The Most Anticipated Albums Of 2024 (Part Three)

This is part three of four. If you haven’t read part one yet, check it out here.

In 2024, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2024, in no particular order.

Sum 41
Album: Heaven :x: Hell (Rise)
Release Date: 3/29

After 28 years, it all comes down to this. The final album from Canadian pop-punk/metal legends Sum 41. Their eighth album Heaven :x: Hell combines the two genres Sum 41 are best known for: pop-punk and heavy metal, a style they’ve been pulling off since the 2010s. It’s their only release on Rise Records (Alkaline Trio, Harper, You Me At Six,) after spending the later half of the 2010s with Californian independent label Hopeless Records (Hey Violet, PVRIS, The Wonder Years.) Whether you’re a fan who’s nostalgic for their old school pop-punk days, or a fan of their modern heavy hitting metal sound, Heaven :x: Hell will be the best of both worlds.

Jon Snodgrass
Album: Barge At Will (Thousand Islands)
Release Date: 3/29

Jon Snodgrass is getting a little help from his friends. He spent the recording process for his upcoming album Barge At Will at his home in Fort Collins, Colo., and at The Blasting Room, a studio owned by Bill Stevenson (All, Black Flag, Descendents.) Stevenson played the drums, while his other friends Chris Wollard (Hot Water Music), Chris Cresswell (The Flatliners), Peter “JR” Wasilewski (Less Than Jake), and Scott Reynolds (All,) helped in their own ways. Barge At Will began with of all things, writing a new jingle for a Colorado Rockies podcast. “At the end of the podcast I said, ‘you guys need a new jingle. This thing that you have it is fucking terrible.’ So, I wrote a new jingle for them,” Snodgrass told New Noise Magazine in an interview. “Then when that happened and they aired the thing, they made a comment, ‘so this guy’s a cool guy. He says he likes making up these songs on the spot.’ Hit him up, you can get a jingle. I ended up having to tell them a week or so later, ‘you don’t have to say that anymore because I’m kind of backed up with work.’” Thus he had all these songs, and with Bill’s help, and some help from friends, Barge At Will was born. It’s good to have friends.

Dustin Kensrue
Album: Desert Dreaming (Vagrant)
Release Date: 4/5

Let me be honest for a sec. I honestly didn’t know Vagrant Records (Alexisonfire, The Get Up Kids, Reggie And The Full Effect) was still kicking. The only bit of life I saw from the legendary emo label was a 25th anniversary show last year featuring numerous alumni. So color me surprised when I saw that Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue was dropping his fifth solo album (his first of original music since 2015’s Carry The Fire) ─ Desert Dreaming ─ next month on the label. From what I’ve heard so far, it’s some classic Americana, possibly the only Americana album I’ve ever put on this list. Long live Vagrant and celebrate its history with the charming tunes of Dustin Kensrue.

Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties
Album: In Lieu Of Flowers (Hopeless/Loneliest Places On Earth)
Release Date: 4/12

The sad and miserable tale of everyone’s favorite underdog continues. Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties, the beloved character study from the mind of The Wonder Years’s frontman Dan Campbell, is back in the saddle with his third album In Lieu Of Flowers. According to a press release, ILOF “picks up”picks up where Routine Maintenance left off” and has Mr. West “tend to the wounds he’s ignored for over a decade.” I can’t wait to hear more of Aaron’s story. Possible album of the year contender right here. We love you, Aaron, you poor bastard.

Cloud Nothings
Album: Final Summer (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 4/19

It’s a new era for Cloud Nothings. First, they left longtime label Carpark Records (@, Ducks Ltd., Rui Gabriel.) Second, they joined Pure Noise Records (The Amity Affliction, Galactic Empire, Koyo.) And third, their new album Final Summer drops April 19. “We’re really glad to be working with Pure Noise. It’s exciting to be on a label with so many great punk bands, and it’s going to be inspiring to see our music standing alongside the myriad sick records that Pure Noise has released,” frontman Dylan Baldi said in a press release.

The Ghost Inside
Album: Searching For Solace (Epitaph)
Release Date: 4/19

Four years have passed since The Ghost Inside unleashed their comeback album The Ghost Inside to the world. It was worth the wait after their fatal bus crash back in 2015. In the nine years since the accident, they’ve grown closer than ever before, and have sounded tighter than ever. With this momentum, they’re pushing themselves further with Searching For Solace, the band’s sixth album. “People always ask me how I remain positive,” frontman Jonathan Vigil tells Knotfest. “I’m realizing now that there’s never really a time where you reach that point of ‘happiness.’ It’s a constant journey. I know that life is hills and valleys. You must be willing to embrace new things, stand up for yourself, and adapt. Because the goalposts just move further away. The search for solace never ends.” The comeback is over. Now it’s time to continue right where they left off.

Frank Turner
Album: Undefeated (Xtra Mile)
Release Date: 5/3

Frank Turner is truly undefeated. After spending a decade with major label Polydor (Belters Only, Elbow, The Rolling Stones,) Frank’s going back to where it all started: indie labels. His old label Xtra Mile Recordings (Beans On Toast, HalfNoise, Rob Lynch) have snatched him up to release Undefeated in early May. “After the pandemic, back in the independent world, with a new drummer, I feel proud, grateful and pleasantly surprised to be putting out a record that I love with all my heart, that I think might be one of my best,” Frank writes on his blog. “It’s a defiant, energetic record about growing old disgracefully and making peace with that. I’m still standing up, still have something to share with the world, and I’m excited to let you know about it.” Ten albums in, Frank still shows that he has a lot left to prove, and with killer songs to boot. He was influenced heavily by The Hold Steady and Loudon Wainwright III, muses he’s called “people who write about adulthood.”

Knocked Loose
Album: You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 5/10

Is it too soon to say album of the year? Knocked Loose are ready to break bones and created mosh pits again with their long-awaited third record, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. Produced by Grammy nominated producer WZRD BLD aka Drew Fulk (Disturbed, For All Those Sleeping, Lil Wayne,) YWGBYST picks up right after their beloved sophomore effort A Different Shade Of Blue and their EP A Tear In The Fabric Of Life. After gracing the stages of Coachella and Bonnaroo, Knocked Loose are bigger than ever, so the album has to be equally bigger than ever. As Blabbermouth.com puts it, “[Knocked Loose] have honed in on a diverse, cohesive and savagely aggressive album that sums up the massive strides they’ve taken during their decade as a band, and asserts their boundless potential going forward.” The album has features from Poppy and Chris Motionless of Motionless In White (KL frontman Bryan Garris appeared on MIW’s song “Slaughterhouse” from their 2022 album Scoring The End Of The World.)

Say Anything
Album: …Is Committed (Dine Alone)
Release Date: 5/24

Only a band like Say Anything could make a meta record. The first track on their comeback record …Is Committed is literally titled “Introduction To The Reunion Record.” “[…Is Committed]’s a satire of everything our band was, and the idea of every emo band coming back after five years, going back to basics and grasping for the fanbase they discarded so callously by diving headfirst into their fans’ wants and needs, instead of gorging on major label cash and then still trying to be the next Animal Collective or Strokes despite what their band actually sounds like, to be thwarted every time by indie gatekeepers,” the group wrote on social media. Produced by Brad Wood (Better Than Ezra, Placebo, Touché Amoré,) who also produced their 2007 double album In Defense Of The Genre, …Is Committed was written by frontman Max Bemis, according to an interview with Alternative Press, “…during a period of such searing trauma and loneliness that not having my parental BFF by my proverbial side felt like an affront even if my mom was just trying to deal with other issues that come with being a child-soul with grown-person decisions to make.”

Mayday Parade
Album: TBA (Self-Released)
Release Date: TBA

Mayday Parade are doing things on their own terms this time with their upcoming album. For the first time since the band’s debut EP, they’ve fully independent. While no word has been officially made, the band have posted photos on social media of them in the studio. So far we have gotten a few singles as well as a collaboration with lo-fi artist Less Gravity called Mayday Parade Lofi featuring lo-fi remixes of classic MP songs.

Part four will come out next week!

20 More Of The Weirdest Covers Ever Recorded (Part One)

Yeah we’re doing this again.

Last year, I wrote a two–part article called “The 20 Weirdest Covers Ever Recorded.” When I wrote that, I did a lot of research trying to find the strangest covers you’ve (probably) never heard, such as singer/songwriter Adam French covering Millencolin’s “No Cigar,” Tori Amos’s haunting rendition of the Slayer classic “Raining Blood,” and Our Last Night butchering “Who Let The Dogs Out?” by Baha Men with help from the Baha Men.

However, as time went on, I found some more weird covers and felt that I had to make another one. And so, here it is, twenty more bizarre covers that were recorded.

As I mentioned in my previous articles, “I have to inform you that the songs on this list are covers that were recorded for a compilation, an album, or as a single. There will be no live covers on this list.” That is if I ever choose to do an article about the strangest live covers I’ve ever heard or seen.

With that out of the way, let’s begin part one.

