SADNESS - West Coast tour

SADNESS: blackgaze enigma announces West Coast tour, releases new EP "Shimmer"

Blackgaze enigma Sadness, the creative vision of multi-instrumentalist Damián Antón Ojeda, will kick off 2026 with a West Coast tour, with Ojeda's screamo unit Life and blackened prog-metallers Dawn of Ouroboros (Prosthetic Records) as support.

Founded by Ojeda in his bedroom in the suburbs of Chicago in 2014, Sadness has captivated a global cult following over the past decade. What began as an intimate solo endeavor quickly grew into one of the most prolific forces in the underground, with over 70 releases. Celebrated for its hypnotic melodies, cathartic crescendos, and emotionally immersive songwriting, the project connects atmospheric black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock.

A 2022 article from Bandcamp Daily states: "Think of rock-adjacent music’s most emotionally stirring sounds—climaxes of post-rock epics, plaintive piano melodies, life-affirming gang vocals, ambient swells, sweeping shoegaze guitars, throat-shredding wails, massive synths—and now combine them. That’s what Sadness sounds like."

A new Sadness EP, Shimmer, is out today and can be streamed here: https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/

Despite the vast body of work and the widespread acclaim, Sadness did not make its live debut until 2024. In 2025, Ojeda relocated to Baltimore, where he joined forces with Billy Jarboe of Third House Label. Together, they formed a live band, furthering Sadness’ evolution from a solitary studio project into a powerful live act.

Ojeda gives this statement about the upcoming West Coast tour:"This tour is a huge and exciting opportunity for me, a genuine dream come true to be able to play these projects live, and it's especially thrilling to be able to travel to places I've never been. I’m more than excited to see new faces and meet new people."

Sadness, Life, Dawn of Ouroboros:

Jan 02 - Los Angeles, CA - Post-Everything Fest (no Dawn of Ouroboros)
Jan 03 - San Diego, CA - Brick by Brick
Jan 04 - Phoenix, AZ - Rosetta Room
Jan 06 - Las Vegas, NV - The Griffin
Jan 07 - San Francisco, CA - Thee Parkside
Jan 08 - Roseburg, OR - Rosebud Theatre
Jan 09 - Seattle, WA - Substation
Jan 10 - Portland, OR - Twilight Cafe and Bar
Jan 11 - Vancouver, BC - Cobalt

Tickets: https://linktr.ee/sadnessblackgaze

SIRE LANGUISH - "Heaven's Night"

SIRE LANGUISH: avant-metal lifer Garett Bussanick channels Immolation and Killing Joke through new solo project; Decibel Magazine premieres "Heaven's Night" single

From New York City, veteran guitarist/vocalist Garett Bussanick reveals "Heaven's Night," the second single from Pull to God, the upcoming debut EP from his new solo project, Sire Languish.

Stream "Heaven's Night," here: https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2025/11/19/track-premiere-sire-languish-heavens-night/

Pre-order the EP, here: https://sirelanguish.bandcamp.com/album/pull-to-god

Known throughout the avant-metal scene for his exploratory guitar work and emotive death metal vocals, Garett Bussanick has been honing his craft in several distinct bands since the 1990s. Bussanick is most widely known for his current band, Aeviterne, whose latest release on Profound Lore Records has been described by Stereogum as "ominous and malevolent... also hooky as hell."

Sire Languish reveals Bussanick as a solo artist and multi-instrumentalist, with the Pull to God release being his drumming debut.

Decibel Magazine's Tim Mudd reports: "Sometimes a solo project lands sounding exactly like the person who made it—every contour, every impulse, every shadow unmistakably theirs. Sire Languish, the new project from avant-metal lifer Garett Bussanick, is one of those rare cases. “Solo project” isn’t even the right phrase. This is Bussanick unfiltered: vocals, guitars, synths, bass, and—for the first time in three decades of recorded work—drums. If you’re familiar with Bussanick’s body of work—Aeviterne’s eruptive dissonance, Flourishing’s cerebral churn, even the long-buried mutations of Cardiovascular Sub-Hypothermia—you’ll recognize the DNA. But Sire Languish is its own creature. The architecture is leaner, the melodic angles sharper, the rhythmic pulse more direct. The rep nailed it: imagine a convergence of Immolation’s tectonic lurch and Killing Joke’s apocalyptic propulsion, rendered with the nervous-system precision Bussanick’s become known for."

Pull to God was recorded and mixed by Ryan Jones (Mutilation Rites, Body Stuff), and mastered by Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts).

Photo by Matt Ahearn

Out today: TRACE AMOUNT - FLAGRANT

FLAGRANT, the new album by NYC industrial extremist Trace Amount, is out today on Bleakhouse, the label founded by King Yosef.

Tracked at Corpus Studios with Harlan Steed of Show Me The Body, FLAGRANT is the ultimate realization of the Trace Amount project, thus far. Founded six years ago by vocalist, drummer, producer, and visual artist Brandon Gallagher, Trace Amount explores the deepest, darkest recesses of human misery, working within its own unique palette of industrial, noise, metal, dub and hip hop influences.

On FLAGRANT, drums pound coldly and sparsely; ambient tones surge like choirs of evil angels; Gallagher’s groans and screams drip with contempt; techno-apocalyptic imagery abounds. It is perhaps not "music," but a beating, a purge, a guided tour of pure torment, likely to excite fans of Scorn, HIDE, and Dreamcrusher.

Against all odds, Gallagher has made big things happen for this highly inaccessible project, including tours of the US, Mexico, the UK, Australia, and Japan, and collabs with members of Frontline Assembly, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Pig Destroyer, Uniform, and more. Unapologetically, Gallagher continues to grind forward and burrow deeper into the world he has been building, playing by his own rules. The title of the new album says it all. "In basketball, the most aggressive foul you can get is a flagrant foul," he explains. "Like, you're literally swinging at another player with intent. That's me. I am intentional. I am flagrant."

Buy FLAGRANT, here: 

https://bleakhouse.co/collections/all/trace-amount

Stream the official "Seeing God on the L Train" (ft. Fatboi Sharif) music video, here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5EegT-c_Rc

Stream the offical "Clinical" (ft. Lana del Rabies) music video, here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5gQVRRsyBc

"Absolute experimental-industrial-noise... Despite Gallagher’s commitment to open-ended song structure, there is a variable that refuses to die down on each release and that is general dread and ominous tidings."

–Brutal Resonance

"When I need a dose of harsh industrial noise, Trace Amount never disappoints... Like popping in a new wave cassette from the 1980s only to find out it’s been possessed by poltergeists. It’s a whirlwind of caustic sonics that sucks my brain into a place of pure blissful audio torment!"
–CVLT Nation

"'Clinical' seethes like an open wound. Gallagher’s voice tears through the track with the gravity of self-destruction, delivered like a clenched fist. The production is suffocating, arriving with industrial grit and precision, including Lana Del Rabies’ ghostly vocal which lingers like a spectral presence."
–Destroy//Exist

"Trace Amount’s new album, FLAGRANT, is a massive amplification of the tensions that makes industrial music so entrancing, but it’s not necessarily designed to make you dance. It almost borders on sound design as Trace Amount is more of an enveloping, evolving takeover of the senses."
–Fecking Bahamas

"NYC noise merchant Trace Amount doesn’t make it easy for you. The one man act’s latest release, FLAGRANT, trades in the power electronics adjacent sound of preceding records, boiled down to its most caustic form, with undiluted antipathy that cuts through the clatter and cacophony by way of sheer meanness... Even at a digestible 7 songs, its not a record you’ll want to throw on lightly, but there’s no shortage of perversely enjoyable hostility for your inner sicko to cling to when the mood strikes."

–I Die: You Die

"A cold, hostile fusion of noise, metal, dub, and hip hop tracked at Corpus Studios with Show Me The Body’s Harlan Steed. Built on sparse, punishing drums and night-terror ambience, the record pushes Brandon Gallagher’s project deeper into its own abyss, with features from Fatboi Sharif and Lana del Rabies... FLAGRANT lands as Trace Amount’s most merciless vision yet."

–Idioteq

"Brandon Gallagher has unleashed a new auditory onslaught with 'Seeing God on the L Train,' offering the latest taste of the forthcoming FLAGRANT album from Trace Amount. The track sees the New York City-based industrial artist collaborating with New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif, whose deadpan wordplay contrasts with the metallic percussive minimalism of the instrumental, both eventually erupting into a noisy coda of maniacal wailing."
–ReGen

Photo by Jackson Green

Out today: THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY - HEAVY

HEAVY, the aptly titled new album by San Antonio, Texas crushers The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, is out today on Learning Curve Records. 

Sludgy and fiery, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy (a name inspired by a Philip K. Dick novel) rocks like an intense reimagining of Mastodon at their prime. But a journey through TGLH's back catalog reveals an adventurous project, operating on two fronts. Entirely instrumental albums such as 2014's All Sadness, Grinning Into Flow and 2017's Cavern (the soundtrack to a short film, created with the help of Bob Catlin of Pigface and Psychic TV) saw the band exploring meditative, ambient realms. 

“TGLH has always been a band with two sides; one side, this super heavy thing and the other side, more cinematic or post-rock,” states founder James Woodard. On HEAVY, Woodard – backed by the ace musicianship of guitarist James Cameron Taylor, bassist Oscar Moreno, and drummers Steven Barrera and Luke Zachary Mitchell – has chosen to commit fully to his most metallic tendencies and the result is a totally gripping experience. "I really wanted to challenge myself on this album," he says. "Some of the songs are the most difficult songs to perform, I’ve ever written in this band. They’re also a love letter to my inspirations. You’ll hear Sepultura and Napalm Death homages on this record, if you listen closely."

For those missing the band's more introspective work, Woodard hints that there is more to come: "You'll just have to wait for the next album."

Stream HEAVY and buy it, here: https://thegrasshopperliesheavy.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-2

Stream the official "Lyrics are Hard" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDy8U8Wtw8Y

Stream the official "We Are All the Antichrist" music video (featuring vocals by Capra's Crow Lotus), here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKfr2DHn-q0

"Post-metal/doom/sludge chaos agents The Grasshopper Lies Heavy... Their upcoming record, HEAVY, both purports to be and actually is."
–The Bad Penny

"Sludgy and all the way ignited... an unrelenting heaviness that sounds ferocious from start to finish."
–Destroy//Exist

"What The Grasshopper Lies Heavy steamroll out with HEAVY is some good ol’ fashioned riff-forward, chunky-waves-smashin’-into-your-eardrums brand of AmRep-appropriate noise rock... In yet another year packed with exceptional noise rock releases, where finding your flavor of choice is every bit as paralyzing as choosing a fucking ice cream flavor, HEAVY stands out."
–Heavy Blog Is Heavy

"There’s a groove in the wrath displayed by this group that’s undeniable. It’s definitely trying to grasp you by the ear lobes and force you to pay attention — and that’s a good thing."

–MetalSucks

"This album is as catchy as Torche on their best day and as thick as Crowbar on their worst… seriously, that GOOD. These eight tracks are an ingenious class on how to write a fistful of earworms and keep the metalheads coming back for more while simultaneously slaying all the mathcore kids at the blackjack table."
–Nine Circles

"HEAVY specializes in mid-tempo assaults, lethal grooves, and cathartic explosions... It’s the sort of riff-writing acumen that made Mastodon’s Remission so infectious, but here it is filtered through the pummeling power of early Coalesce."
–No Clean Singing

THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY - "Lyrics are Hard"

THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY: San Antonio crushers reveal "Lyrics are Hard" single and Gummo-esque music video

San Antonio crushers The Grasshopper Lies Heavy have released "Lyrics are Hard," the second single from their upcoming new album, HEAVY.

Sludgy and fiery, the song rocks like Neurosis and Mastodon at their hardest and heaviest. The unnerving, Gummo-esque video was directed by Will Mecca, who has also made videos for Chat Pile and Full of Hell. In his unmistakable, VHS style, Mecca follows a day in the life of a portly, snot-eating, young man, strutting around town and stealing ice cream.

Stream the video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDy8U8Wtw8Y

Pre-order the new album (out November 14th on Learning Curve Records), here: https://thegrasshopperliesheavy.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-2

"TGLH has always been a band with two sides; one side, this super heavy thing and the other side, more cinematic or post-rock," states guitarist/vocalist James Woodard, TGLH's sole constant member, who began making work under the TGLH banner in 2009 and has since enlisted an extensive cast of musicians to help him execute his visions – including a slew of music released and shows played with the likes of Chat Pile, Metz, and Yob.

Entirely instrumental albums such as 2014's All Sadness, Grinning Into Flow and 2017's Cavern – the soundtrack to a short film, created with the help of Bob Catlin (Pigface, Psychic TV) – saw Woodard exploring meditative, ambient realms. ("Movies, and their soundtracks, are a huge inspiration for me," says Woodard. "I collect them and have easily over 1,000 movies. It’s a sickness.") Simultaneously, a crushing, metallic sound was being honed and Woodard eventually introduced his vocals into the mix, a direction exemplified by 2021's A Cult That Worships a God of Death.

Now, with HEAVY, Woodard – backed by the ace musicianship of guitarist James Cameron Taylor, bassist Oscar Moreno, and drummers Steven Barrera and Luke Zachary Mitchell – has chosen to commit fully to his metallic tendencies. With power and finesse, Woodard and his cronies rock relentlessly and keep the adrenaline in the red. Woodard refers to the new album as "a love letter to my inspirations," including Sepultura and Napalm Death.

Cheekily referencing the band's bygone instrumental days, "Lyrics are Hard" consists of anti-lyrical placeholders such as "This is where the first line goes / Make the second line longer for contrast." The song is an oasis of levity in an otherwise pitch-black account of existential horror. "A recurring theme throughout our stuff is the decline of America," says Woodard. "The cruelty of the system and the apathy that it breeds." Fittingly, the band's name comes from the pages of the Philip K. Dick classic, The Man in the High Castle, a work of alternative history wherein the Axis Powers win the Second World War.

