Track Review

When eight Hamburg musicians step into a studio with decades of sweat and stage smoke behind them you expect grit, but Simple Things by 5th Avenue catches you completely off guard with its pure heart and breezy melody. Ever since their legendary appearance at the inaugural Wacken Open Air back in 1990 this northern German powerhouse has

When a band unearths rehearsal cassette tapes after thirty years in the vault, the result usually leans toward misty nostalgia, but Cleveland rock outfit Farline obliterates any expectation of quiet reflection with their massive single Running Blind. Formed during the explosive boom of nineties alternative rock, the group shelved early drafts of this track before dusting

Stepping straight into the furnace with a re-imagined weapon, Swedish metal outfit NERVED deliver a crushing statement of intent on Don’t Lie. Originally released back in 2008 on their album Finally Nerved, this track always possessed a ferocious core, but here it finally gets the massive stadium-sized production and punishing low end it deserved. The

Painting featured in the artwork:“The Sound from the Opposite Shore” 対岸の音 (4S)2023by 卯野 和宏 (Uno Kazuhiro) At an age where some songs can’t figure out their intent for several minutes, Marston and Baldi offer us a track that wasted barely a breath to get there. Within the runtime of one and a half minutes, this

There are only so many ways a rock band can tell you things are crap. They can scream at the listener, then lower the guitar tuning until the neighbors’ furniture begins to hum with their own existential rage, write a chorus explicitly about the nature of despair and scream it at an increased volume. Or,

Drums For Clowns and Kit Cooper’s ‘Grave Concern‘ sounds like several consecutive all-nighters. In the morning, instead of feeling the relief that exhaustion usually affords, your mind convenes a high-alert, totally unrequested all-hands meeting where nobody feels prepared for any of it. The song is frantic, angry, emtionally obsessive; the kind of track that doesn’t

Picture driving down a rain-slicked highway at midnight with the radio turned up as the raw distortion of classic guitars fills the air, because that exact electric feeling comes rushing back the moment Wild Synchros drops Riding in the Back Seat. Hailing from Barcelona, this independent outfit captures the spirit of early 2000s alternative rock