British indie pop band James are beloved by many and have released a fine run of singles over the decades. ‘Come Home’, ‘Sound’ and ‘Getting Away With It’ are arguably among their best, but it’s only really ‘Laid’ and mega-hit ‘Sit Down’ that get heard on radio or in public with any kind of regularity. ‘Sit Down’ has become so overplayed over the years that you might not feel like you ever want to hear it again.
Tag Archives: metal
FALSE GODS – Lost In Darkness And Distance
In a pre-pandemic age, False Gods released a two track EP ‘The Serpent and The Ladder’, a twelve minute musical assault that blended industrial and hardcore influences with a pinch of sludge and black metal, improving upon their earlier work. Via a couple more digital singles and their eagerly awaited full length ‘No Symmetry…Only Disillusion’ (released between 2020 and 2023), the band cemented the feeling that their often uncompromising sound had enough power to take on many of the scene’s most intense bands.
RAVINE – Chaos And Catastrophes
Labelled “extremely brutal” by Eyehategod guitarist/Down drummer Jimmy Bower, Ravine pull no punches when it comes to delivering a heavy riff. The Oregon band’s brand of sludge/doom and hardcore mightn’t reach the insane levels of heaviness set by Byzanthian Neckbeard or Dopethrone, but the best moments on their 2025 release ‘Chaos and Catastrophes’ are on a par with many a great and muddy sounding, riff wielding act.
Watch: Ward XVI share new video for ‘At The Window’
The opening drones of Ward XVI’s current single ‘At The Window’ immediately advertise something with a grandiose heart. This almost cinematic stance is perfect for the band, since it captures their huge sound in an instant, and when providing a massive backdrop for the verse’s more goth-tinged leanings, those keys sit naturally between a darkwave unease and an orchestral flourish, reminding listeners that this shock rock act doesn’t “think small”.
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.