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  • Rough Grind’s Third Album Shakes Foundations of Heavy Rock

    Finnish heavy rock powerhouse Rough Grind has released their third album, ‘Neverending Night‘, today on June 11th, 2026. With this bold new work, the band dives deeper into the shadows than ever before, tearing a multifaceted and cinematic epic from the depths of darkness – a release that defies genre boundaries and proves that heavy […]

    The post Rough Grind’s Third Album Shakes Foundations of Heavy Rock appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.

  • Night Punch – GODISNOWHERE 7″ (It’s Eleven Records)

    The global underground punk scene has always looked to Northern Germany, particularly the legendary port city of Hamburg,

  • “We exhausted ourselves trying to help Scott and be a friend. He wanted no part of that.” The story behind Stone Temple Pilots’ ill-fated sixth album, as told by the band themselves

    What was meant to be a fresh start for the grunge giants ended up being the beginning of the end

  • Tear It Down: How Crossover Bridged Metal And Hardcore Punk by Alex Anesiadis (Earth Island Books)

    Anyone who has spent a significant portion of their life digging through the dusty crates of underground music

  • Interview: Rachel Bolan Finally Goes Solo With Gargoyle Of The Garden State

    Rachel Bolan discusses his long-awaited solo debut Gargoyle Of The Garden State, working with Corey Taylor and Nuno Bettencourt, and Skid Row's search for a new singer.

    It may have taken 40 years for Rachel Bolan to release his debut solo album, Gargoyle Of The Garden State, but it has certainly been worth the wait. Powered by guests Corey Taylor, Danko Jones, Nuno Bettencourt, Damon Johnson, Steve Conte, as well as fellow Skid Row members Scotti Hill, Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo, and Rob Hammersmith, Bolan’s debut is a really great album, and one that he is justifiably proud of.

    Over his distinguished career, Rachel Bolan has always had it in the back of his mind that it would be cool to release a solo record someday. “But 40 years went by like that,” Bolan told MetalTalk. “That sounds really weird to say, but it went by really fast. I had a few of the songs written for fifteen years, but most of them are new.

    “I had a conversation with my friend Nick. I played him a couple of the songs, and he said, ‘You should do a solo record.’ I was like ‘Yeah, I kinda have time now, don’t I?’

    “I reached out to the label [earMUSIC] to see what they thought of it, and they were into it. So here we are, finally putting out a solo record 40 years into my career.”

    Bolan - Gargoyle of the Garden State is out on 12 June 2026
    Bolan – Gargoyle of the Garden State is out on 12 June 2026

    Rachel Bolan has sung throughout his career, notably covering Psycho Therapy by The Ramones for Skid Row’s B-Side Ourselves EP in 1992, as well as performing it during their live shows. Handling the majority of the lead vocals on Gargoyle Of The Garden State “was fun.”

    “I had a couple of other bands, one called Prunella Scales and another called The Quasimotors, and I sang in both of those bands. I was the primary singer, so I’m used to it. But this is on a new scale where I’m putting out a full-fledged solo record. I’ve always expressed myself through my bass. Now I’m expressing myself through my face.”

    Bolan has, for sure, done a really great job. Heavily influenced by the punk scene, these influences are very prominent on the Gargoyle Of The Garden State. Were there any bands or albums in particular that really affected the way he approached making this record?

    “Not really,” Bolan says. “I just approached this record as honestly and as true to myself as possible. The songs I wrote, I knew they wouldn’t fit with Skid Row. Skid Row is my life. That’s my day job, what’s been driving me all these years, and it’s part of me. So I know when I write a tune that doesn’t fall into the Skid Row category.

    “So it wasn’t any particular band or album. It was just all my influences coming through. I think it sounds that way because it’s so different from Skid Row.”

