dnvnkillgallon

In order to grow, we shed the weight of previous expectations and stretch beyond our potential.

Traveling a constant forward trajectory at lightspeed, Wage War not only push their own sound forward, but they also propel heavy music into new territory. The Florida quintet—Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums]—have always tempered a pummeling metallic onslaught with unshakable melodies. On their fifth full-length offering STIGMA [Fearless Records], they outfit this signature style with industrial grit and electronic sheen, leveling up into the future in the process.

“We made a record that is authentic and true to us, first of all,” notes Cody. “Secondly, it breaks boundaries sonically and lyrically and moves the genre forward. It’s a statement. We’re stepping out, breaking free from whatever subgenre we fit into, and saying something. We make the music we want to make. STIGMA is special, because it resonates beyond the genre labels we’ve been often categorized with.”

A near-decade grind naturally brought Wage War to this point. They have unleashed a string of fan favorite albums, including Blueprints [2015], Deadweight [2017], Pressure [2019], and Manic [2021]. Beyond looks from SPIN, Modern Drummer, American Songwriter, Revolver, Guitar World, and more, KERRANG! hailed the latter as “their greatest album yet,” and DORK raved, “It’s an embracing of being metalheads, popheads and just fans of good songs. On more than one occasion, there’s an earworm poking its head up through the dirt.” They also put up numbers, tallying hundreds of millions of streams boosted by the likes of “Stitch,” “Low,” “Manic,” and “Circle The Drain.”

Between selling out tour dates worldwide, they crafted what would become STIGMA with producer Drew Fulk [Disturbed, Motionless In White].

This time around, they nodded to inspirations a la Rammstein, Static-X, and Powerman 5000, busting out the synthesizers in the sessions. Another first, they watched movies in the studio such as The Matrix, Blade, and Tombstone.

“It was like a live mood board, if you will,” says Cody. “We’d change the lighting, watch a movie, and listen back. We were wondering, ‘What would all of those 90s industrial nu metal bands sound like in 2024?’ So, we decided to incorporate the riffs and synths into our sound to make it fresh.”

“Cody and I have always been huge fans of industrial metal,” adds Briton. “We finally put the pen to paper and started writing this way. It was really natural for us.”

They herald STIGMA with the lead single “MAGNETIC.” Emotional vocals warble through a glitchy haze on the verses until a thick stomp gives way to a chantable chorus, “Try to push away, but I’m right back at it. You and me are always gonna be magnetic.”

“I had an idea to make a melodic Wage War song with ethereal guitars,” recalls Cody. “It’s about how no matter what you do, you can never get beyond certain things. You run as far away as you can from an old relationship, family members, or habits, and you still feel tied together. It doesn’t matter how hard you try.”

“NAIL5” teeters on an axis between a deftly rhymed reprise and a distorted freakout. Wrapped in screeching synths, guitars seesaw in a seasick groove as Briton screams, “Let ‘em rot with the maggots!”

Cody comments, “For us, it’s a celebration of freedom and doing what we want to do. No matter what anyone says, we’re still here making records and doing our thing. It’s meant to be a wild ride.”

“‘NAIL5’ is a nod to ‘Stitch’ and ‘Manic’ at the same time,” Briton goes on. “It has this dark nursery rhyme, which is delivered like an underground rap. However, it ends with one of our heaviest breakdowns ever. It’s a wild ride.”

Elsewhere, “HAPPY HUNTING” storms out of the gate with an unapologetic sensory assault of danceable beats, guttural growls, and an unexpected electronic drop. “It’s the first industrial track I sent over,” recalls Cody. “It was the introduction to what we ended up doing. It’s chanty, and it has this energy where you’re jumping up and down the whole time.”

“It’s one of my favorites,” smiles Briton. “It bridges the gap from the beginning of the album to the end. It touches bases on all of the themes and sounds we were going for.”

Then, there’s “BLUR.” Keyboards glimmer through a neck-snapping riff as the chorus echoes, “Feels like it’s all a blur.”

“It’s a modern take on Wage War,” Cody observes. “It’s an ode to the past, but a look at the future. In terms of the lyrics, it’s about waking up one day and having a moment where you think, ‘How did I get here? Who have I become?’ It’s very introspective.”

The trip concludes with “Is This How It Ends,” illuminating another side of the STIGMA.

“It’s about the dichotomy of lovers to strangers,” Cody reveals. “You’re closer than you’ve ever been with somebody, and the bottom falls out. All of a sudden, you’re strangers. The title says it all. It’s the big epic closer.”

In the end, Wage War actualize their potential completely on STIGMA.

“There’s a song for pretty much every emotion on the record,” concludes Cody. “You can dance, mosh, or headbang to it. If you want to vibe and reflect, you can. I hope you listen to it, have some fun, and feel like you’re not alone.”

“We really love this record,” Briton states. “Everyone was pushing 110%, and it shows.”

Traveling a constant forward trajectory at lightspeed, Wage War not only push their own sound forward, but they also propel heavy music into new territory. The Florida quintet—Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums]—have always tempered a pummeling metallic onslaught with unshakable melodies. A near-decade grind naturally brought Wage War to this point. They have unleashed a string of fan favorite albums, including Blueprints [2015], Deadweight [2017], Pressure [2019], and Manic [2021]. Beyond looks from SPIN, Modern Drummer, American Songwriter, Revolver, Guitar World, and more, KERRANG! hailed the latter as “their greatest album yet,” and DORK raved, “It’s an embracing of being metalheads, popheads and just fans of good songs. On more than one occasion, there’s an earworm poking its head up through the dirt.” They also put up numbers, tallying hundreds of millions of streams boosted by the likes of “Stitch,” “Low,” “Manic,” and “Circle The Drain.” On their fifth full-length offering STIGMA [Fearless Records], Wage War outfit their signature style with industrial grit and electronic sheen, leveling up into the future in the process with singles such as “MAGNETIC.”

Facebook

Official Website

Spotify

Instagram

The Black Crowes are leaving the bullshit in the past. 15 years after their last album of original music, the Robinson Brothers present Happiness Bastards- their 10th studio album. Some may say the project has been several tumultuous years in the making, but we argue it’s arriving at just the right time. Call it brotherly love or music destiny that brought them back together, the highly anticipated record consecrating the reunion of this legendary band just may be the thing that saves rock & roll. In a time where the art form is buried beneath the corporate sheen of its successors, The Black Crowes are biting back with the angst of words left unsaid penned on paper and electrified by guitar strings, revealing stripped, bare-boned rock & roll. No gloss, no glitter, just rhythm and blues at it’s very best – gritty, loud, and in your face.

Since The Black Crowes reunited in 2019, they’ve made a triumphant return to form with over 150 shows spanning 20 countries worldwide, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Shake Your Money Maker, the album that put them on the map. Upon their return from the road, they knew they needed something new to show for their lost time. The Robinson Brothers and longtime bassist Sven Pipien headed to the studio with producer Jay Joyce in early 2023 and the experiences of years past transcribed themself through the music as the band found their way back to their roots. And it’s finally here – Happiness Bastards is out March 15, 2024.

