“I would start taking Vicodin and get through some days. I kept going and going and going.”

The post Jason Newsted Speaks On Overcoming His Lengthy Painkiller Addiction That Led Him To Exit Metallica appeared first on Theprp.com.

Pulling out my sutures

Pulling out

Let the blood let

For the last time get out now 

Sleep Of Mirrors’ Not My Skin comes slithering out of the Chicago cable-laced gutter with its teeth filed down and its nerves exposed, a bass-driven slab of dark electronic body panic featuring Ronnie Canizaro (Born of Osiris) in a role that may surprise anyone expecting the usual metalworld detonation. Here he sounds less like a frontman trying to split the ceiling and more like a man transmitting from inside the walls, whispering through drywall, steel, dodgy wiring, and whatever awful private chamber keeps producing the self you wake up inside.

The track, from Sleep Of Mirrors’ debut album Crown, out now via Negative Gain Productions, plants Canizaro in a colder habitat: darkwave, electro, dark techno, industrial pressure, and the bruised mechanical glide one might file somewhere between Nine Inch Nails, Front Line Assembly, later Gary Numan, and Ministry at their most bad-tempered. The bassline does the stalking. The electronics scrape and tighten around it. Every element seems greased with hospital antiseptic and club-floor dread, the kind of music that understands the body as equipment, accident, prison, disguise, and evidence.

Not My Skin is about identity as an emergency. The lyrics keep returning to secrecy, blood, sutures, alien flesh, and sightless guilt, as if confession has become a surgical procedure performed without anesthesia. “Don’t tell” becomes less a warning than a reflex, the old instruction of someone trained to bury pain until the burial site starts breathing. When the refrain circles back to “Not my skin” and “Eyeless sin,” the song enters that grim zone where the self feels assigned, assembled, and possibly counterfeit. The ending it imagines is no clean liberation. It feels closer to rupture, panic, and a last exit from a world whose rules have suddenly become unbearable.

Directed and produced by Christopher Lee, with cinematography by Cornelius Kite and Tom Birch, the video pairs band footage filmed at Bourbon on Division with visions of a humanoid body under construction. A synthetic form is pieced together, animated, and left to confront the hideous metaphysical joke of receiving a body before receiving any clear consent to inhabit it. Christopher Lee’s video wall visuals, editing, and post effects push the performance footage into a slickly diseased theater of wires, limbs, screens, and staged resurrection.

Watch the video for Not My Skin below:

Not My Skin lands hard in the sick overlap between the nightclub, the lab, the operating room, and the mirror. Sleep Of Mirrors takes the familiar industrial question of man versus machine and drags it inward, toward the private horror of man versus flesh. By the end, the song feels less performed than extracted.

Listen to Not My Skin below and order the single, out now through Negative Gain Productions, here.

Sleep Of Mirrors spoke with Post-Punk.com about the new single and gave us a little insight into its creation:

Ronnie is known for Born of Osiris. How did he end up on a Sleep Of Mirrors track?

Chris: The answer is that we’re just really good friends.

Danny: Yea, the real story is that we’re homies and it’s organic.

Ronnie: We do music Thursdays. We write music together and we have fun. We’re not trying to be someone we’re not. We like doing what we’re doing.

So this was not a traditional “feature” situation?

Jay: On the surface it might look like we just got Ronnie as a feature, but no, that would be misleading.

Danny: Nothing was planned. It just sort of happened.

Chris. Yea, Ronnie was over, because he’s with us all the time when we’re making songs in the studio.

Ronnie: Yea, I was there and I said, “Let me try a vocal on it.”

What was the first spark for “Not My Skin”?

Danny: It came out as a bass riff first, then I added synthesizers and drums and brought it to Chris.

Chris: Right, similar to most of our songs, Danny comes up with some cool beats, synthesizers, and guitars as the bones, and then we bring them into the studio and rework them into songs that we all want to listen to.

Ronnie, what pulled you into this darker electronic world?

Ronnie: I wouldn’t even know about darkwave without Danny. The more I’m around Danny, Jay, and Chris, the more I have become a fan. Everything Danny shows me, I’m like, “Oh, this is cool. Let’s do something like that.”

People who know your voice from Born of Osiris may expect something more aggressive. What do you want them to know?

