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When three acquaintances decided to make a joke song about a bizarre topic just for the hell of it, they can’t have foreseen what’d happen next

Neurosis have returned without warning. The Oakland post-metal institution has surprise-dropped An Undying Love For A Burning World today via Neurot Recordings — their first new album in ten years, and by all accounts a statement of survival rather than a simple comeback.

The band wasted no words explaining why now. “We need this, perhaps more than ever, and we suspect we are not alone,” they write. “The trials and tribulations in our personal lives and as a band, combined with simply trying to navigate the insanity of our society, with the stress, anxiety, and isolation that come with it, can be excruciating. Add to that the existential confusion and sorrow of the climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction. It is enough to cause you to completely lose your mind if you can’t find release or catharsis.

“This strange, emotionally charged music has always been our method of trying to survive this, and this is what we’ve always been singing about. When you have spent a lifetime engaged with these energies and utilizing this form of expression to purge and purify, it feels detrimental to our well-being to let it sit idle and neglected. This was now or never.”

Joining the band on vocals and guitar is Aaron Turner — the man behind Sumac and ISIS, and a figure whose own artistic history has long run parallel to Neurosis‘s. The band describes his arrival as a natural fit. “He came straight out of the gate, contributing, writing, and presenting ideas. His energy matches ours perfectly. It’s as if he was always meant to be there.”

Turner himself is equally direct about the significance of the pairing. “From the moment I first heard Neurosis over 30 years ago, I felt this was the music my heart and mind had been seeking but not yet heard,” he says. “Now, after many years travelling along various musical paths of my own, the singular sound and spirit embodied by Neurosis continues to speak to the depths of my being. It is an honor and a true pleasure to have been welcomed so warmly into a band that not only shaped my perspective on the limitless possibilities of music but has lived and exemplified the necessity of upholding creative integrity and camaraderie above all else.”

On the question of whether this constitutes a reunion, the band is firm: this is not a reunion. They never broke up.

An Undying Love For A Burning World was recorded by Scott Evans (of Kowloon Walled City, Sumac, and And Great Falls) at Studio Litho in Seattle across three weekends this winter, then mixed in three days at Evans’s Antisleep Audio in Oakland — just six weeks before release.

Neurosis will also make their live return after a seven-year absence, playing Fire In The Mountains festival on the traditional lands of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. The event is organised with the support of Firekeeper Alliance, a non-profit focused on reducing youth suicide in Indian Country. Guitarist Steve Von Till, who serves on the board of Firekeeper Alliance, described last year’s edition as the most profound music event of his life.

“I cannot think of a more appropriate environment for us to return to the stage,” he says. “Last year’s Fire In The Mountains festival was the most profound music event I have ever been a part of. The weekend took on a healing, cathartic, ceremonial nature that is difficult to put into words. Using emotionally heavy music to build community and collectively stare darkness in the eye is something we have always believed in, but using it to directly address the heartbreaking reality of suicide, grief, loss, and trauma is taking it to another level.”

The post NEUROSIS Surprise Release First New Album In A Decade, “An Undying Love For A Burning World” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Hawthorne Heights expands ‘If Only You Were Lonely’ 20th anniversary tour was originally published on HM Magazine by Nao Glover.

Rock band Hawthorne Heights is excited to continue celebrating 20 years of their acclaimed album If Only You Were Lonely. The band has today announced an additional U.S. leg to their worldwide 20th Anniversary Tour, kicking off on October 21st in Buffalo. They’ll again be joined by special guests letlive. and Creeper, as they bring the show to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Nashville, Atlanta, New […]

Hawthorne Heights expands ‘If Only You Were Lonely’ 20th anniversary tour was originally published on HM Magazine by Nao Glover.

The new Hugh Jackman/Kate Hudson movie Song Sung Blue tells the true story of a humble Neil Diamond tribute band that hit it big in the ’90s, even performing with Eddie Vedder at a Pearl Jam concert at the height of their fame. So I guess the timing is right for another Neil Diamond/Gen X convergence from the archives.

The post Neil Diamond Releasing New Album He Made With Rick Rubin 19 Years Ago appeared first on Stereogum.

Their first album since 2009 is finally here.

The post Poison The Well Launch “Weeping Tones” Music Video Alongside Their Comeback Album “Peace In Place” appeared first on Theprp.com.

It’s been a fair old while since we last heard from Annihilus Mundi, but the progressive extreme metal project is officially back in the game. After nearly seven years of tinkering away in the shadows, mastermind Daniel Saillant has finally unleashed a brand-new single and music video titled “Absolute Terror”. If you’re a fan of … Continue reading Annihilus Mundi returns with “Absolute Terror”, first new music in seven years

A little more than a week after unveiling her solo band’s name was Blue Medusa, ex-Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz and company released the band’s new single, “Checkmate”. Written by White-Gluz and guitarists Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia, the track apparently marks a “powerful evolution in both sound and creative vision.”

White-Gluz spoke directly about the new track, sharing how it had just seemingly fallen into place.

“This is a song where everything just clicked. ‘Checkmate’ is an extremely cathartic song for me. It was created in one of those flow states where the lyrics and melodies and rhythms just write themselves and you get the feeling that you’re onto something powerful. It’s probably the heaviest thing I’ve written in terms of lyrics, and probably the lightest of what we have cooking in terms of sound. I wanted to share the intensity of these feelings with fans and give them something to hold onto. I’m so happy to see so much support for Blue Medusa already; fans can look forward to more dark, heavy, brutal and haunting music very soon.”

The accompanying music video was co-directed by White-Gluz and Vicente Cordero, of Industrialism Films. With a direct hand on the video’s final product, White-Gluz said she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted the video to be when working on it.

“I know what every frame is for. I’ll share that someday, but for now, I welcome fans to dive deeper into the meaning and develop their own interpretations. That’s what makes videos and movies fun and interesting, in my opinion.”

As of this moment, we don’t know of any album plans for Blue Medusa, nor do we know of any tour plans other than their planned appearances on Louder Than Life and Aftershock. All we can do now is wait for more details.

The post Alissa White-Gluz’s Blue Medusa Drop Their New Single “Checkmate” appeared first on MetalSucks.

Welcome to the Neurisis era.

The post Neurosis Enlist Aaron Turner (SUMAC, Etc.) For Surprise New Album “An Undying Love For A Burning World” appeared first on Theprp.com.

Way back in the year before the Great Plague, I took a chance and reviewed an unheralded, self-released album by a one-man band from Belgium called Ethereal Darkness. We received the promo from the AMG contact forms without fanfare or fluff, but what I heard on Smoke and Shadows really impressed me. Project mastermind Lars created a monumental slab of melancholic, melodic doom in the vein of Insomnium, Rapture, and Before the Dawn, and the material had depth, power, and gravitas. It seemed like the work of a seasoned and polished group of musicians despite some rough edges. The years have drifted by since that review, and I’d all but given up Ethereal Darkness for dead. Imagine my surprise when Lars reached out recently to alert me to the pending release of his second album, Echoes. 6 years on, the solo project is now a full-fledged band ready to tour in support of their latest release. And what a large release it is! At 60 minutes, Echoes takes the style from the debut and goes way bigger, with much longer compositions and greater ambition in the writing. If that’s not big enough, it also features cover art from Adam Burke and a production from Dan “The Fücking Man” Swanö!¹ Is bigger better in this case? Can more really be MOAR? And how are these guys still unsigned?? These are the questions of our time.

It takes ample ballsack to open with a nearly 11-minute song, but Ethereal Darkness do just that with “Gone With the Tide.” If the atmosphere on Smoke and Shadows impressed you, this will knock you into the next multiverse. It’s an epic, sweeping tableau of massive melodoom that holds nothing back as it transports you to majestic forests and towering mountains of snow and ice. It recalls the best works of Be’lakor and Black Sun Aeon, but there’s plenty of Insomnium in the DNA too. The guitarwork is phenomenal, full of sadboi trilling and doomy weight. The death vocals by Lars are very effective, the clean singing by acoustic guitarist Brecht hits the right way, and the lapses into blastbeating blackness are well-timed adrenaline spikes. This is a stupendous song and one of the best so far this year, and it goes by in a flash despite its girth. “The Cycle” continues to maintain the sky-high quality. It’s like a crazy mash-up of Eneferens and modern Amorphis, and you should pay big money for such a potent potable. It’s the kind of song you get lost in and lose track of time, and when you write songs in the 8-10 minute window, this is essential.

Elsewhere, “Winter” moves toward more blackened environs, channeling Saor and Nechochwen as epic soundscapes are raised and explored. The guitars here are beautifully rendered, and it’s another triumph for this unheralded project. Equally monolithic is “On the Edge of the Cliff,” where the music turns more aggressive and urgent, merging black and melodeath idioms adroitly for maximum impact. There’s an epic Viking metal energy here that makes you want to conquer and rule the weak, and it feels dangerously powerful. Despite so much magnificent opulence and aural decadence, there are some weaker moments. “IV” is very, very good and hints at my beloved Rapture, but it ends up feeling too long at 9:45, and trimming it by a few minutes would have helped. Ginormous closer “Realization” runs over 13 minutes, and despite good to great moments throughout, it’s undone by its sheer width and breadth. In its final minutes, I find it increasingly difficult to stay locked in and attentive. At just over 60 minutes, Echoes can be a daunting listen due to its density and length, but the reward is well worth the effort. I can’t find fault with the Swanö-ified production, as everything sounds lush, gorgeous, and heavy without being loud or oppressive.

Lars handles guitar, bass, keyboards, and harsh vocals, and to say he did an amazing job across the board doesn’t begin to cover it. There are some big, emotional moments here courtesy of his 6-string heroics, referencing the works of Tuomas Saukkonen without imitating. His deep death roars punctuate the music with force, and his blackened cackles and screams pierce through like lasers. His restrained use of keyboards should be a case study for other acts in the genre. They add atmosphere but rarely rise out of the distant background. Becht provides soothing acoustic guitar passages and clean vocals that deliver pathos and emotion. Peter’s drumming is a vast improvement over the programmed percussion from the debut, imbuing the material with vibrancy and weight. Applause all around for this crew!

Echoes is a bigger, better album than Smoke and Shadows in every way, with several tracks worthy of Song o’ the Year consideration. The album length and the bloat on a few tracks hold it back from even greater heights, but just barely. This is a sumptuous feast for the ears and mind, and I get the feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time with this over the next few months. Ethereal Darkness are about to get a lot more attention in the metalverse, and they deserve it. Hear this massive monster or be a lesser mortal. Somebody better sign these guys toot-sweet!

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Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Self-Release
Websites: etherealdarkness.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/etherealplace | instagram.com/etherealdarknessband
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026

The post Ethereal Darkness – Echoes Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

System of a Down albums ranked is a five-album list with no bad entry on it, which is the whole problem. Five studio records in seven years, three of them number ones, two of them in the same calendar year, and then a silence that has now lasted longer than the band’s recording career: twenty-one years since the last album, with two protest singles in 2020 as the only new music.

They filled stadiums across North America in 2025 and Europe this summer, they’re headlining Sick New World, and Daron Malakian still says a sixth album doesn’t feel like it continues the story. So this is the catalogue, complete, ranked and argued. The order is ours. The fight over the top two is yours.

How We Ranked Them

Four things decide the order. Long-term impact: did the record change what metal was allowed to sound like, or just sell? Consistency front to back: can you play it without skipping, twenty years on? Replay value: do you still reach for it, or just for the singles? And the argument: how much do fans still fight about where it sits? Chart positions and plaques are in here because they tell you what happened, not because they decide anything.

One thing to know going in. All five albums were produced by Rick Rubin with Daron Malakian, all five came out on American Recordings through Columbia, and the lineup never changed: Serj Tankian, Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan on every one. No producer eras, no replacement members, no label switch. What changed was how much of the writing Malakian took over, how much Serj sang versus Daron, and how far the band was willing to push the joke before it turned serious. That’s most of this list.

Hypnotize (2005)

The second half of the 2005 double, released six months after Mezmerize, and the record that made System one of four acts in history, with The Beatles, 2Pac and DMX, to debut two albums at number one in the same year. It sold 320,000 copies in its first week and went platinum. On paper it’s the equal of its twin.

On the stereo it’s the quieter sibling. Hypnotize feels like a continuation rather than a statement of its own: the pacing is looser, the tempos sit lower, and a few songs take longer to land than anything on the first half. ‘Lonely Day’, Malakian’s ballad, got a Grammy nomination and became one of the band’s biggest streaming songs, which tells you where the record’s strength lies.

And then there’s ‘Holy Mountains’, about the Armenian Genocide, which is one of the most emotionally charged things the band ever recorded and the reason this album can’t sit any lower than it does. Hypnotize is at five because something had to be, and because it’s the only System album that sounds like the end of something. It was. The band stopped the following year.

Steal This Album! (2002)

The accident. In late 2001, a batch of unfinished Toxicity-era songs leaked online under the fan-made title Toxicity II, and rather than let the bootleg stand, the band finished them properly and released the result a year later, in a sleeve designed to look like a burned CD-R with the title scrawled in marker. It reached number 15 and went platinum, which for a record of outtakes is absurd.

The sound is the point. Steal This Album! has none of Toxicity’s polish; it’s raw and loose and the sequencing feels like a pile rather than a plan. That’s why it’s divisive. Some fans find it the most fun System record because nothing on it is trying to be a single. Others find it the least cohesive because nothing on it is trying to be an album.

What it has is songs. ‘A.D.D. (American Dream Denial)’ and ‘Innervision’ hit with Toxicity-level urgency, ‘I-E-A-I-A-I-O’ and ‘Roulette’ are set list fixtures, and ‘Boom!’ got a Michael Moore video and became an anti-war anthem. Among the nu metal bands of its era, nobody else’s B-sides could have charted. It’s at four because it’s a collection, not a record. A great collection.

System Of A Down (1998)

The debut, and the one with no map. Rick Rubin signed them to American after seeing them in Los Angeles, and the first album came out on June 30, 1998, sounding like nothing on radio: Armenian folk melody, hardcore tempo shifts, Serj’s operatic growl-to-croon and a rhythm section that treated time signatures as suggestions. It reached only number 113 on the Billboard 200. It has since gone double platinum.

‘Sugar’ is the song, and it’s still one of the band’s defining tracks: unhinged, funny and furious at the same time. ‘Spiders’ was the hint of what was coming, the first time the band slowed down and let Serj sing something beautiful without a punchline. ‘Suite-Pee’, ‘War?’ and ‘P.L.U.C.K.’ are the band at their most hardcore, and ‘P.L.U.C.K.’ put the Genocide on a major-label metal record in 1998.

It’s at three because the two albums above it took this chaos and sharpened it into something that could fill a stadium. But every idea System ever had is on this record in rough form, and that’s rarer than it sounds. Korn and Deftones both needed a second album to become themselves. System were themselves on the first one.

Mezmerize (2005)

The album that proved Toxicity wasn’t a fluke, four years later and with a different balance of power. Malakian wrote almost everything on it and split the vocals with Serj close to half and half, and the result is tighter, funnier and more pointed than anything the band had done. It debuted at number one with 453,000 copies in its first week, went double platinum, and ‘B.Y.O.B.’ won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

It never lets go. ‘B.Y.O.B.’, ‘Question!’, ‘Cigaro’, ‘Radio/Video’, ‘Violent Pornography’ and ‘Sad Statue’ go by in 36 minutes without one slack moment, and the shifts from thrash to pop chorus to Armenian waltz that sounded like a trick in 1998 sound like a language here. The Iraq War is all over it, and it’s the band’s most political record without ever feeling like a lecture, because the melodies are too good.

Mezmerize is number two by the narrowest margin on this list. Ask a room which is the best System of a Down album and half of it says this one, and the case is simple: it’s the most consistent System album front to back. It isn’t on top here because the record above it changed the genre, and this one perfected what that record started. Perfecting is a close second.

Toxicity (2001)

Everything lines up. Rubin and Malakian recorded more than thirty songs at Cello Studios in Hollywood and cut it to fourteen, the production gives the band room without losing the weight, and there isn’t a track that doesn’t earn its place. It was released on September 4, 2001, debuted at number one with 220,000 copies the following week, and was still number one when the planes hit. ‘Chop Suey!’ went onto the radio-industry list of songs to avoid that month. It became the band’s biggest song anyway.

The three singles all reached the Hot 100, ‘Aerials’ went to number one on both rock charts, ‘Chop Suey!’ was nominated for a Grammy, and the album is now certified seven-times platinum in the US. The night before it came out, a free show in Hollywood drew three times the crowd the lot could hold, the police pulled the plug without telling anyone, and the resulting riot destroyed the band’s gear. That’s the level of demand this record walked into.

What it did, beyond selling, was make a certain kind of music possible: metal that could be absurd and devastating in the same verse, that could put ‘Prison Song’ and ‘ATWA’ and ‘Science’ on one album and have them all make sense. It’s number one because it’s the complete record and the one that moved the whole genre. The Daron Malakian who led a London crowd through a chant this summer is the one who wrote it at 26.

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What Happens Next: Tours, Side Projects And The Sixth Album Question

System Of A Down have been a touring band without a new album for two decades, and 2025–2026 has been the busiest stretch of that period. The Wake Up! stadium run with Korn, Deftones, Avenged Sevenfold and Polyphia filled North American stadiums in 2025. Europe followed this summer with Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath. Sick New World 2026 has them headlining in Las Vegas.

The new music question gets the same answer it has for twenty years. The only post-2005 releases are ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’, released in November 2020 in response to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Malakian said in early 2025 that new material doesn’t feel like it continues the story. Serj released a Foundations EP of songs originally written for the band, and has talked openly about the band considering another singer if he can’t commit. When any of that changes, this page gets a sixth entry.

Where System Of A Down Sit In Nu Metal

They were filed under nu metal because of when they arrived, not what they sounded like. No rapping, no turntables, no down-tuned sludge; instead Armenian folk, hardcore punk, Zappa and a singer who could do opera. That’s why the catalogue has aged better than almost anything else from the 1998–2005 wave. Linkin Park outsold them; nobody else from that era has five albums that all still get played.

It’s also why the ranking above is so tight. There’s no Risk, no Results May Vary, no record where the band chased a trend and lost the thread. The worst System album went to number one. Argue with that.

Full Ranking: SOAD Albums Ranked From Worst To Best

5. Hypnotize (2005)
4. Steal This Album! (2002)
3. System Of A Down (1998)
2. Mezmerize (2005)
1. Toxicity (2001)

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TL;DR

• System Of A Down made five studio albums between 1998 and 2005, all produced by Rick Rubin and Daron Malakian, all with the same four members. Three went to number one.
• Toxicity is number one here: the complete record, the genre-changer, now seven-times platinum. Mezmerize is a close second and the most consistent album front to back.
• Hypnotize is last because something had to be, and it’s the only System album that sounds like an ending. Steal This Album! is a platinum collection of outtakes, not a planned record.
• The band is touring stadiums and headlining Sick New World 2026, but the only new music since 2005 is two singles from 2020, and Malakian says a sixth album doesn’t feel like it continues the story.

FAQ

Toxicity or Mezmerize? Tell us in the comments and defend it. Follow Loaded Radio for every System Of A Down update, including the day a sixth album finally gets announced.

The post System Of A Down Albums Ranked: All 5 Albums Worst To Best appeared first on Loaded Radio.