilla’s decisions, from a compositional or flow-minded perspective, leave me scratching my head. The majority of the tracks on Disobedience lack a cohesive identity, leaving them to feel haphazardly or hastily glued together. But all throughout Disobedience, I see the flashes of a very good record. Pegzilla’s got the ingredients to a winning formula, and even though they didn’t come together right on Disobedience, I’ll be keeping an eye out for the sophomore effort.
It’s October, a month whose suitability for seasonal comments is eclipsed only, perhaps, by December. Pumpkins and their spiced lattes, sweaters, lawn decorations, and costumes provide a nearly bottomless well of small talk from sea to shining sea. Searching for a timely promo to review as a chill worms its way into the air and the leaves blaze in the weeks before death, I stumbled across Los Angeles-based trio Pegzilla and their debut LP, Disobedience. This follows an EP in 2022 and a slew of singles in the intervening years. If the promise of witchy stoner rock and riot grrrl energy didn’t sell me, reading their Spotify bio did.