Blog

Where they from?
Besancon, France and Fort Wayne, Indiana. I went to the Knicks’ championship parade last week. I didn’t see any players or coaches but I did see a bunch of teens drinking White Claws while standing atop a cop car with the window smashed in, so I basically got the gist of it.

Why the hype?
Normally I only cover one side of a split as to maximize exposure for whatever band I’m highlighting but the new split EP is so damn good for both of these bands I decided to cover them both for a Blast Worship first! Whoresnation are one of my favorite European grindcore outfits, combining the precision of Insect Warfare with the absolute animalistic approach of fellow countrymen Warfuck into an all out metallic-assault. Nak’ay are likewise one of the top American bands right now, slightly more raw in their approach but very much as hard-hitting and eviscerating.

Latest release?
Split EP, Lixiviat Records. You might as well put this one down as split of the year unless, I don’t know, Agoraphobic Nosebleed decide to come out of retirement or something. Fourteen songs in 17 minutes, all purebred razor-grindage from two of the world’s current best right now. Perfect soundtrack to drink alcoholic seltzers on a dilapidated police vehicle.

The post Blast Worship: Whoresnation/Nak’ay appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Right now, two extremely different ’90s music stars are in Wales, hard at work in production on a new movie from the Welsh director Jamie Adams. Kylie Minogue and the RZA are set to star in Tangled Up In Blue. It’s obviously named after a classic Bob Dylan song from 1975, and its cast also includes RZA’s buddy Quentin Tarantino. We can only hope for Minogue to record a RZA-produced Dylan cover for the soundtrack.

The post Kylie Minogue, RZA, & Quentin Tarantino Starring In New Movie <em>Tangled Up In Blue</em> appeared first on Stereogum.

Khemmis are back with their self-titled fifth record, one that has taken a little longer than the doom metal band’s standard output, but considering the global landscape at the time of their last record, Deceiver, this feels natural. There’s plenty going on with Khemmis, from the harmonizing on “Gilded Chambers” to the emphasized dichotomy of vocal styles on “Corpsegloom Garden” to the flash and flourish of a song referred to as the band’s mission statement, “Invocation of the Dreamer.” 

I spoke with guitarist and vocalist Phil Pendergast about the time period before this recording and what the logistics were like, the band’s search for a new touring bassist and how that affected Khemmis, the intricacies of the album’s artwork and what connects it to previous albums, and there was even time to discuss tour plans and what the first few months into next year would bear for them. Read it below, and get cozy with the new album. 

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One thing I’ve noticed about Khemmis, first and foremost, was that the amount of time between it and Deceiver was the longest gap you have had to this point. Was Deceiver another casualty of Covid where it was released later, so that there was a better chance for some traction?

We wrote and recorded the album when Covid started. We wrote the whole thing in 2020 and recorded it at the tail end of 2020, then it came out later in 2021. It was a really difficult album as our bassist Dan (Beiers) left the band right before recording. It led to us digging into some dark emotional places while writing that record. We were in the worst mental health of our lives during that period. So, there were a lot of reasons for that period to feel like a bit of a black hole for us. I am really proud of that record as it sounds like the feeling of living during that time period. It’s an album indicative of the conditions under which we made it. It feels like a very 2020 record.

Logistically, it was hard to do the things you normally want to do with an album. We had some tour plans for that year that we ultimately had to scrap because there really wasn’t really an industry, and we spent a lot of time trying to play catch-up on trying to promote the record after that. We ended up doing a few high-profile tours and some headlining stuff after that; we were on the road for the better part of the next two to three years. We went out with Mastodon, Opeth, and Trivium as well as to Europe. To me, it feels like a normal amount of time between records. I would expect that you would see a new record from us in a typical amount of time for the next one, considering the circumstances have changed significantly. 

We had to find a new bass player and Zach (Coleman) and I moved to other sides of the country. Not because we hate each other, but we are all experiencing all these life transitions. I started a new career and it has been a period of change for us and we are in a much better place, current events notwithstanding. In terms of the band, we are in, maybe, the best place we have been ever; we want to push ahead with some of this momentum.

One of the things that has always stood out to me has been the choices made for different album artwork. What is the significance of the helmet on the cover? What, if anything, stands out on Khemmis’ art?

