Grey Shores are a duo based in Stockholm, Sweden, fusing post-rock and black metal. The band members are no strangers to the Sweden metal scene, having performed in various local groups since they were teenagers. In 2023, they united to merge atmosphere, melancholy, and extremity into a single unified vision, with Dark Waters of the Night being their debut offering. We’re premiering it before it releases next week.
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Dark Waters of the Night presents an atmospheric and deeply emotional journey, one that is reminiscent of early 2010s blackgaze such as Alcest. Its story is one of opposing elements converging. Sweeping beauty with clean guitars and vocals, backed up expansive melodies, are punctuated by black metal shrieks. The band uses an Ebow to construct passages both graceful and haunting, contrasting the fragility of human emotions and the harsh power of hopelessness, loss, and solastalgia. Gentle interludes allow for a moment of quiet reflection before letting the torrent wash over it all. Dark Waters of the Night is for staring out at the stormy Baltic Sea on a cold, grey Nordic winter evening and wondering what the future has in store.
London indie rockers Neighbour Club are brand new to the game; they only just released their first song “Gold Leaf Girl” last month. But you can already hear that they’ve got a while lot of potential. They play sloppy, fuzzed-out guitar music with a lot of ’90s-style deadpan, and they don’t skimp on hooks or charisma. Next month, they’ll release their first EP, which is called Snail Mail. (Wouldn’t they call it Snail Post in England?) If the EP takes off, Snail Mail will clearly need to make an answer EP called Neighbour Club.
London indie rockers Neighbour Club are brand new to the game; they only just released their first song “Gold Leaf Girl” last month. But you can already hear that they’ve got a while lot of potential. They play sloppy, fuzzed-out guitar music with a lot of ’90s-style deadpan, and they don’t skimp on hooks or charisma. Next month, they’ll release their first EP, which is called Snail Mail. (Wouldn’t they call it Snail Post in England?) If the EP takes off, Snail Mail will clearly need to make an answer EP called Neighbour Club.
Halestorm singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale has revealed the non-rock and heavy metal acts she’d love to make music with.
During a fan Q&A in the brand-new issue of Metal Hammer, the Grammy-winning Pennsylvania band’s frontwoman says that US pop singer/songwriter Pink and UK folk-indie hitmakers Mumford & Sons are her dream collaborators.
“Pink would be cool – we could bring her to the dark side,” she says. “One of the albums we love that is way, way outside our genre is [this year’s] Prizefighter by Mumford & Sons. It’d be cool to work with them.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Hale and her guitarist Joe Hottinger are asked whether Halestorm will make a fourth Reanimate EP, continuing the covers trilogy that’s seen the rockers take on hits by Lady Gaga, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica and many others.
“Maybe a full album. I don’t know,” Hale suggests. “We have a long running list of covers we’d like to try our hand at.”
“Now we have our own studio too,” Hottinger adds.
Halestorm are no strangers to collaboration. In 2013, the four-piece reissued their second album The Strange Case Of… and included a “guest version” of closing ballad Here’s To Us. It included appearances from Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy, Wolfgang Van Halen and others.
In 2020, Hale teamed up with Mongolian folk rockers The Hu for their single Song Of Women, and in 2024, Halestorm and metalcore band I Prevail released a collaborative single called Can U See Me In The Dark?. Last month, Hale and Hottinger performed vocals and guitar on a cover of Soundgarden rarity Birth Ritual featuring the grunge stars’ drummer Matt Cameron.
A collaboration with Pink may be likelier than it seems. When UK metal legends Judas Priest were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2023, the So What singer approached frontman Rob Halford and revealed that she was a teenage metalhead.
Halford later recalled to Metal Hammer: “Pink came up to me and said, ‘I need to tell you something,’ and I was thinking, ‘Oh god, what have we done?’ She said when she was in school, she and her friends used to stencil the Judas Priest logo on their notebooks.”
Halestorm, who’ve sold more than three million albums in the US since debuting in 2009, released their sixth album Everest last August via Atlantic. They’re currently gearing up for a North American tour supporting J-metal idols Babymetal, which kicks off in Denver on September 2. They’ll play Kentucky festival Louder Than Life along the way on September 19.
Some music rewards careful listening. You put on headphones, settle into a chair, and pay attention to every subtle detail. Then there are songs that demand the opposite approach. They want speakers moving air, guitars filling the room, and the volume knob pushed a little farther than common sense recommends.
Blues rock has always been particularly well suited to volume. The genre was built around overdriven amplifiers, heavy rhythm sections, expressive vocals, and electric guitars that often sound their best when they are threatening to come apart. Turn these songs down too far and something gets lost. Turn them up and suddenly the riffs hit harder, the drums feel bigger, and the guitar solos seem to jump out of the speakers.
From the British blues explosion of the late 1960s to today’s blues rock scene, these are 10 songs that simply sound better loud.
Led Zeppelin — “Heartbreaker”
There are riffs, and then there is the opening to “Heartbreaker.” Jimmy Page’s guitar arrives completely exposed, playing one of those instantly recognizable figures that sounds as if it was designed specifically to come blasting through a stack of amplifiers. Once John Bonham and John Paul Jones enter, the song becomes absolutely enormous.
Released on Led Zeppelin II in 1969, “Heartbreaker” represents the point where blues rock was becoming something considerably heavier. The blues foundation is unmistakable, but Led Zeppelin pushed the sound toward hard rock with bigger drums, more distortion, and a sense of sheer physical force. Robert Plant’s vocal somehow manages to rise above one of the band’s most aggressive instrumental attacks.
Then everything stops for Page’s famous unaccompanied guitar solo. Without the rhythm section underneath him, every bend, run, pause, and burst of distortion is exposed. When the full band eventually crashes back into the song, the effect is massive. At high volume, Bonham’s drums punch through the mix and Page’s guitar takes on an abrasive edge that makes the recording feel dangerous even more than half a century later.
Anthony Gomes — “Peace, Love & Loud Guitars”
The title really says everything you need to know. Anthony Gomes’ “Peace, Love & Loud Guitars” isn’t a song that makes much sense whispering out of a phone speaker. It is a celebration of exactly the kind of oversized electric guitar sound that has kept blues rock alive for generations.
The title track from Gomes’ 2018 album Peace, Love & Loud Guitars leans heavily into the rock side of his sound. Peace, Love & Loud Guitars was voted Blues Rock Review’s #1 album of 2018. Gomes has the blues chops to stretch out when he wants to, but here he recognizes that sometimes the most effective thing a guitarist can do is find a big riff, turn up the gain, and hit it hard. The guitar tone is thick and aggressive, while the rhythm section gives the track enough muscle to live up to its name.
There is also something refreshingly uncomplicated about the song’s attitude. Blues rock can be serious, introspective, and technically sophisticated, but it can also be fun. “Peace, Love & Loud Guitars” is built around the simple pleasure of plugging in, turning up, and letting an electric guitar do what it does best.
This is one where increasing the volume feels less like an option than an instruction.
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble — “Scuttle Buttin’”
If you want to test how quickly your stereo can go from zero to chaos, “Scuttle Buttin’” is an excellent choice. The opening track from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s 1984 album Couldn’t Stand the Weather is less than two minutes long, but it contains more guitar fireworks than many players manage across an entire album.
“Scuttle Buttin’” isn’t merely impressive because it is fast. Vaughan attacks the strings. There is weight behind the notes, and the guitar has the thick, aggressive sound that became one of his trademarks. Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton somehow keep everything grounded while Vaughan plays as though the song might explode if he slows down.
Turning it up emphasizes the percussive side of Vaughan’s technique. You hear the snap of the strings and the force behind his picking while the rhythm section becomes more prominent underneath him. There is no long buildup and no dramatic conclusion. “Scuttle Buttin’” simply erupts, races forward, and disappears. The natural reaction when it ends is to play it again, preferably louder.
