Music

Caribou - Honey (Black Vinyl)

Dan Snaith's latest album, "Honey," marks an intriguing new phase for Caribou. Over more than two decades Dan Snaith has had many guises. After putting every ounce of himself into Our Love and Suddenly, for his sixth Caribou album Snaith now pulls himself away a little in search of music that isn’t about any one person and is available to everybody. Huge dancefloor tracks twinkle, shimmer and surprise in a way only Snaith’s productions can but with a freshness that defines an artist who is too excited by music-making to ever truly settle into any one sound. 

There’s never been a Caribou record that sounds like the last, so change here is just as comforting as constant. They say expect the unexpected and you’ll never be surprised; well there’s plenty here to be surprised by, but then with a Caribou record you’d never expect anything less. "Honey" captures Snaith's curiosity and joy in music-making, offering a fresh yet quintessential Caribou experience.

Tracklisting

1. Broke My Heart
2. Honey
3. Volume
4. Do Without You
5. Come Find Me
6. August 20:24
7. Dear Life
8. Over Now
9. Campfire
10. Climbing
11. Only You
12. Got To Change

Caribou - Suddenly (Black Vinyl)

Suddenly is the most surprising and unpredictable Caribou album to date. Though it retains the trademark Caribou warmth and technicolor, this album is littered with swerves and left turns. Songs drop out and morph into something else entirely just as they’re hitting their stride, samples chopped up beyond all recognition burst out of nowhere. Suddenly refers to the moments of dramatic and unexpected change that occur at points in any life and within any family - universal themes that catch you off guard and change your life in a heartbeat.

Tracklisting

1. Sister
2. You and I
3. Sunny's Time
4. New Jade
5. Home
6. Lime
7. Never Come Back
8. Filtered Grand Piano
9. Like I Loved You
10. Magpie
11. Ravi
12. Cloud Song

Last Ride Records Australian exclusive colour of the Day By Day 12"EP from Flatspot Records. First established in 2014, Day By Day pride themselves on being a no frills, do-it-yourself hardcore band. They made a name for themselves self-releasing the Never Ending Lies EP (2015), From Now On EP (2017) and Nowhere To Run (2018), which led to touring throughout America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Now the south Florida-based band joins independent hardcore label Flatspot Records for the release of Dust and Ashes.

The six song EP was recorded with Andy Nelson at Bricktop Studios in Chicago, IL, and then mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. Day By Day wanted to avoid a modern and polished sound, and instead recorded live in the studio in order to capture the raw and heartfelt sound on the EP. The tracks are massive, concise, and hard-hitting, centered around the uncertainties in life and friendships. Opener “Respect 101” sets things up with a dark and devastating tone that blazes right into “Until Then…It’s War”. Day By Day's triple vocal attack is a highlight on the song and across the record, lending a rigid, in-your-face hardcore sound while showing you a scowling, deeper style. The EP is also packed with unique tempo changes and groove-driven guitars, as exemplified on “Still Bleeds” and closer “Fakes and Liars II.” The latter track finds the band coming full circle as a follow-up to “Fakes and Liars” off their first EP, addressing bands that are disingenuous.

Track Listing:

1. Respect 101
2. Until Then...It’s War
3. The Poison
4. Peace Or Annihilation?
5. Still Bleeds
6. Fakes & Liars II

Back with their first recorded material in 12 years, NCHC legends Dropsaw return with their new 7" "Revive". "Revive" features four new tracks that deliver on the classic Dropsaw metallic hardcore sound that they have been crafting since their inception in 2006. Recorded in mid-2024 at Woodriver Studios with Joe Andersons, and then shipped off for mixing by Taylor Young at The Pit and mastering by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. Artwork by Matt Stikker.

Pressing information:

Track listing:

1. Mortal Annihilation
2. Desolate Existence
3. Suffocation
4. Innocent Feast

Formed in Fredericia, Denmark in 2015, Lifesick create brutal and brutally honest songs with lyrics inspired by the turbulent nature of life. Musically influenced by Swedish death metal, Lifesick's authentic and explosive mixture of crushing tones and modern breakdowns create an uncompromising sound and vision.

Track Listing:

1. Death Wish
2. Peace Through Superior Firepower
3. Double Cross
4. Hollow Treats
5. Legacy of Misery
6. Poems for My Funeral
7. Liquid Courage
8. Loved by None
9. The Mourning March
10. Straight Jacket

Secret World is a group of friends from Sydney, Australia. With members who've played in bands like Speed, Trophy Eyes, and Downside, Secret World formed to scratch the itch for more melodic punk music. Their initial demo, released in 2023 on Last Ride Records, offered a taste of their heavy melodies and abrasive riffs and vocals. In 2024, Secret World is releasing their debut EP "Guilt Is Good" on Last Ride Records, with Sunday Drive Records in America.

Producer Fletcher Matthews joins new members James Watroba, Adrian Kelly, and Dennis Vichidvongsa to expand on the demo's sound, crafting bigger hooks perfect for singing along and piling on. The lead singles "Living Less" and "The Way It Goes" showcase this evolution, with the latter accompanied by a music video capturing the group in their hometown. "On Show" and "Silhouette" offer a heavier, darker mid-tempo sound. Though concise at four tracks, Secret World creates a dynamic EP, building on post-hardcore sounds reminiscent of Seaweed, Fugazi, and Quicksand, while adding their own alternative rock 'n' roll flair.

Track listing:

1. Living Less
2. On Show
3. Silhouette
4. The Way It Goes

Eivør calls her Nordic home in the remote Faroe Islands a landscape of extremes. Sitting in the North Atlantic Ocean just above Scotland and southeast of Iceland, with a total population of about 50,000, the climate is “full of contrasts—very dark, heavy winters and bright summers.” Growing up in a small village there, of about 400 people, it’s those contrasts that have inspired Eivør’s music throughout her career.
Often considered to be one of the most prolific and unique Nordic artists of her generation, Eivør has released 11 studio albums to date, crossing musical genres and always pushing the envelope of the expected. Awarded with the Nordic Council Music Price in 2021, Eivør’s musical journey continues to fascinate and has seen her perform across the globe; from Europe’s biggest festival stages to providing the soundtrack to Netflix’s hit series The Last Kingdom and the video game God of War: Ragnarök.
Her forthcoming new album ENN ties back to Eivør’s Nordic roots. Most of the lyrics, sung entirely in Faroese, were penned in collaboration with the Faroese poet Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs. Eivør calls the lyrics to the title track especially “hardcore.” The song is about war—“the wars that are going on in the world especially lately, but that have always been going on,” Eivør says, “and how to find a glimpse of light in this overwhelming darkness.” The guttural penultimate track, “Upp Úr Øskuni,” is a thrilling outlier mixing growling beatboxing with visceral throat singing (it’s certainly Eivør’s most metal moment).
ENN stands out among Eivør’s discography as a bold new venture. Her debut for Season of Mist, the album leans heavier into dark electronics. Her new Prophet-5 synthesizer hardly made it out of the box before she keyed up “Hugsi Bert Um Teg”, a swooning bit of dream-pop that dances like the colors of the milky way.
On a grand scale, ENN follows a cosmic arc. The title track is a symphonic, war-torn space odyssey. But the album also dwells on more earthly concerns. Lead single “Jardartra” is told from the perspective of a wounded mother earth, who calls to us with a steEivøradily thumping bassline that’s as dark and warm as our planet’s molten core. “Come lie down in my blue embrace”, Eivør sings, reaching into her operatic register, as if beckoning us toward the light.
On ENN, Eivør moves heaven and earth.

A1. Ein Klóta

A2. Jardartra

A3. Hugsi Bert Um Teg

A4. Purpurhjarta

B1. ENN

B2. Lívsandin

B3. Upp Úr Øskuni

B4. Gaia

The Story So Far presents their fifth studio album, "I Want To Disappear," via Pure Noise Records. Produced by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Koyo), the album features previously released single "Big Blind" alongside nine brand-new tracks. "I Want To Disappear" comes nearly six years after the band's previous album, "Proper Dose," which debuted at #19 on the Billboard 200 chart. Vinyl version includes digital download.

Track Listing:

1. All This Time
2. Watch You Go
3. Letterman
4. Jump The Gun
5. Big Blind
6. Nothing To Say
7. Keep You Around
8. You're Still In My Way
9. White Shores
10. I Want To Disappear

For over a decade, Drug Church have been building a very strong case that they're the best loud guitar band in the game; their fifth full-length PRUDE-a 28-minute blast of aggression, melody, irreverence, and genuine heart-feels like the undeniable proof. The album is so downright satisfying it tricks you into thinking there's nothing all that surprising about a difficult-to-pigeonhole punk band from Albany, NY, with a name like Drug Church somehow having a career at all, much less one that would last over 10 years and qualify them as the best band going. But before you start trying to think of who might have them beat (good luck), consider what just might be the key to Drug Church's unexpected staying power: Don't take it too seriously.

Track Listing:

1. Mad Care
2. Myopic
3. Hey Listen
4. Demolition Man
5. Business Ethics
6. Slide 2 Me
7. Chow
8. The Bitters
9. Yankee Trails
10. Peer Review

with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip's Memory Music, it's the band's first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open. It's an intensely self-reflective record for vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, an uprooting and examination of the supports on which a life is built. Preemptive grief, wrestling with god and faith, familial responsibility, familial mortality-these are the things Simmons was carrying while writing this material. They're also things he was trying, for better and worse, to avoid-hence the record's title.with you in spirit feels like the work of songwriters reaching new heights, exploring new depths. Sometimes, the record itself feels like a band grappling with its own avoidance, its own mortality, and deciding to face these things the only way they know how. Balance and Composure are with us in spirit, yes, but in the flesh, too, for now.

Track Listing:

1. restless
2. ain't it sweet
3. any means
4. cross to bear
5. believe the hype
6. lead foot
7. sorrow machine
8. a little of myself
9. closer to god
10. with you in spirit

'Cure' is the first single and title track from Alabama based metalcore giants ERRA' new album "Cure" (April 5th, 2024). This release marks the first new album from the band since their critically acclaimed S/T album ERRA released in March of 2021 (+42mil streams | 7000 LPs | 4000 CDs). The latter received praise from the likes of Wall of Sound stating 'Strong, driving, technical metalcore riffs and melodic undertones are ERRA's bread and butter, but this album really takes all of that to another level', Metal Injection 'I always viewed Drift as their finest work, yet the more I take in this self-titled LP, the more I'm confident that it may emerge with the gold medal. The vocals sound way stronger, the hooks shine through, there's tasteful experimentation, and most noteworthy is the refined guitar work' and New Noise 'ERRA (S/T) is a mesmerizing distillation of ERRA's thirteen-year career, one that boldly refracts and refines the group's sound'. "Cure was one of the last songs we wrote for the record. I had this groove riff that I was just so obsessed with, to the point that I wanted to stay with it for the full duration of the song. So even though the song stays in 4/4 for the most part, we're always staying locked into this dotted sequence of on rhythm guitars and kick, making the rhythm feel complex yet easy to latch onto as a listener. In the final breakdown section, we stay with this dotted sequence, but switch the time signature to 6/8 for a few bars, before reverting back to 4/4 to close out the song. These playful tinkerings with time signature serve as a suitable introduction to the approach we took with grooves throughout the whole record." - Jesse Cash

Track Listing:

1. Cure
2. Rumor Of Light
3. Idle Wild
4. Blue Reverie
5. Slow Sour Bleed
6. Wish
7. Glimpse
8. Past Life Persona
9. Crawl Backwards Out Of Heaven
10. End To Excess
11. Pale Iris
12. Wave

In the little over a decade since Neck Deep formed in the Barlow brothers' spare room in Wrexham, Wales, a lot has changed. But now, as the band stand on the brink of their fifth, self-titled full-length, there's an acknowledgement that the more things change, the more - in some ways at least - they stay the same. True enough, this collection encompasses everything the Walians have excelled at across their career, enhanced and dialed to 11.

Track Listing:

1. Dumbstruck Dumbf**k
2. Sort Yourself Out
3. This Is All My Fault
4. We Need More Bricks
5. Heartbreak Of The Century
6. Go Outside!
7. Take Me With You
8. They May Not Mean To (But They Do)
9. It Won’t Be Like This Forever
10. Moody Weirdo