Heather Sawyer has been in Madison punk bands like the Hussy, Proud Parents, and Boo/Hiss, and she makes her own spiky, gnarly, catchy DIY tracks as Heather The Jerk. Just a few months ago, she impressed us mightily with the cassette album Scroll If You Love Devil, which our own Chris DeVille described as “a bit like Vivian Girls meets Illuminati Hotties meets Sheer Mag.” Now, she’s got an absolutely sick new one-off single, a joyous 74-second sugar-rush basher called “Write A Letter.” It’s the best piece of Ramones-core I’ve heard since the last Dark Thought record; those little xylophone dings just kill me. Hear it for yourself below.
The White Stripes blew up fast. I was a high school senior in 2002, when V2 Records brought the prior year’s White Blood Cells to the MTV2 viewers of America. I remember immersing myself in the album on a portable CD player in the backseat of my parents’ sedan on my way from Columbus to Lansing for a college visit at Michigan State, marveling at the power and versatility of this quirky garage band from nearby Detroit with the fuzzy backstory and the striking color scheme. They seemed incredibly cool, but also raw and lo-fi in a way that prevented me from imagining how quickly they would rocket past rock-critic-famous. In a matter of months, the Stripes were accepting awards at the VMAs, performing on SNL, and selling more than half a million copies of their album. But what really blew my mind was when they opened some arena shows for the Rolling Stones.
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard have announced details of their 28th studio album Alien Metal…. and they’re billing it as a full-on EDM record.
The ever-unpredictable Melbourne psych-rock band have dabbled in dance music before, most notably on their 2023 album The Silver Cord, which ditched guitars in favour of exploring synth-heavy electronica, and have also incorporated a number of ‘rave sets’ into recent tours, ditching guitars in favour of a custom modular synth they named ‘Nathan’. This, in turn, led to the band focussing entirely on synths for their forthcoming album, which is set for release later this summer,
“It completely rewired my brain,” says bandleader Stu Mackenzie on working with synths. “I was like, I’m going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch. We’ve never scrapped so much material as we have for this album. Entire albums, entire universes that were formulated, created, recorded, deleted and started again.”
According to a press statement, Alien Metal is “a seamless, ever-shifting journey through techno, hardcore, house and jungle influences, filtered through King Gizzard’s unmistakable psychedelic lens.” The statement goes on to say that it’s “a record that feels both futuristic and uniquely their own”.
“Alien Metal goes really hard,” insists bandmate Joey Walker, “but it also goes to really interesting places. And it feels unique – it feels like us, still.”
The album tracklist is:
1. Sapience 2. Alien Metal 3. Superheavy, Supercritical 4. Kill For The Steel 5. Level 5 6. Rapid Alpha Decay 7. Uqt 8. Atomic Collapse
German/American heavy metal legends Accept celebrate 50 years of pure power with a landmark all-star release. Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 arrives Sept. 4 via Napalm Records and features 19 reimagined versions of the band’s biggest tracks, performed by an unprecedented 50 guests drawn from across the heavy metal world. Led by longtime guitarist and sonic architect Wolf Hoffmann, the album stands as Accept’s most ambitious and star-studded release to date.
The band has now shared the album’s second single — a new recording of “Balls To The Wall” — featuring Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Matthias Jabs (Scorpions), Rex Brown (Pantera) on bass and Jason Bowld (Bullet for My Valentine) on drums.
Hoffmann comments: “There is no better way to celebrate this 50-year anniversary than to have our musical peers, friends, and inspirations come together with us to record these classic Accept songs, which I am honored and proud to share with the world. I hope everyone enjoys this very special record as much as we all enjoyed making it.”
Progressing chronologically from their formative years — from “I’m A Rebel” (1980) through “Eat The Heat” (1989) — no two songs on Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 feature the same lineup. Every track pairs a different combination of vocals, guitars, bass and drums with the signature voice of Mark Tornillo and Hoffmann’s unmistakable riffs. Tobias Forge (Ghost) delivers a commanding performance on “Save Us” (from I’m A Rebel, 1980), joined by Ray Luzier on drums. Philip Anselmo (Pantera), Kirk Hammett (Metallica) and Mikkey Dee (Scorpions) tear through the speed metal classic “Fast As A Shark” (from Restless And Wild, 1982). Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and David Ellefson (Megadeth) elevate the reimagined “Love Child.” Other guests include K.K. Downing (Judas Priest), Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth (Overkill), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Chris Jericho (Fozzy), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big), Ola Englund (The Haunted), Jeff Loomis (Nevermore) and Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys), who handles vocals on the re-recorded “Hellhammer” alongside Accept’s current touring lineup.
Hoffmann comments on the new version of “Balls To The Wall”: “Rob is the Metal God. I don’t need to say any more about him. Once we knew that he would do it, it was an obvious choice to give him ‘Balls to the Wall’ because it’s the best fit imaginable! I played all the rhythm guitars. Matthias Jabs from Scorpions played the solo, which is very cool and a huge honor, and it’s Rex Brown on bass and Jason Bowld on drums. So that’s a really cool package.”
Last month, Accept released the album’s first single, “Fast As A Shark,” featuring Anselmo, Hammett, Dee and Sheehan.
Hoffmann commented on “Fast As A Shark”: “This song was so much fun! We even re-recorded the intro in a Bavarian oompah style… a friend of mine lives in Bavaria, and he was in contact with one of those traditional Bavarian woodwind outfits, and they recorded the traditional German folk song ‘Ein Heller Und Ein Batzen’ for us, which was fantastic. We were lucky to get Phil Anselmo on vocals, Billy Sheehan on bass, and of course Kirk Hammett on guitar, which is amazing, and Mikkey Dee on drums, so that’s a pretty nice supergroup, isn’t it?”
Hammett added about “Fast As A Shark”: “A real honor to pay back the great inspiration Accept had for me!”
Over the past five decades, Accept has sold millions of albums and inspired countless musicians. Their iconic albums — Balls To The Wall, Restless And Wild and Metal Heart — have left a lasting mark on the heavy metal genre. After a hiatus, Hoffmann was introduced to New Jersey singer Mark Tornillo in 2009, and the band reformed almost immediately to global success with chart-topping releases. Tornillo, now the longest-reigning frontman in the band’s history, joined as the replacement for original lead singer Udo Dirkschneider and can be heard on Accept’s last six studio albums.
Accept 2026 is Wolf Hoffmann (guitar), Mark Tornillo (vocals), Philip Shouse (guitar), Christopher Williams (drums) and Martin Motnik (bass). Pre-orders for Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 are available now in various exclusive formats.
Here’s an unexpected combination! Say Anything and Wavves both came along in the ’00s, and they had extremely different takes on pop-punk. Say Anything had a troubled run in the Warped Tour spotlight before Wavves emerged as a scrappy, noisy lo-fi auteur. But now, all these years later, idiosyncratic frontmen Max Bemis and Nathan Williams have come together for a collaborative album.
