Get ready for the shivers, Suede get everything right in ‘She Still Leads Me On’. It’s got the vitality of Coming Up and the feels of A New Morning. But wait! Let’s start at the beginning. There’s a casual in-the-room feel to the start, a hi-hat and a crunchy riff. A bit of spoken word. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The first musical offering since Greg passed last September, ‘Come Alive (Wired to the Moon)’ is another release of what the band calls a rough demo, accompanied by a skyward looking video. A synth beat and warm guitar line provide the introduction, to which the vocal is added for a full verse before the other […]
Just as I’m putting the ink pen back into its leather case to stow away after a day of writing, I stumble across a new track from Old Neon called ‘I Won’t Stay’. I could just jot a note and check it out later, but I hit play out of curiosity. Wow. What a vocal. […]
Strap yourselves in for a revival-revival of the punk variety as the Dookie-era is resuscitated by Understandament in their new LP, Get Away With Murder. Here we have eleven tracks, coming in at just shy of thirty minutes, with roots in classic punk and punk revival. There’s a mix of tempos and variations, from high-temp […]
Newly minted, Stand Atlantic’s ‘switchblade’ is an interesting mix of the familiar and the new. There’s the precision style and the stuttering moments that we all know and love, but there’s something altogether more stompy about this single. It all starts with palm-muted guitars and Fraser’s vocal, the verse is tight and the chorus is […]
A one bar riffy intro and then it’s straight down to business in this rhythmic alt-metal single, ‘Horrorscope Heroine’, from Die So Fluid. The song is about the emergence following our long hibernation, riffing along in the verse and then blasting off with big open chords for a melodic chorus. There’s also a stomping middle […]
Rarely does a song grab me after two bars of bass guitar, but the bass harmonic is a wake-up call that grabbed me with both hands and dragged me straight into Norther Gloom’s ‘God is in the TV’. The bass is the steadying hand as the guitars soar over the top, conjuring a Banshees sound […]
Re-issued as part of the Terror Twilight anniversary-and-a-bit deluxe edition, ‘Spit on a Stranger’ is faithfully accompanied by the original suite of b-sides as well as an additional live version of ‘Harness Your Hopes’. You almost certainly already know, but the lullaby guitars and warm vocals are interspersed with Beatlesy breaks and lead us to […]
You don’t get to spend two decades making face-smacking alt-rock and metal without oodles of talent. That is all! Ego Trip demonstrates this talent; not with weedling solos and constant virtuosity, but by laying down an utterly stomping fourteen tracks of angst-ridden brilliance. Now, for those who haven’t been paying attention since Infest, I would […]