Since dropping their debut EP A Long Night Down To Calagary, Sheffield’s Since Torino have enjoyed quite a few reasons to celebrate. Performing at Dot to Dot Festival and Regtown for one, playing alongside US scene heavyweights Ogbert the Nerd for instance, selling out their own headliners for example. But what makes such feats just so impressive is the fact that the debut EP aforementioned only released just nine months ago. Now Since Torino are back with their second EP of the year in the form of Reunion Dinner.
For those uninitiated, Since Torino aren’t necessarily a band that can be easily summarised by stringing genre tags together and be done with it. Sure, they’re emo adjacent and certainly a part of the fertile Yorkshire scene that’s also host to other brilliant acts like Slash Fiction, Jumper Boy and Pale Sailor. But it would be far more fitting to compare them to moods or even environments. Since Torino are the sound of staring outside condescend windows in late autumn, cosy yet wistful. The sound of the sunset silently kissing the crisp winter horizon. The sound of The National if they where really, really into American Football. A Long Night Down To Calagary presented all this wonderfully, but it’s Reunion Dinner that fleshes out and expands this sound.
reunion dinner by since torino
It isn’t controversial to say that their debut Mire is one of the most impressive records, let alone debuts, by a British band in the last 15 years. The fact the follow up Páthos, a labyrinthine exploration of emotion through technical and intricate heaviness, suffered (unfairly) for it shows that the Midlands riff masters have always had the ability to cross over with their unique brand of heavy. For a while there were dissenting voices, again unfairly, wondering if the bloom had come off the rose. Those that misunderstood will have missed clear signs as to where Conjurer would eventually end up. The road paved by those previous two records has led the way to, what can only be described, as their masterpiece. Unself sees Conjurer laser focused, viscerally emotional, and leaving nothing off the metaphorical creative table.
Musically, Unself blends the Mastodon-esque groove that Mire had in abundance seamlessly with those more uncomfortably violent dissonant passages that were showcased on Pàthos. Tracks like ‘All Apart’ and ‘The Searing Glow’ go from spacious post metal and black metal tinges into riffs so monumental they could level whole cities. The experimentation doesn’t stop at just blending their metal influences, as the whole record opens with a heartbreaking folk song, beautifully led by Dani Nightingale’s soul rendering vocal. It’s all meticulously planned and executed to perfection. A special note has to be saved for the production job that Joe Clayton (No Studio, Pijn, Floodlit Recordings) has done in bringing every moment of the record into sharp focus.
A mere eighteen months after their superbly psychotic debut, Wandering Through Concrete Valleys, Omnikoloss have returned, with a suitably dystopian interlude. It follows on where its predecessor left off, and it takes the form of a single track, of the sort of length that would put your average doom band to shame: just shy of twenty-seven minutes. This is コンクリートの谷を彷徨って II , which is quite literally a very complicated way to say Wandering Through Concrete Valleys II, and it’s… a lot. Much like Valleys I, Valleys II has a great deal to say and is doggedly determined to say all of it, without pausing for anything as mundane as a breath.
Even before getting into the musical aspects of this, the sheer density and intensity of this make it an interesting proposition. Some albums provide escapism by way of beauty, atmosphere, evoking all manner of emotions and memories and so on and so forth. They provide a world for the mind to wander in. Other albums on the other hand, achieve it by beating and crowding every single other thought out of the listener’s head, and becoming all-consuming. Omnikoloss inhabit the latter space like some sort of experimental industrial techno Gollum: happy to be left to their own devices under the mountain for long periods, but they will happen to you if you venture into their cave.
They Are Gutting A Body Of Water went international this year, with a European tour as well as spots at both locations of Outbreak festival in the UK. With a CD compiling their previous albums on sale, it felt like a line drawn separating the old.
LOTTO is the new album. Three years since last album Lucky Styles (known as s on streaming services), the band has been relatively quiet on the release front. It lets you drift into an ethereal haze, like all good shoegaze does. Vocals are only present when they need to be, and the melodies keep reverberating around your head long after the album ends. At the time of writing, the only sold out physical format on their Bandcamp is the cassette, and the extra tape saturation and degradation would easily add to each listen of the album.
LOTTO has more sections of spoken word delivery on the album, like on opener ‘the chase’, first single ‘american food’ and closer ‘herpim’. Although Sprechgesang is a controversial and possibly oversaturated part of a few music scenes (UK post punk especially), it manages to feel new, and possibly exciting, in a way many bands don’t.
Reaching back into the 80s for a hit of nostalgia while also punching above their weight alongside contemporaries such as High Vis and DITZ, German quartet TV Cult return for their second LP Industry, an eclectic and electric mix of punk attitude and deep sonic exploration. While TV Cult are still a newer act on the circuit, Industry cements them as one of Europe’s most exciting young bands.
Opening track ‘Communion’ introduces TV Cult with a confident yet melancholy post-punk stomp, taking inspiration from the genre’s greats without sounding like a cheesy 80s cover band. With vocals that range from a hoarse shout to a deep growl over a bedrock of airy, reverb-fuelled guitars and a driving rhythm section, ‘Communion’ makes clear nods at acts like Killing Joke and Echo & The Bunnymen but with a clear, biting modern edge. Whereas many newer post-punk acts seem to shun the genre’s history in favour of chasing trends, TV Cult embrace both the pioneers of post-punk and its modern revival.
Without straying too far from their mix of vintage and modern influences, TV Cult manage to deliver a surprisingly eclectic and wide-ranging album, exploring everything from New Order style synths to Thursday inspired emo beats. Tracks such as ‘Crack The Whip’ lean heavily into atmospheric, retro synths, tenderly intertwining with glassy clean guitars to create a unique backdrop for the screamed vocals whereas songs like ‘Moonflower’ and ‘Overpressure’ keep the cleaner guitars and harsh vocals but up the pace and tension for an early 2000s emo feel. While it would’ve been easy for TV Cult to simply recreate the sounds of their 80s heroes and take a spot on some lucrative nostalgia tour, folding in a healthy dose of modern alternative keeps Industry sounding fresh and exciting throughout.
Four albums in, Wode are still proving why they remain one of the most exciting bands in the UK’s extreme metal underground. Keeping the momentum going from 2021’s Burn in Many Mirrors, which brought a leap in exposure and pushed their sound into broader view, was always going to be a challenge. Uncrossing the Keys shows the Mancunians have not only met that challenge, but embraced it with relish, sharpening everything that made them stand out in the first place.
This is an album dripping in atmosphere, but not in the usual black metal sense. There are no symphonics, no shimmering expanses, no wide-open, ethereal vistas. Wode are not an atmospheric black metal band, and this is not an atmospheric black metal album. The atmosphere here is something far more sinister and claustrophobic. Where others conjure vast mountain ranges, frozen forests, and desolate cosmic panoramas, Wode give us the city, its shadows, its grime, its menace. The sound here is the seedy underbelly of a sprawling metropolis, a sense of being stalked through alleyways and backstreets, the hiss of neon and the stench of decay thick in the air. It’s urban rot made flesh, and it suits them perfectly.
The riffs bite hard, sharp and purposeful, delivered with a precision that makes every moment feel urgent. There’s a swing to their attack that keeps the record exhilarating even at its most violent, a kind of devilish groove underpinning the ferocity. The melodies are just as striking: not grandiose, not overly ornamented, but crisp, cutting, and memorable, the kind that burrow into your head long after the record has finished. And then there are the drums – furious and relentless, but played with feel, driving everything forward with a swagger that keeps the chaos controlled.
