Apocalyptic metal ensemble Plague of Stars is set to electrify audiences with their powerful new lyric video ‘Vain’, a haunting exploration of inner strength and silent rebellion from their groundbreaking album Extinction.
Featuring Liz Ziegler’s commanding vocal debut, ‘Vain’ is a bold statement of empowerment. Its provocative narrative challenges listeners: “Do not mistake her silence for agreement.” The song is a reflection on how women endure constant belittlement and unwanted attention, using its intense sonic landscape to convey the weight of these experiences. It epitomizes the band’s unique fusion of doom, black, and gothic metal, bridging ethereal clean vocals with raw, uncompromising energy to create a powerful and immersive listening experience.
Set to take the world by storm in 2025, BEX has released her first music of the year with ‘crybaby’, a single addressing on-going female oppression that’s all-too ingrained in our society. Raw, real and fun, this is the first glimpse of a new BEX, feeling like she’s re-found her purpose. The instrumentation is punchy, lively, aggressive. The vocals are simple, one take, going straight back to basics. The music video, directed by BEX herself as usual, exemplifies her unique style and vision.
Written by BEX, alongside Sam Matlock (WARGASM) and Sam Cramer (Future Humans), ‘crybaby’ is out now on BEX’ own outlet “SCUM”.
“‘crybaby’ is a representation of female oppression,” says BEX, matter-of-factly. “Throughout history women have been deemed the weaker sex and the property of men. This track explodes those ideas. With references to a Molotov Cocktail, ‘crybaby’ represents the built-up rage exploding out of today’s women with the unjust still playing out all around them.
“In life, we can close our eyes to inequality and live blind and naive to the facts (the ‘crybaby’ eye masks in the music video represent this). It can be easier to ignore the ‘little comments’; it can be easier to not ‘cause a scene’; it can be easier to just ‘not care’. This doesn’t make it right; this doesn’t make it ok; this allows it to continue. It is our choice to remove the mask and fight back. You just have to be prepared for what you see.
“‘crybaby’ is about not letting go. It’s about holding that grudge with you every day and using it to fuel your mission, using it to make a difference.”
IZZY REIGN releases haunting new single ‘Phobos’, out now, new self titled album out on March 21 on FiXT.
‘Phobos’ delves deep into the unsettling world of panic attacks, drawing from personal experience to convey the overwhelming and unpredictable nature of these episodes. With raw emotion and vivid descriptions, the song captures the sensation of air thinning, heartbeats overpowering, and the inevitability of panic despite any attempts at control. Through ‘Phobos,’ Reign seeks to resonate with those who have faced similar battles, whether through the struggle to resist the attacks or the resigned acceptance of their recurrence, creating a visceral sonic journey of anxiety and resilience. This song is about the experiences of having panic attacks. A true understanding of how they feel and how at complete random they can occur.
In her own words, “I spent many years of my life undergoing random panic attacks, which felt like, for no reason at all, but upon learning and understanding how much the subconscious stress levels of your brain truly affect the physical responses of your body, it seemed to make more sense. I struggled with this for a long time and as many people have experienced them selves, it can take a major toll on ones every day life. How ever, I wrote this song in regards to this becoming my norm, and when I felt the coming on, I just had to take them steps to prepare and let them pass. The inevitable would happen, regardless of how in control I felt or how much I changed my situations/surroundings. I wanted to give the feeling of what a panic attack felt like to people who have gone through the many different stages of them. Whether or not they let it consume them, the sensation of the air around them thinning, or your heart beat being the only thing you can hear, or the other side of acceptance, almost, in a way, being annoyed that you have to sit down and ground yourself to prepare for what you’re already used to.”
Eville is already surpassing expectations after being chosen as Alyx Holcombe’s One to Watch for 2025 with their first release of the year, ‘Plaything’.
The Brighton-based trio may have debuted and ascended as pioneers of Brat Metal, but ‘Plaything’ sees the powerhouse mature into provocateurs of psyche-piercing post-hardcore furore with their lacerating hyper-sonic hooks, heavy riffs and indomitable drum n bass beats which precariously teeter on the edge of cataclysmic chaos.
With endless vocal transitions, Eva dons a kaleidoscope of guises with her chameleonically always-in-flux shifts from bubblegum pop siren to nu-metal lyrical waxer to outpourer visceral metal screams which cut through the mix like a razor-sharp buzzsaw to protest against capriciously selfish protagonists prone to treating others as easily discard objects of pleasure.
Eva Sheldrake said: “In true Eville style, ‘Plaything’ incites a riot of huge melodic pop choruses interwoven with hard-hitting, edgy verses. The track also marks a pivotal point in our career, exhibiting our expansive versatility and how fearless we’ve become as songwriters as we incinerate the boundaries of our sound.”
Serpentyne unleashes their highly anticipated new album Tales From The Dark, a bold evolution of their symphonic metal sound. The album refines its signature fusion of orchestral grandeur and modern metal intensity, weaving together fast-paced, cinematic compositions with powerful vocal harmonies. Fans of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Eluveitie will find themselves immersed in a dynamic and evocative listening experience.
The road to Tales From The Dark has been paved with an electrifying single that introduced listeners to the album’s rich sonic universe. The first glimpse came with ‘Prophetess of Dreams’, a hard-hitting and fast-paced track that set the stage with machine-gun guitar riffs and an ominous tale of fate and destiny. Now, the album release is accompanied by the focus track ‘Run For Your Life’, a relentless and high-energy anthem that captures urgency and fear through a powerful mix of 8-string guitar work, soaring vocals, and layered orchestration. This song encapsulates the cinematic intensity of Serpentyne’s evolved sound, pulling listeners into a desperate chase for survival.
As the band prepares to release their brand new studio album Sleepless Empire, Italian metal titans LACUNA COIL have released the ultimate single ‘I Wish You Were Dead’ alongside a stunning music video.
‘I Wish You Were Dead’ is about the emotional turmoil and struggle that accompanies toxic relationships. The song’s video takes the track’s heavy theme and spins it into a romantic Goth tale just in time for Valentine’s Day. Filmed by Martina L McLean in a church in Capranica, a small town north of Rome, it marks a first in the history of LACUNA COIL: the band performing a choreography!
On the new single, the band shares: “We all have this person we wish never existed, right? We all felt the need to erase the same person from our thoughts, someone who hurt us that it’s still in our mind. We wanted to write heavier lyrics on a happier musical canvas. Also we are a little tired of being politically correct at all costs…”
