Church Road Records have announced that rising UK Alt-Metal outfit Mallavora will release their debut album, What If Better Never Comes?, on 27 March 2026. The band’s latest single, Hopeless, is out today.
“We wrote this song at a time when everything just felt too hard,” the band said, “and the challenges we face felt insurmountable. We learned that it’s ok to let your guard down, take off your brave face and accept that there really is no such thing as certainty.
“Staring down the possibility that things might not get better can be terrifying, and feels so hard to do. But it’s not about abandoning hope altogether. Rather, it’s about letting go of things that we don’t have any control over, and trying to find the balance between acceptance and hope.
“We know hopelessness can be incredibly lonely, so we hope this song provides some solace and connection for anyone who relates to its meaning.”
Since forming in 2020, Mallavora have built serious momentum in Heavy Music, landing support from BBC Radio 1 and Kerrang! Radio, and drawing attention across the rock and Metal Press. The band made their Download Festival debut in 2024, completed their first UK headline tour, and have shared stages with Skindred. In 2025, they have continued that run with appearances at 2000 Trees (main stage) and Alyx Holcombe’s MANTRA showcase.
Mallavora have also been turning up in unexpected places, from Boomtown and Burn It Down Festivals to London Fashion Week, where they provided the soundtrack to Unhidden’s latest range.
Most recently, vocalist Jessica Douek contributed striking “banshee-like” wails to an episode of BBC One’s The Celebrity Traitors, showcasing a range that moves from soaring clean vocals to the extremes of fry screaming.
All of that leads to What If Better Never Comes?, a record the band describe as a conceptual exploration of sickness, both personal and societal, and a space to express lived experiences of difference.
“We are so proud to announce the release of our debut album, What If Better Never Comes?,” says Jessica Douek. “We hope its vulnerability, and the message it carries, brings comfort and catharsis to anyone who’s ever lived inside emotions too complex to name.”
Exchange, Bristol72, 73 Old Market St, Bristol BS2 0EJ
Church Road Records have announced that rising UK Alt-Metal outfit Mallavora will release their debut album, What If Better Never Comes?, on 27 March 2026.
Event Details
Church Road Records have announced that rising UK Alt-Metal outfit Mallavora will release their debut album, What If Better Never Comes?, on 27 March 2026.
The band’s latest single, Hopelessss, is out today. “We wrote this song at a time when everything just felt too hard,” the band said, “and the challenges we face felt insurmountable. We learned that it’s ok to let your guard down, take off your brave face and accept that there really is no such thing as certainty.”
Since forming in 2020, Mallavora have built serious momentum in Heavy Music, landing support from BBC Radio 1 and Kerrang! Radio, and drawing attention across the rock and Metal Press. The band made their Download Festival debut in 2024, completed their first UK headline tour, and have shared stages with Skindred. In 2025, they have continued that run with appearances at 2000 Trees (main stage) and Alyx Holcombe’s MANTRA showcase.
Mallavora have their album release show and biggest headliner to date on Friday, 8 May 2026 at Exchange in Bristol. Tickets are available here.
For Mallavora, the music comes first, but the band’s songs are grounded in fierce honesty. Guitarist Larry Sobieraj channels his own experiences of chronic illness into the instrumentals.
“It’s almost like a therapy tool to process these complicated and difficult things that a lot of people don’t understand, things that are hard to put into words,” he says. “I want to be able to sit there and listen to the music and feel how I felt while writing it.”
Sobieraj’s instrumentals are then passed to Douek, who turns that emotional response into lyrics. “It makes it quite powerful in the sense that I can feel what he has written, and then I put that into words, associated with grief of becoming ill or losing a healthier version of yourself,” she explains. “There’s a lot of rage about societal barriers and being treated differently.”
Completed by bassist Ellis James and drummer Sam Brownlow, Mallavora have become strong advocates for accessibility, committing to only headline venues accessible enough for them and their audience.
Mallavora have their album release show and biggest headliner to date on Friday, 8 May 2026 at Exchange in Bristol. Tickets are available here.
Mallavora Album Release Show – Friday, 8 May 2026 at Exchange in Bristol.
Mallavora – What If Better Never Comes?
1. Prologue (1:47) 2. Smile (2:35) 3. Waste (3:16) 4. Lilith & Esther (feat. Banshee) (3:12) 5. Hopeless (4:26) 6. Break (1:06) 7. Birth of a Sun (3:44) 8. Sick (2:32) 9. Walking the Edge of the Knife (3:00) 10. Empty (5:46) 11. Make the World Wait (4:20) 12. Host (3:36) 13. What If Better Never Comes? (9:09)
What If Better Never Comes? is released 27 March 2026 via Church Road Records.
It’s been seven years since American Football’s last album, LP3. Since then, the Midwest emo heroes have celebrated the 25th anniversary of their beloved debut album, and the Illinois home on the cover has been turned into an Airbnb. Now, after announcing LP4 last week on social media, the band is sharing the lead single…
When Matador announced themselves into the doom scene back in 2019 with their instrumental debut album They Were Here Before Us, they showed plenty of promise without much fuss. Flourishes were minimal, but the bedrock of their craft was concrete. Their 2021 follow-up The Surge built further on those foundations and revealed the trio to be ones to watch. Now, five years on, Above, Below And So solidifies their place in the new doom vanguard.
Lead single The House Always Wins gave fans a taste of what this renewed and reinvigorated iteration of Matador would sound like, and opens the record here in grand, cinematic style. Guitarist James Kirk’s vocals sound as if they’ve been a part of the band’s DNA since day one and gives their brand of psych-doom an enthralling new edge. The vocalisations at the bridge feel like the entrance to a cosmic wormhole, before a wailing solo launches the track into hyperspace.
The monolithic The Flood hears the band return to their instrumental roots, as towering, lumbering riffs crash like waves, before the droning interlude-of-sorts O Suna adds a menacing edge that sets the back half of Above, Below And So up for aural devastation.
True enough, A Virus makes its case to be one of Matador’s most brilliant tracks to date. James’ delivery of ‘Fireworks in my mind, a death that’s so unkind I’ll bleed you a river’ is all viscera and loathing, yelled from the seventh circle of hell. And therein lies Above, Below And So’s gilded, serrated edge.
Matador’s evolution is one of the clearest and most rewarding in the genre, and their trajectory album on album is staggeringly steep. True students of the craft, they’ve taken inspiration from some of psych and doom’s strongest players and made something that doesn’t just copy from those playbooks. Matador is its own snarling, looming beast, and it’s ready to bludgeon you into the next dimension.
The 1960s was the decade when the Baby Boomer generation began to flex its muscles and make its presence known, and the way it spearheaded that charge was through music. The 1960s began where the 1950s ended, with folk music as the most popular genre, sometimes incorporating elements of American blues. Both American and British youth who played in bands began integrating raw Chicago and Delta blues traditions into their repertoires, blending them with the explosive energy of electric guitars and psychedelic experimentation to create the blues rock genre.
While icons like Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Rolling Stones dominated the spotlight, many bands flew under the radar. The following list highlights ten obscure blues rock bands from the 1960s that played gritty, soulful riffs and extended jams during their short-lived careers and are worth rediscovering today.
American Blues
American Blues was formed in 1966 in the Dallas–Fort Worth area and released two albums that leaned heavily into electric blues with psychedelic influences. Future ZZ Top members bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard made up the band’s rhythm section, while Dusty’s brother, Rocky Hill, served as lead guitarist alongside keyboardist Doug Davis.
The band delivered a hard-driving mix of electric blues, psychedelia, and garage-rock grit across its releases. They broke up in 1969 after Rocky left, and Dusty and Frank went on to join Billy Gibbons to form ZZ Top.
American Blues Exchange
The American Blues Exchange was a short-lived band formed in 1968 by students from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. They achieved cult status and released only one self-issued album, Blueprints, in 1969, which is now a collector’s item.
The band consisted of Roy Dudley on vocals and harmonica, dueling guitarists Roger Briggs and Dan Mixter, bassist Peter Hartman, and drummer Dale Reed. They drew inspiration from British blues-rock pioneers such as Cream, John Mayall, and Savoy Brown, as well as American blues acts like Canned Heat and Muddy Waters.
The group delivered a raw, hard-edged sound with blistering originals and spirited covers before breaking up in 1970.
Blodwyn Pig
Blodwyn Pig was formed in 1968 by guitarist and vocalist Mick Abrahams after he left Jethro Tull over creative differences with Ian Anderson. The other band members included Ron Berg on drums, Jack Lancaster on flute, violin, and saxophone, and Andy Pyle on bass guitar.
The group was a dynamic British blues rock band that blended gritty blues with jazz improvisation, often venturing into experimental territory. They were part of the UK blues scene that gave rise to bands such as Free and Led Zeppelin and performed at major festivals while sharing the stage with many of the era’s top acts.
Despite releasing two well-received albums, internal tensions and frequent lineup changes, culminating in Abrahams’s departure in 1970, ultimately led to the band’s breakup.
Blue Cheer
I remember purchasing Vincebus Eruptum at the PX on Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1968. It had a raw, wilder sound than Hendrix and merged Chicago blues with explosive proto-heavy metal to create a volatile mixture.
The band formed in 1966 in San Francisco as a three-man power trio modeled after Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The lineup consisted of bassist and vocalist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens, and drummer Paul Whaley.
Blue Cheer took its name from a laundry detergent that also shared its name with a potent strain of Owsley Stanley’s designer LSD. The band became a favorite of the Hells Angels at gatherings due to its aggressive sound.
Blues Magoos
Between 1966 and 1970, the Blues Magoos released five studio albums before disbanding in the early 1970s. When they originally formed in the Bronx, New York, in 1964, they called themselves the Trenchcoats. They changed their name to Blues Magoos in 1966 for their debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop.
The album featured electrifying takes on blues standards such as “Tobacco Road,” along with original songs that captured the fusion of blues and psychedelic experimentation. Their psychedelic blues rock sound blended gritty garage-punk energy with fuzz-drenched riffs.
The band, featuring vocalist and guitarist Peppy “Thielhelm” Castro, organist and vocalist Ralph Scala, guitarist Mike Esposito, bassist Ron Gilbert, and drummer Jon Finnegan, was a fixture on the Greenwich Village club scene. They scored a Top 5 hit in 1967 with “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet” from their debut album. However, by 1970, personnel changes began to take their toll, and the band ultimately disbanded in 1972.
Blues Project
The Blues Project formed in 1965 in New York City and remains an underappreciated force in early blues rock. They are often credited as one of the first true American blues rock bands to fuse electric urban blues with extended improvisational jamming and jazz-inflected arrangements.
The band’s classic lineup on its debut album consisted of vocalist Tommy Flanders, lead guitarist Danny Kalb, rhythm guitarist Steve Katz, organist and vocalist Al Kooper, bassist and flutist Andy Kulberg, and drummer Roy Blumenfeld.
Their live album, Live at the Cafe Au Go Go, was released in 1966 and captured the band’s dynamic energy, showcasing their raw, electrified take on Chicago blues. The group also performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Mixing reimagined blues classics with original material, the band went through several breakups and reunions over the years. In total, they released seven albums before their final breakup, which came shortly after the release of Reunion in Central Park in 1973.
Chicken Shack
Chicken Shack formed in Great Britain in 1965, founded by guitarist and vocalist Stan Webb, along with bassist Andy Silvester and drummer Alan Morley. In 1967, they added keyboardist and singer Christine Perfect and released their debut album, Forty Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve, in 1968.
By the time of their third album, Christine Perfect had become Christine McVie and left the band to join Fleetwood Mac alongside her husband, bassist John McVie. She was replaced by Paul Raymond.
The band was known for Webb’s extended, expressive guitar solos, which were central to their soulful take on Chicago blues infused with rock energy. By the mid-1970s, Webb was the only original member remaining, and the group continued under the name Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack.
Electric Flag
Mike Bloomfield formed The Electric Flag in 1967 after leaving the Butterfield Blues Band. His vision was to create an American blues rock group that blended Chicago blues roots with R&B, jazz, psychedelia, and big band influences.
The band featured Bloomfield on lead guitar, Barry Goldberg on keyboards, Buddy Miles on drums and vocals, Nick Gravenites on vocals and guitar, Harvey Brooks on bass, and a full horn section.
Their 1968 release, A Long Time Comin’, marked the high point of their career. Shortly after the album’s release, Bloomfield left the group. Following the release of another album, the band disbanded despite being one of the era’s most talented and underappreciated acts, largely due to personnel changes, internal tensions, and sustance abuse.
Electric Mud
Electric Mud was not just a group project but a collaboration between one of the greatest blues artists of all time, Muddy Waters, and members of one of Chicago’s leading psychedelic rock bands, Rotary Connection. The album was released in 1968, the year between the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock, when psychedelic rock was at its peak, led by artists such as The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
Marshall Chess, the son of Chess Records co-founder Leonard Chess, convinced Waters that the project would help him reach a new audience, even though the style was unfamiliar to him. Since he had been using electric guitar for years, Waters agreed to the experiment. The album features eight tracks by artists ranging from Waters and Willie Dixon to The Rolling Stones, all presented in a psychedelic blues-rock style.
The backing band was composed of Rotary Connection members, featuring searing guitar work by Pete Cosey, Phil Upchurch, and Roland Faulkner, Louis Satterfield on bass, Morris Jennings on drums, Charles Stepney on keyboards, and Gene Barge on tenor saxophone.
Moving Sidewalks
The Moving Sidewalks formed in Houston, Texas, in 1966, led by teenage frontman Billy Gibbons on guitar and vocals. The band also included Tom Moore on keyboards, Don Summers on bass, and Dan Mitchell on drums.
Their sound fused British Invasion influences with the San Francisco psychedelic style and gritty Gulf Coast blues roots. The group’s only studio album, Flash, was released in 1969 and produced the regional hit single “The 99th Floor.”
The Moving Sidewalks opened for major acts such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Doors, as well as other prominent Texas bands. They disbanded in 1969 after failing to achieve a major commercial breakthrough, after which Gibbons went on to form ZZ Top.
The 1960s marked the beginning of the golden era of blues rock, when the two genres collided and electrified the emotional power of Chicago and Delta blues traditions. The ten bands listed above came from both sides of the Atlantic, pushed boundaries, blended genres, and infused traditional blues with youthful urgency and psychedelic fire.
While they may not have achieved the same level of fame as some of their contemporaries, in many cases they served as important stepping stones to stardom.
On Friday, Mitski will release her new album Nothing’s About To Happen To Me. It’s fucking awesome. Mitski is planning an international tour behind the LP, mostly doing multiple-night stands in big cites. Earlier this month, she performed some of her new songs live for the first time at an intimate Nashville show. On Tuesday, she sang the single “I’ll Change For You” for the second time, and she did it as a musical guest on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.
