Arch Enemy Unveils New Vocalist

Posted on by sumeriannoel

After the departure of Alissa White-Gluz, fans have been left to speculate who will take her place behind the mic in the legendary Swedish metal band. Through thousands of comments and posts on social media from fans, the band has kept their secret… until now. 

A New Voice

“To The Last Breath” landed on all streaming platforms along with its cinematic music video on Thursday, February 19. Lauren Hart, best known for her time in Once Human, appears front and center.

Michael Amott, guitarist and founder of Arch Enemy, comments, “Connecting with Lauren has marked an important step in my journey. Working with her was an exceptional experience — her remarkable voice, coupled with her dedication and professionalism, brings a rare level of excellence. I look forward to continuing the collaboration.”

To The Last Breath

The single is powerful, bold, and reminiscent of the early Arch Enemy fans fell in love with back in the 90s. The instrumental cycles through melodic bliss and fast-paced intensity while Hart’s urgent screams top the mix. The music video, directed by Patrick Ullaeus, matches the song’s gravity through the band’s energetic performance and use of red flames, lava, and flashing lights.

Amott adds, “Make no mistake — this song is a reckoning. Musically, it’s unapologetically aligned with my original vision for the band — and I believe longtime fans will recognize that immediately. Lyrically, it’s about seeing through deception and dismantling the illusion of control. It captures that moment when you realize you’ve been fed poison — and you choose to fight back. Once that clarity hits, there’s no retreat. It’s do or die.”

He concludes, “Just when you think it’s over, a new beginning rises. Now it’s time to rage with us — to the very last fucking breath!”

On The Road

In celebration of their new era, Arch Enemy has announced a Summer tour composed of more intimate European clubs. Dates are found below!

7/19 — Berlin, Germany — Bi Nuu

7/21 — Copenhagen, Denmark — Pumpehuset

7/22 — Stockholm, Sweden — Kollektivet Livet

7/24 — Helsinki, Finland — Tavastia

7/25 — Tallinn, Estonia — Helitehas

7/27 — Krakow, Poland — Hype Park

8/2 — Cologne, Germany — Club Volta

8/3 — Paris, France — Maroquinerie

8/5 — Vitoria, Spain — Jimmy Jazz

8/9 — Utrecht, Netherlands — Tivoli Pandora

8/10 — London, England — The Underworld

8/11 — Manchester, England — Rebellion

Lana Del Rey Returns With Haunting New Single “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter”

Posted on by nyocum
Photo: Press Provided

Lana Del Rey has surfaced with “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter,” a stark, slow-burning new single that suggests her next chapter will be as mythic as it is intimate. Released Tuesday via Interscope Records, the track arrives with little warning but plenty of atmosphere.

Written alongside her sister Chuck Grant, brother-in-law Jason Pickens, and husband Jeremy Dufrene, the song reads like a piece of Americana folklore filtered through Del Rey’s trademark melancholy. The title alone feels like a short story — pastoral, violent, spiritual — and the production leans into that tension. Del Rey co-produced the track with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, with co-production and sweeping string arrangements by Drew Erickson. Mixing duties were handled by Dean Reid and Laura Sisk, giving the track a burnished, analog warmth that underscores its confessional tone.

While Del Rey has yet to formally detail the album it belongs to, she teased on Instagram earlier this month that a new full-length is due in roughly three months. If “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” is any indication, the project may pivot further into pastoral minimalism — less neon noir, more open sky and reckoning.

For an artist who has long blurred the line between autobiography and mythmaking, the single feels like both a return and a recalibration: a reminder that Lana Del Rey’s America has always been haunted — and she’s still mapping its backroads.

Listen to the track here or below via the track video.

Machine Gun Kelly Becomes “starman” in Arena-Sized New Video

Posted on by nyocum

Machine Gun Kelly is thinking big — torch-in-the-sky big. The GRAMMY-nominated artist, who’s leaned fully into his pop-punk second act over the past half decade, has dropped the official video for “starman,” a fist-pumping highlight from his 2025 album lost americana.

Photo: Sam Cahill

Directed by Sam Cahill, the clip folds in footage from mgk’s ongoing Lost Americana Tour, built around a towering Statue of Liberty stage prop that feels less like set design and more like thesis statement. The visual toggles between arena-scale spectacle and tighter performance shots, underscoring the song’s push-pull between escapism and self-exposure.

