Tim Barry just released his ninth full album, Clear Blocks Ahead. He and I had a long, overdue conversation about everything and nothing, but sometimes about that new album. In part one of this three-part series, I brought up my first AVAIL show and found out that it...
An unseasonably warm Friday afternoon set the tone for Day 2 of Heart of Winter at The Canal Club, a strange but welcome contrast to the bleak, frostbitten sounds pouring out of the venue. Despite the mild weather, the atmosphere inside was anything but soft. Black metal and doom devotees packed the room early for a sold-out show, battle vests...
Editor’s Note: This article reflects on United Blood’s return back in April 2025 and is a preview of what is in store for 2026. Words and photos by Cristian Espinoza The sleeping giant walks the earth again. After a five-year hiatus, United Blood returned to Richmond, Virginia with a heavy barrage of cutthroat sonics. The once-annual festival was...
After more than a decade in hibernation, one of Richmond’s most revered underground metal gatherings is clawing its way back to life. Heart Of Winter, the black metal and doom-heavy festival that helped define an era of the city’s DIY extreme metal scene, is officially returning January 8–10, is officially returning January 8–10 at The Canal Club...
"When you say something is Haram it is 100 percent forbidden. You will burn in hellfire." - Nader Haram NYC’s Haram might be the most exciting thing in punk rock right now. Or art in general. Blistering, fast, and dangerous, they’re an antidote for the pervasive mediocrity that can pass for music these days. Started in 2015, their music...
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Stiff Little Fingers (SLF) to the development of punk rock. The Clash, Sex Pistols, and SLF can all be mentioned comfortably in the same sentence. Not only did they help define what punk would become, and the culture that grew around it, they did so in the middle of the urban conflict known as "The...
Turnstile returned to Richmond on Wednesday, and it felt like Brown’s Island could barely contain them. The Baltimore hardcore outfit has long since broken past genre borders, crafting songs that reach across generations of music fans. Last night, they looked every bit the arena-level act, and if you were there, it was hard to shake the feeling...
Japanese art-punk trio TsuShiMaMiRe brought their long-running experiment in sound and spectacle to Get Tight Lounge last week. Formed in 1999 in Chiba, Japan, the group has carved out a global cult following with music that darts between jagged punk riffs, bursts of noise, and lyrics that jump from the absurd to the existential. Songs about...
Sat beneath a shifting sun and a canopy teeming with chittering cicadas, Madison Turner and I ran the gamut. I first heard of her while I was covering the local music scene for a VCU student publication, and her angsty, self-critical, maniacally upbeat tunes spoke to my brittle emo heart. I’ve gotten to know her a bit through sporadic...
Richmond gets it. More than any other city in Virginia. That’s why we created Weekend Frequency, a reader-curated playlist built for the city, by the city. Each week, a different voice from Richmond’s creative community shares the sounds that move them, shaping the soundtrack of our weekends together. This week’s playlist comes...
