Reviews

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Avril Lavigne- The Best Damn Thing

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  12th January 2020
Given the fact that Lavigne has almost completely disappeared from the zeitgeist of popular music, I am becoming more nervous the further I get into this deep dive. I’m constantly...
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Retrospective Review: Avril Lavigne- Under My Skin

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  29th November 2019
Despite have previously enjoyed Avril Lavigne’s debut, I was still apprehensive going into Under My Skin. Without big name songs like Sk8er Boi or Complicated in the track listing, I...
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Slayer- The Repentless Killogy

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  16th November 2019
Upon Slayer announcing that they are on their final world tour, I was left with mixed emotions. They have, and always will be, one of the greats of heavy metal,...
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Retrospective Review: Avril Lavigne- Let Go

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  8th November 2019
Given that pop-rock megastar Avril Lavigne is returning to the UK in April 2020 for a few shows, I’ve decided to dive into her back catalogue and give my thoughts...
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Alcest- Spiritual Instinct

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  25th October 2019
The French metal scene has been dominated, in recent years, by Gojira and Betraying The Martyrs in the mainstream. However, in more underground circles, Alcest have been beloved pioneers for...
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Life Of Agony- The Sound Of Scars

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  14th October 2019
Life Of Agony have always been a bit of a cult band. Having come up in the 90s New York scene, they gathered acclaim for their debut album, River Runs...
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Municipal Waste- The Last Rager

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  8th October 2019
During the 2000s thrash revival, Municipal Waste made a name for themselves as being the fun, party band as opposed to straight-laced, super serious style adopted by the countless other...
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SeeYouSpaceCowboy- The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  27th September 2019
Since last year’s Songs for the Firing Squad, SeeYouSpaceCowboy have attracted a lot of positive attention from fans of mathy hardcore. In a year where we’ve had a new Employed...
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Nervus- Tough Crowd

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  19th September 2019
Since their arrival on the scene in 2016 with their debut album, Permanent Rainbow, Nervus have cultivated a small but dedicated fan base. Their bright indie-punk with lyrics that seemed...
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Placeholder- Despise Me

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  5th August 2019
For all the conceptions of hardcore as a collection of hyper masculine guys shouting down microphones, telling you how to live your life, and playing pretty basic music, the current...
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Rotten Hate- Stabbing The Masses

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  28th July 2019
Death metal and crust punk are often cited as the two key ingredients in the make up of grindcore. As such, when a band is described as death/crust the question...
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Matt Finucane- Vanishing Island

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  13th July 2019
Being unique in the modern music scene is hard with the over-saturation that occurs on the internet. As soon as an artist does something innovative and new it can be...
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Torchbearer- Against The Tide

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  8th July 2019
When reviewing music, it is inevitable that, at some point, a PR company will send you an album pitched as “for fans of X, Y and Z bands” or “where...
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Phoxjaw- A Playground For Sad Adults

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  28th June 2019
Phoxjaw have grabbed my attention in recent times for support slots with some of the great bands in the more expansive parts of the rock scene, most excitingly (though also...
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Friendship- Undercurrent

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  20th June 2019
In recent years there has been a lot of discussion around the rising scene of heavy hardcore, with the likes of Code Orange, Harm’s Way and Knocked Loose leading the...
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Words That Burn- Pyres

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  24th May 2019
Since Architects have become one of the most beloved bands in the UK with their techy take on metalcore, it’s no surprise that other bands have gone on to take...
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Next Year- Waterfalls EP

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  9th May 2019
Five years ago I would have discarded any highly polished pop-punk release as a cynical cash grab. Over the intervening years as my music taste has expended and the zeitgeist...
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The Parasitic Twins, The Carnival Rejects- The Parasitic Rejects EP

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  8th May 2019
The Parasitic Twins pedal sludge: a genre that combines the unlikely bedfellows of hardcore punk and doom metal. It’s slow, low end riffing and aggressive screamed vocals really inject intensity...
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The Godfathers of Hardcore- Directed by Ian McFarland

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  26th April 2019
Good documentaries should be engaging and enjoyable even if the viewer is not familiar with the subject in the first place. The Godfathers of Hardcore focuses on the two core...
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2019-50 Years of Metal

By  Stephanie Ingram  /  14th April 2019
Death Blooms- You Are Filth If an insane amount of live energy and an un-relentingly aggressive vocal performance is what you are after, then look no further than Death Blooms....
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2018- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  13th April 2019
Alien Weaponry – Tū Words by David Steed Every now and again a band comes along with an idea that is so good it makes you wonder why no one...
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2017- 50 Years Of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  12th April 2019
Code Orange- Forever Words by Matthew Brooks When Forever came out it took the rock world by storm, Code Orange were- and still are- massively hyped up by the press...
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2016- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  11th April 2019
Dissociation- The Dillinger Escape Plan Words by Matthew Brooks Dissociation is TDEP's final album. It would be easy to read into this when analysing the lyrics on this album, but...
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2011- 50 Years Of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  7th April 2019
Suicide Silence- The Black Crown Words by Matthew Brooks Deathcore is often maligned by more traditionally minded extreme metal fans, and it can be easy to see why when looking...
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2010- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  5th April 2019
As our celebration of metal moves into its last decade it's harder to identify bands and albums with long lasting impact, so we're focusing on great albums and up and...
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2007- 50 Years Of Metal

By  Stephanie Ingram  /  2nd April 2019
Machine Head- The Blackening     The Blackening is an album that I know inside out. But every time I hear it I’m blown away by how brilliant it is....
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2001-50 Years Of Metal

By  Stephanie Ingram  /  26th March 2019
American Head Charge- The Art Of War     This album was released in 2001.The album's name was influenced by a Chinese book called 'The Art Of War' and was...
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1992- 50 Years Of Metal

By  Stephanie Ingram  /  19th March 2019
Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated     Courting controversy the world over with their graphic cover art and explicit lyrical content, cynics may attribute Cannibal Corpse's ascent to...
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1987-50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  13th March 2019
1987 In 1987, one of the first bands of the grunge movement, Alice In Chains, formed. Their contemporaries would eventually end up killing off glam metal in the eyes of...
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1986- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  12th March 2019
Any metal fan will tell you how important 1986 was in the history of heavy metal. Megadeth continued to assert themselves with Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, Metallica cemented themselves...
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1977- 50 Years Of Metal

By  Stephanie Ingram  /  3rd March 2019
The Runaways-Queen's Of Noise Queen's Of Noise was recorded in 1976 in Santa Monica Ca at Brother's Studio's and later released in 1977.With member's Cherie Currie,Joan Jet,Lita Ford,Jackie Fox and...
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1975- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  1st March 2019
The year the Vietnam War ended, and Charlie Chaplin was knighted. Iron Maiden and Motorhead formed. We saw releases from Kiss, Rush, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, but in the...
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1973- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  27th February 2019
’73 was a landmark year for heavy metal. It was the year that Rob Halford joined Judas Priest, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes replaced departing members Ian Gillan and Roger...
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Bury the Traitor- Ascend To Clarity

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  13th February 2019
It is strange that since the metalcore boom in the mid to late noughties, and its eventual decay, no other subgenre has stepped forward to lay claim to its throne....
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Cancer Bats, Bleed From Within, Underside at Rescue Rooms Nottingham, 05.02.19

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  6th February 2019
Cancer Bats were one of the first hardcore bands I ever got into, and their first four albums I consider some of the best hardcore albums of the twenty first...
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Parkway Drive, Nottingham Motorpoint Arena Review 31.01.19

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  2nd February 2019
It’s no secret that Parkway Drive have been eying larger stages with their last two releases- Ire and Reverence. Often heavy bands fail to appropriately adapt their song writing to...
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Ithaca- The Language Of Injury

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  29th January 2019
When listening to certain genres of music it is easy to have certain expectations and preferences of that music. For example, if one is listening to a mathcore band one...
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Masiro- Geodesics

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  28th September 2018
When progressive music is at it’s very best, it explores interesting textural, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic ideas, while managing to string it all together into a cohesive journey. This can...
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Heavy Music Awards 2018 Review and Round Up 23/08/18

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  25th August 2018
The nominations for tonight’s awards are amazing, a thorough inspection of which you can find here, and a true show of how strong heavy music is right now. While the...
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Jesus Piece- Only Self

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  18th August 2018
Hardcore is in a great place world wide at the moment. Experimentalism is being fully embraced by both bands and fans, whether it’s the integration of industrial elements by bands...
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Bury Tomorrow- Black Flame

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  22nd July 2018
Metalcore continues to be a massively oversaturated scene. Most of the “big four” (Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Trivium and Killswitch Engage) of the genre have moved away from...
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Witchingseason- Melancholy Disco

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  18th July 2018
Having broken onto the scene last year and gaining a lot of mainstream attention, Witchingseason have returned with brand new single, Melancholy Disco. A laid back, rumbling alt. rock jam...
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DevilDriver- Outlaws ‘Til The End Vol. 1

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  15th July 2018
Coming together after the breakup of vocalist Dez Fafara’s previous band, Nu Metal merchants Coal Chamber, DevilDriver delivered tight, groovy melodic death metal. Following the excellent album Pray For Villains,...
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Zeal & Ardor- Stranger Fruit

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  3rd June 2018
When Zeal & Ardor re-released the astonishing Devil Is Fine last year, the band started garnering a huge amount of positive attention. The intriguing combination of blues, soul and gospel...
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Palm Reader at Bodega 27/04/2018

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  28th April 2018
Following the release of the brilliant Braille, Palm Reader’s album release show is a showcase of exciting, British heavy music. Booking the much-discussed Conjurer as main support was a brilliant...
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Anthrax- Kings Among Scotland

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  27th April 2018
Among The Living is surely an all-time thrash metal classic, and what better way to have celebrated its thirtieth anniversary than by playing the album in full. Thankfully for those...
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Code Orange Live Review 15/04/2018

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  17th April 2018
Tonight’s bill at Rescue Rooms is one of the most exciting in the world of hardcore. Code Orange are the most exciting hardcore band in the world right now, and...
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Bleed From Within- Era

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  3rd April 2018
In recent years the British rock scene has been in fabulous health. Whether it’s veterans Judas Priest releasing the astonishing Firepower or Employed To Serve cementing themselves as the best...
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Cove – A Conscious Motion

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  23rd March 2018
When researching this EP, I discovered that Cove are a band that received a fair amount of hype in 2016. This set some alarm bells ringing for me. 2016 was...
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Twitching Tongues- Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  4th March 2018
I was not very aware of Twitching Tongues when coming into this review. My knowledge only really encompassed the fact that they are going on tour with Hatebreed later this...
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LIFETIGHT- Self-Tightled

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  23rd February 2018
LIFETIGHT are a band bringing genuine, authentic metalcore in the classic sense of the word. It may be what some now refer to as metallic hardcore to separate it from...
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Higher Power- Soul Structure

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  16th February 2018
Leeds hardcore band, Higher Power, have had a lot of buzz behind them recently, especially following the high profile opening slot on the recent Every Time I Die/Comeback Kid tour....
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Harakiri For The Sky- Arson

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  14th February 2018
This review is going to veer away from my normal style. I am, as a general rule, a fan of black metal in the same way I’m a fan of...
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Harm’s Way- Posthuman

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  8th February 2018
In 2016 Venom Prison took the death metal world by storm with their excellent debut Animus. They demonstrated that death metal and hardcore can be combined in such a way...
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Machine Head- Catharsis

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  21st January 2018
Machine Head are probably the band we take most for granted in modern metal. With six stone cold classics under their belt and another two albums that are at least...
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Black Emerald- Hell Can’t Handle All of Us

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  16th January 2018
Before I begin this review for the sake of disclosure I would like to inform all readers that I have met all the members of Black Emerald and they helped...
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Avatar-Avatar Country Review

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  8th December 2017
Avatar have established themselves as having an explosive live show, full of charisma and camp showmanship. However, on record all charisma and camp is stripped away and only the music...
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Sect- No Cure For Death review

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  18th November 2017
Among the many bands that called it a day in 2017, Trap Them announcing they’d no long produce music is one of the most painful losses to the landscape of...
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Trivium- The Sin and The Sentence

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  1st November 2017
Of the big four of metalcore, Trivium never achieved the consistency of Killswitch Engage or Avenged Sevenfold, not to say that those bands don’t have some subpar albums. However, that...
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Kobaloi- For Nothing We Follow

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  30th October 2017
Kobaloi are a band that straddle the line between thrash and death metal. Other classic bands have also used this styling, including Possessed and early Kreator, so Kobaloi have put...

Blog

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The Menzingers Announce New Album and Tour, and Release New Single

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  15th July 2019
Philadelphia-based punk band, The Menzingers will release their sixth studio record 'Hello Exile' on October 04 via Epitaph. The album arrives as the follow-up to the band’s 2017 critically acclaimed release 'After The Party', which debuted...
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Conclusion- 50 Years Of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  25th April 2019
It's been nearly two weeks since our daily discussion of each year in the history of metal ended and nearly a week since we had a live celebration of this...
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Layne Staley: A Tribute- 50 Years of Metal

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  24th March 2019
Image Credit Alfredo Pangue   By the time I discovered the music of Alice in Chains I was just about ready to give up on grunge. As I grew up...
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50 Years Of Heavy Metal: Introduction

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  23rd February 2019
In 1969, a group of four young musicians in Birmingham were feeling disconnected from the hippy dream. Tony Iommi, Terrance “Geezer” Butler, John “Ozzy” Osbourne and Bill Ward ended up...
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Midlands Metalheads Albums of 2018

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  24th December 2018
2018 has been an incredible year for rock music- legends have released astounding albums, bands that never got the attention they deserved made astounding comebacks and new bands across the...
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Heavy Music Awards 2018 Picks And Predictions

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  21st August 2018
Following another great year for heavy music, it only makes sense that someone recognise the very best bands, artist and others working around the music we love so much. Thankfully...
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2018 – 10 of the best albums so far

By  David Steed  /  20th July 2018
There is no arguing the fact that 2018 has been spoiling us rock fans absolutely rotten. There has been no shortage of releases from across the musical spectrum, whether that...
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Download’s Impact On The World Of Rock: A Brief Overview

By  Matthew_Brooks  /  14th May 2018
Download is unarguably the definitive rock festival of the British summer, and is one of few festivals that can be mentioned in the same breath as Wacken and Hellfest in...