There isn’t a fine line between bands that get drawn into improv jamming as if Charybdis were beside them and acts that play consummately complex music while following sheet music they spent thousands of hours writing and revising. The line is about three feet thick.
Continue readingBosse-de-Nage’s ‘Hidden Fires Burn Hottest’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Features, Reviews with tags Bosse-de-Nage, Deafheaven on 09/21/2026 by Kurt OrzeckBattles’ ‘Mirrored’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Features, Reviews with tags Battles, John Stanier on 09/21/2026 by Kurt OrzeckTo the extent that “math rock” suggests playing guitar notes perfectly and usually one note at a time, some weight could be given to the otherwise esoteric term. The repeated usage of it to describe Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams’ one-handed finger-tapping technique must’ve driven him close to losing his mind.
Continue readingSystem of a Down’s ‘Toxicity’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Features, Reviews with tags Daron Malakian, fascism, John Dolmayan, protest music, Serj Tankian, Shavo Odadjian, System of a Down on 09/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck“Wake up!” With those two words, the weirdest mainstream-crossover metal song of this century (its video has 1.5 billion views and counting on YouTube) still also stands as the loudest clarion call we’ve heard since Rage Against the Machine. That band’s protégé-ish followers, System of Down, took the baton from Rage and went on to come one of the most important “political” albums of this century: Toxicity.
Continue readingDarkthone Tribute: 12 Bands Tell Us Why the Badass Black-Metal Barons Rule on Their 40th Anniversary (Exclusive)
Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, Lists, Videos with tags Aske, Darkthrone, Death Brigade, Fenriz, Gravehorn, Incineratus, Myrholt, Nocturno Culto, Praesepultus, Tyranno on 09/21/2026 by Kurt OrzeckWith all the hoopla surrounding bands boasting anniversaries of their major milestones, whether it be sticking together after 30-plus years or playing a tour after decades of dormany, it’s crucial that extreme metalheads don’t forget one especially important 2026 celebration, especially in the black-metal netherworld.
That would be the 40th anniversary of Norway’s Darkthrone, who influenced the development and dissemination of black metal around the world more than arguably any other band not named Emperor, Mayhem, Bathory or Burzum. This year also marks the 35th anniversary of the release of their debut, Soulside Journey – which also was, ironically, Darkthrone’s only death-metal album.
Recognizing those milestones, metal publication Antichrist Magazine – based appropriately in Hell, Norway – released the simply named but dense in high-quality material A Tribute to Darkthrone. It was one of a series of like-minded compilations the outlet has issued and dropped in late July. With enormous help from the rep behind that various-artists collection, we received a slew of testimonials from 12 of the 17 bands who contributed exclusive songs to the comp about why they worship at the altar of Darkthrone.
Continue readingExclusive Premiere: Paper Girl Debuts ‘Ohio (Fall 2016)’ Music Video Ahead of Upcoming Emo-Nostalgia LP
Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Videos with tags emo, Paper Girl, Sarah Gargano on 09/21/2026 by Kurt OrzeckPaper Girl, the Nashville-based emo/folk-punk project led by Sarah Gargano, has just put out the final single ahead of the release of a new album next month. It’s called “Ohio (Fall 2016),” and the video for it exclusively premieres today on The Bad Penny.
Paper Girl was also the title of Gargano’s first single, which itself referenced the John Green book Paper Towns. The new video for “Ohio (Fall 2016)” features the whimsical song playing as the artist bikes to a field, where she sits down and plays the song with a beaming smile on a sunny day. In addition to recalling the days of yore when her music was primarily of the emo variety, one can’t help but be reminded of the ongoing 2016 nostalgia meme, fueled in part by a Gen Z’s longing for pre-COVID days.
” ‘Ohio (Fall 2016)’ is a song I wrote from my high school boyfriend’s perspective about watching me go to college in Ohio and have fun without him after breaking up,” Gargano told The Bad Penny. “It’s probably the folkiest/cutesiest song on the album and the most similar to the songs I was releasing under my actual name.
Continue readingTop 34 Best Bandcamp Free Downloads #21: Exbats, BeachMaster, xCHUCKxBASSx, Bleary Eyed, Spread Joy, Unearthly Trance
Posted in Features, Lists, MP3s with tags BeachMaster, Bleary Eyed, Contortionist, Deathpile, Exbats, Regal Cheer, Rivka, Spread Joy, Unearthly Trance, xCHUCKxBASSx on 09/20/2026 by Kurt OrzeckWelcome to the biggest – and hopefully best – installment of Bad Penny Freebies. These songs – which we test-ran a bunch of times to ensure they qualified. I just tried to make sure they’re solid listens, if not solid-gold hits. They also run the gamut musically more than any Freebies edition. But due to the massive number of free downloads we’re pointing to you this week, we’re gonna have to keep the descriptions short.
Home: NYC
Genre: Doom and drone metal with some power electronica
Label: Chrome Peeler
2. BeachMaster‘s One Is None demo
Home: Reno, Nevada
Genre: Black metal psych jazz
Label: self-release
The White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Features, Reviews with tags Jack White, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, Meg Whitie, White Stripes on 09/20/2026 by Kurt OrzeckAfter grunge stuck a dagger into the heart of guitar heroics, along came Jack White to defend the value of virtuosity. He laid out his case on Elephant—after all, as only one of two members of the White Stripes, he had to pour every ounce of his creativity into his sole instrument, right? (White later cinematically demonstrated his innovative techniques and “reinvention” of playing guitar in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud with U2’s The Edge and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.)
Continue readingIsis’ ‘Oceanic’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, News, Reviews with tags Aaron Turner, Godflesh, Godflesh and Neurosis, Isis, Melvins, Neurosis on 09/20/2026 by Kurt OrzeckGodflesh and Neurosis are heralded as the shamen of post-metal, but heirs to the throne Isis helped evolve the avant garde end of heavy music into a transcendent and even mystical reimagining of the sound. Isis’ Oceanic is almost unanimously regarded as a classic record.
Continue readingElder’s ‘Lore’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Features, Reviews with tags Elder on 09/20/2026 by Kurt OrzeckElder weren’t exactly elder statesmen in the doom-metal body politic upon releasing their third album. But they were staunchly convinced that a little more of everything was needed. More volume. More melody. More prog-rock passages that’d break up the monotony of the hypnotic riffs.
Continue readingFucked Up’s ‘Chemistry of Common Life’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham, Fucked Up on 09/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In the late aughts, when the majority of the most innovative and provocative punk bands had stepped out of the pool and toweled off, Toronto’s Fucked Up came running across the backyard out of nowhere and cannonballed into the water with such weight that even those standing at a safe distance got soaked.



















