Category: news

In 1992 Love/Hate wanted to get their career back on track. What better way than by fastening their frontman to a homemade cross attached to the most famous landmark in Los Angeles?

10 songs which shaped Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland’s life and music

On March 20, 2026, Ben Brandt released Solid Ground, his debut solo record, produced by blues rockstar JD Simo. The record features Brandt’s guitar and vocals, Theodore Pecchio on bass, Adam Abrashoff on drums, and, occasionally JD Simo on supporting guitar. Solid Ground is just over half an hour long, divided up into 11 tracks, with the tracks being segmented into three parts, separated by short, sweet instrumental jams, which happen to be some of the strongest work on the album.

The bad news: the album’s mixing could be better, especially when it comes to vocals. In several tracks, the lyrics were so difficult to make out that I tried a few different audio output sources, wondering if I had a speaker problem at first. On each track featuring vocals, it seems like a different mixing choice plagues the readability of Brandt’s words. Sometimes his voice is simply not prominent enough against the (often stellar) instrumentation (such as in “Burning Bridges”), and others there are effects added to the vocals that muddy the clarity (“Under the Weight of Us”). This is unfortunate, because Brandt is a fine singer with a pleasant high quality to his voice that contrasts nicely with distorted guitar.

The good news: vocal production aside, Solid Ground is an enjoyable blues rock listen with some interesting structural choices and fun melodies. The decision to divide the album into three sections with the instrumental jams (“Matthews Tire Pt. 1, 2, and 3”) gives the album a consistent soundscape. These jam tracks are very short, less than two minutes each, and each has a distinct musical flavor. The mixing on the “Matthews Tire” tracks is muted, which gives the interesting sensation of listening to a band from outside the room through a door. They are just long enough to create a sonic snapshot, a musical impression, and then deliver you right back into the meat of the album.

The standout tracks for the album are by far “Parasite Blues,” a faster rock-heavy track with a fun melody and solid backbeat, and “The Seeker,” an introspective personal number that feels like classic 1970s blues rock set to a crunchy muted fuzz rhythm and chimey lead guitar. Overall, the record takes several cues from ‘70s blues rock, from arrangement to drumming which works well within the simplicity of the composition.

The instrumentation on the record is excellent, especially the rhythm section. The bass and drums are absolutely holding down the fort, helping Brandt and Simo to shine on guitar. The only note I’d make is that the album could’ve benefitted from a horn section and/or some solid keys work to build a thicker sound.

Overall, Solid Ground is a respectable debut effort from a young blues rocker with plenty of room to grow. The structural choices indicate a sharp musical mind that has definite future potential in the genre, even if held back a bit by unfortunate production woes.

The Review: 7/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– Fine Line
– The Seeker
– Parasite Blues

The Big Hit

– Parasite Blues

The post Ben Brandt: Solid Ground Review appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

The bittersweet tremors
uneasy, beautiful
Say you are true to it
Heroes fade, love is real 

Real love is a strange, stubborn animal. It does not flinch when the mascara runs, when the rent is late, when your grand ideas turn to ash in your hands and you’re left standing there in yesterday’s shirt, full of bad habits and half-broken hymns. It knows the difference between a performance and a person. It sticks around for the unphotogenic hours, the cracked voice, the cowardice, the comeback. While the whole cheap carnival collapses in sparks and plaster, that love stays low and steady in the walls like old wiring, carrying a current strong enough to light the ruins and call them home.

Joy Forever return with Love Is Real, sounding like a band that has stared down the plastic pageant of modern life and decided to answer with a bruised, bare-knuckled article of faith. This is a dark, urgent track, but urgency here is not some gym-rat cliché about momentum and force. It feels more like the sound of somebody arriving at a truth after wasting years on counterfeits, kissing the wrong lips, chasing the wrong dreams, and finally finding peace.

