Ten reviews you might have missed

Reviews from Wednesday 26 August 2026

Dinosaur Jr. – ‘There Near’

There was always something retiring about Dinosaur Jr. Their name alone – appended with that suffix of inferiority, necessary to avoid legal action by way of ‘60s supergroup Dinosaur – was indicative of something slightly less than greatness. Seeing Dinosaur Jr. live is similarly lacking in

Tuesday 25 August 2026

LIVE: Bloodstock Open Air 2026 – Sunday

Sunday at Bloodstock always carries a different kind of energy to the rest of the weekend: equal parts triumphant and battered, like a boxer who’s still standing purely out of spite. Muddy boots, questionable hygiene and a healthy dose of Sunday-scaries mixed with the giddy realisation that this is

Monday 24 August 2026

LIVE: Bloodstock Open Air 2026 – Saturday

Saturday arrives, and the morning bathing options are either queuing up for 3-5 business days to take a shower, or deciding you don’t have all day to wait and instead opting for the lite version; baby wipes and prayers. A festival classic. Breakfast is continental – a selection of

Friday 21 August 2026

LIVE: Bloodstock Open Air 2026 – Friday

There’s an energetic first-day-of-the-main-festival kind of buzz on this sunny day in Walton on Trent. It can only mean one thing – Welcome to Bloodstock Open Air 2026. Tents have been pitched. Huge flags consisting of niche memes and references have now been hoisted (two massive flags

Thursday 20 August 2026

Chelsea Wolfe – ‘The Dark’

There are many types of Chelsea Wolfe; the doom folk poet, the goth overlord, the master of all things hypnogogic. Wolfe’s covered a vast landscape of mystery and occultism over the past two decades, distorting genre lines into uniquely amorphous collections of songs. ‘The Dark’ is her newest

Monday 17 August 2026

Karen Dió – ‘FUGAZ’

Brazil’s top exports include coffee, petroleum, iron ore, frozen bovine meat and now Karen Dió. Snapped up by Hopeless Records for her 2024 EP ‘My World’ EP, she now has to prove success wasn’t a fluke. The pressure is on. You’ve probably seen the slogan, with its

Friday 07 August 2026

Din Of Celestial Birds – ‘Takeoffs & Landings’

Music can often feel like a journey. The listener is taken on an emotional ride with the musicians at the helm, inviting us to reflect on our own lived experiences as their music scores the way. The fittingly titled ‘Takeoffs & Landings’ by Leeds-based instrumental post-rockers Din

Thursday 06 August 2026

Electric Callboy – ‘Tanzneid’

If you’ve got a friend who’s still on the fence about whether Electric Callboy are genius or trash, all you need to do is silently hand them a copy of ‘Tanzneid’ and they’ll be converted. Well, okay: if they haven’t already been convinced by a live show, then this

Wednesday 05 August 2026

Initiate – ‘WITH LOVE // WITH RAGE’

Letters. It’s all about letters. A series of handwritten thoughts, captured in time. When Crystal Park sat down to write the lyrics for Initiate’s new EP, she saw it as a series of intimate conversations, each signed with the valediction ‘With Love // With Rage’. In

Tuesday 04 August 2026

Cancer Bats – ‘Give Me Dirt’

What do you do after seven albums as Canada’s hardest band? Take a break of course, and after two decades of head-banging, Cancer Bats surely deserved their time off. ‘Give Me Dirt’, their latest album, is supposedly inspired by nature and travel, but that’s like saying ‘Blood Meridian’ is

Monday 03 August 2026

Citizen – ‘HALCYON BLUES’

There is a saying. Over a long enough time span the chance of survival drops to zero. It’s all about probability. The longer something exists the more likely it is to end. The same applies to bands. Eventually the magic fades. The more albums you release, the

Friday 31 July 2026

Future Palace – ‘RESURGENCE’

Two is company. Three is a crowd. But what is a band? In recent years it has become difficult to say. Once upon a time you needed a band to write, to record, to be a band. Now, modern technologies and online spaces allow you to exist

Thursday 23 July 2026

LIVE: 2000Trees 2026 – Saturday

And now, the end is near, and so we face the final day of 2000Trees 2026. It’s been beyond a blast, but it’s not over yet: we’ve got new favourites, old friends and one heck of a headliner to mark the close of the biggest little festival in the

Wednesday 22 July 2026

LIVE: 2000Trees 2026 – Friday

It’s even hotter today, but we’re not throwing in the towel yet. 2000Trees Friday sees the return of the mighty Arcane Roots, gives us a chance to release our Cancer Bats, and kicks us into the heaviest day of the weekend! Words: Kate Allvey // Photos: Penny Bennett and Paul

Mimi Barks – ‘DREAMSTATE OF FEAR’

Trap, like rap and hip-hop, is largely a solo pursuit. The individual needs to stand out. Hence with each release Mimi Barks’ image changes, as does her sound. It’s a state of constant reinvention making it hard to pin down exactly who she is or what her music will

Monday 20 July 2026

LIVE: 2000Trees 2026 – Thursday

2000Trees weekend only comes once a year, and nothing as trifling as a heatwave is going to hold us back from the (other) Happiest Place On Earth. Today brings up last-minute line-up changes, a crowd of thousands who never knew they could love Mariachi music, and a whole lot

Friday 17 July 2026

Flesh Creep – ‘GLIMMER’

Someone, somewhere knows something. It’s not a secret, but they’re keeping it from you. They know it and you don’t. Earlier this year Music For Nations signed Flesh Creep and re-released their debut album ‘We Need You To Bleed’. It’s because they knew. Listening to new EP

Wednesday 15 July 2026

LIVE: Iron Maiden @ Knebworth

Iron Maiden are British metal titans, famous even to those who cower at the thought of distortion. Celebrating their fiftieth year as a band, the Run For Your Lives tour lands in Knebworth for one final extension of last year’s extensive UK performances. They’ve played here before, having previously

The Menzingers – ‘Everything I Ever Saw’

There’s a good chance a lot of reviews are going to slate the new Menzingers record. ‘Everything I Ever Saw’ is so different from their raging punk past, and that’s going to alienate the folk who want to slam their feelings away. With respect, those reviews are going to

Tuesday 14 July 2026

LIVE: My Chemical Romance @ Wembley Stadium

It’s Gerard Way’s World, and we just happen to live in it. Why else would ninety thousand of us be attempting to decipher cryptic messages flashed across the screens of Wembley Stadium in order to try and extract secret messages from our emo prophets mere hours before My Chemical