With Paramore as an obvious influence and likened to All Time Low by the Punktastic website, Gloustershire pop-punkers ICYMI start out with their best foot forward in 2016. Their upcoming single ‘Get Out’ couples a lyric about mental health to a Tonight Alive inspired riff to create something punchy but very melodic.
You can stream the track in full below.
Taking elements of gothic metal, a touch of doom and a pinch of black metal on their 2016 release ‘Awake In Dead’ Costa Rica’s Eyes of Desolation whip up a dark storm that’s powerful and unsettling, yet more accessible than many metal bands veering on the extreme side. Between them, not only can they play very well, but also understand that a strong melody – even one that’s oppressively dark – can go a very long way with regard to not only enticing people to listen, but also keeping their attention and inviting those all-important repeat listens. In terms of dark, gothic metal sounds, this EP has all you’d hope for…and more.
Do you ever find yourself harking back to the days of punk pop that actually sounded punky instead of shiny, emo or whiny? Look no further. In their own words, Saint Louis punkers The Radio Buzzkills sound like “a love letter to Screeching Weasel” on their 2016 EP ‘The Quick and The Cheap’. They’ve also shared stages with The Queers so, given those two facts, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting here…and obviously fun is very high on the agenda.
Formed in 2012, Venezuela’s Evil Reborn play a brilliantly constructed form of melodic death metal crossed with the heaviest strands of groove metal. Their third release, ‘Throne of Insanity’ – their first for Russian extreme metal specialists Satanath Records – is a belter. It might not be particularly original, but in terms of what Evil Reborn do, you’ll be hard pressed to find it done any better. Across the album’s nine tracks, the riffs are enormous, the amount of bottom end crunch is equally as ferocious and frontman Victor Chaparro settles upon a vocal style which – much like Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe – retains just enough clarity among the growls not to be an instant turn off.
Singer-songwriter Kyle Anne Duggan takes country and folk influences on her 2016 EP release and works them in a way that seems at odds with the broad and sunny nature of her native Florida. It shows that it’s possible to feel country roots anywhere, you don’t have to have a link with Nashville or small back-woods towns that conjure up images of local stores and grocers. Perhaps it even shows the performer is at odds with the state; these songs exploring what she herself calls “a love hate relationship” with the place in which she grew up. The five songs on ‘The Florida EP’ have an old soul and yet still feel somewhat contemporary.