Levitation France has announced its full (?) lineup for 2025, and they’ve packed a lot of good bands into just two nights.
Vendredi (Friday) brings in Italy’s New Candys (whose new album, so far, sounds pretty cool), UK’s Ditz (a sharp new post-punk band), Spain’s Hinds (also promoting a new album), Danish metal giants Kadavar, and the U.S.’ own Blonde Redhead.
Samedi (Saturday) has Angers post-punkers Rest Up, UK’s mysterious HONESTY, goth-queen Heartworms, experimental psych-rockers Bryan’s Magic Tears, and psych-proggers bdrmm, plus the U.S.’ synthwave duo Boy Harsher, and finally French psych heavyweights The Limiñanas.
It’s a good lineup with some serious rock in it this year, and it’s in a new location – a pyramid on a lakefront, no less. Don’t miss it.
Lancaster, PA trio Versus Machine share the official video today for “Seafoam” from their forthcoming sophomore album via Echoes & Dust. Watch/share “Seafoam” HERE. (Direct YouTube HERE.) (And now on all DSPs HERE.)
It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine recently launched the lead track “Seafoam” in an extensive interview HERE. ProgRock Journal recently hosted “Red Queen” single with an interview HERE.
Versus Machine is an innovative and genre-blending rock band whose members bring together years of experience from diverse musical backgrounds. The band’s core is made up of singer/guitarist Stephen Tilley, bassist Michael James Stipe, and drummer Brian Doherty, with the group’s formation rooted in both past musical connections and newfound collaborations.
Stephen Tilley and Brian Doherty grew up together, forming a deep musical bond during their early years. Although they spent nearly a decade apart from playing together, their shared passion for music never faded. In 2021, Doherty reached out to Tilley, reigniting their creative partnership and rekindling a sense of musical chemistry that had been dormant for years. Their reunion marked the beginning of something fresh and exciting, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become Versus Machine.
To bring their musical vision to life, Doherty and Tilley enlisted Michael James Stipe, a bassist known for his work with the band Babel Map. Stipe, with his distinct style and musical sensibilities, quickly became a key member of the group. It was Stipe who coined the band’s name, Versus Machine, a title that encapsulated the band’s blend of raw energy, modern aggression, and intricate songwriting.
In 2022, Versus Machine recorded their debut album at Noisy Little Critter Studios with renowned producer Mike Bardzik. The album marked the band’s arrival, showcasing their ability to fuse elements of post-grunge, alternative rock and psychedelia with an infectious energy and emotional depth. The record quickly gained attention from both fans and critics for its bold sound and honest, often introspective lyrics.
Following the success of their first album, Versus Machine continued to evolve. In 2024, they recorded their highly anticipated follow-up LP, set for release in February 2025. The new album is shaping up to be an even more ambitious project, blending hard-hitting rhythms, complex melodies, and daring sonic experimentation. The band’s sound has matured, and the new record promises to push boundaries even further, establishing them as one of the most exciting acts in the modern rock scene.
In addition to their work as Versus Machine, Tilley has been involved in several high-profile musical collaborations. He has worked with Kellii Scott, the acclaimed drummer of Failure, on two EPs. The second of these EPs is also slated for release in 2025, further cementing Tilley’s place in the alternative rock landscape.
Meanwhile, bassist Michael James Stipe and drummer Brian Doherty have garnered recognition for their contributions to Babel Map’s new album, Teeth, which was produced by Kurt Ballou of Converge. The duo’s work on the album earned them a prominent feature on the front page of Bandcamp Daily highlighting their growing influence in the underground and alternative music scenes. Doherty and Stipe are also slated to work with Martin “Youth” Glover in 2025 on their 4th album with their band Northern Gloom.
With the release of their follow-up album on the horizon, Versus Machine is poised to expand their fanbase and continue making waves in the rock world. Their combination of relentless drive, musical innovation, and heartfelt lyrics has already established them as one of the most promising and dynamic bands in the genre today. As they prepare to take the stage once again in 2025, all eyes are on Versus Machine, eager to see where their bold musical vision will take them next.
II will be available for download and streaming on February 27th, 2025. Pre-order HERE, pre-save HERE.
Porto, PT trio Verbian shares the first single from their forthcoming new album on Lost Future Records, Casarder today via Decibel Magazine. Hear and share “Não vai o Diabo Tecê-las” HERE. (Direct on all DSPs HERE.)
Heavy Blog is Heavy recently launched the official video for “Não vai o Diabo Tecê-las” which features an impressive live-in-studio version of the song HERE. (DirectYouTube.)
Verbian understands that evolution is essential to heavy music. And so is commitment to revealing profound emotions and letting artistic expression take your music wherever you dare to go.
“Casarder speaks a little about the insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche,” the band explains. “This was the theme that also inspired the album cover.”
The distorted, anxious and surrealist visual style of the album’s cover art (see below, painted by artist Madalena Pinta) speaks perfectly to the album’s direct albeit melted psychedelic electronic post-metal. Riff after riff comes and goes, never wearing out its welcome, and instead pulling listeners along on a sonic journey through Salvador Dali landscapes of rock forms, pulled apart and reconfigured into mesmerizing new ones. The mostly instrumental album never lingers on a part too long, never wastes a note. It’s angry, driving and multilayered without sounding overly technical or indulgent.
Since their founding in 2015, the Porto, Portugal band’s music has continued to push forward and fuse genres from metal, rock, electronic, experimental percussion and more into a concise, powerful sound. Guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Vasco Reis was originally joined by drummer Filipe Romariz, with bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Alexandre Silva joining in 2017 to solidify the trio. Following Romariz’s departure in 2022, drummer/percussionist Guilherme Gonçalves brought an evermore hard-hitting feel to Verbian’s sound.
Verbian’s 2019 self-released debut album JAEZ was followed in 2021 by Irrupção on Italy’s Antigony Records. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Verbian showcased Irrupção at venues like the Hard Club (Porto) and toured cities including Braga, Viana do Castelo, Santiago de Compostela, and Aveiro. Upon Gonçalves joining the lineup in 2022, the band toured cities like Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand, Santander, and at the Romaria Cultural in Gouveia. They concluded the year with an Iberian tour alongside Catalan band Syberia, visiting Vigo, Porto, and Coruña.
Casarder was recorded with a different approach from their previous efforts. Produced by Verbian and Daniel Valente, the trio did all of the preproduction in the studio, live. “We then built a tempo map and after that we did overdubs,” the band explains. “But the biggest difference was that these were the first songs we wrote with Guilherme on the drums and we believe that is why it’s so different from the previous albums. He brought a new and fresh groove to our music, maintaining the heaviness.”
Casarder will be available on Limited Edition LP and download on March 21st, 2025 via Lost Future Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.
Population II is a band dedicated to its disengagement, constantly working on refining their imposing, yet unpretentious sound. Composed of singer/drummer Pierre-Luc Gratton, guitarist/keyboardist Tristan Lacombe, and bassist Sébastien Provençal, the trio began recording a handful of independent releases that soon caught the attention of the independent label Castle Face Records, who released their debut À la Ô Terre in 2020, and in 2023 the band released their sophomore album Électrons libres du québec via Bonsound, which lead into a heavy period of touring in the US and Canada, including a run with OSEES.
The band delves into tasseomancy on their new single “Le thé est prêt” (French for “The tea is ready”), which arrives today to mark the announce of their new LP Maintenant Jamais, their third full-length album, which is due out on March 28th via Bonsound. The release also coincides with the start of a European tour, which includes shows in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK (full details of the tour dates can be found below).
A crisp, spellbinding intro sets the mood for the first song on Maintenant Jamais, Population II‘s third album. With the guidance of producer Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Chocolat, Peter Peter), the turbulence of the band’s previous releases is structured and refined. The result is a sophisticated rock album that surprises with its languorous grooves, as heard on Le thé est prêt, while staying true to the raw power for which the band is renowned, as demonstrated on vigorous tracks such as La Trippance and Rédemption naturelle.
The album follows with Prévisions, a song that ripples with finesse before abruptly transitioning into the instrumental number Macavélique rock. While Haut-fond and Cardinaux are true feats of elegant prog rock, Mariano (Jamais je ne t’oublierai) and Homme étoilé prove that Population II is also endowed with a profound melodic sensibility capable of creating catchy and explosive hooks. On this new album, the trio fine-tunes the distinctive style they’ve been developing for several years, thanks in part to a fusion of shared influences – from Soft Machine to MC5 to L’Infonie – but also to a rare complicity that can only blossom between such close friends. This creative chemistry is what makes the band’s complex songwriting seem so fluid and supple. Population II breaks through their previous sonic frontiers while staying true to their roots. Therein lies the achievement of Maintenant Jamais, to be released on March 28, 2025, via Bonsound.
Blake Fleming, former drummer for The Mars Volta, Dazzling Killmen, and others describes himself as “too punk for jazz and too jazz for punk.” As a result, he started making whatever music he wanted, and putting out The Beat Fantastic. The notes I got on the press release for Fleming’s album said it was “a mesmerizing journey of percussion-driven psych noir.” That’s spot-on because there were many times while listening to this album that I thought it could score a film or the next time I run a Blade Runner role-playing game session.
