Her Nightmare - Come Anarchy Come Ruin - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Electro-Industrial act Front Line Assembly has always pushed the boundaries of the genre it helped define. This is still true On Wake Up The Coma. A fearless leading force, Front Line Assembly provides surprising new elements, such as a cover of Falco's Amadeus (feat. Jimmy Urine), & contributions from Robert Görl (DAF), Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost), & Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Cocksure).

If you're looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than Weird Nightmare. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins contains all of his main band's bite with an unexpected, yet totally satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the bombast of Copper Blue- era Sugar-just tons of red-line distortion cut with the type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears. These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins' already-established songwriting, but even though the bulk of Weird Nightmare was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic some of it's tunes date back to 2013 in demo form. InchHooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really became the main focus this timeInch he explains. InchIt was about doing what felt natural.Inch To be clear Weird Nightmare is not a Inchpandemic album,Inch but an album-some of which had been gestating for quite a while-that just so happened to be recorded during the pandemic. InchI had always planned on finishing these songs, but being unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.Inch After days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal room and tinker deep into the night on these songs' deceptively simple structures and rich, static-laden textures. InchIt was a godsend for me,Inch he states about the creative process. InchThe hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music and record. It was a beautiful escape.InchWeird Nightmare is, in it's own way, a study in extremes Edkins' melodic instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout, the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex's own sonic predilections. InchIt doesn't sound right to my ear

Every band worth it's salt has a member who worked in a record store. In METZ, the fearless noise rock trio who released five full-length albums on Sub Pop between 2012 and 2024, it was singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. Slinging indie rock and hardcore records in his hometown record store while attending university, Edkins became an ardent student of rock 'n' roll from the psychedelic 1960s to the DIY 1990s and beyond. Hoopla, the catchy, melodic second LP from Edkins's solo project Weird Nightmare, mixes and matches these influences in fun and exhilarating combinations, displaying his sophisticated musical mind. Bursting to life with hooks and earworms, Hoopla is that one tape that never gets ejected from the car stereo, but plays on repeat, soundtracking the summer. New and nostalgic at the same time, Hoopla will perk up your ears.Weird Nightmare's self-produced, and decidedly lo-fi, self-titled debut was recorded at home during the pandemic and released by Sub Pop in 2022. Weird Nightmare displayed Edkins's indie rock sensibility, with a penchant for undeniable hooks and massive sing-along choruses. On the new studio album Hoopla-co-produced with Spoon's Jim Eno and recorded at Seth Manchester's Machines with Magnets-Edkins expands Weird Nightmare's dimensions even further. New musical textures such as piano, bells, and castanets fuse with Edkins' straightforward songwriting to give these tunes a shiny luster. It's like a beloved indie director leveling up to their first studio feature. If Weird Nightmare's debut was an underground crowd pleaser akin to Richard Linklater's Slacker, then Hoopla is Edkins's Dazed and Confused. Resplendent with sunny guitar pop, Hoopla was produced with just the right amount of fuzz and crunch. The immediate, unfussy recording brings you right into the studio with Edkins and his rhythm section Loel Campbell on drums and bassist Roddy