The rhythm section hits first, a hard, hurrying throb of bass and drums that gives the song its backbone, while those heavy breath-ins make the opening feel almost alarmingly close, like you can hear the body trying to steady itself before the spirit says something risky. Mikolas Rendl sings from up close too, sounding like a man standing in the wreckage, picking through the busted furniture of memory, trying to salvage one clean conviction from all the foolishness and fear.

Then the guitars come in, circling and smearing the edges, and the song starts to feel beautifully unstable, like grief and grace sharing the same seat in the same speeding car. There is a grunge-scarred weariness in its bones, but also a reach toward something larger, something that might survive our talent for misunderstanding one another. By the time it blows open into that shoegaze-bent ending, the song has swollen into a kind of spiritual crash-out, a glorious overload where pain, hope, and exhaustion all get their say.

 “It’s not meant to be a love song that feels safe,” admits Rendl. “It’s more about that stubborn feeling that something real still exists, even when everything around you feels chaotic or fake. LOVE IS REAL. It feels defiant. Like saying it out loud because you need it to be true.”

Listen to Love Is Real below:

Joy Forever are a Hamburg-based post-punk four-piece whose music feels lived-in rather than lacquered over. With roots stretching across the Czech Republic, Peru, and Germany, the band brings a broad, unsettled European perspective to songs preoccupied with social strain, alienation, capitalism, and the fragile business of staying human in modern city life. Their sound pulls together bruised guitars, cold gleam synth work, and vocals that carry both ache and urgency without slipping into melodrama.

Their debut EP, Brand New Faces, was recorded in Brighton with Theo Verney and mastered by Felix Davis at Metropolis, a fitting route for a band whose music feels both intimate and international. What Joy Forever offers is not revival for revival’s sake, but something more immediate: songs for people trying to keep hold of their nerve, their tenderness, and their sense of self while the world keeps asking them to become less real.

Listen to their latest single, Love Is Real, on Bandcamp below and purchase it here. You can also stream it here.

Follow Joy Forever:

• Spotify
• Instagram
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

The post “I Seek the Beauty Within Me” — Hamburg Post-Punk Outfit Joy Forever Share Defiant Anthem “Love is Real” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

JUNO-nominated artist Lindsay Schoolcraft has emerged from the shadows to announce her third full-length studio album, Harrowing, set for release on June 19. Co-produced by Justin deBlieck (Motionless in White), the record promises a more metallic edge, blending Nu Metal, Metalcore, and “Rocktronica” with Schoolcraft’s signature classical strings and choirs. The album serves as a … Continue reading Lindsay Schoolcraft announces new album ‘Harrowing’ and shares ‘pop-up’ music video

Nicholas Krgovich’s last solo album was 2023’s Ducks, but the following year he revived his long-dormant band P:ano for a new record called ba ba ba. Now he’s back to announce a Bruce Springsteen covers album titled Boss Tape, and his rendition of the 1998 track “Gave It A Name” is out today. “On November…

The post Nicholas Krgovich Announces Bruce Springsteen Covers Album <em>Boss Tape</em>: Hear “Gave It A Name” appeared first on Stereogum.

Baltimore Black Metallers, Nixil, have partnered with Invisible Oranges for the premiere of “I Am Not Here,” the second single from the forthcoming split release with Black/Death quartet, Drouth, titled Toward Dead Temples.

Just click and go below!

invisibleoranges.com/nixil-are-more-present-than-ever-on-i-am-not-here-track-premiere

The bands have each released a statement concerning their respective contributions to Toward Dead Temples, as follows:

Nixil: “Our contributions to Toward Dead Temples explore the spiritual depth of death and isolation. Through the use of imagery representative of the crumbling edifice of christo-fascism, we strive to push toward the eradication of the oppressor in all its manifestations. Sonically, this album marks a point of transition for us, beginning a deep dive into darker waters on a quest for stranger, more unsettling discordance. We are thrilled to be joining forces with our friends in Drouth to present this anthem of defiance against the crushing weight of impending dictatorship – until all tyrants and their temples fall.”

Drouth: “Originally recorded during The Teeth of Time sessions in late 2023, ‘Cathartes Aura’ and ‘The Outer Church’ stand on their own by representing both the past and future of Drouth. We are proud to share this release with our friends in Nixil and join them in spreading sonic misery throughout the West Coast this May.”

FFO: Enslaved, Ludicra, Blut Aus Nord, Altar of Plagues, Dawn, Black Curse, Ulcerate, Spectral Wound, Weakling, Sacramentum, Schammasch, Watain, The Ruins of Beverast

Nixil and Drouth will embark on the Toward Dead Temples West Coast Tour 2026, in May. Tour dates are as follows:

May 7: Seattle, WA – Neumos (Northwest Terror Fest)
May 8: Eugene, OR – John Henry’s
May 9: Redding, CA – The Dip
May 10: Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial
May 12: Los Angeles, CA – The Moroccan Lounge
May 13: San Diego, CA – Tower Bar
May 14: Palmdale, CA – Transplants Brewing
May 15: Santa Rosa, CA – Arlene Francis Center
May 16: Eureka, CA – Savage Henry Comedy Club
May 17: Portland, OR – The High Water Mark

Toward Dead Temples will be released April 24 on vinyl, cassette tape, and digital formats.

Pre-order:

nixil.bandcamp.com/album/toward-dead-temples-nixil-drouth

nixilnothing.com/merch-store

drouth.bandcamp.com/album/toward-dead-temples

Track Listing:

1. Never Rise Again [Nixil]

2. Bloody Footprints on the Path of Bones [Nixil]

3. I Am Not Here [Nixil]

4. Cathartes Aura [Drouth]

5. The Outer Church [Drouth]

Credits:

Nixil:

All songs written and recorded by Nixil.

Recorded and mixed by J. Robbins at The Magpie Cage Recording Studio

magpiecage.com.

Mastered by James Plotkin, plotkinworks.com.

Artwork for Nixil by Ash Nix.

Nixil:

A. – Vocals
S.G. – Guitar
A.B. – Guitar, backing vocals
A.R. – Bass, backing vocals
Drums on Toward Dead Temples – M.T.

Drouth:

All songs by Drouth.

Recorded & mixed by Billy Anderson at Hallowed Halls & Everything Hz, Portland, Ore. MMXXIII-IV.

Mastered by Justin Weis at trakworx.com, South SF, CA.

Layout & Artwork for Drouth by Matt Stikker.

Matt Stikker – Guitar, Vocals, Lyrics
John Edwards – Guitar, Vocals
Patrick Fiorentino – Drums
Matt Solis – Bass, Vocals

Viola on “The Outer Church” by Eva Vonne

facebook.com/drouthpdx

instagram.com/drouthxdeath

nixilnothing.com

facebook.com/nixilnothing

instagram.com/nixilnothing

Source: ClawHammer

Backstage scuffles, secret service and more led to the band being kicked out after one song.

The post Tom Morello Marks The 30th Anniversary Of Rage Against The Machine’s Infamous Ejection From ‘Saturday Night Live’ appeared first on Theprp.com.

Last month during Lollapalooza weekend in Brazil, Chappell Roan was under fire after Brazilian-Italian football star Jorginho accused the young pop sensation of making his daughter cry. He claimed that she sent her security guard to scold his daughter after she walked past Roan’s table during breakfast at a hotel. Roan said that the security guard was not a part of her team, and that was later verified. Now, Jorginho shared a statement saying he “regrets the impact” that his false allegation had on the singer.

The post Jorginho Finally Concedes Chappell Roan Did Not Make His Daughter Cry appeared first on Stereogum.

Better Lovers, KFMDM and Scowl are no longer playing.

The post Set Times And Lineup Changes Announced For 2026 ‘Sick New World’ Festival In Las Vegas appeared first on Theprp.com.