Flea seems to be having a great time right now. Earlier this year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist released Honora, the trumpet-based jazz album that he’s been meaning to make forever. He assembled a team of jazz greats to record the LP, and now they’re joining him on tour. On Tuesday night, Flea and his band played London, and they were joined by Flea’s old friend and collaborator Thom Yorke.
The post Thom Yorke & Flea Cover Marvin Gaye In London appeared first on Stereogum.
The smoke is rising once again from New Orleans. Down, the legendary supergroup featuring Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan, Kirk Windstein, Jimmy Bower, and Pat Bruders, has officially announced their massive “Strap It Down” 2026 North American headlining tour. This marks the band’s first significant run in years and follows the news of their recent signing with Nuclear Blast Records.
Supporting the tour will be fellow heavyweights Helmet, making this one of the most anticipated double-bills of the summer. The tour is set to kick off in August, hitting major cities and festivals across the continent. Fans have been clamoring for a full-length follow-up to the IV – Part II EP, and with the band currently in the final stages of recording, this tour feels like the perfect precursor to a new era of sludge dominance.
“We’re back to doing what we do best—playing heavy music for heavy people,” the band stated in a collective release. The tour will also include a special appearance supporting Slayer on select dates, further solidifying Down’s place at the top of the heavy metal hierarchy. For those who live for the slow-burn riffs and Anselmo’s signature roar, the “Strap It Down” tour is a mandatory pilgrimage.
Tickets go on sale this week, and given the rarity of Down tours, expect them to move fast. The NOLA kings are reclaiming their throne, and the metal world is ready to bow down.
Check the official tour dates below and get ready to burn some rubber.
The smoke is rising once again from New Orleans. Down, the legendary supergroup featuring Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan, Kirk Windstein, Jimmy Bower, and Pat Bruders, has officially announced their massive “Strap It Down” 2026 North American headlining tour. This marks the band’s first significant run in years and follows the news of their recent signing with Nuclear Blast Records.
Supporting the tour will be fellow heavyweights Helmet, making this one of the most anticipated double-bills of the summer. The tour is set to kick off in August, hitting major cities and festivals across the continent. Fans have been clamoring for a full-length follow-up to the IV – Part II EP, and with the band currently in the final stages of recording, this tour feels like the perfect precursor to a new era of sludge dominance.
“We’re back to doing what we do best—playing heavy music for heavy people,” the band stated in a collective release. The tour will also include a special appearance supporting Slayer on select dates, further solidifying Down’s place at the top of the heavy metal hierarchy. For those who live for the slow-burn riffs and Anselmo’s signature roar, the “Strap It Down” tour is a mandatory pilgrimage.
Tickets go on sale this week, and given the rarity of Down tours, expect them to move fast. The NOLA kings are reclaiming their throne, and the metal world is ready to bow down.
Check the official tour dates below and get ready to burn some rubber.
Finally, the time has come, the first look into thrash legends Flotsam And Jetsam‘s new album Rats In The Temple, out August 28 via Napalm Records. The album’s title track is a ghoulish hit, packing sweeping guitar harmonies, thunderous drums, and the exalted frontman Eric A.K. Knutson‘s haunting wail. After four trailblazing decades, countless world tours, and 15 groundbreaking studio albums, Flotsam And Jetsam remain refined and revered.
Eric A.K. Knutson says about the track: “We’re super excited to release the first single from the album, which is very fittingly the title track, ‘Rats In The Temple’! This song has a lot to say, and we hope the fans love the song as much as we do. This is possibly one of the most technically challenging songs Flotsam has ever recorded, and we look forward to delivering this song live as well!”
Rats In The Temple lunges out full force with 13 rabid onslaughts of ornate guitarmonies, pummelling double bass kicks, hypnotic bass grooves, and exalted frontman Eric A.K. Knutson’s unmistakably haunting wail. As the temple is besieged by vermin, Flotsam And Jetsam line the walls with grim tales of death, abuse, betrayal, and war, inviting listeners into a dark world not too distant from our own.
Pre-order Rats In The Temple here.
Frontman Eric A.K. Knutson said about the album: “This record is a BEAST, truly our best effort to date!! Do yourself a favor. Dim the lights, grab a drink, put the headphones on, and crank this up. You will not be sorry you did!!!”
The legends from Arizona have been a fixture of the metal scene for the better part of the last four decades. With modern renaissance records like The End of Chaos (2019) and I Am the Weapon (2024), capturing the glory of their inceptional material, the Kerrang! championed classic Doomsday for the Deceiver (1986) and No Place for Disgrace (1988), it’s no wonder they’re still raising hell for their throngs of dedicated fans along festival circuits internationally.
Rats In The Temple opens strong with the stadium-ready hooks and dizzyingly precise performances of “Harvesting The Hate” and “Damnation”, before delving into thrash virtuosity on “Absolution”. The iconic guitar duo of Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley paint vividly ghoulish images on tracks like “Blame The Knife” and “Rats In the Temple”, then continue to flex their metal muscle on “The Ghost Behind My Door” and “First on the Spike”, invoking pure first-wave excellence with a pummeling modern menace.
“The Edge of Nowhere” builds inescapable suspense before firing listeners out of a gun, full throttle into “Last Rites”, another standout track for the band. The legendary rhythm duo of drummer Ken Mary and bassist Bill Bodily take center stage on the anti-war anthem “A Taste For War”, their methodical syncopation invoking images of tanks and boots on the ground. “Her Blood Your Pain” brings ornate, medieval guitarmonies before “Anthem For The Broken” goes full balls to the wall, and “Going Down That Way” hits listeners with heavy riffs and even heavier truths. Rats In The Temple remains enthralling throughout, giving listeners entry to numerous of the band’s metal chambers, sampling a refined and eclectic serving of influences.
Churning like magma beneath the Earth, Flotsam And Jetsam have only been growing more and more fiery with time, and Rats In The Temple sees the band exploding to the surface in a magnificent and awe-inspiring blaze. For fans new and longstanding, you cannot escape them; they’re through the walls.
The post FLOTSAM AND JETSAM Share Music Video For Upcoming Album Title Track “Rats In The Temple” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
Emerging from the Pacific Northwest, Old Moon channel grief, isolation, and emotional vulnerability into a sound that blends black metal atmosphere with melodic death metal and cinematic orchestration. In this interview, founder Michael Priest reflects on the slow formation of the band’s identity, the emotional weight behind Home To Nowhere, and the balance between heaviness and fragility that defines the project. Rather than chasing extremity alone, OLD MOON focus on creating music that feels deeply human – immersive, melancholic, and rooted in emotional honesty.
Hi! When you first started shaping OLD MOON in the Pacific Northwest environment, what kind of emotional space were you trying to give form to that didn’t already exist in your other projects?
I wanted the music to be something that could be felt. Something that breathes with emotion. It was intended for the listen to be taken on kind of an emotional rollercoaster. In many ways its deeper than music I have previously done. More vulnerable.
At what point did Home To Nowhere stop feeling like a collection of songs and start feeling like a single, shared emotional landscape?
Once I found the sound that I wanted was when things really took off for the music. I think it took me about a year to explore and capture what I was wanting. After that everything came very quickly and organically and started to snowball a bit.
The EP in 2024 clearly introduced a vision that later attracted M-Theory Audio – what did that early material get right about the band before the full lineup and album even existed?
I think it showed what Old Moon and the music were going to be in a raw way but also how dynamic it is. It can be heavy and angry and suddenly spiral into something sad or beautiful. It was a perfect introduction to the world honestly.
When you look back at those first three songs, what parts of OLD MOON were already fully formed, and what parts were still searching for identity?
I took quite a bit of time to find the sound I wanted for the music before anything stuck. It’s a different style of music than I had ever done in the past so I took time with it to learn and let it mature on its own. Once that happened everything came on its own. The full album was a bit different during that time because the tracks that are on the EP were originally supposed to be on the album. That changed obviously but everything from the album and the EP grew together at the same time.
The music blends black metal atmosphere, melodic death structure, and orchestral layers – what usually comes first in your writing process: emotional tone, riffs, or cinematic texture?
It depends. I have a few different ways I start the writing for a track. Usually it starts with what I’m feeling and I try to turn that feeling into a sound. That’s usually how it will happen but there are exceptions of course. Some songs I hear and know the structure and cord progressions. Those ones are more mapped out but also a bit chaotic so I’ll need to write everything down before I lose the thought. Once I physically write down the structure and get to the point of writing the music out everything happens quickly.
Do you think the orchestral elements in OLD MOON function more as emotional amplification, or as something that actively reshapes the meaning of the guitar work?
Both actually. They amplify the emotion drastically at parts but also give room for everything to breathe. At the same time when I first heard the tracks with the choir and orchestra it dramatically changed what the original vision was. It helped give the music life in its own way.
When writing together as a full lineup, how do you maintain intimacy in the material without it becoming diluted by too many creative voices?
I couldn’t really say because I do a very large majority of the writing. There are a few parts that Grady will add here and there but nothing really changes. For the orchestral parts that Jaime did he pretty much nailed it in almost one take for every song. I think the only changes there were extensions for intros and outros. I’m not opposed to writing together with guys as a whole of course, it just hasn’t happened that way.
How do you personally define the difference between melancholy as a mood and grief as a narrative force within this record?
It’s a bit of a balancing act. I think grief is a heavier thing that is more difficult. It’s something that needs to heal on its own and that comes with a lot of different emotions that show themselves in a lot of different ways which I think goes well with the narrative on the album.
The album title suggests arrival, but also absence – what does “home” mean in the context of a record called Home To Nowhere?
It’s something that every person wants but not every person has. It’s the feeling of belonging or having love. Having a place or person that is a safe space.
M-Theory Audio stepped in after the EP gained attention – what did they understand about OLD MOON that you felt others might have overlooked?
I think they just felt the music as it was intended. I know that’s not going to be the case for each person. Everyone has their own preferences but I think that was it.
When someone finishes listening to Home To Nowhere, what emotional residue do you hope stays with them once the music is gone? Thank you!
If they listen to it deeply and find this album relatable, I would hope they find some comfort from it in some way. If someone listens to it just for the joy of listening to music, I hope they find that joy from this album.
This has been Michael Priest. Thank you so much for having me.
Posted on May 27th 2026, 12:57p.m.