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It appears his stint with the band was only a temporary. Continue reading…

Occasionally, an event comes along that produces absolutely zero hesitation in me before clicking that “buy tickets” button. Rarely, that event involves seven-plus hours of driving and a hotel stop along the way. Such is the power of the draw of this show. Dark Alchemy is the project of T.G. Edwards, aka TommyCreep, a modular … Continue reading Gig Review: Dark Alchemy VII – Aaron Stainthorpe / Dead Space Chamber Music / T.G. Edwards / Eldermother – St Thomas the Martyr, Bristol (19th September 2026)

DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring AWAP

Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil’s Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It’s not your average desert island and we’ll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.

This week when we arrived at Devil’s Island we find AWAP sat on the beach. The island is far from their home, so how did they end up here and how did they cope with life on Devil’s Island?

Find out now…

Welcome to The Razors’e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don’t worry about it’s name I’m sure it’s not as bad as that would suggest.

You’re marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn’t live without. Which album did you each chose and why?

Dan: I’d have to say For Victory… by Bolt Thrower because it got me into death metal and who could get bored of that guitar tone?

Alex: Blue Sky Research by Taproot as there are tracks on there that have got me through some hard times.

Matt: Taking Back Sunday’s album Tell All Your Friends. Its catchy and cheesy and encapsulates the early 2000’s emo scene that I was too old to really enjoy even back then.

Aaron: The Gathering by Testament as it’s one of my favourite sounding records of all time and it’s an all around banger of a thrash album.

Rael: Clown Carousel by AWAP

There’s also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What’s your tipple of choice?

Matt: White Monster as it has water, B12, Caffeine and electrolytes for all your desert island gym pump needs.

Aaron: Coffee to take the edge off the caffeine comedown from the white monster!

Dan: Got to be an old fashioned cocktail to enjoy in the sunshine.

Alex: A cheeky Amareto as a sweet treat after a fine meal of a band mate.

Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. What’s the merch and for what band?

Aaron: A Converge long sleeve to get out of the sun.

Matt: My Suicidal Tendencies flip up cap to keep my bonce sun burn free and to continue looking rad!

Dan: My Sepultura Chaos A.D. tour t-shirt from 1993. Threadbare but great for the Robinson Crusoe look.

Alex: My ‘Everything goes back to normal button’ from Jake Morley, it doesn’t work but it makes me feel better.

Rael: Any merch by AWAP which can be found on our desert island bandcamp store!

You’re sat on the island thinking “I’m stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity”… who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?

Aaron: Literally anyone else.

Matt: My missus.

Dan: Matt’s missus.

Alex: I’d prefer to be alone please.

There’s a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?

Matt: The Cure, The Prayer Tour Wembley Arena 1989 I was there but don’t have a tape of it.

Aaron: Nine Inch Nails Live at The Eden Project 2022

Dan: Sepultura ‘Under Siege – Live in Barcelona 1991’

Alex: Coheed and Cambria – Neverender 2008

Rael: Clown Carousel live by AWAP at a show near you as soon as we get off this island!

You’re getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?

Aaron: Bruce Dickinson

Matt: Gary Numan

Dan: Amon Amarth so they can row over and get us

Alex: I’m not going to write a message just leave me here to be alone.

You’ve been stuck here a while and food supplies are running low. There’s only one thing for it… which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?

All: Alex as he’s ginger so will already be suitably toasted by the tropical weather, plus we all know that bass players are expendable.

Alex: Fuck you, guys; I hope you choke!

Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?

Alex: Jake Morley

Matt: Ray Cappo from Youth of Today, Shelter and Better Than a Thousand.

Dan: Alex Hellid from Entombed

Aaron: Henry Rollins

Rael: All of AWAP so they can continue to spread their joyful brand of Thrash Punk

Thanks for your time. We hope you get back to dry land before you’re next due out on tour!

Thanks! We’re off for a nice swim and a meal of finely cooked bassist! We’ll save you some, don’t worry there’s plenty to go around.

P.S. Rael was on his own desert island holiday for this so we may have answered a few for him!

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring AWAP appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

On January 22nd 2027, French doom metal masters Monolithe will deliver their next full-length instalment dubbed Agalma. Featuring cover artwork of Maciej Kamuda, the band’s eleventh studio album encompasses 11 new tunes.
Read more…

Slinky indie-soul adventurer and unlikely hitmaker Steve Lacy released his most recent album Oh yeah? over the summer, and he’ll spend the fall touring across North America. On Sunday night, Lacy kicked off that tour at the Armory in Minneapolis. Midway through his set, Lacy busted out a cover of Smiths deep cut.

The post Steve Lacy Kicks Off Oh Yeah? Tour With A Smiths Cover appeared first on Stereogum.

Last week, U2 announced Carnaval de Luz, the followup to 2017’s Songs Of Experience. There was some confusion when the tracklist included a song called “The Mirror Maker (Rosalía),” and now Bono is offering us insight into the track.

The post Bono Explains Why U2 Wrote A Song About Rosalía appeared first on Stereogum.

Photos courtesy of Francis Speaker : CBS On Sunday evening, the Queen of Pop proved she owned the stage once again at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards. Madonna took to the VMA stage for the fifth time and her first in 23 years after the July release of her fifteenth studio album Confessions II. The Icon opened the show with a fog-infused dance sequence that included the spoken intro from “One Step Away” with Madonna perched on a piano played by pop princess Sabrina Carpenter as they performed…

Album Review: These Wicked Rivers – Fire & Folklore Fat Earth Records – October 2nd 2026 Reviewer – David Brighouse This is the third album from the Derbyshire “wizard-blues” rockers. Recorded in their hometown of Belper at the home studio of Grammy-winning producer Andy Sneap, who along with Colin Richardson has helped them create their […]

The post Album Review: These Wicked Rivers – Fire & Folklore appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.

Who says that grindcore and death metal are boys’ genres? Not us, definitely. And Liz Selfish, the guest of this interview, is the living proof of this. She’s the lead singer of Brat, an American band that has just released a new album titled “Manslayer”. With her we talked about female serial killers, pizza and music, of course!

Benedetta

I’m here with the amazing Liz from Brat. How are you doing today?

Liz Selfish

I’m good, how are you?

Benedetta

Great, thank you. So, first of all, happy release day.

Liz Selfish

Thank you so much.

Benedetta

And yeah, the new album is out. Are there any songs in “Manslayer” that started in one way and then completely changed into the final result that we’re listening to?

Liz Selfish

Yeah, definitely. “Trophy Hunting” is one that comes to mind where Brenner wrote, you know, a whole demo and was sitting with it and didn’t really like it and thought about just kind of scrapping the whole thing. Then he and Dustin got together and kind of reworked the song and Dustin added those stops at the beginning. It just became one of our favorites and one of our singles, too.

Benedetta

That’s such a great track.

Liz Selfish

Thank you.

Benedetta

So, I mean, in extreme metal, women are like historically portrayed as the victims or the corpses in the lyrics rather than the ones holding the knife. How empowering was it for you to flip that trope upside down and write an album centered around like female vengeance?

Liz Selfish

Yeah, I just kind of selfishly wanted to input my perspective as a woman into these songs, death metal traditionally is mostly men as the aggressors. I thought it would just create a little bit more interest and provide a unique perspective to have women as the ones, you know, being the aggressors or being the predators. It just makes it feel a little bit more dynamic.

Benedetta

For sure. Absolutely. And of course, the second track of the album is named after Aileen Wuornos. She was a female serial killer. Are you a fan of crime TV shows or books?

Liz Selfish

A little bit. I do enjoy like a little bit of true crime. But yeah, I just felt like she was a really good representation of the theme of the album of, you know, it kind of acts as like a villain origin story in a way where there’s songs towards the beginning of the album that are more about issues that women have to deal with. Then our interlude kind of acts as a breaking point. The latter half of the album is mostly just about getting revenge. So kicking the album off with her, you know, her story kind of encompasses both of those things. We felt like that was the right way to start the album.

Benedetta

Also, you have Candace from Walls of Jericho guesting in one of the tracks. You, of course, and also Candace have been vocalists like for quite a long time. What did it mean to you to to have her sharing the the vocals with you on this track since, you know, you’re both prominent figures into in this extreme metal world?

Liz Selfish

Thank you. Oh, my gosh, it was huge. I’m so happy she was willing to do the track with us. She’s just got such an incredible voice and she’s just the sweetest person. I’m so honored that she was willing to jump on the track for us.

Benedetta

Can you share with us if you have any titles of demo songs that are not the actual title that the songs have like now?

Liz Selfish

You know what? I think they all were because we we have like working placeholder titles. The only one I can remember right now is “Speculum Bleed” was “Artificial Orifice“ before, I think. So, yeah, when Brenner writes the demos, he just will make like kind of like a joke name just as a placeholder to put in there. Every song had a different name first, but that’s the only one I can remember the original name of.

Benedetta

Since I’m Italian, what is your favorite pizza topping?

Liz Selfish

Well, pepperoni. I’m a classic pepperoni. We do pepperoni and onion at our house, me and Brenner. That’s our favorite combo.

Benedetta

Do you think that we will ever reach some sort of equality between men and women in the metal scene?

Liz Selfish

Oh, gosh, that’s a that’s a hard question to say. I don’t know. I would hope so. I mean, what I can say at least is since I’ve been in the metal community, which has been a very long time now, you know, I’ve seen it progress so much and it’s a much more welcoming space for women. So that’s exciting, that gives hope. There’s still, you know, a ways to go, but yeah, things have gotten a lot better.

Benedetta

If “Manslayer” were a double feature horror movie and a drive-in teaser, which two classics film would you choose to be played on the screen?

Liz Selfish

It’s funny because with this album, I feel like I get asked a lot of questions about horror movies and cinema, but I feel like I was more inspired by music, like death metal songs and, you know, country songs about women getting revenge. I’m actually not like a big movie buff or horror movie buff, but “Jennifer’s Body” is one that definitely comes to mind for me of like a great story about women getting revenge. And actually, last night, Brenner and I started watching “Kill Bill,” too. So those are like, it’s just top of mind.

Benedetta

Do you have any other hobbies outside of music?

Liz Selfish

Oh, yeah, definitely. I’m a runner. So I run every day. I also like to go to the gym and do a little bit of lifting. My main hobbies are just working out and going on runs. I also like really like costuming for Mardi Gras on Halloween. Although I don’t know if I’ll be have a chance to really do much for Halloween this year, because we’ll be on tour for most of it. But but that’s definitely something that I enjoy doing, too.

Benedetta

Do you think that life of an artist is a lonely life?

Liz Selfish

Oh, no, I don’t think so at all. I mean, I’m also I have a skewed perspective, though, because I’m so fortunate that I’m in a band with my husband, so we get to tour together. And so I think probably other people would maybe answer this differently. But I’m really lucky that I get to have him with me on tour. So really, the only thing that we miss at home is our cats. Yeah, we have two two little cats. And we have, you know, friends that come and take care of them, but we miss them a lot on tour.

Benedetta

If the United States were asked to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, and you could pick a song from “Manslayer” to compete, which one would you choose?

Liz Selfish

I think we get booted out pretty quickly. But I would, I would do “Manslayer”. It’s the anthem of the whole album. So I feel like that one would be the most fitting.

Benedetta

Liz, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me and for being such a good sport. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?

Liz Selfish

No, I think I think that’s it for me. But thank you so much for having me.

The post “Since I’ve been in the metal community, I’ve seen it progress so much and it’s a much more welcoming space for women” – interview with Liz Selfish (Brat) first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

Stevie Wonder released his eternal double-album masterpiece Songs In The Key Of Life on Sep. 28, 1976. At the time. It was the final burst greatest creative runs in the history of popular music, and you could make a strong argument that it’s the greatest album ever made. Today, Songs In The Key Of Life turns 50. Wonder already announced plans for a tour in celebration of that anniversary. Today, out of nowhere, Wonder has shared four previously unreleased tracks from those sessions.

The post Stevie Wonder Shares Four <em>Songs In The Key Of Life</em> Outtakes For Today’s 50th Anniversary appeared first on Stereogum.