Category: news

Tokyo-based alternative rock outfit COCTEAU CALINES has returned with their gripping and confrontational new single, “Hey Doctor!” Driven

Astriferous slimed out of the Costa Rican death metal scene back in 2019 and have been on a slow, upward crawl since. Their 2023 Pulsations from the Black Orb debut grabbed them some attention and a mostly positive review from our own Ferox. Their weapon of choice is repugnant caverncore with a dose of dissonance, putting them squarely in the Incantation, Dead Congregation, and early days Tomb Mold wing of the death emporium. Atavistic Unraveling finds them stuck in the same filth and scum with scant migration toward the light of day. It’s still fugly, grotesque death metal of the olden school, with the dissonance element adding a slight touch of modernity. Their sound is a bit more fleshed out this time, and when everything clicks, things can feel pretty goddamn harrowing and brutal. With so many bands trying to ape the classic Incantation sound and vibe, can Astriferous do enough to crack through that thick mucous membrane and claim their share of the cesspool? Let’s test the tainted waters for hazardous algae.

Fucknormous opener “Carriers of the Curse” is a fine way to kick things off, and it has all the crucial elements. It’s not doing anything new, but it comes after you with so much raw savagery that innovation starts to seem trivial. It covers all the bases a caverncore tune should, from ragged blasting to slower mid-tempo plodding, and there’s a meatheaded Cannibal Corpse vibe to the riffs when they aren’t being all snakey and creepy. The only downside is that it feels like the song rambles on for about a minute too long, revisiting the same scorched territory. “The Floating Catacombs” is more of the same high-quality ear abuse, with slimy, repulsive riffs and subterranean vocals teamed with caveman moments and some weirdly Voivodian riffs popping in and out for variety. As the album churns along, you get quality nastiness, but there’s that nagging tendency to stretch out compositions a bit too far, reducing the overall impact. This despite the fact that most song run between 4-5 minutes. It’s a weird thing. “Proto Embryo (The Third Tribulation)” is a remorseless blast furnace with just enough tempo shifts to keep things interesting, but it just keeps going when it feels like it should be over. Likewise, “Arcane Demonomania” is another blistering ass blaster with a jagged d-beat and a plethora of ugly, squiriming riffs. It’s easy to love, but once again, it drags on toward the end.

A few tracks are good but less impactful, like “Mnemonic Phenomena,” despite some effective doomy segments and overwhelming vocal excess. 8-plus minute closer “Resonance Cascade” is more modern-sounding, venturing into sludge doom at points. At its best, it can feel oppressive and suffocating. Over the whole runtime, though, it ends up challenging the attention span as segments of less interesting riffs drift by, offering little to cling to. The album’s nearly omnipresent sense of bloat makes a 36-minute album feel much longer than it is, which is a shame because Astriferous do so many things right here.

Felipe Tencio and new slinger Esteban Sancho are at the center of a maelstrom, casting frantic corkscrewing riffs in all directions when not laying down big power chugs that put the boot on the throat. This tandem knows the ways of caverncore, and many of these leads probably slithered away after recording to become invasive species somewhere. Incantation is a clear influence, but I also hear Immolation, Morbid Angel, and Cannibal Corpse in the DNA. Tencio is a great death metal vocalist possessed with a deep, intimidating roar for the ages. He sounds demonic and gigantic and anchors the material to the Ninth Level of Hell. José Pablo Phillips also impresses with a pronounced and weighty bass performance. The only real knock is that the writing can be undisciplined and too long in the fang, thereby partially unraveling the band’s good works.

Astriferous have a winning formula and the talent to execute it, and parts of Atavistic Unraveling scream of potential and hint at greatness. With tighter, more consistent writing, this would be a must-hear and headed for my year-end list. As it stands, I can safely recommend this for death heads everywhere as the wet, sticky goods are delivered, even if they aren’t all equally malicious and infectious. Like my great-granddaddy Pig Iron Druhm used to say, “If the cave smells of rancid mold, there’s bound to be some gold.” Wisdom!

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Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo
Website: instagram.com/astriferousdeath
Releases Worldwide: June 26th, 2026

The post Astriferous – Atavistic Unraveling Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Independent rock project Designer made a massive statement late last month with the self-release of their highly anticipated

Flickering lights beneath the rain

Blur the city into grey.

Loneliness is not always silent; sometimes it sounds like a city answering in static. Rain turns windows into mirrors, neon dissolves across empty streets, and every passing body seems close enough to touch until it disappears. The harder one reaches for connection, the more the world appears to retreat behind concrete, glass, and the practiced distance of strangers.

“Crying Out,” the newest single by Leipzig’s Kalte Steine, centers around the theme of proximity without connection. It marks the project’s first entirely English-language track and broadens its icy post-punk origins into a richer, cinematic darkwave atmosphere.

A brisk but measured drum-machine pulse opens the song, its shuddering claps cutting through a thick bass riff moving high in the instrument’s register. Eerie synthesizers spread across the arrangement like mist, while a Cure-like guitar figure rises and falls with the shape of a wordless refrain—a sighing melody that seems to be searching for an answering voice.

The vocals arrive from a distance, somber and partially submerged in the surrounding atmosphere. Their low, restrained timbre reinforces the solitude of the verses before climbing higher with each repetition of the title. As “crying out” returns, the phrase becomes less a conventional chorus than an invocation: a private alarm sounded into an empty room.

The lyrics move through midnight shadows, rain-blurred streets, abandoned bars, and reflections dissolving beneath neon. Voices drift through the darkness like damaged transmissions, while fleeting encounters offer the possibility of contact only to vanish before it can be grasped. The city is crowded but emotionally vacant, populated by people passing near one another without ever breaking through the surfaces separating them.

In that sense, “Crying Out” feels like a prayer sung to oneself during a storm. Beneath its adult landscape of bars, wet pavement, and urban estrangement lies an older loneliness: the childhood sensation of being lost inside a confusing world, now carried into rooms where everyone has learned to conceal their isolation behind a hardened façade.

Listen to “Crying Out” below:

Kalte Steine’s previous singles—“Shattered,” “Dysthymia,” “Wüste aus Beton,” and “Kinder der Nacht”—established a monochrome world of private fracture, civic numbness, and nocturnal escape. As explored in our earlier feature on the project, those songs allowed inner conflict and a cold, dystopian exterior to blur into one another.

“Crying Out” is out now on all major streaming platforms.

Follow Kalte Steine:

• Instagram
• Spotify
• SoundCloud
• TikTok

The post “Like Ghosts I’ve Always Known” — Leipzig’s Kalte Steine Shares Desolate Darkwave Single “Crying Out” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

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Twisted Sister have confirmed additional shows to the recently announced North American fall tour featuring Sebastian Bach on lead vocals.
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Gore. have made their return in some style with the release of a decadent and deafening new track.

Titled ‘Lead Me To the Slaughter’, it finds the band pulling at all of their wondrous strengths at the same time. Atmospherically dense and curious, melodically beautiful and bold, and intensely heavy in all right ways, it is modern post-hardcore as it should be deliver. Keeping you on your toes from beginning to end and dealing out plenty of pain along the way, it’s a sensational showing from a band that continue to build up their confidence.

The band had this to say about it:

“This song is about being indoctrinated into a cult, and idolizing what kills you. Idolatry is rampant beyond human repair with social media — we now look at people like they’re gods. We idolize money, fame, and beauty more now than we ever have as a society. These idols will lead us to nothing but guilt, shame, and suffering.”

The follows on from the band’s 2025 EP ‘If You Do Not Fear Me’. Here is ‘Wrath’ from that very release.

The band are due to make their return to the UK later this year as support for I Prevail. Here are the dates you can catch them at:

SEPTEMBER

19 – LEEDS Academy  
20 – ACADEMY Academy 
23 – CARDIFF Depot            
25 – LONDON Alexandra Palace 
26 – BIRMINGHAM Academy
27 – BIRMINGHAM Academy

The post Gore. Unleash Atmospheric New Track ‘Lead Me To the Slaughter’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Viscera/// have launched a video clip for “Autoberserk”, the second single from their next full-length effort 4. ⁠Assets For Psychedelic Warfare.
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Fiddlehead are back! Today the beloved band have returned with the announcement of a new three-song EP, Baby I’ll Change, arriving this Friday, June 26 via Run For Cover/Civilians. Baby I’ll Change is Fiddlehead’s first new music since their acclaimed 2023 full-length, Death Is Nothing To Us, and it marks an exciting evolution in the […]

Finnish symphonic metal band AMBERIAN DAWN push into their new era with an invocation to the Moon. The fourth single off their upcoming album, Temptation’s Gates, shows yet another facet of their fresh sound, turning up the speed to blast beat intensity. Still Moon, which features prominent keyboard and guitar solos, remains magical up until […]