For nine years, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes have been at the forefront of the new wave of British punk. Along the way we’ve gotten two live albums, a remix EP and lord knows how many shows to boot. On each album The Rattlesnakes haven’t shied away from experimenting with their music and on later albums have even warped the line between punk and pop. But on their fifth studio output, Dark Rainbow, they’ve taken away almost all traces of their punk/hardcore background as they enter their experimental era.
Only on opening song, ‘Honey’, do we feel any semblance to what we have known through the past four albums, and while the band haven’t been neglectful of ballads in the past with ‘I Hate You’ & ‘Neon Rust’ showing just two tracks of the powerful and slower side of the band. But as soon as you pass ‘Honey’, that’s where the high–octane energy that The Rattlesnakes are known for evaporates. It’s not a recent occurrence of that band writing like this, as some of the album was written before the pandemic even crossed our minds, and it’s just a show of how much the writing style has changed for both Frank Carter & Dean Richardson.
Splitknuckle have been hailed as one of UKHC’s most promising for a minute now. With the release of their latest ten track venture Breathing Through the Wound, Slpitknuckle aim to launch themselves to the very forefront of the scene. Tracked by the talented Ben Spence over at Fuzzbrain with mixing and mastering being handled by Ben Jones, it can be fair to assume this album is a massive one. Taking notes from legends of the area Raiden and Special Move; Splitknuckle use this to their advantage and add their own spin onto it. Hints of death metal are very apparent in the mix; these Essex heavyweights are making sure their mark is made on the UK’s ever growing hardcore scene with this release. And with the help of labels such as DAZE in the US and Northern Unrest in the UK, Breathing Through The Wound is an album hardcore fans will want to keep on their radar.
Opening up this beast of a record is the track “Fuck Your Whole Life”. Just from the title alone fans can assume exactly where this track is going. Beatdown and death metal are prevalent right from the start with downtuned guitars and fast paced percussion. This nearly four minute track takes fans on quite the ride and really sets the tone up for this release. Without a break, Splitknuckle smash their way into the second track “Gutter Thoughts”. Leaning more into the hardcore side of things, fans can guarantee plenty of two stepping when the group play this one live. Delivering a sound similar to Desolated with a splash of Never Ending Game, it’s fair to say that the UKHC scene will love this track from start to finish.
You may remember that the Wrexham quintet were anointed as future bastions of British rock, the band that would spearhead the next generation of pop punk outfits. Due to this, if you look at the career of Neck Deep through this lens: ostensibly, they somewhat flopped. The reality though, is that neither of these things are true. Okay, the five-piece didn’t quite become a 2010’s version of Green Day. But they have undeniably become not just mainstays, but frontrunners of modern pop rock/pop punk. And let’s be honest: if you peeked into the Barlow brothers’ garage 14 years ago and offered them 4.1M monthly Spotify listeners, multiple worldwide/festival headline tours, and five albums, they’d have bitten your hand off before you could say “man, it sure rains a lot in Wales, doesn’t it?”
With their self-titled fifth offering, it’s evident that Neck Deep are still writing songs for the target demographic that sunk their teeth into 2015’s Life’s Not Out To Get You. On the surface that sounds like a harsh criticism but on the contrary, it’s actually the greatest charm to the record; hormone raging 17-year-olds can have as much fun here as nostalgia driven 30-year-olds. How many albums can you say that about? ‘Dumbstruck Dumbf**k’ blasts the gates of the record open with a party anthem fit for a university party minus the overwhelming stench of vomit emanating from the bathroom. Ben Barlow’s naïve yet infectious chorus reach sets the bar high on a record that predominantly maintains this high octane, jovial attitude throughout.
The prog elements of Lord Dying‘s arsenal give tremendous variation throughout the album’s near sixty minutes as it leans into the unpredictable, keeping listeners captivated for its duration. lulling you in during the first half ‘The Universe is Weeping’ only to be catapulted onto a highway of guitar and drums at frantic speed and the introduction to our narrator, Erik Olson and the wonderful backing of Alyssa Mocere whose isolated vocals ring out the end of the first track as we take our journeys first steps.
From here Lord Dying begin a sonic onslaught with the vengeful ‘I Am Nothing I Am Everything’, its screeching guitars and tribal march drums to serve as the soundtrack for Olson‘s menacing vocals. Venturing forth into the prog forest throughout the album there are sections of brilliance that admirers of Enslaved will enjoy; even right down to the vocals there’s a clear strain of influence.
Clandestine Transcendence is a delicately balanced example of timing and willingness to experiment, pivoting from the harsh into the lush with precision. Their sludge foundations glisten with progressive flair but leave no stone unturned with dramatic melodic rock solos spiralling like petrified trees only to blossom at their end. The mastery of producer Kurt Ballou is a match made in heaven with Lord Dying as his understanding of the vision is evident throughout.
Casting back to a joint record label all-dayer showcase at Camden’s metal hub the Black Heart pub in 2021 with both the excellent New Heavy Sounds and APF, saw the former label provide heavy tunes in juxtaposition to the APF representatives’ window shaking (no joke here, windows literally rattled scarily hard) raging noise. On that bill were New Heavy Sounds’ gothic doom representatives Cold in Berlin, where vocalist Maya Berlin set in motion her visually captivating live persona in conjunction with an equally absorbing musical set.
It has taken a while for a new set of songs to emerge, but it’s been well worth the wait as the follow up to 2019’s Ritual of Surrender album comes in the shape of The Body of the Wound EP and the good news doesn’t end there as a new album is in the pipeline for release sometime this year. Whilst last year turned out to be a resurgent year for goth with plenty of goth related new music; a string of acclaimed books on the genre and legendary pioneers defying hiatus status by making unexpected returns (e.g Siouxsie Sioux’s return to the stage) The timing feels finely tuned for more younger talent to flex their prowess and kick off the new year in dark and doomy style.
Cold in Berlin indeed do this with aplomb, and come armed with some themes running through the EP. Across its runtime, they reflect on psychology and Buddhism, and how these themes tie together with holding onto suffering and trauma as well as how we can grow from it.
Love And Other Lies, Lifesick’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2022 album Misanthropy, is a fascinating journey of an EP, made even more impressive by the just over 10 minute runtime. While not straying too far from their familiar sound, with riffs which take plenty of inspiration from Sweden’s death metal forefathers colliding with blisteringly fast drums and hardcore style breakdowns, Lifesick bring an emotionally compelling and cathartic new edge to their latest EP.
The first of the three tracks on Love And Other Lies, ‘Every Unpleasant Emotion’, is a completely unpredictable curveball, sounding more like a lost Tom Waits or Mark Lanegan track than the maniacally urgent, distorted riffs heard throughout the rest of their back catalogue. Building up around a lone acoustic guitar and frontman Simon Shoshan’s gravelly vocal delivery, ‘Every Unpleasant Emotion’ evokes the darker side of American country and folk music, with morbid lyrics painting a picture of a murder while encouraging the killer’s actions emphasised by wailing electric guitars and layers of lo-fi, reverb infused ambience, this track would be the perfect soundtrack to a true crime TV series. It’s always great to hear heavy bands bring their macabre sensibilities to other genres and it’s even better when it works as well as ‘Every Unpleasant Emotion’ does.
