Words by Ali Cooper. All photos by Sandra Sorenson. Stone Free Festival promises an incredible weekend of musical appreciation and nostalgia for fun-loving fans who’d rather stay dry for the duration of a festival, based in the towering venue that is London’s O2 Arena. That said, crowds already begin grumbling about extortionate ticket prices before…
Speed demons Collision are back for another devastatingly intense session of ‘Satanic Surgery’. Whether you leave with a thumping headache, boiling blood pressure or a blow to the head from a nearby moshing Goliath, this A&E guarantees injuries. The Dutch clan’s reputation for brief sanity-testing ragers remains firmly intact throughout this fourth studio venture, composed…
Avantasia’s ‘Ghostlights’ still gloriously illuminate the way for rock opera.
January 2016 sees the final curtain call for Aiden, the Seattle institution that injected the ‘00s scene with a deluge of horror punk vitriol and angst-ridden emo anthems. After fourteen years and seven full-length homages to emotional trauma and aggression, the band have called time on an era that forged both pleasure and pain for…
True to its name, Chasing Dragons’ ‘Faction: Prologue EP’ is a fantastic teaser of their talents and a solid promise to leave no stone unturned.
Home is where the heart is, no matter how many Years Young you may be. With a consistently beautiful melodic core swathed in electric reflection, it’s plain to see Lincolnshire alt-rock outfit Years Young are by no means an afterthought – this EP has evidently taken valuable time and dedication, and every note sings its…
Flooded with nostalgia, Aiden’s final exhibition of their indomitable back catalogue embraced London’s Underworld as an old friend that will be sorely missed. Opening Brighton boys City Of Ashes (8) establish a bass-heavy swaying tempo as the crowd cooperatively raises their hands in the air at the effortless command of frontman Orion Powell. With a…
Continuing our look at the great, the good and the albums that just made you want to go “Meh” from last year, the Rock Sins 2015 End Of Year Awards continue with the views of our newest writer and resident fan of all things black (though admittedly on a metal website that’s not saying too…
Ambitious and vivid, Nottingham subgenre-bending quintet The Five Hundred are keen to clock in and muck in. Debut EP ‘Winters’ combines passionate breakdowns with emotion-packed melodic clean vocals, offset neatly by savage screams. Intense from the onset, the title track opener is crammed with soaring solos and tricksy fretwork evident of guitarists Paul and Andy’s…
Slamming the pedal to the floor, rock and roll’s humble country bumpkins Clutch return for an eleventh crack at the whip with ‘Psychic Warfare’. If you’re looking for consistency, Clutch are your guys. They’ve already got 22 years under their belts and not one note of ‘Psychic Warfare’ suggests they’re tiring of it all yet….
Networks’ debut EP lays their defences at the gates, willing to take on the world’s resentment with razor-sharp knuckles, blistered fingers and shredded vocal cords. The melodic metalcore army adds another doom-heralding advocate to its number, in the guise of a Portsmouth quartet hell-bent on plucking the genre straight out of its comfort zone. Establishing…
The bittersweet revelation that this self-titled will be Aiden’s last album looms tentatively over 2015. It’s fitting that the only original member remaining is charismatic frontman Wil Francis, harbouring the energy, dedication and emphatic emotion of the years that have passed since ‘Our Gangs Dark Oath’ graced teenage music collections. ‘Crawling Up From Hell’s opening…
