Ten reviews you might have missed

Reviews from Thursday 25 June 2026

LIVE: Download Festival 2026 – Saturday

Clouds threaten, but the only inclement weather on Saturday is ‘November Rain’. Download Day Two sees us fighting for the Fox God with Babymetal, taking in the local Lvndmvrks and an evening with one of the most iconic rock acts of all time. We’ve brought our dogs for a

Wednesday 24 June 2026

LIVE: Download Festival 2026 – Friday

Nothing holds Download back. Not the mud that covers our boots long before the arena opens, not the 100-metre-long queue for the merch superstore, and definitely not our heavy heads the morning after 5ive’s completely unironic cameo at District X. Download XXIII kicks off with a Friday of wildcards

Tuesday 23 June 2026

Exploring Birdsong – ‘EVERY HOUSE WE BUILT’

The comedian Nick Revell once performed a show based on the premise of exploring birdsong. It was hilarious, funny enough to remember decades later. The premise was that beneath the beautiful songs were base emotions. If you understood what the songs were about you would be driven

Friday 19 June 2026

Warning – ‘Rituals Of Shame’

Arriving twenty years after 2006’s seminal, genre-defining ‘Watching From A Distance’, to describe ‘Rituals Of Shame’ as “much anticipated” would be the understatement of the century. As one of doom metal’s most emotionally affecting and resonant records, ‘Watching From A Distance’ was always going to be a

Thursday 18 June 2026

Prince Of Failure – ‘PRINCE OF FAILURE’

Music is basically mathematics, and there is a rule. A simple one. One that is always correct. Two plus two equals four. When people start talking about supergroups, they seem to think this doesn’t apply. Prince Of Failure are a new project consisting of the instrumental virtuoso

Friday 12 June 2026

Des Rocs – ‘To Hell And Back’

With hindsight, the collaboration between Des Rocs and the Borderlands franchise feels so obvious. Both the artist and the looter-shooter game series channel a renegade energy, whether you’re fighting off maniacs on an alien planet or singing about New York bikers with a heavy old-school rock influence. Both draw

Wednesday 10 June 2026

BIG|BRAVE – ‘in grief or in hope’

It’s amazing to think there was a time when BIG|BRAVE performed as an acoustic project. During the early 2010s, the then-nascent band were a folk duo. Their evolution since – from duo to trio – has dramatically broadened the band’s scope. During this time, the Canadians have traversed most

Tuesday 09 June 2026

Sleeping With Sirens – ‘An Ending In Itself’

Sometimes you just need a little pick-me-up from the stresses of daily life from someone who gets it. That’s what the new Sleeping With Sirens album is; a friend when you’re in need of a helping hand. The arc that they’ve followed over the last two records is completed

Friday 05 June 2026

Death Cab For Cutie – ‘I Built You A Tower’

Let’s say you’ve just had a fight with a loved one: heated emotions, hasty phrases thrown and muscles locked with stress. Then you take a break and really think about what they mean to you, and which path you want to take next. That exact sensation of walking through

Guilt Trip – ‘Armour Of Angels’

Every now and then, a band will release an album that takes them from being mere contenders to cementing them as genre heavyweights; for Manchester’s metallic-hardcore five-piece Guilt Trip, ‘Armour Of Angels’ is one such LP. Whilst only being the band’s third full length release, ‘Armour Of Angels’ finds

Evanescence – ‘Sanctuary’

Evanescence are rock survivors. Despite the internet rumour that the entire band died years ago, they are very much alive, and after five years of soul-searching, have emerged from the studio with a stronger, bolder sound in the form of their sixth album, ‘Sanctuary’. It’s a record that firmly feels

Tuesday 02 June 2026

Converge – ‘HUM OF HURT’

In 2024, the BBC aired a four-part series called The Listeners. Based on the Jordan Tannahill novel, the drama follows Claire, an English teacher driven to insanity by a continuous and inexplicable ambient sound. While the story is fictional, the phenomenon, known as “the hum”, is well-documented. Instances of

LIVE: Slam Dunk South 2026

What’s rarer than a Bank Holiday heatwave? A Slam Dunk lineup this scorching. Slam Dunk South might have seen temperatures high enough to make us regret wearing our black scene gear for our day out, but it would turn into a day of revelations: acts we’d relegated to the

Friday 29 May 2026

Sparta – ‘CUT A SILHOUETTE’

Imagine the scene, if you haven’t already experienced it. You’re sitting in a dentist’s chair. You’re nervous, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Your wandering eyes settle on a humorous sign that reads: “Dentists don’t die, they just lose their pull”. You’re unsure if it’s a

LIVE: Desertfest Sunday

It’s the final day of Desertfest and the skies over Camden are decidedly greyer than they have been for the preceding days. With less draw to mingle outside, this does mean that the smaller venues are once again full from the moment they open. It’s obviously fantastic for bands

Thursday 28 May 2026

LIVE: Desertfest Saturday

The lunchtime beers are already flowing, and Camden is buzzing with activity for day two of Desertfest. It’s already one in, one out at the Black Heart, with the queue snaking through the busy pub downstairs and onto the street. Words: Ellie Odurny // Photos: Jessi Lotti, Sam Huddleston and

LIVE: Desertfest Friday

London’s Desertfest sees swathes of doom, psych and stoner rock fans descend upon five venues throughout Camden for three days. Greenland Place, outside The Black Heart, is closed off for the weekend; the narrow lane becoming a bustling epicentre of merch, media, drinkers, chatters and smokers. The juxtaposition of

Wednesday 27 May 2026

All Them Witches – ‘HOUSE OF MIRRORS’

Longevity is an underrated skill. To keep a band alive and still be making music years after breaking out is something to be valued. It takes persistence and commitment just to keep it going, let alone make a quality album. After six years without releasing new music,

Friday 22 May 2026

MARMOZETS – ‘CO.WAR.DICE.’

There’s a particular kind of dread that comes with a long-awaited comeback. You want it to be good. You need it to be good. And the longer the absence, the higher the stakes. Marmozets have been away for eight years; long enough for an entire generation of

Thursday 21 May 2026

The Howling – ‘SALVO’

Style is everything. Bowie constantly reinvented himself, Creeper burned their stage costumes after their album tour, and The Black Parade is as much about the uniforms as the music. When creating theatrical music you can embody it, you can live it and you can make it an