Melodic Metalcore has come on in leaps and bounds in the past half decade, with acts like Catch Your Breath earning their stripes with the high numbers of streams on TikTok as well as Bad Omens becoming a stand-out act in the genre with the help of a single album, the cleaner, more Pop and R&B-influenced side to the genre is making waves in the scene. Continue reading
I love that every couple of years. Baroness does a small venue tour, it feels more connected to their base, and there is nothing better than seeing one of your favorite bands in an intimate room, singing along with a packed crowd. If you were a fan of early Baroness, this was your tour to see them play both Red and Blue Album (both released on Release Records) front to back. Many songs and interludes have never been performed live before.
Charleston, West Virginia’s metal veterans Byzantine return with their long-anticipated new album, Harbingers (Metal Blade Records), set for release on June 13th, 2025.Continue reading
As the summer months finally arrive, and with the prospect of sunshine-filled holidays (tell me you’re from the UK without saying you’re from the UK) and lazy beach days with ice cold beer and rapidly melting ice-cream literally just around the corner, Arizona Doom trio Goya say fuck all that.Continue reading
It was a perfect Saturday date night in Athens on May 24th to watch and capture UK’s Prog Metal artist DVNE alongside Greek band Allochiria opening up the show at Gazarte Music Venue.Continue reading
Volbeat‘s hook-heavy fusion of Rock and Roll and Metal continues apace with G.O.A.T (Republic/Universal) – not a reference to Ronaldo or Messi but rather God Of Angels Trust. This is their ninth record and it follows in the footsteps of predecessor Servant of the Mind – but much heavier. Continue reading
Opening today are Tilburg locals Autarkh, whom I first discovered playing the 2021 Roadburn Redux show. Eclectic and heavy, the band mix electronics with metal elements, so much that Encyclopedia Metalum (a.k.a Metal Archives) doesn’t even consider them metal enough. Tonight, though, the band have a live drummer with them, who plays the angular beats with relish. Frontman and guitarist Michel Nienhuis (formerly Dodecahedron) is clearly very much in the groove. A groove expertly set by their temping bassist, who learned the complex material in only a week. It’s very hard to stick a genre on what Autarkh make, but I’d call them Avant-Garde Math Metal.Continue reading
As a genre, Indie Rock hit its peak in the mid-2000s, as bands like Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie became mainstream, thus causing bands to branch off into the post-punk branch of punk rock. Activity’s new album A Thousand Years in Another Way (Western Vinyl) takes you back to the last great days of indie rock. The album opens in a tense, more brooding mood than their previous work. They balance this out with the fragile plea of the pained tenor vocals. The trembling urgency of this vocal approach brings Radiohead to mind.Continue reading
The three amigos of nerdom are back! We wrap up our series on the early records by Heart! What do you think of “Dog and Butterfly!”