INSCAPE – C.I.T.R.U.S (Self Released)
Released one day prior to them winning the South Wales Metal To The Masses final 2026 at Day Of Wreckoning, Electronic/Alternative rockers INSCAPE have booted up their A.I inspired concept EP ready for it to take over the world.
C.I.T.R.U.S is the story of a renegade A.I that corrupts the minds of androids forcing them to kill their human overlords, inspired by the 2004 film I, Robot which has loose connections to the Asimov book of the same name. Essentially this EP is a dystopian story that has some parallels to the very quick integration of A.I we face today.
Science Fiction is a the perfect themeing for the music of INSCAPE as fans of Enter Shikari and Don Broco will find a lot to like here as INSCAPE are an act on the cutting edge of what modern rock/metal can be, musical virtuosity wrapped up in energetic, involved music that makes you want to move, balancing the lighter moments with heavier ones brilliantly.
Distinctive vocals that soar to high cleans and dive down into guttural screams, while the guitars and rhythm section bring groovy riffs and breakdowns. Everything though is shaped around the pulsating synths and electronics that sit omnipresent like the titular A.I, a synthetic backbone to the organic expression.
Formed over 14 years ago, it seems that now is the time for Ethan Shields, Joel Williams, Luke Morgan, Alex Murley and Liam Hawkes, to show the world who they are. Watch INSCAPE storm the New Blood Stage, but delve into the world of C.I.T.R.U.S beforehand. 8/10
Struggler – We Must All Fade To Black (Self Released)
South Wales melodic metalcore heroes Struggler have released their debut album after a long time coming. Since the last time I saw them they have had a change from frontman and a few health issues, that really allowed them to record these tracks, but these hardships have only seemed to have bolstered their position on the South Wales scene gaining them some high profile supports and countless headline shows in their own right.
With the likes of Killswitch Engage, All That Remains or any band that brings together breakdown heavy metalcore, melodeath-like guitar prowess and vocals that are distorted screams, there’s plenty to like about We Must All Fade To Black and if any of those things appeal then you’ll be drawn in from the slow build intro of Omen.
I’m not sure if this is needed, as the title track which opens the album properly has its own atmospheric intro so Omen feels jarring but the title track definitely establishes who Struggler are, start-stop moments made for pits, an anthemic chorus and shifting rhythms that are backed by some synth/string things.
The influence of groove metal acts such as Lamb Of God (The Abyss) and even the more extreme deathcore which comes on Do You Walk With Me, the pace quickening for Invisible String Theory while Gone By Not Forgotten is probably the most emotive song on the record, adding clean vocals into the mix for the first time.
Politically charged, emotionally resonant modern metalcore, Struggler show their strength and resilience on We Must All Fade To Black. 8/10
Mould – Bayou Dweller (Hyrbid Dwellers)
I’m not sure if there’s a Bayou in Swansea but Mould are a band you could definitely call Bayou Dwellers. Their sludgy, down-tuned and rage filled style of heavy doom is exactly the sort of music anyone who loves Eyehategod, Iron Monkey and Acid Bath will play at full volume while they imbibe substances for enhanced relaxation.
Locked into massive basslines from Tom George, I Am The Mould brings the volume and is a kick in the nether regions as the fuzz of Elliott Rees is overdriven to ridiculous lengths and the throat shredding vocals of Amos Davies are screamed at the loudest they can be.
This is a band who like their music with as much volume and bile as they can, taking sludge to the extreme end of the genre though Self Preservation has a riff that does some Sabbath worship.
They never scrimp on the aggression with Bayou Dweller, every track, even the ones that have a bit more clarity and groove such as Damnation Under The Sun (we’ve all been feeling that lately) the vocals will need a lozenge.
It’s not all long form, slow death either as Psilocybin Suicide gains speed though this is followed by Crippling Cold/Pompeii a massive sludge/doom machine driven by Henry Frend’s drumming.
The spirit of NOLA is alive near Neath as that Bayou scene bleeds through this debut record from the Mouldiest band in town. 8/10
Verletzen – Usurping The Throne Under The Crown Of Blasphemy (Wulfhere Productions)
Welsh band, German name, West Wales black metal trio Verletzen emerge from the rugged and windswept vistas if their homeland with their sophomore album Usurping The Throne Under The Crown Of Blasphemy.
Released through Wulfhere Productions, on tape (of course), on CD and digitally Verletzen are a band who bring black metal back to the roots of the genre. Unstoppable blast beats from Dementae, furious tremolo picking and squawking vocals from Nazgul all come from a general feeling of frustration helped by the rawness that comes from the very limited production values.
Now usually I would be critical of this, as I’ve been a fan of something that sounds like it was recorded in a toilet however Verletzen have done this as deliberate homage to the bands that inspired them, because of that you can pick out the individual instruments, the bass playing of Azog especially, rather than it all folding into one treble heavy mess.
Verletzen play nihilistic black metal, so it’s not music for a sunny day, unless of course you hate the heat, rather they’re a band whose music creates images of rain soaked mountains and ruinous castles with spectral visitors and ancient legends that will scare the local children, this blackened trio packing in a lot across just 31 minutes.
Usurping The Throne Under The Crown Of Blasphemy is an intense, raw, visceral record from Verletzen, fans of trve cvlt pay worship. 8/10
In their essay The Grim Emotional Legacy Of 1970s Parenting, writer Jae L asserts the idea that it was a “golden era of parenting by benevolent neglect”.
They argue that “it was entirely possible to be emotionally neglectful while appearing to the world as a model parent provided you kept a nice home and sent your children out the door fully clothed.”
So, by the time the ’80s rolled around, it’s reasonable to assume that there was a generation of emotionally battered, self-reliant young adults who’d grown up with a resistance to authority baked into their DNA. And look at that, the California punk scene was full of their swinging limbs.
Hailing from Venice Beach, Suicidal Tendencies had been a hardcore band for just a few years when they recorded their self-titled debut album.
While Mike Muir has previously described his childhood as “fortunate,” he cast a wider net when writing the lyrics for Institutionalized. Clocking in at 3:50, his half-spoken, half-shouted words help create a spiralling panic attack of a song which was composed by their then-bassist Louiche Mayorga.
The recording – which also featured guitarist Grant Estes and drummer Amery Smith, and was produced by legendary skateboarding and music photographer Glen E. Friedman – would appeal to every teenager who’d experienced a complete breakdown in communicating with their parents and had nowhere to channel their hormonal rage.
In a 1983 interview with Maximum Rocknroll, Muir explained the real-life interaction which inspired the song and why the need to have a Pepsi features so prominently in the lyrics.
“I got it from this little kid named Howie, who’s 12 years old,” he said. “He used to hang out with us. He lives up here now. It was just funny he was saying ‘Man, I told my mom to give me a Coke, and she wouldn’t give me one. Wow, I don’t know why. Why?’ I just put that in there because I thought it was amusing. It all relates to having problems with parents and when they can’t deal with you, they say ‘I’ll have you [put] in an institution.’
It all relates to having problems with parents and when they can’t deal with you
Mike Muir
“I know about 10 or 15 of my friends have been, and it’s all a situation where their parents just are tired with dealing with them,” he continued. “They’re not saying, ‘OK, this is the way you are and let’s try to figure it out.’ They say. ‘It’s too much of a bother, we’ll just stick him in an institution.’ It’s saying just because you can’t understand the way a person is doesn’t mean they’re crazy. It’s just a cop-out: stick him in an institution.”
When the song was released as a single, US DJ Rodney Bingenheimer played it on his KROQ show.
“He said to one of the other top DJs, ‘You’ve got to play this song, just play it!’,” Muir told Metal Hammer. “They played it and the phones lit up, but one of the people at the top said, ‘This isn’t music. We can’t play that!’ It’s funny, because they’re supposed to be alternative.”
“A little while later I went into a 7-Eleven and they were playing KROQ, and Institutionalized came on,” he continued. “There were some older college chicks there. I thought they were gonna freak out and tell them to turn the fucking radio off! They were just like, ‘You hear this? I like it!’ I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ So, the supposed tastemakers got it wrong.”
The radio play led to a feature on the MTV show The Cutting Edge, a weekly alternative show which ran from 1983 until 1987.
“People got bummed when we were on MTV,” Muir told the Hard Times zine in 1984. “I asked them, ‘Did you like it, did you think it was cool?’ and they said, ‘It would have been cool if it wasn’t on MTV.’
“When we were on there, for some people it was the first time they’d ever seen anything like us,” he continued. “I think it was the best thing that’s ever been on MTV! It’s a helluva lot better to see Suicidal Tendencies on there than it is to see Duran Duran.”
In the same interview, Muir mentions that the band were going to make their first-ever video using their own money.
“The thing about a lot of videos is that, you know, you watch MTV and the video has nothing to do with the words to the song,” said Muir. “In a sense, Institutionalized is made for a video because the story’s already there.”
The now-iconic clip features Muir mouthing the lyrics directly to the camera, becoming more stressed and agitated as the song’s tempo gradually picks up and his skater friends unhelpfully perform ollies and kickflips around him.
I’m screwed up now, but not as screwed up!
Mike Muir
At 35 seconds into the video, Slayer frontman Tom Araya gives Muir a half-hearted shove and wanders off, presumably off to write a new, fast song about the devil.
Donating their services free of charge, Jack Nance (Henry Spencer in Eraserhead) and Mary Woronov (Principal Evelyn Togar in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School) portray Muir’s exasperated parents, who, after attempting to lock up their agitated son at home, sentence him to a life in a “white shirt with long sleeves” in an institution.
All he wanted was a Pepsi. Now, Muir can probably get a can of pop whenever he wants, but can still relate to the young man who wrote the lyrics decades earlier.
“When I was 18 I was going, ‘When I was 16 I was screwed up!’ and when I was 21 I was going, ‘When I was 18 I was screwed up!’ and when I was 25 I was going, ‘When I was 21 I was screwed up!’,” he told Metal Hammer in 2020. “I look back and I can say that I’m screwed up now, but not as screwed up! But that first album is a great record and I’m proud of what we did. When we did that record there wasn’t really an audience for what we were doing. Selling 5,000 copies was a big deal. You just did what you did and it was a surprise if anyone else liked it!”
