For the past seven years, Spanish Love Songs have made a reputation for themselves across their previous three albums for creating some of the most emotionally powerful music, a feat that, with the release of their fourth album No Joy (Pure Noise Records), the punk quintet achieved yet again.
The Metal, and by extension Rock community has been one more open with mental health struggles over recent years. Often the roots of the music come from trauma, grief, or pain. Hail The Sun have been such a band who up to this point have gained the most of their insight into making their music from these more dark places.
It’s only been two years since the release of the first album from Saigon Kick’s guitarist, Jason Bieler. Containing an eccentric mix of music accompanied by a star-studded cast of other musicians, Bieler created an experimental medley of rock and progressive sounds. Now Bieler is back with the rest of The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra to do it again and delve even further into the peculiar sounds previously explored. While the debut dipped its toes into the eccentricity, it seems the band are looking to fully submerge. The main question lingers, whether it is odd for art’s sake or just odd for odd’s sake.
Since their debut album in 2019, Chamber have made a formidable name for themselves on the hardcore scene and live circuit, featuring all the stand-out features any band wants to showcase to become one of the upcoming bands of the genre. “No-one needs us to be the pretty band.” states guitarist, Gabe Manuel, talking about the influences for the latest release.
It is now coming up to three years since the tragic passing of Power Trip frontman, Riley Gale. A true performer and metal legend from the beginning of the musical career till the end. Acting as both a testament and memory capsule to Gale’s memory and legacy comes a live album from the band’s vault from 2018, deep into the band touring the seminal Nightmare Logic.
Avenged Sevenfold are potentially one of the most divisive metal acts out of the US since Metallica. All you need to do is look at their previous two albums, 2013’s Hail To The King & 2016’s The Stage to see the extreme polar oppositions these albums created. The former for how the band wore their Metallica influence on their sleeve, creating their own version of The Black Album, and then the following 2016 release throwing all of their previous influences and sounds up in the air, bringing in outside sources from the likes of Pink Floyd, and creating a wholly new progressive rock/metal experience.
Since forming in 2014, Sludge band, Radien have released a range of different releases displaying their power and skill in creating their own devastating blackened influenced sounds. Their latest album Unissa Palaneet, despite only being five tracks long, lasts a tremendous forty-six minutes, almost half of which is taken up by the final track, clocking in at twenty-one minutes. As you can tell from the get-go, this isn’t a band with dreams of hitting the charts. It is clear from the offset of their music, these artists have a creative vision of the brutal and animalistic sounds they can present to the world.
Not even a year on from his last full-length album, The Atheist and Jamie Lenman is back with yet more music. Acting as a companion EP to the aforementioned album, IKnowYouKnowIKnow (Big Scary Monsters) features some of the tracks that didn’t fit in with the theme and sound of The Atheist, allowing Lenman to truly showcase some of the varieties of influences that went into the sound of this phase of his career. What can this additional release add to the package that was his previous album?
Ever since their original EPs dating back to the start of the 21st Century, Enter Shikari have been one of the stand-out bands of the alternative UK scene for bringing together a variety of sounds under a single uniform. Not only being one of the more experimental bands in their field but also one of the only bands to showcase these genres in a fully realised art form that just, quite simply works. Now twenty years on, the band’s Spark (see what I did there) has not faltered at all. It’s been incredible to see this journey showing the group adding more and more genres to their arsenal. In the prior two albums, Enter Shikari have shown they’re more than able to dip into Brit-Pop to classical with ease. The ever-present question that lingers on after each release is: what could the band do next?
Thirteen years since the release of their debut self-titled album, Periphery have made a name for themselves as one of the leading forces in the progressive metal world. Utilising a vast array of influences and genres into their own sound to create something unique with each release.Continue reading