Reviews from Tuesday 18 February 2025

Anxious – ‘Bambi’

A sophomore album can be a tricky one for the artist, but for the listener? It holds the promise of vindication in your faith in a band. When Connecticut’s own Anxious dropped their debut back in 2022, we knew they were on to something special with their bubblegum-emo-with-hardcore-roots sound.

Church Tongue – ‘You’ll Know It Was Me’ EP

Metalcore is an incredibly exciting genre to be a fan of, especially in recent years. Bands like Chamber, Boundaries and God Complex are just some of the names that come to mind, all lending a hand to reignite the fire the genre had in its golden years and carving

Monday 17 February 2025

HANDS LIKE HOUSES – ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’

Australia’s Hands Like Houses are back, ready to blaze into their new era with their latest offering ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’. A sixteen track double album, the group have split this into four volumes – Tropo, Strato, Meso, and Thermo. Each

Wednesday 12 February 2025

Lacuna Coil – ‘SLEEPLESS EMPIRE’

Late one night, you can’t sleep, you’re flicking through the channels and you see a nature documentary. It triggers something; thinking about time. Thinking about life cycles. Mayflies famously live for less than 12 hours. Some cicadas appear every 17 years. Both types of creatures start out

Tuesday 11 February 2025

Dream Theater – ‘Parasomnia’

A lot can happen in fifteen years for the average person, but for Dream Theater, who float in their own dimensional bubble distant to the rest of us, the time can pass in the blink of an eye. Drummer Mike Portnoy is back after a three album absence for

Thursday 06 February 2025

Jinjer – ‘Duél’

If every time someone said a band tore up the rule book, we’d probably be facing a global shortage of reference guides to metal. But how often do we see a band writing their own story in the world of heavy music, with each song a narrative wrought in

Tuesday 04 February 2025

Dead Air – ‘ELEMENTS’

Time moves on. Bands form and fold. Songs that once meant something fade into the past. As you grow older and tastes change, sounds go in and out of style but there’s a time that’s your era. A time where everything is new and exciting, that defines

Wednesday 29 January 2025

LIVE: Better Lovers / Frontierer / Greyhaven @ Electric Brixton, London

It’s Saturday night in Brixton and it’s as cold as the Arctic in the streets, but if you’re one of the lucky folks with a ticket to tonight’s shenanigans at Electric Brixton then you’ll find warmth and a whole lot more waiting for you inside. Fans pile into the

Tuesday 28 January 2025

RØRY – ‘Restoration’

Success has been a long time coming for RØRY, but who else can channel four decades of hardship into a debut released at an age when many rockers are considering slowing down? The songwriter, social media activist, author and split-hair-aficionado channels a bared soul and unflinching honesty on ‘Restoration’

Friday 24 January 2025

Slowly Slowly – ‘Forgiving Spree’

Aussie four-piece SLOWLY SLOWLY’s latest offering, ‘Forgiving Spree’, has one simple goal – to be “a really solid rock album that has no filler on it.” It’s a bold and daring claim to make ahead of release, and off the back of a second Top Ten album in the

Wednesday 22 January 2025

Vukovi – ‘MY GOD HAS A GUN’

Vukovi pride themselves on walking the road less taken. They might be slightly disappointed to learn that their fourth album, ‘MY GOD HAS A GUN’, is perhaps their most accessible yet, it’s provocation open and inviting to those who seek just a little bit more from their heavy music.

Tuesday 21 January 2025

Pet Needs – ‘Kind Of Acoustic’

Pet Needs had a mission: to create “something warm, raw and organic. Something acoustic. Something that felt like the most true take as opposed to the most perfect” as frontman Johnny Marriott put it. The acoustic album that offers the other side of the coin on a band’s sound

Monday 20 January 2025

State of You – ‘On A Knife’s Edge’

Introductions are important. If you’re introduced to a band and told they’re ‘Hardcore’s most exciting newcomers’, you’re going to have a very different opinion to if you’re told ‘They Suck’. State Of You do not suck. Hyperbole aside, this is a band with pedigree. It’s made

Monday 23 December 2024

LIVE: Slipknot / Bleed From Within @ The O2

Never underestimate the power of the most magical time of the year to bring people together. Not Christmas, of course, but Slipknot’s first UK tour in four years which closes out tonight at London’s O2. You’d be mistaken if you believe that the band who’ve taken great pleasure over

Friday 20 December 2024

LIVE: The Menzingers @ The Underworld

People debate what constitutes ‘real punk’ all the time, but whatever that intangible quality is, it’s in the air for the Menzingers’ duo of anniversary shows celebrating ten years of ‘Rented World’s release at Camden’s Underworld. Guitars are piled on the balcony, and we wear our pit-hardened dedication on

LIVE: Vower / Jar of Blind Flies @ The Lower Third, London

Fresh from an additionally added date last night, Brighton trio Jar of Blind Flies are opening for Vower’s original sold-out show at basement venue The Lower Third. With 2022 debut album ‘Mia’ and single ‘Not Your Baby’ released earlier this year, they blend nineties grunge with more modern alt-rock

Thursday 12 December 2024

LIVE: Sylosis / Fit For An Autopsy / Darkest Hour / Heriot @ Electric Brixton, London

It’s early doors tonight at Electric Brixton for a lineup featuring four metal stalwarts. There’s a decent sized crowd already assembled for openers Heriot, who deliver an onslaught of distorted guitar tones, ferocious growls and crushing riffs from the first beat. Whilst Heriot’s sound is undoubtedly heavy, their severity is

Thursday 05 December 2024

Hanabie – ‘BUCCHIGIRI TOKYO’ EP

If you’re reading this you’re unlikely to be Japanese. Hanabie are. This makes their new EP tricky to discuss. Most alternative, hardcore, metal, Punktastic music has its roots in American or European culture but they’re a band hailing from a different continent. They’re unusual in this context

LIVE: Alien Ant Farm @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

Back in the dawn of the new millennium, Alien Ant Farm were everywhere. Their cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ went platinum and topped charts across the world in 2001, and mainstream success beckoned. After a series of dubious decisions including bootlegging their own fourth album, splitting in 2007

Friday 29 November 2024

LIVE: Twin Atlantic, DAYTIME TV @ Electric Brixton

Twin Atlantic’s legacy in modern rock is undeniable, and it’s easy to see why when the Electric Brixton is so easily filled with a sea of black-clad fans, each person a testament to the band’s enduring grip on their audience. Hailing from Glasgow, the quartet has never

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