Often regarded as one of the best kept secrets of the math and post rock UK underground, Midlands math rockers A-Tota-So are back but in a way that you might not remember them as. During a time when Covid battered the UK, A-Tota-So battened down the hatches and entered somewhat of a metamorphosis, shifting into an entity that’s still inherently one of their DNA, but still new and evolved. Now as the gears of the live music circuit shift back into activity, the band have emerged and are showing off their new stature in the form of new single ‘I Am’. Featuring Aisling Whiting of art-rockers Sang Froid, the single is a brilliant and composed prog track that retains the band’s own homecooked take on the genre in a way that’s fresh and inspired, and furthermore, teases the group’s new record Lights Out. Releasing March 11th via bUTTONpUSHER, Lights Out see’s the band departing from their purely instrumental nature; each respective track on the record seeing the band enlisting a different vocalist, with the album confirmed to be featuring the talents of Damien Sayell (The Saint Pierre Snake Invasion / Mclusky), Ashley Tubb (Sugar Horse), Ellie Godwin (No Violet) and Jake O’Driscoll (God Alone), among others. As ‘I Am’ alludes to, Lights Out is poised to be a full bodied celebration of the talent of the math, prog and post scene and simply an utter mates fest of a record. – Dan Hillier
Bob Vylan are irrefutably one of the most in demand and culturally crucial names in the UK scene right now, and as proven with their new single ‘GDP’, they clearly have no signs of taking a foot off the accelerator. Taken from their upcoming record Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life and dropping in the short time between their tours with Biffy Clyro and The Offspring, ‘GDP’ is an encapsulation of both the band’s bombastic approach and the concepts that drive them to create art that crosses dimensions and subcultures.”This single explores a lot of the topics we’re known for”, states Bobbie Vylan. “Racism, class, social struggles in a way that may not be so obvious on first listen but when you hear lines about friends being stabbed because they come from a place and live a lifestyle that encourages violence to get what you want, you can’t help but ask yourself “well how did that environment begin?”. The chorus tells you outright, “what good is talking about the GDP if I’m struggling to get by?” – Dan Hillier
Following on from a sting of positively received extended plays and appearances alongside the likes of Malevolence, Loathe and The Black Dahlia Murder, the Cork quartet just recently dropped their debut LP in the form of Disposable Youth. Produced by Lewis Johns (Employed To Serve, Conjurer, Rolo Tomassi), the record is the full embodiment and manifestation of the nihilism that the group harbour collectivity. Across the ten songs that compose the record, Bailer darkly detail a headspace overtaken by manic depression via the means of barbaric hardcore that’s both infused and tainted by hulking motifs of doom and sludge metal. It’s a grim a listen, one of doomed youth and one that truly shows the power, skill and experimentation that have allowed Bailer to become one of the most promising heavy bands to emerge from Ireland in recent years.
With Disposable Youth out now via Blood Blast Distribution, we got in touch with the band to break down the record, track by track.
“‘Blackout’ pulls back the curtain on what’s to come across Disposable Youth. Lyrically it sets the scene by pulling you into the headspace of what it’s like to destroy yourself to the point of major lows. The album takes on a bleak outlook of the world, from a place of manic depression with a touch of nihilism. As soon as we came up with the intro riff and tempo change we knew this had to be the opener to the album.”
“This is one of those songs that just came together super quickly! We had the main drop section written and knew what we wanted to do with the song. Chris (Hart, Guitar) and Sean (Conway, Drums) got together and within an hour had a live demo recording of the song that they were buzzing on. When Alex (O’Leary, Vocals) got the demo he knew the lyrics had to be pissed off, personal, and to the point. The title speaks for itself here.”
“‘Out of Frame’ is heavily themed around abuse, abuse of all kinds. I kinda imagined a typical family photo, with the abuser scratched out and I felt the title was appropriate. The message is, if you’ve ever shown cruelty or violence to another person or animal with malicious purpose or intent, you can go fuck yourself, scum.”
There are many outlets for mental health these days, (God knows we need it), but there are some that are standard and some that don’t quite stick to the status quo. Writing and performing music is one of those outlets that will always sit outside of the box, and Bullet For My Valentine’s drummer Jason Bowld knows just how turbulent the creative process can be. Many fans will shy away from the topic of the Welsh metalcore quartet’s previous album Gravity, saddened that the anger and venom they craved and were accustomed to just wasn’t there for them to latch onto. The band’s self-titled and seventh studio release though, Bullet for my Valentine, is the emotionally explosive record that the world needed after such a blood boiling couple of years.
Sat hunched over the recorder with a hot cup of tea on this chilly November afternoon in London’s Eventim Apollo though, the smile on Jason’s face screams anything other than anger and betrayal on the album’s release day. Pride and excitement emanate from his pores as he’s asked what kind of journey sparked the resurrection of this ferocious sound on Bullet for my Valentine.
“It all happened organically, there was no sort of plan. You don’t know until you start writing, because Gravity started with us wanting it to be a really heavy album, but we just couldn’t do it. We didn’t have the riffs at the time. That’s why we went in a different direction this time around. ‘Knives’ was one of the first songs we wrote, and in those first writing sessions we accumulated seven songs, three of which survived. It only takes one song for you to go ‘wow, this is cool.’ ‘Knives’ was that one, and then Matt being the singer, he directs the sound of the band, because he’s the man, he’s Mr. Bullet. It’s important for him to have a vision that he believes in so we can all deliver on stage. I think everyone writes better with no pressure, so it’s good to write without restrictions, and we just got addicted to writing the heavier stuff again.”
Molybaron was born in the Christmas of 2014 in Paris. Gary Kelly had already started working on the first record 6 months prior and was finishing his time as the guitarist of Human Faith. Jonathan Davenport, the drummer from Human Faith, introduced Gary to Parisian guitarist Steven Andre and the stage was set; bassist Sébastien de Saint-Angel arriving 3 months later and drummer Camille Greneror completed the current the line up in 2019.
They name many inspirations they draw upon and don’t limit themselves to rock and metal; for instance, the band also enjoys a motion picture soundtrack. Pink Floyd to Pantera, Muse to Mastodon, Metallica to Radiohead, Tool to Thin Lizzy; Hanz Zimmer, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Newman, James Horner, James Newton Howard, Patrick Doyle, Trevor Jones, to name a few. One can also detect a clear influence of Alter Bridge, Gojira and Tool.
With such an eclectic legacy to draw from, Molybaron crafted a unique hard rock sound, full of riffs and catchy choruses as one would expect but also huge tech-grooves, powerhouse melodies and emotive vocals. Gary describes them as ‘eccentric’ and Molybaron no doubt stand out, bringing something fresh and diverse to the scene. They cross genre borders a lot, bouncing from tech metal to alternative and rock, and are quite aware of that. Gary explains though while they are conscious about it, it’s not intentional: “I know I’ve probably mentioned this many times, but I rarely listen to music. But music is everywhere, in cinema, in the supermarket, in an elevator, on my girlfriends’ playlists. I just hear music, and I suppose it’s stored subconsciously. I have no idea what people are listening to, what’s cool, what’s not. This has been pretty healthy for me, it allows me to write what I feel, without the worry of fitting a certain category.”
Genre-crossing in rock and metal is becoming more pronounced in the past few years, with many newcomers opening the doors of this historically quite purist community. The heavy music scene is evolving, no longer confined to its roots, and Gary has absolutely no issue with that; “good music is good music, it’s as simple as that. If it evokes a positive feeling after hearing, it works!”
Hailing from Hertfordshire and taking form as an “awkward pile of limbs”, Brutalligators present down-tuned heavy indie punk in it’s most vulnerable and exposed form. Harkening thoughts of acts such as Hard Aches, PUP and Free Throw whilst simultaneously channeling the fervent energy of scene mates such as Nervus, Don’t Worry and Fightmilk, the act have swiftly built a reputation for themselves since their 2016 formation, one revolving around their penchant for writing and performing buoyant songs about life derailing and the societal injustices in modern life. Yet whilst their two respective extended plays, 2017’s Animals I Wish I’d Seen and 2019’s Friends I Wish I’d Had, displayed such skill and disposition wonderfully, it’s their recently released debut LP This House Is Too Big, This House, This House Is Too Small that truly presents the band in their greatest, most intimate and most cathartic form.
Produced by Tom Hill (Cassels, Death Goals, Modern Rituals) and created over the span of three years in thanks to our dear friend Covid, the bulk of This House Is Too Big, This House Is Too Small comes from a pivotal moment in the life of front-person and lyricist Luke Murphy. Intense loss, heartbreak and, put simply, divorce was the predominant catalyst for this album. However, despite such a bleak incentive, this is a record of both acceptance and understanding, both of the primary situation at hand and of life itself. With fantastic articulation, witty wordplay, relatable intimacy and an almost ceaseless amount of pop hooks, Brutalligators have painfully and arduously forged a record that’s cathartic and joyous, especially with how the band audibly exercise their collective woes and accept the unstoppable march of time over the span of the record. Plus, with the record being complete with interplanted hardcore-orientated condemnations on Government ineptitude and ruminations on embracing queer identity, this is truly a record that’s impossible not to find comfort within.
With This House Is Too Big, This House Is Too Small out now via Beth Shalom Records, we caught up with Brutalligators to get a greater understanding of the band and their process.
Containing a total ear flayer of a central riff, a breakdown that makes oneself want to destroy a house with their forehead and more heat than the all bonfires lit over this weekend this combined, there’s no denying that the latest single from Venom Prison is one of the band’s strongest offerings to date. The first track to be taken from their wildly anticipated new record Erebos, ‘Judges Of The Underworld’ is a relentless musical assault that see’s the death metal quintet furthering their musical prowess whilst continuing to document the abject horrors of broken and irreparable systematic abuse in a way that’s harrowing poetic. “’Judges Of The Underworld’ deals with the crippling reality of people who face incarceration, who oftentimes are followed by violence over a lifetime,” state the band on the track. “This violence can present itself as a dominating factor in a context of structural poverty and racial inequality, creating roles in an individual’s life where they are not only the victim, but also witness and offender at different times in different situations. But the violence we address in our courts and prisons is judged out of social context and can therefore not lead to a fair and personalised resolution for people who are stuck in a cycle of violence and systematic oppression.” Erebos releases February 4th on Century Media, and if this single is anything to go by, it’ll be one of the most urgent, important and relentless albums of 2022. – Dan Hillier
Taken from the band’s upcoming extended play From Without, ‘The Raven’s Game’ is a perfect introduction to Zetra, a band that utilises a collective encyclopaedic knowledge of the heavy metal artform to create work that bridges both genres and time. Recorded with equipment and techniques that many would ignorantly dub obsolete in 2021, with it’s analogue synths and nostalgic riff ‘The Raven’s Game’ taps into the lo-fi vibes of the pioneering age all whilst sounding irrefutably modern with it’s sense of exploration and experimentation. It’s a sound of a band that knows the true value and power of handcrafted and analogue recording, and with the single harkening thoughts of original groundbreakers such as Type O Negative, Black Sabbath – as well as modern contemporaries such as Puppy and UNRE – Zetra is clearly what the scene needs in times of digital dependence. – Dan Hillier
The second single from their hotly-anticipated collaborative album, Bloodmoon I, ‘Coil’ is a real slow-burner. Soft guitars underscore Chelsea Wolfe’s croon and the vocal interplay with Converge’s Jacob Bannon. The ethereal quality to Wolfe’s voice is mesmerising and the song winds gracefully at its outset. The eruption in its final moments is truly cathartic, the strings and minimalism of earlier giving way as the tempo picks up and the guitars crush. Searing leads are accentuated by Bannon’s desperate howl as the song crescendos at its conclusion; with this and the previously released ‘Blood Moon’, the album is shaping up to be something incredibly special. – Will Marshall
