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** Plus ** Dooms Children Spiritbox The Mysterines Laura Jane Grace Ice Nine Kills Witch Fever The Velveteers Ian Miles + loads more
Trivium Bullet For My Valentine Tom Morello
OCTOBER 8TH \\ 2021 STORE.BLANKETOFFICIAL.COM
OCTOBER8TH 8TH\\\\2021 2021 OCTOBER STORE.BLANKETOFFICIAL.COM STORE.BLANKETOFFICIAL.COM
NOVEMBER 2021 Issue 71
RIOT 4. THE MYSTERINES 8. LAURA JANE GRACE 12. WITCH FEVER 14. IAN MILES 18. ICE NINE KILLS ABOUT TO BREAK 20. THE VELVETEERS FEATURES 22. WAGE WAR 28. TOM MORELLO 32. TRIVIUM 36. DOOMS CHILDREN 40. BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE 46. SPIRITBOX
Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Alexander Bradley, Alex Cabré, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Edie McQueen, Jack Press, Jamie MacMillan, Kelly McClure, Linsey Teggert, Melissa DarraghSam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Steve Gullick, Debbie Ellis, Rashad Bedeir, Mike Dunn, Fiona Garden, Travis Shinn P U B L I S H E D F RO M
W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M U N I T 10, 23 G RA N G E RO A D, H A S T I N G S, T N34 2R L
All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.
HELLO. Where did 2021 go, exactly? At the time of writing, we’re already getting towards half way into October, and thoughts have started to turn towards such important matters as ‘end of year lists’ and ‘what will be big in 2022’. That’s all for next month’s bumper double edition of Upset, though. For now, we’ve got more than enough current concerns to bother us with. Chief amongst them, this month’s cover stars Wage War, who are fronting up an issue packed with some actual legitimate icons. Icons like Tom Morello, who has put together an album with so much star power it demands a second glance just to confirm it’s actually
real. Bruce Springsteen? Blimey. There’s Trivium, who ten albums deep may well have just made one of the best of their career, and Bullet For My Valentine - more that just simple stalwarts of the scene. And Wade MacNeil - what more can you say there? Lots, actually. Which is a good job, because we’ve got a magazine to fill. Enjoy!
S tephen
Editor / @stephenackroyd
Riot.
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THIS MONTH >>>
After finding herself laid up and in need of some comfort in sound, Laura Jane Grace is back with a new surprise EP. p.8
Manchester’s Witch Fever are speaking out about womxn sexual freedoms and misogynistic attitudes with their debut outing, the ‘Reincarnate’ EP. The band talk us through the release, track by track. p.12
Ian Miles from Creeper is delving into horror for his debut solo album. This one isn’t for the faint of hearted. p.12
“GOT DEALT A GOOD CARD THERE IN TERMS OF WRITING AN ALBUM” Rock’s buzziest up-and-comers, The Mysterines have made the most of the past year and a half of turmoil. Words: Alex Cabré. Photo: Steve Gullick.
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L
ast year might have been a chaotic one for most of us, but for scuzz rock newcomers The Mysterines, it was an opportunity like no other. A year away from the temptation of touring gave the Liverpool foursome, helmed by the inimitably cool Lia Metcalfe, a chance to focus, and to write and record ‘Reeling’, their explosive debut album just announced for next year. “As distressing as lockdown was for the
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whole world, it was actually really, really enjoyable for me. Got dealt a good card there in terms of writing an album,” Lia explains over Zoom. “I don’t think a lot of those songs would have been written without that time, which is interesting because it was such a freak moment in history, Covid occurin’. There’s nothing I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime that’s been anything like that.” Pre-pandemic, The Mysterines - completed by bassist George Favager, guitarist Callum Thompson and Paul Crilly on drums were trending upwards and
gaining speed. 2019’s ‘Take Control’ EP introduced the then-trio as hooky rock virtuosos while tours alongside The Amazons and Royal Blood gave their already massive sound the stages to match. They’d just ticked off their first headline run in February last year when... well, you remember. “Everything looked like it was really on a great run, and then a month later, everything closed!” laughs George. Time away hasn’t dampened their
momentum at all, though. The first taste of the record, ‘In My Head’ is a grisly, prowling affair with monster riffs à la ‘AM’ era Arctic Monkeys and Lia’s most commanding vocals to date. It dropped back in July and went straight onto BBC 6 Music’s A list. “Radio 6 and especially Steve Lamacq have always supported everything we’ve done. We appreciate it a lot,” she nods. Lia also got stuck when it came to making
the video, which sees the band shredding it in a hazy warehouse on a dark and stormy night. Its striking monochrome aesthetic was inspired by her love of film noir. “I’ve always been interested in film. I’ve never actually edited anything before, but I enjoyed doing it, and I probably will do it again on the next video. I love film so much, so I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to that [aspect of the band]. The more videos that come out surrounding the campaign, the more the
audience will understand what’s being portrayed.” To achieve a sound that really gnashes its teeth, you call Catherine Marks. The esteemed producer has helmed the control panels for Foals, Wolf Alice and plenty others; with ‘Reeling’, she adds The Mysterines to her success story portfolio. You hear Catherine’s influence on ‘Hung Up’, the record’s relentless latest single which attacks from all angles. “She’s fucking amazing. She’s helped us create the album in a way that no one else could have, and we’re all very proud of it, so we’ve got her to thank for that one,” lauds Lia. “I do think that she’s fuckin’ boss, like!” adds George, whose Scouse accent is as fine as his basslines. Working with the seasoned hitmaker taught Lia patience, she says. “And that it takes more than one woman to control a group of men!” But for George, there was a more practical takeaway: “Don’t concuss yourself on the last day. I hit me head off the cupboard door!” Album in the bag and lockdown (and concussion) a distant memory, The Mysterines are back on the road this month, finally completing their ‘Life’s A Bitch’ tour, postponed who knows how many times. It’ll take them around England and Scotland before a closing night blow-out at Liverpool’s O2 Academy, which is bound to be a riot. Looking back on their last hometown show, George is audibly excited. “It was really, really, really fun. I loved every second of it. That first experience of properly having a venue in your own
hands, you know what I mean? Really playing with the crowd and stuff.” Anyone who’s seen one knows that Mysterines gigs are executed with buckets of energy and a swagger you can’t teach. So, what’s the secret to putting on a great show? The answer is simple. “The only way you can deliver anything live is by practising a lot. Because the album was recorded live as well, [we] have to be tight otherwise, we’re letting the songs down,”
says Lia. “There’s only so much thought you can put into it before you become Def Leppard, you know what I mean? So, we just practice and let the present moment on stage be the pre-empted thought that goes into it.” She pauses. “Other than what you wear.” P The Mysterines’ debut album ‘Reeling’ is out 11th March.
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Riot.
After finding herself laid up and in need of some comfort in sound, Laura Jane Grace is back with a new surprise EP. Words: Linsey Teggert.
“IT’S STRANGE SEARCHING FOR IDENTITY WHERE YOU LIVE WHEN YOU DON’T NECESSARILY FEEL WELCOME” 8 Upset
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his past year feels like it could have been a week ago, or it could be a decade long,” muses Laura Jane Grace. We all know the feeling; time seems to have lost all meaning. It only seems like five minutes since Laura released her solo record, ‘Stay Alive,’ last October. Now she’s back with a surprise EP drop, ‘At War Against the Silverfish’, and ready to reflect on another year that lurched from whirlwind to stand-still and back again. “I really ran myself into the ground last October doing a lot of press and trying to promote a record in a way I’d never done before, and then the first week of November leading up to the election here in the US was the most stressful ever,” Laura explains. “The day it was announced that Biden won, I went out into the woods with a friend of mine and their kid, and we were just messing around doing dumb stuff, and I ended up breaking my foot! It was also the day before my 40th birthday, so my 40th was the most depressing day ever, all alone lying on my couch with a broken foot.” Finding herself isolated again and now unable to go on the daily runs that kept her sane during lockdown, Laura once again found solace in music, much like she had done the previous year in bringing ‘Stay Alive’ to life. “Music and songwriting has consistently been a guiding force in a positive way throughout my life; I’ve always taken the attitude of ‘I’m just going to keep writing and recording and do what feels good, and everything else will work itself out in due time’.” The situation may sound conducive to a good old amount of wallowing,
but ‘At War With The Silverfish’ glows with warm intimacy. ‘Lolo 13’ is a tender reflection on a dream love that never was, while ‘Electro Static Sweep’ is a wandering waltz through an old friendship. Though not as raw as ‘Stay Alive’, it’s inevitable given that those songs were originally intended for an Against Me! record. What ‘At War With The Silverfish’ lacks in a sense of urgency, it more than makes up for in personal charm. While the EP displays the honesty and vulnerability we’ve come to know and love from Laura’s work, it’s deliberately light-hearted so as not to be some sort of grandiose statement. “I didn’t want these songs to feel like some kind of defining art piece going forward, coming out of the pandemic with this big statement of what these past twelve months were,” states Laura. “Bo Burnham: Inside - now that’s the pinnacle of bedroom art that you can make during a pandemic, and I’m not even going to try to compete with that shit! “If anything, this EP is supposed to be a reset as far as wherever things go from here: I just wanted to open a door, to give myself permission to do that, to almost wipe the slate clean. They’re just seven songs written in an abstract way, and it feels very freeing and easy to just share them and then move on.” In all the talk of poignancy that tends to surround Laura’s work, it feels like her brilliantly wry sense of humour is sometimes overlooked, and it’s on full display here as she confronts her questionable caffeine choices on ‘Day Old Coffee’ (“Day-old coffee microwaved to boiling, pour it on my eyeballs and boil my dumb shit brains out”) or attempts to deflect the melancholy of a situation with some excellent swearing (“Hey
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Riot. you sitting there with your smug fuckface”). And as for the EP title? Those “slippery little fuckers” have been tormenting Laura all year. “Silverfish eat books, they eat the paper in LP sleeves, and when you live in a hundred-year-old building in Chicago, they’re everywhere. And when you’re locked inside of that building for a year and a half, you become hyper-aware!” she laughs. “They kind of fascinate me as creatures; it feels in a way that they’re eating your past, eating memories, like a form of decay where if you’re stationary for too long, they start to take over. I spiralled in thinking about them in that way metaphorically; it’s very representative of the feeling of the last year.” Speaking of Chicago, the city often finds its way into Laura’s work as though it were a character and at this point seems to have melded itself to her psyche in an inescapable way. (If in doubt, listen to ‘I Hate Chicago’ by Laura and her band The Devouring Mothers which sarcastically takes down Chicago as part of coming to terms with a broken relationship). It creeps into the new EP again like an old friend on ‘Long Dark Night’ as a means of exploring how much a place can have an impact on a person’s selfidentity. “As an artist, being from Florida defined me in many ways, so many Against Me! songs reference Florida - ‘Sink, Florida, Sink’, for example. I didn’t necessarily plan on moving to Chicago, I just ended up here, and it’s unavoidable that I’m then going to write about myself in the context of living in Chicago and existing here. Sometimes I run into a roadblock in my head where I feel like I don’t belong, but fuck anyone who says I don’t belong here; I belong here just as much as anyone else does. “The neighbourhood I live in, it’s not really hip or cool, it’s primarily old in both age and existence, but there is also a high concentration of
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refugees. You get this mix of people who don’t understand why their neighbourhood is turning a certain way, then people who are just so thankful to be somewhere that’s not the place they were coming from. In a weird way, I feel like I’ve stumbled into a place where I feel more belonging than I have anywhere else in Chicago. It’s strange searching for identity where you live when you don’t necessarily feel welcome, but at the same time, you have just as much of a right to be there as anyone else.” Despite the trials and tribulations of the past year, in the last few months Laura has finally been able to get back out into the world and do some pretty awesome things, including playing some low-key alleyway and coffee shop shows, a regular DJ residence at House of Vans Chicago and of course, that show at Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the now infamous location of Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre postelection press conference. “I definitely walked away from that with more questions than I had answers,” laughs Laura. “As far as how Rudy ended up there giving a press conference, being there in person, it’s not like it all suddenly makes sense, it was even more confusing - you were very much in the parking lot of a landscaping company! As one of my first shows back, it was an oddly perfect environment being outside in this big open lot: definitely less anxiety-inducing than being in a venue after a year and a half of not playing in a venue. It was odd, though, we have this thing we call a ‘disco load-out’, when you have to be out of a venue immediately because they’ve got a dance club night happening. This was ‘landscaping load-out’ they immediately wanted us out because they had to go on running their landscaping business!” P Laura Jane Grace’s EP ‘At War With The Silverfish’ is out now.
