Absolute
Key is an
experimental project from Finland, led by a musician active in several
underground circles, including Circle Of Ouroboros.
The project focuses on noise-based expression, abstract ideas, and extreme
music traditions. Brånd comes from Austria and
connects to acts such as Kringa, Weathered Crest, Eisenhand,
Spectres & Teeth. The project blends black
metal roots with raw rock energy and a melodic approach often linked to
underground pop structures. This collaboration brings these backgrounds
together under one shared release.
The
collaboration between Absolute Key and Brånd arrives after long anticipation, and it presents
a raw, abrasive work shaped by noise, rock pulse, and Pagan atmosphere. The material
avoids smooth transitions and safe patterns, choosing friction and tension as
its main language. The sound remains rough, physical, and confrontational,
shaped by the clash of two distinct artistic paths.
Instead of
merging identities into a single voice, the collaboration allows contrasts to
exist side by side. Noise textures collide with rock-driven momentum, while black
metal elements remain present without dominating the whole. The release
communicates through repetition, pressure, and stark expression, creating an
experience that stays challenging and uneasy across its duration.
Chris
Fielding’s mastering
gives the material a solid presentation without smoothing its edges. The
limited vinyl editions suit the raw nature of the release, reinforcing its
underground character. This collaboration sits comfortably outside clean genre
definitions and speaks to listeners familiar with extreme and experimental
scenes. Overall, this release presents a harsh and uncompromising collaboration
that values expression over accessibility. It offers a demanding listen
grounded in underground aesthetics and shared vision.
Release Date: October 3rd,
2025
Format: CD/LP/Digital
Genre: ProgPost Metal, Noise
Rock
Country: France
Cratophane are a French power
trio formed in the late 2010s, working at the crossroads of noise rock, post
metal, heavy psych and zeuhl inspired progressive music. After drawing attention
with their self titled debut in 2022, the band aligned with I, Voidhanger Records and continued shaping a sound
rooted in repetition, tension and vivid imagination, often linked to science
fiction imagery and graphic art.
“Exode”
presents Cratophane at a more focused stage of
their evolution. The album unfolds as a continuous journey built on layered
riffs, angular rhythms and dissonant harmonies. The writing favors long forms
and gradual development, allowing ideas to expand and transform over time.
There is a strong progressive logic at work, with recurring motifs and shifting
dynamics that keep the listener alert without resorting to excess.
The band’s
influences are easy to trace, echoes of Pelican,
Shellac, Magma and
Aluk Todolo appear throughout the album. These
references are absorbed into a personal language shaped by repetition and
tension. The music often circles around a central idea, adding small variations
that slowly change its character. The result is hypnotic and demanding, asking
for attention rather than background listening.
A key aspect
of “Exode” is its close link to science fiction comics. Inspired by artists like
Moebius, Druillet
and Enki Bilal, the album functions as a
soundtrack to imagined worlds and harsh landscapes. Vincent
Perriot’s cover art from “Negalyod” strengthens this connection, giving
the release a clear visual identity that matches the music’s abstract and
cosmic atmosphere.
With “Exode”, Cratophane deliver an album that rewards patience and
repeated listens. The material stays consistent in tone and ambition, offering
a solid example of modern progressive noise rock without unnecessary decoration.
It may challenge casual listeners, though it offers depth and coherence for
those willing to follow its path.
Release Date: December
5th, 2025
Format: LP
Genre: Hardcore Punk, Noise Rock, Post Punk
Country: Malta
Bila is a Maltese hardcore punk, noise rock trio active since 2014, known for short, aggressive
songs delivered in Maltese and English. After a run of EPs, tours across
Europe, the UK, and the US, and steady underground attention, the band arrives
at its first full length with a clear idea of who they are and where they
stand.
“Beżżalart” presents Bila in their rawest and most exposed form. The
album channels urban pressure, political frustration, and dark humor into
compact explosions of sound. The writing stays tight and confrontational,
driven by shouted lines that stick quickly, especially when the band switches
between languages. Maltese folklore and local realities shape the album’s
identity, giving it a strong regional voice without needing explanation or
decoration.
The production keeps
everything harsh and physical. The sound favors abrasion over polish, with
riffs and rhythms stacked in a way that presses forward constantly. The songs
focus on impact and momentum, leaning on sharp changes and chant ready phrases.
The album’s anger is often sharpened by sarcasm, which adds character and keeps
the tension from flattening into one emotional note.
Across its runtime,
“Beżżalart” stays consistent in tone and intent. The social themes are clear
and repeated through different angles, especially around overdevelopment,
political emptiness, and everyday suffocation. This approach makes the album
easy to grasp and quick to absorb, even when the pace is relentless. At the
same time, that consistency limits surprise, and some sections blur together
after multiple listens.
“Beżżalart” works best
as a snapshot of Bila at a specific moment,
loud, frustrated, and rooted in their environment. It delivers energy and
attitude in a straightforward way, leaving a solid impression without reaching
beyond its own boundaries. As a debut album, it establishes presence and identity
more than depth or range.
Release Date: November
7th, 2025
Format: Digital/CD
Genre: Noise Rock, Mathcore, Sludge Metal, Hardcore
Country: USA
Old Deer is a four piece from Denver, Colorado, active in the U.S. underground
heavy scene since the early 2020s. After making noise with the 2024 EP
“Something In The Water”, the band moved quickly toward a broader and harsher
sound, shaped by noise rock, mathcore, sludge metal and hardcore traditions.
Old Deer returns with
their debut full length “Someone In The House”, an album built around tension,
instability and a constant sense of threat. The album circles around unease
rather than release, pushing jagged rhythms, abrasive textures and sudden
shifts that keep the listener alert. This is aggressive music that prefers
anxiety over comfort, closer to controlled chaos than brute force.
The writing pulls from several heavy directions without settling into
one lane. Sludge and doom tones sink into mathcore patterns, while noise rock
abrasion and post hardcore urgency sit right at the surface. Tracks like “The
Hatch” and “Take It All” underline this approach, switching pace and pressure
often, with little interest in easing the listener into what comes next.
Vocally, Matt Conlee is a major
factor in how the album works. His harsh delivery cuts through the mix with raw
intensity, then drops into darker melodic lines that add another layer of
tension instead of relief. The instruments mirror this behavior, bouncing
between hardcore impact and tangled, almost jazz informed movement, giving the
record an unstable and restless character.
“Someone In The House” does not aim for comfort or accessibility, and
that choice defines its impact. The album stretches its ideas across a long
running time, sometimes pushing patience, but it also rewards focus with
moments of real menace and originality. As a debut full length, it shows a band
expanding their sound with ambition, even if not every idea reaches the same
level of focus.
Few names in extreme music have walked through fire the way Today Is The Day has. Led by the ever-volatile Steve Austin since the early 1990s, the band
became a singular force in the underground, twisting metal, noise, and chaos
into something personal and brutally honest. Across decades and countless
lineups, Austin turned trauma and
confrontation into sound. From “Willpower” and “Temple Of The Morning Star” to
“No Good To Anyone”, his work has always been an unfiltered reflection of inner
war. “Never Give In” continues that lineage, scarred, angry, visionary, and
deeply human.
Born out of the
claustrophobic atmosphere of the pandemic years, “Never Give In” is steeped in
disillusionment and resistance. Austin doesn’t
romanticize struggle; he documents it, microphone in one hand, gasoline can in
the other. The album opens in full combat stance with “Divide And Conquer,” a
track that lunges forward with jagged riffs and a barked warning. From there,
it descends into a feverish cycle of paranoia, frustration, and catharsis.
Titles like “Intentional Psychological Warfare” and “Secret Police” speak
plainly for themselves.
The production is raw
and unforgiving, the way Today Is The Day should
sound. Guitars scrape like exposed nerves, bass churns underneath, and the
drums come in waves of collapse and resurgence. Austin’s
voice, alternately pleading and venomous, carries the manic energy of someone
clawing through the static. When the brass enters on “Secret Police,” it
doesn’t lighten the chaos, it deepens it, as if the whole thing’s collapsing
under its own paranoia.
What gives “Never Give
In” its pulse is not refinement but tension. It’s the sound of one man refusing
to disappear, digging through modern decay to find meaning in the wreckage. The
album’s psychedelic flourishes aren’t soothing, they’re warped, distorted
windows into a collapsing mental state. Everything sounds haunted, as if
transmitted from a bunker.
“Never Give In” is
neither nostalgic nor neatly assembled. It’s a survival document, full of bile
and self-reconstruction, too strange to be labeled hardcore, too aggressive to
be called experimental rock. There’s an electricity in how unstable it feels, every
track teeters on implosion, and that’s where its truth lies.
As the first half of a
planned two-part concept, it doesn’t aim for resolution. It exists in the eye
of the storm, alive, furious, and unfiltered. It’s not an easy listen but an
honest one, an album made by someone who’s seen the machinery of despair and
refused to let it grind him down. A harsh, restless statement from an artist
who thrives on discomfort. “Never Give In” doesn’t seek comfort or perfection, it
burns, screams, and drags itself forward, still standing after everything that
tried to erase it.
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