Thursday, December 19, 2024

HEAVY HALO - "The Poisoning"


HEAVY HALO: industrialized alt-rockers release new single "The Poisoning"; official visualizer streaming now

Heavy Halo's
new single "The Poisoning" is streaming now.

"The Poisoning" is the third track to be revealed from the NYC duo's upcoming new album, Damaged Dream.

Damaged Dream will be released in 2025 on Silent Pendulum Records.

Stream "The Poisoning" on all digital platforms, here:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/heavyhalo/the-poisoning

Stream the song's official visualizer, here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo8Ba53adpg

Pre-order the new album, here: 
https://silentpendulumrecords.com/collections/heavy-halo

From New York City, Heavy Halo is the alliance of vocalist McKeever and producer Gosteffects. Together, the two conjure an industrialized strain of alt-rock that unites human and machine in highly compelling ways.

In the words of an October 2024 article from Revolver Magazine, the sound is a glorious mix of "chunky riffs and EBM-panicked beatwork" and "nihilistic yet melodic vocals about diving headfirst into the chaos that surrounds us every day."

New single "The Poisoning" showcases the band's melodic side, with McKeever's yearning vocals pointing to influences such as Smashing Pumpkins and The Cure.

Idioteq reports: "Brooklyn’s Heavy Halo continues to blur the boundaries between human and machine with their new single, 'The Poisoning'... Despite their reverence for the past, Heavy Halo’s offering feels forward-facing, sharing space with artists like HEALTH and Poppy, who explore the intersection of human emotion and digital chaos."

Heavy Halo vocalist McKeever gives this statement about the song: "At night you're kept awake haunted by memories of all your past selves and the various lives you've lived. You're confronted with the strangeness of being in the current moment with all those ghosts in the rearview. 'The Poisoning' is about the compulsion to outrun these anxious thoughts and hyper-fixations through the ritual of escapist excess. Self-destruction never truly cures the existential angst but in the moment, you believe it just might."

The visualizer serves as a tribute to a friend of the band. McKeever state: "The visualizer features various photos of our friends with the Heavy Halo tattoo, including one of our closest friends and biggest supporters Sian Austin, who tragically passed away around this time last year. He was an unreal musician of rare versatility and champion of DIY culture who lived his life 'on the edge of the knife' with a flame that burned like a supernova."

A perfectly odd couple, the native New Yorker McKeever is a Columbia University-educated composer and vocalist who spent a decade entrenched in Brooklyn's indie rock scene, while Gosteffects cut his teeth DJ'ing and promoting illegal raves in Oklahoma. The unlikely pair met at a goth party in Brooklyn and instantly put their chemistry to action.

The follow-up to 2022's self-titled debut album, the upcoming Damaged Dream was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Gosteffects at his own studio, Spellsound Studios, located in a historic 19th-century hospital building in Brooklyn, where he has also created official remixes for the likes of Duran Duran.

See Heavy Halo live, January 9th at TV Eye in Queens, NY, with Deli Girls:

Friday, December 6, 2024

SPIRITWORLD - "Western Stars & The Apocalypse"


SPIRITWORLD returns with metallic hardcore, 
Lovecraftian horror, and Wild West lore; "Western Stars & The Apocalypse" single and music video streaming now

From Las Vegas, Nevada, SpiritWorld presents new single "Western Stars & The Apocalypse."

A thrashing, 2-minute blitz of metallic hardcore, drenched in SpiritWorld's signature Old West occultism, "Western Stars & The Apocalypse" is the band's first new music to be revealed since the release of its acclaimed sophomore album, Deathwestern, in 2022.

The song was engineered and mixed by longtime SpiritWorld producer Sam Pura and mastered by Alberto de Icaza (King Crimson, Clutch).

"I wrote 'Western Stars & The Apocalypse' right after Deathwestern came out, when we got home from touring Europe with Agnostic Front," states SpiritWorld founder/frontman Stu Folsom. The New York hardcore influence is evident in the blistering song, but Folsom also gives credit to a more unlikely muse: "I was revisiting a lot of Bob Dylan in my bunk on that tour and there is a nod to his song 'Desolation Row' in the lyrics."

