Since 2015 InTechnicolour have become one of the absolute staples of the UK underground scene. From their base in Brighton playing Bad Pond Festival to going out on tour with other ever exhilarating acts such as Haggard Cat, Alpha Male Tea Party and Bitch Falcon (RIP), they have contributed to the ever-bubbling cauldron of sound. Post their excellent debut Big Sleeper, released right as the world soon went into lockdown, Midnight Heavyweight was crafted during the struggle thereafter. Many of the emotions purveyed through vocalist Tobie Anderson’s lyrics, a lot that we all continue to deal with.
Opener ‘Bloodmoon Shine’ is the exhalation of those feelings. The opening riff and beat shuffling as it bursts into almost heavenly calls of ‘Take me’. Exploding with pain as vocalist Tobie screams through the final bars. Follower, ‘The Wave’ is an exemplary pointer to what they are all about. A starter of disjointed riffs with small tasters of end of bar guitar licks complimented with grunge era vocals. Spat out the other end through both atmospheric and heavier moments. All their intricacies come rawness are on show here. ‘Something beautiful this way comes’ bellowed out. This track is clear statement of that.
‘Tokyo Dream’ is a beautiful winding ballad that is a sign of their development in their song writing. The simplicity, but layering helped along by Engineer/Producer Mark Roberts really come to the fore. Texturing is much more important in these less sonically intense moments than when they are their heaviest. Which is even more apparent in interlude tracks like ‘Wake Up Dead Man’. Serving a purpose to bring the whole record together, rather than become dreaded filler tracks.
Bonecarver are two for two naming their band’s incarnations. Cannibal Grandpa was the Spanish band’s amusing, eyebrow-raising name for their deathcore outfit; now the four-piece wear the fierce moniker Bonecarver to suggest their strain of progressive symphonic blackened deathcore-slash-metal is no joking matter. And they’re right: their sophomore outing Carnage Funeral is a monster.
Carnage Funeral clocks in at thirty-nine minutes. It avoids the flaw of a fatiguing runtime to which many extreme metal albums fall prey. Bonecarver craft an album conscious of their audience’s attention span, the genre’s shift away from immature lyrics and themes (see also: Dr. Acula’s 2022 self-titled glow-up), and the perennial need for bangin’ riffs.
Any symphonic album should open with an epic, and Bonecarver oblige. ‘Carnage Funeral’ runs almost seven minutes long and gives a taste of nearly everything that the album will throw at the listener in the next forty minutes.
The developing sound that Ingested have grown into through their slam-infused roots and death metal elements has been precision engineered in this, their sixth album. From the get-go, the title track feeds the listener the lacerating guitar tone and unmistakable vocals that have made the band so infamous for years, but with the addition of Julia Frau’s ethereal backing vocals to compliment the demonic chugging. ‘You’ll Never Learn’ oozes mechanistic groove and slamming riff work with machinegun drumming by Jeff Lyn to orchestrate the brutality in a track that creates an atmosphere if violent intent. This transitions to a far eerier intro to ‘Tides of Glass’ before Sean Hynes guitar signals the incoming storm of stabbing instrumentals and huge vocals. The fight riffs come in throes throughout this album and are expertly punctuated with more refined instrumentals to keep each element of the songs sounding relevant and never overused.
The features on this album are star studded – with Sven De Caluwe of Aborted featuring on the fifth track ‘From Hollow Words’ which engages the higher gears with speed and marching rhythm, complimented by the back-and-forth between Jason Evans and De Caluwe. The vocals In this song are especially acidic, every syllable has pertinence and power in creating the overall sound of the track – an important feat to note in a genre that can often do vocals very wrong. ‘Sea Of Stone’ implements more technical guitar juxtaposed with neanderthal level slam riffs to crush some skulls to, harking back to previous Ingested work like ‘The Level Above Human’. Matt Heafy of Trivium steps up to play his part on ‘All I’ve Lost’, adding a vocal style very different to that which we’ve come to associate with Ingested. It’s a unique addition in a track that stands out in how different it iss to their classic sound, but serves to prove that the bruisers are not one-trick ponies and are able to craft huge melodies too.
To set the tone for this review, let’s quote from Chuggaboom’s Spotify bio. “Become a Chuggallo or get left behind”. After a few listens of this, you’d rather get left behind, in the cave from The Descent.
Chuggaboom are a comedy (apparently) metalcore band from the UK who’s main mission seems to be to make The Hell sound like Led Zeppelin. The masked five piece are known as Levi Taurus, John Virgo (not the snooker legend, though he could have done a better job) Leo Carter, Avira Caprica and Castor Holland. They claim their influences range from Upon A Burning Body to Devin Townsend. This is the same as claiming your cooking influences are Gordon Ramsay and Nigella Lawson, but all you make is beans on toast with off brand bread and eat it with plastic cutlery.
This record, their second true full length album (after a smattering of standalone singles, EPs and some sort of Christmas album) is called Death Pledge. 12 tracks, about four riffs and about two laughs in total.
The hardcore scene has been full of a deafening buzz around Show Me The Body’s fourth full-length release, Trouble The Water. If this is your introduction to the band, think hardcore punk but with banjos, and add in a few elements from hip-hop and sludge metal. Intrigued? You’re right to be. Known as one of the fiercest live bands on the scene, Trouble The Water sees them reach new heights of experimentation and redefine what hardcore can be.
Album opener ‘Loose Talk’ launches straight in with those banjos. By all definitions, it feels like there shouldn’t be banjos in heavy music, but Show Me the Body make it work. Bit by bit, the track builds up with layered instruments and Julian Cashwan Pratt’s vocals, which exist somewhere between Rancid and Idles. This build-up effect appears throughout the album, becoming something of a formula for the album as a whole.
‘Radiator’ further brings in that experimental side when we hear the first glitching electronics paired with more relatively low-key vocals. It’s these moments that separate Show Me the Body from your average hardcore band and push them beyond the confines of the genre. This same sound crops up at the beginning of ‘Out Of Place’, a kind of counter-culture sci-fi soundtrack as the synths build up to match Pratt’s vocals before launching into the full-force attack of ‘Boils Up’. With ‘Radiator’, ‘Out Of Place’ acts as interludes that give ‘Trouble The Water’ an interesting dimension that keeps the record dynamic where certain tracks fall into a structural formula.
While LostAlone haven’t exactly been the most prolific of bands in terms of output – with only four studio albums since 2005 – they’ve certainly been one of the most consistently brilliant. Of course, their hiatus from the scene in 2014 didn’t exactly help, but just like their contemporaries My Chemical Romance, they’re now back and ready to shine again.
Fourth album ‘The Warring Twenties’ showcases frontman Steven Batelle’s songwriting at its best. Each track is beautifully structured with strong dynamics and soaring guitars and melody lines. Infectious and bombastic, one can’t help but get on board with the enthusiasm and sheer joy that leaps through the speakers.
It’s clear this is a band who very much still enjoy what they’re doing, right from the start with opener ‘Enduring The Dream’. LostAlone are literally living the dream and clearly ‘enduring’ it very well right now. It’s a fun, bright start to the record with a bouncing rhythm section and Queen-esque guitar parts which, in the music video are all set to the backdrop of footage from their recent UK leg with My Chem. Enduring the dream, indeed.
