Browsing Tag

Royal Blood

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

Hivesong Lit the Fuse Between Carnal Chaos and Glam Revivalism in ‘Electric Fever’

Posted on 13 June 2025
Hivesong

Hivesong will leave hard rock fans hot under the collar and everywhere else when Electric Fever drops on June 13th. With a discernible deep reverence to overdriven guitar hooks and salacious vocals that will resonate with anyone who can’t resist IAMX and Highly Suspect, Electric Fever delivers everything it says on the titular tin by paying homage to the glam rock era, tinging it with modernistic dark innovation and augmenting every element until Electric Fever ensures your speakers will be shaking in the aftershock following the outro. If there’s an orgasmic rock playlist on Spotify, Hivesong have earned a spot.

There’s no passive listening here, only full-body surrender to the sonic carnality conjured by the Chattanooga duo who were never designed for background noise. Channelling the swagger of Ziggy, the Sabbath-grade seismic pull, and the studio bite of Royal Blood, Hivesong have clawed rock from its coffin and reminded the faithful how transcendence can feel when it’s shrouded in distortion and lust.

Their shows are rituals. Their guitars, relics. Their sound, a sermon from the altar of righteous noise. And on record, they carry that same sermon with cathedral-shaking force. No part of Electric Fever tries to reinvent the wheel; instead, it straps it to a jet engine and lights the fuse. It’s theatrical without parody, guttural without regression, indulgent without losing control.

Electric Fever is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cambridge’s LAY / BYE ignited the modern rock scene with their expansive earwom, ACTIVE!

Posted on 6 May 2024

If any up-and-coming band can kick Royal Blood off their throne, it’s the Cambridge-hailing three-piece LAY / BYE with the polished hooks, fiery intensity, and unflinching resonance in their debut single, ACTIVE!

The debut holds no prisoners when holding the worst archetypes of the human experience to account; the flaying lyrics pick up more volition through the catchy delivery that forces you right into the electrifying nucleus of the single that stands as a testament to the trio’s ability to vindicate the masses.

After a Velvet Revolver-esque intro, the buzzsaw riffs and snarling basslines rip through the dynamic modern hard rock atmosphere honed by Robin Schmidt, known for his work with Nothing But Thieves, the 1975 and Sam Fender. The juxtaposition between the scathing energy within the rhythm section and the pop-pinched vocal hooks creates a dynamic strong enough to carry a rock revolution on its back.

The explosively expressive release is a sure sign of big things to come for LAY / BYE; their ability to fuse integrity with infectious earworm appeal is superlative.

Jump on the ACTIVE! hype by streaming the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dissolved Girl syncopated 90s trip-hop into mechanised alt-rock mesmerism with ‘Silt’

Posted on 6 February 2024

After a ground-breaking debut that set the bar obscenely high, the London-based fourpiece, Dissolved Girl, obliterated it with the mechanised mesmerism within their sophomore release, Silt.

Sonic odes have been paid to the trip-hop pioneers countless times before, but few outfits have what it takes to take the alt-90s aural aesthetics and syncopate them into a soundscape that sits ahead of the contemporary curve. Dissolved Girl’s success in this arena is just one testament to their commercial appeal.

Mastered by Matt Colton (Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood), the production of Silt resounds with cavernous reverberations within the industrially-tinged indietronic alt-rock hit as the glassy lead vocals provide a vulnerable juxtaposition to the abrasively immersive instrumentals that will course through your rhythmic pulses and pull you into the centre of gravity, strong enough to send the airwaves out of kilter.

Seductive and ensnaring in equal measure, Dissolved Girl and their commitment to exhibiting raw emotion through sophisticated aural expositions are set to become one of the most promising up-and-coming outfits of 2024, especially with the imminence of their debut LP, which has been four years in the making.

Silt was officially released on February 2nd; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London’s FOURA.M mainlined livewire energy into their alt-rock debut, Bombers

Posted on 11 August 2023

With a scuzzed-up and brashy guitar intro that will throw you right back to At the Drive-In’s moment of glory when their live performance of One-Armed Scissor on Conan became a global phenomenon, the intro to the debut track, Bombers, from FOURA.M, will capture your attention in an equally as visceral way.

Marketing themselves as ‘Dad Rock straight outta London’ scarcely does the frenetic fourpiece justice. Their influences reminisce with alt 90s and 00s tones, but nothing about Bombers feels remotely dated; the evocative pulls of the Foo Fighters-esque melodies and touches of Royal Blood in the production sealed FOURA.M a place amongst the other acts who are giving rock a fighting chance of surviving the Gen Z obsession with electronica.

If you see as much potential in FOURA.M as we do after bearing witness to their strong debut, keep your eyes peeled for their live tour dates around London.

Bombers hit the airwaves on July 28; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lewis Shepperd sharpened the teeth of his alt-rock hooks for his latest single, Bite

Posted on 27 May 2023

Forget the latest single from Royal Blood; Southampton’s Lewis Shepperd is more highly suspect than, well… Highly Suspect in his bass riff-driven, grunged up, and modernistically garagey track, Bite.

