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Hello

I am a Manchester-based journalist and editor, specialising in music and culture. Alongside running my magazine, Out Of Rage, and working as a PR representative with Opaline Press, I have a wealth of experience in print, online, broadcast, radio, and social media. 

I am always up for an adventure, so if you're keen to work with me,  contact me at ambertayebrooks@gmail.com. 

Recent Written Work

Out Of Rage •

About Out Of Rage

We've designed a platform that's future-focussed, built around our community. We uplift and centre our conversation around young people, making sure we put LGBTQIA+ matters first. In the last three years, we have built and curated a platform that continuously strives to offer opportunities regardless of ability or background. That is Out Of Rage to its core.Yes, we provide pathways for entry-level talent. By joining our platform, we can inspire professional work practices and industry-level stan...
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Paledusk, Knosis, Greyhaven and Headwreck

If there were a competition for the most outlandish act on tonight’s roster, every band would be a strong contender. In the high rafters of Manchester Academy 3, a quartet of genre-defying acts fronted by Japanese metal headbangers PALEDUSK promise an electrifying evening set to shock and stun. As maestros of chaos, they set the standard tour with Japanese metalcore titans KNOSIS, mathrock heavyweights GREYHAVEN and Australian newblood openers HEADWRECK. Together, they effortlessly champion the...
Out Of Rage •

REVIEW: Basement - Wired

BASEMENT is the tried-and-true example of letting their music speak for them. Returning to the heavy scene back in March with their first music in eight years, the British alt-rockers released dual tracks, Wired and Broken By Design. A statement piece of contradictions, shifting violently between elation and suffocation, the tracks complement each other in their own controlled chaos - as one agitates deeply, the other seeks to soothe and find compromise. Pushed together, they charter a course of...

INTERVIEW: Love Rarely - Distorted Sound

LOVE RARELY has its moments. Sometimes imperfect, fleeting, or tender, for Dan Dewsnap, it's those infrequent occasions when he decides to listen to album closer Through Families. Letting it linger, he always likes to leave a sizable gap afterwards, and takes some time for himself to feel the silence. “It's weird, because I never thought I'd feel emotional listening to one of our own songs,” he begins truthfully. “When I wrote it, it all came out at once. I didn't touch it for like a year. The way the guitar parts flow in and out, it just feels right”.
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Speed, Whispers, Bodyweb and Hellbound

On the outside, SPEED became a phenomenon almost overnight. With the release of the Sydney hardcore heavyweight's gritty genre-defying single, The First Test, the raspy flute notes symbolised a lifetime of Jem Siow's two impossible worlds - hardcore vocalist and classical music teacher - being impassionately meshed together. At its core, the track demonstrated the band's commitment to freedom of expression, but halfway across the world, it ignited a kerosene-fuelled generation, throwing themselv...
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Witch Fever, Cowboy Hunters and Third Kulture

In the dusky evening haze of Manchester venue Ambers, the warm glow of its wide-set-entrance invites onlookers down three flights of stairs to its dark basement. It's a perfect night for a trip to your favourite local haunt, and for gloom punks WITCH FEVER, and this final set in the UK is nothing short of a homecoming. Off the back of the macabre-inspired record Fever Eaten - and a coveted spot as the Out Of Rage Halloween cover - they embark on their European tour with a roster of ghastly revol...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Pain Travels - Love Rarely - Distorted Sound Magazine

First releases can be an artist at their most authentic. Often, tangled threads of complex human emotions are spun with a rich tapestry of influences, instrumentation, and memories from home. Devoid of societal expectation and an aching need to find connection, a good full-length debut can define an artist. For LOVE RARELY, the Leeds-based post-hardcore powerhouse, identity has been etched in Pain Travels through years of lived experience, cauterising trauma with dazzling moments of cathartic so...
Out Of Rage •

REVIEW: Poison The Well - Peace In Place

When an album is titled with anything to do with peace, it’s rarely peaceful. If it’s the first in almost seventeen years, you know you’re in for a riot. Floridian post-hardcore heavyweights POISON THE WELL are back in the game, continuing their lasting legacy of being one of the most influential metallic bands for the hardcore underground. Following almost three decades of that signature primal desire to create brutality, Peace In Place has pushed past innovation, into a fragmented landscape th...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Where The Light Leaves - Varials - Distorted Sound Magazine

Right okay, it’s time to fess up – who hurt VARIALS? As the most emotionally-charged release to date from the Philadelphia heavy unit, new album Where The Light Leaves is a masterclass in getting heavy and crashing out. This new chapter sees the band fully realised, hellbent on absolutes and crowdkilling through the pain. 

