There’s a good chance a lot of reviews are going to slate the new Menzingers record. ‘Everything I Ever Saw’ is so different from their raging punk past, and that’s going to alienate the folk who want to slam their feelings away. With respect, those reviews are going to be completely wrong. More than a cursory listen reveals the Menzingers have tapped into the Springsteen quality of evoking an entire scene in a single chord and conjuring a lifetime from a verse, and they’ve created an album that feels like you’re watching the world go past from a train window, ruminating on how the threads of life can knit together. ‘Everything I Ever Saw’ is stunning, aching, contradictory and an entire world compressed into eleven songs.
“We may stand have a chance, but we still gotta try,” rings the chorus of the magnificent first single ‘Chance Encounters’,song for when you realise that one tiny mis-step or missed connection, and your entire existence could have turned out differently. Those who’ve walked into your life and changed it for the better are the subject of the sun-drenched ‘Better Angels’, with its classy simplicity and hope for the future. Then we’ve got ‘Nobody’s Heroes’, a song that feels like you’re attending church except the preacher is leading a sermon on surviving life’s knock backs. It almost feels like an apology from the band for giving up their thrash– “We ain’t nobody’s heroes, because we can only be ourselves” – but they needn’t offer any restitution for changing direction. We all grow and change, and the Menzingers have entered a beautifully evocative new chapter in their careers.
Part of the pleasure of ‘Everything I Ever Saw’ are the unexpected gems that no one saw coming. ‘Other People’s Money’ is a gorgeous Robin Hood ear worm that blooms from a piano that drifts and stomps into your mind at unforeseen moments, and ‘She Enters My Dreams’ is a plain and simple song of devotion, the kind of song you wish had been written about you to spark a rom-com chain of events to find a lost love. In fact, if we told you this song was a collab with Brian Fallon, you’d probably believe us (though, to the best of our knowledge, Jersey’s finest was not involved). The whole of ‘Everything I Ever Saw’ is very Gaslight Anthem, but that’s likely by coincidence rather than design. The really “Menzingers Anthem” moments, like ‘Parade Day’ with it’s waving-your-mate-goodbye-at-the-airport energy and almost Billy Bragg lilts on the chorus, remind us how distinct their sound is, but also let us appreciate the Gaslight new direction by providing an elegant backdrop.
We’ve got no complaints at all about ‘Everything I Ever Saw’. This is a record for people who have grown with the Menzingers, and had our lives change along with theirs. We can look back on the older records with fondness, remembering a specific time when that sound grabbed us, but this is an album for where we and they are now. It’s softer, more tempered by the forces of the world, but no less vigorous than we hoped, and a record that reveals more and more to love with every playthrough.
When we write about music, we often proceed from a premise that is useful but essentially false: namely, that music has a fixed, objective reality. Don’t we all know, at some level, that music is never the same? Not just from one listener to another listener, but even – and sometimes especially – from the same listener encountering the same piece of music at different times. If I’m not in the right headspace for it, even my favorite albums of all time will land in my ears like the worst garbage I’ve ever heard. We are dreadfully imperfect receivers, conveying any given auditory sensation along the faulty wiring of memory, mood, experience, and physiology to create a soundstage of vastly different auditory perceptions.
The matter at hand today is the second album from Sweden’s Escumergamënt, Apparebat Eidolon Senex, and the reason for the hectoring introduction about the subjectivity of music is that in the half-dozen or so times I have listened to the album, it has never once sounded the same. This time, it captivates and ensorcells, while this time, it blurs and hums away exactly as expected. Here, the guitars slink so far beneath the keys as to evaporate completely, while there, the songs flicker and persist like the honorable ghosts of a vanished kingdom. Even my least splendid encounter with the album has bottomed out somewhere in the vicinity of “remarkably pleasant boredom,” which is a higher floor than many albums’ ceilings.
According to the (intentionally) scant information available, Escumergamënt is a black metal quartet comprised of Swedish musicians from projects including Stilla, Setherial, and Bergraven, and for some of you, that might already be more than enough inducement to mash the ‘play’ button. For everyone else, expect staunchly traditionalist black metal steeped in a buzzing, quavering, richly melodic atmosphere. Of the band members’ affiliated projects, my particular busted ears hear the most overlap with Stilla, but Escumergamënt’s music sometimes also recalls Abigor, early Gehenna, and the ever-underrated Lunar Aurora. One particularly strong element of the album is the vocals, which are a powerfully raspy snarl somewhere between Emperor’s Ihsahn and Enslaved’s Grutle.
Nevertheless, the type of “atmosphere” offered here may appear to some as a haunting, mystical haze that suffuses the songs with mournful indeterminacy, while appearing to others as a crutch-like use of advanced recording tools and instrumental techniques to mimic the genre’s foundational (and likely accidental) murk and mystery. “Laudanum and a Silver Scalpel,” for example, is the song that sinks deepest into an eerily hypnotic and simplistic drive, relying almost on a modal structure with blitzed and bleary keys that waver out of the mist and then recede. Or, y’know, maybe it just sounds like Transilvanian Hunger.
In a sour mood, the keyboard melody on “To the Graves!” is a cloying sing-song, but when I’m feeling locked in, it takes on an appealingly melancholy flavor. “The Corpses Heaven Refused to Take” hits its strongest stride with a doom-inflected passage which feels like, if left to develop further, it might have plumbed even more glittering depths, but then on a tune like “Radiant Glimmering Whorl,” Escumergamënt crushes its way through a basically perfect five and a half minutes that alternate between triumphant melodic sweeps and punishing aggression. Does this mean the band needs to pick and choose between their many modes of attack? Categorically no. On Apparebat Eidolon Senex (as with music writ large), the real meat lies in that unknowable lacuna between stimulus and response.
Texan death metal five-piece Frozen Soul have been bubbling away in the US underground for years, but it was this year’s excellent No Place of Warmth that attracted them some bonus attention – not least thanks to guest appearances from Machine Head leader Robb Flynn and, most surprisingly, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. Frozen Soul singer Chad Green explains how those two collabs came about, what it’s been like playing death metal in arenas and more.
Let’s start with the important question: how’s Carl, your adopted puppy?
“He’s great! He was actually literally just in here, begging for attention. I didn’t actually want a dog. For a while, I’ve been like, ‘I’d love another dog, but I tour so much I can’t really take care of one right now.’ But I got home from tour and my girlfriend Nat and her son came over with a Yorkie-poo [Yorkshire Terrier/Poodle crossbreed]! He was the cutest thing in the entire world and I about cried when I saw him. I can’t imagine my family without him now.”
Speaking of tours, Frozen Soul in arenas – what’s that been like?
“It was wild! Our first run at those kind of shows was with Amon Amarth, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary. We played Red Rocks – the first death metal to ever play there, by the way, because we opened the show. We were shitting bricks on that tour because it was so insanely stressful. But fast-forward four or five tours and we’re out with Killswitch, doing hockey arenas. The hardest thing is playing to a big crowd who have no idea who we are. There’s nights where I’m like, ‘Who’s heard Frozen Soul?’ and one guy’s like, squeaking at the back, ‘Me!’ But you know, when you win that crowd over, you feel on top of the world.”
How does a Texan death metal band draft in Gerard Way to sing on their record?
“It’s not as hard as you’d think! His team invited us to see My Chemical Romance in Dallas, something crazy like 30 or 40,000 people in this sold-out stadium. We went backstage and met him, ended up trading numbers. Then he came to see us when we played in LA with Napalm Death and Brujeria. When we talked about the new album, I thought it’d be funny to ask Gerard if he wanted to sing on a song over text. He came straight back, ‘Absolutely!’ He’s inspired so many generations, but he’s just down to do cool shit too and he absolutely loves metal.”
Be honest: did you have an emo phase?
