Spring Scenery: Vial Kick Ass, Ripping Nails For Congo, Neurosis and Fugazi startle.

 

I have been so busy working that my brain has been barely able to think straight enough to write. I have been painting with watercolors again, though. Many years since I have picked up a brush to make flier art or comic characters, so I have needed a soundtrack. Been listening to a lot of music and one LP I can't get enough of is Vial's vital album Hellhound. A tour de force of snarling and catchy, witty punk that feels very rock n roll, it is a lock for my fave punk record of the first quarter of 2026. The production is snappy and crisp but still feels like lightning in a bottle. 

I always have loved bands like Cycle Sluts From Hell or L7 who had a hard charging side to their sound while still being feminist in their own way. Vial are a more punk rock than metal outfit, but have a similar spit fire ethos that will call to mind a Bikini Kill that could also nail Veruca Salt worthy hooks...and give me a lot of confidence that between them (as in pronouns "them") and surly punks like the Bobby Lees or a melodic minded alt rocker like Gretel Hanlyn that the future of rock is in very good hands this year! Every other song on this album is a future classic, especially the near perfect jangly guitar and earworm vocals of sing-along "Puke". 

I am gonna slam a few items of note in here in case I can't write again for a few weeks, so let's think of this as a little recent recap and some recs for Spring kind of deal. 

In case you were living under a rock, Neurosis came back from the dead with Aaron Turner in place of Scott Kelly. It was kind of like a band pulling themselves back out of a black hole with a dental floss thin rope. The resulting album An Undying Love For A Burning World, is essential and probably their most intense record since Enemy Of The Sun. 

My favorite song is probably "First Red Rays", one of the most Neurosisy sounding dirges to ever Neurosis, but with a beautiful and moody middle passage that calls to mind the amazing post rock of Red Sparowes not heralded enough masterpiece Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun.

Along with the quite moving surprise of post hardcore legends Fugazi dropping the Albini version of (my favorite album of theirs) In On The Kill Taker to benefit Letters charity, it has been an insane few weeks for people who crave a real connection to underground music that means something. Turns out we really do need an instrument and one another. Community over hyper individualism! 

Australian tastemakers and good cause championing Ripping Nails Records have put out a powerful comp of over 130 tracks by different black metal, noise and alternative bands to aid people affected by the ongoing horrors in Congo. Ripping Nails Compilation IV: Free Congo will not only floor you with a ton of brilliant tracks from bands like Astralscape, Sunrot, Agape, Corpsebird, Sacral, Sallow Moth, Lust Hag, Spectral Lore, Wandering Oak, Iravu and many more.

There are in fact so many amazing black metal or outsider moments on this comp that it has almost restored my faith in humanity, if there wasn't so much fuck awful genodical bullshit going on and ICE agents taking over airports. 

My project Walking Bombs was honored to be featured on the Congo comp. I submitted a track called "Commodity Clout Cult", about toxic fandoms and ego hubris hiding bad faith actors and reinforcing hierarchy that ought to be destroyed. Also shout out to Gun Girl who rules so hard and has such a sick and pummeling sound. All money will be donated to panzifoundation.org to help victims of sexual violence in Congo.