Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. For lovers of acoustic sounds, there’s a real treat to kick off this week’s batch. You’ll also find a decent slice of metal, a dark themed cover tune, a cool guitar based instrumental and more. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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A new name for 2024, SoftSun are a doom-laden shoegaze/desert rock trio featuring a few familiar faces. Guitarist Gary Arce will be known to some as a member of both Yawning Man and Yawning Balch; vocalist Pia Isaksen is a member of Superlynx, and Dan Joeright is the drummer with Earth Moon Earth. Between them, they’ve created something that sounds different enough from their parent acts to make SoftSun an immediately effective side hustle.
Since forming in 2021, Brighton band The Rattlebacks have worked incredibly hard to mark their place within the rock underground. Their debut EP ‘Kink’ shared a sound that mixed classic hard rock riffs with a pinch of melodic metal and grunginess to create something very broad but appealing. The release gained enthusiastic press from a few independent outlets, but as good as it was, it left the feeling that, in time, the band would unleash something much stronger. Continue reading
A new arrival on the metal scene in 2023, Bath based HollowKin have a sound that doesn’t pull any punches. They’re an impressively heavy unit, but unlike some of their would-be peers, they’re not just content with exploring a perfect metalcore sound, or driving forth with a world of thrash riffs which pay homage to their heroes and influences. The five tracks which make up their 2024 debut draw from a broad array of metallic fare, taking in intensive prog metal, groove metal and a pinch of doom and hardcore, along with a whole world of metalcore, creating something that’s sometimes familiar, but always without compromise.
In 2022, British metal act Skye released their ‘Foundations’ EP, which shared three contemporary sounding tracks, blending a pleasingly heavy tone with a melodic core that advertised them as the kind of band who’d have a crossover appeal.