South Florida alternative rock project cut the cord.—the creation of songwriter Dylan Samaniego—is built on one core premise: sometimes the hardest thing you’ll ever do is let go. Born out of a meditation exercise during one of Samaniego’s lowest points, the project tackles the painful process of detaching from toxic people, destructive habits, and bad mental patterns to step into who you’re truly meant to be.
Recorded at South Florida’s Boardwalk Studios with producers Jacob Bates (Dirty Rivals) and Bryan Kuznitz (Fame on Fire), cut the cord.‘s debut EP,blush., traces the heavy emotional wake of an unhealthy relationship across four interconnected tracks. The record opens with “(ctc.),” a spoken-word piece recorded by Samaniego’s actual therapist, grounding the entire project in authentic mental health awareness. From there, the EP moves through the raw frustration of the title track “blush.,” the bittersweet nostalgia of “10th Avenue North,” and the cathartic release of “BENT!”
The lead title track,“blush.,” stands as the oldest song on the record and a personal favourite of Samaniego’s. Dealing directly with the frustration of an ex-partner who struggled with communication and alcohol, the song vents the helpless feeling of being labeled selfish just for setting boundaries. Fusing the urgent energy of pop-punk and alternative rock with a growth-focused mindset, “blush.” delivers a rock-solid, energetic performance paired with an insanely catchy hook and a very cool accompanying music video. Complemented onstage by stark visuals and hand-painted clothing, cut the cord. offers an emotionally charged, highly enjoyable ride through losing yourself and finally finding your way back.
Central Queensland Riot Grrrl trio ViperSnatch—made up of Lily, Riley, and Kailee—bring a fierce female perspective to the Australian alternative scene, pairing powerful, break-your-heart vocals with explosive punk-rock progressions, expressive basslines, and visceral drumming.
Their scorching single “Sweet Melodies” serves as the lead track off their late 2025 EP BITCH BITE ahead of its wider 2026 release. Opening with a deceptively calm, spoken-word intro before erupting into heavy bass, gritty grunge-driven fury, and soaring vocal hooks, the track channels raw frustration and heartbreak into pure, high-octane energy. Backed by a fantastic band performance and punchy, genre-perfect production, “Sweet Melodies” is a rock-solid, high-energy anthem that hits hard while keeping melody right at the center.
Give it a go by clicking on the Spotify player below and follow ViperSnatch if you like what you hear.
Chris Young became one of country music’s most recognizable baritone voices after winning the fourth season of Nashville Star in 2006. Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he grew up with the traditional sounds of artists such as Keith Whitley and Randy Travis and began performing at an early age. Before his television breakthrough, he financed and sold independent recordings at his concerts, an often-overlooked chapter that helps explain the depth of his early song catalog. After signing with RCA Nashville, Young introduced himself to a wider audience with his self-titled album in 2006. The singles ‘Drinkin’ Me Lonely’ and ‘You’re Gonna
Want a fun way to acknowledge your own mortality? Think about how many years you’ve been listening to certain bands or albums. Of course, you, a distinguished devotee of this publication, surely engage in this practice, if only to demonstrate the temporal depth of your sagely wisdom. Math wizards might ALSO note that you can divide number of years listened by number of years lived to get a darling little percentage! You know what else is cute? The longer you stagger on with your silly life, that percentage only rises! Wowie, we are off with a bang here.
I’ve been listening to Lumsk for 23 years, which if you’ve been paying attention correlates to [REDACTED]%. This was a sobering realization. Admittedly my days of avid folk metal-dom are long since passed; I can’t deny spinning Åsmund Frægdegjevar and its stellar follow-up Troll a whole heck of a lot in the late mid to late-2000’s. Waning enthusiasm in the genre (coupled with an overwhelming interest in all avenues non-metallic) led me astray from third record Det vilde kor, and outside of the occasional dip back into their earlier material, Lumsk drifted into the deeper crevices of my mind for a bulk of those 23 years. Funnily enough, our arcs mirrored each other. Lumsk gradually tweaked their formula – the heaviness fader sliding downward, the self-imposed period of inactivity correlating with my detachment. Fremmede toner, then, was an interesting development. Armed with a new singer and a significant, yet not unearned nor unwarranted, course correction, Lumsk reemerged in 2023 a little lighter in tonnage but arguably heavier in character. Einsemda continues this trajectory to very welcome effect.
Release date: October 30, 2026. Label: Karisma Records.
For being ostensibly a heavy metal band, Lumsk have never been ones to club you over the head. Even at their heaviest (see “I trollehender”), their music is never a full-on, die in the pit stampede. The name of the game here is this – Lumsk 2.0 exist at a particularly serene intersection of progressive rock, folk metal and a form of Scandinavian folk music centered around acoustic textures. Further, there is a level of chop restraint that belies all three of those influences. This approach isn’t headline news for us who’ve been in the game this long (Troll was the first iteration). Time and maturity have allowed for the graceful coalescence of these constituents. Prog rock dorks will chuckle dorkily at the time signature chicanery. Folk metal clods will alehorn mightily at the melodic sense. Scandinavian folk retirees will grin old-ly at the familiar instrumentation. Through it all runs a deep vein of melancholy befitting the English translation of the title – Loneliness.
