There have been plenty of issues with the dark teen drama Euphoria, but music wasn’t one of them. Last July, Labrinth, the mastermind behind the show’s soundtrack, announced that he was collaborating with the great Hans Zimmer for the forthcoming third season. Things seemed good! Now, it seems things are very bad.
The post Labrinth Blasts Columbia And <em>Euphoria</em>: “I’m Done With This Industry” appeared first on Stereogum.
The post STEVE AUSTIN: Marked Cards And Loaded Dice, The Debut LP From Today Is The Day Frontmanâs Outlaw Country Band, Drops May 1st On SuperNova Records; New Video, Preorders, And More Posted appeared first on INFRARED MAGAZINE.
UK blues rock duo When Rivers Meet have released a new single, “The Tide Is Turning,” the first track from their upcoming album Rhythm Rust & Static, which is set for release May 29.
The husband-and-wife team of Grace Bond and Aaron Bond continue their run of acclaimed independent releases with the new song, a raw and energetic anthem inspired by life on the road.
“The Tide Is Turning captures that chunk of time before you walk out into the lights,” explains Grace. “Everything’s loud, messy and often chaotic but you can feel something building.
“I like that it isn’t about everything being polished and easy. It’s about trusting that momentum even when you’re still figuring things out.”
Aaron adds: “This one comes straight from real gig life. Dingy rooms, long drives, never quite knowing what kind of night you’re about to have but still believing you’re moving somewhere.
“The line ‘we found our way out of the dark’ really sums it up. You just keep going until the tide turns.”
“The Tide Is Turning” arrives as the first single from Rhythm Rust & Static, which follows the band’s 2025 album Addicted To You. According to Grace, the new record marks a creative shift toward a more stripped-back and organic sound.
“We’re a married couple expecting our first baby in March and then heading straight back out on tour in July with a four-month-old,” adds Grace.
“To us it seems like the most natural thing to do and Rhythm Rust & Static feels like a very natural step for us creatively. With our previous album, Addicted To You, we leaned into a much bigger, more produced sound. When we started thinking about the next album, though, we felt drawn to something a little more raw and intimate. In many ways, Rhythm Rust & Static reminds us of the records we always loved growing up — those first albums bands make where everything feels a little less polished and a bit more alive. That spirit was something we really wanted to capture with the new album.”
When Rivers Meet has built a strong reputation on the independent circuit, earning three consecutive Band Of The Year honors at the UK Blues Awards while touring extensively across the UK, United States and Europe.
Aaron says maintaining independence has been central to the band’s growth.
“A big part of our story is also the independent side of what we’ve built,” adds Aaron. “We’ve never had a label or management. And we’ve turned down major record deals along the way because we’ve always wanted to stay independent and follow our own path.
When Rivers Meet has never followed the music industry rulebook. We’re proud to go our own way.”
Fans can pre-order Rhythm Rust & Static now ahead of its May 29 release. The band will support the album with a run of UK headline shows later this year.
2026 Rhythm Rust & Static Tour
July 23 – Colchester, UK – Arts Centre
July 24 – Tunbridge Wells, UK – Forum
Aug. 7 – Barnard Castle, UK – The Witham
Aug. 8 – Newcastle, UK – The Cluny 2
Aug. 21 – Cardiff, UK – Acapela
Aug. 22 – Guildford, UK – The Boileroom
Sept. 3 – Huddersfield, UK – The Parish
Sept. 4 – Galashiels, UK – MacArts
Sept. 5 – Edinburgh, UK – Voodoo Rooms
Sept. 6 – Aberdeen, UK – Lemon Tree
Sept. 17 – Bristol, UK – The Fleece
Sept. 18 – Norwich, UK – Norwich Arts Centre
Oct. 1 – Newbury, UK – Arlington Arts
Oct. 2 – Northampton, UK – Black Prince
The post When Rivers Meet releases first single from upcoming album appeared first on Blues Rock Review.
Cracked lips telling lies with final breath
blood moon shining on the edge of death.
