Progressive rock legends Yes have announced their 24th studio album Aurora, set for release on 12 June 2026 via InsideOutMusic and Sony Music. The current lineup of Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen continue to push forward creatively with a record that blends heritage with fresh ideas.
Steve Howe described the process as a collaborative experience, highlighting the band’s ongoing commitment to evolving their sound rather than revisiting the past.
“Making this record was joyful,” Steve Howe told us. “A chance to play, explore and give everything to the music. It’s always been about collaboration. Somebody can write a song, but until everybody puts their contribution in it, it isn’t really a Yes song.
The band have also released the title track Aurora, accompanied by an animated video created by Matt Hutchings. The album features ten tracks including Aurora, Turnaround Situation, Countermovement and Emotional Intelligence, showcasing a mix of expansive compositions and shorter, focused pieces.
Work on the album began following the Classic Tales Of Yes tour in 2024, with the band adopting a modern, collaborative approach, developing ideas across home studios before bringing them together into a cohesive final record.
There was no preconceived concept at the start, just a collection of musical fragments that gradually began to find one another and take form. “Among these early sketches was a piece titled Aurora,” the band said, “and it quickly became clear that the name carried certain gravity. It suggested light, emergence, and a sense of vastness, qualities that resonated deeply with the band.”
Jon Davison remembers how “the title immediately resonated with Steve Howe and sparked visual inspiration for artist Roger Dean, setting a conceptual tone that would guide the project.”
Aurora represents another chapter in the Yes legacy, combining their signature progressive style with a continued drive to explore new musical territory.
Aurora will be available in multiple formats including deluxe vinyl, CD and Blu-ray editions featuring Dolby Atmos and surround sound mixes, alongside digital versions. Pre-orders are available from yes-band.lnk.to/Aurora.
Yes – Aurora, set for release on 12 June 2026 via InsideOutMusic and Sony Music
The Melodic Hard Rock band Hardline have released the title track ‘Shout‘ as their new digital single and video. The song is taken from the upcoming studio album. Singer Johnny Gioeli: “SHOUT as the title of this album is EXACTLY what it is…. The idea that created the title comes from the millions of ideas […]
Marmozets have shared another piece of their upcoming record ‘CO. WAR. DICE.’, and it finds them sparkling like a thousand glitter balls.
Titled ‘Cut Back’, it pays plenty of tributes to the synth-driven, dancefloor-flooding sensationalism of the 1980s. But this isn’t a throwback; it’s a reinvention and reinvigoration of a sound to the point where it feels like nobody else by Marmozets. Wonderfully thrilling and devilishly catchy, it also sounds like nothing else that the band have shared from their first record in eight years; a reminder to always expect the unexpected and never settle for anything less than the boat being pushed all the way out.
‘CO. WAR. DICE.’ will be released in full on May 22 via Nettwerk.
Here is previous single, ‘Running With The Sun In Your Eyes’:
The band will be hitting the road over the next couple of months, first for a visit to the UK’s many excellent record shops, and then for a full headline tour. Here are all the dates.
Welsh singer-songwriter Laura Evans teams up with the award-winning blues band The Cinelli Brothers for her vibrant new single, ‘Out Here on My Own‘, released April 10th, 2026 across all major platforms. Blending blues, pop, and retro flair, the track arrives alongside a cinematic music video capturing its infectious, feel-good energy. The collaboration sparked after […]
Dead Pony have revealed that they will be releasing a new EP next month, kicking off what is sure to be a riotous chapter for the band.
It’s going to be called ‘Eat My Dust!’ and will be yours on May 15 via ADA. It serves as the follow-up to 2024’s full-length ‘IGNORE THIS’.
Vocalist Anna Sheilds and Producer/Guitarist Blair Crichton had this to say about the release, explaining, “We’re stepping into a whole new era of Dead Pony — one that feels bigger, bolder, and more unapologetically us than anything we’ve ever done before. We’ve pulled heavily from our early 2000s influences, but this isn’t about looking back — it’s about reshaping that nostalgia into something that feels fresh, unpredictable, and completely our own.”
“More than anything, we wanted this EP to be a statement. There’s chaos and energy running through every track, but underneath it is a band pushing themselves to evolve. We’ve gone further with our songwriting, taken more risks in the studio, and allowed ourselves to experiment in ways we never have before. This is us stepping outside our comfort zone and fully committing to it.”
The artwork looks like this:
Whilst the tracklisting is a little bit more like this:
1. What If? 2. Eat My Dust! 3. Freak Like Me 4. BOOM! 5. Fury 6. Lost Inside Of Me
The title track is already out there for you, but today sees the release of another taste of the project. That is ‘Freak Like Me’, a proud and powerful piece of throwback battery that serves as a manifesto for all those who live this life a little bit differently. Showing off plenty of nu-metal crunch and harmony-driven euphoria, it’s a rip-roarer of a track, one that is impossible not to lose all inhibitions to.
Anna had this to say about the song’s inspiration:
“Freak Like Me is a love letter to the outsiders in society – the ones who never quite fit the mould and stopped trying to. It’s about owning every bizarre, messy, sexy, beautiful part of who you are, and finding your people in that chaos. I was really inspired by the energy of The Priory bar in Glasgow, where we used to hang out and play our first gigs – sweaty, loud, full of young musicians and misfits just being unapologetically themselves. There was this unspoken understanding that no one had to pretend. That’s the spirit I wanted to bottle in this track — a space where being a ‘freak’ isn’t just accepted; it’s celebrated.”
Go on, dance. Nobody is watching.
The band will be heading out on a lovely little headline tour in a month’s time. Here is where you will be able to see them:
MAY
16 – NOTTINGHAM BETA 27 – EDINBURGH La Belle Angele 29 – MANCHESTER Rebellion 30 – BIRMINGHAM Mama Roux’s 31 – SHEFFIELD Corporation
JUNE
02 – CARDIFF The Globe 03 – SOUTHAMPTON Joiners 04 – LONDON The Underworld
“Nostalgia is probably overrated, at least the most common notion of it, the poignant sense that ‘what was’ is somehow inherently better than ‘what is’. It’s a lie of which we are well aware, if we’re honest, and which we willingly allow. Logic says it can’t be true that all the best times preceded real and measurable progress, and yet we cling to the past. No tangible aspect of the past, though. What we yearn for is The Past. Nebulous, ephemeral. The particulars of those golden olden days for which we pine aren’t actually the point of nostalgia, after all. It’s the feeling. A deep and personal remembrance of goodness that serves as an anchor in an uncertain present. An apparently experience-based evidence that it can all be good again.”
That’s the opening paragraph that our very own Lone Watie used to open his 2019 write-up of In Another Time, the debut from NY hard rockers Tanith. I think he nailed it, and I will now admit to spending a solid amount of time thinking about how people that did not actually exist during a targeted nostalgic era end up tapping into its spirit so mightily. I suppose it’s because everyone is capable of imagining / conjuring ‘better times’, particularly amidst ‘harder times’, and our past is an easier target because the notion of comforting familiarity is a vital ingredient for nostalgia’s success. Plus, our collective obsession with nostalgia ensures that virtually every tangible aspect of any given era will never be forgotten. In other words, you can absolutely pull off being a 25 year-old Sweathog in 2026 and actually make it believable if you have the dedication and resources. Don’t get caught carving your initials into your desk.
Probably pretty clear where this is headed.
Trinity of Suns is essentially a love letter to that golden stretch on music’s timeline where hard rock very intuitively shifted into metal. That obviously includes the NWOBHM, but mostly that scene’s more fantastical face in lieu of the bands that hauled a heap of punk into the design. Accordingly, expect loads of aged metal riffs here, but also an equal emphasis placed on a myriad of ‘70s hard rock bands that understood the potency of mythical escapism and folk elements, and whose album artwork looked like covers torn from an array of classic 70s’ DAW Books. Bands like Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, Rush, BÖC, Sir Lord Baltimore, et al.
So, yes, clearly the members of Lynx have found themselves haunted by nostalgia, the world’s true ‘friendliest ghost’ (get in the trap, Casper, you absolute wanker), and the results produce a charming ‘modern throwback’ snapshot of a bin of estate sale LPs that once belonged to an individual the rest of the neighborhood likely assumed was a pensioned sorcerer. How does that separate Lynx from the near endless amount of other bands doing similarly in the modern age? Well, it doesn’t, really, but the whole of Trinity of Suns feels classic without sounding outright dusty in a dexterous sort of way that verifies the band is notably proficient at songwriting, which is clearly the key. So, instead of going missing amidst a gaggle of two-bit mimics, this album sets up Lynx as possible tour buddies alongside other throwback specialists such as Hällas, Phantom Spell and, as it happens, Tanith.