Gary Moore — “Walking By Myself”
Gary Moore could make a guitar scream through a slow blues, but sometimes it was even more exciting when he simply let loose. His version of Jimmy Rogers’ “Walking By Myself,” released on 1990’s Still Got the Blues, takes a traditional blues structure and injects it with the volume, distortion, and intensity of a guitarist who had spent years playing considerably heavier music.
The performance swings, but it also hits with tremendous force. Moore’s vocal is direct and energetic, while his guitar fills arrive with a sharpness that makes them impossible to ignore. When it is time to solo, he attacks. That combination made Moore such an important bridge between blues and hard rock. He understood traditional blues vocabulary but brought sustain, gain, speed, and arena-sized guitar tone into the equation.
“Walking By Myself” becomes especially effective when played loud because both sides of Moore’s musical personality come through. There is plenty of blues swing underneath it, but the guitar wants to roar. Give it enough volume and it does exactly that.
The Black Crowes — “Remedy”
By the early 1990s, alternative rock was rapidly changing the mainstream, but The Black Crowes were digging deeper into the blues, soul, gospel, and rock sounds of previous decades. “Remedy,” from 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, is loose, soulful, and overflowing with swagger.
Rich Robinson’s guitar riff establishes the groove, but the song’s power comes from the way the entire band locks together around it. Chris Robinson delivers one of his most commanding vocals, while the backing singers add a gospel dimension that pushes the chorus even higher. Guitar, organ, bass, percussion, and vocals all pile into a recording that feels alive rather than overly polished.
Played loudly, “Remedy” starts to resemble a live performance. The rhythm section takes over the room, the guitars become dirtier, and the chorus feels increasingly communal. The Black Crowes understood something fundamental about blues-based rock: groove can be every bit as powerful as a gigantic riff. “Remedy” pulls you into its rhythm and refuses to let go.
Gary Clark Jr. — “Don’t Owe You a Thang”
Gary Clark Jr.’s “Don’t Owe You a Thang” is short, raw, and built to hit hard. Released on The Bright Lights EP , the song captures Clark before the broader experimentation of his later albums, tearing into a stripped-down blues rocker with little interest in subtlety.
The guitar sound is appropriately filthy. Clark takes the drive of old-school blues and pushes it through the kind of distortion that gives the song a garage-rock edge. His vocal is equally important, delivered with a cool defiance that matches the message. There is no need for elaborate production when the riff, attitude, and guitar tone already provide everything the song requires.
What makes “Don’t Owe You a Thang” particularly effective at high volume is its economy. It gets in, makes its point, and gets out before the energy has a chance to drop. Crank it and the distortion becomes rougher, the beat hits harder, and Clark’s guitar feels increasingly unruly.
It’s an early example of why Clark would soon become one of the biggest names to emerge from modern blues. He understood the tradition, but he also understood that sometimes the blues sounds best when you stop worrying about keeping it clean.
Joe Bonamassa — “The Ballad of John Henry”
If there is one Joe Bonamassa song built for maximum volume, “The Ballad of John Henry” has an exceptionally strong case. The title track from his 2009 album opens with an ominous atmosphere before Bonamassa unleashes a crushing guitar riff. The production is huge, matching the mythic subject matter of John Henry, the legendary steel-driving man who competed against a steam-powered machine.
The riff itself has an almost mechanical quality, grinding forward while the rhythm section adds tremendous weight underneath it. Bonamassa operates closer to hard rock here than traditional electric blues, but the blues remains at the center of his phrasing. His guitar isn’t heavy simply because of the amount of distortion. The bends, vibrato, and sustained notes give the performance its personality.
Played quietly, you can appreciate the musicianship. Played loudly, the entire character of the recording changes. The riff becomes imposing, the drums feel cinematic, and the guitar seems to get wider with every turn of the volume knob.
“The Ballad of John Henry” is a reminder that heaviness and blues aren’t opposing ideas. Put the right riff through the right amplifier and they can be natural partners.
Rival Sons — “Keep On Swinging”
The opening riff to “Keep On Swinging” doesn’t ask permission. Released on Rival Sons’ 2012 album Head Down, the song captures the band at its most immediate. Scott Holiday’s guitar tone is fuzzy and enormous, Michael Miley’s drums hit with authority, and Jay Buchanan sings with the kind of force required to stand above all of it.
The brilliance of “Keep On Swinging” is its simplicity. There is no need for an elaborate arrangement because the central groove is strong enough to carry the song. Holiday supplies the fuzz and Buchanan supplies the howl, while the rhythm section keeps pushing everything forward.
Rival Sons emerged during a period when guitar-heavy rock was routinely being declared dead. “Keep On Swinging” provided a fairly convincing rebuttal. Crank it and the drums get bigger, the fuzz gets nastier, and Buchanan sounds increasingly untamed. This isn’t background music. It wants the room.
Samantha Fish — “Bitch on the Run”
Samantha Fish’s “Bitch on the Run” doesn’t need much time to establish its attitude. Released on her 2015 album Wild Heart, the song comes charging forward with a dirty blues rock sound that fits perfectly with Fish’s fiery vocal delivery. There is nothing restrained about the performance, which is precisely why turning it up makes so much sense.
Fish had already established herself as a formidable guitarist by this point, but “Bitch on the Run” demonstrates that her appeal extends well beyond instrumental fireworks. The song has swagger and momentum, with Fish’s vocal carrying as much bite as the guitar. Rather than treating the singing as something that simply gets listeners from one solo to another, she makes it a central part of the attack.
The track also captures the rawer side of Fish’s music particularly well. The guitars have grit, the rhythm drives hard, and the performance feels as though it could easily become even more explosive onstage. At higher volume, those qualities become impossible to ignore. The guitar gets nastier, the rhythm section hits harder, and Fish’s vocal seems to gain another level of attitude.
“Bitch on the Run” is the kind of blues rock song that benefits from a little excess. Playing it quietly might technically work, but it misses the point.
Marcus King — “The Well”
Marcus King’s “The Well” sounds like it was dragged through dirt before it ever reached the studio. Released on King’s 2020 album El Dorado, the song combines blues, Southern rock, and a heavy dose of fuzz into one of the most immediately gripping recordings of his career.
Producer Dan Auerbach helped create an environment where King’s roots could remain visible without making the record sound like a museum piece. The opening guitar has a nasty, compressed quality, while King’s weathered vocal fits naturally alongside it. There are echoes of North Mississippi blues and Southern rock, but “The Well” has enough modern punch to avoid feeling like an exercise in nostalgia.
And then there is the riff. At moderate volume, it’s catchy. Turn it up and the fuzz begins to dominate the room. The bass fills out underneath it, the drums gain weight, and King’s vocal starts sounding even more desperate. Everything about the recording seems to become more aggressive as the speakers work harder.
More than 50 years separate “The Well” from the earliest music on this list, yet the basic thrill hasn’t changed very much. A musician plugs in a guitar, finds the right riff, pushes the amplifier, and creates something that makes the listener instinctively reach for the volume knob.
(written by Islander) Today we help introduce listeners to the German black metal band SRPNTS, a band formed from the ashes of the group Zwielicht after their bassist Veit Benning died in 2024. Their debut album Second Shape is now set for release by Serpent Sun Records (UK) on October 2nd of this year. The […]
San Francisco’s Aluminum released their full-length debut Fully Beat in 2024, and now they’re announcing its followup Iconoclast HaHa. The lead single, “Killing Time,” is a relentless ripper.
San Francisco’s Aluminum released their full-length debut Fully Beat in 2024, and now they’re announcing its followup Iconoclast HaHa. The lead single, “Killing Time,” is a relentless ripper.
All summer, the prolific traditionalist country star Charley Crockett has been embroiled in controversy stemming from his decision to drop the opening act from a pair of his shows. The band in question was Twin Temple, a Satanism-themed retro rock duo comprising married couple Alexandra and Zachary James, whose new album Doomed Lovers was produced by Crockett’s close collaborator Shooter Jennings.
