#NewMusicFriday: February 14th 2025

Love might be in the air but so is the sound of #NewMusicFriday releases. This week is a loaded week with a plethora of noteworthy releases to hear.

Metal heavyweights Bleeding Through return with their ninth album, aptly titled – ‘Nine’. The Southern Californian’s first full-length in seven years is as bruising as you’d expect. Tracks such as ‘Dead, But So Alive’ are unleashed with an abundance of fury. While keyboardist Marta Demmel’s harmonies are utilised more on ‘Lost In Isolation’ and ‘Path To Our Disease,’ bringing a welcomed expansive element to Bleeding Through‘s metallic heaviness.

Another band with plenty of longevity is Lacuna Coil. The Italian goth metallers deliver their tenth album, ‘Sleepless Empire’, today. As always, Cristina Scabbia’s smooth harmonies and Andrea Ferro’s throaty barks bounce off one another brilliantly. Yet it’s Scabbia who more often steals the show, and here is no different. Both are backed by an accomplished musical cocktail of chugging riffs, shredding solos, and Scabbia’s soaring melodies.

‘Anthemic rockers Hands Like Houses continue their new era with The Faim’s Josh Raven at the forefront with the release of ‘Atmospherics’. It brings together their ‘Tropo(sphere)’, ‘Strato(sphere)’, and ‘Meso(sphere)’ EPs and pairs it with ‘Thermo(sphere)’ to create a four-volume arch. With the help of a smattering of guest spots (Underøath’s Aaron Gillespie, Sleeping With Sirens’ Kellin Quinn, Redhook’s Emmy Mack, and Normandie), Hands Like Houses broadly deliver sixteen cuts of soaring post-hardcore rock with plenty of bold hooks to offer.

Homegrown UK Talent

When it comes to emerging UK names looking to leave their mark, look no further than the new releases from Love is Noise (‘To live in a different way’) and The Nightmares (‘Fire in Heaven’). Both albums are covered in detail below, and are highly recommended. As a site, we’ve always taken pride in highlighting promising homegrown talent, and I feel Love is Noise and The Nightmares personify that.

If you want some familiar British acts, then there is new music from Welsh rock stalwarts Manic Street Preachers. Today they release ‘Critical Thinking’, their 15th studio album. Punk Rock Factory returns with more unadulterated fun with the buoyant ‘All Hands On Deck’. It sees the pop-punk specialists put their own spin on a host of 90’s pop hits; ‘C’est La Vie’, ‘Back For Good,’ and more.

Emerging (and Returning) Overseas Names

Further afield, there are a handful of notable releases. Colorado’s The Velveteers bring a groove-filled array of garage rock on ‘A Million Knives’. Rising Nashville catchy punks Winona Fighter drop ‘My Apologies To The Chef’. The trio’s debut is a sugar-rush collection of hooky punk rock with a healthy dose of angst and anxiety. Whereas, Church Tongue‘s ‘You’ll Know It Was Me’ sees the Midwest hardcore outfit be uncompromising and relentless in their destructive pursuit. The six-track EP also sees Deafheaven’s George Clarke, God’s Hate and Twitching Tongues’ Colin Young, and Initiate vocalist Crystal Pak.

Seattle pop-punk’s Amber Pacific return after 10 years with ‘All In’. Its 12 tracks offer up plenty of solid hooks with a hint of nostalgia The previously mentioned Kellin Quinn goes it alone Haunted Mouths. His debut solo album, ‘A Collection Of Greetings’ hones in on a lo-fi indie-pop sound. It’s a meditative contrast to energetic emo/post-hardcore. Finally, there is Nova Scotia quartet Customer Service. Their ‘to you, after 2000 years’ EP is an easily digestible three-track EP of melodic indie-emo delivered in six minutes.

Love is Noise – To live in a different way

Ever since I caught Love Is Noise opening for Holding Absence in Nottingham two years ago, I’ve been keeping tabs on the now solo outfit. While its personnel may have whittled down from three to one, you get the feeling that Love is Noise is vocalist/guitarist Cam Humphrey’s project, especially on the evidence of their debut album. While ‘To live in a different way’, maintains the ethereal essence of what LiN has done previously, it’s considerably more consistently packaged here.

On the surface, Humphrey, along with now former guitarist Tom Mellon (who’s since left to explore other musical endeavours), ‘To live in a different way’ takes shoegaze-inspired metal and makes it sounder bigger, even ambitious. It’s paired with a thematic foundation that is cathartic, embracing the feeling of love, lost, and hope. ‘Devotion’ sets the tone early on with lines such as “My everything, What’s mine is yours tonight” wrapped around by a Britpop melody. Its overall delivery is wide and layered. In contrast, ‘Soft Glow’ is more immediate, allowing Humphrey to deliver a simple but effective hook of “You are the one that shines on me”. The track also highlights LiN‘s ability to shift in tone instantly. One moment Humphrey’s voice is soulful, the next he’s unhinged being eaten up by the paranoia of being in love can bring.

Read the full review here.

The Nightmares – Fire In Heaven

Ever since emerging out of Newport, The Nightmares have somewhat been lumbered with being compared to previous touring pals Creeper. Sure, both have a bleak aesthetic to their presentation and are rooted in gothic punk. However, ‘Fire In Heaven’ allows The Nightmares to step out of whatever bleak shadow they’ve been put in. Where 2023’s ‘Séance’ leaned into murky stylings, this second full-length feels broader, and even brighter in places.

For starters, keyboardist Eleanor Coburn has stepped up her vocal contributions to take equal billing with Adam Parslow. It provides the 11 songs on offer a compelling dynamic. It’s paired with a thematic approach that explores the curiosity of morality and the wider universe while maintaining the familiar theme of lost love. Admittedly, tracks like ‘Something in the Dark’ do little to evolve from the brooding synth-punk, yet with its eerie keys and bubbling bass, it still has a tendency to draw you in.

Read the full review here.

What is out on #NewMusicFriday?

Bleeding Through – NINE
Hands Like Houses – A T M O S P H E R I C S
Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire
Love is Noise – To live in a different way
The Velveteers – A Million Knives
The Nightmares – Fire In Heaven
Winona Fighter – My Apologies To The Chef
Punk Rock Factory – All Hands On Deck
Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking
Bartees Strange – Horror
Amber Pacific – All In
Haunted Mouths – A Collection of Greetings
Church Tongue – You’ll Know It Was Me
Windwaker – Hyperviolence (Expansion Pack)
Hangman’s Chair – Saddiction
Customer Service – to you, after 2000 years
Cathedrale – Poison
Future Living – Get Vasectomy
Breakfast With Bears – Conversations
Blood Cult – We’re Gonna Take Your Soul
Dynazty – Game of Faces
Matt Edible & The Obtuse Angels – The Optometrist
Novarupta – Astral Sands
Pothamus – Abur
Sicksense – Cross Me Twice
Carmeria – Trinity: Volume I
Last Days of Heaven – Out of Body
Decline Of The I – Wilhelm
Twiztid – Welcome To Your Funeral
venturing – Ghostholding
Gavin McLeod – The Constant Astonishment
Dead American – Attention Deficit
Black Narcissus – There Lingers One Who’s Long Forgotten

If you think I’ve missed something or have a new album/EP/song to tell us about, tell us about it here.

If you’re looking for the latest tracks focusing on rock, punk, hardcore, metal, emo, and everything in between, then check out our ‘Newish Music’ playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.