Ten reviews you might have missed

Reviews from Wednesday 26 June 2024

Scene Queen – ‘Hot Singles In Your Area’

We’ve had ‘don’t judge by appearances’ drilled into us since birth, and no one proves that to be true more aptly than Scene Queen. Maybe you caught her set at Download, saw the blonde with pigtails gyrating to songs about oral sex and thought you’d accidentally shown up to

LIVE: Download Festival 2024 – Friday

Download XXI, followup to last year’s anniversary spectacular, aims high. With Pantera’s return and Sum 41’s graceful exit on the cards, there’s plenty of huge names to make this a weekend for the history books, but the real action’s on the smaller stages. Download always manages to cram in

Saturday 22 June 2024

Other Half – ‘Dark Ageism’

Norwich’s Other Half are, like all of us, aging. Having spent the last decade making “little-to-no progression” (their words, not ours) in a punk band now gets raised eyebrows and the question of “what are you going to do with your life?” This same question is asked to the

Tether. – ‘Mirror Work’

As the saying goes; it’s all about chemistry. A band is a collaborative project. It has moving parts like a machine and in order to function, each member has to interact with the other. That means they have ties, if you will, they have a Tether. Listening

Thursday 13 June 2024

LIVE: Slam Dunk Festival @ Hatfield Park, UK

It’s that time of year again. Festival Season is upon us, and what better way to start the period than with a sunny day in Hatfield. This years Slam Dunk lineup is by no means shabby, featuring some of our faves to serenade us as we get sloppily sentimental

Tuesday 11 June 2024

Perennial – ‘Art History’

Bands who claim to be high art or channel the greatness of the finest visual artists tend to be viewed with trepidation. Lady Gaga did it with class, Bob Dylan won a Nobel prize for literature, but when a band claims to be trying to turn Pop Art into

Slow Joy – ‘Mi Amigo Slow Joy’

Some people get flowers or chocolates as an apology from their partner, but Esteban Flores goes one step further. Better known as Slow Joy, he describes his latest single, ‘Pulling Teeth’ as “basically an apology to my wife for me not being the easiest person to deal with all

Friday 31 May 2024

HRTLSS – ‘BLOOD MOON’

Vowels aren’t cool. At one time you could replace them with a ‘V’ and be down with the kids, but even that’s become passé. Now you have to drop any sounds you can make with your tongue and capitalise what’s left. Now you have to be block

Gaffa Tape Sandy – ‘Hold My Hand, God Damn It’

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again – The Brighton music scene thrives like bees around honey. Included within that musical hive are three-piece Gaffa Tape Sandy. Another band who’s first proper headline tour was cut short by that ‘P’ word we’ve all tried to forget,

Thursday 30 May 2024

Eat Your Own Head – ‘The Trawler’

There’s a good reason why fishermen wear bright yellow waders. Equally, there’s a reason most bands do not. Eat Your Own Head are not most bands. For their new, ‘The Trawler’, the four-piece pulled on their bright rubber breeches and snapped a photograph that perfectly sums up

NESTOR – Teenage Rebel

It’s a rare situation when you can refer to a band who formed in 1989 as ‘the hot new guys’, but that’s part of the joy of NESTOR. They exist in their own timeless Swedish bubble, slightly out of sync with our own timeline, frozen in the era of

Friday 17 May 2024

One Step Closer – ‘All You Embrace’

The “sophomore slump”, or whatever you choose to call the difficult followup to a strong debut album, is a real and present danger. When One Step Closer launched with ‘This Place You Know’ back in 2021, their short and dirty first album caught the attention of all the right

Wednesday 15 May 2024

El Moono – ‘The Waking Sun’

If your music tastes trend towards the heavier end of the scale, chances are you’ve heard the name El Moono before. The Brighton-based quartet has been grinding away on the UK underground metal scene for years, but started attracting significant buzz in 2022 when they released the EP ‘Temple

Knocked Loose – ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’

For fans of hardcore music, these are strange but wonderful times. A genre that has enjoyed a rabid – but undoubtedly cult – following since the 1980s has started garnering real mainstream attention in recent years. Perhaps the best example of this is the fact that Knocked Loose played

Friday 10 May 2024

Like Moths To Flames – ‘The Cycles Of Trying To Cope’

Metalcore mainstays Like Moths To Flames have always been in touch with their emotions, willing to put all their turmoil on display and more than capable at conveying it in a way that’s both sincere and sonically impactful. Vocalist Chris Roetter always approaches his writing honestly, not just acknowledging

Thursday 09 May 2024

Hot Water Music – ‘Vows’

There are some phrases which instantly make you nervous when an artist describes their new release, such as “concept album” or “recent divorce.” “Looking back and reflecting on our past” is definitely on the list too, but thankfully long-standing punks Hot Water Music have resisted the temptation to take

Frank Turner – ‘Undefeated’

“Some people are just going to hate you, no matter what you do,” laments folk punk troubadour Frank Turner, “so don’t waste time trying to change their minds; just be a better you.” This first line to the first song of ‘Undefeated’ summarises the tone of Turner’s tenth outing

Thursday 02 May 2024

Fast Blood – ‘SUNNY BLUNTS’

Surrounded by algorithms, screens and endless stimulation, it’s hard not to feel disconnected. That’s a strange thing. The world is at your fingertips, and yet reality is not. You can be assaulted by endless sights and sounds, but they’re all strangely abstract. It’s the same with music.

Tuesday 30 April 2024

The Plot In You – ‘VOL.2’

Just like whiskey, pickles and smelly cheese, heavy bands often ‘mellow with age’. In 2021, The Plot In You released their second album ‘Swan Songs’. It seemed they’d done just that, leaving behind the aggression of their early music in favour of more expansive or intimate soundscapes.

Monday 15 April 2024

LIVE: Neck Deep @ Alexandra Palace, London

It’s a monumental night for Neck Deep. They’ve sold out their biggest show to date at Alexandra Palace, and those of us brave enough to scale what feels like the steepest and windiest hill in London are here not only to enjoy a night of ‘generic pop punk’ (as