Browsing Tag

Modern Rock

Luca Pisanu sent blues-rooted modern rock into salacious 80s overdrive through ‘Reborn’

Posted on 14 August 2026

Wailing banshees have got nothing on the guitars that tear through Reborn and straight through your ribcage under the command of rock renegade Luca Pisanu. The Sardinian singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, now based in Glasgow, roots his sound in rock, blues, soul, jazz, funk and neo-soul, but Reborn arrives as the kind of full-throttle rock single that makes the amp feel possessed.

It should become law that it is criminal to understate the zealously rock-reverent firepower possessed by Luca Pisanu. He is a live wire of electricity ripping through modern rock; by taking the salacious energy of 80s rock, sanctifying his sound in a legacy of blues and augmenting his eclectic influences until “high-octane” only becomes a hint of what to expect, Pisanu sounds primed for top-of-the-bill festival slots.

Reborn, the first single from his upcoming album Alchemy on Serdica Records, is fuelled by roaring rhythm guitars, cutting lead lines, driving drums, bass with oceanic depth and hooks that aim for the marrow. His voracious command makes plenty of established rock icons and imitators sound geriatric and generic, respectively.

After appearing on corto.alto’s Mercury Prize-nominated Bad With Names and playing stages from Glastonbury’s West Holts to Glasgow Barrowland, Pisanu already carries serious live credentials. Listening to Reborn, it feels like he could change the atmosphere of the entire city he turns his amps on in. Does that make him the Godzilla of rock?

Reborn is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Double Knockout viscerally augmented the love song in their melodic hard-rock juggernaut, ‘Damnselles’

Posted on 11 August 2026

If an award was knocking around for the most ingenious track title of the year, every other contender would be leaving empty-handed with Damnselles by Double Knockout on the airwaves. The South Louisiana two-piece alternative rock band turns arena-sized ambition into something emotionally readable, pairing soaring guitars, driving drums and songwriting that aims straight for the pressure point.

The romanticism of The Cure and other evocative 80s rock icons is charged with the raw anthemic power of Shinedown when the heart-in-throat chorus hits, transforming Damnselles into an earworm that epitomises the fervour of melodic 00s hard rock. Through production so polished it practically effervesces, paired with a vocal performance that carries emotion with brutal force, Double Knockout alludes to the visceral pain of being haunted by your own desire and innate sense of loneliness.

There is bite in the guitars, body in the drums and a huge emotional lift in the hook, the kind built for listeners who still want alternative rock to feel theatrical, wounded and massive. Their reference points, from Manchester Orchestra to Nothing But Thieves and Foo Fighters, make sense in the song’s scale, but Damnselles has its own Southern-scorched romance in the wiring.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Faith Put Its Armour On: Riptide Hollywood Brought Gospel Rock into Battle with ‘Don’t Surrender Now’

Posted on 5 August 2026

Riptide Hollywood has modernised Christian gospel through his fluid, fresh approach to rock; with his latest hit, Don’t Surrender Now, he modernises the war cry. Ferocious fortitude drives the track forward, giving its message of spiritual endurance enough force to rattle the armour around a weary listener and send them back towards the fight.

Electronic percussion pushes the song away from tired rhythmic tropes in rock, making the snares hit harder and giving the basslines a reverberant snarl that commands submission as gospel collides with conviction. Cinematic guitars widen the sense of scale, while hip-hop-influenced rhythms stop the anthem from sinking into predictable Christian rock sentimentality. Communal might fills the chorus, though its challenge stays personal: stand your ground when life has brought you to your knees.

As a longtime advocate for making music mean something, Riptide Hollywood reaches his zenith in Don’t Surrender Now. Faith and spiritual warfare speak directly to people rebuilding themselves in life’s storms. Biblical imagery gives the struggle its armour, while the direct language makes its encouragement accessible beyond the church. Don’t Surrender Now is the ultimate affirmation that the person responsible for picking you up when you’re down is you; faith can strengthen your stance, but your own legs still have to carry you forward.

Don’t Surrender Now is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Download’s Future Bill Starts Here: Black River Renegade’s Next Mistake Is Blues-Rock at Its Hardest Hitting

Posted on 20 July 2026

Any playlists featuring Highly Suspect, Royal Blood and Rival Sons would be remiss to look past the latest hard-rock hit, Next Mistake, from Black River Renegade. The Norwich four-piece have taken their modern approach to bluesy hard-rock riffs and sent a rampage across the UK rock and metal scene; Next Mistake alone carries enough force to raze the stagnating monotony of the circuit to the ground.

In the red-hot hit, which becomes a battle of will between sirens and sense, you can hear the seductive serpentine roots of hard rock under the sleek amplification of crashing drums and low-slung basslines. Black River Renegade honour classic-rock influence without embalming it, bringing the form forward through pornographic guitars, sharp songwriting chops and hooks that land straight in the sternum.

Following a busy 2026, including support for A Thousand Horses at Norwich Arts Centre, sets at the Royal Norfolk Show and Aldeburgh Festival’s Big Day Out, plus bookings for HMV Live & Local and the John Peel Centre’s Emerge night, the band’s live reputation is clearly catching up with their recorded output.

If Download Festival ever dared to look past legacy and novelty acts for the top of its bill, Black River Renegade would be a fitting charge into the future of rock.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alley Eyes Mainlined Digital Exhaustion Through Stadium-Sized Indie Euphoria in ‘Punisher’

Posted on 6 June 2026

Alley Eyes are unrivalled when it comes to sticky-sweet supersonic indie hooks, and yes, that includes Sam Fender. In their latest single, Punisher, the band launch their own adrenalized-to-the-nines philosophical inquiry, digging into how nihilism has become the crux of the collective psyche, as our overstimulated minds try to keep pace with relentless stimuli, propaganda, and the digital pointlessness of modernity.

Born in the band’s home studio, Punisher captures the isolation-craving desire to escape it all while still turning that tension into a release built for live rooms. The chorus lands like a cathartic rupture, transforming modern dread into the kind of alternative anthem that feels engineered to open a set and detonate the room before anyone has time to brace themselves.

With sharp enough songwriting chops to slice their way to the top of the indie charts, the sheer force of the vocals sugars the serious swagger of the stadium-ready instrumentals. Alley Eyes are a rare band whose talent translates into pure euphoria-laced adrenaline, turning frustration, exhaustion, and existential static into something dangerously playable.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rooftop Screamers found euphoria in the ruins of reality with ‘Forsaken’

Posted on 9 November 2025

If I were given the option of living in a utopia filled with hollow, soulless sound or enduring this drenched-in-dejection reality, I’d still choose the latter if it meant I could feel the raw euphoria of resonating with protestive cultural expositions like Forsaken by Rooftop Screamers featuring Stephen McSwain. Opening with a pure pop-punk riff, the nostalgia rush hits instantly before the band tears through any threat of predictability. There’s a harbingeringly histrionic edge that flickers between the contours of Green Day-esque pop-punk and raucous alt-rock, fuelled by enough existential angst to shake the dust off the genre’s complacency.

The single feels like an urgent act of rebellion against a world that keeps demanding submission. Each lyric cuts through with a sense of disillusionment that transcends performance; it’s a howl from the collective psyche of modern consciousness, demanding to know how we ended up in this loop of degradation. Yet, amid the hopelessness, the soaring choruses sell sanctuary, an echo of shared resistance. Rooftop Screamers channel that pain into melody with unfeigned volition, turning despair into something almost euphoric. Even as the lyrics confess there’s nothing left to say, their sound proves otherwise, bleeding consolation into an apathetic age.

Spearheaded by Mike Collins, Rooftop Screamers is less a conventional project and more a creative experiment in unity. Collins’ passion for collaboration draws in both local and international talent, shaping tracks with a layered intricacy that hints at his musical lineage—Bowie, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Steven Wilson, and Jeff Lynne all hum faintly beneath the surface. Yet Forsaken stands wholly in the present, a blistering outcry for those still wrestling with meaning in the modern wreckage and trying not to slip into full blown nihilism.

Forsaken is now available on all major streaming platforms; for the full experience, watch the official music video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

90s Grunge Called and Applauded Low Wave for Their Latest Single, Poison Pear

Posted on 9 October 2025

With Poison Pear, Low Wave answer the question of what Soundgarden might have felt like if Cornell had handed the mic to a siren-esque songstress capable of commanding a harmony with the power of a tyrant marching into war. Over the tides of guitar-driven distortion, Leanne Pharaoh’s vocals stretch beyond the airwaves, crying for sanctuary within a psyche frayed by the strain of its own fault lines. There’s conviction, consolation, and a caressive fire that licks warmth into your rhythmic pulses as the production burrows deep into the fertile soil of the alt-90s.

The track brims with that rare kind of emotional rawness that can only come from a band in flux and renewal. After reshaping their lineup, Low Wave channels the turbulence of reinvention into an anthem of surrender and resurgence. The guitars swell like rising tides, the bass rolls with fevered persistence, and Pharaoh’s voice becomes the lifeline pulling you through the storm. The entire composition feels alive, like an entity caught between fury and grace, seducing chaos into rhythm.

Formed in 2023 by guitarist and songwriter Graham Waddell, Low Wave found their footing through a love of heavy riffs and melodic sensibility. Joined by Ella Partridge on drums and Colin Penn on bass, they’ve built a sound that bridges the grit of Seattle’s grunge legacy with the stark introspection of modern alternative rock. Their debut EP State of Mine won international acclaim in 2024, and with Poison Pear, they’ve turned the next page towards their full-length debut, set to land in early 2026.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Save Oz bridged the generational rock gap with ‘Jaws of Defeat’

Posted on 5 September 2025
Save Oz

Save Oz may as well have strung their guitars with raw nerves instead of steel as they charged into their latest single, Jaws of Defeat. The Hutchinson, Kansas alt-rock outfit has never been shy of throwing punches through their sound, but here, the fury rises with juggernaut momentum. The track spits and sears with brash vintage textures while refusing to lean on pastiche, instead veering into something far stranger, far bigger, with its space-flecked passages that nod to Pixies and The Flaming Lips before being torn apart by protest-soaked refrains and white-hot riffs.

The rawness is carried in Ethan Kaplan’s unflinching vocal conviction, his voice grinding against Dane Power’s searing fretwork, Justin Crane’s heavy-handed bass, and Alan Carlton’s drumming that lands with both force and fever. Together, they summon an atmosphere that sits between combustion and catharsis, a sonic spectacle that pushes beyond nostalgia into contemporary territory where fury feels almost celestial.

Save Oz have already sharpened their edge on singles like That Trick of Silence and Shift in the Tide, but Jaws of Defeat pushes further, showcasing a band unafraid of spilling guts through melody while keeping their footing firmly on the line between classic rock roots and modern alt-rock evolution. With an upcoming EP on the horizon, Save Oz are sharpening their sound into a weapon made for stages big enough to bear the weight of their chaos.

Jaws of Defeat is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via the artist’s official website, 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Neversound Stirred the Sludge and Strung Our Solar Plexuses in Where Did the Time Go

Posted on 1 September 2025

With the title single from their debut LP, Where Did the Time Go, Neversound didn’t hold back on the fuzzed-up lamentations or the sludgy distortion that rolls through the six-minute epic like a nostalgic landslide. There’s no mistaking the sonic signposts planted in the murk, but it’s in the extended experimentalism and post-rock-laced moments of stripped-back atmosphere that Neversound prove they’re not just digging up relics.

The alt-90s disillusionment pulses through the track, not as a rehash but as a temporal gateway that equips you with rose-tinted glasses before pulling you backwards into the haze. The curvature of the chords ripples outwards while moving through you like Neversound found a way to tether your solar plexus to their instrumentals. The ebb and flow is so visceral you’ll feel possessed rather than passive.

From doom-laced dirges to raw classic rock howls that scrape their way up through the mix, the band finds plenty of room to burn through their influences without ever falling flat in imitation. With Deftones, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains seeping in at the seams, Neversound rips open space for the type of catharsis that defined an era and refuses to let it go gently.

Where Did the Time Go is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Zegovia Let the Bass Growl Them to Glory in PREFAB

Posted on 27 August 2025
Zegovia

Zegovia supercharged the sticky-sweet hooks of proto-punk and power pop with a raw rock energy that revels in guitar indulgence and the kind of rolling rhythm sections that take your pulse hostage, pulling it into the possession of pure, visceral volition. It is a sound only possible from prodigal sons of rock who have found the perfect equilibrium between restraint and raucous annihilation.

With Prefab, the band picks up where the Ramones left off while driving the anthemic heights of acts like Foo Fighters into their own indelible mark and letting their basslines growl them to glory. The thematic heart of the track throbs through the instrumentals, each chord and beat a defiant nod to chaos embraced rather than contained. The lyrics invite you into their fever dream without offering neat resolutions, instead giving space for interpretations that melt into distortion.

Since their debut LP OBSERVE, Zegovia have made their defiance a signature. Prefab is no exception, built to be felt more than understood, pushing their sound further into abstract terrain while holding onto their instinct for catharsis.

PREFAB is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen and connect with the band via this link. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast