Who are Lorna Shore’s fans?We head to London’s iconic Alexandra Palace for Lorna Shore’s biggest-ever UK headline show, and get to know the New Jersey noisemongers’ most dedicated fans…
Home Front: “We want every album to be like going into a record store and checking out all the different sections”Bridging the worlds of spiky old-school punk rock and synth-stained new wave, Home Front have built a reputation for grit and guile, acknowledging alternative music’s past while shaping its future. Processing deep personal turmoil on superb second album Watch It Die, too, the Edmonton crew look set to inspire a new generation to start fixing things one small step at a time…
Angel Du$t: “Music and art are just side-projects for a lot of people, but that sh*t is my whole life”Even within the notoriously fanatical world of heavy music, Justice Tripp is renowned as an uncompromising lifer. A warm, bright counterpoint to the frosty darkness of Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t began as a way to unwind and cut loose from macho expectation. But sixth LP COLD 2 THE TOUCH proves they’re a band to take every bit as seriously…
“My housing situation was stressful. It felt like things could collapse at any time”: Inside The Amity Affliction’s painful new albumAfter the death of his estranged mother in July 2024, trauma from Joel Birch’s childhood home flooded back to The Amity Affliction vocalist. As the Queensland metalcore stalwarts announce their ninth LP House Of Cards, he tells K! about challenging motherhood as a “sacred space in society”, and realising he still needed that nugget of optimism…
Converge: “It would be interesting to live in world where I didn’t feel the need for this catharsis”A new Converge album is nearly upon us, and as you’d imagine, it is excellent. Peeling back the layers of meaning behind Love Is Not Enough, legendary frontman Jacob Bannon talks striving for the best, the “beautiful soapbox” that is his band, and why it’s surprising that Foo Fighters are fans…
“F*ck you, we’re going to win because love is more important than hate”: Inside Puscifer’s new normalThe world is falling apart all around us, but Maynard James Keenan hasn’t given up hope just yet. As he reunites with his Puscifer bandmates Carina Round and Mat Mitchell for new album Normal Isn’t, we get their thoughts on everything from misery to mudslides and manscaping…
Urne: “The last album was bleak. I want people to rejoice to this one. It’s like a religious experience”Urne’s 2023 LP A Feast On Sorrow made them the toast of British metal. It was also uncomfortably dark. For their third outing, Setting Fire To The Sky, frontman Joe Nally explains how he looked upward, and decided to celebrate.
Of Mice & Men: “Your home can really be anywhere. It’s about the people you surround yourself with”Nine albums into their career, Of Mice & Men are as content as they have ever been. Inviting us on a tour of their Californian stomping grounds, the band reveal why home is where the heart is…
Possibility, perspective and turning pain into positivity: Inside the return of ShieldsAs Shields return following their 2018 split, the Brit metalcore crew reflect on the tragedy that led to their break-up, how they came back together with a new line-up, and why new album Death & Connection has ultimately changed who they are going forwards…
“I made a promise to tell the truth, and the first person you’re telling the truth to is yourself”: How Sick Joy hit bottom, cleaned up and faced realityBetween getting sober and “having to put the wheels back on” his band after losing his line-up, Mykl Barton has climbed an uphill road making Sick Joy’s new album, More Forever. But when it’s all you’ve got, as he says, you have to give it everything…
MOTHICA: “My goal used to be selling out Wembley. Now I just want to wake up and enjoy the people I’m around in my everyday life”In the 18 months since her debut Kerrang! Cover Story, McKenzie Ellis has faced addiction, rehab and cancelled tour dates. For a while, she even contemplated packing in music entirely. Now on the other side and with a dazzling EP on the way, she introduces a whole new era of MOTHICA…
“We’re leaving everything in the past”: Inside Dead Pony’s fiery, fearless returnFollowing 2024 breakout debut IGNORE THIS, Dead Pony are back with one of their heaviest songs ever: Eat My Dust!. From channelling the likes of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, to making sure the comments are muted on social media, vocalist Anna Shields unpacks where the band are at right now…
“Dreams are a perpetual source of pain”: MØL on their triumphantly nihilistic returnWhen Kim Song Sternkopf learned he had ADHD, it got him thinking about perception and connection. On Danish blackgaze heroes MØL’s new album Dreamcrush, he’s exploring these ideas, and how it’s good to adjust when reality shifts…
The rise of Good Charlotte, as told through their most important gigsAt just 16 years of age, Good Charlotte played their first show to “15 other kids”. Thirty years later and they’re going stronger than ever. Benji Madden tells the band’s story through 10 pivotal gigs…
Therapy, loving siblings, putting up walls and hyperpop: Cavetown takes us inside Running With ScissorsPerforming as Cavetown, Robin Skinner has become a billion-streaming sensation. It’s also, he explains, become a place in which to work through life’s knots and joys, as on new album Running With Scissors…
Set It Off: “This is a love letter to all the bullsh*t you’ve got to go through in this business, and finding yourself stronger for it”Drained and disenfranchised, Set It Off saw out the end of their last record deal, then opted to roll the dice and go it alone. The gamble paid off immediately, as 2023 single Punching Bag kick-started a bold new era. Combining the pain of lessons learned with the buzz of self-belief, their self-titled sixth album confirms a limitless potential…
