Strange Plants return with Ground Falls Away, an energetic indie rock cut that thrives on momentum and vintage-inspired warmth. Driven by pulsing rhythms and a distinctive push-and-pull groove, the track captures the restless urgency of pushing forward even when everything feels uncertain. Layered with analog textures, subtle synths, and an expansive instrumental back half, it builds into a dynamic and immersive listening experience.
Balancing introspection with forward motion, Ground Falls Away channels pressure, resilience, and quiet optimism into a sound that feels both nostalgic and vividly alive.
My last interview at Dark Clouds Over Camden Festival 2025 for Metal Devastation Radio was with Ben, the owner of Raven Records, where all the interviews took place.
Tomas Lindberg recorded his vocals for The Ghost Of A Future Dead the day before surgery, but still captures the magic that made melodeath a global movement
Hamish Anderson taps into raw emotion and classic blues rock power with Pain, a moody and electrifying track driven by gritty guitars and soulful intensity. Blending Southern rock swagger with timeless blues influences, the song unfolds with a sense of urgency and depth, anchored by expressive vocals and passionate storytelling. There’s a magnetic, almost hypnotic groove at its core, where each guitar line feels both deliberate and deeply felt. Pain stands as a powerful tribute to the electric guitar, channeling longing, resilience, and self-discovery into a sound that feels both classic and fiercely alive.
Multi-platinum rock band SEETHER return with Beneath The Surface, a powerful new digital EP. Expanding on the emotional depth and sonic intensity that have defined their career, the EP offers fans a deeper look into the band’s creative core—where raw honesty and heavy-hitting melodies collide.
Beneath The Surface includes two previously unreleased studio tracks, highlighted by the gripping lead single ‘Into The Ground,’ a song that showcases Seether’s signature blend of brooding atmosphere and explosive energy. The EP is rounded out with a selection of live recordings that capture the band’s commanding presence on stage, delivering a visceral experience for longtime fans and new listeners alike.
“This EP is about digging deeper—past what’s on the surface and into the things that really drive us,” says frontman Shaun Morgan. “It’s a mix of new ideas and the energy we feel when we’re playing live. We wanted to give fans something real and immediate.”
The band’s Dale Stewart says, “I’m really stoked about our new EP. We’ve been sitting on some great material that I can’t wait to get out to the fans. ‘Into the Ground’ really gets me pumped and “Proud Daddy” is one of my favourite songs from the last sessions we did.”
With a legacy that includes multiple chart-topping hits and a reputation as one of rock’s most enduring acts, Seether continue to evolve while staying true to their roots. Beneath The Surface stands as a testament to that balance—unfiltered, dynamic, and unmistakably Seether.
Formed in 1999 in Pretoria, South Africa, Seether have built a global following with their signature blend of post-grunge grit and alternative metal melody. Led by vocalist and primary songwriter Shaun Morgan, the band broke through with 2004’s Disclaimer II and went on to deliver five gold and platinum albums and two dozen Billboard Rock Airplay Top 10 hits including 20 No. 1s at U.S. radio with their anthems “Broken,” “Fake It” and “Words as Weapons.” Known for their emotionally raw lyrics and high-energy live performances, Seether have earned both critical and commercial success worldwide. With a lineup rounded out by Dale Stewart, John Humphrey, and Corey Lowery, the band continues to evolve while staying true to the intensity and honesty that have defined their career.
With their new self-titled album due on 28 August 2026 via Spinefarm, Airbourne have shared the single Alive After Death (Last Plane Out), along with an open letter from Joel O’Keeffe to Motörhead legend Lemmy.
Here, Joel reflects on how Lemmy’s advice guided them through years of hard work, collaborations, and challenges to create their new album, one that the band are proud their roadies finally love.
Joel O’Keeffe – an open letter to Motörhead legend Lemmy.
The Joel O’Keeffe letter reads:
Dear Lemmy,
Well, mate, it’s been a long time since we’ve said “g’day” or shared a stage together. We’ve never forgotten one of the things you said to us, which was: “No matter what, stay true to yourselves. Don’t worry about all the other bullshit in the music industry. Make music that your roadies will like. Because they’ve heard your shit more than anyone else, if they like it, everyone will love it.”
Mate, we did it.
Six years ago, we shut the roller doors to everyone and got to work writing songs for this record, spending many, many hours, many, many days, weeks, months and years writing and writing, throwing things out, starting again, and always sifting for gold.
After about five years of this, we felt that we had a solid bunch of Rock’ n’ Roll songs happening. Then, Mutt Lange and Bryan Adams brought in their big guns, and a couple of those songs we wrote with them have made the record.
We wrote a lot with Bryan, and he was incredibly inspiring, and we learned a lot from him-a true rock ‘n’ roll gentleman. At that point, a long-time mate of ours, Vick Wright, flew out to Australia, and we wrote and wrote and wrote some more with him. He’s a rock ‘n’ roll street poet, and he taught us a lot as well. We ended up with some real good rockers with him.
We sent everything to Brian Howes, and he said we have a solid record now, and he was pumped to work his magic.
Dante from Spinefarm, who has been a real champion all along the way on this record, gave us the green light to make Airbourne.
Joel O’Keeffe – an open letter to Motörhead legend Lemmy.
We shipped out a ton of gear from our Manchester compound and from all over the world, loaded it into a semi-tonne truck, and drove it up the Eastern guts of Australia from Melbourne to Music Farm Studios, hidden in a jungle on the surf coast of Australia. This place is surrounded by snakes, Sydney funnel-web spiders, rats and cane toads—plenty of stuff that can kill ya. We know you would have loved it there because that which doesn’t kill you only makes you louder!
We coped with hurricane weather, flash flooding rains, palm trees that were torn out of the ground. One of them almost killed Streety, our bass player. That was a very near miss.
The tape machine was a fucker. It wouldn’t stop blowing up but she sounded great, so she was worth dealing with and waiting on.
Joel O’Keeffe – an open letter to Motörhead legend Lemmy.
Every day we would wake up, jump over a brown snake or python, feed the pigs, say “g’day” to the goats, watch the one male rooster with a harem of hens swooning around him whilst he’s strutting around the place like he was King Dick. Who knew that fowl could be so inspiring?
We’d make our way down the hill to the studio, jumping over “old mate,” the resident snake that lived at the front doors of the studio. When we entered the studio, we’d make some heart-starting coffees, put some pies in the pie warmer, VB’s on ice, then Brian Howes, Mike Fraser, and Karl Dicaire would show up.
A few cigarettes, laughs, and caffeine later, we’d talk some bullshit, and then we’d get rocking. For about 12-16 hours, we would go. Time ceased to exist for us, and it was the best fun we’ve ever had making an album.
Joel O’Keeffe – an open letter to Motörhead legend Lemmy.
The last batch of songs we wrote with Brian around the Studio Kitchen table, often whilst hurricanes had killed the power. While they were smashing the studio together, we brought this album home.
The main console was the original Neve desk from Albert Studios 1 here in Australia, (AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, The Angels, Billy Thorpe and more), there’s an unmistakable Raw Oz rock tone in this desk and you’d love it.
We didn’t finish the record in time, as we had to go back out on tour, which actually worked out really well because lyrics that weren’t written in that studio needed to come from being on the road, and that’s exactly what happened with the song Alive After Death.
We came back after the tour to our Melbourne studio home, down in St Kilda, the famous Hothouse Studios, where we recorded our first EP.
Joel O’Keeffe – an open letter to Motörhead legend Lemmy.
We’ve always had a love affair with Hothouse—it has the Neve console from Albert’s Studio 2, so it was gutsy to go back there and finish this record off.
Craig Harnath, who we’ve been mates with forever, joined the team, and after another tour, another few months and trips down to Hothouse, we finally finished the record.
Zakk Cervini joined the team and mixed up a Rock ‘n’ Roll storm of a record. He’s a real weapon! Ted Jensen—aka “the great one”— gave Zakk’s atomic mixes a real supercharged spit and polish and brought it all home with his classic trademark Sterling master print that only he can do.
So, we finally ripped off the Band-Aid and mustered up the balls to play it to the roadies…. And guess what? They love this one! Thank fuck! Only took us 20 years!
Thanks again for all of your words back then mate. We’ve never forgotten them and we wouldn’t be here without ya. We’ll always keep you ‘Alive After Death‘.
Rock on, Lem.
Much Love,
Joel.
Airbourne with Lemmy – 2007
Airbourne release their new self-titled album on 28 August 2026 via Spinefarm. Pre-orders are available from airbourne.lnk.to/Airbourne.
Oui Plastique return in striking form with Revival, a darkwave/futurepop gem that pulses with both emotional depth and cinematic intensity. Driven by brooding synth lines, crisp electronic beats, and shadowy atmospheres, the track balances melancholy with forward momentum, capturing the tension between collapse and rebirth. There’s a sleek, cyberpunk edge to its production, yet it remains deeply human at its core, inviting listeners to feel rather than detach.
Revival stands as a powerful statement of renewal, blending dark aesthetics with an uplifting undercurrent that lingers long after the final note.
Multi-platinum rock band SEETHER return with Beneath The Surface, a powerful new digital EP. Expanding on the emotional depth and sonic intensity that have defined their career, the EP offers fans a deeper look into Seether‘s creative core—where raw honesty and heavy-hitting melodies collide. Beneath The Surface includes two previously unreleased studio tracks, highlighted by […]
Lifestronaut delivers a deeply emotional and cinematic journey with Life of Shni, an instrumental piece that seamlessly blends orchestral elegance with modern electronic textures. Flowing through moments of joy, love, and loss, the track evolves with a natural, storytelling quality, gradually building its emotional weight. The introduction of lush strings adds a powerful sense of depth, elevating the composition into something expansive and immersive.
Balancing delicacy with intensity, Life of Shni captures the beauty and fragility of the life cycle, offering a moving and introspective listening experience.
Formed in London back in 1969, Uriah Heep, still going strong almost six-decades later, is one of Great Britain’s best kept rock secrets. Contemporaries of Led Zeppelin, Queen and Deep Purple and progressive outfits like Genesis and Jethro Tull, the Heep lauded praise from respected music journalists from the get-go.
Debut album …Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble was issued the same year as Black Sabbath’s debut, starting a frenzy of productivity that saw Sailsbury and Look at Yourself both coming out in 1971, stone-cold classics Demons and Wizards and The Magician’s Birthday releasing within six-months of each in 1972. Creativity slowed slightly with Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld being issued in ’73 and ’74 respectively, bringing us up to the start of this new 4 CD retrospective boxset from Cherry Red Records.
Covering Uriah Heep’s recorded output between 1975 and 1977, these four albums are perhaps not as famous as some, but show the development of one of the county’s foremost heavy rock acts.
Beautiful Dream gives these records the full Cherry Red treatment, including the original albums, a whole host a rarities, demos and live material previously unreleased, along with an extensive booklet with liner notes from respected journalist, Rich Davenport.
Disc One of this collection is 1975’s Return to Fantasy, which saw the first change in personnel since Demons and Wizards, with former King Crimson bassist, John Wetton, stepping in after Gary Thain’s departure. Certified Silver in the UK, despite not having widespread journalistic support, Heep’s eighth album opens with the haunting tones of the title track, the hefty guitar of Shady Lady and the organ-heavy Devil’s Daughter. The established trio of vocalist Dave Byron, guitarist Mick Box and multi-instrumentalist Ken Hensley understand what makes Heep work and, even if Return… lacks the consistency of some of the early classics, it is still a band pushing boundaries and planting their own flag into the ground.
It seems obvious that Prima Donna would be the album’s lead single, with its upbeat and jaunty rhythms, a world away from the bluesy Your Turn to Remember or the introspective Why Did You Go, which echoes Coverdale-era Purple and – obviously – those early Whitesnake records.
Cherry Red Records is always generous with its range of bonus material, but for this collection they have excelled themselves. Each disc is an absolute feast of extra stuff previously unreleased material that will whet the appetite of any hard rockin’ fan of the era.
Return to Fantasy’s bonus features include Shout it Out and The Time Will Come, B-sides of the Prima Donna and Return to Fantasy singles, respectively. Shout… is a classic Seventies hard rocker, with a heavy Hammond organ section and a hard-hitting riff, Time… is killer Purple soundalike, and both are well worth a listen. Also included are alternative demo versions of Prima Donna, Why Did You Go and Showdown, along with a version of Return to Fantasy extended by a couple of minutes of additional noodling.
A year later, just before the start of the infernal summer of 1976, Heep released album number nine, High and Mighty which would turn out to be the last record to feature founding member, Dave Byron, who would part ways with the band over band priorities and alcohol-related issues.
Once again, critics fired shots at Uriah Heep for their continued move away from the fantasy and mythical elements, the lengthy compositions and subject matter, in favour of a more sleek and commercial effort. Opener One Way or Another is musically loaded with School’s Out-era Alice vibes
and a funky bassline courtesy of Mr Wetton and would be the first single released. Weep in Silence is melancholic, but with a killer guitar; Misty Eyes feels unremarkable and Midnight ends what would have been side one with more of a whimper than a bang.
Can’t Keep a Good Band Down feels like Heep answering their critics, with a classic rock feel rather than a hard rockin’ one. Woman of World skips along initially, with Mr Wetton and soon to be Ozzy drummer, Lee Kerslake, bouncing. There’s a folksy feel about Footprints in the Snow, that might not have been too out of place on Zeppelin III.
There are times on High and Mighty that you feel the critics were not being unnecessarily mean and, knowing it would be Dave’s last record, there is a wise-after-the-event realisation that something needed to change. Can’t Stop Singing doesn’t feel like the band that recorded The Magician’s Birthday, but the bar-blues of Make a Little Love has at least some self-confidence, while Confession brings the record to an end with a track that has added poignance.
Bonus material here includes demo versions of non-album tracks Take Care, I Close My Eyes and Does Anything Matter, as well as demo and an unreleased version of Name of the Game. There is also an alternative edit of Sundown and as-yet unavailable versions of Can’t Keep a Good Band Down and Weep in Silence.
Such was the nature of the music business that Uriah Heep had album number ten in the shops before Easter of 1977, while also dealing with changes on bass, with John Wetton leaving to be replaced by Trevor Bolder, who’d held down the low-end for Mick Ronson, The Spiders From Mars and for several early-Seventies years with Mr Bowie himself.
Most noticeable was Dave Byron’s departure. An original member of Uriah Heep with Mick and Ken, they had collectively forged the very soul of the band over nine albums. Replacing him was former Lucifer’s Friend vocalist, John Lawton. As with High and Mighty, all songs on Firefly were written by Ken, except the hard rocker that is Lee’s Who Needs Me.
Opening with The Hanging Tree suggested the mystical and fantasy elements might be back; Mr Lawton’s vocals are strong and punchy, and a welcome return to the strong central element that powers the top end of every rock band. First single, Wise Man lets John show off his bluesy pipes, again akin Mr Coverdale.
Do You Know rocks, as Rollin’ On takes another blues detour; European single, Sympathy comes with a Gillan scream and a Purple sound, a galloping riff and a memorable progression. The title-track has an ethereal element and slow build up.
Sympathy B-side, Crime of Passion and its bluesy Whitesnake feel leads the way for Firefly’s bonus material. Demo mixes of A Far Better Way and Do You Know, an alternate version of Been Away Too Long is more melancholic than the album track, live rendition of Who Needs Me and a couple of unreleased tunes, I Always Knew and Dance, Dance, Dance have aspects of other Seventies genres about them. There’s even a version of Wise Man, with the qualification “TV Backing Track” for which I expected a karaoke-like instrumental, but it’s a solid version including a vocal.
November 1977, after Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee celebrations had largely wound down, and nine months after Firefly, came Disc Four of this collection: Innocent Victim – with perhaps one of the ropiest album covers out there… this was the Seventies, though, an era not known for its ground-breaking artwork. The personnel from Firefly remained and again Ken handled the majority of the songwriting, conscripting help when needed.
Not overly popular in the UK or US, the album did find an audience in Germany, Oceania and South Africa, resulting in the single, Free Me – a smooth, radio-friendly ditty – being Heep’s only hit in Australia. Keep on Ridin’ has a Soul vibe, Flyin’ High comes with a driving rhythm, reminiscent of Easy Livin’ from back on Demons and Wizards – and subsequently covered by W.A.S.P. on their 1986 record, Inside the Electric Circus. Roller is blues-based, Free ‘N’ Easy blasts with some very acceptable guitar work.
Illusion is as close to the Prog past Uriah Heep get on this album. Cheat ‘N’ Lie is a little throw away, The Dance had some interesting vibes, while, tucked away at the end of the record is the wide-ranging closer, Choices, which deserves some love for its ambition.
Bonis features include a full and unedited version of Illusion, called Illusion / Masquerade, adding three minutes of fiery guitar to an already impressive piece. Unheard tunes, The River and Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is suggests the world hasn’t been short-changed by not having more of the latter, but The River could well have been interesting. The disc closes out with alternate live versions of Cheat ‘N’ Lie, Free Me and Free ‘N’ Easy.
Uriah Heep’s musical output would settle to a more manageable album-tour cycle with a release every couple of years through the Eighties. John Lawton would continue to front the band up to Conquest in 1980, his place being taken by former Trapeze singer, Peter Goalby for the three Heep records between 1982 and 1985.
It was the recruitment of Canadian singer, Bernie Shaw, for 1989’s excellent Raging Silence, that Heep had that stable axis of guitarist/ singer and it’s one that Bernie and Mick have continued since, up to the release of album number twenty-five, Chaos & Colour in 2023.
The curtain is scheduled to be coming down on Uriah Heep imminently; they have nothing else to prove, and the scholars of the history of rock can ponder how they were never the huge band they deserved to be. My memory will always be one August night in 2021, we were all emerging from lockdown, cautious but excited for the world to be getting back to normal, and Uriah Heep lifted everyone’s spirits as late-announced headliners of the Stonedead Festival, reminding us all of the unifying power of music and their position as scene royalty.
Multi-platinum rock band SEETHER return with Beneath The Surface, a powerful new digital EP. Expanding on the emotional depth and sonic intensity that have defined their career, the EP offers fans a deeper look into Seether‘s creative core—where raw honesty and heavy-hitting melodies collide. Beneath The Surface includes two previously unreleased studio tracks, highlighted by […]
