How did “Born A New” come to be?

The lights were bright, the heat was intense, and the music was loud. It was the perfect start to the night as Juniper took the stage at Mercury Lounge in New York City for the second time ever.

Goth/industrial supergroup Beauty in Chaos have released their fifth album, Behind the Veil. The project conceived by Human Drama and Gene Loves Jezebel guitarist Michael Ciravolo features a revolving door of guest musicians with Ciravolo remaining as chief songwriter and curator. What makes Behind the Veil unique in the group’s discography is that the album marks the first time that the line-up of Beauty in Chaos is entirely made of women artists.

Avant-garde pop singer and songwriter Lia Hide uses her music to explore deep philosophical questions. This is no clearer than in her latest single, “Proposal.” The video depicts the members of her three-piece band in separate rooms getting dressed for dinner. This is the first chapter of the trilogy called the Timeaus Sonata with the dinner part to be shown in a later video titled “Dinner.” The three chapters are meant to illustrate Plato’s Timeaus dialogue.

Los Angeles-based rockers Red Devil Vortex have released a new single called, “Psycho.” In an official statement from the band, Red Devil Vortex described “Psycho” as a “fictional story based on the dark side often present in toxic relationships.” Structurally, the song mirrors the psychological turmoil of a person stuck in a relationship that is dysfunctional and destructive. The song moves from quiet reflection to intense emotional outbursts of energy. The mix of alternative and hard rock genres has resulted in a unique and signature sound for Red Devil Vortex and is sure to please fans of Bad Wolves, Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed, Ghost, and Rob Zombie.

On January 26th, 2022, hip-hop and rock artist POORSTACY released a music video for his track “Knife Party”, from his recent album Party At The Cemetery. Featuring Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon, “Knife Party'', the song is accompanied by a video from POORSTACY’s Los Angeles show last fall.

Hailing from the working-class enclaves of Gloucester City, New Jersey, punk band The Warhawks keep true to their roots. Their latest album, This Ain’t Art, has a title that aptly describes the band's creative direction. This is not the type of pretentious indie rock. The Warhawks play balls-to-the-wall punk rock, and they play it loud, fast, and heavy.

Cut Like This, those devilishly stylish horror punks from NYC are back with a new single, “The Boogeyman.” Known for their creepy music videos, Cut Like This has previously freaked out fans with spooky tracks dealing with macabre and demonic entities such as La Llorona in “Lights Out” and werewolves in “Bite.” For the “The Boogeyman” Cut Like This brings to life the original monster that haunted us from our childhood.

Canadian pop-punk band Sleep/less dropped their single, “My Serenade” on February 25th. This is the second track released this year from the band following the debut of their song “Means to an End” last January. The melodic guitars, layered vocals, and tight drumming of “Means to an End” were greeted favorably by pop-punk fans. Those Sleep/less fans who are eager to hear from the group will certainly enjoy “My Serenade” which continues the band’s musical evolution. 

On January 28th, 2022, thrash group Generation Kill released their new album, MKUltra. This album was released with Blood Blast Distribution and Art Is War Records.

Royal & The Serpent made a stop in Phoenix, AZ on this past Monday, March 7th in support of Grandson on Death Of A Tour. It was a high-energy night full of good music and fun antics.

Indie Singer-songwriter Cat Dowling has been praised over the years for her unique and stylish vocals. Like the ever-overcast skies of the rainy city of Dublin from which she hails her vocals have a dark and evocative quality that blankets you in raw passion and keeps you coming back for more. Dowling is one of those artists that you put on repeat when you’ve had a bad day when the obstacles in life seem insurmountable and you just want to zone out and swim within your own emotions and plunge depths for answers. Her career in music really kicked off around 2001 when she fronted the Irish electropop band “Babelfish” which then became Alphastates” in 2003. The band had some decent success and released one EP and two LP albums over the course of 9 years. At the beginning of 2010, they played their final show together and parted ways amicably, claiming that each of them felt life was simply pulling them in different directions. In an interview in 2010 Dowling had expressed interest in possibly releasing a solo album somewhere down the road, but at the time was too consumed with raising her newborn daughter.

Thursday night, independent deathcore metal band Shadow of Intent took to the stage at 7:30 pm at the Brooklyn Steel in NYC following the same-day release of their latest animated music video for “Blood in the Sands of Time” off their new album Elegy. This latest album was released on January 14th, 2022 making it the follow-up album to their last, Melancholy released back in 2019.

Fans of alternative metal and prog rock will have a new band to obsess over. Straight out of the Rhineland area of Germany comes Emerra. The group has already received positive feedback from metal fans for their EP Monochrome and the single “Pirouette” which was highlighted on Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist. Now Emerra is unleashing a new single and music video for the track “Disintegrate.”

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, the metalcore band Red Handed Denial has managed to make an impact beyond the Great White North through expert use of online media. Lead vocalist Lauren Babic is a YouTube sensation with her live covers of metal and non-metal songs going viral. The band themselves have attracted fans through Spotify. The song “Trespasser” off the Wanderer EP earned the group 953K-plus Spotify streams. Their album Empire gathered 948K Spotify streams. When Red Hand Denial covered the Beyoncé and Lady Gaga song “Telephone” it pleasantly surprised metal fans and racked up over 1.1 million Spotify streams. All together Red Handed Denial has over 5 million-plus streams to their credit.

On January 21, 2022, alternative music group Set It Off released their new single “Projector”, along with a music video. This song continues to tease their upcoming album, Elsewhere, which is set to release on March 11th.

On Saturday, February 12th, Fit For An Autopsy headlined the final show of their latest US album tour at Gramercy Theater in NYC to celebrate their latest album release “Oh What the Future Holds”. This deathcore band played to a nearly sold-out venue full of metalheads who enjoyed the night in the best way possible, opening an insane pit and letting loose.

On January 25th, 2022, British band Blossoms announced their upcoming studio album Ribbon Around The Bomb, set to release on April 29th. That same day, they shared the title track of this album along with the music video.

On January 28th, Pittsburgh’s indie/90’s alternative independent group Sadurday dropped their new single “Out of Touch” off their self-titled debut EP which was co-produced by Jim Ward. The song is full of many styles and genres from shoegaze to alternative rock showing off a sound that's all their own. The lyrics attempt to channel the final thoughts of a friend just moments before taking their life, a tragic real-life event that occurred during the writing and recording of the song.

Swedish-based progressive metal group SOEN has announced a special performance to be exclusively streamed live. The show called Live from Atlantis Grammofon Studios will take place on February 18th, 2022, at 8:00 pm EST/CET/AEDT.