Photo by Oscar Moreno

SIRE LANGUISH - Pull to God

SIRE LANGUISH: Aeviterne frontman launches new solo project via Pull to God EP; title track streaming now

From New York City, veteran guitarist/vocalist Garett Bussanick announces his new solo endeavor, Sire Languish.

The debut EP, Pull to God, will be released December 5th via Spring Effete.

The EP was recorded and mixed by Ryan Jones at Growlhouse Studios and mastered by Colin Marston.

Stream the title track, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEbodml42_s

Pre-order the EP, here: https://sirelanguish.bandcamp.com/album/pull-to-god

Known throughout the avant-metal scene for his exploratory guitar work and emotive death metal vocals, Garett Bussanick has been honing his craft in several distinct bands since the 1990s. Bussanick is most widely known for his current band, Aeviterne, whose latest release on Profound Lore has been described by Stereogum as "ominous and malevolent... also hooky as hell." 

Sire Languish reveals Bussanick as a solo artist and multi-instrumentalist, with the Pull to God release being his drumming debut. 

Followers of Bussanick's work will instantly recognize his fingerprints all over Sire Languish. Broadly speaking, the core musical elements of Sire Languish are similar to those of Aeviterne and Aeviterne's predecessor, Flourishing: brooding atmosphere, propulsive beats, the juxtaposition of dissonant and melodic guitars, and impassioned roars. A line can even be drawn to an early, key band of his: Cardiovascular Sub-Hypothermia, an industrial-tinged death-grind unit he joined in the mid-90s.

Bussanick states: "There is an ongoing musical continuity that informs much of my work that goes back to Cardiovascular Sub-Hypothermia. This is the band that has served as the blueprint and main inspiration for Aeviterne and Flourishing, and now Sire Languish. I created Sire Languish as a home for what I consider to be my more melodic, accessible ideas that are still rooted in the original inspirations for CS-H." 

While these connections are evident, Sire Languish occupies its own lane, related yet separate from his other projects. The EP's title track, "Pull to God," charges forward like some other-dimensional union of Immolation and Killing Joke. Bussanick's spirited drumming and trademark guitars intertwine thoughtfully, while the entire recording contains what Bussanick considers his best vocal performance to date.

Sire Languish is sure to thrill any fan of Bussanick's other music, and is a chance to hear the man behind the drum kit for the first time. Beyond that, Pull to God stands as a stellar slab of avant-metal for any newcomers to feast their ears upon. Like everything Bussanick has delivered thus far in his 30-plus years of making music, it is the sound of an artist refining and deepening his commitment to his work.

Tracklist:
1) Pull to God
2) Consuming the Mother
3) Sow of Nerves
4) Heaven's Night

Lineup:
Garett Bussanick - vocals, guitar, synth, bass, drums

Photo by Matthew Ahearn

Cover art by Phineas Roy

Out today: IN LIEU - Hooligan

Hooligan, the new album by In Lieu, is out today on Learning Curve Records. 

From Minneapolis, Minnesota, In Lieu deals in bite-sized anthems, mixing the austerity and belligerence of noise rock with the soaring tunefulness of grunge. Fronted by vocalist/guitarist Nikii Post, the quartet crafts brief bangers out of sludgy and discordant guitars, pummeling drums, and spellbinding vocals. Post is a phenomenal talent who transmits a metric ton of attitude and power through each of her songs (most of which make their point in under two minutes). Fans of Black Flag, Melvins, Cows, and newer powerhouses like Rid of Me, will find some bliss here.

Stream the album and download it, here: https://inlieuminneapolis.bandcamp.com/album/hooligan

Stream the "Godfucker" video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jglo4te40ms

Stream the "Hooligan" video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIbGk2ILzmk

Stream the "Bully" video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6viB6NidSfQ

"It's killer... Noisy, sludgy, aggressive... Very passionate."

–Bandcamp Radio, "The Metal Show"

"There are few things better than a band in Minnesota loud enough to be heard on both coasts. But that’s the energy drawing us back to the center via In Lieu, the Minneapolis noise-rock dynamo... A feral seance swirl of belligerence and control that positions the likes of Melvins and Jesus Lizard as the Beatles and Stones of our day."
–Vanyaland

"The band hits with weight and urgency, rooted in punk and grunge but driven into heavier, sludgier noise rock territory which feels both volatile and magnetic."
–Destroy//Exist

"Nikii Post is screaming her head off again, and why not? She’s damn good at it."
–Racket

"I was immediately compelled when I heard it. It's a really great record."
–Vinyl & Vision

Photo by Sam Bramble