ADVERSE96 – Clear The Lane

Adverse96 have worked hard to build a following since their formation in 2012. Extensive live work has seen them trek across Europe, sharing stages with 90s legends Dog Eat Dog, ska band The Interrupters and cult punks Against Me. The fact that they’ve managed to support such musically differing rock bands is testament to their huge crossover sound. Their 2023 full length ‘Clear The Lane’ takes in a swathe of melodic hardcore influences, a smidgeon of rap metal and even a few cues from US inspired melodic punk. This huge melting pot of sound often centres around melodic hardcore breakdowns to give the overall sound a common thread, but in terms of whipping up some familiar sounding (and often retro) excitement, it’s clear that this Belgian band know, almost instinctively, how to push all of the right buttons.

Continue reading

SOUL DISSOLUTION – Nowhere EP

Formed in 2012, Belgian progressive/post black metal band Soul Dissolution have never been afraid to stretch the confines of black metal. Their 2018 album ‘Stardust’ mixed standard black metal ideas with some surprisingly melodic passages, resulting in something that often sounds like Drama crossed with a very extreme version of ‘Jester Race’ era In Flames, stretching extreme riffs into cold, bleak shapes.

Continue reading

New video from shoegazers Newmoon

Belgian alt-rock/shoegaze band Newmoon have just released a new video for their single ‘Head of Stone’.  The slowed down, black and white imagery really compliments their jangling and droning sound.  In many ways, the four and a half minutes encapsulates everything the genre is about, whether the material dates from 1989 or 2016.  Check it out below!

Continue reading

A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS – Burden

ats burdenBelgian sludge/doom combo A Thousand Sufferings could never be accused to doing things half-heartedly. Sludge has always taken the nuts and bolts of Black Sabbath and slowed it and heavied it’s very essence to it’s logical extreme. A Thousand Sufferings, at first, seem to go one better, as even ‘Once In A Blue Moon’, a spoken intro, appears to adopt the sludge/doom ethos, as the band take what would have been a brief sample from TV drama ‘The Americans’, but play it back at half speed. The effect of hearing synth music, the sounds of helicopters and human voices played back at a much slower speed can be unsettling. The fact that one of the characters is halfway through a monologue regarding the chain of nature and mortality makes it all the more disquieting. It makes for a very slow and potentially quite grim three minutes. With this intro, the band builds tension in a really obtuse manner and the three proper tracks which follow – sprawling across over half an hour – are just as oppressive.

Continue reading