Dan Hillier
After earning their reputation as one of the best names within progressive-metal through utterly defying the rules of instrumental music and jettisoning what the genre is capable of, Animals As Leaders are back with their first original music in half a decade. Coinciding with the announcement of their re-signing to Sumerian Records, the trio’s latest single ‘Monomyth’ stands tall as one of the band’s most urgent, sidewinding and textured works to date. A truly confrontational and curious exploration of how we as a species try and fruitlessly compute the nature of things beyond our comprehension, the single is a star speckled and fearless movement of sound from an already legendary band that is about to enter another era of pioneering creativity. “’Monomyth’ is part fever dream, part ritual”, states figurehead Tobi Abasi. “Its imagery represents man’s ceaseless attempts to translate transcendent ideas into movement. The conflation of struggle with meaning. Pain with significance. The ultimate failure of distilling perceived patterns in the world into knowledge.” – Dan Hillier
Another band announcing an upcoming album, London extreme metal troupe Voices have released their latest single ‘Beckoning Shadows’. Coming in November via underground tastemakers Church Road Records, the record is entitled Breaking The Trauma Bond and ‘Beckoning Shadows’ offers us a first glimpse of what’s to come. Their avant-garde approach to extreme metal folds in elements of black metal, death metal and gothic-styled vocals. There’s an uneasy undercurrent shot through the single, partly courtesy of the occasional keys but also from the unsettling vocal performance. Of the song, the band said “‘Beckoning Shadows’, as a song examines the beckoning shadows of a life capsized – when there is absolutely no hope to be found in a world full of delusions you must walk without fear into the abyss”. – Will Marshall
Whilst many artiness within the South Wales scene opt to emulate their often American and English influences, post-hardcore newcomers Breichiau Hir proudly embrace their colourful heritage, something they demonstrate with their new single ‘Hir Oes I’r Cof’. The title track of their freshly announced debut LP which drops November 19th, the group’s new single serves as an introduction to their home cooked and nuanced take on post-hardcore, one they articulate purely through their native Welsh language. Delicate, forward and aggressive when required, the track is an ode to the ruining nature of rose tinted nostalgia, something the album as a whole explores. “Halfway through writing the album, I noticed my lyrics were all following a narrative and theme around nostalgia,” details vocalist Steffan Dafydd on the record.“It’s a journey that follows the narrator getting totally engrossed in that feeling and losing grasp of reality. The theme of a river as a metaphor for time runs through the album.” – Dan Hillier
Alongside the announcement of their upcoming new album Kin, Whitechapel have also released the first single from the album, entitled ‘Lost Boy’. Where previous album The Valley showed that the band could not only open up and expand on their sound but also deliver on it, Kin looks set to deliver the next stage of that evolution, delving into more expansive songwriting and dabbling even more with singing balanced against vocalist Phil Bozeman’s formidable roar. ‘Lost Boy’ opens at full throttle, their bludgeoning brand of death metal on clear display replete with blast beats and angular riffing. The chorus, on the other hand, opens up into more expansive soundscapes before accelerating once more. The sung passages show how much Bozeman’s voice and confidence in it has developed; there’s some real hooks on display as well as creating a more vulnerable air. – Will Marshall
As It Is have been dropping a number of singles throughout 2021 building to what we can only imagine will be a new album. The band have never been afraid to switch things up either, take their 2018 album The Great Depression as the perfect example of this, a record which was entirely reimagined only a year later in four separate releases. The band’s breakout album Never Happy, Ever After launched the band into a spotlight that gave them a platform to be able to get creative given such a loyal and devoted fanbase that had been established and cemented early on in their career. Following two successful releases this year already with ‘IDGAF’ and ‘I Lie To Me’ the band have now dropped two singles ‘ILY, HOW ARE YOU?’ and ‘IDC, I CAN’T TAKE IT’. This ambitious double release aims to give opposite viewpoints with to the goal of being a positive reminder to put one’s energy into the things and people you love, the things that matter. ‘ILY, HOW ARE YOU?’ being an ‘i could care more’ perspective and ‘IDC, I CAN’T TAKE IT’ being an ‘i could care less’ perspective. Both songs take this somewhat sombre and potentially isolating theme and project them in two party anthems bringing a sense of unity with giant hooks and melodic choruses that hark back to the early 2000’s golden era of pop punk. The release so far seems to have dived into emotions and regular situations only to challenge them as social norms. – Jac Holloway
Genre-splicing Zeal & Ardor have announced their self-titled third album to be released in February next year and, to whet appetites, their latest single ‘Bow’. In contrast to previous singles ‘Run’ and ‘Erase’, it’s more soulful and sombre but is still shot through with a barely-restrained, incandescent rage. A tar-thick bassline grooves atop thundering drums while frontman Manuel Gagneux cries “Bow down / To the American way!” in its closing moments; it’s clearly not patriotic if you’ve followed even a modicum of what he’s been doing over the past few years and its irony bites deep in this day and age. At a hair over two minutes long, it knows how to get in, deliver its message and get out, all without being quite as instrumentally heavy – though no less emotionally resonant. – Will Marshall
A white-hot blast of noise is what greets you upon pressing play on Mastiff’s latest single ‘Midnight Creeper’ and it doesn’t ever let up from there. Frenetic in its opening tempo, it shifts midway through into a sludgey, churning bruiser of a track that’s no less bludgeoning. It’s not to last, though, as we’re soon dragged screaming back into the storm with blast beats and sledgehammer, chugging riffs. Mastiff know exactly how to write vicious, misanthropic noise that’ll leave you feeling unclean and ‘Midnight Creeper’ is no different at all. It’s taken from their latest album, Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth, out next week on eOne and by all accounts, it’s set to take the rage and bile of Plague and kick it up several notches. – Will Marshall
Danish progressive metallers Cold Night For Alligators’ latest single ‘Verism’ is here and – as ever – it’s a masterclass in tight, technical riffing and soaring, majestic vocals. Combining elements of Tesseract and Periphery, as well as some technical flourishes that wouldn’t be out of place on a Protest The Hero record, Cold Night For Alligators deliver a thrilling take on progressive metal that’s never technical for the sake of it and ensures they have plenty of hooks, vocally and instrumentally. Of the song, vocalist Johan Pederson remarks “This is one of the more meta lyrics I’ve done, where I reflect on the effect of writing about stuff that can feel a bit voyeuristic. Art needs to exhibit the real and thereby also the extreme, ugly and vulgar. But it can have a harsh psychological effect, as you step into that space mentally. If it’s not my own story I have to get as close as I can emotionally.” – Will Marshall
Japanese Metalcore titans Crossfaith are prolific with their release schedules. With 4 full-length albums, 5 EPs and a number of singles under their belts in the last decade you wouldn’t be blamed for not having kept up. The band are no strangers to blending genres either, whether it be dubstep, reggae, rap, drum n bass or straight up metal Crossfaith will often incorporate flares of multiple influences into their music. On latest release ‘Slave of Chaos’ the shift feels like somewhat of an embrace of nu-metal in all its glory. As the title of the song would imply there is a chaotic nature to the track that weaves through a number of varying vocal styles and tempo changes. Vocalist Kenta Koie is well known for changing up his vocal technique and transitioning between these styles with ease both on and off record. The latest offering from the band is no different with an aggressive fast-paced chorus, sporadic breakdowns and a sense of urgency in the verse that has more of a minimalist structure with rap style vocals. Crossfaith aren’t ones for sticking to a blueprint so whether this is an indication of what a new album or EP will sound like is anyone’s guess though it would seem the band may be joining the nu-metal rise and aiming for this kind of sound on a future release. – Jac Holloway
The Rasmus have dropped the second taster of new music with rock anthem ‘Venomous Moon’ following the release of their single ‘Bones’ earlier this year. This is the band’s latest release since their single ‘Holy Grail in 2018. 18 years on from the release of their landmark hit single ‘In The Shadows’ (that is 6 times certified gold), a song that featured on their fifth studio and major breakthrough record ‘Dead Letters’. The band definitely haven’t lost the wind in their sails either, with 4 albums released since this landmark breakthrough and what would seem like another on the way. The band don’t shy away from what made them either. Still dawning the iconic feathers in his hair vocalist Lauri Ylönen delivers an inspired vocal performance on ‘Venomous Moon’ that weaves between his whispered, gradual and measured delivery on the verse and his soaring melody on the chorus. The song also features symphonic metallers and fellow Finnish musicians Apocalyptica who add the perfect gothic backdrop with their neoclassical composition and well-revered sound. The band have leaned towards released a Poppier sound on previous albums though it would seem from both single released so far that the band are making a conscious effort to get back in touch with their roots. – Jac Holloway