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The Top Albums of 2025!

6th December 2025 Leave a comment

Here we are, that time of the year again! The month where I go insane and try to rank 100 out of the over 500 albums I’ve listened to this year into the order in which I enjoyed them the most. It’s equal parts subjective and objective, and I’m convinced I’ve left off so many excellent albums, so if your favourites aren’t here, I’m sorry and they are most likely awesome! Without further ado, let’s dive into the chaos, shall we?

100 – Eli Young Band: Strange Hours

Yep, that’s how strong we’re starting. I told you it’s been a tough year! The Texan country band put out their seventh studio album back at the start of August, and it’s been a mainstay in my rotation since then. It was the perfect summer album, combining catchy vocals and harmonies with their brand of country which perfectly combines pop, rock and Americana. I’ve been a fan of the band a few years now, and this is easily my favourite release from them in that timeframe. It’s a strong album from start to finish, being an incredibly easy 43-minutes of chilled-out, catchy country to listen to! It’s so well written and put together, the perfect inoffensive release into the genre that covers pretty much all bases. So, if you even have a passing interest in the genre, I’d definitely recommend checking it out! We gave it a solid 9/10 upon release, and I very much stand by that now!

Listen to: Nothing on the Wild, All Good with Me, and Everybody Else

99 – Circus 66: Elements

Album #2 from the UK hard rockers blew me away back in March, and upon revisiting it for this list, I was blown away once again! It’s nearly 50 minutes of awesome, foot-stompin’, sleazy guitar riffing and soaring vocals, and I love it! The band are all insanely talented, everyone getting their time to shine plenty throughout, and have crafted an excellent collection of NWOCR tracks here. It’s impossible not to have a good time listening to this, and I cannot recommend it enough to any rock fans out there. It’s insane to me that they aren’t a massive band already, but they have killed it with this release and are very much looking like 2026 will be a breakout year for them! It’s very easy to hear why we gave it 9/10, and why it makes it onto our list!

Listen to: Replace the Pain, We All Need Saving, and Love on the Other Side

98 – An Evening With Knives: End of Time

This proggy alt metal release from towards the start of the year came five years after their previous studio album, and showed just how much the band had grown and matured. It’s heavy, groovy and melodic in all the best ways, and somehow combines together elements of everything from stoner and desert rock to prog to heavy metal to plenty in between! The trio are insanely talented, all playing their asses off from front to back, and have produced something truly special with this release, managing to sound pretty unique at a time when that is almost impossible! If you are into anything from QOTSA to Tool to even Machine Head and Devildriver, do yourselves a favour and check this out ASAP! It got a very easy 9/10 from us when it dropped, and I fully stand by that rating now, showing just why it made the cut for this list!

Listen to: Pride of Lions, Death and The Mistake

97 – Trick or Treat: Ghosted

This epic slab of old-school heavy metal mixed with more old-school power metal is just as fantastic now as it was in April when it first dropped. Combining sounds like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Hammerfall and their spooky, horror theming works perfectly, and makes for a solid album as it is. Then you take into account just how phenomenally talented every band member is, from the vocals to the drumming to the soloing and riffing, it’s all so good, and it’s so very easy to fall in love with this release. It’s stacked to the brim with awesome tracks, and even some awesome guest appearances from Adrienne Cowen and Christopher Bowes. 45-minutes still now goes by in a flash even after a few listens. If you’re into power metal you’re probably already checking it out from reading this, but if not I’d definitely recommend it to just about any music fan. It’s got someone of the biggest choruses of the year. Yet another very solid 9/10 from us, and incredibly deserving of its spot on our list!

Listen to: Craven Road, Bloodmoon, and Evil Dead Never Sleeps

96 – The Rasmus: Weirdo

The 11th studio album from the pop/alt metal band goes far harder than I feel almost anyone expected before it released! From genuinely heaving riffing to being packed full of their typically arena-filling choruses, it very much felt like a return to the top after a few years of honestly a little middling releases. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a touch cringy at times lyrically, but that is almost part of the charm with this sort of music! It’s barely half an hour and an incredibly easy listen, and a release I’d recommend to anyone into more of a poppy hook! It’s a sound I feel nostalgic for despite never really getting into it much in my teen years, so for anyone who was more into the band or stuff like Him, it would probably get even higher. It got another incredibly solid 9/10 from us and is more than deserving it’s spot on this list!

Listen to: Creatures of Chaos, Dead Ringer, and You Want it All

95 – Lacuna Coil: Sleepless Empire

The symphonic/industrial metal powerhouses very much returned to form in 2025, and this album is a huge indicator of that! This thing is catchy, heavy and packed with banger after banger. From the soaring operatic vocals to the harsh screams, both fit so well over the awesome, almost nu-metal infused instrumentation. It’s another album that goes hard from start to finish too, every song being as good as the last. They were a band I somehow didn’t get into much in my youth, so as a first full album by them I’ve check out, I’m a little obsessed! The only reason it is this low down is because it is so an insanely high quality year for new music! It still got another incredibly solid 9/10 from us, and if you’re even passingly into metal, I’d highly recommend giving this one a try!

Listen to: Oxygen, Scarecrow, and Hosting the Shadow

94 – Sleep Theory: Afterglow

Very much the breakout stars of 2025, the debut album from the metalcore upstarts has already set them up to be a huge name sooner rather than later. They channel massive early ADTR vibes in the best ways, especially since said band have taken a nosedive in recent years. It’s full of ch0nky riffs, huge choruses and some great screams, and is a fantastic 40-minute listen. I actually hadn’t revisited it too much since it’s May release, but having checked it out again while writing this list, I fell in love with it all over again. It’s incredibly radio/mainstream friendly, but that isn’t at all a bad thing. The band have worked their asses off on socials the last couple of years to make this a big release, and it has paid off in spades. However, the quality of the music is also high, certainly contributing to their fast success. If it was slightly more adventurous and innovative, it would have ended up even higher on the list but still, making it on here shows how high quality it is! I gave it 8.5/10 when it dropped, and I still agree with that now, but it may even sneak up to more like a 9 on some listens!

Listen to: Hourglass, Fallout, and Just a Mistake

93 – Cardinal Black: Midnight at the Valencia

This is a modern soft rock masterpiece. End of discussion. It gives off massive Genesis or Seal vibes, but definitely with a current day edge to it. Over half a year later and Tom’s vocals still give me goosebumps at times throughout. However, the arrangement of every song compliments his voice perfectly, everyone being incredible musicians and songwriters. While the band have certainly been on a lot of tongues the last couple of years, this truly felt like the year that Cardinal Black really broke out. And, this album is definitely a big reason for that! It’s fucking beautiful, and it’s an album that still makes me feel the same as I did the first time every time I spin it. The only reason it’s a little lower than maybe expected is because it does get a little samey after a while. However, when that similar stuff is all banging, it’s impossible not to love it, still! This got a whopping 9.5/10 from us and it’s hard not to still agree with that sentiment now!

Listen to: Ride Home, Breathe, and Morning Light

92 – Tanner Usrey: These Days

The first of a healthy handful of bands in this vaguely indie country-Americana sound that has gotten so big the last couple of years on this list. The fact that it is at this point in it certainly doesn’t diminish its quality either, as this is a fanatic release! It’s incredibly varied too, from blusy Southern rock to more of an indie flavour to even a more traditional country style. And, no matter the sound, it’s performed brilliantly and packed full of emotion from start to finish. My only slight complaint is that the pacing and arraignment of it is a little slow at times. However, every song is excellent, and it honestly has some of my favourite tracks of the year on it, the exceptional very much outweighing anything slightly less-so. I’d easily put this up there with his debut album, even if it hasn’t had quite as much love! We gave it a solid 9/10, and it more than earned its spot here!

Listen to: If you Call me Again, Bad Love, and With You

91 – Zach Top: Ain’t in it for my Health

Yes, I know, people are going to be BIG MAD for this being so low down on this list. He’s an absolutely massive artist for sure, and this is one hell of an album. My main bug to bare is that, as much as I love a classical country vibe typically, a lot of this is a touch on the slower side. That’s inherently not an issue at all, but it does get a touch old through the 50-minute length. However, there is no denying the HUGE talent on display throughout, from a songwriting, vocal and playing standpoint, and it’s easy to hear why he’s one of the biggest names in the genre currently. If you are at all a fan of traditional country music, this is well worth checking out. If it wasn’t for the genre having such a strong year again, this would certainly be higher up. We gave it a very solid 8.5/10, and it may have crept even higher than that since its release!

Listen to: Guitar, Splitsville, and Flip—Flop

90 – Pridian: Venetian Dark

The first debut album to make it onto our list this year, and it’s an awesome slab of modern metal from the Estonian four-piece. It’s the perfect blend of heavy, chuggy riffing, crushing drums and some awesome screams. Yet, it also still has moments of levity and cleanness throughout, the band clearly hugely talented to be able to put it all together! This thing came out all the way back in May and has spent the rest of the year pretty firmly in my rotation, blowing me away each time. It’s heavy, melodic and also rather menacing and gothic throughout, being an awesome combo! This is somehow one of the albums that we missed the week of its release, but it gets an incredibly deserving 9/10 now, and easily earned its spot on this list! Check it out if you are at all into melodic metal.

Listen to: Cyanide Dreams, Ruin, and Void Resonance

89 – Slaughter to Prevail: GRIZZLY

One of the most hyped albums of the year, at least in the deathcore scene, and to my shock it was a bit more of a grower on me than an immediate hit. Don’t get me wrong, it hits hard right from the first listen, but something about it didn’t hook me in immediately. Maybe it was because, much like my issues with Falling in Reverse or Electric Callboy in recent years, we’d heard a good chunk of the album before its release, and had sat with it for a while. So, while none of it is at all bad, it did feel ever so slightly underwhelming.

However, coming back to this album a couple of times since, I’ve definitely grown to appreciate it more! Alex is one of the best vocalists and frontmen in the game today, and the band behind him have crafted nearly an hour of crushingly heavy (but still fun) deathcore. If you are a fan of the heavier side of metal, I cannot recommend this enough. They deserve all the praise they get and the size they have climbed to, and this album very much cements them at the top of their style. As you could probably guess by this point, it got a 9/10 from us when it released, but it may be even slightly higher than that now!

Listen to: Russian Grizzly in America, Viking, and Lift That Shit

88 – Julia DiGrazia: All In

Another massive debut album, this time from a woman who’s already becoming a powerhouse in country. Having gotten her first big break on her and Evan Honer’s (more on him later) cover of Tyler Childers’ ‘Jersey Giant’ back in 2022, her rise has already been meteoric, and capped off perfectly by this collection. Whether it’s blues/southern tinged country rock, classic country or more of an Americana sound, it has a bit of everything across it’s just 30-minute runtime. Every track is as good as the last, and makes for such an incredibly easy listen. She’s already becoming a massive name in the scene, and it’s incredibly easy to hear why. If you haven’t already, give this a spin, you’ll surely love it as much as I do! It got a massive, and rightly deserved, 9.5/10 in our review, and if it wasn’t such a strong year, it would have gotten even higher on our list!

Listen to: Rollercoaster, Two Truths and a Liar, and Life’s Been Good Lately

87 – Kyle Gordon: Kyle Gordon is Wonderful

This was maybe the hardest album to place on this list. It nearly didn’t make it at all, as comedy music seems to be such a controversial topic these days. However, Kyle has crafted something truly special here, and it’s an enjoyable release with or without the fantastic comedy wit, so there was no way it wasn’t sneaking on here. I was already a fan of his, but the concept and creativity of this release really blew me away. 10 different genres from 10 different ‘artists’, detailing the most “Wonderfully Ridiculous Songs of All Time”. Whether it’s Europop, nu metal, indie or traditional country/bluegrass, Kyle is an INCREDIBLE songwriter, and does each style so well. I challenge you to check this out and try to tell me you don’t love it, I honestly think it’s impossible! It was another one I missed out on reviewing when it dropped, but I can’t give it any less than 9/10! I’ve spun it a lot in the last eight months since its release, and I don’t think I’ll be stopping any time soon!

Listen to: We Will Never Die, Crawl to Me, and My Husband’s Ghost

86 – Lorna Shore: I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me

The other kings of modern deathcore very much do their own thing, and sound fantastic doing so! This thing is over an hour spread across just 10 songs, and is much symphonic/power metal as it is anything else. It’s epic, grandiose and wildly ambitious, and the band pull it off like only Lorna could. From the crazy heaviness of the blastbeats and breakdowns to Wills now iconic vocals, the band followed up on Pain Remains pretty perfectly! If you are into the band or genre at all and somehow haven’t checked this out already, do so as soon as you can! It won’t be for everyone, but I loved this, and the genre has very much grown on me over the last year or two thanks to bands like Lorna and Slaughter. It got a very easy 9/10 back in September, and it’s hard to argue against that after another few listens! It more than earns its spot on this list, and could have been higher if there weren’t so many excellent heavier albums alongside it!

Listen to: Prison of Flesh, In Darkness and Forevermore

85 – Dillon Carmichael: Keepin’ Country Alive

Four years after Dillon’s breakout success with Son of a, he returned in a major way with this album back in June. It’s Southern rock tinged modern country music, and a lot of fun across its 14 songs! It feels like it would have fit perfectly into the mainstream scene a decade ago, somehow combining the bro-country style of FGL with more of a Blackberry Smoke or TC3 flavour. Then again, he has plenty of Jon Pardi vibes to him too, it making sense that he supported him the other year. Yes, it’s a touch cringy and stereotypical when it comes to lyrics and theming at times, but that almost adds to the charm when it’s this good. From the powerful vocals to the catchy melodies and choruses to some awesome riffing and instrumentation throughout, it’s impossible not to fall in love with this! There really isn’t a bad track on the album, and three-quarters-of-an-hour really goes by in a flash. If you have even a passing interest in country music, this is a must to be checking out! It got a massive 9.5/10 from us, and you only have to listen to see why! It more than deserves this slot on our list!

Listen to: Raised Up Wrong, When She’s Drinkin’, and No Matter How Hard I Try

84 – Ghost Hounds: Almost Home

Perfectly combining old-school rock’n’roll, soul and country music, the fifth album from the Pennsylvanian natives has honestly been a little underrated this year. I’m not sure if it’s due to it being the first release since their change in vocalist, with Tre Nation personally scouting out SAVNT to replace him, but this is an incredible release that just hasn’t got the love I feel it should have. There are some genuinely excellent blues rock tracks, be it boot-stompin’ or more slower, emotional ballads. However, to address the elephant in the room, it’s not quite as high as I expected it to be because it does drop off a fair bit by the end. The first half of it is excellent, but the second half is maybe one too many slower tracks in a row. Still, just think how good those opening six songs are that it makes it this high on our list! And still, the latter tracks aren’t bad, I just wish the album was a little better arranged! If you are into blues or southern rock, or more of a slower country style, this is well worth checking out. It was another easy 9/10 from us, and well worth its spot here!

Listen to: She Runs Hot, Past the Point of Rescue, and You’ll Never Find Me

83 – Phear: Save Our Souls

This powerful explosion of melodic metal is somehow the third album from the Canadian band, and they have a big new fan in me this year because of it! It’s the perfect mix of heavy riffing and drumming and catchy, melodic leads and vocals. It vaguely reminds me of Fozzy back when they were good, around Sin and Bones. I was a little late to this, not checking it out until the start of summer, but it blew me away and I have since gone back to check out both their other releases. That’s how good this is, and it’s honestly their best release to date. The band are so talented, both as songwriters and players, and they have crafted something brilliant here. We don’t get enough of this sort of sound any more, though it is making a comeback in the last couple of years, and these guys are continuing it on perfectly! If you are at all into a more melodic side of metal, think Metallica meets Alter Bridge, I cannot recommend this enough. It’s another easy 9/10 from us, and I already can’t wait to hear where they go from here. Hopefully it’s not another five years, next time!

Listen to: Aftershock, Narcosynthesis, and Bleed

82 – Jonah Kagen: Sunflowers and Leather

Another entry into the ‘emotional indie-Americana’ category for this list already! This whole thing is bittersweetly beautiful from start to finish, the perfect blend of Zach Bryan and Evan Honer. And somehow and nearly an hour and 16-tracks long, it still goes by in a flash and is an incredibly easy listen! The lyrics throughout are a massive highlight, but the instrumentation fits them all so very perfectly. I’d somehow never heard of him before this release, but he’s another that’s won me over massively and has a big new fan in me because of his 2025 release! And, anyone who is into any of the sounds that I’ve mentioned previously, check this release out ASAP. There are still a couple better releases in this style, in my opinion, but it still more than deserves this spot on the list, and got an easy 9/10 back in September!

Listen to: Sunflowers and Leather, Black Lung, and The Reaper

81 – Mark Morton: Without the Pain

This was not the album I expected from the Lamb of God guitarist this year. His last solo album back in 2019 was a groove metal romp featuring some of the biggest names in hard rock and metal. Switching gears, his second solo release does the same but with country, and honestly it’s just as good! From Jaren Johnston to Matt James, Cody Jinks to Charlie Starr, there are some massif names attached to this, and all do a great job of bringing Mark’s tracks to life, vocally. It’s an incredibly fun album that is definitely heavy on the rock and southern elements, but still is distinctively country. Mark could certainly have a career in the genre if he ever chose to leave LoG, not that I ever hope he does! I’m pretty sure it appeals to both country fans and those into a more heavier sound, so just about everyone reading this should check it out! Despite talking to Matt James about it when I played with him, I still missed this release when it dropped. However, it’s one of the easiest 9/10’a I’ve ever given, and a fitting end to part one of our list!

Listen to: Hell & Back, Without the Pain, and Dust

Part 2 ->

Features, Interviews & Features

Revenant: ‘We’re always creating and pushing new ideas in the fold!’

3rd December 2025 Leave a comment

We had the pleasure of sitting down with the amazing lads ar Revenant the other day to chat about their brand new EP and their upcoming tour with Preacher Stone! Check it out below!

‘Black Dogs & Sad Men’ came out a few weeks ago, it seems to have gone down well!

Thank you, yeah people have really taken to it, we’ve had lots of messages that some of the subject matter has resonated with people and the songs have slotted into our live set nicely!

It’s your second EP this year after ‘Best Medicine’ in April, what led to such a fast turnover of releases?

To peek behind the curtain of what we’ve been sat on for a while. People who have been watching us for the last year-ish will recognise most of those songs as we’ve had them in our set for a good minute or two. We recorded both EPs pretty close to each other so after the release of Best Medicine it was just a case of incubating the Black Dogs and Sad Men.

Check out our review of the last EP here!

It’s your third EP in the last couple of years. Is the plan to stay with the same format, or is a studio album on the horizon?

Being the men of mystery we are, we don’t want to say too much. That being said, we’re always creating and pushing new ideas in the fold, and we’re always looking at the best way to let those ideas flourish.

What do you think the state of releasing new music is like these days? It seems pretty hard to predict what to put out sometimes!

Put out whatever you want really, obviously some things will be more commercially successful than others but if you’ve got a message, and a good following of people willing to hear and share, then stay true to yourself and it will all fall together.

I saw you’re all prepared for your Christmas gig at Arlington Arts Newbury. How hard was it to get actual Santa to fill in for Sugarman Sam pretty last minute?

Big boots to fill for sure, even for the mighty Saint Nic! Sam didn’t take kindly to being paraded in a costume for our amusements and so we had to think of something. We all wrote our letters to the big man and asked him to help us out and he actually had that evening free so it’s all worked out after all!

You’re out on the road with Preacher Stone in the new year, what can we expect from the shows?

You know, that is going to be our first proper tour and we’re stoked to get going, we’ve chatted with the Preacher Stone fellas a few times, super cool dudes. We’ll be playing a heap of new venues and cities to us, there’ll be a measured amount of chaos, a healthy amount of action, and an unbridled stallion of powerful tunes!

Have you got quite a busy 2026 booked in already, anything you can tell us?

We’ll be headlining a cool biker/veterans Care After Combat charity festival Backwoods Barn Jam, Market Rasen in July and we’ve got a few irons in the fire but nothing we’re ready to pull the trigger on to let people know just yet. Writing is a big focus for us at the moment so we want to put as much dedicated time into that as we can.

Do you have any milestones you want to hit in the next 5 years?

There should always be things to shoot for, getting a single onto mainstream national radio is always a good aim but maybe to play more festivals like a Planet Rock one, even Download and take our first steps into Europe, or maybe even the States.

Do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of?

Anything involving Chris Stapleton, Zakk Wylde, or someone like Alter Bridge would be nothing short of incredible, hit us up guys as we’re always ready!

Interviews & Features

Two Ways Home: ‘It feels like we’re going in a nice, steady upwards trajectory!’

25th November 2025 Leave a comment

We had the pleasure of chatting to the amazing Two Ways Home at The Long Road the other month. Check out our interview with them below!

It’s been a busy weekend for you, right?

Lewis: Yes! We had two slots yesterday; get the work done and then we’ll drink. Press and catching bands today!

Are you here all weekend?

Lewis: We have another festival tomorrow, then a different one the day after! Four festival slots in one weekend!

And how were the slots yesterday? Two very different slots, right?

Lewis: Yeah! Hitching Post earlier in the morning; I think we played the first ever bit of live music on that stage. We christened it. Ashley Monroe was doing an interview before, so it kinda feels like we played a show where Ashley Monroe was playing just before us…

She clearly supported!

Lewis: Well, I didn’t want to put it in those words, but you said it! It was an earlier set on the Friday so you never know if people are gonna be there, but it was packed, right to the back.

It’s a cool stage, as well!

Lewis: It’s nice to have a different format for a stage. You either have an open air one like Rhinestone or one in a tent like Interstate, but this was like… well the hitching post, it’s got posts!

Isi: It kinda felt Austrian. I felt very at home!

Lewis: Yeah, I could see it at a winter market!

You did the Round-Up on there. Were you approached to do it, the first time?

Lewis: We host the Roundup! It’s our songwriters night which we’ve been doing for eight or ten years. We’ve been hosting it at The Long Road now for a few years. We were approached.

Isi: I think they like us because we always bring a good lineup! The bookers say we can book whoever we want so we’re like ‘okay, you know we’re gonna bring a good lineup, so they say we can bring whoever we want’.

I remember seeing Luke [Fleer] supporting Drake Milligan last year; he was great, and to see him again was amazing. I chatted to Baylen too recently and he said it’s cool to have others get involved. I think there’s a record label or two doing a stage takeover as well!

You guys have had a busy festival season in general, right?

Lewis: We have! We get to every year and were like ‘this year was so busy with festivals, next year will be the quiet one, but so far it’s just been extra shows. It feels like we’re going in a nice, steady upwards trajectory.

Is this long weekend the last of the festivals for this year?

Isi: I think there’s a few more! There’s one secret one that we can’t talk about.

Lewis: There’s a few end of the year ones too. There’s a great one coming up in Wales. Then we’ll be looking to do a stream of shows on our own, be it the Round Up on tour or a solo show.

Have you guys taken the Round Up on tour before?

Lewis: We have! It’s something that was always my dream to do, and a couple of years ago we took it on its first tour. I Think we did 13 dates.

Isi: 35 acts, we booked. Every town kinda had a different lineup; there was always someone from the town and then someone coming in, it was good!

Lewis: We did it again last year and it was really successful, so we do need to do it again!

I was going to say do you have some plans for later in the year but it sounds like there’s something!

Lewis: We have lots of ideas floating around. We’re already thinking about next year too, you have to plan that far in advance.

Isi: Definitely a few Round Ups are coming up which… we’ve found a new home for the Round Up in London. That’s where it started, then we had a bit of a break doing it in London, but then we found the Cumberland Hotel. And that’s nice because the first Round we ever played was in Nashville in a hotel, so it’s kinda feels like a full circle moment.

You seem to split your time between here there and everywhere!

Lewis: Yeah! We just did a tour in Switzerland and Germany, which was really fun.

Isi: I’m from Austria, so we go to Vienna quite a bit to see my family and play a bit out there. And obviously the German-speaking countries are quite easy because I speak German, and Lewis speaks German pretty well.

Lewis: For a Brit!

I imagine the scene over there is completely different to over here, right?

Lewis: It is but it’s great too! There’s a lot of enthusiasm for whatever type of country music that we play. It seems to work!

Isi: I heard Spain is pretty good for the country and Americana market so I want to try and play some shows out there!

It’s been a while now since your debut album, would you say your sound has changed or evolved much since then?

Lewis: I think it’s funny, obviously there’s the country contingency and then the Americana one, and people try to say ‘well which are you?’.

Isi: We’re folk-rock, that’s what I’m saying. But there is a bit of country in there.

Lewis: We kinda just do what we do. Maybe that’s a cliche but we don’t try and be more and less of one thing. We like aspects of all these genres and hopefully we draw bits from all of them.

Isi: I’m hoping we got better since our first album!

Lewis: Well yeah! Our next album we’re working on will be a step up!

I was going to say is another album on the cards. It’s so hard to work out these days what’s best to release, from an EP to singles to a full release!

Isi: Actually that’s a good point! We’ve released a lot of singles and fans after shows come up and go ‘can I buy that album’. So we’re thinking of accumulating all of those songs, and then putting a few more songs on there as well as a little package. I think that’s gonna be end of this year.

Lewis: That’s what she keeps telling me!

Isi: I keep dropping the hint! We have to do this, get a move on!

I didn’t even think about people coming up after a show and wanting to buy an album!

Lewis: It seems old-fashioned but the crowd here still have some old-fashioned values. To call them old-fashioned is a shame; some good core values and want to support artists. We’re releasing a song on Monday but we gave our fans the choice to purchase a high quality WAV version of the single ahead of time, for £2, which is less than half of a price of coffee in London!

Isi: We did have a few come up and say they’d want a high quality version. Obviously streaming platforms do crush the audio. It’s quite hard to listen to the whole thing unless you can buy it sometimes. We figured why not, if someone wants to support us it’s a nice way they can do that!

Interviews & Features

William Prince: ‘I don’t believe you have to live in suffering to create beautiful art!’

16th November 2025 Leave a comment

We chatted to the awesome William Prince the other week about his latest album, growing up on a Reservation in Canada and touring plans and life! Check it out below!

How would you describe your sound?

You’d think this would get easier when everyone asks you this all the time! My sound is very… because these are such story songs, the sounds has always been there as a support. Most producers I’ve worked with have said ‘if we’re making a movie here, your voice is the star’. For a long time that’s how I made records, just position the mic closest to me and we’ll capture the room. This new sound is of great speed, flash and volume. It’s kind-of this interstellar mashup of all these things I love from good country and Americana music. This albums got these driving drums and synths and baritone guitars. It’s a mashup between Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine and Jason Isbell. That kinda sound that you can drive a truck to for eight or nine hours of a shift! Maybe the music will energise you; pick you up rather than drop you off.

It’s a blend of all my influences, but at the core of it is this storytelling style that I’ve been working at for a while. So you’ll just have to listen and make up for yourself!

The album title and even artwork kinda hint at a bit of a change too, like it was an intentional shift?

Yeah, it’s a bit of a double entendre in a way. I’m trying to leave this place of mine, my origin, Peguis First Nation, a reservation about an hour and a half North of Winnipeg, where I’m from now. So ‘Further from the Country’ is pretty much about how I’ve come a seemingly long way so far but holy smokes, the sun is still millions of miles away! From here to where all the peers that I admire are, Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell, the geography that I want to occupy with Sierra Ferrell and Margo Price and Billy Strings, it feels like a long way to get to where they are but I think we’re closer than ever. This music I think is the rocket ship that will hopefully get us a little further along. Trading the horse and buggy for a spaceship!

Are there any stories from the album you want to touch on from the album?

I have a song on there, ‘All the Same’. That song is how we’re all kinda coming from the same small town. There’s always been this big divide between not only Canadians and Americans but white folks and First Nations people. We grow up in similar situations where we’re coming from lives that are filled with Birthdays and graduations, weddings, funerals. We’re coming from homes where families are struggling with addiction, with separation and divorce. It’s in those things that we are so similar and closer than we think.

‘All The Same’ talks about when growing up in those situations, apathy can take over, there’s less of a reason to shine and be your best self. A lot of people I grew up around deal with that still. I still feel the effects of it in my family, it’s not something that just goes away when you find a little bit of success in music. I’m thriving and being successful despite being born in a situation that was kinda designed for me to fail. Put on a reserve, out of the way, a long time ago cut off from any real resources. I know there are Americans living in small towns and people in the UK from little places dealing with this thing where nothing changed, no matter how hard I try, it’s all the same. So why bother being good, let’s just give into the thing that wants to keep us apathetic. I just refuse.

I tell a few stories in that song that I’m really excited for people to hear. It lends itself to realness, this grit and hardship I’ve seen. I’ve witnessed it take people from me and take people from themselves. I just wanna sing that song as a product of determination, that despite that you can actually change some things around you.

The singles have been really great. I love ‘For the First Time’ and how it talks about moving on from pain. It don’t break me like it used to. My father makes an appearance on this record again. He passed 10 years ago and it’s been such a flash. ‘The Charmer’ tells a bit more of his story. I always prop him up as the hero dad that he was but again, in his heart he was a man dealing with the effects of going to day schools, his family situation wasn’t ideal, he lied his way onto job sites. He did his best with what he had. I just wanted to show that he was a real man at the heart of these things too. It helps me understand him in his way; why was he angry and frustrated. It’s a different way of navigating love.

How did you get into more of the country side of music? A lot of the UK still associates the genre with the South of the US!

Well, country music lives on the reserve. It’s cowboys and Indians for a reason! When you go to the baseball or hockey games on the reserve, the music that plays is Merle Haggard, it was Hank Williams, all the greatest country singers you can think of, and my dad gravitated towards Cash and Christopherson. Thankful,y that’s one of the gifts that he gave me. He loved to strum a guitar and sing these old country songs all the time. That really opened a world to me where music was a possibility. When you’re a kid you’re only really exposed to the main radio, and none of these voices really sounded like me. Then you discover Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen, and you start to realise there are working class musicians. I moved to the city, further from the country, and I started seeing non-famous people making music for the first time. From that moment, that’s when we started assembling this ship, and it’s going to take us where we want to go.

The album has only just come out but I imagine you still have a few songs in the pipeline?

Yes, thankfully! I used to think I could stockpile; let’s write 200 songs and I’m good for the next 20 albums. It doesn’t work like that. There’s no saving your best stuff. Who knows how much time I have, or how much time these people even want with me. And I love creating what’s honest and reflective of the moments I’m living now. That’s what’s fun, you can dip into that pile of lots of music ready to go, and share it when it’s appropriate.

There’s a song on this record that I started 10 years ago. Leading up to this moment to record it, finally the chorus came to me and finally it made sense. On rolls the wheel! You go to play a show and soon they get bigger and your name is still on the wall. Your son is getting older and you get married and buy your first home. These are things I never really imagined for myself when I was hopping couch to couch and basically living out of a car. Now I’ve built a following and have a great support system. That can bring a peace that can be linked to complacency or a laziness or lack of edge or hunger. It’s none of those things. I don’t believe you have to live in suffering to create beautiful art. We can live wholeheartedly, ambitiously, optimistically, for our families and leave a memory behind that shows that we enjoyed our time together. That’s so important to me.

I’m kinda left reeling even 10 years after my dad’s death. Now that I’m a man I wish I could have taken a deep dive for 10 hours. ‘Tell me the things you were going through that I couldn’t hear when I was 10’. You come to learn that he was just a younger man trying to balance a family. He didn’t have a lot of money to do it, or a talent that pays him like this. But he majorly assisted this life. He’d give you his last dollar to take care of you. That’s the kinda man he was. I patch it together through memories, and I think if he were here today I’d see the best side of him.

There’s a whole bunch of things on this record!

You’ve touched on it already, but you have a busy few months, right?

I just announced the Futher From the Country’ tour with Boy Golden opening. He produced this record, Liam Duncan. More friends that get to come along for this month-long journey. I have so many talented players on this record, it’s my band on it and the tour. I was humbled right before, too. The day before we started recording I was playing basketball with my son and slipped and separated my shoulder, so I was in a sling for the first three weeks of production! Relinquishing a bit of that control, letting my crew direct things and help me find a sound was really special. They deserve a lot of credit! If you go to my Instagram and the album announcement there’s a whole credit sheet there. They’re a huge part of what the sound is on this record, and I’m really happy to have these people in my corner making music.

I’ve been known for a sitdown folk show for years, now over the last few years it’s more Stand in the Joy, like the last record. To be seen, to be heard, to project without fear that I’m happy and I’m more determined than ever. Look how much further along we are than sleeping in that car and pawning my guitar for cigarettes. I think it’s time to triple down on the belief and just keep going, man. It’s rocket fuel, and it’s fearless into the unknown, because there’s no other option!

Any plans to come back to the UK soon?

The UK’s always on the radar! I just wrapped up a few dates over there with a band back in September! I’m sure there’s some summer/fall dates coming down the pipeline. My goal is to finally get my band over there. I’ve always been solo, so I think it’s time the UK experiences what the full thing is!

Interviews & Features

These Wicked Rivers: ‘The train’s going so fast and we’re always on it, we just try to cling on and see what happens!’

9th November 2025 Leave a comment

We had the pleasure of chatting to our friends These Wicked Rivers at The Long Road a little while back, about their step into the country scene and upcoming [now announced] new album! Check it out below!

How was the set?

Aaron: Really good! Obviously it’s a different genre of festival than what we’re used to. But with the next record we’ve started writing a few more country styles, so it felt like a nice bridging of the gap. But we went down really well!

Rich: Yeah, I was worried we were gonna be a bit too heavy.

Aaron: I do remember mentioning it as a concern.

Rich: As I said, just trust in the rock, Aaron! It will provide, and that’s exactly what happened.

I definitely saw some like Cadillac Three merch, it brought all the rockier country fans down.

Aaron: I think a few people said it was a breath of fresh air to have something a bit different. There’s a lot of country artists and we’re a bit more blues rock. We went down really well and we all really enjoyed it!

How did it come about, playing here?

Rich: Just one through the agent! We’re local lads to her, but because it’s not really our scene none of us have been before, so it was really nice to get an opportunity to come and check it out. It’s absolutely beautiful, amazing grounds and a really good vibe!

Aaron: It suits the character of the band. We’re very much about people connecting and all that positiveness. The festival feels like it has that similar energy to it. And everyone’s walking around in hats and boots, we fit in!

Check out our review of them at TLR here!

I was starting to panic when you first came on that I didn’t see a lamp, but there seems to be more and more each time. I haven’t seen the globe before!

Aaron: The trouble is when you add something you then can’t do a gig without it. We did a fly gig where we played in France on Tuesday, and even then the promoter went out and got us some lamps! We never could escape them!

Yeah, I imagine the band van’s getting quite full now, right?

Rich: Yeah, well headline stuff we need two vans now because we have so much furniture to cart around to each show.

Aaron: We have to leave guitars just to bring all the rest!

I saw your gig in France on social media, it looked sick!

Rich: It was amazing! You never know how things like this are gonna go. We were headlining the night and it was beautiful, you could see the sea from the stage, lovely weather, and it was a good crowd there!

Aaron: About 600/700 people! We’ve had it when we toured Europe before but the council pay for it as a community thing. It’s such a cool thing and we’re just happy to be involved! The band before us were quite comfy, then we went out and did our thing and people seemed to really enjoy it!

Rich: It’s tough though. Think we worked a full day Monday, drove down Monday night, flew crack Tuesday, played the festival Tuesday, stayed Wednesday, flew back Wednesday night, work Thursday Friday!

Aaron: But it is festival season, and all the shows have been great! We’ve had a really good summer, and obviously we’re back out on the road in November again! Around the UK with The Virginmarys as support. It’ll be a cracking week, we love them lads!

Rich: Other than that we‘re looking at recording the new album. It’s already written so hopefully in November we’ll record that. I can’t wait!

Aaron: We’ve been writing for a while, and it’s so hard writing while being on the road, you don’t get much time to do it. In between we’ll be together and writing. We’re really pleased with the record we’ve put together so we’re ready to hit the studio now and bring it to life.

Is there much else you can say about the album?

Rich: I think the second album, Force of Nature, was a funny one as a lot of the songs on there had been hanging around for a while. A couple had been on early EPs, a couple I’d had in my back pocket for eight-ten years. Whereas this album, it’s all new material, it’s all stuff that’s been written the last two years. Because of that we started to really click and find our sound. The new album will be a bit more representative of the band we are now.

Aaron: It’s the evolution of the band, really. A couple of the songs we’ve been playing live, we did one today, we put it in the set and it’s always gone down so well we can’t take it out! People have now started to sing it and know it in the set, which is really good! We’re really excited!

You did a church tour earlier this year, how was that? Was the sound pretty good?

Rich: It was, yeah! I was a little concerned about it because I’ve been to a few gigs and the sound doesn’t always travel. But we’ve got our own people doing the sound and they did a cracking job. A lot of these places are built with the acoustics in mind. It was a more enhanced sound but less people can be there, so it was very intimate by nature.

Aaron: It was a really good energy. I’m thinking of that first show we did that inspired the tour and thinking how amazing it was to be playing in a packed church. That’s what churches should be, bringing people together to celebrate something that’s higher than ourselves. I think it suited the vibe of the band and everything we stand for. It was a good run!

Rich: One of our band rooms was a bell tower!

Aaron: A couple of solos in pulpits. It was different, but a good different!

Rich: It’s not easy, though. It’s harder work than doing normal venues. But when you look back on it at the end, there’s some incredible photos and videos! It’s worth putting the extra effort in, I think.

Check out a reaction we did of one of their singles here!

Any goals for a five year plan?

Aaron: We tend not to think too much more than a year ahead. The train’s going so fast and we’re always on it, we just try to cling on and see what happens! Try to do everything we do with love and supporting each other and just try and enjoy it.

Rich: Every year we’ll do some sort of touring in Europe and in the UK, festivals. It’s about ticking those boxes. But next year will be the launch campaign for the album, and the year after I think we’ll just see how album goes!

Are you interested in playing more shows to this sort of crowd?

Rich: Yeah! We want to get out to as many people as possible and the scene that we’ve been associated with a while, the classic rock scene, we’ve done a lot of those festivals now, a lot of those people know us, so it’s nice to dip our toes in the blues scene and the country scene. Build that fanbase and get the name out there!

Aaron: We’re quite good as a band really because we have heavier songs, more country songs coming through, so we can kinda dip into a few different places and still be ourselves. We just go out and do Rivers and hopefully people dig it, which they same to!

Yeah, I’ve seen you guys a few times now and it fit just as perfectly here in a more country environment!

Do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of?

Rich: We have a couple we’d love to support; Blackberry Smoke, Rival Sons.

Aaron: Black Stone Cherry were big for me growing up, those first two albums were massive.

Rich: Skynyrd too if they’re listening!

For us it’s just getting out in front of more people. With those bands, as much as we love them, we think it would be a great platform for us too!

Interviews & Features

Preacher Stone: ‘We absolutely couldn’t have another long stretch without a record!’

2nd November 2025 Leave a comment

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Ronnie and Darrell of the awesome Preacher Stone last week to chat about their latest album and upcoming UK tour. Check it out below!

I heard the album release show went well the other day?

Darrell: Absolutely, it went great!

I always get curious, how do you guys decide what to play off a new album? Is there any magic to choosing when the audience aren’t as familiar with it?

Ronnie: We played the whole thing! Played the whole album, not back to back, but spread out over the set.

How do we choose? It’s usually a lot of good spirited arguments. We’ve got six records worth of material, somethings going to get left out. God bless them but there’s always some fan that personal messages us like ‘can you play this song?’. I’m the only guy that’s been in the band since the beginning anymore. There are songs off some of them earlier records that if you threatened me at gun point I couldn’t sing. I’d have to go back and listen. There were a few that we recorded that we maybe played live once or twice but not regularly, and they’re usually some of the more elaborate pieces, and you can’t just pull them out of the hate last minute. It would be a disaster!

It’s been nearly three years since we last chatted. How’s the last three years been?

Ronnie: It’s been rough. Best of times, worst of times. It’s been great with the success that we’ve had and the name has grown and more people have come on board. But we went through a period of loss, we lost two band members, that’s been tough. But the bright thing is Darrell’s in the band now, it’s like he’s always been here, it was a great fit. We’ve been busy, and doing a lot of things that people don’t see.

The last album was V after a fair bit of time off. What prompted you to return with another album just a year later?

Ronnie: We absolutely couldn’t have another long stretch without a record! We also really needed to make a statement that we were still swinging the bat. With the loss of a founding member and the keyboard player, a lot of people were looking at us like ‘what’re they gonna do?’. None of us have ever been good at backing down from a challenge. We HAD to put out a record. And this record had to be damn good, we couldn’t just put one out to put out a record. There was a lot of pressure, but it was good for us. It pulled us together and made us closer as a unit. We rose to the challenge!

Was it all written by the current lineup, or is there stuff that’s been hanging around a while?

Ronnie: We had one that had been hanging around, and a couple of songs that Ben had worked on. ‘Think yen Now’ was somewhat formulated. It was everyone throw your ideas in a pile and let’s use the ones when we play them that speak to everybody.

Darrell: Outside of that it’s all new material. ‘Blessing and a Curse’ was sent to Ronnie by Marty’s wife. Luckily they had it recorded so I got to hear what he played and use that as my foundation. Everything else was written pretty fresh since I joined the band!

It sounds like a pretty healthy way of working together. Have you [Darrell] worked with many of the other members in the past?

Ronnie: Other than Daryl this lineups been together over 10 years. The earlier method was Marty would bring his ideas, and if you had an idea and it was as good as the other idea then we all worked on it and became a song. It’s still a pretty similar method, but ‘Saddled and Rode’ and ‘Old Joe’ were Daryl’s ideas. But anyone can take an idea and go their own way with it. I hope you don’t get your feelings hurt! It’s a wonderful thing if you can deal with that.

Darrell: Everyone in the band seems really healthy about not getting their feelings hurt by it. It’s good to have a fresh set of ears on it. If I bring a song and get Ronnie’s take on it, more often than not I like what he’s done. It may not be what you started with, but it comes out being a much better listen in the end.

Ronnie: It’s never really finished until it’s mixed and mastered! It’s one of the most fun parts of being in a band for me; everyone bringing their ideas and trying to create the best song you possibly can! Then we take it into the studio and our producer goes ‘try this’. One of the last steps, after it’s all recorded, Jim and I get across the table from each other with the lyric sheet in front of us and the song playing and Jim takes a marker and edits it all.

You guys are touring over here soon, right?

Ronnie: We’re coming in January! Late January, early February.

You’ve been here a fair bit over the last few years or so, are there any comparisons you can make between her and back home?

Ronnie: Our show Sunday night was a lot like a UK show. It’s a supreme compliment to the audience for being so supportive because we’re treated so well in the UK. It’s starting to feel like home. Southern Rock is not as big a deal in America as it is in the UK. In the UK we’re authentically Southern Rock, in America we’re five guys from America that play Southern Rock. We’re authentic, we’re all about as authentically Southern as you can get. I think anything I sing is gonna be Southern because I’m Southern. Ours comes in a little on the heavier side, we have a lot of classic rock influence too. And I’m an enormous Thin Lizzy fan. We had a review that compared us to Black Star Riders, I was like ‘I’ll take that!’.

What can we expect from the tour? I can’t imagine we’ll get the album in full every night but some will be there, I imagine!

Ronnie: We might! There are certain songs we have to play, songs that if we didn’t play we’d be in trouble. But we’ll mix it up, there’ll be something for everybody. And Daryl always comes up with songs that he wants to play. We want to play them all. If we played everything for everybody every night, our set would be 3.5 hours long and I don’t think anybody wants that!

Darrell: I think we should do a five hour set every night!

Ronnie: What do you want to play, Daryl? It’s his first time over in the UK. We’re excited about showing him the food and the culture and screaming like a little girl like I did when you’re driving on the wrong side of the road.

Darrell: I’ve been to the Bahamas so I’m ready for that! I’d stand up there all night and play these songs, they’re fresh to me! But whatever the fans want to hear and Ronnie wants to sing, I’ll play it! And that’s the reason we’re there, is for the people!

Ronnie: We’ll play the songs people request if we can. But sometimes on a tour you’re one place then the next night you’re somewhere else and it doesn’t leave you a whole lot of time to work up anything.

Interviews & Features

Evan Bartels: ‘Music is like wine; if you have it and you like it then it’s good!’

23rd October 2025 Leave a comment

We had the absolute pleasure of chatting to the wonderful Evan Bartels the other week at The Long Road! Join us as we chat his UK shows, latest EP and plans for an upcoming album!

Check out our review of his set here.

How was your first set of the day?

Fantastic! It truly exceeded expectations. I thought it would be pretty good, but you never know when you’re at a festival with a bunch of other acts playing and you’re on at 12:30. But there was a couple of hundred people there, that tent was full! I thought ‘crap, this is crazy!’

Is it ever still nervewracking to go up there as a solo artist, especially at a festival like this?

That’s a great question! I would say sometimes. I’m never nervous in the sense of am I gonna mess up the song, it’s always more like, I hope people are receptive to this. But that’s another thing that you learn over the years when you’re building a set; it’s a lot like busking, doing a festival set as a solo artist where people don’t necessarily know you. When I was a kid I came up busking on street corners quite a bit. You’ve got to hit ‘em with some songs they won’t immediately walk away from. Then I find it’s just meeting people; you try to get to know the audience and let them get to know you and hope for the best! No one threw any rotten tomatoes, so that’s good!

Do you play with a band back home?

I do! I’ve had a band in the past that I’ve played with. Then when Covid hit and a lot of the touring opportunities dried up and a lot of the budgets froze it’s not been super practical sometimes to hire a band. That’s when I started touring more solo and focusing a lot on telling stories with the songs, try to make it a show that way. My goal is to be able to come back to the UK next year and have a band with me. We’re working towards it!

It would be fun to have a band. I’ve done it in the past and done full band records. It’s a different energy, there’s different tools you can use for the show.

You’ve been out here a fair bit this year already, right?

This is my third trip. I was here in March and did C2C, then came in May and did some shows with Charles Wesley Godwin. Now I’m back for the Long Road and doing a show at St Pancras Old Church in London.

We came into Long Road from Cologne, Germany, played a little festival there call Sound of Nashville. That was great because I met Nolan Taylor there, and Cameron Whitcomb, and he was great, we were all hanging out and drinking beers like ‘this is alright!’. Now the travel to get from Germany to the UK, I did not think that would be as harrowing as it was.

Did you fly out?

Yeah but we had to take a train from Cologne to Frankfurt, then flew, then a train from Heathrow to Paddington, then to Euston, then to Rugby. Like okay, that’s a long day!

Are there any comparisons you can make for here compared to back home?

I will say the one thing that’s mainly different is the way you do travel. In the US if someplace is 12 hours away, you’ll drive. I don’t know which one is easier. Here you might be on a train for six hours but at least you can sleep!

But the festivals, it’s funny how much the land here looks like where I grew up. It feels like we could be in Kansas right now! It’s beautiful!

You’ve got a busy rest of the year planned, right?

That’s the plan, yeah. I’ll be going out on the road in the States a few more times. Trying to sneak in another trip over here too. Doing a tonne of songwriting and starting to record the next album, There’s always something! Then on top of that you’ve gotta be a dad and a husband, mow the lawn and do the laundry! It’s an adventure, man.

You’ve had quite a busy year already, it seems! I saw you got played on Theo Von’s podcast which was cool!

Yeah, he gave me a shoutout for the new EP! That’s about as cool as it gets, honestly!

I also saw you were on tour with Brothers Osborne. Was the stage spinning?!

Yeah! I’ve done three or four shows with them so far this year and two of them, the stage was spinning. You were in the middle of the crowd and it slowly spins. They warned me about it, like ‘hey, just so you know, it spins, but it’s really slow’. And then you’re playing and it kinda messes you up a little bit! You’re looking out at the audience and you look down for a second and all of a sudden you’re looking at new people.

You touched on the EP before, and I remember being sold by the presser. Did you write it in a cabin, if I remember correctly?

So I wrote the songs in the tour van over the years. When we recorded it I built a little cabin behind my house and did it in there. I just did it as a passion project. I hadn’t put out music for a while so about a year ago I’d recorded some demos and my buddy Dave heard it (everyone calls him Squirrel). He was like ‘I’d love to help record this’. I didn’t know he was an engineer, we’d never really talked about work. Turns out he’d been like Rick Ruben’s house engineer for like 10 years. So he got these insane microphones and brought them out to the cabin and we recorded it all in there. We did a few takes of each of them and then picked the one that felt right. We recorded at night, I would just open a bottle of wine and play the song. There’s no metronome, no audio tuning, each track is the whole performance.

Once we got that, I had a few others friends; Paul DeFiglia, he played the organ and bass and double bass on it. Another great cat, Russ Paul, he’s a very renowned Nashville peddle steal player, so he did that. It’s funny, we recorded it in my backyard cabin, we did the bass at Paul’s backyard studio, the peddle steal we did at a buddies studio that was a backyard garage, and then we mixed everything in Squirrel’s studio which is a converted shed in his backyard! But I love the way it turned out!

What made you pick an EP over an album?

I knew it was going to be an album or an EP. I had 10 or 11 songs that I was considering for the project, and when I’d done demos of everything and listened back I didn’t want there to be any filler or anything that didn’t feel like it needed to be here. It was just a case of finding the songs that told the story that I wanted to tell. When we got done with that, where we landed was an EP. I’d rather put out a great EP than an okay album!

And you said you’re working on a longer release next, right?

Yes, we start recording next month! I’m hoping to land on between 10 and 15 songs because I currently have about 40. Whittle it all down and find the ones I love, not just like. That’s the goal!

Do you have a dream tour lineup?

Oasis. I wish I was on that tour!

You know who I’d love to do shows with? Jason Isbel. I’d love to watch him play every night on an acoustic tour. Or guys that are playing over here like The White Buffalo. James Bay too, I could listen to that guy sing the phone book every night and be happy! Those are a handful of them but if I start listing them we could be here all day and all night! You know who’s he sick actually, and I’d love to write some songs for her someday, is Adele. If she’s ever one of these pop artists that decides to make a country album, I hope she calls me!

It’s interesting you say James Bay as he’s had almost a mixed reaction to playing The Long Road.

I saw some of that! Crazy to me, good is good. I get where some people can be ‘well, he’s not country’, but by what metric? Compared to a lot of the bar-type bands, I’m not country. I think the thing that always shines through when you’re putting country or Americana or roots together is ‘is this authentic?’. When it comes down to it; if you don’t like James Bay you’re wrong! He’s got a great voice and great songs and I think it fits in in any country and any genre. And like, is Shaboozey everybody’s country? Or Morgan Wallen? Or cCharley Crockett? There’s so many different subsets and genres and opinions that I think a lot of people get lost on that. Music is like wine; if you have it and you like it then it’s good! The music part of country music is way more important than country. Everybody’s got a different opinion on these things.

Features, Reviews

ONE OK ROCK and Paledusk Tear Down Manchester Apollo!

14th October 2025 Leave a comment

WOW. What a fucking show! My first time at the venue and also my first time seeing either band. I was at least pretty familiar with the headliners, but didn’t know Paledusk that well. I went into the evening expecting to enjoy it, but I wasn’t quite expecting the level of performance throughout!

Firstly, the Apollo was packed. The gig got downgraded from Manchester arena to this venue, and the result meant that it was sold out and packed full of die-hard fans who showed up early to get down close. We queued well over half an hour, and we arrived 20 minutes after doors. Everyone was ready, that’s for sure!

I wasn’t too familiar with the openers heading into the show. I knew the name and had checked out a couple of tracks before the show, but that was about it. However, they have a HUGE new fan in me from this set! Firstly, the sheer energy and showmanship on display throughout their 40-minutes was insane. I’ve seen fewer spin-kicks in a Bruce Lee movie than I saw guitarist Daidai; the guy was all over the stage with them! Then you had frontman Kaito’s infectious energy too, throwing himself around with almost as little regard. He also held the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout. I thought they may have struggled given the heaviness compared to the headliner, but the crowd were more than down to bounce around and even got a pretty decent circle pit going when instructed. I’ve also never heard a crowd cheer a breakdown before, but it was pretty fun to see every time!

And we haven’t even spoken about their music yet! Their quirky, whacky, heavy, melodic music. It was all over the place in the best way possible! They are all insanely talented players, performers and vocalists, and I immediately want to be seeing them back over here again ASAP.

Then, after a brief changeover, the headliners took to the stage. It at first seemed a little odd when it was barely 8:05, but they tore the roof off the place for a solid two hours! After a fantastic little video package set the tone for their latest release, they exploded on with recent hit ‘Puppets Can’t Control You’. Now, y’all know I loved DETOX, so the fact that they played almost all of it was incredible. From personal favourites like ‘N.A.S.T.Y’, ‘Tropical Therapy’ and ‘Delusion:All’ to more unexpected cuts in ‘Party’s Over’ and ‘The Pilot </3’, it was all incredible live and sounded so very close to the track. But don’t fear, because old-school fans still had plenty to sink their teeth into. From ‘The Beginning’ to the beautiful, empowering ‘Stand Out Fit In’ and perennial set closer ‘We Are’, the setlist was honestly damn near perfect!

And the performance… GODDAMN. Honestly, I was looking forward to seeing them at the UKs biggest arena, but seeing essentially a stadium-level band back home putting on that caliber of show to a 4k cap venue was truly something special. The band played, sung and headbanged their hearts out from the very first note to the very last. And, because of that, the crowd fed them that very same energy back. I can’t recall a time when I had been part of a crowd so loud and passionate, except for maybe Drake Milligan, and even then it wasn’t for the full show. The crowd felt like just as much a part of the show as anything else; singing every word back to the band and jumping around and clapping constantly. I can honestly say it was one of the best sets I’ve seen from an all-round perspective, and not one I’ll ever forget!

And there you have it, folks. Two of Japan’s biggest and best rock bands playing a more intimate show in one of the UKs honestly best venues (aside for the tiny amount of toilets, wtf?). The sound for both was great, even when under the balcony, so massive props to the sound guys too! I honestly cannot recommend seeing either band enough, they both blew me away for somehow both different and similar reasons. Honestly, if I wasn’t working tomorrow I’d be on the first train down to see them in London, they were THAT good. Hopefully both manage to make it back over here soon, be it together again or separate, as I’d be right there buying tickets the moment they went on sale! If you get the chance to see them live, take it, but even if not, you have got to listen to them on track too!

Interviews & Features

Outlaw Orchestra: ‘Can you imagine us doing a dance routine?!’

12th October 2025 Leave a comment

We had the pleasure of sitting down for a quick chat with our friends The Outlaw Orchestra at Hella Rocks festival the other week. Check it out below!

How was the set?

Dave: Fantastic! Great sound up there, really good sound! It was our first time here and was excellent!

It’s been a couple of years since we caught up now! How’s the last few years been?

It was Call of the Wild! 2022? 2023? Time flies!

Ryan: Really good! Some really good progression and upwards trajectory.

Pete: Festivals have been crazy. We’ve had a really good live year.

Dave: Phil Campbell passed the buck to us to go do a gig in France, a headline slot… albeit at 1:30am! They said headline but I’d give that to the Guns n Roses tribute band on from 9-11. It was more the graveyard shift! But when we walked on stage there was still 20,000 people there.

Yeah, I’ve done Graspop the last couple of years and it seems to be such a thing in Europe where you’ll have a headliner and then people will still keep going for three, four hours after!

Dave: It’s great! As a musician… someone said to me before take a moment, take it in, and take a photograph with your eyes. And I did! I remember seeing people miles away and then down at the front, but seeing that many people was crazy! I couldn’t take a moment, I was concentrating!

Pete: We had the tour before that with the Gypsy Pistoleros. Done a number of really good gigs. I’ve taken a moment at each of them to kinda go ‘this is not a normal life, this is great!’. It’s a privilege to be here and enjoy it!

Dave: Next week we’ve got one down on Glastonbury farm. 10k ticket sold already! It might not be for us, but that should be fun! That’s in the more commercial pop circuit too, what the hell?!

I feel like there’s more crossover than ever between genres these days!

Pete: I think that’s part of the reason we got the gig; variation. You’ve got Raye headlining, you’ve got Inhaler, Bonos kids, so more indie rock, and then us doing the pub stuff! Up there with a pint of beer and a packet of scampi!

Dave: Then again saying that you get bands like Chaz and Dave who used to rock big and people love it! It’s good time rock’n’roll!

Ryan: Everyone says you guys look like you’re having a good time, smiling, and that’s almost the difference!

Dave: I know I’ve faked it before!

You guys have also put out the last album since we last chatted!

Ryan: Yes! You did your reaction videos that we loved, too!

Dave: I watched it with my mum and when it got to the end and you like ‘fuck yes’ she was like “is he allowed to swear?”! I was like ‘Hell yes!’

I was wondering how you guys write stuff. In terms of inspirations from that album alone there’s all sorts!

Dave: I think that was different in that Alessio, the vocal coach and engineer, sometimes sings with Dragonforce, we literally walked into the studio and Ryan set up in one room and us in the other. He says ‘wait, I’m going to record the drums, keep playing it’. Once we were warmed up he was like ‘now Ryan’s mapped out we can tinker. I want to capture you live’. You get a lot of influences from everywhere, but he would shout things out too. As a vocal coach he’d be saying ‘I can hear a harmony here’. The only thing is, he sings in Dragonforce, so he’s like ‘Dave, try and do this’ and hits some Bruce Dickinson-like note. I’ll tell you what Alessio you come in here and I’ll go and record!

Ryan: We’ve worked with so many different produces but Alessio, he’s got some different kit. His ear is different! Instrumentation too, he’s got loads of good effects and would be like ‘try and play it with this chord’.

Pete: From a songwriting point of view we’ve approached every album a bit different. First album you play the songs you’ve been playing for years. Second album you kinda experiment a bit. It was a lot shorter timeframe this time, we didn’t sit with the songs very long. This album we’ve got a nice long timeframe, really lived with it. We’re also much more collaborative with the new stuff. We’re had a really good writing session last night actually for some new stuff, looking at ideas and reference tracks.

Dave: get YouTube up and nick that bit from that song and that bit from that one, put it all together, they’ll never know!

You’ve got a few more gigs in October I saw, right?

Pete: Yeah, we’ve got Black Deer (sad), that’s gonna be really good! This is the thing, we’ve had some great gigs this year, and have got even more great ones coming up!

Dave: I really loved playing over on the continent. Nobody knows you but it’s such a great vibe!

Ryan: The food as well! And you can have red wine at like seven in the morning!

Pete: You can do that at home!

Ryan: Before we went on at 1:30 in the morning they had what they called a sexy show. Strippers, pole dances, fire breathers, and you’re just stood there!

Dave: The funniest thing. This one French girl, very natural very beautiful and confident. She goes out there in front of 20,000 people, so classy, like burlesque. Goes all the way down the catwalk, right out there… and whips her thong off. She’s now just wearing her heels, spins them on her finger. She walks off stage, stands between me and Pete, lights a cigarette. Pete’s saying to me ‘play it cool, play it cool!’. She’s stood there completely casually as we’re both riddled with being English, we didn’t know what to do!

Pete: A few days later when I was telling the story I said I didn’t know where to look! I went ‘I just looked at my wedding ring!’.

Ryan: We went for a swim at the local theme park, it was so good, honestly brilliant!

Pete: Ryan lost his sunnies! A wave hit him and as he came back I was like ‘where’s your sunnies?’ And he was like ‘NO!’.

Dave: Prescription too, prescription sunnies!

Ryan: Honestly I’d loved to have been there a few more days, done a few more dates. Europe is completely different!

You’re pretty active on social media. It seems to be going well!

Pete: We’re trying! It’s tough isn’t it, social media! It’s not really anyone’s natural thing. We’re trying to be better!

Do you have any advice for people in that area?

Pete: Honestly we are the worst people to ask! For me the thing I respond to is when I see people being authentic. We’ve recently tried to do more than share a gig poster, we’ve tried to capture what it’s like to be around us.

Dave: It’s mad. When we did the Phil Campbell tour, our biggest hit rate was the three of us eating a bag of fish and chips! It’s real!

Pete: You can’t predict what videos are gonna pop up. We had one outside a gig in Chesterfield where me and Dave were just busking Kiss. Ryan sort of turned it round and sang. I don’t know why but that kinda randomly caught on as a video!

Dave: I’d love to watch Iron Maiden just having a laugh! But then you cannot get backstage footage of AC/DC, and I’m hungry for that!

Pete: Have you seen the video of James Hetfield doing the rounds recently? Obviously they play on that big circular stage and there’s a big instrumental section and Hetfield just sits down, his roadies made him a cup of tea, and he has his cigar. And then he goes back up again, it’s really weird! It’s obviously a massive video because people want to see that!

Dave: All I heard is the only advice was do three posts a week and one reel. Do them at the same time each week, and it will start to get out there. I’ve certainly found when we’ve done preorders and stuff, don’t do it on a Tuesday morning. Friday mornings do okay!

Pete: We always try to put it out after 6pm if we can!

Dave: Consistency, and as painful as it is, be yourself.

Ryan: People can tell if there’s a facade. People watch musicians through a filter. That’s fine, but you have your onstage and offstage personas, and people want to see the offstage.

Dave: Unless you’re downright gorgeous and then you can do what you want!

Pete: I’ve seen bands do dance routine, can you imagine us doing a dance routine?! It would be so stupid, it wouldn’t fit! It would be awful!

Dave: But there we go, there’s the advice! Album recorded January/February, hopefully out end of summer, and then we’ll see you again in a couple of years! The grind. But then that’s why we do it, because it’s better than sitting at home channel hopping!

Features, Interviews & Features

Larry Fleet: ‘I had someone ask me how I’d describe my music once and I said “it’s country Western bluegrass soul!”’

9th October 2025 Leave a comment

We had the privilege of chatting to the amazing Larry Fleet at The Long Road the other week. Check out below as we chat about his UK tour, his latest EP and his future album plans!

How’s the tour been so far?

It’s been great! People are showing up, filling up the rooms, literally packed every single night. Well, we’ve played two shows, but they’ve been packed! And tonight is gonna be great I think. Then Belfast in a couple of days is sold out, too! I think it’s good for these festivals and all this stuff going on. People are showing up, they’re singing the songs. We’ve already pretty much sold out of our merch and we doubled what we were told to buy! People are buying stuff, they’re having fun, singing songs, showing up, I couldn’t be happier!

Is this your first time out in Europe?

This is my first headlining thing. I came out and did London in ‘23 with Morgan [Wallen], at the 02 I was first of three, and then this year I was direct support for him touring. It went really well and I think it’s helping me sell a lot of tickets, too. Getting in front of his crowd, and there’s a lot of them, I think that’s helped us out. But this is my first headlining thing so I’m pumped about it. And I’m thrilled with how it’s turned out.

Are there any comparisons you can make from out here compared to back home?

There’s differences. I would say one thing I’ve noticed the last couple of nights is people listen to you when you’re talking. I tell stories, and when I’m doing that they’re silent and it’s like ‘wow, they’re actually paying attention!’. And then they sing every word you do, but that happens in the States too! But I think it can be more respectful and attentive here. Back home we’re coming out for a good time and they can get a little drunk and rowdy, while here they seem a little more respectful. I like it!

Yeah, I think even today we’ve been at a couple of the smaller stages and there’s been some learning almost from people coming out and being like ‘oh yeah, this is really quiet when I’m talking!’

Yeah! And some people don’t like it. They want people,to be rowdy all night because they’re playing rowdy kinda stuff, but I’m a singer/songwriter so I like when people listen. I wanna tell you the story of how it came about. It’s cool they wanna be a part of it.

As for similarities, when you go to a city it still feels similar to back home, you just have building that are 400 years older! The architecture is a little different but cities feels similar. All in all people have been super nice to us!

Somewhere in the South came out a month or so ago now, the response seems great so far!

Yeah! It’s funny because when it came out, we’ve only played it maybe once in the States; we didn’t play a lot in July. We came over here and were like ‘let’s try it out’ and Baylen started playing it on the radio, and just a few days ago we saw it’s like top 50 on a bunch of album charts over here! The songs been doing great and that whole EP, we’ve been playing pretty much everything on it and people are digging it!

It’s four different songs with four different styles. And that’s what I kinda wanted to do when I put it out. I’ve been sorta pigeonholed into what is just traditional country, but there’s a lot more than that. Here’s this blues, this soul, this rock. It gave me a chance to say here, this is what’s coming.

What made you choose an EP over another album?

Honestly, when I split with Big Loud at the end of last year, I wanted to go in the studio for a few days, see what I come up with, and show different songs with different styles. I just wanted something I could get out quick to show ‘hey, I’m here’. To show the record label has nothing to do with me being successful. I had a great relationship with the label but they can slow you up as they have a lot of artists, you can’t put out music when you want to. This allowed me to drop some songs to keep people with me.

You’re pretty active and successful on social media, do you have any advice for people on that front?

That’s something I have to work at! I’m not the greatest at it. One thing I can’t do is be fake. I know there’s a lot of people like me who want to see something real, so I try to give them something real. Whatever I’m doing, whether it’s something stupid or whatever, we have a fun sense of humour between us as a band so I try to let you in on what you do. When I’m hanging out with my kids, it’s just me being a dad! I try to make my music as honest as possible and I think that’s why things have worked out that way. I’m not trying to act like somebody else, so for advice just be yourself. Whatever you’re into, odds are someone else is gonna be into it too. Your demographic or crowd may not be millions, but it may be a couple hundred thousand! You can make a living!

You used to be in a bluegrass band as a kid with your family. Would you say it still influences your sound today?

For sure! That’s how I started. If you can play Bluegrass music you can play pretty much anything. Like sped-up jazz, almost! It’s a very hard thing to learn, so me learning that early on helped a lot. I still write songs so every now and then I have one that’s like ‘oh, this feels like a Bluegrass song’! I had someone ask me how I’d describe my music once and I said ‘it’s country Western bluegrass soul!’. I’m not always bluegrassin’, I like Southern rock and blues and all these other things too. But bluegrass is always still in my DNA, I love it. I played a bluegrass song in London last night!

Is there anything we can expect from the set?

I mean you can expect ‘Where I Find God’, that’s what kinda got me here. I’mma play a few new songs. Honestly I don’t even know what the set looks like. My drummer, I just kinda let him do his thing, and if we need to change it I’ll just call it out. We tend to play something different every night. If someone comes up and is like ‘hey, you didn’t play this song I wanted to hear’, well, come tomorrow night! Every night we try to make it a little different, that’s what keeps people coming back. It’s not just a rehearsal, you wanna be tight but you don’t want it to feel like a Chuck E. Cheese show, you want it to feel organic!