“Love these people and love the band.”

The post Greg Puciato Comments On His Exit From Better Lovers: “No Bad Blood, Everyone’s Cool” appeared first on Theprp.com.

Queens Of The Stone Age bring a limited run of US shows this spring, featuring all-new arrangements inspired by Alive in the Catacombs.

The post QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Announce U.S Catacombs West Coast Tour Dates appeared first on Metal Injection.

In Living Color
The Making of Boris’ Pink

Wata, inscrutable as the Sphinx, slips imperceptibly into the chair across from me. Upstairs in the commons area of a 1930 house in downtown East Austin, the guitarist sits first, followed by bandmates Atsuo and Takeshi. The return of the Japanese noise triumvirate to this evening’s club looms in hourglass terms, yet Boris settle easily around the small kitchenette table central to the quaint, light-dappled space straight out of That ’70s Show.

A few blocks away, in the dusky shadows of the Texas Capitol, a main interstate artery clogs during rush hour. Over a dozen people helped manifest this Halloween-adjacent summit at the administrative HQ of local barbecue magnate Aaron Franklin. Sand begins falling through our timepiece the moment three figures in black exit an Uber their tour manager flagged them a mile away in the heart of the “Live Music Capital of the World.”

Marking the 20th anniversary of the band’s universal close-up, the “Do You Remember Pink Days?” tour syncs its fifth stopover to a locale playing into that narrative. Even so, while proving ridiculously convenient for the business at hand herein, it nevertheless occurs serendipitously. Because ultimately, the juncture at which an album makes popular culture pause and take note happens but once in a lifetime—initially, anyway—and that spotlight caught Boris dead-on atop 2005 projectile Pink.

Musashino Art University serves Earth’s most populous city, Tokyo, and thus conjoined Boris, iconically titled for the sludgy, Sabbath-y, possibly homicidal opener to third Melvins’ full-length Bullhead. Like grunge and post-punk before it, the trio ramrodded ’70s U.K. classicism through ’80s domestic DIY, detonating majestic crunge with garage-band animism. Founded in 1992 and winnowed down from an original quartet to its current configuration four years later, Boris still wield said hammer of the gods, one originated in a culture vastly different from our own.

Pink, released on hometown label Diwphalanx in November 2005, then through Southern Lord the following May, streamlined the group’s eruptive experimentalism across an uninterrupted streak of feedback-torn LPs plus countless singles, EPs, splits and collaborations. Psychedelic, voluminous, heated, their full metallic spasm rippled the music sphere like Shelob.

Beginning with “Farewell,” Boris teases a moment of six-string luminescence that blooms into the proverbial burning bush. Live, Wata’s flamethrowing SG crisps most of the bandwidth, while Takeshi mans bass and second guitar on a double-neck, and band alpha Atsuo gets it on gong and all upon the drum throne. In-studio, the two guitarists push the boundaries of that dynamic, filling channels with whitening noise pierced through by riffs as bright as airport runway lights.

A mere 7:33, “Farewell” touches off the album’s chain reaction at doom tempo, limbering up sonic boundaries as well as emotional ones in cycling methodically from nothingness—the birth of sound—to Takeshi’s full-blown vocal ascension. Whether in Japanese or English, his singing on Pink seeps corrosive nostalgia: yearning, gnashing, crooning. The title track then hits the gas, full burners, encompassing or perhaps engulfing the whole of that era’s high-desert California scene—ripping, bubbling, boiling over like god’s own water implement.

“Woman on the Screen” floors it one better, burning nitrate until 2:17 blitz “Nothing Special” devolves from full-bore expulsion to a primal burble that finally bursts, spraying disintegration guitars and neutron bass over Takeshi’s hardcore vocal. Peak pounder distinction belongs to two-thirds point “Pseudo-Bread.” Clattering ’60s psych that inverts into ’90s grunge, it’s a behemoth stomper as big and hairy as Bigfoot, yet Takeshi’s vocal hook remains one of the most melodic in the Boris canon, the accompanying riffs literally that—canonical. Pink then saves its best for last.

Closer “Just Abandoned Myself” delivers a blistering crescendo to the disc, disgorging an 18-minute afterburner of pure power and propulsion, three musicians interlocking into a far greater battering ram of guitar, bass and drums headed straight for the Freudian ID. Every great group becomes its own continent, and “Just Abandoned Myself” erupts a volcanic interdimensionality burning down into six minutes inside the Boris sound crematorium.

All of which contrasts sharply with the three extremely modest individuals sitting across from myself and a translator. At the state’s flagship university nearby, my journalism students direct me to the Department of Asian Studies, yielding the UT Japanese Association president. As it turns out, charismatic civil engineering senior Tomoya Tanaka proves my secret weapon since the Mizunos—Wata and Atsuo—share a daughter, and Takeshi Ohtani wears a wedding band, so odds lay even he’s a parent, too. Tomorrow’s builder of bridges charms us all.

Because the real-time Japanese-to-English transcription software on his phone generates AI trash, and although he valiantly summates answers, I eventually wave him off and simply pitch questions into the void—not knowing the answers until three weeks later. Relishing an enduring tome written in another language means marveling at the high art of interpretation, so musicdom owes Tanaka a debt of gratitude, because almost no in-depth, career-ranging interviews involving all three members of Boris exist between the ones the zeroes.

Before yours truly chauffeurs the band back to three tiers of Austin live venue Mohawk outdoors, each member turns to me pointedly once during the inquisition—of which nearly every word appears here—and stresses something in English.

Atsuo: “Deep. Purple.”

Takeshi: “Geddy Lee.”

Wata: [prior to doodling a smiley ghost while autographing my Relapse Records reissue of the business at hand] “Live at Pompeii.”

Detonate the fireworks, then. Let the magma flow. And in 2,000 years, when archeologists dig out the Decibel Hall of Fame from the fossilized remains of “civilization,” let the record show that Japanese sound sovereigns Boris looked best in Pink.

Need more classic Boris? To read the entire seven-page story, featuring interviews with all three members who performed on Pink, purchase the print issue from our store, or digitally via our app for iPhone/iPad or Android.

The post Boris – Pink appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Atlanta punks Upchuck had a big 2025. They signed to Domino, they released their Ty Segall-produced album I’m Nice Now, and they made it onto our list of the year’s best new bands even though they weren’t a new band by any stretch. They were new to us, OK? We went Grammy Best New Artist…

The post Upchuck – “Last Breath” appeared first on Stereogum.

Hear anticipated new music from Lana Del Rey, Grace Ives, Yaya Bey and more.

Filling out the routing between their festival stops.

The post Periphery Announce European/UK Headlining Shows With Rain City Drive, Profiler & OBEYER appeared first on Theprp.com.

Blut Aus Nord have cultivated a career that’s as slippery as it is prolific, evading any long-term attributes besides “black metal” and “ever-shifting.” Their 30-year tenure, which includes 16 full-length albums, explores beyond the lens of black metal’s constrictions and aesthetic occupations that hold dear the genre’s frosted origins. The self dissolves with Blut Aus Nord, in that the only important operator is the one listening, and conclusions can only be drawn by listening. The outfit is a deliberate practice in the impersonal–Vindsval is at the center of Blut Aus Nord as chief writer, vocalist, and guitarist, but he’s in no way the center. In his own words,  “I now understand that an artist is merely a channel whose purpose is to share the worlds they are allowed to visit.” 

So while Blut Aus Nord is definitely Vindsval’s project, who he is is inconsequential in the context of the group. And that’s by design. He’s notoriously reclusive, rarely giving interviews and sharing little to no personal information to keep the focus on the music because he is simply a musician. What’s of interest is what he does, not who he is. 

This is where Blut Aus Nord’s slippery nature pops in as they’ve followed a spectre of inspiration, a wraith that floats through walls, time, and dimensions. Though some of their albums have direct inspirations (the Disharmonium series and its Lovecraftian themes), others are connected only through their narrow scope (the Memoria Vestusa series and riff composition), whereas others are conjoined seemingly by their efforts to destabilize black metal. Since there’s no personal narrative in Blut Aus Nord’s discography, their career scans less as a development from youth to maturity (Vindsval started the project when he was in his teens) and more as a stream-of-consciousness that slides through portals. 

