Browsing Tag

grunge

iODYNES became the prodigal sons of compassionate rancour with their alt-rock hit, Know You’re Not Alone 

Posted on 12 August 2023

Nostalgically running in the grungy vein of Soundgarden’s Rusty Cage, the primal outpour of compassionate rancour, Know You’re Not Alone, by iODYNES is a hard-hitting sign of the alienating times and one of the strongest alt-rock debuts we’ve heard this year.

To diminish the melancholic tinges within the vignette that offers a high-octane olive branch to the ostracised, the North Scotland-hailing three-piece threw in a few punchy Paramore and Biffy Clyro-esque pop-punk hooks and blended them with melodic rock increments that reminisce with stylings popularised by Foo Fighters.

The recording of their debut single is as viscerally animated as you could possibly hope for with the gravitas in the tightly knit grooves and punchy breaks. We can only imagine how exhilarating a live set from iODYNES would be. Grab your tickets while you can still see them in intimate venues.

Know You’re Not Alone is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The dust of desert rock gelled with the sludge of grunge in Jeremy Phillips & The Ozark Grunge’s latest single, Hell Into Home

Posted on 31 July 2023

We’ve scarcely returned to the 21st century after revisiting the 90s with Jeremy Phillips & The Ozark Grunge’s single, Crazy. Proving that they’re more than just a one-trick sonic pony, they’ve dropped another nostalgia atom bomb with their lamentatively exhilarating single, Hell Into Home.

If Kurt Cobain had a little more of a Southern twang to his vocal lines and arrestively brashy swagger to his guitar hooks, Nirvana’s seminal hits would have swum in the very same vein as this epitome of an earworm.

The tight instrumentation lends itself effortlessly well to the grungily cosmic songwriting that entices you into the centre of the dusty-with-desert-rock-atmospherics hit that mourns the loss of a home becoming a house in the absence of the person that made the brick-and-mortar a place worth coming back to.

Stream Hell Into Home, which was officially released on July 21, via Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The lo-fi sludgy rock raconteur Reel Boy’s sophomore hit Julissa is just like honey

Posted on 30 July 2023

After making himself well known on the Utah touring circuit in the outfits My Dad the Astronaut, MoonSugar, Doll and A 1/2, and Indie Seoul, Jayson HaslamBrock took to the centre stage and went solo in his new alt indie rock project, Reel Boy.

With authentic and intentionally imperfect vocals that will be a hit with Teenage Fanclub and Dinosaur Jr. fans and simple yet hooky pop choruses that transpire after the minimalist chord progressions, his sophomore release, Julissa, is just like honey – literally. The same sweetly sombre textural distortion that made The Jesus and Mary Chain hit so indulgently unforgettable becomes the central gravity in Julissa.

It isn’t your average earworm, but it will stick with you long beyond the outro all the same for Reel Boy’s tenaciously songwriting chops that are sharp enough to seal his illustrious fate in the industry.

Julissa is now available to stream via Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

djamesk13- She Rides in Secret: grungily Lynchian psychedelic Britpop

Posted on 27 July 2023

For his latest single, She Rides in Secret, the alt-rock artist, djamesk13, orchestrated a scintillating installation of grungily Lynchian psychedelic Britpop.

Finding the middle ground between Pixies, Stone Roses, the Psychedelic Furs, and the pioneers of darkly dissonant post-punk, She Rides in Secret is a hypnotic aural effigy to authenticity, inexplicably carved by one of the boldest experimentalists that we have had the pleasure of putting on our radars in recent years.

The moodily sludgy lo-fi propensities of She Rides in Secret may not be anyone’s cup of tea, but if you’d prefer to lose yourself in a sonic storm in a teacup, delve right into the seductive soundscape that will caress you with its succinct melodies and wistful romanticism.

She Rides in Secret was officially released on July 17th; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

HeadWar say R.I.P. to cognitive autonomy in their rancorous installation of grunge-punk ‘Sheep (2023)’

Posted on 18 July 2023

Don’t wage war; wage HeadWar by listening to the Madison WI-residing grunge-punk trio’s latest single, ‘Sheep (2023)’. While saying R.I.P. to cognitive autonomy, the trio pulled out their heaviest instrumental artillery before sludging it up to the nth degree to replicate the chaos currently breeding in socio-political landscapes across the globe.

While I wasn’t all too convinced by the idea that hard times breed good music before, HeadWar is headstrong enough in their vindication to create an irrefutable testament to the adage. With Dalton Aerts ensuring that his vocals are just as savage as his guitars, Sam Tisue paying homage to the drum fills that make Metallica so ferociously cathartic, and Kyle Eith making the rhythm section as tight as possible; for three minutes, Sheep (2023) may convince you to stop banging your head off the wall and bang to the sonic absolution instead.

Add Sheep (2023) to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Every Glazer has unleashed their Orwellian post-grunge protest, Lesser Men

Posted on 18 July 2023

Industrial rock meets post-grunge and riotously protestive RATM-esque alt-rock in the latest single, Lesser Men, from the experimental solo artist, The Every Glazer.

Describing their music as audio glue for a fractured world tells you all you need to know about the MO of the musician and recording artist who uses his talent to give a glimmer of hope in our dystopia that has manifested via Orwellian fiction.

Just as it has done for millennia, music has united us and scribed our stories; Lesser Men is a continuation of that tradition, which affirms as dark as the days seem, curtains haven’t quite closed on humanity yet, regardless of the corruption, greed, devastation, and oppression; as long as society’s swan song plays, there’s no reason to give up your dog in the fight and down tools when we can better the world in the same way The Every Glazer did with Lesser Men.

The official music video for Lesser Men is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Holy Gloam borrowed from Dinosaur Jr in their melancholic shoegaze serenade, Used for Falling

Posted on 15 July 2023

Making an authentic mark on the Shoegaze landscape where so many chorally dissonant signatures have been scribed is no easy feat; Holy Gloam succeeded all the same with their latest single, Used for Falling.

The vulnerable vocal lines become the soft sonic underbelly of the sludged-to-the-nines single, which uses clamorously effect-laden guitars to visualise the rancorous paths of descent our minds can take us down and sweeten the vocal harmonies in texturally sublime contrast. Sharpening the teeth of the melancholy is lyrical diehard romanticism, which paints a portrait of unconditional affection which distance and disconnection can’t diminish.

With their ability to invite their listeners into such evocatively compelling soundscapes which play the heartstrings as intricately and intimately as the guitars, the North Wales/NW England five-piece clearly have a bright future ahead of them. They have already been making major waves since songwriter Julian Neale founded the outfit in 2021; they’ve become staples in the NW touring circuit and their debut album, Small Nothings, was longlisted by Welsh Music Prize. Watch this space for more major moves from the scintillating evocateurs.

Used for Falling was officially released on July 7th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Skip Seattle and Go to the Ozarks for Your 90s Grunge with Jeremy Phillips’ Latest Single, Crazy

Posted on 5 July 2023

Country and Grunge rarely collide, but when they do, as proven by the latest single, Crazy, from Jeremy Phillips and The Ozark Grunge, evocative firestorms spark in the gruff vocal timbre and southern rock riffs, which will take you higher than a billionaire in space.

With the raucousness scouring the soul in Crazy, the hit is rough around all the right edges, but at its core, it’s a heartfelt release strong enough to pick you up off the floor if you reach to it in your lowest moments.

While the lyrics allude to how love is one of the only acceptable forms of madness, the blazingly tight instrumentals, which will throw you right back to the 90s, sell sludged-up sanctuary. While so many artists are keen to assimilate the Seattle grunge sound, Jeremy Phillips proves the distortion sounds just as sweet in the Ozarks.

Crazy is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns harbingered the ‘Beginning of the End’ in their expansively influenced single

Posted on 5 July 2023

Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns may be alt-country at their core, which their single, Beginning of the End, efficaciously signifies but written into the rich tapestry of a single are elements are folk, grunge, psych and new wave indie to create a genre-bending odyssey.

Their stylistic fluidity is one thing; the way they allow emotion to drive the momentum and paint a panoramic portrait of the human psyche and all that defiles and uplifts it is quite another. The Beginning of the End takes a raw and real anxiety for the people prolifically questioning the sustainability of our societies and enraptures the listener away from it all with the unshackling nature of the stellar songwriting.

Beyond the Slash-style soaring guitar solos, the Eddie Vedder-esque gruff vocal timbre, the gangly indie melodies that will appease any fans of the Psychedelic Furs, and the rugged folk elements which reminisce with the tones made iconic by the Levellers lies the true beauty of Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns. For your own sake, experience it for yourselves.

Beginning of the End, along with their latest album, Monarch Sessions, from which it was taken, is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cork’s prodigal sons of hard rock Outsound obliterated the boundaries between metal and grunge in ‘Adeline’

Posted on 3 July 2023

The debut LP, Megatherium, from the Irish hard rock raconteurs, Outsound, is finally upon us. After outgrowing their roots as a Chris Cornell tribute act and forming Outsound in 2018, the powerhouse has moved from strength to strength in their illustrious career following a string of successful independently released singles.

Blurring the lines between grunge, heavy metal, blues and hard rock, the standout single from the LP, Adeline, is a rhythmically fierce firestorm, which twists a FNM-style bass-driven intro into a syncopated stream of prog rock before the blazing guitars start cutting the record with virtuosic chops and the bouncing breakdowns bring the energy.

At the eye of the sonic storm lies the harmonised vocal lines that wrap themselves around lyrics that are enough to give Keats a run for his money. Songs named after women don’t always hit the universally resonant mark, but rather than lusting or lamenting over a protagonist, Outsound used Adeline as an opportunity to verse nihilistically romantic poetry which beds down into the beauty of the macabre.

Stream Adeline on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast