Browsing Tag

UK Rock

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

‘BROKEN’ is Triggered Velocity Turning Post-Grunge Grief into a Scarred Juggernaut of an Earworm

Posted on 22 June 2026
Triggered Velocity

Triggered Velocity feel born for Seattle’s 90s grunge pantheon alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, yet their post-grunge masterpiece, BROKEN, comes raging out of Norfolk, UK, with its own bruised, rain-blackened authority.

The way the vocals move through the murky, turbulent waters, carrying echoes of unplaced familiarity, gives the distinction in the evocatively melodised notes a raw sense of magnetism. Bruising and broadsiding in equal measure, the quivering grief over how life feels like a losing battle more so than death makes BROKEN a vignette of bouncing between the cold, harsh reality of existing in a world that is as punishing as your mind.

Imagine the rage of Nirvana fuelling the emotive capacity of Placebo and meeting the sludgy cinematic unravelling of Soundgarden, and you will come close to envisioning what Triggered Velocity slam into the airwaves with this scarred juggernaut of an earworm.

Formed in 2018, the five-piece have earned their reputation through sweat-soaked rooms, thick basslines, 90s-fuelled riffs and lyrics that land close to the bone. Winners of The Brickmakers Battle of the Bands 2024, they channel that live force into their self-titled debut album with total conviction, turning volume into emotional evidence and distortion into survival language for anyone still standing.

BROKEN is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Unsuited’s Eponymous Post-Hiatus Debut is What Rock Veterans Kicking Down the Doors and Reclaiming the Airwaves Should Sound Like

Posted on 28 May 2026

Stone Roses-esque basslines, the arcane darkness of Sisters of Mercy reverberating through the harbingering vocals, the cutting angular guitars of Arcade Fire, and renegade-level overdriven amplification root Unsuited firmly in the pantheon of prodigal sons of rock. The eponymous comeback single from The Unsuited spellbinds the way post-punk-leaning rock only can, giving guitar music back its former serrated conviction.

Through anthemic choruses that give full permission to unapologetically relinquish yourself into 80s rock nostalgia, Unsuited carries the visceral power of Alice Cooper’s Poison while giving the legacy of eclectic indie styles a chance to thrive on the airwaves once more. The riffs swell and lift with stage-tested authority, the hooks are razor-sharp, and the whole release feels engineered by musicians who understand sweat, setbacks, and studios.

With Iain Stew Brownlie, Howard Moth, Stu Englefield, Jo Line, and Tim Dorney, whose Republica and Flowered Up history brings serious pedigree and a sense of swagger that can be assimilated but rarely authentically alchemised by bands only arriving on the scene today. The five-piece of 50-year-old spits in the face of ageism in music and the way the industry has so eagerly, with its capitalistic hunger, devoured AI music.

In all honesty, I rarely think AI could fail so completely at replication, yet it has no chance at mimicking anything in the authentically ingenious, evocatively hard-wired signature of The Unsuited.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Virginmarys – White Knuckle Riding (Alt Version): Neo-Classical Indie Post-Rock Anti-Gospel

Posted on 7 May 2026

Inhibition has never been a part of the Virginmarys’ sound, but with the release of the alternative version of White Knuckle Riding, a fan favourite from their last LP, The House Beyond the Fires, they stripped themselves bare of amplification, taking listeners back to the urgency behind the agonising lyricism.

The opening piano sequence flows in the same vein as a sombre accompaniment to a pious procession before Ally’s vocals are exhibited at their most ethereal to date, blurring into the reverb and illuminating the single that stands as a testament to the duo’s self-produced sound. It doesn’t take long before you’re sure you’re going to feel bruises crawling up your heartstrings after hitting play. After you have felt the first sonic spectres of melodic morosity creep around you, you’ll still be broadsided by the disarmingly affecting vocal inflections in the first verse as they pour like a desperate plea from inside a Catholic confession box.

The ornately celestial piano-driven release lashes out against genre constraints as much as it asserts anger in the face of the insistence of existential suffering, forced upon the too self-aware, who are destined to ruminate in the obscure expectation to be happy in the true emptiness of reality. There are neo-classical shades drawn around nuances of post-rock, perfected with a Pixies-esque iridescent buzzsaw riff to close out the triumphant chameleonic shift.  Without the Zeus-esque drums, the elasticity of the tensile howls, and the swagger-driven breakdowns that feel like getting caught in a rockslide of riffs and cacophonically cadenced percussion, nothing that the Virginmarys have become synonymous with is lost.

When bands switch up their sound, it’s natural for the core of what they were previously perceived to be to become distorted, but the rework of White Knuckle Riding proves that the crux of the Virginmarys (and the reason they’re practically radiating with reverence through the rock community these days) has always been their raw augmented purges of emotion that are too visceral to keep caged inside the mind. Behind the razor-sharp songwriting chops and anthemic dualistic synergy which sparks between Ally Dickaty (Vocals, Guitars, Songwriter, Producer) and Danny Dolan (Drums, Visual Architect) on stage and on record is the real reason why they have so much international crossover appeal as an independent duo operating out of Macclesfield, UK.

Every new progression in White Knuckle Riding seems to make a new cut and tear through some metaphysical space within you as you’re forced to confront the existential harrow of a mind too disillusioned to find any form of sanctuary, setting the tone for the upcoming Beyond the House of Fires LP, which is now available on pre-order.

Stream the official music video on YouTube.

Vote for the Virginmarys to become this week’s Classic Rock Track of the Week: Voting closes at 11 PM, May 10th.

Head to the Virginmarys’ official website to pre-order the Beyond the Houe of Fires LP, book tickets to their 2026 tour dates, and to link up with them on all major social and streaming platforms.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hard Rock Heavy Hitters, Forever Vendetta, Fired Smoking Gun Resilience into ‘Not Dead Yet’

Posted on 4 May 2026

The South Wales quartet, Forever Vendetta, is a diamond in the hard rock rough, taking after the hardest substance known to man, glinting as an unreckonable spectacle in the UK alternative circuit. In their latest single and music video, Not Dead Yet, the riff-propulsed masters of visceralism laid down percussion that would give you whiplash if you attempted to follow; the juggernaut of a salaciously serpentine anthem is a dizzying rabbit hole of hypersonic adrenaline, cut through by the searing synthesis of spite and fortitude the lyrics are forged from.

If you’ve ever been counted as down and out, Not Dead Yet is a reckoning worth partaking in; it’s a fresh wave of resilience shot from a smoking gun; a Velvet Revolver, if you will. The instrumentals are tighter than a straitjacket under the helm of the vocals; you can almost hear the airwaves tremble under their command.

There is a loud, no-frills ferocity to the track that speaks volumes of a band that knows exactly how to make impact feel physical, while the hook-driven charge keeps the single surging forward with bruised knuckle determination.

Since forming in 2008, Forever Vendetta have built their reputation in South Wales and beyond by sharing stages with established heavyweights and doing things on their own terms. Following their self-produced debut album New Day Rising, Not Dead Yet lands in 2026 as an uncompromising return fired by attitude, energy, and a refusal to be written off.

Not Dead Yet is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

ARCHAEA scorched the proverbial leeches in their standout hard-rock hit, Parasite,

Posted on 14 February 2026

When ARCHAEA unleashed Parasite, the hit from their Burn EP, it felt like being dropped into a live wire. The hooks are overdriven to the nines, throwing off the kind of heat that leaves you wondering if you’re feeling electricity or volatility. The way they blur the lines between hard rock, grunge and pop punk feels like they’ve found a pressure point in the genre and pressed until it throbbed with something timeless for anyone who has knelt at the rock altar and grown tired of tending to leeches.

The full band flex comes through in the way each instrumental steals its moment, whether it’s the swagger in the riffs, the rhythm that feels strangely aphrodisiacal, or the intricately breath-stealing bursts that hit without telegraphing themselves. Their technical chops cut exactly where they mean to, and the centre of it all sits a voice that feels ready to tear its way out of the underground entirely. The vocals tease the eruption of the choruses in a way that feels oddly intimate, far more charged than most Tinder dates.

ARCHAEA formed in Liverpool in 2021 when the world felt like it was grinding its teeth, and they channelled that collective tension into a heavy, volatile sound shaped by the influence of Metallica, the alt leanings of Stone Sour, and the melodic intoxication of Avenged Sevenfold. Fronted by Dave Morgan, with Lewis Crosby and Alex Harris on guitars, Peter Mansfield holding down the low end, and Cal Deaves behind the kit, they’ve already turned heads across the Northwest with their live shows. They’ve got a sound strong enough to dissolve the Manchester vs Liverpool rivalry; can I pay them more of a compliment than that?

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

SHADOW AND LACE turned global anxiety into synthy blues rock humanism in ‘Nowhere to Run’

Posted on 15 January 2026

SHADOW AND LACE laid down their soul and warning signs alike in Nowhere to Run, a slow-burning symphonic rock requiem for our scorched Earth. With a sound that lets the synths of Grandaddy brush shoulders with the hazy spirituality of Fleetwood Mac, the track is a poetic reckoning set to blues-rock strings and storm-chased harmonies.

Rather than preaching or pandering, Nowhere to Run opens a space for contemplation. There’s an almost sermonic current in the lyricism, yet the tone remains light-touch and human. The arrangement leans into its own introspection, with playful synth lines softening the blow of the heavier truths. In a world where the elements have begun fighting back, thunder doesn’t just appear in the lyrics; it breaks through in the production itself, coiling around the harmonies and striking in time with the beat. The dual vocals act like mirrored soliloquies, each echoing the other in tender despair, refusing to romanticise the warning signs that sparked the track into existence.

Written in response to the worsening climate crisis, the track leaves no doubt about where Shadow and Lace stand. It’s not a song built to soothe, but it’s not designed to burden either. It lets the listener sit with the unease and rise through it, gently reminding us that facing the chaos doesn’t mean surrendering to it.

Nowhere to Run is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Benjy’ Dances Between Satire and Stardust in Rex on Demand’s Seminal Single from ‘The Angel Sessions’

Posted on 20 September 2025

Take the experimentalism of Grandaddy, fuse it with cosmic rock reverence, and you’ve got the eccentric sublimity of the standout single, Benjy, from Rex on Demand’s latest release, The Angel Sessions. The celestially synthesised and scuzzy release veers straight towards uncharted territory with its nuanced social dissection that, rather than launching an all-out attack, delivers a narrative which leaves the vitriol between the lines, offering vindication for anyone who can already see where we are and how we got here. While drinking in delicious synth rock grooves, listeners can find their rhythm in the chaos of modernity.

Based in London, Rex on Demand has been steeped in music since his school handed him a cello at six, which he played through to grade eight before expanding his sonic vocabulary at university. You can feel the years of musicianship in the intimacy that belies the polished production here, and in the satirical edge that makes Benjy bite just enough without losing its sweetness.

The nods to new-wave and the belt-out sensibilities of Springsteen are there, but Rex on Demand keeps his lens firmly fixed on the present, building worlds where the retro glimmers illuminate the dystopian present.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gloria Tore Through Hard Rock Anatomy with Dark Prog-Rock Anthem ‘CATACLYSM’

Posted on 19 September 2025
Gloria

The airwaves will need to brace themselves for impact on September 19th when Gloria release CATACLYSM, a meteoric rock juggernaut that toys with the anatomy of a hard rock anthem while tearing into darker terrain with distorted prog-rock flourishes. The conspiracy theorists might say Ozzy passed his Prince of Darkness crown to Yungblud, but after hearing CATACLYSM, Gloria sound far more deserving of a throne in the seven-ringed pantheon.

What makes CATACLYSM a reckoning is the way Gloria alchemise scuzzy 80s undertones into a track fit for contemporary unrest. The riffs aren’t just designed to rattle heads, they carry a cerebral edge, finding fresh pathways through breakdowns that refuse to follow convention. It’s as though the Seattle sound has been pulled through the fire and given a baptism in something far more sinister.

Gloria, a five-piece from the North West of England, has built a reputation for reinvention with their chameleonic approach to rock. CATACLYSM solidifies their talent for harnessing heavy nostalgia while dragging it into a modern framework that feels reverently destructive. It’s unholy in all the ways you’d want prodigal sons of rock to be.

CATACLYSM is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Things Beyond Things Let the Venom Flow and the Rhythm Reign in Alt-Metal Sleaze Anthem, ‘Bask in Disaster’

Posted on 10 August 2025
This Keeps Me Sane (Deluxe) by Things Beyond Things

Through a rampaging rhythm section that brings the hammer down with every gnarled nu-metal meets Sunset Strip sleaze rock note, Things Beyond Things unleash pure force in Bask in Disaster. Searing, hypersonically hot guitars tear through the mix while a salaciously slick serpentine tongue spits lyrical venom, proving how effortlessly they set themselves apart from the posturing performers who throw on their alternative costume at the weekend and pick up their Les Paul. This is a dark triumph of a track, one that harks back to the thematic aesthetic of Wednesday 13 while vocally finding the middle ground between Avenged Sevenfold and Buckcherry.

Bask in Disaster is the kind of nihilistic anthem that could explode on TikTok while still finding favour with the high-brow of rock and metal purists who reserve their loyalty for the pioneers.

Formed in late 2024 by Martyn Storey of The Unruly and Audio Shadows, Things Beyond Things is a one-man modern rock project built from a love for all sub-genres of the form. Based in the Midlands, Storey takes full control, from songwriting and instrumentation to recording and production, injecting contemporary blood into the veins of his sound.

Bask in Disaster is now available on all major streaming platforms – including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast