Vol. 137
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Full Pelt Magazine
Tag: Music
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Shinedown
‘EI8HT’
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SHINEDOWN – Ei8ht – album review
“…A lot can happen in a year…”, Brent Smith sings on ‘Three Six Five’ – the fourth track of a whopping eighteen on new Shinedown album, ‘EI8HT’.
Indeed, it can! The build-up towards what is, yes, their eighth album has been elongated with the pre-release singles stretching back to January last year. In that time the band the have played a huge set at Download here in the UK and well, not played a certain festival in the US which has led to a fair amount of criticism from all sides.
Whilst the lead-up to the album hasn’t been traditional, the band aren’t exactly traditional and have always done things their own way even where that courts elements of controversy. On record though it’s hard to argue with the quality of their work.
They’ve been on a musical evolution throughout their career, and each album or period of releases has had distinct identities. This new album however feels a little different.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘Searchlight’
Across the hour and four minutes of music, you get glimpses of everything that has gone into the band over the past two decades, but you also get a band seemingly desperate to not just repeat what they’ve done before.
This does make the album difficult to pigeonhole but that’s not always a bad thing. Over the course of such a long collection however this does mean it can feel more of just that – a collection of songs rather than a fully cohesive album.
There are plenty of good songs on here, so fans of the band won’t be short of highlights, but undoubtedly the album would’ve benefitted by losing twenty minutes or so.
Still, fans of this modern Shinedown are going to get their fill with this album. A steady stream of radio rock friendly songs will have them eating for the next year or two until album number nine arrives.
The band may be marmite and will always have people talking about them. You just sense that they don’t care and will continue to do whatever they want. ‘EI8HT’ is the album of a band comfortable in their skin but happy to cover it with fresh ink!
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Saint Agnes
‘Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin’
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Saint agnes – Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin – album review
Saint Agnes have already built themselves a solid (and growing) following in the aftermath of their first two commanding albums. Now they are back to triple-down on their signature mix of chaos and power to add an exclamation mark to their potential.
‘Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin’ kicks off with recent standout singles, ‘Good Boy’, ‘The Ghost’ and ‘The Father, The Son and The Holy Beast’ and never really lets up from there.
This album represents an enormous step up in heaviness and atmospheric style for the band. Sounding like a crossover between modern Poppy, full throttle Nine Inch Nails and hard-hitting Pendulum, these are songs designed for the dancefloor whilst oozing rock energy.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘The Ghost’
Lyrically the album doesn’t seek to pull any punches, instead covering personal and wider topics with frank and direct vigour.
Whilst the majority of the songs feature that industrial intensity, the likes of album closer ‘Where Do I Begin’, do superbly showcase a more melodic, tender side which adds the depth needed to bring this record to life.
Following on from its vampire themed predecessor, ‘Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin’, sounds like an underground club just waiting for Blade to arrive and unleash hell!
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Full Pelt Magazine
Vol. 136
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Slam Dunk Festival
Hatfield Park
Saturday 23rd May 2026
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SLAM DUNK SOUTH 2026 REVIEW
The late May Bank Holiday means only one thing for rock fans – the start of festival season!
Yes, Slam Dunk is firmly rooted into the fabric of the scenes DNA, and we once again popped to Hatfield Park for the South version of the two-day event. Tomorrow the circus will travel to Temple Newsum in Leeds for the North edition of 2026’s event, but for today the sun is certainly shining on Hatfield.
Indeed, we are in the midst of a spring heatwave and that does add an element of lethargy to what is normally a full-throttle day of relentless music. Fans, as is always the case in these scenarios, seek out any inch of shade and the water points become as popular as the bars.
With only one tented stage this year, that shade is at a premium, but the water points do appear to cope with the demand unlike previous warm years. The queues for the bars are their usual busy selves but the wait for food (barring the ice cream vans) isn’t bad in our experience today.
That’s enough of the admin stuff though, let’s get to the music! We commence our full-on day in that tent with upstarts Call Me Amour who are playing their first ever festival. You wouldn’t tell as they make the most of the early excitement amongst the crowd to engage them immediately with a polished set of atmospheric rockers.
