The Gothenburg’s leading exponents of street metal rockers HARDCORE SUPERSTAR are kicking off 2022 with the release of their new single “Forever And A Day”, a stomping, attitude laden rock anthem about standing up for yourself and everything you believe in!
The tune is taken from the upcoming album "Abrakadabra", the follow up to 2018’s critically acclaimed "You Can’t Kill My Rock ‘N’ Roll", "Abrakadabra" will be released via Golden Robot Records (for USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South America only) and via Gain in Scandinavia on March 25th, 2022.
HARDCORE SUPERSTAR has recently released three alcohol fuelled, riff laden singles ‘Catch Me If You Can’, ‘Dreams In Red’ and ‘Weep When You Die’!
But they aren’t stopping there in the lead up and will release another single "Forever And A Day", see it below.
2021 has been a fantastic digital year for HARDCORE SUPERSTAR with three singles released to critical acclaim, surpassing over 750,000 Spotify plays and 250,000 YouTube plays as well as the band playing sold out shows all across Sweden!
Today's tune "Forever And A Day" taken from the upcoming album "Abrakadabra", enjoy!
"Weep When You Die" is the booze soaked, anthemic new single and video from Gothenburg’s leading exponents of street metal, HARDCORE SUPERSTAR. The tunes are taken from the upcoming album "Abrakadabra", which is scheduled for release in March 2022 through Golden Robot Records.
"Weep When You Die" is rejoicing of their first two singles "Catch Me If You Can" and "Dreams In Red".
"Abrakadabra" was recorded at both Osterlycken and Bombastik in Musikhens Hus, Gothenburg, the band returned to their roots to work with acclaimed producer Johan Reiven, who they previously collaborated with on their 2005 "Black Album". The result is an intense and hard-hitting collection of songs that drummer Adde Moon describes as a “natural follow up to Black Album”. The new single "Weep When You Die" described by the band’s drummer Adde as “just another night at your local watering hole”.
Today's tune "Weep When You Die", enjoy it and have a faboulus weekend!
Swedish action-rock trio THE DRIPPERS, hailing from Gothenburg have released their new single ”Time For Some Action”. THE DRIPPERS is influenced by the shitty Rock N Roll of classic bands like THE NEW BOMB TURKS, GLUECIFER, THE HELLACOPTERS, TURBONEGRO and THE STOOGES.
THE DRIPPERS brings you the dirty high octane garage punk ’n’ rock where the new single ”Time For Some Action” is the first taste of THE DRIPPERS’ upcoming sophomore album, which follows their acclaimed 2019 debut "Action Rock".
THE DRIPPERS did a lot of rehearsing, pre-producing and writing prior to entering Sunlight Studio to record thier second album. "Time For Some Action" was just an idea we had started jamming on a couple of times, but in the car going to the studio William said "we're gonna record it for the album". So when they rehearsed and arranged it in the studio with Tomas Skogsberg (aka the Overlord of distortion) and recorded it while still learning the song. It always gives an extra edge to do it that way, you just let your instinct take over. It had a good groove and a commanding title, so it felt appropriate to choose it as the first single. Last in, first out! Boogie!
Today's tune ”Time For Some Action” taken from the upcoming new album and the single is out now on all streaming platforms via The Sign Records. Music video by Max Ljungberg, maxljungberg.com, enjoy!
Monday, new week, time for us to hail a album with "Record Of he Week".
HÄXMÄSTAREN, the Gothenburg’s stoner/doom/sludge behemoths serves us with a release of their explosive sophomore album "Sol I Exil"!
HÄXMÄSTAREN is from Gothenburg, Sweden formed in early 2017. Debut album "Haexprocess" was released in 2018, and the band self released the follow up, "Sol I Exil" in March 12, 2021 and then they signed a deal with the Swedish Majestic Mountain Records for a proper release, the Vinyl got shipped in the end of August, where the wax came in a wicked, transparent gren and yellow haze. Almost looks like an eye of a "HÄXMÄSTARE", lol.
