Browsing Tag

Alt Pop Punk

ShadowHart’s ‘Calcified’ Hits Like a Gothic Cathedral Crumbling Under the Weight of Time

Posted on 18 March 2025

ShadowHart, AKA Richard Nelson, redefines pop-punk with the weight of his orchestral motifs and baroque-leaning vocals. ‘Calcified’ commands attention with its colossal crescendos and atmospherically charged angst.

A lifetime of musical obsession and technical expertise bleeds through every note. Raised in a household where guitars were practically heirlooms, Nelson cut his teeth young, climbing the ranks as one of Tennessee’s top jazz musicians before taking his talent through Auburn University and a career in aerospace engineering. Now, armed with a Master’s in Music Technology, he’s sculpting sound with the precision of someone who understands its mechanics from the inside out.

‘Calcified’ is a haunting contradiction. It carries the visceral energy of early 2000s pop-punk but leans into a cinematic darkness that sets ShadowHart apart. The emotive riffs and orchestral undertones carve out space for his vocals to amplify every lyric’s weight, swelling with the kind of gothic grandeur rarely heard in the genre. The theatrics never overshadow the sincerity—his voice cuts through the production like an elegy for youth, delivered with wisdom most of his contemporaries lack.

For a genre oversaturated with imitators, ShadowHart’s approach is an anomaly. With his full-length debut album dropping on April 25th, 2025, he won’t be lingering in the shadows for much longer.

‘Calcified’ is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nathan Leong’s DOG DAYS – A Shock to the Pop Punk System

Posted on 10 February 2025

A major shift in the evolution of rock was overdue, and Nathan Leong delivered more than we bargained for with DOG DAYS. Tying trap into pop-punk hooks, Leong orchestrates an electro-rock riot of adrenalised euphoria. Instead of relying on scuzzy guitar riffs, he lets the synths do the heavy lifting, flipping the script on pop punk while still delivering the infectious appeal of a pit-ready anthem.

Leong’s equally energised vocal lines bounce over the polyphonic-layered instrumentals, solidifying his place as an artist dragging pop-punk into the future; as much as it kicks and screams. The exhilaration of hearing the Beatles for the first time may be something today’s music fans will never experience, but DOG DAYS might just come close.

The Hong Kong-based artist, known for his unfiltered lyricism and genre-blurring approach, has been building his presence fast. With 28,000+ monthly Spotify listeners and Instagram covers racking up views in the hundreds of thousands, Leong is proving there’s still a hunger for angst-driven, high-energy rock. Taking cues from Machine Gun Kelly, Green Day, and Paramore, his sound balances nostalgia with a refusal to conform, making him a vital voice in a genre that has too often been left to stagnate.

The future of pop-punk is here—stop looking back and experience it with DOG DAYS, now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Punk Fury and Bruised Egos: Itz Namo Lets Loose in ‘SCREAMING’

Posted on 26 October 2024

At just 20, Itz Namo from Grand Rapids, Michigan, has already carved his niche in the pop-punk rock scene by blending garagey grit with earworm-worthy hooks. What started as a musical joke during his high school years has now catapulted him into the alt-pop-punk spotlight with his latest single, ‘SCREAMING’.

Echoing the antagonised energy of Fidlar, Itz Namo exhibits a deft hand in weaving augmented instrumentals around razor-sharp hooks in the visceral confession of the humiliation that comes when you shoot your shot with someone way out of your league, only to be knocked back to reality. The track is a cathartic middle finger to rejection, and with any luck, it’ll be the anthem to blast in the ears of incels who sulk in frustration and lash out with contempt when it turns out feelings aren’t mutual.

Namo’s high-octane energy and raw delivery make the track an infectiously bouncy amalgamation of alt-pop punk chaos. Beneath the brash riffs and brimming aggression, there’s a deeper emotional core for anyone who has ever found themselves on the receiving end of romantic disappointment.

