With a heady mix of dense, distorted riffs and driving percussion alongside a billowing atmosphere of guitars and soaring vocals south-west quartet COSM draw comparisons to acts as varied as The Smiths, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water and Protomartyr. Having already graced stages alongside rising stars Blank Atlas and Mother Vulture as well as making an appearance at Burn It Down festival, COSM are ready to make their mark on the UK’s thriving alternative scene with their self-titled debut EP.
Solidifying their sound right out of the gate, COSM land with earth-shaking force on their EP’s intro track ‘So I Let Go’. Heralded by the sound of a lone, jangling guitar, COSM waste no time in building up layer upon layer of driving rhythms and echoing fuzz while leaving enough room for frontman Tom Hunter’s mesmerising vocals to pierce through the track like a tall ship cutting through waves of reverberating sound. ‘So I Let Go’ allows COSM to put their best foot forward, letting their solid songwriting shine through their immersive, expansive cacophony.
While cementing their signature sound COSM find plenty of nooks and crannies to explore without veering too far off the beaten track. From the wah fuelled shredding of ‘So I Let Go’ to the yacht rock infused elegance of ‘Say About Me’ or the gentle ambience of ‘Weightless’, COSM strike a vein with their mix of indie, psych-rock and shoegaze and mine it dry. While other bands may be tempted to try their hand at one style and move on, COSM show an admirable level of dedication by exploring their sound to its fullest.
Almost drifting off course into the territory occupied by post-rock acts like Mogwai, closing track ‘Reverberate’ stands out as one of the EP’s most expansive and ambitious experiences. Leaning heavily into COSM’s penchant for layered atmospheres, ‘Reverberate’ lives up to its name with bouncing textures backing Hunter’s soporific vocal melodies before exploding into a blast of wailing, David Gilmour inspired lead guitar lines from lead guitarist Emily Howarth. While hardly reinventing the wheel it’s great to hear COSM’s more lofty ideas come to life, blowing a breath of fresh air into their tried and tested blend of genres.
South-west newcomers COSM chisel an admirable first notch into the UK’s vibrant alternative scene with their intoxicating blend of fuzzy ambience and whirling melodies. While not spreading themselves too thin COSM explore their sound with laser focused accuracy and keen ear for varied psychedelic textures.
Being known for a dark, depressive and controversial background, black metal has been at the forefront of the more underground metal scene since the 1990’s. With its atmospheric elements mixed with the unintelligible guitars and ring wraith vocals, it’s a genre like marmite. You either love it, or you hate the harsh production and heavy hitting feelings it conveys. 2016 saw the birth of one Gaerea, as well as their first EP. Although they would lay low during this time, they gained their following slowly but surely. Then in 2022 they dropped Mirage. The album that saw Gaerea rise to the top of the newer black metal scene and catapulted onto the radar of metal. Now we have the newest output from the band, Coma.
If you’re familiar with Gaerea you know what Coma will be. If it’s your first time joining the vortex, then you’re in for some despair, but not as you know it. While the band have rose to the top of the pack so to speak, it’s not through the genre’s typical themes of anti-Christianity or Satanism. Gaerea have chosen to use a more universal feeling. Suffering. And through Coma you’re introduced to their way of depicting and dealing with it.
Once upon a time, there was a band called Atreyu. They were a good band, making three exciting albums of emo-tinged metalcore, a pretty damn good foray into radio rock territories and a final death rattle to their days of winged eyeliner that isn’t that bad. Then for some reason, they all decided to repeatedly smash themselves in the head with hammers before every new recording they made and produced some of the most ridiculously boring, lifeless music around. A parade of baffling and creatively defunct choices blight the last decade of Atreyu’s career, ranging from tracks that Imagine Dragons would bin for being too trite to the conceptual abortion that was their 3 EP experience last year. Rarely has a band not only fell so far from grace, but continued to dig further once they cratered into the depths of the abyss, seemingly ignoring their own bloodied fingernails and CTE from the impact. There was no need for this album. At all. The world has more need for another Fast And The Furious movie than it does an album of Atreyu reimagining some of their classic tracks and assorted – hardly inspiring stuff.
You would think that despite what they’ve done, the original bones of the songs remain intact. No. The bones have been obliterated and been swept away into the aether. The words “fucking” and “dreadful” don’t do them justice, such is the stunning lack of quality on show here. Not only do these tracks not need anything doing to them, but making them into weird semi-acoustic versions of themselves that a 16 year old with his first guitar wouldn’t dare make is an insult to the past version of the band. The swagger, the charm of the old tracks (‘Ex’s and Oh’s’ and ‘Right Side of the Bed’ in particular) has been erased entirely. In their place is something pitiful, something so self loathing that it gives you genuine concern for the band’s mental well-being. Becoming The Bull, previously a staunch, self reflective anthem now sounds like someone told ChatGPT to have The Chainsmokers create a NFL anthem. Why was The Theft, originally a weighted, emotional ballad about stolen youth and lost innocence turned into a rejected John Lewis Christmas advert song? A lot of the lines from the song actually describe this whole situation very well though, in particular “rip them out, take them, burn to coals as they crush and leave nothing, that resembles a soul of a man” and this whole experience does indeed leave nothing but crushing numbness.
