Out today: CKRAFT - Uncommon Grounds

Uncommon Grounds, the new album by CKRAFT, is out today. 

From Paris, France, CKRAFT melds metal, jazz, and medieval music into new shapes. Decibel Magazine describes the band’s compositions as “expansive and otherworldly” and as “bridging the gap between djent’s chugging thunder and the scattershot melodic freedom of jazz.” Founder/accordionist Charles Kieny freely name drops Gojira, Meshuggah, John Coltrane and Allan Holdsworth, while using Gregorian chants of the Middle Ages as the basis of CKRAFT's melodies. Uncommon Grounds is the quintet's sophomore album, following 2022's Epic Discordant Vision.

"With members hailing from various outposts of the musical universe, having a synth-accordion and saxophone as featured instruments, and the members’ declared bond over polyrhythmic metal, Middle Age Gregorian chants and ancient architecture, CKRAFT... blew convention out the window with their 2022 debut, the appropriately titled 'Epic Discordant Vision.' Bridging the gap between djent’s chugging thunder and the scattershot melodic freedom of jazz, the band have returned with album number two, 'Uncommon Grounds'..."
–Decibel

"French instrumental progressive metal act CKRAFT, whose jazz-informed take on heavy riffage feels right at home when mentioned alongside the likes of Ex Eye or Yakuza, with a bit of a more Gojira/Car Bomb-inspired modern metal twist on that established niche... 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 through their combined efforts."
–Everything Is Noise

"Ripping through the headphones like a cross between early Don Caballero, T.R.A.M., Mahavishnu Orchestra, and… Pantera... We’re willing to believe Charles Kieny might be a reincarnated medieval magician of some kind."
–Fecking Bahamas

"Medieval sounds meld with bone snappin’ metal and unorthodox jazz culminating into of the most unique and refreshing things I’ve heard in a mighty long time."
–Nine Circles

" I got flashes of Meshuggah, King Crimson, Gojira, and Miles/Coltrane... This group deploys synth-accordion, saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums as their tools, and they display both impressive virtuosity and considerable eccentricity in doing so. "
–No Clean Singing

"The Paris band brings a diverse mix of influences, melding metal, jazz, and medieval music with instrumentation that includes synth-accordion, saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums."
–Scene Point Blank

Stream and buy the album, here: https://linktr.ee/ckraft.music

Stream the new music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n-b2p6px9g

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

SPIRITWORLD - Helldorado

SPIRITWORLD announces third album, Helldorado; new single "Abilene Grime" and official music video streaming now

From Las Vegas, Nevada, SpiritWorld announces the upcoming release of its third album: Helldorado.

The follow-up to 2022's acclaimed Deathwestern, Helldorado will be released March 21, 2025 on Century Media Records.

Pre-order Helldorado and stream the album's opening track, "Abilene Grime," here: 

https://spiritworld.lnk.to/Helldorado-AlbumPR

Stream the official "Abilene Grime" music video, here: 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vbuFWWmfoOc

Visit the band's official merch store with exclusive vinyl and Helldorado merch, here:

https://spiritworldprophet.com/

SpiritWorld founder/frontman Stu Folsom offers these words: "I am thrilled to share that our new album, Helldorado, will be available everywhere, March 21st. We took most of last year off from playing shows, to hunker down and make this record with Sam Pura at the infamous Panda Studios."

Helldorado is the third chapter in SpiritWorld's infernal saga. The iconoclastic Folsom has been building the SpiritWorld universe since 2020, beginning with the band's debut, Pagan Rhythms, and blossoming on sophomore album Deathwestern, both released on Century Media. Distinct from any other band in the scene, SpiritWorld thrives in its own aesthetic realm, a place where thrashing hardcore, Wild West stylings, and supernatural horror dwell in macabre harmony. Clad in matching Western suits, Folsom and his boys have traveled the world with the likes of tours with Obituary, Municipal Waste, Kreator, Sepultura, Stick To Your Guns, and Agnostic Front. More than a musician, Folsom is an author too, and SpiritWorld's music goes hand in hand with Folsom's writings. The first two albums were soundtracks to his book, Godlessness, a series of Lovecraftian horror tales set in a fictional Old West. 

Assessing the anomaly that is SpiritWorld, Stereogum has hailed it as "a gory symphony that owes as much to Slayer as Cormac McCarthy" and as "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." Revolver Magazine has stated: "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."

Now, with Helldorado, Folsom will demonstrate that everything thus far was merely the prelude. SpiritWorld is just getting started. Helldorado cements the band's brand, while making new moves that show the breadth of the potential in store.

A 3-minute hellride, opening track "Abilene Grime" begins as a feisty honky-tonk shuffle then transforms into a Slayer-strength fist-pumper that thrashes straight into the abyss. The official "Abilene Grime" music video brings the song to life with cinematic grandeur, depicting a doomed preacher's descent into the underworld.

"When I wrote the demo for 'Abilene Grime,' it felt like the album really found its identity and materialized out of the ether," says Folsom. "It twangs, it bangs and it has a sick video, directed by our dear friend Todd Hailstone, which we filmed in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Enjoy, everybody!"

Across Helldorado's ten tracks, SpiritWorld indulges in metallic hardcore blitzes, world-weary country-punk stomps, and even a wistful, finger-picked lament. Folsom explains the diversity of the music: "This record, more so than the last two, I think you hear way more fearlessness and confidence in the choices. Things that were showing up as interludes have manifested into fully fleshed out pieces. At its heart, Helldorado is a punishing, unrelenting masterclass in crossover and hardcore thrash. But in a scene where every riff has been played before and every great band has thirty contemporary acolytes mining their catalog and doing worship albums, there is something in the strangeness of Helldorado that makes it endearing." Guests on the album include Sgah’gahsowáh (Black Braid), Zach Blair (Rise Against), and Frederic Leclercq (Kreator). 

Folsom continues: "Maybe it is a risk to incorporate things that will be pretty far out there for the casual punk or metalhead, but having the opportunity to make a record comes with a responsibility to me. I dreamed of making records for so long. Way before I could play guitar or do any of the practical things you need to be able to do. I take it very seriously to follow my gut and let my style hang out on these records. I only want to do things in life that I am all in on. If that makes me an outcast or even more fringe than your average underground music act then that's okay. The stench of being genuine is beautiful."

Lyrically, Helldorado explores new territory as well. While SpiritWorld's first two albums were companion pieces to Folsom's book, Godlessness, Helldorado moves beyond that book's pages, to tell the story of what happens next. "Godlessness leaves off in a cliffhanger where all the surviving characters have managed to arrive at a villa in Mexico near where a rumored gateway to hell is said to exist," says Folsom. "Helldorado is the first glimpse that fans will get into some of what is unfolding in the next novel that I am working on, that tells the story of what happens with these characters and the gates of hell."

Helldorado tracklist:
1) Abilene Grime
2) No Vacancy in Heaven
3) Western Stars & The Apocalypse
4) Bird Song of Death
5) Prayer Lips
6) Waiting on the Reaper
7) Oblivion
8) Cleansing
9) Stigmata Scars
10) Annihilism

Helldorado lineup:
Stu Folsom - vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, back ups, MIDI drums, sampling, synths, percussion
Preston Harper - drums

Nick Brundy - backing vocals
Matt Schrum - backing vocals

Randy Moore - lead guitar
RJ Demarco - saxophone, acoustic guitar
Jerico Horca - organ, keyboard
Sam Pura - bass, backing vocals
Theresa Brown - backing vocals
Sgah'gahsowáh - vocals on "Oblivion"

Zach Blair - electric guitar solo on "Oblivion"
Frederic Leclercq - electric guitar solo on "Stigmata Scars"

Helldorado credits:

All music and lyrics written by Stu Folsom

Engineered and mixed by Sam Pura
Mastered by Alberto de Icaza
Additional engineering by Stu Folsom and Theresa Brown
Cover art by James Bousema

Layout and design by Stu Folsom
Band photo by Jasmine Garcia

MERCY TIES - Reflections and Criticisms

MERCY TIES returns with first new album in 10 years, Reflections and Criticisms (The Ghost Is Clear Records); "Love All the People" visualizer streaming now

Returning with its first new music in 10 years, Mercy Ties announces the March 28th release of its new album, Reflections and Criticisms, on The Ghost Is Clear Records.

A new official visualizer for the album's first single, "Love All the People," is now streaming, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fICPVhQ931s

Pre-order Reflections and Criticisms, here:

https://theghostisclearrecords.limitedrun.com/products/863124

Founded in Seattle, Washington in 2010, Mercy Ties' intense brand of hardcore initially bore trademarks of screamo, then quickly spiraled into something darker and more lethal. A review from Invisible Oranges in that early period described the sound as "contorted, noise rock-indebted metalcore"; Decibel Magazine called it "unsettling, unpredictable and distinctive." 

Citing bands like Breather Resist, Converge, Pageninetynine, and hometown heroes Botch as reference points, Mercy Ties quickly shaped itself into a standout of a new wave of West Coast hardcore that indulged freely in elements of noise rock, math, sludge, and grind. The band's initial run culminated in the 2015 release of the outstanding Proper Corruption album, followed by US and European tours with French powerhouse Birds In Row.

With a bright future ahead, Mercy Ties then promptly faded from view. "We needed to take a break," says vocalist Andre Sanabria. "We were all facing tensions for various reasons and needed some space. Other aspects of life were pulling us away." In the latter part of the decade, some band members migrated away from Seattle and away from music. Guitarist Trevor Bebee immersed himself in the world of competitive powerlifting; drummer Chris Pereira relocated to Europe.

Bebee recounts how a spark was reignited during the darkest days of the pandemic: "I started writing again. I really fell in love with a different process of writing, revising and layering parts on my laptop alone. I’d put songs to a click track and send them to Chris, our drummer. We ended up with a lot of material and made plans for him to fly out to the States to jam out the record. We got Mike Hanson, our old second guitarist, back on board, rehearsed for a few weeks and made a record. My main objective was to finally have a record I was proud of, but we inevitably talked about shows and here we are. I retired from competitive powerlifting last year, so the idea of playing shows and touring sounds much more fun than when lifting was my number one priority."

Engineered by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City, Sumac) and Chris Common (These Arms Are Snakes, The Mars Volta), and mastered by Brad Boatright (The Armed, Necrot), Reflections and Criticisms is not only a comeback, it is Mercy Ties' strongest work yet. Although the band members are spread between Washington, Oregon, California, and Spain, Mercy Ties bulldozes forth like one consolidated force.

At under two minutes, the album's first single, "Love All the People," is a crusher of epic proportions – an earthquaking display of tension and release, bursting with authenticity. Vocalist Andre Sanabria, also currently the frontman for Neurot Recordings ragers Ex Everything, roars: "Life is cheap / Disgust grows / We're not divine, just a joke / The paradise that we call earth, destroyed by stupidity."

Sanabria gives this statement about the song: "During a lengthy anhedonic period I wrote 'Love All the People' as a conversation to myself. The big sad passed and the words remained in a book, expunged and forgotten. The first time I listened to what would become 'Love All The People,' those same words came back to me. I opened up the notebook and everything lined up, predetermined. The lyrics themselves are self-explanatory: we're all on borrowed time, so enjoy it while you can."

"Love All the People," was first released last year on The Ghost Is Clear's 2024 label sampler. Fast becoming recognized as a pillar of the scene, located at the crossroads of hardcore and noise rock, the label boasts recent releases by Chat Pile, Whores., Rid of Me, Intercourse, Missouri Executive Order 44, Yellfire, and more. Mercy Ties' connection to TGIC runs deep: back in 2007, drummer Chris Pereira formed the band Tigon with TGIC co-founder Brian Dooley.

Stand by for tourdates.

Tracklist:
1) Preamble
2) A New Hell Everyday
3) Normative Violence
4) Survivor's Guilt
5) No Longer Human
6) Requiem
7) The Spectacle of the Scaffold
8) Giving Witness to Extinction
9) Love All the People
10) A Body in Search of a Corpse
11) Acta est Fabula, Plaudite

Lineup:
Andre Sanabria - vocals
Trevor Bebee - guitar
Mike Hanson - guitar
Chris Pereira - drums
Millie Reda - live bass

Discography:
Reflections and Criticisms (2025, The Ghost Is Clear Records)
Proper Corruption (2015, Glory Kid Ltd.)
A Dim Lit Place (2013, Glory Kid Ltd.)
Split w/ Grenades (2011, Echolalic Records)
Under the Gold-Rimmed Sky (2011, demo)

Photo by Kayla Tarkalson Bebee

CKRAFT - "Misconstruction of the Universe"

CKRAFT: French crew melds metal, jazz, and Gregorian chants on new single "Misconstruction of the Universe"; official music video streaming now

From Paris, France, CKRAFT presents "Misconstruction of the Universe," the third single from its forthcoming sophomore album, Uncommon Grounds.

Stream the official "Misconstruction of the Universe" music video, here:

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2025/01/09/video-premiere-ckrafts-misconstruction-of-the-universe-constructs-battlegrounds-and-deconstructs-jazz-metal/

Pre-order 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 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.

Decibel Magazine describes the band's compositions as "expansive and otherworldly" and gives this report: "With members hailing from various outposts of the musical universe, having a synth-accordion and saxophone as featured instruments, and the members’ declared bond over polyrhythmic metal, Middle Age Gregorian chants and ancient architecture, CKRAFT formed in France a decade ago and blew convention out the window with their 2022 debut... Bridging the gap between djent’s chugging thunder and the scattershot melodic freedom of jazz, the band have returned with album number two, Uncommon Grounds."

A meditation on the ways in which humans make sense of the universe, from the ancient and religious, to the modern and scientific, the new single, "Misconstruction of the Universe," uses the Gregorian chant "Universi Qui Te Expectant" as its lead melody.

The official music video is a grand, cinematic clip, showing the band in action amidst two battling figures. Founder and synth-accordion player Charles Kieny states: “The location in which the band was filmed is an old airship hangar in Normandy. Originally built by the French navy during WWI, it was meant to shelter airships used to spot German submarines. The other location is a gigantic Art Deco-styled carpark, built in the 1930s in the French Alps city of Grenoble. The director, Juliette Ulrich, symbolized this concept of old beliefs vs. modern beliefs, by two characters, one with a plague mask and one with a gas mask. They’re fighting, each with their own weapon –– medieval vs. modern, mystic vs. rational, religious vs. scientific –– and they’re chasing something, we don’t know why, maybe some sort of truth. But in the end, when they finally reach the light, nothing remains of them."

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:

https://www.seetickets.us/event/deli-girls-confines-heavy-halo-kill-alters-eye-claret-d/630962

Photo by Irene

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