Having just secured possibly the most in demand support slot of 2023, opening for the untouchable Gojira, one of Britain’s best kept secrets in metal (though hopefully not for much longer) Urne are back and all fired up. In their time away, they’ve managed to get a certain Joe Duplantier to handle production and recording duties at his Silver Cord studio in New York for their upcoming second album, A Feast On Sorrow, and its the first track ‘Becoming the Ocean’ has been released this week. On 2021 debut Serpent & Spirit, Urne showed masterful songwriting and playing chops, creating expansive, enthralling metal that was as beholden to its influences as it was exciting and modern, and this is a step up again. It sounds absolutely beautiful, with crashing drums and a galloping riff. Joe Duplantier’s production is monstrous, giving the track a colossal feel. There’s a vulnerability and rawness to the vocals, as Joe Nally screams about the ocean’s ability to create and destroy, likening it to events in his own life and bringing a beautiful catharsis to the song. If this is the first taste, then the whole album should be a meal of the highest quality. – Chris Earl
The new track ‘Momentary Actuality’ from UK glitchy mathcore mob Pupil Slicer smacks you straight in the face as soon as it starts. A heady mixture of black metal drumming and huge tremolo picked chords grind your ears into dust, before dropping into a hardcore eqsue breakdown replete with the janky staccato lead parts we’ve come to know and love. Eventually we are treated to the soaring vocals of Kate Davies, both haunting and powerful in equal amounts. This track is short and sweet in every way, an up-down journey through Pupil Slicer’s myriad influences and genre bending guitar work. From its opening roar of “the sound, as if coming from the earth itself,” ‘Momentary Actuality’ is a devastating, blistering thrill ride that, with previous singles ‘No Temple’ and ‘Blossom’, hints at a huge sonic evolution for the Slicer crew. – Rob Bown
How do you make one of the heaviest bands in hardcore sound even heavier? You add Matt Honeycutt into the mix, that’s how. The second single from their just announced sophomore album, A Love To Kill For, ‘Devoured’ is a song that the band themselves have described as “Turning the extremity up as much as possible” and it shows. A squealing, chugging assault of a track, there’s nothing even close to a breather and when those guest vocals come in, it becomes almost insanely heavy. This is definitely a track that you’ll find yourself looking back at afterwards going “What the hell was that?”, because just when you think the apex has been reached, the band somehow find a way to make things even heavier. The production has a big part to play in this, as Randy Leboeuf has the drums and guitars sounding like they’re going to explode from sheer abuse at any moment. There’s a lot of competition in this scene at the moment, but if only in sheer shit-eating grin level heaviness, Chamber look set to make their mark on 2023. – Chris Earl
Absurd and long name? Yep. Cellos? Yep. Trumpets too? Yep, the new single from Toodles & The Hectic Pity is a total emo knee-slapper. The second track to the taken from the Bristol trio’s forthcoming debut Hold Onto Happiness – released via Specialist Subject Records June 23rd – ‘The Enemies Of Happiness Are Not Sleeping!’ see’s the band continuing to fuse classic emo songwriter with rustic and stirring folk textures in a way that’s buoyant and and utterly lovable. “The working title of this song was ‘Shut Up & Kiss Me’”, cites frontman Callum McAllister on the track. “It almost hit the chopping block separate times because we all didn’t feel as though we could crack the ending, but we got there in the end! It’s in the liminal space between a venue and your own home and it’s about that kind of quiet anxious desperation of self-criticism that leads to an ‘Irish goodbye’ and self-enforced loneliness. It features cello by Ellis Morgan and trumpet from Danny Lester.” – Dan Hillier
Inarguably one of the hottest bands in the UK right now, Lake Malice have released another explosive metal-meets-hyperpop track in the form of ‘Bloodbath’. They’ve been on a tear with their last few singles, including the recent ‘Stop the Party’ and ‘Black Turbine’, with ‘Bloodbath’ being no exception. Those lucky enough to catch them live will have heard this rager already, and its recorded counterpart loses none of the fire and fury. Alice Guala sneers “did you enjoy calling me a whore / you don’t get the same when you keep a score” as the song rails against abusive, controlling relationships and the trauma they inflict, while guitarist Blake Cornwall delivers yet more scorching riffs. The video released alongside it once more channels their sci-fi/horror influences including The Fifth Element and Blade Runner for a cyberpunk-fuelled visual feast. It’s yet more evidence that the band are about to blow up in a big way, and soon. 2023 is the year of the Malice. – Will Marshall
Welsh post-rock quintet False Hope For The Savage are a rare specimen for the genre; complex without coming across as pretentious, experimental while staying accessible, a unique combination of atmospheric and heavy. False Hope For The Savage create intricate sonic textures with a trio of guitarists; Edd Clemas, Alex Davis and John Harman backed by bassist Oliver Myles and drummer Ray Thomas.
