Ten reviews you might have missed

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1 LIVE: Reading Festival 2025 – Saturday

2 LIVE: Reading Festival 2025 – Friday

3 Rise Against – ‘RICOCHET’

4 Babymetal – ‘Metal Forth’

5 LIVE: 2000Trees Friday

6 LIVE: 2000Trees Thursday

7 LIVE: Download Festival 2025 – Sunday

8 LIVE: Download Festival 2025 – Saturday

9 LIVE: 2000Trees Saturday

10 LIVE: Download Festival 2025 – Friday

Reviews from Friday 12 September 2025

Die Spitz – ‘Something To Consume’

Austin rockers Die Spitz’s debut album, ‘Teeth’, was released two years ago, as the band turned twenty. Filled with a blistering punk energy, ‘Teeth’ cemented the band’s sound as both deeply inspired by ‘90s grunge and distinctly contemporary; a post-Covid Hole. Their sophomore, ‘Something To Consume’ sees the

Wednesday 10 September 2025

LIVE: Reading Festival 2025 – Sunday

The breakfast queues are grim. People stand around like extras from a zombie flick, clinging to their coffees as if they’re the only thing keeping them upright. But there’s a strange camaraderie to it too; we all know we look rough, we’re all exhausted, and we’re all pretending this

Tuesday 09 September 2025

LIVE: Reading Festival 2025 – Saturday

Saturday morning arrives with all the grace of a brick through a window. The campsite looks like a bomb’s gone off – there are at least three gazebos in trees that definitely weren’t there yesterday, someone’s managed to lose both shoes AND their dignity, and everyone’s moving like they’re

Monday 08 September 2025

LIVE: Reading Festival 2025 – Friday

Friday at Reading feels like potential energy about to explode. The sun beats down on freshly pitched tents, and there’s that familiar mixture of excitement and mild panic as people realise they’ve forgotten tent pegs again. The BBC iPlayer stage is already buzzing by mid-afternoon, and you can sense

Friday 05 September 2025

La Dispute – ‘No One Was Driving the Car’

Post-hardcore legends La Dispute have released their first album in six years – or rather, they have just finished releasing it. ‘No One Was Driving the Car’, an exploration of social and psychological decay, has been steadily releasing over the past three months. The album is split into

Thursday 04 September 2025

Cheerbleederz – ‘(PROVE ME WRONG)’

You know the feeling, that creeping certainty that things are changing. The seasons are shifting, the summer is ending, you’re well on your way to toward winter. Cheerbleederz know it too well and with their new four-track EP ‘(Prove Me Wrong)’ they’ve captured it perfectly. A

Friday 29 August 2025

Nova Twins – ‘Parasites and Butterflies’

It’s been three years since we were last treated to a Nova Twins record, and we already knew it was going to solid bangers from start to finish. ‘Parasites and Butterflies’ feels like the conclusion of a trilogy that Amy Love and Georgia South didn’t even know they were

Saturday 23 August 2025

LIVE: Bloodstock Open Air 2025 – Sunday

Sunday at Bloodstock feels like the last big push, the point where tired bodies somehow find new reserves of energy. The arena is buzzing from the off, breakfast beers in hand and pits already forming, and there’s a sense that everyone wants to squeeze out every last

Friday 22 August 2025

LIVE: Bloodstock Open Air 2025 – Saturday

Saturday at Bloodstock hums with mid-festival energy; campsites buzzing, bars busy, and fans shaking off hangovers or diving straight back into the pit. With Machine Head topping the bill, there’s a restless anticipation in the air from the very first riff. Words: Kathryn Edwards // Photos: Jez Pennington Cage Fight Kicking

Dinosaur Pile-Up – ‘I’ve Felt Better’

It feels like it’s been a lifetime since we’ve heard some chunky output from the Dinosaur Pile-Up boys and to some extent, it has been. Six years since their last release, ‘Celebrity Mansions’, the world has changed immeasurably and, despite some serious shit happening to the band,

Thursday 21 August 2025

LIVE: Bloodstock Open Air 2025 – Friday

The morning breaks with gold‑dust sunshine and the restless buzz of a metal congregation rousing itself. As the gates part, Catton Park became a ritual gathering. After Thursday’s warm-up, BOA 2025 had officially started. Words: Kathryn Edwards Photos: Jez Pennington Konvent Over on the Ronnie James Dio Stage, Konvent prove

Hot Mulligan – ‘The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still’

When the tracklist for this album was made public, one Reddit user dubbed it ‘Goofy ass song titles for songs that are about to make me cry’. They weren’t wrong. If Hot Mulligan were a feeling, they’d be that jittery mix of “I just spilled coffee on myself” and

Tuesday 19 August 2025

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – ‘Dreams Of Being Dust’

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die have spent over fifteen years establishing themselves as one of the core pillars of emo revivalism. ‘Dreams Of Being Dust’, the band’s fifth full-length offering, is filled with the hypnotic atmosphere that fans of

really big really clever – ‘…huh’

Since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2023, Brighton alt-rockers really big really clever have established themselves as a rip-roaring live act, playing alongside the likes of Sweet Pill, Have Mercy, and Tigercub. Their sophomore release, ‘…huh’, feels like a serious attempt to grow and develop

Friday 15 August 2025

Good Charlotte – ‘Motel Du Cap’

“It’s gonna be whatever you want to make of it,” warns the silver-tongued narrator on the opening of Good Charlotte’s ‘Motel Du Cap’. While in the guise of a hotel check in, that phrase would be a little bit ominous to hear, but in the context of a comeback-after-a-comeback

Wednesday 13 August 2025

LIVE: Judas Priest / Alice Cooper @ The O2 Arena

Two of heavy metal’s most seasoned icons performing at London’s biggest venue makes tonight one of the more anticipated gigs of the year for fans of the genre’s heyday, but the magnitude of the show has gained new meaning three days since the announcement of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing. Unsurprisingly,

Tuesday 12 August 2025

Rise Against – ‘RICOCHET’

Imagine the scene. You have a date, you want to feel refreshed. So you go to the gym, you work out hard, you spend four years lifting weights, eating chicken and rice, and watching your macros until your body looks like it belongs in a Marvel movie

Friday 08 August 2025

Halestorm – ‘Everest’

Halestorm have a lot of soul, and they’re laying it bare for us. As soon as ‘Darkness Always Wins’ dropped as an advance, we knew we were in for something on a geological scale. As it turns out, ‘Everest’ is the best possible metaphor for this album; a mountain

Tuesday 05 August 2025

As December Falls – ‘Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine’

The resolutely independent As December Falls have returned, and they’re throwing caution to the wind. ‘Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine’ turns vulnerability into pop-punk steel; this is a record forged through the tough times, the days when everything’s crumbling and you just have to push through. The fans

Babymetal – ‘Metal Forth’

Reviewing Babymetal’s new album might feel a little like a futile endeavour. Half of the trio’s appeal is in their frenetic live shows, and only part of their energy can be captured on record. They’re also very marmite in their appeal; you either love the intergalactic, hyper-real feel of