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“I just needed more sparkle,” says Lzzy Hale on her new custom Epiphone Explorer guitar. “You can see it from the back of the arena.”

The post Epiphone and Lzzy Hale Unveil Sparkly Explorer Guitar appeared first on Rockmommy.com.

Stumbling down the walk of fame
Amanda Bynes is on my brain
Just wrote a letter to Josephine
She’s the girl who stole my dopamine

Desire is a rotten eyewitness. Give it enough darkness, dopamine, and unfinished business, and it will swear that the same face is waiting in every crowd. At three in the morning, recognition can become a confidence trick: a familiar cut of hair across the room, a profile caught beneath club lights, a stranger briefly assigned the identity of the person occupying your thoughts. The eyes supply fragments; obsession fills in the rest.

Los Angeles musician Andreas Emmanuel drags that perceptual error onto the dance floor in Hallucinations, the latest single from Sun Spoiler. Following Reek, his 101-second account of lovebombing, ghosting, and digital self-abasement, the new track returns to what he calls “delusional hyperfixation.” This time, romantic fixation has passed through the screen and begun altering the visible world. Every blonde in Hollywood becomes a suspect, memory starts impersonating sight, and the brain sends its face-recognition machinery into catastrophic overdrive.

“If you’ve ever had someone on the top of your mind you might be able to relate to the experience of thinking you see them everywhere you go, even if they’re not really there,” says Emmanuel. “I recently had this happen to me at a dimly lit nightclub in Hollywood at 3am. I still to this day have no idea if the person I thought I saw was really there, or if it was just another blonde girl, or even if it was Amanda Bynes, who I also seem to see everywhere I go in my neighborhood. It didn’t help that I was wearing a single colored eye contact that made it really tough to see.”

The song opens on a quirky, faintly giallo-esque synth-pop figure as a rhythmic bass line begins tightening the screws. Emmanuel enters in a low, smoke-dark register with an ’80s glamrock meets Electroclash, delivering each line with enough bounce to make the unraveling feel recreational. Guitar accents cut across the arrangement in brief, bright angles while synth-pop, darkwave, and dark indie pop squeeze into the same narrow corridor. The chorus breaks open around the cry of “Woah! hallucinating,” a splendidly direct hook that turns psychic disarray into something a crowded room can shout back.

Then there is the key change, arriving near the end like another dose administered just as the fixation should be wearing off. The lift pushes the final chorus further into delirium, tilting the floor beneath a song that has carried a funhouse-mirror distortion from its first synth notes. Emmanuel keeps the arrangement lean, allowing the hook, bass, and vocal attitude to do the heavy work.

The lyric’s sharpest joke places Napoleon beside Amanda Bynes, binding imperial history and Hollywood disorientation with the rhyme of “Josephine” and “dopamine.” Emmanuel explains:

“I try to include a line about a mythological, historical or fantasy figure in each of my songs, and this one is particularly potent in referencing Napoleon’s letters to Josephine. It really struck me that the powerful alpha-male emperor of Europe was essentially a simp for his wife Josephine.”

That collapse of self-respect lends Hallucinations much of its clever humor. In Emmanuel’s vision, the once-commanding military man transforms into a frantic correspondent, craving affection to regain his balance. “I see her face when I sleep / I see her face when I dream” propels the obsession through every ounce of consciousness before “I’m just a dog looking for a meal” snatches away the last shred of imperial dignity.

Hallucinations occupies the uneasy territory where a person can recognize his own absurdity without escaping it. “You say I’m crazy well yeah I know” functions as a confession, a punchline, and a singalong; self-awareness watches from the passenger seat while compulsion drives. Funny, lean, and catchy as hell, the track gathers a questionable nightclub sighting, one obstructed eye, Napoleon’s letters, and an Amanda Bynes apparition into a compact dark-pop spiral.

Self-produced by Emmanuel and mastered by Carl Saff, Hallucinations is out now.

Listen to Hallucinations below, or via the streaming service of your choice, and order the single here.

Follow Sun Spoiler:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• Spotify
• Website

The post “You Say I’m Crazy, Well Yeah I Know” — Los Angeles Dark-Pop Artist Sun Spoiler Chases a Dopamine Mirage in “Hallucinations” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

For Immediate Release
RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE Announces New Album Choose Your Scare, Arriving September 18, 2026
Pittsburgh Horror Punk/Heavy Metal Outfit Returns With First New Music Since 2024’s Tales of Terror
Presave: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/risefromyourgrave/choose-your-scare
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s horror punk/heavy metal fiends Rise From Your Grave are set to unleash their new album, Choose Your Scare , on September 18, 2026 , marking the band’s first release of new music since their 2024 album Tales of Terror .
Blending the raw aggression of classic punk with the crushing influence of heavy metal, Rise From Your Grave have built a reputation in the underground for high-energy music, vivid horror storytelling, a wicked sense of humor, and an unapologetic love of all things macabre. Their sound strikes a bloody balance between punk attitude and metal muscle, making Choose Your Scare a natural next chapter for the Pittsburgh outfit.
Fans of Blitzkid, The Misfits, and Evelyn’s Casket will find plenty to sink their teeth into as Rise From Your Grave deliver another dose of horror-fueled punk mayhem.
Adding an extra dose of sinister atmosphere to the album, the song “The Phantom” features Katie Garner of Freddy VS on guest vocals. The collaboration brings another distinctive voice into the band’s twisted musical universe and adds to the album’s already formidable horror aesthetic.
Choose Your Scare was self-produced by Rise From Your Grave, keeping the release firmly rooted in the band’s own creative vision and underground DIY spirit.
Following Tales of Terror , Choose Your Scare represents the next evolution of Rise From Your Grave’s signature blend of horror punk and heavy metal. With new songs, new nightmares, and plenty of dark humor in store, the band is ready to crawl back out of the grave and make some noise.
Rise From Your Grave – Choose Your Scare
Release Date: September 18, 2026
Genre: Horror Punk / Heavy Metal
Production: Self-Produced
For Fans Of: Blitzkid, The Misfits, Evelyn’s Casket
Check out the video for Stay Awake!

Choose Your Scare by Rise From Your Grave

 Connect: 
https://risefromyourgrave.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/rfyg_horrorpunk/
https://www.facebook.com/rfyghorrorpunk
Contact:
Tom Gaffron
tom@rfyghorrorpunk.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INDOMINUS Unleash “Black Lake” and Announce Appearance at In the Pit Festival 2026 in Dublin

Belfast Deathcore Force Bring Their Crushing Sound to Dublin on September 19
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND — September 4, 2026 — Belfast deathcore force INDOMINUS are coming in hard with their latest single, “Black Lake,” now available on all major streaming platforms. Blending the crushing weight of deathcore with the darker aggression of death metal, the track showcases a band continuing to push their sound into heavier and more uncompromising territory.
Now, following the release of “Black Lake,” INDOMINUS have another major announcement to make. The band has been confirmed for the second In the Pit Festival of 2026 , taking place Saturday, September 19, at The Wild Duck on Sycamore Street in Dublin 2 .
The ultra-heavy lineup will feature AeSect, Uragh, INDOMINUS, and Asylum Road , bringing four hard-hitting acts together for a night built for fans of extreme and heavy music.
Tickets are available now:
https://willwego.com/tickets/in-the-pit-festival-2026/2
For INDOMINUS, the Dublin appearance continues a relentless run of live performances and a history of sharing stages with some of the heaviest names in extreme metal, including Suffocation, Marduk, Vader, and Misery Index .
Formed in early 2016, INDOMINUS quickly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with, signing with Roxx Records and releasing their debut EP Legion Within later that year. Since then, the band has continued to build its reputation through a series of singles, punishing live performances, and appearances at both local and international festivals.
“Black Lake” represents another evolution for the band, combining their trademark brutality with a darker and more emotionally driven approach.
The band explains:


“We are excited for you to listen to our latest single release ‘Black Lake’. This single is a simple statement: We are here, and we are pissed off! ‘Black Lake’ dives into the weight we all carry. The pressure, the burnout and stress we all go through. The lake becomes the place where fear and the darker parts of life try to pull us under. This song is about confronting that pull, naming it, and refusing to drown.”


Produced, mixed, and mastered by JSR Audio , “Black Lake” delivers the combination of raw aggression and clarity necessary to make every hit land with maximum impact.
Fans of Despised Icon, Spite, and Nailwound should take notice. INDOMINUS are not standing still. They are getting heavier, darker, and more pissed off with every release.
Listen to “Black Lake”

https://earache.lnk.to/BlackLake
INDOMINUS Live at In the Pit Festival 2026

Saturday, September 19, 2026
The Wild Duck
Sycamore Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
Featuring:
AeSect
Uragh
INDOMINUS
Asylum Road
Tickets:
https://willwego.com/tickets/in-the-pit-festival-2026/2
Independent and relentless, INDOMINUS continue to carve their own path through the modern extreme metal scene. With “Black Lake” out now and a major Dublin festival appearance on the horizon, the band is showing no signs of slowing down.
INDOMINUS are here. And they’re pissed off.
For press inquiries, interviews, reviews, coverage, or more information:
zach@metaldevastationradio.com
Management:
Dethroner Agency

 Connect: 
https://www.facebook.com/IndominusNI/
https://www.instagram.com/indominusni/
https://indominus.bandcamp.com/
Contact: Loganmckee97@gmail.com 

Hannah Wicklund is a renowned name in contemporary blues rock. On War On Women; Calling All Good Men, her fourth studio album, she puts that experience to work on a more personal record, drawing from some of the challenges and experiences that have marked her career so far.

Born in South Carolina, Wicklund has established herself as a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, while also pursuing work as a visual artist. Her career has developed around a modern blend of rock, blues and other roots-oriented influences, with her 2024 album The Prize earning considerable attention. Here, she takes an even more hands-on role, writing and producing the record herself, bringing that experience into a project that feels more personal in both its subject matter and execution.

The album addresses gender inequality, frustrations with the music industry, heartbreak, and the possibility of hope after difficult experiences. Those themes are introduced immediately by the brief opening title track, an atmospheric a cappella piece whose sparse arrangement gives it an appropriately haunting quality. It is an effective way to establish the album’s tone before the full band enters.

“Red Gorilla” shifts gears with a bluesy hard-rock approach, combining a solid rocker with fuzzy guitar tones and subtle indie-rock influence. Despite its blues foundation, the track sounds fresh rather than overly nostalgic. “Evil Is A Corporation” follows with a swaggering, bluesy groove and retro-soul touches, making its subject matter as direct as its title suggests.

“The Pier” takes a more subdued approach, with soul and R&B-influenced verses eventually giving way to a anthemic hard-rock chorus. The contrast works particularly well, and the song is elevated further by an incendiary guitar solo that serves as its bridge.

“Diamonds” may be the album’s most musically interesting track. Its folk-infused, countrified rock arrangement makes excellent use of acoustic guitar, while the flute adds an unexpected progressive-rock character to the song. It is a somewhat unexpected number, but a highly effective one.

“The Token” takes yet another turn, built around piano and a pop-leaning arrangement. Catchy and emotional without becoming overly sentimental, it is a tasteful ballad and one of the record’s strongest moments.

“Cowards & Kings” is perhaps the most imposing rocker here, an organ-infused hard-rock number built around an enormous main riff and a measured rhythm. Wicklund delivers some of her strongest vocals on the track, while a soaring, arena-ready guitar solo drives it home.

“Calling All Good Men” closes the record with another a cappella performance. While it clearly echoes the opening track, its tone is less haunting and somewhat more optimistic, providing a fitting conclusion to the record.

The production is another strength, with a well-balanced mix that gives the instruments plenty of definition without stripping away their character. The band performs exceptionally well throughout, and the arrangements keep changing enough to maintain interest. Rather than confining itself to a single musical approach, the record moves comfortably between different shades of rock, roots music, soul and pop, and that variety gives it much of its appeal.

Overall, War On Women; Calling All Good Men is an excellent and thoughtfully crafted album, with enough variety to keep it engaging from beginning to end. Wicklund’s perspective is clear throughout the record, and her willingness to speak openly about the struggles women continue to face gives the album an authentic sense of purpose. That conviction works particularly well because it never comes at the expense of the music, which remains well performed and consistently engaging. The result is a record that has plenty to offer musically while also standing for something worthwhile.

The Review: 9/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– War on Women/Calling All Good Men
– Red Gorilla
– Evil is A Corporation
– The Pier
– Diamonds
– The Token
– Cowards & Kings

The Big Hit

– Cowards & Kings

The post Hannah Wicklund: War on Women; Calling All Good Men Review appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

You picked The Jayhawks – Sanctuary Park as your favorite new release for the week of August 28, 2026.

ArcTanGent 2026 was always set to be an emotional one, with fans of the more niche end of the underground scene gracing the grounds of Fernhill Farm for the last time. Tickets sold out not long after the announcement that the festival would be moving to new pastures for 2027, and there’s a palpable sense on site that everyone in attendance plans to make the most of every minute of their time here this weekend.

Words: Ellie Odurny //  Photos: Paul Lyme

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Ronker

The early morning rain has all but vanished, and the sound of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Sexyback’ drifts across the fields from the Yohkai tent. ArcTanGent is a beautiful mixture of bands who take themselves very seriously, and those who absolutely do not. Ronker are very much in the latter camp. With big energy, the power of three guitars and an enchantingly animated vocalist, the Belgian noise rockers fill the stage with moustaches, mullets and a whole lot of sass. Calling for the slowest circle pit ever, they may not have been aware that Swamp Coffin opened the festival yesterday and set the bar incredibly slow. Everyone here is clearly having too much fun to put the brakes on and there’s a healthy space for the more energetic pit action, with bodies bouncing gleefully into one another during a cover of Kelis’ smash hit ‘Milkshake’. Slower numbers like ‘Snuff’ display a more sensitive side to the band, who excel at storytelling as much as they do playing hard and fast.

Michael Sarah Palin

There is a universal sense of community and belonging that ripples throughout the weekend, with many bands highlighting the importance of inclusivity, diversity and support. Michael Cera Palin are one such band, with vocalist Elliott Brabant expressing solidarity “…for all my fellow Queers, fellow Homos, for my trans brothers, sisters and siblings waiting for an answer.”  Musically, the Midwest emo influences are strong, with melodic vocals, clean guitar tones and upbeat rhythms. It’s the lyrical content and fierce energy that set MCP apart from so many other bands in that category, the passion positively oozing from every inch of stage covered by the Atlanta trio.

Alcest

Word trickles back through the crowd meandering towards the main stage for Alcest that they’re running late. Some people hang around, others turn around and walk away, presumably hoping to catch a few minutes of XO Armor over on PX3. When Alcest do appear, it’s immediately apparent that their delayed arrival meant they’d not had time to get the mix right. The treble is tinny, the screams are muffled and there’s nowhere near enough weight in the bass. That being said, the ethereal waves of guitar and dreamlike vocals in the slower sections still float around the space with sensitivity, and there’s no doubt that the crushing contrast of the heavier post-black-metal infused sections would have been fabulous if only they filled the tent with the intended intensity. The short set is not their finest, and we can only hope that they will return to the new site in the not-too-distant future to set things right.

Igorrr

Opera, synth, blast beats and heavy, blackened metal shouldn’t work together. But somehow, they absolutely do when presented through the ritual of an Igorrr show. What started as a solo project from French multi-instrumentalist Gautier Serre has grown into a full spectacle of a live experience. Darting between baroque rhythms and guttural growls, techno beats backed up with ferocious drum fills and operatic vocals soaring over devastating riffs, there really is no other outfit that produces such a multifaceted sound. At times it borders on terrifying, but in such an enjoyable way it’s impossible not to be drawn in. The aptly named ‘ADHD’ sums up the clever melee, with dark, harpsichord tones running into heavy techno synth in an indescribably effortless way. There are moments of pure serenity that descend into demonic screams, an all-out rave in the middle suddenly becomes a savage onslaught of hefty riffs without leaving time to take a breath. It’s all-encompassing and entirely brilliant.

Maruja

Whilst the clever scheduling and convenient layout of ArcTanGent mean there’s only ever a 50/50 choice between acts playing at any one time, it does mean that there’s very little time to decompress if you’re planning on catching two bands back-to-back. Nonetheless, there’s a steady procession of mildly shell-shocked punters making their way over to the Yohkai tent where Manchester post-punk jazz quartet Maruja have just appeared. Known for their fiercely political content and intense saxophone-drenched crescendos, Maruja manage to lean into the free-form nature of jazz whilst still sounding cohesive and concise. The instrumentation grows like a living beast into a frantic, monstrous noise; vocal passages teeter between emotive poetry and heated rage. In their own words, “We may be aggressive, but our message is one of peace. This festival is a testament of solidarity, of love.” This is a sentiment that is echoed countless times over the weekend. Be noisy, be furious, go wild in the pits, but be kind, stand together and look out for each other.

Chelsea Wolfe

For all the chaos that bounces around site earlier in the day, ArcTanGent often chooses to book darker, less erratic headliners, and this year is no different. Chelsea Wolfe is at once powerful and delicate, brooding and tender. The anticipation for tonight’s set is doubly loaded, this being a rebooking from the cancelled 2020 edition as well as a day before the release date of new album ‘The Dark’. The sun has long set now, and the stage lights add to the atmosphere of gothic fantasy, silhouetting Wolfe against a minimal backdrop. The whole set is minimal in a way, with big, rumbling chords carefully placed to drive the sonic journey ever forwards at a considered, calculated pace. Despite the overt simplicity of the material, nothing feels lacking. In fact, the live show has injected another level of ineffable intensity, the fuzzy bass bringing additional warmth, the soaring vocals just that bit more haunting. It’s a welcome sight to see (and hear) Alcest’s Neige appear for guest vocals on ‘Vex’; a redemption of sorts after the difficulties of their own set. Three tracks from the new album are delivered at the end of the set, aptly welcoming the inevitable dark of the late night. It’s a gentle end to the first full evening, but one filled with depth, emotion and quiet assurance.

ELLIE ODURNY

Their Final Frontier Tour appears to be over after a late-November homecoming stop in San Francisco. Continue reading…

As Mouse On Mars, Jan St. Werner has been making forward-thinking, reality-altering electronic music with Andi Toma for well over three decades; he’s been pursuing similar aims in Microstoria with Oval’s Markus Popp for nearly as long. But St. Werner has also made solo records, sometimes using the alias Lithops, and his 2023 release Space Synthesis was a solo joint under his own name. That’s the case with his upcoming EP too, sort of.

The post Mouse On Mars’ Jan St. Werner Announces New EP <em>Squares Will Fall</em> Feat. Justin Vernon, Sufjan Stevens, Zach Condon, & More: Hear The Title Track appeared first on Stereogum.