Von Groove return from a more than two-decade silence with Born To Rock, and to be honest I’ve waited a long time for this. Von Groove was in my estimation one of the very best Melodic Hard Rock bands of the 90’s, and with this return they go straight for the throat – kicking the door off its hinges and demanding to be heard. Reuniting the classic lineup of Mladen, Michael Shotton, and Matthew Gerrard, this feels so right – it’s the sound of a band remembering exactly why they mattered in the first place.
The opening title track “Born To Rock” sets the tone immediately: big, unapologetic, and dripping with classic Hard Rocking swagger. It’s fun, references time travel and tells the well worn story us of us Rockers share. The chorus is so huge you can’t even see over it, and during the first play you’ll be singing along. If you loved this band before then you will be amazed by how great this comeback sounds. There’s a knowing wink to their own legacy here, with a nod to ‘Once Is Not Enough” ‘oven into the fabric of the song, which feels like a statement of survival—Von Groove reasserting their identity with blazing guitars, punchy rhythm work, and a chorus built for fists-in-the-air moments. It’s the sound of a band not just returning, but reawakening.
From there, ‘Fearless’ is pure ‘blue sky’ shimmering Melodic Rock and ‘Champion’ keeps the momentum locked in, leaning hard into the record’s core strength: melodic Hard Rock with real tenacity behind the rock solid hooks. Shotton’s dual role on drums and vocals gives the album a tight, cohesive drive, while Gerrard’s bass work keeps everything anchored in a solid, radio-ready groove. But there’s plenty of contrast ‘Fearless’ has more urgency, and ‘summer day’ energy, while ‘Champion’ opens things up into something more Metallic, a little harder and anthem-like, with a touch of vintage Bonfire or Dio, it was built for big stages and has a more ‘European’ feel. Both are stunning.
Mid-album cuts like ‘Adrenaline’, ‘Angela’, and ‘Undefeated’ show just how comfortably Von Groove slide back into the sound of their glory days without being afraid to give it an edge. They effortlessly hit that Hard Rocking sweet spot without sounding frozen in time. ‘Adrenaline’ lives up to its name with a sharper edge and just a little darker, with a more understated chorus that just works. Contrastingly ‘Angela’ brings the pace down, a stuttering, deliberate slower number shot with melodies, giving an emotional pull that intensifies the feeling of loss in the lyric of lost love. But it’s ‘Undefeated’ in particular feels like a mission statement—it soars, defiant, hook-heavy, and steeped in that classic melodic Hard Rock optimism that keeps us all going and refusing to quit. It’s a highlight as big and bold as the opener, but like ‘Champion’ a little harder-edged, without giving up an ounce of melody.
The heart of the record opens up further with the Def Leppard-like Melodic gem ‘Do It All Over Again’ and the hugely uplifting ‘Heart Of Forgiveness’, where the band lean into a Billy Squier-like groove and top that great groove with one of the best choruses on the record! There’s a maturity here that comes naturally after such a long gap—less about proving anything and more about reaffirming why this sound still matters. ‘Do It All Over Again’ in particular feels like Von Groove looking back without regret, while still driving forward with intent. This is a seriously great album.
The closing stretch comes too soon —‘Dreams’, ‘Waiting For The Sky To Fall’, and ‘Always Endlessly’—tie everything together with a strong sense of all you loved about Von Groove and all you will love about this album. ‘Dreams’ rides a funky bassline that makes you think of Tyketto, and keeps the melodic flame burning bright, ‘Waiting For The Sky To Fall’ the real big ballad here adds an emotional edge in it’s orchestration, which is lush but not overblown, letting the lyric take centre place. Final track ‘Always Endlessly’ was a huge surprise, I mean after a ballad like that the last thing you expect is another ballad! What it shows is how great these guys are at pouring emotion into a song, this one is even bigger, more orchestrated, absolutely AOR, and feels like a real jolt back in time. It is huge. Ending with two ballads might just be the next big thing!
