Kerrang! Radio host Alex Baker brings you the hottest new bands to get your ears around immediately…
You know what? For the past 15 years, I’ve done my show on Kerrang! Radio every single week, bringing you the best of the best new bands and artists, and still today, all these years later, I’m blown away by the sheer enormity of the talent that exists on our planet. Fifteen years of listening to thousands and thousands of submissions, and still there’s exciting, fresh sounds, still there’s new music that makes your hair stand on end. It will always be my primary addiction.
Here’s some bloody great examples of the sort of talent I’m talking about...
The first time I heard Viscera, I felt like the walls of the room I was in shattered into nothingness, the earth cracked in a circle all around me and a sort of earth platform formed under my feet and forced me upwards at incomprehensible speeds into the atmosphere, while rings of flames and fire burst out of the cracks and licked at my feet.
Okay, that might be a bit over-dramatic, but it is actually how I felt. The sheer weight of this band's sound is truly phenomenal, but at the same time it’s a sound that soars – it’s the sort of technical, massive, expansive metal that can only be created by masters of the craft, so it’s no wonder that it’s a band that has been formed from ex-members of Heart Of A Coward, Surfaces, Abhorrent Decimation, Martyr Defiled and Nervecell.
Unbelievably amazing.
Signed to the ever-vibrant Venn Records, there is so much to like about Other Half – where do I even start? The jarring, angular, mathematic instrumentation, juxtaposed with vocal lines that you literally won't be able to wait to scream back at the band at shows? The relentless, boundless energy of their sound? Or perhaps the truly exceptional lyrics – through which they create scenes/visuals in the mind, while leaving enough open to interpretation – so your brain is engaged for once, in a world of vacuous shite. God knows what this is? Punk? Post-hardcore? Why do we even feel the need to categorise it? Just soak it in.
Every single day, artists and music fans give less and less of a shit about genre norms. With every day that passes, bands are shaking off the shackles and embracing artistry that's about expressing something that comes from your core, not expressing what you feel like you need to express, or making music based purely on what audiences want to hear. True artistry is about making music that you have to make, music that tells the stories you want to tell regardless of whether the form that comes through is metal or trap or electronica or whatever. Like, literally who gives a shit? Is it GOOD, or is it NOT GOOD? That is literally the only thing that matters to me.
And here's an artist that shares that vision: Kubrick, the child of two opera singers, the grandson of one of the most visionary directors in the history of cinema, and a guy who creates some of the most musical diverse music I’ve heard from a single artist in years. From metalcore, to soulful electronically-backed music, and everything in between – the music fits the emotion or the story he wants to portray in that song.
Here’s his latest single, but explore the rest of his music as well!
Before I say anything else, I wanna shout out the people in this business who really care about supporting new artists, people who get the same kick out of watching artists grow and develop and smash it that I do, people that don’t do it for themselves but do it for the music.
Specifically I want to shout out Alyx Holcombe, for two reasons: 1) Because I have so much respect for the graft and commitment she consistently shows for supporting new talent, and 2) Because it’s her who put this next band on my radar, and I’ve been playing them on my show ever since! Tropic Gold have a vibrant, powerful, exciting sound that leaves you bopping your head and screwfacing in appreciation all the way through. Fans of contemporary Bring Me The Horizon (myself included) will no doubt absolutely dig them – listen and love below.
Listen to Alex Baker present The Fresh Blood Show on Kerrang! Radio, Wednesday nights from 10pm.
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