Glenn Richards announces new single, Pest, and tour dates along with details of his new solo album The Great Behind with the Venus Lakes (available October 9th) on Johnny Depp’s IN.2 Records. Over the years Australia has produced a number of celebrated musicians and singer songwriters who occupy only a ‘cult’ status in the United […]
The post Glenn Richards announces new single and album The Great Behind via Johnny Depp’s IN.2 Records appeared first on Louder Than War.
Taylor Acorn and Knox have joined forces on a track called ‘Isn’t It Strange’ that pulls on both of their musical strengths.
A thoughtful, emotional, vibrant pop-rock crossover, it feels timelessly nostalgic and as fresh as a daisy. Bouncing off each other beautifully and giving the sort of earnest performances that make the realisations that heartbreak doesn’t always have to lead to hurt, but instead can show you exactly where you need to go, it’s a match made in Heaven.
Taylor had this to say about the creation of the song, stating, “I’m so excited for the world to finally hear ‘Isn’t It Strange!’ We wrote this song back while writing my album Poster Child early last year – we had already written a song that day and started messing around on the guitar and it just fell out so seamlessly. When we were cutting vocals, Knox had the idea of throwing his on too just to see what would happen and it was truly like magic. We were all so stoked and have been praying it would eventually see the light of day. I love this song so much, we are so proud of it, and I hope everyone loves it as much as we do.”
The track is set to appear on the deluxe version of ‘Poster Child’, which will be released on October 23 via Fearless Records.
We chatted to Taylor earlier this year for an episode of 7of30, which you can check out below:
The post Taylor Acorn & Knox Team Up For Beautiful New Track ‘Isn’t It Strange’ appeared first on Rock Sound.
For a band you’ve most likely not heard of before, Shabti sports a remarkably intriguing pedigree (at least for my tastes). You see, Shabti is comprised of members from Falls of Rauros, Obsidian Tongue, Fires in the Distance, and even live Panopticon performers. These aforementioned names will likely ignite the interest of fellow atmo-black lovers as they did to me. Instead, annihilate those puny expectations, for Shabti is actually an amalgamation of proggy, techy, blackened death, much to my surprise. Surprise, but not chagrin – the pre-release single “Rise of the Shabti” got me sufficiently excited, and I trust the weathered musicians of Shabti to deliver something great on the enigmatically titled Haze, Cacophony, and White Light.
Shabti wastes no time playing their hand, coming out the gates of “Ambrosia and Lambs Blood” sprinting at full speed. It’s immediately clear that Haze, Cacophony, and White Light leans eagerly into its prog aspects, often reminding me of Neuraxis in a way I genuinely struggle to justify. Riffs barrel on by, connected by endless, labyrinthine little guitar and drum fills. Shabti likes to teeter their music right on the edge of weird, with slippery compositions and a flirtatious attitude towards dissonance, though I’d say it never quite takes the full plunge. Furthermore, the album just sounds excellent; the performances are snappy all across the board, and the sound mixing is crisp and clear. I particularly enjoy the sound of the guitars; they have a swinging weight heard especially well in the riffs of “Rise of the Shabti.” By all measures, the sonic ingredients of a good album are here.
Sadly, it never quite comes together into a memorable, exciting album. The song structure is loose in a way that there’s never really a satisfying build or climax, and few riffs ever stand out in my memory for longer than a song’s duration. Outside of the noteworthy, pleasant gallop in the latter half of “Blood for a Blessing,” if you threw me anywhere between the opening “Ambrosia and Lambs Blood” and “Haze, Cacophony, and White Light,” I don’t think I could identify which song it was. The funny thing is that very little stands out as actually bad; it’s just that nothing ever quite coalesces. In a vacuum, I can appreciate the guitar work in “Ambrosia and Lambs Blood,” and I appreciate the harmonic play that closes the title track, but there ever remains little identifiable direction or momentum. Well, in that regard it’s worth mentioning the nearly 10-minute “A Weary Creation”; it’s notably more structured and loops back into its earlier ideas, but there’s not enough strong material to justify the runtime, and the song approaches being unpleasant.
Still, there are some exceptions. The penultimate “Sojourner” is pretty solid, with some stronger melodic focus, and the closer “Rise of the Shabti” is easily the album’s best. It employs refreshingly chunky riff-work without sacrificing the structural weirdness, and is always the song I’m most excited for. I’ll remind you that “Rise of the Shabti” is what got me so excited for the album in the first place, and I do wish Shabti leaned just a little more in that direction for their next album. The strong final stretch ensures the album never ends on a truly sour note, and to the album’s credit, Haze, Cacophony, and White Light clocks in at just around a clean 40 minutes.
Haze, Cacophony, and White Light is complex, undeniably so. But even as the winding path the album takes became clear across my usual slew of endless replays, the album refused to click. It’s eccentric enough to avoid actual boredom, but too aimless to inspire excitement. It’s clear that there’s a ton of solid ideas behind Shabti that work well enough in a vacuum, but just never quite seem to congeal together in the right way. Nevertheless, Shabti are no hacks, and if my words have made you curious, then I do encourage you to check it out at least.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps
Label: Contemn Light
Websites: facebook | bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 21st, 2026
The post Shabti – Haze, Cacophony, and White Light Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
Posted on August 25th 2026, 12:17pm
Consistency. A word that is synonymous with many bands, but none more so than the US trio Russian Circles. Over a 22-year career, their output has been carved on a reputation for consistency and quality.
Release Date: 28 August 2026
Words: Paul Hutchings
Having spent much of 2022-24 touring in support of their Gnosis release, one might be forgiven if guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz, and bassist/keyboardist Brian Cook had taken an extended rest.
Instead, they return with their ninth album, Nine, and have once again hit everything you would expect. Having seen the band headline the first day at dunk!festival in May, I already know how evocative and powerful they are in the live setting.
Nine demonstrates everything that is great about Russian Circles. Swirling progressive passages intermix with crushingly heavy segments, drawing in their massive range of inspirations, muses, influences and complexities into a diverse yet naturally organic collection.
As one of the notoriously press-shy members anonymously mentioned, “the music we make is a collective process of reconciliation, navigation, and reflection upon ageing both as individuals and as a creative entity.
“Life has created very real distances between us, but the band continues to be at the centre, and this creative collaboration is a way of charting the passage of time while also giving us a reason to look to the future.”
Russian Circles have again teamed up with engineer Kurt Ballou, who worked with them on Blood Year and Gnosis. His work is again of stellar quality, from opener Borehole, which has tinges of Mastodon and Neurosis swishing around in the mix. It is as traditional a song as Russian Circles make, still complex in nature but with an addictive hook that draws you in.
Although each track retains its own level of epic stature, Borehole really is an early statement on the album. It is going to pull you in deep, emotionally and psychologically, and the payoff for the investment is guaranteed.
It is followed by the crunch of Empath, a blisteringly heavy and at times unrepentant Metal style. Think Thrash guitars, some Black Metal edges and an overbearing sense of malevolence. For a band who live in the generally melancholic post-rock world, this is visceral stuff.
Eluvial is the central pillar of Nine. An epic eight-minute track, it features delayed guitar patterns. Think The Edge around The Joshua Tree era, playing with a winding melody that evolves into a cinematic soundscape with electronics and drummer Turncrantz’s mesmerising Latin-rhythm-inspired groove.
As with all great tracks in this genre, it is the tension that slowly builds which creates the atmosphere. This is one that really stirs the elements.
Not that they need it, but there is ample change of direction here. Maybe to prove a point, more likely because this is the direction the band can swap to at any time. E2, which opens the second part of the record, is an intoxicating blend of pulsing synths and tapping guitar patterns that segue into each other.
Momentum that is achieved on E2 continues on Meridian, which drops in tempo before the classic slow build commences again. Echoing guitar plays over propulsive drumming, the band are in complete unison as they push forward.
The finale has been compared to the Burton-era Metallica, with the contrast between Arletta, with its melancholic classical guitar, and the aggression of the closing Seventh Seal, a punchy, even Metallic aural assault which explodes and rampages into the final minutes.
Russian Circles have drawn photographs of Snowpile For Chicago for their cover, a sculpture by Tony Tasset, on display in the windows of Chicago Public Library’s West Town Branch since 2004, the year Russian Circles formed.
The inclusion of this image is partially a nod to the band’s hometown, but more importantly, serves as an analogy for Russian Circles’ music.
So, album Nine. And more proof, if it was ever needed, that when it comes to this imperious style, Russian Circles are often a step ahead of contemporaries.
An immense piece of work and a clear message that this band are still leaders in their art.
Russian Circles release Nine on 28 August 2026 via Sargent House. For pre-orders, visit found.ee/RC-Nine.
Some artists are too iconic: one example is Benji from Skindred, which we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing during Tuska Festival. Check out our interview below!
The post Video interview: Benji Webbe (Skindred) first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.
Sunday at Bloodstock always carries a different kind of energy to the rest of the weekend: equal parts triumphant and battered, like a boxer who’s still standing purely out of spite. Muddy boots, questionable hygiene and a healthy dose of Sunday-scaries mixed with the giddy realisation that this is the last stretch, and the 25th anniversary edition of the festival isn’t about to let anyone coast to the finish line. From theatrical newcomers to actual metal royalty, today’s lineup is a masterclass in variety, and by the time the sun goes down over Catton Park, there’s one hell of a homecoming waiting at the very end of it.
British nu-metalcore outfit Graphic Nature waste no time dragging the day into gear, Harvey Freeman prowling the front of the stage with a rawness that matches the confessional, mental-health-heavy lyrics accompanying everything they play. Pete Woolven and Matas Michailovskis’s riffs land somewhere between early-2000s metalcore and a modern electronic sheen, and there’s a real sense of a band on the way up rather than one happy to tread water. It’s an intense way to shake off the cobwebs of the night before, whether the crowd’s ready for it or not.
Riley Pinkerton, in full ‘Rat Queen’ regalia, leads her medieval fantasy doom quartet through a set that’s as much theatre as it is music, complete with a rival ‘Rat Reaperess’ stalking the stage and enough Frank Frazetta-inspired imagery to make it feel like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign come to life, minus the twenty-sided dice arguments. Franco Vittore’s guitar work channels early Black Sabbath in the best way, thick and unhurried, while the crowd, half bemused and half utterly charmed, lean fully into the absurdity of it all. Underneath the swords and chainmail, the songwriting holds up on its own merits, and it’s the funniest, most purely joyful way anyone could have asked to start the day.
Thirty (!!!) years into their career, Kittie’s return to the UK feels like a victory lap they’ve more than earned. Morgan Lander’s vocals swing effortlessly between melodic clean and full-throated scream, sister Mercedes locks the whole thing down from behind the kit, and Tara McLeod and Ivy Vujic drive the riffs with a weight that belies just how long this band has been doing this. There’s real emotion in the field, not nostalgia for its own sake, but a palpable sense that this reunion has always been about wanting to play together rather than cashing in, and the crowd responds in kind.
Sweden’s Orbit Culture bring a set that’s tight, technical and relentless. Niklas Karlsson’s vocals swing between guttural growls and soaring cleans, while Richard Hansson’s lead guitar work adds a melodic sheen to the band’s groove-laden death metal foundation. This is a band who’ve been building steadily for over a decade, and it shows in how effortlessly they command the tent, no wasted motion, no filler, just a wall of precise, punishing riffs from start to finish. Considering how far they’ve travelled to get here, they don’t waste a second of the stage time either.
Testament arrive with the kind of authority only four decades in the game can buy. Chuck Billy’s voice remains a monstrous instrument, and the twin-guitar interplay between Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick is as sharp as it’s ever been, technical without ever losing the raw thrash urgency that made this band’s name in the first place. Steve Di Giorgio’s bass work threads through everything with real fluidity, and by the time the band launch into set staple ‘Practice What You Preach’, the whole field is one enormous, chanting mass. Bay Area thrash royalty, and they’ve still got the stamina to prove it, unlike most of the crowd by this point in the weekend.
Zakk Wylde struts out looking, as ever, like he’s wandered in from the end of the world on a Harley he’s somehow also playing guitar on. Black Label Society deliver exactly the riff-heavy, blues-soaked slab of heaviness everyone came for. Guitarist Dario Lorina trades off with Wylde in a series of increasingly ridiculous guitar duels, at one point the pair playing behind their heads, Hendrix-style, while somehow staying note-perfect throughout. The biggest moment, though, belongs to ‘No More Tears’, the Ozzy Osbourne classic Wylde co-wrote and helped popularise; with Ozzy’s passing still fresh, the crowd sings every word back with real emotion before Wylde snaps the momentum straight back into gear with the enormous riff of ‘Stillborn’.
After ten years of asking, Bloodstock finally lands Body Count and it is every bit the event the crowd hoped for. Ice-T struts across the stage like a man half his age, spitting bars with the same fury he’s carried since the early 90’s, while Ernie C’s guitar work proves, once and for all, that this was never a novelty side project. It’s a proper, ferocious metal band that just happens to have a Law & Order star out front. The set barrels through the Slayer-referencing intro into ‘Postmortem’ and ‘Point the Finger’, pulling zero punches along the way, and by the time ‘The Purge’ arrives, the whole field is delirious. It’s one of the most electric sets of the entire weekend, and everyone in the tent knows it.
Over on the Sophie Lancaster stage, Welsh outfit Dream State bring a welcome change of pace, with soaring post-hardcore melody and dynamic shifts rather than pure brute force. Vocalist Jessie Powell has real command of the stage, moving from delicate cleans into throat-shredding screams without ever losing control, while Aled Evans’s guitar work threads electronic textures through the heavier moments. It’s a set that rewards a closer listen than most of what’s on offer today, and there’s a devoted pocket of the crowd clearly delighted to catch them.
There’s an eerie hush as Mushroomhead’s masked, jumpsuited figures take the stage, drummer Skinny the sole ever-present member of a band who’ve made mystery and reinvention part of their whole identity since 1993 (and who’d very much like it noted that they were doing this before certain other masked bands got famous for it). The masks alone make this one of the most visually striking sets of the weekend, but it’s not just spectacle; the layered vocals, industrial textures and unpredictable structures keep the tent locked in throughout.
200 Stab Wounds strip death metal back to its rawest, most gleefully grotesque essentials. Steve Buhl’s vocals are a buzzsaw roar over Owen Pooley’s machine-gun drumming, and there’s no pretence of complexity here, just chugging, filthy, old-school riffs delivered with real conviction and song titles that suggest the band spent a worrying amount of time researching surgical trauma. It’s exactly the kind of shot of adrenaline the tent needs deep into a long Sunday, and it does the job perfectly.
Tucked away on the New Blood stage, Wrex offer something a little different: a wall of sound built on electro-tinged alt-rock energy rather than straightforward metal aggression. It’s a set that leans into release and catharsis over technicality, and while the crowd here is more modest than on the main stages, there’s a real warmth to the performance, a band clearly delighted just to be playing Bloodstock at all, wristbands and all.
There’s a sense of occasion in the air long before Judas Priest even take the stage. With Rob Halford having grown up barely twenty miles up the road in Walsall, this is about as close to a homecoming as the Metal Gods could get without playing the Black Country itself, and Halford knows it, striding out in a jacket bearing the Black Country flag to an eruption from the crowd that rivals anything else all weekend. The opening run is nothing short of ruthless: ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin”, ‘Metal Gods’ and ‘Breaking the Law’ arrive back to back, and the whole field is bellowing every word within seconds, sunburn and blisters temporarily forgotten.
From there, the ‘Faithkeepers’ set settles into a proper greatest-hits masterclass, ‘The Ripper’, ‘Turbo Lover’ and ‘Victim of Changes’ all landing with the same power they’ve carried for decades. Halford confirms, to a fresh wave of noise, that the band are already working on new material, a remarkable thought fifty-plus years into their career and roughly forty albums past the point most bands would have called it a day. The encore is where it all peaks: ‘Electric Eye’ and ‘Hell Bent for Leather’, complete with Halford’s now-iconic Harley-Davidson ride-on, before ‘Living After Midnight’ closes the night out. It’s a set that encapsulates everything Bloodstock stands for, heavy metal history delivered by the people who wrote the book on it, still performing like they’ve got everything to prove.
And that’s it. Bloodstock’s 25th anniversary is done, and what a way to close it out. From Castle Rat’s gloriously absurd theatrics first thing in the day, through Body Count finally, deservedly getting their moment, to Judas Priest bringing the whole thing home barely twenty miles from where it all started for Rob Halford, this has been a Sunday that found new gears right up until the final note. Muddy, hoarse and thoroughly worn out, the Catton Park crowds start the long walk back to their tents already talking about next year, and quietly negotiating with their necks about whether headbanging was really worth it.