What would a Halloween mixtape be without a sequel? Breakout Epitaph Records genre-benders Magnolia Park have heard your cries, and they are prepared to deliver. The hard-charging, prolific five-piece act from Orlando—vocalist Joshua Roberts, guitarists Tristan Torres and Freddie Criales, drummer Joe Horsham, and keyboardist Vincent Ernst—are set to follow up their 2022 debut LP Baku's Revenge with a brand-new project, Halloween Mixtape II, out on October 27, and their kaleidoscopic fusion of sound is more innovative than ever. The spiritual sequel to their 2021 Halloween Mixtape, Halloween Mixtape II expands on the narrative around Magnolia Park’s fictional universe and its characters Baku, Heart Eater, SoulEater, Dream Eater, MoonEater, Pumpkin Eater, and the Reaper. "We just want to create soundtracks for our characters," says guitarist/songwriter Tristan Torres. “That's why we have the Eater EP series — they're all introducing individual characters. Then they come together for this Halloween mixtape moment."
Lurking in the dark corners of the internet rap underground toward the tail end of the blog era was GothBoiClique, which spawned out of popular image blogging site Tumblr. The tongue-in-cheek name, coined by Long Beach, California-born Filipino singer and producer Jerick “Jay” Quilisadio aka Cold Hart, ended up sticking. Alongside Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Horse Head, Cold Hart built the foundation of what would become one of the generation’s most influential musical movements of the 2010s and beyond, changing the definition of punk and emo. The GBC collective’s boisterous lineup of Lil Peep, Døves, Fish Narc, YAWNS, Mackned, Lil Tracy, and JPDreamthug took 2000’s rock into the modern Soundcloud age.