Black-metal act Ad Finem Omnia are still riding high off the release of their second studio album, Senectus Viae, in July. but multi-instrumentalist Pablo Vera still generously carved out some time from his hectic array of goings-on to contribute to the ongoing series we’re calling The Bad Penny Passport.
We’ve checked in with musicians in more than a dozen countries to get lists of the top 10 bands/musicians who hail from their homeland. Astute observers may recall we did a Chilean installment of the series with noise-punk band Niño Nuclear. But Vera’s list is more metal-oriented, reflecting a different sector of the country’s music scene (which is mostly based in the capital city of Santiago).
Vera doesn’t just write in gorgeous prose throughout his entry, he also included an introduction of his own. So let’s get to it.
While working on The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny series, an idea for a critical installment of the feature came to mind: a list of the best protest albums and songs, as presented to us by someone who knows their stuff. That person is Mark Goodman, who handles vocals, lyrics and composition for Major Spark. Goodman also had tenure in the band Magnet, which also featured Moe Tucker of The Velvet Underground. While Goodman was still a member of the band, Magnet guested for Madonna’s Erotica. (Just a reminder: Today is not April Fools’ Day.)
Meanwhile, multi-instrumentalist Brian Charles – whose friendship with Mark Goodman has lasted almost their entire lives – is the other central figure in Major Spark. The Bad Penny recently interviewed him as well. We’ll post a feature detailing much more about the band and its two central members in the near future. But in the meantime, Goodman gave us a very diverse and undisputed high-quality batch of the best protest songs ever made. We couldn’t hold off sharing the list until October 2, which marks the day Major Spark‘s next album, Kill the Truth, will be out.
1. Billy Bragg and Wilco’s “All You Fascists” (with lyrics by Woody Guthrie)
With 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.
Welcome 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.
What do The Residents, The Go-Betweens, Steve Reich, Sade, Moondog, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sun Ra, Cate Le Bon, The Stranglers and Dizzy Gillespie have in common? Why, they’re all artists responsible for creating songs that have inspired the development of Baltimore band Crying Laughing’s utterly unique experimental jazz-rock-meets-post-punk sound.
The Bad Penny had the good fortune to catch up with drummer Jen Kirby and alto saxophone player/percussionist Christian Best about all things under the sun in a recent interview. The band members discussed their music backgrounds, their chemistry, the Baltimore music scene and much more over the course of our conversation. We staged it in anticipation of Crying Laughing releasing their new full-length, Talking, eight days ago on Hausu Mountain, which is rapidly becoming one of our favorite record labels.
As a bonus, today we bring you a special playlist of songs that have inspired Crying Laughing and that Best assembled exclusively for The Bad Penny. (Thanks again, man!)
Ombra – a thrash unit from Montreal consisting of Giuseppe “G” Criniti on vocals and lead guitar, Marco Sisti on rhythm guitar and his cousin Nico‑Angelo Sisti on drums – just released their first EP, Night Terror, on Monday. But we’ll be damned if these hosers (we’re kidding; these are three bright dudes) don’t know their metal history, especially when it comes to their Canada homeland.
Ombra – not to be mixed up with the Indonesian hardcore-punk band of the same name – live by a simple credo: “We encourage listeners to think freely, explore their minds, and express themselves without compromise,” the band states on its website. Their mesmerizing, pulverizing music is far more complex, however; it’s a stew of old‑school thrash, sludge, groove metal and psychedelic rock that will appeal to fans of Mastodon, Power Trip, High on Fire and Motörhead. It’s almost impossible to believe that only three guys are making Ombra’s music.
Before delving into Ombra’s picks for the best Canadian heavy bands, check out their cosmic, seizure-inducing new video for the psych-metal voyage “Blue Dream,” one of the songs featured on Night Terror.
And now, Ombra’s picks for the best heavy metal bands to come out of Canada.
Rush tops the list because of their impact, influence and pioneering of the heavy-rock scene. Canada’s first arena-scale heavy act: the Zeppelin-weight riffs of “Working Man and the sci-fi crush of 2112 proved a Toronto trio could hang with Sabbath and still invent something no one else was doing. They never stayed in one gear, but when they wanted weight – with Stick It Out,Far Cry and stretches of Clockwork Angels – they delivered drop-tuned, dissonant heaviness without abandoning the virtuosity that made every later Canadian metal band possible. Influence plus longevity plus those genuinely heavy moments is why they sit at number one to us. -G
Spiritbox lands at number two because no Canadian heavy band this decade has moved the needle like they have. Holy Roller and Eternal Blue turned a Victoria act into a global force. Courtney LaPlante’s shift from glass-clear melody to gut-level lows – stacked on Mike Stringer’s precision-groove riffs – gives them both the hooks and the impact that most modern metal chases and misses. They’re the proof that Canadian heaviness didn’t freeze in the thrash and death-metal eras; it just got sharper, louder, and harder to ignore. -G
Actress – Radical Frame (Ninja Tune) Babehoven – I See Them, I See Me (Double Double Whammy) Beabadoobee – Pylon (Double Hit) Beck – Ride Lonesome (Capitol) Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree – In Between Strides (Magnetic Eye) Boy Harsher – Get Mean (Atlantic) Castle Rat – Bestiary (Blues Funeral)
As musically gifted as they are hyper-intelligent, as hyper-intelligent as they are kind, and as kind as they are wise, there was no better band to approach than atmospheric black-metal masters Der Weg einer Freiheit for The Bad Penny Passport‘s stop in Germany. That’s the name we’re calling our latest series, in which we check in with musicians in countries across the globe to get the real deal on the best bands their homelands have to offers. We’re blown away by your positive reception of the series, dear readers; we surmise it’s because you’re refreshed to be getting listening recommendations from musicians instead of Spotify, the algorithm or AI.
On Friday, Der Weg einer Freiheit released an instrumental version of Innern, the studio album they released last year, and we’ll bring you an interview with vocalist/guitarist Nikita Kamprad and bassist Alan Noruspur post-haste. But before we do, we’re gifting to you a list of Germany’s top 10 metal bands that Kamprad – one of our best comrades, and who we’ve interviewed before – in turn gifted to us. (Der Weg deserve a lofty place on the list, but Kamprad is too humble to have put his own band on it.)
Without further ado, here’s his list, with generously ample descriptions of the featured bands and explanations as to why they deserve to be on it.
It’s always cool to get positive feedback from readers, especially those of you who keep tabs on what some lame-ass AI tool referred to as “the iconoclastic website The Bad Penny.” Hell, we’ll take it – and much more importantly, we’ll take your liking of this consummately non-mainstream and non-corporate hub for news, interviews, games, reviews and more about rad bands that mostly lurk underground.
Aaaaaanyway, it’s even more flattering to get kind words from musicians; after all, none of us would be on this website, writing and reading any of the posts, engaging in discussions and finding fulfillment in music in general were it not for those who actually make it. All of which is to say that the new series with the loose title The Bad Penny Passport is attracting so much excitement from artists that it feels like getting blindsided by a tsunami. And that enthusiasm is showing in the bands’ submissions, none better exemplified by this golden treasure of a contribution from Bay Area death thrashers Absolute Darkness.
The band began 10 years ago fueled in part by their love of death metal but also thrash metal, the genre du jour in their San Francisco hometown. Now, the band consisting of guitarist/lead vocalist Ron Dorn, lead guitarist/backup vocalist Douglas Vetter Guitars, bassist Orson Sojo and drummer Scott Russell are readying their second album, Witness to a Dying World, for an October 23 release. There’s more on that below; but first, let’s get schooled by Absolute Darkness and what they believe to be the 10 best Bay Area bands of all time.
Ever since we got our ears on Anatomy of Rage, the fourth studio album by Switzerland experimental brain scramblers Convulsif, we’ve listened over and over again trying to wrap our heads around its brilliance. (We almost covered every part of the human anatomy in that last sentence.) An offshoot of bassist Loïc Grobéty’s far-out Convulsif Bigband, Convulsif continue to – for lack of a better phrase, even though it’s over-used – push the boundaries of dark jazz, grind, doom, drone and noise. We’re already anticipating Convulsif’s next album, when they’re to incorporate remaining music genres smooth jazz, blue-eyed soul and neo-classical.
Convulsif’s music is badass in its own right, as you’ll discover on Anatomy of Rage or the quartet’s Bandcamp page. But much to our delight and humility, the gentlemen – Christian Müller (bass, clarinet and voice); Jamasp Jhabvala (violin); Loïc Grobéty (bass); and Maxime Hänsenberger (drums) – graciously decided to participate in The Bad Penny‘s latest series, in which we ask musicians from non-U.S. countries what they consider to be their own homeland’s top music offerings. Why embark upon this globetrotting adventure? Because fuck Spotify.
So, without further ado, say hello to Convulsif and the bands they hand-selected as Switzerland’s crème de la crème (fun fact: The Swiss use that turn of phrase the same way the French do!).
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The 10 Best Swiss Bands, Per Convulsif
The Swiss music that has influenced us is very often pioneering. With Convulsif, we continue to offer the kind of avant-garde rock music that is our country’s trademark.
We’ll start with the Swiss avant-garde scene and this duo. They come from a free jazz background and have continually evolved their sound and sound systems. They have released many collaborative albums.
