Degraved’s ‘Spectral Realm of Ruin’: Two Cent Review for Post-Trash’s Best 50 LPs of 2025

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , , , on 12/17/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

A tip of the sombrero to Post-Trash for allowing me to write seven capsule reviews among the 50 presented in the esteemed website’s Year In Review: The Best of 2025. The first one I’m presenting on The Bad Penny is Degraved’s Spectral Realm of Ruin (Dark Descent / Me Saco Un Ojo),

Seattle’s death-metal dealers took a helluva long windup before finally pitching their first full-length, concentrating for five years after their formation to ensure their opening salvo landed smack-dab in the middle of the strike zone. Indeed, the band hit right on the money.

Go to Post-Trash to read my full review.

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Japan’s 夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker) Says They Won’t Tour but That ‘Life, as Art, Is Unpredictable’

Posted in Interviews with tags , on 12/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“РЛБ30011922 is a way to deal with a death, to honor a memory and create a record of a reminder that this honor must be preserved.”
-PBV of 夢遊病者

When a band decides to call itself “夢遊病者,” it exponentially decreases their chances of getting “discovered.” But, of course, that presupposes the notion that mass appeal is the top priority for every musician. From all indications, that ain’t the modus operandi for Osaka, Japan’s experimental death-metal crew 夢遊病者. Their primary goal appears to be attracting erudite music-heads who are highly selective with what tunes they choose to consume.

The Bad Penny recently came across 夢遊病者 and became instantly hooked on the trio’s original sound, which also incorporates folk, free-jazz, grind, thrash and psychedelia. You owe it to yourself to check out РЛБ30011922, which consists of one engrossing song that runs 37 minutes (divided into 10 segments) and came out in late October. Don’t dare call the song, which shares the same name as the title of the release, a throwaway track; PBV (guitars/saz/bow/vocals/effects, NN (bass/electrophones) and KJM (drums/percussion) spent three years crafting it.

After getting hooked on the kaleidoscopic track, yours truly championed it in my Treble column, “The 13th Floor,” as one of the eight best psychedelic releases of the fall season. (You’ll find 夢遊病者’s “РЛБ30011922” even more tempting to seek out because it’s available on Bandcamp at a pay-what-you-want price point.)

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Pet Sounds #75: Brokedowns’ Drum Kit Player Can’t Get Enough of His Kitty Cats

Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags , , on 12/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

If you’re unfamiliar with the Brokedowns, a punk band out of Chicago, than shame on you. Less than three weeks ago, the band’s irrepressibly good-natured and good-humored guitarist/vocalist, Kris Megyery, bravely participated in our On Tyranny series, informing us how he had personally witnessed despicable ICE raids at his workplace. He also agreed to speak with The Bad Penny because the Brokedowns’ new record, Let’s Tip the Landlord, which just came out a few weeks ago through Red Scare Industries.

During the same interview, Megyery informed us that the Brokedowns’ drummer, Mustafa Daka, has limitless love for his pets, making him an ideal candidate for the Bad Penny’s other popular series, Pet Sounds. Megyery’s claims proved to be very well-founded, as Daka got back to us speedy, ready to gush over his cats.

“My precious angels, sisters Ava and Olive … are my favorite topics to talk about!” he gushed during an email exchange.

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The Visionaries: Sadness Finds His ‘Purpose’ in Music, Readies for Breakout Year in 2026

Posted in Features, Interviews, The Visionaries with tags , , on 12/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“If I have a purpose in life, it’s to make music.” That’s a powerful statement from a young man named Damián Antón Ojeda, whose solo blackgaze project Sadness exudes the sincerity, intensity and deep emotion of an artist proving his credo through his art. All those factors combined make him an ideal entrant in The Bad Penny‘s new series “The Visionaries,” in which we interview introverted musical savants who typically don’t do many interviews. Following Aaron Turner and Jute Gyte, Ojeda is in very good company.

While Sadness has crafted dozens upon dozens of releases over the past decade or so – most recent the exquisite EP Shimmer – 2024 marked the first live performance for the project. But now, having really broken out of his shell, Ojeda is ready to tour next year and – while he’s too humble to say so himself – is well-positioned for global domination.

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On Tyranny: Finland’s Rotten Sound Don’t Fear Crackdown on Dissent Because ‘We Live in a Democratic Country’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags , , , , , on 12/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

When The Bad Penny embarked on its On Tyranny project more than a year ago, we initially interviewed artists residing in countries controlled by authoritarian regimes in order to learn how they are still able to pursue their vocation despite fears of retaliation including censorship, imprisonment and even death. We conversed with musicians in Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Hungary.

About six months later, the Trump regime began deploying military forces into U.S. cities, deported U.S. citizens without due process to countries they had never resided nor visited, and ordered masked “authorities” with no visible identification to kidnap and disappear people with no criminal records off the street. Thus, we turned our focus to how U.S.-based musicians are coping with previously unimaginable atrocities and how Authoritarian America is damaging the careers and personal lives of artists and dissenters.

Today we bring you a different perspective on the growing power of autocracy as the governing force across the world via a short-and-sweet interview with grindcore band Rotten Sound from Finland. While the vast majority of artists we’ve interviewed for On Tyranny have expressed fear, disgust and despair over the direction that the U.S. – and, by extension, the world – is headed, The Bad Penny was surprised to learn that some artists are not worried about being persecuted for their stances, whether they be creative or “political” (whatever that term actually means anymore).

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Megadeth Charging $950 a Pop for Listening Party as Part of ‘Retirement’ Scam; Will Trump Award Dave Mustaine a Medal of Freedom?

Posted in Essays, News with tags , , , , on 12/15/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Megadeth fans can’t be too pleased with the mastermind numskull behind the undeniably iconic metal band, the irascible Dave Mustaine – you know, the guy who cried a river and played the victim card in the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster way back when.

Once again, the self-described “born-again Christian” is saying “fuck you” to the Ten Commandments by not admitting his wrongdoings, refusing to atone for the insults he’s volleyed toward marginalized groups, and robbing fans who are either too trustworthy of him or too ignorant of his latest greedy schemes. Like the good little megalomaniacal narcissist that he is, Mustaine is unnecessarily causing even more damage to a legacy he has had countless opportunities to rehabilitate following misstep after misstep.

From accusations of racism and homophobia to the general douchebag attitude with which he makes offensive, uninformed and asinine comments on major media outlets like Fox, the guy just can’t seem to be content with his net worth of $14 million and restrain himself from insulting whomever he pleases. And you won’t believe what he’s up to now.

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Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums

Posted in Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , on 12/15/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The Bad Penny is rolling out its favorite albums of 2025 in five installments this year, with the first and second batches having already dropped. While the other three will plop down imminently, we’re smashing the self-indulgence and monotony by inviting some of our favorite industry folks to share their own top 10s with us and, by extension, you.

To warn off any complaints about corruption, misdealing or the coveted line in the sand between journalists and press folks, we laid down a strict ground rule: PR reps were not allowed to include any of their clients, past or present, on their lists.

We’re delighted by the picks that the participants received, as they run the genre gamut and include many albums of which The Bad Penny wasn’t even aware. Especially striking is that, among the combined 160 titles chosen by the … let’s dust off the old calculator here … 16 contributors, a tiny fraction appear on more than one list: Pixel Grip, Deafheaven, Clipse and Primitive Man. And each of those titles are only listed twice.

Thanks oodles to Tim Anderl of Sweet Cheetah PR, Caroline Borolla of Clarion Call Media, Brendan Bourke of The Syn, Dave Clifford of US/THEM Group, George Corona III of Terrorbird Media, Bruno Dorella and Stefania Pedretti of OvO, Brandon Gallagher of Trace Amount, Eddie Gobbo of Something Is Waiting, Austin Griswold of Secret Service Publicity, McKeever and Gosteffects of Heavy Halo, Curran Reynolds of Body Stuff (and The Chain), Michel Rowland of UTM Music Group, Justin Sinkovich of Solid Brass Records, Dan Volohov of Discipline PR, James Woodard of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and Will Yarbrough of Season of Mist – not only for taking the time and care to craft such thoughtful top 10s and share them, but helping this website triple its UVs this year over last – and provide critical support to yours truly over the course of a 28-year career as a music journalist, rock critic and soon-to-be-lobotomized AI automaton.

Without further ado, here are the lists of the top 10 albums released in 2025 that some of The Bad Penny‘s favorite publicists and musicians graciously shared with us.

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Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists

Posted in Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , on 12/15/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The Bad Penny is rolling out its favorite albums of 2025 in five installments this year, with the first and second batches having already dropped. While the other three will plop down imminently, we’re smashing the self-indulgence and monotony by inviting some of our favorite Boise music-heads to share their own top 10s with us and, by extension, you.

We’re delighted by the picks that the participants received, as they run the genre gamut and include many albums of which The Bad Penny wasn’t even aware.

A boatload of thanks to Travis Abbott of Ealdor Bealu and Shadow & Claw, DJ Joe Black of Dayglow Drip and KRBX Radio Boise, Gus Marsden of Breathing Records, Catherine Merrick of The Record Exchange, Chad Remains of Ghorot, Tyler Squire of Onsetter, Shadrach Tuck of Chief Broom and Mishap Records, and Nathan Walker of Duck Club/ Treefort Music Fest/ MusicIdaho for participating in this team effort.

Without further ado, here are the lists of the top 10 albums released in 2025 that some of The Bad Penny‘s favorite Boise peeps (the kids still say that word, right?) graciously shared with us.

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Struck a Nerve: A Rad Metal Band Born Out of Frustration With Music Industry Bullshit

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , on 12/14/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“It started as a bit of a bit of a laugh, and then as the recording process went on, it became evident that it was actually pretty good, and we were having so much fun with it.”

Let’s cut to the chase, because that’s the modus operandi behind U.K. thrash wizards Struck a Nerve. Listenable Records announced in mid-September that the label had signed the band, featuring Shrapnel lead guitarist Nathan Sadd, two members who had parted ways with Shrapnel, and guitarist Lexell Altair Garrido to boot

A little over two months later, Struck a Nerve pumped out their self-titled debut – and they’re already starting to create the follow-up LP. If you don’t think that’s ambitious, check out what Sadd said in a press statement at the time of the band’s signing to Listenable: “Struck a Nerve are aiming to be the most aggressive and intense thrash band the UK has ever produced.”

With that in mind, buckle up for our conversation with the very intense – and equally insightful – Nathan Sadd, with whom we spoke via Zoom last month.

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Reverse Yr Curse Refuse to Accept Alienation, Self-Destruction as Their Fate

Posted in Interviews with tags on 12/14/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

It seems like a very flawed and distinctly American – or perhaps conservative Christian – way of thinking that a curse will never again rear its ugly head or inflict terror upon innocent children and old ladies once it’s banished. What a fallacy. Look no further than bad music as a prime example contradicting this simplistic idea.

After Styx, Kansas and Toto seemed to have an unbreakable stranglehold on popular music, along came Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Replacements to slip out of the grasp of AOR assholes — kinda like how Hulk Hogan (sorry brother, you’re not getting an RIP from The Bad Penny) managed to wrangle out of the clutches of Ric Flair when all seemed lost.

Because Matthew Park grew up in a household in Fairfax County, Virginia, where music was largely absent and in which furtively flipping through his parents’ Dave Brubeck records was deemed “naughty,” his understanding of music wasn’t just myopic, it was practically nonexistent. Park can’t identify the moment of clarity when he finally discovered rock music – but he can vividly recall when music transformed him while he was surrounded by strangers.

“The first concert I ever saw was Mötley Crüe. And it was awesome,” he says during a recent video conversation. “This was also back during a time where, at least in my family and my friends’ circle, our parents didn’t really keep very tight leashes on us. We were free to roam. So that’s what we did. We got into hair metal, like Guns N’ Roses, and that quickly shifted into Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

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