Directed by Rob Zombie collaborator Balázs Gróf, the official "Western Stars & The Apocalypse" music video is an animated clip that playfully brings to life SpiritWorld's strange universe, a place where the supernatural horror of H.P. Lovecraft and the Western pulp of Louis L'Amour collide. Gróf's whimsically hellish cartoon features various cosmic beasts, rivers of blood, and Stu Folsom's animated alter ego twerking on a grave. Folsom enthuses: "I really love Gróf's work and I just turned him loose with the song. It’s a weird, spooky, animated trip through the underworld!"

Stream "Western Stars & The Apocalypse" now on all platforms: https://Spiritworld.lnk.to/WesternStarsAndTheApocalypsePR

Stream the official music video, here: https://youtu.be/gGgnHaQfiSo

Vegas native Folsom has been building the SpiritWorld universe for several years now, creating a macabre world where metal, punk, and country-western music meld into one infernal ruckus that transcends the norm. Raised on a mix of George Jones, Slayer and 7 Seconds, Folsom has stated, "I am making the records that I long to hear and I know they will land somehow in the arms of loners, outcasts and working-class folks like me who need them."

More than a musician, Folsom is an author too, and SpiritWorld's music goes hand in hand with Folsom's writings. Debut album Pagan Rhythms and sophomore album Deathwestern are soundtracks to Folsom's first published book, Godlessness. Set in a fictional Old West, Godlessness' short stories follow an unlikely group of cowpunchers, a bounty hunter, a depraved necrophiliac preacher, and a small band of Comanches, as they do battle with demonic forces.

The confidence of Folsom's vision, paired with the immediate mosh pit gratification of SpiritWorld's sound, caught the eyes and ears of powerhouse label Century Media, who signed the band in 2021, reissued Pagan Rhythms, and unleashed the follow-up, Deathwestern
Upon its release, Stereogum described Deathwestern as "a gory symphony that owes as much to Slayer as Cormac McCarthy" and provided this context: "The Las Vegas metallic hardcore band’s preposterously awesome new album presents a fully formed aesthetic — a whole fleshed-out universe of pulpy sonic violence inspired by Westerns, horror, outlaw country, the occult, and the heavy metal classics of the late 20th century... The world-building expands beyond the music into exceptionally gnarly music videos, a companion short story collection by Folsom, and live shows that see the band donning Western suits and cowboy hats. This obscenely fun and fascinating project did not come out of nowhere. It’s more like the grand culmination of a creative vision that has been evolving for years."

Similarly, Revolver reported: "SpiritWorld’s riffs are impeccable, their moshy grooves are sumptuous and their scabrous-yet-singable vocal chants are irresistible. Musically, the Las Vegas crew are outstanding, but what makes them one of the most thrilling new acts on the scene is all of their extra-musical elements. Their cinematic cowboy outfits, the Wild West lore in their songs, their off-the-wall music videos — all of it feels more like a multi-disciplinary art project than a mere metal band."

With "Western Stars & The Apocalypse" now streaming, the world gets its first taste of SpiritWorld's next phase. 2025 promises to be stacked with new action as Folsom carries this enthralling project forward into its next era. When asked about where it is all heading, Folsom replies simply: "Straight to hell, my friend. Straight to hell." 

Stand by for more details.

Photo by Jennifer Olsen

Out today: SPANAWAY - Songs of Yesteryear


Songs of Yesteryear, the new album by Spanaway, is out today on Burial Whisper. From Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Spanaway makes lush, heartbroken songs that will click with fans of Failure, Hum, DIIV, and Nothing. The stellar vocals of frontman Zack Van Why meld with swirling layers of guitars and the rock solid pounding of drummer Keith Goldoni, also a member of death metal/hardcore favorites Fuming Mouth. Formerly known as Blush, the band makes its debut under the Spanaway name now with Songs of Yesteryear. The album was recorded and engineered by Zach Weeks at God City and mastered by Cult of Luna's Magnus Lindberg.

Stream the album, here: https://spanaway.bandcamp.com/

Pre-order the cassette, here: https://burialwhisper.bigcartel.com/

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2024/10/spanaway-songs-of-yesteryear.html

"Spanaway is a shoegazy band whose drummer Keith Goldoni is also in the death metal band Fuming Mouth."
–BrooklynVegan

"Known for creating lush and emotionally charged songs, the band leans heavily into a shoegaze sound and aesthetic, layering expressive vocals with swirling, atmospheric guitars."
–Destroy//Exist

"Given the fact that they cite Converge and American Nightmare as influences, feature death-metallers Fuming Mouth’s Keith Goldoni on drums, and enlisted Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg to master their debut album, you might be surprised at how unaggressive Pennsylvania post-hardcore collective Spanaway appears across 'Songs of Yesteryear.'"
–Flood

"These are songs soaked in memory and loneliness, with Zack Van Why’s vocals weaving through waves of shoegazing guitars and Keith Goldoni’s steady, restrained drumming. It’s a sound that owes as much to Failure and DIIV as it does to their hardcore roots."
–Idioteq

"It's very dreamy, it's warm, the production is lush and clean, with plenty of reverb to give it size and atmosphere... I was getting hints of the band Nothing and bands like Failure... There's a doom-pop vibe to this, at times."
–Metal Epidemic

"Pennsylvania band Spanaway sounds like they could be from Illinois, which is definitely no knock on the band, combining elements of Failure, Hum, with a trace of American Football. The group features the distinctive vocals of frontman Zack Van Why, with the swirling guitar sounds of Robby Vena and the solid beats of drummer Keith Goldoni, also known for his work in death metal/hardcore band Fuming Mouth."
–Northern Transmissions

"Dreamy, sad, melancholic anthems of heartbreak propelled by wall-of-sound guitar. Fans of Blanket, Failure, and Hum should get around this ASAP."
–Pitch of Discontent

"It’s full of wall-leveling waves of Hum-styled guitar melancholy, while also showcasing an oddly gentle vocal performance about being choked to death by traumatically nostalgic memories. While the band’s lineup includes Fuming Mouth drummer Keith Goldoni, Spanaway seems to be trafficking in a more subversive and swirling kind of attack."
–Revolver

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

HEAVY HALO - "Erase Yr Fate"


HEAVY HALO: NYC alt-industrial dream team drops new single "Erase Yr Fate"

Heavy Halo has released new single "Erase Yr Fate." The track is the second single to be revealed from the band's upcoming new album, Damaged Dream.

Stream "Erase Yr Fate," by way of an official visualizer, here: https://youtu.be/CVqIUsyAJfw

Stream the track on all digital platforms, here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/heavyhalo/erase-yr-fate

Pre-order Damaged Dream, here: https://silentpendulumrecords.com/collections/heavy-halo

From New York City, Heavy Halo is the duo of vocalist McKeever and producer Gosteffects. Together, the two conjure an industrialized strain of alt-rock that unites human and machine in highly compelling ways. "A raw human core encased in an exoskeleton of dense layers of futuristic electronics," is McKeever's description of Heavy Halo's approach. "This contrast is what excites us," he declares.

In the words of an October 2024 article from Revolver Magazine, the sound is a glorious mix of "chunky riffs and EBM-panicked beatwork" and "nihilistic yet melodic vocals about diving headfirst into the chaos that surrounds us every day."

A perfectly odd couple, the native New Yorker McKeever is a Columbia University-educated composer and vocalist who spent a decade entrenched in Brooklyn's indie rock scene, while Gosteffects cut his teeth DJ'ing and promoting illegal raves in Oklahoma. The unlikely pair met at a goth party in Brooklyn and instantly put their chemistry to action.

With one debut album under their studded belts, McKeever and Gosteffects will release Heavy Halo's sophomore album, Damaged Dream, in 2025 via Silent Pendulum Records. The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Gosteffects, whose production credits also include official remixes for the likes of Duran Duran.

While jagged guitars and raw electronics reference the likes of Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and The Prodigy, yearning melodic vocals reflect childhoods spent wallowing in the angst of Smashing Pumpkins and The Cure. With that said, Heavy Halo is of the future, not the past. The band lands amidst today's most forward-thinking artists blurring lines between industrial, metal, and pop –– HEALTH, Poppy, and 3TEETH, to name three. Its songs have been remixed by members of 3TEETH, as well as Atari Teenage Riot, Kontravoid, Pictureplane, and more.

Vocalist McKeever gives this statement about the new single, "Erase Yr Fate": "The vast emptiness of mental isolation. The weightlessness of drifting through shades of melancholy, endlessly cycling like phases of the moon. When the two sides of the cursed coin of depression and anxiety have you in their icy grip, you’re a cosmonaut falling away from the warmth of home, air supply running low, locked in the unknown. 'Erase Yr Fate' was inspired by these alienated feelings and by binge watching every space movie possible: 2001, Solaris, Interstellar… However, while out first album was 'hell' and fixated on descending into the dark murk, Damaged Dream is 'purgatory.' The burning spirit of resilience and revenge glows deep within 'Erase Yr Fate.' Neck craned towards the sun, bloodshot eyes gazing upwards. Despite seemingly hopeless circumstances you rage against the dying of the light and push to alter the course of the inevitable."

Photo by Wrekluse

Friday, November 15, 2024

Out today: YELLFIRE - Dear Gods


Dear Gods, the new album by Yellfire, is out today on The Ghost Is Clear Records.

Stream the album, here: https://yellfire.bandcamp.com/album/dear-gods


Mixed by Matt Bayles (Minus the Bear, Mastodon) and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna, Birds in Row), Dear Gods is a towering, thunderous piece of work that carries forth the spirit of the Pacific Northwest's greatest earth-shakers. Operating at the nexus of noise rock and hardcore, Yellfire's sound is the fusion of rain-soaked despair and snapped-wire urgency.

“Seattle-based, Botch-loving, post-metallic noise rockers.”
–Decibel

"Yellfire, from Seattle, Washington. The track was 'Into Fire." It's the urgent new single, it's the lead-off track from their upcoming The Ghost Is Clear Records debut... If 'Into Fire' is any indication, and I think it is, of the quality of music that Yellfire will lay before us with 'Dear Gods,' I think there's reason for optimism and excitement. Though that might not be the emotion the music brings, it's the one that I feel."
–Getting It Out Podcast

"S
eattle’s relentless rain and shadowy winters might seem bleak, but they’re the perfect backdrop for 'Dear Gods,' the debut full-length from Yellfire. This hardcore/noise-rock quartet channels the city’s storied legacy of cathartic heaviness—think early grunge meeting its angrier, sludgier descendants—into a record that crushes with weight yet demands repeat spins."
–Idioteq

"There’s a touch of early Mastodon... It’s an album that doesn’t lose any intensity at all, whilst avoiding any hint of repetition. Absolutely monstrous."
–Metal Epidemic

"Seattle-based post-hardcore crew Yellfire are just getting warmed up, with their debut album slated for release on November 15 via The Ghost Is Clear. But they’ve already surrounded themselves with plenty of good company, as evidenced by the impressive array of guest stars who appear on the LP, named 'Dear Gods.'"
–New Noise

"Rounding out the top slots is Yellfire with their brand of noise meets hardcore... In all seriousness this thing would give Today Is The Day a run for the money."
–Nine Circles

"With a crushing sound that evokes the doomsday-like crush of Today Is the Day and the ominous riff orgies of Deadguy, the Seattle band packs punch."
–No Echo

"Heavy, brash and noisy."
–Scene Point Blank


Photo by Taylor Jones

Thursday, November 14, 2024

CKRAFT - "Pageantrivia"


CKRAFT: French jazz-metal pathfinders perform in monastery in "Pageantrivia" music video, streaming now 

From Paris, France, CKRAFT unveils new single "Pageantrivia."

Stream the official "Pageantrivia" music video, here: https://everythingisnoise.net/premieres/ckraft-ponder-oppression-and-tradition-on-pageantrivia/

Pre-order the band's new album, Uncommon Grounds, here: https://ckraft.bigcartel.com/product/album-pre-order

Wielding synth-accordion, saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums, CKRAFT melds metal, jazz, and medieval music into fiery new shapes. Repurposing melodies from Gregorian chants of the Middle Ages, the quintet blazes through instrumentals that evoke a magical new space between Gojira and John Coltrane.

Everything Is Noise reports: "Progressive in all senses of the word, CKRAFT are pushing boundaries both in- and outward by borrowing from the past and pushing those elements into the future."

A recent review from Fecking Bahamas describes the sound as "a cross between early Don Caballero, T.R.A.M., Mahavishnu Orchestra, and… Pantera."

New single "Pageantrivia" features a melody from the Gregorian chant "Salve Regina (tonus solemnis)." Accordionist Charles Kieny describes the track as a meditation on the ways in which governments and religions have oppressed people throughout history. He states: "I was in London in September 2022 and attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, along with hundreds of thousands of people. I was truly amazed at the ‘pageantry’ of these ceremonies. It can really make you feel that your life is quite ‘trivial’ compared to those of monarchs... If you look at human history, it seems that religions and kings are worthy enough reasons to kill zillions of us. So there I was linking these ideas together: What’s valuable? What’s trivial? Us? Religion? Royalty? The pageantry of ceremonies?" Fittingly, the "Pageantrivia" music video was shot at a monastery in Metz, France.

New album Uncommon Grounds drops January 17th. It was mixed by Marc Karapetian and mastered by Thibault Chaumont (Igorrr, Mass Hysteria).

CKRAFT has played live with the likes of Shining (Norway) and Hypno5e. Stand by for news of the next live actions.

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2024/10/ckraft-uncommon-grounds.html

Photo by Manuel Braun

Thursday, November 7, 2024

SPANAWAY - "Twenty Seven"


SPANAWAY: post-hardcore crew (member of Fuming Mouth) reveals haunting new single "Twenty Seven"

Spanaway has revealed "Twenty Seven," the second single from its upcoming debut album, Songs of Yesteryear.

Stream the track, here: https://floodmagazine.com/180421/spanaway-twenty-seven-first-listen/

Pre-order the cassette, here: https://burialwhisper.bigcartel.com/

From Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Spanaway makes lush, heartbroken songs that will click with fans of Failure, Hum, DIIV, and Nothing. The stellar vocals of frontman Zack Van Why meld with swirling layers of guitars and the rock solid pounding of drummer Keith Goldoni, also a member of death metal/hardcore favorites Fuming Mouth. Formerly known as Blush, the band's upcoming album Songs of Yesteryear is the first release under the Spanaway name. Recorded and engineered by Zach Weeks at God City and mastered by Cult of Luna's Magnus Lindberg, it will be released December 6th on Burial Whisper Records.

New single "Twenty Seven" sees the band at its most subdued and haunting. Flood Magazine's Mike LeSuer writes: "Given the fact that they cite Converge and American Nightmare as influences, feature death-metallers Fuming Mouth’s Keith Goldoni on drums, and enlisted Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg to master their debut album, you might be surprised at how unaggressive Pennsylvania post-hardcore collective Spanaway appears across Songs of Yesteryear... 'Twenty Seven' has more in common with Jacob Bannon’s post-metal side-project Wear Your Wounds than any era of Converge... The patient pacing and somber acoustic guitar of 'Twenty Seven' additionally emphasizes the influence of Elliott Smith in the band’s songwriting, while the lyrical content mines a similarly dark territory."

Guitarist Robby Vena says the new single is "an exploration of loneliness... It’s that burning in your stomach as the breeze meanders through the nothingness."

The band is joined on the track by various friends performing guest vocals, piano, and horns. Vena says: "We wanted to take that 'Converge on Axe To Fall' approach and put as many friends on as we could."

Revolver Magazine had these words for the album's first single, "Terrible," released last month: "It’s full of wall-leveling waves of Hum-styled guitar melancholy, while also showcasing an oddly gentle vocal performance about being choked to death by traumatically nostalgic memories. While the band’s lineup includes Fuming Mouth drummer Keith Goldoni, Spanaway seems to be trafficking in a more subversive and swirling kind of attack."

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2024/10/spanaway-songs-of-yesteryear.html

Photo by Coffin Blossom