Trash Boat – ‘Heaven Can Wait’

Life is complicated, and Trash Boat have embraced the chaos. It’s been three years since we least heard from St Albans’ finest on record, and they’re continuing on the voyage of artistic self-discover that began with 2021’s ‘Don’t You Feel Amazing?’. The collectively-produced ‘Heaven Can Wait’ is one of →

Chubby and the Gang – ‘And Then There Was…’

“Wake up, wake up, the gang is storming through”, was the battle cry when Chubby and the Gang broke through the glass ceiling in a Covid scarred world in the summer of 2021. The London hardcore scene regulars grabbed the mainstream by the throat as their sophomore record ‘The →

LIVE: Boston Manor / Trophy Eyes @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

It’s a night of achievement, even though the O2 Forum Kentish Town feels rather too relaxed for a Friday night as the crowd meanders in. It’s Boston Manor’s biggest headline show to date, the last night of their Sundiver tour, and they’re in the mood to party. The second Trophy →

Mouth Culture – ‘Whatever The Weather’ EP

It’s become increasingly clear to everyone why Mouth Culture have been absolutely everywhere in the past year. From supporting The Blackout and While She Sleeps, up to sets at Download and 2000 Trees, they’re channelling a zeitgeist of pulling through the mire of nonsense we’re all stuck in and →

Sugar Horse – ‘The Grand Scheme of Things’

It’s a cliché but creatives are often asked ‘Where do you get your ideas?’. Think about it, it’s a ridiculous question, but in the case of Sugar Horse it seems perfectly valid. They think outside outside the box. They have so many ideas that even writing about →

FEVER 333 – ‘DARKER WHITE’

FEVER 333 are determined to resist. Resist what? Pretty much everything that counts as a restriction. ‘DARKER WHITE’, their fourth full length outing, still perches outside genre definition, with the balance between hardcore, metalcore and hip-hop shifting between each song to prevent us even mentioning a “hybrid sound”. Somehow, →

Heriot – ‘Devoured by the Mouth of Hell’

If you’re metal fan and you haven’t heard any of the deafening buzz about Heriot over the last few years, you’ve either not left your house, not been on the internet or just been wildly inattentive. Since the release of their first music back in 2020 they’ve dominated the →

Rain City Drive – ‘THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW’

Back in 2020 there was a rebrand. That’s how Rain City Drive came into being. They were worried someone might take offense at their old name. Also, they were one of Johnny Craig’s old projects so maybe they were right to draw a line under that era. →

GALLERY: Zeal & Ardor, Zetra @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

LIVE: Zeal and Ardor @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Smoke and ambient soundscapes drift through the damp Empire as folk in the crowd place bets on whether Swiss metal trailblazers Zeal and Ardor will open with a new song or a classic. The only thing more crammed than the stalls is the band’s schedule, and they’re only in →

Nightwish – ‘Yesterwynde’

Nightwish aim incredibly high on their new album. ’Yesterwynde’, the (mostly) Finnish symphonic metallers’ tenth outing, “describes a feeling that cannot be found in any human language” according to keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen, but, perhaps fortunately, we aren’t getting any bogus consciousness expansion or some kind of mystic enlightenment. →

Charlotte Wessels – ‘The Obsession’

Charlotte Wessels is on a journey. After the breakup of her band, cult Dutch powerhouses Delain (who are still performing under the same name with an almost entirely new lineup), the multi instrumental artist shaved her head and took to Patreon, releasing a double solo album one song at →

LIVE: Burn it Down Festival 2024, Torquay

On the face of it, Burn it Down should never have worked. Little old Torquay just doesn’t host award-winning festivals – or at least, it never used to. Six iterations in, however, and the Best Micro Festival in the country (officially) is only going from strength to strength. Burn →

Foxing – ‘Foxing’

With the conclusion of their debut album’s ten year anniversary tour last year, it could be easy for a band like Foxing to rest on their laurels, feet up. But that’s not Foxing. With every release, they push their own boundaries, evolving in one way or another; →

LIVE: Bambie Thug @ Heaven, London

Deep beneath Charing Cross station, something evil lurks. When Bambie Thug, Eurovision enigma and PVC gender disrupter, promises a brief early set at iconic gay bar Heaven, you can’t ignore the siren song that drags you downstairs into the long, misty basement. Between the folk in the crowd who →

GALLERY: The Plot In You, Invent Animate, Acres @ Islington Assembly Hall

GALLERY: Arctangent Festival 2024 – Saturday

Laura Jane Grace and the Mississippi Medicals – ‘Give An Inch’

Laura Jane Grace is the unstoppable punk rock chameleon that 2024 needs. Somehow, when she isn’t masterminding the mighty Against Me!, or releasing her solo albums, or touring with Catbite, or reimagining Operation Ivy tracks, or getting married after a whirlwind romance, she’s recorded an EP with yet another →

Bodysnatcher – ‘VILE CONDUCT’

If music had a code of conduct, it would involve the phrase ‘Don’t talk about genre’. Nothing is more likely to start an argument. This is because genre is a vague classification, a few recognisable elements you can use to describe a band’s music, meaning you can →

Boston Manor – ‘Sundiver’

We’ve entered the age of the sequel. While movie fans bemoan the lack of originality in yet another Marvel instalment, there’s a lot to be said for a two parter; an opportunity to finish a story left on a cliffhanger. That’s exactly what Blackpool natives Boston Manor hope to →