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Welcome to Fresh Meat, where we hand the mic to bands you should know before everybody else does. This round: Waking the Sleeper, a female-fronted alternative metal band out of Wichita, Kansas whose new concept album Frequencies assigns each of its eleven songs a different frequency, a different chakra and a different color — then hides that frequency’s number in Morse code inside the song’s intro. Yeah. We had questions too.

Eleven Songs. Eleven Frequencies. One Very Deliberate Record.

Most concept albums are a loose theme and a cool cover. This is something else.

Every song on Frequencies is anchored to a specific frequency, and the musical introduction for each one is composed around that frequency’s prime note. Hidden inside those intros is the Morse code representation of the frequency’s number — which the band is upfront about not being a puzzle with a prize at the end. It’s just another layer, sitting there for anyone listening closely enough to catch it.

The frequencies themselves come from the solfeggio scale, the tones long associated in alternative wellness circles with healing and balance. Waking the Sleeper mapped them to chakras and colors and used them as the emotional architecture of the record:

“Fadin” — 528 Hz (Yellow / Solar Plexus) — the so-called Miracle Tone. Rock bottom. The weight of everything pressing down, and the pulse that survives it anyway. Features Will Akin on bass.

“Rat In A Cage (Revisited)” — 741 Hz (Blue / Throat) — expression and clarity. The moment you realize the cage was never locked from the outside. Features Miss Elizabeth on co-vocals and keys.

“Shattered” — 396 Hz (Red / Root) — liberation from fear. Everything you knew about yourself falls apart and you’re standing in the wreckage. Features Seth Williams on lead guitar.

“Fly” — 417 Hz (Orange / Sacral) — change and transformation. The first breath of freedom after the fall.

“Beautiful Disaster” — 963 Hz (Violet / Crown) — pain turned into power. Scars worn on purpose.

“Sleep Into The Void” — 432 Hz (Peach / Earth) — the frequency of nature. Surrender, silence, and facing the unknown.

“Awake Into The Void” — 852 Hz (Purple / Third Eye) — clarity. The eyes open, the veil lifts.

“Struggle Within” — 174 Hz (Pink / Healing) — grounding and pain relief. The battle nobody else sees.

“War Cry” — 639 Hz (Green / Heart) — connection and unity. The call to rise.

“Pieces” — 285 Hz (Light Blue / Restoration) — regeneration. Gathering what’s left and rebuilding.

“1111” — 1111 Hz (White & Silver / Beyond The Crown) — the master frequency. The circle closes. Raven Le Rouge on lead vocal.

Read that list again and look at the arc: rock bottom, breaking, choosing to rise, surrender, awakening, healing, unity, rebuilding, completion. That’s not eleven songs thrown at a wall. That’s a story with a spine.

Their own line for it: music isn’t simply meant to be heard, it’s meant to be discovered. Most bands put that on a t-shirt. These guys built a record around it.

Who Are These People?

Waking the Sleeper formed in Wichita back in 2017, fronted by vocalist Raven Le Rouge, with Miss Elizabeth on keys and co-vocals, Seth Williams on lead guitar and Will Akin on bass. The sound is a fusion — melodic metalcore bones, hard rock accessibility, cinematic scope, and enough theatrical production that their live show is built to walk you through each song’s story rather than just blast it at you.

And they’ve earned their stripes the way you’re supposed to: on the road. Nineteen U.S. states so far. Stages shared with Drowning Pool, Otep, Dope, Combichrist, Sick Puppies and September Mourning. Festival sets at Rocklahoma’s Darkside Stage across 2017, 2018 and 2019, plus Metal in the Mountains and Blue Ridge Rock Festival. That’s not a bedroom project with a Bandcamp page. That’s a working band with a decade of dues behind them.

This also isn’t their first swing at a concept record. Their 2018 debut, 7 Deadly Sins, was a full concept album that got re-released through The Orchard in 2024, and its singles “Wrath” and “Greed” charted internationally. So when they say Frequencies was designed rather than assembled, there’s a track record backing it up.

Why This Belongs In Fresh Meat

Look — we cover a lot of bands. Most press kits say the same six things: heavy, personal, unlike anything you’ve heard. Fine. Whatever. Then something like this lands and you actually sit up.

The truth is that heavy music’s return to the mainstream has been powered by bands willing to build worlds instead of just writing songs. Sleep Token did it with mythology. Ghost did it with theater. Waking the Sleeper is doing it with a frequency map and hidden code, out of Wichita, on an indie label, with nobody’s permission.

Does a record like this ask more of you than a four-song EP? Obviously. Is that a bad thing? We’d argue the exact opposite. If you’re the kind of listener who reads liner notes, digs through Reddit threads about album lore, and gets genuinely fired up about the moment a breakdown lands exactly where it should, this record is built specifically for your brain.

