Out today: DEAD WAVES - Abandoned Children

Abandoned Children, the new EP by Dead Waves, is out today on Entheon Records.

Dead Waves is a truly unique NYC duo – two brothers, born and raised in Queens, who have been making music together for a decade. Their early music had a Nirvana/Pixies noise-rock vibe (and they recorded a 7" with Steve Albini) but on recent recordings they have dropped the volume and gone in a psych-folk direction – distant, dreamlike, haunting, fragmented songs, sometimes utilizing traditional Greek instruments in honor of their Greek heritage.

New EP Abandoned Children, the brothers' seventh release in all, was recorded by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans), with standout track "Innermost" produced by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, PJ Harvey).

"It's about feeling empathy for all the abandoned children who feel hopeless in our present day reality," says Dead Waves' Teddy Panopoulos.

Stream the EP and buy it, here: https://deadwaves.com/album/abandoned-children

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2022/04/dead-waves-abandoned-children.html

"Nick and Teddy Panopoulos find fragile intensity in haunting psych and folk arrangements, creating raw strange, and soulful meditations on the titular “abandoned children"... Perfectly balancing hypnotic fractured beauty and raw simmering menace.”

–Under the Radar

"Minimized percussion and bass, spectral guitar drones, and pained, muted vocals swirling around the album’s seven haunted tracks... Ranges in sound from the early bedroom slowcore recordings of The Antlers to doom-metal mainstays Thou’s unplugged 'Inconsolable' EP."

–Flood

“Every Dead Waves release has been compelling, but it feels like they have finally found their true sound. As quiet as this release is, it never comes across as passive or toothless. This music feels as important as it does ethereal. It sounds like ghosts at the edge of the firelight trying to tell us something. Are we listening?”

–Burning Ambulance

“A dream unto itself.”

–CVLT Nation

"A haunting, heartbreaking experience."

–Northern Transmissions

DUMB WAITER + V13

 

Stream the new DUMB WAITER track, "Digging a Hole Under a Bodega," via V13, here:

https://v13.net/2022/05/premiere-dumb-waiter-live-out-their-dreams-on-the-outlandish-digging-a-hole-under-a-bodega/

Formed in 2012 in Richmond, VA, Dumb Waiter was founded by Nick Crider and Nathaniel Roseberry. As Nick explains it, the band’s formation came out of humorous necessity: “Back then, I was the booking agent at non-profit venue space and I had booked Lightning Bolt and wanted to be a complete brat and play the show as well. So I asked Nathaniel to start a noise power violence band. After a few practices, Nath brought in more players (Tristan Brennis and Keith Paul) and Dumb Waiter was formed.” Since then, the band has mutated to what could be described as avant-garde jazz rock, looking to move away from being pigeonholed into the “math rock” label that they generally don’t relate to. A testament to their dynamic sound, Dumb Waiter has shared the stage with a diverse array of talented bands including Tera Melos, Lightning Bolt, Behold the Arctopus, Ex Eye (Colin Stetson), David Liebe Hart, Eternal Summers, Weasel Walter, Cleric, Young Widows, Jaye Jayle, and Screaming Females.

 

Gauche Gists will be released June 24th, 2022 on Ossein Records. Gauche Gists will be released on cassette (ltd. edition of 50), as well as a limited pressing of 100 copies on citron-colored vinyl, with hand-numbered inserts. Preorder, here.

THE BEARER - Chained to a Tree

THE BEARER: Austin TX metallic hardcore unit to release debut full-length album "Chained to a Tree" via Silent Pendulum Records; new music video streaming

Silent Pendulum Records presents the July 1st release of Chained to a Tree, the debut album by Austin, Texas band The Bearer.

Stream the music video for first single "Jagged Lines," here: https://noecho.net/features/the-bearer-austin-band

Pre-order Chained to a Tree, here: https://silentpendulumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/chained-to-a-tree

From the album's first note through its last, The Bearer barrels forth, possessed by the same fiery spirit that once burned inside the likes of Converge and Botch. Like those bands, The Bearer's brand of hardcore punk is wildly emotional yet supremely structured. A fine balance of chaos and control, songs careen on the brink of derailment but the speeding train always stays on the track.

Vocalist Colton Siegmund screams with so much throat-scouring conviction, every word hits like a deathbed confession from the recesses of a broken soul. It seems highly improbable that such a powerful vocalist could simultaneously be smacking drums, but indeed, Siegmund is a singing drummer whose deft pounding swerves from galloping punk beats to halftime mosh incitements. Michael Delaney's guitar and newest member Jeffrey Blum's bass conjoin into thick, warm tones, turning on a dime, from the fast and scrappy, to the epic and luminous, to the chugging and lethal. 