By the end of ‘Born To Rock’, you sit exhausted, grinning from ear to ear. This is wonderful. Von Groove haven’t just revisited their past—they’ve reaffirmed their place in the present. It’s polished, powerful, and packed with conviction: a comeback album that actually earns the word comeback and sees them right back at the top of the tree. I have to go now, I have to play it again… and again…
This four-part documentary manages to convey a few things, one being that the suspect (who has since pleaded guilty) is nuts, and second that most of the people involved with publicizing the case are nuts.
If we have any words for Rex Heuermann, it is that he killed the wrong whores. The media whores are worse than the regular kind. Journalists (AJAB), activists, politicians, and the horrible families of the victims all joust for attention in this four-part series that could easily have been one one-hour segment.
For starters, people almost uniformly have nothing coherent to say; they recite clichés and make appeals to emotion, but other than moralizing about how someone should fix their lives, they give us nothing of importance.
All of the families, for example, recognize that their daughters were working as escorts. Cue lengthy excuses. Then, when the daughter vanishes, suddenly society needs to drop everything and spend all its money fixing the situation.
No one can tell them simply that they are terrible parents and their kids, most of whom are weird spare parts genetics experiments, died as a result of that because they were prostitutes as a result of that.
The two highpoints:
The nice lady from Long Island explaining how at first the neighborhood was terrified by the killings, but then when it became clear the killer was targeting sex workers (whores, prostitutes) everyone felt better because that meant they were in the clear. Hint: 99% of humanity feels this way about these killings.
The hilarious squishy and baritone female friend of one of the dead sex workers recalling how she told her friend, “Hey, you like to fuck random people, maybe at least get paid for it.” She delivers this without a shred of shame or remorse.
The families are uniformly horrible, with the single mothers (no fathers are featured except the killer) routinely having trouble articulating simple thoughts, and making lots of excuses for how their kids turned out.
Heuermann is also horrible, since his family seems to live in a different multiverse than he does, and of course the descriptions of his acts make it clear that he is a very troubled man with a good deal of rage.
The secret to serial killers, it seems to me, is how absolutely boring they are. Their lives are boring quiet desperation, so they get a boring hobby, namely acting out the same pathology over and over again in the hops that somehow it will magically imbue their hollow existences with meaning.
Similarly these prostitutes seem like boring people. They have no quest in life except their own pleasure, and they cannot stick to any productive activity, so they are doing dumb whore things and then getting shocked when one of their clients turns out to be every bit as nuts as you expect a john would be.
The kicker of this series is that the death which started the investigation, Shannan Gilbert, does seem like natural causes as the coroner originally stated. She met a john, took some drugs, and ran off babbling into the bullrushes where she got hypothermia, took off her clothes, and laid down to die like a Russian conscript watching the Ukrainian drones approach.
If we never hear anything again from Kristen Thorne, the AJAB who narrates, it would be good, and if Gloria Allred disappeared too, it would be better. Both of them offer a French Revolution victimhood situation that imputes the dangers to these women to the way the world treats women generally, forgetting that most women are not hoors or AJAB therefore have reasonable enough outcomes.
This could have been done in ninety minutes, or better yet, an hour. The forensics and clue-searching is the only interesting part, since serial killers are boring and sex workers are even more creepily fattily boring, but all of the weepy family interviews and bloviating by political figures is empty like your average corporate job.
It is amazing how similar this is to Netflix, NPR, and Hollywood documentaries. Amazon had a chance to break the pattern and pursue quality, but instead they just made the same dreck as everyone else, which gives the film consumer no real options.
It is also amazing how in a broken society full of weird people acting out odd pathologies, a Rex Heuermann did not stand out as a risk; instead, he was just idiosyncratic, at least until dead prostitutes started piling up on Gilgo Beach.
Hollie Rogers releases her fourth single & video Bad Woman taken from her forthcoming album Everything’s Fine, due for release June 5th. The new single follows the album’s title track ‘Everything’s Fine’, which won Classic Rock Magazine’s Track of the Week, while Americana UK praised the video, calling it “one of the best videos we’ve seen this year”.
Speaking of the new track, Hollie says, “Bad Woman was written with Daisy Chute and Howard Rose, and I instantly connected with it. We loved playing with dual perspectives and worked to keep the lyrics applicable regardless of the gender or orientation of the singer. That also creates a bit of mystery for the listener which I really like. Ultimately, it’s about that relatable feeling of being pulled towards something you know isn’t good for you, but you go there anyway. It’s a bit darker than some of the other tracks on the album but retains a playful edge.”
Hollie describes Everything’s Fine as “an album that reflects life in all its chaos, beauty, and unpredictability. Some tracks are deeply emotional, others are uplifting, and a few manage to be both at once. The album explores the full range of human experience, from joy and heartbreak to messy, thought-provoking moments. While some songs are raw and relatable, others are simply fun, but all are rooted in honest storytelling and emotional connection. In the end, it’s a reflection of life as it unfolds, a soundtrack to the everyday highs and lows.”
Hollie is currently on the road with her Everything’s Fine Tour, performing across the UK and beyond in a mix of intimate duo shows and full band performances.
SPRING Pre-Release Duo/Band Tour – “Everything’s Fine Tour (Chapter 1)”
Apr 24 – The Bear Club Luton (Band)
Apr 25 – Sudbury Arts Centre, Suffolk (Duo)
May 1 – Otford Hall, Sevenoaks (Duo)
May 29 – The Lighthouse, Poole (Duo)
May 31 – Cromer Centre, Norfolk (Band)
Jun 7 – The Harlington, Fleet (9 piece band – ALBUM LAUNCH)
SUMMER
Jul 11 – Drawing Room, Chesham (Duo)
Jul 30 – Spring Arts Centre, Portsmouth (Duo)
Aug 8 – Nuernberg Guitar Festival, Germany (Solo)
Aug 21 – Old Bush Blues Festival, Worcestershire (Band)
Sep 3 – Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham (Band)
Sep 6 – British Country Music Festival, Blackpool (Band)
Sep 12 – South Downs Folk Festival, Bognor (Duo)
Sep 16 – St Ives Arts Centre, Cornwall (Solo)
NOV “Everything’s Fine Tour (Chapter 2)”
Nov 6 – aRTy Barn, Hemel Hempstead (Band)
Nov 13 – Cranleigh Arts Centre (Band)
Nov 19 – Ropewalk, Barton-Upon-Humber (Duo)
Nov 20 – The Live Room, Saltaire (Band)
Nov 24 – Tuesday Night Music Club, Coulson (Band)
Nov 26 – Greystones, Sheffield (BAND)
Nov 27 – Chapel Arts Centre, Bath (Band)
Nov 28 – The Acorn, Penzance (Band)
Dec 5 – Nelly’s, Stratford-Upon-Avon (Duo)
Rock icon JOHN CORABI is proud to release his long-awaited solo debut, ‘New Day,’ out now via Frontiers Music Srl. To celebrate the release, JOHN also shares his new single “1969,” alongside an official music video, available below.
On the new track “1969,” JOHN comments: “‘1969’ is a great song inspired by the current situations in America, which made me think of another turbulent time in the 60’s-70’s…The riff throughout is compliments of Stevie D (from Buckcherry) and inspired by one of my favorite bands Creedence Clearwater Revival.”
‘New Day’ marks JOHN CORABI’s first full-length solo album of original material. Recorded in Nashville during the summer of 2025 and produced by multi-platinum songwriter and producer Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Buckcherry), the album fuses classic ’70s rock, soul, and blues influences into a sound that feels both timeless and deeply personal.
The record features the previously released singles “Così Bella (So Beautiful)” (2021) and “Your Own Worst Enemy” (2022), now presented as part of a rich collection of tracks that spotlight his commanding vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and masterful songwriting. Throughout the album, CORABI is joined by Marti Frederiksen, who adds backing vocals, guitars, piano, and percussion; Evan Frederiksen on drums, bass, B3 organ, electric guitar, mandolin, and programming; Richard Fortus (Guns N’ Roses) on lead guitar; Paul Taylor (Winger, Steve Perry) contributing piano, organ, and clavinet, as well as Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke) offering guitar solos. Together, they create an organic, instrument-driven sound built on real performances, melodic interplay, and soulful energy.
More than just a solo debut, ‘New Day’ serves as CORABI’s personal testament to rock’s enduring spirit—an exploration of melody, soul, and authenticity, played with passion and conviction at every turn.
JOHN shares: “I’m very excited for everybody to hear this new collection of songs! I wanted to put together an album of eclectic, organic songs that are reminiscent of the music I grew up listening to, and I truly believe the mission was accomplished! This is a 60’s-70’s sounding classic rock and roll record…Turn it up, and enjoy!!!”
Joe Bonamassa has released “Tattoo’d Lady (Live),” one of the latest singles from his upcoming live album and concert film The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork, due out June 19th via J&R Adventures. Recorded during a series of sold-out performances in Cork, Ireland, the track offers another glimpse into Bonamassa’s deeply personal tribute to Rory Gallagher, captured in the city where Gallagher’s legacy still resonates most strongly.
Pre-Order the album from UK & Europe. Pre-Order the album from North America.
Originally released on Gallagher’s 1973 album Tattoo, “Tattoo’d Lady” stands as one of his defining early compositions – a raw, autobiographical portrait of life on the road, shaped by long nights, constant travel, and the push-and-pull between freedom and isolation. Built around a loose, swaggering groove and sharp lyrical detail, the song reflects a more intimate side of Gallagher’s writing, balancing humour, and weariness with a sense of restless motion.
That spirit carries through Bonamassa’s live interpretation. Rather than reshape the song, he leans into its narrative core, allowing the performance to unfold with the same unfiltered energy that defined Gallagher’s original recordings. The Cork audience – deeply connected to the material – responds in kind, giving the track a lived-in feel that goes beyond a straightforward cover.
For Bonamassa, songs like “Tattoo’d Lady” were central to understanding Gallagher’s range as both a guitarist and a storyteller. While much of Gallagher’s reputation rests on his explosive live playing, tracks like this reveal the observational detail and personality that made his catalogue endure.
Photo: Marcus Bird
The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork documents Bonamassa’s full tribute set, performed with the blessing of Gallagher’s family, and shaped by the unique atmosphere of Cork itself. Across 14 songs, the album moves between the intensity of tracks like “Walk On Hot Coals” and “Bullfrog Blues” and more reflective moments like “Tattoo’d Lady” and “A Million Miles Away,” which will serve as the album’s focus track upon release.
The performances were recorded during a three-night run that grew out of what was initially planned as a single tribute show. The response from local audiences turned the event into something larger, with each night building on the last and reinforcing the connection between the music, the place, and the people who have carried Gallagher’s legacy forward.
Photo: Marcus Bird
Additional footage from the Cork performances will be included on the album’s DVD and Blu-ray editions, featuring bonus material such as The Inspiration of Rory with Brian May and Slash, along with behind-the-scenes moments that further document the significance of the project.
As the album moves closer to release, “Tattoo’d Lady (Live)” offers a different lens into Gallagher’s catalogue – one that highlights the writing and perspective behind the playing, and the enduring appeal of songs that feel grounded in real experience.
The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork will be available June 19th digitally, on CD/DVD, CD/Blu-ray, and double 180-gram vinyl.
CD Track Listing
1. Cradle Rock (Live)
2. Walk On Hot Coals (Live)
3. Tattoo’d Lady (Live)
4. I Wonder Who (Live)
5. Calling Card (Live)
6. Who’s That Coming? (Live)
7. Messin’ With The Kid (Live)
8. Bullfrog Blues (Live)
9. Treat Her Right (Live)
10. Bad Penny (Live)
11. I Fall Apart (Live)
12. A Million Miles Away (Live)
13. As The Crow Flies (Live)
14. Back On My Stompin’ Ground (Live)
DVD / Blu-ray
1. The Spirit Of Rory (Opening Scene)
2. Cradle Rock
3. Walk On Hot Coals
4. Tattoo’d Lady
5. I Wonder Who
6. Calling Card
7. Who’s That Coming?
8. Messin’ With The Kid
9. Band Introductions
10. Bullfrog Blues
11. Treat Her Right
12. Bad Penny
13. I Fall Apart
14. A Million Miles Away
15. As The Crow Flies
16. Back On My Stompin’ Ground
17. Ballycotton (End Credits)
DVD / Blu-ray Bonus Features:
Ballycotton – A Million Miles Away
Rory’s Acoustic Guitar
The Inspiration of Rory (A Conversation with Brian May & Slash)
Vinyl (180 gram Red Marble Double LP)
Side A
1. Cradle Rock (Live)
2. Walk On Hot Coals (Live)
3. Tattoo’d Lady (Live)
4. I Wonder Who (Live)
Side B
5. Calling Card (Live)
6. Who’s That Coming? (Live)
7. Messin’ With The Kid (Live)
8. Bullfrog Blues (Live)
Side C
9. Treat Her Right (Live)
10. Bad Penny (Live)
11. I Fall Apart (Live)
Side D
12. A Million Miles Away (Live)
13. As The Crow Flies (Live)
14. Back On My Stompin’ Ground (Live)
EU/UK SPRING TOUR 2026
April 22 – Hamburg, DE – Barclays Arena
April 24 – Rotterdam, NL – Rotterdam Rtm Stage
April 25 – Paris, FR – La Seine Musicale
April 27 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU – Luxembourg Rockhal
April 29 – Mannheim, DE – SAP Arena
May 1 – Chemnitz, DE – Stadthalle Chemnitz
May 2 – Nürnberg, DE – PSD Bank Nürnberg Arena
May 3 – Zürich, CH – Hallenstadion
May 6 – London, UK – Royal Albert Hall
May 7 – London, UK – Royal Albert Hall
U.S. SUMMER TOUR 2026
June 26 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts w/ JJ Grey & Mofro & D.K. Harrell
June 27 – Atlantic City, NJ – Ocean Casino Resort
June 28 – Newark, NJ – New Jersey Performing Arts Center
July 29 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap w/ Gov’t Mule
July 31 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheater w/ Gov’t Mule
August 1 – Gilford, NH – BankNH Pavilion w/ Gov’t Mule
August 3 – Hyannis, MA – Cape Cod Melody Tent
August 5 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater w/ JJ Grey & Mofro
August 7 – Selbyville, DE – Freeman Arts Pavilion
August 8 – Baltimore, MD – Pier Six Pavilion w/ Gov’t Mule
August 9 – Youngstown, OH – The Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre w/ Gov’t Mule
August 11 – Huber Heights, OH – Rose Music Center at The Heights
August 12 – Highland Park, IL – Ravinia Festival
August 14 – Interlochen, MI – Kresge Auditorium
August 15 – Welch, MN – Treasure Island Resort & Casino w/ Gov’t Mule
August 16 – Lincoln, NE – Pinewood Bowl Theater w/ Gov’t Mule
August 19 – Cheyenne, WY – Cheyenne Civic Center
August 21 – Salt Lake City, UT – Eccles Theater
August 23 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
September 26 – Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival @ Moody Center
EU FALL TOUR 2026
October 21 – Helsinki, FL – Veikkaus Arena
October 23 – Stockholm, SE – Stockholm Avicii Arena
October 24 – Oslo, NO – Oslo Spektrum
October 25 – Gothenburg, SE – Göteborg Partille Arena
October 27 – Copenhagen, DK – K.B. Hallen København
October 29 – Rostock, DE – Stadthalle Rostock
October 30 – Berlin, DE – Uber Arena
October 31 – Dortmund, DE – Westfalenhalle
November 3 – Basel, CH – Baloise Session
November 4 – Milan, IT – Unipol Forum
November 6 – Toulouse,FR – Zenith Toulouse Metropole
November 7 – Barcelona, ES – Barcelona Sant Jordi Club
November 8 – Madrid, ES – Madrid Palacio Vistalegre
Plini, the prolific Australian guitarist, composer and producer has released his highly anticipated brand new album An Unnameable Desire, out now. Across the space of 10 tracks, An Unnameable Desire blends staggering intricacy with moments of surging heaviness and billowing bliss, catapulting Plini‘s expansive dexterity and sonic diversity into even greater new heights.
After Everything followsAn Unnameable Desireand Manala. “As an independent artist known for playing guitar, the idea of making a music video is financially daunting and creatively questionable (I think most of my audience would prefer to see unedited guitar playing). So in the spirit of the album – trying new things and hoping to challenge both myself & my audience – it seemed like a good idea to not make just one, but three videos, two of which don’t even have musicians in them. The result is a whimsical trilogy that somehow (at least, to me) perfectly reflects the music, and also gives my international audience a bit of a taste of Australiana! If anyone was confused in the process of watching these, I consider that a success.” explains Plini.
Mixed by Simon Grove and mastered by Adam “Nolly” Getgood, An Unnameable Desire finds Plini joining forces with a horde of creative talent, with magic woven alongside Simon Grove (bass, auxiliary guitar, mixing, engineering and co-production), Chris Allison (drums percussion, additional drum engineering and co-production), Dave Mckay (piano, keyboards and synthesizers), A.J. Minette (string arrangement and production), Misha Vayman (violin)and Yoshi Masuda (cello), with additional production on Ciel courtesy of Devesh Dayal, a guitar solo on Ciel by Jakub Zytecki andharp on After Everything by Emily Hopkins. Album artwork is designed by Patti Bai.
“Something I’m very happy about, after many years of making music and the “career” aspect of it becoming a whole lot more serious, is that the process hasn’t changed – still just me sitting in a room, tinkering on a guitar until I come across an interesting idea, and then following it down various rabbit holes until it starts feeling like a song,” shares Plini of his upcoming new album.
“The intention with this album,” adds Plini, “was to let that side of the process be as playful as possible, and then when it came to executing these ideas as finished songs, trying to expand the music in every direction possible: the heavier parts should be heavier, the pretty parts should be prettier, the hard-to-play stuff should be harder to play… and also in being as thoughtful and intricate as possible in relating the songs to each other through various themes and references. I hope it’s as enjoyable to listen to as it was to make!”
Renowned for delivering mind-bending musicality from all angles, Plini has previously released two full-length albums, 2016’s Handmade Cities and 2020’s Impulse Voices, alongside several EPs, singles and contributing credits along the way.
Nominated for Live Guitarist of the Year in 2018 at the National Live Music Awards, Plini has also previously toured alongside Sleep Token, Periphery and Tesseract. His huge world tour has officially kicked off in Europe with more tour dates still to be announced.
I can’t bear this soul
Sorrow of its worth
I am learned in ways
Hearts can be broken
Some records arrive with clenched fists; others with open wounds. Shadowlands’ fourth album, 004, comes bearing both. The Portland, Oregon band has long worked in the fertile gloom between post-punk, darkwave, and synth-pop, but here their sound feels sharpened by absence, distance, and the ugly knowledge that history keeps circling back with blood on its shoes.
Their previous album landed just before COVID shut the world down. On the drive home from a show in Boise in early 2020, the band half-jokingly asked their bass player, who is also a scientist, whether this SARS-CoV-2 thing was anything to worry about. His answer was plain enough: “Yeah… we should be fairly worried.” A few weeks later, everything stopped.
For lead songwriter Amy Sabin, whose creative process depends on collaboration, that sudden separation from the band’s close-knit musical family felt suffocating. Shadowlands is not some loose assemblage of strangers clocking in for rehearsals; it is a deeply personal unit, with Sabin joined by longtime musical partner and bassist Jesse Elizondo, twin sister and guitarist Angie Sabin, and drummer Casey Logan, who is also her spouse. When that living circuit was broken, silence moved in.
At the same time, social unrest and the brutal exposure of racism and fascism pushed Sabin inward. A natural verbal processor, she found herself stepping back, listening, unlearning, and speaking less than she ever had before. That silence hangs over 004, eventually crystallizing in the album’s closing line: “I never could have guessed, I’d have nothing to say.”
Yet 004 is anything but empty. It is crowded with ghosts, arguments, prayers gone cold, bodies under pressure, and memories that will not behave. The band leans fully into its collaborative strength, with every member contributing key ideas. The result is an album where grief and outrage move through the music like weather through an old house, rattling the windows, stirring the dust, and leaving the rooms changed.
Burdens opens with a sparkling synth sequence, pretty at first glance but edged with unease. Then the bass begins to churn, locking into a firm groove with the drums before noir-tinted synths and mournful guitar lines move in around Sabin’s voice. Her vocals arrive wrapped in reverb, trembling with the strain of someone trying to carry what no living person can hold forever.
The lyrics search among the lost, the dead, and the half-remembered, imagining grief as a floodplain where old songs still try to raise what cannot return. Sabin sings of “burdens of saviors,” but the song is less about rescue than the failure of rescue as a fantasy. Love remains enormous, but even love has a limit when sorrow becomes an inheritance. By the end, the song arrives at its most painful wisdom: life was enough, love was enough, and sometimes the final mercy is release.
Clicks slides into view with an ’80s cinematic synth-wave sequence that carries the perfume of that shivering giallo: bright blades, strange corridors, some menace moving just out of frame. Rapid drums and a shuffling bassline kick the track forward, while the guitar underscores the vocals with a baroque chill, less decorative than accusatory.
Lyrically, the song takes aim at online performance, validation, and the flattening of identity into engagement. “Trading faces for clicks” becomes the central indictment, a neat little poison pill for the age of self-branding. Social media turns into a glut of mirrors, a place where loneliness gets medicated by noise, belief is tuned into a marketable image, and public expression grows hollow under the pressure to be seen. The song’s bitter joke is that everyone must be heard, even when the words have already wasted themselves.
Let’s Fall Apart begins with fuzzy distortion on the bass, rolling drums, and a line of guitar melancholia that feels bruised but still beautiful. Sabin’s vocal performance is somber and almost resigned, though never passive; there is a pulse of endurance inside the exhaustion, a sense that collapse can become its own strange ceremony.
The lyrics imagine people as “lost scavengers of time,” fragile bodies falling in line while tiny worlds give way around them. Faces lose their feeling, dreams become grave-bound, and everyone fakes their way forward because stopping is not an option. Yet the refrain does not treat falling apart as pure defeat. Beneath the breakage, Shadowlands keeps returning to the stubborn claim that “there’s something real left in us yet.” Collapse, here, becomes proof that something was alive enough to fracture.
Nothing Has Changed begins with a pause that feels almost architectural, a held breath before the floor gives way. Cold piano tones ring out, followed by crashing drums and a drone of guitars that pull the song toward gothic shoegaze. Isolated piano notes return like signals from a ruined chapel, while sustained guitar tones heighten the sense of dread. Sabin’s voice enters powerful but restrained, carrying a forlorn wail that seems to roll with the track like waves beating against a rocky shore.
The song is a bleak political and spiritual lament about suffering that persists beneath headlines, silence, and failed prayers. Its language gathers around lost voices, defenseless bodies, abandoned places, and the terrible weight of what has not yet arrived. “Such little hands have lost the game” lands like an image of innocence crushed beneath systems too large and too hungry to name cleanly. Prayer is rationed to the void, words fall strange, and still the refrain returns: nothing has changed. It is not resignation so much as accusation.
Wounds and Relics opens with an anxious, taut, percussive string-like sound, while a droning vocal sigh hovers in the background. A mystic, chamber-like tone sits beneath Sabin’s voice, which hits with the force of witchcraft carried on the wind. The arrangement feels ritualistic, but not comforting; this is a ceremony held in the ruins of a belief system that has learned to bless cruelty.
The song tears into righteousness, mythmaking, and violence dressed up as faith. Shadowlands takes old stories down from the altar and asks what they have actually saved, especially when fairytales harden into doctrine and doctrine becomes permission to burn. The title phrase cuts to the center of the track: wounds are worshipped, relics are polished, and the living air is forgotten. By the time Sabin turns toward the figure who never shuts up and never lets their god down, the song has become a furious portrait of sanctimony as arson.
R/AGE is a slow dirge, opening with a buzzing sigh over restrained hi-hats and soft synth pulses. The drums later begin to click like the hands of a clock, measuring out the body’s endurance one small blow at a time. A droning saxophone-like tone slips in, widening the atmosphere, while the vocals arrive late, somber and heavy, with guitars washing in the background like smoke from an unseen fire.
This is a furious reckoning with pain, survival, and the body pushed to its limits. The lyric sheet reads like speech after shock: words left behind, tongues split, drive lost, life surrounded by something unnamed. The refrain of breath becomes crucial, not as wellness platitude but as bare biological insistence. Every ache stretches “a million miles,” every inch of life catches fire, and the things once feared turn out to be smaller than what actually arrived. Rage becomes wound, engine, and evidence: if no voice is left, the body still keeps the score.
Substance opens with bubbling synths, cinematic ’80s tones, rolling drums, and guitar lines that seem to gather around the song’s ache rather than decorate it. There is a strange lift to the track, a feeling of longing stretching outward into something almost devotional.
Here, Shadowlands turns toward love, absence, devotion, and the exhaustion of desire. The lyrics count time in impossible units: a thousand hours, a thousand days, a thousand lives, all organized around the absence of another person’s sun. Love is tired, time is sacred, and the beloved becomes a source of matter, light, and almost religious necessity. When Sabin sings of crawling through lands until the last breath tears her away, the song locates romance somewhere between devotion and depletion. The title is exact: this is love as the thing that gives form to the self, and the thing whose loss turns the self into a shell.
Closing track The Worst Light arrives with an almost trip-hop feel in its synth tone and drum-pad pulse, bringing to mind the slow-motion denouement of Nine Inch Nails’ Closer. The song evokes the image of a ballerina about to collapse in despair, held upright by habit, grace, and a final thread of will. Sustained guitar wails softly, touching the doomed grandeur of The Cure’s Disintegration, while the whole piece takes on the feeling of a baroque lullaby sung at the edge of a breakdown.
The vocals quiver with real force, deeply affecting without tipping into theater. Lyrically, the song confronts grief, hunger, self-estrangement, and ecological or spiritual collapse. The speaker enters the ring to “hold a note,” only to find grief refusing to end. Wilderness builds towns; life and death wear thin; the self becomes strange to itself. There is bitter laughter at the worst possible moment, pillars of salt, a mother figure wrapped in greens and golds, and the unbearable recognition that we have never held a weight quite like this. The album closes where its pandemic-era silence began: stunned by survival, stripped of easy language, standing beneath the worst light with nothing left to say.
Across 004, Shadowlands make a record about what happens after language fails: after the prayer, after the feed, after the fight, after the funeral, after the silence. The album is filled with bodies under strain and voices trying to return from muteness, but it never mistakes bleakness for depth on its own. Instead, it finds meaning in the act of showing up together, of placing grief, rage, love, and fear into the same room and letting the band answer as one.
Listen to 004 below and order the album, out now via Seeing Red Records, here.
