Two years ago, underground OGs David Grubbs and Kramer teamed up with nouveau legend Wendy Eisenberg under the name Squanderers, playing sparse, searching improvisational guitar-bass music with no further accompaniment. The trio released their debut album, If A Body Meet A Body, on Kramer’s Shimmy-Disc label in 2024, then followed it with a second LP, Skantagio, in 2025. They’ve already got a third in the queue: Bright Madness will be out in September, this time via Drag City.
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has announced his new album, 'From the Dark.' The first single, "World Alone," is out now. See who else is on it! Continue reading…
How To Cast A ShadowFull-Length Out Now On Metal Blade Records!
Watch NORTH SEA ECHOES’ “I’ll Leave A Light On” video HERE.
NORTH SEA ECHOES – featuring progressive metal pioneers, singer Ray Alder and guitarist Jim Matheos, of Fates Warning – today deliver their video for “I’ll Leave A Light On.” The track appears on the band’s latest studio album, How To Cast A Shadow, out now on Metal Blade Records!
Comments Alder, “’I’ll Leave a Light On’ is much heavier than anything on [2024’s] Really Good Terrible Things, the first NORTH SEA ECHOES album. It has a darker, melancholic feel that fits well on this record. I loosely based the lyrics on a character from my favorite sci-fi series. I won’t say which, but they do use the quote ‘out there in the black.’”
Watch NORTH SEA ECHOES’ “I’ll Leave A Light On” video HERE.
Watch NORTH SEA ECHOES’ previously released video for “Enjoy The View”HERE.
On NORTH SEA ECHOES’ Really Good Terrible Things full-length, Alder and Matheos garnered rave reviews for songs that possessed, “liberating sonic space and emotional vulnerability… from somnambulant electro-fog to gritty, overdriven disquiet, to the quietly devastating (Blabbermouth).” With How To Cast A Shadow, the band’s identity is further expanded upon and explored.
“This record is a bit heavier,” asserts Matheos, “with several more songs featuring real drums, played by Dennis Leeflang. It wasn’t necessarily intentional or planned, just the way things shaped up and how they emerged this time.”
How To Cast A Shadow – Track Listing:
1. A Time of Innocence and Purpose
2. Enjoy the View
3. Good Enough
4. I’ll Leave a Light On
5. All Fall Away
6. Revenge
7. Villains or Saints
8. What is and What Was
10. All That Comes After
11. How to Cast a Shadow
The duo’s shared and separate histories help to forge a fresh creative opus. Alder has been the vocalist and main co-writer for prog metal heroes Fates Warning for 37 years, recording ten albums between 1988 (No Exit) and 2020 (Long Day Good Night). Rounding out his discography are seven albums with Redemption, two solo records, and the band A-Z, which debuted in 2022.
Revered guitarist and producer Matheos is a cofounder of Fates Warning, the lineup debuting with 1984’s Night On Bröcken on Metal Blade. In addition to thirteen albums with Fates Warning, Matheos launched several solo albums, four LPs alongside former Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore under the name OSI, and Kings Of Mercia, which launched in 2022.
From the radio-ready rock of “All That Comes After” and the intimate, escalating “A Time Of Innocence And Purpose” to the powerful, timeless ballad “Villains Or Saints,” How To Cast A Shadow cohesively crosses genres and challenges aural preconceptions.
How To Cast A Shadow is out now on CD and digital formats. Preview/purchase the record at: metalblade.com/northseaechoes.
If Really Good Terrible Things kickstarted NORTH SEA ECHOES’s career with “hovering subtleties, introspective thoughtful reflections” and lyrics with “wisdom and authenticity,” How To Cast A Shadow ups the promise of its predecessor. Provocative words of hope, sorrow and consciousness are paired with Matheos’ equally emotive, varied and deeply moving guitar work.
Nothingness – Godslaughter > Death metal > Minnesota, US > Releasing July 31 > Everlasting Spew Records
If you asked me to name my top 10 active death metal bands, my list might be a little unorthodox. Sure, Immolation, Gorguts, and Cannibal Corpse would be in there, obviously, but the remaining seven would have to include the Jersey Two—Hath and Replicant, and no, nobody has ever called them the Jersey Two before—and you know I can’t leave out my faves Hyperdontia. The final few spots would be tough decisions involving names like Undeath, Atræ Bilis, Dormant Ordeal, and the like. But I’m 100% certain that Nothingness would be in.
Maybe that’s surprising because Nothingness haven’t been around all that long (their debut was in 2019). Or maybe you missed having your skull crushed in 2023 by Supraliminal, their monster sophomore record (which made my AOTY list). Whatever the reason you might be surprised, you shouldn’t be because this band is fucking GOOD. Their brand is ugly, dissonant, bestial gnarly death, grooved up to mega fun levels and just the right amount of weird quirky shit. It sort of stands in its own space in modern death metal: there aren’t any bands out there that sound like Nothingness, and Godslaughter is another righteous exhibition of their uniquely addictive viscera-splattered art.
This is a band that’s far from orthodox and eager to break out of whatever box you think death metal lives in, and so they kick off the record with the brisk one minute and 39 seconds of “Incinerated Immediately”, a chugging chaotic demon train made of bones and jabs to the solar plexus. “Convulsing Putrefaction” follows and feels a bit like being trapped inside a house of horrors that’s rotating on multiple axes, all stairmaster-from-hell riffs and revolving mobiles of meat slabs slapping you across the face. This is as good a place as any to mention the guitar tone on Godslaughter: it’s mean and toothy, a mix of beefy audible pitches with a layer of distortion on top, like it practically has a literal oozing crust. Shit is crunchy and delicious. And it sits on a bass base that’s as wide and heavy as a Snorlax but demonically agile.
Next up is “Skull Evulsion”, a straight ahead death-dealing assault with lyrics that confirm this band is made up of intelligent motherfuckers: “Toothless men / Pat themselves on the back / With clawless hands / And kiss the rings of those / Which wring the necks of dissent”. Total time elapsed in the album so far: less than eight minutes. The next three tracks more than double that length. “Trenchant Glunch” (a delightful name for a song if ever there was one) vacillates between groove-laden salvos of chunky pummeling and vicious tremolo passages. “Vanquishing Providence” gets all doomy in its prodigious intro before laying into some of the deepest cut grooves on the record, then “Divine Irresponsibility” churns slowly to life with grimace-inducing pinches and barrels into a downright grisly mixture of murderous blasting and grim, horror-tinged atmosphere, complete with the ominous tolling of bells and a guest vocal spot from Convulsing’s Brendan Sloan.
Godslaughter’s impressive final third is introduced with a spoken quote from Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, which leads humorously into “Incredible Violence”, which delivers accurately on the promise of its title. “Umbral Spear” opens with gloomy synths on a dark and twisted motif that sticks around for the duration of the track, a particularly chilling number that features a truly demented solo courtesy of guest Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Putrefaction, Vertebra Atlantis, etc.). Closing the listen is the brooding “Novus Hegemonikon”, all mid-tempo menace and quirky bits of moodiness, a fitting album-ender that feels final, permanent even.
Album art by Adam Yates
All told, the record just feels gruesome, visceral and violent in all the right ways with an overarching tinge of the macabre. The riffs are utterly non-stop and any given song can feel like being caught in a blender full of gore, but Nothingness are smart enough in the songwriting department to keep things varied and surprising. Fast and furious work on the fretboards makes the slow, ponderous stuff feel heavier and the groovier stuff catchier, and bits of quirk like the swinging chugs in the middle of “Trenchant Glunch” play off of it all to add that unique element of fun. The mix and master are killer work, every instrument shines, and Barclay Olson’s vocals are unequivocally excellent.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Nothingness made a believer out of me years ago, and now they’re gonna do that for a hell of a lot more folks. Godslaughter is right up there with the best death metal albums of the year and might well be in my top slot after a few more weeks of revisits. If Nothingness aren’t on your radar yet, fix that shit.
Nothingness – Godslaughter > Death metal > Minnesota, US > Releasing July 31 > Everlasting Spew Records
If you asked me to name my top 10 active death metal bands, my list might be a little unorthodox. Sure, Immolation, Gorguts, and Cannibal Corpse would be in there, obviously, but the remaining seven would have to include the Jersey Two—Hath and Replicant, and no, nobody has ever called them the Jersey Two before—and you know I can’t leave out my faves Hyperdontia. The final few spots would be tough decisions involving names like Undeath, Atræ Bilis, Dormant Ordeal, and the like. But I’m 100% certain that Nothingness would be in.
Maybe that’s surprising because Nothingness haven’t been around all that long (their debut was in 2019). Or maybe you missed having your skull crushed in 2023 by Supraliminal, their monster sophomore record (which made my AOTY list). Whatever the reason you might be surprised, you shouldn’t be because this band is fucking GOOD. Their brand is ugly, dissonant, bestial gnarly death, grooved up to mega fun levels and just the right amount of weird quirky shit. It sort of stands in its own space in modern death metal: there aren’t any bands out there that sound like Nothingness, and Godslaughter is another righteous exhibition of their uniquely addictive viscera-splattered art.
This is a band that’s far from orthodox and eager to break out of whatever box you think death metal lives in, and so they kick off the record with the brisk one minute and 39 seconds of “Incinerated Immediately”, a chugging chaotic demon train made of bones and jabs to the solar plexus. “Convulsing Putrefaction” follows and feels a bit like being trapped inside a house of horrors that’s rotating on multiple axes, all stairmaster-from-hell riffs and revolving mobiles of meat slabs slapping you across the face. This is as good a place as any to mention the guitar tone on Godslaughter: it’s mean and toothy, a mix of beefy audible pitches with a layer of distortion on top, like it practically has a literal oozing crust. Shit is crunchy and delicious. And it sits on a bass base that’s as wide and heavy as a Snorlax but demonically agile.
Next up is “Skull Evulsion”, a straight ahead death-dealing assault with lyrics that confirm this band is made up of intelligent motherfuckers: “Toothless men / Pat themselves on the back / With clawless hands / And kiss the rings of those / Which wring the necks of dissent”. Total time elapsed in the album so far: less than eight minutes. The next three tracks more than double that length. “Trenchant Glunch” (a delightful name for a song if ever there was one) vacillates between groove-laden salvos of chunky pummeling and vicious tremolo passages. “Vanquishing Providence” gets all doomy in its prodigious intro before laying into some of the deepest cut grooves on the record, then “Divine Irresponsibility” churns slowly to life with grimace-inducing pinches and barrels into a downright grisly mixture of murderous blasting and grim, horror-tinged atmosphere, complete with the ominous tolling of bells and a guest vocal spot from Convulsing’s Brendan Sloan.
Godslaughter’s impressive final third is introduced with a spoken quote from Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, which leads humorously into “Incredible Violence”, which delivers accurately on the promise of its title. “Umbral Spear” opens with gloomy synths on a dark and twisted motif that sticks around for the duration of the track, a particularly chilling number that features a truly demented solo courtesy of guest Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Putrefaction, Vertebra Atlantis, etc.). Closing the listen is the brooding “Novus Hegemonikon”, all mid-tempo menace and quirky bits of moodiness, a fitting album-ender that feels final, permanent even.
Album art by Adam Yates
All told, the record just feels gruesome, visceral and violent in all the right ways with an overarching tinge of the macabre. The riffs are utterly non-stop and any given song can feel like being caught in a blender full of gore, but Nothingness are smart enough in the songwriting department to keep things varied and surprising. Fast and furious work on the fretboards makes the slow, ponderous stuff feel heavier and the groovier stuff catchier, and bits of quirk like the swinging chugs in the middle of “Trenchant Glunch” play off of it all to add that unique element of fun. The mix and master are killer work, every instrument shines, and Barclay Olson’s vocals are unequivocally excellent.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Nothingness made a believer out of me years ago, and now they’re gonna do that for a hell of a lot more folks. Godslaughter is right up there with the best death metal albums of the year and might well be in my top slot after a few more weeks of revisits. If Nothingness aren’t on your radar yet, fix that shit.
