Reviews – Page 4 – 7th Level Music

Review: American Sharks – Not Dead Yet

Austin, Texas’ American Sharks have returned after a five-year hiatus with a new rocker of an album titled Not Dead Yet for all of you out there figuring they were finished.

The opening title track takes off like someone stomping the gas pedal of a muscle car outfitted with flame throwers and machine guns. “Flowers for the Dead” (featuring a guitar solo by David Sullivan of Red Fang) has the flame throwers on that car burning down everything along a funeral procession while a dog growls and barks as they pass and toss an empty beer can at it. “Goodbye, my love, goodbye,” Roky Moon sings, preferring to send his dearly departed out on a high note.

“I saw a demon on my left. I saw a lizard on my right,” Moon says in the beginning of the absolutely slamming “Going Insane,” letting us know about weird visions he’s having both in and out of sleep while Aaron Echegaray goes bonkers on lead guitar. “Fuzz War” is suitably fuzzy for its title. “I need blood, I need something real,” Moon sings on “Give Me Blood.” His vocals become echoed and distorted as he tries to find anything concrete in the illusions in which he’s living.

“Bang Yer Head” (with solo Mike Derks of GWAR) is a fun classic metal track that you can imagine was a blast for them to record. Nick Cornetti goes wild with his snare hits, sounding like he went through several of them while playing it. Zach Blair of Rise Against stops in for his own guitar solo duty on “The Machine,” which almost reaches hair metal territory, and The Sword‘s “Kyle Schutt” unleashes a solo of his own on “Sunny Sunday,” an upbeat track with sad lyrics (“It ain’t been the same since you were last around…I’ll be sittin’ here waiting for you.”).

The album ends with “They Want Peace” featuring Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol‘s Leo Lydon not only contributing another guest guitar solo but also backing vocals. “Hey, man. I need water. Could you spare a little please?”, Lydon asks. They’re looking for compassion in a world that’s lacking it. It can also be allusion to the Southwest’s growing and dire water shortage issue.

The world’s not dead yet, and American Sharks are trying to tell us that we can do something about it. We don’t need to just roll over and die. We can keep banging our heads and rocking out and watching out for each other. Someone you know needs a boost. Crank this and wake them up.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Review: The Darts – Halloween Love Songs

The Darts’ frontwoman / keyboardist Nicole Laurenne noted back in 2024 that there weren’t a lot of good, modern Halloween-themed songs, let alone albums. You get “Monster Mash” and a handful of others that get dragged out of their tombs every year, but nothing new has come along in decades. So, she and her bandmates (Rebecca Davidson – guitar, Lindsay Scarey – bass, Rikki Styxx – drums) set out to fill that void and created Halloween Love Songs.

The first side of the album consists of tracks that Laurenne describes as “full of colorful, early-evening energy, the kind of songs you could blast while the neighborhood lights are flicking on.” “Midnight Creep” simultaneously is a fun rock tune, a new dance craze, and a spooky stomper with sizzling keyboard work from Laurenne and a fun solo by Davidson. “Zombies on the Metro” is about both the living dead consuming flesh and the living consumed by the daily grind (“The nine-to-five will steal your soul.”).

Styxx’s beats on “Blood Runs Cold” move from psychobilly to punk to almost jazz at one point. “Vampires in Love” is another fun one destined for your goth romance playlists. Scarey’s bass is a sinister snarl on “Dream Ghost.” “Every Night Is Halloween” is a fun way to end Side A with its promise of the holiday lasting as long as you want.

Side B (“…the soundtrack for after dark, when the bonfire is raging.”) starts with the appropriately fiery “Apocalypse” – a song inspired by the Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers, France. “The Devil Made Me Do It” might be your new favorite makeout / rock out song. “Darkness” gets a bit heaver, and “Up in My Soul” gets way funkier, bringing in surf elements and some of Styxx’s wickedest beats on the record.

“Haunt Me” is the song you’ll want to play after everyone but your lover has left the party and the candles are still lit (in a magic circle or pentacle being optional). “Shadow” has great vocals throughout it, not only from Laurenne but also the rest of the band singing with her. The closer, “Late Drive,” sends us out with a cruise across the desert and all the weird things one sees and imagines on such a trip.

It’s a cool record and The Darts not only understood the mission (“Let’s make a cool new Halloween record.”), they nailed it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Chad at No Rules PR.]

Review: 9 Hours Ahead – Smooth Sailing EP

I’m guessing 9 Hours Ahead got their name from the time difference between the two members – Breeze in Amsterdam and Namastrange in San Francisco. Together, they put together their Smooth Sailing EP and, despite the time difference, created one of the best house music records of 2026 so far.

The title track uses seagull cries, looped hand percussion beats, and undeniably catchy beats to get you moving. The breakdown and comeback in the middle of the track is so slick you might fall off your boat and into the ocean from it.

“Meridian Space” bumps and thumps with thick bass drum hits and then the even thicker synth bass drops in so thick you could spread it on your pancakes. “Transatlantic Dreams” is probably another reference to the time and space gap between the two DJ pals, and it’s a killer cut suitable for dancing, action sequences, and HIIT workouts. I love the old school synth blasts in it.

The EP ends with the Bliss Inc. remix of “Meridian Space” that makes the beats snappier and the bass a bit menacing while adding what sound like alien transmissions to the track.

Add this to a few of your playlists. You’ll dig it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

Review: The Shits – Diet of Worms

Looking at that album cover, you might think at first glance that you were in for a folk record, or maybe a “goth country” album, but then you notice the title is Diet of Worms (possibly after the assembly in which Martin Luther was told to recant his writings and views or be labeled as a heretic – spoiler alert from the 16th century: He didn’t.) and the band’s name is The Shits and now you’re even more intrigued.

Then the opening dissonance of the first track, “In a Hell,” arrives and you’re locked in because you want to hear where this is going. The snarling vocals arrive while drums, bass, and guitars circle around you like angry hounds and you’re thinking, “Okay, let’s do this.” This goes on for over seven minutes and ratchets up the power for the whole album. You look at the album cover again and begin to think something bad has happened (or is still happening) in that house / barn…and, by the way, is the whole area on fire?

The Shits seem to believe the whole world is on fire, judging by the rumbling rage in every track. The guitars on “Tarrare” almost sound like the repetitive ramblings of a madman. “Then You’re Dead” sounds like a Stooges B-side covered in ashes and played on a turntable with a vulture perched next to it and using its beak for the needle. The bass line and drums hits on it are relentless.

Speaking of bass, the bass notes on “Change My Ways” are thick as tar. I think the song is about being pressured to change from every angle of society in this modern world: Eat this, do this workout, sleep in this position, take this supplement, listen to these podcasts, read this book, invest your money with me! It never ends unless you change another thing – the desire to change at all. Could The Shits be hiding a Zen lesson in the distortion and shouts?

There could be another one hidden in “Joyless Satisfaction.” The title alone could allude to the emptiness that often accompanies materialism and attachment. We buy and buy and buy and so often have remorse afterwards. The thrill of the purchase is soon replaced by the dread of having yet another thing to move, dust, or take up space. The same goes for doom-scrolling, influencer idolizing, and so many other things that take up our mind-space. The track’s guitar riffs are all jagged and rusty and likely to harm you if you’re not careful.

The title track is a gritty, nervous, writhing thing with an abrupt ending that catches you off-guard. “Thank You for Being a Friend” has a groove that, believe it or not, reminds me of Thin Lizzy. It’s not a cover of the Golden Girls theme song (which would be amazing), but I think is about both true and false friends, and how sometimes it’s difficult to figure out which is which. The album ends with the menacing “Three O’Clock in the Morning.” It feels like the sensation of stumbling home after a drunken brawl in a Waffle House parking lot, or the dread of waking up for another early shift, or coming back from one that ran late, or the lonely dread that sometimes creeps in when you wake up for no apparent reason. It yells and spits at you, creeps around you, pulls at you, and generally unnerves you.

The whole album does. That’s what it’s supposed to do, and why The Shits made it. It’s as unsettling as the album cover or being handed a bowl of worms to eat. It’s meant to shake you up and shake you out of the trap you don’t even know is around you.

One final note: You can’t be a band called “The Shits” and not be a solid, damn good band. It just wouldn’t work. You’d be written off as a joke band.

The Shits are no joke.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dan at Discipline PR.]

Live: Gary Numan and Tremours – Vogue Theatre – Indianapolis, Indiana – March 29, 2026

The seemingly ageless electro icon Gary Numan summed up his show at Indianapolis’ Vogue Theatre well when, during a pause in his set, he said, “I didn’t know what to expect, but this is fucking amazing.”

This was the fourth time I’ve seen Numan and his band, and they always bring it. Each set feels better than the last, and this one was loud, powerful, and a performance.

First up were Tremours, a good shoegaze duo from Los Angeles. They put on a solid thirty-minute set of reverb-thick guitar and echoing vocals from Lauren Andino and hypnotic drumming from Glenn Fryatt. My friends with me at the show were reminded of Belly, Lush, The Sundays, and Ladytron during their set that was both dreamy and drone-y.

Numan and crew came out at 8pm sharp and opened with two bangers out of the gate – “Halo” and “Metal.” Right away, the whole band was clicking and the crowd, which ranged in ages from twenties to seventies and band shirts ranging from Nitzer Ebb to All Them Witches, was cheering. Many hadn’t seen Numan before then, and I think he hadn’t played in Indianapolis in quite a while, so everyone was hyped.

L-R: Harris, Chris Payne, Numan, Slade, Jimmy Lucido

Guitarist Steve Harris was in great form, creating weird riffs and baffling people with his strange antics that seem to be a reflection of how all the sounds are affecting his brain. Teaming him with Tim Slade on bass is genius because the weird energy they bring creates a strange dance that works well with the roar of sound they create.

Following his classic “Down in the Park” with “M.E.” was a great addition to the set. I’d never heard him play it live before then, so I was over the moon. After that, Numan and his lads took a moment for him to tell us why his new album wasn’t finished or released for the tour — mainly due to his wife, Gemma, undergoing multiple serious health scares. As a result, his songwriting has been seriously delayed. He heard some new music playing from the bedroom of his daughter, Raven, and had planned on stealing part of it for a new track. He asked who it was, and she said, “It’s me.” The next thing we knew, Raven Numan joined her dad and his band on stage to perform her song “Nothing’s What It Seems.”

After rousing applause for her, Dad Numan unleashed two more heavy-hitters: “Ghost Nation” and “Love Hurt Bleed” (which always kills live). He played, “Cars,” of course, and I love how he puts a different spin on it with each tour. My friend, Bill, said, “It’s like I never heard that song before.”

He ended the main set with “Are Friends Electric?”, which has rapidly become my favorite song to hear during his shows. It just hits you. The encore included “The Gift” and “My Name Is Ruin.”

You couldn’t help noticing how often Numan and his band were smiling and laughing. At one point during the show, Numan thanked the crowd and said, “I didn’t know what to expect (playing at a small venue in Indianapolis on a Sunday night), but this is fucking amazing.”

Yes, Mr. Numan it was.

Keep your mind open.

Thanks to the chap who scored this and let me photograph it.

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[Thanks to Dave for the press pass!]

Review: Stuck – Optimizer

Chicago’s Stuck approached their new album, Optimizer, with the sense that they and the world at large are in the passenger seat of an out of control car. Things are spinning out of control, racing toward disaster, and we’re all trying to optimize our social media profiles, bodies, hobbies, food, and minds.

“It’s hard to know what you want, and to know it is worse,” says lead singer / guitarist Greg Obis at the beginning of Optimizer‘s opening track, “Totally Vexed.” He’s unsure what to do about not only his life, but things in general, just like the rest of us (“Take a look around. Everybody’s down.” / “You don’t know what you want.”). The song bristles with post-punk nervousness and Tim Green‘s pulse-slightly pounding-in-your-temples beats. “Instakill” is a song about fitness influencers and the weird world of fitness culture. It sound like some of Devo‘s earlier, punkier tracks with its strange, popping synths, David Algrim‘s robot bass lines, the slightly tortured guitar riffs, and the lyrics poking fun at people striving to be like everyone else.

“Sicko” is about subjecting ourselves to the relentless grind of not only work, but also maintaining social media profiles and projecting fictionalized best versions of ourselves. Algrim’s bass hits hard on “Deadlift,” another track about body image and our troubling relationships with it. “Less Is More” roars with punk fury. “Fire, Man” smirks at the emptiness of a lot of rock music nowadays.

“Net Negative” brings early Wavves tracks to mind with its catchy guitar hooks and snarled vocals like “I think that it’s funny connection’s tearing us apart.” “It Isn’t” is a stark look at how we’re being deceived every day, either by people, algorithms, or media (social and otherwise). “Punchline” has Stuck (and the rest of us) looking for some kind of, any kind of meaning to all of this chaos around us. It’s the track that reminds me most of Gang of Four (“You know something I don’t. A universal truth. I’m not in on the joke.”) through its solid bass and straight-to-the-gut lyrics.

The album closes with “GG.” No, it’s not a reference to G.G. Allin. “On a pitch black road, don’t know where it goes,” Obis sings on it. We’re back to the out-of-control car metaphor and how Obis feels like he’s holding on for dear life as he grieves over how a loved one has changed and seems intent on plunging them both to their doom.

Or maybe Stuck feel like most of the country has changed and is content to drive us all off a cliff rather than admit they’re afraid, or wrong, or rather afraid of being wrong. We’re all tempted and told to optimize our lives, produce more, consume more, and ignore the billionaire boots grinding us all.

Optimizer fades out with the same distortion that fades in the record. It’s a loop, spinning and spinning until we decide to take action and give it a rest — just like the traps we’re falling into every day. Stuck have held up the mirror. We have to accept what we see in it. Acceptance can lead to action, and that is optimizing.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Various artists – When There Is No Sun

Here’s a cool idea: Get a bunch of electronic music producers and DJs in the same room with some cool guest vocalists and tell them to put their spins on the music of Sun Ra. What do you get? This cool compilation called When There Is No Sun.

Starting with Underground Resistance‘s funky, bumpy take on “When Angels Speak,” the addition of vocals by poet / musician / filmmaker Saul Williams drops you into the groove right away. “When angels speak, they speak of cosmic waves of sound,” Williams says, and you know he’s right. SHE Spells Doom joins up with the Sun Ra Arkestra for a remix of “Somebody Else’s Idea.” The muted, looped horn section provides an interesting groove that seems to cast a long look around the room and invite people into another party at the back.

House music heavyweight Chez Damier teams up with Ben Vedren and poet Anthony Joseph on the “H2H Kora mix” of “The Three Dimensions of Air.” The looping hand percussion beats, bouncing synth notes, and distant trumpet sounds create a hypnotic effect when they combine with Joseph’s vocals. Calibre creates a drum and bass (his specialty) remix of “Chopin.”

Ricardo Villalobos “Earlier Than Late” remix (version 2) of “I Have Forgotten” is a mesmerizing track with odd sounds that resemble something you’d hear in a haunted house movie score if the house had a rave happening in the cemetery next door. Tunde Adebimpe joins Damier and Vedren on the H2H remix of “The Endless Realm.” It’s instantly danceable, as well as enlightening. It’s a house music Zen lesson on the joy of non-attachment.

Underground Resistance and Williams return for their soulful take on “The Outer Darkness.” The first version of Villalobo’s “Earlier Than Late” remix of “I Have Forgotten” bubbles and pops like some kind of sentient ooze. Baris K and poet Abiodun Oyewole‘s riff on “Somebody Else’s Idea” is a house / trip hop / psych-dance track that has a sweet beat throughout the whole thing.

A Guy Called Gerald and poet Mahogany L. Browne‘s version of “Message to Black Youth” is simple and profound, as is Calibre’s ambient remix of “Chopin.” The album ends with the return of SHE Spells Doom’s remix of “Portrait of the Living Sky. It’s a cool house track, with emphasis on the “cool” part. It gives off this feeling of partying outside the dance club with all the cooler people who got rejected at the door.

This is a slick compilation that you can play at your house party, your chill room, or in your car late nights. You’ll want to hear it everywhere.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Carbon Decoy – Crush the Sun

I’m intrigued with Carbon Decoy‘s name. It’s a play on “carbon decay,” the process used for carbon dating, and the skull on the cover of their new album, Crush the Sun, indicates a version of decay, but they chose “decoy.” Their name seems to indicate being a stand-in for the decayed, or for the dead perhaps.

I mean, the heavy doom riffs they play certainly help back this theory. “The Trip” opens the album with a gas pedal-stomper that makes you want to hit the open road, pick up a weird, sexy hitchhiker, fight a band of cultists, and discover a doctor’s bag full of loot at the end of the road. Earl Mudd‘s guitars on “Castle East” sometimes sound like they’re straining to hold back undead hordes attacking said castle, and the agonized wails from drummer / vocalist Casey Rowe amplifying the image.

Jared Jordan‘s bass is spread thick across “Icarus,” and Rowe’s drums reflect the surely panicked, euphoric, and then panicked again heartbeat of the doomed man who flew too close to the sun. The swagger and groove of “Forest of Lies” is outstanding. It’s a swampy, sludgy one amidst the doom, and I’m all for it. “Sirens” goes back into mythological lands (and waters, in this case) as Rowe bemoans that he’s being beckoned by physical and metaphorical monsters. Speaking of monsters, the trio hammers away on “The Wraith,” in which they apparently try to banish such a spirit with the power of crushing riffs and pounding beats. The album ends with “Ghost Town,” this time with Jordan on vocals and the sounds of wind blowing through a spaghetti western that takes place near a haunted coal mine that probably houses some sort of horrible creature of the souls of a hundred trapped miners.