Einsemda is based on selected works of Tor Jonsson, an early 20th century Norwegian poet. His writing was primarily characterized by stark emotion, often returning to repressed feelings and, um, loneliness, natch. I will not pretend to know the author’s work with any more depth than could be gleaned from English-language searching, but the translated song titles should give you enough context – “The Dead Man’s Hill”, “Loneliness”, “I Am Life From A Woman’s Death” (Norwegian speakers, please chime in on the [in]accuracy of that last one). The song titles and the muted drama of the cover art combine to offer a telling first impression, and tonally Einsemda unfolds mostly as expected. The bulk of the material is solemn and quietly powerful, and true to their style no single item competes for your attention. Lumsk are masters at cajoling maximum force from minimal energy. There are shades of countrymen and fellow prog-rockers Anekdoten, to be sure, but if you are interested in a more traditional progressive rock album, perhaps look elsewhere. Think of the thready magic Tenhi wield in their skeletal compositions – Lumsk are tuned to a similar frequency.
“Daudmannhaugen” is Einsemda in a nutshell – take a few bits of material, in this case the opening arpeggiation/chord changes and the vocal melody, add instruments to drive the energy into new territory, and iterate on that main theme with clever accompaniment or phrasing to maintain interest. Voila, that’s the album. This description may come across as reductive, but Lumsk have the wherewithal to keep the formula ironclad, and dare I say, exciting! Earlier I mentioned their restraint, but restraint does not necessarily exclude exuberance, nor does it indicate a lack of required tension. Harmonically and melodically, Lumsk create music that is abundant with beauty, darkness, and soul, regardless of whatever trappings are entailed by their genre tags.
“New” vocalist Mari Klingen is perfectly attuned to the character of Einsemda. While she is not the technical powerhouse that was Stine-Mari Langstrand, I find her timbre and ability to capture the story of each track so much more fitting. Her work in “Eg er Liv av ei Kvinnes Død” is particularly excellent, especially considering that she doesn’t show up until almost five and a half minutes into the overall 6 minute and 40 second length! The entire track is built upon a simple scale descent, and from such a humble foundation Lumsk build something quite magnificent. Heartfelt, swooping string sections give way to satisfying syncopated grooves. Drummer Vidar Berg has a field day, giving it all he has to keep the song not only afloat but joyously buoyant. The guitar solo that leads into the main vocal is one of those where you can almost see the face of the person playing, full of feeling, hitting that sweet spot where the difference between improvisational training and an outpouring of the soul is imperceptible. The track culminates with Mari building upon the voice of the guitar, lifting everything that came prior into the stratosphere. This, for me, is the emotional peak of Einsemda, one of those sections that impart some potent, higher meaning into your terrestrial existence.
Memory has the devious ability to hijack firsthand experience. Einsemda is one of those strange records where when I’m apart from it, I can bullet point all the reasons why I’d describe it as a “good” album. What is not as easily transmissible within distance, though, is why I believe it is a great album. Further descriptions of tracks or moments or performances won’t do anything to change the fact that it is my duty to recommend you seek it out upon release. If there’s one good deed I can do for the band these past 23 years, it is that and that alone.
In 2012 Prog stated the case for The Who’s Quadrophenia to be seen as a prog concept classic alongside the genre’s other great releases of 1973.
The Who’s sixth album is many things to many people. To some it’s the musical comedown that followed the R&B-infused mod scene of the early 60s. To others it’s the template for the subsequent film, which was more of a late 70s period piece. Then there are those who consider it to be The Who hitting a creative peak that would never be topped.
One thing is certain: for all its nostalgia for a previous decade, Quadrophenia is a product of the early 70s prog scene, influenced in scope and structure by emerging bands who helped make 1973 arguably the genre’s most vintage year.
ELP, Genesis, Caravan, Yes, Rick Wakeman and Gong all put out key albums within weeks either side of Quadrophenia, while earlier that year saw the release of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon – beside which The Who’s opus sits comfortably as a progressive, occasionally pastoral, often challenging and quintessentially English work.
Conceived by Pete Townshend as “hard and grandiose music,” it tells the story of young Jimmy, a restless, working-class “mountain of paranoia” struggling against a backdrop of unemployment, parental pressures and excessive amphetamine use.
Mod culture and trips to Brighton provide an identity before the real Jimmy pushes out from behind the armour of his fashionable accoutrements into a total mental breakdown.
So far, so standard teen rebellion story – on paper, at least. But this is a musical concept, where separate pieces join to form a cohesive narrative in which opera meets prog and things get weird.
Another prog conceit: the album takes us on two journeys, external (from the city to the sea) and internal (from youthful arrogance to despondency and despair), which coalesce into a dramatic musical conclusion.
