Festivals · 28.05.2026
Unfortunately, this small yet exquisite festival has not yet produced an official aftermovie. For anyone interested in getting a feel for the event, this clip, featuring "Church of Misery", is extremely helpful; it shows impeccable sound quality and an enthusiastic crowd on a spacious festival ground. In addition to featuring bands from Europe and the USA, the festival manages to offer a true insider-favorite beer from Bavaria—"Bräu im Moos"—a brew so exclusive that you won't even find it...
Daily Peaks · 15.04.2026
I received the complete album and have already listened to it in its entirety. Therefore, I can say that the title track, "Through Zero," contains roughly 70% of the musical references and influences from "Elder." As a long-time critical follower of this band, I also hear the numerous influences from Nick DiSalvo's other projects. There's a lot of "Weite" in it, reminiscent of the more Krautrock-oriented side project in which Nick plays drums. The new album doesn't have a dominant musical...
Daily Peaks · 27.03.2026
If you're currently unsure what series or film to watch on Netflix or similar platforms, I recommend the Belgian band "We Stood Like Kings," whose album, released on April 10th, evokes a kind of acoustic film with every track. Depending on your mood, the second pre-released song, "Attila of the Sea," conjures images ranging from Fritz Lang to Blade Runner, but it could also include elements of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. That's how wide the musical spectrum becomes when a piano is used....
Daily Peaks · 13.03.2026
As someone from southern Germany, I have a natural aversion to everything that comes from the rest of Germany, and especially from Berlin. It's all loud, hyped, insubstantial, and much ado about nothing. But since Kadavar, there have been bands from Berlin to whom these attributes no longer apply. The quintet Rising Dao, with their latest release "Zero Some Game," is one such example. The jam-heavy album impresses with a pleasantly warm, mid-range-focused sound, interspersed with lyrical...
Daily Peaks · 09.02.2026
Very clever of my new favorite band to omit the vocals and end the all-too-obvious flirtation with 70s prog rock. I find the instrumental version better because, in this case, the vocals distract from the band's brilliant musical abilities, and the vocals should be on the same high level. I disliked that over the years with Mastodon as well, because none of the three or four singers could really sing well, and the vocals were more of a distraction. Or, my favorite example of a huge discrepancy...
Unknown Pleasures · 18.01.2026
This album unites all my favorite bands from between 1987 and 1993. During that time, I spent a year in the Middle East and increasingly discovered Arabic music, both classical and pop. Around 1987, my interest in alternative rock, new wave, noise, gothic, and Americana began. And 30 years later, this Portuguese band appears and blends these seemingly contradictory styles into a song-oriented, harmonically organic work of art. Everything about this music seems authentic, from the murmured...
Unknown Pleasures · 15.11.2025
The album opens like a wide-screen epic, and "The Throat Ancestors’" sets the first scene. Deep throat-singing rises like smoke over endless grasslands, and suddenly we ride through the Mongolian plains with the heirs of Genghis Khan. The track feels like a fast horse pushing into the unknown, tribal and raw, with a strong nomad-rock pulse that shakes the horizon. When the dust settles, "The Verdant One" appears like a slow camera pan over green Balkan mountains. A soft shadow of Goran...
Comments & Stories · 07.10.2025
On first listen, I was almost blown away by the album, but something in my subconscious told me something wasn't quite right. So I reread the press release, which listed numerous prominent musicians, something that put me off, as someone who doesn't snoop on names. Then I listened to the lyrics and had them displayed on Spotify. Ah, Western musicians imitate oriental music because oriental music has a clear canon of themes that can be sung about. This includes unrequited love, but not love,...
Daily Peaks · 08.08.2025
Howling Giant from Nashville, Tennessee, presents a somewhat different kind of music here. There are catchy vocal lines over pure heavy metal guitars, without fuzz and without them being tuned three to five semitones lower; there are dynamic tempo changes and various moods within one song. Wow, and then this complex song is also catchy. US metal bands managed something like this in the 80s, be it Savatage, Culprit, or Heir Apparent, and since then, things have been pretty quiet in this...