Following on from Part 1 of our celebrationof the very best albums of the year, we continue to uncover those albums that made the biggest impression over the course 2020. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Palm Reader
PODCAST: Episode 133 – Ghost Cult’s Album of the Year Countdown Part 2 with Hans Lopez
Ghost Cult kicks off our massive 2020 Album of the Year Countdown! Chief editor Keefy is joined by the esteemed scribe Hans Lopez (WUML radio’s The Stress Factor)! We run down the albums from 30-21 on our list! All in all, over 300 albums were considered and voted on by our staff of worldwide contributors: writers, correspondents, photographers, and more. Check back here for the full list soon listen to Part I (75-31) here. Part III of the podcast series is coming tomorrow!
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Black Peaks Share New Video for New Single “King”, UK Tour Dates Incoming
One of the most exciting bands in 2019, Black Peaks have just shared a new music video for their song ‘King’, which just dropped on Annie Mac Radio 1 ‘Hottest Record In The World’ on Tuesday 17th September, listen back to the play and interview with frontman Will Gardner (link below). It is the bands first new material in almost a year since the 2018 sophomore album All That Divides. The band will be on tour across UK and Europe through October, London show at The Electric Ballroom (sold out) on the Friday, Oct 11th, with direct support coming from Black Futures and Bitch Falcon, and in Europe, Jamie Lenman and Phoxjaw, and Palm Reader in Scandanavia. Watch the clip now!Continue reading
GUEST POST: Tom Ballard of Allfather – Top EP’s of 2018
We have a LOT of time for UK Sludgey Hardcore/Metal act Allfather. Not only is their new album And All Will Be Desolation (Rotting Throne) a beast of a record, they also possess an arsenal of MASSIVE riffs, and those riffs also kill fascists. It’s true, it’s damn true! Staunchly political, and marrying this to a love of underground HEAVY music, spearheading a campaign to share and promote their contemporaries and those they love and share ideals with online, it only made sense to ask vocalist Tom Ballard to talk us through some of his favourite EPs of 2018. Continue reading
AWOOGA – Conduit
You think I’d have learned with Slugdge. That whole book/cover, band/band name thing is long established by now… So, let me start by saying loud and clear, judge Awooga by their band name maybe not at your peril, but most certainly at your immense loss. Because debut full-length Conduit (Rockosmos) is truly excellent ,and if every person that finds something of interest in the barrage of words I’m about to spew about them goes and checks them out, and passes on the name to a friend or two, we have a chance of getting this quite special new band the coverage they deserve. Continue reading
Palm Reader Shares Inertia Music Video, New Album Out Now
Picking up steam from the smash acclaim of their new album Braille (Silent Cult Records), Palm Reader has released a new music video for their track ‘Inertia’. Featuring Matt Reynolds from Haggard Cat, you can watch the video below. Continue reading
Palm Reader – Braille
A wise man once said “Misery fucking loves me…”, and if you love misery, you should love Palm Reader. Three records in, the band are still producing the same miserablist Hardcore fans have come to expect from them, but this time around the riffs are harsher, the atmosphere is denser, and the lyrics are more poignant. Continue reading
Employed To Serve – Greyer Than You Remember
Whilst all the talk around ‘Technical’ Hardcore may well be surrounding Palm Reader at the moment, and deservedly so, don’t let that stop you exploring other releases of the same ilk. Delivering that violently erratic smash-mouth style a la The Dillinger Escape Plan, Employed To Serve’s breed of music will hit you square between the eyes right from the word go.
The opening few tracks pretty much set the tone for the rest of the album – the band doing their upmost to not go down a path whereby you can predict what comes next. They’ve shunned the idea of a ‘normal’ song structure and instead launch through complicated arrangements, and mind bending riffs. A lot of the time, this level of description ends up putting people off checking this kind of music out, and like many of the bands playing a similar style will attest to, it can take time to get in to it. If you take the time around an album like this you will feel rewarded and some of these tracks won’t just become fodder to skip through on shuffle. Alongside the Dillinger type vibes on this album, there is an all round sense of bleakness, something made instantly plain by the track names, ‘Watching Films To Forget I Exist’ and ‘Greyer Than You Remember’ serving as clear examples. The absolute star of the show across the album is vocalist Justine Jones who delivers a performance containing so much venom you get a genuine sense that had she not been involved it would have been a lesser album as a result.
Overall then, this is some seriously high quality Hardcore music, whether you want to throw them into the Technical Hardcore bracket or Post Hardcore, it doesn’t matter – Greyer Than You Remember (Holy Roar) genuinely an exciting album which will hopefully hoist Employed To Serve on to more of people’s radars.
8.5/10
TOM DONNO
Palm Reader – Beside The Ones We Love
Palm Reader are one of those bands who have been steadily bubbling under the surface in recent years. Their live shows have consistently impressed, and often outshine anything they’ve put down on record. Now whilst this is the common view with Palm Reader, wait until you hear Beside The Ones We Love (In At The Deep End). It may be considered a bit of a dark horse, but this is almost certainly looking like one of the albums of the year. Similar to the Architects release last year, this truly could be the album to explode them above surface and into the consciousness of a far larger audience.
Fundamentally the band are often tagged under the ‘Hardcore’ scene, but as soon as you throw this record on and ‘I Watched The Fire Chase My Tongue’ explodes into an absolute onslaught of noise you’ll immediately begin to draw comparisons to the Mathcore style of The Dillinger Escape Plan. That is because Palm Reader haven’t just produced stuff similar to what they’ve done before, they’ve taken their sound, expanded on it and struck absolute gold.
It doesn’t really let up either as ‘Pedant’ and ‘By The Ground We’ve Defined’ keep it rolling and pummelling into your face. Creatively on this record, Palm Reader have gone completely beyond what they’ve done in the past. You’ll listen back to this album a lot, not only because it is absolutely brilliant, but because with each listen you’ll still be surprised by each little twist and all the nuances, it constantly changes path down a road you don’t expect. Again this will easily ignite comparisons to the great Dillinger Escape Plan, but this album is that good, it truly is of that level. Because even despite all the frenzied powerful riffs throwing you all over the place there are still really anthemic chest pumping moments, most notably on ‘Sing Out, Survivor’.
When a band begins to build hype, and you’re not absolutely convinced on what they’re able to do to live up to it, there is no better feeling than hearing said band release a record which grabs that hype and throws a grenade in its mouth. Palm Reader’s stock will rise with the release of Beside The Ones We Love and it is absolutely what they deserve.
A phenomenal record from an extremely talented band.
9.0/10
TOM DONNO
Will Haven, Raging Speedhorn & Palm Reader UK Tour
Sacramento noise-merchants Will Haven bring their cascading, lurching live deep aural battery to the UK in May ahead of their impending Artery Records release Open The Mind To Discomfort
Main support comes from Corby’s greatest, Raging Speedhorn.
Opening act on the tour is Palm Reader, who will release their second opus of skull-splitting post-hardcore, Besides The Ones We Love via In At The Deep End on 6th April.
Ahead of the tour, Palm Reader have premiered a new track ‘By The Ground, We’re Defined’
Tour dates:
May 24: Sound Control – Manchester
May 25: Duchess – York
May 26: ABC 2 – Glasgow
May 27: Academy 2 – Newcastle
May 28: Rock City (Basement) – Nottingham