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A Faustian bargain begins with the ancient human suspicion that the universe can be persuaded to overlook consequence. We trade tomorrow for today, permanence for appetite, conscience for advantage, imagining that the account will somehow remain unsettled. Yet nature keeps exquisite books. Every shortcut alters the road; every borrowed fire casts its own darkness. The tragedy is seldom that we receive nothing for the price. Quite often, we receive precisely what we asked for. Power, knowledge, youth, wealth: these may all arrive intact. The horror lies in discovering, only afterward, that possession and fulfillment were never the same thing.

Las Vegas has always been a fitting place for bad bargains. Money changes hands beneath artificial stars, luck is treated as a temporary religion, and every promise of sudden fortune carries an unspoken question about what somebody might surrender to obtain it. In the video for And It Was Night’s The Fever, composer and sound designer Rani Sharone turns that temptation into a compact morality play, casting himself as both gambler and Devil while an obsession gradually takes possession of the room.

Inspired by the Twilight Zone episode of the same name, The Fever takes the old Faustian bargain and filters it through addiction. Sharone’s gambler appears trapped between appetite and consequence, surrounded by projected animation, theatrical props, and backgrounds that continually push the setting away from ordinary reality. The imagery works particularly well with the song’s dark electro-pop foundation, where Depeche Mode, Danny Elfman, The Cure, and Nick Cave provide useful coordinates without swallowing Sharone’s own identity. He calls the result “Dark Noir Pop,” an apt description for music that feels equally suited to a nightclub, a crooked casino, and the closing credits of some lost supernatural thriller.

The Devil, naturally, has the easier job. Temptation requires charm before punishment enters the picture, and Sharone plays both sides of that transaction with an appropriately theatrical touch. By reducing the production to two characters embodied by one performer, the video turns its budgetary limitations into part of its psychological logic. Gambler and tempter begin to resemble two expressions of the same compulsion.

“I didn’t want to do a literal retelling of the Twilight Zone episode the song was based off of,” says Sharone. “For practical reasons and budgetary/production limitations I chose to create something that I could pull off with a very limited crew and budget. The result ended up being me playing both characters, the gambler and devil, and shooting in front of custom commissioned animated projections to set the stage with props to make it as theatrical as I could to sell the story. I used a couple iconic horror sources to direct and inspire my visual FX supervisor when creating the background designs. Namely from The Shining. which inspired the look of the hotel room the gambler is in, and a couple visual cues from Creepshow for the more surreal background designs. Those with a keen eye will recognize them.”

Watch the video for The Fever below:

That horror lineage suits Sharone, whose résumé ranges from Puscifer and Stolen Babies to orchestral work performed by Hilary Hahn and recent contributions to the music team behind K-Pop Demon Hunters. With The Fever, his return to writing his own songs feels especially pointed: desire becomes addiction, luck becomes captivity, and the Devil barely needs to cheat. The gambler has already brought his weakness to the table.

Sharone’s casino nightmare will also find an audience in Los Angeles tonight, Friday, October 2, when The Fever screens at El Cid as part of a monthly screening with a suitably spooky selection. Doors open at 7 p.m., with the screening beginning at 8 p.m.—another opportunity to watch the gambler discover exactly how much his good fortune costs.

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The post And It Was Night Bets Against the Devil in Video for Dark Noir Pop Single “The Fever” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

They’ve also launched a music video for the title track.

The post Slash Feat. Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators Announce New Album “Flying Blind” & World Tour appeared first on Theprp.com.

Will this be our last chance to salute Angus Young in person? Continue reading…

Up until this very afternoon, I’d never heard of Jules de Corte, a blind Dutch singer-songwriter who won some European prizes in the ’60s and who died in 1996 at the age of 71. I’d also never heard of the improvisational Belgian quartet Linus. I had, however, heard of beloved roots-music weirdo Bonnie “Prince” Billy, so the news that he’s making a Jules de Corte tribute album with Linus demanded further investigation.

The post Bonnie “Prince” Billy & Linus Announce Jules de Corte Tribute Album, Share Three Songs appeared first on Stereogum.

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators have announced their fifth album, Flying Blind, and shared its title track.

Set for release on February 26 via Gibson Records, the follow-up to 2022’s 4 was recorded largely live with the group’s longtime producer Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette at Studio Barbarosa in Florida.

The album track-list is:

1. Avarice And Greed
2. Good Time Girl
3. Thrill Seeker
4. One Of Your Kind
5. Flying Blind
6. Looking For A Miracle
7. Sweet Kill
8. Here In Babylon
9. Living The Dream
10. (Don’t) Thread The Needle
11. Rev My Heart
12. Stem the Flow

“It’s a really fun, kind of spontaneous rock ‘n’ roll record,” says Slash. “It’s very straightforward and down-to-earth and raw.”

The guitarist says that the album’s title track was “created in the studio while we were standing there in pre-production.”

“A riff came to me and started developing,” he explains. “I had nothing of that song prior to those guys coming in, and then we started up a night of rehearsal and played that riff. It came together really quickly. As for it being the first single, you never know what the first single is going to be until you’ve recorded it. When I started thinking about it, Flying Blind just seemed to have the right kind of melodic sensibilities and a hook to make it single material.”

Watch the video for the single below.

The band have also announced an extensive world tour for 2027.

“When we started, we didn’t have anything,” Slash says. “We weren’t setting out to conquer the world. It was just for the pure pleasure of it. So now, we get together and play, we have a really good time, and then we go out and tour and do it again the next time. As long as there’s electricity, we’ll keep plugging in.”

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators tour dates 2027

Apr 02: Santiago Teatro Caupolican, CHL
Apr 04: Mendoza Arena Maipú, ARG
Apr 06: Córdoba Plaza de la Música, ARG
Apr 07: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, ARG
Apr 10: Florianópolis Arena Opus, BRA
Apr 11: Curitiba Live Curitiba, BRA
Apr 13: Rio de Janeiro Fundição Progresso, BRA
Apr 14: São Paulo Espaço Unimed, BRA

Apr 23: RenoGrand Theatre, The Grand Sierra Resort, NV
Apr 24: Rohnert Park Graton Resort & Casino, CA
Apr 26: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Apr 27: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Apr 29: Del Mar The Sound, CA

May 01: Albuquerque Route 66 Casino, NM
May 02: Denver Fillmore Auditorium, CO
May 04: Kansas City The Midland Theatre, MO
May 05: Des Moines Val Air Ballroom, IA
May 07: Windsor Caesars Windsor, Canada
May 08: Niagara Falls OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino, Canada
May 10: Boston Citizens House of Blues, MA
May 12: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
May 17: Nashville Ryman Auditorium, TN
May 19: St. Louis The Factory, MO
May 21: Norman Riverwind Casino, OK
May 22: Tulsa Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, OK

Jun 07: Munich Zenith, GER
Jun 09: Warsaw Letnia Scena Progresji, POL
Jun 10: Nova Rock Festival, AUT
Jun 12: Milan Carroponte, ITA
Jun 13: Rock In Roma, ITA
Jun 17: Azkena Rock Festival, SPA
Jun 23: Stockholm Grona Lund, SWE
Jun 28: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, GER
Jun 30: Cardiff Castle, UK

Jul 01: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UK
Jul 03: Dublin Trinity College, IRE
Jul 04: Belfast Custom House Square, UK
Jul 06: Halifax Piece Hall, UK
Jul 07: London Eventim Apollo, UK
Jul 09: Bospop, HOL
July 11: Masters of Rock, CZE
July 12: Zagreb SRC Salata, CRO
July 14: Budapest Budapest Park, HUN
July 16: Belgrade Luka Beograd, SRB
July 18: Athens Lycabettus Theatre, GRE
July 22: Istanbul Bonus Parkorman, TUR
July 25: Hills Of Rock, BUL
July 26: Rockstadt Extreme Festival, ROM

Molly Hatchet will release its first studio album in 16 years, Lost Horizon, on Nov. 27 worldwide through Steamhammer. The official lyric video for the album’s latest single, “Once a Gambler,” is out now.

Guitarist Bobby Ingram says of the song: “Win or lose, playing the game, living your life at high speed. Gambling that the winner takes it all. Once a gambling man, always a gambling man with every aspect of life. Always thinking you are ready to bet it all, having a fierce attitude with no regrets. Living every day with the positive attitude of betting everything. Even if losing it didn’t matter.

“The next day you were back at sitting down and gambling to win as much as you can. Never looking back, always looking forward and betting on your life’s winning to live another day and start it all over again but in another town when the winnings were good.”

For Ingram, Lost Horizon delivers a lifelong Southern rock dream. All 12 tracks were cut at Abbey Road Studios in London.

“In Studio 2, to be precise — that’s exactly where The Beatles worked 60 years ago,” beams Ingram. “We used the same studio and the exact same microphones that Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had. What’s more, Chris Bolster was our sound engineer, he’s worked with McCartney, Elton John, Kate Bush, Oasis and the Foo Fighters. To me, it was an incredibly emotional experience to cut the new Molly Hatchet album under such awesome conditions.”

The record also links back to the band’s last studio effort, 2010’s Justice. Ingram is joined by longtime members John Galvin (keyboards) and Tim Lindsey (bass), along with two younger additions, Garrett Ramsden (drums) and Parker Lee (vocals).

“Garrett has brought a breath of fresh air to the band, and Parker brings to mind a young Danny Joe Brown, our unforgotten original singer,” says Ingram, obviously delighted. “Both are perfect for our kind of Southern rock and have been instrumental in making Lost Horizon one of our most emotional and profound albums to date!”

The first single, “Dixie Highway,” arrived in August and serves as a fair preview of the whole record.

Ingram says, “This song in many ways is a true story of growing up in the south and living life on the edge. We were fearless and ran with the wind. Driving down a famous highway in Florida with the pedal to the metal, looking in the rear view mirror to see what was passed by.”

Lost Horizon Formats:

• CD digipak plus poster
• 2LP gatefold, 140g black vinyl, padded inner sleeves, two colored inserts
• Exclusive LP version and CD/LP bundles with a shirt, available only through the Steamhammer shop
• Download plus streaming

Molly Hatchet formed in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1971, though Ingram did not come aboard until 1987. All six members of the original lineup have died, as have the band’s second and third lead singers, Jimmy Farrar and Phil McCormack.

In June 2000, Ingram became the sole owner of the Molly Hatchet trademark, which he acquired from Pat Armstrong, the band’s early manager.

Molly Hatchet 2026 is:

Bobby Ingram / Lead Guitars
John Galvin / Keyboards
Tim Lindsey / Bass
Garrett Ramsden / Drums
Parker Lee / Lead vocals

The post MOLLY HATCHET Cut Its First Album In 16 Years With “Lost Horizon” & Shares Latest Single “Once a Gambler” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

In 2024, Belgian quintet Hippotraktor dropped Stasis, a monolithic blend of post-metal atmosphere, progressive ambition and groovy heft—somewhere between Psychonaut,¹ The Ocean and Meshuggah—that quickly earned them recognition, even landing on year-end lists. Their knack for hitting the sweet spot where djent, post-metal and prog collide set a high bar and third album, Annihilist, now seeks to surpass it by refining the group’s identity, the mystery behind their name, and the ongoing narrative of their nameless protagonist from the prior two releases. This chapter finds him suspended between solitude and humanity, fully aware of this forced, cyclical reincarnation and locked in rebellion against the entity that condemns him to do it.

Annihilist feels like wandering through a vast brutalist landscape. The album feels markedly colder and more distant, scraping with the coarseness of a pumice stone while reshaping the smoothness and refined textures of its predecessor into something denser and more immediate. Every track sits within a concise four-to-seven-minute range, never overstaying its welcome, and despite the shift in tone, the qualities that made Stasis so compelling remain firmly embedded in Hippotraktor’s DNA. One moment they drift through delicate passages that fall like raindrops against a windowpane; the next they erupt into towering walls of sound, unleashing seismic roars as crushing as collapsing concrete. “A Different Now,” “I Breathe. I Am” and “Builder of Eden” carry a primal, untamed energy, yet beneath the chaos lies a clear purpose. Their rhythmic backbone remains intact, with drummer Lander De Nyn’s Volastic beats and Jakob Fiszer’s weaving bass driving Annihilst forward, while Chiaran Verheyden and Kristof Du Jardin’s² guitar work blends Meshuggahan chugs, subtle harmonies, and emotionally charged leads to advance Hippotraktor’s melodic knotwork even further.

Hippotraktor’s ability to balance soaring melodicism with crushing heaviness remains Annihilist’s central throughline. They navigate the tension between chaos and cohesion with confidence and precision, as massive grooves, expressive vocal melodies, ritualistic percussion and explosive crescendos form the pillars of Annihilist’s foundation. Whether it’s the warm hooks and dynamic zenith of “I Breathe. I Am” or “Everything is Permissable,” the techy riffs of “Oblivion Walker,” the polyrhythmic pulse of “Courageous Apathy,” or the ancestral beat running through “Builder of Eden” and “A Different Now,” Hippotraktor excel at guiding listeners through complex terrain without ever losing direction. Verheyden and Du Jardin’s background harmonies in “Oblivion Walker” or “Courageous Apathy,” and their tastefully understated lead work in “Annihilist” and “A Different Now,” provide added depth, enriching the djent heft without overshadowing it, while De Nyn’s phenomenal drumming—funky hi-hat work (“Builder of Eden”), dancing rhythms (“Courageous Apathy”) and complex patterns—lend the record a distinct weight and identity that sets Hippotraktor apart from the countless Tool acolytes of the world.

