Reviews

ALBUM: A Day to Remember – ‘Bad Vibrations’

September 5, 2016

Michael Bird

It’s wonderfully typical of A Day to Remember to do what makes the least sense at every opportunity. Unless you’re Patrick Star, you’ll be aware of the band’s trademark fusion of mosh-call metalcore and 2002 pop punk. Scores of naysayers said it didn’t work; scores more people bought their albums. Few bands’ success stories’ have […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: Sylar – “Help!”

August 26, 2016

Matthew Powers

1

Help – It’s an alarming word. A word that is never used lightly on its own merits. In order for a person to ask for help, they must believe that they alone cannot accomplish a task. With that in mind, it should be clear that asking for such assistance is the very definition of exhausting […]

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News

Exotype release new single “No Solace”

August 15, 2016

Matthew Powers

Exotype have been a centerpiece in the underground heavy music media for a few weeks now. It’s likely if you’re reading this that you’ve heard the story of the band splitting from their former label, Rise Records, due to disagreements within.Everyone and their brother, twin sister and half-cousin have contributed some form of opinion or […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: Crown The Empire – ‘Retrograde’

July 25, 2016

Matthew Powers

1

Taking a big, bold step into the unknown is the main theme of the new Crown The Empire album, Retrograde. For the band, this means a major change of direction. For the fans, this means uncertainty. Depending on how the average listener of Crown The Empire’s past albums decides to look at Retrograde‘s departure from […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: Cane Hill – ‘Smile’

July 18, 2016

Michael Bird

Every movement or subgenre within music typically goes through three phases. The first is the breakthrough phase, where a raft of new bands with an exciting new sound captures the attention of the press and fans and become the next hot thing within the genre. Within a decade the movement will reach its second phase, […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: I See Stars – ‘Treehouse’

June 17, 2016

Matthew Powers

The most noteworthy point that can be made about I See Stars is that they have always seeked to change the way music as a whole is looked at. In an age where genre splicing is as common as explosions in a Michael Bay movie, the I See Stars boys have used trends and modern […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: Beartooth – ‘Aggressive’

June 3, 2016

Michael Bird

The great advantage that Caleb Shomo had when he first unleashed the primal fury of Beartooth on the world was the lack of expectations surrounding the project. His humble beginnings as the keyboardist, and eventual vocalist and mastermind, of crabcore punch line Attack Attack! were hardly an impressive résumé. Now that we know how good […]

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Reviews

EP: Vacive – ‘Personalities’

June 3, 2016

Michael Bird

Once upon a time, your favourite band was a local band. In some cases it’s hard to imagine; picturing an unsigned Slipknot ripping through “Wait and Bleed” and “Surfacing” in a dingy pub is a difficult image to conjure up. If anything, discovering a band in their nascent stages is the most exciting thing a […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: Architects – ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’

May 27, 2016

Michael Bird

This November, the UK’s finest modern metal band will headline London’s Brixton Academy. If they sell it out – which they more than deserve to – they’ll be playing to 5000 people. The last time Architects played the venue was in 2011, not long after the release of The Here and Now, which at the […]

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Reviews

ALBUM: Issues – ‘Headspace’

May 20, 2016

Michael Bird

One of the great paradoxes of rock culture today is that for for all the genre’s heritage of rebellion and rejecting the establishment, it breeds an awful lot of conservative thinking. If a band dares to push themselves musically or, shock horror, dabble in a genre beyond their norm, the instant reaction of a battalion […]

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