Blog

A montage of studio footage from the band has newly been shared.

The post Chiodos Teasing Apparent New Studio Sessions appeared first on Theprp.com.

This development also follows the festival being postponed in 2025.

The post 2026 ‘C.Y. Fest’ Canceled After Allegations, Artist Boycotts & Multiple Promoters Stepping Down appeared first on Theprp.com.

Beacon of foul light carry us forth into the great beyond

The veil is lifted, black light spilling

Burning obsidian star 

Athens has always seemed like the sort of city where the old gods might still be loitering behind the clubs, smoking clove cigarettes and waiting for somebody to plug in a guitar loud enough to wake the Kraken.  On Burning Obsidian Star, Greek goth rockers Reflection Black come on like alchemists turning ritual into rhythm, hauling myth, mortality, and a little metal-bred menace.

Too many bands dabble in the occult like they bought the Cliff’s Notes for The Lesser Key of Solomon. Reflection Black sounds like they have actually spent some time in a dungeon with these ideas, letting them stain the walls and seep into the songs. The whole album carries itself with conviction, but not the kind that turns pompous and topples over under its own robes.

Reflection Black have influences all over the place: The Sisters of Mercy, The Damned (particularly in their Phantasmagoria era), The Mission, a little of that newer cemetery-club cool, and yes, some steel in the spine from older metal, but they never sound like record collectors playing dress-up. They sound hungry, focused, and a little dangerous in the way all good gothic rock should.

Dreams Fade to Nothing opens the album with the kind of hook that knows exactly how to plant itself in your head and redecorate. From there, the band move with a cool, deliberate gait, letting the guitars carve sharp lines while the synths mass in the distance like storm fronts over stone ruins. The rhythm section keeps everything taut and driving, never overplaying, never wandering off in search of some grand statement. That discipline gives the songs their force. Nobody is showing off for the mirror; they are too busy building the mood and keeping it alive.

The Architect in Slumber reaches into Lovecraftian dread without turning into costume drama, which is harder than most groups seem to realize. It has scale, it has pressure, and it has a voice at the center that lands with enough gravity to keep the whole thing from floating off into gothic pageantry. The title track is where the album really bares its teeth.

Burning Obsidian Star swings harder, drags in blackened edges, and gives the band room to show how comfortably they can move between post-punk tension and heavier instincts without sounding confused about who they are. It is a hymn for people who’d kiss the apocalypse on the mouth and call it communion. These lyrics turn annihilation into ascension, with fire as sacrament and the black star as cruel saviour. Flesh chars, blood boils, mouths fill with ash, and somehow the whole damned thing still glows with ecstatic purpose.

Alex offers insight into the theme of Wonders of Night: “Nyx…according to Orphic Theogony, is a primordial force from which the universe has spawned. She is considered the mother of several divine beings, but also breeds a number of primordial negative forces like Thanatos, Nemesis and Eris.” In that lineage, the song finds its gravity. It carries the sense of standing before something older than doctrine, older than daylight.

Burning Obsidian Star is a strong, fully formed album by a band that seem to know exactly where they’re headed, even if the destination happens to be a boat ride with  Charon to the underworld.

Listen to Burning Obsidian Star below and order the album here.

Follow Reflection Black:

• Bandcamp
  
• Facebook
  
• Instagram
• Spotify

The post The Veil is Lifted — Greek Gothic Rockers Reflection Black Ignite the Dark With “Burning Obsidian Star” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Debut festival edition expands to three stages as new ticket prices take effect

Szczecin, Poland; 19 March 2026: Hells Bells Festival continues its build-up toward 26-27 June 2026 with a dual band announcement and a major logistical expansion. 

The festival has confirmed Northern Ireland thrashers Gama Bomb and Polish blackened punks Owls Woods Graves, while also revealing that the event will now span three distinct stages at the Plac Gryfitów site.

Gama Bomb are widely known for their speed, technicality, and fun-filled, high-octane live shows. Fans in Szczecin should prepare for a masterclass in headbanging as the band brings their signature “thrash metal bomb” to the Łasztownia waterfront. The band’s latest release is the EP “Necronomicon Automaton”.

The bill is further bolstered by Owls Woods Graves, a project conceived by The Fall  & E.V.T. Their unique sound, self-described as “haunted woods hardcore”, blends black metal with raw punk energy and macabre storytelling inspired by witches and the Devil. The band is currently promoting their third album, “Strix”.

In a significant move for the festival’s scale, organisers have also confirmed that Hells Bells 2026 will now feature three stages. This expansion allows for a more diverse range of sounds and ensures that the performances are more spread out across the schedule, reducing time pressure and providing a better experience for both the artists and the audience.

Gama Bomb and Owls Woods Graves join an already stacked line-up that includes the likes of Dirkschneider, Grave Digger, Cockney Rejects, UK Subs, Vader, Possessed, Discharge, NunSlaughter, Furia, Dead Congregation, Last Resort, Dezerter, The Materia, Belzebong and Słoń. 

As previously announced, the festival has entered its next pricing tier. This pool of tickets will be available only until 31 May 2026 (or until sold out): Full Weekend Pass (PLN 409), Friday Ticket (PLN 199), Saturday Ticket (PLN 229). The festival also continues to offer the discounted Youth Pass (ages 13-18) and Family Pass (adult with child under 13).

Secure your entry now: https://hellsbells.pl/

Hells Bells online 
FB: https://www.facebook.com/hellsbellsfestival

FB Event: https://fb.me/e/7cujCjrCo

IG: https://www.instagram.com/hellsbellsfestival

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hellsbellsfestival

Official teaser: https://youtu.be/TybhrrUbNF4?si=s5V9NNRZ4t1JV499

Source: 3nation

Born oceans apart and now based in Prague, Kaan and Mindolé have made the sort of record that feels designed for twilight hours and private reveries. Odd Little Thrills work with atmosphere, certainly, but there is also real finesse in Happy Together, a song that enters quietly and settles in with confidence, carried by a steady beat, soft-focus guitars, and an intimate mood.

The duo describes their transcontinental chemistry as sounding “like faded VHS tapes of half-remembered dreams,” and it is one of those rare self-descriptions that actually rings true. The drum pattern keeps everything gently in motion while the guitars wind around it with a subtle eastern inflection, and the vocals arrive in a hushed, reverberating tone that never overwhelms the arrangement. Happy Together unfurls the quiet power of warmth and restraint.

You can hear traces of Boy Harsher in the ominous pop pull of it all, and a touch of Morcheeba in the unhurried, down-tempo sensuality. There are also moments that call to mind Beth Orton, Moby, Cocteau Twins, and Sarah McLachlan, especially in the softness of the vocal presence and the way the song carries emotion without overselling it.

The red-tinged video deepens that feeling, wrapping the track in a muted glamour that fits it beautifully. Split screens pass like fractured memory, dark visions unfold in the club, and a rush of symbols keeps surfacing and slipping away: flashes of nature, hands clutching a rope, a scene by the lake, a guitar held by a tree, tunnels giving way to huge open landscapes. Watching it feels a bit like being dragged along on tour with the band through a beautifully unsteady fever dream, half-documentary, half-delirium, with every image arriving charged and slightly out of reach.

Watch Happy Together below:

The EP, There Was, There Wasn’t, carries that same duality throughout. The press notes describe “simultaneous, layered timelines travelling together yet apart, like parallel trains,” and in this case, the image fits. The music holds contrasting sensations in delicate balance: closeness and distance, comfort and unease, tenderness and tension. The cool throb of the drum machine, the textured percussion, and the dreamlike drift of the guitars give the songs a feeling of movement through memory, as though past and present are brushing against one another in real time.

This is a track equally at home in a Berlin basement party, in a coffee shop sipping a lavender latte, or stretched out on the couch with a beer and a cigarette. Odd Little Thrills are elegant, alluring, and quietly affecting, a debut that moves with grace and leaves a gentle impression.

Listen to There Was, There Wasn’t, out now via Pity Party Records, below:

Follow Odd Little Thrills:

• Instagram
• Spotify

The post Dreampop Duo Odd Little Thrills Drift Through a Half-Remembered Reverie in Video for “Happy Together” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Michael Monroe walked onto the stage at the Racket Club in New York City last April with a broken meniscus. Nobody in the crowd would have known.

“On stage, I don’t show my pain,” he tells Robert Cavuto. “So that’s why I was limping.”

The knee had gone at the worst possible time, just before the U.S. tour kicked off. He pushed through it anyway, then kept pushing through a U.K. run that followed. Things got worse during a gig when he put his full weight on it wrong. “I just heard a crunch,” he says. By the end of the year, surgery was unavoidable. He had it done on January 8th, cutting it uncomfortably close to the band’s next run of UK dates.

The injury eventually forced the cancellation of a five-week U.S. tour, a decision that clearly still stings. “I was so upset we had to cancel,” Monroe says. A return is being planned, though no dates are confirmed yet.

None of this slowed down the record. Outer Stellar, released this past February, is Monroe‘s most considered album in years: polished, melodically sharp, and built on a stockpile of material that far exceeded what ended up on the final track listing.

“We had like between 40 and 50 songs to choose from, really,” he says. “It’s just a question of getting the track listing, choosing the songs, and making an entirety that works.”

That process took time, deliberately so. Deadlines came and went. The band, spread across continents with Steve Conte in New York and Monroe based in Finland, doesn’t have the luxury of being in the same room often. When they do get that opportunity, it shows.

Outerstellar is packed with twelve explosive, hard-hitting songs delivered with unmistakable swagger and attitude. Infectious melodies that collide with memorable guitar riffs, creating a modern rock statement rooted in rebellion and grit. You’ll feel the electricity running through you on songs like “Rocking Horse,” “Disconnected,” and “Painless.”

The most productive stretch came at a rented villa outside Helsinki — a residential studio where the full band lived and worked for five days. “We wrote a song per day,” Monroe says. “We lived in the house, and there’s a studio downstairs.” No pressure, no agenda. “What kind of song should we do today?” was about as structured as the conversation got.

Two of the album’s standout tracks came directly from those sessions. “Rocking Horse” was one. The other was “One More Sunrise” — the album’s seven-and-a-half-minute centerpiece, born the day Rich Jones put on Bruce Springsteen‘s “Jungle Land” as a starting point. The working title was “Sauna Land.” “We decided one day… why should every song be three minutes? Let’s just make it as long as it takes,” Monroe says. “And that’s what came out of it.”

Not everything on the record is that recent. “Pushing Me Back” dates back to the One Man Gang sessions from 2018 — it didn’t fit that album, didn’t fit I Live Too Fast to Die Young either, and finally found its home here. Three other tracks — “Road to Ruin,” “Shinola,” and “Precious” — came from a handful of demo days at a studio in Helsinki run by the band’s guitar roadie Bobby. “We figured it may sound good enough, just get a great mixer,” Monroe says. That mixer turned out to be Dave Draper, a first-time collaborator who’s now firmly in the camp. “He’s my man from now on,” Monroe says.

Lyrically, Monroe has always worked with deliberate openness, avoiding the trap of being too specific, leaving enough room for listeners to bring their own meaning into a song. He traces that instinct back to a fan encounter that stuck with him. A kid once came up to him and explained at length how Monroe‘s track “Always Right,” from his Peace of Mind album, had changed his life, citing specific lines and what they meant to him.

“I was like, OK, whatever. All right. So, yeah, that’s what I meant.” He laughs. “That reconfirmed to me that really you can’t really be too specific. People can take things in completely different ways. It was nothing like I thought of myself. But then I thought, great — it helped this guy.”

“Road to Ruin” gets a closer look in the interview, and it comes with a detail that rewards attentive listeners. The spelling isn’t R-O-A-D — it’s R-O-D-E. Jones‘ idea, a deliberate play that separates it from the Ramones album of the same name. Monroe is visibly pleased that Cavuto caught it. “That was a very important point,” he says.

The track also carries a brief musical nod that Monroe is happy to name. In the half-tempo break before the solo, there’s a moment that echoes Alice Cooper‘s “Hello, Hooray.” “That’s a little homage to Alice,” he says. As it turns out, the album cover has a similar thread running through it. The close-up of Monroe‘s eye — his right eye this time, the left appeared on Sensory Overdrive — pairs with its predecessor to form a complete image across the two gatefolds. It was Jones who pushed for it. Monroe only later realized it unconsciously echoed the gatefold of Alice Cooper‘s Love It to Death, which had hung on his wall as a kid. “Maybe a little subliminal down the road,” he says.

The photo itself was taken by Monroe, through a mirror, on a phone. “The final picture I took,” he says, “it was like maybe a meter, or half a meter.” Not exactly a professional studio shoot, but that’s the point.

The album’s title came from Sammy, the same source behind Sensory Overdrive. “Outer stellar” is slang for something moving at a rapid speed. Even Monroe‘s English manager had to look it up. “I thought, yeah, let’s sleep on it,” Monroe says. “And the next day I thought, yeah, that’s the one.”

On stage in England, the band has been working on three songs from the new record — “Shinola,” “Disconnected,” and “Rocking Horse” — constrained by a one-hour slot on a co-headline run with Buckcherry. A US tour, with more time and more room in the set, would open things up. Monroe is already thinking about “Black Cadillac” and “One More Sunrise.” The latter’s piano part — played by Morgan Fisher of Mott the Hoople on the record — can be adapted for the live setting without much trouble.

When asked to look back on a solo career that stretches from Nights Are So Long in 1987 to now, Monroe doesn’t reach for nostalgia: “I maintain my integrity throughout the years and I’ve evolved and developed and I always just try to get better at what I do while staying real and being authentic and sincere and singing from the heart and never selling my soul or doing anything for the wrong reasons and no compromises for the wrong reasons. So that way, I feel good. I feel like I can look at myself in the mirror with a clear conscience and know I haven’t cheated and stayed true to myself.”

For a full list of upcoming shows and tickets, visit this location – more dates to be announced. To order Outerstellar, go here.

The post MICHAEL MONROE Breaks Down Recent “Outer Stellar” Album, Explains Why He Doesn’t Reach For Nostalgia: “I’ve Stayed Authentic, Sincere, Singing From The Heart & Never Selling My Soul” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.