Sløtface – Happy
When her bandmates amicably left Norwegian pop-punk band Sløtface earlier this year to pursue other careers, singer Haley Shea wasn’t ready to let her project die, taking on a leading role in a looser collaborative structure. New single ‘Happy’ is an anthem for anyone going through tough times, with relatable verses about wanting to get away from it all and a chorus of gang vocals shouting “I just wanna feel happy!”. Shea breaks down her fears in front of a riffy guitar and synth backdrop, which lovers of British indie punk contemporaries like Fresh, Muncie Girls and Nervus will find familiar, before building up to an immense, shouted chorus. ‘Happy’ feels like a continuation and evolution of Sløtface’s previous work, driving towards a slightly more mature and experimental sound, embracing lo-fi drum beats and synth textures to compliment their upbeat pop-punk style. – Tom Bruce
L.S. Dunes – Bombsquad
After setting the global scene alight with their previous two singles, post-hardcore’s hottest supergroup L.S. Dunes are back with their third incendiary single ‘Bombsqaud’. Taken from their upcoming debut LP Past Lines – released November 11th via Fantasy Records – ‘Bombsquad’ see’s the members of My Chemical Romance, Coheed and Cambria, Thursday and Circa Survive forgoing all pretence to deliver a fiery and impassioned slab of classic post-hardcore that’s void of any overwhelming similarities to any member’s main act. Naturally though, motifs from the aforementioned acts are present in this track; the fretwork of Coheed guitarist Travis Stever adds a touch of progression to the mix, Frank Iero sharpens the edge of the track with a sense of classic emo rebellion and the signature bellows of Circa Survive vocalist Anthony Green further bolsters the post-hardcore delivery that binds not only this single, but the band’s output thus far. Make no mistake, this certainly isn’t a project reliant on it’s lofty credentials; ‘Bombsquad’ is proof that L.S. Dunes certainly have their own sound that needs to be heard. – Dan Hillier
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Terror’s Pillow
Northern doom-noise gang Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (yes it is still seven Pigs) are back to destroy your ear drums with new track ‘Terror’s Pillow’. Released this week via a live version from their spiritual home of Blank Studios, it most likely comes with a dangerous decibel level when recording. The opening notes reminiscent of an old office printer spitting out that carefully worded memo you’ve poured over. The track builds as smoke and flames slowly fill the room that is your ear canals. This is Pigs at their best. Simplicity and as much heaviness as they can cram into five minutes. – Adam Vallely
JOHN – Theme New Bond Junior
From the darkness of the stickiest of DIY venues JOHN have continually impressed and fine-tuned their craft. This new single is a perfect example of Johhny Healey’s fuzz, dirt laden rhythmic riffage alongside his John-in arms, Newton’s, drumming which keeps the duo’s musical journey steam on. John Newton’s distinct gruff vocals are the ever-essential element to the raw nature of their sound and delivery of the important nature of his lyrics. In this case the “speed of consumption: this includes both the constant update/obsolescence of physical products and their resulting effect on the human attention span.” – Adam Vallely
Darkthrone – Caravan Of Broken Ghosts
With the release of the band’s forthcoming new record Astral Fortress now less than a meagre week away, black metal’s most consistent entity Darkthrone are heralding it’s approach with their latest single ‘Caravan Of Broken Ghosts’. A full embodiment of the vintage and timeless sound that the duo helped pioneer, the odyssian eight minute track circumvents the negative stereotypes commonly associated with second wave black metal and instead taps into the ice-encased purities that make the work of Darkthrone so alluring even after all these years. In true vein of the band, there’s no gambled musical experiments here, just a frosted mirage of black, doom and heavy metal that serves as the crux of Darkthrone’s eclectic and classic sound. – Dan Hillier
Clean Cut Kid – She Takes A Pill
