INTERVIEW: BLIND CHANNEL

Chat Pile – ‘Who Loves The Sun’

There’s something innately American about Chat Pile. It helps that they’re based in Oklahoma. This is the Wild West, where the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye – Uncle Sam’s territory. But Chat Pile has seldom sought comfort in their hometown. Their debut album ‘God’s Country’ features

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

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

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

LIVE: Outbreak Festival – Sunday

The final day of Outbreak 2026 brings with it the usual trudge of tired festival-goers, ready for one final day of moshing. It’s still warm, but the cooler breeze and semblance of cloud cover means that the sunburnt are at least unlikely to be any more so by the

LIVE: SUNN O))) @ Project House, Leeds

Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson stand facing each other, their faces largely hidden by their familiar attire of black hooded robes. Behind them are a series of tombstone-like amplifiers, arranged in a horseshoe shape around the duo. As O’Malley and Anderson simultaneously strike their guitars, the entire building starts

LIVE: Outbreak Festival 2026 – Saturday

Day two of Outbreak 2026 sees the opening of a larger outdoor stage, which subsequently becomes the festival’s main stage. It’s a mixed blessing given the blistering sun which reflects off the surrounding concrete into the melting eyes of an audience of punks. Nonetheless, with three stages and a

LIVE: Outbreak Festival 2026 – Friday

Outbreak Festival 2026 is filled with nostalgia. There is of course the usual array of hardcore and metal bands – some of which are at the genres’ vanguard – but the occasion has an altogether retrospective feel. A staggering number of the weekend’s performances revolve around album(s) shows, with

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