Picture this: A man in a purple bong suit named Bongholeo approaches the podium at a town hall meeting. He is not alone. He’s holding a crying baby doll named Bonholita, who is dressed as a red bong. Are you dreaming? No, you’re just in New Jersey at the Township of Cranford Municipal Building on Tuesday, July 7.
The post Cranford Committee Meeting: One Man Sings Lizzo While Dressed As A Bong, Next Speaker Arrested After Singing Morrissey appeared first on Stereogum.
When Kieran Hebden isn’t releasing mind-bending music as Four Tet, you might find him experimenting under his gloriously inscrutable alter ego, ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ. Last month, he released a new album under the alias on a limited-edition vinyl pressing capped at just 2,000 copies. The digital version finally arrived on Bandcamp on July 2.
The post Four Tet’s Internet-Breaking New Wingdings Album Is Now Streaming appeared first on Stereogum.
Soho Dukes should know better but are ramping up touring later this year on the back of their critically acclaimed album ‘Nighthawks, Acrobats and Everything Under The Moon’ (review here). Besides more headline shows filling the diary they’ll be joining tours with Quireboys in September and Tyla’s Dogs D’Amour in November. Tour Dates: August 2026 […]
The post Soho Dukes Announce A Plethora Of Autumn Dates appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.
As Bloodstock gets closer, we delve deep into the line up to find out more about some of the bands playing the New Blood and EMP stages at this years event.
Today we chat with Soulride
Please introduce yourselves.
We’re Soulride, a band from Coventry. Currently, the band consists of four members:
* Alexander “Shopen” – our vocalist and guitarist.
* Adam “Vrona” – one of the band’s founders and, above all, our guitarist.
* Marek “Marunio” – the newest addition to the band, playing bass guitar.
* Marcin “Ozzy” – our drummer.
However, following our appearance at Bloodstock, Vrona will part ways with the band as he moves back to his homeland, Poland.
How would you describe your sound?
We play our own kind of music—the kind that resonates in our heads and hearts. Some people describe it as old-school heavy/thrash metal… …and let it stay that way
How did you land your spot on the Bloodstock bill?
Apparently, during our previous attempts in Metal 2 The Masses, we came very close to winning qualification for Bloodstock, but we never quite managed to make it.
Then, one March afternoon, we received an email from one and only Simon Hall, inviting us to perform on the EMP Stage at this year’s Bloodstock Festival. Needless to say, it was an opportunity we simply couldn’t turn down.
And that’s how we ended up here!
What does playing at Bloodstock mean to you?
At this moment, performing at Bloodstock represents the pinnacle of our musical and live-performance ambitions. At the same time, we understand that the day we take the stage will also be the day this dream comes true—and the beginning of an even greater challenge. It will mark the start of working harder than ever on new material, refining our craft, and continuously improving our live performances.
For people who’ve never seen you live, what can they expect at Bloodstock?
We will do our best to deliver a solid dose of energy and power, infused with classic heavy/thrash metal. That is our goal for this performance—to give people energy, strength, and a smile on their faces, all through our music.
What day are you performing?
Its Friday the 7th of August
What other bands are you looking forward to watching at Bloodstock this year?
To many to mention but just to name few: Black Label Society, Biohazard, Body Count, Death Angel, Saxon…
Playing the New Blood Stage is just the first steppingstone in a bands journey. What’s next in your plans for world domination?
We probably won’t be very original if we say that we’re working on new material—and therefore a new album—but that’s exactly our plan…
Are you camping with the fans? Which campsite are you heading for?
In fact, we’ll try to be everywhere—listening to as many bands as possible and talking to as many people as we can. There will also be members of our families with us, with whom we’ll obviously be spending a lot of time.
…And if you’re asking where we’ll be sleeping, well, we’re sure we’ll figure s omething out 
HAHA
You’ve gotta keep hydrated at Bloodstock, what is your drink of choice for the weekend?
Of course, water haha But we can also add a few interesting options… Homemade lemon vodka, Jägermeister, and an occasional beer.
See you at Bloodstock in a few weeks!
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The post Bloodstock Bound: Soulride appeared first on The Razor's Edge.
They say you’re a different person every seven years. That’s how long it takes for every cell in your body to slowly get replaced by a new batch, rendering you a new fellow, hopefully wiser and better than the one you were before. By such metrics, Cranial Osteotomy are a new band twice over, emerging from the mountains of Russia with their second offering, Vortex of the Dark Knowledge, a whopping fifteen years after their debut. Brutal death has had a lot of growth in those years, where the slams got hammier, the jams got whammier, and the sanity of listeners everywhere grew more defeated. Have the last fifteen years given Cranial Osteotomy the knowledge they need to compete?
Vortex of the Dark Knowledge comes with a sound that sounds modernized, for better and worse.1 Vocalist/guitarist Vlad carries a moist, guttural register between Devourment and Symphobia, and manages to make his syllables serve the riffs instead of vomiting mindlessly over the tracks. Drummer Vlad Melnik has a good flair for triplet and quintuplet-heavy fills, using a more jazzy, perpetually changing approach to rhythm making, especially with his snare, not relying on sixteenth-note straightforward monotony. Bassist Vitaly Sturk, while never quite showcased beyond a few all-too-brief fills, is given enough room in the cramped mix to bolster the collection of grooves and slams present. Despite a fairly brickwalled master, there’s been enough care put into the mix to ensure it sounds somewhat thick and chunky to justify the writing style, with a decent amount of articulation being given to the drum kit.
At their peak, Cranial Osteotomy know how to fling some absolutely savage snapshots of brutality. “Structures of Decadence2 Impurity” features the stankiest snare-to-rimshot accent before dropping into a halftime slam while Vlad changes his beats with the creativity of Gigan. Riff structures yeet the listener hither and dither, using Decrepit Birth’s …And Time Begins approach to stitching the moments together, but actual measures feature a Putridity meets Visceral Disgorge styling. “Obscenity Aeon” channels vintage Suffocation through staccato-laced chugs, while “Dripping into Sombre3 Quagmire” toys with arpeggio leads which consistently descend into Abysmal Dawn-styled chugs. Multiple cuts come with a mean slam or foul bop of a beat, always metamorphizing into the next brief idea.
The problem is these highs are so disassociated that it renders Vortex of the Dark Knowledge a collection of dope moments, but not of dope songs. The compositional approach Cranial Osteotomy have taken is dizzying, disjointed, and high-octane, but so rooted in the art of the transition that remembering a whole track is a difficult task. I can recall the slow-mo slam opening up “Vortex of the Dark Knowledge”, the time signature changes littering “Cathedral Butchery Feast”, and a litany of other bits, but if you aren’t following the track list actively, you wouldn’t know you’re in certain songs until those highlights arrive. Song changes are so rapid as to be nonexistent, with only the requisite fadeout closing “Scorched Diadem” a clear signal the album has concluded. This outro is another highlight, with the drums continuing to dig more and more pockets into the menacing riff as it carries us to the finish line. It’s also another point of regret, as that outro is the only part of the song I can remember existing. Vortex of the Dark Knowledge is curiously backloaded, which, while not an issue unto itself, exacerbates the overall blurry nature of the album, as early cuts rush by without much in the way of real identity. While featuring a glut of moments to make listeners clutch the air and bench-press their couch, there are no songs that demand being replayed for their beginning-to-end sense of quality in composition.
Credit where it’s due, our Russian lads have indeed emerged from the ether sporting some real growth in their Dark Knowledge. Nevertheless, their struggles with putting together memorable songs over memorable snapshots cannot be denied. If this upward trajectory continues, we will all meet back here when I’m in my late 40s to be subjected to a real taint-kicker of a release. Until then, give it a listen, harvest your choice of cuts for some gym playlists, and then join those who have already chosen the path of brutality in seeking true enlightenment elsewhere.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 10th, 2026
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