Metal

There’s something immediately satisfying about a heavy rock song that refuses to sound too clean. “Forever Lost,” the latest single from Southampton outfit Blacklight Vice, understands that sometimes the little imperfections are exactly what make a recording feel alive. The track marks the band’s first collaboration with new vocalist Drew Knowles and a clear step

Masks offer a profound sense of freedom and X-Anonymous understands that better than almost anyone in the current underground circuit. Their latest offering Claim It All rips through the silence with a hunger that feels remarkably earned and fiercely independent. This track is not really about vanity because the Metalcore collective has chosen to let

The air in the room shifts when ONEWAY kicks into the opening bars of Addicted and it feels like the walls are sweating under the weight of a secret that can no longer be kept. There is an immediate sense of gravity here because this is a song about the center of the storm where

The air in a sweaty basement club feels different when a band like UNB4RRED rips into a track like Hail Mary because it hits with the weight of an anvil dropped from a skyscraper. This alt-rock trio from the Brighton and Norwich scene has managed to bottle the lightning of frustration and release in a way that

“A whirlwind of operatic intensity and complex metal arrangements that marks the turning point of a trauma-fueled narrative odyssey.” Heavy music has always thrived on the collision of the beautiful and the brutal but rarely does an independent act find the sweet spot between those worlds with such cinematic flair as Oïkoumen on their latest

“A cinematic surge of heavy guitars and melodic weight that cements Subtle Monster as a rising force in the independent metal scene.” The air feels thick with anticipation the moment the first notes of Vestige hit and it is clear that Subtle Monster is not interested in playing by the rules of generic radio rock