Released during the first quarter of 2024, Magana’s ‘Break Free’ single shared some very interesting musical ideas. Billed as “witchy rock”, the track managed to convey a hard edge, but retain a sense of the atmospheric. With the aid of droning keys and percussive rhythms, the performance conveyed a spooky vibe, but was also unafraid to take detours into harder edged sounds. Like a strange hybrid of 90s goth, classic Cocteau Twins and a deep dive into middle period Lush, it wasn’t for everyone, but for those with a love of various 90s and 00’s alternative sounds, it brought a welcome new slant to genre-specific sounds that often felt familiar.
Tag Archives: alternative
Watch: Modern Evils share new video for ‘Gitzlaff Lover’
Over the years, Swindon has become famous for its associations with the brilliant XTC, the legendary Justin Hayward, and pop singer turned actress Billie Piper. It also spawned one of the UK’s heaviest bands in recent years – Heriot, who seemed to take forever to record their debut full length – and 90s dance act Meat Beat Manifesto, but you’d be hard pressed to consider the town a Mecca for music fans.
Here’s another Swindon based band worth keeping an eye on. Relative newcomers Modern Evils released a couple of strong singles in 2024, but, on the basis of their first release for 2025, they’re set to up their game this year.
Watch: Detroit Run return with new video for ‘Invincible’
Having formed in 2022, Liverpool’s Detroit Run have only been a presence on the alternative/melodic metal scene for a relatively short time, but over the past couple of years, the band have really made an impression. Past singles ‘Prototype’ (2024) and ‘Maniac’ (2023) were both flawless showcases for their sound – a driving, riff based approach, augmented with darkwave synths – but their current track ‘Invincible’ raises the bar.
Watch: Take a ‘Stroll…’ with Ecce Shnak
At the beginning of February 2025, art rock band Ecce Shnak released their ‘Shadows Grow Fangs’ EP, their first new work for many years. Between the bendy experimentation of lead single ‘Jeremy, Utalitarian Sandboy’ and a couple of other uncategorisable tunes, it really didn’t disappoint.
MORLOCKS – Amor, Monstra Et Horrore Profundi EP
In terms of musical interest, Morlocks’ 2023 LP ‘Praise The Iconoclast’ didn’t sell its listeners short. On the stand out track, ‘I’m The Payload’, the band managed to fuse orchestral sounding synths to a relentlessly mechanical rhythm, before loading the arrangement up further with alt-pop vocals, 80s keys and a few rock-edged guitars. The result sounded at times like an industrial band channelling early Oingo Boingo, with a couple of vocal phrases in the latter part of the number that hinted at a love of KMFDM. Rather fittingly, that legendary band’s Käpt’n K would also make an appearance on the record, and somewhat predictably, his presence throughout ‘Mean World Syndrome’ leant that number more of a KMFDM flavour. Elsewhere, ‘Instigation’ swamped vocal samples with a heavy groove and nods to classic Ministry, and taking another curveball, ‘Cold War Fusion’ melded soundtrack-like elements and darkwave melodies into an epic closer that more than suggested this most cult of bands still had musical ground to cover somewhere in the not too distant future.