As the album title and band name suggests, Y Dwylo Uchben (The Hands Above) is almost entirely sung in Welsh. But you don’t need to understand the words to get something out of Breichiau Hir’s latest release. Even with a minimal, or even totally lacking understanding of the Welsh language, it takes nothing away from the sheer emotional heft of the vocal performances on this record. Indeed, as lead vocalist Steffan Dafydd belts out each line backed by a chorus of gang vocals, you can feel the emotion radiating off every word.
But let’s back up a bit. For those who may be reading about them for the first time, what exactly do Breichiau Hir sound like? At their core, they are an alt rock band with big choruses. Expect guitars that flit between fuzzy distortion and lush clean picking and vocal hooks aplenty. The Cardiff-based sextet cites Manchester Orchestra as an influence, and it’s certainly one they wear on their sleeve. If you were to imagine what that band would sound like if they’d come from Carmarthen instead of the American South, you’re halfway to understanding what they sound like.
Modern Day Living is the first (and hopefully not last) hairpin EP and is an exciting starting point into their career. ‘Okay Thru There’ is a worthy EP opener about the mundane nature of modern British life with group vocals, catchy riffs, and a nonchalant delivery aplenty courtesy of frontman Adam Edwards that really reflects on the brutally honest lyrical content of ‘Okay Thru There’ with the repeated refrain “modern day living gets the best of me”, a message that will surely resonate with the average listener as well as the average working-class British citizen. This nihilism is also highly prevalent on more downtempo entry ‘Wiped’ and although some may call the lyrical content of Modern Day Living repetitive and remorseless, it’s hard to deny that hairpin’s lyricism is human which is very much appreciated in a world of artificial intelligence and often disingenuous, overly-produced media.
What stands out immediately in Terrestrials is experiencing something different and yet so familiar. A band influenced by the greats of Thrice and At The Drive In would be in danger of ground already tread, but the amalgamation of influences have been executed to not just imitate but harness the spirit and creativity that makes the bands so iconic. It is the post-rock and lo-fi woven into their sound which gives it added dimension to stand slightly taller than similar sounding bands. It begins with the lush melody in ‘Ex-Terrestrials’ providing the scaffolding for all other elements to ascend. As our introduction to the vocals are the unforgiving passages of harshness complimented by poised guitar work. An orchestration void of traditional formula where no verse and chorus is found but yet more passages of instrumental fluctuation as we ascend further into the desperate howls which are enforced by a layer of immensely satisfying guttural screams and catharsis chasing call and response. Delightfully titled ‘Cat Insulin’ shows fragility sits at the heart of Terrestrials, with vocalist Joe Arnolds vocals channelling the likes of Sunny Day Real Estate to really hone in on the lo-fi influence which flickers throughout the EP. Guitars are weaving through every fibre of its anatomy, borrowing from their influential pillars, and we even have a moment for some blackgaze screams while we thunder towards our closing seconds.
Scowl are an outlier in the catalogue of their new label Dead Oceans. In and amongst the singer songwriter and folk projects, you have one of the most hyped hardcore/punk acts. Whether it was on the Flatspot Records tours, the hate5six Sonic car park gig video or them joining in with the Palestine fundraiser gig in the UK, they have been unavoidable for anyone paying attention to the wider hardcore scene. In years prior, the label move would have been called selling out. The term is nowhere near as popular as it once was, perhaps due to the fame and fortune not being as grand, even in the best of cases. Indie labels aren’t for gloryseekers, and maybe never were.
The album is still Scowl, but it is different. The hookiness has been dialed up to 11 on singles ‘Special’ and ‘Not Hell, Not Heaven’, and overall some of the aggression has been dialed back to let more of this through. Hearing layered acoustic guitars on ‘Fantasy’ over the wall of sound is a classic pop producer move, and not a move of your average melodic punk band. Whereas some of the more melodic moments of their previous catalogue felt closer to happy accidents that came together in jam sessions, this is all purposeful. This is a “pop” album, in production, in song structure, in tracklist. Having the singles take up almost all of the whole first half of the record – as well as there being four singles – is very 2020s streaming centric strategy.
Zenith is a declaration that the band knows exactly who they are, and with this record, they push that identity into bold, often unexpected territory. They’re not tiptoeing forward. They’re storming ahead with purpose.
From the first note, Zenith hits with intent. There’s a confidence running through every track, a refusal to stay boxed into familiar patterns. The grooves still crush, the riffs still bite, but the songwriting has expanded. You get sweeping textures, clean vocal hooks that hit with force, and flashes of vulnerability that don’t soften the impact; they deepen it. Bleed From Within aren’t shying away from melody, they’re using it to sharpen the blade.
Everything here feels precise. The drumming is tight and relentless, the guitar work layered and dynamic, and the transitions between heaviness and melody are seamless. These aren’t just songs built to go hard, they’re built to last. Even at its most explosive, Zenith stays focused. The production sharpens that clarity, giving each song room to breathe without losing weight. Every element has its place, and nothing overstays its welcome.
Tracks like ‘Immortal Desire’ and ‘God Complex’ feel built for arenas, but they never lose their grit. They’re big songs with bigger intentions, yet they keep their footing in the raw, unpolished energy that defines the band. ‘In Place of Your Halo’ stands out for its ferocity and its use of traditional Scottish bagpipes, a bold move that could have felt forced but instead lands as one of the album’s most authentic moments. It’s a powerful nod to the band’s heritage, blended into the music without turning it into a spectacle. Guest appearances from Brann Dailor and Josh Middleton bring added range, but Bleed From Within never let the spotlight drift too far from their core.
Hailing from Venice, and in possession of a name that’s very nearly an onomatopoeia for a certain flavour of ethereal metal, Glazyhaze have returned with another suitably otherworldly amalgamation of shoegaze; Sonic. Arriving just shy of two years after its predecessor, debut album Just Fade Away, Sonic is a slippery, chunky beast of an album, drawing influences from all over the sprawling web that is the world of shoegaze, pop and indie/alternative. It also quite literally has a dark side and a light side (as symbolised by the match on the cover), and features an exploration of love and self-discovery. In short, anyone looking for the standard metal offering of 8-10 short, fast, brutal tracks with more riffs than themes…should probably look elsewhere for their next new favourite band.
