Browsing Tag

Melodic Rock

Sweden’s Ember Street created the ultimate anthem for the disillusioned age with ‘Searching’

Posted on 18 November 2022

Taken from their debut album, Arrival, Ember Street’s cutting-edge hard rock lead single, Searching, is an affirming anthem for our disillusioned age. With touches of Billy Talent and Highly Suspect to the vocals that spill across the crunchy guitars, anthemic drums and basslines that tightly fit into the frenetically hooky furore of Searching, Ember Street evidently have what it takes to become one of Sweden’s premier hard rock bands.

After getting their rock stripes in various projects, the four-piece utilised their money-can’t-buy synergy in the creation of their debut album, Arrival, which has been in the works for over a decade. Clearly not ones for instant gratification or half-baked hits, Ember Street is one that many rock fans will want to walk down to get their heart-in-throat hard-rock fills.

The official lyric video premiered on November 4th; watch it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tin Zelkova achieved the heart-in-mouth and jaw-on-the-floor affect in their rock single, Soul Shaker

Posted on 31 October 2022

After the launch of their debut self-titled album, the three-piece rock powerhouse, Tin Zelkova, became one of the most refreshing names in the genre. The standout single, Soul Shaker delivers a tight rhythmic furore, complete with extended guitar solos and a sense of soul that has been scarcely seen since Soundgarden.

Steven Thompson’s melodically hook-rife vocal lines as a bright and intimate contrast to the murky and overdriven guitars is a mesmerising combination that will be an instant hit with any fans of Highly Suspect, Royal Blood and Badflower.

After writing more than 30 songs by the summer of 2021, the Louisville-based outfit distributed their demo EP and started gracing stages in their hometown. But my god, there’s nothing local about the gravitas in their sound.

Shortly after the release of their first studio-recorded single, they were airing across a plethora of radio stations and performing with the likes of Tantric, Texas Hippie Coalition, Local H, Resist & Bite, Native Sons and many others. If the music industry is still capable of crating iconic acts, my money is on these guys.

Soul Shaker was officially released on September 30th. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Down the Years get into the belly of the blackdog in their white-knuckle alt-rock hit, A Thousand Roses

Posted on 14 October 2022
Down The Years

After a promising debut, South-East London’s Down the Years led us down the rabbit hole of their atmospheric ingenuity with their sophomore single, A Thousand Roses. To say that you will feel ALL of the emotions during this white-knuckle ride through candour, all-consuming riffs, and 80s rock nostalgia is no understatement.

The evocatively sublime hit lyrically explores how depression can insidiously take hold of our ability to admit we’re at emotional rock bottom, while the cinematic styling gives you a panoramic view into the black dog’s Machiavellian ways. Starting with guitars railing against the bleeps of a life support machine, building into a rock anthem for the ages with progressive vocals and winding back down into an almost baroque outro was nothing short of stylistic and conceptual genius.

Caught between being galvanised between the masterfully immersive production and sobered by the outpour of demons that have surfaced for many as of late, emotions are hard to place during A Thousand Roses. The only thing that is for sure is that Down the Years is the powerhouse the UK alt scene has been waiting for.

A Thousand Roses was officially released on all major platforms on October 14th. Check it out via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

South Carolina’s Jimmy Swagg seeks salvation in his latest rock hit, St. Mary

Posted on 28 September 2022

After decorating The Whisky A Go-Go and The Viper Room with his righteous rock gravitas, one of the hottest acts in LA, Jimmy Swagg is here with his salvation-seeking melodic rock single, St. Mary.

St. Mary does away with the usual Rock n Roll cliches and makes a spiritual aura the centre of sonic gravity in the intricately paced admission of frailty, which never gives way to self-piteous ennui. Instead, Jimmy Swagg trailblazes with his canderous outpour of vulnerability that is laced in hope for redemption around the slick riffs and tension-building rhythm section. It is a sanity saver of a playlist staple if we ever heard one, and his international fanbase is more than inclined to agree.

St. Mary is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Holy Vulture unleashed their hook-rife alt-rock hit, I Can’t Help It

Posted on 10 September 2022
Holy Vulture

NYC Rock n Roll trio, Holy Vulture, relinquished all control in their latest melodically hook-rife single, I Can’t Help It. With the stabbing staccato rhythms courtesy of the bass and guitar, the tension-filled track efficaciously reflects the reality of powerlessness in the presence of an all-consuming paramour that strips us of our autonomy and replaces it with addiction to the source of the obsession. Who said romance was dead?

Since 2019, Holy Vulture has been bringing a brand-new frenetic rock flavour to the alt-rock scene. Sure, stylistic nods to the icons of rhythmic rock are there, but assimilation certainly isn’t the aim of Holy Vulture’s game.

I Can’t Help It will officially release on September 9th. Check it out for yourselves here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LUCID LIP soulfully speak on disillusion in their alt-rock single, Who Would Notice?

Posted on 30 July 2022
LUCID LIP

New York’s smoothest and synth-heavy alt-rock outfit, LUCID LIP, has unveiled their latest heartbreakingly smoky single, Who Would Notice? which taps into the same sense of disillusioned isolation that everyone with any degree of self-awareness has battled with lately.

The lyric, “What the hell does anyone want anyway?”, efficaciously captures the frustration of the irrationality of most of the people you encounter. While “I’m not here to sell my soul, but who would notice?” pulls you into the darkened ennui of depression’s grips. Metaphorically, of course.

Far more remarkably, nothing about the single resonates as self-piteous; there’s a comforting sense that the candour was used as a means of solidarity with the listener.

Who Would Notice? left the same evocative imprint as Incubus did on me back in my slightly less jaded teen years, with a touch of Faith No More’s The Real Thing (I don’t make Mike Patton references lightly).

Who Would Notice? will officially release on July 29th. Check it out on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Andy Hobson brought ascending melodicism to sonic meditation with his latest single, Rise

Posted on 8 July 2022
https://soundcloud.com/andyhobsonmusic/rise/s-P1ghFdxlrW2?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

The London, UK-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and spiritual teacher Andy Hobson is so much more than a diamond in the rough. With his latest single, Rise, he is the calm in the ever-calamitous storm that can’t seem to break away from our shores.

From the outro, you will feel some Nick Drake nostalgia. From there on out, the ethereal orchestral strings under the vibrantly ascending acoustic strings deliver heightened emotion exclusive to Hobson’s meditatively inventive take on alt-rock.

If you merged the plaintive sting of The Verve, the unrelenting compassionate tenacity of Nada Surf in their Let Go era with Radiohead-style gravitas and a burning sense of responsibility to spill the equanimity, the end result wouldn’t be too far away from the profound alchemy in Rise.

Here is what Andy Hobson had to say on his latest single:

“This is a bittersweet song about the passing of time and seeing the ups and downs of life as the same thing. Both can lead to new adventures. The song started as a dance track with big drums and a groovy bass line, but the emotion of the melody and lyrics didn’t really fit, so I stripped it back to acoustic guitar and wrote a haunting string section to give a final lift in the outro.”

Save a spot on your radar, as Hobson’s debut LP is due for release in 2023.

Rise, which was mastered by Stefano Ferracin and features Tom Meadows (Kylie/Will Young) on drums, is due for official release on July 8th, 2022. Check it out on Spotify & SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Spotlight Feature: Pinwheel Valley is artfully transcendent in his new EP, Hot Air Balloon

Posted on 6 July 2022

The alt-90s are definitively alive in the latest EP from the multifacetedly talented artist and songwriter Pinwheel Valley. From his studio in Cyprus, the award-winning and BBC-favourite artist delivered three melodic singles that toe the line between artful ingenuity and meditative transcendence.

The opening single, Horizon, carries reminiscences of BETA BAND, but via a 25-year wormhole with its languid guitar licks, groovy trip-hoppy drums and blissful boyband-style vocals.

Track two, Turning to Gold, is enough to throw you right back to the not-too-distant nostalgia of Doves’ There Goes the Fear with its lush, laid-back, bluesy laments and heartbreaking swoonsome melodies.

The final and eponymous track, Hot Air Balloon, boasts a more dynamic, choppy funk, which echoes The Bends era Radiohead via Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ more melodic syncopations.

Putting the context behind his singles, Pinwheel Valley said

“Horizon is a Citizen Cope / David Gilmor-esque inspired ode to tapping into one’s inherent free spirit, which commonly unearths in the lovers’ bond. It paints an image of a man that once swam with his beloved in the magic of a summer night’s sea and attempts to reconnect with the ubiquitous “baby how’s your day?”

Turning to Gold is a hymn of lovers as they traverse life’s highs and lows. It reaches into metaphysical spheres while weighing on the fact that bliss cannot be found when one is merely dreaming.

Hot Air Balloon is a metaphor for pregnancy. As the process unfolds, whereby a spirit permeates and rises into the boundless world, a Hot Air Balloon rises into the ether (where our thoughts drift and amalgamate).”

If any contemporary can unwrite all the false premises of capitalist romanticism and affirm that the beauty of love and life lies in the simplest of moments, it is Pinwheel Valley. He knows just how to bring his epiphanous concepts to life so that the sonic end result is just as mind-bending as his laureate-like revelations.

The Hot Air Balloon EP is now available to stream on Spotify, Bandcamp and YouTube.

Follow Pinwheel Valley on Facebook & Instagram

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LUXTHEREAL has unleashed the alt-rock soundtrack to our destruction, Humanity’s Fall

Posted on 26 June 2022

The latest single, Humanity’s Fall, from the Phoenix Arizona hailing artist LUXTHEREAL, sonically resonates like a sombre-breakup track but the only thing that has departed is the promise of an empire that will stand the test of our destruction. The concept is stunning; the execution of the atmospherically hooky harbinger is equally sublime.

With a touch of proto-punk, garage rock and post-punk, there is a protestive vein running right through the intrinsically melodic body of the single, which forces you to contemplate our failures. And sure, it’s nice to dissociate and shop for your favourite nerd items on Amazon while the anthropocene raises the temperature and the parasites with shoes, otherwise known as our world leaders, carve out a new ring of hell on this side of the earth’s crust, but we can only hide our heads in the sand for so long before they boil in there. Kudos to LUXTHEREAL for being true to their moniker and delivering raw realism.

Humanity’s Fall Remastered by LUXTHEREAL is available on SPOTIFY & ALL major streaming services, you can view the video here!

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Pop-punk pierces into hard-rock in Die Tired’s electrifyingly cathartic singe, Play

Posted on 21 June 2022

If it’s been a while since you’ve discovered an alt-rock track that tugs on the heartstrings as heavily as the rabid bass strings, prepare yourselves for the emotionally subjugating melodies in Die Tired’s latest single, Play, and leave the misery of responsibility behind.

With none of the pretension of a powerhouse and all of the talent, getting suckered into the anthemic soul of Play is non-optional. There are some serious virtuosic stripes through the hard-rock solos. But the filthy grungey distortion in the bass and Mathew DeAngelis’ vocals, which could send EVERY grown-up The All-American Rejects fan into swoon mode, the gravity of Play lingers in the giddying catharsis.

And if anyone is handing out awards for alluding-ly-clever monikers, it should be in Die Tired’s hands.

You can hear Play for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vanergast