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Lithuanian progressive metal band BLACK SPIKES lures into the concept of their upcoming album, Ydos (out August 28, 2026 via Napalm Records), with their new single. “MOTINA”, translating to “mother”, is the exposition of the complex storytelling aspect of their Napalm debut: throughout the ten songs of their second album, BLACK SPIKES explore the relationships with the eponymous flaws we all carry […]

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November and December will see them out across mainland Europe.

The post The Ocean To Bring Their New Roster On The Road This Fall For A European Tour With Psychonaut, Hypno5e And More appeared first on Theprp.com.

I don’t think of Hovvdy as a band where the singer holds a microphone, which is to say I don’t think of core duo Will Taylor and Charlie Martin as frontmen in the classic sense. The band’s music feels too insular and introverted for that kind of showmanship. I think of these guys holding instruments when they sing, not really commanding my attention, letting the song do the talking. But they’re changing my perception with this new album rollout.

The post Hovvdy – “Blast” appeared first on Stereogum.

I spent about 15 minutes trying to write a pun involving Pitbull and the idea of opening up this pit, but I couldn’t make it work. Why torture myself with that sort of awful wordplay, you ask? I figured it was only proper to namecheck Mr. Worldwide because we’re going international with this edition of Cheap Thrills—well, maybe just slightly more international than usual. Every release in this month’s column is from a different continent, so whether you’ve got some summer trips planned or you’re having a nice staycation at home, you can enjoy this eclectic collection of name-your-price releases from around the globe with a cold drink in one hand and an invisible orange in the other. Cheers!

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svrm – Мертвий край (May 1, 2026)

The enigmatic Ukrainian musician behind svrm is no longer flying solo–on Мертвий край, he is joined by “longtime collaborator” Cronin, who previously contributed acoustic guitar and lyrics on several prior releases. This expanded role results not only in a fuller sound for the atmospheric black metal project, but also in an even more poignant sense of melancholy. The opening minute of “Останнє світло” contains some of the most heart-wrenching melodies I’ve heard this year, as does the final movement of “Попіл,” not to mention the verse riff on “Рана”—I think you get the idea.

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Kaatayra – Caminhos de Água (April 24, 2026)

Caio Lemos’s blackened folk-metal project is back–or did it ever leave? There was some chatter about him putting Kaatayra to rest, but here we are only three years later with a brand new album. Caminhos de Água very much follows in the footsteps of Inpariquipê and Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe, melding the furious tempos and vocal rasps of black metal with acoustic guitars, dulcimers, and traditional Brazilian wind instruments. The music is lush and earthy in an almost literal sense, born from the very soil and rivers depicted on the cover. If you haven’t heard Kaatayra before, you’re in for a treat—there isn’t anything else like it.

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Demon Sluice – Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire (September 5, 2025)

I got wind of this one because Garry Brents of Cara Neir, Gonemage, and about a dozen other bands performs vocals. However, the primary composer is an individual named Valefor, about whom we know little outside of the fact that they hail from New Zealand. Under the name Demon Sluice, the pair released a mean little blackened death metal record last September that, weirdly enough, has been getting a lot of play in my car, of all places. Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire is chock-a-block with nasty, infectious riffs and appropriately monstrous vocals given the band name and the album’s theme (mythological sea monsters and where to find them), so it really bumps in the whip. 

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اکوان (Akvan) – سووشون (Savushun) (May 16, 2024)

It’s odd how the ongoing “conflict” in Iran has resulted in several Iranian metal projects surfacing on YouTube and Bandcamp, but if the music’s good, who am I to argue with the algorithms’ inscrutable whims? I stumbled across this 2024 EP while looking up information on a completely different release with a somewhat similar cover design: the recent compilation from American/Iranian group Shahanshah. Both releases may be black metal—and fantastic in their own ways—but only this one falls under the loose criteria of this column! 

Akvan is the solar project of Vizaresa, who hails from Isafan in central Iran, about 400km south of Tehran. For the last decade, they have released a steady stream of singles and demos, all exploring various facets of Iranian history and culture. On Savushun, they delve into raw yet melodic black metal featuring tasty quarter tones (some of which are even played with a tar on an interlude track), but my primary reason for choosing this release is the story behind it. On the EP’s Bandcamp page, Vizaresa shares the following:

“This release takes its title from the eponymous book written by Dr. Simin Daneshvar. Widely regarded as the first novel published by an Iranian woman, سووشون (Savushun)* tells the story of an Iranian family in Shiraz living under the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran during WWII.”

At one point, Vizaresa even sold copies of the book alongside the LP. Even though I have not read the album’s namesake, I may check it out in the near future. Vizaresa’s deep respect for Dr. Daneshvar and her work is made manifest in this epic, elegiac adaptation, and it’s inspired me to add the novel to my list. 

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Bea$ters – Alienation by Solidarity (November 22, 2019)

I interviewed Mitchell Luna and Takafumi Matsubara of Barren Path last year, just before the release of their debut album Grieving. Many of the band members had played together previously in Noisear, Mauruta, and, most famously, Gridlink. However, I recently revisited the band’s Metal Archives page (probably out of sadness after missing Barren Path’s West Coast tour) and started checking out some of the members’ other projects. Rhythm guitarist Rory Kobzina, who I had seen perform with Gridlink at their final shows in NYC, is also the founding member of the “technical grind death syndicate” Bea$ters. They put out three albums before going relatively quiet, with 2019’s Alienation by Solidarity being their most recent release. Whether it ends up being their swansong or a prelude to some new chapter is anyone’s guess, but what I can say is that the album is a thrashing, gnashing, skull-smashing delight with a wicked sense of humor. 

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Black Death Metal force BELPHEGOR will unleash their magickal processions across Europe in autumn 2026 with the “Praise The Beast” European Tour 2026. The trek kicks off on September 29th at Turock in Essen, Germany, and will storm through Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Central Europe, Poland, and the UK before reaching its final ritual on October 18th at […]

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Danish blackened speed metal band Speedslut have released “Pestridden Stallions”, the second single taken from their upcoming album, Cimbrian Rites. The record will be released on June 26, 2026 via Listenable Records. Built around raw aggression, sharp riffs and relentless momentum, “Pestridden Stallions” draws inspiration from the ferocity of the early speed metal scene. The […]

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Self-taught, he became a go-to portraitist for politicians, rock stars and other celebrities. He also documented Indigenous people and inmates on death row.

Swedish power metal band Shadowborne have released “Wolf And The Queen”, the fourth single taken from their upcoming debut album, Heaven’s Falling. The record will be released on June 19 via Scarlet Records. “Wolf And The Queen” explores the secret bond between two powerful figures from opposing worlds. Set against a backdrop of war, destiny […]

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I think of Sylvan Esso as a synth-driven project, so it’s interesting to hear them launch into a new era with such a guitar-driven song.

The post Sylvan Esso – “Hot Slob” appeared first on Stereogum.

When Jon Davison joined Yes in 2012, he came in green, riding the momentum of his work with Glass Hammer and holding onto the belief that things with the Heaven and Earth album would come together. They didn’t, at least not the way anyone hoped.

“What we released at best are just polished demos that make up that album,” Davison said in a conversation with Scott Medina. The culprit, in his telling, was producer Roy Thomas Baker, who was in a difficult period personally and, as Davison put it with characteristic generosity, “sort of lost the plot. We were left without a captain running the ship.”

From there, the band fell into touring mode for years. Davison collaborated with guitarist Steve Howe on a record called Love Is, contributed to Arc of Life with bassist Billy Sherwood and drummer Jay Schellen, and waited. Then Howe decided the band should make a record on their own terms — no outside producer, no personality conflicts — and COVID arrived right on cue to clear everyone’s schedule.

“That was the silver lining for all that troubled time,” Davison said.

The result was The Quest, the first of what has since become a trilogy of self-produced albums recorded at Howe‘s studio in the English countryside, with engineer Curtis Schwartz as the steady hand at the board. Mirror to the Sky followed, and now there is Aurora, the most fully realized of the three. Davison credits the run of studio albums with giving the band something that years of touring had never quite managed: a real sense of each other.

“On tour, you’re just in this survival mode. Even though we have a communication on stage, it’s more unspoken communication,” he said. “So it’s great to really get to know each other. Steve and I have grown as a really tight unit, friendship-wise.”

That closeness has had a direct effect on how Davison contributes to the music. On earlier records, he was primarily a vocalist, arranger by necessity. On Aurora, he is a genuine writing partner: playing keyboards and electric guitar on several tracks, co-writing with Howe and others, and receiving the kind of creative trust that takes years to build.

“Steve was really open more and more on the last album, but especially now on Aurora, where I could say, ‘I’ve got this electric guitar idea’ or organ, and I just had that support and confidence behind me,” Davison said. “It’s been a period of discovery, self-discovery through branching out and writing and exploring other instruments.”

On the title track, for instance, Davison plays a church organ section in 7/4 time during a stretch where Howe takes a jazz-inflected solo, while keyboardist Geoff Downes layers his own organ line across the choruses. It is, Davison noted with a laugh, very much a kitchen-sink approach. His overall keyboard contribution across the album runs to roughly 20 percent, with Downes handling the bulk.

Two of the album’s most thematically pointed tracks are “Emotional Intelligence” and “Turnaround Situation,” both of which Davison described as partly confessional. The first came from his research into psychology and his realization that emotion and intellect are not opposites but can be integrated: a concept he said genuinely changed how he sees his own behavior.

“I’ve been everything but emotionally intelligent. And I’ve suffered as a result and I’ve wanted to learn from those experiences,” he said. “I wanted to share that with other people. And I thought, well, this is Yes music — what a perfect platform for that type of subject matter.”

The broader backdrop to those songs is a creeping unease about the state of the world, and specifically, a concern that people have stopped listening to each other: “I’m sensing a rising tension in the world for myriad reasons. You have to start with yourself and realize that really giving in is also winning. If you can give close to equal importance to somebody else’s needs as your own, that brings balance. And if you’re willing to give, you’re going to create good karma where others will give to you.”

On the lighter end, the album’s bonus track “Jambustan” gives Davison a rare chance to stretch out into pure fun. The word is a Caribbean term he picked up while living in Barbados: slang for aggressive, rogue driving behavior. The song’s chorus is built on a string of “don’ts” that Davison described as tongue-in-cheek life advice, consciously modeled on John Lennon‘s habit of affirming something positive through a negative.

“I put my Lennon hat on. It’s such a diversion from more of the loftiness of most Yes lyrics, which I adore and I live by. But how fun to do something quirky like that.”

“Ariadne” pulls in the opposite direction: a storytelling piece rooted in Greek mythology that Davison said connects to childhood memories of listening to those stories in school. The rest of the album’s lyrical territory falls somewhere between the two: personal, occasionally cosmic, always searching.

As for the band’s future beyond Howe, Davison was measured but clear. “I sort of live by that proverb of Rick Wakeman‘s where there will always be a Yes. And Chris was adamant about that.” He pointed out that the current lineup is the longest-standing in the band’s history and said the goal is simply to keep it intact as long as everyone wants to.

He is under no illusions about where he stands in the minds of some fans. He knows the comparisons to John Anderson are constant, knows some people will never fully come around, and said Hawkins gave him the only advice he needed on that front early on.

“He said, ‘Never look at the comments.’ And you know, even he was going through that.”

Davison has made his peace with the position. “The stars have aligned to put me in a place where I represent the vocals in Yes. And so I’ve been called to duty, if you will. I go out there, and I celebrate Yes music and I do it for the people and to respect the legacy.”

Aurora is out June 12 via InsideOut Music. Order your copy here.

The post JON DAVISON Talks “Aurora” Album’s Inception, And The Meaning Of Fronting YES: “I’ve Been Called To Duty — I Go Out There And Celebrate YES Music To Respect The Legacy” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.