Thursday, July 17, 2025

KING YOSEF x Youth Code


KING YOSEF announces US tour with Youth Code, Street Sects, Insula Iscariot

With his new album, Spire of Fear, dropping August 15th, King Yosef announces the "Industrial Worship Tour," a coast-to-coast tour of the US, featuring Youth Code, Street Sects, and Insula Iscariot.

Both championed as artists on the forefront of industrialized hardcore, King Yosef's connection to Youth Code dates back at least to 2021 when the two artists teamed up to release the collaborative LP, A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression. Youth Code's new 2025 EP, Yours, With Malice, is out now on Sumerian Records, described by Kerrang! as "suffocating, cathartic and uplifting." Likewise, Street Sects are another group mixing the sonic palette of industrial music with the raw confessions of hardcore punk, while Insula Iscariot, signed to King Yosef's Bleakhouse label, delivers an unnerving brand of harsh EBM.

Kicking off August 16th in Seattle – one day after the release of Spire of Fear – the "Industrial Worship Tour" is 2025's ultimate package of electronic-based devastation. It is a must-see for fans of the harder side of industrial and the more experimental side of hardcore.

Initially earning acclaim as a hip-hop producer, Portland, Oregon-based auteur Tayves Yosef Pelletier has been self-releasing music under the King Yosef name since 2017. Having worked with some of the most notorious rappers of the 2010s, he founded the King Yosef solo project as a space in which to explore his other musical obsessions. As King Yosef, Pelletier has been gradually perfecting a searing brand of industrialized hardcore that marries electronic and metallic elements in stunning fashion and seeks catharsis through deeply personal lyrics.

Within the past two years, a transition has occurred; the intensity has ramped up sharply. Pelletier has transformed King Yosef from a bedroom project into a formidable live act, completing North American tours with the likes of Converge and HEALTH and venturing to Australia, Japan, Europe and the UK. Playing the coveted Roadburn in 2024, King Yosef received these words from the festival's organizers: "A dizzying yet coherent amalgam of sticky beats, chilling interludes and scathing vitriol... As a festival, we like to push boundaries and embrace heavy music in all its forms. We see a kindred spirit in King Yosef."

"The role of King Yosef in my life transformed," states Pelletier, "from a place I went when I was waiting for production projects to release, to becoming my main source of creative fulfillment."

Now, in the summer of 2025, Spire of Fear marks the next chapter. Written, produced, and performed by Pelletier, Spire of Fear was recorded and mixed at the legendary GodCity Studio with longtime King Yosef collaborators Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks. The album was mastered by Alan Douches. Comprising King Yosef's most gentle and most lethal work to date, the album synthesizes Pelletier's wide array of influences, a list that includes artists ranging from Godflesh and Nails, to Portishead, Aphex Twin, and The Stone Roses.

Where the previous album, An Underlying Hum, dug into Pelletier's own personal story, Spire of Fear looks beyond the self, toward broader human experience: "Zooming out of the context of your own life, you realize that things have gone on before you and will go on after. So as long as you can face something head on and move through it, you’re probably going to be alright and the path shows itself from there."

The selflessness of Spire of Fear is reflected in Pelletier's real-life actions of the past two years. Through tireless work, Pelletier has risen to become a central figure of the Portland, Oregon scene, building a community of musicians and artists around his label, Bleakhouse, and his annual festival, Bleakfest. He refers to Spire of Fear as "a community-based record."

Following the "Industrial Worship Tour," King Yosef plays two West Coast dates in November with the mighty Author & Punisher.

"Industrial Worship Tour" – 
Youth Code, King Yosef, Street Sects, Insula Iscariot:

Aug 16 - Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou's
Aug 18 - Midvale, UT @ The Pearl on Main
Aug 19 - Denver, CO @ HQ
Aug 21 - St Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Aug 23 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
Aug 24 - Ferndale, MI @ Loving Touch
Aug 26 - Cambridge, MA @ Sonia
Aug 27 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Meadows
Aug 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Aug 29 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
Aug 31 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Sep 02 - Dallas, TX @ RBC
Sep 03 - Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom
Sep 05 - Phoneix, AZ @ Rosetta
Sep 06 - Las Vegas, NV @ Backstage Bar
Sep 07 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
Sep 08 - San Francisco, CA @ TBA

Author & Punisher, King Yosef:

Nov 12 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Nov 13 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah

Photo of Youth Code, by Atiba Jefferson
Photo of King Yosef, by Harper King

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

HEAVY HALO x Light Asylum


HEAVY HALO: Light Asylum's Shannon F. lends vocals to new single "Die Cast Down"; US tour begins

“Die Cast Down,”
the new single by NYC alt-industrial alchemists Heavy Halo, featuring vocals by Shannon F. of Light Asylum, is out now. Stream the track, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2-0LhqLc6Y

With metallic guitars, frenetic beats, and yearning vocals, Heavy Halo creates electronic-powered rock anthems with links to the likes of NIN and Smashing Pumpkins. The duo's new album Damaged Dream will be released July 25th via Silent Pendulum Records. Pre-order the album, here: https://silentpendulumrecords.com/collections/heavy-halo

Since 2011, Shannon F. and Light Asylum have captured attention with their dark synth-pop, earning comparisons to Grace Jones and Depeche Mode (and a slot on Rolling Stone’s list of "The 50 Best Goth Songs of All Time.") With DFA Records recently reissuing their self-titled debut album, Light Asylum is back in action, performing at this year’s Cruel World and Cold Waves festivals.

Heavy Halo’s McKeever states: “The title ‘Die Cast Down” references the Julius Caesar quote about going into war, past the point of no return, crossing the rubicon. The song is about all the sacrifices you make for your artistic, political, or moral convictions… We were honored to work with the epic Shannon F. from Light Asylum on this track which she absolutely tore up.”

With Heavy Halo and Light Asylum's “Die Cast Down” collab now streaming, the two bands have hit the road together, touring the East Coast through the end of July.

Light Asylum x Heavy Halo - Summer 2025 Tour:

July 15 - Brooklyn, NY @ TV Eye
July 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Dolphin
July 17 - Baltimore, MD @ Mobtown Ballroom
July 18 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit
July 19 - Richmond, VA @ Cobra Cabana
July 21 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings
July 22 - Washington, DC @ Pie Shop
July 23 - Medford, MA @ Deep Cuts
July 24 - Providence, RI @ Gettie's
July 25 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby's
July 26 - Montreal, QC @ Cabaret Fouf's

Friday, July 11, 2025

Out today: PYGMY LUSH - TOTEM


TOTEM, the "new" album by Pygmy Lush, is out today on Persistent Vision Records.

Recorded in 2016 at GodCity Studio with Converge's Kurt Ballou, TOTEM was promptly shelved as the band (featuring four members of Pageninetynine) went on hiatus. Nearly a decade later, Pygmy Lush is back in action, playing fests such as Roadburn and Dark Days Bright Nights, and TOTEM finally sees the light of day. A monumental album that feels absolutely vital and relevant in 2025, TOTEM melds noise rock, hardcore punk, indie rock, and Americana in songs that stir the blood and haunt the soul.



"It’s a great album that sounds as urgent and delightfully out-of-step in 2025 as it would have in 2016. A lot of it is on the heavier side for Pygmy Lush, who formed in 2005 as a folky offshoot of the legendary screamo band Pageninetynine. The folky side is toned down on this one, and in the forefront is a white-hot offering of experimental post-hardcore that kinda sounds like a cross between ’80s Sonic Youth and ’90s Dischord, all done in the way that only Pygmy Lush can."
–BrooklynVegan

"Almost a decade later, this hidden gem is surfacing... an album that sounds like it was made for the relentless chaos of 2025. The experimental offshoot of screamo pioneers Pageninetynine, Pygmy Lush brings together so many layers of genre I can’t put a pin in it — it’s part indie rock, part grunge, part noise rock, part shoegaze, part Americana, and all good."
–CVLT Nation

"Recorded in 2016 at GodCity Studio with Converge’s Kurt Ballou, TOTEM is an unfiltered document of a band at the height of its creative powers. Though it has been shelved for years, the record pulses with a vitality which feels current. A sprawling, genre-defying statement, TOTEM fuses noise rock, hardcore, punk, and haunting quietude into something singular and spellbinding. "
–Destroy//Exist

"Pygmy Lush went into hibernation after releasing their third LP, 2011’s Old Friends, but their decision to reunite last year was met with such excitement that they soon found themselves on NPR, playing the Dark Days Bright Nights festival, and even securing a coveted spot at the esteemed Roadburn. As for TOTEM, Pygmy Lush have said it went unreleased for so long (it was recorded and mixed in 2016 by Kurt Ballou of Converge) simply because the band saw no path forward for themselves at that point. But now they want the record released, so as to properly document Pygmy Lush’s history."
–Flood

"Nine years is a long time to sit on an album. The idea of putting a potentially dated record into the atmosphere of a much-changed world and very volatile 2025 comes off as not only brash, but maybe even downright foolish. However, wiping the dust off and throwing it on, Pygmy Lush’s TOTEM manages to exude an air of freshness, novelty, and beauty through its tasteful songwriting and sequencing, top notch production, and finely honed edge that’s as melodic as it is aggressive... TOTEM is both cacophonous and crooning, flowing from heavy, noise laden explosions to deep breaths of 90s alternative meets contemporary Americana."
–Lambgoat

"Virginian grunge-infused Americana/dark-folk... There are at least four different bands I wish had evolved to this kind of sound, among them Nirvana."
–The Obelisk

"The release of TOTEM arrives as Pygmy Lush recaptures their creative spark, with another new album in the works. And given that information, it’s in part unfinished business, an opportunity to clear the backlog before building something new. But what’s here, however much of a sharp turn away from the band’s gorgeously captured gloom of earlier records, is not only excellent enough to raise the question of why it was ever shelved in the first place but offers a bridge between Pageninetynine’s incendiary chaos and Pygmy Lush’s prettier balladry."
–Treble

CAR BOMB - "Blindsides"


CAR BOMB: extreme metal innovators release new single "Blindsides" from upcoming Tiles Whisper Dreams EP


"Blindsides," the new single by Car Bomb, is out now.

"Blindsides" is the second single to be revealed from Car Bomb's upcoming new EP, Tiles Whisper Dreams, out August 1st.

Stream the track, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ohaFZllmUE

Pre-order the EP, here:
https://carbomb.bandcamp.com/album/tiles-whisper-dreams

Consisting of three new tracks, Tiles Whisper Dreams is Car Bomb's first new music to be released since 2019's Mordial album and it marks the New York band's 25th year of existence. In that quarter-century, Car Bomb has built and trademarked its own singular style: a spiraling flurry of rhythm and texture that congeals, fleetingly, into planet-pulverizing death-grooves and fragments of haunting melodies. Baffling rhythmic modulations and deep-space guitar effects appear to warp time completely. On Tiles Whisper Dreams, the veteran quartet sounds as vicious and as exploratory as ever. 

Guitarist Greg Kubacki states: "One has to sort of get lost in their own world to find their own unique sound, and that just comes from a lot of trial and error."

Opening with an odd-time groove and laser-fire guitars, then devolving into a section capable of inducing actual nausea, "Blindsides" rocks and disorients, simultaneously. "Stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back," bellows vocalist Michael Dafferner at his most Nietzschean; halfway through the song, Dafferner flips the script and unleashes his soaring singing voice. Five minutes in total, "Blindsides" sees Car Bomb flaunting all its facets and pushing all its limits, resulting in a song that shows the band at its heaviest, its most time-bending, and its most melodic.

