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Kansas City thrash masters HELLEVATE will unleash their sixth assault this spring!

Killicon Valley is relentless in execution. Eleven tracks of the bullshit-free, ‘thrash-or-be-thrashed’ attitude the band has cultivated over their nearly 20 years of existence. Today, that fury has escalated beyond the breaking point. The result is an album that true fans of old-school thrash can blast with pride.

Guitarist Dan Whitmer comments on Killicon Valley, “We couldn’t be more excited about this release! It’s the result of the last few years of a concentrated effort to expand our songwriting capabilities and deliver something for every kind of metal fan there is. Sonically, we’re going to places we haven’t been to before, and we’re trying out a lot of different approaches, sounds, and songwriting angles in our mission to make heads bang worldwide! Everyone involved has pushed themselves physically and mentally in their performances, and it’s all come together in a unique blend of melody and aggression, tackling every subject from our anger at the injustices in the world, to velociraptor attacks and Japanese spider demons. Grab a brace, because this album will make you wreck your neck!”

Get your first taste of Killicon Valley with the album’s lead single, “In the Long Grass.” Check out the official video at: youtu.be/4pvJtJcOrvo.

Killicon Valley is set for release on May 22. Pre-order the album at: hellevate.bandcamp.com/album/killicon-valley

HELLEVATE will mark the release of Killicon Valley with an album release show at Warehouse on Broadway in Kansas City, MO. Support will come from Jackson Country 5, Meat Shank, and Bloodscent. Check the event page for details.

Stream more from HELLEVATE on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Track-list:

1) D.T.C.

2) In the Long Grass

3) Invoke Apocalypse

4) Demagogue

5) The Rampart

6) Holy Man

7) Jorogumo

8) Part of the Tribe

9) Killicon Valley (Silicon Dust)

10) The Lost Pages

11) Thou Shalt Kill

12) Curse God and Die

HELLEVATE is a thrash metal band from Kansas City, MO, known for their unique blend of melodic thrash, extreme metal, and power metal influences. Formed in the late 2000s by guitarist Dan Whitmer, HELLEVATE maintains a commitment to writing unforgettable music that hits hard and leaves a lasting impression.

Lyrically, the band continues to deliver powerful messages with directness and intensity. Together, they have crafted a sound that is both expansive and undeniably thrash, incorporating influences from speed metal, power metal, death metal, and hardcore to create something truly unique.

Line-Up:

Robert Browne – Vocals
Dan Whitmer – Guitar
Joshua Cole – Guitar
Zack Burke – Bass
Ruben Lopez – Drums

HELLEVATE‘s discography includes their debut self-titled album (2012), Kill Confirmed (2014), Weapons Against Their Will (2016), The Purpose Is Cruelty (2023) and their newest album Killicon Valley (2026).

Since their debut in 2012, HELLEVATE has built a reputation for delivering electrifying live performances, sharing the stage with some of the biggest names in metal, including EXODUS, KREATOR, ACCEPT, OVERKILL, DESTRUCTION, HAMMERFALL, UNLEASH THE ARCHERS, GHOUL, VENOM INC., and DANZIG, among others.

hellevate.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/hellevate

www.instagram.com/hellevatekills

www.tiktok.com/@hellevatekills

Source: ClawHammer PR

It’s not yet summer, but it’s always time for a wistful ballad about the hot, decadent season. Tasha is supplying us with that today with her new All This And So Much More single “Summer.” “‘Summer’ was written in June of 2024 in the middle of my Broadway run with Illinoise,” the singer-songwriter explains, referring…

The post Tasha – “Summer” appeared first on Stereogum.

Jack White, coming to a city near you in 2026, probably

Posted on April 10th 2026, 12:01a.m.

I’ve waited for you
So lonely
Then you insist I stay behind
This is not Heaven

Hot on the heels of their unexpected, yet triumphant return to recording in 2025, Pittsburgh-based post-punk/shoegaze duo Lowsunday are back with a brand new track and video. Serving as the lead single from their upcoming Black EP (the natural shadowy follow up to last-year’s White EP), “This Is Not Heaven” is a scintillatingly dark and dreamy rave-up, featuring pummeling drum machine rhythms, buzzsaw synths, blistering guitar textures, and evocative vocals, with a chorus that lifts the track into oblivion, like an trans-dimensional jet engine. The track careens through those empty spaces where dreams and reality mix a little too closely for comfort, and the results are as alluring as they are haunting.

For the uninitiated, Lowsunday first began their tenure in the mid-1990s and were among the first bands to blend the current shoegaze movement with ’80s darkwave sounds. After self-releasing their eponymous debut LP in 1996, the band was quickly signed to Projekt Records, which released the band’s sophomore record, 2001’s wonderful Elesgiem. As trailblazers in their time, they left a huge mark on the scene, influencing countless modern bands to follow, all of which owe a great deal of debt to Lowsunday’s compositions. Remixes and remastered reissues of the band’s discography appeared in 2024 and 2025, respectively, bringing these records back into focus for a new generation. As such, the band, stripped down to core members Shane Sahene and Bobby Spell, came back in full force to reclaim their rightful throne. Last year’s interview with the duo captures the story so far and touches heavily on the band’s current output, which truly sounds as if they haven’t skipped a beat.

Meanwhile, both Sahene and Spell have shared a few words with us about the creation of “This Is Not Heaven.”

Sahene:

“This song captured a feeling that we’ve been trying to express but never as clearly as it became in this song. It’s a song that touches on loneliness and the view love from the outside – but also clearing your head enough to be expressive and cutting. It’s a song meant to be loud, at times dreamy and chaotic, but then finds its power in the heavy synth chorus- it almost reminds me of the racing engine of the Mammoth Car in old Speed Racer episodes, where it has scary power, but in this case, running from the hell of loneliness.”

Spell:

“For me. “This Is Not Heaven” is very melancholy musically and lyrically, but the choruses add enough light musically that the song leaves you with a feeling of hope. Writing and recording this song seemed to have a lot of mystery until a few key parts came along that completely changed the tone and clarified what the song would be. So far, it’s one of my favorite tracks we’ve written.”

The video for “This Is Not Heaven” is a perfect shadowy compliment to the single’s alluring cacophony. Directed by frequent collaborator Jer Herring, the video takes the duo through a monochromatic, gritty journey through city streets, dense forests, and dark basements;  those places where otherworldly beauty and sheer terror can exist in harmony.

The Black EP will be released on vinyl and digital formats on May 15th via Projekt Records. Check out the video below.

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Header photo by Christina Sahene. 

The post Lowsunday Blast Into the Bleak Beyond With New Single “This Is Not Heaven” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

It appears to be titled “All Around The World”.

The post Watch: MGK Debuted His Nü-Metal Collab With Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst Live In Perth, Australia appeared first on Theprp.com.

A European escape.

The post Ho99o9’s “OK, I’m Reloaded” Music Video Arrives Online, Summer European/UK Tour Booked appeared first on Theprp.com.

Florida-based band GILT has announced their upcoming album, I Saw Myself In The Black Screen, scheduled for release on June 26th via Smartpunk Records. The band describes the new record as the soundtrack to a mental breakdown, blending elements of nu-metal, metalcore, post-hardcore, and emo into a style they have categorized as “Nu Emocore.”

Alongside the album announcement, GILT released a new single titled “How Do You Kill An Angel, Barry?” The track features an anime-style music video and pairs heavy, shoegaze-leaning instrumentals with a vocal mix of clean singing by Tyler Fieldhouse and screams from Asha Locke. Watch below.

According to Fieldhouse, the single’s title references the 1999 film Dogma, while the track itself explores themes of rebellion and free will. The instrumentation and busy drumwork were designed to mimic the feeling of an incessant digital information feed, drawing direct inspiration from the anime Serial Experiments Lain.

I Saw Myself In The Black Screen was recorded at Earth Sound Studios by Lee Dyess, with Hansel Romero handling production and mixing. Preorders for the album are currently available through Smartpunk Records.

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The post GILT Announces New Album “I Saw Myself In The Black Screen” alongside New Single first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

In February, it was reported that the Brooklyn Mirage was planning to reopen in June with a new name after being acquired by the Dubai-based company FIVE Holdings. The troubled East Williamsburg venue started working on security improvements in December 2024, which led to many botched reopenings, demolition plans, a fired CEO. Now, the Brooklyn Mirage is officially called Pacha New York, and the opening weekend has been announced.

The post Pacha New York Announces Opening In The Wake Of Brooklyn Mirage Fiasco appeared first on Stereogum.

I guess the worst is over
I guess the bleeding’s stopped
I almost miss the wounds
Now you can’t even see the scar

Love and emotional damage often come through the same door wearing the same coat. It knows that the people who leave the deepest marks are not always monsters. Sometimes they’re simply tired, selfish, careless, or cracked in ways they never bothered to name. Sometimes you are, too.

Hot Hail! enters with “Needle” like a hand reaching out in comfort, only to hammer straight into the bruise. Drawn from the album Hope In Hell, the track understands how tenderness and injury can travel through the same narrow opening, how a soft touch can still leave a lasting puncture. Billy Sigil and company do not play this as open-wound melodrama; they let it move with a slow smile, a silk sleeve, and a sharp nail kept just out of sight. For a song born from a record with such a scorched title, it feels almost perversely elegant: less a public collapse than the private hush after one, when the room has gone still, and all that remains is the taste of whatever just died between two people.

The lyrics approach heartbreak as attrition rather than eruption. There is no smashed-glass tantrum here, no cheap revenge fantasy masquerading as revelation. Billy Sigil writes from the far side of the fire, from a —drained adult territory where blame has begun to seem childish, and disappointment has become so familiar it feels pressed into the wallpaper. The song moves through the slow corrosion of trust, charting the way faith in another person is worn down by minor cuts, missed signals, and the cumulative fatigue of asking for more than life seems prepared to give.

A lacquered, late-night sheen runs through the music, summoning mirrored elevators, empty streets, and expensive mistakes. You can hear the ghost of Violator-era Depeche Mode in the song’s polished ache, with a trace of Fad Gadget’s tense sensuality hovering nearby. Those textures frame a more intimate kind of decay, turning the track into a beautifully bruised meditation on depletion, disillusionment, and the quiet humiliation of realizing that some people drain you by degrees.

Listen to Needle below and order the single here.

The title alone, Needle, does a lot of heavy lifting. It suggests medicine, addiction, precision, penetration, poison. It suggests relief and injury arriving through the same narrow point.  It’s a breakup song for people who’ve lived long enough to know that wreckage can arrive quietly, and that the saddest endings are often the ones with no villain, no lesson, and no big finish.

Follow Hot Hail!:

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The post “I Almost Miss the Wounds” — Hot Hail! Pierces the Quiet After Heartbreak With Dark Synthpop Cut “Needle” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.