STEAK – Steak

Steak’s ‘Acute Mania’ (released via Ripple Music in 2022) presented a brilliant dose of stoner rock. Just as important as sharing some great riffs, the album boasted the kind of production job that made the London based heavyweights sound even heavier. The guitars adopted a tone somewhere between doomy and fuzzy – often making the band’s Kyuss influenced roots more than obvious – and the drums punched through everything with a genuine intent. In stoner terms, it offered the kind of professional sound you’d expect from a major label band a quarter of a century earlier. In short, ‘Acute Mania’ was a contemporary stoner classic.

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QUIZ SHOW – XONO EP

Quiz Show’s 2024 EP release ‘Flotsam’ often played like a musical love letter to the alternative rock boom of the 90s. Taking influences from Superchunk and the earliest, noisier works of Buffalo Tom, and occasionally applying a quietLOUDquiet approach to the arrangements – as per Pixies and Nirvana – it gave fans of the grunge era lots to enjoy in a small package. ‘XONO’ – shared in the Autumn of ’26 – finds the band, founded by Shudder To Think’s Chris Matthews, sticking to what they know. But that’s something they do very well indeed.

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THE SUMMERTIMES – Luminous EP

Back in 2023, The Summertimes released one of the year’s best albums with their self-titled disc. Their follow up release, the ‘Luminous’ EP offers fans (and soon to be fans) more of the same in many ways. Rather than suggesting a lack of imagination, it proves that the Aussie power pop band knows instinctively where their musical strength lies and, as a result, the five songs that make up the short release sit very comfortably alongside the previous LP’s best material.

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Watch: Ruled By Raptors share new video for ‘Rescissory’

On their previous single ‘Algebra (I’m In A Rage)’, British post hardcore band Ruled By Raptors mixed hardcore elements with prog rock time signatures and clean vocals to create a really interesting sound. It was one of those tracks that had such a spark, it more than proved – not that proof were actually needed – that the underground rock and metal scene could still serve up some really inspiring sounds.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #176

This visit to the popular Singles Bar takes in a few newer names representing the worlds of power pop, alt metal, and alternative sounds. There’s also the return of couple of underground talents, and also a really cool comeback single from a name that made waves back in the 90s. With the usual focus on highlighting tracks destined for a cult crowd and a pleasing variety, we hope you find something new to enjoy…

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