Category: Music

Inja spent his formative years touring with the likes of Taskforce and Foreign Beggars, working with some of the best the UK has to offer. The rapper, who is as comfortable running over booming bass as he is laid back beats, also made his name hosting nights, showcasing his ability to switch between fun banter and straight up lyrical bangers.

Hat Low, released on July 20th, features Fallacy and Skinnyman and is a wall-shudderer [yeah, that’s a word] of a track. Double time rhymes over the fuzzing bassline tells you just what Inja is all about, not letting up throughout his verse. Wear your hat low and your hood high, and if you don’t you’re going down.

Coming with a remix from UK stalwart Mr Thing, a dubstep remix and a DnB remix, there is something here for everyone. It got the crowd at the recent UK DMCs bumping so make sure you don’t miss out on this one.

Abjekt.

Killswitch Engage come roaring back into the metal scene with their new self-titled album. This marks a new step in Killswitch’s career, the first time they’ve wrote a record that they haven’t produced themselves. You may think the quality of the music will suffer because of this, fortunately for fans of the band this is not the case.

It opens up with Never Again, a song that is evidence that Killswitch are heading in a different direction. Experimenting with time structures and different beats but still maintaining their trademark sound, it definitely serves as a good opener. The second song, the album’s first single, Starting Over puts the band back in their comfort zone and sounds like nothing new. Although this could be a wise move, as it won’t alienate people who already love their sound, then they can wean them onto the more experimental stuff.

When we get into the 3rd song The Forgotten we truly see how much Killswitch have matured, the song opens with a riff so southern rock it could have came from the fingers of Dimebag himself. This is the case with other songs such as I Would Do Anything and Save Me, it’s very obvious the band are bringing in a wider range of influence, and it really works well!

If you are already one of the many Killswitch fans out there don’t be startled that they’re broadening their horizons, it is still an unmistakably Killswitch record. Howard Jones’ voice is unique and even if he’s trying new things it’s still him, they still combine melody with metal, just try new ways of doing it.

It may be a brave album for the band to make; however they have pulled it off. The sound is more mature and shows a new direction to head in. They already have a very broad range of fans, touring with bands like Slayer and then My Chemical Romance, they might just bring in a few more off the back of this record. Even if they don’t I’m sure it’ll strengthen their fan base.

There may be just a few too many ear pounding riffs for my head to cope with, and I must admit I had to take a break half way through to compose myself. I’m sure Killswitch lovers won’t mind this; they wouldn’t like the band if they didn’t enjoy getting their ears barraged with metal.

Jonathan Teggert

In a failing hardcore scene The Horror are the type of band that we need to see more of. Unapologetically fast, full of energy, and not giving a shit who likes it. Spoils Of War is their new 15-song attack on a scene full of posers dancing around to below average bands who only care about “beatdowns.”

Both socially and politically aware the album is not only great music, but it also has a sophisticated message, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in hardcore for a long time. You could argue that The Horror are more crust than hardcore, but in an almost non existent crust scene they have to play their share of hardcore shows.

The songs are short, fast and loud, and rarely does it vary, but they aren’t attempting to experiment, so why does it need to have variety? There is a beauty in simplicity that The Horror encompasses, you don’t need to use complex scales and have complicated structures to write a good hardcore song. Even when they stray away from simplicity with solos they still pull it off.

They obviously take influence from bands such as Infest, Drop dead and Man is the Bastard, and this record is a top-notch homage to aforementioned bands. Through combining influence they are moulding their own sound, songs like Flirting With The Right could well be from a crossover thrash band and closing title track The Spoils Of War has doom influence in there.

Unfortunately I’m afraid “kids” who will favour bands that are essentially rubbish, but wear tight jeans and care more about moshing will sideline The Horror, because of this the band may never get the recognition they deserve. I hope that the few hardcore fans that genuinely care about music will take notice of The Horror and give them the appreciation they deserve. Spoils of War is a great record and is much better than most of the tripe coming from the UK at the moment.

Jonathan Teggert