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CHRIS AMAYA | DEVORA | EX LOVER | HALLOWS

The Kilans are an indie rock band from Salt Lake City known for their raw sound, kinetic guitars, and electrifying live shows. Formed in 2023, the lineup — Jack Ongman (vocals, rhythm guitar), Jacob Shultz (lead guitar), Cooper Brezoff (bass), and David Wiseman (drums) — came together after Jack and Jacob met while skateboarding in college and started jamming in basement sessions that quickly turned into something bigger. Just five months later, they released their debut single “Curly,” a burst of unfiltered energy that made waves across the local scene. Their follow-up, “Why Is It Light Out?,” sharpened their songwriting and expanded their reach, pairing introspective lyrics with dynamic, guitar-driven production. The track landed them on multiple editorial playlists and marked The Kilans as one of the most promising new voices in indie rock. Now, the band takes their next major step. On October 23, 2026, The Kilans will release their debut album Could You Keep It Dark via Mom and Pop Records. Anchored by key singles “Cherry, Please” and “Oliver,” the record marks a bold leap forward — channeling the raw energy of their basement origins into a fully realized body of work. In support of the release, the band will embark on a North American tour, bringing their signature live intensity to stages across the continent. With Could You Keep It Dark, The Kilans aren’t just delivering on their early promise — they’re announcing themselves on a national stage, authentically on their own terms.

THE KING OF JUKE JOINT SWING

Letdown. is ready to embrace the positive. The Texas-born, Nashville-based rocker, singer, and multi-instrumentalist has tackled a slew of personal demons—many of which turned up on his catharsis-packed debut EP, 2023’s Crying In The Shower—in order to come out on the other side, stronger than ever. The prolific artist’s latest batch of songs, which he is constantly churning out as a therapeutic way to process daily life, are upbeat, hook-packed anthems that invite audiences to shout along in unison. “I think I’m at the end of writing about my problems,” Coddington muses. “I’ve been putting myself through emotional music therapy for three years now, and it’s working. I’m finally looking back and laughing for the first time. I consider it the upswing of the depression. I’m about to enter this whole new phase in my life. Everything feels new again for the first time.” Ever since he first began releasing music in 2020, Letdown. (real name Blake Coddington) has poured his soul into crafting soaring rock anthems that vulnerably chronicle his mental health journey and sonically intersect with punk/emo, metal, electronic, pop, and hip-hop. Posting a series of unguarded videos to TikTok, Letdown. has seen his following grow to more than 675K, plus nearly 1M monthly listeners on Spotify, and more than 100k on Instagram — and that’s not even counting the 200M total streams Coddington’s songs have earned. As he steps into a new era with his debut album, fans will be swept up into a whirlwind of poppy and propulsive beats, guitar-driven compositions, and impassioned choruses. “That’s the greatest part of this,” Coddington says of his more buoyant direction. “We’re all dancing around the studio. It’s the most natural writing I’ve ever done. When I met my producer Carlo, we started working on our first song together, which ended up being ‘Hate Myself.’ We were like, ‘This sounds nothing like any of your other stuff. We don’t know if anybody’s gonna like this. Let’s just see what happens.’ And then we got to the studio and everything happened. I remember looking at him, and I was like, ‘I don’t care who doesn’t like this. This is the most me I’ve ever felt.'” Coddington continues to unpack a dysfunctional romantic dynamic on “Be Ok,” which he wrote near the end of a serious relationship—one he didn’t fully grasp was unhealthy until it was over. “I was so focused on my love for someone else that I didn’t realize how much it was actually shooting me in the foot,” he says. “I didn’t understand that everything could be better if this was over. At the same time, it immediately says ‘I never thought I’d miss you this way.’ It’s something I think about all the time. I left everything negative in my life that has affected me, but I still think about it in a way that is almost like I miss it. It’s a weird headspace to live in—to hate something and know it’s gone, but still want it somehow. I think it’s something that everyone feels, and a lot of people don’t talk about that much.” In other instances, Coddington just gives himself over to the feeling of a magnetic melody and hard-chanting refrain. On the harmonizing “Dead Right,” Coddington looks back at recording a track “we just thought was really bumpy, fun, and catchy. We weren’t thinking about one thing in particular. This one happened really fast.” On the rushing “Crying In The Shower,” which went Top 25 at Alternative radio last year, Coddington illustrates the feeling of chasing a fleeting high in order to drown out the loss of a broken relationship. “I feel overwhelmed and trapped in a cycle of despair. I attempt but fail to wash away the memories and pain of this lost love,” Coddington says. “This song conveys a sense of emptiness as I resorted to unhealthy habits like chasing fleeting highs and taking pills to numb the pain. This relatable story is the promise of a perfect relationship that ultimately leads to heartbreak.” “‘Crying In The Shower’ was our first song that got some radio play,” he adds. “As we play this song live, we notice some of the audience nodding familiarly in acknowledgement that this is all too common. It seems everyone either has gone through this or knows someone who has.” Finally, Coddington’s clipped vocals shine on the punchy and anthemic “Go To Hell,” a kiss-off track with the power to get a packed crowd on their feet and pushing toward the stage. “This song captures the complexities of love and pain, illustrating the struggle between knowing you should walk away and being unable to let go of my intense feelings for my abusive partner,” Coddington shares. “This song has always been my most reactive release and a testament to how relatable this situation is… Though I wrote this from personal experience, I also hope that the message can resonate with people as they consider their own choices.” If anything unites Letdown.’s debut album, it’s mixing audible joy with the darkness that haunts his past. “This latest group of songs is my upswing—I’m literally finding the fun and light in the bad things,” he says. “The music I’m writing currently has been a lot more fun than it ever has been, and a lot less depressing. It’s less self-loathing. This is what’s been handed to me—now I’m gonna have to make something awesome.”

So far evolved from who they were when they first began releasing music in 2017, The Aces deserve the sense of celebration they feel in their new music. With 3 albums, over 250 million streams, and countless other milestones under their belts, sisters Cristal and Alisa Ramirez (lead vocals/guitar and drums), Katie Henderson (lead guitar/vocals), and McKenna Petty (bass) are in full form on their 4th LP Gold Star Baby. Continuing to reach new pop heights, the band is rapidly becoming one of the genre’s most exciting and authentic voices. The Aces have toured with the likes of 5 Seconds of Summer, X Ambassadors, The Vamps, COIN, Goth Babe, and have played at festivals all over the world, including NY Pride, Lollapalooza, Firefly, Bonnaroo, OUTFEST, Sziget, Pukkelpop, All Things Go, Summerfest, and more. After an exciting run supporting Louis Tomlinson’s 2026 North American arena tour, the Aces are ready to hit the road again on their own fall headline tour and are steadily continuing to release new music.

Semper Acerbus is an American metalcore band from Texas formed on December 2016. The group consists of vocalist Nelson Acerbus , guitarists Jaime Vargas and Joe Dragich, bassist Sammy Farhat and drummer Tyler Thomas.

Godfathers in the Bay Area metal scene, Forbidden have returned with their first album in 16 years to unleash 12 fierce, uncompromising, and supremely progressive songs which signal an almighty return. Forbidden will be released by BLKIIBLK Records and charts a defiant journey through scything riffs, incredible melodies, 24 karat lead guitars, simply thunderous drums and bass, plus the studio debut of Norman Skinner (Niviane & Imagika) whose soaring vocals elevate the material to unprecedented levels. Conceived by founder and guitarist Craig Locicero alongside his creative brother, drummer Chris Kontos, the foundational energy of bassist Matt Camacho, the versatility and poise of guitarist Jeremy Von Epp, and Skinner’s voracious fresh approach, Forbidden sees the band arriving at their finest hour with their richest-ever line-up. With Skinner stepping up to take on lyrical duties, Forbidden takes a fierce and uncompromising look into the eyes of our times without taking sides, instead imploring people to recognize the false conflicts created by the current society and how they can conquer and rise above them. Take the blistering roar of “Single Point Failure”, the beautiful orchestral savagery of “Flower of Life”, and the relentless charge of “Burning The Lungs Of Earth.” There’s also the mid-paced brooding power of “Psyclops,” the twisting, winding power force of “Sycophantasy” featuring guest vocals from Mastodon’s Brann Dailor, and a thunderous ode to women “The Burden” featuring guest vocals from Kayla Dixon. In addition, Forbidden pay homage to classic American heavy metal band Savatage in the shape of a malevolent and mesmeric cover of “Sirens”, which embraces Greek mythology. Recorded, produced and engineered at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with engineer and co-producer Zack Ohren, Forbidden is the the resounding realization of a band which has finally found inner-peace, and furious cohesion, in expressing its true passionate angst and incredible metal heart.

Prika Amaral formed the band in February 2010 together with Fernanda Terra (the first drummer). The band began gaining notoriety in March 2012, when they released their first music video, “Masked Betrayer,” which reached the incredible mark—especially for a new band—of 20,000 views in just one week. This earned them an Honorable Mention from YouTube as the 17th most-watched musicians’ video of the week and the 55th most-watched of the month of March that year. Shortly after, they independently released a 3-song demo. In the following months, NERVOSA achieved a major milestone: signing with the Austrian label Napalm Records, one of the world’s biggest record labels specializing in rock and metal. In March 2014, the band released their first full-length album, titled Victim of Yourself. The strong reception of the album was essential for the band to leave Brazil for the first time and begin touring across Latin America and Europe, where they also performed at some of Europe’s biggest summer festivals, such as Summer Breeze, Brutal Assault, MetalDays, Obscene Extreme, among others. In 2016, the band recorded their new album, titled Agony. Recorded and produced in California and Oregon, United States, by Brendan Duffey, and mixed and mastered by thrash metal master Andy Classen, the album had its worldwide release announced for June 3rd. In June 2018, the band released their third album, Downfall of Mankind, through Napalm Records, and embarked on several tours across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The album was critically acclaimed, and in 2019, they performed at Rock in Rio for more than 70,000 people. In 2020, during the pandemic, the band released the single Guided By Evil in October of that year, and the new album Perpetual Chaos was released in January 2021, reaching top positions on music charts in several countries. That same year, the album was highly praised by the press and appeared in multiple rankings as the best album of the year, among other categories. 2023 began with a major change, with the announcement of Prika Amaral taking over lead vocals, along with the addition of a second guitarist, Greek musician Helena Kotina.