Across twelve songs, the band delivers knockout after knockout. These are not blind punches – underneath the bursts of passion there lies an orchestrated mix of vibes derived from punk, metal, noise-rock, post-rock, and beyond.

The Bearer's three members are all veterans of the Austin scene. "Michael and I were born and raised in the Austin area and have spent our lives in the scene here," says Siegmund. "We’ve been playing in bands for close to two decades. Jeffrey moved to Austin after graduating college and has been a part of things here for over ten years now." Releasing three EPs since its formation in 2016, the band has come into its own on Chained to a Tree. It is the band's first release with Blum; both Blum and Siegmund are also members of notable Austin punks Drip-Fed.

The changing face of Austin is a major force in the band's story. Siegmund speaks about "billionaires taking over the city" in recent years and how the city's explosive growth is threatening the arts. "This record was written at four different practice spaces as the Austin market boomed and all of our practice spaces were sold off to be turned into offices and Tesla showrooms," he states. 

In a city rocked by the transformative effects of capitalism, The Bearer brings a humanistic message to the table. "The main message is that every human being deserves respect, to be cared for and represented," says Siegmund. Lyrics rally on behalf of the individual, against all manner of smothering institutions – capitalism, religion, government, societal norms. "We’ve never thought of ourselves as a political band but in a time where basic human rights are being questioned, we feel more politically charged." 

Chained to a Tree was engineered and mixed by Andrew Hernandez (Mammoth Grinder, This Will Destroy You). The artwork was created by Alexandre Goulet (All Out War, Despised Icon).

Tracklist:
1) Pulled Back In
2) Jagged Lines
3) Gleam
4) Let It Burn
5) In the Sty
6) Sympathy Pains
7) Jury of Oppressors
8) Chained to a Tree
9) Axes 
10) No Defendable Position
11) Peaceful Sleep 
12) Holy Water 

Lineup:

Michael Delaney - guitar

Jeffrey Blum - bass
Colton Siegmund - drums, vocals

Discography:
Chained to a Tree - LP, 2022

Adapt | Adjust - EP, 2018

Fiction - EP, 2017

The Bearer - EP, 2016

Photos by Zach Brigham-Delude

LAMENT CITYSCAPE - "Innocence of Shared Experiences"

LAMENT CITYSCAPE: industrial-metal phenom releases surreal music video for stunning new track "Innocence of Shared Experiences" 

Industrial-metal phenom Lament Cityscape has released the official music video for its new track, "Innocence of Shared Experiences."

Directed by Neil Corbin, the video is a thrilling, Lynchian clip – a stylish, surreal portrayal of darkness lurking just beneath the surface of normal life. A portrait of disconnection and alienation, the video serves to illustrate the song's primary lyric: “You'll never know me and you’ll never know anyone.”

Stream the video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZeZVeD6Wcw

"Innocence of Shared Experiences" appears on Lament Cityscape's brand new album, A Darker Discharge, out now on Lifeforce Records. While much of the band's work is centered in the punishing and abrasive – comparisons to Godflesh, Code Orange, and Uniform have been flying around – "Innocence of Shared Experiences" taps into a glistening, dream-like vibe, more in line with the melancholy sounds of Jesu or The Soft Moon's Luis Vazquez.

A Darker Discharge is the band's 13th release in all. Lament Cityscape mastermind Mike McClatchey relocated to rural Wyoming for the writing and recording of the album.

Stream the album and buy it, here: https://lamentcityscapelfr.bandcamp.com/

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2022/02/lament-cityscape-darker-discharge.html

"Breathtaking, like if Justin Broadrick fully reconciled Jesu’s heartbreak with Godflesh’s deathly lurch."
–SPIN

"This is one of the most powerful and interesting albums I've heard in some time... Uniform's intensity mixed with an early 00's cinematic score."
–Metal Injection

"Industrial, metal, and the darker side of the synthpop spectrum converge in the world of Lament Cityscape."
–No Echo

DEAD WAVES - "Innermost"

DEAD WAVES: NYC duo premieres haunting new track "Innermost," produced by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, PJ Harvey)

NYC duo Dead Waves has revealed new track "Innermost" from its upcoming new Abandoned Children EP.

The track was recorded by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans) and produced by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, PJ Harvey).

Out May 27th on Entheon Records, Abandoned Children is the band's seventh release in all.

