There is a ferocious, blood-and-iron honesty coursing through Lior Golan’s new EP, "MIDNIGHT TRAINS", that makes standard heavy rock feel strangely tame. Based in Tel Aviv, the guitarist, composer, and producer crafts music as an urgent survival mechanism, steeped in the grand, rumbling lineage of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Golan channels staggering personal trauma battles with addiction, the lingering ghosts of PTSD from...

Sometimes the heaviest thing you can carry is the art you stopped making. Brendan Ranney knows exactly how that feels, having traded his guitar for the demands of daily life almost two decades ago. Now, the Southern California indie singer-songwriter is back with his debut solo album, "Slightly Out of Focus". Sparked by finding his late father's poetry, this record is a raw, guitar-driven reflection on...