Chris: I think if people stumble across it and they know Ron and his music, it’s a completely different side of him. It’s less aggressive and more singing. The lyrical content is still intense, but the vocals are definitely not screaming.

Ronnie: It’s whispery and vibey.

Chris: For the vocal style, we were kinda trying to pull inspiration from Billie Eilish a bit. You can kinda hear that in the verses. Then Ron did a really cool chorus, so we just ran with it.

Jay, what does “Not My Skin” mean lyrically?

Jay: I had written a note about abjection, the ambiguity between a subject and an object. Where does the border of a person end? Is my skin the border of who I am, or is it something that I do in the world? That was the original theme, and then Ronnie took some of the lyric lines and created that punch in the chorus.

Ronnie: I was thinking about not feeling like you’re in or have control of your own body as if you’re being manipulated by the chaos around the world. I feel like I’m surrounded by sin and I’m not in my body. That’s how I was interpreting it.

How did that idea become the video concept?

Chris: Based on the lyrics, we kicked around a handful of concepts. Then there was this idea of, what if Not My Skin is actually a bot that is being built? We originally tried to make a build-a-Ron where he’s the bot at the end. But the AI kept giving him boobs, so we scrapped that and just did a more solid concept. It evolved into this idea of something synthetic coming to life and realizing that this is its skin and it doesn’t know how to feel.

Jay: When Chris was creating the music video, the idea of the bot being synthetic and coming to life just seemed to match organically with the song. From beginning to end, all of it felt like it was in the same world.

Ronnie: I think it’s sick.§

Follow Sleep of Mirrors: 

• Website
• Bandcamp
• Instagram

The post Chicago Dark Electronic Act Sleep of Mirrors Animate the Body in Video for “Not My Skin” — Featuring Ronnie Canizaro (Born of Osiris) appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The Jardani Crow Band The August and the Glorious Review

The track opens with a very intense introduction that blends drums, strings, and piano, creating a traditional, epic atmosphere. This instrumental combination draws the listener into a world filled with mystery. As Michael Wheat’s voice begins to present the melody, the style evokes the essence of the 1990s, with hints reminiscent of Chris Cornell. The musicality here is deeply rooted in American tradition, infused with an Appalachian breeze that settles behind the track, yet is excitingly mixed with an alternative rock vibe.

The song possesses an intensity that speaks of overcoming hardship, functioning as an anthem for moving beyond pain and healing. Significantly, it was completed and mixed after the devastation of Hurricane Helene struck Asheville. This context adds depth to the song, highlighting the determination to rebuild and recover after such a profound event. The desire to start anew after an unspecified yet impactful incident resonates throughout the composition.

The arrangements are excellent, particularly due to Rip Kurtain’s contributions, which complement the duo’s vision. They engaged various musicians from other locations to enhance this beautiful piece, resulting in a refined and powerful track. The transitions involving strings after the four-minute mark are extraordinary, creating a suspended atmosphere conducive to reflection and introspection.

The August and the Glorious – Sound and Atmosphere

Furthermore, the intensity of the song is emphasized by lovely backing vocals and sophisticated arrangements that contribute to its emotional weight. The overall aesthetic is completed with a psychedelic and dreamlike video that enriches the listening experience. This multi-faceted approach showcases the band’s ability to marry traditional influences with modern alternative rock sensibilities.

The Jardani Crow Band successfully captures the complexities of healing through their music. Each element, from instrumentation to lyricism, contributes to an overarching theme of resilience. The reflections on overcoming challenges resonate universally, making it accessible to a diverse audience.

As the instrumental sections unfold, listeners are taken on a journey through varying emotions. The blending of genres highlights the band’s versatility while remaining true to the core of their influences. They manage to strike a balance between nostalgia and innovation.

The August and the Glorious – Performance and Production

The attention to detail in the arrangement and production elevates the experience further. Each layer adds complexity, ensuring that the listener remains engaged throughout. From the stirring instrumental intro to the moving vocal delivery, it is a journey worth taking.

“The August and the Glorious” is an intensely emotional work that pushes boundaries while honoring its roots. The Jardani Crow Band delivers a powerful statement about resilience and rebirth, enveloping it in rich textures and stirring melodies. This single is a commendable addition to the contemporary music landscape.

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Find The Jardani Crow Band here:
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For fans of:

Michael Wheat • Rip Kurtain

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The post The Jardani Crow Band The August and the Glorious Review appeared first on Edgar Allan Poets – Noir Rock Band.

King .

The post King Zebra unveil video for new single “A Love I’ve Never Known” first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

All the world lay at your feet

Does it mean anything

Float a leaf upon the sea

And set off drifting

Octavian Winters turn their gaze upward on By the Stars, a swooning pop ballad that reveals the San Francisco band at its most lush and otherworldly. Released ahead of their appearance at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, and produced once again by William Faith, the single drifts away from the darker angles of Elements of Air into a slower, more spacious form of grandeur. The song moves as if carried by tide and starlight, with toms beating beneath luminous guitar lines and low, patient bass, each element arranged with the care of someone reading a map by candlelight.

Ria Aursjoen’s voice gives the track its immense vertical reach. She seems to draw its horizon wider with each phrase, rising from intimacy into something almost celestial. Around her, Stephan Bryan Salit’s guitar glows in long, fine arcs, Jay Denton’s bass supplies a deep undertow, and Randy Gzebb’s drumming keeps the song moving with the quiet insistence of oars against black water. In its soft majesty, By the Stars brings to mind Strange Boutique, Cocteau Twins, Enya, and a little Mazzy Star, though Octavian Winters treat those references as distant constellations rather than fixed coordinates.

“The song has the feel of a sea voyage,” says Ausjoen. “The images for me were always ones of the vastness of the sky and the sea, and the feeling of the magnificent beauty of the world. The call and answer vocals are like two people calling back and forth across a valley. It’s meant to encompass that feeling of transcendence when you take a meta view of life and of the natural world, and just fall into the beautiful patterns of it all.”

The lyrics look past worldly power toward the vast indifference and mercy of nature. Gold, bones, leaves, sea, stars, and northern lights become images of surrender, as if the self, stripped of possession and certainty, might find release in drifting. The song carries grief without turning heavy, placing human fracture against a sky too immense to answer back.

“The song is symmetrical in 3 parts that are about life stages,” Ausjoen explains. “In the first verse, it says “throw your gold into the sea and set off drifting”, in the middle it’s “float a leaf upon the sea and set off drifting’ and finally “throw your bones into the sea and set off drifting”. It’s about not being afraid, taking the next step, whether that’s when you are young and setting out on your path, or when you are older and shrug off other people’s opinions and follow your own way, or at the end of life when you drift away and let your spirit go.”

“I remember playing an all-ages show in Northern California, looked up mid-song and saw these two young goth girls at the front of the stage with tears streaming down their faces,” recalls drummer Randy Gzebb. “That moment told me everything I needed to know about ‘By the Stars’. You know a song matters when it reaches people like that.”

David Kruschke’s video extends that sense of transport into a strange, theatrical realm. Drawing from the expressionistic grammar of 1910s silent cinema, it begins in stark black and white, with a masked figure presiding over the frame like an antique omen. As the clip passes into full colour, the figure’s authority weakens, and the band appears suspended in another dimension, performing inside a vision where beauty outlasts fear.

Watch the video for By The Stars below:

Octavian Winters have built their reputation on tightly wrought songs that move from moonlit expanse to dark post-punk drive, matched by enveloping live performances. Their 2023 debut EP, The Line or Curve, now leads toward a William Faith-produced sophomore EP, following Wave-Gotik-Treffen and A Murder of Crows, with Absolution ahead.

Listen to By The Stars below and order the single here.

Follow Octavian Winters:

• Website
• Bandcamp
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tiktok
• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Music 

The post San Francisco’s Octavian Winters Gaze Upon the Beauty of Life in Expressionist Video for “By The Stars” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

General Information

Personnel:
gracie

Producer: Austin Davis
Release Date: June 26, 2026
Label: Tooth & Nail Records

Setting the Scene

gracie is the kind of artist who turns the total wreckage of a brutal breakup into catchy, alternative pop rock therapy. Her full length debut LP, Miss Misfortunately, delivers exactly that. It offers an honest and slightly sarcastic look at the aftermath, armed with plenty of angst and a solid rock edge.

