Browsing Tag

Alt Punk

Firebranded avant-garde post-punk swagger surges through Roaches, All the Way Up’s standout release

Posted on 1 February 2026
Roaches, All the Way Up

Roaches, All the Way Up are primed to rip through the alt-punk threshold with Roaches, the standout cut from their debut LP, KILL BUGS DEAD, arriving February 20th. The Boston gutterblazers set out to pierce the veil of punk on their own terms, and in this track, they channel the cacophonous fervour of post-hardcore while wrapping it around organic avant-garde motifs.

From the moment the first percussive hit lands, their sound sprawls with hedonistically reckless abandon, letting their sound writhe within their authenticity. The firebranded vocal aesthetic is teasingly ensnaring, playful in the unfuckwithably accessible Kathleen-Hanna way, while the tumultuous rolls of percussive time signatures are wild enough to leave Tool perplexed. It’s a feral introduction that makes their mission unmistakable.

As the chaos sharpens into form, the five friends at the core of RATWU show how naturally they slip into unfiltered expression. Their guitars scrape through oddball theatrics, their rhythmic shifts twist on instinct, and their whole presence feels born from the backrooms and basements that shaped them. The new-wave tinges and post-hardcore bite sit together in a shape that feels self-made rather than borrowed, giving Roaches a boldness that hints at a band intent on building something unruly from the ground up.

The LP was three years in the making, stitched together by a group who treat experimentation as second nature, and this single barely scratches the surface of what they’re gearing up to hurl into the world.

Connect with Roaches, All the Way Up via Instagram and stay tuned for news of their album drop.


Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Beneath a Burning Sky’ cracks open crystalline catharsis and visceral vindication in Course of Ruin’s raw melodic punk return

Posted on 19 December 2025

After a quarter of a century hiatus, the Cali-based catalysts of alt-punk melodicism, Course of Ruin, return with Beneath a Burning Sky, the opening track of their new EP, The Stonington Project. It lands like a time capsule breaking open through your speakers, flinging you straight back into the visceralism of emotion-driven rhythmic tension.

The production lets the angular high guitar notes ring out as crystalline catharsis while the gnarled momentum of the rhythm section pummels its way through the distortion. Beneath a Burning Sky becomes an expansively gratifying release, the kind that hits the right spot as the scoured-with-vindication vocals chameleonically shift through aggression and harmony, stitching their own volatile sermon into the mix.

Formed in California in the mid-90s, the band has spun through several incarnations before finding its final line-up with Joey Adkins, Dave Mraz, Jacob Masciave and Chris Jones, a set of players who built their name on fast tempos, tasty riffs and songs written at the brink of combustion. Their twenty-five-year break has not blunted their instinct for intricacy; Beneath a Burning Sky holds some of the most arresting instrumental hooks I have heard this year.

The savant-esque atmosphere, the euphoria, and the sheer furore coursing through the release all serve as a reminder of why so many people gravitated towards this corner of punk and hard post-rock. The high-octane catharsis of their synthesis carries the weight of history without leaning on it; Course of Ruin sounds as authentic as it gets while burning at the emotional temperatures that defined their early years. If NOFX, The Flatliners and Rise Against are still on your playlists, Course of Ruin should be too.

Beneath a Burning Sky is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Last Post crashed through modern ennui with nostalgic pop punk fervour in ‘1999’

Posted on 9 November 2025

Imagine Neutral Milk Hotel lending their rugged timbres to Muse, and you’ll get an idea of what The Last Post unleashed with 1999. It’s pure pre-millennium emo nostalgia that refuses to let the 21st century touch it. The rough edges remain gloriously intact, the imperfections sharpening its charm into something vital. The opening riff crashes in like an adrenaline flashback to a bedroom floor littered with CD cases and scribbled lyrics, before the track tears through any threat of being a paint-by-numbers revival.

There’s an almost desperate creative urgency rippling beneath the melody, a need to share the sweetness of euphoria when it’s tinged with that forlorn coming-of-age purity. It’s the kind of song that makes your chest ache with memories of simpler chaos, the kind that still carried meaning. The choruses erupt with the kind of lifeforce that makes you wish you could step straight back into that era, feeling everything too deeply before you knew what it meant to grow jaded. 1999 is revival zeal distilled into sound, crashing forward with enough melodic conviction to shake off the dust of irony and nostalgia fatigue.

Behind The Last Post is Logan Betz, the Central Pennsylvania multi-instrumentalist who finally dragged his basement-born anthems into the daylight. After years of keeping his songs locked away for some imagined epiphany, he’s made up for lost time with his LP, Wayfinder, co-produced with Logan Summey at Rock Mill Studio. It’s a record that captures everything Betz’s teenage heart held onto – sincerity, sensitivity, and that unkillable love for distortion, hooks, and hope.

