In 2024, Joe Biden’s Department Of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against live-entertainment giants Live Nation and Ticketmaster, intended to break up the monopoly of the two companies that merged in 2010. Now, the DOJ, currently operating under Donald Trump and Pam Bondi, has reportedly settled that lawsuit before the case could go to trail.
The post Live Nation & Justice Department Reportedly Reach Settlement In Antitrust Lawsuit appeared first on Stereogum.
Listening to Epiphanic Delusions of a Spiritual Warfare, Trucido’s second full-length album, is what I imagine it would’ve felt like to be shot and run over by the Killdozer. It is a frantic stream of consciousness concept album that packs a whole lot of destruction and chaos into 16 minutes, and while a cynical listener might remark that the album is compositionally straightforward, this would be like saying that a sledgehammer hits things really hard. Each track is an explosive and devastating aural assault that is over before you know it. When the dust clears, there is nothing left but smoking rubble and a four-count stick click to signal the next barrage.
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For the uninitiated, Trucido is a Dallas-based grindcore quartet whose members have played in roughly a dozen bands in the genre, including well-known acts such as Gridlink and Cognizant. Unlike those bands, though, Trucido largely eschews technicality for sheer brutality. Their 2022 debut, A Collection of Self Destruction, was a potent opening salvo, but Epiphanic Delusions is the next (d)evolution of Trucido’s sound. The band has never sounded this relentless or menacing, thanks in part to the unholy audio magic performed by guitarist Irving Lopez, who doubles (triples?) as the band’s producer and engineer. He quite literally handles everything in-house, recording Trucido’s gnarly racket in his garage and mixing the album in his bedroom studio. Whatever sordid work he performs there is paying off, because Epiphanic Delusions gives the impression that it is not simply being heard but is somehow alive and pissed off and punching its way into your eardrums.
Grind fiends may already be familiar with drummer extraordinaire Bryan Fajardo, who hammers away at his kit with inhuman power and dexterity. On “Grief Whore,” he unleashes tight bursts of blastbeats before slowing down just enough to call in huge, pit-annihilating stomps. And the rest of the band is more than happy to oblige. Lopez fires riff after incendiary riff straight at your dome, reducing your skull and grey matter to molten slurry. “Simulation of Hope” even goes full death metal with Lopez shifting from a downtuned tremolo groove to a flurry of explosive strikes. Not to be outdone, Eduardo Hoyos’ bass tone probably violates some kind of Texas noise ordinance or obscenity law. Just listen to that sleazy growl throughout “Shapeless Thief” with a straight, un-stanked face. You can’t. And speaking of growls, we have the formidable Alejandro Ramirez on the mic, a man whose bloodthirsty bellows, gurgles, and shrieks carry the kind of menace commanded by a lumbering slime monster about to make you its next meal. Maybe the twisted figures on the album cover are people who were ingested and then—well, I’ll let the album and your imagination fill in the rest.
In the time it took you to read this review, you could’ve listened to most of Epiphanic Delusions of a Spiritual Warfare, and if you weren’t already doing that, you should fix that now. It is a sickening thrill ride that should not be missed by grindcore fans. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but is perfectly content to beat you to death with it.
–Alex Chan
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Epiphanic Delusions of a Spiritual Warfare is available now.
A decade or so back, shoppers and tourists on the streets of Dublin would have first encountered The Scratch as buskers playing energetic acoustic instrumentals. These curious onlookers might not have guessed that most of this folk-flavoured crew had until recently been in a metal band supporting the likes of Parkway Drive and Architects. But as the quartet developed their sound, bringing in electric guitars and the sort of Celtic punk vibes that get you a U.S. tour with Dropkick Murphys, those early influences started to make their presence felt.
Third album Pull Like A Dog is where The Scratch fully show their steel. The fleet-fingered picking and weapons-grade riffing of the opening title track blasts away any border between Irish trad and balls-out rock, while the chunky grooves of Gladrags incorporate nu-metal stylings as effortlessly as the last Soft Play record. Roses N Poses is another addictive tune utilising the attention-grabbing techniques internalised from their busking beginnings. It’s easy to imagine any of these songs holding large festival crowds rapt.
The tone here is broad enough to encompass the tender ballad I Hope All Is Forgiven and poetic closer Ringsend. More often, though, Pull Like A Dog has it both ways. Pullin’ Teeth and Crack sound like Fontaines DC tailoring their sound for a Bloodstock audience, while the breezy twang of Horsefly is no barrier to its gradual evolution into driving heaviness. Similarly, the band’s way with hypnotic repetition doesn’t preclude dynamic, experimental approaches bursting through.
Both bark and bite in full effect, then. Baring their canines suits them. Pull Like A Dog is The Scratch’s most confident, convincing work to date.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Dropkick Murphys, Biffy Clyro, SOFT PLAY
Pull Like A Dog is released on March 13 via Music For Nations / Sony Music Ireland.
Posted on March 9th 2026, 2:22p.m.
photo by Lars Gunnar Liestøl (On April 3rd Season of Mist will release a new album by Norway’s Green Carnation as the second installment in a three-album trilogy. Our Comrade Aleks discussed the first installment with vocalist Kjetil Nordhus last fall, and now we present a second more recent discussion between them which focuses on […]
The post AN NCS INTERVIEW: GREEN CARNATION appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.
Over the weekend, former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe got up onstage with Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy’s R.E.M. covers project in Brooklyn, and he sang “These Days” and “The Great Beyond” for the first time in 18 years. Today, we get to hear Stipe sing again, except this time he’s doing a new song. Stipe…
The post Michael Stipe & Andrew Watt Share <em>Rooster</em> Theme Song “I Played The Fool” appeared first on Stereogum.
Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/8/26 – 3/14/26
–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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