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Rome-based Melodic Death/Doom Metal outfit Shores Of Null return with their fifth studio full-length, Homesick. As a big fan of their two most recent releases in particular, I was very keen to see what Homesick had to offer, given that it marks a new chapter in their creativity.

Shores Of Null – Homesick

Release Date: 16 October 2026

Word: Jools Green

Sound-wise, it has a slightly more gothic feel than the doom-leaning sound of its two predecessors but still carries the instantly recognisable signature sound that is Shores Of Null.

The album features guest contributions from Natalie Koskinen from Shape Of Despair and Shaun MacGowan from My Dying Bride and explores nostalgia, absence, and the complex meaning of home.

Vocalist Davide Straccione explains that “Homesick is meant to be experienced as a whole… a record that moves through longing, loss, anger, vulnerability, and the need to find a place to belong to. At its core lies the idea of home as something deeply ambiguous: a place of comfort and belonging, but also of fear, pain, and memories we can never fully leave behind.”

The album opens on the beautifully haunting melodies of Allies Before Defeat. The mix of predominantly clean vocal layering with a hint of deep growls alongside the more gothic style deep cleans adds atmosphere and texture to the piece. With the melodies expanding, developing and flowing across the piece, this gives it an engaging core, making a piece that establishes the powerful emotional path of the album.

Next is Two Mountains, which is the third of four pre-released singles featured on this album. The lyrics are inspired by the Legend Of Maja “a story about a mother’s love and the unbearable pain of loss alongside memories, belonging and the invisible bond we carry with the places that shaped us, telling the ancient Abruzzese myth of Maja and her son Hermes, whose deaths became immortalised in the very mountains of the region of Gran Sasso and Majella.”

Musically, it is an upbeat but reflective piece where the cleans soar and are contrasted superbly by bursts of unnerving raw deep growls, alongside a hugely engaging gothic-tinged melody that ebbs and builds reflecting the mood of the lyrics.

​The next piece, Bleed To Life,  was the first single released from the album and revolves around “the idea that pain, sacrifice and suffering are not only things we endure, but are also experiences that shape who we become and ultimately bring us closer to life itself.”

This delivers a balanced contrast between the clean and growled vocals as well as balancing the punchy edge of the riffs against the soaring melody and clean reflective swathes, again oozing atmosphere and emotion. 

Fourth single and title track Homesick was, Davide explains, ​”the very first song written for the album, and in many ways, it set the emotional direction for everything that followed.” Lyrically, it “explores the idea of home as something deeply ambiguous: a place of comfort and belonging, but also of fear, pain, and memories we can never fully leave behind.”

Initially, it is quite dark and reflective to open, elevating from a doomy pace to a more elevated tempo gothic mood, with the clean vocals dominating much of the lyrical content. The growls emerge ominously and unnervingly midway through for dark impact, making it a piece that has a beautiful flow and a haunting lyrical repeat of “home is dangerous”.

Son Of The Tide was the second single released and explores themes of “solitude, destiny and belonging through imagery connected to the sea, which becomes a metaphor for the forces that shape our lives and the paths we inherit rather than choose.” Musically, it is a powerful, punchy offering with growled verses and soaring, clean choruses, which I feel really reflects the tumultuous and varied nature of the sea.

Even though it is punchier and more crushing than many of the other previous pieces, it still holds that strong emotive feel. A dark, haunting and beautiful piece.

Dreaming Of A Scar features Shaun MacGowan of My Dying Bride on violin. He brings a beautifully melancholic and reflective atmosphere to the piece, particularly where he is accompanied by piano. The harsh vocals make a starkly superb contrast when they arrive, along with an intensifying of musical pace and content, which has a noticeable melodic Death Metal influence.

Lyrically, it is a “dialogue between childhood and adulthood, reflecting on the passing of time and the desire to hold on to the wonder and dreams of our younger selves, even as life slowly changes us, a profound thought that no doubt many of us have reflected on with the passing of time.”

Society Is The Murderer lyrically deals with “our relationship with failure and the pressure of living in a society that glorifies success while often condemning those who fall short of it. But it is an invitation not to fear failure and accept it as an inevitable and valuable part of our journey.”

This is a very positive and philosophical attitude to take. Musically, it is upbeat, and the clean vocal delivery is strong, positive and commanding. You cannot help but feel inspired by this piece.

Shaun MacGowan returns with more violin on The Numbing Void, along with Natalie Koskinen from Shape Of Despair providing additional vocals. Both add a very haunting, reflective atmosphere to the piece. I love the contrast between Davide’s raw and deathly delivery in the musically bleak swathes of this piece and his haunting cleans in the reflective melodic choruses.

It also gives a backwards glance and nod to Beyond The Shores with its Death/Doom sound and lyrical reflection as it contemplates further on “grief, mortality and the helplessness that often follows the loss of someone close to us, along with the regret that so often comes with realising there was never as much time as we thought there would be.”

I do love a good slab of Death/Doom, and this is a powerful, introspective and beautiful listen.

Next, in complete contrast, is Another Breath, which is a frantic, driving beast awash with blast beats and raw energy, yet still rich in melody. Vocally, it is superb. The power and emotion in the cleans are moving and impacted by the bursts of raw vocals that further emphasise the emotional content of the lyrics that look at “the anxiety, loneliness and relentless repetition that often define modern life.” This is a superbly intense listen.

Final offering Disappear deals with themes of loss, surrender and acceptance. I do love the emotive extremes reflected here as it moves musically between reflective passages that are sparse and doomy and intense but melodic swathes as well as the contrast between the deathly raw vocals and the soaring emotive cleans.

Overall, it is an unnervingly good listen that is emotionally impactful and a superb finale.

Homesick, like all Shores Of Null releases, is packed with atmosphere, emotion and passion and is a superbly emotive and contemplative listen.

There is a subtle but defined Paradise Lost influence in the sound on many of the pieces, particularly on the title track. But overall, the influences range broader than previous albums.

Shores Of Null have pushed their capabilities well with this album. Released on 16 October 2026 via Dusktone, it will be available in vinyl, CD and digital format from: https://www.dusktone.org and https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/homesick.

The post Shores Of Null / Homesick: A Haunting Journey Through Loss, Longing And Belonging first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

[Cover art by Larisa Brechun]

With age, you begin to understand that genuine loss is not the haunting shadow you once thought. It isn’t a short-lived grief that disappears in a few days. Instead, it’s more than a shadow; it’s a scar you bear until you confront the inevitable yourself.

Or, in the words of the great Kirk Windstein, sometimes, time heals nothing.

Indianapolis, Indiana’s Mother of Graves rose from the ashes of grief in 2021 with the release of their debut EP In Somber Dreams and subsequent full-length Where the Shadows Adorn in 2022, both via Wise Blood Records. Death-dooming in the same vein of the Peaceville Three, Mother of Graves eventually caught the attention of Profound Lore Records for the release of their sophomore LP The Periapt of Absence. In many ways, the band is truly the sonic embodiment of Midwest mourning. On album number three, their second Profound Lore release, The Light That Keeps Us, grief still lingers and is more palpable than ever.

Mother of Graves resonates with what it means to be human. In my bones, I sense a connection that I have a difficult time describing, but maybe that’s just my Midwestern bias. They’re able to hit certain notes that conjure feelings of despair and the weight it carries. At times, it’s nostalgic, but even that’s a reminder that the days of old float away with the breeze, dancing with the leaves as it pushes between frail tree limbs.

