Curated by Monk
It’s may be only a week since the Singles Club opened its virtual doors and we fired up the death decks with a selection of the finest single-track releases to have come our way in recent weeks, but it’s Halloween week and our favourite time of the year here at ÜRHQ, so here we are again with a seasonal selection of spooky tunes for your aural delectation. OK, admittedly some of them do have a rather tenuous connection to this time of year but, hey, it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?
We kick off on UR’s home turf, from where alt-rock trio Paper Tigers have conjured up their tale of how ‘No Ghosts Walk’, with their deeply personal third single, an angst-fuelled track about coping with grief and loss. The Tigers have made quite an impact on the Belfast scene, and beyond, since we covered their first ever gig last year, with their first two singles, ‘Gucci Smiles’ and ‘Flames’ clocking up more than 20,000 streams with the accompanying videos hitting more than 10,000 views.
Things take a decidedly gothic twist next, Motionless In White, who this week presented their fans with a special Halloween gift, in the shape of a new single, ‘Creature X: Into The Grave’. While a standalone single in its own right, it is also a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the band’s debut album, Creatures’ – an occasion MiW will be marking with special “deadstream” show, broadcasting at 10pm ÜK/5pm EST time this Wednesday (28 October) which will see the band performing the album in its entirety.
We keep things decidedly gothic, and ‘Twisted’, with the latest single from visual artist Brocarde, who is known for her love of all things velvet, from the clothes she wears to the lyrics she writes, although the latter often disguise an iron fist, as she proves on this latest offering, which comes with a sumptuous self-directed video interpretation as well:
We take a Macabre turn now, with the murderous metallers of the same name, who are about to impale us with their first new studio album in ten years. Released on 13 November (which funnily enough is a Friday), ‘Carnival Of Killers’ will take us deep into the world of the serial killer Richard Ramirez, and is preceded by the appropriately morbid and unsettling second single, ‘Your Window Is Open’:
Having previously received an honourable mention in our ‘Video Of The Week’ feature back in July, Maggie Cassidy make their Singles Club debut with a treat of a track in ‘D.E.A.D’, a playful, tongue-in-cheek ditty about “feeling dead inside from staring at screens all day like a zombie, without human interaction”:
Having made a helluva impression on their first visit to the Singles Club back in August, London-based proto-metallers Possessor are at it again, and this time they are unleashing ‘Bloodsuckers’ all over the bar (the cleaners are gonna have a challenge cleaning up this mess in the morning), the second single to be released from their new album, ‘Damn The Light’, which is released this Friday (30 August) via the awesome APF Records imprint:
We keep things at the decidedly heavy end of the musical spectrum, with death metal-dealing Aussie newcomers Idle Ruin, who came together after lockdown closed down the live music scene, not just down under but the Überverse over. Ahead of the release of their debut EP at the beginning of December, the trio are plying ‘The Devil’s Trade’ to impressive effect on their first single, which is based on a Brisbane folk story about a local printing factory:
Oxfordshire’s Molly Karloff have been making quite a noise for themselves on the NWoCR scene since the release of their excellent ‘Supernaturalation’ EP back in March. Well, now they’re doing it again (sic) with their latest single, which earns them a place in this special edition of the Club partly by virtue of the fact that they share a name with one of the greatest horror actors of all time…
Forgive us if we disappear off at a bit of a tangent now – but then, that is something Mr Bungle have been doing, on and off, for the past 35 years. With the band’s core membership of Trevor Dunn, Mike Patton and Trey Spruance now augmented by Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo, the Bay Area-based non-conformists are now delivering ‘Sudden Death’ with the third and final single to be released prior to the emergence, this coming Friday (30 October) of new album ‘The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo’. To celebrate the release, Mr Bungle will be hosting their own “virtual live experience”, under the banner of ‘The Night They Came Home!’, on Halloween night itself.
Our long-suffering barman, Kevin, is sounding the bell for last orders, so it’s time to address the elephant in the room, and that is the one band who inevitably provide much of the soundtrack for Halloween celebrations here at ÜRHQ. We are, of course, talking about the godfathers of heavy metal, the mighty Sabbath, who are the subject of the latest tribute album from those lovely chaps over at Magnetic Eye Records. The album, which comes out this Friday (30 October) features 15 reinterpretations of Sabbath classics from various modern-day doom acts, including Elephant Tree, who have presented us with what they themselves describe as their “bastardized” post-metal version of ‘Paranoid’:
Our penultimate offering comes from the very scary Mimi Barks, the Berlin-born London-based trap metal artist, who delivers a defiant slap in the face to perceived norms as she summons the spirit of the beast himself with latest single ’11.Plague/666’. It’s a unique sound from a unique, and highly outspoken artist – and be warned, the accompanying video does contain fast flashing images:
Time for us to sign off and, in the words of Sebastian Bach, get the fuck out, so we’ll do so with this brief message from The Pretty Reckless, who are taking to their ‘Broomsticks’ to wish us all a happy Halloween – and, of course, all of us at Über Rock share that sentiment, So, until next weekend, when I’ll be back behind the death decks once again, keep ‘er lit, keep ‘er between the hedges and #StayTheFuckSafe!
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