After delivering his darkest record to date with 2020’s King Of Clubs, Jamie Lenman is once again back with a new sound altogether. It’s hardly surprising given Lenman’s long established penchant for experimenting with different genres, but ‘Talk Hard’ is the antidote to the poison that bounded his last record and a total detour from the shadowed path he began to navigate two years prior. Harkening thoughts of the leisurely Weezer circa The Blue Album, ‘Talk Hard’ is a light, sunny and optimistic stray into a more mainstream and approachable indie-pop sound for Lenman, with the legendary maestro adopting a slightly more mainstream for the next stage of his career. “I’ve been trying for a long time to do something a bit more melodic, and Talk Hard is the first flowering of that”, states Lenman on the track. “Lyrically it’s about standing up for yourself, for making sure that your voice is heard by people you feel are ignoring you—be that your friends, your family, your boss or even your government. It’s about encouraging and empowering people, standing behind them and lending them your support. Very positive, after all the negative feelings from King Of Clubs.” – Dan Hillier
It’s been the best part of half a decade since we’ve heard any original new work from Pijn, but now they’re back with the odyssian ‘Weave In’, a single whose namesake and sound implies a new chapter for the post-metal maestros. Across the 11 minutes that span the track, Pijn return to the contemplative and forlorn sound of 2018’s Loss albeit in a way more rejuvenated and hopeful. The rich tapestry of textures that form the collective’s output has been enriched with added woodwind instrumentation, but yet, the intensity has been dialled back, resulting is musical outing that’s expansive, organic and naturally sprawling. Pijn may be rubbing shoulders with some of the genre’s greats when they take to the main stage at ArcTanGent Festival next week, but there’s no doubt that ‘Weave In’ will be standout moment of the entire weekend. – Dan Hillier
In flexing a mix of Electro-Rock infused Hardcore and noughties-esque 2-Step Garage sensibilities; ‘The Void Stares Back’ by the Hertfordshire Hybrid Rock titans Enter Shikari in collaboration with the hard-bitten contemporary Electro-Punks Wargasm, holds an unmistakable essence of versatility with its soundscape, which feels like a brilliantly crafted slant on the embodiment of Dual Kawaii aesthetics. As all three lead singers Rou Reynolds, Sam Matlock and Milkie Way lock horns over a drastically widening pit at the centre of their more optimistic and pessimistic outlooks on the worlds descent into depravity; the tracks core objective to stir our collective consciousness with a progressive leaning campaign for balance in today’s turbulent sociopolitical landscape, is a clear collaborative act of war against archaism in any and all forms. With its atmospherically multi-paced maximalism taking us on a journey through an illuminatory state of being; it’s beyond safe to say that this instance of controlled chaos is a much preferred PSA for any truth seeker, than any convoluted assertion from the ruling class of orthodoxical megalomaniacs. – Bennie Osborne
The title track of Russian Circles’ upcoming record due for release next Friday via Sargent House, ‘Gnosis’ is eight minutes of smouldering atmosphere, barbed riffs and dark dynamism that results in one the post-metallers most expansive offerings to date. Even for a band so well-versed in post-metal dirges, this is one of the most dense and suffocating outings undertaken by the band thus far, a fact made visually evident with the accompanying music video, the first to be ever released by the band now in their eighteenth year of activity. “When discussing a concept for the video, we agreed we wanted cinematic footage of nature and humanity”, state the band on the video. Ultimately, we wanted the video to feel fresh and inspiring despite dealing with a dark theme. Similarly, we wanted to compel viewers to rewatch the video and get something new from each viewing. Somehow, editor Joe Kell masterfully made this all happen.” – Dan Hillier
This 6-piece have an energy and atmosphere that commands attention. A chaotic and harrowing medley formed through a spread of metal subgenres. They destroyed the Doghouse stage at Download and won’t be holding back when they take on the Ronnie James Dio stage on Friday at Bloodstock this year. These guys are a sure-fire way to kick off your main stage weekend with brutality and power.
This blackened deathcore outfit stacked with breakdowns and blastbeats are Essex’s Metal 2 The Masses winners. Stepping up to the New Blood stage on Friday only a year after forming, and fresh off the back of main support to Beyond Extinction’s headline tour, this band will have momentum to knock you for six. If you like it heavy, they’re unmissable.
Goth Rock delivered with infectious performance and character that will leave you grinning ear to ear. A stage show that excites and a set that spans melody and classical singing through to heavy, hard-hitting riffage. This 5-piece offer the best in hard rock to jam out to, so catch them on the New Blood stage on Friday.
The hardcore project of a group of extremely talented musicians making extremely angry music. There are few better ways to release some tension than going primal to some visceral hardcore and if that sounds like an appealing thing to do then get to the Sophie stage on Saturday. Cage Fight will be offering up stone-cold riffs and some massive energy. Get to the front.
“This song is very much about finding hope in unexpected places,” vocalist Lucas Woodland says of Holding Absence’s latest single ‘Coffin’, taken from their upcoming split with Alpha Wolf. Its soft piano intro – something they were able to experiment more with, along with synth and ambience – soon gives way to the emotional, musical poetry we’ve come to know and love from the South Wales quartet. That’s not to say ‘Coffin’ is overly familiar; while it holds all the ingredients of a great Holding Absence song, it’s also a clear step forward and shows an entirely different side to them from their collaborative single ‘Aching Longing’. Take its quieter moments with only drummer Ash St Green and Woodland, giving the song even more tenderness than usual, as well as the piano balladry that closes the song; with the sheer breadth of their sound and ongoing musical evolution, even the sky might not be the limit. – Will Marshall
Thankfully for all of us, Happy Accidents are far better at making lo-fi indie-pop bangers than they are at not being a band. The London duo may have claimed to call it a day last May but ‘Lighter’ see’s Happy Accidents returning to do what they do best, with the airy and tranquillizing single being the perfect musical countermeasure to this summer of discontent we are all experiencing. It’s a wonderful little escape of a track, one complete with the harmonies, synthetic beats, quiet reflection and the general sense of pacifism that made their last record Sprawling so alluring and brilliant. It’s to be seen if Happy Accidents will return proper with members respective commitments to Cheerbleederz and Me Rex withstanding, but regardless, ‘Lighter’ is a lovely surprise to be sure. – Dan Hillier
Coinciding with the announcement of their new record Vespera – released October 30th – ‘God Complex’ see’s the Scottish death metal upstarts tapping into a new found sense of groove without losing any of the seething intensity they are renowned for. Serving as a brutal yet righteous depiction of how our island nation has no right be acting on the world stage, ‘God Complex’ is both a savage breakdown of our pathetic countries attempts at being a major world player and a confrontational demonstration of how Godeater are further developing their sound whilst not losing any of their identity in the process. It’s been said plenty a time now, but Godeater are poised to lead the next wave of UK death metal and Vespera is clearly going to the record that pushes the band to the front of the pack. – Dan Hillier
An all-organic product of the South West’s burgeoning emo and punk scene, Trashed are a fresh proposition that offer a sound that’s immediately distinct, yet wholly contemporary. Composed of Jimmy Embleton-Smith (Vocals, Guitars), Sam Yesner (Bass, Vocals) and Ben Wood (Drums), whilst the sound of the halycon days of brazen pop punk genre serve as the bedrock of their output, the Bristolian trio take the influence from all across both the punk spectrum and timeline, creating something far more visceral than punk related genre tag can imply.
Associations to the likes of Dookie era Green Day and Blink 182 can be clearly made, but within their heady mix, motifs associated with the likes of Basement, Milk Teeth, Drug Church, Gnarwolves and Off With Their Heads are evident. When combining that with their affinity for down-tuned riffs approaching Slipknot levels of density, the end result is genre and time hopping emo punk for the modern day.
However, their provocative and heady sound isn’t just what makes Trashed such an appealing concept in 2022. Rather, it’s their approach to vulnerability and transparency. Their home-cooked approach to the genre is merely the vessel for their message and ruminations of love, loss and mental health, with the band utilising their craft to detail their experiences with such themes with fully human emotion and pained, yet optimistic clarity. Fresh singles ‘Memories’, ‘Decay’ and ‘All Alone Again’ serve as testaments to such a fact, and with their Neil D. Kennedy (Creeper, Boston Manor, Trash Boat) produced debut Happy In Hindsight coming later this year, Trashed stand as a band offering up home-brewed punk that’s true to it’s roots whilst still being forward thinking and vitally positive. With that in mind, we got in touch to find out more about the band.
The second record from the metalcore quintet, They Fear Us is far more than any genre tag could imply. Whereas their debut The Language Of Injury was an album bounded by pain and tragedy, this serves as the sound of the band who have taken time to consider and contemplate how they want to present themselves. Ultimately, the end result is something spellbinding. The full and breathtaking crystallisation of the qualities that make Ithaca such a dynamic entity, They Fear Us see’s the band dismantling the conventions of the genre to create something both incendiary and healing. Seething and blistering metalcore may be the foundation of this record, but built atop that are motifs of classic rock, R&B, power pop, soul and more within the intricacies.
However, what makes this record so captivating and therapeutic is how the band use these sounds to articulate their battles with trauma and adversity. They Fear Us is rich with a sense of triumph, one that stems from the fact that Ithaca have seemingly used the time taken to heal from their respective personal tragedies to craft an art-piece unified in it’s sonics, themes, aesthetic and message. It’s a mission statement, one emboldened by an invigorated sense of purpose whilst also being something that directly threatens to rupture a scene embedded in a place of privilege and misplaced pride.
With They Fear Us out today via Hassle Records, we spoke with drummer James Lewis to break down the album, track by track.
“The start of the song was one of the first new riffs Sam (Chetan-Welsh, guitar) demoed to us after Language of Injury dropped, so we sat with this song for the longest time. The song’s identity to me seemed to fluctuate as we continued to write and work on other tracks. Sort of a font that not only stood as a remnant of the previous album but also siphoned bits from all the other new tracks we were working on. Djamila (Boden Azzouz, vocals) rocked up to practice one day and said she’d thought she’d finally cracked the lyrics and then dropped the ethereal singing over the beatdown. I just remember us all grinning wildly after a run through as it all just clicked.”
“Recording this one was a bit rough as it goes like a thunderbolt and does not let up. So a huge thank you to Lewis Johns (Producer) and the guys in the band being patient, supportive and for raising me up. This was another track that was birthed quite early on and to me felt like something we wanted to achieve on Language… but we didn’t have the technical nuances to pull off at the time. The call and response guitar came about by complete accident and the ending off-snare came from me placing the MIDI snare in the wrong place but got me vibing. Innovation through… incompetence? A friend of the band, Callum, also came down on the last recording day to add some keys which really is the cherry on the cake for this track- we wanted a specific John Carpenter/Goblin/giallo movie sound which I think he nailed. The lyrics are so powerful and stopped me in my tracks at work when we got the first passes in our inbox. The birthday cake line also really picked us up in the studio on a day where we were flagging. We didn’t know the full lyrics clearly at that point and we were just… Did Djamila just scream out the words birthday… cake?”
The second single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming new record Banefyre – released September 9th via Season Of Mist – ‘Everything Is Beautiful But Us’ is the full spellbinding encapsulation of what makes Crippled Black Phoenix take on post-rock so allusive and alluring. Ethereal and vaporous, the track is wistful calling from the wilds we have long abandoned in our quest for total industrial dominance, tying into the record’s overarching theme of not slotting into society’s perception of normality. The inspiration for the song hit me during the first wave of Covid”, states vocalist and percussionist Belinda Kordic. “We were spending a lot of time outside in the countryside and i was amazed at the quick turn nature took for the better, as soon as humans were removed out of the equation. The increased symphony of birdsong, bumble bees the size of my fist turning up in the garden, animals coming out of hiding and popping up here, there and everywhere. Nature and its inhabitants were thriving to the very fullest. As they should. It was beautiful, but also sad at the same time. knowing that when we get back to ‘normal, ‘the destruction continue.” – Dan Hillier
Scottish rockers Vukovi have released their new single ‘I Exist’ this week, taken from their upcoming album NULA, an ambitious concept record from the duo. The song is one of the more riff-driven and anthemic tracks released to date and swaps out the experimentation on previously released songs for a guitar led rhythm section that has the odd synth that compliments the song. As it moves towards its epic climax ‘I Exist’ phases into a bridge section that gets real heavy real quick and on the drop of “I am Nula and I am free” launches into a tirade of hard-hitting drumming and down-tuned guitars. It’s yet another brilliant addition to a band that have clearly found their stride. – Jac Holloway
The final single from second album They Fear Us, ‘The Future Says Thank You’ shows an even more technical side to their abrasive metalcore. Shifting and turning on a dime, it’s an oppressive listen that refuses to let up its grip through the chops and changes and keeps you on your toes throughout. With instantly memorable lines like “I put poison in your birthday cake,” Ithaca show their knack for earworm lyrics as well as hooks. The band’s comment that “this song is about putting yourself first and moving on from a deeply toxic environment” is borne out in its finale; respite only comes from its strangehold at the very end in a breakout melodic guitar line. – Will Marshall
“Dependencies come in many forms. People and poison can be a deadly mixture. It’s often hard to address the fact that habitual behavior can be the hardest thing to replace. Old habits die hard.” So says vocalist Jack Murray of 156/Silence’s latest single from the upcoming album Narrative. As much as it features their heavy, emotional metalcore there’s also synths present for some more melodicism. The band freely admit to loving the sound of analogue synths, so they opted to incorporate them into their music and ‘To Take Your Place’ is the most synth-heavy song they’ve ever written. Brief moments of them are soon subsumed back into the sonic maelstrom and it never sounds forced; instead they lend a new sonic dimension to an already bruising song. – Will Marshall
Given that ‘Neurotica’ is the latest single to be taken from the band’s latest record entitled Remember That You Will Die, those unacquainted with Polyphia would be forgiven in believing that this is something out of the realms of all things horrid and putrid. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The latest single from the instrumental prog-rock quartet, ‘Neautroica’ is a sleek, sensual and downright seductive slab of prog rock that takes more cues from acts such as Playboi Carti and Kid Cudi then it does from anything from the realm of metal. Based around rage beat commonly utilised in contemporary trap, the track once again see’s the Polyphia stray from the genres associated with them to take cues from sounds far flung their typical associates. The end result is something fresh and wholly engaging. The video for the track fully visualises this, with the music video seeing Polyphia teaming up with the multidisciplinary artist Nusi Quero – known for their work with Grimes and Beyonce – to create something that can only be in the vein of this unique band. – Dan Hillier
