“Hey Columbia, who is Tim Curry?”
Well this one is really devastating. Losing Dolly Parton yesterday was a real punch in the gut, to be sure, but Tim Curry has been a huge part of my life, for as long as I can remember.
Friends, in a conversation with some fellow music appreciators-slash-journalists about recent new releases, I offered the opinion that 2026 has thus far been one hell of a year for sludge metal.
As further evidence, I’d like to present you with this, the fourth album of filty, dirty sludgecore by Portland (Oregon)’s Armed for Apocalypse, which just came out today. As the band describe themselves: “They just play crushing songs that go from slow to slower, from muck to mire, from mosh to circle-pit. And sometimes they’ll make a left turn and end up at epic. Simply put, it’s rock ‘n’ roll music tuned way down and pissed way off.”
For an added bonus, today we’re also going to check out the debut EP, which came out almost exactly one year ago, by Dutch sludge/post-hardcore/noise duo Swerve. Their bio is far more succinct, but no less accurate: “Two guys, big noise.”
Hello, Party People!
I was going to mention something in this article’s salutation about hoping you are having a happy Monday, but then I got thinking about how it seems like I use that phrase fairly frequently. As it turns out based on a quick search, fifteen times (not including today) in total, or an average of slightly more often than once per year.
So I guess it isn’t really THAT much, actually, but it does seem a bit irksome that zero of the fifteen times involved any reference to the Madchester band of the same name, and a bit disingenuous that zero of the fifteen times have actually involved anyone having a happy Monday.
But at the very least, we can hope for a Monday that is less awful than it might otherwise have been? And to that end, I present you with a pair of albums. Both by sludge metal bands from northern Italy (specifically, from Bergamo and Parma, approximately 160-something kilometers apart, or 100-ish miles), and both released by the Dusktone label (one exactly one month ago today, the other roughly fourteen months ago).
Enjoy!
Hey folks. Ready to close out the week with some angry French (and/or Franco-Canadien) sludge?
Today I’ve got two brand-new releases for you: one that’s just hot off the presses today, and one that’s so new it won’t actually come out until next week. You’re welcome.
Hey there, friends. Gotta say, I’ve really been on the struggle bus this week. This whole month, in fact. Maybe some of you can relate? Hopefully not. But please feel free to say hi in the comments below, or drop by Bluesky with some words of encouragement!
Anyway, let’s dive right into it. Today we’ve got a brand-new album of bleak black-doom from Mexico (coming out this Friday!) and a bonus serving of Italian bleak death-doom-sludge (from about six months ago)…
Well babes*, looks like the week’s about halfway over. I’m already kinda dragging my feet on getting any actual work done, looking ahead in the calendar to another weekend coming up soon.
Let’s talk about some music to pass the time, what do you say?
Today I’ve got two releases to share with you, from a band whose name means Darkness (although no word on whether they believe in a thing called love).
No, this Glaswegian post-metal ensemble really grabbed me by the ears when Trepanation released their sophomore EP three years ago, and they’ve finally followed with their first-ever full-length LP, which came out just a few days ago. Enjoy!
Good afternoon, y’all. Is it just me, or do you also find that Monday morning return to work tends to be brutal and exhausting no matter how much time off you’ve had or how relaxed you might have been in the interim?
I had a three-day weekend since my company took Friday off thanks to the Zombie Jesus holiday; had a fairly nice time visiting with family part of the weekend, and lounging out in nature the rest of the time. So I should be feeling refreshed and ready to go, but that never seems to be the case.
Anyway, we can all feel hashtag-blessed with some hypnotically chill music to help us survive another tedious day of drudgery: a split record Ripple Music just released on that holiday Friday, as well as a solo album from a few years back by one of the members who was involved in both projects on that split.
Y’all. This is not a drill. New NEUROSIS album just dropped.
Hello, Dear Readers! Hope you are all having a splendid Thursday.
Yesterday I told you about this weekend’s Mojave Experience festival taking place Friday and Saturday in the California desert.
Well today, I’d like to call your attention to another group who will be making an appearance in the Yucca Valley this Friday night (20 March): SoftSun, a collaboration between Norwegian bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen (also known for her solo act Pia Isa as well as being a member of Superlynx (reviewed here) and Californian guitarist Gary Arce (whose other band Yawning Man will ALSO be at the Mojave Experience on Saturday) with the trio rounded out by a different drummer on each of their first two albums.
Following up this post from last week, we here at Valley of Steel HQ are pleased to present to you ANOTHER article about ANOTHER new (well, it was new last year) album from a band we’ve written about a bunch of times, who ALSO will be playing at a festival at the end of the week (in addition to a few stops through southern California leading up to it). It’s like déjà vu all over again.
Valley of Steel 