Indie rock and punk influenced quartet Panic Shack formed in 2018 in Cardiff and since then, have been hand crafting hooky, and pop-forward female empowerment jams while still promoting DIY punk ethics ever since and new single ‘Thelma & Louise’ is no exception. This is a wholesome summery banger with a more surf rock influence and celebrates the importance of female friendship by frontwoman Sarah Harvey compares her friendship to the likes of Patty and Selma and Thelma and Louise and the contrast between classic female characters with a more modern sound works perfectly. Another strong candidate for song of the summer. – Ez Luscombe
Following their sold out show at London’s Koko last week, lead single from upcoming sequel to their vampiric Meat Loaf-inspired epic Sanguivore entitled Mistress of Death, ‘Headstones’ is a more metal-oriented song that fans of the band may not be used to. However, in true Creeper fashion their theatricality still shines through with Ian Miles’ and Lawrie Pattison’s guitar harmonies that are clearly influenced by the likes of Iron Maiden, the charismatic vocals of frontman Will Gould and the layered vocals reminiscent of Jim Steinman’s work with iconic goth staples Sisters Of Mercy, they wear their influences on their sleeve whilst still sounding modern enough to captivate audiences. It’s clear that Creeper has come a long way from their Alkaline Trio-inspired days and it’s an exciting time to be a fan of the band. – Ez Luscombe
How can you describe Car Bomb to someone? An explosion in a laser factory is a good start. The band are finally back with a brand new tune – ‘Paroxysm’ – a word as difficult to wrap your head around as the band’s music is. Thick riffs married to heavy kick drum flurries crash around the listener like a hailstorm. Complex, intense and impressive as always, Car Bomb make something deliciously catchy out of chaotic noise. The song is a masterclass of rhythm and tempo, with wild time signature changes and phrasing making headbanging outside of clear breakdown sections a difficult task, but a fun one nonetheless. Overall, ‘Paroxysm’ is a very good sign that Car Bomb is still on their usual insanity, which will be a delightful relief for their fans. – Jude Bennett
As visceral and as uncomfortably intimate as it’s title suggests, the new single from Glaswegian industrial noise pair Mrs Frighthouse is a downright haunting mirroring of the horror that assault leaves in it’s wake. A discordant funeral dirge following the murder of innocence by the hands of abusers, ‘My Body Is A Crime Scene’ is screeching, crawling and borderline disturbing drawl of noise that would even make the most seasoned Lingua Ignota distressed. It’s certainly not easily listening, but such is the point; this is a deeply vulnerable and genuine portrayal of the mental contamination that comes from abuse from one of the most authentic bands in UK noise. – Dan Hillier
Taken from their forthcoming record A Single Flower – releasing July 4th via Bird’s Robe (Australia), Dunk (Europe), Transition Loss (US) and New Noise (China) – ‘Everything Here Is Black and Blinding’ see’s Aussie post-rock legends We Lost The Sea offering up an intricate soundscape carrying more emotion than conventional language permits. A beautiful albeit tense track that goes from a smoulder to inferno across it’s run time, the track perfectly encapsulates the slow burning tension that is slowly beginning to singe all aspects of life the world over as of yet. Given it’s brilliance, it’s no real wonder why We Lost The Sea have created what is arguably their first music video for the track. “This is technically We Lost The Sea’s first proper music video”, state the band. “It’s always been a challenge to try and make videos for songs as long as we write. So when we landed on this 7 minute banger, we decided to go for it. We enlisted the help of our friend, and fellow Bird’s Robe band dad, Simeon (SEIMS, Birdman), who is a TV guy by trade, to help us put this together. He and the team did an incredible job and made it look like a million bucks (it definitely did not cost a million bucks).” – Dan Hillier
From the new royalty in heavy music with the likes of Turnstile & Knocked Loose, to the undefeated champions in Glassjaw, to the weird and wonderful sounds of the likes of Model/Actriz and more, this is what we think you should be watching at Outbreak Fest.
Our preview is written by Chris Earl, Andy Calderbank, Bea Lynx & Amy Bowles.
You can count very few bands in hardcore history that followed the trajectory that Turnstile is having. It could sound like a cliché to say that you cannot miss the headliner of London Outbreak Festival, but they truly deserve the high spot right there. They’ve been due a London show for a few years now, fans have been waiting, and it’s also going to be exciting to see them with their new addition Meg Mills on guitar. All UKHC, and especially the women in the scene, have all been buzzing for her since she joined.
From the recent viral show in Baltimore playing for free to more than 10,000 people, to the new album “Never Enough” which looks like it’s going to have the same, if not bigger, impact than their latest masterpiece “Glow On”,Turnstile are just unstoppable. Clear vision, modern aesthetic, unique sound, without ever losing their hardcore ethics and most of all, without ever not bringing the energy on stage. We can all rest assured that they’re 100% going to deliver a knock-out performance. Honestly, if you’re going to London Outbreak not to see Turnstile, what are you even doing? (BL)
Where, When? – London – Friday Main Stage, Time TBC
If we were to single out one band from this bill that is truly unmissable due to the rarity of their performance in this part of the world is experimental shoegaze band Have a Nice Life. This duo has been going on since 2000 but only in recent years started playing live with a band and has produced one of the most niche shoegaze cult classic albums Deathconsciousness. They could work as the perfect break moment to catch a breather, fully enjoy some challenging noise and let your mind and body just assimilate the sound, a little bit the same way Nothing had their moment during last year’s edition of the festival. Have a Nice Life is a true-hidden gem, a perfect treat that will for sure make fans very happy, many of whom probably never had a chance to see them live before, and will surely intrigue a whole new crowd.
Where, When? – London – Friday Stage/Time TBC. Manchester – Saturday 7pm, Second Stage (BL)
Electronic music meets punk more often than people think, and this is especially the case for jungle/drum and bass duo Kumo 99. The LA artists Ami Komai and Nate Donmoyer both have a long history of being in punk bands, and it’s not their first rodeo as the “odd-band-out” at a hardcore show, as they also performed at the last edition of Sound of Fury. Their cyber-punk performance, with Japanese shouted lyrics, will work as a breath of fresh air among the rest of the bands, bringing the punk rave to the hardcore crowd. A mixed bill is always a great idea, and Kumo 99 is an excellent choice. Everyone needs a bit of EDM in their life among all the heavy music to be a balanced person. (BL)
Where, When? – London – Friday Stage/Time TBC. Manchester – Saturday 6:40pm, Third Stage
Drug Church is one of those bands that is instantly recognisable as soon as one of their catchy tracks infiltrates your shuffle mode. Their unique blend of post-hardcore is a perfect balance of grit and emotion, and the vocals just have that unmistakable tone. With powerful instrumental and great lyrics, they just kept producing front to back great albums for the past 10 years, with Cheer becoming a true classic of the genre. This band is the perfect example that not sticking to any boxes is the key to success, and established themselves as one of the key bands that you’ve got to know if you listen to modern hardcore. Drug Church are just consistently good and would deserve to get even more credit and get up there with the bigger names. (BL)
Where, When? – London – Friday Stage/Time TBC. Manchester – Saturday 2:30pm, Main Stage
Whether you know them because they inspired your favourite band or you just recognise the name from the “Real Emo Copypasta”, there is no doubt that Sunny Day Real Estate are the band that many emo fans thought they would’ve never had a chance to see live. Although originally from Seattle, they are probably the first and most important band established in the Midwest Emo scene, they are that iconic. Their soft but grungy post-hardcore sound is so timeless that is still so relevant to the work of so many modern bands. Jeremy Enigk has probably one of the best voices in the emo genre, and it’s going to be so dreamy to experience them together with those authentic 90s guitar sounds. Adding Sunny Day Real Estate to the bill was a true gift, and we’re so here for the band’s fourth reunion. (BL)
Where, When? – London – Friday Stage/Time TBC. Manchester – Saturday 6:10pm, Main Stage
Representing the North East of England, chaotic metalcore hellraisers Long Goodbye are one of the many bands making their Outbreak bow. Recent sets have teased new material which looks to add to the madness from their debut I used to dream of drowning EP. With a sound that blends the unbridled chaos of On Broken Wings and Remembering Never, it is music made for battering your friends to and similarly to Killing Me Softly last year, they’re one of the new generation of British bands that can make a real name for themselves in the BEC. (CE)
Where, When? – Manchester – Sunday 5:30pm, Third Stage
“Hey Damien… Don’t fuck it up.” Words of encouragement from Andrew Falkous of the rock band Future of the Left. We’re minutes away from sharing a stage for the first time as mclusky*. It’s winter, it’s wet, we’re in Le-Pub, a music venue in Newport, Wales. A music venue in Newport which is in need of £50k of soundproofing to fend off noise complaints from cretins who’ve purchased abodes next to a music venue in Newport, Wales. Initially, FOTL were asked to play the show to help raise some of the required funds, but for reasons I can’t recall and won’t pretend to care about, Falco suggested mclusky as an alternative.
Re-ee-wind a few months earlier. It’s midday, I’m at work in a call centre. My phone buzzes. I pick it up. A message from Falco – “We’re going to do a fundraiser for Le Pub as mclusky. Would you be up for singing Jon’s parts?” I stand up from my chair, arms aloft, fists clenched. “Yes!” I shout, to the alarm of my colleagues. “What’s happened? Did you get a sign-up?” one of them asks. I immediately message my friends Andy S and Dev, both of whom were managing the Golden Lion pub the night I walked in there after moving to Bristol from North Wales. As I sat down at the bar to order some drinks, mclusky came through the speakers. I couldn’t believe it. Back home, I was one of maybe four people I knew who’d heard of them. I’d moved to Bristol explicitly to start a band that sounded like mclusky, and on my second night out, I was in a bar that was playing their songs. I tell Andy and Dev that I can’t believe this was happening – I can’t remember exactly the conversation, but Dev almost certainly said they were “a sick band.” Over the course of months, years, and a trillion murdered brain cells, we three developed a friendship in lock-ins spent listening to and professing our love for the band. On the day Falco messaged me, when I told them I’d been asked to sing Jon’s parts, they were as excited and confused as I was, and of course, demanded by right that they were granted space on the guest list.
That’s the thing with mclusky – not many people had heard of them; most people still haven’t. But for many of the folks who had, they were important. They were a band that felt like they were yours, like it and the songs belonged to you. It was almost as if being a fan was a personality trait. So much so that when you met someone who loved them as well, a kinship was born – they were in on it too. They knew that this was a band that didn’t get the flowers it deserved while active, and actively swimming against the tide of nu-metal/emo bands that were front and centre of the alternative music scene in the early ’00s. That this was probably the best band that no one had ever heard of – who Steve Albini had once declared “the only band in Britain worth listening to.” A band that should have been massive but called it a day after “an album of posh demos” and two seminal records that sound as fresh and as urgent now as they did 20-odd years ago. To know mclusky was to wear a badge of weirdo authenticity, and to my mind, I wore it harder than anyone else.
London riffmongers Urne have been a little quieter recently following their touring in support of excellent second album A Feast On Sorrow, but that silence might be about to bear fruit. The trio have just unveiled brand-new song ‘Harken the Waves’, a 9-plus minute epic that journeys through towering progressive thrash and lumbering grooves. Naturally the guitar work is truly stellar, Angus Neyra cementing himself as one of metal’s best unsung guitarists. Not only that, but they’ve enlisted the help of Troy Sanders of the titanic Mastodon for guest vocals, in a pairing that simply makes sense given the similarities between the two bands. It’s hinting towards a perhaps even-better third album, if one is indeed in the works. – Will Marshall
From the sunbleached lands of Arizona comes something most gloomy indeed. The band’s first single since 2023, ‘Beneath A Lightless Star’ see’s Holy Fawn doing what they do best; making sounds that are simultaneously gorgeous and devastating. A continuation of the starry-eyed fatalism that characterised their wonderful 2022 record Dimensional Bleed, ‘Beneath A Lightless Star’ is a wonderful balancing act between intricate shoegaze grounded in the misery of men and a kind of celestial that harkens the esoteric nature of the veil beyond. – Dan Hillier
Making a transformation over the last decade from twinkly emo darlings to a melodramatic, progressive post-hardcore powerhouse, Connecticut based six-piece The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die (or TWIABP) have taken another hard left turn into all-out experimental hardcore on their latest single ‘Beware The Centrist’. While fans of their earlier work may be confused by the screamed vocals from dual singers David Bello and Katie Dvorak or the discordant guitar riffs backed by punishing percussion, fans of acts like The Armed or Chat Pile will feel right at home among the noise. While plenty of bands steadily shift from one style to another TWIABP keep listeners on their toes, veering wildly into a new genre and cementing themselves as expertwithout missing a beat. – Tom Bruce
Formed of members Agnes Alder (vocals, guitars), Guy DeNuit (guitars, vocals), Rös Ranquinn (drums) and Mary Thomas Baker (Bass), the Glaswegian quartet aren’t an entity devoted to all things goth as they are a band seemingly conjured by it. Meaning, there’s a genuine sense of authenticity to their sound and presence, something that has been evident from their very beginnings. After all, one doesn’t get to play alongside acts like Svalbard, Dopethrone, Agriculture and even Deafheaven all before releasing a record without genuine good reason. Cwfen seem to have an almost elemental, birth-given mastery of all things musically shrouded, which is something they prove with their luscious debut Sorrows.
Released today via New Heavy Sounds, here, Cwfen tap into the musical laylines in which they’ve seemingly emerged from to conjure a range of shadowed motifs prior to bending them to their whim. The sultry swagger of Type O Negative and the ashen stylings of Chelsea Wolfe may be most evident, but beneath the veil lies the faces of cinematic post metal in the vein of Amenra, the esoteric doom of King Woman and nuanced chemistry abundant. All of this is then articulated beautifully, with Cwfen using these organic musical stylings to animate narrations on queer love, defiance, burnout, mortality and corruption. Which, in total, ultimately proves just how vital this record is. Sorrows may be bountiful with musical and aesthetic substance, but it’s also one of genuine meaning and purpose.
With the record out now, we got in touch with Agnes to break down Sorrows, track by track.
‘This was one of the first two songs I wrote for Cwfen, so it feels fitting that it kicks off the album. I’d locked myself in the studio with just a guitar, a bass, a tiny interface, and some downloaded drum tracks, and Bodies was what came out. The riffs arrived first. I wanted to write something heavy and lurching thing, and the vocals followed soon after. Once I’d finished the demo, I sent it to Guy, and that’s really how Cwfen began. He took it and ran with it, and from there we started shaping the rest together.
Lyrically, I’d been thinking a lot about burnout, about becoming monstrous in the face of everything expected of you. I imagined this vast, cosmic matriarchal horror. Not the tidy, pleasing kind of woman, but a terrifying, devouring presence that takes up space and won’t be reasoned with. It was cathartic to write. Permission to be frightening. And it still feels like that when we play it.
Was also the first song where I ever tried out doing heavy vocals. I’d been secretly teaching myself in private, and had a go at band practice one day, and I’ve never looked back!’
‘Fittingly for song two, ‘Wolfsbane’ was the other song I wrote to kick things off for Cwfen. I wrote ‘Bodies’ and ‘Wolfsbane’ back to back over two days. I wanted to write something menacing. Something that sort of stalked around, and after a little playing around with ideas, this is what came out, fairly quickly.
This one’s always felt like the fire-starter of the record. The one where I’m not just singing for me, but for every woman in the room. On the surface it’s about poison. But underneath, it’s about rage. That wild, clear-headed feminine rage that appears when the world keeps trying to shrink you. It’s a song about what happens when you’ve had enough.
We shaped it together as a band, but its core has always been defiance, and it comes from a place of personal experience. When we play it live, it feels like setting something alight. I very much enjoy looking into the eyes of everyone in the front row. One of my absolutely favourite things is when I spot women in the crowd singing it back at me. I guess it’s a sort of rallying cry not to take things lying down. And a reminder that there is collective strength there if we stand up together.’
Released May 30th via Ripcord Records, Paramnesia is what one may call a love letter to the genre. Yes, this is a phrase that has become such a faux pas, that when used unironically, deserves then eye rolls at best, capital punishment at worse. But there’s no denying that what Kusanagi have made here is a labour of love that feels dedicated to not just the origins of the genre, but it’s modern and future sound too. A confluence of inspirations that have shaped their sound over the years is evident, but the way it’s all presented almost feels borderline futuristic in approach.
There’s elements of celestial synth in the key of 65daysofstatic, calculated technicality reminiscent of Animals As Leaders, madcap energy shivering with the fervour of ASIWYFA, intricate genre dynamism comparable to Overhead, The Albatross and the kind of progressive attitude that’s shared by peers such as Last Hyena and Din Of Celestial Birds. But all of these motifs are layered and complied in a way that’s individualistic, nuanced and starry-eyed. Kusanagi have not just penned a love letter to the history and scene that has inspired them, but they’ve popped it into a rocket ship set for the heavens.
Paramnesia is released May 30th via Ripcord Records. Pre-order the record here and stream the record early exclusively below.
