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Every Friday
Louder
Louder’s weekly newsletter is jam-packed with the team’s personal highlights from the last seven days, including features, breaking news, reviews and tons of juicy exclusives from the world of alternative music.
Every Friday
Classic Rock
The Classic Rock newsletter is an essential read for the discerning rock fan. Every week we bring you the news, reviews and the very best features and interviews from our extensive archive. Written by rock fans for rock fans.
Every Friday
Metal Hammer
For the last four decades Metal Hammer has been the world’s greatest metal magazine. Created by metalheads for metalheads, ‘Hammer takes you behind the scenes, closer to the action, and nearer to the bands that you love the most.
Every Friday
Prog
The Prog newsletter brings you the very best of Prog Magazine and our website, every Friday. We'll deliver you the very latest news from the Prog universe, informative features and archive material from Prog’s impressive vault.
They'll be celebrating throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky as news breaks that local heroes Otis have triumphed in our latest Tracks Of The Week contest. Their victory was so comprehensive it brings to mind another Kentucky rout, Col. John S. Scott's Confederate cavalry victory over Union armies at the Battle of Richmond in 1862. So congratulations to them.
The Cold Stares came second, and Tailgunner skedaddled home in third place. But right now it's time to leave all this in the past and move into the future, where eight new combatants are ready to do battle, uniforms ready for inspection, the sun glinting off their helmets.
The Sheepdogs - I Do
Shake off any Monday blues or existential crises (even if just for three minutes and forty seconds) with the luscious guitarmonies and effortlessly rolling 70s spirit and singalong vibes of I Do – hot off the Canadians’ next album Keep Out Of The Storm. Think Creedencey warmth with a glam-booted bounce and open-hearted sunshine for days, plus one of our favourite 'young-old-soul' lyrics of the year so far: ‘Oh you came from up above / I love you more than Axis: Bold As Love’. Beautiful.
Kris Barras Band - All Falls Down
Stepping out from the effects of a full-on 2025 – in which he launched bluesy side-project Hollow Souls, and tragically lost his mother – MMA fighter-turned-hard rocker Kris Barras comes back fighting on All Falls Down. Originally written in 2020, it never quite had its moment in the sun, but some choice reworking made it a shoe-in for his self-titled band’s next album. “I feel like it's got all of the typical KBB elements,” Kris says. “Big chorus, heavy riffs and a decent groove. It's probably one of the heavier tracks from this new batch but it sets the tone for the overall sound of what's to come and hopefully people are into it!"
The Record Company - Stay Up High
A gorgeous slow-burner of a track, at once dreamy, atmospheric and slightly haunting, Stay Up High finds this LA-based trio doing their old-world yet fresh, clever bluesy thing in style. Think coolly wandering basslines, deft drums and layers of bare-bones bluesiness, riffy touches and warm sprinkles of piano – with Chris Vos’s easy yet rich, worldly falsetto soaring over the top of it all. Check it out as part of the digital edition of their excellent debut Give It Back To You, which is reissued in a deluxe 10th anniversary format this week.
All Them Witches - Red Rocking Chair
Marrying Sabbathian sludge with angular, head-spinning psychedelia, some darkly folky fiddle strains and a big distorted guitar solo, All Them Witches show their colours here as one of Nashville’s most interesting rock proponents. Red Rocking Chair is huge, eerie – weird in a woozy but hooky way that sits in your chest long after the last notes have faded. After over a decade of cultivating their sound, with various twists along the way, they’ve become the mavericks you can count on. Even if you’re never *exactly* sure what they’ll do next.
![All Them Witches - Red Rocking Chair [Official Visualizer] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6I221jU1XO0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Robben Ford - Perfect Illusion
Robben Ford is perhaps best-known as a guitar hero with a CV heavy on performances with jazz, folk and rock royalty (Miles Davis, George Harrison, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan…) but he’s got proper chops as a singer/songwriter too, as this dulcet, upbeat yet pensive ballad reveals. “That was written back in 1999 on my own during a period of writing with Michael McDonald,” Robben explains. “I went out to get some air and on the gravel driveway, I saw what looked like a jewel. I look closer and it’s a drop of water, reflecting the light. And I thought: ‘Hah, perfect illusion’.” Worth the wait.
A Thousand Horses - Shadows
Continuing their bounceback from addiction, divorce and departed bandmates, Nashville’s adopted sons A Thousand Horses lean further into their grungier, moodier rock side on Shadows – featuring Underoath drummer/singer Aaron Gillespie. Michael Hobby’s distinctively Southern vocals ensure that they keep at least one boot in countrified waters, but as with other releases from new album White Flag Down (out at the end of this month) it finds them sitting very naturally in heavy territory.
Starbenders - Summon My Heart
By our count, Starbenders have now released about nine dozen songs from their upcoming album The Beast Goes On, and the quality resolutely refuses to drop. Summon My Heart sounds like a spooky, science-fiction version of Pat Benatar, with hints of Love Is A Battlefield, a "Ha! Ha! Ha!" bit that'll work brilliantly live, and new levels of propulsion from drummer Qi Wei. A UK tour kicks off at the Deaf Institute in Manchester on June 4, and we very much advise you to make room in your schedule to attend one of the shows.
Earth Tongue - Orbit Of A Witch
If you like Castle Rat, there's every chance you'll like Berlin-based Kiwis Earth Tongue, whose new showstopper Orbit Of A Witch mines a similar fantasy vein, but with added face-melting fuzz. Recorded in Los Angeles with Ty Segall, it comes from the duo's upcoming third album Dungeon Vision, which was unleashed upon us human weaklings on Friday. Catch 'em on tour in New Zealand this week, if you dare.
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