With ‘SCREAMING’, Itz Namo proves that his knack for blending personal confessions with high-energy punk is a goldmine for the genre. It’s only a matter of time before more people start tuning into the infectious chaos he’s bringing to the scene.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lauren Ash scorched the pop-punk sphere with her trailblazingly vindicating earworm, Pathological

Posted on 18 October 2024
Lauren Ash

The pop-punk Billboard chart-topper Lauren Ash has been trailblazing her way through the industry since her debut single; with her latest hit, Pathological, she started a fire that could rival the inferno Dante walked through.

Nailing the Y2K pop-punk aesthetic, Ash intravenously infused swathes of nostalgia in the release, which finds an exhilaratingly cerebral way to protest against people glamorising mental illness-derived idiosyncrasies. The unfuckwithably emboldening lyrics reach their peak with, “You think I’m sexy, but I’m broken… you think I’m passionate or just irrational, no baby, I’m pathological.”

Sonically, Ash fuses the scintillating indietronica motifs of Shiny Toy Guns, the demure seduction of Garbage and hints of No Doubt with a little bit of Avril Lavigne to heighten the choruses, synthesising a sonic signature that scorches its way through the assimilative mundanity of the pop-punk scene. Clearly, she’s not here to play, she’s here to reign supreme.

Pathological will be available to stream and purchase on all major platforms from October 18th. Find your preferred way to listen via Lauren Ash’s official website.

Connect with the artist via TikTok and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

MACK delivered the ultimate hyper-pop indie hip-hop track, U COMING WITH ME?

Posted on 6 January 2023

The New Jersey-hailing hyper-pop hit maker MACK has launched another infectious hip-hop-pop-punk fusion with their latest single, U COMING WITH ME? Currently, the 20-year-old artist is known for winning the Write Out Loud songwriting contest hosted and judged by Taylor Louderman; it is only a matter of time before her accolades are 100% independent.

With an earworm of a melody that won’t quit until you have immersed yourself repeatedly in the alt-indie pop guitars, body-rocking pop beats and vocal lines you’d go to the ends of the earth to hear again, the single is a powerfully vulnerable hit that inhibits nothing.

So when MACK poses the titular question, it is hard to envisage anyone not falling head over heels for her talent that has seen her original music break the 1 million stream mark with her original music across all platforms.

Lyrically, the track encompasses the insecurities that can transpire when someone shows unconditional affection but long-lingering and intrinsic complexes make us feel unworthy. It’s an incredibly popular phenomenon, not that the airwaves would let you believe it. MACK isn’t just pushing sonic boundaries. She is bringing in a new wave of lyrical candour too.

U COMING WITH ME? along with the EP, WHEN DOES IT GET BETTER?, is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Celeste Scott has released her urban pop-punk anthem, Hate My Friends.

Posted on 2 August 2021

Celeste Scott has made a phenomenal comeback with her entrancing track, Hate My Friends; it is charged with pop-punk attitude, filled with infectious dance-pop hooks and carries all of the hallmarks of a perennial pop earworm.

With three years between the release of Hate My Friends and her sophomore single, we’re stoked to see the return of the pop-punk icon. With her heavy guitars, urban influence and hooky melodies, she has practically done all of the heavy lifting in the diversification of the pop-punk scene that she is sure to reign supreme with more euphorically sniping releases in the same vein as Hate My Friends.

Check out Hate My Friends on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tom Tikka & The Missing Hubcaps try to ‘Turn Back The Time’.

Posted on 4 March 2021

Tom Tikka is no stranger to the recording studio; a youthful solo deal with Olarin Musiikki in Finland, nine years and three albums with SonyBMG as the band Carmen Gray, and Josie Award nominations with the FBP Records signees The Impersonators, is a pretty solid recording career by anyone’s yardstick, but that hasn’t stopped Tom releasing three critically acclaimed EPs with new band the Missing Hubcaps.

‘Turn Back The Time’ is the first of six tracks from the ‘That’s What Winston Churchill Said’ EP, a collection of vaguely AOR-driven rock tracks with great pop sensibilities and an eye on hook-writing and catchy choruses. There’s some excellent overdriven guitar work, a nod to alt-rock and touches of storytelling songwriting a la Crowded House and INXS, alongside some nice bluesy licks interplaying with Tikka’s occasionally falsetto vocal delivery. It’s a great track, and a perfect introduction to the EP; you don’t get to make music for as long, in as many incarnations, as Tom Tikka without having something a little bit special, and that experience and originality comes across very strongly on ‘Turn Back The Time’.

Check out ‘Turn Back The Time’ on Spotify, or from Tom Tikka & The Missing Hubcaps website.

Review by Alex Holmes

ORCHAD take us for a ride on the Devil’s Ship with screaming new single ‘Critically Ashamed’

Posted on 29 November 2020

Coming on in a welter of heavily overdriven ascending riffage, Montreal’s ORCHAD’s (pronounced ‘Orchid’, obviously, and consisting of vocalist Julian Hannas and lead guitarist Justyn Vynn) new single ‘Critically Ashamed’ is a screamer of an alt-rock anthem with a deeply, bone-movingly danceable groove underlying the hard-rocking guitar sound. There’s an old-school metal-ness to the basal riff, something thrashy and San-Fran sounding lurking under the modern rock tone, driving and energetic before dropping down to a dense flanged arpeggio, Hannas’ super-strong vocal carrying the verse between the powerchord frenzy of the earworm chorus.

Vynn shreds and divebombs on the solo without ever sounding contrived or dated, with a bluesiness that belies his sixteenth-note runs and twiddly licks, before the singalong ‘woah oh oh oh’ playout groove. Overall ORCHAD manage to mix modern pop sensibilities and catchiness with an undeniably rock sound and a little bit of hip hop funk; on the basis of this, ORCHAD have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about, critically or otherwise.

Check out the stunning (and very pink) video for ‘Critically Ashamed’ on YouTube. Follow ORCHAD on Facebook and Instagram.

‘Seasons’ is the kick ass track with so much luster by Ascot’s finest Picture The Scene

Posted on 16 November 2020

With winter in the UK coming around right about now- just as their 2nd lock down has begun- this is a Post-Punk firecracker with sparks of Pop and Rock, that is a like a warm blanket right now for our cold feet. Surrey band Picture The Scene are to thank for this, and they smash the ice right off the windows, with the brand spanking new single called ‘Seasons‘.

With so many different elements and influences in their music, you get the feeling that this is a professional outfit that love to constantly evolve, and they take you on a whirlwind of a carpet ride with their latest single. They are cutting edge and seem to sharpen as this track morphs into a water slide of exuberance- that you won’t forget too easily.

‘Seasons‘ from Ascot’s Post-Punk revelers and the act with the most awesome name- Picture The Scene– is a real shot in the arm, as they bring forth some rugged attitude and an ode to the grand days of summer. They vividly show us what is going on in the UK right now and this will definitely warm you up quite nicely.

Rock your socks off here on Spotify to hear this new single.

Follow the bands journey here on their Insta.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Ruby Drive put a Horror Punk Twist on Pop Punk with “Fruit Punch and Arsenic”

Posted on 24 August 2020
https://rubydrive.bandcamp.com/track/fruit-punch-and-arsenic

US Alt Pop-Punk trailblazers Ruby Drive dropped their latest scathingly rhythmic single “Fruit Punch and Arsenic” on May 6th. If you missed it, you missed out on a timely record which offers scuzz, angst and importantly an outlet for the anger we’ve been feeling throughout 2020.

Any fans of the Misfits are definitely going to want to hear their Horror Punk twist on Pop-Punk which can be found in the discordantly ominous instrumental tone and lyrics.

Lyrically, Fruit Punch and Arsenic is somewhere in between the tale of Sid and Nancy and the far more romantic saga between Romeo and Juliette. A striking narrative of two lost souls attempting to shield each other from inescapable misery, ending with an arsenic cocktail. Who said romance was dead?

You can listen to Fruit Punch and Arsenic for yourselves by heading over to Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast