If It's Too Loud...

Hailing from Leeds, Uk come Irk. The trio just released a new single, "Toothache in Prison," and this one certainly is not for the faint of heart. The song is less than two minutes in length, but is filled with so much intensity that it feels much, much longer. The song is fast and pummeling noise that might even be too much for fans of noisy rock. It's not quite metal, but it's at least metal adjacent. This is kind of like mixing Lightning Bolt with The Melvins, but possibly louder. Like I said, this certainly won't be for everyone, but if Irk works for you, it's going to lead to a deep obsession. Vocalist J.S. Gordon says of his band's new single: “Right, so this might come as a massive surprise, but this song is largely inspired by someone I know who had toothache whilst in prison, and it sounded fucking awful. As the song spirals outwards musically, a load of other themes get touched on, such as the wider prison-industrial complex, police abolitionism,...

Maybe it's just me, but I'm always skeptical when a band announces their new single is their heaviest yet. Leave it to Miracle Blood to actually pull it off. "Hello Hell" is heavy. Really heavy. It might be the most traditionally metal sounding song Miracle Blood has put out so far. The song combines doom and sludge with the punk edge that is needed to truly be a Miracle Blood song. What truly makes this band unique is that as heavy and loud and obviously angry a song like "Hello Hell" is, there is still that sense of fun that sets them apart from their peers. All Miracle Blood songs are great. That's just a fact. But "Hello Hell" is especially great. In a Facebook post, Miracle Blood say of their new single: "It’s definitely the heaviest song we’ve ever put out. We knew we wanted to start taking our sound in a heavier direction for a while, even before we started writing this album. When Anthony joined the band on drums, it all just click...

BEDTIMEMAGIC are much heavier than a lot of the music we cover here at If It's Too Loud..., but sometimes there's just something about Boston hardcore and metal that just works for me. The band's latest single, "The Slumber Party (Part I)," is a two minute burst of just heavy rock with plenty of screaming vocals. But the duo are more than just your typical heavy band in 2024. The song is a little bit of a trainwreck and insanely discordant in a Lightning Bolt kind of way, but BEDTIMEMAGIC has this heavy groove throughout the song that just holds you in place and refuses to let go. Is "The Slumber Party (Part I)" metal, or is it noise rock? Yes to both? Vocalist and lyricist Nicholas Pentabona says of his band's latest single: “Musically, ‘The Slumber Party (Part I)’ is a return to form for us. We eschew the complex and cerebral for piss and vinegar. The track is viciously forward, unrepentantly alive, unapologetically guttural. Lyrically, the song fo...

Photo by Scott Duncan Punk rock covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival are standard at this point, and it's usually "Fortunate Son" that gets the punk treatment. Psychosomatic go in another direction with their CCR cover and take on "Green River." It's a surprisingly faithful cover as far as harder and faster covers go. The trademark guitar lick is still there, just faster. Plus, Psychosomatic are thrashier than most punk bands, and that comes through with their version of "Green River." Unlike most covers from the genre, there isn't a sense of mockery or irony here. You can tell Psychosomatic are doing this song out of a sense of fandom. Frontman Jeff Salgado says of the band's new song: “We recorded this track in 2006 during sessions for  The Unquenchable Thirst . It was a bonus track we never released, so we had the original engineer Joe Johnston from Pus Cavern in Sac remix it in 2023. We were big Creedence Clearwater Revival fans and w...

Photo by Alex Jackson Most people tend to recoil from a cappella acts (unless it's in a trilogy of Hollywood movies). However, Martin Howth is not your typical a cappella performer. The solo project of New Jersey jazz vocalist Audra Mariel is more like Petra Haden than Rockapella, although she's not really much like Haden, either. Mariel uses looped vocals to create an ethereal soundscape that can be quite catchy at times. Her latest single, "Dear Dorine," is a contemplative and laid back track that nearly instantly grabs the listener. A cappella isn't normally done well enough to be both experimental and mainstream. "Dear Dorine" can be listened to just on the surface level of being a gorgeous song, but you can also listen more intently and dive into all of the loops and layers. Audra Mariel says of her single: “This song was intended to be a letter to a young girl named Dorine whom I had never met and turned out to be written to a younger version of my...

Photo by Kristi Xhelili Miracle Blood are the secret weapon of the Boston music scene. They're one of those bands that once they click for you, you're instantly obsessed. Their latest single, "Lobotomizer," will show you exactly why. It lives in that bizarre world between metal and punk without really choosing either one over the other. It's kind of like if you mashed up Lard and Mr. Bungle into one band. "Lobotomizer" isn't going to be for everyone, but most of the best music these days isn't. But if Miracle Blood works for you, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Vocalist/guitarist Andrew Wong continues to have one of the best screams in the city, regardless of genre. Andrew Wong says of the new single: “‘Lobotomizer’ is about the horror of losing control of your own life to societal pressures. It’s so easy to fall into making so many life decisions because it seems like ‘what you’re supposed to do.’ Life can become extremely prescribed if...