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The post Live Review: Creeper – Birmingham appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Addison Rae’s “Headphones On,” one of last year’s best songs. The day before yesterday, Olivia Rodrigo released “drop dead,” the lead single to her upcoming third album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. This all coincided with Weekend 2 of Coachella, a festival that’s become notorious for surprise guest appearances. Rae and Rodrigo seized the opportunity to link up during the former’s Coachella set yesterday, performing both of those aforementioned songs together.

The post Olivia Rodrigo Joins Addison Rae At Coachella For “drop dead” Live Debut & “Headphones On” appeared first on Stereogum.

The post Live Gallery: Creeper – Birmingham appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Our Top 10 Songs About Unrequited Love article defines a concept that we all learn early on in life. We all remember that one person who we fell in love with who didn’t even know we were alive. We would stare at them every day, dreaming of a relationship that we knew quite obviously had even less of a chance than winning the Powerball. Yet, we dreamed and lived in pain. Yes, it starts early and for many never ends……. There are so many of these songs that we decided to break it down into parts as this list will

The post Top 10 Songs About Unrequited Love By Female Artists appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Time .

The post Time to let it go — Ted Poley takes the blame & regrets going public with his tirade against Sebastian Bach first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

Joseph Jordan delivers a heartfelt expression of faith with No One Like Jesus, a worship-driven track rooted in sincerity and devotion. Built around warm melodies and a steady, uplifting arrangement, the song creates a sense of comfort and spiritual connection.

His vocal delivery feels genuine and direct, allowing the message to resonate clearly without unnecessary embellishment. With its accessible sound and reverent tone, No One Like Jesus offers a simple yet powerful reminder of faith, designed to inspire and connect with listeners on a personal level.

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Sicarius hit the ground raging in 2017 when the Californian black metal upstarts released their scathingly vicious debut album, Serenade of Slitting Throats, which captured the metal heart of AMG’s Diabolus in Muzaka, earning a coveted 4.0. Sicarius’s sophomore effort, 2020’s God of Dead Roots, didn’t fare as well; the band, adjusting to the departure of founding guitarist Argyris, ultimately turned in a less visceral, more workmanlike product. Then, when original drummer Brandon Zackay left to focus on his career in Whitechapel, and the other members exited, both voluntarily and not, Sicarius ostensibly died, leaving God of Dead Roots an unanticipated swan song. Fast forward to 2024, when Argyris reunited with original bassist Carnage and joined forces with new vocalist Akéfalos and session drummer Levi Xvl to begin recording a third album, Nex, which, after six long years, has arrived to reintroduce this risen phoenix iteration of Sicarius to the masses.

Sicarius the resurrected doesn’t sound much different than Sicarius the dead. Nex adheres to the same modern black metal formula as its predecessors, maintaining channels of influence drawn from Dissection, Dark Funeral, Urgehal, and, despite Mick Kenney’s departure from the booth, Anaal Nathrakh. In keeping with their monikers’ Latin translation, Sicarius brings an assassin’s cache of weaponry to bear. Argyris sounds rejuvenated and lethal, his armory of blistering riffage (“Cold Death,” “No Witnesses”), chaotically tremolodic leads (“Nex”), and nifty solo work (“Crashing Into the Abyss”) on full display.¹ Newcomer Akéfalos adds a layer of frigidity to Nex’s surgical, cold-steel across a warm-throat sound, his icy, high-pitched screeches a mix of Abbath and Hat from early Gorgoroth, while his low-bellied growls are reminiscent of Rotting Christ. Nex has the sound of a band pissed, Sicarius attempting to bury the remnants of what was for something altogether more destructive.

There’s no doubt Sicarius is exceptionally capable of speed, but for my money, I connected most with Nex’s melodies and mixed paces. Beginning with a brooding, tremoloed guitar melody, “Opened Obsidian Gateways” uses Sargeistian levels of repetition to drive its earwormy chord progressions home, a variation employed during the verses and identically replicated during the bridge before sliding into a nice, mid-song chug section and then back again. Simple yet effective, the song’s a highlight as I found myself humming the melody randomly throughout the day. Also noteworthy are the slow-moving melodic chords of “Banshee,” which gave off Dissection vibes, and the mid-paced marcher “The Hunger We Cannot Sate,” as it gallops along in true Watain fashion, instigating black-n-roll levels of head bobbery over its 5:24 runtime. There’s a lot of musical nuance woven into the details of Nex; my many play-throughs tell me as much, which makes it all the more disappointing that it’s so hard to hear them.

“With a (t)reble yell she cried, NO more, more, more.” I’ve taken some slight liberties with Mr. Idol’s classic lyric to illustrate Nex’s most glaring flaw: a thin, imbalanced mix. Nex sounds much louder than its DR score might suggest. Serenade of Slitting Throats, for instance, with a DR lower than Nex’s, sounds light years warmer because Kenney was able to give Serenade’s lower tones some weight. Nex is nearly devoid of low end, completely negating anything Carnage is doing on bass and robbing much of Levi Xvl’s bass drum work of power, making for an extremely exhausting experience. I had to break my focused listening sessions up, in fact, because trying to listen through all 44:10 of Nex’s runtime left me so audially spent that I was reaching for aspirin. Whether this was a deliberate choice, I don’t know. It sure lends Sicarius an icier-than-thou edge, as much black metal of this ilk is known for, but it really robbed a large portion of my enjoyment, which sucks because, in bite-sized pieces, Nex is actually a pretty decent album.

Sicarius has returned with a vengeance and a we’re-not-fucking-around attitude, as evidenced in no small part by that brutally distinctive cover art. Alongside other bands like Impious Throne, Unholy Altar and Wuldorgast, Sicarius is bringing a sense of menace back to the US black metal scene. Nex is an album worth spinning, despite being hampered by a production that makes it too tiring to listen to in a single sitting, which left me to score it thusly. Still, I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears peeled for the next outing.

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Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass | Bandcamp (album)
Websites: Bandcamp | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: April 10th, 2026

The post Sicarius – Nex Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Fantastic Cat’s Cat Out of Hell arrives with the band’s usual grin intact, but beneath the loose charm is a sturdier kind of record: one built on shared voices, accumulated mileage, and the small existential leaks that start showing up in adult life. That makes it a good candidate for a look backward, not to some obvious alt-country touchstone, but to The Band’s Stage Fright, another ensemble album where group chemistry sweetens songs about unease, pressure, and trying to keep your balance while the room keeps moving.

Ella Clayton: Could It Be You? (Self-released) Released 24 April 2026 Vinyl | DL | Streaming Soulful folkie Ella Clayton takes a deep emotional dive on her second full-length album. It’s a warm bath of a record, with an organic sound that refuses to be defined. Robert Plummer immerses himself in the lushness. How do […]

The post Ella Clayton: Could It Be You? – Album Review appeared first on Louder Than War.

Posted on April 19th 2026, 12:00p.m.