    Working with multiple guest stars, Bolan says the collaborations came organically and were a natural progression. “I knew I wanted to have friends share in this monumental moment of my career,” he says. “As each song came along, I was like, ‘You know who’d sound really good on this tune? Corey [Taylor]. Corey would sing the hell out of this song, or Danko [Jones] or Steve Conte. It just kinda went like that.

    “My friend Damon Johnson did five solos on it, and everything was very natural. Everyone involved is a friend of mine. Nick Raskulinecz, the producer, he’s my bud. Brian Cook and Paul Taylor, who sang backup, they’re some of my closest friends. Damon, I’ve known since 1996. Nuno, I’ve known for well over 35 years. Rob Hammersmith, Snake Sabo and Scotti Hill were all involved as well. I have cool friends. They all said yes. I didn’t get pushback from anyone.

    “From an artistic standpoint, it is great because it came out sounding exactly as I envisioned it. And from a friendship standpoint, it’s amazing. All my friends showed up.”

    As a huge Extreme fan, I was very excited to see that Nuno was featured on the album. Jet Black Universeis one of my favourites from the album. “The solo he did is absolutely insane,” Bolan says. “He did it in a hotel room, I believe.

    With three singles released, At War With Myself, Anything But You and Memory, are there any other particular tracks he is excited for fans to hear?

    “The one with Corey, Big Stick, is really cool,” Bolan says. “I like them all for different reasons. But I think the song Bridges, a lot of people are gonna like. It seems that the people who have heard the record have gravitated towards that track. Maybe ’cause it’s a little different than everything else that’s on the record.

    “I just hope everybody likes every single song, you know what I mean? See You On The Other Side is definitely one of my standout favourites, as well as the first two singles. Whatever song resonates with anyone or is their favourite, I’m fine with any of them.”

    While there are no plans for a solo tour, currently, Rachel Bolan says that is the objective. “I would love to do that, so we’ll see what happens when the record comes out. I just want to make sure I can get the guys that I wanna get to play in the band.

    “This whole thing, believe it or not, is kind of a learning experience for me. I have to make sure nothing intersects with Skid Row once we find a singer. I have to make sure both things have their own lanes and that they never crash into each other. I think the songs would translate really well to the live stage, so I hope it happens.”

    Rachel Bolan releases Gargoyle Of The Garden State on 12 June 2026 via earMUSIC. Photo: Taylor Cameron/MetalTalk
    Rachel Bolan releases Gargoyle Of The Garden State on 12 June 2026 via earMUSIC. Photo: Taylor Cameron/MetalTalk

    Earlier this year, Skid Row put out a worldwide search for a new vocalist. “We’ve had over 300 submissions through the Sweetwater campaign,” Bolan says. “There’ve also been a lot of people that we heard about through friends, like, ‘Oh, man, I saw this guy singing,’ that kind of situation.

    “So through all of that, there’s a lot of really talented people out there, and a lot of really, really good singers. Some are great, but they’re not right for Skid Row, you know what I mean? There were some of them where I’m like, ‘Man, I gotta give it to this guy or this girl.’ It’s like they are just putting themselves out there. There are a lot of great people out there.

    “Now we’re going into the second phase with a few guys. We’ll get them to demo a few songs, we’ll listen to it and break it down. Get in a room with these few guys. That’s where we’re at right now. The second phase is to see how it translates in a room altogether. See how their voices sound live, no studio magic. There’s also the hang. That’s a huge part of it. You want everything to be good.”

    Gargoyle Of The Garden State is a deeply personal debut, raw in attitude, rich in storytelling, and unmistakably rooted in the New Jersey streets that shaped Rachel Bolan. Forty years is a long time to wait. But then, some records cannot be rushed.

    Rachel Bolan releases Gargoyle Of The Garden State on 12 June 2026 via earMUSIC. For more details, visit bolan.lnk.to/GargoyleoftheGardenStatePR.

    Rachel Bolan releases Gargoyle Of The Garden State on 12 June 2026 via earMUSIC
    Rachel Bolan releases Gargoyle Of The Garden State on 12 June 2026 via earMUSIC. Photo: Taylor Cameron/MetalTalk

    Rachel Bolan – Top 5 Desert Island Albums

    Rock ‘N’ Roll Over – Kiss
    Rocket To Russia – The Ramones
    For Those About To Rock – AC/DC
    Damn The Torpedos – Tom Petty
    The Cars – The Cars

    The post Interview: Rachel Bolan Finally Goes Solo With Gargoyle Of The Garden State first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

  • Premiere: Full Full Full Drop New Video

    French punk-rockers Full Full Full are back and even better than before. Their new seven-song EP, ‘Half a

  • Reviews: Fireball Ministry, Xenosis, Harboured, Dutch Elm (Rich Piva, GC, Spike & Adz Redpath)

    Fireball Ministry – Beneath The Desert Floor: Chapter 10: The Second Great Awakening (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]

    Fireball Ministry is one of my favourite bands of all time, and one of many that never got the love from a larger public that they deserved. Yes, there was a video game soundtrack, MTV show appearances, and some big tours, but the true genius of this band was never fully realized in mass. 

    One guy who does get it, of course, is Todd from Ripple Music, who, for his Beneath The Desert Floor project, is putting out all of the back catalogue of the band. We are at the second of the Ripple rerelease set, this time with my favourite FB record and one of my favourite records of all time by any band, The Second Great Awakening.

    Album two from FB, originally released in 2003, is perfect heavy rock and roll. The vocals and melodies from the good Reverend James Rota paired with the never-ending riffs of Fireball Emily could not have been more effective for a listener to both bang their head and have an earworm attached simultaneously. 

    Fireball Ministry is catchy as hell, and the choruses and bridges stick with you, as they have for me for over two decades, as this record has never been out of rotation for me. Zero skips and end to end perfect, King, The Simmer, Master Of None…it is really no use listing them off because all the songs on this record rule. The production and sound is exactly what it should be, perfectly balanced and capturing what this band is supposed to sound like. A desert island record for this reviewer, and one that everyone needs to hear if you have ever liked any band I have reviewed.

    I am so happy Ripple Music is doing the rerelease and new vinyl pressings of the Fireball Ministry discography. All of their records are great, but The Second Great Awakening is special and pretty much perfect. Still sounds just as fresh now as it did in 2003. 10/10

    Xenosis – Hermetic Transmutation (Transcending Obscurity) [GC]

    It feels like it has been a long time since a new death metal record has excited me, I truly love the genre and it was my first foray into extreme metal back in the day but sometimes it’s just so tiresome and lacks imagination to really get the blood flowing, saying this I can usually rely on Transcending Obscurity to put out interesting and challenging records, hopefully with Hermetic Transmutations Xenosis can keep the good name of T.O going and drop a killer record.

    If the first minute or so of Sentient Shapes is anything to go by, I could be in for an interesting ride, its technically excellent and still punishingly heavy with time changes a plenty and new directions taken at the drop of a hat, the guitars are crisp but still have that dirty edge needed, the drumming is insane the only thing that gets slightly lost in the chaos are the vocals that feel slightly too low in the mix but overall a great start! 

    Prolapsed Twin Entombment is a quality title and the track itself is also quality, blasting drums take over everything and the guitars squeal and crush in equal measure, the bass shines through here as well to create a sound backbone for the craziness of everything else and the vocals do come though better on this track, wonderfully insane sounding music.

    Spore Whore is just unrelenting brutality from the very second it starts to the end, it also has a jazz element in the mix of everything and the nature of the timing is truly brilliant, it jostles and shakes you from pillar to post without ever giving you a minute to gather yourself before the next onslaught is thrown at you.

    It’s an utterly beautiful wave of noise that just keeps coming and coming and when its over your almost pleased because you can re-group, but then unfortunately Engravings For Dyslexic Clairvoyants is just a mid-album noting track, 1 minute of utter pointlessness and for an album with 8 tracks seems completely unnecessary!! 

    Thankfully, Rapid Metamorphosis is more of exactly the same bat-shit crazy technical death metal that the rest of the album has been, the way the song flows here feels slightly different to everything else, it seems to have a bit more of a mathcore tone, that death metal sounds are all there but the way the song goes just has that different feel.

    It’s all done tremendously well though and continues the triumphant technical excellence that is the hallmark of any good tech-death band. The only slight gripe is some tracks can seem to go on slightly longer than is needed, like they always need just one more bit? 

    Sea Of Teeth is not one of those tracks however! It feels like they have just gone directly back to just full-on death metal, its not nearly as technical as the rest of the album and feels like a throwback to a simpler time, when death metal was just heavy and menacing, a glorious homage to days gone. 

    Alter Of The Hound dials the tech back up to maybe 9 here, its not as intense as the rest of the album and the way the bass leads everything is really well done, the track has the more old school sound mixed in but still manages to sound fresh and challenging all the way through and you almost wonder if the drummer is actually human because the pace is always relentless all the way.

    Even the slower more jazzy bits are still technical and demanding, I take my hat off to him, mega drummer! No Longer Human has the task of finishing the album and its done so in a wonderfully executed blast of madness, it squeaks, thuds and pummels in equal measure and never really eases up and is just another example of technical excellence in death metal form.

    Well, well, well! That was a ride! I wasn’t familiar with Xenosis before this, but I certainly am now! A completely batshit crazy album with musical excellence dripping from every note on every track, if you like technical death metal then trust me Hermetic Transmutation will tick every box and leave you wanting more!! 9/10

    Harboured – We’re Only The Love That We Lead (Lost Future Records) [Spike]

    Michael Stancel’s idea of a lyric sheet is basically a civil engineering disaster report. Instead of the usual whiny, post-breakup oversharing, the Denver guitarist uses structural collapses, failing infrastructure, and moral decay as metaphors to anchor his sophomore album with Harboured, We’re Only The Love That We Lead. 

    On paper, a trio consisting of Allegaeon’s tech-death shredders (Stancel and bassist Brandon Michael) and Oak, Ash & Thorn’s folk-black metal drummer (Cierra White) should be an over-technical mess. But what they’ve actually built here is a massive, moody collision of blackgaze, post-metal, and alternative rock that refuses to stay in any of the boxes the internet tries to put it in.

    The album creeps out of the traps with W.O.T.L.T.W.L, a slow-building, menacing crawl that quickly switches into a heavy, pounding dirge. It sets the stage for Dead Ringer, where White’s thunderous, piston-like drums and Michael’s throbbing, heavy bass lay down a raucous riot, with Stancel’s fizzy guitars and atmospheric synths giving the aggression a glossy but dangerous sheen.

    What’s most impressive about this record is the band’s willingness to let their actual musical loves bleed through. Stancel has mentioned wanting to hear “what Phoebe Bridgers would sound like if she listened to Failure and Alcest,” and you can hear that creative friction everywhere. There’s a slippery, hip-hop-inflected groove and a high-pitched whirr on Sevin that sounds like Public Enemy trying their hand at black metal. You know that shouldn’t work but it really does.

    The transition into Guardrail pulls the volume back, ushering in delicate, plucked guitar tones that feel like pure, fragile silk. Stancel’s clean vocals are sweet and yearning, before the track opens up into a swirling, heavy-set pool of chugging guitars and throat-shredding roars. They navigate these high-contrast dynamics with a level of veteran focus that carries over into New Year’s Day, which starts with futuristic, droning synths before veering headlong into a furious blizzard of drums and scorching post-metal ferocity.

    Even when they lean into familiar tricks like using that distinct, scraping “cat-screech” guitar lick on Debts that you usually find in Gojira tracks, they make it their own, alternating between a moody, quiet verse and a raging chorus. The true highlight of the record, however, is Halifax. It begins almost like an acoustic, campfire ballad. This made me think of R.E.M. at their most reflective before a swift, thunderous rumble of the drums kicks the song into the blackgaze ether, screeching and roaring to an epic finish. You can practically smell the pine trees before the smoke takes over.

    There are still surprises in the trunk. End Credits is a complete red herring. This is a straight-up indie-rock banger with driving guitars, a shimmering piano hook, and an earworm melody that sounds like a lost Snow Patrol anthem (in a good way). They close the book with a piledriver cover of The Faint’s Agenda Suicide. It’s a choppy, thrusting, and aggressive finale, even if it pales slightly in comparison to the sheer brilliance of their own songwriting.

    I love the sheer unpredictability of this album and it is what keeps me hooked. It’s a record that works because they let their actual influences, not just their technical pedigree, drive the vehicle. When you’ve spent forty years listening to the same four metal formulas, a record like We’re Only The Love That We Lead is exactly the kind of unexpected, left-field shock to the system that makes you glad you’re still looking and also it underlines the opportunity that writing for Musipedia Of Metal gives us. 

    You get given diamonds like this to listen to and in this case run off and buy the physical album. 9/10

    Dutch Elm – Dutch Elm (Ripcord Records) [Adz Redpath]

    Dutch Elm are an intriguing instrumental band hailing from Newcastle in the U.K. and having built their own prog rock sensibilities since 2016 this is their first full length release after several establishing singles. 

    This is technically an album although does feel more like a stretched out E.P in both concept and musical variation. However that being said this doesn’t get boring or feel like it lulls at any point, it has strong musicianship and themes throughout.

    The production here is very solid although a touch overzealous with the top end where the guitars and cymbals are concerned a slight shrillness does hit home on certain sections in particular when I took it to A/B on my studio monitors but this genuinely doesn’t detract from a very strong release here in most every aspect otherwise.

    I will state what many will expect and feel, this with the right vocals would be a release that could have massive traction in particular with the likes of Muse fans, which strikes even more home when you hear the final track Soledad Brother, if these vocals ran throughout then it would open a lot of doors for this band, with huge commercial viability from a group of young guys who have massive potential on show here. 

    That being said this release is an enjoyable and easy listen, whilst not feeling hugely original in sound or concept it stands tall with a bright and captivating feel throughout, my personal favourite being You’re Not Invited To That Riff with its groove ridden bass guitar from Callum Bell and some great guitar work on show from Matthew McKenna and Lewis Ticket with simple and iconic melodies that truly lend themselves to a repeat listen, supported throughout by the creative and solid drums from Liam Bird.

    I would personally be very intrigued to catch these guys live as I’ve a sneaking suspicion that if they can keep as tight as this release and given the right amount of energy then they could well turn heads across the country and further afield as they are on a clear upward trajectory. Keep expanding the vision and maybe add some more of the excellent vocals and expect to be heard far and wide in the near future. 7/10

  • French Inhaler – TV Love

    Sometimes we crave some nostalgia. It’s part of human nature. As much as we love hearing fresh and

  • HEAVY DIGIMAG #459

    VIEW HEAVY DIGIMAG #459 HERE Cover photo thanks to Derek Bremner This week HEAVY is proud to feature US punk/hard rock outfit Dead Pioneers on the cover, who stopped in to chat about their new album Wagon Burner, which comes out on June 26. We also spoke with Sublime, Luke Severeid, Car Bomb and more. […]

  • The Power Of Music With GREGG DEAL From DEAD PIONEERS

    Denver, Colorado punk collective Dead Pioneers return with their fierce third studio album, Wagon Burner. Set for release on 26 June 2026 via Hassle Records, the project builds upon the momentum of their 2023 self-titled debut and 2025’s acclaimed PO$T AMERICAN. Fronted by Indigenous visual performance artist and activist Gregg Deal, Dead Pioneers‘ continue to […]