There are two kinds of heavy bands: the ones that make a lot of noise and the ones that drag you somewhere you didn't know you needed to go. Cwfen (pronounced 'Coven') are the latter, and Sorrows is a record that doesn't just crush – it haunts long after the final note. The allure of Cwfen’s sound lies in contrasts: the glacial ferocity of Amenra, with the velvet-and-razor vocals of King Woman, and the rotting grandeur of Type O Negative. It’s as hypnotic as it is harrowing, but somehow even better than the sum of those parts.

Since emerging from Glasgow's underground just 18 months ago, Cwfen's reputation is growing, selling out shows and pulling growing audiences into their doom-laden fever dream. Released in October, the band's debut single 'Reliks' was a hit with fans and critics, landing a spot on Kerrang!'s release of the week playlist. And rightly so. Their sound devours and delights in equal measure.

"Cwfen have emerged from the darkest depths of the Caledonian underground with a beguiling blend of doom metal and gothic post-punk for those who like to live deliciously." Kerrang!

Sorrows lives in the space around doom where the weight of the riffs is matched by the weight in your chest, where the lyrics and the songwriting are as important as the music itself. Loud and crushing, yet sharp enough to stick in your head for days. It builds, burns, collapses, resurrects. Big on riffs, bigger on feeling. The kind of songs you carry with you. Singer and rhythm guitarist Agnes Alder bears her claws one minute, then whispers the next, as the band follows like a storm front, rising, breaking, drowning you in the weight of it.

From the guttural Penance to the lush Whispers, to the feral Wolfsbane and the insurrectionist Rite. It includes a long reworking of Embers and Bodies, the two self-recorded demos that launched them into the scene with a bang and their growing legion of fans already adore. Intricate vocal arrangements, heavy and harsh guitars, a mix of atmosphere and heft, it undoubtedly punches above its weight for a debut. As Agnes says: “When we stopped trying to fit into any one space, what came out was this beautiful mix of dark and light. Something visceral and cathartic.”

This is a band that sits right in the boundaries between the heavy genres, pulling in everyone from the young goths and to the die-hard metalheads alike and 'Sorrows' truly does deliver in spades. Make no mistake, Cwfen are set to be one of the names to watch in 2025.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Fragment I
2. Bodies
3. Wolfsbane (album Version)
4. Reliks

Side 2
1. Whispers
2. Fragment II
3. Penance (album Version)
4. Fragment III
5. Embers
6. Rite

Let's be honest: life is a series of swipes left and right, love you's, and ghostings, all while trying to figure out why you're crying over a meme at 2 a.m. but Ray Lozano? She gets it. Her new album, SILK&SORROW is that perfectly timed text from a friend who knows when to send the "you good?" without expecting an answer.

Lozano explores the contradictions we face daily, creating a sonic embrace for anyone caught between connection and detachment, feeling everything and nothing all at once. The title says it all: "Silk" gives you warmth and comfort, while "Sorrow" hits you with an emotional gut punch you didn't see coming. It's a reminder that softness and pain aren't mutually exclusive - they're two sides of the same coin, constantly present in our daily lives, whether we're ready for them or not.

Each track feels like Lozano's looking over your shoulder, seeing your emotional history play out - like she's right there as your laugh turns into a sigh, and nostalgia for a moment you didn't realize was gone hits harder than you'd like. Her ability to transform the most ordinary, chaotic moments of life into something extraordinary is her superpower. SILK&SORROW isn't about fixing things. It's about feeling them, really feeling them, in all their messy glory.

In a time where vulnerability is often seen as a mere aesthetic choice on Spotify, Lozano goes deeper. SILK&SORROW isn't trying to be trendy or polished. It hits you where it hurts and where it heals, and it shows you that the chaos is where the magic happens. Consider this album your anthem for late-night introspection. SILK&SORROW is less of an album, and more of a survival guide for the beautifully chaotic mess we call life.

TRACK LISTING

1. INTRO
2. BETTER DAYS
3. HIYA
4. DRAGON
5. KIKI
6. I DON'T CARE
7. CAN'T LOVE
8. SOMETIMES
9. LOTA
10. LET THE HEART GROW
11. OUTRO

Sleep Now Forever is the second and final album released by Sorrow, the post-Strawberry Switchblade group fronted by singer Rose McDowall. Originally released in 1999 and long since deleted it is a cornucopia of pastoral, elegiac folk music, swirling atmospherics, hymnal compositions and above it all the alternating towering and fragile vocal performances of McDowall. Recorded in the late 90s with fellow band member and co-songwriter Robert Lee, Sleep Now Forever is the definitive statement by the now defunct group and Rose McDowall’s most complete long-form work to date.

