Dan Hillier
Having gone from strength to strength with their first three records, Employed To Serve took the opportunity during their (well-deserved) main stage slot at the Download Pilot last weekend to announce they’d spent lockdown writing and recording their fourth album, titled Conquering. At that point, they tore through its first single that officially came out this Friday, ‘Exist’. A real juggernaut of a song, it sees the band exploring the more metal edges of their sound, replete with thrash segments and a riff heavy enough to level skyscrapers. The roars of “this is hell” are sure to be yelled back at them live and it’s driven by a feral stomp that simply demands circle pits. They’ve also debuted a video alongside it, tying in with the track’s themes of celebrating the highs and lows of existing, where the band are turned into action figures by a young fan who’s clearly ecstatic to have discovered the band, with more than a few easter eggs nodding to their own friends’ bands. Welcome back, Employed To Serve. We missed you.
The second track taken from the Birmingham band’s new release, ‘Unconditional’ is a beautifully oppressive tapestry composed of intertwined doom and shoegaze that depicts the fatalist nature of the modern existence. Released via Church Road Records, this barren monochrome ode is a bleakly gorgeous and ocean-sized soundscape that’s abundant with mirage like qualities that harken back to pioneering acts such as Nothing and Hum. The unison of shoegaze, doom and ethereal post-rock has been popular in recent years, but with this track and the rest of the group’s output floating delicately amongst the likes of Holy Fawn, Slow Crush and Sugar Horse, this track is richly textured proof that Outlander are one of the most promising acts within the haze that cloaks the genre.
Metalcore mob Make Them Suffer have clearly been hard at work since last year’s excellent How To Survive A Funeral and this week released their latest single ‘Contraband’. Not only is it another step forward for the band but it’s also a collaboration with one of the most recognisable and upcoming voices in the scene, Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante. Her voice is unmistakeable both in her clean singing and brutal screams that easily reach ‘Holy Roller’ levels of viciousness. Vocalist Sean Harmanis said of the single, “Lyrically, the song is about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s about relationships with friends and family. But it’s also a low-key political song, as well as an expression of the frustrations surrounding COVID and its impact on our lives, particularly as members of the music community. Contraband is a build up – the result of two years without musical catharsis.” It’s a welcome continuation of the band’s run of form and features crushing, vicious riffs and a closing breakdown sure to get bodies flying in the pit.
Ahead of their debut album Where The Body Goes arriving July 23, Lotus Eater have debuted the first single from the album that’s not merely content to be crushingly heavy, but features a guest appearance from none other than Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes. It saw a debut performance (though with Sykes not in attendance) at last weekend’s Download Pilot and it went down a storm with fans. Of the single, drummer and creative lead Cameron Humphrey said “Having the opportunity to collaborate with our friend and idol Oli Sykes truly allowed us to bring this track to a level never seen before. We will always be forever grateful.” ‘Obliterate’ itself is full of twists and turns, stop-start riffing and a sense of delirium accentuated by just how ridiculously heavy the song is. If this is anything to go by, their debut will be something special indeed.
After completely blowing the doors off back in May with the confirmation of their new independent EP, Haggard Cat are back with the second taste of Cheer Up in the form of ‘Amateur Dramatics’. Whilst ‘Quit Your Jobs’ was a feral stab at their estranged label delivered with high-strung mania, this offering is a more surly and sardonic affair. Revolving around a swaggering ear-worm of a groove, ‘Amateur Dramatics’ see’s Haggard Cat subtly returning to their retro prog rock roots all whilst retaining the rambunctious post-hardcore and modern punk sound that’s made them such a captivating entity in recent years. Simply, this is Haggard Cat flexing their live sounding dynamism in a way utterly captivating. Just wait until to see the homemade music video for it too.
This is Utopia. The band revolves around guitarist John Bailey and Corrupt Moral Alter vocalist Chris Reese. They play mathcore orientated tech-metal that sounds like the body horror-like amalgamation of Botch, Pupil Slicer and Strapping Young Lad. They recently announced their debut LP Stalker. Said record drops the last Friday of August via APF Records and features Baard Kolstad of Leprous, Lee Fisher from Fawn Limbs and even Mike Moran, commonly known as the keyboardist of Ozzy Osbourne and George Harrison. The lead single ‘Happiness’ sounds akin to someone sticking an icepick into your frontal lobe before stirring it in a way someone would maybe mix a Monday morning latte. This is as bonkers as it sounds and ‘Happiness’ to be needs experienced to be believed.
The last year or so has been particular hard for the folk-punk festival favourites Skinny Lister, a band who was rarely found not on the road prior to 2020. Thankfully, it appears the doors of the live scene are slowly reopening and the band are ready to jump back on into the swing of things propelled by their new single ‘Bavaria Area’. A simultaneous love letter to the Bavarian state and a documentation of unprovoked and unwarranted police attention, the track is a joyously anarchic fusion of new-wave energy and riotous ska-punk. With Skinny Lister gearing up for a marathons worth of show, including appearances at Lost Evenings Festival and a run of dates with Less Than Jake, ‘Bavaria Area’ is going to be the shot of pure energy many will need live after a year out of practice.
The most recent single to be taken from the group’s upcoming debut LP Lost Souls, ‘The Only Ones’ continues to showcases Caskets’ arena sized take on heart-on-hand metalcore. Released via Sharptone Records, the track see’s the band accept self-responsibility after leaving pain in the wake of their actions. “The Only Ones is a song about losing someone you loved, and coming to terms with the fact that it is actually down to your own actions as to why the other person left and that it hurts to know that the other person is hurting just as much”, states vocalist Matt Flood on the track.