“Not really. There was a moment where I met this girl and her friends listened to like Mewithoutyou, Atreyu, bands like that. My Chemical Romance was probably in that, but I loved the heavier stuff more – I’d been shown Decapitated! At the time there was a screamo/hardcore scene coming up in Texas though, and finding that led me to Terror, Comeback Kid, Youth Of Today, Gorilla Biscuits… all that stuff.”
We were the first death metal band to play Red Rocks
Chad Green
Gerard’s not the only guest – how was it working with Robb Flynn?“
He’s such a good dude. I’ve worshipped the end riff of Davidian my entire career. I strongly believe that riff is why breakdowns evolved how they have. You’ve got Reign In Blood and Domination, which are great, but that riff at the end of Davidian? That shaped so much stuff it’s insane. We always try to work with friends or people we look up to.”
So are you friends with Robb now?“
Yeah! We were playing with Killswitch when we first met him, I was watching them play and he just came up and we ended up singing a load of their songs together. Robb and I had calls, we talked about the song and how it’s a follow-up to Arsenal Of War, but also talked about our experiences with loss. It all just clicked. He wrote all the lyrics of the parts he’s on too – he really invested himself in the song.”
Was Dallas excited to host the World Cup?
“I don’t know, I’m not a fuckin’ sports guy! I play videogames and Magic: The Gathering, you know? II don’t know the difference between a basketball and a football, dude. I didn’t get this god-like figure from sports – I got it from eating Big Macs and playing World Of Warcraft.”
As an expert on ice – who’d win in a battle royal between Ice-T, Ice Cube and Vanilla Ice?
“Oh man, Ice-T would probably kill them all. He seems like the coolest. I’ve never met him, but of all the celebrities out there he seems the most grounded, a real fuckin’ dude. I’d love to get him on a Frozen Soul record – alright, LP4!”
Phil Collins opens up about his past battles with alcohol addiction in a new interview with British music magazine MOJO, revealing that fellow rock star Eric Clapton once talked him into a not-wholly-successful stay at his Crossroads Centre rehab facility in Antigua.
Collins has previously written about his battle with alcoholism in his revealing 2016 autobiography Not Dead Yet. The former Genesis man turned successful solo artist spoke of turning to alcohol to fill the “gaping void” in his life following the breakdown of his third marriage and subsequent divorce in 2006.
“Night after night I find myself lying on the bed, staring out of a skylight at grey Swiss skies, rueing my life,” Collins wrote in his memoir. “I’m all alone, save for my good friends Johnnie Walker and Grey Goose.”
“It took me until the age of 55 to become an alcoholic,” he added. “I got through the heady 1960s, the trippy 1970s, the imperial 1980s, the busy 1990s. I was retired, content, and then I fell. Because I suddenly had too much time on my hands.”
“But it was something I lived through, and I was lucky to live through it and get through it. I was very close to dying.”
In his interview with MOJO‘s Mark Blake, Collins reveals that, in the 2010s, he was encouraged to check into rehab by his longtime friend Clapton. Collins was supposed to stay at the Crossroads Centre for six weeks, but checked himself out after a month as he had a tour booked.
“The nurse who took me to the airport gave me a note and told me to read it on the plane,” he remembers. “It said, ‘If you have a drink, you will die. And it’s terrible to say, but I had a glass of wine.”
Collins will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career in November. Earlier this year he revealed that he had turned down the opportunity to perform at the ceremony, which will be held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on November 14.
“They asked me if I would perform,” he told BBC Breakfast. “I said no. You’ve gotta be match fit to do something like that. You can’t just go onstage. You’re going to have to rehearse. And by that point, if you haven’t been singing, your voice is going to be shot, and that’s not going to be good. I’d rather not do it.”
Dexter and the Moonrocks have shared a new track, continuing their ascent to the very top, and it is modern grunge-tinged rock at its most patient and thoughtful.