“starman” flips the sugar rush of Third Eye Blind’s 1997 hit “Semi-Charmed Life” into something more existential — a recontextualized chorus that swaps carefree irony for millennial burnout. The track was written and produced alongside longtime collaborator Travis Barker, who also handles drums, plus SlimXX, BazeXX, Nick Long, and No Love For The Middle Child. Sonically, it’s a rush of new-wave sheen, pop-punk velocity, and arena-rock catharsis engineered for mass sing-alongs.

The video arrives as the Lost Americana Tour barrels ahead. After a winter pause, the trek resumed in Europe and returns to the U.S. May 15 in Wheatland, California, before wrapping July 1 in Ridgefield, Washington — another victory lap for an album that debuted Top Five on the Billboard 200 and marked mgk’s third straight No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. Tickets to the tour can be found here.

Earlier this year, mgk revisited his breakthrough era with Tickets to My Downfall (All Access), an anniversary edition executive produced by Barker that unlocked five previously unreleased tracks from the vault. He also dropped “times of my life,” a reflective outtake dating back to the original Tickets sessions — a reminder that the pivot from rap provocateur to pop-punk revivalist wasn’t a stunt, but a recalibration.

If lost americana was about chasing a myth of freedom, “starman” plants its flag squarely in the contradictions — bright lights, big stages, and the uneasy feeling that you’re still trying to outrun something once the amplifiers cool.

Bourbon & Beyond Uncorks Its Biggest Lineup Yet for 2026

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Kentucky’s bourbon-soaked answer to Coachella is supersizing itself again. Bourbon & Beyond returns September 24–27 to the Kentucky Exposition Center with what organizers are calling the largest lineup in the festival’s eight-year history: more than 100 artists across five stages, plus the usual avalanche of premium pours and chef-driven indulgence.

The four-day bill reads like a cross-format summit meeting. Thursday belongs to Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, with jam darlings Goose rounding out the night. Friday pivots to folk-pop and indie polish courtesy of Mumford & Sons, Kacey Musgraves, and Foster the People. Saturday leans roots-heavy with Kentucky native Chris Stapleton, The Red Clay Strays, and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Sunday closes on a nostalgia-meets-jam note with Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Counting Crows.

Beyond the headliners, the undercard sprawls across decades and genres: The Flaming Lips, Gary Clark Jr., Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Portugal. The Man, Of Monsters and Men, Father John Misty, Marcus King Band, and dozens more, including a Ramones tribute supergroup dubbed The Return of Jackie and Judy featuring members of Sleater-Kinney and Fred Armisen.

Producer Danny Wimmer Presents is leaning hard into the “destination” ethos. Festivalgoers get exclusive access to rides at Kentucky Kingdom, which sits inside the event footprint, alongside the revamped Fork & Flask culinary program curated by Kroger. The Kroger Big Bourbon Bar will once again host The Bluegrass Situation Stage, pairing line dancing with a steady stream of regional string bands.

There’s also a civic pride angle: last year’s move deeper into the Exposition Center campus reportedly helped generate more than $43 million in local economic impact when paired with sister fest Louder Than Life. Organizers are betting that the 2026 edition — recently named Pollstar’s Global Festival of the Year — will further cement Louisville as a late-September pilgrimage site for fans who like their guitar riffs neat and their bourbon barrel-aged.

Passes, from GA to the high-gloss Angel’s Envy Beyond VIP tier, are on sale now. But the real pitch is simpler: four days where arena rock, Americana, and bluegrass share the same skyline — and the same glass. For what it’s worth, the back-to-back weekends of Louder Than Life and Bourbon & Beyond have always been a fun and memorable staple for the Hit Parader team. We can’t recommend either enough.

All details on passes can be found here.

U2 Confront a Fractured World on Urgent EP Days of Ash

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On Ash Wednesday — a date freighted with ritual and reckoning — U2 dropped Days of Ash, a surprise six-track EP that plays less like a teaser for a forthcoming album and more like a dispatch from the front lines. Released via Interscope Records, the project arrives ahead of a promised full-length later this year, but the band makes clear these songs “couldn’t wait.”

