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Interview by Cecilia Pattison-Levi Since launching her solo career, Tarja has consistently charted internationally and built one of the most loyal fanbases in the genre, willing to follow her in every new adventure. Across more than two decades, Tarja has released a highly successful catalogue, reaching the Top 10 of multiple European album charts and […]

After four years of studio silence, Kenoshan cavemen Jungle Rot emerge from the bush with twelfth platter, Cruel Face of War. For the uninitiated, Jungle Rot plays groovy death metal that’s hostile, bludgeoning, and never dares to overthink anything. Their output has been more reliable than our coverage, and reviewing every other album since 2011’s Kill on Command, each has earned a ‘Mixed’ rating. Interestingly, the two albums we missed reviewing, Terror Regime and Jungle Rot, are the best of that group, particularly their self-titled effort. Now faced with our first consecutive Jungle Rot evaluation, can Cruel Face of War break the mold, or does it run through the Jungle on cruise control?

‘Consistency is key’ perseveres as a pillar of advice I mete out and live by,¹ and this lesson sticks with Jungle Rot like flies on a decomposing carcass. After three decades of mouth-breathing death jams, the band still delivers freshly forged OSDM every two to four years that reeks of Obituary and Bolt Thrower. While the hardcore and deathcore vestiges have diminished,² trace amounts of Hatebreed and Slaughter to Prevail lurk within Jungle Rot’s fetid funk, especially Dave Matrise’s vocals. To be fair, any fluctuations in their sound become conversations of degrees, and since Fueled by Hate dropped in 2004, Jungle Rot has been lodged in a groove so deep they haven’t pulled out from it yet.

Jungle Rot sounds best when they inject a bit of melody into their formula, and those crumbs unerringly serve as the best morsels on Cruel Face of War. Maybe that’s because only those moments break up the monotony of an otherwise wearisome chuggathon, where an unvarying landscape of riffs and grooves blur together into an indistinct sea of homogenous death metal. For instance, the riffs on “When the Elders Rise” and “Rot Riffs” carry just enough character to help differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack, but otherwise, I can’t distinguish between most others without playing them back-to-back. To Jungle Rot’s credit, they possess a sound uniquely their own. But like a painter who only uses a single color, they lock themselves into a self-imposed prison of uniformity that undercuts any notion of tension or contrast.

Despite the detractors, Jungle Rot’s adherence to convention pays dividends as well. Pit-ready grooves and stank-inducing verses make great fodder for good ol’ fashioned head-banging, and while the simplicity limits Cruel Face of War’s upside, it also ensures a stable foundation to build upon. Regarding pacing, Jungle Rot plays with two speeds: a menacing, mid-paced skulk and a faster, more predatory trot. Though they never commit to woebegone plods or balls-out blitzes, there’s just enough variety to keep things engaging without moving too far away from Jungle Rot’s established sonic ideal. Additionally, Cruel Face of War merits praise for the efficient yet expressive solos, particularly on “Cruel Face of War” and “Horrors Vile,” with Geoff Bub and David Matrise credited for guitars.³ Bassist James Genenz rumbles and groans alongside, supplying a meaty dimension to Cruel Face of War, and drummer Spenser Syphers pounds and pummels as needed. Dan “The Man” Swanö even handles mixing and mastering, granting the immediate boost he bestows to nearly everything he touches.

Cruel Face of War never outright errs, yet Jungle Rot proves so reticent to stray from the path oft-traveled that I wonder why they recorded new material. Jungle Rot felt like a promising step forward, infusing wicked melodies into the band’s brutish brand of death metal. Since then, Jungle Rot seems content to churn out mildly different flavors of the same core recipe with rapidly diminishing returns. After thirty years of staying the course, I’m not hopeful that Jungle Rot will venture into unfamiliar territory, but without stepping outside their comfort zone, I don’t foresee them bursting free from their Jungle Rut.

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Rating: Disappointing
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 224 kbps mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 15th, 2026⁴

The post Jungle Rot – Cruel Face of War Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Posted on May 13th 2026, 11:47a.m.

Flesh Creep have shared all the details of their upcoming EP ‘Glimmer’, as well as an explosive new single.

The follow-up to the Birmingham band’s debut album ‘We Need You To Bleed’, ‘Glimmer’ will arrive on July 17 via Music For Nations

Speaking on their latest EP, the band have shared:

“Glimmer takes a big leap forward for us as a band – questioning what Flesh Creep can be. Overstepping often self-imposed genre motifs & authentically capturing both individual and collective journeys. 

