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Since forming in New York City in 2013, Castrator have confronted misogyny, violence against women, and political repression through unforgiving death metal. Drummer and co-founder Carolina Perez has been there from the beginning alongside bassist Robin Mazen. Their 2022 debut, Defiled in Oblivion, was followed three years later by Coronation of the Grotesque, a record Perez describes as the band’s strongest work to date.

Born in Colombia, Perez started drumming at 14. She moved to New York as a teenager, where she immersed herself in the city’s metal scene. Years later, returning to her hometown of Medellín to perform with Castrator became one of the most significant experiences of her career. “I couldn’t believe that it happened,” she recalls. “That was a dream come true, for sure.”

Perez spoke with us about Castrator’s beginnings, feminism and politics in death metal, remaining DIY, life on the road, and how touring helped inform Coronation of the Grotesque. She also discusses the physical demands of extreme drumming, seeing more women and non-binary fans in metal crowds, and where Castrator go from here.

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Can you discuss the band, its formation, the members, and what each of you contribute?

Castrator started in New York back in 2013. I used to play in another band called Hypoxia. We were based out of New York, partially Queens and Brooklyn, and then we played a show with Derkéta, which is the band that Robin played in. Robin’s the bass player for Castrator. So we played a show together, and then after the show, we got along and then we were like, “Hey, it’d be cool to start a female death metal band.”

Then we started recruiting, and we’ve been through a few lineup changes, but Robin and I have been the solid original members. It was really hard to find guitar players. That was the hardest challenge for the band. There’s a lot of guitar players out there, but there’s not a lot of real shredders.

What each member contributes to the band—their own talents and their own individual flavor. Most of the writing is done by Robin and me, because since the beginning, we’re the core of what we wanted to play and express with this band. But everyone’s very talented. Clarissa (Badini) is awesome. She’s got a very powerful voice and stage presence. And then Sarah (Loerlein), the newest member, is a really good guitar player as well.

You started drumming at 14 in Colombia. What was the first record that made you think, “I have to do that”?

I don’t think I can pinpoint a particular record. It’s more like a style of music, just metal. There were a lot of different punk bands, too, back at that time, where I was like, “you know, it looks like fun to play that way!”  If I had to pinpoint it to a record, it would probably be, well, I wasn’t really listening to records, so that would be a lie. I was just listening to whatever was on the radio because I didn’t have a record player. I was very poor. So, it was more the metal and punk that I listened to on the radio that inspired me. 

Your brother was/is a guitarist, right? Did that influence or shape your interest in music?

Yeah, definitely. We both started at the same time, and we started playing around with just a hand drum and him on the guitar and just being silly kids. Then before we knew it, we had instruments, and then we started jamming to covers. I think we tried playing Korn, Deftones, and Rancid. A lot of punk songs that were playing on the radio, stuff like that.

Castrator has turned the tables on the misogynistic tropes of ’90s death metal. Do you still find pushback, or have you noticed the scene becoming more welcoming to your perspective in 2026?

I think there’s always going to be pushback, but I think now that we’re a more established band and touring more and people see that we actually do this, we’re not in it for the trend or anything. This is something that we’ve been doing for a long time. We get some respect in that sense.

I feel like if we were younger, we wouldn’t get the respect that we’re getting now, you know what I’m saying? Because I just see it. When younger girls want to start, guys immediately reject it for some reason. It’s weird.

How did you decide on such a bold name?

We knew we wanted to play death metal, and we were looking for a name that was a statement and also was aggressive and would make a statement, too. We were thinking something that’s in your face, like Dying Fetus or Cannibal Corpse or stuff like that. We had a few suggestions, but Castrator was the one that we were like, “Oh, hell yeah!”

You’ve brought up real-world horror in your music, like the tragic killing of Mahsa Amini. Do you feel a responsibility to use your music as a platform to amplify these stories?

Yes. Also, things like that make an impact on me, and music is my way of expressing myself, so I’m always going to write about what’s bothering me or what’s causing this rage in me, which is why I play music, just to have this outlet. So, yes, it’s very important to use music as not only an outlet, but to amplify the message that needs to be heard.

But I feel like most people in the metal community don’t really want to listen to music for that reason, if you catch my drift. They just want to listen for entertainment purposes. There are very, very few people who actually listen for the actual message, unfortunately.

Is there a specific creative shorthand or energy that exists within all-female bands that you haven’t found in mixed-gender bands?

It’s going to be a very different dynamic. I think people are people. I think the most important thing about being in a band of any genre is taking your instrument and your craft seriously above anything. There’s always going to be differences of opinions or no one’s always in a good mood all the time, but as long as you can prioritize the band and the music, you’re always going to respect each other. Respect is everything.

So, yeah, the dynamic is very different, but musically speaking, it’s gotta be the same with either. It’s gotta be the same level of commitment and respect.

How do you protect your wrists and ankles at those BPMs?

I just have to keep them strong, so I gotta do a lot of practicing and strengthening of my important muscles to be able to keep up with that kind of drumming.

Being a drummer, and now that I’m over 40, forget it. I’ve been through it all. Carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, fractures, you name it. All kinds of shots/injections. 

How does it feel to see more young women and nonbinary people in the front row of your shows today compared to 10 years ago?

I love it! It’s the best. It’s the best reward. It reassures me that I’m doing the right thing. It makes me feel like I spent my time well, because I remember that was not the case for me when I was younger, and it just feels good to be able to see this in the whole metal community.

How would you respond to people who think feminism or politics don’t belong in music, especially metal?

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but like I said, there are a lot of people who listen to music just for the entertainment of it. They don’t want to be involved in any sort of—they want to use music as an escape. They don’t want to face reality. But then there are a lot of people that don’t feel that way and actually want to use music as their outlet and their medium for raging and expressing themselves.

So I respect everybody, but I think it’s important to have both, actually, because the music industry wouldn’t be what it is if everyone was trying to relay a message through music.

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You and Robin are the primary lyricists for the band. How does a song usually start between you two?

It depends. The way we work is, we do all the music first, and then we start brainstorming ideas that we think are strong suitors for the songs. Then we start building the lyrics together. There have been a few exceptions where we bring a whole idea or all the lyrics together. But for the most part, we work on them to suit the actual song.

You’ve been with Dark Descent Records since your debut album, Defiled in Oblivion. How did you connect with them? Do you feel you’re able to maintain full creative control working with them? 

A really good friend of ours recommended that we talk to Matt Calvert from Dark Descent, and he said, “Send over whatever you have, I’ll give it a spin.” He liked what he heard, so he signed us. It’s been great. We 100% have creative control. I mean, we got signed for what we write and what we play, so we’ll never compromise the band no matter what.

You handle much of the band’s social media and video editing. Do you feel that being a multimedia artist is now a requirement for modern musicians?

100%. I really admire bands that don’t need to be on social media to be successful, because most bands have to be constantly staying active on social media to stay relevant, and it’s kind of upsetting. It’s annoying because most of us as musicians don’t want to be spending time doing that.

But also, most bands cannot afford a social media person or video editor. Forget it. This stuff is so expensive. So, you’ve got to become one.

I really enjoy video producing and video editing, but it is extremely time-consuming. It’s hard to manage my time, especially lately, because I work full-time, I do full-time school, and then touring and practicing. I don’t even know how I do it. 

But when I was not in school, I was definitely spending most of my time doing a lot of video editing, and I’ve learned a lot just by going online and reading and trial by error. A lot of trial by error, especially with recording equipment for drums and microphones and interfaces and all that stuff. I didn’t go to school for any of that, but I got to learn on my own to be able to put something decent out there.

Now that the 2025 album has had time to breathe and you’re touring, which song has become one of your favorites to perform live?

I love playing “Deviant Miscreant.” It’s my favorite. It’s so much fun to play that song live. But I also love playing “Covenant of Deceit.” That song is very heavy, too. It’s hard because they’re all my babies. I love playing those songs live because there’s a very strong connection to each one of them. But yeah, “Deviant Miscreant” is definitely a good contender.

You did a tour supporting Obituary. Robin has a history with them?

Robin is a very successful tour manager. That’s what she does for a living. She also lives in Tampa, and she’s from back in the day. She’s an OG. She’s as relevant as George “Corpsegrinder” and all those guys because she’s been there from the beginning. She was there for all the early practices of all the legendary albums. She’s a living legend.

