Heavy metallers Asomvel have unveiled their fierce new single “Lone Wolf”, the newest taste of their forthcoming record Set The World On Fire (out on October 1st). Read more…
The Rolling Stones formed in London in 1962 and built their earliest repertoire from American blues, rhythm and blues, soul, country, and rock and roll. The band interpreted songs associated with artists including Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Muddy Waters, Marvin Gaye, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, and Jimmy Reed before Mick Jagger and Keith Richards developed into one of rock’s most important songwriting teams. Once original singles such as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” established the band as more than an exceptional interpreter of American music, the Rolling Stones began creating albums that expanded the
There is a saying. Over a long enough time span the chance of survival drops to zero. It’s all about probability. The longer something exists the more likely it is to end. The same applies to bands. Eventually the magic fades. The more albums you release, the higher the chance that you’ll click your fingers and there won’t be a spark. As Citizen release their sixth album ‘Halcyon Blues’ you find yourself holding your breath, waiting to see if there’s magic…
Back in 2013 Citizen found themselves as part of an emo revival, not stadium emo, but the kind of emotional music driven by downbeat, personal songs. Their debut ‘Youth’ sold itself along the same lines as Brand New, but on each subsequent album the sound evolved in fascinating ways. However 2023’s understated ‘Calling The Dogs’ found them drifting toward the middle of the road. It sounded good, the songs were strong, it contained the rock solid quality you’d expect, but something felt missing. This is different.
The album’s title ‘Halcyon Blues’ implies it’s about the sadness of peace and calm. This is true, yet songs like ‘Good Fortune’ and ‘Highs and Lows’ crackle with rediscovered magic. In fact, all the songs do. A sense of mischief is woven through the track list, counterbalancing Matt Kerekes’ downbeat singing with a refreshed overall tone. It’s a shift that makes the whole band feel completely rejuvenated, a puzzle where every single piece slots into place.
Most strikingly the record has an incredible sound. It’s not the devil in the details, it’s the wizardry. Although the album was recorded by Kerekes it’s a combination of the sound mix by Tom Lorde-Alge that makes such a massive difference. Their previous records sound good, but this has so much presence and so much atmosphere they pale in comparison. Each instrument has its own space and every detail is picked out so beautifully can hear what it’s contributing to the song. Imagine a sunflower, or an eclipse, with a big, bold surface in the centre surrounded by a shimmering halo, that’s what the sound is like. It’s so striking it instils a slight sense of panic; but no, not all records sound this good. This is a work of art.
Due to the stunning production sound, and perhaps more than their previous records, this feels like a band effort. Everyone makes a defined and important contribution to the whole. As with 2021’s ‘Life In Your Glass World’ Ben Russin’s drums are a highlight. His playing style favours speedy snare hits, pushing the sound in a mechanical dance machine, a similar direction of the Strokes’ ‘Room On Fire’. It’s also notable how he uses rapid hi-hat taps, especially how it gives ‘Is It In My Brain’ a rustling, uncomfortable edge, neatly suiting the song’s subject matter. However, it’s the recording and sound mix really make it. The pleasing th-ub and snap have a delightful natural depth while the stunning floor tom sound on ‘Anne’ needs to be heard to be believed. When taken alongside the slightly distorted fizz of Eric Hamm’s bass it creates an intoxicating backbone that gives the band’s two guitarists room to express themselves. Throughout the album Nick Hamm and Mason Mercer interweave striking sounds that give each song character like the back-and-forth tremolo picking on ‘Is It My Brain’ or the effects-drenched attack on ‘I Can See You from Here’ but the smaller details like the soft pitch-shifting on ‘Good Fortune’ or the subtle delay that gives ’Either Way‘ its ghostly echo are just as important, making each feel like a rich and textured tapestry.
Matt Kerekes is a brilliant songwriter. You can hear it in his work with Citizen and also on his solo recordings. However, the thing about making music, the difference between a good record and a great one, is inspiration, there’s plenty of that here. That glimmer of an indefinable something. Each song has it and strikes a neat balance between his tone of voice, melodies and lyrics. Songs like ‘Halcyon Blues’ are built around a softer vocal while he leans into a harder sound and shouty sections on ‘Highs and Lows’. ‘Ether’ even features what passes for a rousing chorus. Although he wraps his voice around downbeat phrases like “Do you feel happy” and “No Good for me,” the tone isn’t gloomy. It’s emotional without a sense of alienation.
During the record’s second half the band explore nosier sounds that hark back to their ‘Youth’ era while retaining this record’s updated edge. In many ways the songs feel pleasingly, and softly, experimental. ‘Highs and Lows’ dips its toes into soft, throbbing electronics to create a sense of atmosphere while ‘Matador’ dives headfirst into a chaotic blend of noise, stop/start structures and electronic tickles that sees the band claim new territory. Helpfully, it’s also great song, and that’s what the trick is, that’s where the magic lies.
Citizen have clicked their fingers. ‘Halcyon Blues’ has so much spark it practically sets fire to their sleeves. The magic is clear; Great songwriting, stunning production and newfound enthusiasm. Sadness rarely sounds so good.
Swedish Death Metal project Megascavenger return with studio offering number six, Toxic Noxious Undeath. It has been a slightly longer wait than usual, but when the mastermind behind the project, Rogga Johansson, is involved in somewhere in the region of forty-five other active bands and projects, I think a mere six years since Songs In The Key Of Madness is a very reasonable time frame.
The Megascavenger plan remains the same. A collection of songs, the lyrics penned by Rogga with a different guest artist performing on each track and as with most of the predecessors, they are guest vocalists, all given free rein to modify the lyrical content slightly to suit their style as long as it stays within the remit of the album’s concept.
Also involved in this aural carnage is Johan Berglund on bass, who is also responsible for the mixing and mastering and Thomas Ohlsson delivering a seriously impressive, unrelenting drum battery.
Megascavenger – Toxic Noxious Undeath – Out 13 August 2026
This time around, the album revolves around the idea that “over months, years, decades…the poison so carelessly disposed of sinks down through the soil – bleaching, mutating, choking all that it touches. Slowly, slowly it descends deeper into the underworld, through layers of man’s detritus, through roots and rock and history, finally pooling in a place of the forgotten dead – the abandoned, the unmissed, unmourned, unloved.
“And here the poison works a different dark magic. Where it has killed the living, it brings a hideous parody of life to the dead. The toxins permeate the ragged flesh and mouldering bones and by some unholy alchemy, some ghastly, mindless sorcery, the inert bodies start to move…rising from their polluted resting place in a tainted miasma of corruption and decay, infused with a savage hunger and an implacable, unquenchable thirst for revenge.”
Toxic Noxious Undeath bursts into being with Graveyard Dreams And Bonehouse Screams, with Death Metal legend Kam Lee from Massacre, Bone Gnawer as the first guest. It is a brutal pounder on the whole, but one of the riff swathes does harbour a catchy groove, giving contrast to the raw driving ones that course in brutal harmony beneath Kam’s deep and equally brutal delivery. It is an absolute crushing beast of an opening track.
As the title suggests, Corpses Below continues with very dark, haunting undertones. The guest this time is Crematory’s Felix Stass. This is a densely layered track contrasted with haunting melodic swathes and with an often imposing drum battery which sits well with his raw, snarling delivery.
If there was a prize for best track title of the album, the next piece, Exploding Casket Syndrome, would be an outright winner and made me laugh more than I probably should have. It features a brutally guttural delivery from Vomitory’s Erik Rundqvist. This is a high-speed, insane, filthy driver, yet it still harbours small pockets of groovy catchiness, and the repeating blasts of squealing guitar work build on that crazy, explosive atmosphere.
It is the shortest piece on the album, but there is a lot packed into this two and a half minute time frame.
With its suitably ominous intro, Heading For The Furnace features Max Otero of Mercyless on vocals, who unleashes a raw, well-prolonged and expressive delivery. That ominous aspect reappears throughout this piece, which harbours a superbly sombre and dark feel despite being a deathly driver of a track.
A World Of Fire And Brimstone features Dave Ingram (ex: Benediction) on vocals. I love the gnarly repeating riff and dark, haunting melodic swathes to this track, which are great carriers for the vocal delivery.
