Following on from the critically acclaimed release of their debut, Baton Rouge-based colossus, WOORMS, return with new single ‘silence and the saints’, the first sanctioned cut from their forthcoming LP, due for release in March 2020 on Hospital Records/Sludgelord Records.

Formed in 2017 in Louisiana and featuring guitarist/vocalist Joey Carbo, bassist John Robinson, and drummer Aaron Polk, WOORMS has been delivering a brutal mélange of riffs and noise-rock righteousness on the precipice of significance for some time.

Yet despite only being a few years into their sonic existence they have already racked up a collection of demos, digital one-offs (‘Daddy Was A Masker,’ ‘The Math Says, Yes’), a split with NOLA thrashers, A Hanging, and most recently of all, Slake; their devastating debut record.

Fully stirred from a delirious slumber, songs like ‘Mouth is a Wound’ and ‘Find a Meal, Find a Bed, Find a God’ make for a devastatingly terse and perverse experience. From the pinnacle to the point of no return, WOORMS fall psychotically through the fuzz and unholy grind of bands like KARP, Jesus Lizard and Neurosis. Their debut album immediately set out its stall in the most spectacular of fashions; a lumbering, symphonic noise-rock shank fight between the fattest of riffs and the thinnest of patience with the world at large.

The band’s new album, Twitching, As Prey, is due for official release in March 2020 on Hospital Records/Sludgelord Records but in the meantime – as premiered on CVLT Nation last week – you can watch the brand-new video for ‘silence and the saints’ here https://youtu.be/AKqcI94uTGo

Pre-order the album in the USA | UK

WOORMS on Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

“With vocals exhumed from the crypt and down tuned rumbling guitars growling from the bowels of hell, Slake torments the listener in new and exciting ways.”
METAL INJECTION

“Of course, it wasn’t enough to just pulverize your spine musically; lyrically, we can all relate to what WOORMS are feeling.”
DECIBEL MAGAZINE

“This is part Melvins, Harvey Milk, Karp, Jesus Lizard, with a dose of Neurosis thrown in. If this sounds derivative, it’s not. This is a shambolic, lumbering piece of nastiness that steam rolls the shit out of the listener.”
BLAKE HARRISON, PIG DESTROYER

“WOORMS have hit their stride, barfing up a satisfying full-length that mixes sludge, noise-rock and a heaped side-serving of weird […] and huge, chest-crumpling riffs…”
METAL HAMMER

“…a bludgeoning assault on the auditory senses, laced with underlying heft of groove and tone, but filled with a brutality that reveals itself as a core element…” THE OBELISK

“Black Royal merge the brutal and raw aggression of Entombed and Dismember with the groovy sludge of Acid Bath and Down resulting in a captivating and infectious sound that can only be described as death blues.” ROCK ‘N’ LOAD

Following on from the success of their 2018 debut album Lightbringer, Scandinavian sludge savants Black Royal return early next year with their creed crushing new album, Firebride, on Suicide Records.

Formed in 2013 in Tampere, Finland, the quartet revisits their highly infectious brew of metal as they usher in their latest foray into the fields of Wicca with first single, ‘Pagan Saviour’, due for digital release on 1st November 2019.

“The song was inspired by the witch hunts, paganism and war between early Christianity and ancient mythology,” explains Black Royal’s vocalist, Riku. “It’s about how the church forced common people to follow their laws and rules and criminalized all other ways of life in order to control citizens and the state.”

Sonically with ‘Pagan Saviour’, the band’s sound is one step removed from their previously considered style of “Death Blues” and takes clear influence from black metal and modern sludge. Raw but bombastic in its bastard portrayal of mood, beguiling riffs and measured choruses that pitch the band somewhere between the dramaturgy of Ghost and brutality of Behemoth.

As the first searing first cut from Firebride (due for release on 14th February 2020 on Suicide Records) ‘Pagan Saviour’ was recorded live in Studio Watercastle – a small town in rural part of the Pirkanmaa region of Finland – and later completed in September at the band’s own Armless HQ studio; mixed by Jussi Kulomaa and mastered by Jaakko Viitalähde.

Watch the video for new single ‘Pagan Saviour’ via MetalSucks – https://www.metalsucks.net/2019/11/01/exclusive-black-royal-premiere-nsfw-video-for-pagan-saviour/

Black Royal Web | Facebook | Instagram

APF Records is thrilled to announce the signing of Oxford-based heavy hitters The Grand Mal, and with it the release of their self-titled debut album this October.

Featuring twin brothers Ryan and Elliot Cole from rising stoner metal behemoths Desert Storm, the decision to back this promising new project was a “no-brainer” according to Andrew Field; peddler of some of the UK’s finest rock/metal underground albums in recent memory on his Manchester-based label.

“I’ve been Desert Storm’s biggest fan since I discovered their music six years ago, which is why I signed them in 2017,” he explains. “Elliot and Ryan approached me about releasing The Grand Mal’s debut and I jumped on it. It’s a joy to continue my relationship with them and I’m excited that APF Records is putting out this stunning release.”

Complimenting the Cole brothers in The Grand Mal are Mother Corona vocalist Dave-O and bassist Rob Glenn. Their first single – ‘Burning Truth’ – is both indebted and in line with the colossal riffs and big grooves of the quartet’s collective influences. Inspired by bands such as Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Soundgarden and Royal Blood, as Butthole Surfers’ JD Pinkus put it best. “The Grand Mal is like Queens of the Stone Age mixed with 80’s Ozzy.”

The Grand Mal’s self-titled debut album is released on Friday, 18th October on CD, tape and digital through APF Records and can be pre-ordered here at Big Cartel | Bandcamp

Stream and share new song for ‘Burning Truth’ – http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2019/08/05/the-grand-mal-self-titled-burning-truth/

LIVE:

6/9/19 – The Facebar – Reading, UK
28/9/19 – O2 Academy2 (w. Evil Scarecrow) – Oxford, UK
26/10/19 – The Underground (w. Desert Storm) – Bradford, UK
22/11/19 – The Port Mahon (w. Gnome) – Oxford, UK
23/11/19 – Rebellion (Sophie Lancaster Festival) – Manchester, UK
2/02/20 – The Bread Shed (APF All-Dayer) – Manchester, UK

The Grand Mal on Facebook

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