So all those guys know her and respect her and work with her, and she tours with them all the time, tour manages. So they actually gave her and Erik, who plays in Intoxicated, the opportunity to work together for us to come on the tour as well. And Intoxicated, too. Erik is the guitar tech for Obituary, and Robin’s the tour manager. The tour was amazing. Those guys are so cool. 

Have there been any tracks that have been more challenging to translate from the studio to the stage?

With the previous album, definitely. With Defiled in Oblivion, for sure, because “Voices of Evirato,” that album, we tried to get really amazing guitar players to do guest solos on our album. But that song specifically had a super long solo from Moyses Kolesne from Krisiun, and it was a super long solo and kind of impossible to do.

So for us to play that song live, it would sound so weird without that solo. We don’t really play it live because, yeah, the girls could do it, and now we can try again, but it was a challenge for us to even try to play that live.

The other songs are pretty good, though. We definitely kept that in mind for this record, to not do something like that.

Looking back, what have been some of the most significant interactions or moments that you’ve had during this musical journey?

It’s hard because when I’m on tour, everything is kind of a blur because you’re always so tired and so focused at the same time. It’s work, work, work. I don’t really get time to hang out.

But significantly speaking, travelling to Medellín, going back to Colombia to play that huge festival, was cathartic for me because that was my hometown. That was definitely very significant for my drumming career, and to be able to go there with Castrator, I couldn’t believe that it happened. That was a dream come true, for sure! Full loop. 

You know what? Now that I think about it, one of the other most significant moments of my drumming career was when we toured with Cattle Decapitation and we played in Tampa. It was the Orpheum. It was an outdoor venue.

When I got off stage, Paul Mazurkiewicz and Steve Asheim were right in the very front. They saw my whole set. They’re my heroes! I was freaking out! I couldn’t believe that was happening.

What’s one of the most important things that you’ve learned as a DIY band?

Tolerance. A lot of tolerance. The most important thing that we learned is that it’s very hard. It’s really, really hard to be a DIY band, but it is very rewarding, and every decision you make regarding sacrificing to go on the road is totally worth it. Just being able to work with like-minded people and badass ladies is great! It’s amazing.

Coronation of the Grotesque has been hailed as a leap forward. What shifted the energy compared to your debut, Defiled in Oblivion?

Coronation of the Grotesque is our second album, so we definitely learned a lot from our debut. When we toured with Cattle Decap, that was with Defiled in Oblivion, and just being on stage and playing every night and seeing what the crowd connects with more and what you feed off more from the energy from the crowd. Being on the road really is what made us better, to know what we wanted to write for the next album.

Are you still in other bands?

Yeah. I play guitar and sing for another band, Untoward. That’s with my boyfriend and my really good friend. And I do independent work. I recently recorded an album called “Mamakilla” with Ava Mendoza and Gabby Fluke in Brooklyn. We went to the Old Can Factory with Martin Bisi and we recorded. It was amazing.

I just always play whatever I can. If an offer comes my way and it sounds interesting, I’ll take it. I’m not exclusive to Castrator.

Even though geography has separated you at times, Castrator started and grew in New York City. How important is the city to the band’s identity and to you as a drummer?

Yes, Castrator was founded in New York City. Our first show was in Saint Vitus, a legendary metal bar. I actually played a lot of shows in New York, and I was there for a long time. I moved here to Ohio during the pandemic, and I’m still here. But I go to New York all the time. It’s home, definitely.

I arrived in New York when I was a teenager, and the New York metal scene is what shaped my playing as a drummer.  Also, New York is a melting pot, and it’s also a melting pot for metal, as happened with Castrator, because it’s where we met and were formed.

I was at every show possible. During my 20s and early 30s, I was very, very present in the metal scene in New York.

What’s one underrated aspect of being in an all-female death metal band that people might not realize?

The underrated aspect of being in an all-female band is that nobody is gross (laughs). Nobody is farting. Nobody is doing gross things. I’m not saying all men are gross, but most men are gross, and it’s really refreshing to be with other girls where everyone cleans up after themselves. It’s just nice.

What’s next for Castrator?

Next, we’re going to obviously start writing our next album. We already have a bunch of ideas and riffs and stuff, so we just have to get together and start working on the new album.

