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

Out today: SOMETHING IS WAITING - Livelick

Livelick, the new live album by Something Is Waiting, is out today on Learning Curve Records. 

Recorded at a headlining show at the famed Empty Bottle in Chicago, Livelick captures one entire Something Is Waiting set, start to finish, with no edits or overdubs. Skating a line between Guns N' Roses, Pantera, and Unsane, Something Is Waiting has been described by The Chicago Reader as "Sunset Strip swagger forged with a sonic sledgehammer of ‘90s metal" and by Kerrang! as "the shrieky, sleazy crust-glam you crave." Frontman Eddie Gobbo is a wildly creative lyricist who conjures surreal scenarios with the euphoric wordplay of a Beat poet. Rarely does a band so strange, rock so hard.

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

Stream the "Poster Boys (Live)" video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkSrzvfFtp4

Stream the "Unholy Alliance (Live)" video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auhmPOLkfSk

Stream the "Get Yr Gimmicks (Live) video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbFjGOa2S8g

"Something Is Waiting don’t play it safe. The Chicago trio’s idea of a 2025 statement isn’t another studio single or flashy short-form clip — it’s a full-on live album, recorded without overdubs at the Empty Bottle and dropped like a brick through the windshield of our content-saturated world. Livelick documents the band as they are: raw, nasty, and locked in."
–Decibel

"[Livelick] features the band at their rawest and heaviest, dishing out one sledgehammer tune after another. It showcases SIW kicking out the jams to a hometown crowd, at a headlining gig, at the Empty Bottle in Chicago in 2023... One beautiful racket that mixes in their disparate influences of noise rock and sleaze rock. (Other publications have come up with pretty creative ways to describe their sound. I’m throwing my hat in that ring. I’m calling it 'Noise Rock & Roll,' NR&R.)" 

–New Noise

"Glam metal swagger... run through a noise rock Killdozer filter."
–Clean Sheets

"Hard, nasty, and weird, Something Is Waiting carves its own strange path."
–Getting It Out

TRACE AMOUNT x Fatboi Sharif

TRACE AMOUNT: NYC industrial extremist teams with rapper Fatboi Sharif on "Seeing God on the L Train" single; "video game" music video streaming now

NYC industrial extremist Trace Amount has released "Seeing God on the L Train," the new single from the upcoming album, FLAGRANT.

Stream the official "Seeing God on the L Train" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5EegT-c_Rc

Recorded at Corpus Studios with Harlan Steed of Show Me The Body, produced and mixed by Trace Amount, and mastered by Kris Lapke (Cold Cave, Prurient), FLAGRANT will be released November 14th on Bleakhouse, the label founded by industrial-hardcore powerhouse King Yosef.

Pre-order FLAGRANT, here: https://bleakhouse.co/collections/all/trace-amount

Inspired in part by the ominous soundscapes and beat experimentations of Mick Harris' post-Napalm Death project Scorn, "Seeing God on the L Train" features vocals by New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif, whose work Rolling Stone has described as "punctilious, every-word-counts lyricism... like GZA’s Liquid Swords, Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele, and RZA’s Gravediggaz work all congealed in a thrilling sonic stew." On "Seeing God on the L Train," Sharif starts with cool, deadpan wordplay, then shifts into maniacal wailing.

Brandon Gallagher, the New Jersey-born, NYC-based vocalist, drummer, producer, and visual artist behind Trace Amount, states: "I had been really into Fatboi Sharif's album Decay, and in late 2024 I booked a show with Dreamcrusher and asked him to round out the line up. I had always wanted to cross over into more hip hop and dub elements with Trace Amount, so it felt like a slam dunk doing this track with fellow New Jerseyan Fatboi Sharif."

Designed, animated, and edited by Gallagher, the "Seeing God on the L Train" music video is a "video game" that fully embodies the techno-apocalypse vibe that runs through all of Trace Amount's work. Set in locations that will be familiar to many New Yorkers, including music venues such as TV Eye, House of Yes, and the late, great Saint Vitus Bar, the video is described by Gallagher as "a nice tour of north Brooklyn, hitting some iconic landmarks and defending them from robo-dogs trying to data farm inside our cultural hubs."

First conceived by Gallagher in 2019, Trace Amount took shape during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, inspired by the grim realities of life in New York City at that time, and has evolved at a lightning pace ever since. Revolver Magazine has described it in these words: “Trace Amount is the one-man project of Brooklyn's Brandon Gallagher, a prolific musician and visual artist… In just a few years, he's already unloaded a wealth of harsh, confrontational industrial material under the Trace Amount moniker... Glitchy vocals, pounding drums, screechy noise soundscapes and a pummeling atmosphere." BrooklynVegan meanwhile has labelled it as "the exact middle ground between The Downward Spiral and the death industrial/power electronics scene."

Trace Amount's portal-to-hell-in-the-basement aesthetic has been in place from the very start and, as Gallagher hones his craft on each successive release, the sound seems to grow only more suffocating. On sophomore album FLAGRANT, drums pound coldly and sparsely. Ambient tones surge like choirs of evil angels. Gallagher's groans and screams drip with contempt. FLAGRANT is not so much music to be appraised, but a beating, a purge, a guided tour of pure torment.

Part of what defines Trace Amount and makes the story so exceptional, is Gallagher's sheer willpower. To achieve what he has achieved in six years – the collabs, the tours, the media acclaim – is remarkable for any DIY solo project, but especially for one as utterly personal and abrasive as this. Some of the highlights of the journey thus far include: collabs with artists such as the late Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan, Integrity mastermind Dwid Hellion, Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, Kontravoid; releases on labels such as Greg Puciato's Federal Prisoner and now, King Yosef's Bleakhouse; tours of Japan, Australia, the UK, Mexico, and the US; and bills shared not only with the best of the industrial and noise scenes, but with titans of other genres too, from shoegazers A Place to Bury Strangers to fairy-trap icon Zheani.

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."

Photo by Quinten Koroshetz

IN LIEU - "Bully"

IN LIEU: Minneapolis noise rockers fight back on "Bully," third single from new album Hooligan

With the release of new album Hooligan set for next Friday, October 24th on Learning Curve Records, Minneapolis rockers In Lieu reveal the album's final single, "Bully."

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 fully captivates with her desperate, throaty screams, occasionally revealing the radiant singing voice that lies behind it.

New single "Bully" sees Post taunting an oppressor: "You wanna fight, read me my rights / On record I'm not the silent type / I bite, I might find delight / In letting you put me in line / Then watching as I do just fine / You can't buy this kind of high." The song's official music video shows Post and her bandmates enjoying a slow-mo bout of fisticuffs.

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

Pre-order the album, here: https://inlieuminneapolis.bandcamp.com/album/hooligan

Post is a rare talent and In Lieu is one of Minneapolis' most exciting prospects. Post describes the long road that has led here: "I started the band nine years ago and wrote all the material but was never happy with a release until this new one. Hooligan is the first album I've been proud of and it took nine years of trying. I played acoustic at first but I always knew that quiet music wasn't going to cut it for me. Eventually, Houdini made me want to play the way I do now. Our main influences are Melvins, Soundgarden, and a lot of the Amphetamine Reptile bands like Cows, Jawbox, Unsane, and The Jesus Lizard."

It took nine years of searching and reinvention for Post to find her sound and, now that she has found it, In Lieu is thriving. Twin Cities music authority Racket named the quartet as one of its "Poised to Pop" bands for 2025 and the band has become a regular name on significant shows around town – in addition to Caterwaul, the festival co-founded by Learning Curve Records boss Rainer Fronz, recent bills include legends such as Scream, Soulside, and God Bullies. The official Hooligan release show is set for November 1st at Mortimer's.

Photo by Sam Bramble

SOMETHING IS WAITING - "Poster Boys"

SOMETHING IS WAITING: Chicago nu-rollers drop ripping live version of "Poster Boys" from new album Livelick

Head over to Decibel Magazine now for the premiere of “Poster Boys (Live),” the new live track and accompanying video from Chicago nu-roll unit Something Is Waiting, plus an interview with frontman Eddie Gobbo.

Stream it, here: https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2025/10/08/track-premiere-something-is-waiting-poster-boys-live/

Decibel reports: “Something Is Waiting don’t play it safe. The Chicago trio’s idea of a 2025 statement isn’t another studio single or flashy short-form clip — it’s a full-on live album, recorded without overdubs at The Empty Bottle and dropped like a brick through the windshield of our content-saturated world. Livelick (out October 24 on Learning Curve Records) documents the band as they are: raw, nasty, and locked in.”

Pre-order Livelick, here: https://somethingiswaiting.bandcamp.com/album/livelick

Skating a line between Guns N’ Roses, Pantera, and Unsane, Something Is Waiting has been described by The Chicago Reader as “Sunset Strip swagger forged with a sonic sledgehammer of ‘90s metal” and by Kerrang! as the shrieky, sleazy crust-glam you crave.” To complicate matters further, Gobbo is a wildly creative lyricist who conjures surreal scenarios with the euphoric wordplay of a Beat poet. “Poster Boys,” he explains, is a song about posters that talk:

"‘Poster Boys’ was me in my bedroom back when I was 14 years old. The Rock posters. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) posters. Everyone in music had their version of that same bedroom. They could look at the same poster and draw inspo for years. The attitude that oozed off of them was heavy. The main theme of that song, pretty surreal, is, one day you’re ‘talking’ to the poster, giving it your power and energy, then one day that shifts and the poster kinda starts talking back.”

The Livelick tracklist consists of all eight songs from 2023's Absolutely album, plus one song from each of the two preceding albums – 2019's Songs from the Sally Beauty Pavilion and 2016's The Something Is Waiting Band. The live soundboard audio was mixed by engineer (and former SIW bandmate) Pete Grossmann at Bricktop Recording (Weekend Nachos, Frail Body). In addition to the audio, the entire set was immortalized on video, with video editing handled by mastering engineer Blake Bickel (Bronson Arm). 

Photo by Brian Santostefano

Out today: OvO - Gemma

Gemma, the new album by Italian duo OvO, is out today on Artoffact Records.

Recorded in the wake of vocalist Stefania Pedretti's successful battles with cancer and encephalitis, the album is a masterpiece of dance-doom. Stark beats, primitive synths, sludgy guitars, and Pedretti's otherworldly vocalizations combine in what Decibel Magazine has hailed as “a David Lynch dance party." Guests on the album include Kenyan techno-metal phenom Lord Spikeheart. 25 years into its career, OvO continues to march down its own strange path and deliver dazzling works of art along the way.

"Our previous albums were mostly focused on the dark side," states OvO's Bruno Dorella. "But after Stefania being on the edge of death in the last few years, we felt like focusing on birth, rebirth, nature."

Stream Gemma, and buy it, here: https://ovomusic.bandcamp.com/album/gemma

"It’s hard to describe OvO's sound, because they interweave so many genres seamlessly to create something that makes me feel like I’ve fallen into an abyss and landed in an earth witch’s lair. Whether it’s the thudding, buzzsaw sound of '90s industrial, or the scathing vocals, or the almost playful EBM beats and melodies that make me want to dance, these two musicians bring a weight of experience and talent to every track they record."
–CVLT Nation

"Their music is fluid and difficult to categorise – incorporating extreme metal, noise rock, no wave, free jazz – but always rooted in the duo's deeply felt trust, balanced input and artistic chemistry. Their latest album 'Gemma' is a significant leap forward, rich with electronic sound and an undeniable vibrancy, cutting through the doom like a glittering knife."
–The Wire

Oct 03 – Castiglione Delle Stiviere, IT @ Arci Dallò
Oct 04 – Milano, IT @ Arci Bellezza
Oct 11 – Firenze, IT @ CPA
Oct 24 – Modena, IT @ Kalinka Arci Dude
Oct 25 – Padova, IT @ Pedro
Nov 07 – Pesaro, IT @ Arci Artigiana
Nov 08 – Taranto, IT @ Mercato Nuovo
Nov 09 – Bologna, IT @ Improved Sequence Festival
Nov 14 – Asti, IT @ Diavolo Rosso
Nov 15 – Imperia, IT @ La Talpa E L’Orologio
Nov 27 – Paris, FR @ Les Instants Chavirès
Nov 28 – Clermont-Ferrand, FR @ Raymond
Nov 29 – Lyon, FR @ Grrrnd Zero
Nov 30 – Basel, CH @ Mental Load Agency
Dec 01 – Zurich, CH @ Boschbar
Dec 02 – Freiburg, DE @ Slow Club
Dec 03 – Kortrijk, BE @ The Pit’s
Dec 04 – Namur, BE @ Belvedere
Dec 05 – Utrecht, NL @ Moira
Dec 07 – Aalborg, DK @ 1000 Fryd
Dec 08 – Copnhagen, DK @ Rahuset
Dec 09 – Leipzig, DE @ Zxrx
Dec 10 – Berlin, DE @ Neue Zukunft
Dec 11 – Plzen, CZ @ Pod Lampou
Dec 12 – Maribor, SL @ Pekarna
Dec 13 – Wien, AT @ EKH
Dec 14 – Zagreb, HR @ Mocvara
Dec 15 – Ljubljana, SL @ Channel Zero
Dec 19 – Roma, IT @ Forte Prenestino

Photo by Annapaola Martin