Browsing Tag

post-grunge

The Yellow Wallpaper – Tell Me to Beg: A Post-Grunge Antithetic Love Song

Posted on 18 June 2023

With a similar grungy kick to Kyuss, the atmospherically angst-charged debut single, Tell Me to Beg, from the up-and-coming luminary five-piece, The Yellow Wallpaper, is the ultimate anthem to your ennui.

Starting with clean vocals that ring as sweetly as Hozier’s harmonies, the hit quickly descends into sludgy virtuosity, with each instrumental breakdown and crescendo amplifying the ferocious scorn. Clearly, hell hath no fury like someone pre-empting the inevitable end of a turbulent relationship and the uncertainty and loneliness that will follow.

In reality, there is little sex appeal in heartbreak; in Tell Me to Beg, the masochism of the messaging through the frontman and songwriter Troy Rapscallion Benson’s hopeless clutching of faded love subversively switched the narrative. In the process, Tell Me to Beg became the antithetic love song that will undoubtedly pave the way towards a bright future for The Yellow Wallpaper.

Tell Me to Beg was officially released on June 9th. Stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London Graffiti put the writing on the wall in their art-rock tour de force, These Words

Posted on 2 April 2023

Keeping the soul of grunge but stripping back the sludge, the Oxford, UK-based alt-indie rock outfit London Graffiti unleashed the ultimate aural eye-prickler with their latest single, These Words.

If you melded the pensive folky panache of Frightened Rabbit with the art-rock arrangements of Radiohead and the progressively dark atmosphere of Porcupine Tree, you’d get close to the evocative mark made on the indie rock landscape by the band that has already won the favour of plenty of mainstream radio stations, including BBC Introducing.

It is impossible not to be choked by the emotion-fuelled energy in the single, which also pays tribute to the National, Joy Division, and the Doves. Originality oozes from every effortlessly cool pore of These Words, yet never to the detriment of the projection of frantically inhibited dejection.

These Words was officially released on March 16th; hear it on SoundCloud.

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

SCREECHER CREATURE explored the duality of disquietness in their alt-rock debut, Fever Dream

Posted on 21 October 2022

Between madness and reality, SCREECHER CREATURE’s debut single, Fever Dream, encompasses the disorientating duality of consciousness to the tune of grungey down-tuned guitars, chorus vocal hooks, and hair-raising riffs.

The atmospheric hit wouldn’t be out of place on playlists including Drowning Pool, Eighteen Visions, Soil, Coal Chamber and other bands that reigned supreme in the 00s alt-metal scene, but SCREECHER CREATURE came into their own with the catchy pop elements and the immensity of the lyricism that gets right into the crux of mental disquietness that gives little reprieve when your head hits the pillow.

SCREECHER CREATURE is the solo rock project for the Nashville-hailing songwriter, multi-instrumentalist & producer Wesley Steed. For the debut single, Steed collaborated with co-writer Jordan Brooker. We hope the sophomore release is already in the pipeline.

Fever Dream will officially release on October 21st across all streaming services. Check it out via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Rewind to Vince Spano’s grungy alt-rock revival, RELAPSE

Posted on 24 July 2022

We’ve kept our eye on Vince Spano’s increasingly luminous career for a while. With his latest single, RELAPSE, the Texan prodigal son unveiled his most striking alt-rock aesthetic yet, while simultaneously dealing with the proclivity for fear around the notion of romantic regression.

The single, the first to be released from his upcoming EP, The Prescribed Project, delivers rock nostalgia as you’ve never known before. With vocals that are somewhere between Soundgarden and Highly Suspect against the warmth of vintage tubes and overdriven distortion, RELAPSE is as rhythmically arresting as it is revolutionary sultry.

Here is what Vince Spano had to say on his latest single

“This is my first single off my new EP, The Prescribed Project, it’s a project that I have been working on for a very long time in hopes of bringing the sound of the music I grew up on, back into the mainstream to inspire a whole new generation of people.”

RELAPSE was officially released on July 22nd; check it out on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Elisa Winter – Summer Spent Dreaming: orchestrally apocalyptic post-grunge resonance

Posted on 9 July 2022

While many artists desperately wrestled with their creativity during the first lockdown only to reveal trite lyricism the performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and baroquely phenomenal recording artist, Elisa Winter foresaw the new normal before the modern plague was on our door.

Finally, her debut album, Summer and Smoke, which was officially released on Summer Solstice 2022, is here to spill orchestrally apocalyptic post-grunge resonance. The LP tracks across the tensions between truth, reality and gaslighting, with the engrossingly stunning highlight, Summer Spent Dreaming.

Lush yet tumultuous. Visceral yet encompassing the detachment we all felt in some capacity, Summer Spent Dreaming is the most authentic aural depiction of the frustration and entropy I’ve heard yet.

Everything changed, in a way it is almost impossible to put in words. I say almost because Elisa Winter discernibly succeeded with “speak to me please, what has happened to you? Searching for you in your eyes, you won’t let me in.” There’s been a disconnect that we’ve kept our heads in the sand about. Thankfully, Elisa Winter is here to vindicate the confusion in our alien relationship with reality and each other.

Elisa Winter’s latest album, Summer and Smoke, is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

The Breathing Method has delivered their vehemently distorted post-grunge howl into the void, Burden

Posted on 17 June 2022

Scottish post-grunge outfit, The Breathing Method, are set to release their vehemently distorted evolution of the 90s Seattle sound, Burden, which will throw you right back to the simpler times when Layne Staley reigned vocal supreme before pulling you into the angst of modernity with frenetic no-wavey guitars that make a juggernaut out of the release.

After the Mudhoney-Esque intro, The Breathing Method career into their own take on the post-grunge textures and don’t take their foot off the fuzz pedal until the outro of a primal scream, which compels you to envy the larynx they came from. Or maybe that’s just me.

Burden will officially release on June 17th; you can check it out for yourselves via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lighters in the air for Phatt James’ latest melodic grunge single, Ahead of Line

Posted on 27 May 2022

The evocative rock raconteurs, which form the melodic grunge powerhouse, Phatt James’ are fresh from the release of their latest single, Ahead of Line, which is a sublime convergence of the styles of Incubus and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, with plenty of their own distinction injected in between. Production-wise, the instrumentals gravitate around inexplicably intricate gravitas while the vocals expose nothing but raw soul.

It is still early days for the Bridgeport, Connecticut hailing outfit after releasing their debut EP, Circle Bent, in 2019, but notably, if any new band has what it takes to stir the hearts of 90s and 00s rock fans, it is Phatt James with their familiar yet sincerely original sound.

Ahead of Line is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

West Ridge Circle – Stuck in This Chair: The Ultimate Off-Kilter Alt-90s Ode to Ennui

Posted on 20 April 2022

Taken from their debut EP, Nobody Home, West Ridge Circle’s standout single, Stuck in This Chair, is an eclectic array of era-spanning rock nuances and modernist lyrical vulnerability.

Fans of Pavement, Pixies and Nirvana will want to drink up the 21st-century melancholy that drips through the lyrics and captures the frustration that lingers in unrelenting ennui. It’s tracks like Stuck in This Chair that prove there’s a beauty in collective misery, that now, we can hear lyrics, and it isn’t an Olympian stretch of the imagination to get on the same level. Granted, that isn’t always a given, but West Ridge Circle are thriving on the funk that is writhing through our existential hive minds.

With the J Mascis-style guitar chops, the despondent Americana blues-rock vocals that come with a tinge of the Seattle alt-90s sound and the eerily relatable lyrics, Stuck in This Chair has all the makings of a melancholy alt-rock playlist staple. We hope there’s another release nestled in the pipeline.

Stuck in This Chair is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LIVE REVIEW: The Vaulted Skies at The Angel, Nottingham 24/09/2021

Posted on 25 September 2021

The Vaulted Skies were one of the few bands that became the soundtrack to my insanity during lockdown. When they announced their show at The Angel in Nottingham supporting Lesbian Bed Death, I obviously had to be there in full unashamed fangirl fashion.

Starting with their sludgy hard-hitter, Hollowhead, they instantly asserted their ability to create an atmosphere where hearing the music becomes secondary to feeling it. After a delicate guitar intro that feeds intoxicating post-punk opium vibes, they slammed into an arresting amalgamation of shoegaze, rock and grunge with Molko-Esque vocals that cut above the noise.

Originally it was their gothy dancey hit, Does Anyone Else Feel (Strange)? which ended the set that won me over; the mix of inimitably intricate guitars over a filthy four-on-the-floor beat naturally had me hooked. But with the emergence of their demo release of their slower indie single, Almost Happy, my adoration became far more multifaceted.

Whether they’re creating floor-fillers or stripped-back melodic tracks, there’s a magnetism that proves emotion always comes before ego, which makes it so easy to lose yourself in their sonic alchemy through the sense of unfiltered connectedness.

The Vaulted Skies is easily one of the most criminally underrated alternative acts in the UK right now. Anyone with a proclivity towards pensiveness and pioneering alt-rock should be paying attention.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud

Photo Credit: Rich Lindley Photography

Review by Amelia Vandergast