“BIG|BRAVE are big and oceanic, their music flowing and crashing like waves…Robin Wattie’s clear, piercing vocals, which occupy an emotional zone right at the point between ecstasy and abject despair.” – Pitchfork

“BIG|BRAVE have somehow made a ruthlessly loud record that is also fascinating, and consistently elegant.” – Drowned in Sound

BIG|BRAVE share the first full track “Sibling” from their incoming album, A Gaze Among Them (Southern Lord, May 10th) by way of a brilliant video by Mathieu Ball & Robin Wattie. Watch and share the video now on YouTube.

Since their inception in 2012, BIG|BRAVE have explored terrains of experimental rock with a clear focus on the key principles; space, volume, and raw emotion. The essence of BIG|BRAVE‘s magic has always been the way they balance these dynamics, and particularly how much sheer power comes from the beautifully quiet moments.

The same principles are the starting point for the new album, only the approach is different, beginning with the question “How do we take very little and make something bigger than what we actually have?” vocalist and guitarist Robin Wattie explains further “the biggest challenge was to not do what is easiest. i.e. what we knew worked for the last albums or what is, for us, easy to write. With A Gaze Among Them, Mathieu and I put ourselves through the ringer – I did not want to do what seemed to me to be a ‘logical next step’ in what we could do musically. I wanted to go back to our original concepts and work from there – space, tension, minimalism and voice (finding melody and musicality in pieces that consist of one note for longer than ten minutes, for example) were the primary concentrations I wanted to push.”

In the process of revisiting their early intentions, BIG|BRAVE have boldly evolved, emerging with a thrilling new body of work that is all at once refreshingly new, explosively heavy, dynamically loud, beautifully minimal, carefully repetitive, and totally and utterly cathartic.

A Gaze Among Them features Robin Wattie (vocals, electric guitar, guitar amp, bass amp), Mathieu Ball (electric guitar, guitar amps) and Loel Campbell (drums) with guest appearances from Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion) on Contrabass and Seth Manchester’s synth overdubs. The album was recorded with Seth Manchester at Machine with Magnets in Pawtucket Rhode Island.

The beautiful image adorning the cover (created by Robin Wattie) further demonstrates that BIG|BRAVE have blossomed. The trio sound rejuvenated and confident, and A Gaze Among Them is the sound of a band truly honing their craft, and feeling totally satisfied with it. Compelling. Necessary. Important.

A Gaze Among Them is available for preorder via Southern Lord and on Bandcamp.

BIG|BRAVE – ON TOUR:
May 16 Nurnberg, DE @ Kantine %
May 17 Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree %
May 18 Poznan, PL @ LAS %
May 19 Prague, CZ @ Altenburg 1964 %
May 21 Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat %
May 22 Antwerp, BE @ Kavka %
May 23 Lille, FR @ La Bulle Café %
May 24 Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade %
May 25 London, UK @ Raw Power %
May 26 Glasgow, UK @ Stereo %
May 27 Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny %
May 28 Brighton, UK @ East Street Tap %
May 29 Paris, FR @ Instants Chavirés %
May 30 Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4 %
May 31 Mannheim, DE @ JUZ %
June 1 Winterthur, CH @ Gaswerk %
June 3 Wurzburg, DE @ Cairo %
June 4 Hamburg, DE @ Schute %
June 5 Malmo, SWE @ Plan B %
June 7 Gothenborg, DWE @ Skjul Fyra Sex
June 8 Stockholm, SWE @ Slaktkyrkan
June 14 Wilkes-Barre, PA @ Karl Hall
June 15 Philadelphia , PA @ Johnny Brenda’s ^
June 16 Raleigh, NC @ Pour House ^
June 17 Atlanta GA, The Earl ^
June 18 Birmingham AL @ The Nick ^
June 19 St. Louis, MO @ Fubar ^
June 20 Omaha, NE @ Midtown Art Supply ^
June 21 Colorado Springs, CO @ Triple Nickel *
June 22 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive *
June 24 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *
June 25 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean Downstairs *
June 26 Detroit @ Sanctuary *
June 27 Boston, MA @ Hong Kong *
June 28 Brooklyn, NY @ Kingsland *
June 29 Portland, ME @ Geno’s *

^ w/ Primitive Man

• w/ Dreadought
  % w/ MyDisco

A Gaze Among Them, Tracklisting:

1. Muted Shifting of Space
2. Holding Pattern
3. Body Individual
4. This Deafening Verity
5. Sibling

Philadelphia hardcore outfit JESUS PIECE is the maiden act to perform at the US version of Kerrang! Magazine’s K! Pit series, and the visual evidence of this occurrence is now online.

