Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
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The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format: albums, singles, videos, live sets. Check back every other Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
MKULTRA – “BE HUMAN”
New York rockers MKULTRA’s latest single, the nu-metal sledgehammer “BE HUMAN,” is a total knockout that refuses to ease up until its abrupt cutoff. Built on vicious guitars, drums that slam like anvils, and unadulterated ferocity, “BE HUMAN” sounds like a long-lost track from Bam Margera’s CKY videos, a time capsule of the ‘90s heavy metal sound. Its music video, filled with thermal cameras and face prosthetics that would make Sarah Squirm smile, is just a small taste of MKULTRA’s unfiltered energy.
Jules Kelly | @snaiImaiI
Arranged in April – It Always Starts Mid Winter
2025 saw the release of both Arranged in April’s debut album and the standalone “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” single, but the San Antonio skramz band isn’t slowing down this year. Their new EP It Always Starts Mid Winter is a bit less messy than Rooted in Desire was, and it leans a bit more into the spoken word element of their sound.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Snail Mail – “Dead End”
“To be loved is to be changed,” Lindsey Jordan declares on “Dead End,” the first single from her upcoming album Ricochet. After 2021’s Valentine explored the melancholy and mess of a break up, the latest Snail Mail single celebrates letting go and moving on, holding space for memories of old relationships, while always pushing forward. “Dead End” signals maturity for Jordan, who’s been releasing music as Snail Mail since she was 15, as she wishes nothing but the best for past lovers and friends over a dreamy guitar riff. She’s has never sounded happier.
Jules Kelly | @snaiImaiI
The Sink – Bloom & Rot
Bloom & Rot is The Sink at their grimiest. The song structures are a bit less serpentine than on Reaching for Light, but the band sounds as brutal as ever. This version of “Puppy Love” feels less polished than the 2024 single, and closer “Voices Like Sirens” is the heaviest track in The Sink’s catalog.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Lightning Bolt – “Cloud Core”
For the first time in seven years, Rhode Island noisemakers Lightning Bolt released new music. “Cloud Core,” the first single off The Horizon Spirals / The Horizon Viral, the duo’s upcoming split album with Japanese experimental band OOIOO, is classic Lightning Bolt—rigid guitars, sharp, unexplainable sounds, ear-splintering drums, echoey vocals so hard to hear they sound like someone speaking in tongues. Their latest single is excessively loud and excessively strange—and that’s what we’ve been waiting for!
Jules Kelly | @snaiImaiI
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week we compile a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays and then include it in each edition of the Weekly Roundup to make sure you don’t miss any of the great music we’re recommending.