The EP pairs five new tracks with a musical reading of “Wildpeace,” a poem by Israeli writer Yehuda Amichai, delivered by Nigerian artist Adeola of Les Amazones d’Afrique over music by U2 and longtime collaborator Jacknife Lee. The remaining songs are stark character studies rooted in real-world trauma — mothers, fathers, teenagers, and soldiers caught in conflicts that feel both intimate and geopolitical.

“American Obituary” confronts the killing of Renée Nicole Macklin Good during a protest in Minneapolis earlier this year, framing the tragedy as both personal and constitutional. “Song of the Future” honors Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old participant in Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom movement, while “One Life at a Time” is dedicated to Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, whose death in the West Bank reverberates through the song’s plea for incremental peace. The band’s language is direct: dignity is not negotiable; borders should not be erased by force.

The EP closes with “Yours Eternally,” a collaboration that stretches beyond studio walls. Bono and The Edge share vocals with Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia, whom the band first met while busking in a Kyiv metro station in 2022 at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The song takes the form of a letter from a soldier on active duty — equal parts devotion and defiance.

A 4½-minute documentary directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus will accompany the track on February 24, marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Shot in late 2025 while embedded with the 40,000-strong Khartiya Corps, the film centers on soldiers navigating the dissonance of daily life at war.

If Days of Ash feels reminiscent of U2’s earliest activist impulses — the Amnesty and Greenpeace years that drummer Larry Mullen Jr. references — that’s by design. “We’ve never shied away from taking a position,” he notes. Bassist Adam Clayton calls the songs timely; Bono describes them as “impatient.” Celebration, the band promises, will come later.

In keeping with the project’s urgency, U2 have revived their long-dormant fan zine Propaganda for a one-off 52-page issue titled Six Postcards From the Present… Wish We Weren’t Here, featuring interviews, lyrics, and reflections from the band and their collaborators. Four decades after its first DIY-era run, the publication returns as both artifact and argument — proof that, for U2, the conversation between art and activism is far from over. The zine can be read here and listen to the EP in full here.

Twenty One Pilots Blaze a New Trail With Viral Smash “Drag Path”

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After months of living in the algorithm’s gray market, “Drag Path” has officially entered the canon. Twenty One Pilots dropped the long-coveted track on streaming this week via Atlantic Records, cementing what fans already knew: the song had become a phenomenon before it ever had a proper release.

Originally tucked away as a limited bonus cut on Breach: Digital Remains — a one-week-only digital expansion of 2025’s chart-topping Breach — “Drag Path” slipped through the cracks and straight into the bloodstream of the internet. The track racked up more than 1.5 billion views across upwards of 75,000 user-generated videos, turning a hard-to-find deep cut into a grassroots juggernaut.

Rather than simply uploading the original, the duo returned to the studio to carve the song into a leaner, newly recorded version — a move that underscores how seriously they take the strange afterlife of their music online. It’s not just about feeding the demand; it’s about refining the narrative.

The official video, unveiled alongside the single, taps Danish filmmaker Tobias Gundorff for a visual adaptation inspired by one of his decade-old short films. Frontman Tyler Joseph reportedly reached out directly to reimagine the project for the band’s universe, resulting in a clip that blurs memory, mythology, and the band’s ongoing conceptual arc.

And the rollout doesn’t stop there. Next week brings Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined, a feature-length concert film hitting IMAX and cinemas worldwide on February 26, with early IMAX screenings beginning February 25. Tickets to a showing near you can be found here. The limited theatrical run arrives on the heels of last fall’s Clancy Tour: Breach 2025, which packed amphitheaters and stadiums across North America and culminated in two sold-out nights at BMO Stadium.

From there, the duo heads into a sprawling festival run that zigzags through North America and Europe, including appearances at Pinkpop Festival, Rock Werchter, Mad Cool Festival, Sziget Festival, and London’s All Points East, among others.

For a band that built its empire on intimacy and existential scale, “Drag Path” feels like another case study in how Twenty One Pilots weaponize scarcity. The internet found the song first. The band just made it official.

Twenty One Pilots Festival Dates

Feb 20–22 — Tempe, AZ — Innings Festival
Jun 19–21 — Landgraaf, NL — Pinkpop Festival
Jun 19–21 — Scheeßel, DE — Hurricane Festival
Jun 19–21 — Neuhausen ob Eck, DE — Southside Festival
Jun 25–28 — St. Gallen, CH — OpenAir St. Gallen
Jun 26–28 — Lido di Camaiore, IT — La Prima Estate Festival
Jul 2–5 — Werchter, BE — Rock Werchter Festival
Jul 3–5 — Arras, FR — Main Square Festival
Jul 8–11 — Madrid, ES — Mad Cool Festival
Jul 9–11 — Cruz Quebrada-Dafundo, PT — NOS Alive
Jul 15–18 — Ostrava, CZ — Colours of Ostrava
Jul 16–19 — Bonțida, RO — Electric Castle Festival
Aug 11–15 — Budapest, HU — Sziget Festival
Aug 14 — Poznań, PL — Bittersweet Festival
Aug 22 — St. Pölten, AT — FM4 Frequency Festival
Aug 30 — London, UK — All Points East Festival
Sep 11 — New Glasgow, PE — Sommo Festival

Time Capsule: Top 16 from 2016

Posted on by nyocum

2016 was a year that felt like music itself was holding its breath — uncertain, furious, playful, and occasionally transcendent. From the final, haunting farewells of legends to the audacious bursts of underground fire, the year’s best tracks didn’t just soundtrack our lives — they challenged, provoked, and moved us. David Bowie’s Lazarus opened with mortality and mystery, while A Tribe Called Quest reminded us that sharp politics could still swing with impeccable groove. Across genres and continents, artists like The Avalanches, Radiohead, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard pushed boundaries, Run the Jewels and Death Grips scorched the present with fury, and The Weeknd and Metallica reminded us of the power of reinvention and spectacle. Intimate reflections from The Avett Brothers and Nick Cave rubbed against indie heartbreak from Car Seat Headrest and Japanese Breakfast, while Swans tested the limits of endurance, and Kings of Leon kept one eye on the arena.

These are the 16 songs that defined a year of extremes — the reckless, the tender, the joyous, and the devastating — the tracks that refused to settle, and demanded we listen.

1

David Bowie – Lazarus

Blackstar, Parlophone, January 8th

Released just days before his death and featured on the album Blackstar, “Lazarus” feels like Bowie writing his own epitaph — haunting, theatrical, and unflinchingly intimate. With its cryptic lyrics and stark jazz-noir atmosphere, the song transforms mortality into performance art, a final act from rock’s most fearless shape-shifter.

David Bowie - Lazarus
2

A Tribe Called Quest – We The People…

We Got It from Here…, Epic, November 16th

Opening their comeback album We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, “We the People….” is a defiant, bass-heavy rallying cry that turns political anxiety into razor-sharp rhythm. With its blunt hook and urgent verses — among the final recordings featuring Phife Dawg — the track reasserted Tribe as hip-hop’s conscience at a moment when the culture needed it most.

A Tribe Called Quest - We The People…
3

The Avalanches – Frankie Sinatra

Wildflower, Modular Recordings, July 8th

A delirious, sample-stacked fever dream from Wildflower, “Frankie Sinatra” swirls mariachi horns, carnival rhythms, and left-field hip-hop into glorious chaos. Featuring verses from Danny Brown and MF Doom, it marked the group’s long-awaited return with a reminder that maximalism can still feel mischievously new.

The Avalanches - Frankie Sinatra
4

Radiohead – Burn The Witch

A Moon Shaped Pool, XL Recordings, May 8th

Driven by stabbing, col legno strings and a slow-burn paranoia, “Burn the Witch” turns bureaucratic politeness into something far more sinister. As the opening statement from A Moon Shaped Pool, it’s a chilling meditation on mob mentality and modern fear — proof that Radiohead could still soundtrack the anxiety of the age.

Radiohead - Burn The Witch
5

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Gamma Knife

Nonagon Infinity, Heavenly, March 9th

A turbocharged blast of psych-prog fury from Nonagon Infinity, “Gamma Knife” barrels forward on motorik riffs and apocalyptic imagery. It’s both meticulously constructed and gloriously unhinged, a microcosm of the band’s restless ambition and one of 2016’s most exhilarating rock detonations.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Gamma Knife
6

Run The Jewels – Legend Has It

Run The Jewels 3, Run The Jewels Inc, December 25th

Powered by a snarling, minimal beat from El-P and chest-thumping bravado from Killer Mike, “Legend Has It” turns larger-than-life mythmaking into a victory lap. A highlight from Run the Jewels 3, it’s pure adrenaline — politically sharp, darkly funny, and impossible not to shout along to.

Run The Jewels - Legend Has It
7

Death Grips – Giving Bad People Good Ideas

Bottomless Pit, Third Worlds, May 6th

Opening Bottomless Pit with a serrated riff from Eagles of Death Metal’s Nick Reinhart, “Giving Bad People Good Ideas” detonates on impact. MC Ride barks like a prophet of collapse over industrial percussion and digital shrapnel, turning paranoia into propulsion. It’s abrasive, confrontational, and weirdly exhilarating — a reminder that no one in 2016 weaponized chaos quite like Death Grips.

Death Grips - Giving Bad People Good Ideas
8

The Dillinger Escape Plan – Limerent Death

Dissociation, Party Smasher Inc., October 14th

On the final Dillinger record Dissociation, “Limerent Death” trades mathcore whiplash for something far more surgical. Clean guitars shimmer, Greg Puciato croons with eerie restraint, and the chaos simmers just beneath the surface instead of exploding outright. It’s the sound of a band known for total annihilation choosing atmosphere over abrasion — tense, melancholic, and quietly devastating.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Limerent Death
9

The Weeknd – Starboy

Starboy, Republic, November 25th

Over Daft Punk’s glacial, neon-lit production, “Starboy” finds The Weeknd shedding his old excesses while reveling in new ones. It’s icy and self-aware — a victory lap disguised as a reinvention, where fame becomes both armor and confession. Sleek, detached, and radio-dominating, the track cemented Abel Tesfaye as pop’s reigning antihero.

The Weeknd - Starboy
10

Metallica – Moth Into Flame

Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, Blackened, November 18th

A high-speed indictment of celebrity culture, “Moth Into Flame” channels the band’s thrash roots with razor-wire riffs and a galloping, arena-sized chorus. Inspired by the tragic glare of fame, James Hetfield spits fire at the machinery that builds stars just to watch them burn. It’s Metallica in attack mode — sharp, urgent, and fueled by righteous disdain.

Metallica - Moth Into Flame
11

The Avett Brothers – No Hard Feelings

True Sadness, Republic, Jun 24th

A hymn disguised as a folk ballad, “No Hard Feelings” wrestles with mortality in plainspoken poetry and soft harmonies. Over gentle acoustic strums and swelling strings, the Avetts search for grace in the face of the inevitable, turning existential fear into communal comfort. It’s tender without being sentimental — a quiet, tear-bright meditation on letting go.

The Avett Brothers - No Hard Feelings
12

Car Seat Headrest – Drunk Drivers/ Killer Whales

Teens of Denial, Matador, May 20th

A slow-burning anthem of self-sabotage and second chances, “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” turns private panic into communal catharsis. Will Toledo’s cracked-nerve confession — “It doesn’t have to be like this” — blooms into a shout-along refrain that feels earned rather than manufactured. It’s messy, vulnerable indie rock that swells from bedroom introspection to backseat transcendence.

Car Seat Headrest - Drunk Drivers/ Killer Whales
13

Swans – The Glowing Man

The Glowing Man, Young God Records, Jun 17th

At nearly half an hour, the title track from The Glowing Man isn’t so much a song as an ordeal — a slow ascension built on hypnosis and brute force. Michael Gira guides the band through cyclical grooves that tighten, expand, and combust, turning repetition into revelation. It’s punishing, transcendent, and utterly uncompromising — Swans at their most monolithic.

Swans - The Glowing Man
14

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – I Need You

Skeleton Tree, Bad Seed Ltd, September 9th

Stripped to a trembling pulse of synths and negative space, “I Need You” is grief laid bare. Nick Cave’s voice quivers between disbelief and devastation, repeating the title like a mantra he hopes might reverse reality. It’s heartbreak without metaphor — raw, unresolved, and almost unbearably intimate.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - I Need You
15

Japanese Breakfast – Everybody Wants to Love You

Psychopomp, Yellow K, April 1st

Bright, jangly guitars and handclap propulsion give “Everybody Wants to Love You” the rush of a summer crush, but Michelle Zauner’s delivery carries something more complicated underneath. What sounds like pure indie-pop euphoria doubles as a meditation on desire and self-worth — who gets adored, and at what cost. It’s effervescent on the surface, quietly searching at its core.

