Mouth Culture – ‘Whatever The Weather’ EP

It’s become increasingly clear to everyone why Mouth Culture have been absolutely everywhere in the past year. From supporting The Blackout and While She Sleeps, up to sets at Download and 2000 Trees, they’re channelling a zeitgeist of pulling through the mire of nonsense we’re all stuck in and

Sugar Horse – ‘The Grand Scheme of Things’

It’s a cliché but creatives are often asked ‘Where do you get your ideas?’. Think about it, it’s a ridiculous question, but in the case of Sugar Horse it seems perfectly valid. They think outside outside the box. They have so many ideas that even writing about

FEVER 333 – ‘DARKER WHITE’

FEVER 333 are determined to resist. Resist what? Pretty much everything that counts as a restriction. ‘DARKER WHITE’, their fourth full length outing, still perches outside genre definition, with the balance between hardcore, metalcore and hip-hop shifting between each song to prevent us even mentioning a “hybrid sound”. Somehow,

Heriot – ‘Devoured by the Mouth of Hell’

If you’re metal fan and you haven’t heard any of the deafening buzz about Heriot over the last few years, you’ve either not left your house, not been on the internet or just been wildly inattentive. Since the release of their first music back in 2020 they’ve dominated the

Rain City Drive – ‘THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW’

Back in 2020 there was a rebrand. That’s how Rain City Drive came into being. They were worried someone might take offense at their old name. Also, they were one of Johnny Craig’s old projects so maybe they were right to draw a line under that era.

Zeal & Ardor, Zetra @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

LIVE: Zeal and Ardor @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Smoke and ambient soundscapes drift through the damp Empire as folk in the crowd place bets on whether Swiss metal trailblazers Zeal and Ardor will open with a new song or a classic. The only thing more crammed than the stalls is the band’s schedule, and they’re only in

Nightwish – ‘Yesterwynde’

Nightwish aim incredibly high on their new album. ’Yesterwynde’, the (mostly) Finnish symphonic metallers’ tenth outing, “describes a feeling that cannot be found in any human language” according to keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen, but, perhaps fortunately, we aren’t getting any bogus consciousness expansion or some kind of mystic enlightenment.

Charlotte Wessels – ‘The Obsession’

Charlotte Wessels is on a journey. After the breakup of her band, cult Dutch powerhouses Delain (who are still performing under the same name with an almost entirely new lineup), the multi instrumental artist shaved her head and took to Patreon, releasing a double solo album one song at

LIVE: Burn it Down Festival 2024, Torquay

On the face of it, Burn it Down should never have worked. Little old Torquay just doesn’t host award-winning festivals – or at least, it never used to. Six iterations in, however, and the Best Micro Festival in the country (officially) is only going from strength to strength. Burn