Mini Reviews Around The Bowl (6/18/26)
Trip Villain – Dose
Seeing Red Records | May 8, 2026
My girlfriend recently got into The Browning, so anything billed as a mix of metal and techno is bound to bring my heckles up. However, upon pressing play, my first thought was “oh, this is just Strapping Young Lad” – not a wholly fair assessment, but at least I gave it a fair shake after that. SYL is not on the official list of role models, and it really only comes through in the bookends of the record, but the band does list Static-X as inspiration, which is felt particularly in “Lowbender” and “Vixen Maw,” with the latter highlighting the band’s wider nu metal influences. The rest of the album often dabbles in more experimental realms, placing it in proximity of last year’s Meatwound or the Deafbrick project, putting an emphasis on dark synths and pounding industrial rhythms – never more so than in the fully electronic title track and its spiritual successor “Angelsmoke.” If an intelligent evolution of the industrial branches of nu metal sounds like your thing and you can excuse the occasional lack of cohesion, get a dose of Trip Villain right now. –Hans
Toilet Rats – Black Cats
Steadfast Records | June 26, 2026
Toilet Rats is back to prove they’ve mastered every prefix you could put in front of the word “punk.” Their trademark lo-fi synth skeleton effortlessly slips into the skin suits of bratty melodic hardcore (“Military Dad,” “Nuclear Reactor Meltdown”), pop- (“Utopia”), post- (“Darkness,” “Shimmy,” “Asteroid,” all of which seem to take cues from The Cure), and of course horror (“Bloodsuckers,” “Vampirella,” although the latter is more Ramones than Misfits). Still, while often domineered by one particular genre tag, most songs are also somehow all of them, and some escape the punk confines entirely, such as when “I Was a Teenage Exorcist” transplants the 80s Satanic Panic into the 60s. This kind of gleeful abandon results in an album that strikes a balance between surprising variation and sincerity on one side and comforting simplicity and silliness on the other. –Hans
Drown in Malice – Amnesie & Hysterie
Independent | May 8th, 2026
My first thought after reading the Bandcamp page for Amnesie & Hysterie was “Oh Jesus, it’s more German metalcore.” At best, I was hoping that it was another Heaven Shall Burn or Caliban clone instead of something worse. And Gott sei Dank! I was happy to be wrong. Amnesie & Hysterie covers an enormous amount of sonic territory. It’s true that catchy metalcore riffs are the glue that holds together most songs on the EP, but the songs feel more like compositions than your typical verse-chorus-breakdown metalcore structure. They adeptly morph between chantable hardcore refrains. extended post-metal reprieves, and lilting piano interludes, all with a keen ear for balancing melody against the harsher and dissonant sections. This EP is a rarity: impassioned, intense, reflective, and catchy all brought together in a thoughtful, measured way. The EP may feel a bit uneven at times, but Drown in Malice are definitely on to something here, breathing some new life into a genre that’s been tread and re-tread a million times over. Despite the musical exploration on Amnesie & Hysterie, they feel like a hardcore band at heart, just exploring their horizons. Despite straying from the traditional hardcore path, some parts still shine through . The refrain on “Ein Museum aus Stahl” begs you to grab the mic and sing along, regardless of whether or not you know the German gibberish they’re singing. Germany’s had a strong hardcore scene for a long time; I hope more bands like Drown in Malice start coming out of the woodwork. – Eenzy
The Smashing Pumpkins – Zodeon at Crystal Hall
Martha’s Music | May 15th, 2026
Every time a band like The Smashing Pumpkins, and/or their contemporaries drop a new album I get a weird feeling, mainly because I still have to process that 90s bands are for all intents and purposes, classic rock, now. This new album by Sir Lord Maestro William Patrick Corgan and his still very talented ensemble is a very perplexing album, for one it’s not really new, Corgan originally released most of the material here on the insultingly expensive boxset of his overwrought 2023 triple album rock opera Atum, which was written and recorded between 2020 and 2022, and was then widely released first on vinyl last September and on CD and streaming in mid May 2026.
One good thing I can say about Corgan and his band is how they’ve never made the same album twice, even at their lower points, none of their records really sound like the ones before or after, and what we have here with Zodeon at Crystal Hall is basically the Pumpkins’ take on psychedelia, not an alt rock take on psychedelia, just Billy Corgan with a guitar, bass, and vintage keyboards like Hammond organs and mellotrons, alongside Jimmy Chamberlain on drums and presumably James Iha on guitar, and the end result is a very relaxed and colorful record that’s by far one of the band’s most cohesive and straightforward in years, alongside 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei.
It’s a shame Billy Corgan pops off in the news for saying stupid shit or featuring Zionists in his vanity podcast, because when he sits down with his band to make music and isn’t making a fuzz about it’s grand concepts and stories, or feeling aggrieved by third parties, he can still make decent tunes, this record isn’t on the level of Mellon Collie or Siamese Dream, but it doesn’t need to, it’s a neat, enjoyable and lovingly made album that’s also weird in a good way. – Falxifer
HEALTH – Addendum
Loma Vista Recordings | April 30th, 2026
I’ve always loved bands that can carefully balance making intense music with heavy topics while still having a sense of humor, and HEALTH does it better than anyone else right now. The California trio has really made a name for themselves, both as a killer live act and professional shit-posters on their socials, -courtesy of bassist and producer Johnny Health, aka John Famiglietti- and have also been very prolific as of late, since there’s been a new HEALTH release on a yearly basis since 2019 and counting, with the latest being the band’s newest EP simply titled Addendum and following a string of remixes.
At this point HEALTH are fully locked in with their own brand of industrial, which combines metal guitars and bass with EBM beats, aggressive percussion, a smattering of electronics and effects, and capped with Jake Duzsik’s melancholic vocals, and this EP is certainly more of that, the title is a pretty obvious giveaway, these are tracks that didn’t make the cut in the band’s most recent 2 albums, Rat Wars (2023) and Conflict DLC (2025), plus additional odds and ends, and considering those albums were originally conceived as a double album, it makes sense that they had a wealth of material to work with. That’s the one issue I do have, you like CUM METAL? -as the band frequently markets their music- Here’s more of it, though I do appreciate the self-awareness with the EPs title. Regardless, HEALTH continues their streak of music that’s perfect for dancing, moshing, crying in your room and for gooning, with infectious gusto. What’s not to love? – Falxifer