JESUS PIECE released their acclaimed Only Self LP through Southern Lord in August 2018, the album recorded at Bricktop Recording Studio in Chicago with Andy Nelson (Weekend Nachos, Like Rats, Dead In The Dirt), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Integrity, Nails, Xibalba), and completed with artwork by Dom Pabon. With a smoldering reputation in the underground in their wake, the LP pushed the band into another dimension. One of the year’s most lauded hardcore albums showed up on year-end lists across the board, boundaries be damned. The album has ranked with the year’s heaviest hardcore releases and appeared on year-end lists abroad, including being crowned the #1 hardcore album of 2018 by Stereogum. Surrounding the release of the Only Self LP, JESUS PIECE has toured mercilessly alongside Darkest Hour, Comeback Kid, Burn, Knocked Loose, Terror, Vein, Year Of The Knife, and many more across North America, Europe, and Japan.

Kerrang! Magazine’s stateside staff has launched a US version of the London-based K! Pit series, and its maiden act, was JESUS PIECE. With a limited number of tickets given to fans who took part in an online lottery, a collective of diehards gathered at an undisclosed venue in Brooklyn to watch this metallic hardcore superforce do its thing in an intimate, immersive way, with several local, embedded videographers, as well as an array of mounted cameras, catching the action.

Kerrang! says, “…we decided to move 3,500 miles away to Brooklyn for our first-ever American K! Pit, featuring blistering Philadelphian hardcore upstarts JESUS PIECE. In a storm of grinding riffs and flying limbs, the band blasted their way through the back room of our favorite Brooklyn dive bar, The Gutter, whipping the crowd into an uncontrollable frenzy of spin-kicks and gang vocals that shook the rafters around them.”

See JESUS PIECE and friends in an up-close multi-angle experience RIGHT HERE.

JESUS PIECE is quickly developing a reputation as one of the heaviest, most uncompromising acts both on record and on the stage. With the brutalizing grooves of Disembodied, Turmoil, Harm’s Way, and labelmates Xibalba, the band incorporates elements of noise, ominous tones, and haunting atmospheres into their dynamic songwriting. With crushing, modern production, the eleven new tracks on their Only Self debut LP place JESUS PIECE among the scene’s darkest and heaviest acts.

Only Self is out now on CD, LP, and digital formats through Southern Lord. Find physical order options at the label shop HERE and digital at Bandcamp HERE, iTunes HERE, and through all other digital providers.

Watch for more on JESUS PIECE in the coming weeks.

For coverage of JESUS PIECE in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

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Sunn O))) is pleased to collaborate with Record Store Day (#RSD19) to release Life Metal for the first time on CD and vinyl on April 13th via USA/UK/EU indie retail. April 26th marks the official release date of the CD, digital and all other vinyl via Southern Lord, and CD and LP will be available to order from SUNN O))) and Southern Lord stores on April 19th.

Life Metal, their first studio album in four years, will be supported by SUNN O)))‘s first US tour since 2017 and the premier US tour of their 2019-2020 season, including stops at The Masonic Lodge in Detroit, Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago, Illinois (by demand second show added), The Caves in Pelham, Tennessee, and Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, New York. Dates and details can be found below, with more info to come soon.
SUNN O))) has also revealed two very special listening events in London and Paris in the lead up to the release. These are free, open to the public and available on a first come, first serve RSVP basis. Details and a band statement below.

“With great pleasure we present a few special public deep-listening sessions of our forthcoming album Life Metal. Our wish and intention are to offer the astounding presence, detail and color of this recording on great PA systems in a public situation as an introduction. Part of the joy of producing and mastering this album in the studio was that we were fortunate to be able to listen on the perfect high-fidelity playback situations for the record, top precise studio sound guided by the best ears in the business. With these public listening sessions, we hope to get a step closer to that experience of being inside the studio for you all at these special events, a few weeks before the album is unleashed upon the world.” – Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson / SUNN O)))

Watch SUNN O)))’s Life Metal album teaser on YouTube HERE.

Public listening event details:
3/31/2019 Gaîte Lyrique – Paris, FR
RSVP ticketed event, available to reserve today HERE. Event commences at 5:00pm.

4/09/2019 The Institute Of Light – London, UK
This is a free Pitchblack Playback event; there will be two sessions commencing approximately 7:00pm and 8:30pm. Limited space available, RSVP HERE.

SUNN O))) Let There Be Drone (Multiple Gains Stages):
2/28/2019 Mousonturm – Frakfurt, DE [info]
3/01/2019 Orpheum – Graz, AT @ Elevate Festival [info]
3/02/2019 Divadlo Archa – Prague, CZ [info]
3/03/2019 Kampnagel – E. Hamburg, DE [info]
3/04/2019 Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL [info]
3/06/2019 L’Epicerie Moderne – Lyon, FR [info]
3/07/2019 L’Autre Canal – Nancy, FR [info]
3/08/2019 La Vapeur – Dijon, FR [info]
3/09/2019 QuasaRites Day/Le 106 – Rouen, FR [info]
3/11/2019 Le Temps Machine – Tours, FR [info]
3/12/2019 Stereolux – Nantes, FR [info]
3/13/2019 La Sirene – La Rochelle, FR [info]
3/14/2019 Le Rocher de Palmer – Bordeaux, FR [info]
4/17/2019 Agora Ballroom – Cleveland, OH [info]
4/18/2019 Masonic – Detroit, MI [info]
4/19/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL [info]
4/20/2019 The Caverns – Pelham, TN [info]
4/19/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL
4/24/2019 Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA [info]
4/25/2019 Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY [info]
4/26/2019 College Street – New Haven, CT [info]
4/28/2019 The Howard – Washington, DC [info]

Review copies of Life Metal will be issued in the weeks ahead. For coverage of SUNN O))) in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com, all others contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

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Swedish crust metal punks MARTYRDÖD have released “Cashless Society,” the first single from their impending seventh studio album, Hexhammaren, which is set for release through Southern Lord on May 10th in North America.
 
MARTYRDÖD reveals about the “Cashless Society” single, “This track came about from riffs that spoke ‘käng.’ The result is way more metal than expected which made us really excited. Play it loud!”
 
The recording of Hexhammaren was once again handled by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman (Wolfpack, At The Gates, In Flames) in Gothenburg, Sweden. The album will be available on compact disc and vinyl with A2 poster. Century Media Records is handling the release of Hexhammaren outside of North America where Southern Lord Recordings is releasing the album.
 
MARTYRDÖD states of Hexhammaren, “The album came out really strong. We tried to just let loose and not get distracted with details. The recording was straight up raw and sincere with fast takes and improvised solos.”
 
Stream MARTYRDÖD’s “Cashless Society” via Bandcamp at THIS LOCATION and YouTube HERE.
 
Southern Lord will release Hexhammaren to North American fans on May 10th; watch for additional audio previews, preorders, and more to be posted in the weeks ahead.
 
Hexhammaren Track Listing:

1. Hexhammaren
2. Rännilar
3. Helveteslarm
4. War On Peace
5. Bait And Switch
6. Nästa Syrien
7. Cashless Society
8. In The Dead Of Night
9. Den Sista Striden
10. Pharmacepticon
11. Judgement Day
12. Sthlm Syndrom
    
    

MARTYRDÖD, who has not toured on North American soil since their participation in the Southern Lord label tour in 2012, will make their US return this year. The band will join Soft Kill and Wiegedood supporting Skeletonwitch across the West Coast and Midwest from May 22nd through June 1st, with Portrayal Of Guilt, Devil Master, and others playing on select shows.

MARTYRDÖD Tour Dates:
4/06/2019 Volume Club – Kiev, UA
4/21/2019 Neuronoise Festival II – Rennes, FR
5/22/2019 Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood, Portrayal Of Guilt
5/23/2019 The Independent – San Francisco, CA w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/24/2019 Bossanova Ballroom – Portland, OR w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/25/2019 The Crocodile – Seattle, WA w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/27/2019 The Metro – Salt Lake City, UT w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/29/2019 Marquis Theater – Denver, CO w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/30/2019 The Bottleneck – Lawrence, KS w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/31/2019 Turf Club – Minneapolis, MN w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
6/01/2019 Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood, Devil Master
10/11-12/2019 Scandinavia Deathfest – Stockholm, SE

MARTYRDÖD:
Daniel Ekeroth – bass
Jens Bäckelin – drums
Tim Rosenqvist – guitars
Mikael Kjellman – guitars/vocals

Review copies of Hexhammaren will be released in the coming weeks. For coverage of MARTYRDÖD in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact Birgit.Luhmeyer@centurymedia.de.

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