Released through the group’s own Piski Disk Records, Sleep Now Forever was distributed by World Serpent which struggled through the early 2000s with financial woes, eventually folding due to bankruptcy in 2004. Due to the company’s troubles, Sleep Now Forever was never distributed widely and was a victim of the company’s failure. Released on CD only, original copies are now rare and only traded on second hand channels. Remastered by Mikey Young for a limited vinyl release, Sleep Now Forever will be released on April 20th on double vinyl format, with one side an exclusive etching by Glasgow artist Holly Allan.

Despite its rarity, Sleep Now Forever enjoys a firm cult following. The album’s textures are expansive, lush, deliciously detailed and celestial. Recorded in home study Velvet Hole by Rose McDowall and then-husband Robert Lee, the album enlists an array of players from the underground Neo-folk / industrial scene: Nigel McKernaghan (Uilleann pipes, Whistles), Susan Franknel (Bassoon), John Contreras (Cello) and Lawrence Frankel (Oboe, Cor Anglais). The eleven songs here revolve around McDowall’s instantly recognisable voice. Brought up singing in the Catholic Church, McDowall’s vocals are impeccable and angelic, particularly on tracks like Turn Off The Light where her experiences with religion are canted over soaring oboe and guitar backing. By far the most evolved and realised version of Sorrow’s vision, it feels somewhat criminal that music this beautiful could be lost to time until now.

McDowall’s lyrics throughout Sleep Now Forever deal frankly with mental health, depression, altered states, death and redemption. Wave upon wave of harmony drench each song, McDowal’s vocal multi-tracked and imperious. Opener Soldier benefits from Robert Lee’s use of the studio as instrument, summoning forth a lilting group performance of sparkling guitar and percussion that recalls the Velvet Underground. Mikey Love’s master treats the compositions to brand new frequency dynamics and space. Harmonium and string drones form the counter to McDowall’s vocal on Love Dies, a slow, lurching lament that feels transcendent. On Haunting, the arrangement is orchestral and aching, bleeding into Fear Becomes You, with chord and harmony structure that recalls the baroque sixties pop of West Coast Pop Experimental Art Band or the 60s psychedelic folk movement. A towering, beautiful statement, this elegy for times lost and moonlit-illumination is finally resurfacing from the darkness.

TRACK LISTING

Soldier
Love Dies
Turn Off The Light
Haunting
Fear Becomes You
October Faul
Wishing Stone
Nomadic Man
Epiphany
Angel
Sleep Now Forever

The outstanding original cut of the late Hortense Ellis' Hell & Sorrow, originally produced and released by Jimmy Radway for his Fe Me Time label in the mid 1970s and backed with the legendary Big Youth's DJ counteraction Tribulation - now reissued via Death Is Not The End's 333 series.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hell & Sorrow
2. Tribulation

After forming in 2016, Pillow Queens released a series of singles, honing their craft and working towards their first album, In Waiting (2020). Along the way there has been acclaim from UK and American press, many sold-out gigs and an appearance on James Corden's Late Late Show. After signing with Canada’s Royal Mountain Records, they released a follow-up album, Leave the Light On in 2022, touring the UK, US and Europe extensively, including shows at Austin’s SXSW and supporting Phoebe Bridgers in Glasgow.

Three albums in three years indicates a serious work ethic, for their new album Name Your Sorrow they stuck to a strict schedule. They showed up every day from 9-5, in a windowless Dublin room to just play, swap instruments and experiment. From there, they decamped to a rural retreat in County Clare along the Atlantic coastline of Ireland, to immerse themselves further. “ The palpable shift in sound and tone is possibly the result of working with a new producer, Collin Pastore from Nashville, who has produced boygenius, Lucy Dacus and Illuminati Hotties. The band holed up for three weeks at Analogue Catalogue studio in Newry, and quickly noticed that the change of scene and personnel impacted on the record.

The result of combining new experimentation, heartfelt lyrics and a sound that pinballs from quiet and loud offers a kind of catharsis. Of picking through the shrapnel to find slivers of hope. Previously, the band have road-tested new tracks live, playing them to an audience and reworking them based on the crowd’s reaction. They haven’t done that this time, because the songs already feel fully formed. The band also had to unlearn the process of questioning whether a song sounded like “a Pillow Queens song”. There are definite links to the last two albums, but Name Your Sorrow feels like a triumphant step in another direction.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Moody post-grunge riffs and soaring distorted guitar swells break into upbeat indie jangles and major-key lifts, all topped with the gothic-leaning vocals that easily switch from morose and solemn into stadium-fillingly grand in the blink of an eye. A wonderfully produced, perfectly written statement from the Pillow Queens.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. February 8th
2. Suffer
3. Like A Lesson
4. Blew Up The World
5. Friend Of Mine
6. The Bar's Closed
Side 2
1. So Kind
2. Heavy Pour
3. One Night
4. Love II
5. Notes On Worth

The unequivocal psychedelic Rock opera gets new life once more in the form of a brand-new reissue via Madfish

Touted as the world's first Rock opera & one of the great classics of the psychedelic era, the album stands favourable comparison with "Sgt Pepper" & "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" as one of the defining records of its time.

Recorded at Abbey Road in 1967 & 1968, it was one of the first true concept albums that pre-dates The Who's 'Tommy' by a year. Exploring the life of a single character & his journey in learning to trust people & ultimate disillusionment, 'S.F. Sorrow' is like none that have come before it. Walking the line between experimental rock, psychedelic pop & even sharing similarities with proto-Heavy Metal the album was years ahead of its time & still stands atop as one of the most pivotal concept albums ever.

Beginning with 'S.F. Sorrow Is Born', the track introduces the protagonist via folk leaning acoustic guitar. Later on in the album, proto-Heavy Metal tendencies are revealed on 'Balloon Burning'. 'Well Of Destiny's swirling progressive tendencies bleed into 'Trust' before the melancholic yet profound closure of 'Loneliest Person'

TRACK LISTING

S.F. Sorrow Is Born ( 03:06 )
Bracelets ( 03:43 )
She Says Good Morning ( 03:26 )
Private Sorrow ( 03:54 )
Balloon Burning ( 03:53 )
Death ( 03:08 )
Baron Saturday ( 04:03 )
The Journey ( 02:48 )
I See You ( 03:58 )
Well Of Destiny ( 01:49 )
Trust ( 02:52 )
Old Man Going ( 03:12 )
Loneliest Person ( 01:32 )

CD Bonus Tracks
Defecting Grey ( 04:33 )
Mr. Evasion ( 03:30 ) 
Talkin' About The Good Times ( 03:46 ) 
Walking Through My Dreams ( 03:37 ) 

When considering any great work of art, be it a painting, a novel, or a piece of music, it’s natural to wonder what might have inspired it: ‘the story behind the song’. Mark Lanegan’s new album, Straight Songs Of Sorrow, flips that equation. Here are 15 songs inspired by a story: his life story, as documented by his own hand in his new memoir, Sing Backwards And Weep.

The book is a brutal, nerve-shredding read, thanks to Lanegan’s unsparing candour in recounting a journey from troubled youth in eastern Washington, through his drug-stained existence amid the ’90s Seattle rock scene, to an unlikely salvation at the dawn of the 21st century. There’s death and tragedy, yet also humour and hope, thanks to the tenacity which impels its host, even at his lowest moments. As Lanegan writes near the end: “I was the ghost that wouldn’t die.”

Today, Lanegan is a renowned songwriter and a much-coveted collaborator, as adept at electronica as with rock, constantly honing his indomitable voice: an asphalt-laced linctus for the soul. While the memoir documents a struggle to find peace with himself, his new album emphasis the extent to which he came to realise that music is his life.

“Writing the book, I didn’t get catharsis,” he chuckles. “All I got was a Pandora’s box full of pain and misery. I went way in, and remembered shit I’d put away 20 years ago. But I started writing these songs the minute I was done, and I realised there was a depth of emotion because they were all linked to memories from this book. It was a relief to suddenly go back to music. Then I realised that was the gift of the book: these songs. I’m really proud of this record.”

Straight Songs Of Sorrow combines musical trace elements from early Mark Lanegan albums with the synthesized constructs of later work. The meditative acoustic guitar fingerpicking – provided by Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton – on Apples From A Tree and Hanging On (For DRC) echo 1994’s Whiskey For The Holy Ghost. Yet one of that record’s touchstones was Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, echoed in the new album’s opener I Wouldn’t Want To Say, where Lanegan extemporises *à la Ballerina over musique concrète wave patterns generated by his latest favourite compositional tool, a miniature computer-synth called the Organelle. The lyric clings onto the music, emulating his book’s queasy momentum: *“Swinging from death… to revival.”

“That song is the explanation, the beginning and middle and end of that entire period of time,” Mark says. “The encapsulation of the entire experience, book and record. So I started with that.”

Lanegan affirms that every song references a specific episode or person in the book, albeit some more explicitly than others. Hanging On (For DRC) is a loving ode to his friend Dylan Carlson, genius progenitor of drone metal and a fellow unlikely survivor of Seattle’s narcotic dramas. “I was always unhappy, and he was the guy who was always smiling, even through my crazy schemes that eventually got both of us into a lot of trouble.” The richly cinematic mood of Daylight In The Nocturnal House, meanwhile, paints a more impressionistic scene: factory smoke, rain, a phone call from *“somebody’s grand-daughter”, who’ll *“pay to make somebody crawl/And send you to heaven.” The singer’s perspective is ambiguous. “I got into a lot of shady business in those years,” Lanegan says.

Longtime observers will recognise some familiar recurrent themes. Death. Destruction. Bad behaviour. In the case of At Zero Below, all in the same song. “Yes, I did burn someone with a cigarette,” Mark says. “Yes, I did spit in somebody’s face – maybe more than once in my life. Stuff I’m not proud of. That song is also about one of my many ex-girlfriends who is no longer with us. It’s all linked to the book.”

At Zero Below features two of the album’s many stellar guests. Singing admonitory harmonies with himself is Greg Dulli, another ’90s alt-rock veteran, Lanegan’s erstwhile partner in mischief and fellow Gutter Twin. The song’s incantatory fiddle is played by The Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis. No lesser figure than Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones provides Mellotron on the serpentine Ballad Of A Dying Rover (*“I’m just a sick sick man/My days are numbered”). Aside from mandolin, all Daylight In The Nocturnal House’s cobwebbed atmospherics are by Portishead’s Adrian Utley. Ed Harcourt is Lanegan’s pick for album MVP (“He’s all over it – everything that he plays, piano or Wurlitzer, becomes magical”), with special mention to bassist Jack Bates, son of Peter Hook; that duo make especially distinctive contributions to Churchbells, Ghosts a bleakly humorous lament to the drudgery of life on the road (*“I’d ask somebody for a quarter/If there were someone for me to phone”).

Ketamine is a numb blues, with Lanegan shadowed by Cold Cave vocalist Wesley Eisold, who inspired the album’s only overt drug song (ironically, about a drug that Lanegan has never actually taken). “Wes is good friends with Genesis P-Orridge,” explains Mark, “and he said the last time he saw Gen she was in a hospital bed, saying to this priest, ‘No thank you sir, I don’t need any last rites, but if you have any ketamine that would be perfect.’” He laughs. “So I immediately wrote that song and had him sing on it. There’s drugs throughout the record – they’re rife in Bleed All Over – but that song was the only real specific one.”

The material on the last two Mark Lanegan Band albums had Lanegan’s words set to music by various other sources. But aside from the Mark Morton collaborations, Straight Songs Of Sorrow was built from the ground up by Lanegan alone, aided by producer Alain Johannes, his longtime consigliere. Only two other songs have shared credits, and even these stay in-house: Burying Ground and Eden Lost And Found were co-written by Mark’s wife Shelley Brien, with whom he also duets on the Rita Coolidge/Kris Kristofferson-style ballad This Game Of Love. “Let’s put it this way,” says Mark. “Every girlfriend I’ve ever had, for any amount of time, left me. All the good ones left me! Until my current wife. It was great to sing that with Shelley, it really shows she’s a great singer. And it has a depth of emotion that I’m not used to. This is a more honest record than I’ve probably ever made.”

A crushing twin-song centrepiece proves that. First, Stockholm City Blues, a sparse, beautiful, strings and finger-picking meditation on the remorse code of addiction (*“I pay for this pain I put into my blood”). Then, the seven-minute epic Skeleton Key, a supplicatory confessional (“I’m ugly inside and out there is no denying”) that also provides the album title. It’s a remarkable performance from a man whose punishment for plumbing the depths was simply to continue further along the road. “My wife called that my ‘redemption song’,” says Lanegan.

And indeed, there is a happy ending to this story. Just as his book closes with the hero overcoming adversity and turning, battered but cleansed, towards a new day, so Straight Songs Of Sorrow closes with Eden Lost And Found. *“Sunrise coming up baby/To burn the dirt right off of me,” marvels Lanegan, with his words echoed by Simon Bonney of Crime & The City Solution, an all-time hero. “I wanted to make a positive song to end this record, because that’s the way the book ended,” Mark says. “And what’s more positive than to have your favourite singer sing with you?”

Straight Songs Of Sorrow feels both definitive and unique, a culmination of its creator’s arc yet also indicative of the energy that drives him onto future horizons. No wonder Lanegan is proud.

“I do feel this is something special for me, something honest,” he says. “’Cos records are not real life, man – in case no one told ya. They’re just a fake version of life!” Mark Lanegan laughs. “Well, at least you have one now that’s a little closer to being real. Unfortunately, it’s by me.”

Keith Cameron.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wouldn't Want To Say
2. Apples From A Tree
3. This Game Of Love
4. Ketamine
5. Bleed All Over
6. Churchbells, Ghosts
7. Internal Hourglass Discussion
8. Stockholm City Blues
9. Skeleton Key
10. Daylight In The Nocturnal House
11. Ballad Of A Dying Rover
12. Hanging On (For DRC)
13. Burying Ground
14. At Zero Below
15. Eden Lost And Found

Domino is extremely proud to present Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) performed by Beth Gibbons and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki. 

The performance took place at The National Opera Grand Theatre in Warsaw on November 29th 2014, and was part of an evening of programming that also featured Jonny Greenwood's (Radiohead) 48 Responses To Polymorphia and the world premiere of Bryce Dessner's (The National) Réponse Lutosławski.

Following an invitation to collaborate at the concert, Beth Gibbons undertook an intense preparation process, including tackling the challenge of learning the original text (and the emotional weight it carries) without speaking the mother language. Typical to Beth though - the elusive yet iconic frontwoman of one of the most important British bands of the last two decades - the challenge was met and exceeded. Her performance alongside the maestro Penderecki has been hailed as triumphant, as you can see and hear on this release.

The film, was produced by the National Audiovisual Institute, Poland and directed by Michał Merczyński.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's no denying that Beth Gibbons is one of the most cherished and highly recognisable vocal talents of the past several decades, but hearing her in this context is nothing less than astounding. The latent sadness inherent in Gorecki's 3rd symphony is only enhanced by Gibbons' stunning vocal range and perfect delivery. Astounding.

TRACK LISTING

I. Lento - Sostenuto Tranquillo Ma Cantabile
II. Lento E Largo - Tranquillissimo
III. Lento - Cantabile-semplice

Colin Stetson is an American saxophonist and multireedist who has collaborated with an number of influential indie rock acts such as Arcade Fire, Bon Iver and Bell Orchestre. This new release 'SORROW', led by Stetson, is a reimagining of Henryk Górecki's most famous piece, performed by a 12-piece band including Arcade Fire's Sarah Neufeld, Saltland's Rebecca Foon, Greg Fox of Liturgy, Megan Stetson and more and recorded in 2015 in Brooklyn, New York.

 "We all have those moments when we experience a piece of music that transforms us, and this was one of those moments for me," says Stetson. "Over the years, I went on to listen to this record countless times, always determined to absorb every instance of it, to know it throughout and fully. And this dedication to a thorough knowledge of the piece eventually gave way to a need to perform it." "The concept was simple, and true to the original score. I haven't changed existing notation, but rather have worked with altering instrumentation, utilizing a group consisting heavily of woodwinds, synthesizers, and electric guitars... The arrangement draws heavily from the world of black metal, early electronic music, and from my own body of solo saxophone music. The result is an intact rendition of Henryk Górecki's 3rd Symphony, though one which has been filtered through the lens of my particular musical aesthetic and experience."

Sorrow Cow are a band from between Liverpool and Manchester.

Rochdale singer-songwriter Kid Called Sorrow's recently released debut E.P, 'A World Away,' gives a wry take on the ups and downs of life in a northern town.

Out of all the Elektra 50th Anniversary reissues this disc featuring two Judy Collins albums from 1961 and 1962 are amongst the most suprising. Both albums are accomplished and startlingly pure renditions of folk standards that Collins somehow made her own. I'm not too sure about the Irish rebel songs but "Great Selchie Of Shule Sherry" is a groudbreaking five minute narrative song that has a timeless and majestic strength and "Pretty Saro" is a vocal masterpiece.