“Nocturnal Beheading” - HKSPK
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Nocturnal Beheading” - HKSPK

From the frontlines of the German underground, HKSPK return with “Nocturnal Beheading”, a track that doesn’t just flirt with brutality — it lives in it. Pulled from their acclaimed 2025 EP The Human Butcher, the song is a vicious statement of intent from a band already making international waves less than two years after their formation near Frankfurt (Oder).

Read More
“All the Time” - Our Bones
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“All the Time” - Our Bones

With “All the Time,” Hudson Valley alt-rockers Our Bones deliver a song that’s both a howl and a heartbeat — a cathartic, tightly wound anthem about being human when everything feels like it’s falling apart.

Read More
“Lone Wolf” - Chosen Undead
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Lone Wolf” - Chosen Undead

Rising from the quiet town of Hainburg near Frankfurt, Chosen Undead are proving that even from the calmest corners can come the loudest storms. Formed in 2024, this five-piece has already carved a name for themselves in Germany’s rapidly evolving metalcore landscape — not just through technical ferocity, but through an emotional and melodic depth that cuts deeper than most.

Read More
“Arrival of the Ethereal” - AGAM
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Arrival of the Ethereal” - AGAM

When Agam first appeared on the scene in the late 2000s, they already felt like a glimpse of the future — a bridge between the precision of Carnatic music and the emotion-driven chaos of progressive rock.

Read More
“The Miseducation of MMA Volume 3” - David Potter
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“The Miseducation of MMA Volume 3” - David Potter

When satire meets spectacle, you get David Potter — and his latest album, The Miseducation of MMA Volume 3, is nothing short of chaos wrapped in genius. Released on September 26, 2025, this final installment of Potter’s wild trilogy is a full-throttle, Broadway-meets-cage-fight fever dream — biting, hilarious, and, at times, uncomfortably true.

Read More
“Shipwrecked” - Red Skies Dawning
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Shipwrecked” - Red Skies Dawning

“Shipwrecked” is the kind of debut single that doesn’t just introduce a band—it detonates their arrival. Red Skies Dawning, the heavier, modern rock rebirth of Chris Aleshire’s Red Skies Mourning project, wastes no time in laying down their mission statement: hard-hitting riffs, cinematic production, and lyrics that stare heartbreak, collapse, and rebirth square in the eye.

Read More
“Stardust Bear Bazaar, Pt. 1” - New Laconia
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Stardust Bear Bazaar, Pt. 1” - New Laconia

With “Stardust Bear Bazaar,” Ukrainian project New Laconia doesn’t just drop a single — they throw open the door to an entire music-driven multiverse. Forget the usual “track + video” formula; this is a fully-fledged story world where the music is just as much narrative fuel as it is sonic pleasure.

Read More
“Flat Circle” - HMRC
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Flat Circle” - HMRC

There’s nothing polite about HMRC — and that’s exactly what makes them essential. The Newcastle four-piece have been building a reputation as one of the sharpest, most politically biting bands to rise out of the UK’s current chaos, and their latest single, Flat Circle, shows a new side of that rage: the existential one.

Read More
“Lost & Found 1981-1985” - Personal Column
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Lost & Found 1981-1985” - Personal Column

There’s a certain kind of magic when music you thought was lost to the passage of time suddenly resurfaces decades later — not as a nostalgia trip, but as a reminder that great songs never really age. That’s exactly the case with Lost & Found 1981–1985, the long-overdue collection from Liverpool’s Personal Column, a band that once seemed on the brink of making it big but ended up slipping through the cracks of the industry machine.

Read More
“Eyes” - SickRichard
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Eyes” - SickRichard

London’s SickRichard aren’t messing around with their sixth single. Eyes doesn’t creep in quietly — it smacks you in the face from the first bar, a storm front of urgency and atmosphere that feels like being pulled into a black hole of alt-rock intensity. It’s heavy, it’s haunted, but at its core, it’s also deeply human — a song about fear, rejection, vulnerability, and the bruised process of learning to trust yourself again.

Read More
“In My Head (The Live Album)” - Romain Swan & The Raindrops
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“In My Head (The Live Album)” - Romain Swan & The Raindrops

Some bands sound good on record. Some bands sound good live. And then there are the rare ones who need the stage to fully make sense — where every lyric, every riff, every drum hit feels like it was built to be shouted into a room of strangers who somehow know exactly what you’re going through. Romain Swan & The Raindrops fall squarely in that last category. Their first live album, In My Head (The Live Album), is both proof and celebration of that fact.

Read More
“Dark Days” - Machine on a Break
Feature Iain Johnson Feature Iain Johnson

“Dark Days” - Machine on a Break

Sometimes a song doesn’t just sound heavy — it feels heavy, like the weight of its riffs and words is pressing down on your chest. That’s exactly the sensation you get when you put on “Dark Days”, the latest single from Canberra’s own pop-metal disruptor, Machine on a Break. Part confession, part battle cry, this track fuses pounding double-kick drums, serrated drop-tuned guitars, and unsettling synths into a piece of music that sounds as brooding as the story behind it.

Read More