GALLERY: LIVE: Outbreak Festival – Sunday

The final day of Outbreak 2026 brings with it the usual trudge of tired festival-goers, ready for one final day of moshing. It’s still warm, but the cooler breeze and semblance of cloud cover means that the sunburnt are at least unlikely to be any more so by the →

GALLERY: LIVE: SUNN O))) @ Project House, Leeds

Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson stand facing each other, their faces largely hidden by their familiar attire of black hooded robes. Behind them are a series of tombstone-like amplifiers, arranged in a horseshoe shape around the duo. As O’Malley and Anderson simultaneously strike their guitars, the entire building starts →

GALLERY: LIVE: Outbreak Festival 2026 – Saturday

Day two of Outbreak 2026 sees the opening of a larger outdoor stage, which subsequently becomes the festival’s main stage. It’s a mixed blessing given the blistering sun which reflects off the surrounding concrete into the melting eyes of an audience of punks. Nonetheless, with three stages and a →

GALLERY: Retrospective: Rise Against – ‘The Sufferer & The Witness’

Some bands thrive on having “That Song”. You know, the one mega-hit with the intro that pops into your head the second someone says their name. The problem is, “That Song” is often the one that doesn’t represent a band’s sound as a whole – think The Stranglers ‘Golden →

GALLERY: LIVE: Outbreak Festival 2026 – Friday

Outbreak Festival 2026 is filled with nostalgia. There is of course the usual array of hardcore and metal bands – some of which are at the genres’ vanguard – but the occasion has an altogether retrospective feel. A staggering number of the weekend’s performances revolve around album(s) shows, with →

GALLERY: LIVE: The Offspring @ Crystal Palace Park

Shows from older punks are a risky prospect. Will it be a nostalgia-fest, re-living the days when they could lace their boots without lower back pain, or will it be a chance to light the flame of rebellion once again? Our experience at the leafy, historic Crystal Palace Park →

GALLERY: Alexisonfire, Billy Talent @ OVO Wembley Arena

GALLERY: LIVE: Alexisonfire + Billy Talent @ OVO Wembley Arena

It’s a hot day…wait, scratch that. It’s the hottest June day since records began. Where better to go to cool off than packing ourselves into a pit for The Only Band Ever? We’d get the Tube twice as far to catch Alexisonfire and Billy Talent’s UK album-in-full team up →

GALLERY: Download Festival 2026 – Sunday

GALLERY: LIVE: Download Festival 2026 – Sunday

All good things must come to an end, but we’re not done yet. Who can even think about saying goodbye when Spencer Charnas is running around in a Joker costume, RØRY’s baring her soul and Linkin Park are making history in front of our eyes? Don’t forget your sunscreen →

GALLERY: Download Festival 2026 – Saturday

GALLERY: LIVE: Download Festival 2026 – Saturday

Clouds threaten, but the only inclement weather on Saturday is ‘November Rain’. Download Day Two sees us fighting for the Fox God with Babymetal, taking in the local Lvndmvrks and an evening with one of the most iconic rock acts of all time. We’ve brought our dogs for a →

GALLERY: LIVE: Download Festival 2026 – Friday

Nothing holds Download back. Not the mud that covers our boots long before the arena opens, not the 100-metre-long queue for the merch superstore, and definitely not our heavy heads the morning after 5ive’s completely unironic cameo at District X. Download XXIII kicks off with a Friday of wildcards →

GALLERY: Download Festival 2026 – Friday

GALLERY: Exploring Birdsong – ‘EVERY HOUSE WE BUILT’

The comedian Nick Revell once performed a show based on the premise of exploring birdsong. It was hilarious, funny enough to remember decades later. The premise was that beneath the beautiful songs were base emotions. If you understood what the songs were about you would be driven →

GALLERY: Warning – ‘Rituals Of Shame’

Arriving twenty years after 2006’s seminal, genre-defining ‘Watching From A Distance’, to describe ‘Rituals Of Shame’ as “much anticipated” would be the understatement of the century. As one of doom metal’s most emotionally affecting and resonant records, ‘Watching From A Distance’ was always going to be a →

GALLERY: INTERVIEW: Motion City Soundtrack

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GALLERY: Prince Of Failure – ‘PRINCE OF FAILURE’

Music is basically mathematics, and there is a rule. A simple one. One that is always correct. Two plus two equals four. When people start talking about supergroups, they seem to think this doesn’t apply. Prince Of Failure are a new project consisting of the instrumental virtuoso →

GALLERY: INTERVIEW: The Menzingers

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GALLERY: Des Rocs – ‘To Hell And Back’

With hindsight, the collaboration between Des Rocs and the Borderlands franchise feels so obvious. Both the artist and the looter-shooter game series channel a renegade energy, whether you’re fighting off maniacs on an alien planet or singing about New York bikers with a heavy old-school rock influence. Both draw →