When Mick Mars stepped back from touring with Mötley Crüe – the band he co-founded more
than 40 years ago – following their massive summer 2022 Stadium Tour, it seemed like the end
of an era.
Really, it was the beginning of a new one.
The legendary guitarist, whose riffs, solos and overall devastatingly heavy sound powered the
L.A. icons through four decades of world-conquering, multi-platinum sonic mayhem is, as he
demonstrates on his debut solo effort, still a serious force to be reckoned with. Only now,
listeners are reckoning with more Mars than ever before. “When it comes to my playing, there’s
the Mötley side and the Mars side,” the guitarist says. “Either way, I always have a very clear
vision of what I want to do.”
On the aptly-titled The Other Side of Mars, fans get that vision in its full, multifarious glory. To
be sure, there are plenty of characteristically riff-tastic, tough-as-nails hard-rock anthems (the
rampaging “Loyal to the Lie,” the deep-in-the-pocket groove-rocker “Ain’t Going Back,” the
hooky and melodic “Right Side of Wrong”) to be heard on the record. But The Other Side of
Mars also shows the 72-year-old guitarist heading into new and uncharted territory, tearing
through caustic, modern metal (“Broken On the Inside”), conjuring gothic-tinged soundscapes
(“Undone”), digging into anguished, slow-burning power balladry (“Killing Breed”) and
unspooling bluesy, cinematic instrumental workouts (the album-closing guitar showcase, “L.A.
Noir”). The music throughout the 10-track collection, meanwhile, is otherwise studded with slide
guitars, violins, violas, keyboards, glitchy freak-outs and all manner of sonic surprises.
“There’s a lot of ideas that I have that, I don't want to call them ‘left,’ but they are, you know
what I mean?” Mars says. Regarding those stylistic turns, he continues, “My feeling has always
been, I might gain some fans, I might lose some fans. But what they’re hearing, it’s all me.”
The guitarist enlisted a crack team of musicians to help him along the way. A key contributor to
the project was Winger and former Alice Cooper keyboardist (and, like Mars, Nashville resident)
Paul Taylor, who, in addition to performing on the record and assisting Mars in co-writing many
of the tracks, introduced the guitarist to powerhouse vocalist Jacob Bunton. “Jacob came into the
studio and it was like, bam!” Mars recalls. “And I just said, ‘Yeah, he’s the guy.’ And most of
his vocals were one take.”
The supporting band was rounded out by Korn drummer Ray Luzier, bassist Chris Collier, and
singer Brion Gamboa, who contributed lead vocals to two songs, “Undone” and “Killing Breed,”
both of which, Mars says, “required a little bit more of an angsty, desperation kind of thing. And
Brion really came to the table with that.” Alongside playing bass on all songs recorded, Collier
mixed and mastered the debut solo album.
But while Mars surrounded himself with a new cast of players for the sessions, there was one
figure who represented a significant link to his storied past: Michael Wagener. The much-lauded
German producer and engineer worked behind the boards on Mötley Crüe’s 1981 debut, Too
Fast For Love, and his relationship with Mars stretches even further back. “I had known him for

a long time, and I actually brought him to Mötley,” Mars says. Working with Wagener this time,
the guitarist continues, “he had such an understanding of where I wanted to go with the material.
And he never said ‘Hey, do this,’ or tried to change my mind or anything like that. He was just
really adamant about recording what I wanted to record, and making sure we recorded it right.”
The result is a record unlike anything Mars has offered up in his more than 40-year career. Take
the piano-and-strings track “Memories,” which, Mars recalls, he began writing “back when I was
still touring with Mötley. I gave it to Paul Taylor, and I had him transpose all my parts to
keyboard. And then I said, ‘That’s it.’ I didn’t want any drums, I didn’t want any over-the-top,
here-comes-the-sun-over-the-mountains in the chorus kind of crap. I wanted to keep it simple,
and focus on the melody.”
Or “L.A. Noir,” which, Mars says, was inspired by “old ‘30s and ‘40s B-movies about sleuth
detectives, flatfoots, private eyes, that kind of stuff. I came up with the main lick maybe 30 years
ago, and never really had a chance to do anything with it until now. I love that big-band sound
and era, so we tried to capture that, but with a real sleazy, noir-ish vibe.”
As for the album’s leadoff track and first single, “Loyal to the Lie”? Well, that one was easy. “I
wanted to do something that was just big and mean,” Mars says with a laugh.
But no matter what direction he’s going in on The Other Side of Mars, what ties it all together is
“that people are going to hear my tone – my sound,” Mars says. “I am what I am. Nobody else
can do it. And like everyone, I’ve got a limited number of years. So I'm gonna do all I can to do a
lot of stuff.”
To that end, he says that even as he unleashes The Other Side of Mars on the world, he’s already
working on a follow-up. And while he remains a member of Mötley Crüe (“when they need me,
I’m here,” he says), Mars is no longer spending his days and nights in arenas and stadiums
throughout the world. Which means, he says, he has more time to pursue his own musical muse.
“I'm trying to keep growing,” Mars says. “Because if you stop learning new things, if you stop
playing new things, if you close your mind, you’re done. You have to keep moving and creating.
Next!”

After a decade defining, redefining, and perfecting their art, Fission finds Dead Poet Society poised to be rock's next breakout act. The album is a 13-track study of personal change and the turbulence of growth that, as frontman Jack Underkofler attests, takes "a microscopic and broad look at the events that changed who we are."

Today, the band has dropped two singles — "I hope you hate me." and "How Could I Love You?"

