Raw yet polished and loaded with forward-thinking pop punk hooks, ‘California Sober’ finds Yours Truly’s Mikaila Delgado taking another star turn with power-laced confessional lyricism amplified alongside sharp drumwork and emphatic guitars.

“‘California Sober’ was written during the same period as ‘Sour’,” the band shares. “We’d started working on ‘Sour’ – we were getting nowhere with it. We had a bit of a breakdown; we were crying and talking about things.”

“We were mucking around, playing guitar, and Mikaila started singing about when you come over and your friends are stoned; just sitting there, not wanting to do much. It’s all good and fun, but you can’t enjoy other people’s company and think “I’m not good enough to hang out with”.

“‘California Sober’ is the essence of trying to be present with your friends and loved ones. You don’t have to just put on this facade, this mask, and hide yourself away.”

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With their name now cemented on a global scale, Yours Truly journey even further into their trademark versatility on their forthcoming sophomore album chapter, expanding beyond stylistic confines and expectations. Effusive and effervescent one moment, dark and damaging the next, TOXIC runs the spectrum of human emotions across its 10 tracks. Led by a star turn from vocalist Mikaila Delgado, the album is an open-vein, open heart diary of personal crisis, a dynamic yet cohesive soundscape of pop and rock, indie and alternative shimmering and shuddering beneath Delgado’s cathartic confessionals: in short, it’s a lethal dose of brilliance from one of the scene’s brightest musical acts.

Following up from the brooding pulse of ‘Call My Name’, latest single ‘Sour’ serves up captivating hooks for days on a platter of irresistible staccato swagger.

“’Sour’ was written during a session after I was feeling extremely burnt out,” shares vocalist Mikaila Delgado. “We had come off extensive touring and quite a turbulent time not only for the band but personally as well. I was just feeling so bitter towards everything and trying to force writing when it just wasn’t naturally flowing made me so angry. We got to a stage as a band were had a lot of people in our ear telling us what to do and how they thought we should do it. I just thought ‘fuck this, this is our fucking band, I’m going to do what I want!’”

TOXIC:

1. Back 2 U
2. Sour
3. California Sober
4. Let Go
5. All That I’m Not
6. Love Feels Like
7. Bloodshot Eyes
8. Sinking feat. Bloom
9. Desaturated
10. Call My Name

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Halifax, Canada’s Kilmore are gearing up for the release of their new EP From The Inside at the end of March. It’s six tracks of groovy, stoner rock with metal elements. Its lyrics were written at a time when there was a real change around the world and an internal bittersweet struggle. Along with that, vocalist/guitarist Heather Harris became a new mother and was trying to find her place in a new reality really speaks loudly in the emotions on the record. Some themes are of destruction while others of hope, each song has its own theme/feel. The quartet unveils their next single ‘Firestone’ accompanied by a music video. The song is about feeling broken and alone and looking for the light through the darkness. This was an old song the band rehashed when drummer Jon MacIsaac joined the lineup. The song locked in the right direction lyrically with the new groove and the band felt they have created a fierce and intense track. The video was filmed after a snowstorm and showcases a magnificent Canadian winter.

The SoCal hardcore band Initiate have shared a new track plus details on a new album. Cerebral Circus — Initiate’s first record since the Lavender EP in 2020 and their first full-length since 2018’s Before Long… — will be out in a month on Triple B. New single ‘The Surface’ toggles between intense verses spearheaded by Crystal Pak’s harsh demonic rasp and a chorus so harmonically rich it basically qualifies as pop-punk. Watch the song’s music video below. [via Stereogum]

Metal quartet, The Dark Side Of The Moon, have released their first original song, the harmonic ‘The Gates Of Time’. The fourth single from debut album, Metamorphosis, highlights Melissa Bonny’s distinctive voice, combined with the beautiful harp playing by Jenny Diehl. The Dark Side Of The Moon on ‘The Gates Of Time’: “We are beyond proud to present to you the very first song we’ve ever written together as a band! We started this journey with covers of famous songs from movies, series, and video games but soon we realized that writing our own stories and melodies was a must. Four creative minds with so many ideas to share – ‘The Gates Of Time’ is just the beginning!” [via Brave Words]

Finnish pagan metaller Vermilia releases a new music video for ‘Marras’, which is taken from her latest album Ruska, originally released on September 9. In Finnish, the season of autumn colours and fall foliage is called ruska where the name of the album comes. The video was mainly filmed in Kemiönsaari, except the aerial videos were filmed in Häme. As before, the video is directed by Vermilia herself. [via Kronos Mortus]

Hungary’s The Hellfreaks are ready to serve another dose of their skillfully-combined modern metal blend, featuring heavy post-hardcore and skate punk influences galore. Topped with a mix of delicate clean vocals and aggressive screams, they are primed to drop jaws around the world. The Hellfreaks are off to a flying start with their upcoming fifth album, Pitch Black Sunset, out April 14 via Napalm Records. Showing off the band’s versatility and unquestionable talent, their third single, ‘Weeping Willow’, leans towards modern electronic metal. With a drastic change towards the end – the dark and eerily atmospheric track surprises the listener with extraordinary vocalist Zsuzsa “Shakey Sue“ Radnóti’s impressive core-breaking shouts. ‘Weeping Willow’ comes along with a smashing, highly-energetic official video, proving once more that The Hellfreaks don’t compromise on any rules and defy norms. Waving the flag of a new generation of metal and punk, The Hellfreaks are experts in the fusion of punk sub-genres and chart-storming modern metal. The Hellfreaks state on ‘Weeping Willow’: “Do you ever feel like you’re in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by waves, and even though you know how to swim, you still can’t find the shore? Do you know how it feels being haunted by your own mind or when your memories feel more alive than yourself? ‘Weeping Willow’ is a raw and brutally honest portrayal of the battle with our inner demons. This song reveals the darkest and vulnerable side of the album that we wanted to reveal it with the most cinematic video we’ve ever shot by using symbolism and imagery, that truly captures the essence of the song. We wanted our fans to know that they are not alone in their struggles. Mental health is a battle that many people face, including us and ‘Weeping Willow’ is a reminder that for some of us it is normal to feel overwhelmed and to ask for help. We believe it is an important release that deserves to be heard, and we are proud to share it with our familys, fans and supporters. Stay strong, and remember, you are not alone!” [via Brave Words]

London’s Pupil Slicer will follow their great 2021 debut LP Mirrors with their sophomore album Blossom on June 2 via Prosthetic. It was produced by Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Svalbard, Employed To Serve), and singer/guitarist Kate Davis says it’s a “hard sci-fi/cosmic horror concept album” that covers a lot more musical ground than the mathcore-inspired Mirrors. They say: “‘Blossom’ is the culmination of 2 years spent with razor focus on crafting a journey like no other. We are incredibly proud of the feats we have achieved on our sophomore album, building upon the experience and feedback from our debut to further break down the walls between metal, hardcore, shoegaze, electronic music and pop. We have delivered the most concentrated Pupil Slicer experience yet. A hard sci-fi/cosmic horror concept album, the story told across ‘Blossom’ draws on some of my favourite media to craft these 10 tracks where instrumental, lyrical and visual elements have been cohesively refined to serve the world I have created.” The first single is the title track, which closes the record, and you can very much hear the band going in a new direction on this one. It’s got a much greater use of clean vocals than we’ve heard from Pupil Slicer in the past, and it goes in a handful of new directions for the band. Sometimes it hearkens back to the era of 2000s flamboyant post-hardcore, but Pupil Slicer do it in a way that feels futuristic. Kate calls the song “the final point beyond time and space, a nexus of everything that could have been and a vantage point into everything that came before.” Check out the track and its David Gregory-directed video below. [via Brooklyn Vegan]

Rock duo Janet Gardner and Justin James have announced that their brand new album, No Strings, will be released via Frontiers Music Srl on June 9. A first single from the record, ‘Don’t Turn Me Away’, is available now. Their most exciting and memorable release to date, No Strings is the follow-up to Synergy. “Mine and Justin’s work flow has become so effortless that the creative process never gets bogged down in the technical aspects until it comes time to mix and master,” states Gardner. [via Metal Planet]

Following their newly developed sound for their next album, coming in September 2023, Calva Louise release their next single ‘Feast Is Over’. The song deals with the circumstances that keep pushing us back to square one. Inspired by Sci-Fi movies and comics, Calva Louise’s songs are linked to a story about the duality of the human being. ‘Feast Is Over’ sets the mood of a dysopian world at the outset – the track launches with industrial , Metropolis-esque sounds that are heavy and hit hard. This is off set with melodic harmonies which are interspersed with furious, raging vocals. “It reflects our rebellion against feeling convinced that the best thing to do is to start over again, and instead we choose to keep on going forward, fighting and assuming the consequences of our own decisions, it feels like accepting a new challenge so we can get out of a loop once and for all,” say the band. The video for this latest single is a direct sequel to their last – ‘Third Class Citizen’. [via Loud Women]

RedHook have released a new single featuring fellow Aussie scene favourites Yours Truly. The two bands join forces for ‘Imposter’, which is taken from RedHook’s upcoming debut album Postcard From A Living Hell (due out on April 21). Says Emmy Mack of the song: “There’s no head-fuck quite like discovering that the person you love most, and who you think you know better than anyone else, has been lying to you and manipulating you the entire time. At first, it feels like death, you grieve for the person you loved as if they’ve died, and yet somehow they still exist. It’s almost as if some kind of evil, alien life force has taken up residence inside their body and is walking around wearing their skin. Eventually, it causes you to question your own sanity; you question whether that person who meant so much to you ever really existed at all.” [via Kerrang!]

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