Dan Hillier
It’s difficult to pinpoint a more unpredictable, skilfully dynamic and simply adventurous act than Rolo Tomassi. Irrefutably proving this their new single ‘Closer’. The third and final single to be taken from their wildly anticipated new record Where Myth Becomes Memory – released February 4th via MNRK – ‘Closer’ is a seismic shock to the system not due to it’s celestial punishment but rather for it’s lack of it. To be put bluntly, this the most pacifying, delicate and ethereal track published by the act to date, a polarising contrast against the astral ravagement of the singles it follows due to it’s luscious guitar leads, tender vocals and it’s colossal, awe-inspiring crescendo. “We wanted to show a completely different side to the record by releasing this single, states keyboardist and vocalist James Spence on the single. “The album is full of lighter, more gentle moments to contrast the darker side to it and none more so than this” Regardless, with their flawless precision of balancing the dark with the light already established and this trilogy of singles further reinforcing that fact, there’s absolutely no denying that Where Myth Becomes Memory carries all the hallmarks to be a potential album of the year contender already. – Dan Hillier
A track that can only be aptly described as ‘doom-pop’, the new single from relative supergroup SOM is a post-metal tinged daydream that threatens something dark and foreboding within it’s initially welcoming mirage. The last single to be taken from the band’s upcoming record The Shape Of Everything, the track see’s the band – comprised of current and previous members of Caspian, Junius, Constants and Driftoff – constructing an enraptured haze of noise that reverberates under the gravity of dense lowend and smoke with shoegazing vapour, harkening thoughts of acts such as Slow Crush, Blanket, and to a degree, even Tame Impala. It’s a fantastic enchanted sound, one that tows the line between all things blissful and dejected and one that will undoubtedly appease those who enjoy their music crushingly elegant. – Dan Hillier
Fresh off the press is Kubrick with second single ‘Devastate’. It follows on from his single ‘Painfall’ but shows further creative influence and experimentation. Written as a message to bands and artists who care too much for their image and perceived persona and instead create a toxic music scene it certainly is a bold statement. Additionally Kubrick advises that aspiring artists/musicians/creators do so focussing on the art and not on the success. The track is delivered with a sleek sound, crunchy guitars, soaring vocals and hooks aplenty. It’s an alt-rock banger akin to Deaf Havana & Issues and is packed full to the brim of groove and infectious melody. With it only being January we’re pretty confident you can expect more from Kubrick in 2022 and that it will be wildly varied from what we have already heard. – Jac Holloway
Already turning heads across the metal world with their furious, unrelenting aural assault, UK metal mob Heriot have steadfastly refused to let up. Their latest single ‘Coalescence’, along with previous double release Near Vision/Enter the Flesh’, is taken from their upcoming EP Profound Morality and sees them weaponise sludge, hardcore and industrial elements to create a devastating sonic battering. Frantic snare hits introduce Debbie Gough’s vicious howl and the twin guitar attack of her and Erhan Alman, along with bassist and co-vocalist Jake Packer could level buildings with its sheer heft and distortion. In just three minutes, the band cover menacing quieter moments, industrial noise and all-out batterings that take no prisoners. With the band only going from strength to strength with each new single and being an unmissable, heavy-as-sin live experience, Heriot are the new heavy and the brightest flame in the UK underground right now. – Will Marshall
Coinciding with the announcement of their signing to Church Road Records, ‘Under The Boot’ is a brutalising slab of crossover thrash that’s about as subtle and tender as a combat boot to the back of the skull. A true and bloody unison of NWOBHM rage, modern hardcore and time tested thrash in the vein of classic acts such as Morbid Angel, Exodus and Possessed, the single is an absolutely nefarious rager that binds styles of trash and metallic hardcore from across the ages. Those with even the slightest admiration for current trendsetters such as Enforce and Dead Heat will be right at home with this, and with their forthcoming EP of the single’s namesake dropping February 11th, this is concrete proof that Inhuman Nature will be leading the charge of the new wave of thrash this year. – Dan Hillier
Peddling psychedelic, brooding sludge and doom that would make YOB and Baroness proud, Tuskar are force to be reckoned with; towering riffs, off-kilter time signatures and drum patterns collide with roaring vocals that cover ground from blackened screams to a pitched roar akin to Mastodon’s Troy Sanders. Their latest single ‘To The Sky’, and final before debut album Matriarch is welcomed to the world, begins with a serpentine riff before galloping drums barrel in seemingly from nowhere. It’s a bold, raucous opening to a song that twists and turns throughout, covering bases from New Orleans’ swampy sludge to trippy stoner doom, all underpinned by a sense of groove and an envious command of dynamics. Conjuring a vast sonic miasma, ‘To The Sky’ drags all before it under and reaffirms why Tuskar should be a name on everyone’s lips. – Will Marshall
Konvent took the metal world by storm with their debut album Puritan Masochism two years ago, and have used the time since to refine their songwriting nous and dial up the heavy. With their latest single ‘Grains’, blackened death metal sits alongside funeral doom, capped by Rikke Emilie List’s guttural growls and roars to deliver a crushing dirgey atmosphere throughout. Of the song, List comments “‘Grains’ is about realizing the repetition of self-destructive patterns and not knowing how to break out of that cycle. It is the first KONVENT song containing Danish lyrics, as we felt like the song called for it.” Judging by the weight of the riffs and huge step up since Puritan Masochism, their upcoming album Call Down The Sun is set to be unmissable. – Will Marshall
Bristol ‘Noise-Pop’ duo Superlove have been drip feeding us a series of hyperpop influenced singles over the past few months, their latest track ‘Maybe I Could Tell You’ leaning into an upbeat tempo with less focus on riffs this time around when compared to the previous two releases. There’s a delightful twinkle to the instrumentation, gentle guitarwork and a high timbre on the backing vocals that allow the track fall somewhere between the comfort of the music itself and the cautious optimism of the lyrics. With their wide range of influences and unique composition working with sounds that seldom find their way into the same musical worlds, Superlove are one of the most unique bands out there right now, and the potential that these new tracks could be leading us towards a full length release this year has us eagerly waiting in suspense and anticipation. – Elliot Grimmie
Having thrown curveball after curveball in the lead up to their hotly-anticipated third album Erebos with the groove metal stomp of ‘Judges of the Underworld’ and the slow-burning ‘Pain of Oizys’, Welsh extreme metallers Venom Prison proved they could tackle far more than just the technical death metal they’re known for. Now with latest single ‘Nemesis’, the band have thrown another grooving, rage-filled track that opens with a blistering roar of “I am the damaged one!” from vocalist Larissa Stupar. Explaining the song’s themes, she says “This song is about the urge to hurt the person who has caused you irreparable harm and has changed your life forever. It deals with having been left to fix the damage done to you all by yourself. This specifically relates to experiencing narcissistic abuse and the trauma resulting from it.” – Will Marshall
SoCal metallers Once Human have been steadily on their way up since debut The Life I Remember. Now onto their third album Scar Weaver, the band’s modern metal, featuring crunching riffs and a career-best performance from vocalist Lauren Hart, they’re set to conquer ever larger stages. Their latest single, ‘Erasure’, tackles blood diamonds. As Hart tells it, “it’s about the clear-cut, horrific message that a rock is worth more than a life to their producers. Although today there are human rights laws and regulations that have eased the violent unearthing of these stones, it is still happening in certain parts of the world. My heart broke as I dove into the meaning of why it’s called a “blood diamond”, and I felt compelled to tell its story.” – Will Marshall
Dystopian black metallers Abhoria take a rather modern approach to their music; rather than relying on the tropes of the genre, they instead look to reflect the bleak nature of an uncaring world through their music. It’s a world not too dissimilar to our own, with con artists swindling people and religious cults promising much, while delivering followers naught but misery. The latest single taken from their upcoming self-titled debut, ‘Sunless’, takes a decidedly more epic approach than pure aggression. Guitarist Vor explains, “this track was written to evoke the hopelessness of the dystopian landscape on which the album is built. I feel like Sunless goes hand in hand with Adam Burke’s cover art: you can imagine desperate people slogging through an unrelenting wasteland in the vain hope that they’ll find salvation.” – Will Marshall
When Covid first enveloped the world back in 2020, MONO where driven to gift a nature of musical goodwill to a world in collective solitude in the form of their digital two track single ‘Scarlet Holiday // ‘First Winter’. Now in commemoration of the new winter period, the ceremonial Japanese post rockers have revised ‘Scarlett Holiday’ and further fleshed it out, turning it into a full three track EP with additional mixing courtesy of John McEntire, a new song in the form of ‘Epilogue’ and a gorgeous vinyl pressing releasing March 4th via Pelagic Records. Still, with the new mixing the inherent emotion of ‘Scarlet Holliday’ is lifted to new heights, with the track being a serene and glacial exercise in post-rock that wondrously emits the aura-lit tranquillity of the winter wilderness. It’s an expression of collective warmth in times of lonely bitterness, and as the band explains, “These songs were written with the idea of new hope for the new year since this time has become unforeseeably dark for many in the world.” – Dan Hillier
Following on from their signing to Blacklight Media / Metal Blade Records last year, Bristolian upstarts RXPTRS are ushering in the new year with both bravado and vunerablity with their new single ‘Collapse’. A continued expansion of the sound they firmed throughout the past several years, the track see’s the band welding together alt-rock grit, punk orientated sensibilities, swaggering melody and soaring tenor vocals in order to lay bare the often underexposed reality of depression. “This is about the sinking feeling when you’re struggling with anxiety and depression,” says vocalist Simon Roach on the track. “For a long time, I couldn’t understand why, for periods of time, getting out of bed was impossible, or why the constant feeling of dread was ever present. I never spoke about it, as I didn’t think anyone would understand. So, I channeled it into this song, it was only after completing the song that I realized what these feelings were.” – Dan Hillier
Wasting little time since their EP ‘Fever’ released back in July last year, Against The Current are ready to hit the ground running early on this year with their anthemic pop banger ‘Wildfire’. The Poughkeepsie pop-punkers have had a remarkable career thus far, exploding onto the scene back in 2015 with their ‘Gravity’ EP, they’ve since released two full length records, an official song for League Of Legends which racked up well over 340 million streams on Spotify alone, worked with Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack fame, and toured all over the world. ‘Wildfire’ showcases vocalist Chrissy Costanza’s ability to write a bonafide radio pop hit that still resonates with the bands roots in the rock world. Whether this is a standalone single or just a puzzle-piece to something new, the future is exciting for Against The Current, and Wildfire feels like a strong statement of intent for the vibe the band is striving for going forward. – Elliot Grimmie