Also, we want to tour more on this album, so hopefully we will have more tours towards the end of the year. We have some shows during the summer, fall and winter, but we definitely want to tour more.

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Coronation of the Grotesque is available now.

The latest from rising alt-pop star Sophia Stel undergoes a beautiful metamorphosis. “Now I’ve Got A Lot You Know,” which follows her other stunning one-off, “Molly In The Club,” starts with a soft haze of synths and Stel’s vocals haloed in Auto-Tune. The song swirls in circles, its lyrics ruminating on an important love connection. The words spin in circles, like echoing in an empty room, before a punchy electronic hip-hop beat takes the track to new heights.

The post Sophia Stel – “Now I’ve Got A Lot You Know” appeared first on Stereogum.

After more than three decades of pushing the boundaries of progressive rock, The Flower Kings return with the new album, HOPE, due out on October 23rd, 2026 on InsideOutMusic. The follow-up to 2025’s LOVE, stands as both a celebration of their legacy and a bold artistic statement. The album also finds the band returning to the side-long epic, with tracks clocking in at 18 and 28 minutes.

Rather than chasing trends or revisiting past glories, the band has crafted a work that comfortably exists between refined musicianship and fearless ambition.
Founding member Roine Stolt explains, “At a certain point in life – you arrive at a place where outside opinions matter less – and the process gravitates towards making an album that YOU yourself would LOVE but would perhaps normally not be viewed as a commercial attempt at all. We, the band – trust YOU, the audience – to be curious and to trust us that we want to bring you a grand glowing adventure.”

To celebrate the release, the band has released the video for the first single titled “In A World Of Fools.”

Pre-order & stream the single here: https://theflowerkings.lnk.to/HOPE-Album

HOPE serves as a timely meditation on a turbulent time in the modern world. Without venturing into overt political commentary, its songs reflect on an era often marked by division and diminishing empathy while ultimately offering a message rooted in hope, acting as a roadmap, how to get there and re-ignite love in our hearts and our society.

The album’s compositions come from Stolt and keyboardist Lalle Larsson, with its centerpiece being the nearly 30-minute epic “The Gods of Rome.” Originally conceived from orchestral ideas developed more than a decade ago, the piece took an unexpected creative journey, at one point nearly becoming the musical foundation for another Anderson & Stolt project before ultimately finding its true home with The Flower Kings. Reimagined for the full band, it has evolved into a powerful reflection on contemporary life, using the imagery of ancient Rome to explore enduring themes of power, conflict, and the human cost of ambition.

Joining Stolt and Larsson once again are Hans Fröberg on vocals, Michael Stolt on bass, and Mirko DeMaio on drums. Supported by heartfelt performances from every member of the band, along with a number of special guests, the resulting album unfolds as a rewarding listening experience that reveals new details with each return. Stolt explains, “Like I said 37 years ago – ‘This is the band I will be in for the rest of my days’ – but I wouldn’t dream of us making one of our finest albums ever in 2026!”

HOPE will be available as Ltd.CD + Blu-Ray Digipak, featuring Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Rich Mouser, a first for the band. The album will also be available as Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 2LP & Digitally.

Tracklisting:
1.World Spinning – The Final Curtain (18:45)
2.In a World of Fools (5:35)
3.Mars & Minerva (4:40)
4.The Gods Of Rome (28:15)

The post The Flower Kings announce 18th studio album HOPE with new single “In A World Of Fools” appeared first on The Prog Report.

Kelly Osbourne fires back at Dee Snider after comments on social media appeared to downplay some of his musical legacy. Continue reading…

Jane Schoenbrun has great taste. The filmmaker recruited Alex G to score 2022’s We’re All Going To The World’s Fair and 2024’s I Saw The TV Glow, and they did the same for Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, their new slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. The soundtrack is getting its official announcement today (though we’ve known about the score since February), and the lead single features the Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan.

The post Alex G Announces <em>Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma</em> Soundtrack: Hear “Pain Is The Heart Of Love” (Feat. The Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan) appeared first on Stereogum.

(written by Islander) As many of you will know, I usually post a column at NCS on Sundays with recommendations in the expanding orbit of black metal. I wasn’t able to do that last Sunday due to leaving home on the early side of the day for what turned out to be a cool birthday […]

The post SHADES OF BLACK: DARK PLAGUE, PYRE OF DESCENT, LA BESTIA DE GEVAUDAN, MATAVITATAU, SPIRIT POSSESSION, SKELETAL SERPENT appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.

When Metallica embarked upon their 23 month Wherever We May Roam tour in the summer of 1991, they produced a tour programme with a difference.

Alongside the traditional glossy band photos, the San Francisco band chose to mock those who’d sneered at their ascendancy by re-printing a series of caustic reviews in the programme’s pages. Pity poor Paul Maldonado Jr of the El Paso Herald Host, a journalist who reviewed one Metallica show mentioning a song the band had never played live at that point (The God That Failed) and another song that doesn’t actually exist in their catalogue (“to their knowledge [Metallica] have never written a song called Carry On”, the programme read). So pleased were they by this wheeze, that the quartet pulled the trick again later in the decade, emblazoning the cover artwork of their Whiskey In The Jar single with all the scathing reviews the cover version had garnered following it’s inclusion on the Garage Inc. album.

When the band’s official ‘Glastallica’ T-shirt was unveiled ahead of their scheduled appearance at Europe’s biggest festival on June 28, 2014, they revisited this tactic again, printing a collection of negative notices on the reverse of their Peace, Love & Metal shirt, including a line pulled from a column written by Metal Hammer‘s Dom Lawson’s for The Guardian: “Metallica at Glastonbury. Whoopee-fucking-doo.”

When you’re the biggest metal band in the world, it’s pretty easy to laugh off the haters, but there’s a certain chutzpah involved in gleefully appropriating that negativity, even if the methodology is tried and tested. That smart-ass move alone would have been enough to demonstrate that Metallica weren’t about to kowtow to the chattering classes and media commentariat ahead of their much-discussed Glastonbury headline set, but there was more in store.

Before Metallica took to the Pyramid Stage on June 28 to become the first metal band ever to headline the festival, they premiered a specially commissioned film, produced by the acclaimed British film maker Julian Temple – the man who made The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle for the Sex Pistols, a smart reference which will have gone over the heads of most of those who viewed it – juxtaposing archive footage of ‘Tally Ho’ English toffs on a fox hunt, with documentary footage of four murderous bears on a killing spree.

If you haven’t yet seen the clip, we won’t spoil the ending for you but its intention – to wind up those aggrieved over James Hetfield’s former role in bear hunts – was clear.

Strike two to Metallica.

Metallica’s final piece of passive-agressive piss-taking was more subtle.

Ahead of a crushing version of Sad But True, James Hetfield stepped up to the mic, to dedicate the song to to “all the British heavy metal bands that have been dreaming and still dream of playing this stage”, a gently barbed comment clearly aimed at a certain British metal singer who’s taken every opportunity to criticise the band’s decision to play Glastonbury.

And then there was the gig itself. Let’s be honest, the ‘debate’ over whether Metallica could or should play Glastonbury was ended by the time the ‘Die! Die! Die!’ breakdown of Creeping Death echoed across the Somerset countryside. Was it the best Metallica gig ever? Absolutely not. But for 100 minutes on a rainy night in England, the biggest metal band in the world proved exactly why no-one has toppled them from their perch in the 23 years since the ‘Black Album’ was released.

For all the Twitter frenzy and clickbait media scaremongering, there’s no doubt who woke up the morning after with the biggest smiles on their faces.

Troye Sivan has announced his fourth studio album She’s The Best, the follow-up to 2023’s Something To Give Each Other, out Oct. 9. He’s shared the title track and gorgeous video (visual poem?) starring drag legend Sasha Colby and AMC icon Nicole Kidman. Kidman and Sivan previously worked together in the 2018 film Boy Erased. Sivan worked on the track with Leland, George Daniel, Jack Antonoff, and Styalz Fuego.

The post Troye Sivan Announces New Album <em>She’s The Best</em>, Reunites With Nicole Kidman For Video appeared first on Stereogum.

Derry Bronson, longtime keyboardist for the hitmaking early-’90s UK dance-rock band EMF, has passed away. The band shared the news in an Instagram post earlier today, and the BBC reports that Bronson had recently been treated for a brain tumor. He was 55.

