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Here is my most recent written work for print and online media

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....
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: New World Heat - Fox Lake - Distorted Sound Magazine

We’ve done our time with the legacy of LIMP BIZKIT. Fred Durst’s baggy-jeaned bravado and the – he said, she said – bullshit that turned nu-metal on its head in the nineties. Even now, hip-hop heavy has the same heat as it did when the Undertaker rolled into Wrestlemania XIX on a Harley. Headlining Reading Festival aside, the influence of the chocolate starfish has captivated the next generation, thankfully without the need for backwards baseball caps. 

Whilst bands like BLACKGOLD, SILLY GOOSE...
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: The Big Outbreak Review 2025

2025 was the year Outbreak truly became countercultural, a razor-cut celebration of the sharpest edges of the music spectrum. In the overcast haze of Sleep Token headlining Download, and with it the speculation about the future of live music, Outbreak offered a lineup which was arguably the largest statement piece that European, if not global, hardcore could offer, a thrilling insight into the future of the genre, a reality where Turnstile could headline a festival the same weekend as Charli XCX.
Out Of Rage •

DESOLATED: On finding peace and gaining strength from the hardcore community

When it comes to hardcore heavyweights Desolated, guitarist Richy Unsworth has always felt more comfortable playing intimate venues, with devoted crowds that ooze with disorder. “I love it when it properly kicks off, and you’ve got a massive pit. That’s my perfect vibe. I like stage divers, but they don’t happen very often for us, because I think there is not normally a front row, they sort of evacuate.” Perhaps that’s why the title of Desolated’s new album, ‘Finding Peace’, works so well; there...
Out Of Rage •

New Cross Inn to put on a week of extreme shows with Real Life Presents

Six summer nights and twenty bands ready to get you moshing, Real Life Presents is putting on an entire week of heavy shows at the New Cross Inn. The Real Life Summer Jams will take place from the 2nd to the 8th of July. (Minus a much-needed rest day in the middle!) As a central hub of everything extreme, Real Life Presents always delivers on bringing the freshest metal and hardcore acts to London. All of the lineups represent the best in both UK and international heavy acts, a must-follow for a...
Out Of Rage •

REVIEW: Desolated - Finding Peace

Hardcore has come a long way in the last nine years, and we’ve seen the monumental rise of the genre, going from strength to strength in underground venues to monstrous no-barrier sets at Coachella. Charli XCX made it known to the heavy music girlies that 2025 will be a Turnstile summer, and even in the UK, the community descends in its droves to Manchester for Outbreak Festival.  In the blink of an eye, how we perceive a genre rooted in community, with its raw brutality of sound and unwavering...
Marco Cornelli
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Mannequin Pussy and Shortstraw

Pure feminine rage descended onto Manchester Academy 2 with the arrival of Philly firestarters Mannequin Pussy. After the release of the spectacular 2024 album ‘I Got Heaven’, they made a casual trip last summer to play to both the audiences at Glastonbury and Outbreak, proving that they’ve made peace with both the mainstream crowds, whilst also shining brightly within the heavy music scene. Now their dazzling blend of indie rock and riot grrrl punk is back, and the band are becoming increasingl...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

Top 10 bands you must watch at Slam Dunk Festival 2025 - Distorted Sound Magazine

The iconic Slam Dunk Festival is back for 2025 – and the Vans-wearing, Monster-drinking, pizza-eating elder emo’s will arrive in their droves to Leeds and Hatfield to kickstart the beginning of festival season. Headlined by the phenomenal A DAY TO REMEMBER, the Floridian five-piece will set the tone for the nostalgic barrage of pop-punk that sets the high standard across the weekend. Amongst the checker-printed chaos, the festival also champions metalcore, Midwest-emo and the brightest rising st...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Will You Haunt Me, With That Same Patience - Bury Tomorrow - Distorted Sound Magazine

BURY TOMORROW have always been a band flooded with emotion, but could also survive the toughest oncoming storms. For their latest release, Will You Haunt Me, With That Same Patience, their eleven-track odyssey into darker waters, is navigated with the intense forces of relentless self-destruction, overwhelming anxiety and a deep absence of emotional clarity. 

Regardless, the relentless nature of the band, through the uncertainty of the pandemic and then the future of the melodic metalcore outfi...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

FEATURE: LANDMVRKS - The Darkest Place I've Ever Been

Assembling the dismembered limbs of their single, Creature, well over a year before beginning the production of their latest record, the members of French metalcore collective LANDMVRKS realised that in order to create life, it needed to meet its maker. The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is an album that embodies the damaging spiral of mental health, whilst putting yourself into your art becomes as much of a struggle as it is an enduring strength.
Sabrina Ramdoyal
Distorted Sound Magazine •

LIVE REVIEW: Heriot @ Rebellion, Manchester - Distorted Sound Magazine

As one of the defining voices in the British metal community currently, HERIOT’s Manchester show – and the final night of their headline tour – could only be described as a victory lap of sorts. In the devastating wake of their Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell album release, there has been an undeniable shift in the standings of the Swindon four-piece, a knowing glint in their listeners’ eyes that unimaginable ferocity is currently on the way. 

Somewhere, late last year, during their UK tour with...
Dave Ellits
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Metal To The Masses Manchester - Quarter Final 4

We're back at Rebellion tonight for the fourth and final quarter-final round of Manchester's Metal To The Masses. The cultural home of the city's local music scene, the venue has hosted some of the best emerging bands, with irreplaceable memories slathered in sticky floors and dripping ceilings. Amongst the lively raucousness of show-goers, there is the unmistakable claim that they made their moment count.Now at OOR, we know a thing or two about raging (it's in our namesake, and we know it), but...
Izzy Scott
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Manchester Punk Festival

A constellation of seven local venues mapped out the weekend’s entertainment at Manchester Punk Festival, shining with brilliant underground talent as they pilot kindness and visibility for the transgender community, after the Supreme Court's landmark statement on the definition of a woman. Whilst navigating the darkness and looming uncertainty of queer futures in the UK, solidarity took to Manchester’s streets, not just in the peaceful protest that took place on the saturday afternoon, but in t...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: VAMP - Magnolia Park - Distorted Sound Magazine

Within the towering metropolis of Nocturne Nexus, a sprawling futuristic city that grows within the wilderness of the Shrouded Forest, the cursed foundations of VAMP, MAGNOLIA PARK’s third record, began to plant its roots within the alternative music landscape. The record is the most ambitious feat yet for the Florida five-piece MAGNOLIA PARK, who have constructed an otherworldly narrative of shadow cults, cursed magical objects and cyborg warriors, even placing themselves in the story as their...
Kieran Atkinson
Out Of Rage •

LIVE FROM THE PIT: Skunk Anansie and So Good

“If you find yourself having to stick out for people and support them, it's not about politics, it’s about basic, decent human empathy.” Skunk Anansie’s Skin preaches to the crowd before playing their hit song, ‘God Only Loves You’. The vocalist, clad in an oversized shirt and a thick black line of paint rolling towards her forehead in an S-shape, continues her monologue, determined to uplift the crowd at Manchester’s O2 Arena. She speaks quickly and concisely, making sure every word matters. ‘I...
Out Of Rage •

THE OUT OF RAGE 2025 GIG GUIDE

Slam Dunk is an alternative music festival held in the UK and has been growing yearly since its launch in 2006. What started as a single stage in Leeds, now consists of two days (with the same line-up) in two different locations, with 5 stages - one in the North (Leeds) and the other in the South (London). The festival is typically home to pop-punk and various metal-type bands; however, this year we are seeing the biggest and most diverse line-up of the festival so far. Headlining and must-see,...
Out Of Rage •

REVIEW: JIVEBOMB - ETHEREAL

You have just under fifteen minutes left to live - so why not get the sledgehammer out? Baltimore darlings JIVEBOMB are about to release their brutal assault of an EP ETHEREAL, a ten-track firecracker of a record, with each song lasting well under the two-minute mark. At the perfect length to let off some much-needed steam, it pushes the boundaries of hardcore, grindcore and the realms of the extreme with two raised fists. There’s no doubt about it - JIVEBOMB are back for blood. Whatever happens...
Out Of Rage •

"I am the fire": A History of Donington, told by the Women of Download

Since the beginning of its mosh-heavy operation, Download has become the home of the most innovative rock and metal talent in the UK, if not the entire world. The festival’s history is etched deeply into the hills of Donington racetrack as each year passing brings both the best breakthrough talent and rock royalty alike.  With it, more and more exciting female acts are paving the way for future generations. Whilst alternative music has struggled to represent women in lineups, it is important to...
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