Death Dealer Union set to deliver a sophomore album with a 'harder edge;' Late Again's Rafael Melo pulls three records from the shelf
This is Punk Rock Bach for July 30, 2026.
I love the diversity of modern music. There are so many incredible genres that are objectively fun. Funk, punk, ska, country, hip hop, opera, industrial, pop — really anything beyond Vampire Weekend.
KIDDING! I swear I’m kidding, with tongue firmly in cheek. Even that band has a place in the modern music ecosystem, for its fans to enjoy, jam out to and absorb.
This week, Punk Rock Bach is looking at two music acts with very different styles: the industrial rockers Death Dealer Union and “dream-pop project” Late Again’s Rafael Melo.
Onward!
Death Dealer Union’s upcoming second album introduces a new vocalist
Power and groove are essential elements for a good industrial album, says musician CC McKenna.
“I think it has to have the emotional connection,” McKenna, who formed the industrial metal band Death Dealer Union and serves as its drummer, said. “And I also think that the vocals need to kind of take you to a different place, and in our case, I think they [...] do that very well.”
Death Dealer Union is set to release its second album, “Dark Sister,” on Sept. 18. It’s a follow up to the band’s 2023 debut album, “Initiation,” and brings in a new lead vocalist — Kay Bellows.
McKenna said Bellows was the perfect choice for the band. Previously, Lena Scissorhands of the group Infected Rain provided vocals on Death Dealer Union’s first album.
“I was looking for Kay’s voice,” McKenna said regarding the search for a new vocalist. “Honestly. Kay’s voice is the voice I had always envisioned for this band.”
Bellows joined the band in 2024 after answering an advertisement on the website Backstage — which posts performance, voiceover and other creative job listings.
“I sent them a message on Instagram, and didn’t expect to hear anything back,” Bellows said. “But ended up getting a reply and [a request] asking for a demo, and I sent what I could, and it ended up getting me the job.”
Flash fiction
Bellows said the new album is “in a sense, kind of a series of short stories.”
“But all of these small, little short stories kind of fall under the same umbrella of using these stories and some of the lore and different things that we’ve brought familiarities and whatnot into it,” she said. “But it’s almost using these stories to explore kind of the darkness within us and the darkness that’s everywhere, but almost accepting it and becoming one with it and learning to use it for strength.”
Tracks on the album include the single “Cult of the Moonlight.”
“We kind of dive over — a little bit — to the lore of transformation and the cult and almost like with the moon… you almost get a little bit of like a werewolfy type of vibe to it, a little bit,” she said of the single. “But you know, it doesn’t go too, like, nail-on-the-head with it.”
The vocals on that song transition quickly from an aggressive, near-raspy performance to a voice that’s much more melodic. Bellows said performing that in the studio is different than performing live.
“So, studio is definitely more of give it all you got. You know, like, you’re putting every bit that you have out there on that record, just as intensely, as powerfully, as evocatively as like you possibly can,” she said. “And for live, you obviously have like the same type of thing. But then you have to think about pulling back at least like a tiny little bit in order to sustain your voice throughout the tour.”
She continued, “Like, if I were to go all out like I did on the record, I’d probably lose my voice within the first few days of the tour.”
A calculated recording process
Compared to the band’s first album, McKenna said one thing the musicians wanted to do was bring “more of an industrial, harder edge foot forward on this record.”
“I wanted us to be more raw and more open and vulnerable,” he said.
McKenna said recording the album with producer Max Morton was “very disciplined, very careful, very methodical, and very artistic.”
“We consider Max to kind of be the fifth member [of the band], if you will,” he said. “And so we just kept working really close with him. Again, we had a new project, a whole new vocalist, whole new set of things, and we needed a producer that could help us corral all that, get our vision together of what the band needed to sound like.”
Bellows said she worked with Morton “remotely using a couple of different softwares and what not.”
“We got some kind of baseline — but very high quality — gear, and then I recorded at my house with just some of the basic high quality gear, and we worked together,” she said. “We had recording sessions multiple times a week throughout the album.”
When it comes to a favorite track on the new album, Bellows and McKenna each cited a few favorites — including “Sacrificial Dagger.” But McKenna notes that all the songs are good.
“It’s kind of like 10 singles all got put on one record because we let this record breathe,” he said. “So we didn’t just slam together 10 songs. We took 10 songs and wrote them over like 16-17 months.”
Death Dealer Union’s album “Dark Sister” is set to release on Sept. 18 via Lyra Song Records. It is available for pre-order on the band’s website. You can see the band perform live on Oct. 8 at the Viper Room in Hollywood, Calif., and at the Dive Bar in Las Vegas on Oct. 10, according to its website.
Late Again’s Rafael Melo listens to music ‘in motion’
Late Again, the music project spearheaded by Rafael Melo, has a new EP in the works and is set to release on Sept. 4.
The EP, titled “I Dreamt I was Awake,” includes the tracks “To Stop The Time,” “Crazy or Stupid,” and “If You Have A Bridge (I'm Buying),” among others.
A press release indicates “If You Have A Bridge (I’m Buying)” is an “ode” to New York City.
“It’s a song about consciously buying into pipe dreams, and finding happiness in that choice even when, in a place like this, ‘everyone you know is broke or blue’ as the lyric puts it,” Melo said in the release.
Punk Rock Bach couldn’t help be curious about what the Late Again musician was listening to when he wasn’t creating music of his own. He shared with us music memories, what’s on his shelf currently and a recent discovery he made in Japan.
Editor’s note: Q&A has been lightly edited for style, syntax and typos.
Punk Rock Bach: How do you prefer to listen to music?
Rafael Melo: In motion. There’s something about listening to music when I’m moving from point A to B. The sight of a city moving at my pace makes me feel as if I’m part of the band but playing the visuals… or something like that.
PRB: What are your three favorite albums?
Melo: Always hard to pick favorites. I’ll just look at my shelf and tell you about three records I have. Arthur Verocai’s self-titled album has been in my living room for a decade. How it blends Brazilian music with something universally cinematic that’s hard to pin down… it really speaks to me. Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” is probably the only album I’ve been listening to since I was 14 and still like just as much. Tatsuro Yamashita’s “For You” is a nostalgic city pop album that introduced me to a very cool Japanese 80s canon, makes you miss a life you never lived. This one is extra special ‘cause the vinyl is the only way you can (legally) listen to it.
PRB: What do you listen on?
Melo: I bike across Brooklyn with my headphones a lot. Car radio on the interstate at 2 a.m. when there’s no one around is also nice. A few years ago I had an old car with no Bluetooth and it became a silly excuse to keep buying CDs in the 2020s. Like with vinyl, I’ll always appreciate taking 40 minutes of my day to really sit with what someone I care about wants to share.
PRB: What’s your favorite music discovery in the last year?
Melo: A few months ago I walked into this jazz bar in Tokyo where these guys, Shinsuke Fujieda Group, were jamming. I listened to their stuff for the rest of the trip and it became my soundtrack for the month I was moving around Japan.
PRB: What is your favorite music listening memory?
Melo: I’m 4 in the back of my dad’s car, pretending to be asleep on a very unlawful makeshift bed on the floor, listening to a corny-ass Brazilian ‘90s country song by this guy called Leonardo. The song has absolutely nothing to do with anything I’ve ever been inspired by musically, but come to think of it, that moment burnt into my brain has everything I’ve been talking about here. Nostalgia, a guileless sense of belonging, and my first memory of being in motion.
Late Again’s EP “I Dreamt I Was Awake” is set to release Sept. 4. It is available for pre-save on Spotify and Deezer, and available for pre-add on Apple Music.
What I’m Listening to…
This week I’m revisiting a ‘90s classic album that still jams but probably isn’t on the Gen Z radar these days — Pavement’s 1992 record “Slanted and Enchanted.”
I downloaded this WAY back in the mid 2000s from iTunes, and sometimes forget it’s in my library — like an idiot.
The album feels more intimate to me than other records of the time, especially with headphones. Almost as if they’re playing for a small crowd in a modestly marked coffee shop.
Anyway, I enjoy it (especially the song “No Life Singed Her”). Recommended!
Thanks for reading! We’re back next week with an interview with London-based musician Elanor Moss, whose new album “The Knife, The Needle,” is set to release on Aug. 21. Until next Thursday!