Throughout 2025, Brighton’s The Rockerati propped up the British rock underground with a couple of enjoyable singles and an EP, all of which captured a pleasingly natural, analogue inspired sound. Favouring energy over originality, volume over finesse, the band’s finest tracks played with a nostalgic bent, but at the same time, never showed The Rockerati’s approach to be in any way tired.
Blending elements of groove metal and melodic hardcore, with influences from Machine Head and Sevendust, Irish band Asylum Road delivered some absolutely massive riffs on their brilliant EP ‘The Fear’ in 2024. A couple of the vocals might have split opinion with their genuinely abrasive approach, but from a musical standpoint – and looking at the material in terms of tightly played, classic metal, without sounding at all dated – the release was first rate.
Towards the end of 2025, metalcore band Ocean Planet shared a brilliantly heavy track ‘Devastate’.By coupling a lot of pneumatic rhythms with a few guitar sounds that leaned further into an old school vibe, the recording took as many cues from the prog metal of bands like Symphony X as the tougher edges of the likes of Killswitch Engage. Whatever label you’d care to pin on their work, however, the recording made it very clear that Ocean Planet meant business, and would be an act to watch out for in 2026.
As far as many people in the UK are concerned, John Mellencamp burst onto the music scene in 1982 with his radio hit ‘Jack & Diane’, but by the time that was loved by the masses and its parent album ‘American Fool’ was a success on both sides of the Atlantic, Bloomington’s most famous export had been building a career for several years. Previous albums ‘John Cougar’ (1979) and ‘Nothing Matters & What If It Did’ had seen some success stateside, but Mellencamp’s musical roots actually stretch back even further. In the mid 70s, he signed with the management company Mainman (a company who had David Bowie and Mick Ronson on their books) and recorded three albums’ worth of material in a very short period that, over the years, has been somewhat overlooked.
With new tracks from a couple of the indie scene’s UK/Irish leading lights and a Bristol based guitar driven band who’ve already attained cult status, this visit to the Singles Bar feels rather weighted towards jangly material and swirly shoegaze sounds, but with a very retro sounding track that fuses blues rock with prog flourishes and a dreamy number from a French singer-songwriter, there’s a sharp contrast too, helping to keep the usual love of shining a light upon the most cult of artists. Bolstered by an unexpected reissue from the 80s and a lo-fi workout that could split opinion, it’s certainly an interesting selection this time around. As always, of course, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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