This almost didn’t happen. Oxford’s TTNG (the artists formerly known as This Town Needs Guns) have been through some stresses and strains since their last album and the shifting line-up here shows it. A guitarist and singer are out and former Pennines frontman Henry Tremain is in. Oh, and the whole shebang could have been [...]

‘Bushcraft’ is alive, it breathes, but only the blackest breaths, and it swells and heaves with sick imagery and sicker sounds. Hissing venom, squealing feedback, the barks of mad dogs and the bellows of madder men all echo through the first full-length from Vancouver quartet Baptists, and the violence threatens to bubble over, flood into [...]

There’s a reason why this has featured in exactly zero end-of-year top-ten lists. In the near-decade since Parkway Drive exploded into the metal scene with ‘Killing with a Smile’, the Australian outfit have consistently struggled to replicate the sizzling intensity of that superb debut. Sure, they’ve played better and better live shows at bigger and [...]

It still ain’t broke. It still doesn’t need fixing. The Acacia Strain’s unstoppable groove machine might sound stuck on repeat for some, but if the band have ever scratched your itch for apocalyptic metal, ‘Death Is The Only Mortal’ should continue to satisfy. This is another soundtrack to the end of days. Any fear that [...]

Single serving metal, this. Expect one potent, effective, but ultimately small, punch and you won’t be disappointed. Originally a side project for members of It Prevails, this Oregon four-piece have gone full-time and full-bore for album number three. There is nothing new in the squealing feedback, chunky riffs, pounding rhythms or feral roars of these [...]

Despite having been around for five years and a handful of releases now, Troubled Coast have never quite got their shit together. They’ve been on the right lines, sure, but no single element of their poetic hardcore was elite. They seemed destined to be one of those perennial support bands, another group left on the [...]

This is classy. The sneakily-self-titled ‘Your Love’ is neat, tidy and tightly packed. Oh, it won’t blow any socks off but Tu Amore don’t really put a foot wrong here either. And for the debut material from a band barely a year old, that’s pretty bloody impressive. The Peterborough quartet make an impact early as [...]

The formula here might be familiar- South coast quintet Acres mould their post-metal mini-epics from slow-motion riffs, soaring melodies and raw emotion- but the end results are rare indeed. Sure, they do everything you’d expect from a band citing Devil Sold His Soul and This Will Destroy You as influences, they colour inside the lines, [...]

There will be two schools of thought here. Those that feel Gallows lost an x-factor when pocket dynamo Frank Carter stepped down as frontman and might even refuse to listen to this record, and those that think the band gained a final key ingredient with the appointment of former Alexisonfire man Wade MacNeil and will [...]

This is slick. Really slick. Sugary too. It could be a pop album, straight-up chart-bothering pop. But somehow the debut record from Bedford four-piece Don Broco isn’t sickly, sticky sweet but awesomely addictive. Like the best candy it’s simple and effective, so while there are no big surprises or experimental flavours here, there are big [...]