Monthly Archives: August 2026

LOCKSTEP – I Know What I Saw (Profound Lore Records)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: LOCKSTEP is a Nashville based band pulling elements from shoegaze, doom and heavy rock. They’ve built a sound rooted in atmosphere and weight, moving between quiet, uneasy moments and crushing walls of noise. With each release, the band has tightened their approach—cutting excess and focusing on impact.

Their debut full-length, I Know What I Saw, out July 24th through Profound Lore Records stands as the band’s most focused and complete statement to date. Following the release of several singles (their last being the ‘Drag Along’ single from 2025), their Arrival EP from 2023, and already having a decent number of shows and tours under their belt (notable past tours include runs with Prize horse and Gumm), I Know What I Saw leans into massive, slow-burning riffs and dense, layered guitars that stay engaging without letting up, locking into sections that feel both hypnotic and suffocating. Songs stretch and build with purpose, pulling listeners deeper into the band’s world while keeping a constant sense of tension and release. It’s the clearest and most realized version of LOCKSTEP yet.

Recorded by Zac Montez at Welcome to 1979 in Nashville, TN.
Mixed by Matt Schumacher.
Mastered by Nick Townsend.

Ænigmatum – Infinitude’s Passage (20 Buck Spin)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: ‘Infinitude’s Passage’ marks the third full length statement from Portland’s death metal seers Aenigmatum. Taking the intricate mastery of previous album ‘Deconsecrate’ as a point of departure, the band’s union of technical precision, dark melody and unrelenting force draw us ever further into a world where revelation and annihilation become indistinguishable.

Sudden turns, fractured rhythms and spiraling harmonies color a landscape of seemingly elaborate complexity, yet Aenigmatum are serving a larger, deeper structure with an exacting sense of purpose and focus. Frenetic eruptions of speed give way to passages of melodious clarity and dissonant turbulence allowing the compositions to remain in constant motion and expand idiosyncratically upward and outward.

Cerebral without sacrificing physical impact, majestic without surrendering menace and progressive without loosening its vigorous command, ‘Infinitude’s Passage’ rejects easy categorization within Death Metal’s exceedingly vast parameters. Its visceral impact, incandescent melody and aura of perpetual discovery places Aenigmatum at the threshold of the boundless.

Kelly McLaughlin – Vocals/Guitar/Bass Clarinet
Eli Lundgren – Guitar
Brian Rush – Bass/Backup Vocals
Pierce Williams – Drums/Synths/Backup Vocals

Patrick Corona – Saxophone
Danny Quetzal – Backup Vocals

Drum recording engineered by Charlie Koryn at Elektric City
Pre-production and guitar/vocal recording engineered by Pierce Williams
Bass & Bass Clarinet recording engineered by Brian Rush
Saxophone recording engineered by Patrick Corona

Reamp, Mix, and Master by Colin Marston at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves
Additional reamping by Keith Merrow at Merrowsound Studios

Artwork: Daniel Hermosilla @nox_fragor_artworks
Liner Art: Marcus Kempton @artwork_from_the_graveyard_pnw
Logo: Connie Wang @iconartisty
Layout: Matt Oien

Primary Composers:
“Pitiless”, “Architects”, & “Passage” by Williams
“Inseverable” by Lundgren
“Nexus” by McLaughlin.
“Nocturne” by Rush
All lyrics by McLaughlin

The Implicit Order – Post Ambient Volume One (Wholeness Recordings)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: There are many doors in the above simple collage I made for the cover. Doors that lead to nowhere and doors that lead you to the unexpected in life. All doors lead here to this examination of my current ambient work. On these recordings I try and mimic my past and distort it at the same time. Not in any negative way, only as examination. I once read there is nothing more frightening than an unopened door so open one and see.

This is a WHOLENESS RECORDINGS release:
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