Both songs address the sometimes bittersweet, more often simply bitter, fallout from a tumultuous relationship. The latter is an excruciating yet intoxicating journey, backed by searing guitars, while the former addresses the aftermath of a relationship.

The video for "I hope you hate me" features dancer and breakout social media star This Robot Cannot Human, whose carefully choreographed moves perfectly reflect the song's tension and slow, calculated build up. The track effortlessly mixes a subtle take on '80s nu wave with alt rock fury, thanks to pulsating riffs and drumbeats that echo your own heartbeat.

Ultimately, Underkofler says the band has one mission for fans and listeners of the new album: "We want to leave them with the truth."

Further elaborating on the concept, he says, "It's not as simple as saying we want our music to leave people with a positive outlook. You want music to speak to wherever you find yourself. We want to leave people feeling that whatever they are experiencing is valid, no matter what place they are at in their lives."

To that end, there are deep rakings over the coals of relationship breakdowns, examinations of addiction in all its guises, ruminations on the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood, and struggles with the evolution, loss and continual search for self. "In a lot of ways this album is about unpacking those emotional pains that come with being an adult," Underkofler says. "The past few years have left me in a constant state of growth through the life events of which I've had little control, or which didn’t pan out the way I wanted them to. There's a 'before' you, and an 'after' you, and there's no going back. Life tends to force your hand, and it's futile to fight it. You have to accept that things that happen to you will change you, and let them build you into the next phase of who you are. There is a constant battle to not mourn who I was, because the things you go through define you as a person and turn you into a person worth being. But that can be difficult to wrestle with. There is a positive to it, but it is birthed through a lot of pain."

While the lyrics are fully relatable, the music is a DNA-distinct blend of anthemic alternative, dark and moody hard rock, and progressive indie. FISSION is truly unlike anything you've heard in recent times.

Oxymorrons embodies the essence of New York City, a melting pot of sounds, styles and cultures that can never be succinctly defined or shoved in a box. Comprised of vocalist brothers KI and Deee, drummer Matty Mayz, and guitarist Jafé Paulino, their diverse backgrounds, eccentricities and flawless imperfections blend together to create the soundtrack of our big city lives. Always with an eye on the bigger picture, Oxymorrons use music as a catalyst for change, an opportunity to help craft a global movement that never fails to put community over division.

The Queens-bred brothers, KI and Deee, were touched by the power of music at a very young age. “When you’re raised in Queens, you’re exposed to a melting pot of cultures, which shed light on multiple genres of music. Our dad would be bumpin Prince, Bob Marley, Lionel Ritchie, Phil Collins, Billy Joel, etc. Our older brother would have artists like Biggie and Metallica on repeat. Queens birthed many hip-hop superstars like Nas, 50 Cent, Nicki Minaj, RUN DMC, Onyx, while also birthing rock stars like the Ramones, Anthrax and Bayside. It’s no coincidence that when it was our turn, we would create something so hybrid.” For the brothers it was always about finding their own sound and carving their own path, taking inspiration from acts like N.E.R.D, Jay-Z, Lincoln Park, Kid Cudi, Outkast & Lupe Fiasco to be unapologetically themselves. The eventual additions of drummer Matty Mayz and guitarist Jafé Paulino have proven integral parts of carving that path, and Oxymorrons have not looked back since.

But coming up as Black youth with sights on a career in the music and entertainment biz would require navigating around some imposing potholes. People had biased assumptions about what kind of music they should create. “When we put our music out we were constantly told we were too rock for hip-hop and too hip-hop for rock. When they see rappers they don’t consider it rock. It’s blasphemy because where do you think Rage Against The Machine came from?” Dee adds, “A lot of hip-hop people associate rock music with things that aren’t of Black culture. If you know the history you know where it came from.” Immersed in both musical lanes and naturally pushing those sounds out, the group far surpasses these binaries as it feels authentic from both sides and makes something all their own.

This authenticity couldn’t be more evident on their debut album Melanin Punk, set for release via Mascot Records on October 20. The follow up to 2021’s Mohawks & Durags EP, Melanin Punk was entirely produced by Zach Jones (Fever 333, Nova Twins, Pop Evil, We Came As Romans). “Zach is one of our favorite collaborators, he truly understands the unique OXY hybrid sound and makes the process seamless…. we just go in and blend sounds. It only made sense for us to work with him on this project.”