For most of its runtime, Crush the Sun feels heavy enough to do just that. Carbon Decoy’s created one of the best doom albums of the year so far.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Ksu at Discipline PR.]

Review: The Fake Friends – Let’s Not Overthink This

The Fake Friends‘ new album, Let’s Not Overthink This, starts off with the cry of “No truce!” on “Ministry of Peace.” They’re coming to shake things up, kick down walls, and slap you out of it.

Matthew Savage sings / shouts through the opening track, calling out everyone addicted to constant stimulation (“You got your hand glued to a screen hoping that’ll give you meaning.”) as Felix Crawford-Legault and Luca Santilli‘s guitars roar all over the place. “Sucker Born Every Minute” echoes Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs-style rock with it’s hooky chorus, Bradley Cooper-Graham‘s bright, almost go-go synths, and Savage’s “shout them with us!” lyrics about people who can’t get out of their own damn way.

“The Way She Goes” seems to be about co-dependency, and the frantic, angular guitar chords reflect the fractured patterns in such a relationship (“You want it, I need it. I got it, you want it.”). “Control” follows this theme (“Don’t look so defeated. You only said what you mean. Too tired to keep fighting, it’s tearing us at the seams.”).

“Five Star Review” is a quirky, funny, possibly fictional tale of the history / takedown of the band told by friends and crew. “Living the Dream” is a rousing track, with great call-and-response vocals and heavy drumming from Michael Tomizzi. “Backstreet’s Back Pt. II” has this nervous tension to it that gets under your skin.

“HyperConnection” has Savage looking for something, anything, in common with a potential lover but “Your favorite books are way too long.” and “I’ll never get what you said to me. I can’t speak in astrology. What the fuck is a Capricorn?” Answer: “It’s a horse. It’s a horse!” On “If It Happens,” Savage admits that he’s doing the hard work to repair a relationship even though he knows it’s fruitless (“You know it won’t matter how much I do. It’s all in my head.”).

“Dance on My Grave” has perhaps Michael Kamps‘ funkiest bass groove on the entire record. It carries the whole song and will get you dancing, on graves or atop other things (tables, bars, desks, crosswalks, car hoods, etc.). The album ends with the simple, brutally funny “Good Friends,” in which the whole band sings about “friends” who are so miserable it’s exhausting (“I forget just how happy I can be when you’re not around.”). You have to wonder if the intended recipient of the song got the message.

The album’s title refers to not only the band’s creative process but also hides a Zen lesson. Alan Watts said, “A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts.” We often get stuck in our own heads, and The Fake Friends are here to snap us out of it by whacking us with the Zen stick that is this record.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Chad at No Rules PR!]

Review: L’Ira Del Baccano – The Praise of Folly

You know you’re in for an interesting experience with an album when looking at the cover makes you think, “Wait…Am I high?”

L’Ira Del Baccano‘s The Praise of Folly combines prog, stoner, desert, doom, psych, and whatever the hell is going on with the chicken woman, wasp-man, and nightmarish elephant-praying mantis hybrid playing instruments on the cover.

Part one of the title track instantly reminded me of Rush if they leaned heavier into their harder material. It’s a nearly thirteen-minute journey into cosmic realms that defy any kind of description. The guitars alternately soar and roar at the right times, and the drums are like guiding spirits through a strange land. It crawls / oozes into doom metal by the end and then shifts into desert rock for part two of the title track.

The weird synths of “Stigma”, and the chugging horror film guitars, remind me of Goblin tracks from the early 1980s. About halfway through the song, it becomes a grooving, rocking psych-rock track with tight drumming and a slick bass line.

The closing track, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” hits hard and wild at first and then turns into something you might hear ahead of Galactus’ approach to your planet.

L’Ira Del Baccano have said that they didn’t tweak The Praise of Folly much. They wanted it to draw in the listener and be as much like a live performance as possible. A good amount of it is improvised, which is damn impressive when you hear it. The album is an immersive experience that leaves you feeling like the album cover looks – weird, expanded, and spacey.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Angie and NRV Promotion.]