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An obsession, exaggeration
Lust, desire and adoration
Lose yourself in someone else
Limerence closes every door

Robots In Love have the sort of name that promises chrome-plated heartbreak, and their latest single Cease and Desist delivers an emotional sucker punch. The New Zealand dark electronic duo of vocalist-producer Elenor Rayner and drummer-producer Alex Burchell builds the song around obsession gone feral: attraction narrowing into fixation, fixation hardening into dependency, and reason getting shoved somewhere beneath the furniture. There is no polite exit once the appetite starts feeding on itself.

The guitars come down hard, with hardcore licks driven right up against industrial metal without quite falling into Ministry cosplay. There is some of SINE’s bruising electronic pressure here, along with the blackened mechanical weight of latter-day Gary Numan, while the bigger synth architecture brushes against HEALTH, Nine Inch Nails, Sirus, and V.A.S.T. Burchell’s drumming has the clipped exactitude of somebody who has spent years learning how machines think, while Rayner sings from inside the mess those machines could never clean up.

Desire behaves like bad wiring in the skull, making sleeplessness feel necessary and self-erasure almost reasonable. The chorus grows huge enough to suggest somebody shouting through concrete, yet the verses keep dragging the listener back toward the private humiliation of knowing exactly what is happening and remaining unable to stop it.

“I recently discovered the word ‘limerence’ and started thinking about extreme obsession,” says Rayner. “Hence the line “limerence closes every door” where no amount of reasoning can get through. Musically, it’s got dark, heavy riffs, cinematic synths and an epic chorus.”

The video, directed by Lichen Sorrel and Rayner, places the band inside a rain-soaked environment where reality keeps slipping sideways. Their movements feel slowed and strangely detached, as though the performers have wandered into somebody else’s private hallucination and decided to finish the set anyway.

Watch the video for Cease and Desist below:

Rayner has been working toward this collision for decades. She began playing Australian pubs on bass at fourteen before moving into electronic production on an Atari computer, “which opened up a universe of creating sounds and moulding them into rhythms and melodies until they evoke the exact feeling I need.” Her history runs through Soulscraper, Sobriquet, Snog, and The Crystalline Effect before Robots In Love took shape in New Zealand in 2017. Joined by Burchell in this current powerhouse incarnation, the project has developed a nasty elegance that can turn technical precision into emotional damage.

With second album OVERRIDE ahead and guitarist Henry Flynn Wall joining the record, Cease and Desist makes obsession feel less romantic than chemical, compulsive, and absurd in the terrible way our worst impulses often are. Love may open doors, but limerence bolts them shut from the inside.

Listen to Cease and Desist below and pre-order OVERRIDE here.

Follow Robots In Love:

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The post “Limerence Closes Every Door” — Obsession Rains Down in Robots in Love’s Video for “Cease and Desist” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The cancellations come after the Gillette Stadium owner pressured Mr. Sheeran to remove an act who made pro-Palestine statements.

From the billon-dollar success of her Eras tour to the feverish clamour surrounding the release of her new single, Patient Zero, Taylor Swift is in no danger of being deposed from her throne as the most successful music star of the 2020s. But even pop megastars need a helping hand somewhere along the way – and in Swift”s case , that came from Def Leppard.

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was sitting in his band’s dressing room when someone walked in and placed a laptop in front of him, telling him to watch the video clip on it. It was 2008, and the Sheffield group were touring in support of their recently released album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge. The video on the laptop featured an interview with a rising young country-pop singer who had been garnering headlines recently.

“It’s Taylor Swift,” Elliott told Rolling Stone in 2018. “She’s doing this interview and she said there was only one band that she would ever do a Crossroads with and it was Def Leppard.”

Crossroads was a hugely popular American TV show airing on the CMT network that paired country music stars with artists from other genres. The musicians would jam together, playing each other’s songs as faithfully or differently as they saw fit.

And Taylor Swift? At the time, she was one of the most talked-about new singers in the US. Her self-titled 2006 debut album had topped the Country Charts and reached No.5 in the main Billboard charts. The album didn’t betray an affinity for the kind of stadium-sized hard rock that Def Leppard were best known for purveying, but her mother, Andrea, had been a huge Leppard fan in the 80s, and the young Taylor had grown up in a house where Leppare’s classic 1987 album Hysteria was on heavy rotation.

“Taylor Swift’s [2014 album] 1989 is called 1989 because that was the year she was born,” Elliott told The Irish Times. “Throughout 1988 she heard our music in her mother’s womb, non-stop. Her parents are big Def Leppard fans.”

Leppard were keen to take her up on her offer. “We’ve always been that poke-noses-out-of-joint kind of band,” Elliott told Rolling Stone. “I loved the idea of something that’s gonna either piss people off or they go, good for you for doing something different. If you’re gonna do collaborations, I don’t see the point in us doing a song with Bon Jovi.”

And so Def Leppard’s team reached out to Taylor Swift’s camp – something presumably made easier by the fact that Leppard drummer Rick Allen’s brother Robert was her tour manager at the time. A couple of months later, they were in rehearsals together in preparation for recording the Crossroads show. Given that Swift was in her late teens, some minor lyrical tweaks were necessary, not least on Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar On Me.

“Me and Taylor sat down, and she says, ‘I can’t sing that line,’ cos it was a bit too risqué’,” Elliott told Rolling Stone. “So we’d swap things around. And the fact that I was actually singing from the male point of view in some of her stuff, like in [Swift’s] Love Story.”

The Crossroads performance was recorded over two shows at the Acuff Theater in Nashville in early October 2008. The finished episode, which broadcast on CMT on November 8, three days before the release of Swift’s second album, Fearless, saw Leppard and Swift collaborating on 11 songs, with the American singer’s own band providing extra backing, including acoustic guitar and fiddle.

The show opened with Swift duetting with Elliott on a version of Leppard’s 1983 single Photograph, the teenager adding some swagger to the song’s opening lines. The rest of the set was an even split between the two artists’ songs with Swift’s Picture To Burn, Love Story, Teardrops On My Guitar, Should’ve Said No and Our Song and Leppard’s Hysteria, When Love And Hate Collide (apparently Swift’s favourite Def Leppard track), a raucous Pour Some Sugar On Me, Love and Two Steps Behind getting the collaborative treatment.

The show was an immediate hit, notching 4.5 million viewers in its initial airings. Swift’s career was already rocketing upwards at the time but it certainly didn’t hurt for her music to be exposed to modern rock audiences. For Def Leppard, it placed them in front of an audience who might not have listened to them since their 80s heyday – if at all.

Speaking to Classic Rock in 2019, Leppard guitarist Phil Collen acknowledged the bonus, stating, “The Taylor Swift thing probably did expand our audience. It was great mixing those genres of music.”

Ultimately, the Crossroads performance showcased the strengths of both artists – as well as some unlikely similarities. It proved so successful that Leppard and Swift re-teamed the next year to close the 2009 CMT Music Awards with Pour Some Sugar On Me.

“People were looking at us like we had three heads when we announced we were going to do this TV show with Taylor Swift,” Elliott told Classic Rock in 2023. “The point is to get two extremely opposite artists performing on it… We just saw it as an opportunity to do something different. And it was phenomenal fun.”

Numa Echos has worked across fashion, television, and heavy music, bringing a pretty unusual mix of experiences into her career as an artist. We had the chance to chat with her about her background, working across different heavy music genres, and the challenges women continue to face in the industry.

Reuel

Hello Numa! I’m very happy to chat with you. How are you doing?

Numa

I’m very happy to be talking with you, too. I’m in a reflective phase and looking toward the future.

Reuel

When I was reading your bio, I was stunned by the variety of things you’ve done. I mean, cycling, fashion, TV, radio… And more! Do you feel that this colorful background has affected the way you see and present music?

Numa

Every little detail and nuance of my life helps define who I am, so I’d say yes, definitely.

Reuel

Aside from the variety of professions and forms of art you’ve explored, you’ve also been making music in a variety of heavy genres. Is there a genre you’ve worked in where you feel more like yourself, or does each genre represent a different side of your personality?

Numa

I believe that the genres that influence my music are closely intertwined, just as the different sides of my personality coexist-sometimes clashing, but then unequivocally seeking a compromise to establish a state of balance that transcends balance itself.

Reuel

Your last album was released in 2023, I believe. I guess the question your fans would like me to ask is: is there a plan to release any new music soon?

Numa

Absolutely. During my live shows, I’m already performing some new material that will be included on my next album. I’m particularly proud of the work that’s taking shape, which features several collaborations with other artists, and I hope it will be released before the end of the year or early next year.

Reuel

You’ve already collaborated with some incredible musicians. If you could perform or work with any musician, dead or alive, who would you choose?

Numa

There isn’t any one artist in particular with whom I’d like to collaborate; there are many with whom I’d like to exchange thoughts and opinions-whether they’re alive, dead, or haven’t even been born yet.

Reuel

With everything you’ve done, is there a certain form of art you’re still curious to try or explore?

Numa

I’m curious about the world in general, about everything I don’t know-even though there are some things I’d rather never know.

Reuel

We have readers from all around the world, including women who still face barriers and even persecution in the music industry. What message would you like to share with those who dream of pursuing a music career?

Numa

I would like to convey a message of freedom. We are free, and no one-and no social convention-should prevent us from proudly showing ourselves as we are. I condemn all forms of oppression and call on everyone to fight against it including through art and music.

Reuel

Thank you for your time, Numa! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Numa

Thank you, and thank you to everyone who follows me. I’d like to add: “Strive for the infinite.”

The post Interview | Numa Echos: “I’m curious about the world in general, about everything I don’t know” first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

So, is anyone buying?

The post Megadeth Launch Expansive “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying” 40th Anniversary Briefcase Set appeared first on Theprp.com.

The latter will be out in January.

The post Scary Kids Scaring Kids Solidify Their Lineup With New Single “Something In The Water” & Album “RISE” appeared first on Theprp.com.

I’ll see you in the vacant light

Somewhere in-between

In a room that my body makes

For you and me

Some songs announce themselves with a manifesto. Violet Silhouette’s This Is Something seems perfectly happy admitting that nobody involved has quite figured out what the hell is happening yet.

A chant catches against a taut backbeat, bass and drums immediately putting bodies in motion while the synthesizers maintain a cooler distance. There is some early Human League in that contrast between machine discipline and romantic uncertainty, while the repetitive rhythmic pull recalls LCD Soundsystem at their most economical. Violet Silhouette leave plenty of room around the beat, allowing repetition to become its own persuasive force. Five minutes later you may still have questions, although sitting down probably will not be among them.

This Is Something catches the instant before certainty settles in: two people meeting somewhere between confession and possibility, with a dance beat underneath them and enough unanswered questions to keep things interesting.

The song began with rhythm. According to the band, the drums and beat drove its development while melodies were tested until the track revealed its peculiar identity. Compared with much of their forthcoming album, VIVID(IS)DECAY, This Is Something leans further into dance music, though its lyrics occupy considerably less certain territory. With Lily Vile joining on bass, Violet Silhouette now operates as a trio, and that expanded physical presence suits material built so firmly around movement. The group formed in West Palm Beach in late 2019 and has since become geographically divided between South Florida and Austin. Distance has become part of their method rather than an impediment, with Dan and Zaii exchanging early ideas for VIVID(IS)DECAY beginning in 2024.

Night provides the setting, but clarity remains elusive. Someone is trying to make sense of where they have been while simultaneously wondering whether knowing would accomplish anything useful. Desire can be detected before it can be understood; feelings exist before language catches up with them. There is hesitation throughout the verses, coupled with a growing willingness to let another person see what has previously remained private.

Then Violet Silhouette introduce one of the song’s strongest images: two people meeting somewhere between recognizable states, inside a private room formed by the body itself. Suddenly This Is Something feels less like an evasive title and more like an admission. Whatever this connection is, somebody has finally acknowledged its existence.

The accompanying video carries the uncertainty somewhere considerably stranger. Violet Silhouette initially perform inside gorgeous neo-film-noir compositions, bodies moving with the backbeat before strobes, abstract tableaux, and blurred recollections begin interrupting any comfortable sense of reality.

“Visually, we drew from David Lynch’s Lost Highway,” says the band. “Our friend Roberto Badillo took our vision and ran with it — the result is sleek and visceral, like a gloved hand dragging desire across the table.”

That glove fits. Watch the video for This Is Something below:

Produced, mixed, and mastered entirely by Violet Silhouette, VIVID(IS)DECAY explores what the band calls Neuromanticism, their pursuit of truth and love through unstable identities, secret languages, and emotional dissolution.

Listen to This Is Something below and order the single here.

Follow Violet Silhouette: 

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The post Violet Silhouette Blur Desire and Reality in David Lynch-Inspired Video for “This Is Something” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Part of their forthcoming new album “The Conversation”.

The post Lockslip Call Out Abusers With “Vengeance (You’ll Never Be Seen By Your God)” Music Video appeared first on Theprp.com.