Grohl made his name as the drummer with grunge icons Nirvana, and is now widely known as the singing/guitar playing frontman of rock giants Foo Fighters.
But he still gets behind the kit whenever he gets a chance. Arguably, Grohl’s greatest post-Nirvana drumming work came on the 2002 Queens Of The Stone Age album Songs For The Deaf.
And Homme would likely go along with that, judging by how fondly he talks about his experience of working with Grohl.
In a new, wide-ranging interview with Rick Beato, Homme says: “He’s so easy to play with, it’s kind of – it’s so easy that it’s really addictive. It doesn’t really matter what he sits behind.
“Of course when he sits behind the drums it’s so musical. So whatever you play on a song, he just does it back here and that feels so comfortable.
“You play him a riff and he’ll play that riff back at you on the drums. And then he’ll play a drum counter-melody that would have been a harmony going on, that’s being beaten out of it. That’s where the stuff is so inspiring. It’s sick.
“He does this very strange thing where everything is the same hardness. He can make a floor tom as loud as a snare and I’m always like, ‘what the fuck?’
“Someone could say ‘well he hits them all hard’, except when he’s doing it soft it’s the same too. So there’s this sonic consistency across all boundaries. He can just dial it up and dial it back.”
Some albums hit you immediately. Others take a few listens before you realize they’ve quietly gotten under your skin. “Monarch” manages to do both. It’s an album with weight, tension and plenty of atmosphere, but it never loses sight of the thing that makes rock music work in the first place: feeling. Dead Poet Society […]
L-R – Justin Cournoyer – Bass, Matteo Conti – Guitar and Vocals, Zack Osiris – Drums, Jordan Barillaro – Guitar
Debut Album Pax Nocturna Out Now!
Montreal blackened thrash band Shroud has released a new cover of “Storm of the Reaper”, a fierce tribute to Swedish cult legends Nifelheim and a nod to one of the band’s earliest shared influences. The track arrives as Shroud continues to ride the momentum of their debut album Pax Nocturna, released this past June, and as they prepare to hit the road for their upcoming Canadian tour with Hellripper this coming November.
Shroud’s decision to cover “Storm of the Reaper” comes from deep admiration for Nifelheim’s legacy and the song’s impact on the band’s formation and identity.
“We wanted to pay homage to the legendary Blackened Thrash Metal band Nifelheim from Sweden. Storm of the Reaper is an absolute banger with old‑school heavy metal elements twisted into black metal, and it’s a huge influence on all of us in Shroud. It’s also a nod to lyricist Erik Danielsson, frontman of Watain, another major influence. We perform this live often and wanted to pay it forward with our own spin. It was a major song that Zack Osiris and I, Matteo Conti, bonded over when forming Shroud. Storm of the Reaper is legendary and a staple of Blackened Thrash Metal.”
The band’s rendition stays true to the track’s feral spirit while injecting Shroud’s signature intensity, razor‑edged riffs, venomous vocals, and the raw, ritualistic energy that has defined their rise in Canada’s extreme‑metal underground.
Shroud’s cover arrives on the heels of their debut full‑length Pax Nocturna, a blackened thrash assault praised for its speed, atmosphere, and conceptual depth. The album introduced listeners to the band’s evolving universe of dark, violent, and occult storytelling.
The release of “Storm of the Reaper” sets the stage for Shroud’s upcoming Canadian dates with Scotland’s speed‑metal powerhouse Hellripper for the “Goatkraft & Granite Canada Tour”. Fans can expect Shroud to perform the cover live, where it has already become a crowd igniting staple.
Listen to Shroud‘s cover version of “Storm of the Reaper” at the following links:
Recommended for fans of Watain, Dissection, Hellripper, Skeletonwitch, and Necrophobic.Pax Nocturna released on June 4th, 2026 and is available now on all digital platforms, CD, and vinyl.
Tour Dates: Hellripper w/ Shroud: Nov 25 – Montreal, QC – Piranha Bar Nov 26 – Quebec City, QC – La Source De La Martiniere Nov 27 – Ottawa, ON – Dominion Tavern (Capital Punishment Festival) Nov 28 – Toronto, ON – Supermarket Bar & Variety
Track Listing: 1. Pax Nocturna (0:43) 2. The Eternal Void (5:09) 3. The Zealot (5:15) 4. Merciless Tyrants (5:59) 5. Darkest Night (4:45) 6. Diablivion (5:28) 7. Death Blows Over (4:18) 8. All Creation (5:29) 9. Abaddon (7:55) Album Length: 45:05
Album and Live Band lineup: Matteo Conti – Guitar and Vocals Jordan Barillaro – Guitar Zack Osiris – Drums Justin Cournoyer – Bass
Album Recording Credits:
All songs performed by: Matteo Conti, Zack Osiris, Jordan Barillaro, Justin Cournoyer
All songs written by: Matteo Conti and Zack Osiris
“Fireball, the whisky… I’ll take a shot or two before we play.” Piper Ferrari, singer for Las Vegas hardcore howlers Roman Candle, has an unconventional warm-up routine. “Any other liquor, my throat would be fucked up. But Fireball is thick like cough syrup. I swear by it!”
It’s clearly doing the trick, because the snarls Piper unleashes in Roman Candle are as harrowing as it gets. Piper formed the group with guitarist Jonas Vece in 2022, after the pair’s “shitty bedroom band” fell apart. That same year they dropped Discount Fireworks, their debut EP coated in erratic drum strikes and ferocious screamo.
“There wasn’t always a vision,” Piper admits. “We just wanted to keep making music together, writing music we liked listening to – late 90s/early 2000s hardcore, metalcore, pop… the stuff we grew up on.”
Word quickly got out about their killer, retro-tinged sound. But rather than rushing an album out, they spent time perfecting their style, adding other flavours including nu metal and even symphonic metal, all of which pop up on their freshly released debut, Unadulterated.
“Jonas owns a studio outside Vegas, which is both good and bad,” Piper muses. “It took us a few years to write an album, because we were being so particular and crazy about it.”
It was clearly worth the effort. As easy as it is to point to their obliterating blastbeats and hellish vocals, there are also some surprising left-turns on Unadulterated. Take opener Blasphemous Act, which uses cinematic cello strings played by Piper herself.
“My favourite band growing up was Evanescence. They’re all about that [symphonic stuff],” she muses. “They’ve got the strings, the orchestra, the opera. I think those elements are very medieval, very gothic and so is a lot of heavy music. I love that bands are bringing that [classical influence] back.”
Unadulterated is out now via Sumerian.
SOUNDS LIKE: Feral female rage with monstrous hooks FOR FANS OF: Casey, Dying Wish, Touché Amoré
Connecticut metal band Dystopica have released their new EP, The Worst In Me, via Pavement Entertainment. The six track collection blends classic heavy metal influences with modern styles. Thematically, the project explores the concept of confronting personal flaws and negative internal traits.
Alongside the EP release, the group has premiered a new music video for the song “I Will Win This War.” The track focuses on resilience and fighting against inner turmoil. Edited by Peter Jones Torregrosa and filmed at The H.I.P. Studios in Bridgeport, the video uses visual imagery of static televisions and a prison cell to represent the feeling of being confined by mental pressure and constant noise.
The new release follows the chart success of their previous album Infinite Reflection and their earlier EP Semblance of Order. The band has built a steady live presence in the heavy music scene, sharing the stage with major acts like Gojira, Machine Head, and I Prevail.
