Rather than try and sum it up, here’s what Sugar Horse frontman Ashley Tubb had to say about it:

“The idea for The Great Shame started just after we’d released DRUGS. We noticed a couple people mentioning how the EP was longer than some albums. A fact we do not deny. Unfortunately, with how slow all our songs are, if we wanna do more than just a verse and a chorus it’s gonna come in over 6 minutes. Try as you may, you cannot escape the trappings of time. Anyway, I thought it would be pretty funny to release a single, in the same year, that was as long as the EP. Just to really hammer the point home. As a band, we constantly make jokes about how all our songs are just one note played in slightly different rhythms for very extended periods of time. We ran with this too.

“Wouldn’t it be pretty funny to release a half hour long song, that’s just open A over and over.”

This turned from a sort of joke into a bit of a challenge in my head. Could I make this thing interesting, or would it be the height of tedium? I reckon we succeeded in the prior, but I’ll leave that up to everyone else.

The depths of lockdown provided me a tonne of time to mess around with instrumental passages of the song and get a general idea of structure. While I was working on this, Jake sent me a link to a short documentary on BBC iPlayer. It was called Heart Of An Angel. Directed and produced by Molly Dineen in 1989. It follows the working days of the Angel Tube Station staff for 48 hours, shortly before it’s closure and renovation in 1992. Prior to this the station had been open and operational for 100 years. You can see this age in the sheer dilapidation of the station itself. Things are broken beyond repair. Everything looks bleak and barely holding together, dusty traces of an old London are clearly visible everywhere. In this backdrop work a non-more juxtaposed group of staff. There’s the day shift, the old guard so set in their ways, they plough on regardless of consequence to the station or their own wellbeing. Characters like Derek the ticket seller dive headlong into long diatribes about how their life has ultimately been a pointless endeavour and Ray the foreman who longs for a place very different than this run down hole in the ground. Working next to them, but never actually seeing them, are the night shift. Younger (mostly) and new to London. They moved there for the chance of money and a more exciting life, instead they end up pulling human hair out of the railway tracks in the dead of night.

This film really rang true with the various mad things going on around the world at the time. A feeling of a huge change in the old guard. Destruction of old, long broken systems and the dissatisfaction of younger generations being forced to “work the night shift”.
The theme really stuck with me and I decided to make this the subject of the song, however after a short revisit of Adam Curtis’ (documentary maker Hypernormalisation, The Century Of Self etc) back catalogue and a late night viewing of Paul Wright’s Arcadia I decided to properly fuse the two ideas. Arcadia was made up of entirely archive footage of various festivals, ceremonies and celebrations from the British countryside. Somehow, with the help of editing and music, he managed to transform these silent little windows in time into a horror film and a truly terrifying one at that. It was this and the almost YouTube vlogger style of Adam Curtis that made me realise I can transform Heart Of An Angel into something different. Something about moving out of the past and into the future. Looking back on the past with scorn and learning from the mistakes of those old guard who were too terrified to change.”

The announcement comes with the band’s latest single, ‘Dont Give Up Your Ghost’, and its accompanying animated video.

It’s been a long wait since the band’s last studio album, ‘Feel Something’, which was released in 2017, so this new material has certainly been a long time coming and if ‘Don’t Give Up Your Ghost’ is anything to go by, it’s going to be phenomenal.

Of the new single, the band has to say:

“It talks about depression and suicidal thoughts and tendencies,” says Miranda about the moody and introspective track.

“It’s told from the perspective of a person who is dealing with a friend who confides that he or she has attempted to kill him or herself. However, this person has been there as well and has even made suicide attempts, too. The person tries to console the friend and let him or know she’s not alone. It’s about not giving up when there’s so much more the world can offer. Even though you’re in a certain place right now, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be in the same place forever.”

Miranda elaborates further on the vibe of No Good Left To Give, saying, “At its core, the new record is what we’ve always been, which is emotional, real, and honest music. We all know each other very well and understand our respective styles. We’re discussing mental health, struggles with relationships, and relatable things from our lives. At the same time, it’s a little darker.”

Cressey echoes that sentiment, sharing, “The mood is a little heavier, for sure… We didn’t try to emulate anyone. It’s very pure.”

Listen to new single ‘Don’t Give Up Your Ghost’ and watch the animated music video here.

‘Hidden Mothers’ comes out on September 18th and will be available on vinyl and through digital platforms through UK label Surviving Sounds.

The band, who have been described as “snow screamo” – a genre that makes far more sense once you give the music a listen – are set to release “and emotional, dynamic, and hard hitting EP that captures the intensity and ferocity of their live experience, following from a string of successful shows supporting the likes of Inter Arma, Blanket, Coilguns, Wren and Planes Mistaken For Stars”.

If the first two singles are anything to go by, you can believe every word of this promise, and it only makes us even more anxious for September 18th to roll around.

While Hidden Mothers may for now be under the radar, with collaborations with the likes of Joe Clayton who mixed the EP and Scott Middleton (Cancer Bats) who mastered these tracks, and artwork design by Steve Myles (Cattle), it won’t be too long before this band becomes a household name in “snow screamo” and beyond.

Pre-order details coming soon.

FFO: MOL, Envy, Deafheaven, Oathbreaker, Black Peaks.

Now we can finally relax and put aside any fears, as the Cambridge based band are back once more with another hugely emotional track, ‘Distant Light’. The track showcases the band’s unwavering talent, further cementing Bennett’s strong, husky tones as an integral part of Lonely the Brave moving forwards.

It’s an odd time to be writing and recording music, not least for this five-piece who are not only continuing to finalise their third album, but two of their members have also been working with the NHS to support the UK through the current pandemic.

The band had the following to say about their decision to continue releasing new material:

“We find ourselves in trying times at present. As some of you will know, some of us are NHS key workers and as a result we know health and wellbeing is so incredibly important. The situations recently have shed a light & awareness of how we can all do our bit to ensure we’re acting with caution but also positively.

Escapism through music, film, art and literature is a huge thing for us, and we hope you guys too. With that in mind, we wanted to share “Distant Light”, a song we finished off during this isolation period. We hope some of you can borrow from it.

Let’s look after each other.”

Check out the new single ‘Distant Light’ now.

‘Skeleton Coast’ – the band’s seventh LP – will be released on July 17 via Epitaph Records, and marks the first new material since 2014’s ‘Metropole’. Ahead of its release, fans can enjoy a preview with the single, ‘PTA’, which is out now.

Recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios, a short drive from El Paso, Texas, with long-time producer Matt Allison, The Lawrence Arms deliver a prophetic album for these times. Despite being written and recorded prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, ‘Skeleton Coast’, paints an eerily prescient picture of a post-apocalyptic world.

Vocalist and bassist Brendan Kelly explains: “For a band who has been around as long as us, this is about as urgent of a record as we could make. It may be kind of dark but it’s really about searching for light in the darkness and finding it, as small as those moments may seem. That’s sort of where we’re at: Collecting the scraps of things that could make for a bearable existence in dark times.”

Listen to the new single ‘PTA’ here.

The single and its accompanying video, which you can watch in full below, also come with the announcement of the band’s third album, ‘Genetic Cabaret’, set for release on 17 July 2020.

“The sentiment of ‘A Perfect Life In A Perfect World’ has taken on a different meaning for me over the last month or so which has led to us deciding to release it now,” says vocalist/guitarist Luke Branch.

“Originally it was about my own struggles with low moods and not always living in the moment, thinking about how life could be all the time. Now during this period of uncertainty and profound challenge for the country and the world it feels more like a song about the future, a song about how we might want to conduct ourselves after this period of isolation and reflection. I hope very much that centres around kindness, community, creativity and compassion.”

‘Genetic Cabaret’ is available to pre-order now on CD, vinyl and cassette here. Asylums will also be heading to The Moth Club, London for a headline show on 24 October, with tickets available now here.

The track is the first to feature new front man Jack Bennett, after the amicable departure of co-founder and original vocalist David Jakes due to health reasons. Any reservations fans may have had about Bennett making the move to vocalist will instantly prove themselves to be unfounded the moment the track kicks off. This truly is one hell of a comeback.

The band has also signed to Easy Life Records, which has been home to the likes of Lower Than Atlantis, Fatherson and Waterparks – a huge move in the right direction for a band that deserves all of the recognition they’re surely about to receive.

After debuting the track last night on Radio 1, the band has today dropped the accompanying video which sees the band quite literally tied in knots – a dramatic visual to match such a powerful song.

The band have the following to say about their return:

“‘It feels amazing, almost a relief, for us to finally be in a position to share this news. A new record deal, a first single back and an album round the corner. We’re thankful to be able to release this and hopefully it can be some respite in these dark times.”

We’re definitely feeling a little lighter today.

Check out the video below and stream the track here.

About signing to Epitaph, SMRTDEATH has to say:

“Signing to Epitaph is super exciting for me, many of my favorite past and current bands have signed there and it’s really cool to feel kind of validated by that world. They’ve given me the freedom to do whatever I want which is super rare and I love that for my creativity.”

Check out the new track and accompanying video below.

The album – which is due for release on January 24th – will be the band’s fifth studio album, and will see the band take their most brave and authentic journey yet.

Watch the live video for ‘Barcelona’ below, and don’t forget to check the guys out at their album release show at New Slang on January 23rd, ahead of their full UK tour in March.

TOUR DATES

JANUARY
23 LONDON, Club Pryzm

MARCH
14 OXFORD, O2 Academy
15 LEICESTER, O2 Academy
17 BOURNEMOUTH, The Old Firestation
18 BRIGHTON, Concorde 2
20 LONDON, Electric Ballroom

The track’s warm, rich tones are echoed in the video, which you can watch in full below. Speaking of the track, vocalist Tom Harper Ward says  “‘What If You Can’t Accept Me?’ is about being in a relationship, not knowing whether you should adapt the way you are for a particular person or whether it’s best to move on. Doing all you can to impress someone but there’s only so much you can do for someone’s approval, feeling like now there’s no hope of flourishing.”

Sun Arcana are also set to bring their incredible live performance to London’s The Grace (formerly Thousand Island) on 26 November – tickets are available here now.