Music For Nations Vinyl & CDs

Review: Seven years after Bullet For My Valentine first formed under the name Jeff Killed John, they finally dropped a debut album. Gone were the Nirvana and Metallica covers that had defined the band's first incarnation, and in was a more melodic and poppier take on thrash and heavy metal. Going on to sell in excess of 1.6million copies between its initial release in 2005 and 2018, it remains BFMV's most commercially successful outing, earning them gold certification by the US RIAA and UK BPI, and platinum in the eyes of Germany's BVMI. If all this is news to you, perhaps we should start with some references. One for fans of Funeral For A Friend, Alexisonfire and more glossy emo-hued metal groups, it doesn't take long to realise why praise was heaped on The Poison, and the musicians, for their powerhouse riffs and unapologetically loud aesthetic.

Review: 12 years. Twelve years. T-WELVE YEARS! It's been a decade plus two since Porcupine Tree bowed out with a spectacular One Last Job at London's Royal Albert Hall. There are few venues as fitting as that statesman of a concert hall for a band that sound like this. The English troupe have always been about these huge sounds, chords soaring above your head, riffs blazing, while tracks always threatening - and often following through - to veer off the straight and narrow into more experimental prog moods.

Now they're back with a much-anticipated, and long-delayed, comeback record. The question is, then, does it live up to expectations? The answer, thankfully, is yes, and then some. Closure/Continuation brings the crew's sound bang up to date, without forgetting who they are and always have been. It's a thing of beauty, but also thunderous power when it wants to unleash it.

Review: Manchester based, all girl, self-proclaimed doom-grunge outfit, Witch Fever, are set to finally drop their debut full-length, 'Congregation', this October (right in time for Halloween). Built around thundering riffs, sultry, twisted atmospherics and an incomparable wall of sound style trudge, evoking the ethereal post-punk of Warpaint by way of Soundgarden, the project is already hotly tipped to be one of the breakout releases of 2022. Frontwoman Amy Walpole's cavernous, shrill vocals are as haunting as they are lush, while the cryptic, horror-inspired lyrics and utterly massive production promise one of the most vital, dynamic, and unaccommodating debuts from the grunge, punk, or alternative rock spectrums, this decade has proverbed thus far.