Fortunately, this means that any Blut Aus Nord album makes for an ideal starting point, depending on one’s tastes. Even the sickos who wear harsh noise merch in public can hop into them with MoRT. That being said, last year’s Ethereal Horizons is as good a jumping-off point as any (in addition to being one of 2025’s best albums) for its cosmic atmosphere. It’s a spatial vagabond that drops breadcrumbs as it progresses. It also imposes the meditative aspects of Vindsval’s craft, the drone of chipping away at art, of placing faith in a route without a destination, of escaping with no ulterior motives than to explore. Ethereal Horizons does not judge nor prod; it moves with the mindset of an ambient album despite playing like a (genre-descriptor-vomit incoming) progressive kosmiche-meets-black-metal record. It doesn’t sound that tryhard, fortunately, because it doesn’t try that hard. It simply is. 

While he seldom provides interviews, Vindsval kindly responded to our questions about Ethereal Horizons, his growth with Blut Aus Nord, and his philosophy regarding art and practice. 

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Now that Blut Aus Nord has been around for over 30 years, has it developed in the way you would’ve predicted when you started it? Or, has it grown outside of what you originally intended to achieve?

I was obviously very far from imagining the path Blut Aus Nord would take when I recorded the first Vlad demos on a small 4-track tape recorder in my teenage bedroom. There was absolutely no ambition beyond expressing myself through art, and music in particular, and everything that has happened over these past 30 years was neither planned nor premeditated.

Blut Aus Nord is now known and respected all over the world, it has become my main activity, but in the end nothing has really changed. My motivations are exactly the same as they were back then, and my working method hasn’t evolved much despite the comfort provided by the equipment available to us today. I have kept that very DIY aspect from the early days of Black Metal. BaN is simply much more well-known now, but fundamentally nothing has changed.

You’ve spoken about how you have to do music every day, saying, “It is a daily need which requires me to deliver what I have in a more intimate way.” How do you think about music and Blut Aus Nord in order to develop new ideas?

To be honest, I don’t ask myself many questions. I compose music every day, searching for the moment when I’ll be receptive enough to capture whatever is being inspired within me. Composing daily is indeed a real necessity for my balance and personal fulfillment. The society in which we “try” to live completely escapes me, and I clearly do not feel that I belong in it. Music is simply a vital escape — it’s where I find my own peace.

By composing every day, ideas flow. It may take more or less time, but something always happens. I am convinced that creativity is something that must be nurtured very regularly.

What were some of the cosmic themes you wanted to explore with Ethereal Horizons?

Ethereal Horizons is an allegory—that of a path of evolution and progression leading toward a form of illumination. In my view, this spiritual journey necessarily involves a real and profound connection with the celestial vault and the Universe in which we live without truly understanding either how, or, above all, why.

Ethereal Horizons raises the questions that have haunted and tormented humanity since the dawn of time: the meaning of life, its purpose, our role as individuals, the quest for spirituality. To ask these questions is to allow the mind to connect with the cosmos and its infinity, which completely eludes us.

Ethereal Horizons is the soundtrack to that journey. It is an album meant to allow the listener—if they are receptive to it—to leave the world behind for the duration of the experience. That is what I ask of music, and of Art in general: to allow me to step outside the world.

In the press release for Ethereal Horizons, you said, “I’ve learned over the years that, when it comes to my own musical creativity, the truth of today is rarely the truth of tomorrow.” What are some practices or ideas you used to hold to (in terms of music) that you no longer do?

Freeing oneself from the illusion of being a creator and letting go of the need to control everything. I now understand that an artist is merely a channel whose purpose is to share the worlds they are allowed to visit. You have to stop thinking of yourself as a genius or anything of that sort—you are only giving back what is entrusted to you.