Japanese Breakfast - Everybody Wants to Love You
16

Kings of Leon – Waste A Moment

Walls, RCA, October 14th

Fueled by sleek, stadium-ready riffs and Caleb Followill’s world-weary drawl, “Waste A Moment” is a flirtation with fleeting thrills. It’s the band’s signature Southern swagger distilled into three minutes of night-driving urgency — glossy, anthemic, and perfectly tuned for letting go while the moment lasts.

Kings of Leon - Waste A Moment

Forest Shares Raw New Single: “Prosthetic Stars”

Posted on by sumeriannoel
Forest laying on a bed facing the camera while holding a curtain.
“Prosthetic Stars” Single Artwork

Following last year’s release of her four-song EP Intravenous French Kiss, Forest has unleashed “Prosthetic Stars.”

Forest’s sound pulls from many different corners of music: pop, shoegaze, industrial, 90s and 2000s rock, and so on. She lives in the space between confrontational and vulnerable, adding an element of chaos to the fog. 

Her newest single, “Prosthetic Stars,” continues the narrative, jumping in with bright synths and room-filling chords. It is reminiscent of the 2000s but adds modern flair. Floating on top is Forest’s transcendent melody and honest lyrics. The blue-tinged track swells with emotion rather than explodes.

“‘Prosthetic Stars’ was one of the first real songs I wrote when I moved to Los Angeles,” Forest explains. “At the time, I was fresh off my party months and wanted more. Around that time, I realized the person I was seeing at the time was just a different type of distraction. In that moment, there’s no way I could have found love in another person. It’s a lot about throwing yourself into things that don’t mean much, jumping into the pool and then wondering why you’re treading water.”

Find “Prosthetic Stars” here!

FOREST LIVE 2026

Forest is looking to make 2026 even bigger with her debut album in the works and several tour dates across the US supporting Clarion (found below).

MARCH

31 — Denver, CO — Larimer Lounge +

APRIL

1 — Omaha, NE — Slowdown – Front Room +

2 — Ames, IA — Maintenance Shop +

3 — Iowa City, IA — Gabe’s +

5 — Minneapolis, MN — 7th Street Entry +

6 — Milwaukee, WI — Cactus Club +

7 — Chicago, IL — Beat Kitchen +

8 — Urbana, IL — Canopy Club +

10 — Lansing, MI — Green Door +

11 — Toronto, CAN — Hard Luck +

12 — Buffalo, NY — Mohawk Place +

13 — Columbus, OH — Rumba Cafe +

15 — NYC — Mercury Lounge +

16 — Boston, MA — Warehouse XI +

19 — Philadelphia, PA — Ukie Club +

20 — Washington, DC — DC9 +

21 — Richmond, VA — The Camel +

23 — Raleigh, NC — Pour House +

24 — Asheville, NC — Revival +

25 — Atlanta, GA — Masquerade – Altar +

26 — Orlando, FL — Will’s Pub +

+ — with Clarion

Tiffany Stringer Launches Her Major-Label Era With Spite-Fueled Bop “Bullet”

Posted on by nyocum

Tiffany Stringer is making her major-label entrance loud, glossy, and a little bit vengeful. Our fellow Texas-born pop upstart has kicked off her next chapter with “Bullet,” her Atlantic Records debut single — an infectious, breakup-ready pop-country hybrid that arrives with a cinematic, old-Hollywood–inflected music video.

Produced by Jack Riley (Grace VanderWaal, Cameron Whitcomb, Vincent Lima), “Bullet” leans into Stringer’s gift for turning personal chaos into gleaming pop catharsis. In her own words, the song was born after she discovered her cheating ex had gotten married — and moved to Nashville. “I decided to write a country song so he couldn’t escape the sound of my voice,” she said. What began as an act of spite ultimately became something more therapeutic: a way to transmute hurt into swaggering, glittered joy.

The accompanying visual, written by Stringer and directed by Logan Rice (Sophie Powers, Jessie Murph, Carlie Hanson), doubles down on her flair for drama, nodding to classic Hollywood while framing her as a modern pop protagonist in full command of the narrative.

“Bullet” signals a fresh era for Stringer, who has been steadily building momentum since relocating to Los Angeles at 17. Her 2025 EP The Texas Primadonna drew raves — Ones To Watch called it “nothing less than pop-perfection” — and she’s already racked up over 20 million social media views alongside co-signs from Halsey, Addison Rae, and Tate McRae. We’re fans of the EP — for the record, the title track was one of our favorite tracks of 2025. With a sold-out debut headline show in Los Angeles under her belt, Stringer is positioning herself as a sharp, fearless new voice in pop — one that can bottle heartbreak, light it up, and make it shimmer.

If “Bullet” is any indication, this new era is just getting started.

Listen to the new track here and/or watch the official video below:

From Ashes to New Embrace the Dark Side on “Villain,” Announce New Album Reflections

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Photo: Press Provided

For a band that’s built its career soundtracking a generation’s anxiety, From Ashes to New aren’t interested in playing it safe. On their upcoming fifth album, Reflections — out April 17 via Better Noise Music — the Lancaster, Pennsylvania alt-metal mainstays double down on the tension, temptation, and turmoil that have fueled their rise into the streaming billions.

The first taste comes in the form of “Villain,” a brooding, high-voltage track that flips the script on the classic toxic-love narrative. Instead of singing from the perspective of someone trapped in a destructive relationship, vocalist Matt Brandyberry steps into the role of the chaos itself.

“‘Villain’ is a story about the magnetic pull between two people who know better, but dive in anyway,” Brandyberry says. “It’s the moment when desire outweighs consequences, when you choose the chaos you swear you shouldn’t want, and the ‘bad guy’ becomes the one voice you can’t quiet.”

The result plays like a modern tragic love story set against crushing guitars and industrial-tinged electronics — danger as comfort, temptation as truth. It’s not about redemption. It’s about surrender.

“Villain” follows previously released tracks “New Disease” and “Drag Me,” each hinting at a band sharpening its edges. That focus didn’t come easily. By late 2023, From Ashes to New had already demoed 16 songs for the album — and then made a radical decision: scrap almost all of it. Only two songs survived the purge.

For a band known for relentless forward momentum, hitting reset was uncharted territory. But the gamble paid off. “I wanted to take what we are good at and push it even further,” Brandyberry says. The mission was clear: stay true to their foundation while expanding their alt-metal attack to reach an even wider audience.

It’s a bold move for a group that doesn’t necessarily need to reinvent itself. Since their formation, From Ashes to New have toured with heavyweights like In This Moment, Motionless In White, Fit For A King, Asking Alexandria, and Black Veil Brides, while racking up billions of streams and topping iTunes and Spotify rock and metal charts with 2023’s BLACKOUT. But comfort has never been the goal.

“You have to have some talent, you have to have some luck,” Brandyberry says. “But it comes down to how hard are you willing to work?”

Photo: Zach Burns

That work ethic traces back to their scrappier days on Warped Tour, when the band traveled in an RV with busted air conditioning, showered with water bottles in parking lots, and had no money for hotels. “There’s a beauty to that,” Brandyberry recalls. “It makes you feel like you earned it.”

Even now, the grind continues. On a recent run opening for Asking Alexandria, the band crammed seven or eight songs into a blistering 30-minute set. One conspicuous absence? Their breakout hit “Crazy.” “At every opportunity, we try not to do it,” Brandyberry says with a laugh, noting it doesn’t fully represent who they are now — though fans can still expect it at headlining shows.

Those headline dates return this fall with Magnolia Park in tow, following a massive 42-date U.S. tour supporting Black Veil Brides beginning in late April. In between, they’ve revisited the Vans Warped Tour — a full-circle moment for a band that once clawed its way across its stages with no budget and nothing to lose.

As for Reflections, Brandyberry is characteristically tight-lipped about specifics but unequivocal about its impact. “Our evolution’s coming, and it’s beautiful,” he says. “I know it’s the best thing that we’ve ever created, and I fully believe that it’s gonna be the breakout point for this band.”

If “Villain” is any indication, From Ashes to New aren’t just reflecting on who they’ve been — they’re embracing who they’re becoming, even if it means stepping into the role of the bad guy.