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Self Released June 5, 2026 Words by Kris Peters Generally, when a band’s press release showers praise such as proclaiming they “deliver their most focused and ferocious release yet”, I automatically tune out, safe in the knowledge I have heard the exact same thing said about thousands of albums that have come across my desk. […]

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He was admired for impassioned duets with singers like Roberta Flack and Celine Dion and for the Disney hits “Beauty and the Beast” and “A Whole New World.”

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If you want to be counted
If you want to be seen
Then you can never be free
Not me

Black Marble, the long-running solo project of synth musician Chris Stewart, will return this summer with Life in Small Spaces, his first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol. The record is due on August 21, 2026, via Sacred Bones, and its announcement comes with a new single, “Jim Carol New Year,” alongside a 16mm video directed by Clayton Hunt.

The title carries a sly double meaning, nodding to author, poet, and musician Jim Carroll while brushing against the sing-song formality of holiday carols. The song itself is less festive than the name suggests, though it moves with a dry, almost buoyant touch. Stewart sets a rhythmic synth figure against a clipped, cool vocal delivery, letting the track drift between deadpan humour and a serious suspicion of authority, belief, approval, and all the social traps dressed up as advice.

Jim Carol New Year casts a skeptical eye on the voices that claim authority over modern life: teachers, preachers, critics, experts, and anyone else selling certainty as salvation. Stewart turns the repeated phrase “I forgot my money” into a dry punchline and a philosophical dodge, as if the speaker has wandered into the marketplace of bad advice and left his wallet at home on purpose. The song treats public approval, easy belief, and social belonging as traps dressed up as rewards, while its brighter melodic movement gives the critique a sly lift. Beneath the humour sits a more personal bruise, with failed intimacy and self-recognition slipping into the frame, deepening the song’s argument about freedom, compromise, and the cost of being seen.

“If you want to be free,” Stewart says, “you have to watch out for some of life’s classic pitfalls.”

Black Marble has a gift for making private unease feel oddly aerodynamic, and Stewart applies that instinct to a song about doubt as self-preservation. The arrangement glides with a melody that carries the critique in clean lines instead of forcing the point. Its charm works as camouflage for a tougher thought: the desire to be recognized can become its own quiet trap.

“Chris had an idea of a house in the distance with two travelers being drawn toward it,” director Clayton Hunt shares regarding the video. “We wanted each traveler to represent a different version of the journey. One traveler struggled unprotected against the landscape, the other was cautious, outfitted in an orange hazmat – type suit. I decided to shoot 16mm and capture everything against the green landscape, creating a vibrant contrast. That imagery helped guide the production and inform the story.”

Hunt’s video gives the single a spare, strange visual frame. Rather than crowding the song with plot, the clip follows two travelers drawn toward a distant house. One moves exposed through the open landscape, while the other proceeds with caution in an orange hazmat-type suit. The image is simple enough to read in several directions: risk and protection, instinct and fear, faith and armor, two ways of moving toward the same uncertain promise. The 16mm format suits Black Marble’s current turn toward a more physical band-room feel.

Watch the video for Jim Carol New Year below:

Black Marble’s Life in Small Spaces finds Stewart trading some of his usual synth density for staccato guitar lines inspired by early American left-of-the-dial college radio, with reference points including Pylon, The Necessaries, and R. Stevie Moore. Live drum samples, informed by Wire’s clean metronomic economy, help shift the project toward a leaner, more tactile sound. Stewart describes the album as a record about the music industry, authenticity, and the question of how independent artists survive without surrendering the private logic that made the work worth making in the first place.

“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things. When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed? The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”

In that sense, Jim Carol New Year makes for a pointed first dispatch. Its melody may turn lightly, but its message keeps its composure: beware the expert, distrust the sales pitch, and save your freedom for something worth more than being seen.

Pre-Order/Save Life in Small Spaces out August 21st on Sacred Bones HERE

Black Marble – TOUR DATES

• Saturday, August 22 — Santa Ana, CA — Constellation Room at the Observatory
• Sunday, August 23 — Los Angeles, CA — 1720
• Tuesday, August 25 — San Francisco, CA — Rickshaw Stop
• Wednesday, August 26 — Sacramento, CA — Harlow’s
• Friday, August 28 — Seattle, WA — The Crocodile
• Saturday, August 29 — Portland, OR — Wonder Ballroom
• Sunday, August 30 — Boise, ID — Shrine Social Club
• Monday, August 31 — Salt Lake City, UT — Urban Lounge
• Tuesday, September 1 — Denver, CO — The Federal Theatre
• Thursday, September 3 — Omaha, NE — Slowdown
• Friday, September 4 — Minneapolis, MN — Fine Line
• Saturday, September 5 — Chicago, IL — Thalia Hall
• Sunday, September 6 — Detroit, MI — El Club
• Monday, September 7 — Toronto, ON — Lee’s Palace
• Tuesday, September 8 — Montreal, QC — La Sala Rosa
• Thursday, September 10 — New York City, NY — Webster Hall
• Friday, September 11 — Philadelphia, PA — Union Transfer
• Saturday, September 12 — Baltimore, MD — Ottobar
• Monday, September 14 — Raleigh, NC — Kings
• Tuesday, September 15 — Atlanta, GA — The Earl
• Thursday, September 17 — Houston, TX — White Oak Music Hall Upstairs
• Friday, September 18 — Dallas, TX — Club Dada
• Saturday, September 19 — Austin, TX — 29th Street Ballroom

* w/ The Serfs. # w/ Public Circuit. (and Jimmy Cicero for select shows)

Follow Black Marble:

• Instagram
• Threads
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Bandcamp

The post Black Marble Returns With Video for “Jim Carol New Year” — New Album “Life in Small Spaces” Announced! appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

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The vibrant heavy music scene of Melbourne, Australia, has birthed a compelling new era of artistic expression with the arrival of the couture symphonic metal quintet ANA. Known for their unique synthesis of luxury fashion, theatricality and punishing sonic precision, the band has officially released a spellbinding new music video for their deeply personal track, […]

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ERRA Unveils Dark 2026 ‘Drift’ Anniversary Tour: Progressive Metalcore Icons Pivot to Nihilistic New Era With Vianova

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The progressive metalcore landscape has just been hit with a massive, high-velocity touring milestone. Birmingham, Alabama’s premier technical juggernauts, ERRA, have officially broken their silence to unveil a sprawling fall headlining run dubbed the Drift Outlives the Earth Tour. The multi-city trek will cut a devastating path across major markets in both the United States and Canada, bringing along an elite, unrelenting support roster engineered to be an absolute dream bill for heavy music purists.

The career-spanning tour acts as a monumental dual celebration, honoring the exact 10th anniversary of their seminal third studio album, Drift, alongside their latest creative masterclass.

The Lineup: Vianova, Chamber & Resolve

The newly announced headlining run kicks off on September 8 in Asheville, North Carolina. From there, the four-band packaging will tour across the continent before locking down a grand finale on September 27 in Albany, New York.

ERRA will be flanked by a monumental tier of heavy opening support:

• Vianova: The highly acclaimed, adventurous melodic metalcore outfit serving as direct special guests.
• Chamber: Hardcore-infused metalcore heavyweights delivering pure chaos.
• Resolve: Fast-rising international metalcore powerhouses setting the stage across the full tour length.

Tickets for all dates are scheduled to go on sale to the general public this coming Friday, June 5 at 10:00 a.m. local time.

Grab your tickets at this location.

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Melding the Past and Present: From “Drift” to “Silence Outlives the Earth”

For over a decade, ERRA has steadily held the mantle as one of the most mechanically precise and instrumentally frantic entities in progressive metalcore. The band’s upcoming setlist promises to be a legendary celebration of their history, featuring structural deep cuts from Drift that haven’t seen the light of day in years alongside modern, blinding technicality.

The conceptual foundation of the tour is explicitly designed to merge two distinct eras of the band’s catalog. Alongside classic selections from Drift, the quintet will perform a heavy dose of tracks live from their critically acclaimed seventh studio album, Silence Outlives the Earth, which officially landed earlier this year via UNFD. The contrast between the brilliant, hyper-color melodies of their 2016 breakthrough and the dark, violent nihilism of their latest material promises a completely unique live experience.

Official ERRA 2026 Tour Dates

• September 08 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
• September 09 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
• September 11 – Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman
• September 13 – Hartford, CT @ Webster
• September 14 – Rochester, NY @ Anthology
• September 15 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland
• September 17 – Louisville, KY @ Louder Than Life
• September 18 – Madison, WI @ Sylvee
• September 19 – Columbus, OH @ Newport
• September 21 – London, ON @ London Music Hall
• September 22 – Ottawa, ON @ Bronson
• September 24 – Quebec City, QC @ Theatre Capitol
• September 26 – Portland, ME @ Aura
• September 27 – Albany, NY @ Empire

FAQ: ERRA’s “Drift Outlives the Earth” Fall Tour

When do tickets go on sale for ERRA’s 10th anniversary tour? General public ticket availability begins this Friday, June 5 at 10:00 a.m. local time across all venue box offices.

What album is ERRA celebrating on this tour? The tour honors the 10-year milestone of their landmark third studio album, Drift, alongside tracks from their newest full-length, Silence Outlives the Earth.

silence outlives the earth Songs? silence outlives the earth Release date? silence outlives the earth Genre? silence outlives the earth Label?

Who are the opening bands supporting ERRA on the road? Direct tour support features Vianova, Chamber, and Resolve.

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STAY LOUD: With a setlist promised to split time between the progressive melodies of Drift and the aggressive chugs of Silence Outlives the Earth, which track are you most excited to see live? Let us know which city on the tour map you’re hitting in the comments section below, and subscribe to the Loaded Radio Daily Podcast for your ongoing metal updates!

TL;DR:

Progressive metalcore staples ERRA have revealed their 14-date “Drift Outlives the Earth” North American tour for this September, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Drift alongside material from their new album Silence Outlives the Earth. Backed by Vianova, Chamber, and Resolve, tickets will become officially available to the public this Friday, June 5 at 10:00 a.m. local time.

The post ERRA Unveils Dark 2026 ‘Drift’ Anniversary Tour: Progressive Metalcore Icons Pivot to Nihilistic New Era With Vianova appeared first on Loaded Radio.