“Writing the record, early trials of each song (barring one) grew in front of live audiences, “road-testing” the in-person experience & the types of connections we want to make along the way. We want to subvert expectations, we want to satisfy but challenge, and to do this we’ve made this with the utmost care, love & respect.” 

Take a listen to the incendiary ‘Bubblegum’ below.

Speaking on that unstoppable new track, Flesh Creep vocalist Tom Bienkowski says:

“While it’s probably the most dynamic and dare I say, fun song that we’ve released to date, ‘Bubblegum’ is as confrontational and direct in its messaging as any song we’ve ever written. To put it plainly, there are those in our society who seek to abuse and exploit, and there’s the rest of us. We are not the same, we do not seek common ground, we will never be your friend.”

Check out the artwork and tracklisting for ‘Glimmer’ below.

1. Flake
2. Bubblegum
3. Cheap Heat
4. Straight Flush
5. Optics
6. Glimmer

The post Flesh Creep Announce New EP ‘Glimmer’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

German death metal band Temple Of Dread has announced that they will release their sixth album, "Dreadspawn Dominion" on August 7th through Testimony Records. In celebration of the announcement, the group has unveiled a music video for the album's title track. You can check it out below. "The Underworld is still in turmoil – the God of the Godle… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com

GHOST are teasing a brand-new big screen feature, and this time they’re teaming up with IMAX.

Following the release of ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ in cinemas across the world back in 2024, Tobias Forge and co. are back with another movie-based treat for us.

The band have shared the news on their socials via a cryptic clip.

It slowly zooms in on a glittering mask before ending with a screen stating: “Coming this August to cinemas and IMAX”.

Check it out below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Band Ghost (@thebandghost)

Whilst we’re still yet to hear any more details on the upcoming film, it’s likely that it will feature footage from the band’s 2025 Skeletour.

The final dates of that run took place in Mexico City back in September, and the band shared the following on socials shortly after:

“Children of Mexico!

“Two out of three nights of heat, jumping, singing, passion, rawk, roll and filming at the classic Palacio De Los Deportes.

“We shot it all on 16 mm, for the rest of the world to see at some point. But for now it’ll be our little secret.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Band Ghost (@thebandghost)

Back in 2024, Rock Sound attended the world premiere of ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ in London where we caught up with Tobias Forge, Alex Ross Perry, and some famous fans of GHOST.

Check out Rock Sound’s full recap of the ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ world premiere here.

The post GHOST Tease New Feature Film In Collaboration With IMAX appeared first on Rock Sound.

Posted on May 13th 2026, 11:08a.m.

Quiet Sun featured Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera alongside Matching Mole’s Bill MacCormick with Dave Jarrett and Charles Hayward

[Cover art by Quinn Henderson]

You’re familiar with the term, “unc,” right? If not, it generally refers to a washed up older feller whose personality in large part revolves around extravagantly performing confusion and/or displeasure at the mere notion of people being between the ages of 12-28 in the wrong way. Wherever the youths are enjoying a new musical sub-genre with a weird name, confidently sporting asymmetrical hairstyles or lauding the merits of professional athletes born after 1978, uncs are there to provide the necessary correctives. Apocalypse, the latest full length from prog rockers Crown Lands, is the kind of release that crawls directly up the collective backsides of uncs … like me. 

The Canadian duo offers a value proposition similar to American retro-rockers Greta Van Fleet, but with a focus on resuscitating Rush, instead of Led Zeppelin, for a younger generation. And while that Rush comparison has earned the band plenty of attention and brought them into the orbit of the legendary progressive rock forefathers, I don’t suspect it will endear them to the legions of uncs who still treat the progfathers’ massive catalog with something like Biblical reverence. 

To my ear, the dissonance between what Crown Lands promise and what they deliver is loud and jarring. While so much of Rush’s appeal rested in their ability to produce dynamic recordings of exceptionally complex compositions as a power trio, Crown Lands, which operate as a duo, often sound canned, comped and snapped-to-the grid in post production. You’d be wrong to deny the technical prowess of drummer/vocalist Cody Bowles and guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Kevin Comeau, but that puts your under no obligation to feel their performance. 

