Ten reviews you might have missed

Reviews from Thursday 01 June 2023

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – ‘Wicca Phase Springs Eternal’

When Adam McIlwee announces a Run For Cover records Wicca Phase Springs Eternal album, it is a statement of intent. This is not a mixtape, like 2022’s ‘Full Moon Mystery Garden’, nor is this a split with a wildly contrasting artist, a foray into an adjacent genre or simply

Wednesday 31 May 2023

LIVE: Spanish Love Songs/SUDS @ The Lexington, London

Between the pandemic lockdowns and subsequent tours being nixed by multiple band members contracting Covid-19 itself, it’s been three years and an entire album cycle since Spanish Love Songs last played in the UK. Actually, it’s more like three years, three months, one week and four days.

Rancid – ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Rancid were a spent force. After ten studio albums, thirty two years in the music industry, an age-inappropriate marriage and occasional dodgy British accents, their last three albums have been disappointing to say the least. However, whatever they’ve been eating for breakfast since

Friday 26 May 2023

Phoxjaw – ‘notverynicecream’

Early 2020, despite being three short years ago, was an entirely different time. We could go out for as long as we wanted, meet in as big a group as we liked, and Phoxjaw had just released their debut album. ‘Royal Swan’ was a distinctly British first record which

LIVE: Steel Panther @ O2 Kentish Town Forum, London

There’s one question that pounces to mind before seeing controversial eighties larpers Steel Panther live: while their lyrics are comic, are they now a bit of a joke? They’ve won Loudwire’s ‘Live Act Of The Year’ award twice, but recent reviews have suggested that their whole ‘excessively crude’ schtick

Wednesday 24 May 2023

Incendiary – ‘Change the Way Think About Pain’

It’s been six years since Incendiary have released a full LP, and while the world has changed drastically, the Long Island hardcore outfit have not. Just as brutal, just as boisterous, and just as vocal about their displeasure with the state of things, the group have returned with their

Tuesday 23 May 2023

Heart Attack Man – ‘Freak of Nature’

When a band’s write-ups include the words “comedy” or “humour”, it’s enough to make you a little nervous. It could be light-hearted gold or, equally as plausibly, it could be Fat Mike’s awkward drug clown character. Heart Attack Man’s humour is different, the kind that’s in the memes

Friday 19 May 2023

Sir Chloe – ‘I Am The Dog’

Touring with the Pixies and Beck, and being pals with Harry Styles (yes, that one) before the release of your debut album can likely be overwhelming, particularly when you’re already pulling in millions of monthly Spotify listeners. It leads to the question of ‘just how good is this band

Wednesday 17 May 2023

Sleep Token – ‘Take Me Back To Eden’

Claimed by masked frontman Vessel to be the mortal representatives of an ancient deity known as ‘Sleep’, Sleep Token evoke such acts as Ghost and Heilung, being part band, part performance art project. The air of mystery surrounding their members is as much a draw as their atypical approach

The Used – ‘Toxic Positivity’

According to the WHO (The World Health Organisation, not the band), the global prevalence of depression and anxiety rose by 25% in the first year of the pandemic. Amongst those affected was Bert McCracken, vocalist and songwriter for The Used. In 2022, the band cancelled their Slam Dunk appearances

Friday 12 May 2023

The Acacia Strain – Step Into The Light

Across 22 years and 10 albums, deathcore crew The Acacia Strain have established themselves at the top of the festering pile of unbridled aural brutality that they helped usher in. By this point, their pulverising brand of downtuned dissonance has become an unstoppable beast and time after time, they

The Acacia Strain – Failure Will Follow

Across 22 years and 10 albums, deathcore crew The Acacia Strain has established themselves at the top of the festering pile of unbridled aural brutality that they have ushered in. By this point, they’ve earned creative license to do what they want, so when they announced two new albums

LIVE: Electric Callboy @ Eventim Apollo, London

May 1st, 2023. Fade in, and cut to the head shot of the Eventim Apollo sign, in bold red letters reads: Electric Callboy. This would explain why some are dressed in vibrant 80s sportswear that came directly from their merch store, why there appeared to be tiny

Veil of Maya – ‘[M]other’

Chicago quartet Veil of Maya are back with a new offering of madness, ‘other’ really live up to our expectations? Or is it just a nonsensical bunch of noise from

Thursday 11 May 2023

Dropkick Murphys – ‘Okemah Rising’

Woody Guthrie, iconic American singer songwriter behind one of Mojo’s ‘100 Records That Changed The World’, was an artist who wasn’t afraid to put his money where his mouth is politically. Writing about the suffering faced by ordinary Americans during the Great Depression of the 1920s and the displacement

Wednesday 10 May 2023

Happydaze – ‘Full Free Radical’ EP

Think back to a festival you went to when you felt ‘young’. If youth is still on your side, you probably won’t have to think too hard. Maybe it was Reading, or Glastonbury, or a local gathering in a park. If you try and conjure up the feeling of

The Rocket Summer – ‘Shadowkasters’

Texas native Bryce Avary has been in the game far longer than you think. With his debut record turning twenty this past February, Avary is no stranger to switching up styles as the years go on. Born from alt-rock punk and slowly embracing more alt-pop elements, it’s made for

Tuesday 09 May 2023

The Amity Affliction – ‘Not Without My Ghosts’

‘Not Without My Ghosts’, the latest, self-produced offering from The Amity Affliction, is the band’s latest brutal yet brilliant album, and follows on from their 2020 release ‘Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them’. The album roars its opening in the form of ‘Show Me Your God’, a disgustingly heavy,

Hot Mulligan – ‘Why Would I Watch’

What’s the statute of limitations on genre “revivals”? Ten years? Twenty? What about the revival and/or reinvigoration of multiple genres simultaneously? Somehow, it’s been twelve years since the ‘Tr00 pop punk’ movement went fully mainstream with the release of both ‘Under Soil & Dirt’ by The Story So Far and

Friday 05 May 2023

Currents – ‘The Death We Seek’

It’s hard work being internet darlings, but someone has to do it and Currents have slowly but surely become one of metalcore’s most underrated groups. The Connecticut quintet have achieved renown in the scene, releasing two adored LPs (in 2017 and 2020), putting their own spin on the stylistic