THE NEW ALBUM NOVEMBER 5TH BULLETFORMYVALENTINE.COM
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TRACK X TRACK
WITCH FEVER REINCARNATE EP
Manchester’s Witch Fever are speaking out about womxn sexual freedoms and misogynistic attitudes with their debut outing, the ‘Reincarnate’ EP. Here, the band talk us through the release, track by track. Photo: Debbie Ellis.
REINCARNATE
‘Reincarnate’ began as a bit of a break-up anthem but ended up being more about liberation and a proclamation of inner power and resilience. The breakdown at the end came about a bit later than the rest of the song as we wanted a new song to end live sets with, so that part, in particular, was crafted with the live performance in mind.
IN THE RESURRECT
This is the only song we wrote from separate houses during lockdown, and it took us a while
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to really cement this song as we usually write best together in the practice room where we can bounce ideas off each other and feel the energy! The lyrics are similar to the music in that they don’t have a clear cut narrative and are a bit more experimental. The overall theme of the song is about rejecting Western beauty ideals and how the male gaze tells us we, as women and non-binary people, should look and behave.
ABJECT
‘Abject’ is about standing on stage in front of a crowd and
feeling uncomfortable and sometimes threatened by the way some men look at us and behave around us. It’s about being able to see that some men are looking at us like we’re pieces of meat. It’s about knowing that they’re probably massively underestimating us and our talents because of our perceived gender and proving them wrong. We love the dissonance of the verse compared to the huge riffs in the chorus, which reflects the lyrics well.
IN BIRTH
‘In Birth’ is mainly about Amy’s experiences with predatory men in the unorthodox church that she grew up in (and left at age 16), but the message can also be widely applied to most walks of life. Most, if not all, women and non-binary people have had bad experiences with men to varying degrees as society is built on and maintained by patriarchal and racist structures.
NOAHFINNCE has booked in a new UK tour for 2022. The run - titled the Anatomy Of A Rat tour - will be his first-ever headline jaunt, and is set to kick off in Oxford on 13th January. “I’M SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU ALL THERE AND YELL IN YOUR FACES,” he says.
INITIATION
‘Initiation’ is a really old song that we’d never released and thought it deserved a place on the EP! It’s our most bluesy song for sure and is fun to play live coz of the contrast between the quiet verses and big doomy choruses! The breakdown at the end is so fun to play as well and is very cathartic. It’s probably one of the most vulnerable tracks in terms of lyrics on this EP. Similarly to ‘In Birth’, it comes from Amy’s experiences in church; however, it deals with the idea that according to Western beauty ideals, women are most beautiful as young, small, petite and childlike.
Orchards have announced a new EP, ‘Trust Issues’. Set for release on 26th November via Big Scary Monsters, the five-track effort follows on from their 2020 debut album ‘Lovecore’, and will arrive ahead of a February-March UK tour. They’ve also shared new “anti love song”, ‘Drive Me Home’.
BULLY BOY
We’ve ended the EP on ‘Bully Boy’, a song about taking the power back! We wrote this song after a guy in a band we played with screamed at us to take our tops off. ‘Bully Boy’ is a promise that we will not entertain any shitty behaviour and is super cathartic to play and listen to! P Witch Fever’s debut EP ‘Reincarnate’ is out now.
IDLES have confirmed details of their new album, ‘Crawler’. The band’s fourth full-length, it was recorded at the famed Real World Studios in Bath during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will arrive on 12th November via Partisan. They’ve also shared new single ‘The Beachland Ballroom’, which frontman Joe Talbot describes as “the most important” on the record.
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Ian Miles from Creeper is delving into horror for his debut solo album. This one isn’t for the faint of heart. 14 Upset
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I
an Miles is a busy chap. Aside from his main band, Creeper, he’s also a prolific, albeit pretty low-key, solo artist, with a debut record of his own just out. Inspired by performance art of the 70s and Halloween, ‘Degradation, Death and Decay’ is an interesting, multi-faceted work that revels in darkness, billed as more art-horror project than traditional album. Hi Ian! How’s it going? What are you up to today? I’m doing really well, thank you. I’m just keeping myself busy. Not good at doing nothing. Getting everything ready for the release show/ exhibition in a couple of weeks. What was the starting point for your new solo material, was the intention always to release an album? To be honest, there was no clear starting point. I’ve been writing acoustic songs since I was about 16. I used to record songs on my handheld camera. I would leave the lens cap on and treat the DV cassette as an audio cassette that only I listened to. I have been uploading songs here and there for many years now. There was an acoustic EP of mine online even before Creeper, haha. But this is the first record I have put together with the intention of releasing properly. I have been sat on these songs since 2018. A couple even longer. It’s a brave thing to do, putting yourself out there like this. Does it feel that way to you? I’m definitely proud of myself for finally doing it. Ask any of my close
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friends, and they will confirm that I have been talking about it for a very long time. The main problem has been mustering up the confidence to pull this off. It took a while to get there, but it finally happened. Over lockdown, I built a studio in my garden, which gave me a safe space to be able to play the songs out loud. I had never done it before. Before, I would whisper them through as I wrote and then pick my moment to record, which was a delicate balancing act. I waited for a time where my wife was at work, and both of my neighbours were out, then I would blast through some takes and then edit it while my wife was in bed. I never had the time and space to really form a voice and gain confidence with my singing. Lockdown also gave me the time to piece this all together because when Creeper is rolling, it’s hard to find the time. What is it that this project gives you that you’re not able to achieve with Creeper? This is a difficult one because nothing is the honest answer. I guess the sense of achievement is a little more potent because I’m the only member. With Creeper, it’s us against the world, and every time we achieve something, we achieve it together. I am so proud of us as a group. It just feels completely different. Also, it is nice to have something be solely your creation. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the way Creeper works and obviously wouldn’t have it any other way. As you all know, Will is a genius, and it’s an honour to have been partners with him for so long, but sometimes you need to just do something for
“Let’s face it, we are all fucked up; some people just hide it better than others” Ian Miles
yourself. Usually, it’s writing a little song, doing a painting, filming little art videos and before you know it, I have combined all of that into one project. It’s all quite dark, what is it about horror, death and the like that you’re drawn to? My entire life, I have been intrigued and drawn to the darker things in life. I feel like that’s where true honesty lies. It’s hard to acknowledge and embrace the parts of yourself that are sometimes hard to swallow. My favourite Disney characters were always the villains because they were way more complex and interesting. Let’s face it, we are all fucked up; some people just hide it better than others. I quite honestly feel like that’s where horror books/movies come from. Morbid curiosity and suppressed darkness. Is all your solo material in a similar vein to this, or do you privately explore other sounds too? I have a huge library of songs I’ve written that will never see the light of day. I have explored a lot of different styles/genres. I ended up here because it was the first sound that
felt like me. Everything else was like wearing somebody else’s cloths. Tell us about the visual element to the project, what’s going on there? The visuals for this project are me embracing the darker, grittier side of myself. I am a monster on the inside; let’s make it that way on the outside. What’s your intention beyond ‘Degradation, Death, Decay’ - is this a one-off? Are you hoping to turn it into something bigger? I have another album almost recorded and ready, but it might take me another five years to gather the confidence. I don’t think this will ever be something bigger it’s just not cut out for that. How is all this going to translate live? It probably won’t. I can barely sing, and I can’t afford a band. Is there anything else we should know? Now this is rolling, it will never stop. P Ian Miles’ album ‘Degradation, Death and Decay’ is out now.
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Riot.
Everything you need to know about
Ice Nine Kills’ new album ‘The Silver Scream 2:
Welcome To Horrorwood’
Ice Nine Kills frontman and driving creative force Spencer Charnas reveals some interesting tit-bits about the band’s ambitious new album. THE RECORD WAS PREDOMINATELY RECORDED IN LOS ANGELES, FITTING IN WITH THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE TITLE ‘WELCOME TO HORRORWOOD’. It was cool to be working on the album and waking up seeing the Hollywood sign every day. The album touches on the film business, and more so the horror side of the business, so to be in the mecca of that world really helped visually inspire the lyrics. Horrorwood is supposed to be the world of Horror, set against the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, so creating this during the pandemic when the streets were empty and looked like an apocalypse of sorts really lent itself to the subject matter. It kinda looked like an abandoned version of that town which you don’t ever really see. Hollywood is usually all hustle and bustle and pretty fast-moving, and the pandemic almost made it look like it was in 28 Days Later or Resident Evil or something.
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Especially with SWAT teams going down the streets during the riots, it definitely felt like we were in a movie at some point. JACOBY SHADDIX OF PAPA ROACH AND CORPSEGRINDER FROM CANNIBAL CORPSE ARE ON THE ALBUM. I’ve always been a fan of Jacoby’s voice, it’s got this hard rock edge to it, but there’s something really special about it. We were recording some of the album on the bus while on tour with Papa Roach. Hearing him sing every night, I thought, “We gotta get HIM to play Paul Allen” on ‘Hip To Be Scared’. I brought him the idea one day at catering, and he was super into it, and it’s nice that I got to cut his life into pieces in the video. WHEN WE WERE WORKING OUT ‘TAKE YOUR PICK’, IT VERY QUICKLY BECAME CLEAR TO ME THAT IT WOULD BE THE HEAVIEST SONG WE’D EVER DONE – it’s the first song I’ve ever written that doesn’t have a melodic chorus. I wasn’t too keyed into the death metal scene in Florida when I was six but discovered Cannibal Corpse through Ace Ventura Pet Detective. The song is themed on My Bloody Valentine, and with the whole subject matter being so tied to horror, and Cannibal Corpse’s
history with that whole tongue in cheek then tongue ripped out of cheek style, who better to get than the lead singer of Cannibal Corpse. He absolutely murdered the track; he’s got such a distinct bellow that really took the track to the next level. ‘FUNERAL DERANGEMENTS’ HAS SOME CRAZY NOISES ON IT. Joe and I were working on that song on the back of the tour bus, with Joe programming the guitars, which was a new thing for him. I knew we wanted to make a song about Pet Semetary, and he was able to use noise chords to kinda mimic cat screechinglike sounds. It was very impressive, and that was the start of the whole idea of that song – let’s try and turn the guitar into a screeching, hissing cat and make animal noises with a guitar. In the video, I was able to get Miko Hughes, the actor in the original movie who played Gage Creed – the little boy that gets hit by the 18 wheeler – to play the truck driver in OUR video, who then hits the little boy. I thought there was something so cool about that full-circle moment, the irony of him getting to do that. THE ALBUM PAYS HOMAGE TO SOME CLASSIC HORROR MOVIES WHILE ALSO CREATING A NEW ORIGINAL NARRATIVE AND CHARACTER IN SILENCE. This record and the video series that goes along with it accepts the last album as a work of fiction, and this album is in a world where the murder of my fiancée has occurred, and they’re using this album that they found hidden in my home, that the label wouldn’t release, as evidence of my guilt. I thought that was kind of a cool concept. It came from my thoughts of what would happen if Rob Zombie or Alice Cooper was under suspicion of murder, if they didn’t have an open and shut case against them, the authorities might use their personas as these twisted singers with horrific lyrics as evidence of their guilt. The album opens up with a monologue being read that sets up the story, and I’m really excited for people to get to know the world of Silence as we build it through this video series. JOHN FELDMAN CO-WROTE A COUPLE OF THE SONGS. He was one of my idols from the world of punk music as a kid. I saw Goldfinger live when I was 14, and that show inspired me to start my own band and write my own songs. One of the band’s earliest goals was to get Feldman to work with the band – we HAD to get to Feldman! In the early days, we sent him recordings, videos but never really got anywhere, so to finally get to sit in a room with him and work on music was a very cool moment for me. He was such a nice guy and so much fun. P Ice Nine Kills’ album ‘The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood’ is out now.
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About Break. to
NEW TALENT YOU NEED TO KNOW
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SHAM FAMILY Toronto post punks Sham Factory are the first signing to Born Ruffians’ Wavy Haze Records; their raging self-titled debut EP is due in January.
PRIESTGATE Newly signed to Lucky Number, Yorkshire five-piece Priestgate’s latest single ‘Bedtime Story’ is a great big slice of danceable, gothy pop. Addictive stuff.
KEG Freewheeling Brighton septet KEG are impossible to pin down; their debut EP ‘Assembly’ is out on 22nd October via Alcopop! Records.
THE VELVETEERS Denver, Colorado rock trio The Velveteers are levelling up with their muchanticipated debut.
younger, and music was the only thing that got me through that. Obsessing over bands and albums during that time is the only thing I really remember. I knew for sure that I wanted to find a way to be a part of that world in any way I could after that experience.
Words: Sam Taylor.
Does songwriting come easily to you? Demi: For me, songwriting was always just something that felt very natural. I started doing it sort of unknowingly when I was like 14, without any intentions of it going anywhere. Just writing poems and songs for fun. It just felt like a way to make sense of so many feelings I was not able to put into words.
T
he Velveteers - lead singer/guitarist Demi Demitro and dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig have fast been making a name for themselves with their riotous live performances. In fact, online clips of their shows have travelled so far and wide that the rock’n’roll trio were scouted by noted producer Dan Auerbach, who summoned them to his Nashville studio to work on their just-released debut album, ‘Nightmare Daydream’. This is only just the beginning for a band set to take 2022 by storm. When did you first realise you wanted to make music? Demi: I think when I first picked up the guitar, I sort of realised how much I loved music and wanted to pursue it. I started listening to bands like The Stooges, Rose Hill Drive, and Nirvana and was very drawn to the heaviness of rock n roll. All those bands made me want to make music. Baby: I was in a hospital for some months when I was
How did you meet and decide to form a band? Baby: Demi and I met at a local show when we were like 15. Demi tapped me on the shoulder to say hi and then watched 5 minutes of the show with me, and then we both escaped to a dark corner of the venue and talked the whole night about music. Demi was the first person I met who was my age, liked the same music as me and wanted to be in a rock band that practised every day. Demi was doing online school, and I didn’t go to school; we were each other’s only friends and kind of became obsessed with one another and being in a band together.
“So many things have been leading up to this moment” Demi Demitro
What’s been the highlight of your time in the band so far? Demi: I would say getting to record ‘Nightmare Daydream’ has been a really big highlight for me. It’s felt like so many things have been leading up to this moment, and so many different songs had been written to get us to this point. It has been cool to see the process and growth over the year. Baby: I think the process of being so close with one another as a band and being able to dedicate every day to playing music together as a unit is sort of a rare thing to have and has been a highlight for sure. When did you start working on your debut album? What was your starting point? Demi: It’s sort of a mixed bag. I hunkered down back in 2019 and would force myself to write songs every single day through almost all of 2020. So some of the songs you hear on the album originate from little pieces of riffs I was in love with but hadn’t found a home for yet, but then once the moment was right, I ended up turning some of those riffs
into a full song. In May 2020, Baby, me, and Jonny started making full demos every day, just sort of going insane over getting the forms and sonic sounds just right. Did you have fun in the studio? Any particularly memorable stories? Demi: We had a blast. Dan had a dog named Lou (named after Lou Reed), and she was so cute. We’d be in the middle of writing a song, and she would start chewing on my leg, and she had the sharpest little teeth. Are there any other new acts around at the moment that you’re particularly excited by? Baby: There’s so many. An act that is more specifically new to me that I’m really excited by is Lowertown. Everything about them is really cool. Also, she’s not a new artist, but if you don’t know who Scout Niblett is, she’s a legend and is amazing. P The Velveteers’ album ‘Nightmare Daydream’ is out now.
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WAR
GA 22 Upset
The last 18-months, like for so many, put a temporary pause on Wage War’s ascent, but channeling that into a new album, ‘Manic’, they look set to soar higher than ever before. Words: Steven Loftin. Words: Blake Jones.
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fter scrambling around for a few minutes, Briton Bond settles into a corridor in the depths of tonight’s venue. Beaming in from Michigan, on the final date of Wage War’s first tour since landing back from Australia last year in support of 2019’s ‘Pressure’, the vocalist is very keen to mention just how much fun they’ve been having. “It’s nice to be letting loose, you know? Especially on this tour. Just getting back on the grind. I didn’t know how much I needed this; it’s like therapy out here!” Briton opens, smiling. You see, they’ve also been toting a few new songs. “I feel like it’s like the purest form of Wage War. We got to do a record we wanted to do, be a little bit more out of the box but still keeping it super heavy metal at the same time,” he explains of their newest outing. ‘Manic’, the Florida outfit’s fourth effort, does exactly what it says on the tin. Within, there’s some of their most brutally abrasive tunes, as well as some that could make even the most toughened heart crumble. A venerable beauty and the beast situation. It also sounds like they have something to prove. “We wanted to prove to ourselves that we can write even better songs than before, you know, ‘Pressure’,” he says of their divisive third album. “It was a little bit more experimental with songwriting and things like that, but I really feel like we have something special going on here where we can just really tap into our actual, true identity, and be progressive with our songs and be a metal band same time.”
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To be fair to them, Wage War haven’t had exactly an easy time of it. Since forming back in 2010 and then the release of their debut ‘Blueprints’ back in 2015, the metalcore scene has been relishing in the Wage War adrenaline rush while simultaneously giving them a scrupulous and oftentimes unfair tarnishing. Not only that but since basically every other band has been sat at home, honing their craft, the ante has indeed been upped. No wonder there’s a sweating, furrowed brow, with a dangerous snarl reaching throughout ‘Manic’. “That’s the thing, I feel like so many bands are coming out with such sick material because they’ve had time to refine and figure out what they love and not have to hurry. I feel like in our music industry now, with social media and things like that, fans just want stuff all the time, all the time, all the time,” his pace quickening with each emphasis. “Unfortunately, sometimes things get rushed a little bit, and they’re not looked at and refined as well as they could be.” Spending their time properly focusing on what they wanted to write, as opposed to being thrust through the cycle once more, also offered Wage War a chance for something very important indeed: “You can learn from your mistakes.” Not that there are many, Briton feels. Wage War are all about being true to themselves. Sure, there are echoes of metalcore past, but there’s also a bright future roaring away. Briton, along with clean vocalist and guitarist Cody Quistad, guitarist Seth Blake, bassist Chris Gaylord, and drummer
“‘Manic’ is a perfect representation of what we’ve all been feeling over the last few years” Briton Bond
Stephen Kluesener are the ones who want to stare down those expectations and restrictions that come from the dirgy core, intent on dismantling them with a sledgehammer and a sincerity.
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ove them or hate them, Wage War are also a band doing numbers. On if that brings a certain level of expectation
now that they’re well into their careers, Briton chews: “Yes and no, since we’re going to get in front of more people.” “At the end of the day, we just want to have fun and write good songs, and the core base of our fans, they’re along the ride. I don’t think we’ve done anything detrimental either to scare them away.” ‘Manic’ is indeed no strange side step, instead bullishly powering forward, Wage War
appear ready for anything. It’s an embracing of being metalheads, popheads and just fans of good songs. On more than one occasion, there’s an earworm poking its head up through the dirt. “That’s why we’ve named it ‘Manic’, because of all these different things going on in your head,” he says, smiling. “The record’s definitely about mental health. The first one’s about relapse, being stuck with things that aren’t good for you. It could be a substance or a toxic person in your life. And ‘Manic’ is just straight up having a panic attack. ‘Never Say Goodbye’ is about losing a loved one. It’s just an album about a lot of emotions that someone would feel in a time like this. I feel like it’s a perfect representation of what we’ve all been feeling over the last few years.” Purposefully placing ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ as ‘Manic’’s finale, the album’s resolution isn’t one of hope but more questioning. We don’t seem to be able to help ourselves, so what happens if tomorrow never comes? The answer to that is a lot simpler than you think, actually. “We picked it to close it out because with everything going on and all the chaos, holding on to the things that you love is important because tomorrow might not be there. The last few years have taught us a lot, that we should cherish the little things that we have in our life, like treasure your significant other, your wife, your children, your dogs, your friends - anything. I feel like we take a lot of that for granted.” There’s a deep catharsis that runs throughout. Briton also notes that he “vocally put on my best performance,” which is hard to argue as he as easily reaches new levels of
hellishly low guttural growls as much as joins in with Cody’s more melodic tunings. Dealing with the cacophony of feelings that cropped up throughout the pandemic, there wasn’t anything offlimits. If anything, it’s led to Wage War, as studious as they have been, armouring up further to take the world on once more. Though, it was by
no means an easy ride. “It was really cool to see it come together like that, but on the other side, there were some times where we worked on music, and then almost a month would go by, or we’re not doing anything,” he says, choking slightly. “And it’s just like, am I even like in a band anymore? You know, so there was definitely pros and cons
“Holding on to the things that you love is important because tomorrow might not be there” Briton Bond
to this, but I think we made the best of it.” Likewise, when they weren’t writing during those lockdown days, Briton found himself playing video games, he says laughing: “I did a lot of that!” But more importantly, he found himself jumping on YouTube and watching his favourite bands live at festivals. “I thought that was super sick; it made me miss it. It almost brought a tear to my eye, wishing that was me again. But we’re here! I’m thankful for sure.” Swinging back to being on the road. For Briton, what has he missed most? “Just the interactions with our fans,” he says, an earnest twinkle in his eye. “That is number one. That’s why I do this, and without them, there are no shows, there’s no music, there’s no scene, so I owe everything to them.” This is why trying to bottle all the complexities of the last year was no easy feat but by far the most important. “I feel like lyrics are a big thing in this band, and I would say they’re all pretty positive messages we want to portray,” he explains. “I know things are dark in this record, but I feel like it’s more us telling our listeners, hey, we’re going through the same thing you are, the same things you’re kind of feeling.” He also found himself turning to the online faction of the Wage War fanbase during the great halting. “100% the biggest thing I was looking for,” he mentions. “It’s not like I needed it for justification for an ego; it was just nice to see them again, and happy.” “I feel like that’s what the world needed for a long time. We’re all cooped up, and even though it doesn’t have to be rock music, it’s just being around other
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humans. It doesn’t matter what background you come from or what you believe in; we can all come together for the same cause of loving a band or musician, which is awesome to me.”
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hanks to applying its own stringent barriers, ones that turn out to be nothing more than rope when whatever new song hits right, there’s no doubt that metal is one of the more contentious genres in the game. Online forums are full of faceless names disputing just what’s what, who should be doing certain things, and how. Similarly, with that thorny passion comes the positive and kindness many don’t expect to find. “We shouldn’t keep ourselves in a box; the world needs metalheads!” Briton beams. “You’re having the best time at concerts like why not
share that with everybody else. I’m telling you, like, we want to start a revolution, and that’s what we got to do.” Diving in a bit closer, he continues. “Metal fans are the best in the world, man. Bands like Megadeth, Metallica have had super long careers, and I feel like that can happen in certain industries like the pop genre and things like that, but with those, you’re hot or not, and you’re gone. I feel like there are so many dedicated fans in this, and they know how to treat bands, know how to be good to their favourite acts. I feel like the world can use that, you know? Us just being
better and everything. If you go to any type of metal festival, people are being great to each other, and I think we could learn a lot from that.” It seems like the time at home has given Wage War a decent outlook on weathering the side-eye storm whenever they do something. They know they’ve found a good home in metalcore, one that will be kind to them, even if it does tend to snap back on occasion. “You definitely get some backlash, but as I said, we need to be a little bit more appreciative of things, and I feel like this last year, a lot of people have woken up being like, you know what? I’m gonna change some of my toxic behaviour ways.” He continues, “I have, I’ve looked in the mirror and been like, you know what, I’m not going to complain or, you know, say certain things about things that are going on in my life because there are way worse things that can be going on.” It could be argued that attitude is far easier for a band to change than their sound. Sometimes it is easier to know that whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not. Even Briton is guilty of having his moment of not quite gelling with music a little closer to home, that is until it does. Tides change, after all. “There’s a band… I’m not gonna name any names,” he says, anticipating the obvious question. “But there’s a band
“The world needs metalheads! We want to start a revolution” Briton Bond
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that recently we’ve been on tour with, and they’re super nice guys, but I’ve never really vibed too much with their music. They put out a track recently that I’m just like, this is sick. I’m starting more and more to understand even if you don’t love a band or whatever, you can still respect their songwriting because even the songs you hate, they get stuck in your head; you’re singing them all day.” Wage War will forever be fighting forward. “With our music too, if you don’t like the new stuff, I mean there’s a bunch, there are a lot more records before that; ‘Blueprints’ and [2017’s] ‘Deadweight’, that stuff that you can go back and listen to at any time. And any time you come to one of our shows, we’re going to be playing that
“Metal fans are the best in the world, man” Briton Bond stuff, so all hope is not lost for sure!” Quickly clarifying, he says: “I’m not calling out fans or anything like that, but I feel like there is a good amount of us that… we’ve kind of missed the mark of understanding bands are gonna go through different seasons,” he reasons, knowing it’s hitting a little close to home. “They’re all humans, and they’re going to write different things all the time. Like Slipknot, for example. If you go to a Slipknot show, they’re gonna play those songs you love; they’re always going to be that thing you love, but just because you don’t love their most recent record or whatever, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t support them anymore.” Recalling a recent appearance at US festival Louder Than Life, Wage War stuck around and managed to catch nu-metal legends Korn. “I don’t think I’ve listened to their latest two records,” Briton says. “Getting out there and hearing all the old hits was super sick, but when they slipped those new ones in, I’m just like, ‘Okay, I’ll accept this, this is fine’. I feel like if we just opened our ears or
eyes a little bit more, I feel like we could enjoy a lot more than we think we can.” Positioning ‘Manic’ as the purest form of Wage War, and it being “the most excited I’ve been for one of our records ever”, means a lot is riding on it. It’s no make-or-break; instead, it’s the band continuing a journey entrenched in musical and personal catharsis, which does involve essentially sacrificing a part of yourself to the wolves. “That’s the thing; that’s a reality bands need to understand, too. Every record you put out is not going to be the best record of all time. Like Metallica, for example, I 100% know their latest albums from like ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’, to ‘Death Magnetic’ is not people’s favourite stuff. They love ‘Ride The Lightning’, they love the Black Album. And they know that. That’s just how it is. “Just enjoy the era some of your favourite songs are coming out in because that’s not always gonna be there. I remember when I was young, like, being 15-16, years old, going to my favourite metal bands and being like, oh my gosh, it felt like it was magic happening on there. I would trade a lot of things to go back and feel that again, for sure.” Nostalgia is the biggest catalyst for anyone to get entrenched in the past, especially in music. Everyone wants that magic spark that first sparked their relationship with any band, that unknown synapse, but so often, it’s reliant upon more than just music and notes. It’s time and place. When Wage War first struck up back in 2015, they found strides because
metalcore was waiting for a young and fresh face to take up the mantle, which ‘Blueprints’ delivered. Three albums later, with ‘Manic’, the band are older, wiser and ready to provide the same for whoever stumbles upon them next. “Maybe you’re going through something, and that song was just the perfect thing you needed. It’s hard to replicate that kind of stuff. I think that’s what’s cool too, with bands trying different things and trying different sounds because you never know, that could be the new thing that everyone’s going through, especially with ‘Manic’. I’m not saying it’s gonna be your new favourite album, but you might be going through some of the stuff that we’re talking about, and it might become your favourite. We’ll see.” For all the comments, naysayers, or the enthusiastically baying
crowds, the fire and fury is something Wage War embrace. Acceptance is no longer on the agenda; instead, the road ahead is littered with the wreckage of those that try to get in the way. “At the end of the day, we’re gonna do what we want to do. We’re all big metalheads in this band, and we’ll never abandon that sound. I don’t think we’re going to be some dad-rock band either,” he says, laughing. “I enjoy heavy music, but it’s important to shift different gears on record, so you don’t just be the same thing. I mean, you can be, but for us - we like to slow down and have things a little bit more impactful with meaning and melody. We’re all big on melody and on different genres and songs, like pop and country and hip-hop, things like that. It’s nice to just switch gears and do things a little bit different but still keep that heavy metalcore in there.” P Wage War’s album ‘Manic’ is out now.
Upset 27
Invigorated by the need to try something new, Tom Morello has roped in a bunch of his talented mates for latest album, ‘The Atlas Underground Fire’. Words: Jamie MacMillan.
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ockdown turned everything upside down for pretty much everyone on the planet last year, and being a global rock superstar gave little extra protection. For Tom Morello, a life of creativity and performance came screeching to an abrupt halt and, for the first time in forty years, he was facing up to an immediate future that held no shows and no recording sessions in sight. For a man that’s restlessly sought to create and perform for his entire musical career, it was a huge shock to the system - and that’s even before beginning to tackle the challenges of getting through a global killer pandemic. Facing up to an extended period away from music, inspiration came from the unlikeliest of sources. “Yeah, I have to thank Kanye West for this…” begins Tom as we catch up
with him over Zoom, laughing as he delivers perhaps one of the most unexpected things you will hear all year. The opening ‘The Atlas Underground’ record, released back in 2018, sought to continue pushing electric guitar music forwards in the manner that Morello has always hungered for. Fusing his trademark futuristic riff sounds with EDM and artists as varied as K. Flay, Steve Aoki, Marcus Mumford and Killer Mike, it always felt like merely the first chapter in a new era of sound exploration. And, with plans afoot for a follow-up even before it was released, it could only take the hard reset of a global lockdown to derail it. Even despite having a recording studio at home, Tom laughs as he describes his complete lack of ability to work it. “I’m not an engineer!” he grins, before describing the moment where he
realised the potential in his hand. “I heard Kanye had recorded some of his vocals on the voice memo app on his phone,” he says today, “And I thought, well I can’t work a studio, and I can’t run a mixing board or use Pro Tools. But I can hit this red button on an app…” A moment that he describes as like facing a long drought of creativity suddenly began to look more fertile territory. Recording riffs into his phone and sending them around the globe, his world began to open up once more. “All of a sudden, it turned this time of isolation, anxiety and fear of both the American political scene and an open-ended global plague into a life-raft and an anti-depressant,” he says, “and it became a way through the storm.” And an escape too. “We were trying to keep the grandmas alive and keep the kids from going
crazy from virtual school,” he explains. “And there are two insane dogs on the premises. So my house is part nursing home, part day-care centre and part kennel. I would escape that for ninety minutes a day to rock some riffs into my phone and send that to who knows where.” That ability to send his ideas and riffs around the world really took off, for ‘The Atlas Underground Fire’ is a truly global affair. As Tom reels off the guest list, it’s hard not to be pretty dazzled at the logistics. Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder might have proved to be relatively easy catches in their US bases, but many came from further afield. Dennis Lyxzén of Refused fame worked on the record from Sweden, Palestinian DJ Sama’ Abdulhadi combined her work with hiding from the
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Israeli bombing of Palestine, while Bring Me The Horizon dialled in from both Brazil and the UK, as Damian Marley chipped his work in from Jamaica. And to add yet more madness, Mike Posner recorded his vocals while literally climbing Mount Everest. “25,000 feet up on a rock!” Tom laughs. “People might have recorded vocals higher in other ways but not higher altitude-wise!” As he describes the process of building his 21st studio album as an “entirely new, exciting and artistic challenge”, he pauses when asked if it breathed new life into his work as a guitarist and a musician always known for his futuristic approach to guitar-playing. “It absolutely pushed me,” he agrees. “I think the electric guitar is the greatest instrument ever invented by humankind; nothing else has both that nuance and power. But I also firmly believe that it has a future and not just a past. That’s a big component of these records, finding the collaborations that make inroads into the present and the future, rather than just retreading ‘riff and lick greatest hits’.” Talking of how he would normally over-think and intellectualise his records, here it became all about letting go and trusting his own instinct and intuition. “I can throw away all those expensive microphones now; there are no limits!” he laughs. With largely a clean slate from the first record (Phantogram are the only carry-over, with Josh Carter producing the last album), it was very much a case of Tom landing on artists that struck his fancy rather than it being about chasing chart-botherers or ‘influencers’. “Finding artists who were maybe not born when ‘Evil Empire’ came out, how does my guitar-playing work in their minds?” he asks rhetorically. “I sent Sama’ some of my big Blue Oyster Cult or Black Sabbathstyle riffs, and she said ‘this is nice, but I don’t know what to do with this’.” Working the other way round, he instead asked her to send him something that she was excited about, receiving an eight-minute-long Arabic trance EDM track. “Completely outside of my experience,” he grins. “So I put on my headphones, closed my eyes, and just improvised a few guitar sounds. She applied her production genius to those
“The world does not change itself; that is up to you. Like, you, literally you, reading this” Tom Morello noises, and it became something that never would have happened in a non-lockdown performance.” Describing Bring Me The Horizon as “the standard-bearer for the new world of hard rock and metal”, their track ‘Let’s Get The Party Started’ was made on three continents, not that you’d know it. “It feels like there’s a band in the room kicking your ass,” he laughs. So, with all this forwardsfacing music, you can forgive him for allowing himself a little bit of nostalgia - working with Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder on a cover of the mighty ‘Highway To Hell’. Did it give even three icons like these pause for thought when tackling an anthem-like that? “Ha! No one’s trying to top AC/ DC there,” he cackles, “but the moment where we first played it on stage was one of the most exciting rock’n’roll moments that I’ve ever been around.” It’s as thunderous a cover as you would imagine with that trio on it and a welcome throwback to the trio playing it at a Springsteen concert in Melbourne back in 2014. Describing his pilgrimage to Bon Scott’s grave in his hometown of Perth a few nights before (he played with the E-Street Band on tour) and how the initial inspiration to play the cover as an opening song came about from that trip, Tom is grinning from ear to ear as he reminisces - even happily, and politically, dodging a cheeky question of who would win at Guitar Hero when Morello, Springsteen and Vedder are in a room together. On a more serious note, as talk turns to the record’s wider themes, what was playing out in the world inevitably crept into the songwriting. ‘The War Inside’, performed with Chris Stapleton, deals with the struggles of handling the demons inside during a period that Tom describes as “where your bandwidth is completely full just trying to keep the family sane and alive and keep the train on track”.
The flip-side to that is BMTH’s explosive ‘Let’s Get The Party Started’, a track that on the surface of things may sound like a typical party anthem but holds hidden themes inside. “When you’re confronted by insurmountable anxiety and fear, you can sink into depression or lose your fucking mind to the point where you kill yourself partying,” nods Tom. “I didn’t want to shy away from what was going on in the real world, even though that’s sort of atypical for one of my records.” What is atypical for a Tom Morello record, of course, is a fiercely revolutionary air. And despite all the inwards-facing moments, there is plenty of fire and fury reserved for those seeking to oppress. ‘Hold The Line’, performed with Grandson, is one such moment, dealing in the reaction to the anti-racism protests that raced around the globe last year. “Those protests were a reckoning against global white supremacy,” he says today. “Issues of exploitation, injustice, racism and oppression are a constant thread of human history. But, so too is standing up against those things.” ‘Hold The Line’ joins the long list of songs that Morello has performed on that asks the simple question of ‘can music change the world?” The answer, for him, is simple. “The whole fucking point is to change the world, or at least stir up a shitload of trouble.” Just as fiercely politically active now as he has ever been, he continues. “The world does not change itself; that is up to you. Like, you, literally you, reading this. When the world gets changed, it’s done by people who are no different to anyone reading this. People didn’t have more creativity, power, influence, intelligence; they just stood up for their place in time. Take your swings, people.” When the chance to talk politics with Tom Morello comes up, it’s wise to take it. Just as inspirational and passionate as you would imagine, thoughts and ideas come spilling out as he is asked whether he feels more optimism after seeing
the protests. “A great deal,” he agrees. “To see the uncompromising desire to defeat white supremacy and patriarchy, that’s what the altright feels so threatened by. It’s a clearer view of a future that dispels those antiquated notions of domination and power. My country wrestles with it every day, but my hope is that it’s just the dying throes of a decrepit empire.” Not exactly a fan of the current administration, things have improved since you-know-who left the White House, of course. “Joe Biden is the absolute worst kind of corporate liberal democrat, but when it’s that or the Ku Klux Klan marching down the streets of every town?” He doesn’t need to finish that thought, but he’s off down another strand already anyway. “We dodged the bullet of this immediate dystopian Handmaid’s Tale future, so that can take the wind out of their sails,” he says, “but the key thing is to always aim for the world you really want without compromise. That’s the antithesis of American and probably British politics as well. It’s always like ‘what can we get away with’ rather than are we or are we not going to save the planet? Are we or are we not going to tolerate this endemic racism that poisoned the planet? This pandemic is horrible. War is horrible. But what kills the most people on the planet is poverty and hunger, and they are manmade creations.” As our time runs out, it’s clear that there is still more than enough fire in his belly to power a continent or two for quite some time yet. With the Rage Against The Machine shows currently rebooked for spring in the US, his fingers are crossed that, this time, it will all go ahead smoothly - but with a major caveat. “I want concerts to be a place of joy and a celebration of resistance. And not one where you go home and kill your grandma.” In the meantime, he’s got his electric guitar, and his voice memo app on his phone. And, right now, that’s all he needs. P Tom Morello’s album ‘The Atlas Underground Fire’ is out now.
Upset 31
THE
COURT Trivium’s new album ‘In the Court of the Dragon’ is a grand affair that sees them delve into myths and legends. Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Mike Dunn.
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THE
DRA
M
OF
AGON
yths are great. You don’t have to into Dungeons and Dragons to appreciate a good tale. Hell, take a look on social media, and people are constantly making up their own under the guise of ‘fake news’. Even Trivium are no strangers to digging into the world’s myths, notably on 2008’s ‘Shogun’, but this time around, they’re the ones with legendary pen in hand. ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’ is not only Trivium’s foray into the dizzy heights of doubledigit album releases, but also them slapping down some solid proof of their stoic charge to the top of metal’s ranks. It’s also easy to forget that it’s not actually been that long since releasing ‘What The Dead Men Say’ just last year. Unable to tour it, they instead ended up hunkering down in their shiny new hangar in Florida, focusing on creating their tenth outing. Bassist Paolo Gregoletto has been integral to getting the band to this point. Since joining back in 2004, at the height of the initial Trivium mania, none are more positioned than he to note that “this album is a sum of everything we’ve learned over the years.” Indeed, Trivium appear to keep hitting stride after stride, and ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’ is no exception. Loosely tying things together with their own mythology and massively luxurious classic painting to boot, the metaphorical dragon of Trivium has smoke unfurling from its nostrils, ready to breathe the big
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roar. “I feel like we’re in a spot now where everyone is in a good place, where I think we know we’re not trying to reinvent Trivium,” Paolo says. “We’re not trying to be something else, but we have a lot of possibilities when it comes to what we can do.” This is where leaning into a bit more than just writing some songs comes into play. The epic portrait of the album’s artwork, which has been displayed at various venues in promotion, ties the songs about feasts of fire and phalanxes together. “The painting is the representation, but there’s enough mystery to it to where you can really kind of fill it in, to be whatever you think it’s going to be about. But it’s kind of our own, like I said, so that was the easiest way I could describe it to someone, and I feel like sometimes having like a real short explanation of what we’re trying to do.” Sure, what they’re trying to do here is offer a new level of Trivium. Knowing they’re a fair way into their careers now, where most have failed to launch, Trivium are on the constant up and up. This also means they’ve focused on just what it is about their band that draws people in. “We have to spend the time figuring out what that is, and there are just certain things that our band does well and people associate with it,” Paolo reckons. “Matt screaming is such an integral part of our sound that at this point, we’ve done the experimenting with how much singing or screaming works in our music, we know now there’s not going to be another all-singing album from Trivium. “So, instead of trying to hypothetically become some other band, it’s about making the best of what Trivium does and I think we’ve really started to hit that well because people sense the energy is really there. Similar to our early records, what people liked about them is there’s just this energy in there. Obviously, we’re not the same band as we were, and of course, Alex [Bent, drummer
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who joined in 2017] being in the band, it’s always going to feel new having a new member, but we also have a new way to have that energy and still progress a little bit beyond that.”
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n air of potential sub-conscious escapism came while writing ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’, but as for what the bigger picture details may be on this narrative, it’s something Paolo isn’t too focused on delving into since that would enter the realm of a concept album. Not that he has anything against those, mind you, it’s just that creates a restrictive arena that forces a point of view, and that’s not what Trivium are about. Now that they’re back on the road, they can serve the most important one: bringing their energy to the masses. Yet, while most bands are still toting that one record they could not celebrate, Trivium now have two in tow. “[‘What The Dead Men Say’] is getting its live debut just as the new songs are. I feel like with like streaming and stuff now people just dive into this stuff if it’s there and if it’s good, it gets the listens.” He mentions the albums lead single ‘Catastrophist’ “has almost 20 million streams on our Spotify, and we hadn’t played that song live until like three weeks ago, so it’s got most of its listening in while we weren’t touring. It’s definitely different, but I feel like the next two years of touring is going to just be touring for two albums, in a way.” ‘In The Court of The Dragon’ being Trivium’s tenth release, means they’ve also been dealing with this changing landscape. The one where a single you release can reach astronomical numbers without you having to set foot on a stage being par for the course. Once they were teenagers, the world at their feet, and now they’re adults with a hangar and even bigger ambitions, the world at their fingertips. Streaming is a massive part of their identity (Trivium have also built an ardent game streaming
it’s that it can go away a lot following, with vocalist quicker than you think. We and guitarist Matt Heafy were all forced to having amassed have this hiatus, 230,000 DRAGON’S so we made the followers on DEN: best of it.” Twitch). Is GIVEN THE Perhaps that’s there much of a MYTHICAL why Trivium are reflection period BEAST IS no longer a band for Trivium, or are A FOCAL with something they still ready POINT OF to prove. They’re to live by the TRIVIUM’S now fully-fledged sword, die by the LATEST, kings of the world; sword? JUST the one that “The early WHICH threatened to days were crazy. DRAGON feed them to the I think, when we TOPS wolves as quickly were like 18-19, PAOLO’S as it drew them you’ve got to LIST? in. ‘In The Court have a little bit of Of The Dragon’ a crazy outlook “The first one has no ulterior on what you want that came to motive; it’s just to do because my mind is a a band playing when you’re in a random one; it’s music with the band, you’ve got from a game sole intention of to have some big I didn’t really escaping reality. dreams to keep play as a kid, The same way its you going when but I had a lot fans yearn to, and it’s not the most of friends who in the same way comfortable,” he played did. It’s that people have says. “But now, from EverQuest, sought out myths we appreciate it was called and legends for where we’re Klandicar, and millennia. They’re at. We’re very it was a dragon now fully in grateful for the that you had control. fans who have to fight, and I “It’s good for stuck by us, and remember my us because if it’s nice to be friends fighting we’re going to able to kind of that dragon tell a myth that’s like look at what in that old ass our own, then you’re doing and game where we have a lot being very proud you used to more creative of it and enjoy it.” have to type liberty to do Wary of in commands whatever we want becoming the to make things with it, and it’s kind of band that happen. That’s just fun,” Paolo turns the reality the one I’m says. “The last from dream to thinking of at the two years have droll, Trivium moment. I’m sure been obviously aren’t hanging there’s probably a big bummer around with a a better dragon all around for reminiscent glint or more recent everyone, and it in their eyes. timely dragon, just felt like going Instead, they are but that’s the that way with appreciative of one I’m just lyrics felt better being able to go thinking of right than trying to be from hot upstarts now. A little deep topical. It was with targets on cut right there. nice to just dive their back, to EverQuest for all into something titans. the gamer heads else and be very “Any time out there.” focused on it, I’ve ever seen and I hope that bands that are when people are successful but listening to it, it comes across they don’t enjoy it, I’ve never as a band just having a lot wanted to be that. I want to of fun and trying to make enjoy this while we have the something exciting and a lot chance, and that’s why we’re of riffs. With a lot of stuff to always going out, hanging go through!” P Trivium’s out together and going to album ‘In The Court Of The dinners. If the last two years Dragon’ is out now. have taught us anything,
“THIS ALBUM IS A SUM OF
EVERYTHING WE’VE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS” Paolo Gregoletto
Upset 35
DOOM MERC -HANT Wade MacNeil is back with his new solo project Dooms Children, his most personal and revealing to date.
Words: Alexander Bradley. Photo: Rashad Bedeir.
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I
t started with a tweet. “Drunk. Miserable. Depressed. August 4, 2019,” read the caption accompanying a photo of Wade MacNeil onboard a plane, drink in hand, with a wincing, pained expression on his tired face. The thread that followed confirmed that he had been to rehab to tackle head-on his addiction and depression as soon as he finished touring with Alexisonfire in January 2020. “I feel ok in my own skin for maybe the first time in my life. I woke up happy this morning. IT’S FUCKED,” he tweeted three months after the time in rehab before concluding the thread by quoting Leonard Cohen’s ‘Anthem’: “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in,” he wrote. From that light that got in, the spark, that bit of magic, comes Dooms Children. It’s a project saturated in colour as a
direct contrast to the dark place it was first conceived. The music is part of the healing process, and knowing that goes some way to explaining why there is a lot of looking back to move forward anchoring this self-titled album. It allows for moments of brutal honesty, like singing, “My father cried when he dropped me off at rehab / Caused so much pain I didn’t even know,” in the opening line of ‘Psyche Hospital Blues’. It’s performed by Wade in a lush blonde wig while straddling his motorbike in the music video; serious, but don’t take it too seriously. There was a need to make ‘Dooms Children’ to get the songs and thoughts out of his head, but now that they are, Wade is in a completely different astral realm where he is sober, happy, and thriving.
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“Writing these songs was a way to deal with the difficulties I was going through at the time,” he opens up. “To work out where I was at emotionally, putting pen to page and then recording them too, felt like the next step of trying to get on the other side of all that pain.” “It was certainly not easy to do; it was very emotional recording the songs. I certainly tried to bring myself back to the places that they were written from and really feel it when I was playing the songs, and that was trying, but I think you can hear it in the recordings, and I think the last step to that is putting this record out into the world. “The heavier parts of the record, the more difficult parts lyrically, the more personal things, I hope that allows me to look at those things as something that’s in the past and I’m trying to heal and move away from. Hopefully, people can see a little bit of themselves in that, and that’s the stuff that connects with people the most.” It’s a genuine and honest confrontation with his struggles, but they seem more like traits he barely recognises now. Yes, ‘Dooms Children’ is an album about depression, but it doesn’t mean it had to be depressing. It was all down to perspective and, when it came to songwriting, Wade had some psychedelic friends to help change the way he looked at the world and his struggles. “A lot of these songs were written in a space when I was taking a lot of hallucinogens,” he laughs that raspy laugh. “Doing that can certainly open your thinking up and the way you emotionally deal with things to a different kind of way. I think it’s something everyone should do at some point in their life,” he advocates. “That being said,” he considers, “it’s not a way to escape because it has a tendency to bring the thing you’re actually trying to escape to the forefront of your mind. It’s certainly an incredible experience, but if you’re looking to keep that experience going, the answer isn’t a bigger dose of mushrooms or more hits of LSD; it’s focusing on a
meditation process and finding a way to get to the same space in a different way.” Album opener ‘Trip With Me’ is an invitation to challenge those perceptions, join Wade on a spiritual journey and open yourself up to the magic of everyday life. “There’s magic happening around us all the time, I think,” he says, explaining his perception of how magic works while not sounding too much like a hippie. “The creation of music is magic. Willing something into existence that I hear in my head that doesn’t exist yet in the world really feels like magic to me. There are a lot of ways to touch on that and to be connected to that; it’s just your willingness, how much you want to try and find it,” he reasons. You can see his point. He
(the first-ever Dooms song), the blissed-out bluesy lilt of ‘Skeleton Beach’, and the psychedelic haze of ‘Flower Moon’ all have the same loose feel that was ingrained in The ‘Dead. The one deviation comes in ‘Lotus Eater’ as “the one moment that we allowed ourselves to go full Sabbath on the record,” Wade admits. Shining in the middle of the album with a brooding vocal performance that Leonard Cohen would be proud of and lyrical nods to Kurt Vonnegut, Wade slipped back into something more familiar. “I was like, “we can do it once’. It’s hard to resist the urges,” he confesses. “That’s the one where we really let ourselves go, and I imagine we’re going to play that intro riff fucking forever when we play it live. I
“Writing these songs was a way to deal with the difficulties I was going through” Wade MacNeil
has developed a talent for turning losses into wins in the last few years, and this solo venture is the pinnacle of that. At his lowest, the music he loved wasn’t hitting the way it should. “My life was in such a state of upheaval and chaos that listening to black metal and listening to punk and all the bands I like and I still love, it wasn’t helping. It was making me more anxious. It was having the opposite effect that it used to have on me,” he explains. He turned it around by enjoying The Allman Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and a “deep dive”-turned-obsession with The Grateful Dead. The Dooms Children album features a re-imagining of The ‘Dead’s ‘Friend of the Devil’, but their influence doesn’t stop there. From the soothing gospel sound on ‘Morningstar’
can’t wait.” Other than that, ‘Dooms Children’ sounds like a love letter from a Deadhead. Wade was already becoming more of a “wah-wah guy” after touring with Cancer Bats recently but Dooms Children has pushed his playing style further again as he looks to emulate The ‘Dead. And when it comes to playing live, Wade will be completely reinvented. “What’s interesting about doing this project is doing different things, having different expectations, having different types of players playing with me. With the songs I’ve written, we could have a looseness, we could have a more jam approach to the songs, and we could really take them to some pretty out-there places, which is the complete antithesis of playing
in a punk band or playing in a post-hardcore band. Those things are pretty dialled in,” he reveals. “I think starting this, when we recorded the Dead cover, that first song in my friend’s living room, I thought, ‘man I could like play a show and we could play this song for like a half an hour, we could play a show and just play THIS song’.” “That probably sounds like self-indulgent shit, but I’d love to do that. I’m going to do that at some point. There’s going to be a Dooms Children show where we just show up and play a 35-minute version of ‘Friend of the Devil’, and to the people in that room, we will either be the world’s greatest band or they will leave. Probably a bit of both,” he laughs. Those first Dooms Children shows are fast approaching in December, and Wade is understandably anxious about returning to live shows after a long time away. “I’m excited about it, but I’m nervous, which is something I haven’t been for a show in fucking 20 years… maybe it’s kind of nice,” he admits. Thankfully, the shows are opening up for City & Colour, and the whole thing feels like it’s meant to be. “It’s been interesting that it’s all circled back around again and that Alexis is touring again and then, in a very weird way, that I put out enough of a sad bastard record that Dallas [Green] and I can go do some shows together.” It’s all about growth. That’s what City & Colour was, and that’s what Dooms Children is for Wade. It’s depression in retrospect, and there is no underestimating the hope that lies beneath the surface of that knowing he is flourishing on the other side that battle. It’s bleak but packaged beautifully, but the whole project is named after a bad guy from Conan the Barbarian, so you can’t take it all that seriously. So grab your favourite wizard’s cloak, glitter, some colourful makeup for a 70s Alice Cooper eye-diamond chic and enjoy the psych-rock soundtrack to Wade’s darkest days. P Dooms Children’s self-titled album is out 20th October.
Upset 39
CAN’
ESCAPE THE WAVES 40 Upset
T Bullet For My Valentine are at their most visceral for their self-titled seventh album. This is the start of Bullet 2.0. Words: Jack Press. Photo: Fiona Garden.
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albums go hand in hand, intrinsically linked by Matt’s personal struggles. Rather than pandering to a polarised fanbase – which meant either sticking to their guns and making a sequel or setting light to it all and starting again – they used its catharsis as a launchpad for a brave new world. “We don’t want to recapture any formulas or successes from the past, we’ve never been a band like that. With ‘Gravity’ sounding the way it did, which was so divisive for our fan base some people loved it, some people hated it - we knew we had to kick the door open, let everything out and really not hold back.” ‘Gravity’ isn’t a graveyard for their nu-metal experiments and radio rock gimmicks; it’s a resting place for their past in which they rose from resurrected. They needed to hit rock bottom to rediscover why they were aiming for the sun in the first place. “Before and during the
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‘Gravity’ cycle, there was a lot going on. We were testing the water, and everyone was finding their feet together, and there was lots of stuff going on behind the scenes that was really negative for everyone.
we’re in a far better place. It really did give us the confidence to shock people this time around. It’s a far more confident, aggressive, mature, assertive band now. It’s taken us a couple of years to feel like this again.”
“We knew we had to kick the door open, let everything out and really not hold back” Matt Tuck
“I don’t think it made ‘Gravity’ a negative album, I think it’s a great album because it captured a moment in the band’s career and my life that needed to be on record, but this time around, we’re settled, and
It’s no secret that Bullet For My Valentine have been through the ringer through the years, and the aggression they channel on this self-titled outing is a result of that. They’ve taken the personal and professional calamities,
the critical receptions and commercial rollercoasters and raised a whole new beast. Ultimately, this is a product of what’s come before. “I really do believe that they are a product of each other. We couldn’t have had this record sound as aggressive and as heavy as it is if ‘Gravity’ didn’t exist. It gave us this platform to come back swinging even harder than we ever have and make the contrast even more obvious.” The confidence Bullet have cultivated across the years since ‘Gravity’ isn’t just musically; it goes far deeper than that. This album is a celebration of strength as much as it’s an admission of weakness. Driven by Matt’s experiences with his mental health over the last few years, it serves as a space to unload after a long day and begin to break the taboos still held in certain corners of the metal pantheon. It’s something they feel has been a long time coming, and something that’s both a responsibility and a
reward. “We’ve come a long way in the last five years, where I’ve become confident and comfortable enough to speak to people about my issues and my worries in life, and it’s good to just let it out. The moment you speak to someone about your mental health is amazing, it’s like a weight off the shoulders, and this album is about sharing those experiences and having the confidence to be able to say it and not feel like you’re overreacting or being stupid.” Behind the blistering breakdowns and searing choruses that comprise this self-titled offering is a collection of conversations. It’s the sound of a band bearing their soul and wearing their heart on their sleeves. This is an insight into the realities of being a band who’ve been held on a pedestal, and what happens behind the scenes. ‘Rainbow Veins’ is Matt Tuck at his most vulnerable, exploring his experiences with self-medication and coming
to terms with depression. As he sings ‘another day, but I don’t want to face it, I want to heal, so I self-medicate it, and I don’t want to feel it, another dose just to keep me sedated’, there’s a sobering wave washing over you as you realise that even rock stars have feelings. “I’m no different from anyone else in the world. ‘Gravity’ was the lowest point I’ve ever been in my life, and telling the world about it was not something I really wanted to do, because I didn’t want to show the world my weaknesses, but I chose to roll with it, and I didn’t want to resist it.” “’Rainbow Veins’ and ‘Can’t Escape The Waves’ are from a darker place of feeling down and having anxiety and being in these dark places you can’t get out of. With the year and a half the world has faced, I know these songs are going to be more relatable than ever.” And there it is, the elephant in the room: Covid-19. The pandemic
put live music behind bars, kept us locked down in our bedrooms, and bought the Bullet camp to a standstill. It also gave Matt and the boys the opportunity to tick off a goal they’ve been gunning for since their early days. They finally headlined Download, and it was everything they’ve ever wished for. “We’re really proud of ourselves for getting there. Obviously, it wasn’t the all-singing, all-dancing Download, but it was more important because we were kickstarting the live music industry, so to be recognised as the band that could deliver and finish off the festival was phenomenal.” It’s an achievement they’ve been trying to unlock for years. While they’ve always been touted as future headliners, the call-up has evaded them. They’ve always been the bridesmaid and never the bride, until now. It’s something Matt is fully aware of, and something which drives them even further into the era of Bullet 2.0.
“We’ve been a very hardworking band since 2005, and we’ve made no qualms about our ambitions, what we want to achieve and how we’re going to get there. We knocked off a load of goals early on in our career, which is very unusual for any band, but this one slot has eluded us for many, many years and rightfully so, because the bands that headline every year, there’s no way we deserve it more than those guys do. But it feels like we’re definitely ready, and we’ve got the history, we’ve got the back catalogue, and we’ve got the fan base.” As they usher in the selftitled age, there’s a real sense of excitement coming from the camp which we haven’t felt in years. It’s infectious, like a shockwave rippling through your senses. With their confidence restored, Bullet For My Valentine are getting in the ring for one more championship run. P Bullet For My Valentine’s self-titled album is out 5th November.
Upset 43
Rated. THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes Sticky
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There has always been a feral animal on the loose in Frank Carter, but ‘Sticky’ is his most rabid work to date. Like a dog chasing a car, foaming at the mouth, free from lockdowns, with barking and maniacal laughing in the background, the singer snarls at his bartender, “Two shots please because I’m ready to explode!” on ‘Take It To The Brink’; a perfect cross-section of the chaotic party taking place on the band’s fourth outing. The Rat’s pack includes Joe Talbot’s venom spewing on ‘My Town’, violent synchronicity with ‘Cassyette’ on ‘Off With His Head’ and a double shot of Lynks on ‘Bang Bang’ and the sizzling ‘Go Get A Tattoo’. Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie also joins as a more reverent voice on ‘Original Sin’ as the festivities draw to a close. It’s an alcohol-fuelled, violent, tireless joyride through the present day and further proof that there is no cage big enough for Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes. Alexander Bradley
American Teeth
We Should Be Having Fun
eeee Observing the recent increased bleed between the twin towers of pop and rock is neither especially groundbreaking or a notably new phenomenon - but it’s fair to say that over the past couple of years, the popular kids have been steering more into poppunk sounds. That’s fertile ground for new artists who want to cross the streams, and one that Colin Brittain - AKA American Teeth excels in. ‘We Should Be Having Fun’ is a record that brings a shimmering aesthetic that, while not groundbreaking, sounds awfully now. ‘Glue’ sounds like it’s heading for a by-the-numbers, seen-it-allbefore pop punk standard before the beat kicks in, turning it into a fearsome earworm. ‘SICK’, featuring fellow pop-rock practitioners DE’WAYNE and phem, remains a triumph while closing track ‘Like To Be Love’ shows a different side, pulsing, atmospheric and restrained. At a time where attitude makes a rock star far more than the size of their riffs, American Teeth could be positively iconic. Stephen Ackroyd
beating fast like the blades of a helicopter. One of the biggest names in UK metal, Bullet For My Valentine have provided a vigorous reinvention; it’s an album well worth waiting for. Kelsey McClure
The Darkness Motorheart
eee Having come through a late-2000s period of strife and indefinite hiatus, these days The Darkness are a model of reliability. The ridiculous ‘Welcome Tae Glasgow’ sets the tone for this latest offering, with histrionic riffs and a cheeky serenade to the charms of the Scottish city. Titletrack ‘Motorheart’ is a complex metaller, shapeshifting and lurching around as Justin Hawkins tells us all about his android amour, a concept that thankfully doesn’t form the basis of the album. Instead we get treated to the best genre of Darkness track; ‘Jussy’s Girl’ and ‘Sticky Situation’ reignite the band’s love of ABBA. As should be clear from Justin and Dan reeling off the route of their bar crawl on ‘Eastbound’, having once conquered the mainstream The Darkness are now content enough making music for themselves. Dillon Eastoe
Bullet For My Dooms Valentine Children Bullet For My Valentine
Dooms Children
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Their seventh album, ‘Bullet For My Valentine’ marks a turning point for the band, one that guitarist Michael Padget cites as showing off their ‘most ferocious side yet’. Full of face-melting riffs and teeth-chattering bass, it’s fierce from the get go, but the second act is when the heat truly arrives; ‘Paralysed’ is like a shot of pure adrenaline, the drums
Wade MacNeil has done it all. Or almost everything. The cofounder and lead guitarist of Alexisonfire and vocalist of Gallows, Dooms Children sees Wade on an altogether different musical path - one turned more inwards and personal. Described by Wade himself as “a record about my life falling apart and then trying to pick up
the pieces,” it arrives at a time where that kind of introspection is more identifiable to many than ever before. Musically, though, it’s perhaps not what we’d expect. Opener ‘Trip With Me’ arrives with the kind of psychedelic crescendo that echoes back to classic mid-90s Britpop, while ‘Psych Hospital Blues’ and its confessional narrative and satisfying twang slips down like milk over broken glass. In opening up his world, Wade has also opened up his musical horizons to make an album that doesn’t just hit the mark emotionally, but offers up the kind of accessibility that hits far beyond expectations. An honest-to-God gem. Stephen Ackroyd
Every Time I Die Radical
eeee ”Spare only the ones I love / Slay the rest,” pleads Keith Buckley on the very first line of ‘Radical’. From there, it’s all the rage. 16 tracks, a double album, and it’s hell for leather all the way through. Only ‘Thing With Feathers’ offers a brief illusion of a respite as it closes out the first side, but that doesn’t last too long. Their sound is mercurial, ever-evolving and never settling into a pattern from moment to moment as chaos is allowed to reign. It requires some stamina to piggyback on the white-hot anger that surges from ‘Radical’, but if you stick with it, then it’s one hell of a ride. Alexander Bradley
Ian Miles
Degradation, Death and Decay
eeee With his debut solo album, Creeper’s Ian Miles has created something fantastic. While it isn’t
heavy in genre, it certainly is in substance. ‘Degradation, Death and Decay’ is deeply personal, like reading pages from a diary. The lyrics are poetic; the emotion they bring is palpable. Ian’s fragile voice and gentle guitar both contrast and complement the weight of his lyricism. It’s an album for stormy nights, one to listen to with the lights off. Original and brave, hopefully there’s more to come. Kelsey McClure
the calming ambience of opening track ‘Return to Capital’, building and building before the infectious ‘Sibensko Powerhouse’ crashes into our consciousness. It is clear from the offset that this album is gonna be big, bold, and utterly fucking beautiful - and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Over the years, JOHN have developed somewhat of a cult following - and this album is cold, hard proof that they are well worth the hype. Melissa Darragh
inadequate. Making use of the magic of the internet during lockdown to put together an album of diverse but fascinating guests, there are appearances from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Bring Me The Horizon, Grandson, Mike Posner and more. Each artist brings their own special something to the party, but Morello’s iconic style remains unrestrained. A work that swings across the musical dial, there’s sure to be something for everyone. Dan Harrison
Parquet Courts
Trivium
on opener ‘Dark Horse’ you can hear the hands of producer Dan Auberbach, he of Black Keys fame, all over it.
Not that that’s to diminish the trio’s remarkable talent. Made up of vocalist and guitarist Demi Demitro and dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig, it’s far from a conventional line-up. But boy, does it work. When in full flow, The Velveteers wail like few others. ‘Motel #27’ thumps and growls like a primal beast, while ‘Father of Lies’ is a sleeker, sleazier beast. With the bombast turned The Silver Scream down, there’s still plenty 2: Welcome To In The Court Of The to enjoy - the album’s Horrorwood title-track twinkles before Dragon Sympathy For Life hitting its groove, while eeee ‘Charmer And The Snake’ eeeee eeee There’s a has a hypnotic hip-shake Most bands to its slithering magnetism. Over a lot to be do not get decade on said about ‘Nightmare Daydream’ is to ten from their a bit of an album that refuses to be albums, formation, dramatics, buttoned down to any one and those Brooklyn which is a thing, and yet does them that do punks good thing for Ice Nine all brilliantly. You can’t rarely manage it with wind Parquet Courts continue Kills, because they’ve say fairer than that. Dan still blowing in their sails. packed a trailer full of ‘em. their reign with new album Harrison Trivium may have entered ‘Sympathy For Life’. As full Following on from 2018’s their third decade of of charm and wit as earlier ‘The Silver Scream’, existence, but the Florida offerings, from the building ‘Welcome to Horrorwood’ quartet clearly still have Reincarnate EP bass lines of ‘Application is a record that casts its something left to say, Apparatus’ to the stylish predecessor as a work of eeeee something which ‘In The grooves of ‘Sympathy for fiction, dragging the Court Of The Dragon’ narrative right into the real Life’, this album is a proves without doubt. From world. All that’s left behind masterclass in all that the opening atmospheric, of a gruesome murder are Parquet Courts have to orchestral build of ‘X’ into 13 tracks left behind by the offer. With more emphasis the pummelling, complex suspected killer. As much a on electronic grooves, the riffs of the album’s titleband have found a way to game of narrative cat and Manchester’s raging quartet track, this is Trivium at the elevate their sound while mouse as an album of Witch Fever prove their very top of their game. staying true to their roots. pummelling delight, the worth in a crowded punk While some peers try to clear love and inspiration Melissa Darragh scene with their debut EP, innovate by swerving out of of cinematic horror is still ‘Reincarnate’, a collection of their lane, on ‘In The Court clear to see, referencing songs that spiral in tight Of The Dragon’ Trivium classic films from the control. From the moment instead decide to further The Atlas genre throughout. From the eponymous first track perfect their craft. Pure, Underground Fire Child’s Play to American blazes forth, you’ll be unadulterated metal, this is Psycho, it’s a pulpy delight. gripping the edge of your eee gargantuan music for the Dan Harrison seat, staring into the band’s biggest of all stages. Dan Tom fiery, hot-poker punk. It’s Harrison Morello more than just angry; it’s doesn’t anthemic and inspiring in a Nocturnal need to way that modern punk isn’t borrow Manoeuvres always. Razor-sharp and anyone biblical in proportion, the eeee else’s star power. As the Nightmare Daydream band present a raging iconic guitarist of Rage JOHN account of femininity eeee Against The Machine, have trapped within their visceral Audioslave and Prophets of proven sonic assault. Harnessing To call an once again Rage, he’s a leader in his tropes of female hysteria, album craft already. ‘The Atlas that they timeless is the band flip it on its head Underground Fire’ isn’t one are the and position it as something perhaps of those records that brings fiercest duo around. one of the powerful and breath-taking. Bringing their powerhouse in the names for a cheap Driving forward full throttle, greatest hit, but more to allow peers compliments one can pay. as a first EP, this snarls and of angst to our eardrums bites in all the right ways, once again, we are graced to combine for some It’s certainly one that positioning Witch Fever as genuinely fascinating with raucous new album applies to The Velveteers’ commanding members of collaborations. One look at debut ‘Nightmare ‘Nocturnal Manoeuvres”. Manchester’s music scene. the cast list alone is enough Daydream’. Often scuzzy, Droning guitars threaten to push their way through to make most feel fuzzy and psychedelic - like Edie McQueen
Ice Nine Kills
Witch Fever
Tom Morello
JOHN
The Velveteers
Upset 45
EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, MIKE FROM SPIRITBOX TAKES US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HIM DURING HIS TEENAGE YEARS. WITH... MIKE STRINGER, SPIRITBOX
ALEXISONFIRE No Transitory
This band was my gateway into music with screaming in it. At first, I didn’t get it, but something clicked, and I became obsessed. I discovered Alexisonfire when I was 13; whenever I hear their album ‘Watch Out’ or their selftitled record, it brings me right back to how it all started.
PROTEST THE HERO Nautical
UNDEROATH
A Moment Suspended In Time
After getting hooked on Alexisonfire, I was introduced to Underoath. This band solidified my love for this genre, and their album ‘Define The Great Line’. I still listen to this album all the time. ‘A Moment Suspended In Time’ will always bring me back to playing in my first band, and being in our van just starting to tour when I was 16 years old.
METALLICA
The Thing That Should Not Be
‘The Thing That Should Not Be’
46 Upset
Photo: Travis Shinn
Protest The Hero is a very important band to me. I owe a lot to this album (‘Kezia’); it shaped the way I play guitar. When I was 15, some of my friends showed me the music video for their song ‘Blindfolds Aside’, and I immediately went home to try and learn it. This was the most technical guitar playing I had heard at that time, and I was obsessed with trying to learn as much of it as I could. I spent countless hours after school in my room learning Protest songs. I chose ‘Nautical’ as the highlight track as it’s one of the best songs off of the album, but it’s also one of the first ones I learned. I still use parts of it as a warm-up before I play to this day.
is one of the heaviest songs of all time. I fell in love with it when I was 10. Right when I started becoming obsessed with guitar, this was a very important song to me. It was one of the first that introduced me to down tuning, and extremely heavy chugging patterns. ‘Master Of Puppets’ is one of the best albums ever made.
one of my favourite albums, but learning ‘Bland Street Bloom’ changed a lot for me.
ARCHITECTS Numbers Count For Nothing
I’ll never forget discovering Architects on Much Loud when I was 15. Much Loud was an hourlong show, only aired late at night in Canada. I discovered a lot of great bands this way. Architects Bland Street Bloom was definitely the highlight of I discovered this band through them all; I was hooked pretty Protest The Hero. Their guitar much immediately. ‘Numbers player wore a Sikth shirt in a Count For Nothing’ has one of the music video, and I looked them best riffs ever written in it, and up. It was unlike anything I had listening to this song brings me ever heard before, and once right back to being a teenager again, I wanted to challenge myself and learn as much of it as I sitting in my room, trying to figure could! Sikth was really important out how to play it. to me, because it taught me a lot about unconventional tunings, and pushing the limits of the guitar. I still listen to Sikth a ton, and ‘Death Of A Dead Day’ is Talk Is Cheap
SIKTH
COMEBACK KID
This was my skateboarding song when I was a teenager. It’s driving, heavy, catchy, and still hits hard to this day. ‘Wake The Dead’ and ‘Broadcasting’ were very important albums to me.
ENTER SHIKARI
Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour
I found Enter Shikari when I was 15, and discovered their album ‘Take To The Skies’. I remember having that “aha” moment where I realised you could combine electronic elements and heavy music together. Enter Shikari has always been ahead of the curve. This song was a big one for me as it’s so dynamic, and has so many cool parts in it. Without this band, I don’t think I’d look at heavy music the same way. P Spiritbox’s album ‘Eternal Blue’ is out now.
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