“First Transmission” comes in with static and feedback, leaving you to wonder what kind of record this is at first. Is it just ambient noise? Industrial anger? Something you’d hear in a haunted factory attraction this time of year? Then “Desert Frame One” appears almost like magic and starts hypnotizing you with weird synths and cauldron beats that might be stirred by “The Girl with the Electric Pants” – who brings punk funk with her.
“Devolution Revolution Evolution” sounds like dwarves beating on anvils with magic hammers to craft a drum kit fit for a wizard. “Desert Frame Two” is a nice set-up for “Get Up” – a wild action sequence of a track that has Fleming crushing his kit. “Time Slip” slips into “Drum Killah,” which layers so many types of percussion that I kept losing count of them.
“Dense Jaki” slows things down a bit and adds a slight Middle Eastern rhythm to the mix. “PaleoCyberKineticism (for the MC5)” might melt your mind with its Throbbing Gristle-level throbbing synth bass, so be careful with it. The hand percussion on “Delancey Stomp” is sharp as a hundred knives, and the closer, “The Shadow Cast” sounds like a lost track from your favorite 1980s horror film.
I love good instrumental rock records, and this one is a great find.
REZN – the Chicago-based band of Rob McWilliams (vocals, guitar), Phil Cangelosi (bass), Patrick Dunn (drums), and Spencer Ouellette (synth/saxophone) – announce their new album, Burden, out June 14thvia their new label Sargent House. In conjunction, they present its massive lead single/video, “Chasm.” Since their inception, REZN have mined the stark monochromatic depths of underground metal and fused them with the kaleidoscopic delights of psychedelia, prog rock, and shoegaze. With their latest album Burden, they plumb the deepest, bleakest trenches of their sound while retaining a lifeline into the cosmos. Staking a claim at the crossroads of the hazy dimensions of modern psych acts like Black Angels, the cavernous gloom and reverb-drenched guitar of bands like Spectral Voice, and the lurching low-end meditations of artists like OM, REZN have created Burden—an album of immense amp-worshipping weight and intoxicating instrumentation.
Burden was recorded simultaneously with their previous album Solace back in July 2021 at Earth Analog Studios in Tolono, IL by Matt Russell. Rather than release a double album, REZN divided the material into two separate records, each with its own distinct emotional timbre. Whereas Solace was meant to uplift and create a sense of narcotic dreaminess, Burden skews towards the themes of delirium, claustrophobia, and misery. Musically, Burden favors riffs over atmosphere, percussion over ether, dissonance over beauty, but there is still an undeniable cohesion between it and its predecessor. The marriage of brute force and sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach—a duality that may explain their touring history with fellow synesthesia-inducing metallurgists Elder and Russian Circles—but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully explored as it does on Burden.
Burden’s artwork is a literal continuation of Solace’s landscape painting, showing the fiery depths at the foot of the mountain range. Even Burden’s most reserved moments feel like the calm before the storm, a gathering of momentum before the punishing closer and lead single “Chasm,” a megalithic weedian crusher further bolstered by a scorching guitar solo courtesy of Russian Circle’s Mike Sullivan. “We wrote ‘Chasm’ to depict the final phase of an existential descent, when you’re on the last few steps of the spiral staircase and realize there’s no going back,” says Rob McWilliams. “We wanted it to sound like walls closing in on all sides and you’re looking at the exit getting further and further away. Mike’s melodic finger-tapping style blurs the section into a kind of dizzying, infernal panic attack. In the final moment of the song you’re faced with the repetitive churning of a molten, fuzzed-out wall of sound that builds until the audio itself starts to singe and catch fire, then abruptly self destructs.”
As knowledgeable gear heads, experienced sound engineers, and seasoned DIY veterans, REZN were able to create an early body of work devoid of any sonic compromises in their speaker-rattling dirges and heady lysergic forays. Their four self-released albums—Let It Burn (2017), Calm Black Water (2018), Chaotic Divine (2020), and Solace (2023)—have all gone through multiple vinyl pressings without any distribution or retail presence, and the international underground heavy psych world has routinely selected the band for distinguished festival slots across North America and Europe. From their inception, REZN have been a fiercely independent band with a fully realized aesthetic and a fervent cult following. Now ready to take things even further, REZN have teamed up with Sargent House to release Burden unto the world.