Titled ‘If You Could Talk’, it embodies much of the melancholy and meandering attitude that defined alternative music in the 90s, but mixed in with modern day inflection and atmosphere. The result is a song full of heart, hurt and honesty, the sort made to be played on the biggest stages the world has to offer, and that will offer up support for those going through similar feelings of loneliness and longing.
Vocalist James Tuffs had this to say about it:
“The song, If You Could Talk, and what it means to me is about having a family back home that you never get to see. It’s about what a conversation would sound like with your son if he knew how to talk, or whoever it may be. Everyone has something they are leaving behind when they hit the road, and this song is about all of those endless struggles that come with that. “
The track arrives at a time when the band are having a huge moment with their track ‘Freakin’ Out’. Currently spending its third week at No.01 on Alt Radio, and receiving a gold certification from RIAA, with over 200 million streams around the world, it’s a sensational to say the least.
Club Wagon Creek are an outlaw country‑rock band from Southeast Manitoba that writes songs the way life actually happens: messy, honest, and full of feelings that hit before you can name them. Born from grief and shaped by metal, country/roots, and blues, their sound lives where confessional songwriting meets hard‑driving guitar rock: pedal‑steel atmosphere, ’80s‑tinged riffs, and hooks that stick.
The singer commented on the latest single, Deadwood: “I wrote this song based on a trip I took to Deadwood on a motorcycle. And we ended up getting parking tickets… and so I decided not to pay my ticket so that I would be considered ‘wanted’ in Deadwood. So I wrote a song about it.”
I love the pace, the mood, the energy, the fantastic guitar solo and the song being both energetic but radio friendly and easy listening, with a fantastic sound as well. Give it a go by clicking on the Spotify player below and follow Club Wagon Creek if you like what you hear.
It is abundantly clear that Eddie has been a busy boy. A VERY busy boy. Not only had everybody’s favourite decomposing corpse lovingly prepared a feast of fun, frivolity and flippin’ awesome music, he also raided Satan’s own personal kitchen, stole his oven and plonked it slap-bang in the middle of Knebworth. This was EDDFEST. This was Saturday with The Almighty, Airbourne and The Darkness.
Spread over two days, 11 blistering bands and a ground temperature which was slightly hotter than the Sun, EDDFEST promised to be a scorcher of a weekend, and by jove it was.
EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Rhys Tagg/MetalTalk
Let’s get the criticisms out of the way first. The parking and marshalling on Saturday was difficult. This was not helped by police closing junction 6 on the A1(M), the Welwyn turn-off, in a bid to control entry into Knebworth.
Social media posts reported that the one-mile stretch near the venue took anywhere between three and five hours to navigate, with fans describing the situation as utterly shambolic. There were also unconfirmed reports from several sources that a road accident had occurred, around a third of a mile from one of the entry points.
The distance between the car parks and the arena itself was an issue for many. The various members of staff dotted about the venue, although extremely polite and friendly, struggled to impart the correct information when requested.
Some were aimlessly wandering around before eventually disappearing in what was fast becoming known as The Knebworth Triangle. Reports that the Lynyrd Skynyrd tour bus from their 1976 Knebworth gig suddenly appeared after going missing five decades ago, trying to navigate its way to the exit, were unconfirmed.
Ultimately, none of this was Iron Maiden’s nor their management’s fault. Once you were in, though, this was a truly fantastic day.
EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Rhys Tagg/MetalTalk
The Almighty
Kicking off Saturday’s proceedings on the main stage were The Almighty. Scotland’s finest tore the stage apart, serving up some rather fine cuts.
Despite the almost nuclear heat emanating from that glowing, round thing in the sky, Ricky Warwick and the chaps threw themselves into their work, kicking off with Power, followed by Over the Edge. Fan favourites Full Force Lovin’ Machine and Jonestown Mind then followed, gritty, punchy and edgy.
The Almighty – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Paul Monkhouse/MetalTalk
This was The Almighty at their very best, the band are incredibly tight, not a note is wasted, not a beat dropped. With Wrench, Addiction and Thunderbird flowing from the fired-up fingers of Warwick, Floyd London and Tantrum, as well as the skins of Stumpy Munroe, the band were having fun.
The final track, Wild And Wonderful, saw Ricky Warwick presented with a cake to celebrate his 60th birthday. Was it a Victoria sponge, was it a fruitcake, was it a Battenberg? Enquiring minds need to know, Ricky.
Despite the problems that beset the early part of Saturday’s EDDFEST and the sweltering heat taking hold, the mosh-pit was still pretty lively. If you were there in time to witness, this was a great start to Saturday’s proceedings.
Airbourne – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Aibourne
No party would ever be complete without an invite for Airbourne to attend. And attend they did, in some style.
The Aussie rockers are gritty, dirty, and you would not take them home to meet your mum unless you wanted her to wind up drunk as a skunk, sprawled over a couch with her head in a bucket while smelling of shame and disgrace. They are the ultimate party band.
Airbourne – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Kicking off a relatively short setlist with Ready To Rock, Airbourne rely on audience participation, and they did. With the temperature still a balmy 8 million degrees celcius, frontman Joel O’Keeffe procured some water pistols and started drenching the crowd. Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast and Breakin’ Outta Hell then followed.
O’Keeffe decided he was going to climb onto a crew member, while shredding like his life depended on it. Make no mistake, these guys are seriously good musicians. Do not be fooled by the goofing around.
Airbourne – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
A couple more numbers in, and then the band briefly broke into Paranoid, leading into Alive After Death, and then their final number, their anthem, Running Wild, which sent a baying audience wild.
You really cannot go wrong with Airbourne. They are straight up and down, good time rock, and with their new album release imminent, they are bound to be back in the UK with an expanded setlist.
Airbourne – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
The Darkness
The Darkness hit the Knebworth stage with a swagger that made it clear they were ready to own the afternoon. Justin strode out shirtless and tattooed, a long way from his early spandex-clad image, and the look suited him.
The Darkness – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
There was a looseness to him that felt earned, a frontman who had grown into a different kind of flamboyance, still cheeky, still theatrical, but carrying a more grounded swagger.
The band belted through their classics with the confidence of a group who knew exactly how to lift a festival crowd, especially as the final act before Iron Maiden.
The Darkness – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Growing On Me, Get Your Hands Off My Woman, One Way Ticket and more rolled out in quick succession, each one pulling the Knebworth crowd higher. The mid-July heat only added to the atmosphere, with fans packed shoulder to shoulder, singing along and throwing themselves into every chorus.
It felt like the perfect setting for The Darkness, bright, loud, slightly chaotic, and full of people who were more than ready to be entertained.
In true Darkness fashion, they could not resist dropping a brief snippet of Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End). The moment was met with pure delight, a ripple of laughter and cheers spreading across the field as fans embraced the absurdity of hearing it in the blazing July heat. Justin quickly told everyone they would have to catch the band on tour later in the year if they wanted the full festive treatment.
The Darkness – EDDFEST – 11 July 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Justin was bouncing with energy during I Believe In A Thing Called Love, and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. The band had the entire field clapping in unison, a sea of hands rising and falling as they pushed the song into full festival anthem territory.
They finally wrapped up with Love On The Rocks With No Ice, a closing punch that sealed their set as one of the day’s most joyful highlights.
Alissa White-Gluz isn’t one to stand idle. Joining Hammer on a video call, she immediately asks if it’s okay if she walks on a treadmill while we talk. It’s a perfect representation of who she is: driven, constantly active, always eyeing up the next horizon. In October 2025, news broke that she’d parted ways with Arch Enemy, the band she’d fronted for over a decade. That same day she released The Room Where She Died, the first single from a solo album she’d signed a deal with Napalm Records for back in 2016.
To say Alissa’s departure from Arch Enemy was a shock is an understatement. Just a week before, the band had been on a characteristically massive trek of Europe, headlining venues like the 5,000-plus capacity Eventim Apollo (formerly Hammersmith) – venues they’d comfortably graduated to playing under her 13-year tenure as frontwoman. It’s a subject Alissa is reluctant to talk about right now, admitting she “doesn’t know how to answer” when we ask about the details of her departure. Instead, she admits it was a simple case of “now or never” when it came to doing her own thing.
You keep kicking the can down the road so it’s like, ‘When do I step on the gas?’
Alissa White-Gluz
“It’s been 13 years since I joined Arch Enemy. That’s almost half the existence of the band, and more than half of my musical career,” she considers. “We had the most success the band ever had, so I learned a lot. But you keep kicking the can down the road so it’s like, ‘When do I step on the gas?’”
To even casual observers, it’s appeared Alissa has run on rocket fuel from day one. First emerging with melodeath group The Agonist in the mid-2000s, she quickly started picking up guest appearances with other bands (“I’ve done something like 50 features now,” she muses), stepped in to do duties for power metallers Kamelot and, for one memorable gig in September 2012, even fronted Nightwish when then-vocalist Anette Olzen was taken ill.
She’s going doubly hard now. Post-Arch Enemy, she’s confirmed the release of her upcoming solo album Alissa and in a surprise twist, joined DragonForce as their first ever frontwoman. But even with all of that, she’s got something else cooking too: a brand new, all-woman group called Blue Medusa.
Alissa on stage with Arch Enemy (Image credit: Gary Wolstenholme/Redferns via Getty Images)
“I’ve always wanted to have an all-woman band,” she says. “I grew up watching Jem and the Holograms, which I think is something I’ve carried forward in some ways. Growing up, me and my sister Jasamine, who is in the band No Joy, would make music together. We had guitars and drums – stuff we got from thrift stores, but it was very cool. So this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Alissa announced the formation of Blue Medusa in March with debut single Checkmate. Although there’s an obvious sonic similarity to her work in The Agonist and Arch Enemy, Alissa enthuses about the more progressive elements she hopes to explore in Blue Medusa. She cites influences for the project ranging from criminally underrated prog group 3, former Delain singer Charlotte Wessels – with whom she’s collaborated in the past – and Euphoria Morning, the solo debut by Chris Cornell. She’s also quick to point out how this project will differ from her solo record.
“Blue Medusa is more focused on my top preferences,” she explains. “I love high energy, fast, heavy music, but also the dark devil’s notes you find in black metal. The scales you find in progressive metal… song arrangements that aren’t just the radio structure you’d normally find.”
To that end, she’s recruited guitarists Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia for the new group, and stresses how important it is that Blue Medusa is an all-female band. The name isn’t a coincidence, either. Medusa might be best known as the monster who turns men to stone in Greek myth, but in some interpretations, she was a victim of Poseidon and cursed by the Gods, becoming a powerful monster as a result.
“I think her story is really interesting. I relate to it, in some ways,” she muses. “But I love the imagery that comes with Medusa, that she is a symbol of feminine strength.”
“Anytime I run into a peer who is a woman on tour or at a festival, we just click and tend to stick together because, speaking for myself, I know how lonely it is when there aren’t any other women around and you’re ‘othered’. You’re automatically in a different category – its tough,” Alissa continues. “With Blue Medusa, I really wanted to be able to showcase awesome women who are super talented and fun to write with, but also have the same sort of music taste as I do.”
It’s still early days for the project right now though. They’ve got gigs lined up later this year at US Festivals Louder Than Life and Aftershock, and Alissa teases that more material is coming – though admits she doesn’t know when a full album will arrive. For now, she’s just happy with where things are at with the band.
“Checkmate felt like coming home,” she says. “I like having a sprinkling of unexpected elements in there, but also giving you something to latch onto. Itwas the first song I finished for Blue Medusa and that’s always going to hold a special place in your heart. We do have more on the way very soon which I’m very excited about, but the feeling I got working on Checkmate was empowering, healing and thriving. Coming home!”
Blue Medusa play Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky in September and Aftershock in Sacramento, California in October
