Browsing Tag

Grunge Rock

You Dirty Blue revived vintage blues rock with their renegade of a hit, Humming

Posted on 5 November 2024

‘Humming’ by You Dirty Blue thrashed into the blues rock scene with a rare ferocity that barrels through the annals of music history. This single reverberates with the raw, unrefined essence of 70s rock, encapsulated by fuzzy guitar riffs and raucous vocals that snarl with renegade charm. It’s a rhythmically infectious track that knocks polished modern rock productions off their pedestals and replaces them with something that resonates with the spirit of old-school rock.

You Dirty Blue, a powerhouse duo from Tamworth, have been igniting venues across the UK with their explosive live shows. Their music is steeped in the DIY ethos of grunge and blues, infused with a punchy punk twist that makes each performance unforgettable. Humming is a new chapter in the duo’s legacy with its heady rush of rock’s golden era aesthetics and modern ferocity. If you’ve been pining for the days of raw, unapologetic rock music, get your kicks that are guaranteed to leave a lasting mark.

Humming was officially released on November 1st; stream the single on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Whiskey Knights called ‘Time’ in Their Rhythmically Rendered Rock Hit

Posted on 19 July 2024
The Whiskey Knights

The Whiskey Knights struck all the right nerves with their latest single, Time. The Surrey-hailing hard rock revenant outfit deconstructed the concept of time with their latest tour de force by exploring its relentless grip on our mortal coil, its power to strip away memories, and its refusal to guarantee change or healing.

From the solid rhythm section and baying guitars to the electrifying vocal performance, Time showcases The Whiskey Knights as a formidable triple threat. The track’s grungy undertones amplify the intensity of the universally relatable emotions, creating an immersive experience that is as visceral as it is compelling. There’s no room for nostalgia here; The Whiskey Knights are reviving the reasons we fell in love with rock – its ability to translate the rawest facets of the human experience into pulsating furore.

Having formed in 2013 and hailing from Camberley, Surrey, The Whiskey Knights have built a diverse discography, including two studio albums, one EP, a live album, and a demo. Their sound, a mixture of hard rock, punk rock, indie rock, and pop rock, continues to evolve, with Time testifying to their chameleonic songwriting chops.

If Time hits this hard on the airwaves, brace yourself for the colossal impact when you see The Whiskey Knights perform the single that solidifies their place in the hard rock pantheon.

Time will officially drop on July 19; stream the single on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

O Odious Ones took us on an electrifying journey from gutter punk frenzy to the agony of old flames in their EP, Fluffer

Posted on 30 January 2024

Only O Odious Ones could start an EP with a riotous gutter punk track titled Fuck Me in the Pit and make You Can’t Tame an Old Flame the swan song of the record. The closing cadence finds the evocative potential within an amalgam of sludgy melancholy and artfully affecting melodic indie as they lament the ill fate of a relationship you can’t rekindle.

With touches of Sonic Youth in the tinged with no-wave grungy production, O Odious Ones proved that they can handle aching elucidations as well as fervid frenzy. The same electricity that opens the Fluffer EP tears through You Can’t Tame an Old Flame, which may be more subdued and restrained, but O Odious Ones always find a way to make an ever-lasting impact with their releases, which have now culminated in a dynamic discography, which definitively proves that the only thing you can expect as a constant is visceralism.

The Fluffer EP is now available to stream in full on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Devil Next Door came in red hot in their grungy blues rock debut EP, Into the Fire

Posted on 21 October 2023

Devil Next Door slicked their sleazy blues rock signature with gasoline and sludged it up with Alice in Chains-esque grunge before setting the airwaves alight with their debut EP, Into the Fire.

The eras revisited in the title single may be rooted in nostalgia, but the Mallorcan prodigal sons found a fresh way to revive them by leaning on modernist effects while infusing plenty of their own captivating charisma. It always bodes well when you sense that an alt-rock act can command a stage; Devil Next Door have the kind of magnetic draw that would make an army of marionette puppets out of their live audiences.

By finding influence in everyone from Foo Fighters to Royal Blood to Soundgarden, the cross-appeal of this devilishly promising debut couldn’t be stronger. With an intent to free sonically free themselves and subsequently their fans, if you’re looking for alt-rock escapism, lose yourself in the high-octane and infectiously catchy hard rock hits and keep your eyes peeled for the next installation of monolithic mayhem.

Into the Fire was officially released on September 13; stream it in full on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

BEES! captured the idiocracy of the human race in their riffy discordant hit, A Thousand Times

Posted on 26 September 2022

“I’m so openminded my head is hollow” has to be up there as one of the greatest lyrical openers of all time, and that’s just the start of the onslaught of ingenuity in the latest single, A Thousand Times, from the Philly-based alt-rock outfit, BEES!

There is enough distorted discord in the riffy choruses to give Nine Inch Nails a run for their money, but it is safe to say that Trent Reznor could never pull off the same goofy lyrical style as BEES in their new EP, which features A Thousand Times as a lead single.

A Thousand Times takes a cathartic stab at the type of ingrates that dig their heels into progression and drag it backwards with their tendency to lap up misinformation. As if we didn’t love BEES! enough by this point, they also throw a reference to the iconic “this is fine” dog in the fire meme to epitomise the sorry state of our current climate.

A Thousand Times is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Miss Kill sharpened their knives in their evocatively jagged alt-90s revival EP, Don’t Tell Me Twice

Posted on 18 September 2022

Few artists create a route back to the 90s as creatively as the Bristol sister duo, Miss Kill. Their debut EP, Don’t Tell Me Twice, hits the sonic Seattle mark just as well as it channels the emotional energy of the golden era of raw, sludgy anthems.

I’ve seen countless bios attesting to the influence of Hole, Pearl Jam and Placebo from artists too evocatively inadept to revive that clawingly consuming candour, not Miss Kill. Even the non-lexical vocals are a skeleton key to insecure soul. Each track on the 5-track release affirms the power of their tenaciously heart-breaking songwriting talent that feels so viscerally comforting in a time of such little relative comfort.

One of the lead singles from the EP, All You Gotta Do, kicks up a tumultuous storm of frustration around artful alt-rock instrumentals while the vocals unfalteringly stretch across the melancholic landscape that deserves to be firmly implanted on the playlists you turn to in protest to the exhausting unfulfillment of life and everything it has to throw at you.

Don’t Tell Me Twice was officially released on September 16th. Sink into it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Dirty Modal Souls went in search of adequate vernacular in their Brit-Grunge anthem, What’s the Word?

Posted on 15 August 2022

In their first release of 2022, the Brit-Grunge trio, Dirty Modal Souls, catapulted us right back to the alt-90s. Lyrically, What’s the Word? is a snarlingly electric hook-constructed continuation of Cameo’s Word Up. Instrumentally, it’s a transatlantic riot of rugged basslines, cataclysmic breaks and guitars which express as much chagrin as the rancorous guitars.

If Faith No More hailed from this side of the pond, their earlier work would carry ample reminiscence to What’s the Word, which doesn’t lose the quintessentially British style of lament. That riled energy rubs up against the Seattle sound to create universal appeal.

What’s the Word is now available to stream on Spotify and purchase on Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Elegant Chasers created a high-IQ-sanctuary in his latest scuzzy alt-rock hit, Clowns

Posted on 15 April 2022
The Elegant Chasers

For anyone that finds themselves frequently in despair over just how deep the IQ-deprived antagonists drag us down into late-stage capitalist suffering, The Elegant Chasers’ latest scuzzy alt-rock single, Clowns, will bring a slight reprieve from the crushing weight.

The harbingering guitar solos, the sense of carnivalesque chaos and the distortedly enigmatic yet hooky alt-rock vocals pull together in the high-voltage protest to the idiocrasy that resounds more than most things these dystopic days. Here’s what The Elegant Chasers had to say about his latest release:

“It’s easy to dwell. To be angry and upset about situations that have conspired against you. To feel cheated. It’s even easier when this has happened more than once. Then paranoia kicks in, those who transpired against you will massage the paranoia and try and blame anyone but the culprits – i.e., themselves. The reality is it’s hard to shake off that feeling. Inevitably time is a healer, but it still feels that justice was never served. Clowns was written in 1st person but taking on the role of The Company Man for most of the song…The Clown! Lyrically I took inspiration from the people that hurt me most in the last 6 years. People who I thought I could trust. But it was just the same old story, just like many of you who have suffered under the corporate kings, rogues, rats, fools, the pretenders, the charlatans, the clowns. Call them what you like, they deliver the same outcome, a stab in the back, and quite often you’re thrown out to the wolves.”

Clowns will officially release on April 22nd. You can check it out for yourselves via Bandcamp and SoundCloud.

Follow The Elegant Chasers via Instagram and Twitter.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The alt-rock powerhouse, Silence in Surrender, is ‘Coming Up’ in the first single to be released from their forthcoming album.

Posted on 4 March 2022

South West London’s riffiest prodigal sons of hard rock, Silence in Surrender, have teased what it is to come in their forthcoming album with the release of the first single, Coming Up.

As soon as I hit play, the virtuosic furore shunted me right back to the early 00s metal and hard rock scene; as the dynamic track progresses, they keep the instrumental curveballs coming with the infusion of thrash and the Seattle sound.

I never thought I would see the day when a track could appease fans of Mastodon, Bring Me the Horizon, Faith No More, Velvet Underground and Pixies simultaneously, but Silence in Surrender delivered that and a whole lot more with Coming Up. It appears that they’re the only one that got the memo about bringing the sex appeal back to rock too – the guitar solos should come with an X-Rating.

Coming Up is due for release on March 4th. You can check out the official music video via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The silence is deafening in Shadow Box’s alt-90s hard rock hit, Without a Word.

Posted on 11 August 2021

Alt-rock outfit, Shadow Box, made its debut in 2021 with their album, Flat Moon. The lead single, Without a Word, will quickly become a playlist staple for fans of Faith No More, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. (I don’t make Mike Patton comparisons easily.) If someone told me that Without a Word was a lost relic from the alt-90s, I’d believe them; the panoramic anthem pulls you in with the intensity of the emotion poured over tight melodic instrumentals.

Shadow Box formed when Mike Roman (guitars, vocals, keyboards) and Mike Rajinone (guitars and vocals) fused their respective hard rock and folk-rock styles. Any difference between them quickly became aural chemistry. We can’t wait to hear what follows.

Check out the debut album on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast