Wallowing & Tayne – Ancient Sorcery

It might not be festival season yet, but ‘Ancient Sorcery’ is one of those songs that will leave you with no other options but to lose yourself entirely to the chaotic cosmic collision between self-professed industrial noise pop band Tayne and the heaviest, sludgiest alien beekeepers of them all, Wallowing. This double-whammy, provided by the almighty Church Road Records, is an interesting combo for the non-initiated, but it remains an extremely catchy and enthralling tune with a lot of aggressiveness, a lot of oomph and so much potential for dancing, twerking and headbang at the same time. – Nessie Spencer

Urne – Throes of Grief / I (Black Sabbath cover)

There are few bands right now who have the ability to create riffs as gigantic as Urne. Despite it not even being two full years since their emotional sledgehammer that was A Feast On Sorrow, the clamour for new music has been in play for a good while. Blessing us with not only a brand new track in ‘Throes Of Grief’ but also a cover of Black Sabbath‘s classic ‘I’. For ‘Throes Of Grief’, the band have recruited Avatar (who they spent a good amount of time on tour with last year) guitarist Tim Öhrström to add his voice and powerful guitar work to the track. The result is a hefty slab of emotive modern metal, clearly influenced by the band they cover on the other track but also bearing the group’s signature sound. Joe Nally’s voice is as grandiose and wrought with pain as ever, which lends itself well to the Sabbath cover. It’s clear from the amount of effort and love put into the track that this is a piece of music that means a lot to Urne. The two pieces together, metal’s past and future show that there is definitely something to be excited about in the coming months for the British metallers. – Chris Earl

Pleiades – LA1 (Left Aimless)

Self-proclaimed ‘post-something’ Mancunians Pleiades appear to be gearing up for a truly special second era. Following on from the superb ‘CV5 (Constant Variation)’, released late last year, the band have conjured up yet another starkly beautiful track in the form of ‘LA1 (Left Aimless)’. An ode to vocalist Andy Calderbank’s home of Lancaster and the forgotten love we have for our hometowns, the track continues to build upon Pleiades’ foundations of complex instrumentation combined with captivating and surprisingly engaging melodies. ‘LA1’, however, now possesses the polish and confidence of a band that have a full understanding of their identity and skill set, with delicately performed guitar passages dancing beneath the distinctive vocals of Calderbank, which vault effortlessly from feathery melodies to razor-sharp screams. If there is one band worth ensuring you see at Noizzefest later this year, it is Pleiades. – Ryan Ward

EYES – Better

Dirty Danish hardcore troupe EYES are back and signed up to the fantastic Prosthetic Records for their incoming album SPINNER. ‘Through the lens of a fictional early 80s anime episode, vocalist Victor Kaas puts himself under the microscope, exploring events and emotions in his own life. SPINNER is heavily inspired by manga author Asano Inio, specifically his works Goodnight Punpun and Dead Dead Demon’s De De De Destruction.’ First single ‘Better’ comes in under a minute and to be honest, what more do you need? It is direct, brutal and honest and a perfect set up for what is to come. – Adam Vallely

Last Hyena – Make It Sound French

Is it math rock? It is post rock? Is it French enough? ‘Sure, maybe, I guess’, is the answer to such questions regarding the new single from Bristolian madcap instrumentalists Last Hyena. An unpredictable and truly mercurial exercise in free-spirited musical fluidity, ‘Make It Sound French’ once again see’s Last Hyena borrowing elements of the aforementioned genres and incorporating them into their own free jazz-orientated sound. Like the majority of their material, it’s impossible to predict where this song goes, but such is the brilliance of this band and the message of this track. “The title comes from a story shared by a close friend whose father was in a punk band in his younger years”, state the band on the track. “During one of their shows, the band decided to play an impromptu cover of ‘Ça plane pour moi’ by Plastic Bertrand. When the lead singer, our friend’s father, told his bandmates he didn’t know the lyrics, one of them responded with “just make it sound French!”. This spontaneous moment stuck with us because it perfectly embodies the themes we wanted to explore in the track: the idea of adapting to the unexpected, leaning into the chaos and finding a way to make something work even when things aren’t perfect. The title captures that spirit of improvisation and fluidity, much like the journey the music itself takes listeners on.” – Dan Hillier

mclusky – Way of the Exploding Dickhead

After a taster of new music with a quiet (not sonically, obviously) EP release in 2023, the new era of shouty post punks mclusky is here, announcing their first album in 20 years. Minus any asterisks or anything like that with The St. Pierre Snake Invasion frontman, Damien Sayell, officially on bass, in case you hadn’t heard. This lead single is inspired ‘by the huge excitement caused by the surge pricing on tickets to see a band play well in the distance.’ Something we may all have been guilty of complaining about just this past week. Liked mclusky back in the day, or maybe you only heard them when they returned a few years ago? Either way, you’ll like this new track, definitely maybe. – Adam Vallely

The Callous Daoboys – Two-Headed Trout / The Demon of Unreality Limping Like A Dog

“Mad” doesn’t properly sum up The Callous Daoboys. Their fizzing, multi-faceted take on mathcore that draws as much on pop as it does metal has beguiled fans for years, and the wider scene since the breakout album Celebrity Therapist and subsequent EP God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys. This double drop is the first taste of a brand new album, I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven, a concept album based around the Museum of Failure, and asks the question if something is immortalised in a museum, was it truly a failure? Sonically, the two songs are polar opposites. ‘Two-Headed Trout’ is channels early 2000s emo in the vein of Panic! At The Disco‘s debut album, with an obnoxiously catchy hook showing Carson Pace’s development as a singer. On the other hand, ‘The Demon of Unreality…’ (we do love their song names) is chaotic metalcore replete with dog barks and Pace demanding that we “bark like a dog” towards its close. Delirious, adventurous and utterly fascinating – and they tell us it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Roll on the album. – Will Marshall

Knives – THE DAGGER

Loudly launching their debut album campaign for GLITTER, Bristolians Knives release ‘THE DAGGER’ into the world. A band on the rise, they are not setting down a known path musically and taking it easy. This next step takes what we learned on their two EPs and adds some extra spice of what is to come. Hard ass drums and a deep bass line drive throughout, cut with a squee-tastic Saxaphone sound. Vocalist Jay Schottlander leads the line with veracity and ferocity through his lyrics and some nods to his love of hip-hop with his delivery, which is becoming a further driver behind his writing. This all emanating in a gargantuan ending section, leaving the world wanting more. – Adam Vallely

Regal Cheer – Crumbs

Taken from the duo’s upcoming record Quite Good – self-released May 2nd – ‘Crumbs’ a short, snappy and quick blast of earnest indie punk courtesy of Brighton two piece. Those familiar with Regal Cheer will know what to expect here; scrappy, but brilliantly released punk with both heart and hooks for days that’s optimised for all those with short attention spans. To call this quite good would be bit of an understatement really – make sure catch these with Toodles & The Hectic Pity this week. – Dan Hillier

Slung – Collider

Like stoner-esque grooves, maybe a touch of Soundgarden or Stone Temple Pilots? Slung are here to satisfy that hunger. Booming drums, a loose and luscious bass underpins the sultry, caramel vocals from front person Katie Oldham. Originally worked on by El Moono’s Zac Jackson with bassist Vlad Matveikov, Katie kept most of the melodies and “For the lyrics, I came up with a new narrative for this one based on the psych-infused nature of the tune. They tell the story of a cult who are ruled by a deity they refer to as the ‘ritual prophet’ and whom they converse with through the use of psychedelics.” This creates a hypnotic world you are submerged into by the quartet. A great preview of their incoming album In Ways. – Adam Vallely

Divide and Dissolve – Provenance

Brace yourselves, Divide and Dissolve is back with their fifth album Insatiable, which will be released on 18th April 2025 via the legendary Brighton-based record label, Bella Union. This project, led by the excellent Black Indigenous multi-instrumentalist and composer Takiaya Reed, took the doom scene by storm a few years ago with their previous releases, Gas Lit (2021) and Systemic (2023). The themes of this new album might revolve around love, optimism and the power of togetherness, which is something we all seem to need these days, and the best example we might get for now is the single ‘Provenance’, but rest assured, the heavy drums and doomy riffs are still there to take us to new heights. – Nessie Spencer

Cassels – Formaldehyde Time

There couldn’t be a more opt time for ‘Formaldehyde Time’ to release. Dropping amidst a perpetual storm of indecipherable newspeak and warnings of both doom and progress from Western leaders who have physically altered themselves with implants, chemicals and other such unnatural impurities, ‘Formaldehyde Time’ is an inherently horrible song for an equally horrifying time. An unpredictable and discordant slew of noise that just parallels that of navigating today’s political climate, the new single from Cassels raises the mirror to the so-called perfectionism championed by our leaders; the chemically whitened teeth, the flesh contorted by chemicals, the faces filled with plastics – all of that translated into an unsettling facade of noise rock. – Dan Hillier

Calva Louise – W.T.F

Few bands can boast that they have their own cinematic universe to accompany their music releases, and yet Calva Louise are in the rare position to be able to do so. Their new single ‘W.T.F’ straddles the line between having real life application through it’s lyricism, taking those very real feelings of decision paralysis, not knowing how to react or respond to an abnormal situation where you feel utterly powerless, and overlapping them with an absolutely insane scenario involving sci-fi shenanigans and a doppelganger stalker, all within their original Calva Louise universe that they’ve been building on throughout the bands career. The track itself jumps back and forth around moments of frenetic panic and puzzled contemplation, musically as chaotic and biting as it is composed and deliberate. Calve Louise have entered 2025 firing on all cylinders, hyper powered by their unique qualities as a multi-national band operating out of the UK, and driven passionately by their laser focused narrative spinning and genre bending capabilities. – Elliot Grimmie

Spiritbox – No Love, No Loss

There’s a lot of expectations riding on Spiritbox‘s second album, Tsunami Sea. To date, the quarter have shown off that they can still bring the heavy with ‘Holy Roller’-echoing ‘Soft Spine’ as well as their more tender side with the arresting ‘Perfect Soul’. Third single ‘No Love, No Loss’ is heavy. Courtney LaPlante turns in a formidable, pissed-off vocal performance with gutturals and screeches, interspersed with unsettling spoken word passages. Around her, there’s glitching electronics and thundering guitar that scrapes one moment and dives into bowels of hell the next. It harks back to the technical slant of their early EPs, while maintaining an experimental edge they started developing post-Eternal Blue, and it’s an interesting glimpse into the myriad directions the band seem to be going in, without losing a core Spiritbox identity. – Will Marshall

Hamartia – Bloom

Putting their growth as a band on full display, exciting up-and-coming alternative quartet Hamartia are back with their dynamic new single ‘Bloom’. With a memorable pop punk guitar riff backing vocalist Sophie Smith’s dynamic voice, ‘Bloom’ shows off a brilliantly energetic new side to Hamartia’s sound without distracting from the emotionally driven lyrics they’ve become known for. While Hamartia have always had a heavy edge peeking through their delicate melodies, ‘Bloom’ gives the band a chance to let loose with a blistering post-hardcore style breakdown closing out the otherwise graceful track. With a pair of recent singles and plenty of live appearances on the horizon, 2025 is looking to be an important year for Hamartia. – Tom Bruce

Telepathy – Augury

Taken from the band’s forthcoming new record Transmissions – released March 28th via Pelagic – ‘Augury’ see’s Telepathy infuse their ironised take on post metal with a few found focus on all things synthkind. The end result, simply, is a brilliant, cinematic and wide-angled take on dynamic instrumentalism that reminisces thoughts of pg.Lost, God Is An Astronaut, Collapse Under The Empire and some of the greatest names in progressive post rock and metal. “The second transmission from our new album completes the theme started with Oath, creating one entire track when played after the preceding single”, state the band on the track. “The video for Augury was designed to take you on a journey into a psychedelic neon city scape, at once widescreen and claustrophobic. We leant into our love of synthesizers, Tangerine Dream and Boards of Canada with this one and we hope it shows another side to our upcoming album.’ – Dan Hillier