Natural Right introduce themselves with Anna, a vibrant first single that blends reggae and ska foundations with indie flair and subtle Balkan inflections. The groove is immediate and infectious, driven by upbeat rhythms and bright instrumentation that feel built for movement. There is a looseness to the performance that keeps everything feeling organic and alive, never overpolished.
Anna carries that classic ska bounce while weaving in melodic touches that hint at the band’s broader influences. It is a confident opening statement ahead of their debut album, capturing both their multicultural edge and their instinct for hooks. Natural Right sound like a band ready to stretch the genre without losing the pulse that makes it move.
They’ve been teasing it for months, but the new release from Brisbane’s legendary and influential Dreamkillers is now available.
Proiphys Cunninhamii is out on all digital platforms now, featuring the singles Mulberry Sky, Close Down the Circus and Shirley. A deluxe edition on vinyl and CD with extra tracks will be available from June 5 – order it here.
Dreamkillers will be appearing at Necrosonic in Brisbane on August 22.
Cult icons of the late-80s/early-90s NYC goth scene return with first original recording in 32 years
New album The Visible Heaven produced by Doc Hammer at Goat of Brass Studios
Pre-orders now available via The Circle Music
New York, NY & Athens, Greece; 26 February 2026: After three decades of silence, the “last original band” of the American gothic movement, Requiem in White, has returned. The band is set to release The Visible Heaven, their first new album since disbanding in 1994, via The Circle Music on 21 May 2026.
Ahead of the album’s release, the band has unveiled the first single “Reckless in Misery”.
Originally formed in Boston in 1985 before becoming fixtures of the New York City underground, Requiem in White achieved legendary status through their refusal to grant interviews and their “grass roots” fame at venues like CBGB and The Limelight.
Known for an eclectic, romantic sound that influenced a generation of acts, they shared stages with the likes of Type O Negative, Christian Death and Biohazard. Following their 1994 split (the same year Marilyn Manson’s debut album came out), the Requiem in White members went on to form influential projects including Mors Syphilitica, Judith and WEΕΡ.
The new record sees original vocalist Lisa Stockton-Wilson (ex-Hammer) reunite with guitarist and songwriter Doc Hammer to finally capture the “elegant power” that defined their live shows but was often lost in the muddy, self-funded recordings of their youth.
The catalyst for the reunion was a 2024 vinyl reissue of the band’s early material by The Circle Music. Upon hearing the “thin and tiny” production of the original 8-track recordings, Doc Hammer, known to many as the co-creator of the animated series The Venture Bros, felt a responsibility to secure the band’s legacy.
The Visible Heaven eschews modern production tricks, relying on the classic arrangement of guitar, drums, bass, vocals, and organ. Stockton-Wilson’s “glassy and soaring” vocals, which Hammer describes as having pushed through “30 years of dust and doubt”, remain the centrepiece of the band’s signature dark, romantic sound.
“Requiem in White returned not to take back her throne, but to show people that her chair was beautiful,” says Doc Hammer. “To right the wrongs of her past and give her an album that sounds like what she truly was. To show her fans that they backed a beautiful horse! A horse that won’t win a race, but she’ll look good racing, and you will never see a horse like that again.”
He continued: “I wanted it to sound like we went into a great studio in 1994, recorded great tracks, and mixed a great album… the album we always wanted to make. It’s Guitar, Drums, Bass, Vocals and a little Organ, just like Requiem was back in the day.
“When some bands reunite and make new music, they don’t really pick up where they left off. They’re thinking as a creator, and not really respecting the band as a fan does. They bring into the new stuff all the baggage of the contemporary idiom. That, as a fan, is kinda gross. I don’t wanna hear my favourite niche-Goth-band come back and sound like fucking Doja Cat. I want them to sound like they used to. That’s what I would want as a fan. So I decided to just get back to the artistic place I was in the 90s.”
“I wasn’t trying to make a new record sound old, I was truly back in my old band writing like I used to. It’s real. The band never left, it simply fell asleep for a bit.”
Lisa Stockton-Wilson said: “I couldn’t have dreamt that Requiem in White would ever make another recording, but when Doc sent me the music, I was blown away. It’s haunting and powerful, symphonic and driving. My parts were complex and difficult to record, but I got a lot of encouragement. I think this album is very unique and I hope it makes our fans happy. Thanks to The Circle Music for inviting us to release our albums, old and new.”
The Visible Heaven tracklist: 1. The Visible Heaven 2. Ursuline Sister 3. True Lovers and Whores 4. Cold or Divine 5. Missa Brevis 6. Solus Sum 7. Suffer and Sleep 8. Reckless in Misery
When Jeremy Hotz talks about his childhood, it starts with a snowbank.
“When I was about three and I was out with my mom,” he says. “It was the winter and we were outside. My mom said, don’t go that way; I did anyway. I walked face first into a snowbank. That’s how I knew I was in Canada.”
Hotz was born in Cape Town and moved to Ottawa at the age of one. He does not remember the move, but he remembers the impact. Literally. That collision with frozen Canada feels like the right origin story for a comic who built a career out of discomfort, confusion, and the sense that the world is slightly off.
“Beautiful country, stupid place to put it,” he jokes about Canada’s geography. The line lands like one of his stage asides, tossed off but precise.
Their first house in Ottawa had an unfinished basement, and it came with roommates: house centipedes, the kind with way too many legs and a talent for appearing at the exact wrong time.
“That’s why I moved from Canada,” he says still repulsed. “I cannot stand that bug! The legs keep running away from you after you kill it because there are so many!”
It is the kind of detail that never makes a biography, but you can feel it in his comedy. Some things just bug him, and the fun is watching him point them out before the rest of us even notice.
The Roxy and the Smell of Show Business
Hotz did not ease into stand-up. One night, he’s just a guy in Ottawa. The next, he’s onstage in a comedy contest.
“The first time I went on stage, I was in a contest in this dirty bar in Ottawa,” he says. The venue was the Roxy, a bar that sounds exactly like what it was.
He showed up dressed for destiny. “I was wearing light blue corduroy overalls with patches on the knees because that was my first time on stage and I figured that would be my comedy outfit.”
Midway through his set, reality hit.
“I remember halfway through my show, I smelled pee…and it wasn’t me.”
That detail matters to him. “Was not me. The whole bar smelled like that.”
For some performers, that might have been the end. For Hotz, it was a beginning. “I thought, wow, this is show business, huh?”
The smell did not keep him away, yet, that smell never quite left him. “I’ll never forget that. That smell, you know. So whenever I’m doing really badly on stage, I smell that piss smell.”
For Hotz, comedy has a scent.
The Hand in Front of His Face
The persona that would define him slipped out by accident.
At a Montreal performance early in his career, someone pointed out that he kept putting his hand in front of his face. Other comics said: “You know you put your hand in front of your face the whole time, you idiot. You’re not going anywhere on television with that crap.”
He had not even noticed. “It’s anxiety. And that’s how it started.”
Instead of sanding it down, he grew into it. “I just got a little more comfortable on stage and then, not by choice, it became visually less like I was nervous and more like it was my act.”
He laughs at the mythology around it. “It wasn’t like some stroke of genius to put my hand in front of my face or turn my back on the audience or do a whole bunch of things that you’re not supposed to do in a row. When you do them, it all adds up to being okay. I had no idea that was going to happen, man.”
That hand over his eye, the fist covering his mouth became a signature. “They don’t forget, I know,” he says.
Walk past him in an airport and you might not say his name. You might just mime the gesture.
Shackleton, the Leafs, and the neighborhood
Offstage, the misery softens.
He travels with his dog, Shackleton, an eight-year-old with long hair and strong opinions about deli meat. “He loves Montreal smoked meat, because I do, and I give it to him.”
The dog has become part of the act. “That’s how I get off the stage. He comes running out and goes: ‘Come, get off. We got to go!’”
Shackleton also understands things the audience does not. “When I’m screaming at the television, it’s not at him. It’s just the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
Hotz lives in West Hollywood now. When the Leafs are on, the neighborhood knows. “You hear windows slamming and doors shutting outside of my neighbors. I’m that guy, man. I’m the guy in the neighborhood that everybody says: ‘Nice guy. But he’s insane.’ That’s me!”
There is something comforting about that. The man who built a career on existential dread still loses it over a hockey game like any other Canadian ex-pat.
He recently dodged another kind of disaster. During the California wildfires, his area was nearly evacuated. “We got the notification, pack your bags, blah, blah, blah. The next notification you’re going to get will be to evacuate and it never came. We just sat there waiting. We were the last place not to be forced out. Whoa, how lucky was that?”
You can hear the disbelief.
“You know, the weather is nice, so when it all burns down, all you have is the sun. We’d love to have more buildings put up. It’d be nice to have somewhere to go!”
Even in survival, there is a punchline.
Montreal: The Breakout
For all the miles and years, Montreal remains sacred ground.
“Montreal is my favorite city because they made me a star before anybody.”
That matters. He is an English-speaking comic who broke big in a bilingual city. “I broke out of Montreal. You know why that’s so impressive? I’m an English speaking Canadian and they got right behind me right away. I’ll never forget that.”
The Just for Laughs Festival has changed. After four decades as the comedy world’s go-to showcase, the festival’s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2024 and even canceled that year’s edition amid financial turmoil and restructuring. It has reemerged under new ownership and is back on the calendar, a leaner but still beloved part of Montreal’s summer.
His loyalty has not shifted. “As far as I’m concerned, with or without, I’ll always go back to Montreal. I don’t forget where I come from. What… are you crazy? No way.”
He talks about the old days of Just for Laughs with a mix of nostalgia and pragmatism. “That was just a business thing, more than anything else.”
What hasn’t changed is the audience. He is not worried about filling the Beanfield Theatre. “I’m not worried about that at all. Montreal has been great for me.”
Tres Misérables
Now he is heading back with the Très Misérables tour, a title that both nods to and mocks the grandiosity of musical theatre.
The story of Les Misérables is all about redemption. If Jean Valjean had to redeem himself with comedy, according to Jeremy, it would visual.
“He would be walking down the street singing and he would be arrested by two policemen for singing in public.”
He is not a fan of musicals. “Musicals are so stupid, like the guy sings and then everybody pretends that that’s okay. Nobody makes a big deal. It’s so stupid. Come on. I can’t stand musicals. Who makes the words rhyme? Get out of here. It’s not a song. It’s a movie.”
Still, he understands the comparison. In Les Misérables, Jean Valjean carries a yellow passport marking him as a former prisoner, something that defines him before he can redefine himself. Hotz has his own passport: the anxious face, the turned back, the muttered frustration.
Does he ever want a different one?
“No,” he says. “The good thing about that is when people see me in public, they go: ‘Gee, that’s that comedian. Maybe I should say hi? Nooo.’”
It gives him distance, a buffer. “Yeah, they leave me alone, you know, and they just stare at me. Then I look up and they look away real fast. So, then I stare at them and make them feel real uncomfortable.”
Mr. Dressup Nightmares
Jeremy grew up in the gentle, cardigan-wearing world of Mr. Dressup. But even there, something bothered him. When asked if he still has nightmares about Casey from Mr. Dressup chasing him, he lights up.
Casey, with those famously tiny arms. “The poor kid was half man, half Tyrannosaurus,” he says cracking himself up.
“All those old shows I watched when I was a kid. That’s my stand-up.”
His stand-up is not built on abstract cleverness. “My stand-up is very clever jokes about incredibly juvenile topic. I’m like this grown-up child.”
Jeremy’s gift is bringing us all together through misery. “Even though I’m miserable, in some weird way I manage to stitch it and pull everybody together.”
“Here is what happened with my act. The world got really miserable for real, so I became in fashion”, he jokes.
Miserableness aside, the laughter is what helps take some of that pain away.
“Other guys (comedians) really lean on the way the world is and blah, blah. I don’t at all. I lean on what is specifically pissing me off and it pisses you off too. You just haven’t thought about it yet.”
That is the Hotz formula. Take the irritation you did not know you had. Expose it. Sit in it. Make it funny.
From a snowbank in Ottawa to a dirty bar that smelled like pee, from a nervous hand in front of his face to sold-out shows in Montreal, Jeremy Hotz has turned misery into muscle memory.
This weekend, when Shackleton runs out to pull him offstage, Montreal will once again be the city that laughs first.
Writer: Randal Wark is a Professional Speaker and MasterMind Facilitator with a passion for live music. You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. His Podcast RockStar Today helps musicians quit their day jobs with out-of-the-box advice from Ted Talk Speakers, Best Selling Authors and other interesting Entrepreneurs and Creatives. He created the Rock Star Today Music Business Jam Session for musicians. Randal is a collector of signed vinyl, cassettes and CDs.
Grammy Award-winning guitarist and 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave) brought his trademark fire to a very different kind of stage on February 26, 2026, the auditorium of historic Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles, California.
Partnering with Gibson Gives and national nonprofit Music Will, Morello surprised students with a generous donation of new Gibson guitars ahead of Music in Our Schools Month. But this wasn’t a ceremonial handoff and photo op. It was loud, personal, and deeply inspiring.
Students took the stage for three live performances, ripping through original songs and covers while Morello watched closely, smiling, nodding, and offering thoughtful feedback. Morello invited the entire student body to the front of the stage during the final performance, raising his arm in encouragement as students fed off the moment.
When the students ripped into Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name” and the vocalist unleashed a full-throttle scream, Morello beamed like a proud bandmate rather than a rock icon. For many in the room, this wasn’t just a school assembly, it was maybe to coolest day this school had ever seen.
Wearing a simple “Listen to the Kids” T-shirt, Morello later addressed the crowd, emphasizing creativity, access, and the life-changing power of music education. “Access to instruments changes what’s possible,” echoed organizers from Music Will, reinforcing the mission behind the morning’s surprise.
The event closed with a jubilant group photo: students gathered around a row of gleaming Gibson guitars, faculty and organizers standing shoulder to shoulder, and Morello at center, celebrating the next generation of musicians.
At Manual Arts High School, rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t nostalgia — it was possibility.
Members of Children Of Bodom returned to the stage Thursday night in Helsinki, performing the first of two tribute shows honouring late frontman Alexi Laiho. The concert, titled Children Of Bodom – A Celebration Of Music, took place February 26 at the Tavastia club and marked the first time several core members had performed the band’s material together in years.
Bassist Henkka Seppälä, keyboardist Janne Wirman and drummer Jaska Raatikainen were joined by early guitarist Alexander Kuoppala, back with the group’s music live for the first time since the early 2000s. Lost Society vocalist and guitarist Samy Elbanna handled Laiho’s former roles on guitar and vocals. Laiho, the band’s primary songwriter and defining figure, died in December 2020 in Helsinki following long-term health issues.
The set drew heavily from the band’s most recognized material, opening with Living Dead Beat and moving quickly through staples including Sixpounder, Bodom Beach Terror and Silent Night, Bodom Night. Later highlights included Needled 24/7, Follow The Reaper and Downfall. The encore run closed with Are You Dead Yet?, Hate Me! and Hate Crew Deathroll, before a final second encore performance of In Your Face.
When the shows were first announced last October, the musicians said the goal was to honour both the band’s catalogue and their late bandmate. “We want to celebrate the life’s work of our band and at the same time the musical legacy of our friend and bandmate Alexi,” they said in a joint statement.
The Tavastia club carries particular weight in the band’s history, having hosted key early performances during Children Of Bodom’s rise from Espoo in the 1990s. Fan-filmed footage from the February 26 concert surfaced online shortly after the show ended. A second performance is scheduled for February 27 at the same venue.
The tribute concerts follow a period of renewed archival activity around the band. An official oral history book arrived in August 2025 via Rocket 88, compiling interviews with Seppälä, Wirman, Raatikainen and Kuoppala alongside other former members and associates. The band’s final live document, A Chapter Called… Children Of Bodom (Final Show In Helsinki Ice Hall 2019), was released earlier through Spinefarm.
For now, the Helsinki shows stand as focused live commemorations rather than a formal reunion, with no additional performances announced beyond this week’s pair of dates.
A relentless force in the underground scene, Brisbane metal outfit Dreamkillers are known for their raw intensity, genre-defying sound, and fiercely DIY ethos. Fusing thrash, English punk and melodic metal into a sonic assault that is both unrelenting and emotionally charged, while still maintaining a surprising sing-along quality, Dreamkillers continue to evolve without compromise. That […]
VIEW HEAVY AUSTRALIAN CONTENT DIGIMAG #256 HERE VIEW HEAVY AUSTRALIAN CONTENT DIGIMAG #256 HERE
A relentless force in the underground scene, Brisbane metal outfit Dreamkillers are known for their raw intensity, genre-defying sound, and fiercely DIY ethos. Fusing thrash, English punk and melodic metal into a sonic assault that is both unrelenting and emotionally charged, while still maintaining a surprising sing-along quality, Dreamkillers continue to evolve without compromise. That […]