Enjoying the same crossover success in the alternative rock space as hip-hop acts like Joey Valence & Brae, Denzel Curry and Bob Vylan, Irish language/English bilingual hip-hop trio KNEECAP have been rising through the ranks of the underground rap scene since their debut back in 2017. Now, on their debut full length, the West Belfast three piece are here to kick down your door, snort a line of ket off your nan’s forehead and headbutt her teeth in for being an imperialist British pig.
KNEECAP fit a pretty tight niche, blending some of the most aggro hip-hop out there with a no-nonsense punk attitude and a touch of traditional Irish folk via sampled flutes and drumbeats. If you’re discovering KNEECAP for the first time then the opening tracks of Fine Art will make a perfect introduction with opener ‘3CAG’ setting the scene, painting a picture of a lively but run down Belfast pub combining choppy beats with traditional Irish folk and lilting vocals from Lankum singer Radie Peat, before the title track ‘Fine Art’ hits you like a brick with hardcore hip-hop chaos and samples of TV pundits decrying KNEECAP for their politically motivated outbursts. It’s instantly impressive how fluidly rappers Mo Chara and Moglaí Bap shift between English and Irish Gaelic, adding an extra dimension to their music even for those who aren’t fluent in both languages, the single ‘Fine Art’ demonstrates this lyrical mastery with an intelligent wit and cheeky sense of humour.
Do One formed in 2017, coming as part of the scene built around the now-infamous and long gone T Chances venue in Tottenham, North London. The band wanted to create something fast, hard and filled with Simpsons-based quotes. This element of silliness has always characterized the band who self proclaim as “banter-violence”. The members bring different influences to the table, Sam Bricket and James Campos come from the hardcore, powerviolence, anarcho/d-beat scene, the drummer Adam Hornsby, on top of mind blowing blast beats, he integrates a lot of doom and sludge tempo, while Jag Bahra writes riffs for days adding a polished thrash and 90s death metal sound. The mixed bag of slow and fast is exactly what distinguishes the band from others. During their live shows they manage to get the crust crowd involved, the grindcore heads, but also have plenty of space for groove and classic hardcore two-steps and side to side moves, this band has it all.
The vocal style of Sam Bricket is also almost unheard of, with high pitch scream, screeching and gruesome growl border-lining, someone could say, on black metal. However, he uses his voice in a completely different manner, always in sync with the rhythmic sessions, almost as serving as an instrument itself.
After two EPs and one single, the band went to record twelve tracks at the Cro’s Nest Studios with Sam Thredder (Slabdragger/Cthulhu Youth/Frightener), who captured the band’s sound in all its blasting glory, featuring tracks written between 2018 and 2023. Please Don’t Tell Anyone How I Live is what all their fans who religiously went to see them at live shows were waiting for, it encompasses the years of work of the band and also includes two features.
In 2024, eight years since their last release you are (thankfully) more likely to hear the phrase Johnny Foreigner being mentioned at any UK DIY gig instead of a pub you mistakenly walked into. Surprise new EP the sky and sea were part of me, or I was part of them gives both a preview of the new album, and a separate piece as its own whole. There’s the guitar acrobatics and guitar melodics of the old JoFo, and the catharsis in the writing is still as strong as ever. There is a strong sense of time passing over the whole project from the start, with ‘What The Alexi’ mentioning the ‘art school kids’ that they’re ‘too old to argue’ with. It is the bands self christened “first actual love song”, and being able to convey that level of emotional understanding takes time and practice of the craft of songwriting.
‘Ain’t at the Table’ and ‘Orc Damage’ give mirror image perspectives of the cycles music scenes go through, whether they have money or not. There’s a certain knowing jadedness in the lyrics, the parallels between people being cast out for their actions only to establish themselves in new spaces, and failing upwards in the corporate music industry. Interlude ‘(speak of it and curse it)’ connects both sides of the coin, threatening the dangers of trying to do right.
Despite first emerging almost a decade and a half ago there is little that can be said with certainty about the mysterious duo known as Nordic Giants. Appearing on stage as masked figures obscured by fog and shadow, with glimpses of feathers and tree bark on their bodies only visible by the light of screens flashing short films syncing up to their dramatic post-rock sound. If this sounds at all familiar or interesting to you then their compilation Origins, a reimagined collection of their first three EPs, is likely to inspire you to take a deep dive into their accomplished body of work.
Origins starts with it’s best foot forwards with a remaster of one of the band’s best known tracks ‘Together’, a striking soundtrack created as a backdrop to an equally striking speech from Martin Luther King Jr. The changes to this track are subtle but numerous, with the original mix focusing almost entirely on the lead piano line and MLK’s sampled speech whereas the new mix feels a lot fuller and more balanced with fuzzy, droning synth textures and bombastic drums appearing far more prominently. While the broad strokes are still very much unaltered the unassuming little details make this the definitive version of ‘Together’.
Many of the album’s tracks follow a similar formula, elevating the original version while leaving the underlying skeleton of the piece intact. The Origins versions of tracks like ‘Glass Skinned Girl’ and ‘Shine’ bring their guest vocalists, Freyja and Cate Ferris respectively, further towards the forefront, bringing out the intricacies in their performances while ‘The Seed’ featuring Jake Reid removes the retro telephone effect on the vocalist’s voice used in the original mix, clearing up the vocals and rebuilding the track around them rather than burying them in ambience. These subtle changes are sure to please long-time fans as their favourite deep cuts are brought up to date without losing the soul of the original song.
Hippotraktor return with a second dose of their post-Meshuggah cocktail, combing the best parts of post-metal and prog and injecting both with an ever-present groove.
From the outset, the riffs take centre stage. Opening track ‘Descent’ is aptly named, with the guitars tuned so low that James Cameron is chasing them in his latest submersible. While the album opens on an aggressive note, there are still splashes of melody and restraint sprinkled throughout the opener, showcasing how breaking out of the typically linear post-metal formula allows for much more dynamic compositions.
Lead single ‘Silver Tongue’ plays with groove and tempo throughout, constantly pushing and pulling, rising and falling and taking left turn after left turn without ever feeling contrived or unnecessary. The way each instrument weaves around the other is a staple feature of Hippotraktor past and present, and they’re only getting better at it with each successive release. The guitars are utilised with brutal efficiency, floaty and dreamlike one moment before joining the vocals for a staccato assault the next.
The production is powerful, clean and crisp – the drums punch through to the forefront when they need to propel the songs forward, and the vocals are always perfectly integrated into the sound whether at a whisper or a full-tilt roar. It’s an impeccably polished sound without succumbing to sterility, engineered to support the material rather than stifle it. Vocalists Sander Rom and Stefan De Graef cover a staggering amount of ground between them, and the moments where their vocals intertwine create some of the highest peaks of the album.
There’s a lot going on in the death metal scene in the UK at the moment, and no one represents this more than Celestial Sanctuary. Hot off the press is the Visions of Stagnant Blood EP, a little surprise for all the gnarly crusty metal heads out there who like their death metal grindy with a helping of nasty hardcore inspired riffing.
Visions… continues in the vein of Insatiable Thirst For Torment, the bands much applauded full length from last year. It’s riff o’clock in the Celestial Sanctuary household, and we’re all just here for the ride. The EP opens with the title track, blistering, crushing, replete with riffs, soaring leads and an atmosphere of darkness and sludge that is more at the forefront than ever before. ‘Puddles of You Reflect The Filth Within’ then comes stomping through the chaos portal, trudging like a 5000 tonne behemoth, smashing all in it’s path amidst five and a half minutes of utter desolation.