Stream the track, here: https://www.undertheradarmag.com/news/premiere_dead_waves_shares_new_single_innermost

Pre-order the EP, here: https://deadwaves.com/album/abandoned-children

In the words of Under The Radar Magazine, "Nick and Teddy Panopoulos find fragile intensity in haunting psych and folk arrangements, creating raw, strange, and soulful meditations. 'Innermost' ripples with a quiet sense of foreboding and aggression... Dead Waves captures an indelible element of primal fear, perfectly balancing hypnotic fractured beauty and raw simmering menace."

Abandoned Children is an utterly authentic piece of art that leads and does not follow. As subdued as they are, Dead Waves' fragile guitars and distant vocals are loaded with memories of violence; the songs hit like fragments of past horrors, glimpsed through the fog of decades, or like slippery revelations received and lost within dreams. Through seven tracks, Teddy Panopoulos and his brother Nick conjure quiet intensity that cuts to the bone – a dark mix of psych, folk, and noise-rock.

Teddy states: “It's about feeling empathy for all the abandoned children who feel hopeless in our present day reality."

Early Dead Waves releases, including the Steve Albini-produced Oracles of the Grave/Promise 7", rocked in a heavy-garage fashion, sparking comparisons to Nirvana and Pixies. Over the course of its seven releases, the band has gradually severed ties with rock conventions and blossomed into an unfettered, experimental musical entity. Gone now are the drums and roars, but in this rawer state the music is more powerful than ever.

With Abandoned Children, Teddy and Nick continue marching to their own beat, making music that is soulful and strange and brimming with the confidence of true artists. As Dead Waves' volume continues to drop, its impact continues to soar.

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2022/04/dead-waves-abandoned-children.html

Photo by Jeremy Balderson

HAUNTED HORSES - New LP Announcement + "Pig" Video

 

"a caustic punk/goth/industrial fusion that would fit in nicely next to anything from '80s Swans to latter-day Daughters. It's a punishing, thunderous track that really offers up a fresh take on this sound, and it comes with a well-matched video made by Andy Wallis (Displaced/Replaced)."

— BrooklynVegan

Watch the video for new single "Pig," as well as read more about the upcoming album via BrooklynVegan: 

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/haunted-horses-announce-new-lp-for-three-one-g-watch-the-pig-video/

Haunted Horses is an industrial-punk duo hailing from Seattle, WA. Their sound is thunderous and chaotic, utilizing wall of noise techniques through an onslaught of keys, guitars and drums. Myke Pelly's off kilter drumming and Colin Dawson's architectural noise structures create jittery post-punk that is both upbeat and gloomy. Most recently, the band enlisted Seattle-based bassist Brian McClelland of Filth is Eternal and He Whose Ox is Gored, creating an added level of heavy rhythmic noise that not only contributes an exciting dynamic layer to the album sonically, but to their already-captivating live performance as well. The bleak vocals are persistently ominous in a seductive way, conjuring up the nightmarish aura of a dissonant horror-film soundtrack. With reviewers like Anthony Fantano (Needle Drop) likening their previous work to legendary bands such as Swans, Bauhaus, and Killing Joke, Haunted Horses carry on the tradition of noise that can terrorize as well as entrance, oftentimes simultaneously. This is evident in the list of hard-hitting contemporaries they’ve shared the stage and toured with, including Lingua Ignota, Portrayal of Guilt, A Place to Bury Strangers, Bambara, and Boy Harsher. Fans of Einstürzende Neubauten, Swans, Girl Band, Death Grips, The Soft Moon, Daughters, Street Sects, Ho99o9, and Uniform will find Haunted Horses a welcome addition to their lexicon.

 

“Pig” is a single off of the upcoming LP, The Worst Has Finally Happened, which will be released on limited vinyl via Three One G Records on July 29th, 2022. Preorder, here.

The Worst Has Finally Happened tracklist:

1. House of the World to Come

2. The Garden

3. Pig

4. Window Sung

5. The Worst

6. Swarms

7. Thorns

8. Golden Stairs

9. Cold Machine

10. Severed Circle

DUMB WAITER - ‘Acceptance Speech to an Empty Room’

“This song stumbled its way to fruition fairly quickly. We made a concerted effort to leave negative space for this recurring, interrupting saxophone. Harnessing the mutated essence of both John Zorn and Lisa Simpson, the sax assumes the role of a barking dog, a tumbling stack of plates, an acceptance speech to an empty room. Jagged syllables ricocheting off of the empty chairs and bare concrete walls. The song then spirals into a bout of madness for the next 30 seconds until finding its footing in a placid, reverberating pool of synth’d-out guitar and thick bass tones, misshapen sax harmonies and deteriorating drums.”

- Dumb Waiter

Stream the new track by DUMB WAITER, "Acceptance Speech to an Empty Room," via New Noise Magazine, here:

https://newnoisemagazine.com/track-premiere-dumb-waiter-acceptance-speech-to-an-empty-room/

Gauche Gists will be released June 24th, 2022 on Ossein Records. Gauche Gists will be released on cassette (ltd. edition of 50), as well as a limited pressing of 100 copies on citron-colored vinyl, with hand-numbered inserts. Preorder, here.

Out today: THIS IS OBLIVION

The self-titled debut album by This Is Oblivion is out today.

Using voice, violins, and percussion, the NYC-based Lulu Black and partner Michael Kadnar (The Number Twelve Looks Like You) conjure darkly beautiful, colossally heavy dirges in the vein of Chelsea Wolfe, Zola Jesus, NIN, or Swans. "I love gritty textures paired with gorgeous harmonies," states Black. 

This Is Oblivion was recorded and mixed in 2021 by Seth Manchester (Lingua Ignota, The Body) and mastered by Brian Lucey (Depeche Mode, David Lynch). 

Stream and buy the album, here: https://silentpendulumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-oblivion

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2022/02/this-is-oblivion.html

"In addition to owning Silent Pendulum Records, Michael Kadnar’s name can be seen throughout the experimental metal label’s discography, collaborating with signed artists including The Number Twelve Looks Like You and So Hideous. His latest project sees him teaming up with his romantic partner Lulu Black as the dirgey metal duo This Is Oblivion... an interesting blend of the spacious, hard-hitting doom metal of Body Void and the industrial noise of HIDE, not to mention the gothy theatricality of an artist like Chelsea Wolfe."
–Flood

"As if you took the majestic ambient abstractions that close My Dying Bride’s 'The Cry of Mankind' and draped them over a doom and drone metal skeleton, Lulu Black and Michael Kadnar create music that is simultaneously haunting and unbearably beautiful."

–PopMatters

"This Is Oblivion is a stunning portrait of artists elevating various styles—gothic rock, doom, industrial, post-rock, and prog. It’s an album that feels free and loose yet beautifully interconnected."

–New Noise

"What’s most accomplished about This Is Oblivion is the duo’s ability to conjure an atmosphere so ghostly and tantalizing with so few elements. Each track builds its soundscape upon a single instrumental melodic line utilizing violin, cello, piano, or industrial electronic swells, and backed by doomy percussion. Tracks like 'The Truth,' 'Undeserving,' and 'A Reckoning' are built upon a menace and malice not unlike 'The Call of the Wretched Sea'-era Ahab meets Swans‘ 'The Seer,' while the pitch-black industrial effects of the latter recall the scathing industrial leanings of Corrections House‘s 'Last City Zero.'"

–Angry Metal Guy

“They effortlessly blend doom metal with post-industrial and electronic influences in this twisted folk-styled narrative, reminiscent of Lingua Ignota or Chelsea Wolfe...”
–Everything Is Noise

“The duo of Michael Kadnar and Lulu Black have on their hands a debut release that winds effortlessly through doomy dirges, dark folk, industrial tinges, and whip smart lyrics with extremely engrossing and catchy song craft. No doubt comparisons have, and will, be made to Chelsea Wolfe but that’s only a small piece of the pie.”
–Nine Circles

"An anti-pop form of industrial... Driven by Lulu Black’s disaffected and monotone vocals atop Michael Kadnar’s atmospheric arrangments of acoustic and electronic percussion."
–ReGen

"New York City-based dark folk metal... Inspiring."
–Idioteq

Photo by Sarah Adler

Out today: GOD MOTHER - Obeveklig

Obeveklig, the new EP by God Mother, is out today.

Obeveklig is Swedish for "relentless," and God Mother's approach on its new EP is indeed, relentless. The Stockholm four-piece barrels forth as if they have exhumed the most epic moments of early Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan, boiled them down and used them as rocket fuel. Obeveklig is God Mother's first new work to be released in almost 5 years and it is startlingly lean and mean – the sound of a chained dog released from its cage.

Stream and buy the EP, here: https://godmothersverige.bandcamp.com/album/obeveklig

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2022/03/god-mother-obeveklig.html

“Stockholm, Sweden’s God Mother have come a long way in the last 10 years. The band’s 2015 full-length, Maktbehov, was miles ahead of their debut EP and managed to garner the attention of guitarist Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan, who signed the band to his own label Party Smasher Inc. for their 2017 LP, Vilseledd. Now the band have returned with their new EP, Obeveklig… The new EP introduces more angular dissonance fans of SLC’s Cult Leader might enjoy along with the already furious crossover of chaotic hardcore and grindcore the band has established on previous releases.”
–Mathcore Index

"It's easy to see why someone like Ben Weinman would speak so highly of it; the chaotic, grindy hardcore of lead single "Teething" has some shared DNA with the music Ben wrote in DEP."
–BrooklynVegan

"Aside from the insane new single and disorienting-to-the-max video that accompanies it, God Mother has also received a blessing from The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman. So you know it's good."
–Metal Injection

"Converge at their most hostile."
–Last Rites

"Everyone’s favorite d-beat-grind-hardcorists God Mother are back with an absolute steamroller of an EP."
–Nine Circles

"Swedish hardcore band God Mother returns with a new EP, Obeveklig... hitting the heights of early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan."
–Scene Point Blank

TRACE AMOUNT + White Ring

TRACE AMOUNT: industrial visionary announces June tour with White Ring and Bestial Mouths

With debut full-length album Anti Body Language released in April, NYC-based industrial visionary Trace Amount announces his first run of shows supporting the release, a tour of the Eastern US with White Ring and Bestial Mouths.

White Ring, Bestial Mouths, Trace Amount:
June 1 - Milwaukee, WI @ X Ray Arcade
June 2 - Chicago, IL @ Reggies
June 3 - Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle
June 4 - Cleveland, OH @ No Class
June 5 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
June 7 - Philadelphia, PA @ Silk City
June 8 - Newark, NJ @ QXTs
June 9 - Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus

Trace Amount is the solo project of vocalist, producer, drummer, and visual artist, Brandon Gallagher. First conceived in 2019, Trace Amount took shape during the early stages of the pandemic, inspired by the grim realities of life in New York City at that time, and has evolved at a lightning pace ever since. The sound is a harsh strain of industrial music, evoking apocalyptic dread through primal rhythms, layers of synth and noise, and Gallagher's distorted moans and screams.

Debut full-length album Anti Body Language was co-produced by Fade Kainer (Statiqbloom) and mixed by Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and features a guest vocal by darkwave diva KANGA. The album was released April 15th via Federal Prisoner, the label founded by Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and visual artist Jesse Draxler (whose work adorns the cover of the album).

Revolver Magazine states: "Glitchy vocals, pounding drums, screechy noise soundscapes and a pummeling atmosphere... If you're a fan of bands like HEALTH and Author & Punisher, and/or modern noise-core artists like Dreamcrusher and Machine Girl, then Trace Amount is right up your alley.”

BrooklynVegan refers to Trace Amount as "the exact middle ground between 'The Downward Spiral' and the death industrial/power electronics scene, this album might be it."

Stream Anti Body Language, here: https://traceamountnyc.bandcamp.com/album/anti-body-language

Buy Anti Body Language, here: https://federalprisoner.shop/collections/trace-amount

Acclaimed proponents of the original "witch house" scene, White Ring released their newest album, Show Me Heaven, in 2021 This will be the band's first run of extended dates supporting the release, and some of their first shows back in the Northeast since 2019.

The solo project of Lynette Cerezo, Bestial Mouths explores influences across the spectrum of goth, industrial, post-punk, new wave, noise, metal, and beyond. New single "I Am The Spell," off the upcoming album R.O.T.T. [inmyskinn], is now streaming.

Photo by George Douglas Peterson

DUMB WAITER + ReGen

 

"Of Dumb Waiter’s methods of sonic chaos on the record, blending melody and dissonance, guitarist and founding member Nick Crider explains, 'in that dissonance is a hidden harmony,' and that 'the experience of the listener mirrors that of the conscious being inundated with all of these elements.'”

- ReGen Magazine

Listen, here:
https://regenmag.com/news/regen-premiere-dumb-waiter-reveals-a-cold-and-joyful-escape-on-third-single-from-forthcoming-fifth-album/

Formed in 2012 in Richmond, VA, Dumb Waiter was founded by Nick Crider and Nathaniel Roseberry. As Nick explains it, the band’s formation came out of humorous necessity: “Back then, I was the booking agent at non-profit venue space and I had booked Lightning Bolt and wanted to be a complete brat and play the show as well. So I asked Nathaniel to start a noise power violence band. After a few practices, Nath brought in more players (Tristan Brennis and Keith Paul) and Dumb Waiter was formed.” Since then, the band has mutated to what could be described as avant-garde jazz rock, looking to move away from being pigeonholed into the “math rock” label that they generally don’t relate to. A testament to their dynamic sound, Dumb Waiter has shared the stage with a diverse array of talented bands including Tera Melos, Lightning Bolt, Behold the Arctopus, Ex Eye (Colin Stetson), David Liebe Hart, Eternal Summers, Weasel Walter, Cleric, Young Widows, Jaye Jayle, and Screaming Females.