Frequencies is out now via Rock Avenue Records USA, distributed by The Orchard. Go find the code. And if you want more bands worth getting in early on, our rising stars to watch list is a good next stop — same energy, different rooms.

TL;DR

• Waking the Sleeper are a female-fronted alternative metal band from Wichita, Kansas, formed in 2017 and signed to Rock Avenue Records USA.
• Their concept album Frequencies dropped July 8, 2026, distributed by The Orchard.
• The album’s eleven songs are each tuned to a different solfeggio frequency, paired with a chakra and a color: “Fadin” (528), “Rat In A Cage (Revisited)” (741), “Shattered” (396), “Fly” (417), “Beautiful Disaster” (963), “Sleep Into The Void” (432), “Awake Into The Void” (852), “Struggle Within” (174), “War Cry” (639), “Pieces” (285) and “1111.”
• Each intro is composed around the prime note of its frequency, with that frequency’s number hidden inside in Morse code.
• The band has played 19 U.S. states alongside Drowning Pool, Otep, Dope and Combichrist, with festival sets at Rocklahoma, Metal in the Mountains and Blue Ridge Rock Festival.

FAQ

Alright, Loaded Radio family — go hit play on Frequencies and tell us what you think, and if you catch the Morse code in an intro, we want to know which track cracked first. Drop it in the comments, and follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.

The post Waking The Sleeper Release Frequencies — A Concept Album Where All 11 Songs Are Tuned To A Different Healing Frequency, With Morse Code Hidden Inside Every Intro appeared first on Loaded Radio.

Swedish heavy metal ensemble Watcher are streaming a new song, “Chalice Of Light”, as part of their forthcoming sophomore album Mistress Of Our Time, due out September 25th via Dying Victims Productions.
Read more…

And he and Knocked Loose will be giving a live debut to “Hive Mind” this week.

The post Denzel Curry Says He Is “Flirting With The Idea Of Creating A Hardcore Tape”; Free Brooklyn Show With Knocked Loose Announced appeared first on Theprp.com.

The Smashing Pumpkins are set to return to Chicago’s Lollapalooza this Friday, July 31, headlining the festival in their hometown for the first time since appearing on the original traveling edition of Lollapalooza in 1994.

To mark the occasion, the band has put together a series of fan-focused events across Chicago under the banner “Pumpkinpalooza.” The schedule includes a special club show, exclusive merchandise, themed attractions and other activities leading into their festival performance.

The celebration begins on July 29 with a sold-out concert at the historic Riviera Theatre in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. With a capacity of around 2,500, the venue offers a much more intimate setting than the band’s upcoming Lollapalooza appearance, giving fans a chance to hear material from throughout The Smashing Pumpkins‘ catalog in a smaller room.

From July 29 through July 31, the band will also operate a merchandise pop-up store at 900 S. Wabash Ave., just a short distance from Grant Park. The location will be open daily between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Festival attendees can also stop by Madame Zuzu’s Celestial Lounge, an extension of Billy Corgan and Chloé Mendel Corgan‘s Highland Park teahouse. The space will feature matcha, vinyl records, exclusive merchandise, and other items. Elsewhere in the city, Chicago cocktail bar The Aviary will offer a limited-edition drink called Infinite Mellons to celebrate the band’s return to Lollapalooza.

Billy Corgan says: “As a Chicagoan, born and raised, I take great pride in contributing to our city’s immense and colorful cultural fabric. And so this year’s already historic Lollapalooza is that chance to make new memories, new friends, and have a bit of Midwest fun, too, as only we might.”

The Chicago events continue a busy period for The Smashing Pumpkins, following last year’s 30th anniversary celebration of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The milestone included a deluxe vinyl reissue featuring previously unreleased live recordings, orchestral performances with the Lyric Opera Of Chicago, and collaborations with Vosges Haut-Chocolat and Erewhon.

Following Lollapalooza, the band will head out on The Rats In A Cage tour, which runs from September through November. The shows will feature two different sets: one centered on Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and another spanning nearly four decades of the band’s career, mixing major songs with deeper cuts.

Formed in Chicago in 1988, The Smashing Pumpkins have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and remain one of alternative rock’s defining acts. Their catalog includes releases such as Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Adore, Machina/The Machines Of God, Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., Cyr, Atum and 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei.

The latest album reunited the signature guitar-driven approach associated with the band’s early work, with Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin and James Iha continuing to build on a catalog that has influenced generations of alternative and heavy rock musicians.

The post THE SMASHING PUMPKINS Announce “Pumpkinpalooza” Events Ahead of Lollapalooza Homecoming appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O’Connor has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. The allegations were made over the weekend on Reddit with screenshots showing the musician sending a sexually explicit meme and a suggestive message about the 16-year-old fan’s “bikini pics.” He has since acknowledged the allegations, saying he had mistaken the account for someone else.

The post Modest Mouse Guitarist Addresses Allegations Of Sending Inappropriate Messages To Minor appeared first on Stereogum.

Album Review: Nothingness – Godslaughter

Reviewed by Sam Jones

Our latest record to look upon is Nothingness’ third full length: Godslaughter. Formed in 2018 out of Minneapolis, United States, following the release of their 2019 debut album The Hollow Gaze Of Death, the band have enjoyed a slew of releases as per the last couple of years. With Singles preparing audiences for their 2023 sophomore album Supraliminal the band enjoyed a new wealth of fans in their midst and, with another batch of Singles released earlier this year, Nothingness seek to do the same again with Godslaughter come its July 31st release date. Returning once more alongside Everlasting Spew Records and featuring grotesquely vibrant art by Adam Yates, Godslaughter looks set to be another punishing release from the band.

Many bands would use an introductory piece or provide something lengthy to give audiences an extensive idea of what their record is all about: Nothingness launch into a track less than two minutes long with tone and virility akin to repeatedly dropping cinderblocks on your face. The guitar tone is enormous, you can feel the encompassing scale their riffs possess. What is curious however is whilst the band play at speed, where drums keep the pace rolling and momentum is continuously kicked up, the riffs with their spatial mass seemingly ground the record as a weight. As a result your attention will never leave their songwriting or what they’re looking to do next because the guitar work is so monstrously heavy. There’s no chance the band will take flight herein, they’ve been given one hell of a paperweight.

The guitar work may be a dominant feature throughout this record but thankfully Nothingness did their time during the mixing process, for the drums still bleed through with another audibility you can follow their developing movements.in addition things like blast beats and the subtler cymbal strikes are just as noticeable. A less keenly aware band would have thrown all their weight and hopes behind the guitar playing alone, so to acknowledge the drums at all behind such a deluge of tone is noteworthy. As drums are struck you can feel the split second resonance emitted as the skin, demonstrated as taut, blows out and through the track you’re presently experiencing. Instrumentally it’s this subvert of drums and riffs that delivers the crux of Nothingness’ rabid fervour in this instance.

Supraliminal was a quality step forth for Nothingness but I feel like Godslaughter will be looked back on with delight given the band’s heightened rampancy embedded within the songwriting. In an off comparison it reminds me of Pantera in the 90s, where the band just kept going heavier and heavier until they reached a state of power fans of the time hadn’t dared believe the band were capable of; that is where Nothingness are now. It’s like they looked on their last album and thought, and knew, they could go one further resulting in an unapologetically blunt, utterly unrepentant record. There is hardly a barrier between yourself and the songwriting for the band have stripped any niceties back to give you songwriting at its most primal and hideous.

In line with the band going one step further we must discuss the vocals. Where Nothingness’ vocals have always been great they’ve been taken to that next degree of savagery; they’re heavier, filthier, wilder, they’re the most merciless and sure of death they’ve ever been. I couldn’t think of a more apt vocal performance for such a belligerent record. There are sequences where frontman Barclay Olson strings numerous techniques together to create this successive train of slaughter; there are only a handful of instances where his vocals aren’t in play so not only are you bludgeoned by the band’s instrumental brutality, but your nerves and sinews are constantly torn and ravaged by a vocal delivery that refuses to cease. It certainly underlines the feeling that escaping the band is a bygone dream.

In conclusion, Godslaughter is as ruthless as its namesake would suggest. I feel like Nothingness have now reached a new and punishing level in their career, as I would be more than happy to see future releases by the band in line with Godslaughter’s crushing strength. If their last releases have been strong stepping stones then Godslaughter sees Nothingness truly arrive into the world metal stage as a legitimate presence in today’s extreme metal. It’s the kind of record you’ll put on for a burst of seething and unquantifiable violence. Yet as heavy as it is it’s never so total you can’t follow the band’s direction or feel like their performance feels lost on you. Nothingness have arrived in earnest.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Album Review: Nothingness – Godslaughter appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Stops are planned in October and November.

The post Signs Of The Swarm Announce Northeastern Shows With The Last Ten Seconds Of Life appeared first on Theprp.com.

Appalachian Mountains rock artist The Follower of Christ has just released their newest single "Betrayed with a Kiss". The project is completely self-produced, with all writing, mixing, and mastering being done independently. The song explores Christian ideologies within the story of Judas, alongside betrayal and spiritual compromise.

The band states on the song:

“How much will people sacrifice for power? For status? For acceptance? For material gain? How much truth will be exchanged for the temporary rewards of this world?”

Review:

The song introduces itself with powerful guitar chugs and a funky synth bass, as impactful drums and singing show one musician playing all instruments and performing vocals by himself. A dramatic, hard rock / heavy metal sound is quickly built as dark guitar builds a powerful sound. Clean guitar layers over the heavy guitar and vocals in a way that, at first listen, felt almost dissonant but after a few spins started to feel more natural. Singing vocals are contrasted by occasional distant screams to add a sense of edge.

In the song's bridge, modulated synths add a unique sound as clean guitar solos are matched by distorted heavy guitar chugging before full-intensity screaming is introduced for the first time in the song. The heavy vocals were a nice surprise that was unexpected at the end of the track.

Overall, I think The Follower of Christ creates a well-done song, with impressive production for a one-man band. My biggest critique would be that the song can feel a little one-dimensional, as the same two guitar tones and synth tones are used throughout the whole song, and the vocals remain mostly the same throughout the song until the very end. I think the music could benefit from an increased sense of dynamics with more intense changes between sections, and I'd love to see the screaming vocals foreshadowed earlier in the song rather than only featured once at the very end. The sound feels unique but doesn't feel like it grows or evolves significantly in it's runtime, which a longer than average song (4+ minutes) should try to do. Besides that, "Betrayed with a Kiss" is a well-executed track and I enjoyed the interesting synth modulation in the bridge and the studio-style music video.

Fans of Christian music, heavy metal, and rock should check out The Follower of Christ's music and official video below!

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Find Them Here: Spotify | Instagram |

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Album Review: Tabernakel – Scheintaufe

Reviewed by Eric Clifford

Tabernakel put me in an awkward spot. Their flensed-to-the-viscera approach takes such obvious joy in delivering nasty, stripped down early 90’s black metal that it’s hard not to appreciate. But on the other hand, Christ if it doesn’t sound a lot like Darkthrone, uprooted and planted in Germanic soil. It’s the trve Norwegian vintage served in a beerstein, and that much is hinted at simply by a glance at the obviously Darkthrone-inspired logo that Tabernakel roll with. Maybe that’s unfair – on it’s own merits “Scheintaufe” (“Mock Baptism” in English) contains enough Teutonic sacrilege to satisfy the even the most grim and frostbitten of us. Still. It would be nice to hear a bit more of Tabernakel’s own personality sneaking between the charred timbers of the churches it puts to the torch.

Predictable as it may be, there’s a reason why raw, buzzing guitars, booming drums and raspy shrieks became tropes in the first place – it’s because they sound fucking awesome. As such, when “Sanguis” hammers into it’s blastbeats over a classic black thrash riff at 1.12 there’s no sense in pretending that I wasn’t loving life. Propulsive percussion whips the cascade of “Blood, Fire, Death” doppelganger strummed riffs to a march ahead of it, and high string tremolo lines like starving barracudas slip ravenous through the murk of the production job. At it’s strongest, Tabernakel’s clandestine séance summons in that same evil magic that suffused those same 2nd wave classics. Grimy and atavistic, it prioritises mood and atmosphere with salvos of simple but malfeasant power chord progressions and augmentations, slithering minor key melodies and a harsh, confrontational production. It’s quite spartan in some ways – a man, some drums, a bass, a guitar, and some serious emotional difficulties, and out pops “Im Nebel” – a snapping, deceptively melodic slice of treble-forward Prussian profanity built around tremolo-picked arpeggios and kick-snare beats that fire off like counterpunches. It is, in a nutshell, old school black metal as fuck.

Besides it’s growth-limiting adherence to the fundamental tenets of the genre, the other main flaw comes as much as a product of it being a one man project as anything else – an occasional struggle to self edit. This album is on the whole good stuff for sure, but even so the longer songs can feel a bit adrift in search of a destination sometimes. If comparatively brief tracks like “Wie Die Gischt” impress with cruel harmonies and devilish swaps between fast and slow sections, then longer tracks like “Schlussel zum Sanktum” dull their edge with lengthy acoustic sections or decent but derivative mid-paced strumming. The album is long enough that being a bit more severe about what wound up on the cutting room floor wouldn’t have been a crime. The synth interlude “Trugbild des Selbst” isn’t unendurable, but nor is it enthralling, relying on basic textures and progressions for four minutes at somnolent pace. Perhaps an interlude was in order but this one is far too average to deserve being stapled into the tracklist.

The crux of it is that A Blaze in the German Sky can be very enjoyable, but it’s also incapable of surprising you and comes with a little basket of compositional foibles to boot. It evokes a nostalgic vibe and mostly does justice to it, but a harsher stance on the editing process and a bit more imagination would’ve done it the world of good. This being Tabernakel’s second album within the space of a year the project seems to have a fair bit of creative vim to it, so hopefully for round 3 we see this same magnificent old school black metal taken to more uncharted waters.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Album Review: Tabernakel – Scheintaufe appeared first on The Razor's Edge.