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Live Review: Lake Malice – Key Club, Leeds

3rd October 2026
Support: Chaosbay, Eville
Words & Photos: Martin Hingley

A bustling Saturday night in Leeds and a very sweaty Key Club provide the backdrop for Lake Malice’s I Wanna Know If It’s Real tour.

Brighton-based trio Eville get the evening underway with their brat-metal beats, the thumping bass kicking in as they tear through set opener SLAY. They bounce straight into the more electronic No Pictures Please, getting the crowd moving early on. Armed with a pink knuckle-duster microphone, vocalist Eva Sheldrake throws herself around the stage, giving the audience a taste of what Eville are all about. Closing with Fetch, which sees Sheldrake join the pit, they leave little doubt that they’re an explosive live act and a band worth catching.

Following a vocalist into the pit is never easy, but Berlin’s Chaosbay rise to the challenge. The progressive metallers bring an incredible energy from the moment they hit the stage, with a performance that wouldn’t look out of place in an arena. Vocalist Jan Listing switches effortlessly between metalcore aggression and more melodic vocals, while guitarist Alex Langner and bassist Matthias Heising barely stand still. Heising repeatedly charges towards the stage wall before bouncing back into the action. As the set approaches its climax, their cover of The Police’s Message In A Bottle sends the venue into a frenzy before Maniac In The Mirror and Are You Afraid bring their set to a close.

It’s hard to believe Lake Malice are touring in support of their debut album, as they already feel like an established name on the scene. Having appeared at several major festivals over the past few years, including Slam Dunk Festival in 2025 and Download this June, they’ve already built up plenty of experience on bigger stages. As vocalist Alice Guala explains, however, the band have only been together for around five years. They kick off with the anthemic Chrome Red, picking up where Chaosbay left off, before taking a heavier turn with album opener Scatterbrain, featuring Blake Cornwall’s impressive bass work and electronics.

Lake Malice clearly love performing for their fans and feed off the energy coming back from the crowd. Guala makes this clear throughout the set, repeatedly thanking the audience for their support. As the room gets even sweatier, Eville return to the stage to join the band for Main Character Energy, much to the crowd’s delight. Things get more danceable with Stop The Party, another track that highlights the band’s ability to move between genres.

As the set nears its end, Lake Malice return to the first track they ever recorded, Blossom. Its heavier metalcore sound gets the pit moving again, with Cornwall even taking his bass into the crowd to play among the fans. The venue then takes on a nightclub atmosphere as the band cover Faithless’ New Religion, before closing with Bloodbath and Guala crowdsurfing through the venue during the final chorus.

With a debut album like I Want To Know If It’s Real and a live show like tonight’s, Lake Malice are clearly ready for bigger stages. Catching them in venues this size feels like an opportunity not to be missed, as I can’t see them playing rooms this small for much longer.

Photo credits: Martin Hingley

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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Live Gallery: Lake Malice – Key Club, Leeds

3rd October 2026
Support: Chaosbay, Eville
Photos: Martin Hingley

We look back at the epic Lake Malice show through the eyes of our photographer Martin Hngley!

Lake Malice

Chaosbay

Eville

Photo credits: Martin Hingley

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Live Gallery: Lake Malice – Leeds appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

The chance to write a Blondie review in 2026 is giving me all the feels. Parallel Lines was my first-ever purchased album, and that was so long ago that it was an 8-track tape. I can’t think of many bands that have been more important than Blondie in influencing the general style of music that this blog centers itself around. Due out in February, High Noon will be the first new Blondie album in a decade. It will also be the last Blondie recording to feature the late, great Clem Burke on drums. “Spectral Eyes,” the advance single, is an instant fan-pleaser. Although the song was written by Johnny Marr (who also plays guitar on the track), it sounds uniquely like Blondie. There’s no question about what band you’re listening to, and you’re just grateful to live in a world that still has Blondie in it. Glen Matlock guest stars on bass, so this track is truly star-studded. But it’s the ageless Debbie Harry who shines the brightest. My friends, she has still got it. What a glorious four minutes of music we have here! I can’t wait to hear the whole record!

The post Brandon Flowers Debuts Song From Another New Solo Album And A Coral Cover In Bristol appeared first on Stereogum.

One thing that always brings me joy is being able to follow a band from the very start — to hear that initial promise and experience the group’s progression and growth in real time. I swear it feels like it was just a couple years ago that Self-Cut Bangs emerged as one couple’s pandemic home recording project and one of the most pleasant surprises of 2020. But no, that was six years ago (yeah, really!). And the project was such a smashing success that Self-Cut Bangs became a bona fide, permanent band. And now another four years have passed since the band released its second and most recent album, Circle Around The Free. So what have Self-Cut Bangs been up to since 2022? Quite a lot, actually! Two pairs of band members got married. One of them had their first baby. And so the title of the new album, Growth Spurts, makes perfect sense. The band says the record is “inspired by and about the rapid musical, romantic and familial growth within the band.” What’s not to love about that?

To recap: Self-Cut Bangs feature two married couples in Cayley and Shawn Petsche and Nicola and Dillon Cavanagh-Whitfield along with Joel Nye. They describe themselves as “like Fleetwood Mac, but replacing the drama and drugs with more guitar solos.” Sign me up for that, please! I notoriously love family bands, and I notoriously like Canadian bands. And on this third long player, SCB has fully realized a sound that’s super appealing to me, one that lives at the intersection of the power pop/indie rock/arena rock Venn diagram. On this release, the band noticeably expands its repertoire but doesn’t stray from its love for simple, hooky rock songs that are just the right mix of thunder and sugar. A band that’s equal parts Redd Kross, Blondie, New Pornographers, and April Wine is either going to be an absolute mess or just about the best thing ever, and this evolved, more adult-oriented version Self-Cut Bangs is truly firing on all cylinders. Of course more power pop-ish tunes like “Stonewalled” and “Be My Shelter” have become fast favorites, but I’m just as keen on pure rockers such as “Witness” and “Baby Blues.” Elsewhere, the likes of “Ouroboros,” “One Day,” and “Hot for Me” acknowledge post-punk, glam, and butt-kicking garage rock influences that have become defining pieces of the modern-day indie/punk underground. 

Growth Spurts is the work of five talented individuals who have grown as both musicians and people since we last heard from them. I love the idea that you can become more serious and self-reflective in your songwriting without abandoning that fundamental mission to make the kind of music you wish they still played on the radio. This is an album that’s simple and satisfying and at the same time deeply relatable on a human level. Somehow these songs pull from the past and still manage to sound like the present and future of rock ‘n’ roll. File this under “well worth the wait”!

Live Review: Erja Lyytinen + Ross Harding The Half Moon, Putney October 15th, 2026 Reviewer / Photographer – Paul Dubbelman Finnish blues-rocker Erja Lyytinen brought her particular brand of heavy blues-rock to The Half Moon, Putney on the penultimate night of her European tour celebrating her half-century on this planet. The trio delivered a storming set, […]

The post Live Review: Erja Lyytinen + Ross Harding – The Half Moon, Putney October 15th appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM.

Here’s a review that I almost don’t need to write! You see there’s a new EP out from Guerrilla Teens, and you already know it’s going to be great. This is my eighth time writing about this Portland, Oregon–based rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse, and I never tire of further spreading the gospel. There’s just some kind of magic that happens when Scott “Deluxe” Drake and Jeff Fieldhouse write songs together. That’s a history that goes back decades. And with Saul Koll, Tim Connolly, and Anna Andersen lining up with them, they continue to rip it up relentlessly. You can still hear those familiar influences running from ’50s rock ‘n’ roll through the Stones, garage rock, and early punk. But this isn’t The Humpers. This isn’t Lovesores. It’s Guerrilla fucking Teens, and they’re cooking up the real-deal rock ‘n’ roll of today. These folks have the fire and the fury, the chops, and the tunes. At a lean five tracks, Sympathy for the Decibel is a quick-hitting, all-action affair. The title track is the fist-pumping, shout-along anthem you hoped it would be. Songs like “Ghost of New Orleans” and “You’re Looking Good” tear into the old school punk rock ‘n’ roll style with a vigor and a venom that decades-younger bands would hope to emulate. “Spider Bouquet” has that darker garage rock edge that has been a signature for Guerrilla Teens. 

Sympathy for the Decibel delivers the goods just as you knew it would. Last year’s Monkey’s Paw was probably a new high point for Guerrilla Teens, and this follow-up keeps the momentum going. It’s amazing to think that a band that came into existence as a pandemic project has blossomed into one of the defining bands of modern-day punk rock ‘n’ roll — a reminder that this kind of music is still very much alive and kicking all kinds of ass. If you’re balking at the steep price for a Bandcamp download, there’s a reason for that. This thing is coming out very soon on 10″ clear pink vinyl on Sonic Jett Records, and that’s the purchase you ought to be waiting for. Stay tuned for the ordering details!

The post Olivia Rodrigo Shuts Down Accusations About AI Video With “Expectations” BTS Footage appeared first on Stereogum.

Alice Cooper looks back at his influence on extreme metal in the new issue of Metal Hammer, explaining that he sees such genres as death metal as continuations of traditional hard rock values.

The godfather of shock rock, responsible for such hits as I’m Eighteen and School’s Out, adds that it’s “great” he played a part in shaping the grandstanding of future figures in heavier music.

“Death metal is still hard rock,” Cooper asserts. “It’s still guitar-driven hard rock, with a different attitude. It was really just bands… not necessarily living that lifestyle, but doing what I was doing – playing characters up there. I think that’s great.”

The singer, who became a born-against Christian in the early 80s, adds that the Satanic themes often prevalent in death metal imagery don’t offend him: “Being a Christian, people would say, ‘What about these death metal bands who are anti this or that?’ I’d go, ‘Hey, they’re yelling at God. I think he can take it.’”

Multiple death metal artists have paid tribute to Alice Cooper or covered his material. Finnish stars Children Of Bodom included a cover of Cooper’s song Bed Of Nails on their 2004 EP Trashed, Lost And Strungout. Similarly, Chuck Schuldiner, the late Death founder often called the “godfather” of the genre, repeatedly stated that his favourite band was Kiss, whose theatrical, face-painted presentation was inspired by Cooper.

Death metal has influenced some of the artists in Cooper’s camp. Last year, his longtime lead guitar player, Nita Strauss, said that Gothenburg melodic death metal act In Flames were her personal “Beatles”.

“In Flames is, you know, the band that I always list as my favorite band,” she told Guitar World, “and when I was growing up and getting into heavy music, I was always really drawn by these sort of inversions and chords that Swedish melodic death metal bands used.”

Read the full interview with Cooper in the new issue of Metal Hammer, which also features an in-depth celebration of late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, 40 years after his death. Order your copy now and have it delivered directly to your door.

Their North American tour remains scheduled to proceed

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