Simulation Defect is a duo between Tom 'Dexta' Hey of TDH Studios, who does the production, all instrumentals, and lyrics, and Ceilingsintheireyes commanding the vocals. The band just released their newest single, "Within the Mountain" on June 1st, 2026.

The track starts with a rapid synth pad melody that has a vibe that reminds me of a mix between cyberpunk and a retro arcade. With no time wasted, slamming drum grooves and distorted lead guitar riffs are soon introduced before speeding into blast beats and galloping guitars. Soon, vocals are introduced as low growls, and screams add the icing on top of the brutal sound. Simulation Defect does an excellent job of letting instrumentals breathe as vocals cut in and out, making both the vocals and instrumental sections more impactful.

Tom Hey's multi-instrument talents are shown during the track's 2:35 runtime as technical death metal solos and rapid shredding lead guitar is sprinkled throughout the song. Simulation Defect does an excellent job of capturing a classic technical death metal sound while using synth pads and high guitar leads to create a melodic sense that keeps things interesting.

You can stream "Within the Mountain" available on streaming platforms now.

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Platinum-selling powerhouse Motionless In White will release their new album Decades on July 17 via Roadrunner Records, and the band has shared the new song “R.I.P.” featuring Skylar Grey. The video was directed by Jensen Noen, who also lensed the “Werewolf” and “Sign Of Life” videos.

The track evokes the power of a lover’s lament inscribed on a headstone. Piano twinkles through the haze of funereal synths, where the dual male-femal vocals entwine on an epic chorus boosted by soaring harmonies. It’s everything you want, love, and expect from Motioneless In White.

“Skylar’s voice brought it to another level that I never could have achieved on my own,” says singer Chris Motionless. “I really love the lyrics for this song. Even though I wrote it through a romantic lens, I love that it can be applied to any moment in your life when you’ve had a falling out with someone you deeply care about, whether that’s a best friend, family member, or romantic partner.”

He continues: “The song really hones in on the deafening silence that follows after you’ve said hurtful things to one another that you wish you could take back. It’s meant to capture the tension that exists in that quiet space of separation. You want to apologize and make things right, but you don’t know how. You want to tell them you love them more than anything and can’t live without them, but there’s a lot of pain on both sides that has to be confronted first. All the while, you’re left with the crippling uncertainty of whether the relationship can ever recover and move forward, or if it’s destined to be laid to rest and gone forever.”

Motionless In White recently wrapped a Spring 2026 arena tour with Bring Me the Horizon that saw them obliterate NYC’s Madison Square Garden. The band will next return to the road on the headline The Sweat and Blood Tour, promoted by Live Nation. Lorna Shore, Fit For A King, and Static Dress will serve as support. The North American tour is the band’s first American headlining tour in nearly three years and kicks off on July 14 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with stops in Charlotte, Houston, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, and more before wrapping up on August 15 in Sterling Heights, Michigan. It also includes a stop at Red Rocks, the band’s first time headlining the venue.

But it doesn’t stop there. Motionless In White have also announced the second leg of The Sweat and Blood Tour. Dayseeker will serve as direct support. The Devil Wears Prada and Dark Divine will also appear. This leg fittingly kicks off the night before Halloween in Worcester and runs through November 20 in Pittsburgh. All tickets are available here.

Motionless In White are at home in the dark. For over 20 years, the quintet, Chris Motionless on vocals, Ricky Olson on guitar, Ryan Sitkowski on guitar, Vinny Mauro on drums, and Justin Morrow on bass, have resided in their own shadowy corner of alternative music and culture. The group’s uncanny alchemy of metal, hardcore, goth, industrial, and electronic has magnetically attracted an ardent audience, fueling a quiet rise out of the Rust Belt and into arenas as a headlining force of nature. Their D.I.Y. work ethic drives the evolution of an immersive world where stunning visuals match the scope of the sound. The collective comes full circle on their seventh full-length offering Decades. For as much as it conjures their signature style, the LP sees them continue to confidently cut a path through uncharted territory, spreading a little darkness in their wake.

Decades features several high-profile and eclectic guest appearances. In addition to Taylor, Sklyar Grey, and Dark Divine‘s Anthony Martinez also features on the album. The band recorded Decades in Upstate New York and Los Angeles with co-producers Drew Fulk and Justin “JD” deBlieck, ultimately incorporating their past, present, and future sounds into one cohesive sound. This is Motionless at their very best.

“We were never afraid to take risks,” observes Chris. “This band has not only lasted two decades, but we’ve also outlasted all of the obstacles we’ve faced. We’re still grinding. No matter how far we expand the universe that is Motionless In White, we’re going to preserve the heart, soul, and roots of where we came from. We are never going to abandon heartfelt, emotional, and heavy songs. We are never going to abandon what mattered to us the most when we started. We’re finding new ways to emphasize those stories with exciting sounds and looks, but the vision is the same. It’s always been this grand, dramatic, and theatrical entity. I’m proud we haven’t gotten comfortable.”

He finishes: “Decades is definitely heavier than some of our past albums. Our current world breeds more aggressive energy, anger, and resistance.”

Pre-order Decades it here.

The post MOTIONLESS IN WHITE Shares “R.I.P” Featuring SKYLAR GREY From Upcoming Album Decades appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

The incident is said to have occurred prior to Guns N’ Roses’ headlining set.

The post Police Launch Investigation After Couple Filmed Engaging In Sexual Act On The Ferris Wheel At 2026 ‘Download Festival’ appeared first on Theprp.com.

 Having witnessed their suffocating performance at Prague Death Mass and with a new LP on the way; it seemed a great time to talk to France’s Viande!

1. Greetings Viande! Please introduce yourselves! Also, what is the significance of the band name “meat” (in English). It’s quite unusual and yet in French it’s a very striking word.

The “meat” (and actually, the “flesh”) is what is corruptible and destined to the grave, it’s what remains of man once God has abandoned him.

2. You formed back in 2013 and released your first EP in 2015. What inspired the initial music and how was it recorded?

We wanted to create music with strong evocative power, something that would leave vivid mental images. The recording process of our first demo was carried out in a very rudimentary way, using our own means. Certain parts and arrangements were improvised, in fact this is a habit we have kept to this day.

3. 2017 saw the release of a second EP. Was the process the same for this one or did much change in the time between?

For our second demo, we pushed the writing process a bit further, and elements of noise music began to integrate our sound. The recording method remained the same and the result was more obscure. It’s quite an extreme recording in its own genre.

4. After 5 years we got a debut full length in 2022; “L’abime dévore les âmes”. This record sounds enormous. Were these years spent busily concocting the album or were other forces at play?

For “L’Abime ” we approached things differently. The main change was the addition of a drummer. It took us quite a while to find a musician who could truly commit to the band and this was followed by a period of transformation. As the band geometry evolved, we had to rethink the way we conceived our music. Where the drum machine had allowed us to do extremely radical things, we now had to adapt our songwriting to this new constraint while remaining faithful to our original vision. This period also conceded with our first live performances.

5. Can you elaborate on the creation of “L’abime dévore les âmes”. What went into the actual writing, production, mixing, artwork and everything? It’s a very unique and atmospheric listen with a strong evil presence. It would be great to hear the details on how you achieved this.

The composition of this record, although fairly long, was relatively straightforward. We alternated between rehearsals and more experimental sessions. It was during this period that we began to incorporate keyboards and developing the more atmospheric side of our music with Beherit’s “Drawing Down the Moon”  in mind, shifting the cursor from our initial maximalism to toward stranger territories. Drums and vocals were recorded in a studio, while we produced the rest by our own means. The album was mixed by Cédric Lerges at Studio La Forge with the formal instruction:”more darkness and menace”. Everything on this album is excessive. The sound is obese, the vocals are repulsive and the atmosphere nauseating. The artwork reflecting this soundscape of misery and morbidity is the work of our vocalist.

6. I saw you at Prague Death Mass and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Blending the full intensity of an underground black / death metal band with those noise elements, it felt very raw and spontaneous. What does playing live mean to you as a band and which shows are your favourite ones you have played?

Playing live is a way for us to test ourselves as musicians and to present the most chaotic side of Viande. PDM was great and sharing the stage with some of the people who shaped our music culture is alway rewarding . Nevertheless, the band I most enjoyed sharing the stage with was probably Sister Iodine, an institution of French noise rock. The concert in Liestal with Hadopelagyal is also an important memory. Probably the most chaotic gig we have ever played, people who were there that night could attest to that.

7. France, to me, has one of the best histories in heavy metal. From the classics such as Sortilège, ADX, High Power and so on, through to some of the most unique black and death metal bands. Do you feel a strong connection to the French music world and furthermore can you recommend any worthwhile underground bands to listen to?

The french scene I feel closest to is probably the Parisian scene of the early 2000’s, both for its music and its attitude. Bands like Antaeus and Arkhon Infaustus clearly redefined things at a time when black and death metal had lost their sacred fire.

8. Before we get onto the new LP, this is a simple question but often one that yields interesting answers. Which bands inspired the music of Viande?

To keep it short and stay within the scope of the interview, I would say:

-The early Autopsy for the repulsive aspect.
-Teitanblood for their ability to create highly visual and evocative music.
-The Cold Meat Industry school, with bands like Brighter Death now and Archon Satani for the industrial austerity.
-Swans or Burning witch for Swans for the more adventurous parts.

You will also find here and there details drawn directly from the Beherit’s “source”. I would also mention Voivod, not so much for the music itself, but for the fierce determination to create according to their own code.

9. Now we are up to speed, let’s get into your second full length album “Monument aux morts”. It shares a lot from the sound and visuals of its predecessor but has its own unique feel too. Can you explain the creation of the record. Any interesting stories from the writing and recording sessions?

This is where things become complicated…

The creation of this album was extremely complicated. First of all, it was very difficult to stabilise a line up. Our drummer at the time was going through a terrible period that forced him to leave the band and this episode marked the beginning of an endless batch of problems.

Psychiatric wards, intensive care, drunk brawls leading to serious health problems, accidents, recovery… Some of us paid a very heavy price. Not to mention the fragile musicians who fled before the monument of hostility that Viande has become. Eventually, we integrated O et I, two musicians from the Swiss Black metal scene. Things finally turn in our favour.

Within a few months, we completed the composition and recorded our second album. Seven days were needed, this time with Cyrille Gachet behind the soundboard for the recording and mixing. As usual when we record an album, we isolated ourselves in order to create the proper conditions for its elaboration, with the mantra: “maximum austerity”.

This album carries all the forces that were working against us, it is one more step into the darkness.

10. Thank you for the answers, last words are yours. Feel free to warn us of coming events or anything else you like!

By the time your zine comes out, “Monument aux morts” should be available. A split release should follow later in the year, presenting a more experimental side of Viande. Few  concerts are also planned for this autumn. Thanks for your attention, that’s all for now.

Ross Valory, the acclaimed original Journey bassist and songwriter, has confirmed August 21 as the release date for the refreshed and remastered version of his debut solo album All Of The Above (OID Music). Available for the first time on vinyl and CD, the updated release includes a new Valory instrumental track and video for “City Lights.”

This marks the first time All Of The Above, originally released digitally in 2024, will be available on vinyl and CD, and the new version will include a special Purple Swirl Color Vinyl with an autographed photo exclusively available via Experience Vinyl.

For “City Lights,” Valory (who played standup bass on the song) teamed with a talented group of master players: Eric Levy (Night Ranger, Garage Mahal); Steve Smith (Journey and Vital Information); Bobby Strickland (Todd Rundgren); Stevie “Keys” Roseman (longtime Valory collaborator); and Mic Gillette (Tower of Power Horns), who did all the horn arrangements and played trumpet and trombone, including a trombone solo. “Together, they bring a new level of sophistication to the track [a standout from Ross’ vast repertoire]”, he says. The visually arresting clip for the song is set against the backdrop of New York City, throughout different time periods, capturing the hauntingly seductive instrumental track.

“‘City Lights’ is really about people out and about in the city, possibly in the rain, looking for and finding romance,” Ross adds with a laugh. “It’s just the simple enjoyment of nightlife and romance…the adventure, the excitement, the spontaneity. Just being out on the town.”

“‘City Lights” [and the previously released] “Nightflower” are really sister songs,” Ross says. “They both have—in terms of the time period that they represent—the flavor of the big city at night, and in particular, Michael [Cotten, the video director] and my impressions of Manhattan. And while the two music videos have a different visual storyline, they’re both related to nighttime in the city.”

The clip marks another collaboration with Cotten who created videos for all the album’s tracks (“Touched, Pt. ll,” “Tomland,” “Wild Kingdom, “Windmill,” “Nightflower,” and Ross’ interpretation of War’s classic cruising anthem “Low Rider,” “Incident at Neshabur/Senor Blue,” “No One Wins a War.”

All Of The Above was produced by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Valory and co-produced by Eric Levy and Jacob Stowe. The ten tracks on the album represent the full maturity of Valory‘s musical gifts, cutting a broad swath through the instrumental territory the music travels. He plays keyboards, guitar, and, of course, many basses in a display of cultivated virtuosity across a palette far broader than could be found in his work with Journey. He is stepping out from behind his bass and, for the first time in his more than half-century as a professional musician, representing his vision and his compositions.

Pre-order the special edition here and here to pre-save the standard vinyl and CD.

