SNAKEMOTHER – Snakemother

Snakemother are a four piece band who relish in sharing a mix of heavy riffs and gloomy atmospherics. Within in the vast landscapes of doom metal – often populated by bearded figures with guttural tones – Snakemother really stand out, since the four musicians are unafraid to blend their extremely slow and heavy sound with a relatively clean vocal, which gives the six tracks on their self-titled release a pleasing feeling of balance.

Continue reading

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.

Continue reading

Listen: Sun Below share new epic track ‘Mammoth’s Tundra’

‘Mammoth’s Tundra’, the current single from Sun Below, first began life in 2023, before going through “significant changes” to wind up being the massive behemoth that kicks off the band’s 2025. The opening riff shares a slow, classic doom sound, instantly advertising the band’s heavy feel. After several bars, maybe at the point you’d expect a vocal to appear or the riff to do something dramatically different, Sun Below merely choose to heavy everything, whilst simultaneously slowing down to a sludgy crawl. The appearance of a vocal lends something Melvins-esque, before the doomy vibes slide into a slightly more melodic blues-doom sound, by which time, you’re either completely behind the band, or not. Working a Sabbath-on-steroids groove, the combo of drums and guitar latch onto an even deeper brand of doom, before the sludge comes back for a second assault.

Continue reading

Cober Mouth share insanely heavy new single ‘Steride’

Cober Mouth are a band who’ve never been afraid of genre-hopping. On their 2024 single ‘Open! Shut…’, they chopped in many of their already familiar alternative elements for swathes of rap and R&B, and on their current track ‘Steride’, they introduce heavy synth loops and an almost industrial level of heaviness to their cornucopia of noise.

Continue reading