This record is the closest metalcore is going to get to a villain origin story, as deathcore tropes have finally pulled the extreme metallers to the dark side. The past three...
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Die Spitz and Aerial Salad

No one knows anarchy like punk-rock Texans DIE SPITZ. As vocalist/guitarist Ellie Livingston struts the stage in her scarlet cowboy boots, she roots the all-consuming doom-laden riffs that lash the crowd with fast, uncontrollable energy. With their latest album, Something To Consume, the band chose carnage over composure, opting for sieging a supermarket in the music video for Throw Yourself To The Sword. Whilst there are no weapons present within the cavernous depths of Manchester’s Gorilla, th...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

LIVE REVIEW: Paleface Swiss @ Manchester Academy, Manchester - Distorted Sound Magazine

For PALEFACE SWISS, domination was never meant to be this easy. In a brief, reflective moment between songs, frontman Marc ‘Zelli’ Zellweger remembers the “three-and-a-half” people that caught their Satan’s Hollow headliner back in 2019. Underdogs by design, their wicked charm has only fuelled the band’s reputation as one of the hardest-working acts in heavy music right now. As they cultivate their signature beatdown-infused sound to conquer the mainstream, they deservedly take on Manchester Aca...
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Superheaven and Balance And Composure

Outbreak darlings SUPERHEAVEN returned to Manchester with a seismic serenade of feeling. Amongst the polite buzz of this evening's proceedings, right from the moment that the symphonic whirr shook the O2 Ritz at the beginning of their set, it's clear that the Pennsylvania collective wants you to feel their shoegaze sensibilities right at the core of your chest. There's a numbness that comes with wanting to be a part of the moment, oversensitised to the weight of those signature riffs pulling the...
Out Of Rage •

BEYOND EXTINCTION: The constant cycle of human suffering in Where They Gather

You'd think that when deathcore heavyweights BEYOND EXTINCTION are getting in the zone to play a show, they'd live up to their status of being one of the biggest rising stars in extreme music. As they're bombing it down the highway blasting the silky tones of DURAN DURAN and SPANDAU BALLET - their picks, of course - the band are anticipating an intense set, wall-to-wall with brutal bangers. “You should hear what we play in the van!” begins guitarist JUDE BENNETT “You'd imagine it to be really ha...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

LIVE REVIEW: Ice Nine Kills @ Co-op Live, Manchester - Distorted Sound Magazine

From gut-busting breakdowns to slasher-filled moments of suspense, both on screen and in the pit, ICE NINE KILLS UK and European leg of the A Work Of Art tour promises nothing short of a spectacle. Boasting the debut of their infamous Silver Scream Con in London – the band’s own frightful horror convention – they bring with them their first headline stadium run outside of America. Here, the real nightmare before Christmas can be seen in the near 20,000 horror metal fans descending in their drove...
Kieran Atkinson
Out Of Rage •

COVER: FALSE REALITY is the Out Of Rage Artist of 2025

As a band built from a wicked infusion of hardcore, thrash, and the extreme, meeting through shows in the London scene and creating a project that pulls together the best of the genres' abrasive foundations, FALSE REALITY are defined with Faded Intentions. Whilst the record has only been released in November, throughout 2025, they’ve sown the seeds to make this full-length debut a knockout for the UK underground.After a year of making their presence known with the release of their 2024 Path Of S...
James Smith
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Lambrini Girls and Shelf Lives

From the moment 2025 kicked up a fuss, making its rowdy and rambunctious entrance, so too did Brighton bruiserweights LAMBRINI GIRLS. With only ten days into January, we were blessed with the unapologetic debut Who Let The Dogs Out, a triumphant wrecking ball of a record sent straight into the fractured foundations of British society. It was here that the age-old, authentic fundamentals of punk snagged themselves around vocalist Pheobe Lunny’s tongue, as the band seethed about toxic workplace pr...
Kieran Atkinson
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: False Reality, Sovereign and Divine Hatred

“I shouldn’t have worn a tracksuit to a show!”, exclaims FALSE REALITY vocalist Rachel Rigby. Since the release of the London hardcore quartet’s latest record, Faded Intentions, the heat behind the band had been amplified tenfold, and the response sweltered - packing out the infamous Boom Leeds with a horde of sweaty moshers. With her head down and pacing the stage quickly, she has a moment to think before screaming that she’s lost a nail.  Joking that “you can’t take the Essex out of the girl”,...
Out Of Rage •

WITCH FEVER: The witching hour and exploring the gothic in FEVEREATEN

Amy Walpole is not a witch. However, the people she knows who study witchcraft say that she’s attuned to it - some even surprised by the fact that she doesn’t practice it. It’s easy to draw conclusions, as she does like to collect things, like bones and branches, or keep special objects that hold power. She tells OOR that sometimes, she does tarot. In her art, she's inspired by natural forms and horror imagery, knotted tightly with paganism and the rural north. Above all, she likes to read about...

DISTORTED SOUND: Pinkshift - From Chaos To Clarity

A year ago, PINKSHIFT set the world on fire. One Nation, a single kindled by the rising political climate and the decisions made by those at the top level, set ablaze a manifesto of change for young punks in America, some of those who may be voting for the first time. The message was clear, to make sure their generation was represented, intending to move forward with their firecracker band of skate-park punk, hope and togetherness.
Sabrina Ramdoyal
Distorted Sound Magazine •

LIVE REVIEW: Parkway Drive @ AO Arena, Manchester - Distorted Sound Magazine

For PARKWAY DRIVE, destination was always an integral part of the band’s brutal design. Born in the sweaty basement brawls of Byron Bay’s ‘Parkway House’ and destined to dominate globally with a devastating vice grip, over the last twenty years modern metal has gained impressive Australian ambassadors. As they wave the flag through the swarming crowds during their entrance into Manchester’s AO Arena on their anniversary tour, the heavyweights finally size up to meet their fate: 23,000 formidable...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Flesh Stays Together - Dying Wish - Distorted Sound Magazine

DYING WISH are immortalised with their fatal third record Flesh Stays Together. As it stands, it is safe to say that this is the album that will define the Portland metalcore quintet – asphyxiated with the chilling reminder that horror reveals the beauty in the band’s complex sound. 

With the release of 2023’s Symptoms Of Survival, there was something chaotic lurking in the depths of the record. As one of the first opportunities to let Emma Boster’s silken vocals carve through the tracks like a...
Ace Cheng
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Basement, Anxious, Dynamite and Midrift

Almost ten years ago, five guys from sleepy Ipswich opened for BRING ME THE HORIZON. At the time, basking in the pop-centric lull of That’s The Spirit, plucky openers BASEMENT would make the mark with releasing the first singles from their third studio album Promise Everything. Here, their set would be defined by their second album Colourmeinkindness, which would eventually gain a cult following with time and nostalgia, and was honored wholeheartedly with a full album playthrough at Outbreak Fes...
Libby Percival
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: No Play Festival 2025

For hardcore, it begins and ends with the scene. For Out Of Rage, a magazine deep-rooted in the hardcore identity, Liverpool’s No Play was the perfect finale to the festival season. The Scouse promotion has ensured that heavy music has had a home on the Mersey all year round, but in Port City, last weekend’s festivities were the cherry on top of it all, in their own terms the Liver Bird on top of the Royal Liver Building, or even the Mohamed Salah on the Liverpool FC starting formation. No Play...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Genknosis - Knosis - Distorted Sound Magazine

Ryo Kinoshita’s latest project, KNOSIS, encompasses all. During their debut record, the gravitational pull of complex emotions, intense catharsis, and enraged outbursts has been compacted to form the beginnings of a brilliant shining star; one that guides him through the darkness, but also sets the path for the direction of the future of Japanese, if not global, metalcore. In Genknosis, we see Kinoshita’s world with a deep understanding of introspection and with the greatest attention to detail....
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