Over time, I have learned to silence my ego, to stop struggling to push a composition forward when it leads nowhere, for example. A working session closely resembles a prayer or a long meditation; you must know how to create the necessary silence in order to listen to what we call inspiration. Artistic creation must be fluid—if you begin to struggle to find a solution or a resolution, it means your ego has interfered and you are on the wrong path.

When I was younger, I threw away hundreds of hours of music because I couldn’t find the continuation of a riff, an arrangement, or the right melody, for instance. It was only because I wanted to maintain control over something that, by its very nature, cannot be controlled. It was very chaotic—my mind was making far too much noise to hear anything at all.

Your Disharmonium albums focused on Lovecraftian horror and a specific feeling of helplessness. Ethereal Horizons immediately feels more comforting (or, less claustrophobic). Was that an intentional change, or am I just projecting? 

The initial idea was to create an album that would be very melodic and very open. I felt a desire— a need—for grandeur and beauty. The two Disharmonium chapters went very far into dissonance and Lovecraftian madness; they are highly experimental albums. For instance, few people noticed that there are, strictly speaking, no guitar riffs on Undreamable Abysses. There are no rhythm guitars—the sonic mass is primarily created by two massive fretless basses, which make the music feel extremely fluid and unstable, evoking the tentacular and horrific entities described by Lovecraft throughout much of his work.

It is a very singular approach, and after working on albums that extreme, I needed to rediscover the pleasure of playing more aerial melodies and those riffs so characteristic of Blut Aus Nord’s sound on its more melodic records. The entire BaN discography functions through this balance—shadow and light feeding off one another. Without contrast, nothing exists.

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In another interview, you wrote something that fascinates me: “Art is not entertainment, and without including an ounce of elitism, on the contrary, its function is much deeper, sacred even.” What is art’s function to you, and how does Ethereal Horizons meet this function?

People very often confuse Art and entertainment, yet they are two things that have nothing to do with one another—I would even say they are antinomic. Art is not meant to entertain. In my view, it is a means of connecting to the spiritual realm, to the Sacred, to the Divine, call it whatever you wish. It is not a human affair; it is a bridge between this world and others, between our dimension and another. Art is a matter of deep emotions; it is a dialogue with everything that still eludes us.

As I said earlier, an artist is not a creator, much less a genius; they are a channel, a medium who transcribes what is shown to them.

Therefore, I cannot conceive of militant, activist, or political Art. It makes no sense to me. You cannot defile what is sacred with basely human considerations. I have nothing against bands who use music, for example, to convey social messages or political ideas—I fully respect that—but Art has nothing to do with any of that. It operates on an entirely different level… far beyond the noise of the world.

On a similar note, escapism is popular in entertainment, especially cosmic-themed entertainment. But Ethereal Horizons doesn’t seem like it’s about escape but connecting with the cosmos, space, etc. Was that a core idea of the album?

Yes, absolutely. We remain within the idea of a Dialogue with the Stars, that connection with the cosmos, the universe, and those questions that both torment us and free us from our strange human condition. Ethereal Horizons is both an exploration of the infinity in which we evolve and of our own intimacy, our relationship with the essence and meaning of life.

Observing the cosmos renders most of our earthly and material concerns completely futile and obsolete. It is a majestic path toward spirituality, and Ethereal Horizons humbly presents itself as one of the gateways that opens onto that infinity. If listening to it allows the listener to step outside the world for a brief hour, then the objective has been achieved.

Where did your fascination with space come from?

I don’t know—I have always been drawn to, fascinated by, the celestial vault. I have always been tormented by these questions: why are we here? What is our role? What is the meaning of all this? There is very little room for chance in the creation of the universe—truly very little—which means that our lives are, by their very nature, filled with a meaning that completely escapes us.

From a very young age, I was confronted with these questions, with the awareness of my own certain death, and that of my loved ones. It is a torment for human beings to be both alive—almost miraculous, in the end—and conscious of their own death, of their obsolescence. If there is no greater meaning to all of this, then we might as well die now.

I love how much kosmiche was on this album. Were you listening to much of the genre while writing Ethereal Horizons? If so, how did it influence you?

No, not particularly. When I was younger, I was heavily influenced by everything I listened to, but for a very long time now, what I listen to no longer (directly) impacts the sound of BaN. Today, Blut Aus Nord is an entity powerful enough to feed off itself.

Since I know you read quite a bit, what is the book that you think is the most thematically similar to Ethereal Horizons?

The book of a quest—that extraordinarily complex one which is the understanding of the most extreme simplicity… probably The Holy Bible.

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Ethereal Horizons is available now via Debemur Morti Productions.

Featuring special KameFest shows in Tilburg

Source

Symphonic metal outfit Kamelot is going to be pretty damn busy this year, as they announced earlier today a large swathe of tour dates across North America and Europe. Oh, and a special event called Kamfest, for good measure.

Both tours are headlining affairs, with the North American run going from August 28 in Orlando, Florida to September 27 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Coming along for that slate of dates will be Visions of Atlantis and Frozen Crown. As for their European effort, Kamelot will tour that continent from October 30 in Tilburg, Netherlands until November 19 in Madrid, Spain. The supporting artists for that run will be Exit Eden and Temperance.

Kamelot founding member Thomas Youngblood said fans won’t want to miss any of these shows if they can avoid it.

“As we embark on a new chapter, we can’t wait to bring the next evolution of KAMELOT to life on stage. Expect a night where symphonic power and dark grandeur collide. This will be a tour like no other!”

It should be noted that their European tour will kick off at the band’s Kamfest, which will run on October 30 and 31. The first date will see Elegy, Leaves Eyes, and Xandria play, while the second date will feature Exit Eden, Blackbriar, and Temperance. Naturally, Kamelot will headline both nights.

If any of this sounds exciting to you, you should check out the full list of tour dates below. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m.

KAMELOT North America 2026
w/ VISIONS OF ATLANTIS, FROZEN CROWN

08/28/26 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
08/29/26 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (Heaven)
08/31/26 – Dallas, TX – The Studio at the Factory
09/02/26 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
09/03/26 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
09/04/26 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
09/05/26 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
09/07/26 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
09/08/26 – Seattle, WA – Neptune
09/10/26 – Salt Lake City, UT – Rockwell at The Complex
09/11/26 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
09/12/26 – Kansas City, MO – The Truman
09/14/26 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
09/15/26 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
09/17/26 – St. Charles, IL – The Arcada Theatre
09/18/26 – Cleveland, OH – Globe Iron
09/19/26 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
09/20/26 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
09/22/26 – Quebec City, QC – Theatre Capitole
09/24/26 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
09/25/26 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium
09/26/26 – New York, NY – Palladium Times Square
09/27/26 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore Silver Spring

KAMELOT Europe 2026
w/ EXIT EDEN, TEMPERANCE

10/30/26 – Tilburg, NL – O13 – KAMFEST (no EXIT EDEN or TEMPERANCE)
10/31/26 – Tilburg, NL – O13 – KAMFEST
11/01/26 – London, UK – O2 Sheperd’s Bush Empire
11/03/26 – Manchester, UK – O2 Ritz Manchester
11/05/26 – Oberhausen, DE – Turbinenhalle
11/06/26 – Pratteln, CH – Z7 Konzertfabrik
11/07/26 – Lyon, FR – La Rayonne
11/08/26 – Stuttgart, DE – LKA
11/10/26 – Krakow, PL – Klub Studio
11/11/26 – Warsaw, PL – Progresja
11/13/26 – Zagreb, HR – Boogaloo
11/14/26 – Budapest, HU – Barba Negra Red Stage
11/15/26 – Belgrade, RS – Hangar
11/17/26 – Trezzo sull’Adda, IT – Live Club
11/18/26 – Padova, IT – Hall
11/20/26 – Toulouse, FR – Metronum
11/21/26 – Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz 1
11/22/26 – Madrid, ES – Sala La Riviera

The post Kamelot Announce North American and European Headlining Tours appeared first on MetalSucks.

Heading back out down under in July.

The post Cradle Of Filth & DevilDriver Announce Australian Co-Headlining Tour appeared first on Theprp.com.