1999 is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Riot Grrrl met biblical disobedience in Ammonite’s fuzz-drenched Sidewinder

Posted on 4 November 2025
Ammonite

Ammonite deserve to sit in the annals of Riot Grrrl history alongside L7, Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill as they shape the future of the sonic movement after the drop of their electrified with scuzzy visceral angst single, Sidewinder. With a few Sleater-Kinney-esque harmonies thrown into the rancorous assault for good measure and a solo that proves few bands can show as much mettle as Ammonite, Sidewinderis an anthem of pure, adrenalised volition. It drags you into the momentum instead of pulling you along with it; there’s no going through the motions here, just a hellbent mission to deliver catharsis through a culturally eclectic tableau that demands you throw your inhibitions to the wayside to make room for the manifestations of authentic, unapologetic desire.

The lyricism cuts through reverberant distortion with poetic defiance as the hook “shake that troubled tree” refrains like a ritual incantation, while the desire coiled in the final verses arrives untamed and vital. I can’t name one other band which can turn desire into a riot and build a temple out of distortion.

Drawing on imagery from William Blake and biblical mythology to throw off the mantle of forbidden love, Sidewinder vibrates with natural joy while climbing out of shame’s shadow. Ammonite recorded the single in their home studio Chimney Hawk Studios, with Selena Benally behind the board and on guitar and bass, Erin Frisby writing and leading vocals, and Alyson Cina percussively igniting the track.

Sidewinder is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Passenger to Tamworth soundtracked the absurdity of aggression with the alt-punk protest, ‘Rockets Over Russia’

Posted on 3 November 2025

Passenger to Tamworth let the snark of alt-punk sink its teeth in with Rockets Over Russia. Dissections of geopolitical absurdity blaze past at a frenetically dizzying pace, matching the speed at which the next atrocity gets buried beneath the last. Between the commentary on twisted warmongering trajectories and the confrontational rhythmic pace, the track’s spoken word punk laureate flings himself into a new cerebral arena of protest music with a bass-driven roar.

Through a raw refusal to sanitise outrage, Rockets Over Russia delivers nihilistic clarity via chaotic satire, though it never leans into self-indulgence. The production is purposefully stripped, giving the wryly observed lyricism room to land and sting. There’s a flash of The Stranglers in the rubble-strewn noise, but Passenger to Tamworth carries it closer to home for fans of Fontaines D.C. and Kneecap who crave something that cuts a bit closer to the bone. It’s music that confronts the war machine while acknowledging the exhaustion of shouting into a void.

The single arrives as part of the debut EP, The Fates Lead Him Who Will… The Unwilling They Drag, released via One Fat Dog Records. Across five snark-heavy tracks — including Constantinople, Straight Bar, Cans and No Opera in the Cayman Islands — Passenger to Tamworth plays high-functioning cynic, lobbing irony-laced truth bombs that invite you to laugh, rage, or neck another can just to cope. After years of protest punk losing its edge to polish, this hits like a battered amp plugged back into a purpose.

Rockets Over Russia is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Glasgow Television: RINGARDS’ scuzzed riot between alt-punk performance and pandemonium

Posted on 2 November 2025

If you like music to bruise when it hits, you won’t be reaching for the remote to switch the channel with the hypersonically scuzzed alt-punk single, Glasgow Television, from RINGARDS.

For anyone sick of the posturing of IDLES and the insinuation that Yungblud represents the future of alternative music, Glasgow Television hits like a knuckled rebuke. The track howls with barbed visceralism, the kind that leaves you feeling slightly unclean for listening; it’s the kind of filth that feels alive. You can almost sense the floor of a basement venue vibrating beneath you, beer-sticky and sweat-drenched, as your brain takes a pounding from the bruising barrage of distorted guitars and punch-drunk percussion. RINGARDS hit the perfect equilibrium between sardonically deadpan and chaotically unhinged, as Enzo’s vocals detonate through the monolithic instrumentals with venomous swagger.

Sitting somewhere in the static between alt-rock and post-punk, where art punk flickers and indie rock still draws breath, RINGARDS’ sound is both a callback and a confrontation. Their live shows have earned them a reputation for performance verging on pandemonium, and with their debut album already recorded, they’re poised to unleash their snarled sermons on a wider scale.

The French-born frontman Enzo, once a production fixer in LA, jamming with Irish bassist Gary after a fateful “Join My Band” post quickly spiralled into something more ungovernable when Jasper, Noah, Will, and Albi joined the fold, each dragging a different shade of chaos into the sound.

Glasgow Television is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Baffo d’Oro warped post-punk into gnarled garage rock ritualism with ‘Borderline’

Posted on 28 October 2025

Through gnarled basslines, reverberation of post-punk distortion, and a forebodingly mechanised monochromatic colour palette, Baffo d’Oro twisted alt-punk beyond recognition with their standout single, Borderline.

The rhythm section brings a tribalistic intensity to the reverent nod to garage rock, while the vocals summon the same infernal energy as Nick Cave and deliver the vocal grooves of Josh Homme. With so much happening in the atmosphere of the production, it would be easy to be overfaced if Baffo d’Oro weren’t irrefutable alchemists when it comes to contrast and catharsis through snarled confession.

Since 2020, the Swiss four-piece have been tearing through the alt scene with their brand of post-punk-garage-rock steeped in raw energy and jagged wit. Their sound is rooted in the discontent and drive of the late ‘70s and ‘80s, but it’s sharpened by a modern-day expositionism, drawn from their observations of cultural absurdity and social decay. After the release of their EP This is it, via their DIY label Much More Louder Records, Baffo d’Oro have stormed radio waves and festival slots. Borderline is yet another visceral reminder that this isn’t a band playing at rebellion, it’s a band exorcising something real through distortion and discipline.

Borderline is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Bandcamp and Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bristol’s art punk powerhouse, Phlegmonade, salved glitched-out minds with the surealist distortion in ‘Ode to a Machine’

Posted on 11 October 2025

Phlegmonade isn’t a band name you’d want to pronounce after a few pints, but you’ll want them on your radar after their latest single, Ode to a Machine. The Bristol-based art-punk provocateurs didn’t hold back when they turned their debut into a snarling, unrelenting barrage of garagey skate punk, injected with enough chaos to rip the soul clean from its technocratic casing. It’s a full-throttle blitz of fuzz-drenched fury that cuts through algorithmic apathy with serrated hooks and seething rhythmic momentum.

As the hypersonically twisted guitars oscillate around frenetic percussive blasts, the only reprieve from the onslaught is the occasional wave of woozy psych rock, bleeding colour into the white hot brutality. It’s an adrenaline shot of no-wave-esque distortion, and it carries enough mental static to grind your internal cogs into a blissfully dysfunctional haze.

Through the track’s raw instrumental assault, the metaphor of the mind and body as a faltering vehicle is delivered with abrasive, unflinching sincerity. You feel every rattling piston and spiralling feedback loop of the sonically visualised psychological collapse. And from that wreckage, Phlegmonade resurrects something oddly tender. Something that says: love the malfunction, embrace the glitch.

Drawing from years in the studio and band members scattered from Ireland to Italy to Bristol, Phlegmonade have alchemised a sound that sits somewhere between philosophical subversion and gleefully absurd destruction. Ode to a Machine is the first hit of what’s sure to be a mind fuck of a legacy.

Ode to a Machine is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 


Review by Amelia Vandergast

O’Laochra’s Drown a Goddess scoured through 90s punk distortion to punch through class divides with mythic intent

Posted on 27 September 2025

O’Laochra pioneered one of the stickiest punk earworms of the decade with their seminal single, Drown a Goddess. Through distortion that caustically scours through the years to revisit the aesthetics of 90s and Y2K alt-punk anthems, and an infectious refusal to fall in line with the posturing punks who virtue signal away their authenticity, O’Laochra delivered nothing but volition and chaotic catharsis in their tour de scuzzy force.

Anti-capitalistic themes underpin the narrative without choking the tongue-in-cheek energy, which only augments the monolith of a chorus that was made to soundtrack you as you collect bruises in a pit. With their iconic NYC, ‘we’ve seen the grimy disparity of society’ energy, they’d be able to start a new revolution, if only action consisted of more than crying on social media. They’re a powerhouse of crossover appeal, with cerebral lyricism that leans on mythology to vignette the angst towards the class divide.

Founded by Irish songwriter Michael Leahy in 2024, O’Laochra erupted from New York’s underground scene, driven by frustration with both music and society. Their debut single, Curse Your Wasted Youth, set the tone for their myth-laced rebellion, and since then, they’ve stormed through staple venues like Arlene’s Grocery in the Lower East Side, Connolly’s KClub in Manhattan, and First Live in Bushwick. With their EP Foclóir due this autumn, they’re sharpening their sonic arsenal with linguistic twists and a refusal to dilute the rage that made punk mean something.

Drown a Goddess is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

smog moss disfigure the boundaries of Boston’s punk scene in the lo-fi frenzy cop porn!

Posted on 14 June 2025

smog moss brought back the sweat, scum, and savagery of hardcore punk with cop porn!, a battering ram of barely structured rhythm and Machiavellian angst that gives the Boston duo’s disdain a set of teeth. The lo-fi chaos is more than just aesthetic in the distorted and discordant track that revels in rawness; it’s an essential component of the defiant and debased composition that scratches its name into the back of your skull before the one-minute mark.

While most punk projects rehash the past to keep their underground credibility, smog moss punches down the stylised expectations with a sound that has no intention of fitting inside the margins. Through the stripped-back instrumentation of a drum and bass setup, cop porn! manages to get louder than most five-piece outfits. It’s a nauseatingly adrenalised dirge wrapped in a warped bounce that mocks and maims with equal measure, and there’s no mistaking that it was born out of a scene that still sees cops as the enemy, not the caricatured antiheroes they’re becoming in some quarters of the mainstream.

Formed by Margot and Aidan, smog moss are currently desecrating the Boston underground with their self-described pond punk scum jazz noise. Whether their output is goofy or grotesque, it always has the power to leave you bruised and buzzing.

cop porn! is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.