Deathcore is evolving. At least, a strand of it is anyway. There’s a certain breed of bands who strain and struggle against the chains of the genre and have done for a few years now. Earlier this year, Enterprise Earth released a record that not only flirted with more mainstream elements but threw a healthy dose of progressive metal a la Opeth in there for good measure. When Fit For An Autopsy released their last album, there were a lot of fans who made comparisons to another massive, legendary metal band. That band was Gojira.
The signs were already there in the seismic stomp, the vocal inflections leaning but not fully straying into full clean territory and the arena ready choruses of ‘Far From Heaven’ and ‘Two Towers’. With the release of Oh, What The Future Holds now in the rear view and the plaudits still being rung out today, it became a curious point as to how the band would progress their sound. They have all the talent, the scope, the potential to grab the brass ring and elevate themselves to the next level but would they take the chance?
A thousand times yes – mostly. This is an album that is definitely Fit For An Autopsy taken to the next level, as they’ve nailed their brooding, cataclysmic brand of deathcore (albeit barely, now) to a tee over the years but in some ways, it eclipses their previous effort. The Nothing That Is showcases a further mastering of heavy, abrasive dynamics. From the sheer ludicrous stomp of opener ‘Hostage’ which gives way to a dense, layered melody and a maelstrom of riffing, it feels like the world is ending all around you. ‘Spoils Of The Horde’ flits more back into the band’s earlier days complete with blasts of kick drums and evil yet wonderfully enunciated vocals (Joe Badolato cements himself amongst the genre’s giants across the whole record, standing alongside Vincent Bennett and Phil Bozeman in terms of sheer menace and insidiousness) before an oddly melancholic guitar solo brings you back to earth.
After 2023’s God Made Me An Animal cannonball of an EP which left a hole in the wall for Better Lovers to step through and announce themselves, they embarked on a year of sold out shows and tours to give the world ample time to prepare itself. The expectations on Better Lovers were always going to be inescapable. Members of two of the most beloved heavy bands of the modern day, two near perfect discographies and Will Putney as producer and guitarist. This is an all-star assembly of talent.
But what we find is a band on white-hot form when it comes to hitting all the checkpoints listeners will come to expect from each individual member. There was never going to be any doubts about the albums ability for a mazy riff or tectonic breakdown but this album is as joyous as it is relentless. Guitarist Jordan Buckley has always been the playful vital organ linking all others together. He is an Autobahn of riffs and bounce. Playing to his natural strengths alongside bassist Steve Micciche and drummer Goose. there is a telepathic comfort flowing through the arteries of every track which gives new parties endless avenues of colourful melodies to explore. Greg Puciato is as acrobatic as ever, giving us the ferocity he is famous for but melody is where he earns the high marks, commanding each chorus with ease to create remarkable occasions in every track.
Seamlessly blending poetic, emotionally charged melody and ferocious hardcore punk energy, Californian quintet Touché Amoré have consistently dropped some of the post-hardcore genre’s most vital records since their 2008 self-titled debut. Now, on their sixth full length Spiral In A Straight Line, Touché Amoré use a more varied sonic palette than ever to explore some of their deepest, most poignant material to date.
While fans of the band are sure to feel comfortable with the broad strokes of Spiral In A Straight Line, Touché Amoré make it clear from the outset that they’re not just going through the motions. Frontman Jeremy Bolm’s passionate screams are as on point as ever and the production from the iconic Ross Robinson, also known for his work with Slipknot, Korn and At The Drive In, sounds as crystal clear as it did on 2020’s Lament but there’s a renewed sense of freedom on Spiral In A Straight Line with the band leaning more heavily into their hardcore roots on tracks like ‘Disasters’ and ‘Mezzanine’ and further into pop, indie and shoegaze elsewhere on the album without losing an ounce of what makes them unique. Touché Amoré have been around the block enough times to recognise what makes them special but are self aware enough to know when to shake up their formula.
A fantastic example of the experimentation on Spiral In A Straight Line is single ‘Hal Ashby’ which takes what fans know and love about the band’s sound while putting a unique spin on a well worn blueprint. Taking inspiration from director Hal Ashby, whose films often explored misunderstood protagonists, Touché Amoré embark on their own exploration of misunderstandings with a steady, emo style lead guitar line contrasted against blistering punk drums with Bolm’s harsh vocals flowing between rapid-fire shouts and cathartic howls. ‘Hal Ashby’ takes Touché Amoré’s melodic post-hardcore and throws in a melancholic emo edge, taking the band’s usually introspective sound to new heights.
