Discovering heavy signals from the underground

Following their cinematic detour on «Nell’ Ora Blu», Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are back with the guitars right at the forefront of the soundscape. «Shapes of Midnight» immediately feels more like the band we know – dark, melodic and gritty, with Kevin Starrs’ flair for macabre tales intact.

Sleep are back without Matt Pike and with an album that doesn’t try to pretend nothing has happened. *Hempispheres* isn’t a revival; it’s a change of direction. The question is whether this new direction leads anywhere.

Besvärjelsen call themselves ‘forest rockers’ – not as a joke, but as a manifesto. Where desert rock has sand and sun-baked gravel, these Swedes have dark Dalarna forests. *Till Glömskan Ad Oblivionem* is the band’s third album, and it’s not about shouting the loudest. It’s about venturing deeper into the forest.

*Antitunes* is the debut album by the Swedish band Græns, a group that describes its own music as "liminal music from Gothenburg." It’s not an unusually bold description of their genre – and after listening to the album a few times, it’s not wrong either.