First Impression

Listening to this record feels like catching your breath after a really intense argument. It completely catches you off guard. One second you are sitting with these quiet acoustic moments, and the next you are throwing a rebellious pop punk tantrum. The entire album strikes this perfect balance between soft rock sadness and aggressive sing along anthems. It is deeply personal, but it completely drags you into the drama with it.

Similar Sounds

If you’re into any of these artists, this album should be on your radar.

Charlotte SandsLØLØAvril Lavigne

Visual Vibes

The cover art features gracie as a totally unimpressed prom queen rocking choppy blue hair and a sparkly tiara. This sassy portrait perfectly matches the messy breakup energy of the record, serving as a blunt warning for the sarcastic pop punk anthems waiting inside.

Track on Repeat

“Gunpowder”

It starts off pretending to be a calm, vibrant little tune before the drums kick in and it completely explodes into the heaviest track on the album. The vocals absolutely soar carrying lyrics that feel way too relatable, and it wraps up the whole emotional mess with a gorgeous ballad style ending.

In-depth Notes

Musical Shape 🎸

The instrumental structure of this record basically thrives on mood swings. It strikes a perfect balance between soothing acoustic soft rock and heavy pop punk explosions. The arrangements constantly pull a clever bait and switch, starting off with calm, atmospheric guitar riffs before the drums crash in to build the tempo into something much heavier. The guitar work is genuinely great throughout, driving the energy shifts and keeping the melodic beauty intact even when the tracks get louder and more aggressive.

Vocal Performance 🎤

gracie uses her voice like a total emotional weapon on this record. She knows exactly how to bend her delivery to match whatever mood swing the track is currently having. One second her vocals are soaring beautifully over a calm melody, and the next she is practically clenching her teeth through an aggressive pop punk chorus. She perfectly echoes the heavy feelings behind the music, making sure you feel every single ounce of the anger and heartbreak.

Production Quality 🎧

The production on this album completely nails the constant mood swings. It perfectly manages the jump from quiet acoustic moments to full blown rock energy without ever feeling messy or disjointed. Everything sounds incredibly crisp, and the mixing knows exactly when to crank up the guitars to match the emotional damage.

Themes and Concepts 💭

At its core, the album explores the messy and completely chaotic aftermath of a toxic breakup. It is all about navigating the raw emotions of heartbreak and the frustration of dealing with the fallout. This emotional rollercoaster is perfectly mirrored in the music itself. The sudden shifts from quiet acoustic melodies into heavy rock explosions feel exactly like the unpredictable mood swings of trying to get over someone.

Final Verdict

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Miss Misfortunately is a genuinely catchy alternative pop survival guide for your next messy emotional breakdown.

Mood Meter

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Intensity

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Melancholy

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Darkness

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Emotional

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Serenity

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Energy

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Romance

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Joyfulness

Perfect For…

Rethinking your life choices – while staring at the ceiling in your room
Driving – windows closed, singing your heart out along
Working – when a co-worker comes to your desk to show you photos of his kids, turn the VOLUME UP.
Working on Arts – inspirational melodies

Get the Album

Tooth & Nail Records

• Follow

The post Album Review | gracie – “Miss Misfortunately” first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

And not just Stephen.

The post New Idea Society Recruit Converge, Cave In And Old Man Gloom Members For In-Studio “Lantern” Performance appeared first on Theprp.com.

Storm .

The post Storm Force launch title track from upcoming album ‘Truth’ first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

Karen Dió is back to conquer the world that little bit more with her new EP, the follow-up to 2024’s ‘My World’.

Titled ‘Fugaz’, it is set for release on August 21 via Hopeless Records.

The artwork looks like this:

Whilst the tracklisting is more like this:

1. Euphoria
2. Free Yourself
3. Choke
4. Crawling
5. Rat Race
6. Fugaz

You can also check out the first taste of it now in the form of ‘Free Yourself’, a blink-and-miss-it piece of pop-punk brilliance that slams you with bright and breezy positivity and wholehearted joy. It showcases not just Karen’s love for a spiky chorus but also for her music carrying a message that can be lived by. It’s a step up to the plate in a big way and will be lodged in your head almost instantly.

She had this to say about the tune, explaining, “Funnily enough, Free Yourself is a song that I dreamed of. Most of the time I unfortunately forget the songs by the time I’m awake, but I’m glad I remembered this one. Later the same day, I decided to work on it and the melody of the chorus immediately came. When I showed the embryo of it to Matt (Bigland of Dinosaur Pile, Karen’s husband and writing-partner), he immediately was like, ‘That’s a hit!’ so we started to write the rest.

During the whole process of writing Free Yourself we would remind ourselves to be completely free with our creativity and, to be honest, to try being ridiculous sometimes. One of my favourite parts of the song came from an improvisation where I said “Jeans are dangerous,” and Matt thought it was great, but he thought I said “Genes are dangerous.” We loved both quotes, but we decided to go with “Genes are dangerous” because it felt more provocative.”

Karen is set to hit up plenty of festivals in the coming months. Here is where you will be able to see her:

JUNE

27 – ABTSWIND Abgeht die Lutzi Festival

JULY

02 – WERCHTER Rock Werchter Festival
08 – CHELTENHAM 2000trees Festival
10 – MADRID Mad Cool Festival
25 – PLOVDIV Hills of Rock Festival

AUGUST

01 – GRÄNICHEN Open Air Gränichen
06 – GEISELWIND Hütte Rockt Festival
07 – HAMBURG Amplifire Vol. 1 Festival
08 – ESCHWEGE Open Flair Festival
09 – ROTHAUSEN Taubertal Festival
14 – BUDAPEST Sziget Festival
27–29 – TORREMOLINOS Canela Party Festival

SEPTEMBER

04 – COPENHAGEN Omega Festival
07 – GLASGOW King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
08 – MANCHESTER The Deaf Institute
09 – LONDON 100 Club
12 – BRIGHTON Green Door Store

The post Karen Dió Announces New EP ‘Fugaz’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Melrose Avenue are back with another big track, extending their 2026 hot streak, and it finds them toying with the macabre.

Titled ‘Cemetery Friend’, it finds them blending curiously dark tones with frantic pop-rock melodies and metalcore leaning intensity. It further showcases just how chameleon-like the band are, able to master whatever sound or style is put before them, whilst also managing to make it completely their own.

The track also serves as a collaboration with The Funeral Portrait, of which vocalist Vlado Saric explains how they met:

“We met The Funeral Portrait last year whilst out on tour with Ice Nine Kills and there was just an immediate connection that saw us all radiate towards each other. They have this awesome ability to make darkness feel theatrical and when we wrote Cemetery Friend we immediately knew that was what it needed, We essentially wanted this song to feel like a car crash between the 2 acts and we are pretty sure that’s what we’ve achieved here!”

The tune follows on from the previously released ‘Bad Guy’, which sounds like this:

The band are due to take over Europe at the start of 2027 with an extensive tour across the continent. Here are all the dates:

JANUARY

27 – DUBLIN Academy
28 – BELFAST Limelight 2
30 – GLASGOW The Garage
31 – LEEDS The Key Club

FEBRUARY

01 – MANCHESTER Club Academy
03 – BIRMINGHAM Institute2
04 – LONDON Electric Ballroom
06 – UTRECHT TivoliVredenburg Pandora
07 – ANTWERP Kavka Zappa
09 – PARIS Trabendo
10 – COLOGNE Live Music Hall
11 – HAMBURG Gruenspan
12 – COPENHAGEN Hotel Cecil
13 – OSLO John Dee
14 – STOCKHOLM Kollektivet Livet
16 – HELSINKI Tavastia
17 – TAMPERE Olympia
18 – TALLINN Paavli Kultuurivabrik
19 – RIGA Palladium
21 – WARSAW Proxima
22 – BERLIN Columbia Theater
24 – PRAGUE Rock Café
25 – VIENNA Flex
26 – BUDAPEST Analog Music Hall
27 – BOLOGNA Locomotiv Club

MARCH

01 – ZURICH Dynamo
02 – MUNICH Technikum
03 – BARCELONA Razzmatazz 3
05 – MADRID Revilive
07 – LISBON República da Música

The post Melrose Avenue Share Horror-Tinged New Track ‘Cemetery Friend’ appeared first on Rock Sound.