Touché Amoré

Formed in 2007, Los Angeles, California's Touche Amore blend jangly post-hardcore with emotionally raw screamo to create their unique sound. Made up of singer Jeremy Bolm, guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt, bassist Tyler Kirby, and drummer Elliot Babin, the band has a plaintive and emotionally intense sound that blends the influence of bands like Jawbox and Converge into something strangely coherent. Touche Amore made their debut in 2009 with To the Beat of a Dead Horse, an album that would eventually gain the attention of Jacob Bannon's label Deathwish, Inc., which released their follow-up effort, Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me, in 2011, as well as their third album, Is Survived By, in 2013. After finishing up the tour in support of Is Survived By, the band decamped to L.A.'s Seagrass Studio with producer Brad Wood (Sunny Day Real Estate, mewithoutYou, Smashing Pumpkins) to begin work on a new album. The resulting Stage Four was released in 2016 via Epitaph. - Gregory Heaney, Rovi

Soul Glo

If you gave Soul Glo a snapshot of what was in store for them in 2020 at the end of their first practice in 2014, you might put the space time continuum in flux. If you were to tell vocalist Pierce Jordan and guitarist Ruben Polo that everything that they had spent their first month as a band joking about, playing shows with artists from punk vets Paint It Black to Kurt Cobain's favorites Flipper; from Memphis underground legend Tommy Wright III to platinum producer Pi'erre Bourne, were to actually happen, they might ask you if your hands were as fast as your jokes were. Despite the constant barrage of setbacks, from member changes, to financial strife, to run-ins with the law, Soul Glo has both repeatedly defied the kinds of odds that would fold lesser bands, not to mention their own standards for what they believed they could endure. Simultaneously, stopping or slowing down has never exactly been on the table for them, either..

Portrayal of Guilt

Portrayal of Guilt eschew predictability. While the Austin, Texan outfit have released material at a rapid clip since their formation only six years ago, it has been near-impossible to predict what each ensuing release might sound like. The only window into what to expect has been those releases' titles, wallowing in themes of affliction, isolation, and just plain underworld allusion. Naturally, this leads to. . .Devil Music.

After shifting their sound over several immediate releases (most recent, 2021's widely acclaimed CHRISTFUCKER), Portrayal of Guilt has transformed from masters of the traditional '90s screamo template, to fit a more blackened and sludgy metal intensity.

Citing a wide spectrum of influences, Devil Music, tracked in two different sessions in early 2022, is an experimental approach to writing heavy music. It offers five new original songs on Side A; and then a reimagining of those same five songs on Side B, replacing much of the traditional guitars and bass setup with an orchestral string section, acoustic bass, and brass.

Soft Blue Shimmer

Three people concerned with turning their feelings, dreams, and memories into noise- Meredith Ramond, Kenzo Cardenas, and Charlie Crowley write ethereal and frenetic music about complex emotions and feelings. The San Fernando Valley based group Soft Blue Shimmer released their first EP, "Nothing Happens Here" (2019), and their first LP, "Heaven Inches Away" (2020), in the USA through Disposable America and in Japan through Galaxy Train.