Vendetta Love have been gradually carving out a place within the rock underground since 2021. The Irish band have released a string of impressive digital singles over the course of four years – not least of all 2024’s ‘Soothe’, an energetic number absolutely loaded with wah-wah guitar work – and a pair of enjoyable EPs, but their first offering for ’25 could just be one of their strongest tracks to date.
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. This time around, we’ve got some enormous sounding post rock/metal from a still new act, an interesting excursion into the alternative end of the new age spectrum, a couple of superb singer songwriters…and more. The weight of submissions to the SB since January has been vast, so it’s been an even harder job picking tracks than ever before, but we hope you love what you hear…
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The opening riffs of ‘Monster’ – the second track to be shared from Loud George’s upcoming EP ‘Sex Teeth’ – give the impression that the band are about to share a dirty punk ‘n’ roll banger. However, this track isn’t all it initially seems to be…
A strong case could be made for Robin McAuley’s second solo album – 2021’s ‘Standing On The Edge’ – being one of the finest of the journeyman vocalist’s career. It seemed to hit a sweet spot in terms of melodies, and although the singer’s brand of melodic rock was hardly in fashion at the time of release, his love for the style appeared unwavering. The album’s strong musicianship and big choruses rivalled his earlier associations with the legendary Michael Schenker, and the record’s AOR slant made it a great fit alongside some of their other Frontiers Records releases from that time. Taking influence from Black Swan’s second album ‘Generation Mind’, 2023’s ‘Alive’ took a slightly harder turn musically, but still found Robin in great voice and an enthused mood.
The Rattlebacks had a very successful 2024. The Brighton based rock band released a selection of singles which received online acclaim, and towards the end of the year, they unleashed their debut album, ‘Sidewinder’, again, to a very positive response.
The album was a little more varied than a couple of the earlier singles suggested, with a couple of rather grungy tracks dropped between the huge old school rockers, and with a massive ballad providing one of the record’s standout tracks. It was very much the kind of album that suggested more greatness ahead.