Fleshburner Yearner opens as a crushing pounder of a track, levelling out and switching between an intense undulating drive and a slower sinister plod. The perfect carrier for Thorium’s Michael H. Andersen’s delivery, which moves between brutal growls and acidic snarls.
Maceration’s Jan Bergmann Jepsen features on the next piece, As Purgatory Ascends. A heavy crawler to open, the pace steadily builds to a driving repeat with superbly cavernous and protracted vocals that turn higher and more acidic briefly in the second half. A superbly smothering piece that oozes unease.
Title track Toxic Noxious Undeath features Silvester Koorevaar of Fondlecorpse on vocals, and the crushing, undulating drive across most of this piece suits Silvester’s very acidic low delivery, which is often protracted with menace. There is also a haunting repeat that breaks up the drive, reminiscent of those found on many of Rogga’s Furnace pieces, adding a reflectively melodic edge.
Penultimate offering Shallow Grave Overflow features the cavernous delivery of Avulsed’s Dave Rotten, snarling over a suitably sinister undulating drive punctuated with even eerier bursts.
Final offering The Morbid Rides Again features Peter Svensson on vocals, Rogga’s bandmate and the mind behind all those superb album lyrical concepts from Furnace and Heir Corpse One, as well as being involved in about another fifteen projects as well.
I love the catchy repeating riff that pops up across this piece, breaking up the undulating drive, punctuated by Peters’ searing and well-prolonged growls, making a superbly sinister finale to the album.
Toxic Noxious Undeath will be available as CD, limited edition vinyl, cassette or digital download via Xtreem Music and should be of great interest to fans of any of Rogga’s other endeavours.
Megadeth have announced 2027 European live dates, including their first headlining UK tour since 2015.
The Grammy-winning US thrash metal veterans will return as part of their ongoing farewell run, which kicked off with a leg of North and Latin American shows earlier this year. Black Label Society and fellow thrashers Testament will support.
A Live Nation pre-sale for the UK starts at 9am local time on Thursday, August 6, and general sale commences at 10am on August 7. See the full list of confirmed shows below.
Formed by singer/guitarist and sole constant member Dave Mustaine in 1983, shortly after his expulsion from Metallica, Megadeth are one of the best-selling extreme metal bands in history, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. In 1992, their fifth album Countdown To Extinction reached number two on the US Billboard 200.
After picking up 11 nominations over the course of their career, the band finally won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2017, with their single Dystopia. In 2023, their song We’ll Be Back was also Grammy-nominated, but lost to Degradation Rules by Ozzy Osbourne featuring Tony Iommi in the metal category.
42 years in, Megadeth announced their impending retirement last summer. Mustaine, now 64, said he wanted to go out on his own terms and urged fans: “Don’t be mad, don’t be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years.”
It was later revealed that physical injuries also played a part in the band’s split. In December, Mustaine announced that he had radial neuropathy, or ‘wrist drop’: a condition where the radial nerve is damaged, leading to weakness in the wrist and fingers. Mustaine said that the condition made it painful for him to play guitar.
Megadeth released their final studio album, a self-titled effort, via BLKIIBLK in January. It received mostly positive reviews, including four stars from Metal Hammer’s Dom Lawson, and was the band’s first US chart-topper. Its bonus track was a cover of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning: a song that Mustaine co-wrote but wasn’t released until 1984, after his dismissal from the lineup.
It’s rumoured that Megadeth are set to release a greatest hits album, Fast Hits, on August 21. Reports began after fans spotted it on the Walmart website last week. The band have not yet commented on the matter.
Megadeth’s last UK headline run took place in November 2015 and was capped off by a co-headline show at London’s Wembley Arena with Lamb Of God. Children Of Bodom and Sylosis supported.
Even though the band haven’t topped the bill on a UK tour since, they’ve been a regular presence on the country’s festival circuit, including headline performances at Derbyshire’s Bloodstock Open Air in 2017 and 2023. They also supported Five Finger Death Punch in arenas last autumn.
