Before Russia unleashed its shocking, abhorrent, genocidal and unlawful invasion into Ukraine in February 2022, Bernard Van Isacker – Chief Editor of Side-Line – didn’t have designs on focusing his music publication on current affairs and events per se. “But it did happen,” Isacker, a Belgian citizen, confided in a candid interview with The Bad Penny on Friday, July 17. “I had witnessed something I never imagined … [would be] possible in a democratic country. Tyranny can hit quite close sometimes. You’d never imagine this would be possible in a democratic country, but it happens,” Isacker continued. “And it happened to me. [Not to mention] a lot of crap being published online about myself.”
In response, Isacker spearheaded an initiative to help the people of Ukraine. Specifically, a pay-what-you-want-compilation called United 1 – The Freya Files, a various-artists dark-wave compendium issued by Side-Line. The collection just came out today.The track list is below:
New Releases 7.17.26: Loathe, Quicksand, Fuming Mouth, Boundaries, Left to Die, Tiger Bear Wolf, Secrecy, Emptiness
Posted in New Releases with tags Boundaries, Emptiness, Fuming Mouth, Left to Die, Loathe, Quicksand, Tiger Bear Wolf on 07/17/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Joey Alexander – Celestial Keeper (Mack Avenue)
Baby Mel – Drought single (Capitol/Motown)
Banda AL9 – Hey! Hey! We’re Banda AL9 (Wicked Cool)
Taylor Bickett – Nothing I Can’t Undo (If This Then)
The Black Drumset – Friends in Dark Places (self-release)
Boundaries – Yearning: The unbeautiful after (Sumerian)
BTS – Normal (Korean version) single (BigHit)
Day We Ran – Naked at Your Door EP (AnnapurnA)
Emptiness – Nowhere Speaks (Season of Mist)
Brian Ennals & Blockhead – Boatshoes (Phantom Limb)
Fuming Mouth – The Ringing Bell (Triple B)
Presley Haile – Hamilton Honey: Part I EP (Columbia)
Infected Disarray – Redisseminating Obscenity (2026 Redux) (Unique Leader)
Iris Temple – Ghosts of the Future (Sooper)
Jodeci – Naked At Your Door EP (Retreat)
Larry June – Who Coppin (feat. Swizz Beats, Jhené Aiko, Musiq Soulchild) (Freeminded)
Kamal. – How the F*** Does Everybody Else Manage? (Def Jam)
Kennedys – Without Us single (self-release)
Lathums – Vice Versa single
Left to Die – Initium Mortis (Relapse)
Exclusive: Nightrage Founder and Frontman Marios Iliopoulos, Greek’s Undisputed King of Melodeth, Gives His Most Epic Interview Ever
Posted in Interviews, Videos with tags Marios Iliopoulos, melodeth, Nightrage on 07/16/2026 by Kurt OrzeckThe Bad Penny revels in one of our favorite interviews to date: An all-encompassing conversation with Marios Iliopoulos, who founded Greek melodic death metal squad Nightrage in 2000 and has held the throne ever since. The reigning king leaves no stone unturned in providing the ultimate historical account of how heavy metal sowed its roots in Greece and developed there in the decades since.
From revealing previously unshared stories about the growth of extreme heavy metal in Greece to reflecting on past troubles and tribulations that he later vanquished to his staggering prolific output in Nightrage and beyond, Iliopoulos delivers what perhaps could be the greatest interview of his lifetime.
Continue readingMono’s ‘Snowdrop’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Mono on 07/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Just like poker players have a “tell,” so do songs by eminently admired post-rock instrumentalists Mono. Faintly reminiscent of The Twilight Sad or Godspeed, but not enough to call them copycats, Mono songs typically start on a gentle note, slowly crescendo into a state of guitar noise, burst into a shimmering shower of affirmation, and conclude with a carefully crafted, rarely abrupt descent. Perhaps because Mono fans are accustomed to the shape of the band’s songs, or more likely due to the fact that this is the post-rock squadron’s 13th studio effort, Snowdrop is their smoothest deployment thus far.
