Sophie Noel’s Ghost Ship has a warm, slightly hazy indie-rock character, bringing folk-leaning guitars and 90s alternative textures together in a way that feels both nostalgic and quietly contemporary. There’s a gentle sense of movement throughout the track, with the arrangement leaving plenty of space for Noel’s vocals and the reflective mood to settle in. The song looks at impermanence and environmental change without becoming overly heavy, finding something intimate in the way familiar places and memories slowly shift. Its melodies have an understated pull, while the softer folk elements keep the rock foundation grounded and organic. Ghost Ship feels like a thoughtful, unhurried listen, balancing melancholy with a subtle sense of wonder and leaving its atmosphere lingering after the final notes.
GIFT received Band To Watch status on the strength of their 2024 psych/shoegaze/electronic pop-rock hybrid Illuminator. Today, having finally released Illuminator remixes by all 8 billion human beings on Earth, the New York band is back to announce a new album.
Fans have clamoured for Amy Lee, Courtney LaPlante and Poppy to tour together since last year’s End Of You collab broke the internet, and it’s finally happened – albeit a little split up, with Evanescence taking Spiritbox with them on some dates of their ongoing world tour, and Poppy jumping on for others.
It’s Poppy joining the fun at the O2 in London tonight, alongside alt singer-songwriter K.Flay K.Flay has featured on a myriad of other artists’ songs, though it seems she’s never quite carved out a proper niche of her own; sited somewhere between indie, grunge and pop rock with fuzzed-out bass and laid back vocal delivery, it’s not an immediately obvious fit for an Evanescence crowd, but the room filling out and front rows nodding along indicates it’s at least going down reasonably well.
Poppy strides onstage confidently as her band opens with the arena-sized metalcore of Have You Had Enough. The equally mammoth The Cost of Giving Up follows, both polished bangers greeted by a horde of phones filming up front.
The famously reticent singer doesn’t initially speak much between songs, though it seems less like the robotic Poppy character of old, rather that the music is left to speak for her. Gone are the prerecorded, vocoder-laden interludes; instead she packs the set with as many songs from her recent two albums as she can, though an early Scary Mask is a glimpse into the more experimental artist she used to be as it flits from bubblegum pop ballad to searing metal to electronica.
It takes until VAN for the first pit to appear but, to Poppy’s credit, she manages to incite a much larger one for finale New Way Out that finally sees her own stage energy levels returned by the crowd. By the end of her 50-minute set, she’s clearly having a blast.
(Image credit: Derek Bremner)
Three decades into a career and over two since smash hit 2003 debut Fallen, Evanescence could well have spent the time since resting on their laurels and touring the hits. It’s to their credit that tonight’s setlist includes the entirety of new album Sanctuary woven through it.
Opening with its title track and Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough, it’s gratifying to see a crowd so up for new material despite Fallen’s long shadow. It barely needs saying but Amy Lee sounds phenomenal: a generational, immediately recognisable voice that’s propelled the band to legendary status.
Perhaps it’s an indication of this crowd’s average age now but they’re strangely immobile for the headline act, heads nodding and one small pit present, but little else. Despite this, everyone’s enjoying themselves – plenty are bellowing choruses back. Naturally, the older material still gets the biggest reactions, with Going Under receiving deafening cheers, while the venomous Call Me When You’re Sober offers a sumptuous light show at odds with its restrained fury.
The band is joined by K.Flay for rebellious, feminist anthem Fight Like A Girl, while End Of You has lashings of pyro and a surprise guest spot not only from Poppy but Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante herself, the trio greeted by screams of adoration.
It’s easily the highlight of the set in terms of sheer spectacle and the huge audience pop, but Evanescence are on top form throughout tonight. The arena lights up with phone torches for the tender My Immortal, creating an air of melodramatic splendour, and while there’s a noticeable number of people leaving during final song Wide Open Heart, it’s still ultimately been a triumph of an evening, driven by some of rock’s most enduring, iconic songs.
Ask anyone who has actually worked a classic rock tour, not just watched one from row twelve, and they will tell you the music is maybe forty percent of the job. The other sixty is logistics, and logistics is a … Continue reading →
Allegories bring a hazy, slightly off-kilter energy to Honestly, that’s enough honesty, blending shoegaze textures with an indie rock backbone that never stays completely still. The guitars drift in and out of focus while the rhythm keeps things light and buoyant, giving the song a surprisingly playful feel despite its more introspective core. Melodies emerge naturally from the layers, only to be pulled into noisier and more unpredictable passages, making the track feel loose and exploratory rather than carefully boxed into one genre. There’s something wonderfully uneasy about the whole thing, as if the song is constantly questioning what it is while still holding onto a strong melodic instinct. A fresh, atmospheric piece of indie rock with enough distortion and weirdness to keep it interesting.
A year ago this week, Wednesday released Bleeds, an incendiary album that continued their yearslonghotstreak and ranks among 2025’s masterpieces. To mark the one-year anniversary, the trendsetting North Carolina rockers are releasing a deluxe edition of the album this Friday padded out with demos, remixes, and covers.
🔥 Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands? 🔥 And who will dominate next month as Band of the Month on Metal Devastation Radio?
Last month’s winners, OKL’S FRUITLOOPS, crushed the competition with a staggering 5,083,542 VOTES , claiming the title of Band of the Month on Metal Devastation Radio! You can check them out HERE !
This is the weekly championship edition of the Band Of The Month – Battle Of The Bands that we host every month on MDR!
How does it work? Every Monday, we launch a new poll featuring bands that submit music each week on metaldevastationradio.com. Voting runs until Friday at 9PM EST .
Each Friday night , at the start of The Zach Moonshine Show , I’ll be spinning the Top Six weekly winners , and announcing the #1 band of the week live on air — getting thousands of listens on Mixcloud !
At the end of the month , all weekly votes are added up, and the band with the highest total votes becomes our Band of the Month !
Winning Band of the Month gets:
A featured post on our Facebook page, reaching thousands of fans
A front-page spotlight on metaldevastationradio.com , which pulls in hundreds of thousands of views every month
A free PR email blast from Metal Devastation PR, hitting 40,000+ contacts including labels, zines, stations, and more
Airplay every hour during general rotation
Tons of social media shares and exposure across our network
If you want the world to know who your band is, this is the easiest way to make it happen!
💥 Want in on the next battle? Comment below with your band name and we’ll add you to next week’s poll — or email me at zach@metaldevastationradio.com with “Battle Submission” in the subject line.
Bands can compete as many times as they want , and if you enter multiple weeks in the same month, your votes combine toward the Band of the Month title!
👇 Click on the bands below to vote as many times as you like, or add your own! Poll closes Friday, September 18th at 9PM EST!
Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands? 09/15/26 – 09/18/26
D’Angello & Francis take a familiar warning and throw it straight into the chaos of the late-night club with Do You Know (Where Your Teenager Is?). Opening with its eerie spoken question, the track quickly plunges into a 5 AM atmosphere of pounding techno, dirty grooves and relentless energy. A rolling acid synth drives the tension forward before the track erupts into an explosive drop, giving the whole production a distinctly rave-oriented intensity. There is something darkly playful about the contrast between the parental-sounding question and the hedonistic world that follows it. Rather than easing into the dancefloor, D’Angello & Francis make their entrance with maximum impact, delivering a hard-driving electronic cut that feels made for sweaty rooms, flashing lights and the more unruly side of nightlife.