Megadeth: 2027 European tour dates
Mar 09: Belfast The O2, UK
Mar 11: London OVO Arena Wembley, UK
Mar 12: Nottingham Motorpoint Arena, UK
Mar 13: Manchester Co-op Live, UK
Mar 15: Cardiff Utilita Arena, UK
Mar 16: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Mar 18: Birmingham BP Pulse Live, UK
Mar 19: Leeds First Direct Bank Arena, UK
Mar 21: Paris Zenith, France
Mar 23: Brussels Forest National, Belgium
Mar 25: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, Germany
Boy, it sure is hot outside, isn’t it? Here we are in the dead of summer, the dog days, if you will, and we figure maybe you could use some things to help improve your mood in the face of all this heat and humidity. So like we do every summer (this year a little later than usual), we’re doing a quick round-up of stuff we dig that we failed to cover when it came out. Turns out there are many such albums (we like to be into stuff), so we’ll be doing this all week. Hopefully we’ll shine a light on something that entertains you enough to forget for a few minutes that your AC just kicked the bucket.
OK GOODNIGHT – STOP/GO
released June 12; independent
Three years after The Fox and the Bird, OK Goodnight returned in June with stop/go, a record that on the first few listens struck me as notably “less” than its predecessor: less climactic emotion, less wild swings in musical intensity. It took an embarrassingly long time to sit down, take another listen and admit to myself – that’s the point.
Ok Goodnight have turned down the macro heaviness AND lightness to deliver a record of a more complicated middle ground. Far from the narrative of their most recent work, these tunes exist in a more human realm of a past, present and future shaded grey by life’s concurrent, contradictory lessons. The instrumentalists still brighten the mood – being prog, this is not on paper “simpler” music than their prior – but the blazes of technicality are corralled into tighter, more figure-based structures. Songs latch onto a few tight grooves and explore their innards a bit more, weaving in and out, over and under. Casey Lee Williams again reigns supreme, her elastic voice able to color every word and note with ease, grace and colossal power.
Fans of progressive metal need not be alone in enjoying stop/go. This is music light enough to satisfy listeners preferring the more artistic avenues of rock and complex enough to reward those collecting notes and time signatures like a scavenger hunt. [ISAAC HAMS]
TRICHOMONIASIS – CONTAINMENT FACILITY
released April 7; New Standard Elite
Report From The Sewer: Part 1
Last Rites Kingdom local news station LRFU received a tip from an archaeologist conducting a dig at a Kentucky home. One Dr. Grant informed us that this endeavor began after a local man, who is confined to his recliner for unknown reasons, discovered his dog had brought a dirt-caked greave in after digging in the backyard. Careful analysis at a local university determined the metal leg guard may have belonged to the original Armored Saint, and the official dig for more commenced within days. One week later, another curious discovery was made. Dr. Grant accidentally punctured a hole in what is now believed to be a natural sewer created by the Earth itself. Before the realization that a hole was made, the immensely putrid smell was waved off as likely coming from the homeowner’s unrepentant flatulence, but its overwhelming and violent persistence became a hazardous miasma leading to further examination and the discovery.
Now, the team has sent me into this earthen poop chute to learn more. The air down here is viscous, the odors noxious, and the sounds nausea-inducing. The noise, in particular, is most alarming. What’s being done to my ears is horrible. There’s a pulsing, almost ambient nature to these tunnels, but the overall aural experience is like sitting next to a canning factory as it’s being sucked into the largest commercial fan known to man. All the while, there are inhuman gurgles and grunts that make me feel like I’m being stalked by the spirit of Theseus’ minotaur. While the soundtrack to this filthscape is overwhelming, there is also a hypnotic quality that’s somehow putting my mind at ease and calls me forth like a siren.
The waste of the planet has risen above my waist. I seem to have developed some sort of vaginal infection, which is especially concerning since I didn’t have a vagina before getting in here. Despite my discomforts and the wooziness these pulsing, brutal sounds are inflicting upon me, I feel compelled to go on. I must allow myself to be subsumed by this discomforting din until I discover its source, but each step promises worse discoveries abound.
