When we listened to Type O Negative’s October Rust album again for our attic finds section, we realised that attempts to understand the meaning of ‘In Praise of Bacchus’, including a translation of the Latin chant, have so far been incorrect. After Peter Steele’s death in 2010, there is a chance we’ll never know the […]
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All the way back in 1996, Type O Negative released October Rust. Their forth album, and highest charting UK release, October Rust was a masterpiece and without doubt my favourite record from the green men. I’m sure it’s the same for many fans. Having dusted off the signature black and green album cover, I’m ready […]
Magnolia Park team up with Mayday Parade’s Derek Sanders for their latest single, ‘Feel Something’. The video evokes Sum 41 or Good Charlotte, the band nestled in the nurturing bowl of a skate park, with fans in hoodies and masks like a slasher horror. The music isn’t horror, though. Not by any means. As with […]
With their new EP, The King and Queen of Gasoline arriving on 5th August 2022, ‘Teenage Runaways’ gives us another example of what to expect (after recent single ‘Bad Influence’). Let’s disassemble this packed single because there is plenty going on. We start off with some fuzzy bass and a solid beat that quickly leads […]
There are lots of smiles in the music industry. Brian May and Roger Taylor were in a band called Smile before adjusting their lineup in 1970 to become Queen. Seeing a gap in the market for a band named Smile, 1992 saw the band Smile form straight out of Woodbridge High School, with a grunge/psychedelic […]
Delicate and soft, ‘Angel of Death’ (acoustic version) is about as far away from my favourite Manchester Orchestra track as you can get. (It’s ‘Shake it Out’, by the way.) However, with the stripped-back presentation and the spotlight on the vocal, this has all the beauty of a Passenger track. The original was drums, bass, […]
As part of our attic finds series, we’ve been given unique access to previously unreleased material from one of the featured bands, Brussel Spaceship. The band was active from 1986-1992 and recorded eight records during that time. Their live shows were stacked, the band was able to fill venues and draw crowds when they played […]
Pale Waves dropped a new single called ‘Lies’, along with an announcement of a new album slated for an August release followed by a UK tour. Happy times. So ‘Lies’ is an alt-pop punk-tinged stomper that has some similarities to Willow’s recent album – the new punk wave that draws on myriad styles to create […]
Quick and quirky, Lauran Hibberd’s ‘Step Mum’ is a comic-book caricature song with alt-pop bounce with a chorus break that references The Colour and the Shape, which we file under “unexpected influence”. The song is playful, though cutting, and barely steps across the two-minute mark. It’s the kind of irreverent material that Lauran does so […]
Experts in the art of massive sound, Brigade’s new album, Dissonance, has all the hallmarks of a masterpiece; an album that is worth listening to in full. It’s thick and rich throughout, with sparkle at the edges and powerful melodic vocals, so let’s look at just some of the tracks on offer. In a break […]
Released towards the end of last month, ‘Chase the Sunrise’ is a delightful stripped-down acoustic song from Almost Autumn. It has the feel of a live performance and no evidence of production shenanigans, which means you’re getting a real intimate rendition. The song has emotional lyrics and is driven by a melodic structure that is […]
This long-player is a total find. Back in 2008, San Fran’s Elephone released Canister a ferociously playful and quirky album that should have been a global hit. You could sum it up as Modest Mouse crossed with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves… let’s give it a spin. The opener is […]
Cassyette has taken us in a couple of directions with previous singles. ‘Petrichor’ was a thick nu-metal variant with a dark verse, visceral pre-chorus, and dark-Paramore chorus. Then ‘Behind Closed Doors’ gave us tenebrous rock stomp before ‘Dear Goth’ added an emo guitar line and a pop-rock chorus. The fluidity around a theme continues in […]
Hot on the heels of ‘Jupiter Pluvious’, this new single from Me Rex gives us more alt-pop richness in the form of the arm-hair tingler, ‘Toilet of Venus’. This song conures a certain nostalgic jaded feel with its slightly melancholic lyrical references, but it’s accompanied by a positive beat and smart instrumentation. The hook line […]
This is one sweet attic find. The first and only album from Brighton punk song crafters, The Pirhanas. Jangling clean guitars, quick beats, tidy bass lines, and that saxophone thread are instantly recognisable and the vocal has a strong accented tinge that usually only works for bands from Scotland or London. You’d be forgiven for […]
They had me with the moody intro, but Until I Wake’s ‘Inside My Head’ bursts into flickering brilliance with lots of shifts from subdued melancholy to giant loudrage. When they turn everything up to ten, it’s a wall of buzzing guitars and huge drums, but they can do intricate stuff too, as they prove throughout […]
A churchy organ fades in, then it’s crunchy guitar and Matt Pless’ vocal, which has a distinctive twang and plenty of melody. ‘Disco Ball’ is an unhinged pop track with retro guitars and poetic lyricism. The pre-chorus is a massive hook, and the chorus itself lives up to the introduction it gets. There’s a fair […]
In the recently updated Sherling Studio in Poole’s Lighthouse arts center, The Trials of Cato played a set full of old favourites and material from their forthcoming album, Gog Magog. The songs from Hide and Hair appeared with adjustments, not just by incorporating Polly Bolton’s voice and skillful mandolin playing, but also with adjusted instrumentation; […]
Are you ready to play? Best friends Cleo and Rachel spend their evenings pretending to be people they’re not, inventing elaborate stories to escape the monotony of their real lives. It’s all harmless fun – until they play the game on the wrong person… It’s your move now. Five years later, Cleo is still struggling […]
With a string of dinosaur-themed EPs and an experimental album with trillions of combinations🖸 called Megabear, Me Rex certainly enjoys their creative process. ‘Jupiter Pluvious’ is their latest single, and will be part of their forthcoming Plesiosaur EP. With this song, it’s indie sparkle and quirky chops with a nice piano flicker in the introduction […]
Go For The Gold are an intense rock band with just five singles to their name to date. ‘American’ is the most recent, though we’ll take a look through the lens of the previous songs to get a picture of this new band. There’s a big old mix of things going on here, a mix […]
Rapid and analog-thin, ‘Alright’ has a nostalgic tone and tiny bubbles around the edges making it sound like a classic indie-rock track. They give you two and thirty to make up your mind if you like it, and I do. The lyrics are barked out and seem pretty casual at first glance until you start […]
With a syrupy thickness to the sound and some angular full-fry vocals, It Got Colder is part punk, rock, noise, and grunge. Tough Cuffs provide a noisy-sounding album that’s actually quite melodic, conjuring Seattle rather than the band’s native Pittsburgh… although wait, Pittsburgh is a bit of everything right now so that’s an unfair statement. […]
Dangling from a hook in a meat packing plant isn’t how Detective Sergeant Washington Poe wants to spend his weekend. He’s been punched and kicked and threatened, and when a contract killer arrives it seems things are about to go from bad to worse. He goes by the name of the Pale Man and he […]