Continue readingWarning’s ‘Rituals of Shame’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Patrick Walker, Warning on 07/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Warning‘s Rituals of Shame is an album effectively 20 years in the making, if not necessarily literally. Frontman Patrick Walker has released plenty of material during that time, but what we have here are five doom-metal masterpieces rather ironically untainted by the very trappings of the subgenre: repetition taken to tedious extremes, fogs of pot smoke so thick that the listener is blinded by what might very well be beauty at the core; overindulgence for overindulgence’s sake. Particularly on songs like “Station,” “Landing Lights” and “Night Comes Dawn,” Walker has created something fresh and new: clear-eyed, focused, minimalist yet illustrious doom metal. Perhaps it’s because he’s reached a transcendent understanding of the human condition, or something like it; the word “love” appears six times in the lyrics to the five songs.
Continue readingMekons’ ‘Horrorble (Mekons vs. Tony Maimone in Dub Conference)’
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Jon Langford, Mekons, Pere Ubu, Sally Timms, Tony Maimone on 07/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
At the ripe age of 50, Leeds post-punk/alt-country collective Mekons revisit last year’s under-the-radar Horror LP as a dub record with the aid of Pere Ubu’s Tony Maimone.
Continue readingGunner’s ‘Reality Soldier’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Gunner on 07/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In case you haven’t noticed, the most disorienting senselessness that exists in our world is the reality we suffer through each and every day. As much as the vast majority of us would not only prefer not to hear the sound of reality but block our ears with our palms with such force that we might squash our own skulls like melons, Gunner buck up and administer the soundtrack of everyday life with Reality Soldier, an eleven-and-a-half minute brutal assault that leads you to re-evaluate the question, “can I hold my breath for that long if I submerge myself in water?”
Read the rest of my Post-Trash review here.
Best New Music Videos (June 2026): Shaboozey, The Strokes, Whitmer Thomas, Mary in the Junkyard, Blood Incantation
Posted in Lists, Videos with tags Alewya, Blood Incantation, Josh da Costa, LA Priest, Lockstep, Mary in the Junkyard, Shaboozey, Stephanie Babirak, The Strokes, Whitmer Thomas on 06/30/2026 by Kurt OrzeckEnjoy The Bad Penny‘s latest roundup of the best music videos that caught our eye over the course of this month. They feature costumed people walking in the city, people tossing back shots in a vintage saloon, Walter Goggins, interstellar space scenes, a harpist – and Joe Pera!
1. Shaboozey’s “Cowgirl”
2. LA Priest’s “Ever No”
3. Whitmer Thomas’ “Candy Corn”
Germany’s Best Metal Bands Ever, Per the Country’s Native Death-Metal Sons Fleshcrawl
Posted in Lists with tags Caliban, Dew-Scented, Fleshcrawl, Heaven Shall Burn, Kreator, Mantar, Neaera, Necrophagist, Rammstein, Ruins of Beverast on 06/30/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Seven years after their last full-length album, German death-metal deacons Fleshcrawl slithered out of hibernation earlier this month with a new record, Epitome of Carnage, on Reigning Phoenix Music. The quintet surprised everyone with their 12-song collection of gospel songs that preach the word of God and aim to convert their fanbase, which until now has largely consisted of heathens, into devout worshippers of the one and only Lord.
Kidding, of course. Epitome of Carnage lives us to its billing, providing no respite from torturous riffage and brutal blast beats during its 48-minute duration. From the merciless “Grave Messiah” to the punishing “Orphan God” to the blood-curdling “Heralds of Death,” torture is the name of the game on the relentless rampage of sacrilegious slaughter.
Because the record pretty much speaks for itself, when we were given the opportunity to check in with Fleshcrawl about their sick and twisted newborn record, we declined to bore them, ourselves and you with the same old rote questions. Instead, we used the opportunity to ask the band – which started 35 years ago, although almost all its current members weren’t there from the beginning – what they consider to be the greatest German metal bands of all time. After all, they have slightly more authority on the matter than we do, considering we’re not German, aren’t in any bands and are younger than they are (we’re pretty sure).
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