You can always count on Amy Lee for a chorus.

Sanctuary is Evanescence's best record in a long, long time. The production is absolutely magnificent, and to have such chunky breakdowns will having no screams is so audaciously Evanescence. This is probably the most identity and uniqueness an album Jordan Fish has produced since he left Bring Me The Horizon. The instrumentation is really defined on this album, especially the guitars, and the balance between symphonic metal and peaceful ... read more

Least hardcore hardcore cover.

If you're looking for the freshest hardcore 2026 has to offer, look north to Manchester, where you will find Guilt Trip attracting circle pits so chaotic, you'd think they're AI, which is apparently something people are actually thinking! Armour Of Angels is an assault on the ear drums, but if you take the absolutely mean pinch harmonics into account, it's pretty irresistible. Vocals are cool too, remind me a bit of Chris Motionless. Riffs are ... read more

I'm orange, da ba dee da ba die.

Cry Baby is the current frontrunner for hip-hop AOTY - Vince hits us with a boundary-pushing, unique record, which anybody could have seen coming just based off the incredible lead single Blackberry Marmalade. Who knew a song so dark could be so damn catchy? Capturing modern American trials and tribulations in thick guitar riffs and juicy basslines, Cry Baby is an album that a lot of specific individuals need to hear right now - I'll say no more, ... read more

Waiting for a Converge album is like waiting for a bus; you wait for absolutely ages, and then two come along at the same time.

Hum Of Hurt comes only four months after Converge's last album, Love Is Not Enough, creating a slight amount of concern in me, as that alone made it sound like this would be full of sloppy seconds and B-sides/throwaways. In execution, though, Hum Of Hurt clearly still has a lot of passion in it, making me think that they actually just recorded a lot of music for ... read more

The Kid BROKIE

The (immediate) follow up to are you lonely?, a little bit serves as an answer to that question, so everything comes full circle. Unlike its twin album though, this record leans into a more melancholy sound, rather than a disturbing one, evident in the lack of abrasive moments that defined a handful of the first album, which surprisingly ends up sounding like The Kid LAROI, but less whiney. Good album, but I can't help but feel like she's turning into Jane Remover; ie, ... read more

Spine-chilling.

shteppi is the side project of up-and-coming rapper ISSBROKIE, and while her main music just focuses on going hard, are you lonely? goes for the soul. This deals with some dark topics, with unclean. in particular leaving a bad taste in my mouth. There are some more abrasive parts of the album, contributing to this horror vibe. I know there is an ARG related to the album, but I haven't looked at it - I'm only going off of the contents of the album. There are plenty of ... read more

I need some ibuprofen.

Yeah, no amount of experience in metal will prepare you for the migraine this album will give you, but you'll at least have a good time while getting it. Given the nature of Darko's music, I would have been slightly disappointed if I listened to this album and didn't feel a little nauseous, and I was not let down, so I'm now going to spend the next hour cuddling my toilet waiting for the great purge. While we wait, though, here are some other thoughts ... read more

Waiting for realmink.

Based off of first impressions, fakemink just sounds like a more abrasive slowthai. Across the record, mink's lyrics are... okay, I guess, but apart from that, his flow is horrible, the beats are mediocre at best, the mix is atrocious, and his voice is almost always pitched up, making him sound like a twelve-year-old. Every song has the same cadence, and it doesn't take me long to start wishing I was listening to anything else. Ironic how one of the songs is ... read more

New Boards Of Canada before GTA VI (i'm sorry)

This is quite a "pinch-me" moment for music fans across the world today. I was intrigued by Geogaddi; how music can sound so beautiful and angelic, yet feel so haunting. Well, as luck would have it, the legendary Scottish duo join the list of artists I have gotten into that haven't dropped in a long time but gotten into just soon enough to see a full album rollout. Ladies and gentlemen, Boards Of Canada are back.

And yet, it ... read more

Oh it's experimental, alright.

Peggy, what are we doing here? You can't just slam a bunch of samples together, disintegrate the living hell out of the mix and call it "experimental". How do you make a song so uninteresting and so bad at the same time? Not saying that there aren't good songs on here, but they don't show face very often, or at least not often enough to be able to call this a good album. And Peggy just keeps the EXACT 👏 SAME 👏 FLOW 👏 across ... read more

Everyone savour this, because I'm only going to say this once... thank you, Reddit.

I found the files for this on Reddit, after scrolling through every freaking streaming service trying to find this damn album, only to realise it's only officially on vinyl right now. Cometh the hour, cometh the Redditors, so cheers for that, random user on r/slipknot. Anyway, with the effort I went to to find this album, it better be worth my time, so let's have a peak.

...

So, I happened to ... read more

The Holy Trinity.

2023. Käärijä, the crowd favourite from Finland, narrowly misses out on the Eurovision crown after an electrifying performance. 2024, Joost Klein, the crowd favourite again, gets disqualified from the competition mere hours before the grand final. 2025, Estonian funnyman Tommy Cash finishes third with his entry which stirred some controversy upon release. All three of these artists have interacted with each other before; pick any two of these three and a ... read more

I don't like Drake with the melodies or when he acts tough.

I just can't with these new Drake records anymore, both this and MAID OF HONOUR just feel incredibly lazy and rushed. Glad to put these behind me. You really can tell these were only dropped to get out of his contract, but it's hardly the mic drop I'm sure he envisioned it to be. Again, I'm already not warm on the guy, and he's not exactly winning me over with these new records. HABIBTI is just SSS4U part ... read more

Honestly Nevermind reincarnate.

Onto the second of Drake's three albums from last week, and... Jesus. I would LOVE to see Akademiks or NFR try and defend this one, this is actually pathetic. Drake maintains like one tone throughout the entire album, the flow from the feature on Outside Tweaking doesn't match the beat, Cheetah Print actually genuinely exists, Drake clearly hasn't, but should've, learnt to stay away from words that are even adjacent to 'wagwan', he ... read more

ICEMAN HAS TURNED INTO A PUDDLE

Honestly, I was sceptical about ICEMAN actually dropping on the 15th, let alone him pulling two more albums out of absolutely nowhere. And yet, it's taken me until Thursday the week after, six days after release, to even bother beginning ICEMAN. Why? Well, because I... don't care, I guess? Drake's music has always left a bad taste in my mouth, and there are plenty of times on the main attraction of Drake's surprise trilogy where that still ... read more

I know Drake dropped three albums this week. Zay still got my first listen.

Zay Dante is someone I've been watching for quite a while. Gaining fame from his skits about the Kendrick-Drake beef and other music-related bits, it soon became apparent that Zay was actually a brilliant writer and rapper. He then opted to dip his toes in the water of making his own original music, coming in the form of TBTV, an enjoyable collection of musical parodies and just an all-round good time. However, ... read more

Aight, the Euros for music just happened, and as I sat down to watch the grand final, fully prepared to watch my beloved United Kingdom inevitably get another nil pois, I wrote brief reviews for and scored out of 10 every song in the final! I didn't listen to the songs that got eliminated because they're clearly not worth my time if they got knocked out. Here's my thoughts on Vienna 2026!

🇩🇰 Før Vi Går Hjem = 8
Quite a funky dance number, very catchy, hard not ... read more

MyLittlePonycore

From what I understand, Gonarch's Lair is very different to Vylet Pony's usual output, so I won't judge too harshly. Having said that, I don't really know what to make of this new mixtape. A lot of tracks here see a combination of ISSBROKIE-style inflections over Jane Remover-type beats, both of which I find very jarring, so I wasn't overly impressed with a handful of tracks here. Genuinely, what is BATTY FREESTYLE, other than detestable and abhorrent? ... read more

gre atalbum

The name of the new American Football album is American Football. In other news, a fork was found in a kitchen. All jokes aside, this is an incredible album. They’re still very much emo, but over the past few years, they’ve turned from teenage angst to existential contemplation, showing a kind of maturity while still keeping their signature soothing and calming yet sinister vibe. American Football is an emo band, though not in the typical “my life sucks, woe is ... read more

AOTY COMMUNITY #5: SAM O (again)

Well, well, well. We meet again. Sam O recommended me his newest LP, DON'T FAIL ME NOW, just as he did with his last outing, Strange Power, which I found to be a passable record, with cool production but underwhelming vocal performances. But, it has been a while since I checked on my guy, so let's see what has changed, if anything. I'mma go listen.

...

Well, someone's been listening to Jane Remover. Which is fine, but I personally ... read more