"Sol I Exil" is a flaming sledgehammer of stoner doom and blackened sludge, walking the thin line between blackened sludge and traditional heavy metal. Already from the opening tune "Blood Moon" they serve us with banging hard with breakneck riffage, whiskey soaked vocals that at times gets terribly angry, spits and hisses, the end result is brilliant. "Millennium Phenomenon" is a fablous piece with rumbling bass line and thundering drums along with some ferocious guitar playing, and serves us with a hypnotic guitar riff and searing solos that makes me cringe. "Wavelurker" and "Growing Horns" shows the blackened side of the band, here the musical influence palette gotten some more choices, where the mix of selected ingredients are very wise. The metal is still thick as syrup and wonderfully crunchy on the blackened parts. Where in "Children Of The Mountain" they set fire on the blackened side, the guttural growls haunts out it's own extremities with a surging energy. Some sludgy doom roots in "Dödskult Ritual" and the title tune "Sol I Exil", where the lyrics are sung in their Swedish mother tongue. The later one closes the album with a swinging groove, with some doomy vocals that burst out to the hallowed howls of the damned, cleavery musican ship between the members serves us marvelous drumming, clear and distorted bass and a bautiful guitar handeling. "Sol I Exil" is a marvelous album, highly recomended.
Sum: "Sol I Exil" is a top notch doomy piece that you can't miss!
Today's tune "Sol I Exil", the title tune from the new album, enjoy!
In July came a little sneaky release, a new song and video with the Swedish punk/metal band BOMBUS.
"Abomination Rock’n’Roll" is the new tune where the typical BOMBUS sound is intact with some punkish attitude, a rocker that could wake any sleeping party. So happy to hear that they are back.
“’Abomination Rock’n’Roll’ is a nugget for fans of Punk Rock Metal. It’s the first out of the two tracks we release this summer. Enjoy! And remember, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Or so they say.“
Another tune was released a couple of days ago, we will play it during next week, Stay tuned!
BOMBUS are:
Feffe – Guitar/Vocals
Peter – Drums
Simon – Guitar
Johan – Guitar/Vocals
Ola – Bass
Enjoy today's tune "Abomination Rock'n'Roll" with BOMBUS!
Monday, a new week and it's time to introduce "Record Of The Week".
The Swedish and Gothenburg-based heavy rock/doom metal band WOLVES IN HAZE will drop their second full-length album "Chaos Reigns", on Sept. 3 through Majestic Mountain and Tvåtakt Records. WOLVES IN HAZE was formed in 2014 and release their self-titled debut in 2016.
WOLVES IN HAZE is a new acquaintance, but after playing the promo I must say that I am very impressed.
"Chaos Reigns" opens up with "Green River Speaks", sea breeze, drums, and a black roar from the underworld start up the album until the thick guitars kick in. The vocals of guitarist Manne Olander is rough, melodic, and very comfortable and gives the steam roller exactly the lubrication it needs for impeccable rolling. The guitars of Manne Olander and Olle Hansson sound really nice and it's very difficult to stay away from playing air guitar. The rhythm section of the drummer and bassist Kalle Lilja gives the tune a great mix. At the first spin before I read all the intel about this I thought it was Feffe Berglund, singer from BOMBUS behind the microphone as they sound very similar at first sight. Nothing bad at all, love Feffe and now I love Manne. "Way In Haze" follows up with more furious guitar work in a very melodic way. The vocals are more strained, slightly pissed off but controlled and work out really good in this smasher. Followed up by "In Fire" where the tempo is screwed up a notch with a much harder and rawer approach, punkish, almost hardcore in a mix of REFUSED and RAISED FIST, to refer to some Swedish bands. In "The Night Stalker" drags WOLVES IN HAZE you down a filthy path of raucously raw, death metal-infused rock and bloody roll. Old school death metal riffs and some abysmal vocal parts by the guest singer Tomas Lindberg (AT THE GATES), the result is unexpected and very good. The heaviness continues in "Tormentor" where they pick the influences from the past. Halfway thru the album and it's time to slows down in "My Destroyer", where acoustic guitars along with a soulful duo vocal between a man and a woman that both are lurking in danger. The guest female vocalist is Martina Svärd from the Swedish psychedelic rock band TORNET. A beautiful piece to recharge the batteries for the next part of the album. With a steady attitude, we move on to "Beyond Perception", a dreamy melodic but still very riff-based. "Into The Grave" serves us a high tempo and power riffing piece which changes to more dirty punkish rock in "Heat Of The Moment" to then pull up collar a notch and invite us to a melodic riff party "Breath In The Night" until we reaches the end and it's time for the title track "Chaos Reigns" to tie this album together and end this in a completely magical way, an instrumental piece where they pick all the best pieces of their own creation and lets the instruments speak, where the chaos must be overcome at all costs and when we reach the crescendo by an electric force and evil has been defeated and a silence arises and chaos ceases to rule.
This is an excellent album, it's dirty, heavy, doomy, and punky! Really well-made album. Give it a spin and I promise you!
Once it spins for you, it will drag you down to its chaotic journey!
"Chaos Reigns" is produced, recorded & mixed by Kalle Lilja & Per Stålberg at Welfare Sounds. Assisting engineering by Olle Björk. Mastered by Daniel Johansson at Welfare Sounds Mastering. The band is strengthened up with the bassist Emil Rolof to be a full four-piece band.
The Swedish melodic death metalheads DARK TRANQUILLITY barely needs any introduction. Together with IN FLAMES and AT THE GATES, they were at the forefront of the Gothenburg-style death metal. Now they are back with the twelfth full-length "Moment", thier anticipated follow-up to 2016’s "Atoma", the album was released on 20 November 2020, via Century Media Records.
"Moment" is anoter great release by the band, well played, beautifully produced, the sound is big and clear with great vocals in both the clean and harmful to the harsh and angry screams, great and well written tunes, heavy and cleaver fresh riffing, fine waving drumbeats. I do like what I hear on "Moment", although it may feel a little predictable, they could have taken another step in the development. The guitars that sounds really fresh and updated since the lineup changes that have happened between records, with long time guitarists Martin Henriksson departing after the release of "Atoma" in 2016 and Niklas Sundin leaving this year. Newcomers Christopher Amott (ARCH ENEMY, ARMAGEDDON) and Johan Reinholdz (ANDROMEDA, WIDOW) are doing a teriffic work to fill the gaps and follow the concept and to put their own stamp on it.
"Moment" contain twelve tunes with fifty minutes of play time, the album opens up marvelous with "Phantom Days", a melodic hard hitting piece, or the post-modern "The Dark Unbroken", the angry "Ego Deception" the beautiful piece with marvelous keys in "Standstill", beautiful guitars that waves in like a cross stitch with a imported silk fabric. More raging tunes like "Identical To None" and the chugging "Failstate" and the rusty metal "A Drawn Out Exit".
The stunning solo in "Eyes Of The World" is marvelous. The album closes with the atmospehric "In Truth Divided", beautiful soft clean vocals and neatly played instruments wraps this album up in a very good sence. "Moment" is simply another strong record in an already impressively deep catalog.
Sum: "Moment" a must have for DT fans!
Musicians:
Mikael Stanne / Vocals
Martin Brändström / Electronics
Anders Jivarp / Drums
Johan Reinholdz / Guitars
Christopher Amott / Guitars
Anders Iwers / Bass
Today's tune "The Dark Unbroken" is taken from "Moment", enjoy!
Fire is what happens when a carbon based object is consumed by oxygen. That chemical reaction is fitting to the sound of FIREBREATHER: The riffs are suffocating, the rhythms fast moving and all-consuming. It’s so blindingly and deafeningly monolithic, don’t be surprised to find yourself gasping for air while listening.
The Gothenburg, Sweden trio has a streamlined focus on driving, symphonic riffs in the vein of HIGH ON FIRE, INTER ARMA and their tour- and label-mates MONOLORD. The guitar and bass tones are, quite simply, entrancing. Like watching flames engulf a forest, the billowing guitar tones are simultaneously beautiful and destructive, while the rhythms sway and lunge with vicious precision.
FIREBREATHER are:
Mattias Nööjd :: Kyle Pitcher :: Axel Wittbeck
Today's tune "Firebreather" taken from the album "Under A Blood Moon", the video is filmed live on October 17, 2019 during the MONOLORD and FIREBREATHER tour, enjoy!
As civilization crumbles, everyone needs to find a good party at the end of the world. Loud, proud, bombastic and belligerent, Swedish metal crew BOMBUS have been raging against the dying of mankind’s light for the last decade, a consistent and reliable force for massive riffs and even bigger choruses, wielding enough fire and fury to power a fleet of Death Stars.
That "Vulture Culture" with BOMBUS step up the ladder and grabs the banner "Record Of The Week" is nothing strange, but it's a fact after having released such a melodic gem like this.
Gothenburg's fourth album "Vulture Culture" where the human decay and the impending doom of the planet are in focus. Heavy subject indeed, but BOMBUS with their clever craftsmanship, they manage to make the album interesting and with enough melodic swing in the tunes they keep up the party feeling. It is simply another in the line of high-quality rock albums to fall in love with and develop a robust relationship within the long run.
Compared to its predecessors, "Vulture Culture" does not represent a significant development from the predecessor "Repeat Until Death" and "The Poet & The Parrot", it feels somehow more uplifting and fresh, more up to date so to speak. It lands on the records store disks in perfect time, a record that you need right now even if you didn't know that until you read these lines, but hey now you do. It's perfect to party with when the doomsday is here.
From the brilliant opening tune "A Ladder – Not A Shovel", heavy guitar riffs, cutting melody, punkish vocals that kicks your buttocks... it flows forward like a tank in the middle of the night, with just over four minutes rampaging, the trip takes an unexpected turn outside of its normal comfort zone. To the uplifting anthem "(You Are All Just) Human Beings", delivered with maximum passion and punch that will dig deep into your skull like a true ear-worm do. Same goes with "In The Shadows", high tempo, chugging guitars riffs, groovy vocals and a melody that get stuck like a piece of gum in your forehead. The melodic bouncing one "Mama", great lyrics and the unexpected outro with the children chanting "Do What Your Mama Said", I can just agree. "We Lost A lot Of Blood Today", "Feeling Is Believing" and the title tune "Vulture Culture" are bombastic mid-pace pieces with massive sounds, groovy melody, and heavy riffing, screamy vocals. "It’s All Over" shows the band's other side with a clean and quiet way of delivery with such a passionate singing that makes me completely kneeled. On "Two Wolves And One Sheep" you will hear the band standing on one leg until they shift to the other and back again, balancing the more extreme moments that show up a new side of BOMBUS. The attraction to "Vulture culture" is immediate and I'm happy that they manage to pull this one off with such great quality.
The album was recorded with producer Daniel Johansson and mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (OPETH, KATATONIA, AT THE GATES). The album was released on the 15th of November.
BOMBUS are:
Feffe (Guitar & Vocals)
Matte (Guitar & Vocals)
Simon (Guitar)
Peter (Drums)
Ola (Bass)
Sum: "Vulture Culture" is really addictive, an album that should be played on Repeat, Until Death!
Monday, new week, time to introduce "Record of The Week".
Gothenburg and Sweden's finest doomish sludge troupe MONOLORD have returned with their fourth album "No Comfort", released on September 20th via Relapse Records. MONOLORD has been on here pretty frequently over the years, the 2014’s "Empress Rising" (review here), 2015’s "Vænir" (review here) and 2017’s "Rust" (review here) and "Fairies Wear Boots" (here) and now it's time for the fourth album.
"No Comfort" is a heavy piece of work, sludgy doomed and lightly psychedelic and one thing is for sure it's a "No Comfort" for pop or indie peeps or hip-hoppers, but this is true comfort for any doomheads around this world. It's slow and massive with hazy vocals and minimalist and heavy ponderous riffs and partly very melodic, almost hypnotic and grabs a firm grip on the listener.
Once again they released a six-track mammoth album, the magic six-track have been the MONOLORD standard on the last three releases. On "No Comfort" the six tunes are all sharing the playtime of forty-seven minutes, this divided by six is an average of nearly eight minutes, pretty long tunes indeed. The album starts with the fat and grinding riffs in a classic MONOLORD way in "The Bastard Son", you instantly recognize the meditative pattern. "The Last Leaf" really opens up the soul in these gents, fat bass licks flow straight through the tune like a bursting oil pump and the melodic psychedelic guitar chorus in the middle of the tune, a sound that is piercing a hole in my heart all the way to the end. My breath is almost out and I'm totally exhausted before the gentle sound of the guitar playing that opens up the gentle "Larvae", a half pace tune that slowly rises into a heavy doom piece with some classic NWOBHM riffs and suffering groovy bassline and after almost eight minutes is closes up with a monotone duel riffing. "Skywards" is full of energy with groovy and melodic riffing in a great atmosphere. "Alone Together", monotone low-end bassline and atmospheric guitar make this beauty a memorable tune. The album closes up the eleven-minute title track "No Comfort", painfully rueful clean vocals and slow chugging colossal riffs make this an epic ending.
This album may be more polished than before with improved production quality instead of recorded it in the living room. But that does not mean that MONOLORD has forgotten how to create magic and that they show greatly through "No Comfort", and an excellent album art work is just another star in the book.
Sum: BANG! MONOLORD did it again.
MONOLORD is:
Mika Häkki - Bass
Esben Willems - Drums
Thomas Jäger - Guitar and Vocals
Today's tune "The Last Leaf" is taken from the album "No Comfort", the video is freaking stunning, enjoy!
The Swedish rock band TRANSPORT LEAGUE have released a new single/video of the tune "Dawn Of Lucifer", taken from the upcoming album "A Million Volt Scream" out 6th of September 2019 worldwide through Mighty Music.
"A Million Volt Scream" is produced by Roberto Laghi at Oral Majority Recordings & Top Floor Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Video was Directed by Joel Nilsson at Maluha media. Storyboard & location by Joel Nilsson & Tony Jelencovich. The album can be ordred from www.targetshop.dk
TRANSPORT LEAGUE was born in 1994, well influenced by early CLUTCH with some hints of CATHEDRAL & COC, they created BOOGIE FROM HELL, groovy boogie rock with a big slab infectious hard rock.
Today's tune "Dawn Of Lucifer" is taken from the upcoming album "A Million Volt Scream" out 6th of September 2019 worldwide through Mighty Music. The tune has a bit softer approach with great groove and catchy melody. Could this be the breaktrouh? Anyway, enjoy this piece.
The blues runs deep in Daniel Norgren. It flows from his heart, to every part of his body, thru any instrument and out into the world. In his early concerts Daniel proved this whole-body-blues theory by playing guitar, drums, bells, harmonica, horn and singing – all at the the same time! Nowadays he plays just one guitar, or sometimes a piano, at a time but the dirty blues is still strong in him. Even if it has picked up a side order of gospel, country, hymns and good old rock & roll on the way. His latest album Wooh Dang was released back in April and was Norgren’s first worldwide release. The whole thing was recorded in an old house from the 19th century near his home in south-western Sweden together with the band consisting of Anders Grahn (bass), Erik Berntsson (drums) och Andreas Filipsson (guitar and banjo) who will all join Daniel on stage during his summer tour.
The performance at Way Out West was Daniel Norgrens only festival show in Sweden this summer and hey, he surely delivered a magic hour.
Today's tune "Moonshine Got Me" taken from the album "Buck". The video clip is an amateur footage shot at Skråen/Nordkraft in Aalborg, Denmark - 30th Oktober 2011
The hits and the classics are so many that even a three and a half hour long gig feel too short and fifteen encores are way too few. By now it is also impossible to reimagine pop music – or pop culture – without those cobwebbed forests of hair from Crawley. A quick glance might give the impression that THE CURE is one of music history’s most consistent bands: after all they’ve always looked the same, no matter the line-up. More than anyone else they’ve defined the goth look. But if you think just a little bit further or if you sit down with their enormous song catalogue and really listen to it, you’ll soon realize that this is a far more restless and adventurous band than they get credit for. There is no small span between, say, "A Forest" and "Let’s Go To Bed" or between "Shake Dog Shake" and "Lovesong". You can go on like that for quite some time and before you know it you’ll get an understanding why it takes marathon-long concerts to do all justice.
Foto by Micke Sandström at Way Out West 2019
THE CURE did a great show in Slottsskogen yesterday, good sound, cool lightning and pretty happy Robert Smith.
THE CURE was recently elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but to many of us Robert Smith and his crew have always had a sacred place in rock music’s most holy rooms. They’ve sold about thirty million albums. Their singles discography is extremely hard to match. Then there’s all those unforgettable music videos. Their iconic style and creative use of lipstick. And: they have a new album on its way, their first in a decade. Robert Smith has described it as ”incredibly intense” and it is planned to be released for, yep, Halloween.
Today's tune "Friday I'm in Love" is a song by British rock band THE CURE. It is the second single taken from the album Wish (1992), and was a worldwide hit. It won the award for European Viewer's Choice for Best Music Video at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.
Robert Smith, the song's primary writer, described it in 1992 as both "a throw your hands in the air, let's get happy kind of record" and "a very naïve, happy type of pop song."
Upcoming Shows
11 AUG 2019 FLOW FESTIVAL Helsinki Finland
16 AUG 2019 GLASGOW SUMMER SESSIONS Glasgow United Kingdom
23 AUG 2019 ROCK EN SEINE Paris France
31 AUG 2019 PASADENA DAYDREAM FESTIVAL Pasadena United States
05 OCT 2019 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Austin United States
12 OCT 2019 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Austin United States
Badder than the most. The undisputed queen of neo-soul. One of those voices you’ll never forget. Also actor, activist, icon. Erykah Badu is many things, most of all she’s hard to ignore and always interesting – musically, philosophically or in a stylistic sense. Erykah Badu played at the very first Way Out West festival in 2007. And even though she hasn’t released an album since 2010, she’s no less relevant or influential now. After all, she’s Erykah Badu. The rest of us aren’t.
Erykah Badu, born and raised in Dallas, made herself a name in the late 1990’s–early 2000’s as a member of the musical collective Soulquarians, who mixed spiritual soul sounds and hip-hop vibes. D’Angelo, Common, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Mos Def, the Roots drummer Questlove and now deceased jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove were also part of the crew. On debut album Baduizm in 1997 she appeared as a fully formed artist and the record was a huge success that also won a Grammy for Best R&B Album. Mama’s Gun came three years later, and in The Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau wrote: “Maybe her sources are autobiographical, but she’s here to inspire all black-identified women and the men who admire them.”
Erykah Badu will perform at 20.00 on Flamingo, Saturday Aug 10.
Today's tune "Didn't Cha Know?" is the second single from singer Erykah Badu's 2000 album "Mama's Gun". The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for 2001.
"Didn't Cha Know?" was produced by fellow Soulquarian member J Dilla, and features a sample from the Tarika Blue recording "Dreamflower", which was used without prior permission from the group. A settlement fee was reached with the group outside of court.
Some call it street blues; smart and dumb at the same time, sad, lonely but always with a smirk and a unique knack for deadpan funny but grim storytelling. Stockholm punk rockers V**gra Boys make great music, sort of like The Stooges meets The Birthday Party, or Devo cross-pollinated with Mark E Smith’s Fall – it might not be for everyone, but like Gibby said: ‘There’s a time to shit and a time for god, the last shit I took was pretty fucking odd’. Grimey, acid highway full throttle; V**gra Boys debut album ‘Street Worms’ released last year is an interesting ride as vocalist Sebastian Murphy lets you ride shotgun while this trip takes you blazing to the top of a mountain before speeding right back down to the basement again. The bass line ferociously drives the car and the drums make sure you stay on the road – this is one of those trips where you sporadically wake up and find yourself in strange situations, wondering how the f*ck you got there.
V**gra Boys will perform at 23.00 on Linné, Saturday, Aug 10.
Today's tune "Just Like You" is taken from the debut studio album "Street Worms" by Swedish post-punk band, V**gra Boys. The album was released on 28 September 2018 through YEAR0001.
