Single and EP Reviews

Just when I thought Ward XVI had peaked with their last single, ‘We Are Legion’, Ward XVI release a third single, ‘At The Window’ taken from their upcoming studio album, Id3ntity,due for release on July 11th 2025 via Earache Records. They take it up a notch higher with a lead …

Jayler’s monumental rise takes another leap as they fire out ‘Riverboat Queen’. My first aural battery from them came from playing at my local music venue, the Cosey Club in Haslington, not far from Crewe on April 6th, 2024 as part of the Sunday afternoon CozyZone events. They plugged in …

Robert Jon & The Wreck return with all guns blazing as the Orange County, California band release “Keep Myself Clean”, the final track from their upcoming studio album ‘Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes’ on August 22nd 2025. They can do no wrong with me as their material seems to set the …

Montreal, Canadian rabble rousers, The Damn Truth are back, releasing a new single ‘Addicted’, taken from their self titled studio album. Fronted by the unstoppable whirlwind that’s Lee-La Baum, the new single is a full on tub thumper that stomps around an almost spoken word lead vocal. Soul searching choruses …

Belfast, Ireland based Survivalist unleash ‘Deathbed’, a song that you don’t just hear, you also feel it’s power, so it’s fitting that it’s released via Earache Records! It’s brutally brutal to say the least as this guttural, four hate fuelled mantra pummels your ears to shreds and the blood splattered …

Traction are definitely the main attraction, point proven by brand new single “Boom”,and certainly lives up to it’s title with ease. It’s definitely one for the headbangers,as the Wildhearts once said,“Riff after riff, after motherf**king riff!”. A broken glass chewed lead vocal ignites the song, especially in the choruses which …

Thank God for the underground scene, point proven by myself accidentality finding ‘Wailing Banshee’ and their single ‘Lord Of The Flies’. Back in the day the upcoming UK bands were classed as NWOBHM, but now we have TNWOBHM, a more up to date offshoot who are raging away, and doing …

A warm welcome is well and truly deserved as the mad as hatters husband and wife duo, ‘Starlite & Campbell’ release a positively stunning new single ‘Everything’. At just over a minute and a half long, it’s the shortest review I’ve composed, but it’s almost beyond words due to it’s …

All hail Maxwell Jeffries, the mad professor of metal, releasing ‘Fields Of Fire’, not a cover of the Big Country song but the third from their next upcoming release in 2025. It’s a moody, broody but also uplifting magnum opus of melodic metal that chugs on a sturdy main riff …

There must be something in the water in Birmingham as Gnawing Hunger come back grinding their teeth, point proven by ‘Caligula’, their latest behemoth of a single. It’s an unrelenting, four frantic minutes of apocalyptic fury as a razor sharp intro explodes into an all consuming, bombastic metal assault, pinned …

Right from the off, Acid Claw got my attention as first impression reminded me of Spazztic Blurr, anyone remember them? Anyway I digress as the multi genre band from Reading, South Of England based noisy bastards Acid Claw have just released an over the top, six track EP titled Crimes …

Welcome back Stoke On Trent based quartet, Leaf Band UK. And it’s a very welcome one as they have just released ‘Pushing’, the first of two new songs from a two track EP, the second of which is ‘Pulling’. ‘They class themselves as, ” A real rock band – no …

Iconic British heavy metallers Demon are pleased to unveil their new lyric video “Hole In The Sky”, taken from their latest studio album, “Invincible”, released on May 17th, 2024, via Frontiers Music Srl.The album will also be available as double blue vinyl on August 29th, 2025. They formed in Leek, …

Hot on the heels of their last single,‘Highway’,‘Robert Jon & The Wreck’ unleash ‘Dark Angel’, taken from forthcoming studio album ‘Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes’, due for release on August 22nd, 2025 via Journeyman Records. ‘Dark Angel’ has a main riff to die for as this gnarly single bodes well for …

Biting on the heels of their last single ‘Fighting’, those angelic upstarts, the Small Town Saviours kick out the jams with follow up single ‘Nowhere To Run’. No fancy stuff here from the fantastic four as they plug in and power up as if their lives depend on it. It …

Scarborough rockers This House We Built release their new single, ‘Addiction’. This is the first taste of their second album, ‘Get Out of The Rain’, set for release in Autumn 2025. I first became aware of them when asked to review their debut album ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ at …

It seems an interminable wait for North West, Preston, Lancashire based noisemongers WARD XVI to unleash their upcoming studio album, Id3ntity via Earache Records but fear not as on Friday, July 11th, 2025, it will follow their well received second studio album Metamorphosis from 2020 . They have also released …

They’re back and they’re hungry with their ballistic new single ‘Lost And Never Found’, courtesy of self proclaimed “Pop Punk Band – Cheshire UK”, ‘Chasing The Fall’. An old saying of “If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it” certainly applies to this fiery foursome, point proven by three …

As Paul Baloff R.I.P, ex lead vocalist from Exodus once said at a gig, “Do you want it heavier? It’s going to get……heavier”. Point proven by the completely over the top single ‘Fast Draw’, sixth single recently released, taken from their latest album, ‘Duel’, via Napalm Records by Ukranian based …

It’s been a long six month wait for me to review some new material from Adelaide, Australia chanteuse, Orianthi. That was ‘Some Kind Of Feeling’ last November, which is also the title of a 2025 studio album to be released on a digital format on June 27th, CD on August …