Formed in 2014 in Gothenburg by bassist/singer Danne Palm, guitarist Christoffer Norén and drummer Johan Küchler, Cities of Mars take a lead from the likes of Mastodon, Kylesa, Sleep and Baroness.

Combining heavy doom riffs, ambient soundscapes and haunting vocals, there’s an unmistakable sci-fi narrative that flows through their music, helping them to push boundaries and channel their unique firebrand of heavy progressive rock.

As chief proponents of stoner metal and corporeal ancestors in a revered lineage of Swedish doom rock history, following the success of their inaugural/self-released digital single ‘The Third Eye/Cyclopean Ritual’ (produced by Esben Willems of Monolord/Berserk Audio) the band wasted no time in setting out to record, Celestial Mistress. Released in 2016 on Suicide Records, this mind-crushing EP – featuring the captivating artwork of Gothenburg-based graphic artist Axel Widén – truly signalled the band’s arrival on the underground scene.

Cities of Mars have embarked on numerous European tours since their inception and new shows heralded the arrival of new songs, all of which fed into the release of their debut album, Temporal Rifts (2017). With the lyrics on each song adding a chapter to a continuing story, Temporal Rifts follows the ascent of a Soviet cosmonaut on a covert space mission in 1971 and his discovery of an ancient Martian city that awakens a sleeping conspiracy from the dawn of humanity.

This April the saga continues, following three solid years of writing, jamming and touring under their collective belts. Now working alongside Ripple Music label and the management skills of Blackskull Services, Cities of Mars will unleash their awesome new album The Horologist on 5th April 2019. Pre-order the album now at www.ripple-music.com

Cities of Mars on Web | Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp

Stream and share new song ‘Hydrahead’ by Cities of Mars below:

Moth-men, Dancing Shaman, Cannibal Cowboys and Appalachian Sasquatches… welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Almost Honest. A place from which you’ll never escape but may just find the perfect burrito.

Self-proclaimed saviours of “groovy sexy Viking funk doom rock”, Almost Honest are scarily sincere in their aspirations as a band. Formed in the sleepy and historic town of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania in 2013 by guitarist/vocalist Shayne Reed, bass player Seth Jackson and drummer, Quinten Spangler, Almost Honest is as much a vehicle for the trio’s ambition, as it is a wild and unhinged ride for your delectation.

“Back in high school me, Seth, and Quinten were listening to a ton of Crobot, Red Fang, The Sword and Clutch,” explains Reed. “Being from New Cumberland those bands never really came our way with the exception of Crobot. We all had a love of music and through that we decided to just create some ourselves. It slowly evolved from playing in our basement to high school events and then eventually to venues. Being able to have come this far from such a small town playing groovy funky doom is more than we could ask for.”

Having played live last year with the likes of Angel Vivaldi, Archspire, Astronoid and Revocation, this March will see the official worldwide release of the band’s new studio album, Seiches and Sirens, on Electric Talon Records. Picking up from where Thunder Mouth – their gloriously deranged and devilishly compelling 2017 debut – left off, Seiches and Sirens is a riff-ready rock record to gouge minds to. Heavy stoned-out sludge packed with quirk upon kink in a crazed reverie of hard rock fuzz and cocksure hellfire, produced by Gary Conahan at Lancaster’s Dynamo Audio, it throws opento an even wider world of infectious digressions. Best exemplified on new single ‘Keystone’, the first song lifted from the album and the perfect introduction to the band for new listeners:

“Keystone was written in the harsh weather of a PA winter. The winter where it hurts to go outside because it’s so cold. That weather and just seeing its effect on local day-to-day life really took hold on us. We tried to capture what makes it so brutal and put it into a song. Normally our songs are all fun and games but once you experience cold like this, then you’ll understand.”

Seiches and Sirens by Almost Honest is officially released on 22nd March 2019 through Electric Talon Records. Stream and share new song ‘Keystone’ below:

Web | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp | YouTube

Black Lung emerged from a brutal Baltimore winter back in 2014, and from that emergence they arose victorious, wielding a trademark Maryland Doom-influenced balance of melody and power.

With that vital underpinning, Adam Bufano and Elias Schutzman (founding members of The Flying Eyes), along with multi-instrumentalist Dave Cavalier, crafted a sound heavy on volume that pushed hard into experimental territory. In lieu of a bass guitarist, the three opted for an unusual setup with a sonic palette defined by a multitude of amps, drop-tuning and copious effects.

Named Best New Band by the Baltimore City Paper in 2015 with the release of their self-titled debut, Black Lung embarked on their first European tour that same year, taking in a performance at the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival on German national television. Subsequent European tours followed shortly after as the trio hit festivals such as Freak Valley and DesertFest Belgium, playing alongside the likes of Graveyard, Dead Meadow and All Them Witches. Upon returning to the US the band bedthemselves back into the studio to record their follow-up album, 2016’s See The Enemy, with J. Robbins, guitarist and frontman for post-punk icons Jawbox, and producer of albums by noted bands such as The Sword and Clutch.

After several years writing songs while touring the world and back again, Black Lung return this March to release their most ambitious work yet. Produced by Frank “The Punisher” Marchand (producer of The Obsessed’s Sacred), new album Ancients is without question, a force to be reckoned with.

“The title is a reference to the ancient powers of the natural world, as seen in the album artwork and the lyrics of a song like ‘Badlands’. We embrace and pay homage to these forces while also rejecting the antiquated ideals of an old, white, conservative part of society that wants to drag us back into the past and away from the progressive values we believe in. We were searching for a sound that captured the clarity of the instruments and voice, without losing any of the heaviness that is Black Lung, and Frank really helped us achieve it.”

Ancients is released on 8th March 2019 on Ripple Music (North America, Asia and Australia) and 22nd March on Noisolution (UK and Europe)

Watch the album preview HERE / Pre-order the album HERE

Black Lung on Facebook | Bandcamp

This February, Ripple Music will blaze a trail into the realm of progressive doom with the signing of veteran San Franciscan metallers, The Ghost Next Door.

Founded by Gary Wendt, singer and former student of legend Joe Satriani, the idea for The Ghost Next Door grew out of the discovery of an abandoned acoustic guitar and a name inspired by a nearby haunted house.

As a founding member of crossover legends Sacrilege BC and alt-metal champions Release, Wendt partied hard through that infamous Bay Area music scene in the 1980s. After spending a year recording and touring with Skinlab he left soon after to embark on the development of his own musical vehicle. With no members and no music, the shrewd recruitment of guitarist Aaron Asghari, bassist Noah Whitfield, and drummer Sebastien Castelain, yielded a unique pool of influences from across the modern musical spectrum. The band soon found themselves marrying the dark melancholy of ’80s/’90s alternative rock with the aggression and drive of Bay Area metal (Exodus, Testament), and in doing so offered a diverse range of styles and influences from punk, thrash, jazz, and progressive and modern rock. Deftly topped off by brutal and abrasively honest lyrics, on stage is where the band really come into their own and show an undeniable compulsion to create and perform their expressive take on metal. As Wendt explains, “We’re not interested in trends. A song is born from a single idea, but always mixed with some alternative sensibilities. Fusion, extreme, shoegaze, thrash – we write the unexpected.”

Following the critical success of their debut album, released in 2015 on the Belgian label Mausoleum Records, the band immediately set to work on their follow-up, A Feast For The Sixth Sense, which gets itself an official worldwide release on 8th February 2019 through Ripple Music.

Stream and share new song ‘American Nightmare’ by The Ghost Next Door – https://soundcloud.com/ripple-music/ghost-next-door-american-nightmare

Pre-order the album now at www.ripple-music.com

The Ghost Next Door on Facebook | Web | Twitter | Instagram