This summer, REZN will tour across North America with Pallbearer. Following, they’ll tour in Europe with new label mates Russian Circles as well as performing at multiple festivals. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets are on sale now.
TOOL make their highly-anticipated return to Europe this Spring, with a month of dates slated for the 2024 trek, including outings at London’s The O2 Arena, Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena and Paris’ Accor Arena, as well as festival outings at Graspop Metal Meeting, Tons of Rock and CopenHell.
News of the band’s European tour follows a particularly busy time for the Los Angeles-based band, with the foursome featuring Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor, Adam Jones and Maynard James Keenan, currently in the midst of a North American tour that extends into February. Over the last five months, TOOL has headlined Aftershock, Welcome to Rockville, Louder Than Life and the Sonic Temple Arts & Music festivals, as well as a once-in-a-lifetime performance at Power Trip, which Metal Hammer described as “a mind-melting, triumphant showcase of just how singular their art is, a transcendental experience that surpasses genre boundaries.”
Tickets for all headlining dates are on-sale now.
TOOL European tour dates:
25 May Hannover, DE ZAG Arena
27 May Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
30 May Birmingham, UK Resorts World Arena
1 June Manchester, UK AO Arena
3 June London, UK The O2 Arena
5 June Paris, FR Accor Arena
8 June Berlin, DE Parkbühne Wuhlheide
10 June Wien, AT Wiener Stadthalle
11 June Kraków, PL Tauron Arena
13 June Budapest, HU BudapestAréna
18 June Köln, DE Lanxess Arena
20 June Dessel, BE Graspop Metal Meeting
22 June Copenhagen, DK CopenHell
25 June Stockholm, SE Tele2 Arena
27 June Oslo, NO Tons of Rock
TOOL North American tour dates:
10 January Baltimore, MD CFG Bank Arena
12 January New York, NY Madison Square Garden
13 January New York, NY Madison Square Garden
18 January Hollywood, FL Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood
19 January Hollywood, FL Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood
21 January Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center
23 January Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
24 January Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
26 January Birmingham, AL The Legacy Arena at The BJCC
27 January Biloxi, MS Mississippi Coast Coliseum
30 January Corpus Christi, TX American Bank Center
Part-doom, part-post-punk, part-prog rock, part-Buddhist mantra, Auralayer‘s (Vladimir Doodle – drums, Thomas Powell – guitar and vocals, Jake Williams – bass) debut album, Thousand Petals, is a wild ride and one of the catchiest metal albums of the year.
“The Lake” opens the album with powerful double kick drums from Doodle and enough guitar fuzz from Powell and Williams to knock down a castle wall. It and the following track, “All My Time,” remind me of some of The Sword‘s early tracks with heavy riffs sometimes purposefully overwhelming the vocals. Powell’s solo on “All My Time” soars like a bird of prey swooping down on an unsuspecting mouse. “Christ Antler” roars all the way through, and “Faith to Reason” fakes you out for a moment with a short, soft intro before it unloads with cosmic rock fury. It becomes difficult to determine which of the band members is hitting their instrument the hardest during the chorus. Powell’s vocals sound like he’s shouting them from the top of a wizard’s tower.
“Shelf Black” reveals some of the band’s prog-rock influences and the vocals bring classic Agent Orange records to my mind. They ask us to give peace a chance on “Peacemonger,” but the song is anything but peaceful. It’s more like John Cena-as-the-Peacemaker kind of peace which might involve knocking you through a wall with the power of rock.
You’ll probably want to mosh during “You Walk,” a stomping, romping track that has Doodle clanging cymbals and thumping his kick drums like a happy kid as the song moves out of orbit and straight for the sun. You’ll definitely want to mosh to “Dance to Thrash” from the title alone, and Williams’ heavy bass will turn the floor to lava if you don’t get your ass moving soon. “Monstrum” closes the album with funky, fuzzy bass, a bunch of wild drum fills, and guitar work that sounds like it would be on the playlist of that weird guitar-playing dude in Mad Max: Fury Road.
This is a helluva debut, and I love how their name could be taken two different ways: “Aura Layer,” as in a layer of someone’s aura, or one of the seven chakras (and the album’s title is a reference to the crown chakra after all), or “Aural Layer,” as in a layer of sound – of which there are plenty.
This was my fourth time seeing some iteration of Goblin, the third time I’d seen a version including founding member Claudio Simonetti, and the first time I’d seen the film Demons (properly known as Demoni in Italy, where it was made). Simonetti and his crew were performing a new prog-rock version of the film’s score to a live screening of the film – the first time they’d done this in the United States.
It was a fun show right out of the gate, with good sound quality the whole time. Simonetti announced that the original score was synth-based, but hoped we’d all enjoy this new take on it by him and his band.
In case you haven’t seen it, Demons, is flat-out nuts and is about a bunch of people trapped in a movie theatre while most of the patrons turn into blood-thirsty monsters. I can’t tell you more than that, not because I’d spoil it, but because there isn’t more than that. Simonetti said he loves the film, stating, “I think it’s very funny.” It is, actually. It’s a wild ride, and so was their new score.
After that came a brief intermission and then they returned for another full set of Goblin classics and even some rarities – including the theme to Ruggero Deodato‘s crazy action / horror film Cut and Run.
And, of course, there was plenty of music from Dario Argento‘s films, including the themes to Opera, Tenebrae, Deep Red, and Suspiria.
Simonetti’s current band includes Daniele Amador on guitar (who played a great solo during the Opera theme), Federico Maragoni on drums (who delivered double-kick drum beats so fast that I thought they were programmed tracks), and Cecilia Nappo again on bass.
It was a fun night all-around, and a fun way to kick off the Halloween season. The crowd was made up of prog-rock fans, horror fans, and movie buffs. It felt like a bunch of friends (including the band) just hanging out to watch movies and listen to good music.
My friend, Gavin and I were surprised at the entrance to Columbus, Ohio’s Kemba Live! venue that the Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade show wasn’t in the outdoor portion of their venue. After all, it was hot and humid (low 90s Fahrenheit) and it was the first time Mr. Claypool had taken a version of this particular side project of his (among the dozens of them by now, it seems) on the road in twenty years. The surprise came when the woman checking I.D.s said we couldn’t bring in our folding “lawn seat” chairs because it was an indoor show.
Which, of course, meant it was even hotter inside than outside once you packed in the bodies at the intimate indoor venue. We’re not sure air conditioning was ever used during the show, although there is a chance it was finally turned on just before the Frog Brigade’s encore set.
Up first, however, wasChicago’s Neal Francis and his stellar band, who play a neat style of 1970s funk and soul mixed with a bit of 1960s psychedelia. At times the set reminded me of BozScaggs, other times like T. Rex, and other times like Pablo Cruise. In other words, good stuff all-around. Mr. Francis even had an electric organ with what appeared to be a giant whammy bar attached to it, allowing him to bend notes at will.
Neal Francis on piano. The “whammy bar” can just be seen on the right side of the top keyboard.
The crowd appreciated Mr. Francis’ set, and were amped to next see and hear Mr. Claypool and his soldiers. By “amped,” I mean “many were drunk and / or high.” I haven’t been around that many drunk and high people since a good number of the crowd was tripping during Moon Duo‘s set at the end of Levitation Austin last year. Thankfully, no one near Gavin and I was an angry drunk or on a violent trip. Two big dudes to our right were loud drunks, but never rude. One other guy to my right was hitting his vape pen so much that I’m surprised he didn’t set off a fire alarm.
The Brigade, with Sean Lennon on lead guitar no less, came out and jumped straight into the quirky, jumpy “David Makalaster” and “Rumble of the Diesel.” Claypool’s backing band consisted of a keyboardist, drummer, and percussionist, and all of them were stellar musicians. The percussionist often riffed on xylophone solos and even brought out two tabla drums, which always makes me happy.
“David Makalaster, your ten o’clock newscaster.”
They played two tracks from The Claypool Lennon Delirium project – both parts of “Cricket and the Genie” before playing Pink Floyd‘s “Animals” in its entirety with no breaks before or during the long set. They pulled it off to perfection, and then followed that mammoth set with two songs they hadn’t played before, “Running the Gauntlet” and “Holy Mackerel.” “Gauntlet” is especially fun, as it gives each band member a chance to play a solo. It was during this that I learned that Sean Lennon can shred. I’d never seen him play before, and had only heard a few of his songs until this evening, and I left with a new appreciation for his skill.
“Pigs (Three Different Ones)”
A fun treat during the encore was the instrumental “Whamola” (also sometimes known as “Simon Says”), in which Claypool, clad in a disco ball helmet, played his electric “whammy bar-viola” (sort of a washtub bass) by beating on it with a stick and using a whammy bar handle at the top to change the pitch of the single string on it. The whole crowd was jumping.
It was a fun time, and everyone on stage in both bands was damn impressive. Don’t miss this tour. Claypool has so many side projects that he might not take it out again for another couple decades.
But I would love an Oysterhead tour, Mr. Claypool, if you’re looking for suggestions.
Keep your mind open.
[Hop over to the subscription box while you’re here!]
