Austere Say Their DIY Decision Spawned LP They Had Always Wanted to Make

Posted in Interviews with tags on 07/11/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

If there’s one thing we’ve to come to expect from a studio album by black-metal duo Austere, it’s that it’ll be a no-nonsense affair that eschews humor in favor of maintaining a laser-like focus on cerebral, emotional, and even spiritual growth. In our recent exchange with the Australian duo–consisting of Tim Yatras (drums/keyboards/vocals) and Mitchell Keepin (guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals)–we discovered that, as human beings, they as direct as their no–frills music.

The symmetry between art and the personality of the artist who created it is not to be confused with what corporate suits call “on brand.” Those shysters insist that artists, in order to make a living, must prove their artistic mettle in tandem with their ability to socialize and hock their wares–honest advertising be damned.

Continue reading

Bad Penny Bests: Top 10 Best (And Worst) Meats

Posted in Comedy, Lists with tags , , on 07/11/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Meat Puppets

You people can’t seem to read a full article these days unless it’s a Top 10 list. So The Bad Penny is jumping on the bandwagon from time to time and see if ours are as riveting as “Top 10 Substitutes for Mayonnaise,” “Top 10 Best Bob Seger Songs,” “Top 10 Ways to Sneeze Politely in Public,” etc.

Here’s our second one. We think. The first was abut clubs. We’re too lazy busy to comb through our labyrinthian archives to see if we’ve posted an edition during the sordid history of this website.

Top 10 Best Meats

1. The Meat Puppets

2. Meatwound

3. Meatballs

Continue reading

Agriculture’s ‘Bodhidharma’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Reviews with tags on 07/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

One might regard as pretentious Agriculture’s belief that they warrant a genre of their own, which they call “ecstatic black metal.” But try finding another band that alternates between enormous riffs that grab hold like the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi and refuse to let go. Read my Treble review of “Bodhidharma,” a single selected from Agriculture’s forthcoming The Spiritual Sound.

Pygmy Lush Share Conspiracy Theories About JFK, UFOs

Posted in Interviews with tags on 07/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Hear the entirety of a dusted-off Pygmy Lush album the band hadn’t previously released, read about their theories on the JFK assassination, and learn why every “UFO sighting” isn’t to be believed in my FLOOD interview with the recently reunited experimental hardcore punk posse.

Agriculture’s ‘Bodhidharma’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Reviews with tags on 07/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Try finding another band that alternates between enormous riffs that grab hold like the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi and refuse to let go. Read my Treble review of Agriculture’s new song, “Bodhidharma.”

Exclusive Song Premiere: Sangre de Muérdago’s ‘O Abismo’

Posted in Exclusives with tags on 07/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Hailing from Galicia, Spain, Sangre de Muérdago is the best Galician Folk band you’ve never heard of. Now, Sangre de Muérdago is the only Galician Folk band you have heard of.

The group uses Galician lyrics and a litany of instruments used in the Galician tradition to reflect on nature, mysticism and other themes.

“O Abismo” is the first single from Sangre de Muérdago’s upcoming full-length, O Xardín, due September 12. Keep an eye out for the release of the album’s second single on August 8, and a third one a week before the album release. The Bad Penny is proud to exclusively premiere “O Abismo” and its accompanying video today.

Continue reading

Chat Pile’s ‘This Dungeon Earth/Remove Your Skin Please’ Reissue: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags on 07/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Chat Pile plant yet another feather in their cap with the re-release of their first two EPs—2019’s This Dungeon Earth and Remove Your Skin Please—via a single-vinyl compendium welding together the two statements that preceded their formal introduction to the unwitting masses, 2022’s God’s Country. Read my FLOOD review.

Mark Mallman Says ‘Suffering Artists’ Are a Myth, Making Art Isn’t a ‘Job’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny with tags on 07/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“This myth of the ‘suffering artists,’ the myth of Van Gogh and ideas like this—perpetuated by Hollywood—have become abstracted. It guilt-trips us all into thinking that if our art is our job, it lacks purity, and purity is the highest art form. But really, all we’re doing is trying to manifest joy, or insight, or translate the human experience.” Read more of my interview with Mark Mallman on New Noise.

Crystal Viper Conjure ‘Pure Magic’ with Live LP

Posted in Interviews with tags on 07/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The nine tracks featured on The Live Quest provides arbiters who dare distinguish “good metal” from “bad metal” with an ample amount of evidence that Crystal Viper firmly belong in the former bracket. Read my New Noise interview with the band’s leader.

Scratch Acid’s ‘Box Set/Scratch Acid/Berserker’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , , , on 07/07/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Touch and Go Records went to the trouble of assembling a Scratch Acid vinyl box set to the tune of $160—as well as individual reissues of their EPs for those in search of a more affordable option. Read my thoughts on Box Set/Scratch Acid/Berserker via Treble.