Founder and guitarist Chris Morrison started writing songs for Mother of Graves when one of his best friends and bandmates suddenly passed away. You could hear the sorrow in the melodies on Where the Shadows Adorn’s “The Emptiness of Eyes.” You can hear similar  anguish on The Light That Keeps Us’s second single “The Silent Weight of the Stars.” If you’re a fan of Paradise Lost’s Gothic, you’ll find it quite alluring. Speaking of which, I’m reminded of Katatonia’s “Rainroom” at times, specifically in the vocal arrangements and clean guitar interludes. Then, there’s “Through the Pale Shade” to showcase how tastefully the band interweaves keys to emphasize those beautiful guitar leads. Holistically, it helps the music rip and tear at the heart strings. Think Tiamat’s Wildhoney. Just based off the singles alone, I can’t help but feel that in just six or so years, Mother of Graves have reached the upper echelon levels of death-doom. You could turn to the album intro “Wingless Soul” (featuring Dan freakin’ Swano) as another example. The piano builds up to a mashup of Edge of Sanity’s Crimson and Katatonia’s Dance of December Souls. The clean vocals are a nice touch, adding some duality to the mix.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the poetry of Brandon Howe. I understand that may roll some eyeballs, but lyrically and in delivery, the songs are just that—poetry. The title track is brooding and anthemic, much of which is enabled by Corey Clark’s work on bass, which in turn gives Howe the opportunity to annunciate his lines almost as if every word is being carved into him. While “The Light That Keeps Us” bestows perhaps my favorite vocal performance on the record, he maintains similar deliveries and moments throughout the album’s duration. “A Moonlit Tryst” is strong in that regard, too, but the band as a whole hits on all cylinders here. It sounds like their most ‘90s track to date, and for a band so influenced by that time period, that’s saying a lot. But, man, it’s heavy in more ways than one, too. The emotional weight of the around-the-campfire acoustic intro, the guitar harmonies, spoken word passages—dude—pound-for-pound my favorite track they’ve ever written. And the final minute-and-a-half is some of the best heavy music you’ll hear all year.

Production-wise, it’s perfect. “The Beggar’s Allegory” is warm, and with a nice pair of headphones, you can pinpoint each layer of instrumentation, including the little crackles in the background during the piano intro. The song also features the highest-BPM moment on the album at around the halfway point. The band offers up a double kick-tremolo riff combo in the vein of something off Purgatory Afterglow. Overall, the song ebbs and flows nicely, almost as if it’s allowing you to contemplate an answer just before throwing you back into a sense of questioning. You’re never really able to draw a true conclusion, but that’s exactly the balance it’s going for. It ends abruptly so it can send you off with “The Endless Climb.” In terms of atmosphere, the curtain-closer comes off as a eulogy. Ironically, it’s as close to funeral doom as the band gets on LP number three. It doesn’t quite reach Skepticism Stormcrowfleet levels of slow, though. And it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing if it did, for what it’s worth.

All in all, an incredibly strong final chapter to the band’s finest effort to date.

Before I trail off, I do want to reiterate and go over a few more anecdotes. There’s something about the way Mother of Graves approach grief, longing, and the search for meaning that feels fundamentally true to the human experience. On The Light That Keeps Us, more so than ever.

Why is there so much tension between wanting to believe in something transcendent and recognizing how elusive that something can be? Why does love become a sort of salvation? Beauty a kind of religion? And why is the promise of something greater the ultimate prize for human suffering? Although that promise is never quite fulfilled, is it?

The climb continues.

You and I both know longing itself never disappears.

Even when Howe begins to question the very thing he once believed would save him, he can’t bring himself to abandon it. A painfully recognizable contradiction. We want to believe that love can make us whole. Suffering can lead somewhere meaningful. That there’s a reason to keep reaching for something beyond ourselves. And yet, so much of being human seems to involve learning to live with the possibility that we may never find the answers we’re looking for.

That’s what makes Mother of Graves so meaningful to me. They’re a reminder that there’s no easy catharsis, no neat resolution. In fact, suffering may not be redeemed and, in all actuality, nothing may ever make sense. There will always be this persistent, almost unbearable yearning for connection, transcendence, and peace. Even when broken or standing beneath a sky that offers no answers, I suppose you just keep climbing. Via melody and heaviness, Mother of Graves preach that good word.

Again, maybe that’s the Midwestern part of me talking. There’s a familiarity in the sense that you carry certain things with you because there’s no real way to put them down. Or maybe it’s something more universal than that. Perhaps in some divine way Mother of Graves understands that being human isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or achieving some kind of spiritual resolution. Maybe it’s about continuing to search for both, even when the search itself becomes a source of suffering. Because you really have no other choice, even if you’re haunted by something as daunting as grief.

Even writing those words down is cathartic.

And I hope that makes sense. It does to me, at least.

I knew I needed a new Mother of Graves record, but I didn’t know I needed it this much.

You know what?

10/10.

The post Mother Of Graves – The Light That Keeps Us Review appeared first on Last Rites.

Zach Top has become one of the most recognizable young voices in traditional country music, bringing the sound of classic honky-tonk and 1990s country into a new era. Raised in Sunnyside, Washington, he grew up surrounded by country music and began playing bluegrass with his siblings while still a child. His early experience with acoustic instruments, harmony singing, and bluegrass picking gave him a strong musical foundation long before his songs began reaching country radio. Before his mainstream breakthrough, Top released independent recordings that reflected his bluegrass background, including the eight-song Zach Top EP in 2022. His earliest solo singles

The post Complete List Of Zach Top Songs From A to Z appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Sam Hunt helped reshape mainstream country music by blending traditional storytelling with pop, R&B, and hip-hop influences. Born on December 8, 1984, and raised in Cedartown, Georgia, he played college football before moving to Nashville to pursue songwriting. His conversational singing style and unusual rhythmic phrasing soon became central to his sound. Before he became a recording star, Hunt helped write major hits for other performers, including Kenny Chesney’s “Come Over,” Keith Urban’s “Cop Car,” and Billy Currington’s “We Are Tonight.” He recorded his own interpretations of those songs for the acoustic mixtape Between the Pines, originally shared in 2013.

The post Complete List Of Sam Hunt Songs From A to Z appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Posted on October 16th 2026, 10:42am

Enter Shikari have shared a new live session, placing themselves in the debris of a scorched earth and dealing out some home truths along the way.

Filmed in an abandoned manor, slowly but surely being returned to the soil as the legions of vines and plants around it signal, the band dish out four songs from their current era. Three from their full-length ‘Lose Your Self’; ‘It’s OK’, ‘The Flick Of a Switch I’, and ‘LOSE YOUR SELF’, as well as new single ‘Higher Ground’.

The result is not just a showcase of the blinking hope and thoughtful earnestness that exists within the band’s current output, but also a further reminder of how far the band are always willing to go to represent their art in the right frame.

Vital, beautifully considered and seminal. Just the way they like it.

Vocalist Rou Reynolds had this to say about it:

“In typical Enter Shikari fashion, we didn’t want to just do a standard ‘live in the studio session’. So we broke into an abandoned manor in the middle of nowhere, and painstakingly placed digital screens over the windows in an attempt to present the tracks in different environments despite the limits of the space”. 

Enter Shikari are set to hit the road very soon indeed, with support coming from Holding Absence and The Callous Daoboys.

Here are all the dates:

NOVEMBER

03 – HAMBURG Sporthalle
04 – MUNICH Zenith
05 – LEIPZIG Haus Auensee
06 – DUSSELDORF Mitsubishi Electric Hall
07 – BERLIN Columbiahalle
10 – BRUSSELS Forest National
11 – TILBURG 013
13 – NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena
14 – CARDIFF Utilita Arena
15 – HULL Connexin Live
18 – GLASGOW Hydro
19 – MANCHESTER Co-op Live
20 – LONDON Alexandra Palace
21 – LONDON Alexandra Palace

And the band were part of Pop Sound Vol.01, delivering a sensational cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’. Grab your CD and magazine now from SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV

The post WATCH: Enter Shikari Perform ‘Live From The Golden Age appeared first on Rock Sound.

What immediately stands out about “She Should Of Been” is its unmistakable grunge atmosphere. The guitars cut through the mix with sharp intensity, delivering the kind of edge that fans of the genre will instantly appreciate, while Ernst’s melodic vocal performance brings balance and accessibility to the heavier elements. It’s a track that successfully channels the spirit of 90s alternative rock without sounding derivative, resulting in a compelling and emotionally charged listening experience. 

https://www.instagram.com/elliotternst.music/ 

A ruling on a live-music debate.

Heavy metal from Mongolia? It wasn’t exactly common in the history of rock and metal. The band that put the country on the metal map was The HU. Their breakthrough came in 2018, and a year later, they played their first show outside Mongolia. I got to see them myself in 2020 at a sold-out… Continue Reading →

https://instagram.com/evenoddsband