Unlike Stasis, vocalist Stefan De Graef and Kristof Du Jardin co-wrote the vocal arrangements on Annihilist, resulting in a dual approach that pushes Hippotraktor’s sound forward. Their soaring cleans and burly growls carry much of the album’s emotional weight,³ with tracks such as “I Breathe. I Am,” the title track, and “Everything is Permissable” delivering memorable hooks and sing-a-long melodies that immediately draw you in. Multi-layered harmonies (“A Different Now”), chants (“I Breathe. I Am”), and subtle baritone choral passages (“Courageous Apathy”) add further dramatic depth, and a guest appearance by Loïc Rossetti (ex-The Ocean) on “Builder of Eden” fits the track’s mood perfectly. The production highlights these nuances despite the album’s density. While heavily compressed and occasionally claustrophobic, it sounds far better than its DR 6 score suggests.

On Annihilist, Hippotraktor chose to refine rather than reinvent, taking the qualities that made Stasis shine and compressing it into a mold of density and emotional weight. I initially worried the songwriting felt too episodic and would have benefited from a bit more breathing room. Likewise, I was concerned that the record’s identity was a bit too close to its predecessor. However, repeated listens erased those doubts as the record sank its hooks within my psyche. There are no real weak points here and Hippotraktor strikes a near-perfect balance between djent, progressive, and post-metal that I simply adore. Annihilist stands as one of the year’s strongest progressive metal releases and has guaranteed its presence come list season.

---

Rating: Great
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Pelagic Records
Websites: hippotraktor.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hippotraktorband
Releases Worldwide: October 2nd, 2026

The post Hippotraktor – Annihilist Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Six-string master Shane Parish has been in these (web)pages a fair amount in recent years, both for acoustic ventures like translating Autechre and Aphex Twin songs to guitar and electric pursuits like the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet. We also caught up with him last month at Philadelphia’s Making Time ∞ festival, where it seems he was dealing with some health concerns. As a result, there’s a new surprise Shane Parish album out today.

The post Shane Parish Surprise Releases New Album <em>Dental Work</em> To Pay For His Dental Work appeared first on Stereogum.

It was previously exclusive to Lockstep.

The post As Cities Burn’s New Album “Brain Matter(s)” Gets A Wide Release appeared first on Theprp.com.

Winter Sect have discovered one of goth’s better-kept secrets: graveyards can be funny places. Not funny in the sitcom sense, unless your sitcom happens to involve velvet sleeves, low fog, marble angels, and a bass player turning cemetery dirt into a dance floor, but funny in the grand old rock-and-roll sense that the concept of memento mori has always looked a little less terrifying once somebody places a wreath of backbeat on the coffin.

Made up of Sister Ex alumna Claudia Neuman on bass and vocals, guitarist Anthony Piazza, keyboardist and vocalist Heather Wayward, and drummer Darryl J. Dardenne, the DC/Baltimore group have previously favored the colder end of Gothic psychedelia and glam rock. Graveyard Girl, however, loosens the corset. Funk, garage rock, indie pop and even bossa nova slip into the bloodstream, bringing a loose, easy groove beneath the song’s ’60s pop whimsy while the band keeps one boot planted firmly in post-punk soil.

Neuman’s bass is responsible for the initial crime, strutting around with the casual confidence of someone who has found the liquor cabinet during a wake. Wayward’s keyboards add splashes of color around Piazza’s guitar, while Dardenne keeps the song moving with a lightness that gives its cemetery imagery room to grin. The melody has the cheeky charm of a vintage pop single, its tuneful bounce making the invitation to wander among the graves sound suspiciously like a proposition for a Sunday afternoon date. Siouxsie and the Banshees, March Violets, Strange Boutique and more hover somewhere in the family tree, although Winter Sect sound especially amused by the possibilities of their own material here.

According to Wayward, that playful turn happened almost accidentally during rehearsal: “The song pretty much started with Claudia grooving out on a bass line,” she says. “It was catchy and I thought let’s do something completely different and not so serious and macabre. First the hook was discovered and we built from there. So with that funk of a groove my mind started walking. Where? Through the graveyard of course. It came together in a cool way and a little twist at the end just makes it fun.”

That sense of fun carries into the video, which sends the band wandering through the necropolis in slow motion among candles, veils and fog. Somebody communes with the departed, everybody looks appropriately dressed for the occasion, and the solemn machinery of Gothic imagery gains a sly little wink. You half expect one of the headstones to start keeping time.

Watch the video for Graveyard Girl below:

Winter Sect began in late 2023 when California native Neuman and Piazza formed the project around feedback-heavy goth, New Wave, industrial and psychedelic influences. Mystic Twin and Haunted House followed in 2024, with Say Goodbye appearing in 2026.

Graveyard Girl, taken from the forthcoming EP Offering, suggests Winter Sect have figured out that darkness becomes far more interesting when somebody remembers to leave room for mischief and a tune you can hum on the way home.

Listen to Graveyard Girl below and order the single here.

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The post Winter Sect Invite the Dead to Dance in Their Video for “Graveyard Girl” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.