rock and roll fables

music, comics, and media in a rock 'n' roll world

In The Blind Harness A Harrowing Harmony On Heavy AF Evolve & Escape

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I love me some Dog Fashion Disco, okay? Jasan Stepp and crew (Including one of my all time favorite singers in Todd Smith) has been ripping it up for years across a plethora of projects which now includes In The Blind. Featuring an array of talent that features Stepp on guitar alongside former Nothingface bassist Bill Gaal, DFD’s John Ensminger behind the kit, and Megosh vocalist Josh Grosscup, debut record Evolve & Escape is unlike anything fans have heard from Stepp up to this point.

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Dyr Faser Create A Calculated Cacophony On Cathartic Phantom Electric

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Album artwork by Amelia May

It’s albums like the one Boston’s Dyr Faser’s recently put out that back our regular rule that starting any complete “Year End” list is a moot point until almost the very end and regarding Phantom Electric, we pretty much guarantee that you’re not likely to find any other artist in the area that sounds quite like this duo because the tracks found within this eight track full-length are similarly electric and eclectic, psychedelic and psionic so buckle up!

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Stabbing Westward Return Electrified With Gargantuan Electro Comeback Chasing Ghosts

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If something’s going to eventually end up on our year end list then it needs a proper review barring the tiny blurbs we add, right? It’s especially important to have a review when going through our Spotify “Wrapped” playlist for the year and many a song on said album lie pretty high in there. And for the record, we had started this thing back in March soon after the record came out but never finished it.

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Singles! ALIENBLAZE, “Romantically Dead (Live)”

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Sumerian Records is quickly becoming one of our “go to” labels when it comes to new music. Artists like Bones UK was always a favorite of ours, Poppy consistently slays, and we (gasp) only recently discovered Bad Omens and, in particular, the glory that is The Death of Peace of Mind (Easily making it onto our ‘Tops of ’22’ list). Which brings us to ALIENBLAZE who has released a slew of poignant Trip-Hop meets Grunge singles with one of the more recent songs, “Romantically Dead”, seeing an “official” live release recently.

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Singles! Lux Lyall, “Draw Blood”

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There’s a lot right with the latest single from Lux Lyall. Actually, what we meant is that all is right with the latest single from Lux Lyall. One of those “Where have I heard that before?” songs that’s just inherently timeless, “Draw Blood” is a mix of feels that combines the Gothic Pop of artists like PJ Harvey and Chelsea Wolfe with the Electro Western side of Wall Of Voodoo and the dark Americana of Tom Petty or Alannah Myles.

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Corlyx Extend Spooky Season Forever With New Wave Post-Punk Epic Blood In The Disco

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Like many out there, music was a real comfort during the first year of the pandemic. There were many an album that brought just some pure joy to the RNRF offices but, being forever a Goth/Industrial kid at heart, none delivered more than Corlyx and their beauty called Together Apart which shared the top spot of our “20 for ’20” with 2 other records because, again, music did a lot for us in 2020. So saying that expectations are high for the next offering from the duo of Brandon Ashley and Caitlin Stokes is kind of a vast understatement.

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We Demand Parachutes Dole Out All The Alt Pop-Punk You’ll Need To Finish 2022 Right On Outside The Null Field

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Artwork by Hannah McCord

I dig blink 182, okay? And I’m not ashamed to admit it. When the tour announcement/album news hit recently I was genuinely excited and probably would’ve gotten tickets to next year’s Garden show had the tix not been at insane prices (Thanks, Ticketmaster!) I mentioned this to my best friend and they were all “C’mon, do you actually regularly listen to them?” to which I responded that “Yes, yes I do.” And I had previously that day, in fact, because Enema Of The State, despite the overplayed singles, is filled with bangers (“Dumpweed” and “Anthem” are my forever jams!)

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He Is Legend Enter The Endless Hallway, Come Out The Other Side With A Non-Stop Banger

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Pleasant surprises are when He Is Legend not so subtly tease a new release and then the gotdamn thing actually materializes within the same year those aforementioned teases were made. The band that refuses to die, He Is Legend, is back with their seventh full-length rekkid called Endless Hallway and it is a glorious BEAST from beginning to end.

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Jason Priest Is Found And Unveils Latest Synth Scorcher With For Your Consideration

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Waaaaaay back in June 2021 (So not that long ago… it just seems that way!) we took a dive into the world of Jason Priest (AKA Antoni Maiovvi) and were pleasantly surprised by the stunning Synthwave emanating from within Jason Priest Is Missing. Following up something that we deemed to “encapsulate everything that the term ‘wave’ (Read: synth, dark, etc)” represents is no easy task but luckily, Jason Priest did the homework and follows up that with a colorfully complex collection of tracks that takes our previous assessment and turns it on its’ head.

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96 Bitter Beings Bring CKY To A New Generation With The Transcending Rawk Of Synergy Restored

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While working in retail hell, CKY’s Vol. 1 was like sonic comfort food. It was a genre-bending masterpiece from start to finish and whenever it’d pop up in ye olde 5-disc changer an instant shit eating grin would form on my 20-something face. Add the visuals of my manager scrambling to reach the stereo from wherever they were in time to skip “My Promiscuous Daughter” (IYKYK) before it blasted out to a full store and the kinds of joy that record brought (And still bring) are endless.

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