Things have taken a surprisingly heavy turn in the Quality of Mercury camp. ‘The Voyager’ – the first single and title track from the band’s second album opens with a riff that, unexpectedly, blends the density of classic shoegaze with the dark edge of doom metal. This, as you would expect, sets about crushing the audience in a very direct manner.
Five months ago, Vulgarithm released their single ‘Welcome To The Forgotten Show’, an angry workout blending dance beats and spoken word verses with an absolutely blistering chorus where the artist clearly looked to ‘Filth Pig’ era Ministry for influence. The verses might not have struck a chord with the rock and metal audience immediately, but the riff on the chorus came with such a force it was hard to ignore. With a sharp edge and an absolutely classic industrial sound, the rockier elements of the track helped to form the one man band’s best track to date.
Montana’s Minot shared new tracks on Bandcamp at regular intervals throughout 2025. Eventually compiled as the ‘And You’re Not’ album, the self proclaimed “lo-fi garage punk muffins” served up something that often sounded like buried treasure from the US garage rock scene thirty five years previously. This, of course, was a good thing.
The name Clone might not seem instantly familiar, but this Brooklyn-based post punk act comes with an interesting DNA. Frontman LG Galleon has previously released works with Dead Leaf Echo, Gregg Giufree (not to be confused with Angel legend Gregg Giuffria!) has links with Pilot To Gunner, and the Clone live act includes some extra power courtesy of Namesake’s Paul Liziragga and Alex Cox of The Veldt (the shoegaze legends who finally saw their shelved 1989 debut recording receive enthusiastic press upon its official release in 2024). This musical gathering also attracted the attention of producer Martin Bisi, whose CV includes albums by Sonic Youth, John Zorn, Swans, and…Herbie Hancock.
In the year leading up to this album’s release, guitarist Gary Arce kept himself more than busy. With the other members of Yawning Man, he released a third album of improvised material with Yawning Balch, two albums of fantastic material under the name SoftSun with Superlynx’s Pia Isaaksen, and also worked with Big Scenic Nowhere, a doomy stoner band which also featured Yawning Man’s Bill Stinson and Fu Manchu/Yawning Balch guitarist Bob Balch.
Regardless of his many activities, for most, it’ll be his associations with desert rock band Yawning Man that spring to mind first, despite their output being rather sporadic. The band’s eighth studio record ‘Pavement Ends’ finds Arce in great musical form, and following 2023’s ‘Long Walk of The Navajo’ takes a welcome step back towards shorter and more accessible arrangements.