Social media might be to blame for the increasing enmeshment of Pop music into the Rock genre. Pop artists are more marketable and interchangeable with social media influencers. What record label would not want an artist with the iconic charisma of Taylor Swift? Continue reading
Tag Archives: alt rock
ALBUM REVIEW: Blanket – Ceremonia
A genre-striding quartet from Blackpool, Blanket are back with their latest album, Ceremonia (Church Road Records). It is their third record and sees them continue their emotive brand of Post-Rock and Shoegaze, with the metal influences from their previous album Modern Escapism replaced with nineties Alternative Rock. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Transit Method – Othervoid
Music that’s right here, right now, with echoes of glories past. A dream of an album that takes off fast, edgy, in a punky rush, sounding like … a punky Rush!
ALBUM REVIEW: Slope – Freak Dreams
You would not expect a band from Germany to have become as stricken by a plague that makes their booty move as Slope has on their new album “Freak Dreams” (Century Media Records). The slapped bass and in-your-face energy might make more sense if it were being delivered by skater punks from Southern California in the summer of 1989. Slope wastes no time laying out their own uplifting mofo party plan. This unique approach sounds like it could catch on much, in the same manner, Turnstile proved audiences are ready for more grooves and tired of the same old same old. “It’s Tickin” proves that the band is not just living off of the nostalgia for 90s funk rock, though it does have doses of that as well. Continue reading
Spanish Love Songs Add a Second Intimate Show Playing “Brave Faces Everyone” in Full
Spanish Love Songs, a band that has been at the forefront of the emotive punk scene and alternative scene has announced a second intimate show on 8th July, playing their album Brave Faces Everyone in its entirety. Coming off a raucous sellout at Electric Ballroom London, the band announced this special event and which sold out before the night’s end, and have now added another due to demand. The band will also perform at 2000Trees Festival. The band’s acclaimed album No Joy, on the list of Ghost Cult Albums of the Year 2023, is out now!Continue reading
Ghost Cult’s Albums of the Year 2023 – Part 3 (20-2)
Thermal count is rising in perpetual writhing, the primordial ooze of albums continues, and the sanity they lose choosing their favorites of the year. Awakened in the morning, to more ear-pollution warnings…
Now I can only laugh, as I read our epitaph – we end 2023 with cheer, in the light of our Albums of the Year.
May you all rust in peace…Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Full of Hell and Nothing (split) – When No Birds Sing
On paper, this makes perfect sense. A collaborative effort between Full of Hell and Nothing stand as two of the most creative outliers in their respective genres, and the mission statement of When No Birds Sing (Closed Casket Activities) is to fuse the juxtaposition of their varied sonic palettes. Brace yourself, as Full of Hell is the overpowering force when the album opens.
ALBUM REVIEW: Helmet – Left
Helmet are a legacy band, who at over 30 years into their career– albeit with an early 2000’s hiatus– are still very much thought of as a specific, early mid-nineties era band when alternative rock was king. And for good reason, as they are a band who certainly had a huge influence with early Interscope Records such as Meantime (1992) and Betty (1994), providing a sludgy down-tuned version of the more commercial alternative styles of the time.
ALBUM REVIEW: Source – Emergence
As album titles go, Emergence (Self-Released) is a powerful and meaningful moniker for Progressive Metallers Source at this point in their careers. Firstly, it references the album’s inspiration and, in part, narrative of new realisation and “transformation” of vocalist/guitarist Ben Gleason’s worldview following global pandemic-forced lockdowns and the following readjustment.
ALBUM REVIEW: Baroness – Stone
Since the music of Baroness has been unlike any other band to me, and more akin to a spiritual experience since I first got into them in 2007, I set the mood for myself before listening. I turned the lights down low, cracked the window open to get a nice breeze going, and heard the sound of large late summer raindrops filling my ears. The city’s heartbeat in the deep background was the only other sound besides my breathing. I just stared at the new album artwork for five straight minutes. At peace for a change, in the still and calm of myself, and by chance, present in the city of my birth for a few days, I hit play on the promo and then let the first notes hit me.