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40 Watt Sun and Hell will be opening select dates.

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UCR has your chance to see this summer's Southern Hospitality tour in style as a VIP. Continue reading…

Swedish prog band Port Noir are getting closer to releasing their highly-anticipated 5th studio album The Dark We Keep, out on May 15th. Since announcing the album in January, the trio has shared a number of breathtaking tracks from the album and today reveal the next glimpse into the new release with “Burst.”

“Burst” is the 5th single the band has released from their upcoming record and follows “Ebb and Flow”, “Complicated” , “Redshift”, and “Noir”.

The band comments on the new single:
“What if it all bursts? That question stayed with us while writing this track, and it naturally found its placeon The Dark We Keep. As a band, we kept coming back to the idea of what wechoose to hold onto. The things that only exist because we keep them in the dark.With ‘Burst’, it’s about reaching that point where holding on isn’t enough anymore. Abreaking point where everything we’ve kept contained starts to push outward. Onthis record, it sits right at that edge, where the weight finally turns into pressure, andyou can feel it about to give.“

Pre-order here: https://portnoir.lnk.to/TheDarkWeKeep-Bio

Tracklist:
1.Complicated
2.Redshift
3.Noir
4.Ebb and Flow
5.My Destroyer
6.Vargtimmen
7.Burst
8.Reverie
9.This View
10.Bloodlust
11.We Shall Die Together

The post Port Noir release new single “Burst” from their forthcoming album The Dark We Keep appeared first on The Prog Report.

Progressive rock band Quivira announces the release of its new single, “Prelude to Anywhere/Weekend Conquistadors,” out today on Melodic Revolution Records and available now on Bandcamp.

The track offers a significant preview of the sonic world of QUIVIRA, the forthcoming concept album rooted in Great Plains history and Indigenous narrative frameworks. The single unfolds in two movements:

• “Prelude to Anywhere” a spacious, piano‑forward overture built on shifting harmonic centers and suspended rhythmic tension, performed entirely on keyboards with VST instruments.
• “Weekend Conquistadors” a driving, motif‑rich progression featuring interlocking keyboard lines, guitars, and a modern production aesthetic that bridges classic prog with contemporary neo-prog.

“This piece bridges the internal and external journey, the moment before a path is chosen, and the consequences of those who choose to take it,” says composer/keyboardist Lisa LaRue.

The single highlights Quivira’s signature approach: layered keyboard architecture, thematic callbacks, and a Mid-coast progressive rock, or American Mid-west prog compositional style.

“Prelude to Anywhere/Weekend Conquistadors” is available now on Bandcamp, follow the link below.
https://quivira.bandcamp.com/track/prelude-to-anywhere-weekend-conquistadors

The track will be available on additional streaming platforms in the coming days.

Quivira is a progressive rock project based in Topeka, Kansas. Consisting of Jake Livgren (Emerald City Council, Proto-Kaw) on vocals, John Baker (Forever Twelve, Mars Hollow) on guitars, and Lisa LaRue (2KX, solo) on keyboards and VST instruments. The project blends historical themes, classic rock, and cinematic progressive rock into multi‑movement works that emphasize narrative cohesion, harmonic exploration, and textural depth.  The debut album focuses on the story of pre-Kansas “Quivira”, the Native American villages that Coronado believed held gold.

Quivira Links
Bandcamp: https://quivira.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583312171993
MRR Band Profile Page: https://mrrmusic.com/project/quivira/

Melodic Revolution Records Links
https://li.sten.to/mrrmusiccom

For press inquiries, interviews, or review copies, please contact the artist or label directly.

Quivira
Email: 785arts@gmail.com

Melodic Revolution Records
Email: melodicrevolutionrecords@gmail.com

Kehlani is following up the massive success of “Folded” with a new self-titled album due later this month. The album has “Folded” and “Out The Window,” and today we get a third preview with a noteworthy special guest. None other than Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott graces “Back And Forth,” Kehlani’s appealing new single out today. Miss…

The post Kehlani – “Back And Forth” (Feat. Missy Elliott) appeared first on Stereogum.

The group self-directed that clip.

The post LEVELS’ “Blue Heaven” Music Video Released Alongside Their New Album appeared first on Theprp.com.

American black metal has been in a rather mediocre state lately. Homogenized and boring seems to be the order of the day. With that, however, there is still a band that breaks barriers and delivers a listening experience that is new and unique. I’m talking about, of course, UADA. They are the pinnacle of American Black Metal, and nobody even comes close. The irony here is that their current release is an acoustic record. It’s an EP called Interwoven.

When a black metal band releases an acoustic EP, the results can fall anywhere between revelatory and utterly unnecessary. Stripped arrangements can expose compositional depth, but they can also reveal when a band’s power relies almost entirely on distortion, speed, and atmosphere. With Interwoven, UADA attempts something more ambitious than a simple unplugged novelty. The record revisits one track from each chapter of the band’s catalog and threads them together with a new aesthetic vocabulary—one built from acoustic guitars, cello, and the stark vulnerability of unshielded vocals.

Right away, Interwoven establishes that this isn’t just black metal with the distortion dialed down. The opening track, “Djinn,” unfolds slowly, with delicate guitar figures and the mournful weight of C.E. Brown’s cello creating an atmosphere that feels closer to neofolk ritual than to the frostbitten intensity most listeners associate with UADA. Throughout the record, Superchi’s voice (in vastly different form than what we’re accustomed to hearing) becomes the central instrument. In the band’s traditional recordings, vocals often function as another textural element within the storm. Here they are exposed, shifting between hushed incantations, plaintive melodies, and the occasional shadow of the harsher tones fans will recognize. The effect is intimate and slightly unsettling, like hearing a familiar myth retold around a fire rather than screamed across a battlefield.

Selections like “Devoid of Light,” “The Dark Winter,” and “The Purging Fire” benefit from this reimagining. The acoustic arrangements reveal that beneath the band’s usual layers of tremolo picking and blast beats lie compositions that were always more melodic than their genre tag might suggest. The cello work is particularly effective, weaving through the arrangements like a spectral second voice and grounding the songs with a sense of weight and gravity.

The two covers included here demonstrate the breadth of UADA’s influences. “Der Brandtaucher,” originally by ROME, fits seamlessly into the EP’s aesthetic. Its somber, martial atmosphere aligns naturally with the project’s ritualistic tone. The band’s take on “Something in the Way” by Nirvana is more surprising but equally effective. Instead of trying to reinvent the song dramatically, UADA leans into its inherent bleakness, amplifying the quiet despair that always lurked at the heart of the original. Honestly, I love this version as much as I love the original. They really did justice to the composition.

What makes Interwoven even more compelling is the sense that it wasn’t constructed as a calculated side project. According to Superchi, the concept dates back to the very day the band formed in 2014. That long incubation shows in the record’s coherence. Rather than sounding like an afterthought or a novelty release, the EP feels like a missing piece of the band’s identity finally coming into view.

The production reinforces that intimacy. Recorded and mixed by Superchi at Obsidian Spells and mastered by Arthur Rizk, the sound remains organic and spacious. It sounds great in my car. It sounds great in my office. Every creak of the acoustic guitars and every resonant swell of the cello is allowed to breathe. Peter Beste’s cover art complements the mood perfectly, suggesting something ancient and contemplative rather than overtly sinister.

Of course, listeners expecting the icy ferocity that made UADA’s reputation may find Interwoven much more subdued. This is not the band at their most aggressive. It is the band at their most exposed. But that vulnerability is precisely what gives the record its power. It’s not electric and distorted, but it hits nearly just as hard.

In the end, Interwoven feels less like a departure and more like a revelation. Beneath the blackened armor that UADA have worn for years lies a quieter, more reflective musical core. By stripping everything down to strings, voice, and atmosphere, the band shows that the darkness they explore doesn’t require distortion to resonate. Sometimes it only needs silence, wood, and breath. This is the best record I’ve heard so far in 2026.

Release Date: April 10th, 2026
Record Label: Independent
Genre: Black Metal

Musicians:

• Jake Superchi / All vocals, guitars, and percussion
• Nate Verschoor / Bass
• C.E. Brown / Cello

Interwoven Tracklist:

1. Djinn
2. Devoid of Light
3. The Dark (Winter)
4. The Purging Fire
5. Der Brandtaucher (Rome cover)
6. Something In The Way (Nirvana cover)

Order the album here.

The post UADA – Interwoven E.P. (Album Review) appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

A Day To Remember’s Big Old Boat Show is coming, and it already sounds like it is going to be an absolute riot on the high seas.

Scheduled to travel between April 28 – May 02, 2027, from Miami, FL to Nassau, Bahamas, it will feature two unique performances from ADTR themselves, as well as a full musical schedule throughout the days.

Joining them on the line-up so far are Knocked Loose, The Devil Wears Prada, Dying Wish, Comeback Kid, Spite and The Callous Daoboys, with many more still to come.

There will also be a whole host of curated experiences with ADTR and the other bands, including a cannonball contest, a deep-diving Q&A, wellness classes, spa services, tattooing, and lots more.

You can secure your cabin on general release from May 1 at www.bigoleboatshow.com

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The post A Day To Remember Announce Cruise ‘Big Old Boat Show’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Two years ago, Kurdt Vanderhoof was done. Not on a break, not between albums: done. Metal Church had been shut down, the band told, the door closed. He had other projects, other plans, and apparently no shortage of conviction. “I just let it go to sleep,” he says. “I wasn’t going to announce anything. I shut the band down, told everybody, best of luck, you know — and I wasn’t going to do it.”

Then the calls started coming in.

“All these really good people started expressing interest in being involved, and I couldn’t say no.” That’s how Dead to Rights — Metal Church‘s fourteenth studio album and, depending on who you ask, one of their most vital in decades — came to exist. Not from a grand plan, but from a series of conversations Vanderhoof apparently couldn’t bring himself to turn down.

The result is a lineup that, on paper, reads almost absurdly loaded: drummer Ken Mary, bassist David Ellefson, vocalist Brian Allen, and longtime guitarist Rick Van Zandt, alongside Vanderhoof himself. It is, by his own admission, three-quarters rebuilt. But the bones are still recognizably Metal Church.

A lot of what makes Dead to Rights feel like a genuine return rather than a nostalgia exercise comes down to Allen‘s voice. Vanderhoof is candid about it. “David Wayne was a huge influence on him. Mike Howe as well. But David Wayne was a huge influence on his voice — so it has that sound just by his voice alone.”

That wasn’t an accident, exactly, but it wasn’t entirely calculated either. Vanderhoof describes the writing process as something that quietly bent toward the past once he knew who was going to be singing. “Knowing when I was writing the songs that his voice would sound like that, it kind of subconsciously allowed me to go in that classic direction. It kind of directed it, sort of.”

The album leans into that instinct. Opening tracks hit hard and fast; “F*ck Around and Find Out,” the lead single, has been closing in on half a million YouTube views since its release. But Dead to Rights isn’t content to bludgeon for nine tracks. Songs like “Heaven Knows (Slip Away)” dial back the aggression in favour of melody, something Vanderhoof sees as essential rather than incidental.

“I don’t like making a one-dimensional record if I can avoid it. I think it’s important to have balance.” He traces this impulse back to the Mike Howe era, when Metal Church began drifting further from their thrash origins toward something more melodic, more song-focused. “By today’s standards, we’re a hard rock band, by what’s considered heavy now. And that’s fine — but that’s just not my deal.”

Album opener “Brainwash Game” takes aim at online culture with the bluntness the title implies. Vanderhoof is measured about it in conversation — he’s not ranting, just observing — but it’s clear the subject gets under his skin in a low-level, persistent way. “You’ve got the professional trolls,” he says. “People who spend their day doing nothing but disliking videos and posting stuff anonymously, just insulting. And a lot of them are bots. It’s a really odd world.”

He brings up Rush unprompted, specifically, the online reaction to their recent reunion tour. As someone who counts them among his favourite bands of all time, he watched the pile-on with visible exasperation. “He’s singing great, but he’s singing differently because he learned how to actually sing, as opposed to when he was a kid, screaming. You have to learn how to sing, especially when you get up in our age.”

The broader point matters more to him than any particular band’s defence. “They’re one of the best bands in history,” he says flatly. “You don’t have to like it, but you don’t have to say stuff. Everybody gets that, no matter how good or how great you are.”

It’s a position he extends to his own work. Politics, opinion, provocation — none of it finds a direct home in Metal Church lyrics, deliberately so. “I definitely have my views politically, but I don’t like to mix that into the music because I like music to be an escape. It’s so divisive — the internet, social media, everybody’s got an opinion.” His preference is to observe rather than instruct. “I like to leave a little bit like, I wonder what he’s really saying. It’s more fun that way. And it’s just a little more artistic about it.”

Vanderhoof‘s decision to step back from touring in the late 1980s, at a point when Metal Church were selling records worldwide, is one of the more fascinating threads in the band’s history, and he addresses it without excessive drama. Part of it was financial disillusionment. “The word ‘recoupable’ became extremely — I really finally figured out what that meant,” he says, with the dry delivery of someone who took their time getting to the punchline. “You’re selling a lot of records and touring all over the world, and suddenly you go, I’m broke.”

But the more lasting motivation was craft. Recording The Dark with a proper producer flipped a switch. “The light bulb went on for me. I wanted to learn how to do this.” He knew that meant getting off the road.

“I love the shows — always did love the shows. But there are 21, 22 hours a day where you’re bored out of your mind. And when you’re 21 and immortal, drugs and alcohol certainly become a big part of it.” He pauses, then borrows a line from Rush: “You’re only immortal for a limited time.”

He’s clear-eyed about the cost. “That probably affected the trajectory of the band.” But equally clear about the tradeoff. “I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t do that.”

Metal Church head into 2026 with a tour that takes in the US Northeast, Canadian dates, a run of European festivals, and slots alongside Testament, Black Label Society, Iron Maiden, and Alice Cooper. The setlist will lean on the classics — it has to, with fourteen albums and a singer who can credibly handle the old material — but expect two or three cuts from Dead to Rights to make the cut as well.

What’s most striking about Vanderhoof in conversation isn’t the optimism, exactly; it’s the genuine bewilderment. He tried to end this band. More than once. “Every time I think it’s dead, it’s like, haha — fake you out.” He doesn’t say it with frustration. He says it like a man who has long since stopped fighting the fact that Metal Church, despite everything, still has more to say.

“I still get to do this. I still get to play music. And that’s why you do it for the love of music. I think that’s the most important thing for me.”

Fourteen albums in, and apparently, the band agrees. Dead to Rights is out now. Grab it here.

The post METAL CHURCH’s KURDT VANDERHOOF Talks New Album, Burnout & Walking Away From The Band He Built: “Every Time I Think It’s Dead, It Fakes You Out” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

A pile of dates down under.

The post Chat Pile & Beastwars To Tour Australia & New Zealand In June appeared first on Theprp.com.