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International death/thrash metal act CYCLOPIC is proud to announce that their debut album “Flesh of Chaos” will be released on June 19th via the Chinese label Awakening Records. The album is anticipated by the title-track, available as a visualizer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY6W_4rFaAM Pre-order the album  CD: https://awakeningrecordscn.bigcartel.com/product/cyclopic-flesh-of-chaos-cd Digital: https://awakeningrecordscn.bandcamp.com/album/flesh-of-chaos Formed in 2025, CYCLOPIC features musicians from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Germany. The band’s musical roots lie in […]

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Andrea Accorsi invite listeners into a serene and deeply immersive world on Hidden Cove, a delicate organic ambient composition shaped by piano minimalism, soft electronic textures, and the natural pulse of Adriatic waves. Built from slow-moving harmonic patterns and carefully layered field recordings, the track unfolds like a quiet coastal meditation, capturing the stillness of dusk settling over the sea. Andrea Accorsi balance acoustic warmth with spacious atmospheric depth, allowing every sound — from gentle piano chords to subtle ocean currents — to breathe with cinematic calm. Reflective, fluid, and beautifully transportive, Hidden Cove feels less like a song and more like a peaceful moment suspended in time.

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Jerry Peerson unravel blind devotion and self-destructive longing on Charlatans and Spiderwebs, a gripping indie-rock meditation wrapped in restless melodies and emotional tension. Blending fragile introspection with rough-edged intensity, the track explores the dangerous comfort of false saviors, toxic ideas, and the human tendency to mistake illusion for safety. Jerry Peerson’s songwriting feels both deeply personal and universally resonant, pairing vivid imagery with shifting dynamics that move between vulnerability and cathartic release. Thoughtful, melodic, and quietly haunting, Charlatans and Spiderwebs captures the moment when comforting illusions finally begin to unravel.

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In Times Of Dragons stars a billionaire Lizard Demon, a Gay Witch from Brooklyn, the Celtic god Lugh of the Long Arm… and Tori Amos

I have done nearly 80 interviews for Still in Rock. But only two since 2022. So going back to it meant one thing: the conversation had to be with a band that feels like a legend in the making. Here is Radioactivity.

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BACK STORIES

How did it all start? You have played in so many projects over the years, but Radioactivity feels like the point where everything crystallized into its purest form.

Radioactivity started in 2012 when I returned to Texas after living in Japan for a few years. I had a band in Japan called The Novice that played some of the same songs and Radioactivity took over once I was back in the states. At first I had planned on continuing it as a solo recording project, but after a couple attempts at recording the first album myself, I decided I’d rather get a band together and do it properly. Mark (bass), Daniel (guitar) and Gregory (drums) joined the band and we started recording and touring pretty quickly thereafter.

First things first: I am obsessed with “Erased.” It has that perfect mix of tension and melody that defines Radioactivity for me. Tell me the back story behind this song.

I don’t always have the best memory when it comes to songwriting, but if I remember correctly, Erased was the first song I wrote after we finished recording the Silent Kill LP. I had recently written the song Pretty Girl (the last track on Silent Kill) and at the time I liked the idea of having a simple guitar line repeating throughout the entire song with the chords changing around it (like was common with the Dutch band Ivy Green). Pretty Girl and Erased were both written around a guitar line like that. Lyrically, it was loosely about moving forward after a relationship.

Going further back, The Potential Johns is such a great band (with “Past Due,” so good), yet strangely hard to find today. What’s the story behind the band? How did it start, how did it live, how did it end?

Potential Johns was a band that started in 1995 with a couple of my friends. When it started I split the singing and songwriting duties with my friend Patrick, who was a founding member of the band, Riverboat Gamblers. We lived in a house that had frequent house shows and we basically played there all of the time. We never toured or anything with that original line up. The band kind of fizzled out eventually, but I used the name for a solo recording project I had. I recorded to cassette, mostly just to demo the songs. Some of them were re-recorded and released and many weren’t. The song Past Due was written and recorded years later, but since it was a solo recording, I continued to use the name Potential Johns.

One thing that always strikes me across your projects is the sense of urgency. The rhythms are fast, the lyrics almost feel chased forward, the guitars cut sharply. And beneath that urgency, I hear a recurring theme: the difficulty to exist, to be seen, to make it through an overwhelming world. If my analysis is correct, how do you explain that theme being so present in your songwriting?

I’ve always thought of songwriting as therapeutic. I think it can be a way for me to work out stress or difficult issues I may be dealing with at the time. I think it’s kind of like a journal in that way. Usually after writing and demoing a song, I feel better and get back to life as usual.

EVOLUTION

Your sound is what I would describe as “post-2001.” I know it’s not fashionable or underground to mention The Strokes anymore, but I hear a broader scene that shares this crisp, high-energy guitar sound, including bands like Sheer Mag and others. I know musicians usually resist labels for good reasons, but how do you react to being associated with this kind of lineage?

I think everyone has different points of reference for the sound of bands. I don’t ever mind being associated with other bands. Personally, I think the garage punk of the mid 90s shaped my style and sound more than anything else. Seeing bands like Teengenerate live and playing in the band The Reds helped me find what I was looking to achieve with my music. Energy was always the most important. And for us, loud and crisp guitars helped bring the energy out.

Even within Radioactivity itself, each album feels emotionally and sonically distinct. If you had, in just a couple of words, to explain the main differences between the Radioactivity records, what would they be?

I think the first one is poppy, the dirtiest sounding and most emotional. The second is the punchiest, most rhythm-focused and deals with life after a natural disaster. The third is the most mellow of the three and focuses on time and managing the realities of life.

You have now experienced several completely different eras of independent music. I am super interested in how a band of your caliber experiences changes in the industry. Do you feel better served by today’s ecosystem (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music….) than in the past? Or was everything really better before?

This is hard to answer. Everything has changed, including me. When we started, we booked tours by making phone calls and used an atlas to get from town to town. While that has its charm, I don’t miss the inconvenience of that at all. At the time, we had more free time and thought nothing of it. 7″ records were kind of like business cards. You traded with other bands on tour to broaden your punk network. The whole scene worked together to promote each other and book shows for each other. It was fun and seemed like everything was working perfectly at the time. We didn’t make money, but that wasn’t our goal and everything was cheaper so we did fine. Now, I personally try to stay off of social media for the most part, but there’s no doubt that it is necessary and helps bands get their name out into the world. I may not like the idea of Spotify and Apple Music, but there are people all over the world that would have never had the chance to hear us if these platforms didn’t exist, so I can’t complain at that level. Radioactivity has had the privilege of playing in many countries around the world and I’m sure that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for these modern tools.

One constant through these transformations has been Dirtnap Records. You have been with the label for a long time now. How does that relationship work for a band like yours? What does a good label actually do for you in 2026?

Dirtnap is perfect for us. I can’t speak about other labels and what other people need from a label, but Dirtnap does everything we currently need. All we have to do is send in the music and Ken from Dirtnap takes care of all the rest. I know a lot of people are doing more things themselves these days through social media, but we still need physical copies of our records and help with promotion and distribution. It’s a no brainer for us because he’s always done great with our bands.

 

UP NEXT

Looking ahead, what is your creative process today compared to the earlier years. When you start a new record, do you already have a clear emotional destination in mind, or do you only discover what the album is about once it is finished?

I had an idea for the first three records, but whatever is next will be discovered as it’s happening. Originally, I thought we might stop after the three records, but I know now that there is more music we want to make with the band.

Naturally, this leads to the question every listener wants to ask: when can we expect new music from you?

I don’t know when Radioactivity will have a new album, but there is always something in the works. Hopefully it won’t take as long this time.

In the meantime, there is clearly an entire ecosystem of bands orbiting around Radioactivity that deserves more attention. Would you recommend a couple of albums or projects our readers should listen to?

The other band members are in tons of bands. Check out Bad Sports, TV’s Daniel, Memo PST, OD-EX, Mugger, and Initiate.

The post Radioactivity, with “Loud and Crisp Guitars” appeared first on Still in Rock.

Is the story of Monolord never-ending? We don’t know. What we do know, though, is that the Swedish stoner and doom band have been creating their own musical path since 2013. The first chapter was an album called “Empress Rising” and there have been four additional longplayers released, with “Neverending” being the title of their… Continue Reading →

Masterplan .

The post Masterplan unleash video for new track “The Call” first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

ARMORED SAINT will join Metal Church for a North American co-headlining tour this Fall! The Metal Saint Tour 2026 will commence on November 2nd in San Juan Capistrano, California and runs through November 21st in Agoura Hills, California. Additional support will be provided by LiveKill.

Comments ARMORED SAINT vocalist John Bush, “Two classic metal bands from the ‘80s on tour together doing headline sets and both with brand new awesome records out [ARMORED SAINT with Emotion Factory Reset and Metal Church with Dead To Rights]. If you call yourself a metalhead and you don’t come to this show when we roll into your town, you better have a damn good excuse. AS and MC. Let’s do this!”

Comments Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof, “It’s incredibly exciting to be getting back on the road with our friends and an honor to be sharing the stage with one of America’s finest metal bands! Definitely a show you won’t want to miss!”

Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 29th at 10:00am local time. VIP upgrades will be available at: 

https://nationalactsvip.com/armoredsaint.

See all confirmed dates below.

ARMORED SAINT + Metal Church w/ LiveKill:
11/02/2026 Coach House – San Juan Capistrano, CA
11/03/2026 The Glass House – Pomona, CA
11/04/2026 The Nile – Phoenix, AZ
11/06/2026 Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM
11/07/2026 Sunshine Studios – Colorado Springs, CO
11/08/2026 The Federal – Denver, CO
11/10/2026 Neurolux – Boise, ID
11/11/2026 The Newberry – Great Falls, MT
11/13/2026 Dantes – Portland, OR
11/14/2026 Redwood Theater – Bremerton, WA
11/15/2026 Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, BC
11/17/2026 Great America Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
11/18/2026 Goldfield Trading Post – Roseville, CA
11/19/2026 The Whisky – Los Angeles, CA
11/20/2026 Observatory North San Diego – San Diego, CA
11/21/2026 Canyon Club – Agoura Hills, CA

Additionally, ARMORED SAINT has performances confirmed throughout the Spring and Summer months both Stateside and abroad, including a special meet-and-greet at Grill ‘Em All in Long Beach, California. Set to take place on May 28th, the event is in celebration of the band’s Emotional Factory Resetfull-length, released last week on Metal Blade Records. The night will feature photo opps, raffles, ARMORED SAINT-inspirited fries, and more!

ARMORED SAINT Live:
5/28/2026 Grill ‘Em All – Long Beach, CA * Meet-and-Greet Event *
6/06/2026 Milwaukee Metalfest @ The Rave/Eagles Club – Milwaukee, WI
7/30/2026 Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, DK w/ Metal Church
7/31/2026 Skogsrojet Festival – Rejmyre, SE
8/01/2026 Pustervik – Gothenburg, SE w/ Testament, Metal Church
8/02/2026 Mejeriet – Lund, SE * w/ Testament, Metal Church
8/05/2026 Brutal Assault – Jaroměř, CZ
8/07/2026 Alcatraz Festival – Dessel, BE
8/08/2026 Poppodium Boerderij – Zoetermeer, NL *ARMORED SAINT headlining show
8/09/2026 Keep It True Legions – Geiselwind, DE
8/11/2026 Progresja – Warsaw, PL w/ Savatage, Nevermore
8/12/2026 Collosseum – Kosice, SK w/ Vio-Lence
8/13/2026 Klub Studio – Krakow, PL w/ Testament, Metal Church
8/29/2026 Stonedead Festival – Newark, UK

Emotion Factory Reset, ARMORED SAINT’s ninth studio album since 1984’s March Of The Saint, is a resurrection of sorts, a tearing down and a rebuilding in eleven songs of diverse

musicality and lyrical themes. Produced, as were the previous four albums, by bassist Joey Vera and mixed by Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour), the record finds the quintet challenging themselves. Songs like “Close To The Bone,” “Hit A Moonshot,” and “Every Man-Any Man” have ARMORED SAINT honoring their past as one of the most respected and recognizable bands in heavy music while making forward-thinking music rooted in the present.

Emotion Factory Reset was recorded across several studios including 606 Studios, Secret Hand Studios, Skullseven Studios, Constantine Studios, and Bridge Recording, engineered by Oliver Roman, Bill Metoyer, Joey Vera, and Jason Constantine, and features cover art by DDKing.

The record is available now on CD digipack (w/ 20-page booklet) and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:

Amber Marble (US)
Orange and Red Marble (US)
Citron Smoke (US – Brutal Panda Exclusive)
180g Black (EU)
Beige Gray Marbled (EU)
Clear Black Gold Smoke (EU – Ltd. 500)
Metallic Gold Black Dust (EU – Ltd. 300)
Clear Gold Splatter (EU – Ltd. 200)

Additionally, a special European edition of the CD digipak includes the bonus track “One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison),” only available digitally until now!

A special European edition of the single gatefold LP comes w/ insert and DL card + 7” vinyl  “One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison),” (only available digitally until now!) w/ an etching on the B-side, a poster, and slipmat.

ARMORED SAINT:
John Bush – vocals
Joey Vera – bass
Jeff Duncan – guitars
Gonzo Sandoval – drums
Phil Sandoval – guitars

https://www.armoredsaint.com

https://www.facebook.com/thearmoredsaint

https://www.instagram.com/thearmoredsaint

https://www.metalblade.com

Source: EARSPLIT PR

BlackRain .

The post BlackRain drop video for new single “Tell Me What You Want” to celebrate their second coming to HellFest first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

A mixed bag from arguably the world’s greatest songwriter