Stereohaze is an alternative rock band from Manchester, England who I first featured on this blog this past May when I reviewed their excellent debut EP Fight For Your Future. Now they’re back with a terrific new single “Drifting Away“, which dropped on September 7th. Formed in 2017, the band consists of Charlie Whittaker (guitar/vocals), Ryan Webb (guitar), Harry Wilcock (bass) and Diesel Evans (drums). Despite their relatively young ages, they play some wicked guitar-driven rock laden with hooks, intelligent lyrics and electrifying instrumentals.
The song opens with Diesel’s pounding drumbeats and Harry’s throbbing bass, then we’re suddenly hit with an explosion of grimy riffs and the song is off and running. Charlie’s commanding vocals enter the mix as he fervently sings of a troubled relationship that’s driving him crazy, but he hopes can still be salvaged: “I just can’t shake the infection of your poisonous affection. Indecisions, contradictions are part of my condition. We’re drifting away, so come a little closer. And we’re falling apart, so let’s come together.” Charlie and Ryan’s dual guitars are fantastic as they blast through the airwaves with intricate layers of gnarly fuzz and blistering distortion, making for an exhilarating rock tune.
It bears repeating that I really love Charlie’s vocal style. I’ve found that weak vocals are often one of the biggest liabilities for an artist or band, but his vocals are wonderful, and an integral part of Stereohaze’s great overall sound. The guys are all skilled musicians, and I’m so happy they’ve delivered another outstanding song. “Drifting Away” is further proof that Stereohaze is most definitely a band on the rise.
1. FALLING WITH STYLE – Heist At Five (2)
2. COMING UP FOR AIR – Mars Motel (3)
3. RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH THE DEVIL – Revolvers (4)
4. DOIN’ TIME – Lana Del Rey (1)
5. WHEN AM I GONNA LOSE YOU – Local Natives (5)
6. UNDER THE COLD LIGHT OF THE MOON – Crystal Cities (6)
7. 3 NIGHTS – Dominic Fike (7)
8. GO – The Black Keys (8)
9. CRINGE – Matt Maeson (9)
10. SOCIAL CUES – Cage the Elephant (10)
11. THE HYPE – twenty one pilots (13)
12. FOUR WINDS – Unquiet Nights (14)
13. RAGGED TOWN – Second Player Score (15)
14. THIS LIFE – Vampire Weekend (16)
15. BAD GUY – Billie Eilish (11)
16. ALLIGATOR – Of Monsters and Men (12)
17. HEAT OF THE SUMMER – Young the Giant (18)
18. GOOD THINGS FALL APART – ILLENIUM with Jon Bellion (20)
19. GOODBYES – Post Malone featuring Young Thug (21)
20. BROTHERS – Harroland (19)
21. THE MIDDLE – Agency Panic (23)
22. SECRETS – The Million Reasons (24)
23. WHY DID YOU RUN? – Judah & the Lion (25)
24. I SEE YOU – MISSIO (17)
25. DISSOLVE – Absofacto (28)
26. COMPLAINER – Cold War Kids (29)
27. WANNACRY – Darksoft (30)
28. UNDER THESE SCARS – Falling Into Red featuring Dev (N)
29. LOVER – Taylor Swift (N)
30. DESERVING OF LOVE – Lyia Meta (N)
Hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, hard rock band Hollow Intent has been making quite a name for themselves on the local music scene with their aggressive style of melodic metal rock. In May, the band was nominated for the 2019 Carolina Music Award’s Best Rock Group, with front man Will Baker also nominated for Best Rock Male. On August 1st, they released their appropriately-titled debut EP Monster, which I’m pleased to feature on this blog.
Hollow Intent was born when guitarist and vocalist Will Baker and drummer Mark Davis started jamming together and discovered an immediate chemistry between them. Soon, they brought on bassist Shane Noren and guitarist Wesley Seven to complete the band’s lineup, and quickly began perfecting their intense sound and crafting songs to take advantage of their explosive, guitar-driven music style. The band explains that Monster “depicts all feelings with a negative connotation such as depression, anxiety, stress, rage, etc,, and they’re put together to create this “Monster”.
The EP kicks off with the title track “Monster“, a two-minute long instrumental that sets the tone for things to come. As its title implies, the song’s a rampaging beast of wailing distortion, grinding bass and crashing drums, plunging us headlong into the heavy metal zone.
Before we can catch our breath, “Burn” explodes onto the airwaves with a thunderous barrage of raging guitars, buzz-saw bass and speaker-blowing percussion. But the real highlight for me are Baker’s jaw-dropping vocals. He has a phenomenal voice that sounds beautiful when singing clean, and positively feral when he launches into his metalcore screams and growls. There aren’t many metalcore vocalists who also have great clean singing voices (Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas are two who come to my mind). Baker definitely does, and it’s no wonder he was nominated for the Carolina Music Best Rock Male Award. When he screams “Let’s go!” with a terrifying ferocity, we have no choice but to comply. But then he draws us in as he plaintively sings the biting lyrics addressing someone who’s actions have brought out the worst in him: “You hate what I’ve become in you. The monster inside me. You’re inside my head, tearing me apart. Filling with red, straight through the heart. You’re starting to turn. There’s no controlling all these evil eyes. I’m here to watch you burn!”
The face-melting “Bipolar” serves up chugging riffs of reverb-soaked grit and distortion enveloped in a punishing wall of sound. This song kicks some major ass, and is one of my favorite cuts on the EP. Once again, Baker blows our minds and eardrums with his vocal gymnastics. The way he makes his voice bleed one moment as he screams “Liar!” or “Bipolar“, then transitions to a seductive croon the next is really impressive.
The guys slow down the pace with “Shadow of You“, a darkly beautiful metalcore ballad that speaks to duplicity and betrayal: “You didn’t believe in me. I trusted you, but I knew you were faking. /I am always in the shadow of you. It’s getting colder as I close my eyes. These dreams are made of all your lies.” The guitar work is fantastic, and I really like the recurring mournful little riff, as well as the moody piano keys at the end of the song.
“Parasite” serves up more metalcore goodness with a torrent of shredded guitars and pummeling drums, accompanied by Baker’s death-rattling growls. But it’s on “Welcome to the Dead” that Hollow Intent show us what they’re really capable of. Wow, these guys blow the fucking roof off here, with some of most explosive instrumentals I’ve heard in a very long while. The raging guitars, crushing bass and pummeling drums are so hard-driving they leave me breathless! The guitar work here is nothing short of magnificent. Turn the volume all the way up for this monster of a tune!
The EP closes with “Normal“, a beautiful ballad that showcases the band’s softer side. The instrumentals are more stripped down, with strummed acoustic guitar, subtle bass, stirring strings and gentle percussion. Baker passionately implores someone to help him overcome his mental anguish and live a healthy existence: “If the pain could go away, would you save me? If the light stays gray, will you help me believe? If you could find a way to break this hold, could you help me be normal?”
Though it contains only seven tracks, six of which include vocals, Monster feels monumental in scope. All of the songs are superb, both in terms of their high quality and in their power to move us, and it’s a very impressive debut work. Hollow Intent are an incredibly skilled group of musicians who know how to play metal rock as it was meant to be played – heavy, melodic and loud! Furthermore, Will Baker is one of the finest metalcore vocalists around, in my opinion. I cannot wait to hear more music from this fantastic band.
The music industry is as alive and well as it’s ever been, with so many artists and bands continuing to put out great music, and it seems many of them are releasing new music today, Friday the 6th of September! One such artist dropping a new single today is Holly Rees, a delightful indie folk singer-songwriter based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Her thoughtful, relatable lyrics, infectious melodies, skillful guitar-playing and lovely, heartfelt vocals have earned her critical acclaim and a loyal following, with flattering comparisons to the likes of Laura Marling and Courtney Barnett.
Holly launched her career with her debut EP Ilex in 2017, receiving airplay on BBC 6 Music and a feature on Tom Robinson’s BBC Introducing Mixtape. In 2018, she performed at the Hit The North and Evolution Emerging music festivals, and followed up with her excellent second EP Slow Down. She released “Text Me When You Get There”: The Live EP in May 2019, and is now back with a wonderful new single “Getting By“.
The song was written and performed by Holly, who played guitar on the track, with assistance from Rhys Melhuish on drums, Ryan Peebles on bass, and Olivia Ord on keyboards. It was recorded at Loft Music Studios, and mixed and mastered by Matt Dunbar. About “Getting By”, Holly explains “This is a song about struggling with mental health – how things can be really good and really bad at once, and ultimately how sometimes just getting through it is all you can do, and that’s okay. Sometimes it’s okay to just survive. The tide will always come back in.”
The song has a bouncy, upbeat tempo that contrasts with, yet complements, the more serious lyrics. Holly’s pleasing strummed guitar takes center stage, and her supporting musicians do a fine job keeping the rhythm and adding texture and depth to the track. I really like her vibrant vocals that beautifully convey both resolute strength and a vulnerable world-weariness as she sings her honest, poetic lyrics:
Oh we’re just like everyone we know Far too young to be this old
I’m doing great, I’m doing fine, I’m doing terribly I’m confident, intelligent, I’m scared of what you think of me Crossing oceans of emotion for the notion of some dopamine There’s no lesson in depression, it’s just a question of getting by
Holly’s been touring Canada since mid-April, and has another six weeks left of her tour, so those of you in Eastern Canada still have an opportunity to catch one of her shows:
The sweet cover art for the single was created by Dale Glenister, who has her own music blog Peanut Mixtape (which is currently on hiatus).
This past April, I featured Texas band Roadkeeper on this blog when I reviewed their single “Old Man’s War”, a stunning song about anxiety and worry over things, both real and imagined. I loved the song so much it spent 18 weeks on my Weekly Top 30. Formed only a little more than a year ago, the Tyler, Texas- based four-piece consists of songwriter/producer John Hetherington (vocals, synths, rhythm guitar), Trevor Tull (lead guitar), Nick Cogdill (drums) and Daniel Griffith (bass), all long-time friends. Roadkeeper is completely independent and self-produced, doing their recording, producing and mixing in John’s studio – dubbed ‘Yacht Country’ – and releasing their songs on their own label Equal Temperament.
Blending dreamy shoegaze with dramatic psychedelic rock, Roadkeeper crafts exquisite songs that envelop us with complex melodies and lush soundscapes while delivering compelling and often socially relevant lyrics that give us a lot to think about. Since forming, they’ve released four outstanding singles, and now return to grace our eardrums with a beautiful new single “Narcissistic Peoples“, which officially drops September 6th. About the song, the band states: “This song was originally meant to be a satirical take on sci-fi future fascist recruitment propaganda but lyrically it ended up personal and political. It was inspired equally by the erasure of and actions against American indigenous cultures by the ruling class as well as the current refugee crisis at the southern US border.”
Musically, the song features exuberant layers of richly-textured guitars and shimmery synths, nicely driven by Griffith’s subtle bassline and Cogdill’s crisp, thumping drumbeats. It all provides a dreamy, melodic backdrop for Hetherington’s smooth falsetto vocals. The music feels light and breezy, belying the seriousness of the rather biting lyrics. Though brief, running scarcely more than two minutes, it’s an incredibly impactful song nonetheless. “Narcissistic Peoples” is another in a string of perfect singles from this exceptionally talented band, and I’m delighted to make it my New Song of the Week.
If you could be someone else just for a day Would you wash their cares away Or does the thought that they have it worse Make your feelings hurt because you like to feel Like a warrior fighting to save the world
Do you feel it?
It eats you alive but you’re not alone There are millions of people, bitter and selfish Narcissistic people waiting on a future Where everyone looks like them Everyone has power Everyone has religion There’s no one left to conquer
Craig-Russell Horne is an independent electronic music artist and producer from Glasgow, Scotland. Formerly a member of Scottish alternative rock band The 21st State, he’s been called one of the most promising newcomers to the Scottish electronic scene and, after listening to his music I can fully understand why. He blends a wide array of dynamic synthesized sounds with samples of old films and classic songs to create fascinating soundscapes for his compelling lyrics and distinctive vocals. Following up on his brilliant 2018 debut album WITH THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT, he’s just released a captivating new single “Sleepwalking“.
“Sleepwalking” is about someone with insomnia. Horne explains: “It tells a romantic story of someone who is kept up at night by their past, which constantly runs over in their mind. They can only find solace and, ultimately rest, when with the person they love. The first half of the track addresses the initial thoughts of regret and fear leading to the insomnia. The vocals are spaced and thin to represent internal thought while also panning from left to right to represent the thoughts spiraling around the head. In the second half, the conversation takes place between the two partners. It is open and honest while also dealing with the embarrassment of opening up. It symbolises love in the form of trust, humility and devotion.
The film samples [heard in the song] are from the 1955 film noir, ‘The Big Combo’, in which a police lieutenant who comes under pressure from a violent gang is helped by the gang leader’s wife to stop their reign over the city. As in ‘The Big Combo’, the two people represented in “Sleepwalking” are unexpected, perfect partners who have experienced very different lives but are brought together by a common bond.”
The track opens with a snippet of conversation between the aforementioned police lieutenant and the gangster’s wife, accompanied by an enchanting little keyboard riff. Once Horne’s vocals enter, the music swells with more of those glittery keyboards, along with somewhat grainy background percussive synths that creates an intriguing contrast in sound textures. Horne has a rather deep, emotive vocal style, but his delivery is understated on this track compared to many of the songs on WITH THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT. His vocals have a vulnerable yet seductive quality as he croons of his fervor: “Sleepwalking is the only vibe. And you’re the only thing that keeps me up at night. I’ve tried every drug to get me back to sleep. And then I realize that you cut too deep.”
ECLECTIC MUSIC LOVER 