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Grunge

Jason Graham grunged up blues in his viscerally heightened melodic alt-rock hit, Trust

Posted on 9 February 2023

Tucson, AZ born, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer Jason Graham added a refreshingly melodic vernacular to grunge with the bluesy standout single, Trust, taken from his LP, Soul for Sale.

With touches of Nine Inch Nails in the sporadically distorted vocals and Godsmack in the viscerally heightened outcries, which hammer home the intensity of the frustration stemming from dishonesty and deception, Trust amplifies the evocative immersivity with every high-gain progression.

The seamlessness of the tonal and vocal transitions stand as a monumental testament to Graham’s songwriting ability, which has already seen him go far in his career. The classic rock outro solo is yet another affirmation of his virtuosic flair that is nestled within his songwriting chops that are discernibly at the core of who he is as an artist.

Stream Trust, with the rest of Jason Graham’s LP, Soul for Sale, on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Honeybadger is out for blood in their biting alt-punk hit, Cold Wind

Posted on 6 February 2023

After hearing the ferocity of the grungy punk riffs in Honeybadger’s latest single, Cold Wind, there is no room to question how the Brighton-based sonic juggernauts came about their moniker.

With a tonal palette that makes Oh Sees sound sedate, Cold Wind is a high-octane psychedelically off-kilter whirlwind through the breakthrough act’s ingenuity and technical ability. Lyrically, Cold Wind spits venom at the type of frauds destined to trip over their contradictions after falsifying the truth to fit their insidious agenda.

Everyone has met one such protagonist, and Cold Wind is the ultimate vindicating middle finger with the boisterous rolling punches. Playing chaotically is one thing; orchestrating tightly disordered anthemics is quite another, and that is exactly where Honeybadger, who had a riotous 2022, excel.

Since forming in 2014, Honeybadger has stormed stages across the UK and featured on BBC Introducing, BBC Live Lounge and Wyatt Wendel’s Planet Rock show. Though we are sure the best is yet to come.

Cold Wind was officially released on January 28th. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Robots! Attack! break free through a bitter-sweet epiphany in their melodic rock hit, Tangled

Posted on 18 January 2023
Robots! Attack! by Robots! Attack!

Taken from their debut eponymous LP, the standout single, Tangled, from the Memphis-based fourpiece, Robots! Attack! is a reverently evocative rhythmic trip back to the alt-90s.

The breeze of the midwestern melodies is brought down to earth by southern grit in the grungy amalgam of punk, rock and harder-to-pin-down alternative inclinations that allow the outfit to carry fleeting reminiscences to Incubus and Deftones in their magnetically imploring vocal harmonies and the softly angular guitar lines that are never all too far away from an off-kilter breakdown.

While the lyrics allude to our tendency to fictionalise the characters in our own stories and give them far greater roles than they were destined for, the accordance-soaked instrumentals abstract any bitterness from the bitter-sweet epiphany of realising that time with some protagonists is always finite.

Tangled is available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Square Pyramid sang the post-punk blues in their grungy hit, Run Down Dirty Soul

Posted on 26 December 2022

Taken from the eponymous debut album from Square Pyramid, the standout single, Run Down Dirty Soul, is a progressively exhilarating mash of era-spanning alternative culture. From post-punk to blues to grunge, it’s all on the table in this enlivening intrinsically originated hit that has what it takes to unite music scenes once and for all.

With atmospheric hints to Echo and the Bunnymen in the chorally cold rings of the guitars in the intro along with bluesy harmonica blasts before the track slams into a grungy revival of off-kilter alt-90s and college radio rock tones, clearly, each of the three members of Square Pyramid came to the outfit with their own influences and inclinations. And therein lies the blisteringly experimental alchemy within Run Down Dirty Soul. It is a sonic amalgamation that no other outfit has brought to the table.

There’s nothing quite like allowing multiple parts of your personality to meet each other in the space of one song, and that’s exactly what Run Down Dirty Soul achieved for me.

Check out Run Down Dirty Soul on Apple Music and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

What it means to be lost: Jamos Blood – Flesh and Back to Bone

Posted on 25 December 2022

Jamos Blood sludged up blues-rock in the standout single, Flesh and Back to Bone, from his debut EP, Blood Brothers, which delivers swampy riffs, train track rhythms and a sense of ennui that cries out to the disenfranchised by uncertain futures masses.

“Gonna walk my dog til he don’t walk no more” beautifully and sentimentally encompasses the notion that everything is fleeting in a cruel world which pulls away every anchor, eventually.

The EP was recorded with Blood’s late brother, Clayton, which puts even more context behind the titular disposition and the themes of love and loss that will wash with any Waits and Petty fans.

As someone who is no stranger to grief, it was all too easy to connect with Jamos Blood’s psyche in Flesh and Back to Bone. The sense of lost listlessness with splinters of optimism that can often feel naïve was captured with such finesse in the roots-driven rock hit it is easy to view Jamos Blood as one of the most important voices of our era.

