Rotterdam post-punkers Tramhaus spend a whole lot of time touring Europe, and their recent songs show the kind of locked-in chemistry that can really only come from playing a whole ton of live shows. They’ll release their sophomore album Blister this fall, and we already posted the impressive lead single “Plovdiv.” Today, they share their new track “Swarm,” a fiery roar with some serious grunge and post-hardcore muscle on its bones. The band says that the song is about “the individual self, and its corresponding image — are you made by the ideas of others, or are you a product of your own thoughts?” Deep. Listen below.
Five Finger Death Punch is taking its 20th Anniversary Tour global with a free livestream broadcast straight from Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The show goes live Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 9 p.m. Mountain Time, streaming exclusively through Veeps. Expect a full production overhaul — new visuals, new staging — built around a set list spanning the band’s two-decade catalog, plus fresh cuts off the band’s tenth album, Legacy. A trailer for the event is available below.
Legacy marks 20 years of Five Finger Death Punch, doubling as a look back and a signal that the band isn’t slowing down. The album hit digital platforms July 31 and is streaming everywhere now, with physical formats — CD, vinyl and cassette — arriving Sept. 18.
Merch drops alongside the stream too. Fans can grab several Legacy vinyl variants, CD and cassette bundles, and a dedicated 5FDP vinyl carry case. A handful of previously released vinyl pressings have already sold out, but current offerings include:
Legacy LP (Clear Vinyl)
Legacy LP (Amber Wave Vinyl) with alternate gatefold art
Legacy CD
Legacy CD (Gold Disc) with alternate cover and disc artwork
Everything is up for pre-order now through the Veeps event page and will also be featured throughout the broadcast. Tuning in costs nothing — the stream is free for anyone who wants to watch. More details are available on the event page.
Five Finger Death Punch already kicked off leg one of its 20th-anniversary run, working through North America alongside Cody Jinks and Eva Under Fire, with European arena dates joining Lamb Of God and Bleed From Within set for early 2027.
The anniversary tour doubles as both a retrospective and a forward-looking statement, tracing Five Finger Death Punch‘s path from its 2005 formation and 2007 debut, The Way Of The Fist, all the way to arena-headliner status. Setlists blend new Legacy material with the chart-topping anthems that built the band’s reputation.
Live Nation is behind the 48-city North American run, which launched July 20 in Camden, New Jersey, at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion and closes out Oct. 23 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia.
Beyond the milestone celebration, Five Finger Death Punch is once again putting its platform to use for charity. The band has a long track record of supporting causes tied to U.S. military veterans and first responders, and this year that extends to backing Team USA ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games. A cut of ticket revenue from the 2026 North American leg will go toward high-performance programs supporting U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
The European leg with Lamb Of God and Bleed From Within kicks off Jan. 16 in Manchester, U.K., running through 21 cities before wrapping Feb. 22 in Helsinki.
Veeps, launched in 2018 by Joel and Benji Madden, has grown into one of the top platforms for streaming live music and entertainment, having hosted broadcasts for acts including Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan, Chris Stapleton, Foo Fighters and Kings Of Leon. The service is accessible via veeps.com and apps on Apple TV, Roku, iOS, Samsung and Android, and operates as part of Live Nation Entertainment.
Ahead of the September 18 release of Get Mean, Boy Harsher have unveiled “Tough Luck (When You Don’t Call),” the third advance single from their first new album since the 2022 film and soundtrack The Runner. The song finds Jae Matthews trying to maintain the appearance of composure while an unanswered telephone turns distance into rejection, doubt, and the humiliating fear of having been forgotten.
An uneasy synth introduction quickly opens into a brisk new-wave dance beat, with a firm kick, rounded bass, bright keyboards, and clipped bursts of distorted guitar giving the track a warmer and more openly pop-minded character. Matthews sings in a heartbroken drawl that seems to drag against the arrangement’s forward motion. The contrast makes the song feel almost euphoric at first, although every melodic lift carries another reminder that the person she wants remains absent.
“Tough Luck (When You Don’t Call)” is a song that could have occupied late-night radio in the mid-1980s, when sleek synthesizers, post-punk guitar, and bruised romanticism regularly met inside a four-minute single. Boy Harsher retain the uncanny atmosphere that has always accompanied their music, yet the unease here is romantic and immediate: the sort of private crisis that can accompany a night drive while the road continues forward with far more certainty than the relationship.
The verses are built from questions sent into silence. Faith has waned, time has been lost, and Jae questions whether the person on the other end feels regret or even remembers her. The plea “Do you even know my name?” cuts deep, as recognition is now the least she expects. In response to this fear, the repeated assurance “I’m OK” increasingly resembles a rehearsed line, seemingly for the benefit of the one saying it.
The official lyric video transforms that rehearsal into an analog karaoke experience. Made using vintage video gear by Los Angeles video artist Sean McGuirk and shot at PropHaus Brooklyn by Jesse Korman, it keeps the camera focused on the curved glass of an old CRT television in a dimly lit room. The screen displays a cold blue background with thick yellow letters appearing beneath rolling scan lines, bowed edges, and concentric patterns created by photographing a cathode-ray display.
Its opening card resembles a selection from a home karaoke catalogue: “IN THE STYLE OF,” followed by the artist, title, and parenthetical subtitle. From that point, the lyrics move across the blue background in uppercase, with parts of each line fading, smearing, or bleaching toward white alongside the vocal cues. The abbreviations “U,” “YR,” and “N” mimic the shorthand of text messaging, yet they appear on a television from an earlier technological era. Thus, a song about failed communication is conveyed through two outdated mediums: the silent, unanswered phone and the solitary glow of a karaoke machine.
McGuirk also leaves the machinery’s awkward instructions intact. Cards reading “INSTRUMENTAL BREAK” interrupt the lyrics with dry literalism, while the chorus is broken into syllabic prompts that make Matthews’ faltering reassurance available for anyone to sing. Karaoke usually transforms private listening into a social performance; here, there is no visible room, microphone, or gathering of friends. The viewer faces only the television and the uneasy invitation to inhabit the singer’s denial.
The absence of performers becomes the video’s central image. Matthews is heard but never seen, much as the person she addresses exists only through the failure to make contact. The warm momentum of the music presses against the cool television light until the screen returns to its title card at the end, ready to begin the selection again. That reset gives the waiting a circular quality: another call can go unanswered, another chorus can insist that everything is fine, and the machine will remain prepared to repeat the performance.
Watch the lyric video for Tough Luck (When You Don’t Call) below:
Stream “Tough Luck (When You Don’t Call)” across digital services here.
Get Mean began during a period when the continuation of Boy Harsher was far from assured. In early 2024, after years of international touring and increasingly ambitious work across music and film, Matthews and Augustus Muller ended their romantic relationship. The separation followed personal turmoil, family loss, and a creative block that left both the band and the prospect of another album uncertain.
Writing resumed when Matthews took to the road, moving through West Texas, the Pacific Northwest, South Florida, and points between. That unsettled geography became part of the album itself. Described as Boy Harsher’s “road album,”Get Mean was recorded across eight locations in the United States, Mexico, and Italy, gathering cellphone voice notes, environmental recordings, and changing emotional states along the way.
Matthews describes the album as:
“what I had to give during the most extreme period of my life.”
Across its twelve tracks, the duo’s familiar coldwave momentum meets detuned pads, abrasive synth leads, pedal-steel bends, New Romantic guitar, percussive jokes, and unadorned phone recordings. Those additions allow grief and exhaustion to coexist with flirtation, humor, and the possibility of beginning again. The album follows the collapse of one form of intimacy while testing whether another—the creative bond between Matthews and Muller—can survive it.
Get Mean arrives September 18 via Atlantic Records. Pre-order and pre-save the album here.
Matthews and Muller formed Boy Harsher in 2014 after meeting while studying film in Savannah. Their first EP, Lesser Man, began as a small cassette release before “Pain” spread widely online. The duo followed it with Yr Body Is Nothing in 2016, the Country Girl EP in 2017, and Careful in 2019. Their filmmaking background came fully into view with The Runner, the 2022 horror film and accompanying soundtrack that they wrote, produced, directed, and scored.
Their cinematic work continues with The Lonely Woman, their forthcoming feature-length horror thriller starring Chloë Sevigny, FKA twigs, Sturgill Simpson, Will Oldham, and Jake Weary. Boy Harsher are directing the film and providing its score.
Following the release of Get Mean, Boy Harsher will begin an extensive North American headline tour before continuing through Europe and the United Kingdom with support from Choir Boy. The itinerary includes sold-out two-night runs in Chicago and Portland, a sold-out Los Angeles appearance at the Hollywood Palladium, and newly sold-out dates in Denver, Paris, Glasgow, and Bristol.
Lamplight brightened our 2024 with their self-titled debut, recorded with Lightning Bug’s Kevin Copeland and released by Western Vinyl. Now the band, led by Brooklyn/Roanoke musician Ian Williams, is back for another round of what they’re calling creek-steeped folk.
Soundgarden will perform at halftime during the Seattle Seahawks’ season opener against the New England Patriots at Lumen Field next month, with Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless on vocals and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam joining them. It’s a hometown stadium, a hometown supergroup, and about seventy thousand people. It’s also only the fifth time Soundgarden have played since Chris Cornell died in 2017 — and Momsen has now sung at four of them. Most coverage today is treating that as a scheduling detail. It isn’t.
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Scott Penfold gets into the Soundgarden announcement on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily — the halftime slot, the reason it’s always Taylor Momsen, and the album quietly being finished in the background that makes the timing look a lot less accidental. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.
Why it’s always her
Here’s the part that keeps getting left out.
The Pretty Reckless were the opening band on Soundgarden’s 2017 North American tour. That’s the run that ended in Detroit. Momsen wasn’t a fan who got a phone call afterwards — she was on the road with them, nineteen shows deep, when it happened.
She has spoken since about how badly it affected her, and about the years it took to write her way back out of it. The Pretty Reckless album Death By Rock And Roll is, in large part, about that period.
So when Soundgarden have chosen to play — rarely, carefully, and only ever for a reason — she’s the one they’ve asked.
2019: the I Am The Highway tribute at the Forum in Inglewood. She sang “Rusty Cage,” “Drawing Flies” and “Loud Love.” 2022: the Taylor Hawkins tribute at the same venue. She sang “Black Hole Sun.” 2024: the band played a six-song set as Nudedragons at the 1,100-capacity Showbox in Seattle, with local singer Shaina Shepherd out front. The one she wasn’t at. 2025:the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction, where she sang “Rusty Cage” — with Mike McCready.
Four out of five.
And her own framing of it, after the Rock Hall ceremony, is about as simple as it gets: she’s there for anything they want or need. If they call, she’s there. That’s it.
Next month is the fifth, and it’s the same pairing as the Rock Hall — Momsen and McCready together. This isn’t a new idea. It’s the arrangement that already worked, being taken to a much bigger room.
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The thing nobody’s connecting
Now the part that makes the timing interesting.
In May, Kim Thayil confirmed that Soundgarden are “pretty close” to finishing a final studio album — built from material the band were writing and demoing with Cornell before 2017, worked up with producer Terry Date alongside Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd. His description of hearing the tracks fleshed out was blunt and perfect: holy hell, that’s Soundgarden.
So: a final album with Cornell’s last recordings, described as close to done in May. A performance in front of seventy thousand people in their own city in September.
Nobody’s said those two things are linked. But bands don’t take a halftime slot at an NFL stadium for the exposure when they haven’t toured in nine years. They do it when there’s something coming.
Why an NFL stadium isn’t as strange as it sounds
On paper, one of the heaviest bands America ever produced playing between quarters of a football game is a slightly odd fit.
In practice, it’s Seattle.
Soundgarden formed there in 1984 and became one of the architects of the entire grunge movement — Kim Thayil’s chainsaw guitar in avant-garde tunings, Cornell’s four-octave range, and a run of records that took the Sabbath blueprint somewhere genuinely new. Superunknown made them global in 1994 and remains one of the essential pillars of the Seattle sound.
Mike McCready is Pearl Jam. Matt Cameron has been in both bands. The two groups have been intertwined since Temple Of The Dog in 1990. This is a city where the football stadium, the music scene and the civic identity have been the same conversation for thirty years.
They’ve done hometown appearances before, including the SMooCH benefit at the Showbox in 2024, raising money for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Soundgarden formed in 1984 around Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil and Hiro Yamamoto, with Matt Cameron and later Ben Shepherd completing the classic lineup. They split in 1997, reunited in 2010, and released their final album King Animal in 2012.
Cornell was, by any reasonable measure, one of the greatest rock vocalists who ever lived — a range and a control that put him in a category with almost nobody. Alex Van Halen has talked about jam sessions with him and Eddie not long before he died, and about wanting him as Van Halen’s singer.
He died in 2017. The band have played five times since, and every one of those performances has been for a reason rather than for a fee.
That’s the standard this one is being held to.
TL;DR
What’s happening: Soundgarden will perform the halftime slot at the Seattle Seahawks’ season opener against New England at Lumen Field next month.
Who’s playing: the surviving members with Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless on vocals and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam joining — the same pairing that performed “Rusty Cage” at the band’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction.
Why Momsen: The Pretty Reckless were the opening act on Soundgarden’s 2017 North American tour, the run during which Chris Cornell died. She has sung at four of the five performances Soundgarden have given since.
Her position: she’s said she’s there for anything the band want or need, and that if they call, she’s there.
The background: Kim Thayil confirmed in May that a final Soundgarden album built from Cornell’s last recordings is close to complete, worked up with producer Terry Date.
The count: five performances in nine years — the 2019 I Am The Highway tribute, the 2022 Taylor Hawkins tribute, a 2024 Showbox set as Nudedragons, the Rock Hall induction, and now this.
FAQ
When are Soundgarden playing the Seahawks game?
Soundgarden will perform during halftime at the Seattle Seahawks’ NFC West season opener against the New England Patriots at Lumen Field next month. The band will be fronted by Taylor Momsen with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready joining them.
Why does Taylor Momsen sing with Soundgarden?
Her band The Pretty Reckless were the opening act on Soundgarden’s 2017 North American tour, the run during which Chris Cornell died. She has since performed with the surviving members at four of their five appearances, including the I Am The Highway tribute in 2019, the Taylor Hawkins tribute in 2022 and the band’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction. She has said she is available for whatever the band need, whenever they call.
How many times have Soundgarden played since Chris Cornell died?
Five, including this upcoming halftime performance. The others were the I Am The Highway: A Tribute To Chris Cornell show in 2019, the Taylor Hawkins tribute in 2022, a six-song set billed as Nudedragons at Seattle’s Showbox in 2024 with vocalist Shaina Shepherd, and their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction.
Is there a new Soundgarden album coming?
Guitarist Kim Thayil said in May 2026 that the band are “pretty close” to completing a final studio album built from songs Soundgarden were writing and demoing with Chris Cornell before 2017. Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd have been working on the material with producer Terry Date. No release date has been announced.
Four out of five performances, and she’s never once made it about herself. What would you want to hear them play at Lumen Field? Tell us below. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
The two members of the synthpop duo Boy Harsher met in film school, and their last album was the soundtrack for The Runner, a 40-minute short film that the duo made in 2022. Right now, they’re working on their feature-length debut The Lonely Woman, which is set to star Chloë Sevigny, FKA twigs, Sturgill Simpson, and Will Oldham. That’s cool! Before they finish that, though, they’ll release their new album Get Mean, which is also cool.
Arizona thrash institution Flotsam And Jetsam has dropped the official video for “The Edge Of Nowhere,” the third and final single pulled from Rats In The Temple, out August 28, 2026, on Napalm Records. The song opens on eastern-scale tension before the band lets loose, going full sprint into classic thrash territory.
Frontman Eric “A.K.” Knutson broke down the track’s meaning: “‘The Edge Of Nowhere’ is about knowing when to dig your heels into the ground and hold the line.
“We wanted to write a track that made people feel strong when things get tough. Always speak your mind. Even if 9 times out of 10, it takes you nowhere. You never know when you’ll get that one time that pushes you through.”
Closing in on four decades in the game, Flotsam And Jetsam hasn’t slowed down. Recent efforts like The End Of Chaos (2019) and I Am The Weapon (2024) have carried the torch lit by early classics Doomsday For The Deceiver(1986) and No Place For Disgrace (1988) — records that still earn the band festival slots across the globe decades later.
Rats In The Temple comes in swinging, packing 13 tracks steeped in death, abuse, betrayal and war, painting a bleak picture that hits closer to reality than fiction.
Knutson didn’t hold back when describing the record: “This record is a BEAST, truly our best effort to date!! Do yourself a favor. Dim the lights, grab a drink, put the headphones on, and crank this up. You will not be sorry you did!!!”
The current Flotsam And Jetsam roster might be the band’s deepest yet. Knutson remains the anchor, sharpening his delivery album after album, flanked by the guitar tandem of co-founder Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley. Drummer Ken Mary (Alice Cooper, Accept) brings the precision, while bassist Bill Bodily rounds things out as the newest addition, bringing serious technical chops to the low end.
The new record also lands on a milestone: 40 years removed from the band’s debut, Doomsday For The Deceiver — one of a select few albums to ever pull a 6K rating from Kerrang! magazine. Original bassist Jason Newsted exited soon after to join Metallica, but Flotsam And Jetsam didn’t miss a beat, following up with 1988’s No Place For Disgrace. The band has kept building since, with Flotsam And Jetsam, The End Of Chaos, Blood In The Water and I Am The Weapon all landing among its strongest work.
Rats In The Temple kicks off with the stadium-sized hooks of “Harvesting The Hate” and “Damnation” before easing into the technical showcase “Absolution.” Gilbert and Conley‘s guitar interplay conjures grim imagery on “Blame The Knife” and the title track “Rats In The Temple,” then keeps flexing through “The Ghost Behind My Door” and “First On The Spike,” blending old-school thrash with modern bite. “The Edge Of Nowhere” builds tension before exploding straight into “Last Rites,” another highlight. Mary and Bodily drive the anti-war cut “A Taste For War,” their locked-in rhythm work summoning images of tanks rolling forward. “Her Blood Your Pain” brings ornate, near-medieval guitar harmonies, “Anthem For The Broken” goes full throttle, and “Not Going Down That Way” closes things out with heavy riffs and heavier subject matter. Throughout, Rats In The Temple stays gripping, cycling through a wide range of the band’s influences without ever losing its footing.
Rats In The Temple is available to pre-order here.
Chris Reifert is not only a legend of death metal, but it can also easily be argued he’s a co-founder of the entire scene together with Chuck Schuldiner in an early line-up of Death! I will leave such discussion and debate to others and merely comment on the great man’s latest output, no not a new album from death metal gods Autopsy, but prolific side project StaticAbyss. Combining death and doom into a gnarly yet hypnotic grind together with fellow autopsian Greg Wilkiinson (guitar, bass, songwriting, production), a man that Chris himself describes as a “riff writing machine”, this time around Reifert only handles vocals and lyrics and hands the drumming duties over to Chad Gailey (Necrot) who is also an Autopsy live member.
So, after two critically acclaimed albums, third album “The Dying Hunt” starts off as it means to go on with ‘Skull Blasted’ which comes hurtling out of the speakers with a crusty, punk energy that, well, blasts your skull in under 2 minutes! It’s a bit more direct than some of the material we have come to expect, almost harking back to Reifert’s other band, the now defunct Abscess, but sets the rest of the album up perfectly. ‘Lobotomized at Last’ is more standard fair with eerie guitar melodies and crushing riffs. The title-track uses dark, descending melodies superbly, whereas ‘Bleeding in the Fog’ contrasts fast and slow parts to batter you around the head with maximum effect, with some seriously disturbing guitar melodies mixed in for good measure.
One of my favourite tracks is the 5 minute ‘Nowhere Forever’ with its putrid melodic chimes, blast beats and quick as lightning tempo changes. This is followed by the explosive ‘Defleshed and Forlorn’ while the album closes with the epic ‘Darkness at the End of the Light’ brings things to a close in a thoroughly gloomy and morbid conclusion.
The recording is dank and dreary and yet it’s as clear as a bell, with every instrument discernible in the mix, with Greg himself overseeing the recording and mixing process. This is a fabulous album, which I can only describe as like being woken from a nightmarish fever dream by someone using a pneumatic drill on your skull! If you’re waiting for a new album from the Autopsy mothership, then this might just satisfy your craving. My final thoughts; this is a depressingly miserable album, and I love it.
Grey Shores are a duo based in Stockholm, Sweden, fusing post-rock and black metal. The band members are no strangers to the Sweden metal scene, having performed in various local groups since they were teenagers. In 2023, they united to merge atmosphere, melancholy, and extremity into a single unified vision, with Dark Waters of the Night being their debut offering. We’re premiering it before it releases next week.
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Dark Waters of the Night presents an atmospheric and deeply emotional journey, one that is reminiscent of early 2010s blackgaze such as Alcest. Its story is one of opposing elements converging. Sweeping beauty with clean guitars and vocals, backed up expansive melodies, are punctuated by black metal shrieks. The band uses an Ebow to construct passages both graceful and haunting, contrasting the fragility of human emotions and the harsh power of hopelessness, loss, and solastalgia. Gentle interludes allow for a moment of quiet reflection before letting the torrent wash over it all. Dark Waters of the Night is for staring out at the stormy Baltic Sea on a cold, grey Nordic winter evening and wondering what the future has in store.
London indie rockers Neighbour Club are brand new to the game; they only just released their first song “Gold Leaf Girl” last month. But you can already hear that they’ve got a while lot of potential. They play sloppy, fuzzed-out guitar music with a lot of ’90s-style deadpan, and they don’t skimp on hooks or charisma. Next month, they’ll release their first EP, which is called Snail Mail. (Wouldn’t they call it Snail Post in England?) If the EP takes off, Snail Mail will clearly need to make an answer EP called Neighbour Club.
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