Entwining melodicism in the same vein as Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box around the higher-octane elements of this spectrally sublime feat of more Emo than Placebo alt-rock resulted in a multi-faceted incarnation of accursed seduction.

The guttural vocal breakdown towards the outro is a stark contrast to the placid harbingering harmonies that led to the fierce middle-eight that could give Frank Carter a run for his money.

After recording and mixing Bite at home, it was none other than Pete Maher (Pixies, Linkin Park & The Rolling Stones), who mastered the monolithically sharp release that will impale you on the hooks.

Bite was officially released on May 25; stream it on Spotify, or check out the official video featuring model & actress Ola Johnson on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK alt-rock act Sustinere bit back in their fuzzed-up hit, Rabies Part 2

Posted on 13 April 2023

Brimming up from the North Wales Borderlands, the grungy alt-rock duo, Sustinere, implanted more idiosyncratically electric energy onto the airwaves with their latest single, Rabies Part 2.

After coming together through a love of Royal Blood and Nirvana, making pulverising stripped-back rock became a cornerstone of their manifesto, and Sustinere effortlessly succeeded with this hook-rife hit that will melodically tattoo itself to your temporal lobe from your first rendezvous with it. The zany croons across the monolithically scuzzy guitars proved to be an addictive recipe that only these artisans of angst can concoct.

It is more than refreshing to find an act who only takes their sound seriously and leaves all pretension at the door of the recording studio. Their tongue in cheeky cheek energy and aesthetics is the antithesis of what you would expect from your run-of-the-mill artist; Sustinere practically detonated the factory with their single that revolves around the morbidly endearing reprise of “I had to put my baby down”.

Watch the hilariously self-ironic music video for Rabies Part 2 by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Tin Zelkova achieved the heart-in-mouth and jaw-on-the-floor affect in their rock single, Soul Shaker

Posted on 31 October 2022

After the launch of their debut self-titled album, the three-piece rock powerhouse, Tin Zelkova, became one of the most refreshing names in the genre. The standout single, Soul Shaker delivers a tight rhythmic furore, complete with extended guitar solos and a sense of soul that has been scarcely seen since Soundgarden.

Steven Thompson’s melodically hook-rife vocal lines as a bright and intimate contrast to the murky and overdriven guitars is a mesmerising combination that will be an instant hit with any fans of Highly Suspect, Royal Blood and Badflower.

After writing more than 30 songs by the summer of 2021, the Louisville-based outfit distributed their demo EP and started gracing stages in their hometown. But my god, there’s nothing local about the gravitas in their sound.

Shortly after the release of their first studio-recorded single, they were airing across a plethora of radio stations and performing with the likes of Tantric, Texas Hippie Coalition, Local H, Resist & Bite, Native Sons and many others. If the music industry is still capable of crating iconic acts, my money is on these guys.

Soul Shaker was officially released on September 30th. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

London’s most ensnaring indie alt-rock outfit, The Lunar Keys, have dropped their compassionately sonic hit, Stop This.

Posted on 8 October 2021

Any fans of the National will find a similar level of affection for the latest single by the indie alt-rock outfit, The Lunar Keys. Stop This was mastered by John Davis (Royal Blood, the Killers, U2), who gave the soundscape the same sonic boost that he has become renowned for.

After a gorgeously melodic bass intro, Stop This moulds into a psychedelically tinged indie rock hit that leaves you higher than the intricately angular shoegazey guitar notes. The perfectly balanced mix allows the vocals to effortlessly breeze between the ascending progressions that seem to pull you in deeper with every scuzzy synth line and clean-cut guitar note. If you have ever felt something in the same vein as “stop the world, I want to get off” when it comes to your tumultuous emotions, the lyrics will undoubtedly resonate.

Stop This is due for release on October 8th, 2021. You can check it out for yourselves via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hard rock newcomers Musicismost have made their distortedly electric debut with ‘Pheromone Too’

Posted on 20 January 2021
https://soundcloud.com/armen-levon-225838457/pheromone-too-by-musicismost

While most of us spent the summer of 2020 in enforced sun-and-over-drinking (the lucky ones with gardens, anyway) or locked down indoors, it seems Musicismost were not just forming in Chiswick, West London, but recording this, their first single.

‘Pheromone Too’ is a fast-paced, high energy rock track in the style of the Chilli Peppers, Muse, or Royal Blood, with maybe a little funky Lenny Kravitz vibe thrown in for good measure. It rocks hard, distorted guitars vying with up-front breathy vocals for attention. Releasing your first single all about pheromones – something invisible which can’t be detected but which influence our behaviour – is a pretty bold stroke, but it seems Musicismost can just about pull it off.

Hear ‘Pheromone Too’ on Soundcloud; follow Musicismost on Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes