Belgian stoner metal trio MOTSUS have returned from the galaxy next door with a new record, Atlas, that continues their exploration of heavy riffs and cosmic themes. “Atlas” can refer to the character of Greek myth who held the world upon his back, never succumbing to its heavy weight, or the comet discovered by the Atlas telescope in Chile in July 2025. The album’s cover seems to be a drawing of a futuristic science research outpost / doomsday shelter, possibly built from storage containers, and, knowing MOTSUS’ prior output, is probably on another planet or even floating in space.
“Driver” is suitable for playing while in orbit or for terraforming a distant planet with its rumbling drums and chugging guitars. “Duna” downshifts into trippy, melty psych-rock and lets you drift for over eight minutes along some gravity well that is either holding up or pulling down the planet, depending on your perspective.
The heavy sounds of “Exploder, Pt. II” are great. You’ll find yourself slowly head-banging as it rolls around your head and the room and the air around you. It fills every space for almost ten minutes until “Short Notice” gives you a two-minute rest before “Turboslak” shows up to pull you into an asteroid field in deep space, and you’re not sure if you’ll come out of it with one hundred percent hull integrity. The guitars and drums hammer like rocks of various sizes bouncing off the ship while you start landing procedures on one that looks like a good place to build the structure on the album’s cover.
Atlas is another good one from MOTSUS. Put it on, fire the ignition, and take off with it.
It’s difficult to describe 88Kasyo Junrei (“Pilgrimage to 88 Places”). They tend to keep a lot of stuff about the band secret, only release their albums through their own label (PPR – Psychedelic Progressive Revolution), rarely translate their lyrics into any other language in print (and even leave them cryptic in Japanese, preferring fans interpret their songs however they’d like), and have only played outside Japan once (in France in 2019). I found out about them by stumbling upon one of their music videos (“Saramato” – a 2023 song about a utopian city that exists either in their minds, in another dimension, or in the future) on YouTube while going down a rabbit hole of Japanese metal bands like Ningen Isu and Bo Ningen.
Their newest album (the ninth in fourteen years), Hachi Tasu Kyu (“8 Plus 9”), is a massive wallop (two discs) of prog-rock, psychedelic trips, and metal shredding mantras. Most of the songs on the album, and their catalog as a whole, have prominent Buddhist and Shinto themes (as also reflected in the band’s name).
Opener “Nōsōkyoku” (“Brain Damage”, a single released in 2024) tosses you head-first into their wild world with stunning guitar work from Katzuya Shimizu. “Yaoyoroz” has grand sweeps of heavy riffs mixed with shoegaze drone…and drummer Kenzo never lets up the whole time, sounding like he must be a cyborg by how relentless and exact his drumming is. “Fukyōon” (“Dischord”) is the first single off the album, and it’s a great choice as it showcases each of the member’s talents. Bassist and vocalist Margarette Hiroi is on fire throughout it with his tension-building and releasing vocals and insane riffs, while Shimizu continues burning the place down with his shredding and Kenzo plays so hard and fast it sounds like he’s trying to drill to the Earth’s core with his kit.
The groove and funk of “Chikagoro Dō Shiteru?” (“What Have You Been Up To?”) and “Yukō” is slick. Both are fun tracks showing that 88Kasyo Junrei could be a prog-funk band anytime they want. After the brief “Insuon 1” (“Instrumental 1”), we get the frantic, rocking “Ale.!!”
“Zekkyō NOW!” (“Shout NOW!”) starts out with ripping thrash metal guitar from Shimizu and then Hiroi and Kenzo are off to the races, putting down a jaw-dropping groove that never lets up for a moment. The album’s “Unlucky Side” ends with “Furafura” (“Nirvana”) – a ballad-like track with Kenzo’s big drum fill flourishes, Hiroi’s bass a skipping stone across still water, and Shimizu’s guitar ranging from shoegaze to psych-jazz tones.
On the second disc (the “Lucky Side”), we have several singles that 88Kasyo Junrei have released since 2021 that haven’t been collected on an album until now. “Naraku Subuūfā” (“Hell’s Bells” – first released in 2022) is the first, sounding like it’s being played through an old radio at first, and then it bursts into a fast rocker (with vocals) after about a minute. Then comes “Insuon 2” (“Instrumental 2”), which shows off even more of their prog-chops. “Kichiku” (“Brute / “The Dark Side of the Moon” – also from 2022) brings forth more of the band’s love of grunge-metal, as some of it sounds like it was heavily influenced by Alice in Chains.
Hiroi’s bass groove on “Deishun” (“Muddy Springtime” / “Dusty Springfield”) will leave you speechless. Speaking of being gobsmacked, wait until you hear “Saramato” (“Paradise City”). I don’t know how Kenzo plays it without collapsing from exhaustion. If this song doesn’t make you a fan, I don’t know what will. “Garakuta no Sabaku” (“Desert Moon” / “Desert of Impurity and Rubbish”) has a cool, strolling groove throughout it, complete with a short drum solo from Kenzo. “Maka-maka-maka” (“A Love Supreme”) is bonkers. You’re not sure which member is playing faster.
“HOTOTOGISU” (“Silly Love Songs” / “Lesser Cuckoo”) is, unfortunately, not a cover of the Wings song (which would be amazing), but it’s just as quirky and fun. “Maen” (“Desire” / “Demon Flame”) reminds me of early 2000s alternative metal before it became overrun with “bro-rock” and “nu-metal” and was still experimental and not just cookie-cutter rock. It blends into the short and chaotic “8989” to wrap up the journey
It’s a stunning record, one that makes you want to dig up everything they have and then fly to Japan to catch them live even once.
arantisT is calling on artists, creators, and cultural voices around the world to stand with the Iranian people, to speak for those who have been silenced, and to help ensure that the suffering of an entire nation is seen, heard, and never ignored.
Iran is currently facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. What began as peaceful civilian protests against the occupying terrorist regime has escalated into a nationwide massacre, with the regime deploying heavy and military-grade weapons into city streets and brutally killing more than 30,000 people, including children, women, elders, and unarmed civilians. Families are denied the return of their loved ones’ bodies or are extorted for outrageous sums, while reports describe piles of corpses and streets running with blood. In an attempt to conceal the scale of these crimes, the regime has imposed a total digital blackout—shutting down the internet and phone networks across the country—cutting off all communication between Iran and the outside world, and leaving the true depth of the atrocities unknown. Despite this, the Iranian people remain united, calling collectively for Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and demanding an end to the regime’s occupation. Artists and musicians across Iran and the diaspora stand in solidarity with the people; among them, the Iranian rock band TarantisT, which continues to release protest music and material in support of the movement. Their latest release, “Freedom”, incorporates real footage from the current events in Iran, merged with digital technology, amplifying the voices of a nation silenced but unbroken.
Relentless and prolific, TarantisT will be releasing a new single next week titled
Formed in 2000 by a group of young underground metal heads, TarantisT originated in the basement alternative rock and heavy metal scenes in their native Tehran, Iran. Having to perform secretly but loudly often proved to be difficult, but after sparking a following via word of mouth in the underground, the band soon began to garner international recognition. Within just a few years, international media correspondents inspired by their story (including BBC, SKY, CNN, NPR, Metal Hammer and Kerrang) started visiting Tehran to meet and talk with TarantisT. These news reports and articles aided TarantisT in cultivating a worldwide following – motivating the band to relocate to the United States Los Angeles in 2008.
Iranian metal band TarantisT have been active with their social-political content and music during all these years, dropping tracks like “Revolution” in 2022. “This is not a protest, this is a Revolution”. TarantisT continues to march towards this Revolution with all Iranians seeking freedom and liberty for their country with the main slogan of “Women, Life, Freedom”.
Instagram, TikTok and some other social medias have put limitation and restrictions to TarantisT’s accounts due to posting images and footages of the protest, violence of the Islamic Republic authorities and due to the use of social-political hashtags.
Since their inception, TarantisT has been invited to play several festivals like SXSW, CMJ, Canadian Music Week and Intergalactic Fest. TarantisT quickly added to their touring repertoire, performing on the same stages as Metallica, Motörhead, Stone Temple Pilots, Muse, Cheap Trick, Voivod, Sum 41, My Ruin, Ben Harper and many more.
Acid King‘s third album, III, starts out with a a low growl from Lori S.‘s guitar and then then roars like a motorcycle tearing out of a haunted gas station at 3am just before the burning Molotov cocktails you left behind blow up the place to bury the curse on the place for another hundred years.
And that’s just the first track (“2 Wheel Nation”).
Guy Pinhas‘ bass on “Heavy Load” is pretty much the backhoe dropping a couple tons of broken concrete into the hole where the haunted gas station had been. The first song is a salute to bikers, and the second is a salute to truckers – both of whom see things most of us never see on dark roads during long nights. “Bad Vision” is a tale of malevolent spirits just on the other side of the void and has thunderous drumming from Joey Osbourne.
“War of the Mind” is the colossal centerpiece of III, clocking in at nearly twelve minutes as Lori S. calls for people to cast off their mental and physical shackles. It rumbles inside your body and the heavy, deep chords (along with Osbourne’s growling drum fills) give you the strength to get up when you’re feeling the weight of the world on you.
“Into the Ground” seems to be another tribute to late night desert driving (“Four wheels keep on turning into the ground.”), but in some sort of Mad Max-style world where its survival of the fittest or the smartest. Lori S.’s solo on this one is a standout. “On to Everafter” takes on one of the favorite subjects of doom / stoner metal – death (“Here comes the knife. Comes to me closer, faster than life…Leaves close the sight, covers me over, closer to light.”). The song, somehow, takes on a heavier, sludgier feel than previous tracks. I don’t know how Acid King do it.
The album ends with “Sunshine and Sorrow,” in which Lori S. sings about going into a haze to escape the dread of facing another day that masks sadness in beauty (“What’s in a day? Sunshine and sorrow. Haze leads the way.”). It’s difficult to determine which of the three are hitting it harder on the final track. Lori S.’s guitar sounds like a burning jet engine at points, while Osbourne is crushing everything around him and Pinhas is trying to split the Earth with his bass riffs.
This album came out a little over twenty years ago and it still lands harder than most metal albums out today.
Virginia Beach’s Death Harvest‘s Pale Rider EP contains three songs to preview their upcoming full-length album due in the spring of 2026. The songs are shortened versions of the full-length tracks coming later, and the EP is almost an omen of the massive riffs that will crush us in the near future.
Starting with the cheerily titled “Death Beside Me,” Death Harvest’s guitarists, Chris Bruffy and David MacArthur, pretty much set the place on fire right away. Vocalist Brett Lloyd sings / yells / growls / preaches that the Grim Reaper is always right around the corner and how he feels he already has one foot in the world beyond the veil (“I know I’ll be there when you awaken at dawn, and I know that I’m leavin’, and I’m already gone.”). The song, already heavy enough, really kicks in around the three-minute mark with Brian VanVraken‘s bass somehow hitting harder and guitar solos.
“Thousand Times” has a great underlying groove throughout it that reminds me of Soundgarden (one of their admitted influences). “I’ll pray for you to leave, I’ll beg for you to kill me,” Lloyd pleads, just wanting to either be left alone to his agony or have it end. Lloyd rage (and Jason Jacquin‘s drums) come back with another level of alternately simmering and boiling rage on “False Spring” – a term for a brief warm-up in the late months of winter or early months of spring before a return to dark, gloomy, cold days that steal your hope. It seems to a metaphor for falling back into an addiction, be it a toxic relationship or toxic pills (“I’ve become something I’m not through the years.”).
This EP is heavy, almost crushing. Like I wrote earlier, it’s an omen. Dark things are coming like the figure on the cover. Something like this can’t be stopped, so don’t bother trying. Get all Jungian and embrace your shadow with it.
The Mojave Experience festival today announces the full lineup for the first annual event, which takes place from March 20th-21st, 2026 in Joshua Tree, California. The festival is the brainchild of organizer and High Desert native Patrick Brink, frontman of VOLUME and former lead singer of desert rock legends Fu Manchu. Tickets are on sale now for individual days. Tickets are available HERE.
Co-headliners Earthless and Dead Meadow top the bill, totaling 16 bands confirmed to perform over two nights. The lineup includes legends in explorative and countercultural music, as well as future ones now making waves.
The full lineup is: Earthless, Dead Meadow, John Garcia (ex-Kyuss), Acid King, Nick Oliveri’s Death Acoustic, Yawning Man, Hippie Death Cult, Rubber Snake Charmers feat. Sean Wheeler, Ecstatic Vision, Howling Giant, Early Moods, The Freeks, Arthur Seay and the Riff Killers, Borracho, Insomniac, Soft Sun
The Mojave Experience takes place in Joshua Tree, California at the Joshua Tree Lake & Campground. Attendees are encouraged to make use of the camping, hiking and rock climbing in the area while taking in the vast beauty and mystery of the region that birthed the Desert Rock movement.
The Mojave isn’t just a backdrop — it’s the raw, unfiltered stage where music, art, and chaos collide. Out here, under endless stars and brutal sun, the desert strips away the fake and leaves only what’s real.
The Mojave Experience was born from that spirit. It’s not another sanitized festival in a city park, it’s a gathering for the wild ones, the wanderers, the true believers who know the desert doesn’t hand out comfort, only freedom.
This is where local desert legends share the stage with national heavyweights, weaving new stories into the myth of the Mojave. No velvet ropes. No corporate gloss. Just artists, misfits, and seekers coming together for a weekend that won’t be forgotten.
We bring the sound. You bring the fire. Together we’ll carve something into the desert that echoes long after the amps shut down. This is more than a festival — it’s a ritual. A pilgrimage into the heat, dust, and sound that will rattle your bones and rewire your soul.
Come ready. Come raw. The Mojave Experience isn’t here to entertain you — it’s here to change you.
There were a lot of great shows for me in 2025, and we’re now into the top half of the ones I saw last year — and all of this batch were at the Levitation Music Festvial in Austin, Texas.
#20: The Sword – September 26, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Austin heroes The Sword are enjoying their return to touring and this set almost leveled the Palmer Event Center in Austin. The crowd was bonkers for this one and had been digesting a full menu of metal all day before they came out and provided another massive entrée.
Pixel Grip played one of the late night shows on the first day of the festival, and they did it a man down at that. No one minded, however, because they still sounded great and had a loving crowd packed into the Elysium nightclub who were all in the mood to dance and make out, and PG’s live sets are perfect for both.
#`18: Model / Actriz – September 27, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
“Come on, Austin, we’re all hot!” was the opening call by Model / Actriz’s lead singer, Cole Haden at their Levitation set. They played a hot set of post-punk that had the crowd roaring by the end and made a lot of new fans.
#17: Boy Harsher – September 25, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Speaking of bands with roaring crowds, Boy Harsher packed people into the Stubb’s outdoor stage area on the opening night of the Levitation festival. It was a sexy, fun set that was a good one for the first night of headliners.
While we’re on the subject of sexy fun, Desire brought plenty of it at Elysium when they played a late-night set at Levitation. Black leather and latex, love songs, lust songs, and cat-like grace across the stage.
Who makes it into the top fifteen? Come back tomorrow!
Way back in August 1976, “Fast” Eddie Clarke (guitar), LemmyKilmister (bass and vocals) and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor (drums) got together at the famous Manticore Studio in Fulham, England. That new, classic Motörhead lineup was recorded for the first time there, and now those recordings have been released nearly fifty years later.
Starting with an instrumental intro, the band wastes no time with “Leavin’ Here.” They put down a fast, heavy rocker that might make you quit your job or current relationship. The swaggering groove of “Vibrator” is matched well with Kilmister’s pub-punk vocals. “Help Keep Us on the Road” has Clarke’s guitar at the front and Kilmister’s vocals at the back.
“I’ll give you a chance to do the right thing,” Kilmister warns on “The Watcher.” Taylor’s drums are sharp on the track, as is Clarke’s solo. The new lineup’s take on “Motörhead” is as gritty and growling as you hope it will be. The album closes with two great instrumentals, “Witch Doctor” (with Clarke and Kilmister going bonkers) and “Iron Horse / Born to Lose,” and then alternate takes of “Leavin’ Here,” “Vibrator,” and “The Watcher.”
The LP version of The Manticore Tapes comes with a bonus recording a live show from 1977 in Birmingham that includes live versions of all the “Manticore” tracks as well as “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” “City Kids,” and “White Line Fever.”
This is an unearthed gem for not only fans of Motörhead and NWOBHM bands, but also metal, rock, and music historians.
An acquaintance once described Castle Rat‘s music as “the feeling of opening my (Dungeons & Dragons) Player’s Handbook for the first time.” He’s correct. Into the Realm feels exactly like that.
The opening riffs of “Dagger Dragger” alone are enough to hook you as you and your party of first-level fighters, clerics, magic-users, and thieves head out on a quest given to you (and the band) by an ancient wizard. The Rat Queen herself, Riley Pinkerton, sings about fighting demons and, thanks to Henry Black‘s massive guitar riffs, you have great confidence about the fight ahead. “Feed the Dream” is great Sabbath-inspired doom. After the brief, bass-led (Ronnie Lanzilotta III) instrumental of “Resurrector,” “Red Sands” creeps up on you like a foreboding wind across a dune and then hammers you like a sandstorm.
“The Mirror” is another short instrumental, perhaps luring you with its bright surface and mysterious sights within it before “Cry for Me” gets hold of you and puts you in a trance. You apparently didn’t make your saving throw versus spells. Pinkerton’s vocals on it are haunting.
After another brief instrumental interlude (“Realm”), Joshua “The Druid” Strmic‘s drums unload on “Fresh Fur” behind Pinkerton’s screams and calls for warriors to charge behind her. The album ends with the massive “Nightblood” – bringing together the band’s love of fantasy, doom, and a bit of prog-rock.
It’s a great first campaign for you, involving magic daggers, cursed mirrors, bloody battles, and cryptic visions. Roll for initiative!
I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the first full day of Levitation 2025 than a slow-motion sword fight between a Rat Queen and a rat skull-headed incarnation of Death over a book containing countless souls.
That’s how Day One of the festival started in its new home — the Palmer Event Center. The new space is impressive. The interior stage is in a massive cave-like room with 360-degrees of projections to keep you tripping all day if you’d like. Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers described it to me as “amazing,” and I think he and his bandmates (still a bit bleary-eyed from their recent South American tour) are eager to blast the place on Day Three.
First to blast it, and setting a high bar for the rest of the bands to come for the rest of the festival, were a band consisting of a vampire, a druid, a plague doctor, and a warrior queen.
Castle Rat came out to an exuberant crowd as the voice of a distant wizard told us they had been given the task of protecting The Bestiary — a book of souls they must protect at all costs from evil forces. As a friend put it, “Listening to them is like opening your Dungeons & DragonsPlayer’s Handbook for the first time.” They proceeded to flatten the place, ending their too short forty-minute time slot with the aforementioned sword fight.
Castle Rat versus Death.
The line for Castle Rat’s merch was at least twenty minutes long for hours after their set. I later met their drummer, The Druid, and told him my friend’s description of their music. He laughed and said, “Yes! That’s exactly what we’re going for.”
Now is forever in this realm!
The exterior stage is in a smaller space, and set up facing south with the unintended result of having many of the bands (depending on their set time) staring into the afternoon sun. One such band was Skloss, who’d just returned from a tour in Scotland and had become unaccustomed to such bright sunlight. Guitarist SandyCarson had trouble seeing his foot pedal board a couple times, resulting in what drummer / singer Karen Skloss called “the Skloss experimental set” by the end. Regardless of the pedal trouble, they still put on a loud, psychedelic show that blasted as hard as the sun.
Pizza for Skloss!The pattern speaks.
I had to get some hydration and calories by this point, so I missed the opening of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol‘s set, but got there in time for a lot of solid rockers such as “Heel,” “1-800-EAT-SHIT,” and “I’m the Fucking Man.” They sounded great, even better when I saw them at Levitation last year at Stubb’s BBQ on a much bigger stage.
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Whatever the Fuck
I had a little time to wander for a bit, checking out the various vendors there, and then got to see most of the set from Austin’s own The Sword — who played to a packed house indoors. Their set got a bit funky by the end, which I thought was great.
The Sword cutting through time and space.
I took a much-needed disco nap back at the hotel after their set, and it was almost too good of a break. I woke up groggy and debated not going downtown to see the late night show for which I’d purchased a ticket a while ago. I decided to go outside, get some fresh air, and make the decision. It turned out to be a good one.
I didn’t get to Elysium in time to see Austin drag star Louisanna Purchase perform, but did get there for the last half of Auragraph‘s drum and bass set that had the place bumping. Much like the Boy Harsher show the previous night, the goth and queer crowd was out in force here — which is always great to see.
Auragraph dropping science.
Pixel Grip was playing down a man with synth player Jonathon Freund not being able to make the show, but pre-programmed loops and chords keyed up by drummer Tyler Ommen worked just fine and singer Rita Lukea commanded the stage and the jam-packed crowd. They had the floors shaking multiple times. It was a wild end to a wild day.
Pixel Grip showing us their stamina.
Up next for Day Two…post-punk, disco, and a DJ set from my favorite band.