There was a particular thrill to the old-school deathrock scene, a sense that it had taken hardcore punk’s aggression and nihilism and answered back with gallows humour, graveyard glamour, and a crooked smile full of bad intentions. It lived in coffin-club corners, in photocopied flyers, in teased hair and graveyard glamour, in records that sounded like they had clawed their way out of the dirt with lipstick still intact.
When the international deathrock revival took hold in the 2000s, Europe embraced it with especially feverish devotion. Across Germany, Poland, Spain, France, and beyond, the sound found fertile ground again: skeletal post-punk basslines, horror-film camp, punk ferocity, and a taste for the theatrical that felt less nostalgic than necromantic. Warsaw’s Miguel and the Living Dead were one of the most entertaining bands to rise out of that wave, and their return with “Speaking in Smoke” feels like the kind of resurrection worth throwing open the crypt for.
Formed in Warsaw in 2001, Miguel and the Living Dead always understood that image and sound should move as one shuddering body. Their world was built from classic horror cinema, B-movie sleaze, and the raw visual snap of the 1980s underground, while their music fused European gothic, punk, and post-punk with American deathrock, then spiked the whole concoction with psychobilly, surf, garage rock’n’roll, country, and ska. Onstage, they brought dark theatrical flair with punk velocity; on record, they made songs that were aggressive, catchy, and gloriously unclean around the edges.
You can hear all of that unruly spirit rushing through “Speaking in Smoke.” Eerie Twilight Zone haunted-house sounds coil around heavy deathrock guitars, while strange chirps and horror-rock tension keep the room twitching. The bass lands thick as a thudding heartbeat. The drums move with the speed of rising panic. Slavik’s vocals boom from the depths, then meet sharp, higher-pitched replies in a call-and-response that makes the song feel half séance, zombie street brawl. It is deathrock at its finest: raw, catchy, macabre, and wired with that 60s horror kitsch sensibility that turns every corridor into a trap and every grin into a threat.
Lyrically, the track wallows in decay and delirium, summoning images of corruption, contamination, cracked flesh, and death closing in from every corner. It moves through a grotesque pageant of bodies coming apart, faith curdling into dread, and perception slipping into a fog where violence, desire, and panic blur together. The refrain lands like a fevered realization, as though the song has stumbled into a state of terrible lucidity. It is grotesque, playful, and electrified by menace, like being trapped inside a haunted house whose walls seem to inhale and exhale with the drumbeat and thick vocals.
The video amplifies that sensation with a barrage of black-and-white imagery that feels ripped from a damaged reel discovered in a basement below a condemned cinema. Hands stretch across the frame like inkblot apparitions. Lips loom in extreme close-up, blurred into something half-human, half-transmission. Concentric rings pulse like hypnotist targets. Faces flicker and disappear rapidly, with the band members flashing onscreen as quickly as Captain Howdy, their features distorted by static, split down the middle, or caught in shadow or harsh overexposure. Elsewhere, beams of light cut across the darkness like interrogation lamps, triangle sigils multiply into a fever dream, and a trembling waveform seems to turn sound itself into an occult disturbance. The whole thing feels like a séance gone wrong, broadcast through a broken television set at 3 a.m. What’s not to love?
Watch the video for “Speaking in Smoke” below.
Miguel and The Living Dead made their live debut in 2004 and quickly earned a reputation on the Polish and European underground circuit. Their debut album, Alarm!!!, arrived in 2005 via Austria’s Strobelight Records and drew strong underground press support, leading to extensive touring across Europe, including a warmly received appearance at Wave-Gotik-Treffen. Their follow-up, Postcards From The Other Side, further solidified their standing within the gothic and punk scene, with appearances at key events such as Castle Party Festival. After several years of hiatus, Miguel and the Living Dead returned in 2017 as an international act operating between Poland and the UK, resuming regular live activity and eventually crossing the Atlantic to headline Mexico’s Tenochtitlán Oscura festival.
Their recent material has been anticipated for years, and “Speaking in Smoke” arrives as another potent glimpse of what this new era can do. After the release of Hyenaz! in 2025, the band signed with Polish independent label Piranha Music, which will release the Hyenaz! EP, along with the full-length VII: This Is Not My Blood, later this year. The roots are still there, but the attack feels sharpened, the atmosphere deeper, the hooks more diseased and delicious.
“New material marks our return to the roots, but taken up a gear. After years of silence on the recording front, we wanted to sound deep and spacious, while still keeping our aggression as well as the catchy, twisted melodies and eclectic spirit that have always defined Miguel and the Living Dead. Signing with Piranha Music feels like the right moment to unleash this chapter properly.” — Pete Vincent, guitarist and band leader
Miguel and the Living Dead’s Hyenaz! EP is out now via Piranha Music. Order Here
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The post Open The Void, Scream! — Polish Deathrockers Miguel and The Living Dead Return with Video for “Speaking in Smoke” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
The band led by Judas Priest‘s Richie Faulkner are solidifying their identity, defined not simply by pedigree, but by forward momentum
The post ELEGANT WEAPONS (JUDAS PRIEST, RAINBOW, Etc.) Announce New Album, Stream First Single "Bridges Burn" appeared first on Metal Injection.
Look at them up there: Metallica! In all their glory! Who wouldn’t want to have those little plastic big-headed Metallica guys sitting on their shelves? The people behind Funko Pop, those collections of plastic big-headed pop-culture figures, are currently for some reason celebrating Metallica’s 2023 albumn 72 Seasons with the release of a set of four Metallica figurines. If you look at the little plastic (vinyl?) Metallica guys up above, they look pretty accurate to present-day Metallica, right?
The post Can You Spot The Metallica Funko Pop Error? appeared first on Stereogum.
Elegant Weapons, the hard rock and heavy metal powerhouse led by Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner, have released their new single “Bridges Burn,” the first track from the band’s forthcoming sophomore album Evolution, due April 24, 2026, on Exciter Records.
The album will be released digitally and on CD on April 24, 2026, with a special edition vinyl pressing to follow later in the year. The lead single “Bridges Burn” is available now, and you can watch the lyric video below.
Pre-save and pre-order the album Evolution here.
Elegant Weapons features a formidable lineup: Richie Faulkner (Judas Priest), vocalist Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, MSG), bassist Dave Rimmer (Uriah Heep), and drummer Christopher Williams (Accept).
With Evolution, the band pushes its sound forward — combining razor-sharp riffing, arena-sized hooks, and technical precision with a chemistry forged through touring and collaboration. The album was co-produced by Faulkner alongside Andy Sneap (Judas Priest’s touring guitarist, who also produced Priest’s Invincible Shield), with the recording spanning Nashville, Europe, and France — a truly global effort reflecting the band’s international pedigree.
“This record represents growth in every sense,” said Richie Faulkner. “When the four of us come together, we sound like Elegant Weapons. We’ve spent time on the road, we’ve developed a chemistry, and you can hear that evolution in the performances. I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I’m excited to begin this next chapter with Exciter Records.”
For Exciter Records, the signing marks a strategic move into contemporary metal while reinforcing the label’s deep ties to the genre’s foundations. Exciter Records and its publishing affiliate Reach Music, recently acquired Judas Priest’s landmark early albums Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny, making the partnership with Richie Faulkner and Elegant Weapons a natural continuation of that legacy into a new era.
“Richie Faulkner is not only one of the most respected guitarists as a member of Judas Priest, but he is also a leader in forming and developing Elegant Weapons,” said Michael Closter, Founder and President of Exciter Records. “Signing Elegant Weapons is a natural step for Exciter Records as we continue to honor metal’s heritage while investing in its future.”
The album features standout tracks including the opener “Evil Eyes,” the groove-driven anthem “Generation Me,” and the lead single “Bridges Burn,” alongside the instrumental “Rupture,” an emotionally charged composition inspired in part by Faulkner’s life-threatening onstage medical emergency in 2021.
With Evolution, Elegant Weapons solidify their identity as a band defined not simply by pedigree, but by forward momentum.
The post ELEGANT WEAPONS (Featuring Members Of JUDAS PRIEST, RAINBOW, URIAH HEEP & ACCEPT) Announce New Album “Evolution”, Stream First Single “Bridges Burn” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.