Surrounded by one of the UK’s most vibrant experimental music scenes, False Hope have found their place in the community playing alongside post-rock icons such as Bicurious, Nordic Giants, And So I Watch You From Afar and The Physics House Band. We caught up with the band before one their biggest headline shows to date at Le Pub in Newport, with support acts Aaronson and Who Are The Monsters? showcasing some of the best up-and-coming talent from the Welsh post-rock community.
John: “It’s hard to compress it down like that, the idea behind it really is the mix of like, delicate and fierce with a lot of very simple parts intertwined. A lot of modern post-rock music is very technical, like, clinical and virtuosic. Ours is like, lots of simple patterns working together. I’d say we’re greater than the sum of our parts.”
Edd: “It’s supposed to be more like 90’s post-rock, more emotive and less music by algorithm, if we were going to sum it up in three words we’d probably say effecting, atmospheric and fierce.”
Edd: “We all had different journeys that led to our particular style of post-rock, for me personally it was through heavier bands like ISIS and I just fell down the rabbit hole of post-rock when I found bands like Sigur Rós and Mogwai. When we formed False Hope For The Savage that kind of thing really stuck with me more than the heavier stuff.
John: “For me it was kind of weird, I used to be a proper nerd and bought a lot of video game soundtracks. For me post-rock was the perfect marriage of storytelling through music and this atmospheric, cinematic feel with the alternative music I liked at the time. I was really into bands like Hundred Reasons, that British alt-rock/post-hardcore scene so post-rock was heavy like the bands I was into but also telling a story without lyrics.”
Alex: “I got turned onto Mogwai, MONO and Godspeed You! Black Emperor while I was in uni and branched out to other instrumental bands from there. For me the most important thing in music is the atmosphere it conveys rather than the songwriting or lyrics, the idea that you can make people feel something with just sound appealed to me.”
The first single to be taken from the bands forthcoming second record Wordless – released July 28th via Church Road Records – ‘Void Walker’ sees esoteric black metal band The Sun’s Journey Through The Night amplify every single spect of their work. A colossal step up in terms of production, songwriting and atmosphere, the seven minute track sees the band further pushing all a tributes of their sound into new and ashen territories whilst still retaining all the qualities that made their 2020 debut Crawling Nebula Of Dismal Light so enthralling. Should you not be antiquated with this band as of yet and find yourself with an interest in acts such as Underdark, Dawn Ray’d, Copse and Gaerea, this is will be crucial listening. – Dan Hillier
Following their run of shows with Belgian heavy shoegazers Slow Crush and coinciding with their set at London’s Desertfest this weekend, Graywave have released another brand new single in the form of ‘Cycle’. Picking up where ‘Blur Into One’ left off, it’s as atmospheric as we’ve come to expect from them but feels significantly moodier, and those gothic Cocteau Twins elements are dialled up even more than before. Opening serenely with a hint of electric drums, it’s a soft, moody beginning that gradually builds with washes of guitar and laconic, sometimes spoken vocals before the eventual eruption like a slow lava flow. With last year’s well-recevied Rebirth EP and now two singles in as many months, Graywave continue to make their mark on the UK alternative scene as ones to keep an eye on. – Will Marshall
Emos rejoice, because not only are Australian rockers Trophy Eyes back, they’re in stellar form. The third single to be released from their upcoming album Suicide and Sunshine, ‘Kill’ is yet another piece of introspective, poignant music from the down under crew. A slow burner of a track, it opens with some luscious drums and bass, before those now iconic vocals from John Floreani come in and just sweep you away. When the chorus kicks in, complete with some glorious guitar in the background, you just know that this will be a lighters in the air moment live. The “sometimes we kill what we love” line is sung with such passion and catharsis, making the track an early standout on one of the summer’s most anticipated records. – Chris Earl
Furious black metallers Calligram recently announced their new album Position | Momentum; ‘Frantumi In Itinere’ is the second single from the album and delivers exactly what they’re known for in its searing, D-beat meets black metal assault. The album looks back on a tough, soul-searching journey for vocalist Matteo Rizzardo, with ‘Frantumi In Itinere’ exploring themes of death and consciousness. The chaos of the song seems all-consuming; a blistering pace, scathing vocals delivered in Rizzardo’s native Italian in a desolate screech. Speaking on the song’s themes, Calligram remark “the limits of human consciousness is the “reach of thought”. As humans we naturally strive for reaching and overcoming the limits which means, in this case, taking consciousness beyond the field of human thought into something greater, vaster and incomprehensible by thought and unreachable by intellect. At the same time this is terrifying because that same limit is what defines us and keeps us alive: the idea of “life” lays within its limits.” – Will Marshall
You may not have heard Heavy Lungs’ music, but you will have definitely heard the name of their frontman. Fronted by Danny Nedelko – yes, the same Danny name-checked in that one IDLES song – Heavy Lungs specialise in the kind of noise punk that that’s energetic as it is inclusive, a fact highlighted with their latest track ‘Dancing Man’. The groups first single single since signing to Alcopop! Records, ‘Dancing Man’ sees the Bristol quartet in their most driven form yet, with all of their inspirations amalgamating and boiling down to form a shot of potent and genuine modern punk. Simply, it’s wild, strange and ceaselessly chaotic; all qualities that have bequeathed Heavy Lungs with the spoils of a blossoming and burgeoning early career. – Dan Hillier
Metalcore bruisers Vexed made significant waves in the scene with their debut Culling Culture, fusing barbaric vocals, vicious groove and tectonic breakdowns, all along with a knack for memorability and melody. After two long years away, they’ve returned with the lead single from second album Negative Energy, the ferocious, utterly monstrous ‘Anti-Fetish’ that’ll be stuck in your head for days like an icepick. The riffs have more bends than a diver that’s surfaced too fast, the drums are pulverising and vocalist Megan Targett somehow brings an even greater level of fury than before. Lyrically taking aim at expectations placed on bands that lump them into homogenous categories (the outdated, sexist “female-fronted” tag springing to mind), the band say of the song “We wanted to start with a huge riff and a strong message.” Mission fucking accomplished. – Will Marshall
Rock four-piece Saint Agnes return kicking and screaming with new single ‘Animal’, an unapologetic track chock full of the band’s trademark rage. Updating their sound from their blues inspired roots Saint Agnes embrace a noisy industrial punk vibe taking cues from Nine Inch Nails while keeping all of the swagger that’s made their work so endearing so far intact. ‘Animal’ lives up to its name, both with the literal animal screeches sampled in the track’s intro and with vocalist Kitty A. Austen’s unhinged fury. Complementing the band’s usual hard rock style guitar lines are distorted synths and punchy electronic drums, bringing in retro elements from the 70s to the 2010s. – Tom Bruce
Nobody does it like Kublai Khan TX. That’s just a indisputable fact of life. Matt Honeycutt and his crew have built themselves an untouchable reputation for writing songs that tap into the most primal parts of your brain. From the caveman riffs to some of the most antagonist vocal lines ever recorded, these guys do one thing and do it better than almost anyone else. Their new release, ‘Theory Of Mind’ is of course, more of the same, but we’re not complaining. It’s a song about, according to the band, “A weapons test of testicular fortitude”. The opening barrage of a simple yet enormous riff and Matt screaming “monkey see monkey do, so who the fuck made you” will be responsible for broken noses and sore heads for years to come. The track progresses with some trademark breakdowns, almost sludgy guitar parts and it all kicks off for real near the end with Honeycutt yelling “bitch” to precede all hell breaking loose. Is it clever? No. Is it big? It’s the aural equivalent of King Kong bodyslamming Godzilla. – Chris Earl
With its release not just coinciding with the arrival of the first rays of warmth this year but the announcement of their debut record Life Under The Gun – released June 23rd via Loma Vista – it feels that the new track from Militarie Gun is heralding the arrival of summer itself. A warm and blinding serving of summertime punk, ‘Very High’ harkens thoughts of those halcyon city summers spent on sun-bleached streets blasting classic hardcore in thanks to its endless hooks, urbanite swagger and hardcore punk sentiment. It’s impossible not be energised or bolstered with a sense of confidence by this track. – Dan Hillier
What do you get when you mix the best parts of Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan, and throw Will Putney in the mix for good measure? You get Better Lovers and their debut single ’30 Under 13′, which is without a doubt one of the hardest singles of the year. Opening up with riffs very fitting of a Greg Puciato project, the song eventually delves into the kind of sound we usually expect out of Every Time I Die. Will Putney also makes a very fitting contribution with his wild guitar playing and stellar production skills. Full of chaotic hardcore goodness that only the ETID boys can pull off, along with Puciato’s scabrous screams, if you were a fan of Dillinger or Every Time I Die before they broke up, this song is exactly what you need to fill that everlasting void that both bands have left in your heart. – Nathaniel Maure
Exuding the undiluted feminist energy of the ‘90s riot grrl movement, Brighton based queer punk collective Lambrini Girls have never shied away from voicing their opinions on their oft uncomfortable but necessary subject matter. With new single ‘Lads Lads Lads’, they don’t just take aim at ever pervasive toxic masculinity and lad culture, they go straight for the jugular. Vocalist Phoebe Lunny is clearly enraged, their manic and passionate vocal delivery of some incredibly in your face lyrics painting the picture of the exact type of lad we all know and hate. ‘Wifebeater vests, passing the blame, you can say what you want but she came on to me mate’. As abrasive as the subject matter of the lyrics, the instrumental is equally as uncompromising, made up of frenetic and discordant punk riffing, dynamic and fast paced sliding bass lines saturated in thick distortion with direct and methodical drumming. Lunny’s final scream of ‘’cause I’m out, with the Lads Lads Lads’ sucks what little air is left out of the room, perfectly encapsulating the energy that often surrounds their legendary live shows. – Harry Shiels
In their own words; “Revisiting the sounds and theme of our debut EP Distance, we have expanded on an idea featured at the end of our song ‘Summit’.” Coldbones‘ latest track ‘Breathe’ is a return to fresh energy, a breeze of crisp, cool air arriving after their apocalyptic full length The Cataclysm blew our minds in 2020. It’s interesting the band have chosen to revisit the stylings of their debut release, almost as if signifying life beginning anew after the destruction foretold in the previous chapter. This track is solemn, yet hopeful, it washes over you like wisps of fresh ocean breeze, little details like the birdsong paint a greener, more natural landscape. Coldbones have an uncanny ability to capture the essence of mother nature within their music, even when the full force of electric guitar, drums and bass kick in, their music still finds a way to remain pensive and all encompassing. ‘Breathe’ feels like those shots you see in movies, after the characters overcome arduous environments and barren landscapes, when a new horizon is crossed and life, hope, beauty all begins to flourish again. ‘Breathe’ is at once the gentle pause, and the euphoria of taking it all in. – Elliot Grimmie
Coinciding with her Roadburn set, Julie Christmas has released ‘Not Enough’, her first new solo music in 13 years through Cult Of Luna’s Red Creek. It’s immediately apparent this can be the work of only one person; sighing, shrieking, it’s a towering assault of post-metal with Christmas’ idiosyncratic voice. Written in collaboration with Andrew Schneider, who forms part of her band alongside Cult Of Luna’s own Johannes Persson, John LaMacchia (Candiria), Laura Pleasants (Kylesa), Tom Tierney and Chris Enriquez (Spotlights), it’s an all-star cast of some of metal’s finest, all unified by that singular characterful tone. Of the song, Christmas said “I started to sing ‘Not Enough’ while riding in a car on the highway in Brooklyn and seeing all these water towers along the tops of the buildings. Some of them are so beautiful, but I like the dented ones just as much. The sun was blazing hot that day and throwing crazy shadows under the towers. In my head, for a minute, It struck me that the towers were very, very brave. They were there ready to do what they were intended to do against incredible heat. And more importantly, they were there all the time. If they can do it, I can do it, too.” – Will Marshall
If you could hear while still in utero, the intro to the new single from The Ocean might just take you back to those days. The post metal stalwarts have returned with another psych infused block of riffs and tortured vocal lines. The opening slides into a Ravi Shankar like lead line accompanied by spoken lyrics that despite their lack of volume still pack a punch, clear and crisp over the sparse background. As if to satiate our hunger the heavy guitars come in for the chorus alongside harsh screams. Finally were treated to some metal proper with an off kilter riff and full tortured vocals. As the songs signs off with a hopeful message of exploration and settlement you’re left with a sense of fulfilment and completion. – Rob Bown
It’s been one hell of a year for everyone’s new favourite masked band, Sleep Token. After selling out their UK headline tour, the band went viral on TikTok with their mammoth progressive metal track ‘The Summoning’, and have become the arguably hottest name in metal right now. Now with third album Take Me Back to Eden firmly on the horizon, it would have been easy for the band to drop one final hard hitting metal anthem to whet everyone’s appetites for May 19th, but Sleep Token are a band with their own rules, and this week gifted us with the gorgeous lo-fi pop track ‘DYWTYLM’. Simple electronic beats gently loop in the background whilst Vessel’s softly autotuned vocals deliver a sublime performance, displaying a powerful vulnerability. On top of that, the lyricism here is some of the band’s strongest to date, with genuinely heart-breaking bars such as ‘And my reflection just won’t smile back at me likе I know it should’ and ‘But I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself’. – Ryan Ward
Even for a band committed to growth at the expense of comfort, Galore feels akin to a lunge to pastures previously unknown for the The St. Pierre Snake Invasion. The third full-length from the Bristol quintet, Galore see’s St. Pierre once again harnessing the heft and reckless abandon of acts such as Every Time I Die, The Chariot and the aforementioned Messhuggah in a way that’s distinctly themselves, yet completely new.
By taking further inspiration from the likes of Soulwax, Massive Attack and acts commonly perceived to be far flung from the chaotic hardcore stylings of their previous offerings, Galore see’s the band forgoing their previous musical iterations in order to truly animate the musings on fatherhood, violence, excess and growth that drive the record. Simply, it’s a heavy guitar album that doesn’t sound like it was made by guitars full of authentic human emotion; a musical journey down new territories that could have resulted in the act getting lost. But evidently, the band have found where exactly where they want to be with this fantastic and genuine album, and hopefully, it may influence many an act to broaden their own horizons in search of new musical avenues.
With that in mind, and with the record out today via Church Road Records, we caught up with frontman Damien Sayell to break down Galore, track by track.
Related: The St. Pierre Snake Invasion – Galore | Album Review
“I really tried my best to condense this as much as possible. I have failed miserably, for this I apologise. You are about to be subjected to a heap of over-sentimentality, pretentiousness, terrible grammar, oversharing, and vast quantities of uncomfortable self-honesty, for this I do not apologise. God speed.
This song is many things to me, it’s a confession, an apology, a love letter, a lesson for my son, and a farewell to a version of myself that had been holding me back for the majority, and perhaps even the entirety of my life. The last line of the song is a reference to Francis Bacon slashing at his finished paintings with a knife. I think, aesthetically, we’ve done that with Galore. We’d established two distinct forms with our previous albums, destroyed them, and started over again. Continual growth through enduring the discomfort of being outside your comfort zone is one of the themes of the album, but most importantly it’s an example I want to set for my son. I’m not naturally inclined to push myself, I like an easy life, but we’ve been an ocean away from our comfort zone making this record, we still are, and we’re better for it.”
“A galaxy away from comfort. At times, we questioned if we’d ventured too far with this, but we stuck to the brief, and we’re happy we made the decision to put it on the record because we love it, because it’s brave, and because it typifies the thought process behind the album. Musically it was inspired by Isaac Hayes, Terence Trent D’Arby, Massive Attack, Edwyn Collins, and Soulwax. Lyrically, it’s about the sense of loss that I and every musician/music lover felt not being able to partake in live music during the lockdown.”
“‘Meshuggah meets Soulwax’, admittedly, not words you’d usually find in a sentence, but words we used a lot while making the album. I think we did a decent enough job and ended up near the target, but I am willing to forgive those who suspect that we’re trying to capitalise on the recent Nu-Metal revival, for clarity, we are not. Moving swiftly on. Submechano isn’t a real word. Submechanophobia is the fear of sinking or sunken ships, it’s a real word, but a terrible name for a song. The lyrics describe a fictional submarine and its crew sinking to the bottom of the ocean. As the vessel reaches the sea bed, the crew, instead of succumbing to the unspeakable pressure, adapt to their new environment and thrive. Now let’s get real for a minute before we embark on any ‘But, they’d surely be crushed to death, no?’ Yes, they would die, they would absolutely die a horribly brutal death, of this there can be no doubt, but tell me, reader, where is the poetic metaphor for resilience in the face of adversity in that version of the song? The prosecution rests, my lord.”