“Oppressive Season” delivers an ideal illustration the band’s legitimacy. The track is a hot rocker that jumps from the gate with a slightly proggy proto-metal swagger that conjures the best years of Sweden’s Witchcraft, followed by a terrifically catchy NWOBHM riff about 30 seconds in that’s lifted to the sky on the wings of the accompanying melodic fret run. The chorus is as potent as it is catchy, and the majority of the song’s rear half is dominated by a series of super fun and highly enthusiastic lead barrages. New singer / synth player (synthist?) Amy Zine is a wonderful addition to the overall sound, which sets the stage perfectly for the following statement:
Trinity of Suns stands as one of the more significant advancements / progressions from one album to the next that these ears have heard in some time, and that’s coming from someone who enjoyed the band’s debut, 2021’s Watcher of Skies.
Release date: April 24, 2026. Label: Dying Victim Productions.
This comes on the heels of the band losing one of their founding members, vocalist / guitarist Marvin Kiefer (Blizzen). But instead of the improvements feeling as if they’re the direct result of him stepping down, it mostly comes across as a natural progression in talent that’s rooted in grinding out hours devoted to homework and honing their songcrafting skills. Plus, it’s always terrific when you find replacements that fit the developed trajectory perfectly: Guitarist / vocalist Ioannis “Janni” Athanasiadis waltzed in with a proven track record via time spent with the short-lived but super fun Speedbreaker, and Zine is a totally seamless fit after providing background vocals on the Lynx debut.
On the whole, though, I would confirm that Zine’s presence leaves the most blunt and impressionable fresh stamp, as hers is a voice with a much wider range that’s better suited for shifts in pace and temperament. So, when things push a more folky mood—the stark and psychedelic “Seven Days of Darkness,” for example—she nails the whole Wicker Man vibe. And when it’s time to really belt it out, she has the pipes necessary to fortify the classic metal riffing when things are at a full gallop.
While Zine’s presence behind the mic is justifiably underscored, vocal duties are actually shared with Janni, which only intensifies the Tanith comparisons. (This is a very good thing, mind you.) And as mentioned above, and further akin to Tanith, Lynx is down for mixing things up across the album’s full 40 minutes. We get a whiff of Hällas’ triumphant “Above the Continuum” with the notably epic “Voyager,” a song that opens Trinity of Suns with a gloomy, portentous midsection that features a booming voice cautioning of a world “once prosperous and thriving, now hardened into a frigid sphere of glass”; there’s the brighter, more playful romp of “Stranger In the Sky” that quickly brings classic Rush to mind; and you’ve got darker, moodier numbers like the title track, where a wonderful bubbling bass takes center stage to provide the crux of the song’s scoot:
If I could alter one thing—and it’s a minor quibble coming from the heart of a classic progressive hard rock nerd—it would be a suggestion to stretch out that closing track. Let Zine’s synth and some leads lift, drift and stray a bit more to really escalate the drama at the album’s conclusion. Of course, it’s also worth noting that the track already manages to run over 8 minutes, but it also feels… primed and ready for an even longer and more theatrical finish.
Just how essential an album like Trinity of Suns ends up being for you clearly swings on how heavily invested you happen to be in all things nostalgia. I mean, there’s not exactly a dearth of great works actually born in the late ‘70s / early ‘80s right at your fingertips, as well as a superabundance of worthy emulators already warring for attention. But again, if you have an affinity for the crème de la crème modern throwback specialists such as Hällas, Phantom Spell, Tanith, et al. that almost seem as if the ghost of nostalgia seeks them out due to a level of veritable legitimacy, I think Lynx and Trinity of Suns will find a notably cozy spot in the sunshine of your life.
Formed in 1991, the Muffs centered around vocalist and guitarist Kim Shattuck, alongside bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Criss Crass. Shattuck had previously played in The Pandoras, bringing experience and a sharp songwriting voice into the new project. The group quickly became known for combining aggressive guitar work with tightly constructed pop melodies, a sound that set them apart within the Los Angeles punk scene. Their early recordings led to a contract with Warner Bros. Records, and in 1993 they released their self titled debut album The Muffs. The record introduced a fast, hook driven style anchored by Shattuck’s distinct
