Towards the end of 2025, metalcore band Ocean Planet shared a brilliantly heavy track ‘Devastate’.By coupling a lot of pneumatic rhythms with a few guitar sounds that leaned further into an old school vibe, the recording took as many cues from the prog metal of bands like Symphony X as the tougher edges of the likes of Killswitch Engage. Whatever label you’d care to pin on their work, however, the recording made it very clear that Ocean Planet meant business, and would be an act to watch out for in 2026.
Tag Archives: metalcore
Watch: False Thoughts share new video for ‘I’ve Got Friends’
Over the past couple of years, it’s become the norm for most metalcore bands to share a heavy sound driven by relentless pneumatic rhythms, with clear influence from bands like Killswitch Engage and Crystal Lake.
With that in mind, it’s actually quite refreshing to hear False Thoughts adopting far more of a traditional hardcore sound – something far more in line with the hardcore punks of the 90s like Strife and Earth Crisis. Their current single ‘I’ve Got Friends’ clocks in at a little more than two minutes, but the band make more of an impact in that time than some manage in over twice the duration.
Listen: Asylum Road unleash new track ‘Cut To The Bone’
Asylum Road closed their 2025 with a very uncompromising single, ‘Mask of Oblivion’. The track’s mix of metalcore and hardcore with a pinch of death metal darkness left nothing to chance in terms of overall heaviness.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR: A NEW YEAR’S EVE LOCK IN 2025
We’ve reached the end of another year, and the Real Gone Singles Bar has gone from strength to strength. As is always the case, we’ve received far more submissions over the past six months than we could possibly hope to cover, and ended up with a lot of great tracks that just didn’t find a home in the original weekly columns. Some things are too good to pass by, though, so as is traditional, we’ve rounded up twenty of the best tracks that didn’t get covered upon release and created the Singles Bar New Year’s Eve Lock In! We’ve got a great new wave inspired track, a couple of absolute bangers from the metal world, a little Americana, some jazzy yacht rock, funk, power pop and goth. With the help of a couple of singer-songwriters along the way, we hope there’s something in this selection for almost everyone as we count down to midnight…
*
Watch: Asylum Road share new video for ‘Mirror Of Oblivion’
Blending elements of groove metal and melodic hardcore, with influences from Machine Head and Sevendust, Irish band Asylum Road delivered some absolutely massive riffs on their brilliant EP ‘The Fear’ in 2024. A couple of the vocals might have split opinion with their genuinely abrasive approach, but from a musical standpoint – and looking at the material in terms of tightly played, classic metal, without sounding at all dated – the material was first rate.