Flesh and Back to Bone is available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Alt-90s Cinematically Lives and Breathes Through Agent Envy’s Grungy Industrial Rock Single, No Friend

Posted on 9 December 2022

San Diego artist and producer Agent Envy is fresh from the release of her sultrily fierce single, No Friend, which cinematically amalgamates trip-hop, industrial rock, grunge and metal. Under the wide-spanning influence of acts including NIN, Tool, Massive Attack and Deftones, Agent Envy found her own striking sonic aesthetic that is nothing short of iconic in itself.

Any fans of Warpaint and Wolf Alice will want to sink their teeth into this demurely powerful protest against life’s prolific protagonists who guise their usury entitlement as friendship to take what they can, and guilt trip you when they’ve bled you dry of your empathy but still haven’t quite had their fill.

“No Friend is about finally saying, “enough is enough,” and captures the triumph and catharsis of setting a boundary. The track explores a powerful side of my vocal range not previously featured in my earlier songs, along with the deep, sultry vocals that my audience is familiar with.”

No Friend will be available to stream and purchase on all major platforms from December 9th. Catch in on Spotify & YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The alt-rock originator, djamesk13, struck again with his grungy proto-punk single, And That’s Where It Ends, And So It All Begun

Posted on 26 November 2022
https://soundcloud.com/djkemp13/and-thats-where-it-ends-and-so-it-all-begun

“And That’s Where It Ends, And So It All Begun” is the latest tonally sublime single released by the London-based alt-rock originator djamesk13 (David Kemp).

If Dinosaur Jr veered away from grunge and towards proto-punk and made a pit stop at 90s Britpop to pick up a bit of extra guitar swagger, the sonic result would be in a similar vein to this nostalgically produced hit.

The distortedly and poetically orchestrated single provides a definitive discourse on the nature of our lives which runs through like pre-determined chapters of destiny. Lament it or live it to the max, but that’s the nature of being, captured in the lyrical hooks in this epitomisingly sludgy earworm.

And That’s Where It Ends, And So It All Begun was officially released on November 19th. Catch it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Outside Kids call for salvation in their grungy pop-punk visceral earworm, Hey God

Posted on 15 November 2022

With their Sub Pop record deal-worthy dynamic edge, The Outside Kids made us suckers for their cutting-edge nostalgic kicks through the lead single, Hey God, from their debut LP, Dirty Faces.

By implanting Green Day-style pop-punk hooks and a little RHCP melodicism in the 90s Seattle sound, the alt-rock duo found the perfect formula for earwormy infectious appeal in the contemporary rock scene. Sparked by a shared influence of Against Me! and Frank Turner, the duo’s symbiotically tight propensities entwine with their socially conscious edge to make their sound that little bit more soulfully gripping. The original icons of pop-punk got plenty right, but with evasive morality, the records will always resonate as bitterly juvenile; The Outside Kids brought the maturity the scene has always been deprived of.

The loud reprise of “can you hear me now” paired with the title of Hey God is a powerful allusion to the frustration we all feel when we forget that the world isn’t happening to us, we just happen to be here for the ride. Embrace the chaos with this perfect hit.

Hey God is now available to stream on Spotify with the rest of The Outside Kids’ album, Dirty Faces.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Vaulted Skies unleashed their poetically primal post-grunge exposition of complicated desolation, Hollowhead

Posted on 13 November 2022
Hollowhead by The Vaulted Skies

The Vaulted Skies wrapped their signatory angular guitars around eastern rhythms in their achingly resonant exposition of grief, Hollowhead; penned and arranged to pay tribute to the singer-songwriter and guitarist, James Scott’s father, who left a legacy tainted by racial discrimination behind him in 2000.

Between the lines, tones, and artful aural abstractions of complicated desolation, Hollowhead transcribes personal loss while painting the universally relatable possessive nature of grief as it wraps around the physiological senses to leave us cold, dark, and hollow. I couldn’t help but see the contrast in the hallmark platitudes that cascade around the grief-stricken and the primally poetic outpour of emotion.

In the evocative context of the release, which uses dark post-grunge-y cascades accentuated with stinging orchestral layers to mirror the grappling sensations of grief that contest you into subjugation, the solid rock riff that sears towards the outro may be one of the most visceral I’ve ever heard. And if that sounds superfluous, you evidently haven’t heard the existential death roll off a riff in question yet. Get to it. From start to 6-minute finish, it’s sheer perfection.

Stream & purchase the official studio recording of Hollowhead on Bandcamp.

Follow the goth antics of The Vaulted Skies on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Frakard – Slate: Play It Loud, See It Live

Posted on 11 November 2022
Frakard

Cardiff’s loudest and tightest alt-rock trio Frakard went into frenetic overdrive with their latest single, Slate. With their respective influences counting Architects, Soundgarden and Steely Dan, Slate is a melting pot of familiarity fed through stylistic raucous swagger.

Sonic appeal aside, Slate truly comes into its own through its witty questioning of our relationship with nostalgia, the nihilism that comes with age and the ever-pervasive climate change fear. If you’re anything like me and you’re sick of lyricists that scrape the bottom of the IQ barrel when penning their lyrical hooks, you will be a Frakard fanatic by the time this anthemic juggernaut of a release that comes with an arsenal of razor-sharp lyrical lines hits the outro.

Slate will officially release on November 11th. Check it out on Spotify and scope out Frakard on their official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast