Browsing Tag

post hardcore

LAKE ACACIA’s Post-Hardcore Industrial Juggernaut, Tear You Down, Fuels the Fire of Revolution

Posted on 4 May 2026

The prolific hit-making post-hardcore duo, LAKE ACACIA, has delivered some of their hardest, hypersonic blows to date in their latest single, Tear You Down.

If you weren’t already salivating for an insurrection before hitting play, expect your hunger for a revolution to grow ravenous as you’re adrenalised by the insurgent synthesis of metalcore, groove metal and industrial. Alternatively, if you’ve been complacent about the atrocious state of reality, anticipate being slapped into your senses by the riling earworm which lays out vocal hooks like landmines in the melodic breaks and through the lyrics which resonate with piercing clarity through the mechanised, cacophonous instrumentals.

Tear You Down makes Marilyn Manson’s Fight Song, and subsequently Faith No More’s Be Aggressive sound wilted; flimsy in the face of this future-forward riot of fortitude. The bass-driven heft hits with colossal force, while unrestrained drumming, synth layers, strings, electronics and percussive textures turn the track into a cinematic demolition site with a militant heartbeat. Towering vocals rich with harmony and emotion sit at the centre, proving how LAKE ACACIA can balance brute-force impact with atmosphere. As a two-piece operating far beyond genre lines, their sound has become monolithic; far too towering for arbitrary genre parameters to cage.

Tear You Down is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

heaven // alone Let Vulnerability Breathe Through the Post-Hardcore Rupture of ‘escaping myself’

Posted on 29 March 2026

heaven // alone refuse to sit still inside any neat genre tag. Emo, post-rock, grunge, metal, post-hardcore, whichever pigeonhole gets dragged out, their sound pushes straight past it. On escaping myself, that viscerally expansive, evocatively intense aesthetic lands with the force of a bad thought looping at 3 am, then mutating into a primal communication with the void. For an artist working with this much emotional exposure, there’s nothing mild-mannered about the way they let the weight of the track speak for itself.

Opening with an augmentation on the sludgy Seattle grunge sound, escaping myself winds into a melodic post-rock intersection where the vulnerability the title so cuttingly alludes to gets the room it needs to breathe. That sense of emotional suspension soon gives way to the point where the screamo vocals bleed across the adrenalised volition in the post-hardcore instrumentation, tearing through the track with a fevered urgency that you’re bound to catch.

For anyone who has ever felt plagued by their own consciousness and pleaded for a way to disconnect from their past, present, and future, this will hit hard enough to warrant a GBH charge.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Midwest Emo-Laced Alt-Rock Visceralism as Pretty Killer Channel Addiction’s Aftermath in ‘Sharp Teeth’

Posted on 23 March 2026

A cavernous echo of 90s-esque reverb drifts through Sharp Teeth, the latest single from Pretty Killer, as the Worcester-based breakthrough outfit tore through the alternative rock space with an emotionally heightened twist on pop punk. References to Midwest Emo feel inevitable as the track unfolds, yet the band channel those tonal hallmarks into something hauntingly original The atmosphere builds patiently, tension simmering beneath the surface before the arrangement begins to lean toward a full emotional outpour.

That slow edge toward eruption arrives through melodicism tempered with pressure, proving that alt-rock remains an artform in the truest sense. Few artists manage to translate feeling into sound with convincing weight, yet Pretty Killer reach that threshold with striking clarity, turning raw emotional material into something close to sonic alchemy. The guitars swell with deliberate restraint before opening wider, letting the emotional architecture of the track expand until the arrangement can barely contain it.

When the breakdown arrives, the word becomes literal. Sharp Teeth reaches a peak of visceral intensity as post-hardcore textures bleed through the production, amplifying the emotional gravity that drives the single forward. Beneath the distortion lies the central narrative, a stark reflection on addiction and the hollow space left when someone slips away piece by piece before vanishing completely.

The track draws from the loss of a childhood friend to opioid dependence, yet the framing shifts the focus toward something quietly compassionate. The song reads like an olive branch extended toward listeners who know the ache of watching someone press the self-destruct button, or those tempted to press it themselves while believing the damage remains personal.

Recorded in a converted church studio in Springfield, Massachusetts and shaped by Alan Day on mixing duties with mastering from Mike Kalajian, Sharp Teeth captures Pretty Killer at a turning point, leaning into a darker, more grounded chapter fuelled by live instrumentation and emotional clarity.

Sharp Teeth is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ragged Volition and Sludgy Magnetism Collide in Topdown’s Melodic Post-Hardcore Debut Single, ‘Paranoid’

Posted on 22 March 2026

Somewhere between the influences of alt-90s, brashy 00s melodic rock and post-rock lies the debut single, Paranoid, by the Texan five-piece, Topdown. Straight out of Austin, the band arrive with a sound that feels volatile, wired, and ready to snap, setting the precedent for a release that thrives on tension.

Distortion crashes into the contours of the intro without hesitation, dragging you into a quiescent break where breathy vocals hang over angular, indie new wave-esque guitars like a warning you’re about to ignore. That restraint never lasts long. The intensity surges forward; the chameleonic vocals keep pace effortlessly, twisting into ragged screams that carry a real sense of vindicating volition.

When the choruses hit, Topdown lock into a sludgy, earwormy, seductive magnetism that feels almost physical. It’s the kind of pull that Deftones have built a legacy on. It just drags you under. By the time the outro lands, getting caught in it feels inevitable. The track spirals into one of the most visceral aural experiences you’re likely to hear from an independent artist this year. There’s no cleaner way to put it, it’s carnal carnage.

Topdown have already started pushing beyond their initial footing, expanding their sound and line-up while leaning into heavier, stranger territory. With their upcoming EP set to widen that scope even further, Paranoid has distinguished Topdown as a band the industry can’t ignore. If awards were handed out on sonic dynamism alone, Topdown would be riding high.

Find Topdown on Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

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 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

Sabina Beyli laid bare the brutal cycle of self-sabotage with her pop-rock anthem, Bad Habits

Posted on 8 December 2025

After a goosebump-inducing, deceptively quiescent intro to her latest single, Bad Habits, which puts the magnetism in Sabina Beyli’s vocal melodies front and centre in the production, the up-and-coming alt-rock artist pierces the veil of pensive introspection with an onslaught of sonic intensity. Through instrumental hooks that adorn the spikes of glitchy post-hardcore aesthetics, the track visualises the downward spiral of knowing you’re caught in the cycle of hitting the same self-destructive buttons.

The melodic breaks bring those breath-held moments of clarity as you wrestle with the realisation that you’ve become your own worst enemy—before frustration seeps in again and drags you back under. Lyrically raw, musically riled, and emotionally astute, Bad Habits taps into the kind of intimate confession that doesn’t wait to be invited in. It crashes straight in, armed with unresolved angst and riffs sharp enough to draw blood.

At just 22, Beyli is already making a dent in the alternative pop-rock scene with a pen that cuts as deep as her vocal range. Produced by Mike Midura and co-written with her long-time collaborator Kate J. Brink, Bad Habits grew from a restless, moody instrumental, capturing the chaos of a mind at war with itself. With previous features in Refinery29 and Parade Magazine and two more singles due in 2026, this release marks another feral yet emotionally articulate swing from an artist shaping her sound with frank, blistering intent.

Bad Habits is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
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Review by Amelia Vandergast

With Memory Relapse, Saved By Skarlet rips open alt-metal with raw emotive friction

Posted on 7 December 2025

Saved By Skarlet didn’t follow the trend of opening their latest track, Memory Relapse, with an instant hook. They went straight for the jugular with an instant power riff before bringing the hammer down through the rampaging carnage that constructs their alt-metal instrumentals. As masters of melodic breaks and deliverers of more breakdowns than you’d see during a full moon at a mental institute, Saved By Skarlet proved themselves once again as savants of unhinged precision with Memory Relapse. By playing with post-hardcore aesthetics during the middle-eight and constantly running progressive volition through the veins of their release, they orchestrated something beyond catharsis.

Formed in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Christian metal four-piece has spent the last decade making their mark on stages across the US, performing alongside the likes of Skillet, Life of Agony, Wolves at the Gate, and Convictions. Their latest release, mastered by Brandon Wolfe of New Year’s Day, continues their evolution in sonic intensity, emotion, and production. With Memory Relapse hitting #10 on Billboard’s CMW Rock Charts, they’ve cemented their ability to bring healing and wreckage in equal measure.

We may never be able to fully trust our memories due to the way our minds distort them, but after this release, it’s safe to say we can always depend on Saved By Skarlet to deliver tracks that triumph by putting emotive friction at the epicentre of their sound—one that’s so raw it’s practically carnal.

Memory Relapse is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.
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Review by Amelia Vandergast

Death Wears You Well delivered an intravenous shot of colossal rage and widescreen emotion into Unfinished Script

Posted on 2 December 2025

Few releases can be accurately described as cinematically colossal, yet Unfinished Script from Death Wears You Well earns that weight from the instant the first onslaught tears open. The Pennsylvania outfit drags you straight into an atmosphere so immersive it feels as though the walls close in while the emotional floodgates crack. Rage, longing and frustration collide in a full frontal surge, but inside the rancour sits a strange resolve, the kind that aches with purpose. Shimmers of transcendence rise through the heaviness as the band pull together the aesthetics of Alexisonfire and the melodic attack reminiscent of Bullet for My Valentine, forming a nostalgia hit for anyone who finds their sharpest catharsis in the friction between post hardcore instrumentals and the juxtaposition between screamo and harmonic vox. The track lunges forward with a cinematic scope that expands and contracts like an internal storm, leaving the sense that you’ve stepped into a fragmented mind trying to write its way out of collapse.

The members behind the project, Mike Faller, Thomas Lutz, Calvin McCombie and Herald Arturo, build each release as though they are constructing emotional environments rather than conventional metalcore tracks. They draw from metaphor-heavy lyricism, widescreen atmosphere and a form of storytelling that picks apart memory, dissociation, identity rupture and the violence of introspection.

Their sound often feels like a landscape shaped by flooded cities, decaying reflections and long corridors where echoes cling to the walls. That approach positions them at the intersection of cinematic metalcore and atmospheric metalcore, where vicious aggression intersects with something brutally human. Unfinished Script reinforces that identity with unflinching conviction, proving the band’s capacity to turn internal collapse into something immense, immersive and painfully resonant.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Blvck Toxxine channelled collective burnout into post-hardcore catharsis

Posted on 7 November 2025

Blvck Toxxine used their debut single, Out of Time, to protest against the pressure-cooker nature of reality, where exploring and living autonomy has become a luxury. The frustration within the collective sense of exhaustion runs deep in the gnarled veins of the Manchester-based melodic metal outfit’s seminal track. Through gutturally tensile slams of bass strings, an all-out skin-beating assault, and distorted, friction-fuelled guitars, Blvck Toxxine delivered a visceral release that feels like a scream against existence itself.

Symphonic glimpses of redemption bleed through the electronic synthetics, which cascade into post-hardcore glitched-out disassociation. The juggernautical earworm visualises the exhaustion of knowing you’re wearing someone else’s skin just to survive. With screamed vocals that match the unflinching ferocity of My Ruin, Poppy, and In This Moment, the band twists despair into defiant catharsis. The harmonic stretches don’t soothe so much as sanctify, creating a sense of salvation in the noise.

Led by Jane Lacey, the Manchester-born project merges djent, experimental electronics and emotional confrontation into a sound that embodies the corrosion and resilience of modern mental strain. Thematically, Out of Time reflects the fight to exist under the suffocating metric of self-improvement, where even healing feels commodified. Rather than surrender to the static of the world, Blvck Toxxine weaponises it, ripping through toxic expectations to find oxygen on the other side of anguish. For a band so steeped in chaos, their clarity hits harder than any distortion pedal could.

Out of Time is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast

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Ska and screamo fuel Contraptions’ latest shape-shifter, ‘The Eye of the Unobserved’

Posted on 16 October 2025

Contraptions gazed through The Eye of the Unobserved in their latest release; here, the watcher doesn’t become the watched, there’s freedom to cast judgement without fear of scrutiny, and funnily enough, Contraptions contorted enough genres through their maniacally adrenalised sonic signature to become indefinable themselves.

It begins with sludgy, doomy stoner groove metal hammer blows, then in comes the ska staccato guitars and blaring horns to knock any sense of predictability sideways. But it’s only a matter of time before you’re blindsided by the theatrical symphonic metal surge crashing around screamo salvos and glitchy post-hardcore distortions. From that point on, anything goes: woozy pop harmonies, jazzy sax lines, and frenetic aural annihilation that could have crawled straight out of Mike Patton’s home studio. The real feat isn’t just drawing from a stylistic smorgasbord so wild it borders on unhinged; it’s the way Contraptions threads it all together without a stitch coming loose.

By the time the outro rolls around, the bigger picture clicks into view: one that frames Contraptions as one of the most unreckonable wrecking balls of alt-rock innovation. There’s no singular mould holding this Sheffield-formed experimental outfit down; they’ll skank their way across ska-punk lineups or thunder through progressive metal sets, their sound always landing somewhere between mathy chaos and tongue-in-cheek punk absurdity. With echoes of Mr Bungle, Thank You Scientist, Fishbone, and Dream Theater ricocheting through their work, and saxes screaming over breakdowns with no warning, The Eye of the Unobserved proves Contraptions are already beyond genre, and they’re only getting started.

The Eye of the Unobserved is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

– Review by Amelia Vandergast

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