“Reality Denied writes hardcore music for people who like to mosh like assholes.” states Conner Gibbs, vocalist of the Canadian hardcore/beatdown outfit, when we spoke to them ahead of the release of their latest EP …Comes With A Price. The third EP from the Niagara region five-piece, which was released independently by the band on May 26th, Conner was nice enough to talk to Noizze about the album and chat about being apart of the Ontario hardcore scene.
Having been a couple years since their previous release in 2021, …Comes With A Price is instantly more aggressive and clearly comes from a darker place. “When I was writing the lyrics for this record, I’d be sitting at home or at work and just get worked up over stuff and that’s where a lot of the EP came from,” says Conner. “Thinking about people in my past who’ve went too far, or crazy stuff that’s happened when i was younger. There are a couple tracks about how people pretend to be something they aren’t. That was something that was bothering me a lot at the time. People trying to convince us they’re these hard as fuck gangsters or something but in reality they are as silver spoon as they come- which is fine, but like, just be yourself.”
Taking place at London’s Rich Mix on September 16th, the 7th edition of the event see’s the Loud Women Festival boasting their most international showcase to date, with the bill featuring some of the best female and non-binary talent within the global indie and punk grassroots scene. Sitting atop the bill are Germnay’s Breezy, Turkey’s Hipersonia and Ireland’s Vernon Jane, along side United States’ Shygodwin and The Dollheads. On top of this, COWZ, FFSYTHO?!, I, Doris, LibraLibra, PUSSYLIQUOR, Samba Sisters, Sassyhiya, Shallow Honey, The Empty Page, The Kut, Where We Sleep and WOLFS will also be taking to the Shoreditch venue next month too. These artists will also be joined by guest speakers Safe Gigs For Women, Bloody Good Period, Janine Booth, Janey Starling and Alliance For Choice.
Originally established as an urgent respite from the male-dominated festival lineups that dominate the national market and as a pipeline for under represented artists to reach larger audiences, Loud Women Festival has swiftly become a globally renowned event. Following it’s inaugural event in 2015, the festival saw thousands of applications from artists across the planet wishing to play the event, with later incarnations of the festival seeing the likes of Nova Twins, Petrol Girls, Lambrini Girls, Grace Petrie, Big Joanie, ARXX and more gracing the festival’s stage. “There’s absolutely no excuse in 2023 for festivals not to be booking at least 50% female musicians”, states Loud Women founder Cassie Fox on the line-up. “Gender equality makes all areas of life more balanced and harmonious – especially in music!”
Loud Women Festival 2023 takes place on September 16th at Big Mix, London. Find tickets and additional information here, and see the full lineup below.
Not content to drop the best record of 2022, the mind-melting Celebrity Therapist, The Callous Daoboys have announced yet more new music for this year with 3-track EP God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys, along with its lead single ‘Waco Jesus’. It’s an utterly batshit romp through crushing heaviness, stunning melody, creative riffing and dissonant violin that’s welded together by their madcap vision for what The Callous Daoboys are and what they can do (which is pretty much anything, at this point). It’s testament to their noisy genius and cohesiveness as a unit that a song drawing on as many disparate elements as they always do still hangs together brilliantly. You’re damn right God smiles upon The Callous Daoboys. – Will Marshall
Essentially the musical equivalent of a short snapshot of the apocalypse set to rightfully cleanse this bastard earth, the latest offering from Sugar Horse is part of something currently beyond comprehension. A segment of the band’s forthcoming EP Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico – something that can be described as an 18 minute-odd long single piece – ‘II – Or’ is two minutes of gloom, filth and nihilism. However, as those who have seen the Bristol doomgaze mob in recent months will know, the larger picture that this track belongs to is something most bleakly majestic, devastatingly panoramic and fatally beautiful. With Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico arriving November 3rd via the band’s own Fat Dracula Records, thankfully we won’t be waiting too long for the musical rapture our worthless lives rightfully deserve. – Dan Hillier
Arguably the hottest band in the world, Spiritbox have unveiled not only a brand new single in Jaded, but that they’ll be releasing a new EP of 6 tracks this November entitled The Fear of Fear. ‘Jaded’ shows Spiritbox leaning back into a sound a little closer to their earlier work, slight prog and djent influences running through its four minutes. As ever, Courtney LaPlante demonstrates how easily she can shift between atmospheric singing and paint-stripping screams, while guitarist Mike Stringer lays down a churning riff. It joins The Void on the tracklisting, showing the band aren’t afraid to push themselves within the sound they’ve already established or introduce new elements like the Garbage-esque ‘Rotoscope’. Here’s hoping the other four songs follow a similarly experimental path. – Will Marshall
If you liked Biffy Clyro but for some reason wish Simon Neil fronted a grind band instead, the good news is Empire State Bastard exist. The collaboration between Neil, Oceansize mainman Mike Vennart with Bitch Falcon’s Naomi Macleod and the legendary Dave Lombardo on bass and drums respectively have their debut album Rivers of Heresy out next Friday, and they’ve released its final single in the form of ‘Moi?’. As Simon explains, “‘Moi?’ is about people who “just no matter what you talk about will never ever see the truth, even if you dangle it in front of them.” Sonically, it’s as wonderfully unhinged as ever; it might start quietly with Neil’s unmistakeable Scottish croon, but it soon descends into bestial shrieks atop battering drums and scuzzy guitars, switching between the two as well as spoken word throughout. We might not have had “Simon Neil’s avant-garde grindcore project” on our bingo card for 2023, but we’re damn glad it’s here. – Will Marshall
Rowdy British punk duo Soft Play, formerly known as Slaves, have returned after an extended hiatus with new single Punk’s Dead, wasting no time in picking up exactly where they left off. A riotous, profanity-laden cacophony fuelled by Isaac Holman’s screaming vocals and energetic drums and Laurie Vincent’s ferocious riffs, Punk’s Dead feels like both a throwback to the band’s heyday and the logical conclusion of their sound. A highlight of the track has to be the surprise guest appearance by pop legend Robbie Williams on the track’s bridge, it’s a brilliantly unexpected feature that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. Punk’s Dead proves that Soft Play are back and they’re just as fierce as ever. – Tom Bruce
Fans of mid-noughties MySpacecore rejoice; SeeYouSpaceCowboy are back with their sass filled, hip shaking brand of metalcore, and it’s a belter. The first piece of new music since 2021’s stunning The Romance of Affliction, ‘Chewing the Scenery’ is an encapsulation of the band’s sound and all its facets, from high pitched guitars and crunching breakdowns, to emotive, vulnerable cleans and a good deal of theatrics thrown into the mix for good measure. There’s also a really cool, stuttering guitar part in the middle that will result in so many shapes thrown live. Connie sounds fantastic, as does Taylor. With no new album announced just yet, this remains a fantastic standalone for now and if you’re not into SeeYouSpaceCowboy yet, this is a perfect gateway track. – Chris Earl
Retiring her Lingua Ignota moniker singer/pianist Kristin Hayter reclaims her full name in a stripped down new project. Through lo-fi production and her fanatical, breaking singing voice Hayter brings the devotion of charismatic Christian movements to life, processing her trauma through evangelistic spirituality as an allegory for personal rebirth. ‘ALL OF MY FRIENDS ARE GOING TO HELL’ takes a far more bare-bones approach than much of Hayter’s previous work, apart from some oscillating synth sounds that open the track Hayter stands alone with just her voice and a piano, the degraded production created by running the track through a series of cassette tapes and the amount of scratchy dead air in the track really sell her new persona. This track is the first under the Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter name in the lead up to an album of both original tracks and gospel standards coming out this October. – Tom Bruce
On the cusp of releasing what’s shaping up to be their best album yet, blackened post-hardcore/metallers Svalbard have released their latest single ‘How To Swim Down’, a total sonic curveball from the rest of not only the singles from upcoming album The Weight of the Mask, but from anything they’ve done before. A soft, tender and utterly heart-wrenching song about the pain and sorrowful beauty in unrequited love, Serena Cherry’s vocals are completely sung while Liam Phelan swaps the guitar for the violin he’s played for years, the first appearance of the instrument in any of Svalbard‘s music. As it swells and the violin layers build, the sorrow only intensifies as the song narrates the final acceptance of having to love from afar. Keep the tissues close for this one, especially if you watch the gorgeous animated video that goes alongside it. – Will Marshall
The latest record from the electronic-rock unit Reformat – the creative outlet of Luke Pajak, joined here by Ross Russel and Yard Art drummer Jay Russel – Precursed is a gorgeousness and technicolour offering rich with splendour. Should one imagine a record composed of the luscious synth leads of PG. Lost, the ingenuity of Three Trapped Tigers, the analogue emotion of Vasudeva and steadfast commitment to style enjoyed by Overrider and Com Truise, they would most likely envision a soundscape as vibrant as this wonderful record. However, despite it’s uplifting nature and it’s joyous approach to electronica, Precursed is a record not born in colour, but rather in monochrome.
Whilst it would be easy to say that Precursed was inspired by loss and trauma, it would be more truthful to say that the record was created in order to survive such events. Fuelled by anger and driven by grief, the record is Pajak’s way of channeling such mentally eroding emotion in a creative manner rather than turning to self-destruction. In fact, the record is a body of work that see’s one trying to resist the pull of nihilism. In an age where the most easy way to survive is to accept the misery now characterising modern living, Precursed urges one to keep their head above the monochrome mire and cherish the colour and beauty of life, as increasingly fleeting as it may be.
With that in mind and with the record out now via Fearbone Records, we got in touch with Luke to break down Precursed, track by track.
Related: Reformat – Precursed | Album Review
“One thing I’d like to say from the beginning is that the description of what inspired these tracks is really different to how they actually sound. When I explain what they’re about, you might expect something bleak and much darker. The experience is hopefully more uplifting than the place they came from, and that was really the point of making the music.”
“The aim was to create a connection between the intro and outro so they bookend the album, despite it being a bad move in an age when listeners will skip after five seconds if they get bored. It maybe doesn’t matter to most people but we still think of an album as a journey, rather than just a collection of songs that will end up on random playlists.
While there’s no major concept, the beginning and end give a bit of context to what’s being expressed throughout. From my perspective, the position of these two tracks describes something about the cyclical nature of grief, and the way our emotions sometimes come in waves. The intro also features the voices and playing of people I’ve lost in recent years. We kick things off from somewhere a little dark and oppressive but end up with fleeting cathartic optimism by the final track.”
“Musically, ‘Obsolethal’ is a deliberate knee to the bits after the listener has experienced the false dawn of the downtempo intro. On the whole I think it reflects a bit of the Faith No More meets Sonic The Hedgehog sound which we established on the first album. It also features Wayne from Big Lad, sprinkling some extra crunchy glitch throughout, for texture.
There’s only a few lyrics but they continue the themes established in the intro. The words are about the initial stasis of grief and the feeling that even though you’re treading water, everything around you is still moving. If you don’t start moving with it at some point, it gets harder to keep your head above the surface.”
Comprised of Matt Benatan (Bass, Synths), Chris Core (Guitars) Andie Gill (Guitars, Synths), Tom Hazlehurst (Guitars) and Vince Knight-Schrijver (Drums, Percussion), the Leeds post prock quintet offer explorations of the unquantifiable nature of emotion in a fashion that’s beyond the ultimately finite power of human language. A tall claim yes, one that some could say is hyperbolic indeed, but what makes this statement tangibly factual is their beautifully atmospheric and haplessly immersive LP debut The Night Is For Dreamers.
Containing tapestries of sound as rich and vivid as the human experience itself, the record serves as a soundtrack to those cinematic moments in life that characterise and chapter our short time on this planet. With each track serving as a soundtrack to particular event or situation or event deserving of an expertly tailored soundtrack, The Night Is For Dreamers witnesses Din Of Celestial Birds interweaving the luscious soundscapes of Maybeshewill, the furious post-metal riffs of Russian Circles, the quiet dynamics of MONO with the ingenuity of the entire UK post-rock scene in order to fully enliven the humanity that’s at the crux of their intricate sound. The end result is a record that’s alive with a sense of purpose, cinematic in scope and totally removed from the stoicism that some associate with the post-rock sound.
With the record out now via A Cheery Wave (UK) and A Thousand Arms (US), we got in touch with Din Of Celestial Birds to chat about the human condition, post-rock and ArcTanGent Festival.
Chris: Five guys telling stories through our music, from calm, contemplative soundscapes to crushing, cathartic riffs.
Vince: Epic cinematic noise woven into a harmonic tapestry of emotion, connectivity, and reflection.
Chris: Musically, we’re inspired by our contemporaries in bands like Russian Circles, Maybeshewill, Caspian, Mono and pg.lost. The bands that can take you to places without a single word. Topically, we tend to draw inspiration from our own lives; things that have happened to us, a feeling or emotion that feels poignant or our relationships with our friends and families.
Vince: There are so many bands to name that inspire us in this vein of music and Chris has mentioned a few. Personally, I would also say that many of us are massive prog fans, where the writing is focused on attention to concept and detail, such as Porcupine Tree. Many of these artists have somehow managed to film-score important moments of our lives before seeing the script. We are definitely inspired by the more poignant aspects of the human condition, and a large part of Din Of Celestial Birds for me is certainly the sense of capturing them in movie-like moments.
The first single to be taken from the band’s eagerly anticipated new record What We Do To Feel – released November 10th via Easy Life – ‘The Lens’ is a deeply vital statement from a band that has become crucially important within the national scene. In an increasingly chaotic age where joy has become second to the perpetual grind of progress at the expense of compassion, ‘The Lens’ see’s Lonely The Brave imploring one to remember that everyone has a deeply unique perspective towards life and how our collective view of normality has become warped. Effortlessly demonstrating the band’s long-established skill exploring intimacy in the form of soaring melodies and grandiose songwriting, ‘The Lens’ is a testament to the growth the band have undertake in recent years and a song that appears to heralds what may be Lonely The Brave’s boldest body of work to date. – Dan Hillier
Everyone’s favourite goth heartthrobs are back. The latest single from the taken from the band’s upcoming full length Sanguivore – released October Friday the 13th, naturally – ‘Teenage Sacrifice’ is a sleek, bloodthirsty and sly serving of theatrical goth punk that just oozes fatal charm with it’s classic goth stylings, modern horror tropes and throbbing synths. Seeing Creeper in their most vampiric form to date, the track highlights the theatrical and conceptual nature of Sanguivore by introducing the character of Mercy, the figure at the bleeding heart of the narrative running through the record. Quite simply, it’s bloody good fun and sets the stage for Creeper’s most theatrical release to date. – Dan Hillier
At this point, you just have to throw everything you know about The Armed out of the window. Every track released from upcoming album Perfect Saviors has thrown a different curve ball the listener’s way. Liar 2, the newest single, is a Euro synthpop banger that you’d expect to hear in a Swedish club circa 2009. It’s a little bit sexy, a little bit woozy and a lot of fun. With tracks like this, it’s really hard to see the band not getting a hell of a lot more attention on this record, and you could easily slot this track onto the radio and nobody would bat an eyelid. Don’t mistake that for a claim of selling out though, this is a band who still stringently do things their own way, even though at this point it’s hard to know what that way is. Whack it on, close your eyes and pretend it’s 1am in a foggy, strobe filled club and you’re living your best life. – Chris Earl
