Adecade into her career, Poppy is still an enigma. Her journey over that time has been one of reinvention. She’s a chameleon who transformed herself from a surreal YouTube sensation with a robotic persona to an experimental pop star, to her current s

LONG BEFORE BLOODYWOOD released an album, they were a viral hit. Formed in New Delhi in 2016, their unique blend of nu metal and Indian music helped attract interest to their covers of pop and metal songs. When 2018’s Ari Ari blew up – the track curr

Sub Rosa In Æternum CENTURY MEDIA Sweden’s goth metal overlords slink into a new sonic era IF YOU SLIPPED into a coma during Feliciano López and Gilles Müller’s 264-minute match at the 2009 Australian Open, we’re glad you’re back. We have important n

Muuntautuja NUCLEAR BLAST Finland’s blackened psychonauts enter a new nightmare realm A STRANGE SHIFT seems to have occurred in the world of Oranssi Pazuzu. While the Finns’ unique blend of black metal, psychedelia and kosmische music could never ri

Spiral In A Straight Line RISE LA’s post-hardcore veterans find anthems and comfort in the quotidian TOUCHÉ AMORÉ HAVE experimented with various styles of post-hardcore over the last 17 years, but this latest album really perfects the art of blending

VULKAN ARENA / POKALEN, OSLO Sylvaine oversees a gathering of the underground’s state of the art ESTABLISHED IN 1998, by:Larm has long been a showcase for the wider Scandic music scene, along with a selection of international acts. Its metal, and met

O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON, LONDON Max Cavalera’s groove metal veterans fire up a frenzy IT’S BEEN FIVE years since Soulfly last battered a UK venue, which is two years more than tonight’s support act, CAGE FIGHT, have even existed. Despite their relative

Divorced from the storytelling of the first two EPS, Jaws sees Vessel beg for a seduced partner to open up emotionally. ‘Show me what you’ve lost and why you’re always taking it slow,’ he implores. ‘Show me what wounds you’ve got, show me love.’ Yet

WHEN THE KING issues a summons, you can’t refuse. That’s how Hammer find ourselves in the basement – or should that be dungeon? – of Freizeitheim Castle in Germany, face-to-face with thrash metal legend Kerry King. But while the gibbets, iron maidens

LIKE ALL THE best ghouls, High Parasite seemed to appear from nowhere. A collaboration between bassist and chief songwriter Tombs and My Dying Bride frontman Aaron Stainthorpe, they arrived fully formed earlier this year and released a debut single,

The Nothing That Is NUCLEAR BLAST Ascending deathcore stars reach critical mass IN THE LATE 2010s, Fit For An Autopsy began to transcend the boundaries of deathcore. While still allegiant to rampant breakdowns and big, beefy roars, the New Jersey mob

2025 WILL BE a massive year for Iron Maiden. It marks the metal icons’ 50th anniversary - a full half-century since bassist Steve Harris formed the band on Christmas Day 1975. And how will they be celebrating this monumental milestone? By embarking o

The centre of Ghent looks like a Hollywood producer’s vision of a medieval town. At the heart of this Belgian city is a picture-postcard warren of cobbled streets, centuries-old architecture and breathtaking gothic churches, with two equally pictures

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WHEN WITHIN TEMPTATION and Nightwish released their debut albums in 1997, there wasn’t a name for the kind of music they made. Within Temptation’s Enter, released in April, took obvious influence from gothic metal bands like Paradise Lost, but its gr

While Sundowning drops listeners into the thick of Vessel’s destructive worship, This Place Will Become Your Tomb takes us back to where it all started: underwater. Before becoming a submissive pawn eager to spread Sleep’s message, Vessel finds himse

Shining CENTURY MEDIA Finland’s revered death-doomsters take a step out of the darkness CHANNELLING PERSONAL TRAGEDY into their previous two efforts, the gorgeous When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light and Moonflowers, Swallow The Sun produced the mo

Coma SEASON OF MIST Portugal’s incendiary blackmospheric marauders chart new highs and lows CAPITALISING ON AMBITION is rarely something to be curtailed. However, there’s always the chance that, in striving for greater heights, additional trouble com

Reinforcing the imagery threaded through its two predecessors, the opening track on Sleep Token’s third album once again centres around a relationship that seemed perfect but has gone bad (something suggested up by its aggressive, violent title). The

I Want Blood DOUBLE J Alice In Chains axeman goes back to his dark roots JERRY CANTRELL’S FOURTH solo album marks a return to the darker soundscapes that underpinned his early, genreblasting efforts. While 2021’s Brighten dabbled in Americana and cou

Highly Irresponsible SHARPTONE Ex-Every Time I Die members and Greg Puciato bang their rocks together ONE OF THE internet’s favourite gifs is that bit in Arrested Development where Jason Bateman looks in a bag labelled, “Dead dove, do not eat”, then

BY DESIGN, BELGIUM’S Divided are a reflection of humanity in all of its complexity. More specifically, drummer and vocalist Pepijn Vandaele’s perception of humanity because, as he puts it, “I’m singing the words, I’m screaming them - I need to believ

Given the sheer amount of lore and theorising surrounding each Sleep Token song, it’s not surprising that even the band’s choice of covers have come under scrutiny. In 2017 they released an unlikely piano ballad cover of hip hop duo Outkast’s 2003 me