Six Eight’s title track from their freshly launched Emperors of Pain EP is an unforgiving fuzz-drenched inferno that scorches with unrelenting distortion and snarling, sardonic vocal venom. This alternative rock trio—formed in 2023 and straddling Sweden and the UK stepped into the no-wave arena and ground it underfoot, blending garage rock tones with grunge-soaked abrasion.
Darren Lynch (bass, vocals), Cormac Stokes (drums, vocals), and Pete Uglow (guitar, piano, vocals) are no strangers to capturing visceral chaos. Their first album, World Isn’t Ending, recorded at Brighton’s Third Circle Recordings, was an eclectic storm of reflective piano-driven darkness, Clash-inspired rawness, and Dinosaur Jr-style crunch. On Emperors of Pain, the trio amplifies their sonic ferocity while tethering their sound to personal and political undercurrents.
Rarely content to tread softly, Six Eight revels in jagged hooks and a guttural energy that thrives on dynamism. The five tracks on the EP carve through themes of corruption, lies, and digital despair, tempered only by glimpses of hope rooted in friendship and commitment. On the title track, the band’s feral intensity collides with moments of careful, almost sinister, restraint, proving their ability to twist chaos into something magnetic.
The new revolution in alt-rock begins here. Dive in on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast