Last night, I had the pleasure of speaking with Rebecca Vernon of SubRosa and The Keening over video conference. Over the course of our conversation we discussed many things, including SubRosa's reunion and the possibility of new music, politics in music, the origins of the new The Keening, and much more.

One quick note: this interview is a straight upload from the video conference with no editing, and if I do more of these I'll likely try to figure out how to pretty these up a bit.

Last Friday, Great Falls released The Bite That Grows Up, their second album on Neurot Recordings. The new album is noisy, brutal, and vicious, dealing largely with the challenges of parenting and feelings of guilt and failure. I've been a big fan of Great Falls since their previous album, Objects Without Pain, so I jumped at the chance to have a brief conversation with them about their art. My conversation with bassist Shane Mehling and guitarist/vocalist Demian Johnston is below. 

About a week ago, I was perusing Reddit at night when I came across a post by the band onlytime about their new EP. In the post description, the band mentioned that they're based in Minneapolis and dropped Isis and Blood Incantation as influences for the new music. That was more than enough to get me to check it out, and I was really impressed with the two epic tracks. I wanted to learn more, so I reached out for quick interview with the band. Read our conversation and listen to the embedded EP below. 

Place of Rescission is the solo project of Philadelphia-based musician K. Schaaf. Schaaf's first album under the moniker, Collateral Gore, released in early September, and I discovered it when he posted about it on Reddit. I gave it a listen and was immediately captivated. Collateral Gore sounds nothing like most of the bands we cover here, but it undeniably dark and heavy. Cobbling together elements of post-punk, classic industrial music, free jazz, dub, and more, the sound of this album is sinister yet rich, unsettling yet warm and alive. It's unlike any album I've heard this year, in large part because Schaaf built custom "noise boxes" like the one above to create the soundscape of the album. 

I had to learn more, so Schaaf and I have been emailing back and forth about his music all week. Below you'll find an edited transcript of our conversation, along with a photo gallery of his creations and a fascinating video of them in action. 

Having started a site about music and fitness, it's pretty easy to guess that those are two of my major interests. There's another topic that interests me almost as much, one that has popped up in my writing here from time to time: politics. I am an avid follower of politics. I read political news every single day, I have worked on a few political campaigns, and my day job is in the public sector. While I understand why many people find politics exhausting or disinteresting, I genuinely believe that the world would be a better place if people were more involved in the mechanics of how their communities operate. Given this interest, I was pretty excited to talk to a band with an unquestionably political album on the way. That album is People as Idiots & Idiots as Leaders, and from Austria's hardcore punk band Desolat. Head into the pit to read my conversation with Desolat's vocalist and guitarist, Alfred Satani. It has been lightly edited for grammar. 

Pranjal Tiwari is a California-based musician who has played in multiple metal, hardcore and punk bands. Like many of us, he needed to find new outlets to express himself during the COVID-19 pandemic, and during that time his solo synthwave project S.C.R.A.M. (Safety Control Rod Axe Man) was born. Tomorrow, on the Fall Equinox, his new album, Coma Filament will be released. While not traditionally heavy, the album is seeped in dread, pulling from inspirations like John Carpenter's scores and the music of dungeon synth legend Mortiis. 

Over email, Tiwari shared his thoughts about working as a solo musician, his musical and cinematic influences, sobriety, and much more. You can read the full conversation below, which has been lightly edited for grammar. 

Tomorrow, the second album from German black/death metal band Ch'ahom releases. 

Antrophic Rites of Sublimation is a fascinating album, combining black metal with sounds and themes of pre-Hispanic South America. There's a deep fiction to the album as well that explores otherworldly forces, cults, and self-destructive urges. I wanted to learn more about this album, so I reached out to the band via email. Members "A.G.A." and "S.P.S." responded, and the entire conversation is below, lightly edited for grammar. The complete album stream is also embedded below.