Stay tuned for part two on Wednesday. [SPENCER HOTZ]
POWER PALADIN – BEYOND THE REACH OF ENCHANTMENT
released March 27; ROAR! / Rock of Angels Records
Iceland’s Power Paladin have presumably stared into the face of restraint and subtlety and said, “No thank you.” On the power metal purists’ second album, there’s a laser focus on sturdy, boisterous riffing, piercingly clear vocals and easily hummable choruses, and just enough guitar flash to spice the stew without dazzling it to death. For the power metal-unconverted, yes, Power Paladin will still feel like everything happening all at once, but in the midst of the busy, fret-bothering pyrotechnics, there’s a much more classicist heavy metal core. The band shines especially on the storming one-two opening of “Sword Vigor” and “Glade Lords of Athen Loren,” the dramatic, Avantasia-ish “The Arcane Tower” (featuring excellent guest vocals from Majestica’s Tommy Johansson), and the tastefully epic closer “Valediction.” Truly, “Camelot Rock City” is the only bit of rough going, but even so, it’s hardly for lack of commitment. Simply put, Beyond the Reach of Enchantment is sterling Euro power metal that fully understands its assignment and delivers the goods with panache and great relish. [DAN OBSTKRIEG]
PANOPTICON – DET HJEMSØKTE HJERTET
released May 8; Nordvis Produktion
“So much of this album is about things that have passed,” – Austin Lunn
“One time, this guy handed me a picture of him. He said, ‘Here’s a picture of me when I was younger.’ Every picture is of you when you were younger,” – Mitch Hedberg
Every nano-second of our lives represents the present becoming the past. Our selves becoming our former selves. Everything is amid the never ending process of becoming a thing that “has passed.” Every picture is of you when you were younger.
Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet, the twelfth full length project from Ely, Minnesota’s Panopticon, attempts to use melodic, riff-oriented American black metal to communicate how the inexorable march of loss makes us feel. How it feels to know that 100 years ago a man might gaze over a campfire into the woods of northern Minnesota and catch a fugitive glimpse of a herd of Woodland Caribou, but now nobody will ever do such a thing ever again. Because the Woodland Caribou have passed on. How for many years maybe you sat down to family dinners of varying quality but consistent company, but then not so much, and someday never again. How now your child calls you “daddy,” and one day will you “dad,” but one day might stop calling altogether.
The passage of time and the losses we accrue as we endure it are brutally painful, but there’s also beauty in loving something so much that it pains you to feel it slip through your fingers. Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet lives at this nexus of pain and beauty. [DAVID FONSECA]
ARMORED SAINT – EMOTION FACTORY RESET
released May 22; Metal Blade Records
Eternal underdogs, Armored Saint soldiers ever onward, coming off one of the strongest records of their four-decade career in 2020’s Punching The Sky. That one delivered everything the longtime Saint faithful have come to expect: rifftastic classic-styled heavy metal, driven by Gonzo’s rock-solid drum battery and topped off with one of the finest voices to ever grace a metal record in any decade, the powerful sandpaper-throated soar of the man himself, John Bush.
So does (the admittedly awkwardly titled) Emotion Factory Reset live up to the band’s legacy? Well, of course – Armored Saint doesn’t make bad records, really. But that said, it’s not as immediate a smasher as Punching was, more of a settled-in, grower-not-shower type when it all comes down to it. Being fully honest, upon initial spins, I would’ve said that it was a slight disappointment, but over repeated re-listens across a few months, the hooks have sunk in deeper, and I’ve come around on it quite a bit.
Opener “Close To The Bone” is a full-on Saint ripper, and “Hit A Moonshot” manages to both rock and rhyme the titular lucky hit with “jack squat” and come out for the better. (Bush’s propensity for atypical phrases and idiosyncratic lyrical twists remains fully intact, fear not. Emotion Factory Reset features what is likely the first-ever appearance of the phrase “dollars to doughnuts” on a metal record.) Not every song is a total knockout – the latter half feels a bit lesser, overall – but with each repeated revisit, I find more to like about even those that I discounted at first, and at the end of it, that’s clearly enough to keep me coming back.
May the Saint march on for many more to come. [ANDREW EDMUNDS]
BURIED – IMAGINED DEFORMATION
released February 6; independent
What more do you idiots want? Bask in the glory of these three crucial attributes. Riffs: The mid-paced death metal churn of “Psychogenic Excoriation” is like Nightmares Made Flesh-era Bloodbath with a brutaler build and ignoranter skill tree. Pedigree: Greetings, Joel Sta (vocals) and Mark Wormmeester (bass) of Pyaemia, one of the Dutch scene’s greatest BDM exports that combined catchiness with gut-spilling shred. Co-sign from very important people: I like Imagined Deformation, Buried’s second album, a lot. Ultimately, I think what people might get hung up on is that Buried isn’t a great first-blush band. Compared to what is probably banging around your Bandcamp feed if you follow the right degenerates, it’s not flashy; it’s not weird. Like, Trichomoniasis or Effluence make Imagined Deformation sound downright Top 40 radio-ready, or a yacht ride away from a Grover Washington Jr. feature. But Buried’s solidness really, uh, solidifies with multiple listens, letting the hefty hookiness come through. It reminds me of Baest in that regard, another solid death metaller that ain’t a stranger to memorability, but gets short shrift because it’s not bonkers blogger bait. The difference between the two is that Baest is Swedeath while Buried fits right in with a long lineage of Dutch depravity. To that end, sleeving Imagined Deformation in a CD booklet alongside two of its immediate relations, Arsebreed and Disavowed, makes sense, even if Buried is the brother who simplified their life by cleaning themselves up. There’s just that grooviness and attention to shred present, prime old dog traits, and something you could trace back to the pestilential progenitors of the regional style, as much as that style can be a recognizable thing in the post-globalized blergh world. Anyway, Buried is good, idiots. [SETH BUTTNAM]
FAKE DUST – DECREPITIZING DIN OF THE CEREBRAL PSYOPTICON
released May 15; Iron Lung Records
I understand this statement will likely make me sound as old as I actually am, but if you’re a technical grindcore act with a clean and overly precise approach to the blueprint, I’ll probably drag my feet and just about any other feets in my vicinity when it comes time to check out your wares. Granted, I have softened on that stance over the years, but I still fall the quickest and hardest for those acts that remember how impactful grindcore can be when they underscore the more raw and feral side of the off-shoot’s hardcore / crust punk roots. Grindcore is an explosion of intense outrage, sending splinters in indiscriminate directions as listeners are sent hurtling through brick walls and plate-glass windows like a scene out of an old Charles Bronson movie. This, I am very pleased to report, is the realm of Fake Dust, one of the best things to come out of PDX since Big League Chew (it’s true, look it up), or at least since… Rigorous Institution?
You want it fast? Decrepitizing Din of Cerebral Psyopticon is faster than the Roadrunner with a bee up its ass. You want bulldozing? This record will tenderize a 25-pound brisket before the last song crosses the finish line. You want scootable grooves? You will pick one of these songs to dance with your dear abuela on her 90th birthday, and she’ll only have to put up with it for 52 seconds. You want guitar solos? Well, you’re pretty much fucked in that department.
Basically, this is 2026’s answer to Anal Cunt, but replace the crack-addicted songs about tree shredder foreplay and EMF covers with topics such as “self-medication, anxiety, paranoia, data collection, disillusion, deception, etc.” [CAPTAIN]
JAKABOL – LEORNIAN
released March 26; independent
The UK’s Jakabol are chimerical. They build with familiar pieces from disparate places – folk, metal, prog, psych, a little noise – and then fill the space with strange shapes, eerie light and shadow.
Their second album, Leornian, is a laudanum embrace. Comfort to be whatever it wants to be, even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially. Just when you’ve steadied yourself against the tilt, familiar sounds make you question the need to; you’ve been here before, done this. But not really. And so you brace for a new descent, only to find yourself surrendering. It’s warm. Enveloping. Safe?
You’ll hear other albums this year with violin (and viola) and heavy distorted guitars, static and noisy effects and odd instrumentation (not many with harmonium, though, I bet!), and thoughtfully experimental songwriting, and none of them will sound like Leornian. One of the year’s true hidden gems. [LONE WATIE]
They’ll be throwing up the bunting in the streets of Gillingham as news breaks that local heroes The Zac Schulze Gang have triumphed in our latest Tracks Of The Week contest, ferried there by their Robert Johnson-inspired single Hellhounds On My Trail. So congratulations to them on what might be the most historic event the town has seen since the Dutch navy sailed up the Medway in 1667.
Congratulations also to King Kraken, who finished well back in second place, and to Halestorm, even further adrift in third. Let’s agree to meet back here in a week to see who triumphs in this week’s rock’n’roll rumble.
Airbourne – Here She Comes
The latest riffer-rolla’ from the Aussies’ long-awaited self-titled new album (the follow-up to 2019’s Boneshaker) is a jubilant affair, packing the lovable, slightly mad energy of a galloping pack of labradors crashing a beach party. It’s only rock’n’roll, but sometimes that’s precisely what you need. After over two decades in the game, few really get that – and don’t fight it – quite like Airbourne.
Hannah Wicklund – Red Gorilla
Written ten years ago – in the shadow of the controversial death of Harumbe the gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo – Red Gorilla is a deliciously juicy, funky hit of bluesy rock with an environmentally conscious heart. All raw soul and swagger, no flab or faking it. “Human beings are but a small piece of a far greater ecosystem, and we must radically choose to care for our environment,” South Carolinian singer/guitarist Hannah says, “or we will be even more lost as a species than we are right now.”
Brothers Osborne – R.I.P
Few bands nail that sweet spot between currntry and plain old rock’n’roll as happily as these six-foot-something Maryland-turned-Nashville siblings. On R.I.P that feels as true as ever, its rollicking, Stetson-topped heartbeat teamed with a bang-on-the-money groove. At under two minutes it’s on the ‘punk’ side for the Bros, but if the idea was to whet our appetites for what’s coming next they’ve succeeded. “R.I.P. is us getting back to our musical roots,” lead guitarist/older brother John says. “This new music is a rear-view glimpse into where we came from while still driving forward into the new and the unknown.”
Bleeker – Outside
Soaring, punchy alt rock/power-pop anthemic sensibilities – with a mahoosive chorus – are the order of the week with this Ontario five-piece’s latest. The sort of track that makes them sound like a much bigger band, Outside has hints of Sugar and The Struts in its biting combination of sweetness and shadows, and feels like something a festival crowd would hungrily lap up over a few beverages and group hugs on a hot summer evening. Find more on their next album, Elephant, which comes out in September.
Greta Van Fleet – Saw You Stand
Teamed up with genre-hopping producer Mike Elizondo (Tedeschi Trucks Band, Turnstile, Eminem…) for their next album, Palace Of The People, Greta Van Fleet deliver arguably the ballad of their career with Saw You Stand. Hard-hitting, bright-eyed but tender, it finds them prizing incisive songwriting above noodly nostalgia theatrics. And anyone who normally finds Josh Kiszka’s vocals a bit too Jon Anderson-shrill for comfort may warm more readily to his stellar performance here – still high, still mighty, but married to a tight, on-the-money melody and weighted with real depth, reflective of an eventful few years.
Bywater Call – Way To Go
Building upward from sweet, stripped-back Delta-fried opening notes, Way To Go finds the rising Canadian ensemble at their heartwarming, boot-stomping best. A stirring, thoughtfully written melody around which gospel-fresh harmonies, guitars and horns swirl, natural as sunlight on water, with a touch of bittersweetness in the background. If you’re a fan of Tedeschi Trucks Band, Blackberry Smoke and others in their rousing, soulful southern rock camp, and you haven’t heard Bywater Call yet, for god’s sake check them out now.
The Band Feel – Stay Around
St Louis rockers The Band Feel still sound like a band who could have parachuted into the set of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous without anyone noticing they were from the future, but Stay Around does at least tinker with the formula a little. The Free-style riff is augmented by a chorus that leans into power pop, with perfectly pitched harmonies and a wibbly-wobbly keyboard that may or may not have been beamed in from deep space. Excellent stuff, as usual.
Cam Cole – Get Up Ya Honky Tonk
Cam Cole’s Fourth album, Lost In Creation, is out in October, and Get Up Ya Honky Tonk is a taster from what promises to be an uncompromising blast of twisted sonic savagery from the one-man London-based grunge-blues explosion. Cam’s vocals sound like Butthole Surfers’ frontman Gibby Haynes might were he guesting on a Jon Spencer single, and there’s also a bit in the middle where everything slows down and gets kinda spooky before business is rowdily resumed. What a lovely racket.