1. Waterparks – Beating Heart Baby (Originally by Head Automatica)

Earlier this year, British magazine Rocksound released their 250th issue, and to celebrate, they made a second Worship And Tributes album. The first one dropped in 2015 to celebrate their 200th issue. On their second Worship And Tributes album, bands like Memphis May Fire, grandson, Real Friends, WSTR, and Set It Off, covered songs from groups like The All-American Rejects, Blink-182, Slipknot, twenty one pilots, and Jimmy Eat World. However, the cover that takes the cake is Waterparks’s rendition of Head Automatica’s “Beating Heart Baby.” The trio strip down the song’s pop-rock style to the bones and build up on it, adding in quiet drums, some keyboards, and the occasional riff from Awsten Knight. It’s like an elevator remix of the song. Weird, catchy, and unique, the Texan pop-rock trio make this track their own in all the best ways.

2. Rise Against – Any Way You Want It (Originally by Journey)

Rise Against are known for writing songs about social commentary, animal rights, and political corruption. So it felt bizarre that the group would cover the classic Journey song “Any Way You Want It” on their successful sophomore album Revolutions per Minute. The final track on the album feels so out of place and hilarious, feeling like a karaoke version sung by Tim McIlrath. But there’s a reason why they did this. “We were a new band still and being a new band when we’d go out and play shows, we would tend to throw a cover song into our set so people would recognize something,” McIlrath said in an interview with Ultimate Guitar. He continued, “We found that people either weren’t recognizing the song or weren’t singing along and didn’t know the song. Kids were wearing Black Flag t-shirts but didn’t know the Black Flag songs. We found it was super disappointing and people weren’t understanding this. We were like, ‘Fans, we might just as well go out there and cover a Journey song because you all know it.’ The joke went too far.” So simply put, Rise Against covered a Journey song out of sheer irony. Haha.

3. Mastodon – A Commotion (Originally by Feist)

On Record Store Day 2012, the metal band Mastodon and Canadian indie pop artist Feist released a split 7″ called Feistodon. Each artist covered each other, with Feist covering Mastodon’s “Black Tongue” and Mastodon covering Feist’s “A Commotion.” With their rendition of ” A Commotion,” the band get rid of any of the indie pop elements found in the original and kick it into overdrive with a heavy metal remix. It goes hard while still keeping the spirit of the original. In my opinion, their cover’s the better song.

4. Mimic A Stranger – Jamie All Over (Originally by Mayday Parade)

Ah 2009. Shudder shades, neon clothing, and brokeNCYDE were all the rage back then. Dear God that shit was cringy. But do you know what’s the epitome of late 2000s cringe? This. Just listen to it. Screams, synths, a shit ton of autotune reign supreme on this audible mess. Because yes, Mayday Parade’s classic “Jamie All Over” needed a discount Breathe Carolina retouch. Let’s just be glad this genre is dead.

5. Steve ‘n’ Seagulls – Thunderstruck (Originally by AC/DC)

For those about bluegrass, we salute you. Finnish group Steve ‘n’ Seagulls have been turning classic rock songs into bluegrass tracks since 2011, covering bands like Iron Maiden, The Offspring, Metallica, Pantera, and Led Zeppelin. On their debut album Farm Machine, they did an incredible rendition of the AC/DC classic “Thunderstruck” and holy hell is it a thing of beauty. Banjos shredding, spoons rattling, and a legit anvil can be heard on this. It’s the craziest thing you’ll hear all day.

6. D At Sea – Carrion (Originally by Parkway Drive)

Whatever happened to D At Sea? The singer/songwriter was well-known for doing acoustic renditions of metalcore songs and making them sound so beautiful. He’s done Thy Art Is Murder, Bring Me The Horizon, The Amity Affliction, Of Mice & Men, and Bastille (yes they’re not metalcore but he covered them.) Strangely enough, this track works incredibly well as an acoustic song. All the heaviness is taken away and is replaced by Doyle Perez’s soothing voice. Try banging your head to this.

7.  Born Of Osiris – Seven Devils (Originally by Florence + The Machine)

Ok, who the fuck at Sumerian Records (Asking Alexandria, Oceano, Stray From The Path) decided, “Let’s make a tribute album for Florence + The Machine and do it with metalcore bands”? Welp, that’s what they did in 2014 with Sumerian Ceremonials: Florence + the Sphinx – A Tribute To Florence + The Machine. Bands like Periphery, Darkest Hour, Upon A Burning Body, Stick To Your Guns, and Fever Dreamer (remember them?), took a crack at songs sung by the Florence Welch. The whole album is filled with hits and misses, but good lord is Born Of Osiris’s heavy rendition of “Seven Devils” crazy. If you showed this song to someone and said that this is actually a Florence + The Machine song they’d think you were crazy. Thank God Sumerian hasn’t done more tributes like this.

8. Outline In Color – It’s Gonna Be Me (Originally by *NSYNC)

“It’s Gonna Be Me” by *NSYNC still slaps hard as it did back in 2000. Well for some reason, post-hardcore band Outline In Color decided to cover this gem on their album Jury Of Wolves. The odd this is it does start off good, but by the second verse it immediately goes to shit with the screams and that laughable slow breakdown just ruins the whole tempo of the song. Listen, not everything needs a breakdown, fellas. Oh, and please don’t harmonize cleans and screams on the final chorus. It sounds fuckin awful. What more can I say except that this was a mistake.

9. Madonna – American Pie (Originally by Don McLean)

Oh Madonna, why’d you have to cover this? For her movie The Next Best Thing, she turned the beloved folk song “American Pie” into a godawful dance-pop track all thanks to co-star Rupert Everett. It’s shorter than its counterpart but it cannot hold a candle next to the beauty of Don McLean’s song. Wanna know the worst part? McLean praised the cover and said that it was “mystical and sensual.” Oh, and this was a worldwide hit, charting #1 in many countries. This truly means that God has abandoned us.

10. Adventure Club x Modern Machines feat. Saint Slumber – MakeDamnSure (by Taking Back Sunday) 

Who the hell asked for this? No one asked for an EDM version of Taking Back Sunday’s popular song “MakeDamnSure” that’s for damn sure. Anyway, EDM acts Adventure Club and Modern Machines teamed up with the band Saint Slumber to cover(?) TBS’s hit song and give it a club vibe. Shockingly, it sounds pretty good. As EDM.com put it, “Taking Back Sunday vocalist Adam Lazzara’s high-pitched vocal is taken down an octave in the Adventure Club x Modern Machines version. The former duo’s melodic brand of bass music shines through most notably in the arrangement, with bright synth work punctuating the drop in all its grandeur.” This cover shouldn’t be shocking if you’re a fan of the Canadian duo. Adventure Club have done remixes for Thrice, Alexisonfire, and Brand New, and have collaborated with Craig Owens (ex-Chiodos, badXchannels) on an upcoming track with QUIX.

Part two will be posted later.

The Offspring, Flogging Molly, Good Charlotte, More To Play Sabroso Festival 2019

The craft beer, taco, and music festival Sabroso is coming back for a third year to the SoCal area. Created by The Offspring’s Dexter Holland to promote his hot sauce brand Gringo Bandito, the festival will expand to two days this year, featuring numerous punk and punk based bands.

The Offspring and Flogging Molly will headline the two-day festival and will feature acts like Good Charlotte, Lagwagon, The Suicide Machines, Descendents, Face To Face, and Plague Vendor, to name a few. The festival takes place at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, Calif., from April 6 to the 7. Passes go on sale this Friday at 10 am on their website. 

Sabroso was created back in 2017 and has had bands like Sum 41, Lit, Unwritten Law, Pennywise, Against Me!, and Street Dogs perform. 

Check out the poster below.

System Of A Down, The Prodigy Architects, More To Play Inagural Sonic Temple Festival

If you didn’t know that this year was the final year of Rock On The Range, now you know. But fret not, there’s a spiritual successor that will start next May.

Sonic Temple, created by Louder Than Life and Welcome To Rockville founder and Rock On The Range co-founder Danny Wimmer Presents, will be a different experience than their previous festival. Unlike ROTR, which DWP co-produced with AEG, Sonic Temple will be run entirely by DWP. In a press release posted by Consequence Of Sound, DWP said, “I am so proud of what we accomplished with Rock on the Range, and we couldn’t have done it without our partnership with AEG. When we started Rock on the Range, there was no other festival in America quite like it but recently it became clear that we had different visions of where to take the festival next. The city of Columbus and our devoted rock fans deserve a one-of-a-kind, world-class festival, and that is exactly what Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival will bring to MAPFRE Stadium.”

That’s right, Sonic Temple won’t just be another rock festival, other genres will be accepted. Spoken word, punk, rap, emo, post-hardcore, and comedy will be featured along with artists in the worlds of rock and metal.

Foo Fighters, System Of A Down, and Disturbed will headline the inaugural festival. Other acts to perform include Bring Me The Horizon, Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine, Scarlxrd, Teenage Wrist, In This Moment, Joan Jett And The Blackhearts, Movements, Hands Like Houses, Basement, Wage War, and many others. A comedy and spoken word tent, presented by SiriusXM, will feature comedian Andrew Dice Clay, former Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins, and actor Pauly Shore (Bio-Dome, Encino Man, Son In Law).

Sonic Temple will take place May 17 to the 19 at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. Tickets go on sale November 30.