An ever effervescent and crucial entity within the national lo-fi scene, Liverpool’s Clean Cut Kid are back with the calming and pacifying ‘She Takes A Pill’. Taken from their forthcoming record HISS – due for release November 11th via Alcopop! Records – ‘She Takes A Pill’ is a soothing and charming addressal of the stigma revolving around antidepressants and the subject mental health as a whole. Driven by husband-and-wife Mike and Eleyvan Hall’s reassuring vocals and the further dainty folk instrumentation of Ross Higginson and Gareth Bullock, the song is one that solidifies the fact that one’s battles with mental health are not one’s identity and is not a subject that one should be ashamed of. “My wife Evelyn is the kindest, sweetest, and most magnetic person I’ve ever met. Like a lot of people out there, she takes antidepressants”, states Mike Hall on the tack. “I know there are certain points in her life where the thought of relying on medication to feel stable can weigh heavily on how she feels about herself. ‘She Takes A Pill’ is my attempt at turning what is often stigmatised into a source of pride and beauty. The medication has nothing to do with who she is, it just lets all her brighter parts shine a little more.” – Dan Hillier
Foreign Hands – Tearing Down Your Reality
One of the more exciting metallic hardcore bands to appear in the last few years are Foreign Hands. After releasing the fantastic Bleed The Dream EP earlier this year, they’re back with another new single. ‘Tearing Down Your Reality’ boasts production by Will Putney and his dense style compliments their music superbly. The song kicks off straight away, with no build up. The pummelling drums and harsh, aggressive vocals combine to get the blood pumping from the off. The breakdowns are heavy, the riffs are frantic, and they’re complimented by some soaring clean vocals which tie the song together. This band are a mashup of early Killswitch Engage style musicianship and Poison The Well lyrics and emotion. This track doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but when it’s this much fun it doesn’t need to. A song that wouldn’t feel out of place in 2003 (In the best possible way). – Chris Earl
Bonecarver – Carnage Funeral
“Blackened symphonic” are the adjectives in vogue in deathcore. With their sophomore album on the way, Bonecarver are carving a path to join Lorna Shore and Worm Shepherd at the top of the pack. ‘Ancient Atrocity’ is the second single from their upcoming effort Carnage Funeral. Their first single (the eponymous ‘Carnage Funeral’) proved they can do destructive symphonic core. ‘Ancient Atrocity’, with del Villar’s buzzsaw vocals, allows them to claim the blackened aspect. The lyrics, a hair clumsy and heavy-handed at times, are nonetheless full of Indiana-Jones-via-American-Gothic terror. Marching riffs and pounding drums pull you along between towering walls as you search for your heart’s desire, avoiding traps and ancient evils. But this is deathcore; you don’t get to make it out alive. – Josiah Aden
The Used – Fuck You
Songs titled ‘Fuck You’ are not usually profound, and the new single from The Used on Big Noise Records is no different. The emo royalty’s twenty-plus years of experience on the pop-punk circuit have served them well, though, and if catharsis is all you can ask from a song titled ‘Fuck You’, The Used deliver it in spades. Their 2020 album Heartwork tastefully integrated electronics into their sound, and ‘Fuck You’ applies them even more artfully for a beefier sound that retains the energy of classic The Used. Jeph Howard’s bass bounces up and down as Joey Bradford’s guitar weaves in and out, providing an engaging set for Bert McCracken’s fragile, howling vocals to take center stage, backed up by Dan Whitesides’ powerful drumming. Pop punk has never been the world’s most mature genre, but The Used prove it can still be one of the most cathartic. – Josiah Aden
Skin Failure – Sleeveless Jesus / The Void
Another double headed preview of incoming album Radillac, ‘Sleeveless Jesus/The Void’ is a devilish taster of what’s to come from Skin Failure. The accompanying video gives a snapshot of the chaos the sleeveless, mullet shaving rabble caused at their live outing ArcTanGent and will undoubtedly bring on the road with label mates InTechnicolour in November. This track plays many of the cards they have to hand: riffs that have chugged as much beer as they did Friday night, pummelling drums and the crazy vocal range of Will Gardner. The central epic build is face meltingly wonderful as they transition into the latter part of the track. This is two middle fingers squarely up at you and yours served up with a cheeky side smile. – Adam Vallely
Dream State – Taunt Me
Welsh post-hardcore outfit Dream State took the world by storm in 2017-8 with their emotive, catchy Recovery EP with viral hits ‘White Lies’ and ‘In This Hell’; with an enforced period of inactivity over the past few years, though, and a shift in personnel after the departure of the original lineup bar guitarist Aled Evans. Their comeback single, ‘Taunt Me’, shows that new lineup have lost none of the spark of the original. It’s always difficult replacing a vocalist, but new singer Jessie Powell takes it in her stride with ease. A synth intro is soon joined by bouncing guitars and the chorus is exactly as anthemic as we’ve come to expect from them. There’s clear sonic differences; this doesn’t quite feel as emotionally perturbed and raw as before, but instead feels buoyed by anger and defiance of the odds. It might only be the first single, but Dream State are back in a big way. – Will Marshall
As Everything Unfolds – Felt Like Home
Part of the wave of great new British music, post-hardcore quintet As Everything Unfolds made waves with their debut album Within Each Lies The Other. Now, they’ve released the first single of their new era for their second album. The single, ‘Felt Like Home’, feels like a natural progression from WELTO in its greater emphasis on synth melodies, with guitar more rhythm oriented. It’s also a stone-cold banger, with a skyscraper chorus featuring gang vocals destined to be sung back at full volume, especially at festivals with the song’s bounce and huge earworm potential. WELTO might have announced them to the world in style, but if ‘Felt Like Home’ is anything to go by, album 2 will take them stratospheric. – Will Marshall
BONES UK – Cheap Love
Impressively leaping up the Top 20 of the Kerrang charts, among a slew of recently released bangers by some of the biggest names in Rock and Heavy music; the Camden Town self-proclaimed “Future Rock” trio BONES UK, pursue the obtainment of inner perseverance in the midst of turbulent emotional bondage, while also facing the devastating situational restraints life hands down to those less fortunate, which is exquisitely epitomised with their latest single ‘Cheap Love’. With such a tale found to be a rather compelling feat for the City of Angels via Big Smoke banger makers; the journey to their current visual aesthetics is quite a stark shift from the black and white stylised showcases of their fierce take on genre-bending, it arouses a keen sense of hunger for more than just a sprinkling of one off singles, such as their entry into the League of Legends soundtrack – ‘Dirty Little Animals’ and the late 2021 gender non-conformist anthem ‘Boys Will Be Girls’. Since there has been some natter online to the possible ongoing production of a sophomore album, we’ll be sitting tight with our eyes peeled on this ever intriguing and ever evolving rebels. – Bennie Osbourne
Dream Drop – What A Time To Be Alive
Continuing to shape an era filled with new prospects and new additions, for a band whose perseverance to rise from adversity is being clearly defined and beautifully received; the Gothenburg Post-Hardcore quintet Dream Drop, serve a somewhat clean cut ode to ever growing millennial disenchantment with ‘What A Time To Be Alive’. Inspired by our world seemingly being bastardised by archaic societal expectations, extremist ideology perforating the airwaves and a distinct distrust in those entrusted with power; the long awaited follow up single to their previous downtrodden ode to much yearned self-elevation ‘Metamosphosis’, is possibly one of the most well informed expressions of dispiriting realism the Swedish emo fanatics have released to date. – Bennie Osborne
Zetra – Satellite
After effortlessly working themselves into the national shoegaze scene – and the bill for Creeper’s ceremonial When The Sun Comes show next month – the enigmatic goth duo Zetra are back with their fatally gorgeous ‘Satellite’. Closely orbiting the seductive and combative nature of Type O Negative and thralling in the velvety tone of acts such as Drab Majesty and those of their ilk, ‘Satellite’ is yet another weaving of luxurious textures that’s irresistible to the touch and to the ears. Much like the rest of their work thus far it’s nigh on impossible not to be infatuated with the dark romanticism inherent to this track. – Dan Hillier
Phoxjaw – Apples
Taken from their forthcoming second record notverynicecream – due for release November 11th via Hassle Records – ‘Apples’ see’s the unpredictable and ever eclectic Phoxjaw only doubling down on their mercurial nature. Written during the series of lockdowns that have now ultimately blurred into one surrealist memory, the titanically heavy track see’s the band utilise their unique approach to alt-metal to narrate a mind most unhinged and shattered, with ‘Apples’ resonating a sense of fractured and dangerously disjointed whimsy. ‘Apples’ is a menacing, disorientating rollercoaster ride that descends into disarray”, state the band on the track. “The intention was to convey the plunge into one’s insanity and asks the age-old question: what has anyone done to deserve certain hardships within life? Taking themes from religion, film and cataclysmic events to ponder this idea. One of the sonically bolder tracks from the up and coming album, ‘Apples’ sets up the heavy and ugly side of this record.” – Dan Hillier