A friend of mine describes bands that just seem to pop off in their respective subgenre of music as “having the sound.” Bands that really found the secret sauce for their artwork that resonates with many. Drain has been one of those bands in the crossover thrash space as they drop their third release, …Is Your Friend (Epitaph Records). Keeping it under thirty minutes but above the max of the energy meter.
Being from the New England area, I have been absolutely spoiled in both professional sport team championships and local music. One of the absolute titans of that discussion, The Acacia Strain, continues to march forward with their thirteenth album, You Are Safe From God Here (Rise Records). The depressing nature of both the instrumentals and the lyrics makes you feel the grief behind each beat.
We Who Are Not As Others…
October 8th, 2025 sees Ghost Cult Magazine’s 13th year in business! Established in the doomsday year of 2012, Ghost Cult Magazine has been a daily music news, interviews, and reviews website dedicated to covering Rock, Metal, Punk, Metalcore, post-Hardcore, Hardcore, Indie Rock, Doom, Prog, Death Metal, Black Metal, Sludge, Industrial, Grindcore, Dark Folk, Synthwave, other related genres, and geek culture as well! Shout out to our founders, current co-owners, past collaborators, partners, and you dear readers! Stay tuned for a new merch giveaway tonight!
There are truly many directions you can go in music by taking influences from all over and finding a sound that is respectful to all of those influences. Malevich continues to evolve this approach with their latest release, Under a Gilded Sun (Church Road Records). This nearly forty-minute journey borrows from black, death, and sludge metal with dashes of grindcore mixed in. There are a few tracks on the album that feature a build-to-climax song structure, similar to how post-metal bands structure their songs.Continue reading
Atlanta’s Insomniac brings the surreal sounds of the early nineties back to life on Om Moksha Ritam (Blues Funeral Recordings). These guys drape brooding baritone vocal lines over layers of atmospheric guitar that swell into big sludge-tinged riffs of epic proportions. On a song like “Mountain,” the twin guitar attack is a dizzying affair that accelerates in an almost Mastodon-like manner. Deceased drummer Amos Rikin keeps the cymbals crashing with enough gusto to move their hypnotic riffage with locomotive momentum. This reaches peak heaviness for these guys when harsher growls roar up from the back of the mix to accent the punchy chugs.Continue reading
The third chapter of Blackbraid is upon us! Blackbraid III (Self-Released ) has been released onto the world, continuing where the previous chapter ended. This installment in the series keeps all of the elements we have all come to love from Sgah’gahsowáh’s (Editor’s note: translated from Indigenous American for “The Witch Hawk”) solo project, with even more guitar leads to melt your face. A few ticks under an hour places Blackbraid III slightly shorter than its predecessor. It’s worth every minute, so keep that finger off the skip button.Continue reading
Sometimes you just need a good thrashy, Crossover Punk band to get your blood pumping. Toxic Youth have been dishing out what you crave now for thirty-five years with no signs of slowing down. Their latest album, Still Hungry (Time To Kill Records), continues that mission statement relentlessly for over thirty minutes.Continue reading
Over the years, I have come across music that covers the full spectrum of emotion and appreciate most of it. Sometimes I just need a good angry album to take the edge off, and Mugshot has delivered just that. All The Devils Are Here (Pure Noise Records) is a storm of twelve tracks that blow past you in less than half an hour. The mixture of hardcore punk and Swedish death metal ebbs and flows in either direction as the album progresses, keeping my attention.Continue reading
There’s something about Grindcore that is so ridiculous that it ironically makes me like it more. Melbourne’s own King Parrot dropped their long-awaited fourth full-length record, A Young Person’s Guide To (Housecore Records), which brings the riffs, the groove, and all the disgusting, yet funny lyrics. Each track attempts to stand out on its own, but the back half of the album has a couple of duds; however, it does finish strong!Continue reading
Someone needs to check what’s in the water in the Hudson Valley, New York, and how many gems that scene has produced over the last several years. Age of Apocalypse has dropped their sophomore full-length, In Oblivion (Closed Casket Activities), which does not disappoint. Ten tracks with epic sing-alongs and bone-snapping breakdowns will crush your soul, but you want more.Continue reading