Ten reviews you might have missed

Reviews from Friday 17 September 2021

Beach Riot – ‘Subatomic Party Cool’

Plane tickets bought through gambling on horse races, a search to find bandmates when really they were right by your side all along, travelling midnight recording sessions in the midst of a pandemic… The story of Beach Riot’s formation could almost be an album of itself, a

Spiritbox – ‘Eternal Blue’

If you’re reading this review, I won’t waste your time by detailing and explaining who Spiritbox are and why we’re so excited to get our mitts on this record. You’re likely here reading this because you share the exact same level of enthusiasm. One of the most exciting

Alien Weaponry – ‘ Tangaroa’

Māori metalheads Alien Weaponry hit the metal scene by storm a few years ago. The sight of three extremely young musicians combining groove metal with their traditional culture delighted audiences around the world and led to big tours with the likes of Slayer, Anthrax and Black Label

Wednesday 15 September 2021

Real Friends – ‘Torn In Two’

With their 2018 record, ‘Composure’, Real Friends came into their own with a set of emotionally charged and vibrant pop-rock songs. It would, however, would be the band’s last with vocalist Dan Lambton. After 10 years with the Illinois group, he parted ways in early 2020 leaving fans guessing

LIVE: Reading Festival 2021 – Saturday

Dust off your bucket hats and unearth your favourite pot of biodegradable glitter because after two long years away, Reading Festival and its northern counterpart are back from the grave. With a lineup that saw more changes than the bar has poured pints over the years, it was finally

Tuesday 14 September 2021

Employed to Serve – ‘Conquering’

Over the last half-decade, Employed to Serve has become one of the most revered acts in the UK metal undergeround. Their two most recent records in particular, 2017’s ‘The Warmth of a Dying Sun’ and 2019’s ‘Eternal Forward Motion’, were released to much critical fanfare, with the former nailing

LIVE: Reading Festival 2021 – Friday

Monday 13 September 2021

We Were Promised Jetpacks – ‘Enjoy The View’

We’re still in that strange period of time where much of the music we’re seeing released has been produced entirely within pandemic lockdowns. For some, world events take centre stage in their work, and for others, the whole topic of last year is something to avoid like

Friday 10 September 2021

Sincere Engineer – ‘Bless My Psyche’

To understand Sincere Engineer, it helps to know where the name comes from. Legend has it the phrase was uttered by a member of The Lawrence Arms in an early 2000s interview, and it caught the attention of a young Deanna Belos who would later become a singer/songwriter. First

Thursday 09 September 2021

I Feel Fine – ‘The Cold In Every Shelter’

Some people believe that the UK emo music scene has long lived in the shadow of its transatlantic counterparts. We, however, beg to differ. There have been bands who either were or are on par with familiar and influential American acts such as American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate,

God Damn – ‘Raw Coward’

Self-penning their own particular brand of “doom punk”, Midlanders God Damn are back with their fourth album and first release as a four-piece, delivering ten tracks of guitar-filled blistering noise on new record ‘Raw Coward’. Recorded remotely over lockdown, it blends a DIY rawness with clever mixing to showcase

Saturday 04 September 2021

LIVE: Twin Atlantic @ Electric Ballroom, Camden

It’s 8pm in Camden and you would never for a second believe that not so long ago this bustling, cultural hub of London was all but a ghost town. The line outside the iconic Electric Ballroom is longer than the eye can see, as fans are eager

Thursday 02 September 2021

LIVE: Boston Manor @ The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes

If anyone had any reservations as to whether Boston Manor would incite as much carnage post-pandemic as they did pre-, tonight quashes them all. Now back in one of the last venues they played in the distant past of 2019, the chaotic energy of set opener ‘Everything

Tigress – ‘Pura Vida’

Nothing puts a halt to the summer quite so sharply as a sudden pang of self-realisation. Spent too much money on holidays? Had a fight with your best friend? Come to the conclusion you’ve become so self absorbed that it’s skewed your perception of the world and

Tuesday 31 August 2021

Children Collide – ‘Time Itself’

After a near decade-long hiatus, Aussie three piece Children Collide are back to release new LP ‘Time Itself’. After such a long time away from the scene, it can be difficult to reclaim your place in an industry that’s everchanging. Is the sound that made your name still relevant

Turnstile – ‘GLOW ON’

With 2018’s ‘Time & Space’, Turnstile put themselves at the forefront of modern hardcore. Over its 25 minutes, the Baltimore-based collective showed their ability to be forward-thinking, exploring areas beyond their hardcore roots – and it’s for this reason that follow-up ‘GLOW ON’ is so highly anticipated. For their third

Friday 27 August 2021

LIVE: Bob Vylan @ Tunbridge Wells Forum

Finally, time for a proper sweaty punk rock show. And where better to host it than a former public toilet, in a place headliners Bob Vylan less-than-fondly dub the “armpit of England”? The evening’s proceedings begin with an endearing and energetic performance from local three-piece Bruise.

Smash Into Pieces – ‘A NEW HORIZON’

Music is created in many different spaces, for many different audiences. Some bands are born to play dirty sweaty clubs, others are designed to play arenas. Smash Into Pieces aim squarely for the second option. Formed in 2009, the Scandinavian four-piece has one thing in their sights, success. You

The Bronx – ‘Bronx VI’

Realistically, this review could be two sentences long. If so, it would go something like this: The Bronx doesn’t make bad records. If you like the band already, you have to listen to ‘The Bronx VI’. That’s because it’s hard to review an album like this – it’s another Bronx

LIVE: Bloodstock 2021 – Sunday

Raise your viking drinking horns to the sky and rejoice, Bloodstock is back! After two long years, the UK’s number one extreme music festival has returned to Catton Hall to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Punktastic couldn’t be happier to see them back in action either and neither can the