Kubacki describes the "Blindsides" video as "a fake trailer for a fictitious 80’s animated movie" with inspirations including "Akira, Aeon Flux, Studio Ghibli and David Lynch."

Tiles Whisper Dreams was recorded at Silvercord Studio in Queens, New York, the studio owned by Gojira's Joe Duplantier, and at the band members' home studios. The album was mixed by Johann Meyer at Silvercord and mastered by Grammy Award winner Ted Jensen (The Eagles, Green Day).

Car Bomb will tour Europe and the UK in August, including dates with Gojira, Between the Buried and Me, and Imperial Triumphant, followed by a September tour of Australia, supporting Animals as Leaders – Car Bomb's first time ever in Australia.

Aug 7 - Jaromer, CZ @ Brutal Assault Fest
Aug 8 - Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia
Aug 9 - Karlsruhe, DE @ P8
Aug 10 - Utrecht, NL @ Pandora *
Aug 12 - Oberhausen, DE @ Turbinenhalle Δ
Aug 14 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City Beta
Aug 15 - Bristol, UK @ ArcTanGent Fest
Aug 16 - London, UK @ Oslo
Aug 18 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega #
Aug 19 - Stockholm, SE @ Bar Brooklyn #
Aug 20 - Oslo, NO @ Goldie #
Aug 21 - Aalborg, DK @ SH35 #
Aug 22 - Kiel, DE @ Kieler Schaubude #
Aug 23 - Haarlem, NL @ Complexity Fest #
Sep 12 - Adelaide, AU @ Hindley Street Music Hall ∞
Sep 14 - Brisbane, AU @ The Tivoli ∞
Sep 18 - Melbourne, AU @ Forum ∞
Sep 19 - Sydney, AU @ Enmore Theatre ∞
Sep 21 - Perth, AU @ Magnet House ∞

* = Between the Buried and Me
Δ = Gojira
# = Imperial Triumphant
∞ = Animals as Leaders

Photo by Devin Barnes

Thursday, June 26, 2025

KING YOSEF - Spire of Fear


KING YOSEF: industrial-hardcore auteur announces new album Spire of Fear; "Molting Fear" music video streaming now

King Yosef announces new full-length album Spire of Fear, to be released August 15th via Bleakhouse.

Pre-order Spire of Fear, here:

Stream the official music video for the album's first single, "Molting Fear," here:

Initially earning acclaim as a hip-hop producer, Portland, Oregon-based auteur Tayves Yosef Pelletier has been self-releasing music under the King Yosef name since 2017. Having worked with some of the most notorious rappers of the 2010s, he founded the King Yosef solo project as a space in which to explore his other musical obsessions. As King Yosef, Pelletier has been gradually perfecting a searing brand of industrialized hardcore that marries electronic and metallic elements in stunning fashion and seeks catharsis through deeply personal lyrics.

The passion and intensity have been on display since from the very start, expressed through a slew of self-released music, including a collaborative album with Youth Code and the 2023 breakthrough, An Underlying Hum, which Revolver Magazine championed as "a scathing onslaught of heavy hardcore chugs a la Code Orange and wire-sparking industrial-metal fuckery."

But, within the past two years, a transition has occurred; the intensity has ramped up sharply. Without a manager or booking agent, Pelletier transformed King Yosef from a bedroom project into a formidable live act, dominating stages across the globe. In the wake of An Underlying Hum's release, King Yosef completed North American tours with Converge and HEALTH and ventured to Australia, Japan, Europe and the UK. Playing the coveted Roadburn in 2024, King Yosef received these words from the festival's organizers: "A dizzying yet coherent amalgam of sticky beats, chilling interludes and scathing vitriol... As a festival, we like to push boundaries and embrace heavy music in all its forms. We see a kindred spirit in King Yosef."

"The role of King Yosef in my life transformed," states Pelletier, "from a place I went when I was waiting for production projects to release, to becoming my main source of creative fulfillment." Now, in the summer of 2025, Spire of Fear marks the next chapter. Spire of Fear is the album that shows King Yosef to have progressed, from a mere project, to a full-fledged, full-time commitment. 

Written, produced, and performed by Pelletier, Spire of Fear was recorded and mixed at the legendary GodCity Studio with longtime King Yosef collaborators Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks. The album was mastered by Alan Douches. 

The album's first single "Molting Fear" is a mosh anthem that goes straight for the throat, delivering titanic bursts of metallic hardcore laced with squelching electronics. Like a great fighter, "Molting Fear" shifts gears unpredictably, disorienting as it pummels. An underlying tone of pure dread is the unifier. 

“The idea of this song was to try to push the King Yosef thing as far as I possibly could, without any guitars," Pelletier reveals. "There’s no traditional instrumentation on this, other than drums. I wanted to make something where it got bigger in a shorter span of time than anything I’ve done before. It was about blurring the lines of 'what is this instrument, what is that sound,' and taking it to a very terrifying place.”

The song's official music video, directed by George Douglas Peterson, was shot on location inside a monolithic, abandoned nuclear power plant near Kurt Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington.

Throughout Spire of Fear, the belligerence of tracks like "Molting Fear" is balanced by murky balladry, evoking the chronically gloomy landscapes of Pelletier's native Oregon. Comprising King Yosef's most gentle and most lethal work to date, the album synthesizes Pelletier's wide array of influences, a list that includes artists ranging from Godflesh and Nails, to Portishead, Aphex Twin, and The Stone Roses.

Where An Underlying Hum was about the past – a deep dive into Pelletier's own childhood trauma, inspired by his time spent in therapy – Spire of Fear addresses the present and future. 
"After An Underlying Hum, I answered a lot of my own questions and then had to look forward and figure out what navigating the rest of my life was about," he says. "Turns out, it's about showing up, being accountable and not turning away from the things that I fear, because the implications of turning away are far worse than the fear."

Where An Underlying Hum dug into Pelletier's own personal story, Spire of Fear looks beyond the self, toward broader human experience: 
"Zooming out of the context of your own life, you realize that things have gone on before you and will go on after. So as long as you can face something head on and move through it, you’re probably going to be alright and the path shows itself from there."

The selflessness of Spire of Fear is reflected in Pelletier's real-life actions of the past two years. Through tireless work, Pelletier has risen to become a central figure of the Portland, Oregon scene, building a community of musicians and artists around his label, Bleakhouse, and his annual festival, Bleakfest. He refers to Spire of Fear as "a community-based record."

"Spire of Fear is influenced by Portland, because I am inspired by my friends," he states. "Between the time you spend together hanging out, going to each other’s shows or being at the studio when each of us record, it sort of all bleeds together into this amazing thing that creates a sound for where we are at. Portland’s DIY scene is consistently growing and transforming into the best version of itself I have seen since moving here 10 years ago."

Tracklist:
1) Feoil
2) Molting Fear
3) Glimmer
4) Vi Coactus
5) Lichen
6) Doomtown
7) Wither
8) Blue Morning
9) Walter
10) Spire of Fear
11) Everything's Point of Origin


All music and lyrics by Tayves Yosef Pelletier
Produced by Tayves Yosef Pelletier
Engineered by Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks
Mixed by Kurt Ballou
Mastered by Alan Douches

Tayves Yosef Pelletier - vocals, guitar, programming
Kameron Tyler - live drums
Ryan Osterman - guest vocals on "Glimmer"
The Bleakhouse Choir - backing vocals on "Doomtown"

Photos by Harper King

Friday, June 20, 2025

Out today: JOLIETTE - Pérdidas Variables


Pérdidas Variables, the new album by Mexico City post-hardcore dynamo Joliette, is out today on Persistent Vision Records.

A pillar of the Mexican scene, the quartet takes the urgency of screamo and laces it with brooding, post-metal grandeur. The band has stated that the new album is a meditation on their home of Mexico City. Vocalist Gastón Prado screams in his native Spanish yet his earnest voice transcends language barriers, transmitting universal angst.

Stream the album, here: https://joliette.bandcamp.com/album/p-rdidas-variables-2

Pre-order the album, here: https://persistentvisionrecords.com/products/joliette-perdidas-variables-lp

"In classic screamo fashion, Joliette are able to convey that sense of longing and beauty with music that scans as harsh and aggressive on the surface. If you find yourself gravitating towards heavy/beautiful stuff like Envy, Deafheaven, and Touché Amoré, make sure you’re keeping your ears peeled for the new Joliette album."
–BrooklynVegan

"Founded in 2011, Joliette has long operated in the blurry space between emotional hardcore, chaotic screamo, and post-metal—moving with the surgical heaviness of bands like Cult of Luna, while channeling the raw urgency of groups like Raein or Saetia. On Pérdidas Variables, the quartet once again pulls tension from opposites: chaos and order, collapse and control, private loss and collective trauma."
–Idioteq

"A rabid post-hardcore onslaught... Progressive and twisted but always charging forward at full fucking force."
–Louder

"A kind of revelry, bursting at the seams with energy. The drums set up a vivid clatter; the big bass-throbs feel like the pulse of the earth beneath our feet; the guitar sizzles and slashes through the tumult in piercing and sometimes stridently dissonant tones; the high-pitched hardcore vocals spray blood."
–No Clean Singing

Photo by Alejandra Juangorena

Monday, June 16, 2025

HEAVY HALO - "Bloodrush"


HEAVY HALO: alt-industrial alchemists channel Depeche Mode on new single "Bloodrush"; summer tour with Light Asylum announced


Heavy Halo has revealed new single "Bloodrush" from its forthcoming album, Damaged Dream.

Stream the track, here: 
https://youtu.be/RWHCUqkZqEg

Pre-order the album, out July 25th on Silent Pendulum Records, here: 
https://silentpendulumrecords.com/collections/heavy-halo

Based in New York City, Heavy Halo is the duo of vocalist/guitarist McKeever and producer Gosteffects. Working out of Spellsound Studios, located inside a historic, 19th-century Brooklyn hospital building, the pair meld metallic guitars, frenetic beats, and yearning vocals into industrialized alt-rock anthems for the next generation. Reference points include Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, and HEALTH. 

New Noise describes the new single, "Bloodrush," as "a pulse-pounding, fast-paced industrial rock track that brings together the power of rock, the slickness of electronic elements, and McKeever’s clean, crisp vocals."

McKeever states: "'Bloodrush' embodies everything we want a Heavy Halo song to be: shot through with adrenaline and sexuality and searching for an alchemy of industrial noise and melody. We took a cue from our heroes Depeche Mode’s 'Enjoy The Silence' which warns about how words can ruin the moments of intoxicating desire... 'Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm.' But because we lack British charm, we expressed it way less elegantly: 'Don’t talk just touch, don’t think just fuck.'"

Heavy Halo will tour the East Coast in July with darkwave powerhouse Light Asylum. Purchase tickets, here: https://linktr.ee/lightasylum_heavyhalo_tour

July 15 - Brooklyn, NY @ TV Eye
July 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Dolphin
July 17 - Baltimore, MD @ Mobtown Ballroom
July 18 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit
July 19 - Richmond, VA @ Cobra
July 21 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings
July 22 - Washington, DC @ Pie Shop
July 23 - Medford, MA @ Deep Cuts
July 24 - Providence, RI @ Gettie’s
July 25 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
July 26 - Montreal, QC @ Cabaret Fouf’s

Photo by Tori McGraw