As for their compositional approach, I could simply tap the sign in the Last Rites break room that reads “at this point prog is a sound associated with an amalgam of well worn “progressive” tropes rather than a truly experimental genre.” But, truth be told? Crown Lands doesn’t even really employ too many of those tropes. You won’t hear much in the way of unconventional harmonic movement or non-perfunctory deployment of odd time signatures. Instead, Crown Lands reach for prog through the album’s concept – a centuries spanning prequel to their 2023 full length, Fearless, dealing with AI and interplanetary colonization – and the eye-watering length of the album’s title track. Closing the album and clocking in at 19 minutes, the standout features of “Apocalypse” are its length and inability to justify it. Here’s a song that moves with the cadence of a five-year-old telling you about a dream they had the night before. We get a thumping, mid-paced bassline that invokes “Bullet the Blue Sky,” we get a nod to “YYZ,” we get a balladic nod to The Mars Volta’s “The Widow”  … And then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens …

As an unc, I’m duty bound to advise the uninitiated to simply seek out a copy of 2112 or Hemispheres. And if you’ve already spent your hours with Rush’s classic run, then get more familiar with an unheralded banger like Grace Under Pressure. Still looking for modern prog to scratch a purely musical itch? Check out the review archives of our very own sherpa Lone Watie. 

But, you know… in addition to being an unc, due to the family planning quirks of Mediterranean immigrants to the United States, I became an uncle at the ripe old age of four. And did you know that in addition to “the brother of one’s father or mother,” the word uncle has a fascinating tertiary definition? “One who advises.” That’s neat. And it feels different than what an unc does, which is to essentially lecture young people about how they can be more like him. An uncle, making a good faith effort to advise a younger person, might at least attempt to understand where they’re coming from in order to provide some guidance as to where they are going. To that end, I quizzed one of my nieces, who happens to be squarely in Crown Lands’ target demo, about why she wouldn’t simply listen to older, better music as opposed to the pale imitations on offer today? I’ll quote the conversation here:

If we discontinued all these sub-genres solely because they produced bands considered to be some of the best of rock history we get into the ‘is music finite’ conversation. It’s really also that nostalgic aspect of ‘oh hey my dad listened to this kind of music with me while I was growing up.’ It’s familiar and to have that new music having the same feel … it’s comforting. 

Despite Crown Lands shortcomings – and I stand by my assertion that they are many – I don’t think their effort to generate a contemporary moment for kids who like expansive but accessible guitar-based music is one of them. And when I listen as an uncle instead of an unc, I can hear the moments where they do it well. The album’s first proper riff, which comes at the beginning of “Foot Soldiers of the Syndicate” after a brief instrumental interlude, simply rocks. Compact, memorable and built around a bluesy lick so intuitive I’m surprised I hadn’t heard it approximately 8,700 times on 104.7 THE ROCKET, The Only Station That Really Rocks between spins of “Money” and “Sharp Dressed Man.” Track 4, “Blackstar,” might be the best Crown Lands has to offer. Here the band moves beyond classic prog-rock conventions and reminds me of the army of U.S. heavy metal bands that got down to business in response to “Operation Mindcrime,” but still had to do their version of a song that might get hips shaking on Sunset Strip.

“The Fall’s” main riff struts credibly before the fellers roll up the sleeves on their sensible blazers and max out every channel on the mixing board for a big, booming chorus. For those who do not wish to see the sub-genres of their parent’s youth discontinued, the moments where Crown Lands step into their own sound while keeping one foot planted in the past might just be the point of the whole deal. 

Apocalypse is not an album for the uncs. The music does not substantially fulfill the promise of the presentation, and if you’ve spent even a little bit of your lifetime exploring the prog-rock map you’ll simply be too familiar with artists who’ve done everything on display here earlier and, often, quite a bit better. But, as an uncle, you may find some utility in it as a marker of time simply movin’ on. Maybe you’ve heard it all before, but not everybody has. And because the future cannot be canceled, we can only stand back and hope an album like this serves as a sturdy bridge back to the past for those who wish to explore it

The post Crown Lands – Apocalypse Review appeared first on Last Rites.

Swedish modern rock force SELF DECEPTION unleashes their powerful new single BREAK! packed with the band’s signature explosive energy. BREAK! arrives only a few days before the release of their brand-new studio album, One Of Us, out May 15, 2026, via Napalm Records. BREAK! features heavy-hitting drums, strong riffs, and electronic influences, all topped with […]