Friendship Commanders are a heavy duo from Nashville TN. The band is vocalist/guitarist Buick Audra and drummer/bassist Jerry Roe. Their forthcoming album, MASS, is a concept record about memory, language, and the state of Massachusetts. The ten-track body of work was co-produced, engineered, and mixed by Kurt Ballou at his Salem, MA studio, GodCity. The album will be accompanied by a memoir in essays by Buick Audra. Both will be released on September 29, 2023; pre-orders are open. Their 2022 EP, RELEASE THE REST, is a limited vinyl compilation of the singles they released throughout the pandemic following their 2020 EP, HOLD ON TO YOURSELF, a collection about being an adult survivor of childhood abuse. Both were mixed by Kurt Ballou. The band has released two previous albums. BILL (2018) was recorded at Electrical Audio by Steve Albini, and DAVE (2016) was engineered and produced by the band.

The origins of Idol Lord began on the south bay beaches just south of Los Angeles, where the sounds of Black Flag, The Circle Jerks and RKL were as common as Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, and Black Oak Arkansas. Forged by surf, skate, punk, metal and classic rock, the members slowly started moving northward into the less densely populated area of the high desert of northern Los Angeles county. Based out of the small, high desert community of Quartz Hill, Ca. Idol Lord has fused it’s classic rock childhood, punk rock adolescence and metal adulthood into it’s own unique brand of fuzzed out stoner/desert rock.

From the dust-choked depths of the LA basin emerges Cattlemass, a doom metal trio with a vision as stark and unrelenting as the concrete sprawl that birthed it. Fronted by Chris Price (vocals/guitar), with Wes Styles (bass) and Kyle Abbott (drums), they deliver hellish riffs, dystopian themes and analog grit in a futuristic take on classic doom. Rooted in the raw spirit of the early '70s, they lean into DIY ethics; screen-printed merch, pavement promo and self-produced music videos that echo their sonic brutality. Their sound is thick with distortion and alienation, paired with lucite instruments and visceral lyrical imagery. This year alone, they've brought their oppressive live set to legendary stages, supporting Pentagram, Eyehategod and Anciients. Their debut single Infecticide, featured on Weedian's Trip to California: Doom Edition, was followed by Replicant, a dystopian crusher released with artwork by visual artist Tyler Pennington. Their first full-length Alpha 1128, released on Seeing Red Records, is an otherworldly lament - heavy, haunted, and hewn from the ruins of tomorrow. A concept album chronicling the rise and fall of humanity through the lens of an inter-dimensional observer. Each track is a self-contained vision of destruction and mythology - from the tale of a cosmonaut infected by an alien entity, to villagers offering sacrifices to an ancient cannibal wizard. Alpha 1128 is not just a debut - it's a statement: analog doom for a digital apocalypse.