Oklahoma-based alternative metal band Nova Riot has released a new single and music video for “The Altar.” The track features guest vocal contributions from Matt and Brooke of The Bunny The Bear. The accompanying music video, directed by Paris Pipkin, was filmed inside a decommissioned church and utilizes a dark, horror-inspired aesthetic to match the track’s heavy, atmospheric production.
Operating out of Durant, Oklahoma, the trio describes their specific sound as “bubblegum metal,” blending heavy hard rock instrumentation with accessible, melodic hooks. The group functions as a highly visual entity, prioritizing the connection between their polished studio recordings and their striking, self-produced cinematic videos.
“The Altar” serves as the first preview of the band’s upcoming debut full-length album, Blood, Lies & Lullabies. The seven-track record is scheduled for release later this summer on August 21, 2026, via Eclipse Records.
UK-based dark electronic duo Palindrones have unveiled their reinterpretation of “Adore Me,” originally by Hurtsfall, alongside a new visualiser released in celebration of World Goth Day. The track is available as a free download via Hurtsfall’s Bandcamp page.
Formed by Karen and Jamie, Palindrones continue to expand their sonic universe through new collaborations within the gothic and darkwave scene. On this occasion, the duo reimagine “Adore Me,” bringing their signature atmospheric, dark, and texture-rich electronic approach to the original composition.
The band has shared the official visualiser for the remix via their social media channels, describing it as a gift to fans for World Goth Day, and confirming that the track can be downloaded for free from Hurtsfall’s Bandcamp profile.
The release also coincides with the announcement of a joint show featuring Palindrones, Hurtsfall, and Hexial, scheduled for 12 June in Nottingham, further strengthening ties between emerging acts in the UK dark music scene.
In addition, Palindrones will appear on the lineup for Spain Goth Day III, taking place on 22 May next year, marking their anticipated debut within the Spanish gothic circuit. Their inclusion offers Spanish audiences the opportunity to experience the duo’s intensely atmospheric and emotionally charged live performance.
The song opens with a beautiful arpeggio alongside blending chords. Almost immediately, the track intensifies with the addition of drums and a full band arrangement. From the very start, you realize this auditory journey will be powerful. The composition shows signs of refinement, reminiscent of bands like Staind and Alice in Chains. However, the overall sound is a bit more mellow and contemporary. The use of ambient sounds and pads creates an atmosphere that feels both ethereal and intense.
This piece can be classified as alternative rock, wrapping its listener in a thin mist. It offers an experience that transports you to a parallel world, almost like a mirage. There are moments where the guitar sounds towards the end exhibit influences from Soundgarden. Additionally, the chord progressions sometimes come across as unexpected and intriguing.
The lyrics of this song are noteworthy and relatable. “Talisman” disguises emotional exhaustion under bright melodies and understated irony. It skillfully navigates themes of devotion and denial, detailing the strange habit of clinging to something long after reason suggests moving on. There is a depth in the exploration of these themes, giving the song a reflective quality.
Talisman – Sound and Atmosphere
The arrangement progresses from gentle beginnings to a more anthemic feel. Each instrument plays a vital role in shaping the track’s dynamic shifts. The drumming delivers energy and precision, driving the momentum forward. As the chorus hits, the full band harmonizes in a way that feels both familiar and new.
Sotto James’s voice carries the weight of the lyrics. The vocal delivery is imbued with sincerity, effectively conveying the emotional struggles the song presents. It’s easy to become invested in the lyrical journey, as they resonate on multiple levels. The bridge serves as a moment of relief, where the instrumentation pulls back, allowing the vocals to shine brighter.
Talisman – Performance and Production
Towards the conclusion, the guitar work stands out. It flirts with the unexpected, introducing slight complexities that keep listeners engaged. The subtle influences from Soundgarden make the composition feel layered and inviting. It’s not simply a reiteration of known forms; it redefines them through a contemporary lens.
Listeners will find the blend of sincerity and irony particularly refreshing. The song can evoke a range of feelings, prompting personal reflection. Musical choices such as the ethereal pads contribute significantly to the overall vibe. The melodic lines carry a duality, suggesting brightness while hinting at underlying struggles.
“Talisman” stands as a significant musical offering that merges various rock influences. Sotto James exhibits an impressive ability to delve into complex emotional themes while keeping the music approachable. It is a track that demands attention and warrants multiple listens, revealing nuances with each play.
There is a particular trap waiting for any doom band that achieves institutional status: the slow calcification of a sound into a brand. Monolord have spent thirteen years building one of stoner/doom’s most recognizable identities — fuzz-drenched, unhurried, hypnotic — and Neverending, their sixth full-length, represents the most deliberate attempt yet to resist that gravitational pull toward self-imitation.
The Gothenburg trio has earned its standing. Empress Rising (2014) announced them as a serious force in the genre; Rust (2017) deepened the vocabulary; No Comfort (2019) pushed the atmospheric density to its logical ceiling. By the time Your Time to Shine arrived in 2021, Monolord had achieved something rare — a sound so fully formed it required no external validation. Neverending doesn’t dismantle that foundation. It asks, quietly but pointedly, whether the foundation is a platform or a cage.
Much of that interrogation runs through the decision to record with Sylvia Massy — an engineer and producer whose credits span Tool’s Undertow, System of a Down’s debut, and Johnny Cash’s late-career American sessions. That is not a résumé that points toward conventional metal production, which is precisely why the choice is interesting. Massy reportedly asked Jäger to send her everything — not just the songs written for this record, but a decade’s worth of stray riffs and half-finished ideas — and curated from there. The effect on the album is audible: Neverending breathes differently than its predecessors. The low-end mass is intact, but Massy has introduced negative space as an active compositional element. What surrounds the riffs now carries weight equal to the riffs themselves. Mastering by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege preserves that balance without sterilizing it.
The tonal shift is announced immediately. Jäger has cited “Hotel California” and “No Quarter” as spiritual touchstones for opener “Iodine” — not as sonic templates, but as examples of a particular kind of wide-frame patience. You can hear what he means. The track withholds its full commitment longer than Monolord typically allow themselves, building a cinematic tension before the riff finally arrives and settles its full mass down onto the listener. It is a studied piece of structural restraint from a band that has historically trusted volume to do that work.
Lead single “You Bastard” operates differently — propulsive, groove-driven, closer in energy to the hard-edged end of their catalog than to any funeral pacing. But the lyrical content complicates its momentum deliberately. Jäger writes the song from two simultaneous vantages on suicide: the person who leaves, and the person left behind carrying the resulting wreckage. The tension between that subject matter and the track’s forward motion is not accidental. Neverending is, across its eight songs, a more nakedly personal record than anything Monolord have released — Jäger has spoken openly about recent life upheavals informing the writing, and the shift from the band’s usual religious and existential abstraction toward something rawer and more relational is felt across the album’s middle stretch.
“Inside a Collider,” at just over eight minutes, is where that emotional register hits its densest point. The eight-minute “Oozing Wound” returns to something closer to the doom architecture that built Monolord‘s name — a repetitive, down-tuned riff pulling itself forward through sheer dogged persistence, the rhythm section peeling away at measured intervals to expose the underlying structure before the guitars reassert themselves. It is the album’s most familiar-feeling track, and that familiarity reads as a deliberate anchor rather than a failure of imagination.
The closing title track earns its position as the record’s centerpiece. “It’s Neverending” brings in Jörgen Sandström — Entombed alumnus, a vocalist whose death-metal register carries genuine Scandinavian extremity behind it — to handle vocal duties in place of Jäger. The contrast is stark and purposeful: Sandström’s voice against Monolord‘s slow-grinding doom produces a texture that is genuinely unsettling rather than merely aggressive, the kind of ugliness that feels earned rather than deployed for effect. “The hymns you sung, can’t be defended / Thin veils you spun, it’s neverending.” The album ends without resolution, which turns out to be exactly the right choice.
At eight tracks and under forty-five minutes, Neverending is the most concise argument Monolord have made for themselves. The band that once measured ambition in running time and fuzz density is now measuring it in precision — in what gets cut, what gets kept, and what gets handed to silence.
Thirteen years in, Monolord still understand the thing most doom bands never figure out: the riff isn’t the point — the mood it leaves behind is.
CREDITS
Thomas V Jäger – Guitars, vocals and keys
Esben Willems – Drums and percussion
Mika Häkki – Bass and piano
Vocals on “It’s Neverending” by Jörgen Sandström
Written by Thomas V Jäger
Arranged and performed by Monolord
Recorded by Sylvia Massy, assisted by Noah Taylor
Produced and mixed by Sylvia Massy
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege
TOUR DATES
June 11 San Diego, CA Casbah
June 12 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
June 13 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
On Thursday, May 21st, Cradle of Filth played The Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas, to kick off the long Memorial Day weekend.
The first opener of the night was North Carolina melodic death core band, Cultus Black. This was most concertgoers’ first time seeing this band live, as a cheer from the crowd indicated when asked by lead vocalist James Anthony Legion. The band lead the crowd in a chant of their name and left them with the parting message “We are Cultus Black, and don’t fucking forget it!”. I am confident that no one in attendance Thursday night will forget about Cultus Black.
Next on the bill for the night was fan favorite Ghost Bath. This band did not waste any time laying into their hard-hitting set. This was the first time I’ve seen a band at a show this size go from lights on soundcheck directly into their set. No lead-up, no music, lights down, anticipation. They meant business. This North Dakota black metal band brought their signature sound and energetic performance, and the crowd felt every bit of it.
New York death metal band Suffocation’s set had been highly anticipated all night. Excited yells from the crowd broke out from the moment the band’s team began setting the stage for them. This band has a large and loyal fan base, and they turned out Thursday night. Their reputation is absolutely warranted. This band brought a professional, perfectly honed sound to the Granada. They connect so well with the crowd and keep the energy raging throughout the night.
The stage was set for Cradle of Filth, and the crowd could hardly contain themselves. Fans let out excited yells and cheers. Several concertgoers trembled in anticipation. This band has one of the most loyal and enamored fan bases that I have witnessed in the genre. Hailing from Suffolk, England, Cradle of Filth’s reach knows no bounds. The band members took the stage, and the crowd lit up. Following them onto stage shortly after was lead vocalist Dani Filth in his signature executioner’s hood. This part of the show never gets old. The theatrics fired the crowd up to a fever pitch before he revealed himself, and the whole band took off into the set like a bat out of hell. This stop on the tour was a perfect mix of songs from albums throughout their extensive career. One of the highlights for me was when they played the titular track “The Principal of Evil Made Flesh” from their first album. In between songs, Dani Filth engaged with the crowd, joking that his father’s name is Lawrence, so that basically makes him an American. The reaction from the crowd backed up his claim. He also let fans know that the band has another album in the works at the moment, which sent a wave of excitement through the sea of faces. Cradle of Filth ended the show in Lawrence with the always anticipated track Her Ghost in the Fog. The song gets better every time I see it performed live.
Lawrence was honored to have Cradle of Filth stop by on this tour, and I am positive it won’t be the last time. You won’t want to miss it next time.
My buddy Troy and I took a drive over to Ace of Cups in Columbus, Ohio, to see BIOHAZARD and DYING FETUS, on Saturday, May 16th. This was a Sonic Temple Official Aftershow. The Sonic Temple festival is huge, spanning 4 days in Columbus, Ohio, at the Historic Crew Stadium, featuring all genres of Metal and hard rock bands.
Before the show, Troy and I went to Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace for some chow and beer. We then went to Ledo’s Tavern to watch the Reds game and enjoy more beverages.
This is doginator. Bacon wrapped, BBQ sauce, topped with brisket, cheddar & onion rings. I ate it all. A beautiful Thin Lizzy wood-cut work of art at Dirty Frank’s.Had to capture this creepy bar decor! Ledo’s Tavern wall decor.
Troy and I didn’t attend Sonic Temple, as to why we bought our tix for this show. My bad knees and legs are no longer music festival fit, for the foreseeable future anyways. I squared up pretty close to the stage for BIOHAZARD, right up against the merch area. The stage at Ace of Cups is to the very right of the front door. There is an expansive outdoor patio and a fine bar there as well.
I was able to bounce around standing in place, raising my cane in blissful defiance, while shouting out limited lyrics such as: “fuck the system!” I am elated by my experiencing BIOHAZARD and DYING FETUS live and have the metal memories forever! Metal be thy name – Stone
Billy Graziadei (rhythm guitarist)Evan Seinfeld (left) & Bobby Hambel (right)Evan Seinfeld (bass & lead vocals)Bobby Hambel (lead guitarist)Online ad for the show. Credit: Ace of Cups
Thank you for visiting and checking out my metal experience and Metal Odyssey! I greatly appreciate every visit! – Stone \m/
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