The post EMF’s Derry Brownson Dead At 55 appeared first on Stereogum.

Six tracks landed this week that are worth your Friday. Mastodon released the third single from Marrow Deep, a song about standing in literal wreckage. Wage War put out a standalone track called “Sweet Dreams” that is absolutely not the cover you’re assuming it is. Marilyn Manson’s thirteenth album arrived today. And Green Lung wrote a love letter to occult rock that name-checks a Soho cafe where you could drink your coffee off a coffin. Here’s everything you need to hear.

STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:

Scott Penfold runs through the latest hard rock and metal news stories on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.

Mastodon — “In The Ruins”

The heaviest one on this list emotionally, and probably the best song of the week.

“In The Ruins” is the third single from Marrow Deep, out August 28 via Loma Vista, and it comes loaded with more grief than any band should have to carry into a record. This is Mastodon’s first album without Brent Hinds. Brann Dailor lost his mother, Michele. And in 2024, Hurricane Helene flooded Troy Sanders’ home and destroyed his family’s belongings, displacing them for close to two years.

That flood is what this song is about.

Musically it does something clever — it opens soft and clean, prog-leaning, riding a shuffle from Dailor, before detonating into the metallic back half with a pair of solos from new guitarist Nick Johnston. Nearly six minutes, and it earns every one of them. It’s a song about standing in the wreckage and working out how to move.

The animated video, directed by Hey Beautiful Jerk, follows a one-eyed skeletal creature called Frank picking his way across ruined landscapes looking for a heart. The director’s explanation of where Frank came from is one of the best origin stories you’ll read all year: ten hours in the ER with an eye infection so bad it felt like the eye was trying to escape, having just talked to Dailor about the song’s meaning, sketching Frank on a phone before the pain came back.

Grief made into something you can actually play loud. That’s the whole Mastodon project.

Wage War — “Sweet Dreams”

Let’s clear this up immediately, because you’re going to see the title and assume: this is not the Eurythmics song. It’s an original.

“Sweet Dreams” is a standalone single from the Florida metalcore outfit, following April’s It Calls Me By Name EP on Fearless, and it does the thing Wage War have spent a decade perfecting — bone-crushing breakdowns and throat-shredding aggression on one side, an enormous melodic chorus on the other, welded together so it doesn’t sound like two different bands arguing.

The band say it’s about being deceived by the world around you, and about the safety that comes with blissful ignorance. They also say, sonically, it draws on everything they’ve done over the past ten years. That’s an accurate description — this is the sound of a band consolidating rather than chasing.

The Errick Easterday-directed video ties into their fall Emergency Broadcast headline run, which kicks off October 25 in San Antonio with We Came As Romans, Varials and Cane Hill. UK and European dates follow in January 2027 with Invent Animate and Windwaker, and they’re the band’s biggest headline shows over there to date.

They’ve just come off a sold-out Australian run. This is a band in extremely good shape.

Marilyn Manson — “Unalive”

One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 is out today, and “Unalive” opens it.

It’s the thirteenth Manson album, co-written and co-produced with Tyler Bates as before, and where Chapter 1 in 2024 played as a statement of resilience — the sound of somebody re-establishing that they were still here — Chapter 2 goes gloomier. Slower, foggier, more indebted to late-80s gothic rock than to the industrial stomp of the classic records.

“Unalive” sets that tone from the first bar. It’s built on that raspy theatrical baritone he’s got back in recent years, with a lot of whispering and atmosphere and comparatively little of the bludgeon. If you came for “The Beautiful People,” this isn’t that. If you liked the murk of Eat Me, Drink Me, you’ll find plenty here.

Nine tracks, Nuclear Blast, and it lands six days before the Freaks On Parade co-headline run with Rob Zombie opens in West Palm Beach on August 20, with The Hu and Orgy along for the ride.

thrown — “critic”

The most straightforwardly fun song on this list, in the sense that watching somebody kick a door down is fun.

Sweden’s thrown have been trickling out singles all year — “split” in the spring, “rehearsed” over the summer — and “critic” is the meanest of them. It’s exactly what the title promises: a track aimed squarely at the comment section, at hot takes, at metrics, at the entire economy of people with opinions and no output.

The hook, more or less, is that suddenly everybody’s a critic, followed by a very direct question about whether the band cares if you don’t like it. (The actual phrasing is unprintable here. You’ll manage.)

Musically it’s the nü-metalcore formula they’ve refined into a weapon — bouncing grooves, venomous vocals, breakdowns designed to make a room lose its mind. Buster Odeholm of Vildhjarta and Humanity’s Last Breath has handled production on this run, which explains why it hits like a truck. Midvessel directed the video.

They headline the US in October with Norma Jean, Boltcutter and Half Me, then Europe and the UK in November and December with Counterparts, No Cure and Heavensgate.

A song about not caring what critics think, in a weekly roundup written by a critic. We contain multitudes.

Skillet — “Lift Me Up”

Second single from the new Skillet era, and it lands in a heavier place than you might expect from where the band were a few years ago.

“Lift Me Up” follows “Scream,” which came out in July and did serious numbers, and both belong to After The Storm — an EP John Cooper has described as a six-track project. A specific October release date is circulating from pre-order listings, but the band haven’t officially confirmed it yet, so treat that as unconfirmed for now.

What’s notable is the direction. Cooper took the band back to Memphis for this material, working with a producer who knew them from before they’d even properly debuted, and the results have leaned noticeably harder than the polished arena rock of Victorious or Dominion. “Scream” was legitimately aggressive. “Lift Me Up” keeps that up while doing what Skillet do better than almost anyone — building a chorus you’ll be singing in the car whether you intended to or not.

Thirty years in, twenty-two platinum certifications deep, and they’re still one of the biggest bands in rock that a certain kind of metal fan pretends not to listen to. This is the era to stop pretending.

They’re currently running the Comatose: 20 Years, Still Screaming tour.

Green Lung — “Black Magick Radio”

And to finish, the most purely enjoyable thing released this week.

Green Lung are a London occult rock band who have spent the last few years quietly becoming one of the best live acts in British heavy music, and “Black Magick Radio” is the third single from Necropolitan, out September 11 via Nuclear Blast.

The concept is perfect. It’s framed as a 1960s pirate radio broadcast, hijacking the airwaves to spread occult rock’s gospel — the band’s own description is that it’s a love letter to the genre itself. Musically it tunes into vintage influences like Lucifer’s Friend and Black Widow, and it’s got that immediate, warm, riff-forward swing that made this music a phenomenon fifty years ago.

The details are what make it. It name-checks Le Macabre, a Soho cafe where you could drink your coffee off a coffin, and The Process Church of the Final Judgement, the pre-Manson cult that operated out of Mayfair. That’s a song doing actual historical research and still being catchy enough to shout along to.

They debuted it live at Summer Breeze during the eclipse, which is exactly the kind of thing this band would organise. The Billy Howard Price video features a suburban family rendered helpless by the song’s occult power.

Necropolitan runs nine tracks. Europe and the UK get the Dance To The Grave tour later this year with High On Fire and Gnome.

This week’s playlist

Mastodon — “In The Ruins”
Wage War — “Sweet Dreams”
Marilyn Manson — “Unalive”
thrown — “critic”
Skillet — “Lift Me Up”
Green Lung — “Black Magick Radio”

All six are in rotation on the Loaded Radio stream this weekend.

TL;DR

• Mastodon — “In The Ruins”: third single from Marrow Deep (August 28, Loma Vista), inspired by Hurricane Helene destroying Troy Sanders’ home. Their first album without Brent Hinds.
• Wage War — “Sweet Dreams”: a standalone original, NOT the Eurythmics song. Follows April’s It Calls Me By Name EP.
• Marilyn Manson — “Unalive”: opening track of One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2, his thirteenth album, out today via Nuclear Blast.
• thrown — “critic”: Swedish nü-metalcore aimed at the comment section, with a US headline run in October.
• Skillet — “Lift Me Up”: second single from the After The Storm EP, following July’s “Scream.” Heavier than recent Skillet.
• Green Lung — “Black Magick Radio”: third single from Necropolitan (September 11), a pirate-radio tribute to occult rock name-checking London’s proto-goth landmarks.

FAQ

Six songs, one Friday. Which one’s getting the repeat plays from you — and what did we miss this week? Drop it in the comments. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream, where all six are in rotation — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.

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