The post ROSS VALORY To Release For The First Time On Vinyl And CD, Remastered Version Of His Debut Solo Album “All Of The Above” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Oscar Wilde and Baudelaire: Decadence, Beauty, and Moral Transgression

Few literary movements embraced beauty with as much intensity and danger as Decadence. Long before modern Gothic aesthetics transformed melancholy and moral ambiguity into artistic identity, Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde were already challenging nineteenth-century ideas about morality, pleasure, corruption, desire, and the purpose of art itself.

Both writers became central figures within Decadent literature because they rejected the belief that art should function primarily as moral instruction. Instead, Wilde and Baudelaire treated beauty as something psychologically powerful, emotionally destabilizing, and often inseparable from transgression itself.

A cinematic Decadent-inspired artwork exploring the literary connection between Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, beauty, moral ambiguity, and Gothic aesthetics.

Their influence extended far beyond literature. Modern Gothic aesthetics, dark fashion, noir psychology, Symbolism, dark Romanticism, and even contemporary alternative culture still inherit many of the emotional and philosophical tensions first articulated through Decadent art.

To understand why their work remains culturally powerful, it becomes necessary to examine how Wilde and Baudelaire transformed beauty itself into a form of intellectual rebellion.

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Baudelaire and the Birth of Modern Decadence

When Charles Baudelaire published Les Fleurs du mal in 1857, the collection immediately scandalized French society. Several poems faced censorship charges because authorities considered them morally dangerous, erotic, and spiritually corrupting.

Baudelaire’s poetry deliberately explored subjects respectable nineteenth-century culture often attempted to suppress: urban alienation, erotic obsession, intoxication, decay, existential despair, artificial pleasure, death, and psychological fragmentation.

Rather than presenting beauty as purity or moral elevation, Baudelaire repeatedly located beauty inside corruption, grief, illness, loneliness, and emotional instability.

In poems such as Hymne à la Beauté, beauty itself becomes morally ambiguous:

“Do you come from heaven or from hell?”

That question became central to Decadent aesthetics. Baudelaire understood beauty not as comfort, but as emotional force capable of seduction, destruction, ecstasy, and psychological transformation simultaneously.

Modern Gothic culture still preserves this same emotional logic where darkness and elegance frequently coexist rather than oppose one another.

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Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Life

Oscar Wilde inherited many of Baudelaire’s artistic ideas while transforming them through wit, theatricality, aesthetic philosophy, and social performance.

Wilde became associated with the Aesthetic Movement and Decadence partly because he rejected Victorian moral seriousness in favor of artistic experience itself. His famous statement:

“All art is quite useless.”

was not nihilistic dismissal, but a direct challenge to the belief that art required moral justification in order to possess cultural value.

For Wilde, beauty represented its own intellectual and emotional purpose. Art did not need to educate society morally. It needed to intensify perception, sensation, imagination, and emotional awareness.

This philosophy appears most powerfully inside The Picture of Dorian Gray, where aesthetic obsession gradually becomes psychological corruption. Dorian attempts to preserve eternal beauty externally while his hidden portrait absorbs moral decay internally.

The novel therefore transforms beauty into psychological horror because aesthetic perfection becomes inseparable from repression, narcissism, desire, and moral fragmentation.

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Beauty and Moral Transgression

What united Wilde and Baudelaire most deeply was their refusal to separate beauty from moral ambiguity.

Victorian culture often attempted to organize reality through strict moral categories dividing purity from corruption, virtue from vice, and refinement from degeneracy. Decadent writers destabilized those boundaries intentionally.

Baudelaire repeatedly transformed decay into poetic elegance. Wilde transformed aesthetic pleasure into psychological temptation. Both writers recognized that human beings frequently feel attracted toward experiences society labels dangerous, excessive, artificial, or forbidden.

This fascination with transgression later became central to Gothic literature, noir cinema, horror fiction, and modern dark aesthetics because these traditions continually explore emotional experiences existing beyond socially acceptable boundaries.

Decadence therefore did not glorify evil simplistically. It examined the unstable relationship between desire, beauty, morality, and identity itself.

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Artificial Beauty and Urban Melancholy

Both Baudelaire and Wilde also became fascinated with artificiality. Perfume, cosmetics, mirrors, velvet interiors, candlelight, theater, jewelry, intoxicants, and luxurious decoration appear constantly throughout Decadent art because artificial environments intensified emotional experience deliberately.

Baudelaire especially viewed modern urban life as psychologically fragmented and spiritually exhausting. Paris became both seductive and alienating simultaneously. Crowds created loneliness. Pleasure produced emotional emptiness. Beauty emerged through instability rather than certainty.