Drunk and high, Jimmy steals a boat and ends up rain-soaked and marooned on a rock in the English channel, as described in the instrumental The Rock and the final plea for help of Love Reign O’er Me.
Musically, the album is certainly complex enough to be part of the wider prog world. Excursions into ethereal, psych-folk melodies on The Punk And The Godfather rub up against thunderous rock bombast; where the fantastical soloing and strident synths of the title track lead into snippets of seaside sounds or a snatch of Sousa’s late 19th-century military march The Thunderer (on The Dirty Jobs).
Quadrophenia is as its name suggests: a multi-faceted creature whose title refers to both the then-emerging quadraphonic sound technology and the alleged four personalities of a certain member of The Who. It’s a prog-related conceptual classic.
They say that success is the best revenge, and certainly Nickelback have shown that they can deal with those who are constantly criticising them with humour, and the fact that they remain one of the biggest-selling Canadian bands in music history certainly gives credence to the phrase.
Anyone who has witnessed some of their sold-out arena tours can attest that this band rocks hard and the sight of thousands absolutely losing their minds at the shows is the truest stamp of their genuine popularity.
Of course, the music is what has drawn the crowds, and with ten critically and publicly acclaimed albums under their belts already, the pressure was on for number eleven. Thankfully, Everything Under The Sun more than delivers all it promised and may be the best thing the band have done to date.
Nickelback – Everything Under The Sun may be the best thing the band have done to date.
There is absolutely no screwing around here, and opener Rattle The Cage sets their stall out from the very first notes onwards, a thumping and bared-teeth rocker that could flatten city blocks and is arguably one of the heaviest songs they have ever released.
Whilst this certainly kicks like a very angry mule, the band have not forgotten how to write a hook and their masterful blend of melody and muscle permeates the album from start to finish.
There is a lot to take in here. A weighty fifteen tracks gives the band plenty of scope to stretch themselves, and whilst the temptation may be there to bulk out the time with filler, it seems like Chad Kroeger and Co have just hit a very purple patch where new songs seemed to be pouring out of them in a flood.
Blistering fare like Bones For The Crows and a stuttering Chasin’ Famous have real weight and punch. But irresistible sugar-rush numbers like Simple Song and Last Night Was Fun head into more commercial, mainstream territory, with crossover appeal easy to see.
Throughout, vocalist and lead guitarist Kroeger, along with bassist brother Mike, guitarist Ryan Peake, and drummer Daniel Adair, bring their A Game, and there is a real sense of fun and focus here, their determination to make their stamp while having a damn good time lifting everything.
It is not just all beers and blood, though. The release carries some real emotional weight, be it the nostalgic If I Don’t Go echoing the feel of their previous smash Photograph but with a much more serious edge and the shining positivity of Lift Somebody Up leaving it impossible not to feel hopeful and elated.
There are even touches of psychedelia in the far-out Technicolor Steamboat and a twisting and fascinating Bottled Dreams is another real highlight.
The album closes with the Lenny Kravitz-like Up To No Good, a funky number with real balls and a slam-dunk way to seal the lid on this latest opus, demanding to be played again from start to finish the moment the last note fades.
With a shimmering production by Kroeger and Chris Baseford, Everything Under The Sun is the band’s most rounded, mature and wide-ranging album yet and displays that thirty-one years into their career, the best is yet to come.
A masterful piece of work, and with Nickelback heading back to the arenas next year, they continue to be unstoppable. A band you can believe in.
Nickelback release Everything Under The Sun on 30 October 2026 via Virgin Music Group. Pre-orders and more info can be found at nickelback.lnk.to/everythingunderthesun.
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock
Event Details
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock band as special guests on the tour, which supports their eleventh studio album, Everything Under The Sun, due on 30 October 2026 through Virgin Music Group.
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock
Event Details
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock band as special guests on the tour, which supports their eleventh studio album, Everything Under The Sun, due on 30 October 2026 through Virgin Music Group.
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock
Event Details
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock band as special guests on the tour, which supports their eleventh studio album, Everything Under The Sun, due on 30 October 2026 through Virgin Music Group.
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock
Event Details
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock band as special guests on the tour, which supports their eleventh studio album, Everything Under The Sun, due on 30 October 2026 through Virgin Music Group.
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock
Event Details
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock band as special guests on the tour, which supports their eleventh studio album, Everything Under The Sun, due on 30 October 2026 through Virgin Music Group.
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock
Event Details
Nickelback have announced their 2027 Everything Under The Sun Tour, with six UK and Ireland arena dates beginning in Leeds on 22 May. Don Broco will join the Canadian rock band as special guests on the tour, which supports their eleventh studio album, Everything Under The Sun, due on 30 October 2026 through Virgin Music Group.
Artist presales start on Tuesday 13 October at 10am local time, with general tickets going on sale on Friday 16 October at 10am local time through Live Nation. VIP packages will also be available.
Nickelback – The Everything Under The Sun Tour Poster
