When a band opens their album with a track that clocks in at nearly half an hour, you know they aren’t messing around. When it happens to be the first release by an unfamiliar name, you have to wonder if the musicians involved aren’t contemplating career suicide. That said, ‘Chromosphere’ – the huge sound collage that opens the debut album from sonic experimentalists Droni Eye Omi – is absolutely superb.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
Watch: Silver Dollar Room share new video for ‘Monsters’
Barely six weeks after the release of ‘Come Morning’, Scotland’s Silver Dollar Room have returned with the immensely powerful ‘Monsters’, a riff heavy number that really shows off their alt-rock sound in the most direct way possible.
The track’s opening rhythm guitar salvo calls back to 90s emo with strong echoes of Shift within the tone. This catches the ear with immediate effect, suggesting that this could be one of the band’s biggest sounding tunes to date. From there, though, ‘Monsters’ grows into something huge; a tune that moves between a few very distinctly different musical passages, eventually peaking with an epic instrumental break, showcasing the band’s heaviest sounds to date.
PERPETUAL PARADOX – Deathwish
Born during the “lockdown era”, London’s Perpetual Paradox are a band who instinctively know their way around a heavy riff. Blending metalcore, prog metal, groove metal and thrash, their core sound lurches between different styles of extreme heaviness – often within the same song – but as demonstrated throughout ‘Deathwish’, the first Perpetual Paradox full length, following a couple of EP releases, their complex sound really works for them. The musicians are insanely tight players; so tight that it doesn’t really matter that there are points where the listener might find themselves playing “spot the influence”. The end results are rarely less than stunning.
CHARLIE NIELAND – The Ocean Understands EP
He might not be a genuine household name, but Charlie Nieland has had a busy career. He’s written material with Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters and Blondie, and produced a number of albums for some lesser known indie rock bands, but – familiar name or not – one look at his extensive credits on Discogs shows him to be a man in demand.
‘The Ocean Understands’, a four track EP released in June 2025, puts Nieland even more in the spotlight. The solo recording finds him playing a variety of instruments (everything except the drums, and a featured guitar on one track), as well as handling all vocals. The material really showcases someone with a broad array of talents, even at times where his own songwriting mightn’t aim for that immediate hit.
THE ROCKERATI – Black Book EP
During the first half of 2025, The Rockerati made their mark on the rock underground with the help of two excellent singles. The first, ‘Analogue Again’ set a great pub rock sound in place; loaded with solid riffs and a melodic edge that called back to the likes of Rockpile, it showed how the Brighton based act valued great influences more than they valued the notion of perceived “coolness”. That school of thought went into overdrive when the band dropped a bunch of Quo-esque riffs into the great ‘Big Dog’; with a bigger sound in place, the track demonstrated how tough The Rockerati could sound with an increase of both power and volume, and how solid playing will often trump originality.