I usually try to avoid featuring the same bands, single after single, but I’m making an exception here. Fall Out Boy are continuing their, quite frankly, amazing rejuvenation with a bizzare new video for ‘Young Volcanoes’.
The track has an almost calypso beat, playfully floating along and marring hugely with the disturbing imagery. It’s somewhere between a eclectic pop-up dinner and Queens of the Stone Age‘s video for ‘Sick Sick Sick’.
‘We’ve already won’ sings Patrick Stump. Its true, they have. With songs like this, I won’t be the only one welcoming them back with open arms.
Right. So Enter Shikari‘s new video for ‘The Paddington Frisk’ is only 1:24 long. That’s a bit weird. Oh, and it seems to be a Japanese TV show featuring a dinosaur hanging itself. Then the band do some strange kind of macarena dance.
Can’t tell if this is the band poking fun at others in the rock music world for taking themselves too seriously, or if frontman Rou Reynolds just woke up with a really crazy idea and then went for it..
I’d like to say something more in-depth about this, but having watched the video 3 times now, I still have no idea what he’s saying for most of it. Instead, let’s focus on the fact that whilst watching, The Jonas Brothers ‘Pom Poms’ came up as a suggested video. So we should all just remember that there are much, much worse things to listen to out there. Right, I’m done. Enjoy:
It’s a bit of a late one tonight, oops! Guess I’ve been having too much fun this bank holiday weekend..
You’d be forgiven for thinking this next track sounds more than a little bit like Papa Roach’s ‘Scars’, with a bigger dose of anger thrown in. I’m not arguing, but this song gets my approval for the awesome guitar solo. Also the irrelevant snake at the beginning. (Honestly, there’s a reason I’ll never move to the desert!).
Luckily, Escape The Fate don’t seem too phased by the scaly reptiles, or the heat blasting out. Which is surprising seeing as they’re definitely not dressed for it. Anyway, it doesn’t stop them rocking out like the best of them!
Check out the new single ‘You’re Insane’ below. It’s out now..
For those of you who don’t know, Escape The Fate are a five piece metal band hailing from the sands of Las Vegas. Their new album ‘Ungrateful’ is out May 14 and they’ll be touring the USA from mid-April. Uk folks, you can catch them at Download!
So for anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while, you’ll be aware of my undying (and slightly embarrassing) love of Finnish rockers The Rasmus. So I’m always keen to check out what the band members are up to with solo projects and such.
Lead singer Lauri Ylonen‘s first attempt at a solo career seemed pretty good. His first album ‘New World’ was a bit more tech-influenced, carrying an theme of escapism and fantasy through the tracks and videos. It was different, but it was listenable, just as catchy as The Rasmus’ music and fell under the genre of ‘dark electro pop’.
Unfortunately, ‘She’s A Bomb’ isn’t quite the same. It’s still catchy, in a Tiga-esque way (repetitive words instead of the lyrical stories that I would’ve expected). The video though, which I’ve decided not to include just to keep this blog PG13 is downright weird. It feels like a joke that I’m not a part of. Maybe a take on society, but its not poignant enough to make any kind of statement.
I’m quite disappointed by this. I’ve stuck by this band through the bottling at Reading, the several-years-long absence from the UK, even finding out about the slightly bizarre fashion choices of their youth. This though, will be one piece of music that I don’t think I’ll be buying.
A confession: I always judge bands by their name. Then I judge them by the genre they categorise themselves by. Things like ‘pop punk, indie rock, metal’ are pretty acceptable, weird abstract concepts a bit less, unless the music really does sound like Bon Jovi riding an atom bomb through space. I don’t know if anyone’s used that term yet, but if not please feel free. You don’t have to credit me, just make your music representative of it.
Listening to Inherit The Stars, I read the tags as ‘alternative metal pop rock sci-fi screamo UK’. Can’t say I’ve heard pop yet, but I’d like to throw electro into that mix. Not quite in an Enter Shikari, dub-step kind of way. More of a scream-heavy chords-quick disco-back to screaming kind of way. It sounds like the soundtrack to a shooting game, set on a spaceship in the distant future. Its quite refreshingly different.
The Sheffield 3-piece are planning their debut album release (untitled as far as I can tell) this May. For now, listen to the below and go check them out on facebook.com/inheritthestarsofficial
Well after the storming ‘Shadow Moses’ video was released a few weeks ago, I’ve been eagerly awaiting more from Bring Me The Horizon‘s new album ‘Sempiternal’, out April 1. Just to show that the last single wasn’t a fluke, they’ve now released the equally chilling ‘Sleepwalking’.
The video is shot in the snow again, raising the question: did they shoot them all on one snowy day? Anyway, its pretty eerie and features the standard ghostly looking girl wandering about while the band perform to disinterested locals in a community centre-esque bar. Oh, and there’s some random shots of barbie dolls.
Track is awesome though.
You can pre-order Sempiternal from the band’s store here.
So I don’t really listen to a lot of heavy metal, let’s be honest. I do, however, try to listen to everything that gets sent to my inbox (time constraints allowing). So when I got sent this, I switched the speakers on high and gave it a whirl. Its, suprisingly, really good. And this is coming from someone who normally turns the song off if it gets to the chorus and there’s still no actual singing.
Enough about me, Collapse are a heavy metal 5-piece hailing from London town. They’ve clearly done their time touring the mini-venue circuit (because no-one gets that good without doing it) and have picked up some good press in Metal Hammer lately.
Their debut album ‘Arms and the Covenant’ is due out April 1. Get your ear drums ready and rock out with the below:
Just as I was wishing for more sleazy, female fronted rock’n’roll, I came across the awesome Deap Vally.
The duo (Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards) bizarely met at a needlework class in Silver Lake, California and have been making blues-tinged rock ever since. Its hard to write about an all-woman band without crying ‘feminism’, but I don’t think its misplaced with tracks like ‘Make My Own Money’ and cited influences being Thelma and Louise.
Behind the oozing rock’n’roll though, there’s real talent. Listen to songs like ‘I Put a Spell on You’ and you can hear the raw emotion behind the lyrics, combined with some pretty decent guitar playing. Think Jack White with more sex appeal (debatable).
Hey you! Yes you! Like a bit of melodic-hardcore? Then stop what you’re doing and listen to this..
Napoleon are a 4-piece unsigned hardcore rock band from Exeter. Unfortunately, vague youtube comments tell me their singer is leaving, but hopefully that won’t stop them from being awesome tunes like this to the public!
Note to anyone thinking of forming a band: Pick a name that’s easy to search for.
Apparently no-one mentioned this to North London’s Scholars. Lucky for them then, they managed to grab the most obvious Facebook page name: https://www.facebook.com/scholars (I’m linking this now, because if you search for them on there, you’ll find nothing).
The 5-piece have been paying their dues for the last six years, working hard at honing their sound and live performance. The effort has clearly paid off as they’ve landed some impressive support slots, touring with the likes of Pure Love, Twin Atlantic and Canterbury.
A quick rummage around their YouTube channel produces a few gems too.. Drifting between The Bravery style indie rock, breezy pop-punk ‘Tornadoes’ and the more post-hardcore influenced new single ‘Black and Blue’:
You can catch Scholars on tour in the UK this March, or at Camden Barfly on April 10th for their debut album launch show. ‘Black and Blue’ is out on April 1st, with the album ‘Always Lead, Never Follow’ out on April 8th. For more info, check their Facebook page here.
The Rock Chic 