GALLERY: Jinjer – ‘Duél’

If every time someone said a band tore up the rule book, we’d probably be facing a global shortage of reference guides to metal. But how often do we see a band writing their own story in the world of heavy music, with each song a narrative wrought in →

GALLERY: Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium, Orbit Culture @ Utilita Arena, Birmingham

GALLERY: Dead Air – ‘ELEMENTS’

Time moves on. Bands form and fold. Songs that once meant something fade into the past. As you grow older and tastes change, sounds go in and out of style but there’s a time that’s your era. A time where everything is new and exciting, that defines →

GALLERY: LIVE: Better Lovers / Frontierer / Greyhaven @ Electric Brixton, London

It’s Saturday night in Brixton and it’s as cold as the Arctic in the streets, but if you’re one of the lucky folks with a ticket to tonight’s shenanigans at Electric Brixton then you’ll find warmth and a whole lot more waiting for you inside. Fans pile into the →

GALLERY: RØRY – ‘Restoration’

Success has been a long time coming for RØRY, but who else can channel four decades of hardship into a debut released at an age when many rockers are considering slowing down? The songwriter, social media activist, author and split-hair-aficionado channels a bared soul and unflinching honesty on ‘Restoration’ →

GALLERY: Slowly Slowly – ‘Forgiving Spree’

Aussie four-piece SLOWLY SLOWLY’s latest offering, ‘Forgiving Spree’, has one simple goal – to be “a really solid rock album that has no filler on it.” It’s a bold and daring claim to make ahead of release, and off the back of a second Top Ten album in the →

GALLERY: Vukovi – ‘MY GOD HAS A GUN’

Vukovi pride themselves on walking the road less taken. They might be slightly disappointed to learn that their fourth album, ‘MY GOD HAS A GUN’, is perhaps their most accessible yet, it’s provocation open and inviting to those who seek just a little bit more from their heavy music. →

GALLERY: Pet Needs – ‘Kind Of Acoustic’

Pet Needs had a mission: to create “something warm, raw and organic. Something acoustic. Something that felt like the most true take as opposed to the most perfect” as frontman Johnny Marriott put it. The acoustic album that offers the other side of the coin on a band’s sound →

GALLERY: State of You – ‘On A Knife’s Edge’

Introductions are important. If you’re introduced to a band and told they’re ‘Hardcore’s most exciting newcomers’, you’re going to have a very different opinion to if you’re told ‘They Suck’. State Of You do not suck. Hyperbole aside, this is a band with pedigree. It’s made →

GALLERY: Slipknot, Bleed From Within @ The O2

GALLERY: LIVE: Slipknot / Bleed From Within @ The O2

Never underestimate the power of the most magical time of the year to bring people together. Not Christmas, of course, but Slipknot’s first UK tour in four years which closes out tonight at London’s O2. You’d be mistaken if you believe that the band who’ve taken great pleasure over →

GALLERY: LIVE: The Menzingers @ The Underworld

People debate what constitutes ‘real punk’ all the time, but whatever that intangible quality is, it’s in the air for the Menzingers’ duo of anniversary shows celebrating ten years of ‘Rented World’s release at Camden’s Underworld. Guitars are piled on the balcony, and we wear our pit-hardened dedication on →

GALLERY: LIVE: Vower / Jar of Blind Flies @ The Lower Third, London

Fresh from an additionally added date last night, Brighton trio Jar of Blind Flies are opening for Vower’s original sold-out show at basement venue The Lower Third. With 2022 debut album ‘Mia’ and single ‘Not Your Baby’ released earlier this year, they blend nineties grunge with more modern alt-rock →

GALLERY: Sylosis, Fit For An Autopsy @ Electric Brixton

GALLERY: LIVE: Sylosis / Fit For An Autopsy / Darkest Hour / Heriot @ Electric Brixton, London

It’s early doors tonight at Electric Brixton for a lineup featuring four metal stalwarts. There’s a decent sized crowd already assembled for openers Heriot, who deliver an onslaught of distorted guitar tones, ferocious growls and crushing riffs from the first beat. Whilst Heriot’s sound is undoubtedly heavy, their severity is →

GALLERY: Top 25 Albums Of The Year

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GALLERY: Hanabie – ‘BUCCHIGIRI TOKYO’ EP

If you’re reading this you’re unlikely to be Japanese. Hanabie are. This makes their new EP tricky to discuss. Most alternative, hardcore, metal, Punktastic music has its roots in American or European culture but they’re a band hailing from a different continent. They’re unusual in this context →

GALLERY: LIVE: Alien Ant Farm @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

Back in the dawn of the new millennium, Alien Ant Farm were everywhere. Their cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ went platinum and topped charts across the world in 2001, and mainstream success beckoned. After a series of dubious decisions including bootlegging their own fourth album, splitting in 2007 →

GALLERY: Alien Ant Farm, InMe, The Fear @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

GALLERY: LIVE: Twin Atlantic, DAYTIME TV @ Electric Brixton

Twin Atlantic’s legacy in modern rock is undeniable, and it’s easy to see why when the Electric Brixton is so easily filled with a sea of black-clad fans, each person a testament to the band’s enduring grip on their audience. Hailing from Glasgow, the quartet has never →