Born forth from Brighton’s ever-fertile alternative scene, fakeyourdeath are a musical entity committed to the inherent beauty of caustic abrasion. Formed of Candi Underwood (Vocals) and Sam Barnes (Drums), the duo present present music designed and purposefully engineered to be outrageous, overwhelming and uniquely fresh. Whilst motifs of industrial, and electronic and – to a certain extent – post-hardcore are genetically implemented into their organic and mutating sound, to attempt to even try to neatly slot this band into a singular neat bracket would be ultimately be task that would threaten one’s need for order and sense.
Instead, should one imagine a band harnessing the industrial self-destruction of Death Grips and Nine Inch Nails marred with the overwhelming bedlam of Frontierer and delivered with the confrontational chemical rush of Tokky Horror then you theoretically shouldn’t be too far off the mark. It’s a madcap and frothing rush of rage and energy, one purposefully designed to grab one and throttle them, and one that pays credence to the statement that some of the most authentic and thought provoking art is intentionally unpleasant. However, it’s the live environment where the most true version of fakeyourdeath manifests.
As those who have seen the band previously, either at events such as ArcTanGent and StrangeForms or alongside acts such as The St. Pierre Snake Invasion, Empire State Bastard, ZAND or the aforementioned Tokky Horror, fakeyourdeath are a band that get in your face – quite literally in fact. Despite the band only being a live entity for less than two years, the duo have already garnered themselves with a reputation as being one of those acts where maximalism reigns; an act who unleashes salvos of jolting noise and ensure every punter is part of a show as opposed to just watching one. Those who have been in such live environments – either willingly or not – will know the power this band harness and what awaits within their upcoming debut EP null/void. And with that EP released next week, we got in touch with fakeyourdeath for a chat.
“It’s difficult for us to put this band in a sub-genre category, but it’s an amalgamation of our favourite elements of heavy & electronic music. Industrial but also punk, let’s say electronicore? Musically we are influenced by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Crystal Castles, Health, Death Grips, Ho99o9. Topically we draw from a mixture of personal experiences & our frustration with society’s shortcomings – it is pretty pessimistic.”
“It’s a snapshot of a specific time period where we were just writing & experimenting with no real plans for the band further than just that so there’s a sense of achievement to finally be putting it out there after sitting on these songs for a few years now.”
If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d think SeeYouSpaceCowboy hailed from the glory days of early 2000’s metalcore and post-hardcore. Making you feel like you’ve been transported back to 2006, latest release ‘Red Wine and Discontent’ is rammed full of captivating melody and poetic switches between high-pitched cleans and banshee shrieks. Centering around the notion and pitfalls of being a dirty little secret in an affair, the band continue their ability to produce accessible metalcore without losing the nostalgic greatness. And, like any prominent heyday metalcore track, the chorus is outrageously catchy and captures the mood perfectly. Seemingly, it’s time to dig out the studded belts again in time for their upcoming album, Coup De Grâce, out April 19th on Pure Noise. – Amy Bowles
Few names in the post hardcore/emo world carry as much respect as Thursday. The New Jersey natives haven’t been as active on record as they have live the last few years, with brand new track ‘Application For Release From the Dream’ the first original music from the band since 2011. The songs driving force and highlight is the vocal performance from Geoff Rickly, whose instantly recognisable voice will surely give people of a certain age a feeling of instant nostalgia. A slow burner, it builds to a dramatic crescendo of beauty, shrieks and gang vocals that bring elements from all over Thursday‘s career together in one modern package. Is this the best place to start with the band? Probably not but for longtime fans and veterans of the scene, it’s a welcome return on record for the pioneers. – Chris Earl
After releasing one the best emo records of 2021 with Gender, Trauma & Friendship, South Yorkshire’s finest Slash Fiction are back with ‘Catastrophising’. The first single to be lifted from their upcoming second record We’ll Hold This Line Until Hell Freezes Over – self-released May 31st – ‘Catastrophising’ is the full encapsulation of what makes this act just so brilliant and utterly lovable. As the words “Cos’ if all it takes to shut out this noise / is a can of red stripе in a basement” are bellowed against korg tinged emo that resonates thoughts of itoldyouiwouldeatyou, Johnny Foreigner and Martha, it’s impossible not be affected or moved by the chemistry, catharsis and community that binds this band as a collective. If one is yet to be acquainted with this band whilst being fans of the aforementioned acts – or simply wishes to hear one of the best emo bands in the UK right now – then this is the perfect introduction to a band most wonderful. – Dan Hillier
The second single to be taken from their forthcoming record Keep Your Cool – released April 19th via Counter Intuitive – ‘Bad Boys Boxing Clubs’ sees the Texan emo trio Riley! slipping on the gloves to deliver an absolute haymaker. A far more bold and confrontational flurry than their previous single, here Riley! forgo the tenderness of their previous work to deliver a bellowed hammering of timeless aggressive emo. Still, with its bounce, charm and effortless sense of fun, the track is peak Riley! and simply brilliant. – Dan Hillier
Where on earth hath Thou been? It’s hard to believe despite the litany of collaborations, most recently with 2022’s one man powerhouse Mizmor, that this is the Baton Rouge blackened sludge collective’s first original material since 2018 album Magus. Coming alongside word of new album Umbilical, ‘I Feel Nothing When You Cry’ is immediately ferocious and fueled by pure acrid misanthropy. Describing Umbilical as a record “…for the radicals, the crackpots, the exiles who have escaped the wasteland of capitulation,” the lead single is suitably noisy and oppressive, succumbing to levels of fervour the band have only dabbled in prior. Thou widen their inspirational pools, embracing aspects of 90s underground DIY hardcore culminating in some of the band’s most urgent and frantic material to date. It’s four minutes of white knuckle aggression and neck churning riffs, bleeding out into whining feedback that feels like the aftermath of a bomb going off in your face. – Harry Shiels
Brightonian post-metallers El Moono are on a hot streak that few can deny. As this, the fifth single and title track from their upcoming album, The Waking Sun shows, they’re in the creative form of their lives. Masters at marrying crushing soundscapes with sombre, haunting vocals and unorthodox hooks, it’s a perfect backdrop for a track about the day to day struggle with depression. The track also features some guest vocals from Congratulations singer Leah Stanhope, who leaves her mark on the track with a fantastic performance. As the band prepare for their headline tour (with a slot at our upcoming Noizzefest at the end of April) it seems obvious that the band will be able to finally capitalise on the hype and love that’s surrounded them for years. Even those who normally eschew post metal will find something to love in El Moono, whose vulnerability and authentic nature mark them out as not only an exciting, but a relatable band of today’s British metal scene. – Chris Earl
Alongside acts such as We Lost The Sea and Jakob, Australia’s sleepmakeswaves have long up-held the reputation of Oceania’s post-rock scene with nothing but beaming grins and infectious enthusiasm. Across the band’s discography the Sydney trio have approached and more or less nailed all the expected variations in which the genre can manifest in; from ethereal and ambient to the wild and riffy, sleepmakeswaves have mastered it with all the wit, charisma and excitement that is often absent in this genre many may call stoic. It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It follows in similar suit.
Released today via Dunk! And Bird’s Robe, It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It is essentially what many have come to expect from sleepmakeswaves. However, it’s by far the band’s most confident record thus far. Articulated with the kind of tenacity and assurance that can only come from an artist who has rightfully full courage in their skill, the record stands as eight fully unique tracks that showcase the best of the band’s ability as musicians. There’s nay a second misspent lost or misplaced here – from the giddy excitement of ‘Super Realm Park’ to the gentle ornateness of ‘Black Paradise’ back to the proggy neo-futurism within ‘Terror Future’ every second has been used in order to perfectly present the soundscapes that compose this record. It’s a record as lush as it is varied, and one that remains to be confident and charismatic at all times.
With that in mind, and with the record out now, we got in touch with bassist / keyboardist Alex Wilson to break down It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It, track by track.
Related: sleepmakeswaves – It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It | Album Review
“When we were working on this during our pandemic pre-pro era, this was already a contender for the album opener. The M.O. became to make it really big and loud at the start, and even bigger-er and louder-er on the back end. I like to think we did that, managing to pack in some dynamic clean digressions in there too. The final half-time slowdown at the end we did some cool production tricks on, breaking the “rules” of audio production so the whole mix feels like it’s redlining.”
“Our nerdy but rockin’ tribute to F-Zero X on the N64. Most of the song is trying to capture an upbeat and futuristic vibe, and the track title is both a tribute to video games and O’Neill Cylinders, which are a kind of theorized floating orbital habitat. Wikipedia it and the pictures will make sense.”
“This is our fusion of post-rock and grunge, but it’s a shame that Creed and Three Doors Down already fucked-up the “post-grunge” label before we got to it. The first half of this song has heavy Helmet vibes to me, what with the stop-start drop-D riffage, and the back end of it feels like an unwritten Soundgarden riff we astral-projected out of some parallel Badmotorfinger universe. The polyrhythmic trance rave-up in the middle is one of our personal touches to give it that electrospice that we crave.”
After what feels like years of longing and waiting, the otherworldly beings eternal Zetra have announced their debut LP, a self-titled endeavour released September 13th via Nuclear Blast Records. Heralding it’s approach is ‘Starfall’, an ushering of fatal beauty and celestial esotericism that features Serena Cherry of Svalbard and Noctule. The full realisation of the sound that was probed and explored across their previous work, ‘Starfall’ is a tenderly vicious and fully accomplished ushering of gothic sensibilities across the whole spectrum and timeline of the genre and it’s adjacent movements. It’s quite frankly a bleak yet beautiful shroud of hot goff shit free and removed from the withering nature of time, one that entertains subtle motifs of synth-pop and new wave in a way most brilliant and cohesive. If you’re not acquainted with Zetra, now is the time to begin to know; they’re probably our generation’s equivalent of Type O Negative. – Dan Hillier
Nu metallers Graphic Nature had a breakout year in 2023 with debut album a mind waiting to die, and it left them hitting a creative streak and writing its follow-up, the newly-announced Who Are You When No One Is Watching?, releasing July 12. Drum & bass elements are even better incorporated as a skittering beat opens the track and alarm-like synths blare in the background. There’s more than a few shades of Korn and early Slipknot to their aural assault but they make it their own. Vocalist Harvey Freeman explains that ‘To the Grave’ is about “ the frustration that came from an event in my own life that changed the way I see people. It’s the beginning of a narrative of songs that explain the different stages of emotional trauma I’d gone through. With the main focus of the song being about losing your way and becoming a hateful person.” By the sounds of it, we’re in for a harrowing, groove-laden ride. – Will Marshall
Every single time a new Knocked Loose track releases, it batters you in so many different ways you say to yourself “they can’t possibly make it any heavier”. Then they do. After the scathing ‘Blinding Faith’, the Kentucky natives’ second single from their upcoming record is ‘Don’t Reach For Me’. Boasting one of the most ridiculous snare sounds of their career, it’s an aural barrage of Bryan Garris’ banshee-esque shrieks and some of the most utterly furious music you’ll hear this year. For a band like Knocked Loose to be getting heavier and more menacing with every release is one of the most beautifully deranged elements of the modern heavy music scene and when You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To drops, don’t be surprised if the band manage to one up themselves yet again. – Chris Earl
Taken from their upcoming third record Dark Ageism – released June 21st via Big Scary Monsters – ‘Lifted Fingers’ see’s Norwich post-hardcore trio Other Half with Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws for a dreary but melodic study on the soulless commodification of all we hold dear. Viscerally detailing how it’s vital to preserve our venues and spaces before they’re fitted with LCD screens advertising phone contracts and genocide complicit banks, the track may be at odds with the band’s usual blend of smash-your-teeth-in abrasion, but with it’s threatening and frustrated aura, it’s the peak Other Half experience; vital and impossible to ignore. – Dan Hillier
Church Road Records just don’t miss; latest signees Giant Walker meld anthemic rock and progressive sensibilities. ‘Make Me’ is their first new music since 2022’s debut, the band saying “the song is about witnessing someone that you care about making terrible decisions and the reality of your own helplessness knowing that nothing you say will influence their judgement as they can’t or won’t acknowledge that their own actions are perpetuating the problem. So, it becomes an endless cycle of delusion and bitterness.” From a marching snare that opens to serpentine riffs and shifting drum work, all capped by a powerhouse vocal performance, ‘Make Me’ shows they’ve grown and evolved from a promising band to one that have something very special indeed. – Will Marshall
The lords of all things low and slow hath returned from the bowels of Bristol with something a bit more immediate. Taken from their upcoming second record Grand Scheme Of Things – released October 4th via Pelagic Records – ‘New Dead Elvis’ see’s Sugar Horse exploring how we gleefully and grimly romanticise the death of pop culture icons in a way that only they can. However, with the track only spanning three-and-a bit-minutes, ‘New Dead Elvis’ is somewhat of a musical side step for the band. Fear not through, for the single – and record as a whole – still contains all the dread, ambience, loathing and generalised existential anxiety that’s characterised their work since their offset in a way that’s still profound, albeit more concise. “This album was intended to be a sideways step”, state Sugar Horse on the new record. “A move away from the kind of thing that is expected of us… if anything is at all. What I mean by that, is the songs are more direct. They take a much shorter amount of time to “get to the point”. We also wanted to make this one noticeably “less Metal”. While we love being a bit boneheaded and confrontational, we definitely wanted to explore the more melodic, song-based side of the band’s sound. We’ve done the whole drawn out, endless Space Rock thing a good few times now and it would’ve been easy to rest on those laurels. Do something we’re comfortable with. Alas, that is not really the point of this band. We’d much prefer to make it difficult and take the long route.” – Dan Hillier
Aussie outfit Stand Atlantic have shapeshifted with every album to date, and by the singles released so far, including the latest ‘GIRL$’, it’ll be another step into poppier territories retaining some of the punk bite. ‘GIRL$’ is the third single from upcoming release WAS HERE, and it’s propelled by Bonnie Fraser’s voice and a pounding beat that drops to half time for its chorus. Featuring both PVRIS and Mexican artist Bruses, as Bonnie describes it, “I wanted to show my appreciation for women and personally, my experience growing up knowing I was attracted to women but still feeling like I had to fit the mould of the male gaze, just based on the way I was influenced by a male dominated society. I hope other queer women and women in general resonate with this track, but also anyone in between… having Lynn (PVRIS) and Amalia (Bruses) on this track made it so much more meaningful to me personally. Both female, queer and talented artists I respect so much.” – Will Marshall
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a full-length from Utah’s Cult Leader (A Patient Man was all the way back in 2018!) and while they did release a split with END in 2022, more nihilistic fury from them is never unwelcome. A hair over two minutes, it’s enough to whet the appetite for hopefully a new album this year. A savagely bludgeoning cut as ever, ‘Learn To Love It’ doesn’t let up from the outset; jarring dissonance, more fight riffs than you can shake a stick at and a vocal performance that’ll mug you for your lunch money, this is is Cult Leader at their frantic, vicious best. In the band’s words, “we’re glad to finally let it see the light of day. It presents the idea of growing comfortable while being stripped of hope.” – Will Marshall
Taken from their upcoming EP The Trawler – released May 31st via Drongo Records – ‘Chest Pains’ see’s Norwich noise rock merchants going Eat Your Own Head going angling for riffs and hauling in the catch of the day. Shivering with tension, thrashing with riffs in the vein of El Moono and The St. Pierre Snake Invasion and complete with a hook strong enough to net the heftiest of sea beasties, ‘Chest Pains’ is a meaty, dark and wryly humorous serving of alt-rock that see’s the band once again probing the darkest recesses of heavy music and one’s own psyche. Those familiar with the band’s brilliant 2022 record Neck-Deep In The Blyth shall know what to expect here, but for those new to the band, you’re gonna need a bigger boat to accommodate these riffs. – Dan Hillier
Frank Herbert fans rejoice, for Scotland’s finest progressive post metallers Dvne have revealed the second single taken from the upcoming Voidkind, the follow-up to 2021’s stellar Etemen Ænka. Where first single ‘Plērōma’ featured their most melodic work to date, ‘Abode of the Perfect Soul’ returns to the heaving, tectonic sludge riffs they cut their teeth with. Bellowing vocals are counterpointed by entwining guitar lines, with cofounding guitarist/vocalist Victor Vicart describing it as “one of the most multifaceted songs we have ever written with many changes of scenes and vibes. We feel it crystallizes where DVNE is musically right now.” – Will Marshall
Signalling a new dawn to their refreshing take on heavy-set spiral tones and celestial reckoning, folk horror outfit Forlorn takes the heavy music community to task over its lack of female representation, while championing the respect and conservation of the planet with their new dominating single ‘Creatress’. Channelling a much harsher atmosphere as they venture into symphonic black metal with touches of ambient, their brand of self-described “Midsommar metal” has been elevated to new heights with inspiration being funnelled through the teachings of the Norse deity Moder’s desire to protect the natural world. With such divine intervention reinforcing Forlorn’s lifeblood, this latest release stands as an especially promising step forward in their post-Sæl ascension. – Bennie Osborne
The events of the last few years have left most of us with a grey tinge in our vision and a sense that nothing will ever really be normal again. A band who knows more about that than most is Mastiff, who have ensured through intense personal struggle and hardship, channelling it into some of the most furious, intense racket this country has ever seen. Deprecipice, their new record, is finally upon us and nothing quite accurately portrays our dismal existence and equally bleak future quite like this slurry of hostility.
As grim, violent and inhospitable as modern living, Deprecipice is a record of grief in every possible form. Grief over lost loved ones, grief over regrets, grief over lost time and grief over a future already condemned. True to the nature of this subject, there’s no light nor optimism to be found here, just obsidian pain and suffering in it’s most abject and authentic form. Yes, as one can imagine this is not an easy listen, and nor is it a particularly what one would call an enjoyable one in the standard sense. But it is a record of genuine substance, one inspired and one immersive in the most violently suffocating way possible. It’s brilliant, albeit totally overwhelming, and a record that demands respect, attention and pundits upon high. With the record out now via MNRK Heavy, we got in touch with vocalist Jim Hodge for a chat.
“Probably both, it’s a bit of a double edged sword, but we’re waiting for people to start reviewing the record so once they’re in and they’re hopefully good, we can get a bit more excited. As for Yersin, they sort of selected themselves as our support. When we played last year in Newcastle at Trillians, they were on the same wavelength as us. They’re like us, a bunch of cheeky little sods. We got on like a house on fire straight away, we loved their sound and the band.”
“Yeah it is, Phil our guitarist said that this track needs divebombs or a solo on, and we felt like that track, which was Worship because it’s pretty much just Slayer worship would be great for him. Rob from Yersin is an absolute nut for Kerry King and I think that definitely comes through”
“*Laughs* “Yeah, I’ll take that. It was just natural, what we were listening to and I guess it’s a progression. We write in a live environment, we don’t try to force things and put down anything. It’s kind of, thats the way it sounds and thats what works. Whatever the style or sound of music, we want to put out what we like to hear.”
*Laughs* “Yeah it’s a horrible miserable place. They really are the kings of…whatever they call themselves stylewise. You don’t want to be pigeonholed, I guess they’re blackened noise, I don’t think they’d want the moniker of deathcore. I know them all fairly well…they just sound like themselves and nobody else.”
“We do try, we always try to be ourselves. We love to Mastiff shit up, and Mastiff our sound up…that’s something we always say as a band.”
