10 Things We Never Knew About… Darkness Dynamite

Combining a wide array of metal influences, from Guns N’ Roses to Bring Me The Horizon, France’s Darkness Dynamite finally have a debut album to follow up on their acclaimed EP release ‘Through The Ashes Of The Wolves’. ‘The Astonishing Fury Of Mankind’, due for release in September, according to their MySpace, promises to deliver [...]

Album Review: Engineers – Three Fact Fader

Abandonment issues are channelled by Engineers on this, their first album divorced from former label Echo Records. They’re clearly a band made of stern stuff, as what would finish off most acts has galvanised them into making an ambitious, textural record. Separation is a lyrical theme reiterated several times throughout ‘Three Fact Fader’, counterpointed by [...]

Album Review: Swashbuckle – Back To The Noose

Thar she blows! Predating Alestorm’s 2008 debut album of pirating antics, New Jersey’s Swashbuckle have been plundering the soundwaves since 2006’s ‘Crewed By The Damned’. On the back of the current trend for novelty bands, this follow-up should be swigged down heartily. There are certainly some marvellously funny track-titles to gnaw on and the diverse [...]

Album Review: Triclops! – Out Of Africa

Hailing from California Triclops! are, according to their MySpace, “an experiment in trans-Bay friendship”. It brings together members from rival bands, San Fran’s Bottles and Skulls, Lower Forty-Eight and Victim’s Family and Oakland’s Fleshies. Originally released in the States last year, everything about this particular offering from them is unusual, with the band insisting on [...]

Interview: Metric

Metric have been having a very good 2009 so far. Their fourth album, ‘Fantasies’, has been incredibly well-received by the music press and they have been touring it under a hectic schedule. Recently, they just wrapped a very successful UK tour. The band, just fresh from touring the US and Canada, will be back in [...]

Featured Article

Festival Review: Download 2009

So, Download 2009. For 80,000 people this is the place to be. Where the music is hard and the experience pretty full-on. For many, Download is the festival where bands with most potential can get a mighty boost, where already great bands can commmunicate on a level with their real fans and, for any bands [...]

Editorial

• Hooray! Summer is here, and we all know what that means... the sleepy behemoth named Music Festival awakens to rampage all over the country. This month we'll have a report from Download 2009 and a bevy of interviews from bands playing there - Suicide Silence, None The Less and The Answer are just a few giving us an insight on their own festival experience. We'll also take a lookback on the first Serpentine Sessions event taking place in London. But that's not all! There's new albums from Sonic Youth, Enter Shikari, Placebo, Kong and That Fucking Tank to talk about. We've also got a few more secrets up our sleeves, but a gentleman never tells now does he? Stay tuned. #