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Grunge

TWO TONNE MACHETE Shattered the Illusion of Guaranteed Sanctuary in the Alt-Punk Anthem ‘HOME’

Posted on 8 May 2025

TWO TONNE MACHETE have palpably perfected the art of tempering scuzz with melody when alchemising kinetic alt-punk earworms that slither past the ear canal and right into the synapses and demand serotonin to fire. Lashed with distortion, charged with volition, and weaponised with vindication for the pain of people who can never contemplate the concept of ‘home’ without feeling an agonising sting, HOME tears through the comfort illusion in a way only TTM could.

The North West-based feminist punk band have built a reputation on putting unapologetic vulnerability into anthemic form, and HOME is no exception. Channelling grief—personal and political—through quiet/loud dynamics, grungy bass hooks and juxtaposing screaming guitar solos, this single hits the solar plexus while the message bites deeper. Inspired by the violence of displacement, with the brutality inflicted on those stripped of homes, lives, and identity, especially in Palestine, the emotional charge is never performative; it’s carved into the structure and spat out through Emily’s searing vocal performance.

It’s easy to see why TWO TONNE MACHETE are thriving in the UK alt punk scene; through honed songwriting and rancorous abandon in all the right places, they don’t just hit the spot, they tear through it and leave a sonic scar. With this single marking their first release since signing, and the momentum building through a series of 2025 shows, the stage is set for a summer where no injustice will go unheard.

HOME is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LA’s Skittish Cracked the Whip of Existential Backlash with the Sardonic Alt-Indie Hit ‘Kicking In’

Posted on 7 May 2025

Skittish nestled into a niche between indie rock urgency and alt-pop accessibility with the release of Kicking In, a track that flirts and orders drinks at the bar for garage punk and nostalgic neo-pop to entice them into the stylings of this scorned yet superlative anthem that writhes through collective frustration.

They may be outliers on the airwaves through their refusal to fall into lines of monotony, but anyone searching for visceral authenticity and the opportunity to connect with an artist unafraid to wear their authenticity on their guitar strings will find their own form of reverie within Kicking In. The ennui resounds at a palpable level in spite of the high-octane energy of the earworm, which is battle-ready with euphoric choruses, razor-sharp angular indie guitar licks, and crooning vocal lines pinched with sardonic wit.

Jeff Noller’s DIY defiance has always been the pulse of Skittish, but with this new Los Angeles-based incarnation, he’s enlisted sonic arsonists including guitarist Chris Lahn, who carved searing licks into the heart of Kicking In, and drummer Ian Prince, who kept the rhythmic volatility simmering beneath the pop polish. It’s just one example of the genre-fluid chaos that defines the new EP Ugly Makes Pretty—a record that dances through its existential crises and punches back with hooks.

Kicking In is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Andrea Sandruvi Scored a Lament into the Strings of Post-Grunge in ‘Fate’

Posted on 3 May 2025

With his third single, Fate, Andrea Sandruvi went beyond tuning into the tones of post-grunge —he dredged the stylings from a place where anguish clings to melody like silt to skin. Inspired by a tragic incident in Piemonte, where a young man succumbed to despair and drowned in the cold indifference of a river, Fate kindles the dark side of kismet into an ocean of post-grunge emotion; you’ll struggle to keep your head above the waves as visceral vulnerability crashes over you.

The ethereal backing harmonies lend euphony to the production, which could have been torn from a tape deck cradling an alt-90s demo if it weren’t for the polish that swathes the agony in the progressive instrumental transgressions. With nods to artists in the same vein as Incubus and bluesy guitar motifs to temper the raw tendrils of grunge, there’s no denying the independent artist’s authenticity. Nothing in the instrumental arrangement feels borrowed. Every melodic movement sways under the weight of lived experience and a mind glazed with melancholia.

From picking up a guitar after a bolt-of-lightning visit from cousin Alessandro to playing countless covers in dimly lit clubs, Sandruvi’s roots in alternative and grunge run deeper than stylistic mimicry. Now, after cutting his teeth rearranging rock and pop in acoustic formats, he’s filtering that raw emotionality into original compositions, each track springing from something felt rather than forced. Fate doesn’t ask to be understood—it makes sure you feel every ache of it.

Fate is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spite Never Tasted So Sweet in the Snarling Alt-Indie-Punk Static of ‘Licorice’ by 92Steps

Posted on 1 May 2025
Skunk Radio Demos by 92Steps

With no interest in immaculate solos or the polished edges demanded by purists, 92Steps‘ lo-fi snarler Licorice tears through the pop-punk façade with a ragged confidence that sardonically smiles in the face of perfection. Produced in a Minneapolis flat, a family cabin, and a borrowed office space, Licorice is a product of unapologetic constraint—and it thrives in every rough-edged second.

A single-person operation run by Riley Schindler, 92Steps makes it clear from the get-go that this is punk for the disillusioned, the spiritually wrecked, and the quietly gluttonous. Drawing from the same well of misanthropy that fuelled the ‘90s, Licorice strips the polish away from pop-punk, delivering a snarled, lo-fi anthem of pure infectious volition—but there’s plenty more to hold onto than scorn.

Machiavellianly switching up vocal energy with deliberate abandon, the single doles out hooks with the sting of Fidlar and the songwriting stripes of The Offspring, forming a corrosively catchy callout aimed at a slick protagonist that’s easy to hate—probably because they’re hiding in everyone’s orbit.

It’s not clean. It’s not clever. It’s not trying to be. What Licorice is, however, is a shot of caustic humour on the vein of alt-indie-punk’s increasingly self-serious skin. There’s real venom in the charm, and sincerity stitched between the sneers.

Licorice is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

HeadFirst Tore Through the Fabric of Modern Disillusionment with ‘Retrograde’

Posted on 29 April 2025

Retrograde, taken from HeadFirst’s LP, Modern Role Models, serves as definitive proof to anyone over 30 that emo was never a phase while welcoming a new generation of grungy pop punk to the sanctity of raw augmented sincerity. With rapid-fire Bloodhound Gang-adjacent vocals snarling through the distortion and melodic hooks that are sharp enough to carve through any former earworms and lacerate a place for this infectious anthem, there’s no denying that Retrograde makes a monumental impact.

If you can imagine how affecting the middle ground between Fidlar, Foo Fighters and Dinosaur Jr would be, you’d get an idea of how the pulse of this track is given the reins to your rhythmic pulses as the lyrics latch onto the tension tearing through your world and give you an outlet.

Formed by Siraj Husainy, Coby Conrad, and Bima Wirayudha, HeadFirst fuse raw post-grunge fervour with the melodic pull of pop punk. Hailing from Boston, the trio pours electric, visceral energy into every performance, whether lighting up dive bars or packed-out venues. Their music rides the tightrope between nostalgia and cutting modernity, crafted with relentless rhythms, emotionally charged lyrics, and hooks designed to leave a lasting scar.

With Retrograde, HeadFirst have solidified their status as a powerhouse for anyone who craves loud, honest expression in a disillusioned world.

Retrograde is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Sonic Prism Cracked: Damian Wolf Splits the Alt-Rock Spectrum on ‘Flying Colors’

Posted on 26 March 2025

Damian Wolf didn’t just carry the alt-rock flame into his debut LP—he set it ablaze with every saturated string. On the title single Flying Colors, the Maryland-born 20-year-old commands his solo project with the kind of DIY nerve that rarely finds this much cultivation. Entirely self-recorded, mixed, and mastered in his bedroom studio, the track stands as a defiant declaration: no one else engineers Wolf’s chaos—he shapes it into art with his own hands.

He carved his teeth on early ’90s grunge and hard rock, filtered that influence through the discord of noise rock and post-hardcore, then added his own commercial alt sensibility to the mix without sanding down the edges, resulting in a track that channels shoegaze and grunge into high-octane alt-rock visceral volition. When the overdriven guitars refrain from the production, the choral layers of reverb-soaked guitars are left to synergise with Wolf’s arcanely sweet vocals, which bleed into the mix that’s mercilessly blasted by punk’s percussive pulse.

It may often feel like there aren’t many more alt-rock intersections to explore, but Wolf didn’t just find one—he scorched a new route through a multitude of them with Flying Colors. The title track is the flashpoint, where texture becomes tension, and melody finds its way through the maelstrom. If you want to head back to the alt-90s, take this route. Just don’t expect nostalgia. Expect impact.

Flying Colors is now available to stream on all major platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Beyond the Pale – Wayside’s Siren Call to the Void

Posted on 13 March 2025
Dusk to Dawn by Wayside

There’s nothing nostalgic about Wayside’s return—this is a band that never forgot how to bite. With Beyond the Pale, the Minneapolis rock veterans prove their alchemic chemistry hasn’t dulled in their years away; if anything, the formula has been refined into something even more potent.

Dripping in that alt-90s swagger—the kind that seeps into the synapses like a down-and-dirty aphrodisiac—Beyond the Pale pulls you under with primal rhythmic force. Pull away, and you’re left with a stark meditation on life’s only certainty: change. More often than not, those shifts pull us deeper into despair, a truth relayed through smoky, velvety vocal lines that ooze indie rock and roll charisma.

Imagine Velvet Revolver and The Black Keys stepping into uncharted sonic territory, and you’ll get an idea of what Wayside have delivered here. They aren’t just reviving the sound that landed them on the 2002 Vans Warped Tour—they’re letting the years since carve new depths into their songwriting. With their full-length LP, Dusk to Dawn, set to drop in April, it’s clear that their road-worn reflections have given them more to say than ever.

Wayside’s resurgence isn’t about reliving the past—it’s about proving they’ve still got the muscle to pull listeners into the undertow. And if Beyond the Pale is any indication, they’ve got plenty more where that came from.

Stream Beyond the Pale on Bandcamp now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ramener’s ‘Anything & Everything’ Injects Visceral Emotion into Prog Rock Panache

Posted on 13 March 2025

Ramener, the veritable titans of Long Island’s alt-rock scene, flex their prog-rock muscles in Anything & Everything with an intro that wouldn’t be out of place in Tool’s discography. But it isn’t long before a high-octane melody locks into the monolithic tableau of viscerally expressive hard rock. The vocals don’t just cut through the mix—they soar beyond the riffs, injecting raw tendrils of emotion that twist around the instrumental intensity, making it clear that the aching lyrical delivery is the real driving force behind the crescendos.

Instead of using their technical chops as a means to showboat, Ramener channel their ability into something far more impactful—a sound that tightens around the soul with an iron grip. The sheer force of the track isn’t about volume or distortion; it’s about how much weight they pack into every note, every lyric, every calculated shift in dynamics. The instrumentals are wielded as artistic devices rather than the centrepiece, amplifying the tension until it reaches breaking point.

With a radio-ready sound that sacrifices none of its authenticity, Anything & Everything is a testament to Ramener’s ability to command attention without compromise. Their future couldn’t be much brighter.

Anything & Everything is available now on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trip Sitter Resurrects the Ghosts of the ’90s with ‘I Love You All’

Posted on 10 March 2025

Trip Sitter teases sonic serenity in I Love You All before dismantling any expectations of a passive listening experience. The hazily psychedelic intro introduces them as a seraphic offshoot of the Happy Mondays, but it’s not long before a wall of scuzz-constructed noise crashes in, revealing their grungy shoegaze stripes. Even as the guitars snarl through waves of oscillation, the vocals maintain a hymnal presence, bleeding over the instrumentals with an ethereal detachment that softens the bite of the distortion.

With no trace of modernity cluttering the mix, I Love You All allows listeners to slip straight into the nostalgia of the ’90s indie and grunge revolution. Every transgression in sound is as sanctifying as the last, proving that Trip Sitter isn’t here to simply recycle the past—they’re making nostalgia malleable enough to forge a new sonic signature from the ashes of a golden epoch.

Taken from their debut LP, Then Again, It Never Was, I Love You All reinforces their ability to straddle the line between chaos and clarity. By embracing pop/emo vocal sensibilities, fuzzed-out grunge chords, reverb-drenched shoegaze tones, and post-rock ambience, they have become unparalleled conduits of innovation in Boston’s indie underground scene.

I Love You All is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mayreh’s ‘Hearts That Would Not Listen’ – A Discordant Lament for the Unheard

Posted on 23 February 2025
Hearts That Would Not Listen by Mayreh

With all the weight of rust-belt alienation, Mayreh’s latest single, Hearts That Would Not Listen, lurches through a sludged-up waltz of romantic despair and post-punk discord. The Pittsburgh outfit, known for weaving art-rock sensibilities into tales of outsiders and gauzy memories, push their sound further into the abyss of melancholic angst.

There’s no cushioning the blow as the bassline growls with moody intent beneath searing, white-hot guitars that scrape against the off-kilter rhythm section. The song’s structure mirrors the emotional turmoil within its lyrics—fractured, volatile, and fraying at the edges.

Lyrically, souls crash rather than cohere, lost in the static of misaligned wavelengths while Mayreh ensure the alienation is felt, wrapping their lament in layers of fuzz and fury.

Paul Banks-level command seeps through the vocal delivery, shifting from restrained croons to screamo breakdowns when all composure unravels. The tension never truly resolves—just splinters into new shards of catharsis. Abstract yet visceral, Hearts That Would Not Listen doesn’t beg for understanding; it lets its raw expression speak louder than cohesion ever could.

Hearts That Would Not Listen is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast