Browsing Tag

All Time Low

Far Below Perfect brought Hawthorne to even greater heights with their pop-punk LP, I’ve Been to Hell Before…

Posted on 26 April 2024

After teaming up with Pop Punk Wolf Records, Hawtorne’s Far Below Perfect is set to unveil his LP, I’ve Been to Hell Before…, which is cataclysmic enough in its cultivation of pop-punk evolution that the genre may never be the same again.

Starting with a glimpse into the Far Below Perfect live experience, the LP shifts into the hit, Isn’t Life Grand?, which echoes the influence of Blink-182 and Bowling for Soup, while the pop-punk agent provocateur blasts through their frenetically fierce progressions at a dizzyingly fast tempo, which only slows to inject some existential humour.

In Where’s Your Hero Now? Far Below Perfect continues to give the thrash pioneers a run for their frantic energy while working in elements which hark back to the legacy of the Beastie Boys. In the following track, Far Below Perfect finds their groove in groove metal while never loosening their grip on iconic emo aesthetics until the track culminates in a rallying cry for anyone who would rather die than surrender.

If anything comes close to a ballad, it is track five, April’s Fool, which injects melodic hooks around the agonised with ennui vocal lines before the following single, Headaches, exhibits the artist’s ability to weave progressive ingenuity into their hits. To conclude the LP, Far Below Perfect channels the bite of punk into the infectious volition of future-forward pop-punk in Be Fri Or St End, and ends the LP on an augmented high with On My Own, which proves that loneliness might be a curse, but people with enough resilience to endure isolation can’t be reckoned with. It’s quite the statement for a one-man pop-punk powerhouse to make.

The I’ve Been to Hell Before… LP will hit the airwaves on April 26th; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

.Wav Rider shares affectional agitation with Step Away, featuring Nikki Silva

Posted on 22 September 2021

To make sure that the listener’s heartstrings are well and truly tugged, alt-indie rock artist .Wav Rider’s latest acoustic single, Step Away, unravels as a heart-wrenching duet featuring vocals from Nikki Silva.

Step Away captures that fraught moment when the realisation that a situation is no longer healthy hits. Despite his sweet and affable indie pop-rock vocals, you feel every ounce of affectional agitation.

When Nikki Silva’s come into the choral and sun-bleached soundscape, the narrative becomes multifaceted, serving as a stark reminder that no matter how much time you spend with someone, or how well you know someone, there are some things that you will never see eye to eye on, mostly because you stop looking and want to turn away completely.

Any fans of Frank Turner, AJJ, Neck Deep and All Time Low won’t want to sleep on this release.

Step Away is now available to stream on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get acquainted with La Roma’s sonic sophomore single ‘Strangers’

Posted on 17 February 2021

After a successful debut with their single, ‘So Long, Adieu’, in 2020 Alt-Rock artist, La Roma, delivered their evocatively iron-wrought single ‘Strangers’ which captures the agony of social tethers tearing.

With sharp lyrics which reflect commonly thought but rarely spoken sentiments such as ‘what have I done to disturb you, it’s like I no longer fill the void in your day’, your soul’s capacity to feel will be well and truly be tested. If Strangers was released in 2019 it would be a raw hard-hitting release, but as it dropped in January 2021, while plenty of people were locked away in their rooms re-evaluating their relationships, it’s overwhelmingly resonant.

Any fans of Thrice, All Time Low, Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World will definitely want La Roma on their radar. Their nuanced take on Hard Rock comes complete with cuttingly angular guitars, intense percussion, viscerally restraint-less vocals and the sense that La Roma is going to take the scene by storm once COVID has finished destroying it.

Strangers is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast