Ludwig Jonsson, hailing from Jönköping, Sweden – a place I once imagined was solely populated by competitive furniture assemblers – has unleashed "Anybody Out There," a single that slams into you like a rogue shopping cart on a downhill slope. It's hard rock, sure, but it's got this texture, like sandpaper dipped in honey. https://open.spotify.com/track/4Dulb3Cng8qV360NJFtEBr?si=dMYRbliySw6ImpUIoMQ8Cg Jonsson, the one-man army of sound, crafts everything in his home...

North Star Union has released "Echoes of decay", a slice of melodic heavy metal that feels less like a standard studio tracking and more like something dug out of the permafrost. There is a curious quality to Icelandic composer Myrmann’s work here; because he handles all the instrumentation and composition himself at Midgard Studio, the track possesses a singular, frighteningly cohesive nervous system. It...