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From Friday 28 March 2025

Deafheaven – ‘Lonely People With Power’

What exactly do Deafheaven sound like? In 2020, this was a pretty easy question to answer. Back then, you could fairly describe them as a band that mixes elements of post-rock and shoegaze with black metal, often labelled as ‘blackgaze’. More specifically, the band created lush, sprawling soundscapes that

Tuesday 18 March 2025

Imperial Triumphant – ‘Goldstar’

With extreme metal, theres a tendency to think that the apex of heaviness has been reached some time ago. After all, once you’ve got brain rattling blast beats, riffs that sound like they’ve been passed through a blender, and shrieked vocals that may as well have been laid down

Friday 29 November 2024

Hidden Mothers – ‘Erosion / Avulsion’

For most bands, the first track of an album is them setting their stalls out early, giving a brief but fully packaged taste of their sound, and lets the listener know what to expect. So as expected, the first track on ‘Erosion / Avulsion’, the debut full length from

Wednesday 30 October 2024

Better Lovers – ‘Highly Irresponsible’

The opening gambit on ‘Highly Irresponsible’ feels like a sledgehammer blow to the eardrums. After a brief, understated instrumental piece, a maelstrom of low end chugging guitars, vocal yelps, and drums being viciously smashed comes together to create a wall of noise. It’s a real statement of intent that’s

Thursday 11 July 2024

VOWER – ‘Apricity’

VOWER’s EP ‘Apricity’ is an interesting prospect, a debut release that’s attracting considerable hype among some while barely registering among others. That’s because it is the new project by members of some of the most criminally underrated bands the UK has produced in recent years; Black Peaks, Palm Reader,

Wednesday 15 May 2024

El Moono – ‘The Waking Sun’

If your music tastes trend towards the heavier end of the scale, chances are you’ve heard the name El Moono before. The Brighton-based quartet has been grinding away on the UK underground metal scene for years, but started attracting significant buzz in 2022 when they released the EP ‘Temple

​​Knocked Loose – ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’

​​For fans of hardcore music, these are strange but wonderful times. A genre that has enjoyed a rabid – but undoubtedly cult – following since the 1980s has started garnering real mainstream attention in recent years. Perhaps the best example of this is the fact that Knocked Loose played

Wednesday 18 October 2023

The Callous Daoboys – ‘God Smiles Upon the Callous Daoboys’

It probably goes without saying that The Callous Daoboys aren’t a band that demand to be taken completely seriously. Even if you’ve never heard a note of their music, their name alone – a spoonerised take on the NFL team the Dallas Cowboys – probably give you a bit

Wednesday 11 October 2023

The Menzingers – ‘Some Of It Was True’

There was a time when The Menzingers were the favourite band of people with their finger firmly on the pulse of the punk scene. While that’s still the case to an extent, their output in recent years has shown they have what it takes to cross over and reach

Wednesday 27 September 2023

Code Orange – ‘The Above’

Code Orange are one of the world’s most brutally exciting metal bands, and that’s largely due to their relentless capacity to shock their audience. This is a band that likes to keep their listeners on their toes and never takes the easiest creative choice. When you press play on