There is a lot behind it. I try not to be too transparent about it, because it might take away some of the fun. Some of my most interesting interactions with fans have to do with the artwork arc and people’s takes on it. Despite looking aesthetically different, it still fits with the established characters from previous works and continues that story. 

The helmet you point out has spikes within it and if you look closely, the woman on the front cover has some scarring on her face from wearing it. This is a piece of armor that is protective yet also harms her. It is a theme we get across the album, the different ways we try to control and protect ourselves, yet it ends up doing us harm; a pretty literal metaphor. We do so many things out of protection in this world and they still come back to do immense harm to us. The idea with this album art is that the more you listen to the album, you will see different elements reveal themselves to you. 

On the back of the record, there are some black candles and one is blown out with smoke rising from it. In the first song’s first line is “Conjuring a fevered delusion, that black candles reveal,” then, on the record, I blow out a candle right there. There are lots of little tie-ins for you to find. 

I feel like your playing on record has improved. On the album opener “Invocation of the Dreamer,” something that I noticed is that the guitar playing is a little flashier this time around.

We wanted that first track to be like a statement for us. It sounds the least like Khemmis than other tracks on the album. We wanted to get people’s attention and have them think, “Goddamn, they sound so reenergized, trying to push themselves, delivering on what they do, but better than ever.” That was the mission statement for us this time around.

That first track was a new way for us to play Khemmis riffs that never quite end up sounding the way they did before. The opening riff was black metal inspired and the first verse riff was a Kreator-esque thrash-inspired one. The chorus on that one is much darker melodically and evil than we usually do, in terms of the harmonic structure. 

There were lots of things on that song in particular that had us thinking, “What if we push everything we do one step further than what people are expecting”? It was pretty deliberate on our part. The harmonized guitar parts are a little more than we usually do. There were times also that we tried to let the music meet the rhythm of the song correctly. Let the rhythm section breathe and then layer the guitars so that it becomes more about texture and vibes and not just flashiness. 

Sometimes flashiness can feel tacked onto a record. It felt more natural within the confines of the songs itself.

We were finding new ways to push these songs further in some different directions than we have done before. It could have been time or confidence as to why not to this point. We were trying to do everything better in all directions.

To the outside observer, someone who doesn’t know the band well, might think of you guys as a doomy heavy metal band, which is both right and wrong. There certainly is a lot of that foundation there. I also noticed that the harsh vocals were emphasized this time around.

It has sort of been on and off the whole time, and with Absolution, we were not performing them as well, probably because we had to make that record in a week and weren’t as dialed in. We have always tried to use them as a songwriting element to provide a counterpoint to the main narrative, so they offer a second perspective but aren’t tacked on to just be there. Over time we have gotten better about letting the music dictate where the vocals would be most effective. 

We never even have to talk about what the vocal arrangement would look like, it gets written by the music and we just follow along. They are the best they have ever been and Ben (Hutcherson)’s harsh vocals have gotten really good. I think his confidence on this record is a lot higher. On previous records, we did a lot of layering with the heavy vocals, but this time around it is just one set of heavy vocals. That takes a lot of confidence to commit to that being what it is. The approach to vocals on this record is a lot less doctored up, instead being more organic.

It feels like a man on his own with the heavy vocals. You get a good amount of harmonization with the cleans. I try to think of bands in a similar vein to you guys like Crypt Sermon and the final Spirit Adrift record. There is a good cross-section of doom and heavy this time around and those other bands cover similar territory, but remain unique unto themselves. 

I think some of these other bands actually started around the same time without knowledge of each other existing; all different flavors. We have always been the most classic rock inspired of those bands and maybe also the ones pushing extreme metal the hardest; black and death metal. Nate from Spirit Adrift was always doing more ‘80s heavy metal and we have incorporated that, but we have usually been ‘70s Judas Priest, southern rock, then extreme metal afterwards. Crypt Sermon have been doing more of the traditional doom in their own way with Dio-inspired vocals. Everybody in this scene are great people. Can’t forget the Pallbearer guys either.

Of course, that’s another branch to that tree as well.

Those guys inhabit that ‘90s wave of doom like Anathema and Solstice and a deep devotion to ‘70s prog. Each of those bands are doing something effective with songwriting. That’s a pretty remarkable run for all these bands in a 10-year span of putting out records. I think for us, we have never felt the need to compete with those guys, much like the Denver doom scene we came up in, bands following their own inspiration and nobody is giving you shit, instead being supportive and seeing what these guys are doing next. 

It has been a great time to be making this kind of music. Maybe people who step away from death metal or hardcore will gravitate to our style. Maybe people who are now in their 20s will get sad and, in their mid-to-late 30s, dive into doom. 

You mentioned ‘70s Priest as an influence. What album or songs in particular would you say have been the most integral to the band?

My favorite period was from Sad Wings to Stained Class and, of those, I think maybe Sin After Sin is my favorite. What I love about it is how transitional it is. They were exploring things that no band before them had to do in such a successful way that laid the foundation for what heavy metal was to become. They were such champions for what they were doing. Doing it with such confidence, and that one seed planted the tree of heavy metal. I don’t think there is another band that does that nor was there another period of that band that does that. 

The freedom they got to experiment with, writing songs like “Dissident Aggressor,” which was really aggressive for that period and a crazy drum intro for a song. We did that on “Gilded Chambers” for this record in our own way. “Sinner” has a cool progressive song structure with this amazing climax at the end. So many cool moments between those two tracks, which bookend the album. Exploring all the textures of prog and psychedelic rock, plus folk music on “Diamonds and Rust.” Anytime I need to feel inspired, I go back and listen to those records and find something new. I can feel my own musical tastes can be expressed through that metallic lens. It was very inspirational. I want to feel like we did it our own way whenever we decide to hang things up.

That was the traditional side for you guys. What would you say works on the extreme side for you? 

The records that we all have in common are relatively few, which makes for more diversity. We view that as a strength. On the black metal side, we have Zach, who was a cult worshipper of black metal, so De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas would be the pinnacle for him. We also have Ben who loves black metal, but a different flavor, like the early American style. For example, Weakling. It’s the same genre, but very different sounding. I really like the first Massacre record and Shades of God-era Paradise Lost, but we all share the first few Celtic Frost records. We all have a great appreciation of someone establishing something, but I also like transitional records from bands similar to us. Neurosis, Yob, High on Fire and Sleep are also huge for all of us.

I see us as a band like High on Fire, since their first record was a more aggressive version of Sleep, but then the whole time they are just doing whatever they want to do.

What does the rest of 2026 look like for the band?

Pretty busy. We are touring in the US early and late summer, then Europe for a few weeks in the fall. 2027 is still shaping up, but it’s still early. The diversity for what songs people like on this record is more varied than it has ever been. I have heard every song listed to this point. I feel very excited about this record. 

We are feeling inspired to keep the creative energy flowing to write the next one, as we had a few songs that we were working on that weren’t in the same vein as this record. We are going to start to build out what the next record will sound like. The ideas are there. 

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Khemmis is available now via Nuclear Blast.

Last month, Tame Impala scored their (his?) first-ever top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, a truly stunning success. Last year’s track “Dracula” was already Kevin Parker’s first Hot 100 hit, and now the remix with Jennie from BlackPink is a full-on global summer jam that sits at #18 this week. Critics might not be into the style of vaguely psychedelic dance-rock that Tame Impala employed on last year’s Deadbeat, but the general public is into it. Thankfully, however, Parker has not entirely forgotten his past as a starry-eyed psychedelic rocker, and you can hear that in his new Smashing Pumpkins cover.

The post Tame Impala Covers Smashing Pumpkins For New Tribute Album appeared first on Stereogum.

Buddy Guy will be celebrated with a special all-star concert, Buddy’s Got the Blues: A 90th Birthday Concert Celebration, on October 1, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Presented by Blackbird Presents and Live Nation, the one-night event will honor the legendary blues guitarist’s remarkable career and influence on generations of musicians through performances, collaborations, and tributes from many of the artists he has inspired.

The lineup includes Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Jon Batiste, Aloe Blacc, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Billy F Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Bobby Rush, Isaiah Sharkey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jimmie Vaughan, Ally Venable, Willie Weeks, Kim Wilson, and Buddy Guy himself. Additional artists and special guests are expected to be announced. Steve Jordan will serve as music director for the evening.

Tickets for the concert go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 26, at 10 a.m. ET.

“Can’t wait to celebrate 90 years of living, loving, and playing the Blues with all my friends. We’ll make it a night not just for me, but for the folks who taught us, the friends we’ve played with, and the ones coming up behind us,” said Buddy Guy.

Few artists have had a greater impact on the blues and rock worlds than Buddy Guy. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and nine-time Grammy Award winner, Guy helped define Chicago’s West Side blues sound and influenced generations of guitarists, including many of the performers appearing at the tribute concert.

The celebration comes as Guy continues to remain active both on stage and in the studio. In 2025, he released Ain’t Done With the Blues, featuring appearances by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Joe Bonamassa. The album followed a late-career resurgence that has included Grammy-winning releases, major honors such as the Kennedy Center Honor and National Medal of Arts, and a new generation of fans discovering his music.

Although Guy previously announced his Damn Right Farewell Tour, he has continued performing and recording, cementing his status as one of the last surviving architects of electric blues. The upcoming birthday celebration will serve as a fitting tribute to a career that has spanned more than seven decades and helped shape the sound of modern blues and rock music.

The post Buddy Guy’s 90th birthday concert features Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Trucks, and a stunning lineup appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

The Pineapple Thief announce new single ‘Hold The Ashes’; Summer live dates begin 

Photo credit: Martin Bostock 

Progressive art-rockers The Pineapple Thief are pleased to announce their new single ‘Hold The Ashes’, their first release with InsideOutMusic. The band recently wrapped work on their as-yet-unannounced new studio album, and are about to perform some select live dates in the UK & Europe during the summer. 

The video for ‘Hold The Ashes’ was directed by long-time collaborate Jeremy George of Blacktide Productions, and sees them performing the track at School Farm Studios in the UK.  

As Bruce Soord explains: “One thing is certain, one day we’ll all be ashes. It’s the ‘gift from the gods that comes to us all’. For some reason, when writing this song, I couldn’t stop singing about ‘ashes’ in the context of understanding what life is about. ‘Writhing in constant conflict’. Why? So take these ashes and scatter them far and wide. You know, make the most of it.” 

You can watch it now here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkjXCyO0fi4&feature=youtu.be

Stream ‘Hold The Ashes’ here: https://thepineapplethief.lnk.to/HoldtheAshes-Single 

The Pineapple Thief have some select UK & European festival and headline appearances during the Summer, with the first ones taking place later this week:

June 25^th  Istanbul TK – Zorlu PSM – with The Gathering
June 27^th  Cornwall GB – Morvala Festival of Arts
July 3^rd  Joensuu FIN – Ilovaari Festival
July 4^th  Helsinki FIN – CoolHead Live
July 16^th  Bronnoysund NO – Rootsfestivalen
Aug. 2^nd  Manchester GB – Radar Festival 

The band also recently announced a headline North American tour to take place in late 2026. The full list of dates is as follows:

Nov. 17^th  Washington DC – Howard Theater
Nov. 19^th  Philadelphia PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Nov. 20^th  New York City NY – Gramercy Theatre
Nov. 21^st  Somerville MA – Somerville Theater
Nov. 22^nd  Quebec City QC – Capitole
Nov. 24^th  Montreal QC – Beanfield Theatre
Nov. 25^th  Toronto ON – Danforth Music Hall
Nov. 27^th  Chicago IL – House of Blues
Nov. 28^th  Cleveland OH – House of Blues
Nov. 29^th  St. Louis MO – Delmar Hall
Dec. 1^st  Dallas TX – The Bomb Factory
Dec. 3^rd  Denver CO – Summit
Dec. 5^th  Phoenix AZ – Crescent Ballroom
Dec. 6^th  San Diego CA – The Observatory North Park
Dec. 8^th  Los Angeles CA – The Bellwether
Dec. 9^th  San Francisco CA – August Hall
Dec. 11^th   Seattle WA – Neptune Theater
Dec. 12^th  Portland OR – Revolution Hall
Dec. 13^th  Vancouver BC – Hollywood Theater

 Founded in 1999 by Bruce Soord, the band has long been one of the genre’s most successful and accomplished outfits, releasing 16 studio albums and touring worldwide. The band consisting of Soord (vocals, guitars), Jon Sykes (bass), Steve Kitch (keyboards), and Gavin Harrison (drums). 

The Pineapple Thief online:

https://www.pineapplethief.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thepineapplethief

https://www.instagram.com/thepineapplethief/

https://x.com/pineapplethief

https://www.youtube.com/@ThePineappleThiefTV

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