After forming in 2023, UK alternative metal crew Falling Below didn’t have to wait long to find an audience. Their eponymously named debut release gained support from the BBC, Total Rock Radio and Kerrang!, and the promotion of the EP saw the band taking a prolific approach to live performances.
Tag Archives: metal
Finnish black metallers Verilehto share new video for ‘Aarnihauta’
On November 28th, Finnish black metal band Verilehto return with their second album ‘Aarnihauta’. As part of the early promotion, they’ve issued the title cut as a digital single.
The first new music from the band in two years, ‘Aarnihauta’ is surprisingly melodic. The opening riff doesn’t confront the listener with a typical sheet of abrasive black metal noise, but comes closer to a world of melodic thrash. By adopting more of a mid tempo, the riffs have room to breathe, and in places owe more to the likes of Testament and Soufly than Emperor.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Wish You Were Here: 50 Years Later
In 2024, Pale Wizard Records did the unthinkable. They pulled together a bunch of underground rock bands and had them each contribute a track to a 50th anniversary tribute to Sparks’ career defining ‘Kimono My House’. Since none of the bands had much in common with Ron and Russell Mael’s distinctive and visionary sound, it shouldn’t have worked. With that record, Pale Wizard managed to pull off the even more unthinkable: they not only masterminded a very different take on an old classic, but they had the balls to know it would work on its own merits.
A year on, could they achieve similar greatness by asking some of the same faces to put their own stamp on Pink Floyd fan favourite ‘Wish You Were Here’? In terms of tall orders, that’s positively gargantuan when none of the clientele come from the school of prog rock. The featured artists don’t even have a “classic” sound in most cases. Nevertheless, everyone gives the material a square go, for better or worse.
HIGHWAY QUEEN – Extendead Play EP
On their 2022 long player ‘Bitter Soul’, Finnish metallers Highway Queen very much flew the flag for a traditional approach. The album’s eight songs drew influence from a mid 80s Iron Maiden, with galloping riffs and twin lead guitars, from Michael Schenker via a very European sense of bombast, and a couple of Scandinavian hard rock rock acts from more recent times, which certainly helped their shamelessly old fashioned sound retain a pleasing sense of melody. Against their often familiar sounding riffs, vocalist Virpi Kääriäinen shared a strong vocal, and despite sometimes sounding a little buried within the band’s studio arrangements – at least on the faster numbers, the Whitesnake-esque title cut allowed for more clarity – it was obvious she had the kind of talent that would carry itself well in the live setting.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #118
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past couple of weeks. This time out, we welcome back an indie hero with a superb solo venture, celebrate some big, modern pop from a rather prolific artist, take in a couple of metal tracks and even make time for some classic sounding yacht rock. As always, we hope you like what you hear.
*