Browsing Tag

emo

Rookie – Resolve: A Volition-Charged Resurgence of Emo-Tinged Post-Grunge

Posted on 5 March 2024

Familiar enough to give you a sonic slice of déjà vu, fresh enough to leave you exhilarated by the trailblazingly emo-tinged post-grunge revival, the latest alt-90s single from the Italian renegades of scuzz, Rookie, is an anthem for the ennui-inclined that will leave you inclined to push your speakers to their limits.

Everything about the augmentation of hook-laden lament compels you to feel the full visceral force of the deliciously distorted earworm, which doesn’t just burrow down into your psyche; it bares its teeth and refuses to let go.

Fans of Jawbreaker, The Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr won’t want to miss out on Resolve, which was released after a lengthy hiatus Rookie used to hone the volition in their sound. Now that the power trio is back in the studio recording their new EP, SHELTER, with Matteo Tabacco, they’re more than worth a spot on your radar.

Add Resolve to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

NEET and Tidy wrapped their grungy pop-punk hooks around the afflictions of modernity in their LP, Is This Progress?

Posted on 23 February 2024

If any band can advocate for the LP format in an era when our attention spans are shorter than a boardwalk, it is NEET and Tidy with their aural corridor back to the alt-90s.

The sophomore album, Is This Progress? is an unflinchingly reflective exposition of the afflictions of modernity. The sludged-up hooks in Pillow Talk, which captures the bitter taste of a love turned sour, carry all the infectious rancour of Jawbreaker and NOFX, before Play Me launches a straight-up attack on how far the industry has fallen since the golden era of indie and alt-rock. Lyrics in the vein of, “your favourite pop star is the latest infection”, and “another NFT, another stupid dance”, paint a damning portrait of how twisted the industry has come through the contortions of capitalism and narcissism-driven content.

Another standout release within the LP is the evocative evolution of pop-punk into the chorally reverb-swathed remit of shoegaze. Snow (Okay) is a harbingering lament on how the music industry revolves around ableism when it isn’t bleeding vulnerable people dry. From start to finish, the sophomore release from NEET and Tidy asserts the Nashville-residing outfit as one of the most relatable and essential bands in 2024. If you’re always looking for artists with the ability to cut through the static of your ennui, you will find one when you delve into this seminal release.

Is This Progress will reach the airwaves on February 23rd; stream the LP on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

We Were Blank – Blame: The Emo Antidote to the Influx of Valentine’s Day Sonic Banality

Posted on 14 February 2024

Every Valentine’s Day sees a flood of trite sentiments cloyingly affix themselves to the airwaves; if you’re looking for a scathingly antithetical antidote, look no further than We Were Blank’s latest installation of pop-punk rancour, Blame.

With hints of Tom DeLonge in the vox before they burst into Rise Against-reminiscent outpours of visceralism, Blame ticks all the right vocal emo boxes as We Were Blank throws a barrage of aggravated instrumental curveballs to keep you on the edge of your proverbial seat (or in the middle of the pit if you’re catching them live). And what emo hit would be complete without a slam poetry elucidation that captures the essence of the single towards the outro to make you want to relive the experience and make your heart rise to your throat again?

The Craigslist-born, basement in Buffalo-raised fourpiece banded together with the ethos of writing with their heartstrings and letting their bodies visualise the torment; Blame is the ultimate testament to their vulnerable expressionism. They’ve got the precision, the volition, and the unflinching dedication to raw lyrical candour to hold dominion over the emo domain in 2024.

Blame will be available to stream on all major streaming platforms from February 14th; check it out on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Morgana harrowed the psyche with their synthesis of emo, punk and grunge in ‘Two Broken People’

Posted on 2 February 2024

Sometimes two broken pieces come together to form a cohesive whole, but more often than not, the sharp idiosyncratic shards find a jarring way of exposing raw wounds. Far from your archetypal vignette of heartbreak, Morgana’s single, ‘Two Broken People (Make Hell Feel Like Home)’, approaches the narrative from a position of mutual position of imperfection. If you’re tired of black-and-white expositions of good and evil and want to find the fucked up fabric of the human psyche in sound, Morgana is a breath of non-dichotomous air.

With the visceral harmonies striking against the momentum in the rock chords as they dig deeper into the narrative and the drums deepening the tumultuous edge to the organically authentic single, Two Broken People is as affecting as the alt-90s hits from the likes of The Cranberries and Skunk Anansie. Through the grungy synthesis of punk and emo, the Kent-based trio, the single retains a signature that could only be scribed by the volition of Morgana.

Vocalist and guitarist Amy Morgan is a natural frontwoman. The mix of her expressive confidence and candid vulnerability ensures their singles don’t just resonate; they harrow the psyche. Dill Taskar (bass) and Tim Whittingham (drums) notably seem to feed off the fervour in her delivery to orchestrate a tight yet brashy riff-driven coalescence of chaos and cultivation.

Two Broken People will be available to stream from February 2nd; stream it on SoundCloud first.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The paragons of post-hardcore, Heartbent, gave emo nostalgists more than they bargained for with their seminal hit, House of Mirrors

Posted on 23 January 2024

Emo nostalgists will be in for more than they’ve bargained for when they delve into the third EP, House of Mirrors, from the heretics of post-hardcore, Heartbent. After a melodic pop-punk prelude, the title single lives up to the band’s stake to the claim of being one of the most stylistically unique outfits on the post-hardcore scene.

From start to finish, House of Mirrors is a lesson in hook-rife volition. The pop-punk hooks are balanced between the installations of guttural furore, giving the hit an edge of dualistic Jekyll and Hyde vehemence. With hints of Gallows between the sticky-sweet increments of Rise Against-reminiscent energy, Heartbent found never-before-trodden intersections of hardcore and blazed right through them while bringing House of Mirrors to visceral life.

The way Elle Saulsbury’s backing vox temper Alex Folmer’s scathingly magnetic vocal delivery and the instrumentals thrive on the unpredictability within the progressions proves that Heartbent knows exactly how to tap into their uniquely synchronous dynamism that is taking the East Coast by storm.

The House of Mirrors EP hit the airwaves on January 12th. Stream the fervidly hooked 4-track release on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Post-Hardcore goes Pop (Punk) in Secular Era & Drexl Bowie’s single, Master Morality

Posted on 8 December 2023

Two juggnautical entities in their own sonic right, Secular Era and Drexl Bowie, converged to show mere mortals what ‘Master Morality’ sounds like with their latest release. With guitars augmented in the same vein as the hooks in MCR’s I’m Not Okay fused with Slipknot-esque nu-metal percussive proclivities and synthy melodies to keep the down and gutturally dirty track upbeat, Master Morality is an adrenalizing slice of ingenuity that will swallow you whole and spit you out drenched in rancorous euphoria.

While many heavier outfits turn their nose up at the tones of pop-punk, Secular Era & Drexl Bowie saw the potential within it. By using the stickiest and sweetest elements and infusing them into a tumultuously electrifying sequence, they made it impossible to find a track that hits harder while simultaneously keeping their finger on the guilty pleasure pulse. Putting Master Morality into words is no easy feat, but if you can imagine Nena’s 99 Red Balloons fused with Sugar We’re Goin Down and tasked Static X to pay ode to the cross-genre synthesis, you’d get an idea of the engrossing, ingenious, uninhibited insanity delivered via Master Morality.

Master Morality was officially released on December 1st; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Project Revise tended to the wounds of scene victims with their nettled with emo nostalgia single, Take the World

Posted on 11 November 2023

After we joined the Worcestershire, UK three-piece pop-punk powerhouse, Project Revise, in ‘Free Fall’ with their previous release, we’re stoked to announce that they’re back on the airwaves with their nettled with emo nostalgia latest single, Take the World.

Fans of Taking Back Sunday, Funeral for a Friend and New Found Glory will easily find a place on their playlists for the caustic cuts of the guitars, chugging basslines that leave you psyched for the gravity-defying choruses and adrenalizing infectious vocal lines which soar through the lyrics that run through the pitfalls of staying loyal to toxicity within a scene.

Project Revise’s tracks have previously been heard on BBC Introducing and seminal Spotify playlists, including New Punk Tracks, Pop Punk’s Not Dead, Skatepark Punks and Punk Unplugged. Given that Take the World is some of their viscerally viral-worthy work to date, we expect this rancorous hit to take them to the same heights as Hawthorne Heights.

Take the World will be released on October 20; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The UK pop-punk powerhouse Project Revise is in ‘Free Fall’ in their latest music video

Posted on 5 October 2023

Fans of Thrice, Glassjaw, and Reuben won’t be able to resist the hooks which punch with 00s emo volition in the latest single from the UK pop-punk powerhouse of a trio, Project Revise.

The ragged with rancour basslines wrap their snarls around the cacophonously tight drum fills beneath the nostalgically crunchy guitars as the vocal lines mainline antagonised adrenaline into Free Fall. There are high-octane hits, and there are releases that make you wonder if the instruments were plugged into nuclear reactors instead of amps, Project Revise is well and truly in the latter camp with Free Fall, and they’ve been there ever since they crashed into the scene in 2017 and started snagging accolades left, right, and centre.

They’ve been lauded by Kerrang, shot music videos with the Bowling for Soup frontman, Jaret Reddick, landed themselves on editorial playlists, and received endless BBC Introducing airplay. If they keep on releasing hits in the same vein as Free Fall, we’re pretty sure their career highlights will become infinitely more incandescent.

Watch the official music video for Free Fall on YouTube or add the track to your pop-punk playlists on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The emerging outfit, Hound, is spectre hunting in their debut post-hardcore-meets-pop-punk hit, Ghost in the Grey

Posted on 31 August 2023

Here to prove that emo isn’t a phase is the antagonistically enticing up-and-coming outfit, Hound, with their nostalgia-driven post-hardcore anthem, Ghost in the Grey.

The debut single is – almost – enough to tempt you to chop your hair into a side fringe and whip out the checked sweatbands, skinny jeans, and studded belts. Failing that, you’ll get to relive the glory days when Hawthorne Heights, Dashboard Confessional and Senses Fail reigned supreme in the alternative music charts, and it only felt like your internal sanity was failing instead of society as a whole.

Describing themselves as five 30-somethings with dodgy knees and broken dreams scarcely does their heavy pop-punk/emo mashup justice, especially with the sharp hooks, tight instrumentals and choruses that you will want to scream as though you’re performing your own exorcism. But it just goes to show how committed the powerhouse is to providing an escape from modern maladies and melancholy by creating pretension-less atmospheres in their music and at their live shows.

Ghost in the Grey riled up the airwaves after its debut on August 21. Stream it on Spotify.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Peach Giraffe is dejectedly wayward bound in their dissonantly sweet indie single, Take Me Home

Posted on 21 July 2023

Finding the wavy lo-fi middle ground between Nirvana and Elliott Smith, the latest single, Take Me Home, from the DIY indie originator, Peach Giraffe, is a soporifically sweet visualisation of the desire to be enveloped in the irreplicable comfort of home.

In spite of the succinctness of the instrumental arrangement, led by the definitively 90s indie guitars, the single is underpinned by a precariously resonant state of unease that anyone who has a proclivity towards detachment and disassociation will find themselves connecting to.

After this installation of enticing artfulness and expressive candour from Peach Giraffe, our breath is bated for the next authentically raw hit from the artist who holds little loyalty to genres in his fluid discography, constructed by their desire to create whatever comes to mind with minimal inhibition.

Take Me Home was officially released on July 7th; hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast