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From Friday 29 September 2023

Black Stone Cherry – ‘Screamin’ At The Sky’

Black Stone Cherry have progressed far beyond blaming it on the boom boom. Now, with an average age of forty, they’ve reached maturity and managed to compress a Southern thunderstorm into a twelve song package. ‘Screamin’ At The Sky’ introduces not only Steve Jewell Jr. on bass (formerly a

Wednesday 27 September 2023

LIVE: Reading Festival – Saturday + Sunday

As another day of Reading Festival dawns, the girls in bikinis have switched to tracksuits for comfort and the need for coffee becomes more urgent. Fortunately, a day of hardcore awaits with enough heat to blister paint, let alone merely drive off autumnal chills. Words: Kate Allvey. Images: Abbi Draper-Scott All

Tuesday 26 September 2023

Koyo – ‘Would You Miss It?’

Old punks turn into country singers as they age, but those in the hardcore scene? They regenerate like Time Lords, constantly reinventing and growing more youthful with each album. Koyo might only be three years old as a band, but its formed of luminaries from Typecaste and SeeYouSpaceCowboy. Their

Monday 25 September 2023

LIVE: Hot Mulligan / Spanish Love Songs @ Kentish Town Forum

Tonight is one of those shows that reminds you why you do this. The tube was out of commission so we all had to re-route, it was twenty six degrees even after the sun had set, and the crowd had packed themselves in like Tetris cubes half an hour

LIVE: Reading Festival 2023 – Friday

Is Reading still a rock festival? The last half decade has seen a slow descent into pop acts. The teeth bared by previous headliners have definitely been blunted and worn down. However, while Reading’s no longer snarling in your face, there are more than enough vicious acts lurking among

Wednesday 20 September 2023

3Teeth – ‘EndEx’

If you are looking for your pop industrial fix and you no longer want to listen to Rammstein or Marilyn Manson due to, uh, “reasons”, you need to mainline ‘EndEx’, 3Teeth’s first release in four years. They’re proudly flying the flag woven by Nine Inch Nails above a noisy,

Friday 15 September 2023

LIVE: Mutoid Man @ Oslo, London

Mutoid Man are not what they seem. Beneath layers of fuzz and noise there’s an intricacy, and a ferocious intelligence, in everything they touch. The four hundred people crammed into the sold-out Oslo in Hackney know that well. The crowd is overwhelmingly male (around ten women can be spotted

Thirty Seconds To Mars – ‘It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day’

Crossing the borders between acting and music is risky business. For every Jack Black, Lady Gaga or Will Smith, there’s Bruce Willis or Kiefer Sutherland. But Jared Leto, the elegant spectre that he is, has once again managed to show he can keep

Wednesday 13 September 2023

Corey Taylor – ‘CMF2’

If there was ever a metal remake of ‘The Sound Of Music’, Corey Taylor’s new album ‘CMF2’ would surely get a song devoted to it in recognition of how he has used all of his ‘Favourite Things’ in it’s creation. Metallica solos and acoustic country, embracing

LIVE: Chris Farren @ The Lexington, London

Chris Farren shows are less concerts and more emotional exhibitions. He takes us on a guided tour of his sincerity via gently cynical humour, dynamic animations and a bucketful of heart. Formerly the frontman of Fake Problems, Farren is now a cult sensation