Wilde similarly transformed aesthetic surfaces into psychological performance where identity itself often became theatrical construction.

Modern Gothic fashion and noir aesthetics still inherit many of these visual and emotional ideas through black elegance, romantic excess, melancholic glamour, symbolic ornamentation, and fascination with emotional contradiction.

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The Legacy of Decadence Inside Gothic Culture

Decadent literature profoundly influenced Symbolism, Gothic fiction, horror cinema, dark Romanticism, post-punk aesthetics, darkwave music, noir storytelling, and alternative fashion culture.

The emotional atmosphere surrounding candlelit interiors, melancholic beauty, emotional excess, tragic elegance, existential longing, and seductive darkness all trace partly back to the artistic revolution Baudelaire and Wilde helped shape during the nineteenth century.

Contemporary Gothic culture continues returning to these writers because they treated emotional complexity seriously rather than reducing art to optimism or moral reassurance.

Beauty became psychologically dangerous, intellectually provocative, emotionally immersive, and spiritually destabilizing all at once.

That tension remains central to Gothic aesthetics today.

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Wear the Darkness

Explore Edgar Allan Poe apparel, Gothic aesthetics, noir-inspired fashion, and psychological darkness inside the official Edgar Allan Poets Noir Store.

 

 

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Join the Noir Newsletter

Receive Gothic literature, noir psychology, cinematic darkness, and atmospheric storytelling directly inside your inbox.

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Enter the Noir Atmosphere

Explore Gothic music, cinematic melancholy, Decadent aesthetics, and immersive noir atmosphere through the official Edgar Allan Poets playlist.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Decadent literature?

Decadent literature explored beauty, artificiality, emotional excess, moral ambiguity, psychological complexity, and aesthetic experience outside traditional moral conventions.

Why was Baudelaire controversial?

Baudelaire’s poetry addressed eroticism, urban alienation, death, intoxication, and psychological darkness in ways nineteenth-century French authorities considered morally dangerous.

How did Oscar Wilde influence Gothic aesthetics?

Wilde helped shape Gothic and Decadent aesthetics through his fascination with beauty, artificiality, theatrical identity, moral transgression, and psychological duality, especially in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

What connects Wilde and Baudelaire?

Both writers rejected moralistic views of art and explored the unstable relationship between beauty, desire, corruption, identity, and emotional experience.

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Further Into the Darkness

• 
  How Poe Inspired Baudelaire and Les Fleurs du mal
  
• 
  Poe, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud: The Full Symbolist Lineage
  
• 
  Mallarmé and the Pure Poem: How Poe’s Theory Became French Symbolism
  
• 
  Gothic Aesthetic Archive
  
• 
  Noir Psychology Archive
  

The post Oscar Wilde and Baudelaire: Decadence, Beauty, and Moral Transgression appeared first on Edgar Allan Poets – Noir Rock Band.

Where they from?
Charlotte, North Carolina. The New York Knicks are NBA champions. Say no more, no less. They got it done. I can only dream of the day when the Jets finally pull a championship out of their ass (probably 3,000 years from now).

Why the hype?
I normally can be a bit ambivalent when it comes to guitarless grind/powerviolence bands but, Good Lord, does this shit gut punch you in the bowels. MERC’s (ALL CAPS) dual bass attack is one for the ages, providing the slashing evisceration of great guitar work while also the seismic bombast that only two basses can provide. Combine that with an attitude and presentation that lines up perfectly with hardcore’s more militantly pissed-off wing and voilà: you have a winner.

Latest release?
No One Leaves This Room, self-released. The band does an excellent job here of using all 13 tracks to explore different sonic environments and soundscapes, ranging from similar territory as Hong Kong Fuck You at their most furious to introspective noodling that would be right at home and a great post-punk album. This is great stuff right here and will make the most excellent soundtrack for when die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan Jalen Brunson marches down the Canyon of Heroes on Thursday.

The post Blast Worship: MERC appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Harry Styles just returned with his new album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, and he’s the curator of this year’s Meltdown Festival, the series of shows that comes to London’s Southbank Centre every year. Meltdown began last week, and it runs through June 21. As curator, Styles chose a lineup people like James Murphy, Dev Hynes, Kamasi Washington, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Styles gave his own Meltdown performance at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday night, and it was different from his regular sets.

The post Harry Styles Covers Simon & Garfunkel And Patrick Watson In Orchestral Meltdown Set appeared first on Stereogum.