This festival is of course built both upon nostalgia but also a fair splattering of the best new bands on the scene. We catch perhaps the two biggest hopes of rock music at the moment next as Dead Pony captivate the tent and then unpeople bring the riffage to the sun-soaked main stage. Both you’d expect will become mainstays of this event as they work their way to the top of the bill.
Our first dose of nostalgia comes next as we stick on the main stage for A! The band are back with a new album, ‘PRANG’ (their first in two decades), and it’s great to see the crowd enjoying the likes of ‘Shit Summer’ and ‘Hello Sunshine’, just as much as ‘Starbucks’ and ‘I Love Lake Tahoe’. A mass line-dancing session accompanies ‘Kings of Lowestoft’ and ‘Nothing’ provides the perfect exclamation mark to a brilliant set.
Each year the festival changes up their stage types and locations as they try to shoehorn in as much music as possible. After complaints surrounding their double ended tent set-up, the Monster stages this year are outdoor side-by-side offerings, and we catch Set Your Goals next who clearly appreciate the love shown to them. The only issue with this set-up being the big sound-bleed from the larger outdoor side-by-side setup opposite.
Slam Dunk this year celebrates twenty years and it has been fascinating watching the event grow, expand and change throughout those years. Equally numerous bands on the line-up this year are celebrating their own various anniversaries which both makes their performances extra special and makes us feel extra old!
Over the course of the next couple of hours, we catch Trash Boat celebrating, ‘Nothing I Write You Can Change What You’ve Been Through’ and Boston Manor recognising, ‘Be Nothing’. It’s a unique variant of nostalgia when bands you consider to be newer are celebrating such anniversaries, but both bands do so stunningly in their own ways.
Trash Boat purely focus on that album, and the performance has a real throwback vibe throughout. Boston Manor, sandwich ‘Burn You Up’, ‘Lead Feet’, ‘Cu’, ‘Laika’ and ‘Stop Trying, Be Nothing’ between more recent bangers. Both sets though are memorable and with both bands announcing anniversary shows for later this year, fans will no doubt be motivated to check out the full shows.
We then head back to the main stage for an emotive serenade from Dashboard Confessional including their brilliant Spiderman hit ‘Vindicated’. After then enjoying the latter part of the stirring The Menzingers back over at the Monster stages we catch Tonight Alive who commence their performance with their own Spiderman hit ‘The Edge’!
The Australians deliver a fantastic performance which is amongst the best of the day and incorporate guest spots from Harmony Cavelle (South Arcade) and Bonnie Fraser (Stand Atlantic), not to mention a cover of Mumford & Sons (never expected to say that at Slam Dunk, but it was great!).
The clashes are always a conundrum for Slam Dunk goers and attendees are split between Tonight Alive, Taking Back Sunday on the main stage and the most-hyped band of the moment PRESIDENT who evidently draw a massive crowd to the heavy stages.
We then head into the tent again for a high energy VUKOVI performance and another dose of big-time modern nostalgia with Deaf Havana. With a set celebrating their seminal record, ‘Fools and Worthless Liars’, Deaf Havana provide the most emotive set of the day. The genuine outpouring of love for these songs clearly moving frontman James Veck-Gilodi as crowd and band share a beautiful moment together.
Going back to the ever-revolving stage set-ups of Slam Dunk, the tent this year has a literal revolving stage set-up which keeps changeovers to a minimum!
We conclude what has been another full pelt (see what we did there) day at Slam Dunk with main stage headliners Good Charlotte. The band announced a couple of huge arena shows this week and many mocked the band thinking they would struggle to sell them…
…Well, today they attract one of the biggest crowds we’ve witnessed for a Slam Dunk headliner. The show, the performance and the setlist all equally suggest that the Madden brothers will have no issue convening their fans again when they return.
With a never-ending parade of hits, there is plenty of singing for fans to do before going home. The band sign off with a run of ‘I Just Wanna Live’, ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’ and ‘The Anthem’. That ensures that as fans make that journey back home, they can once again reminisce about a wonderful day of music.
The sun is out, Slam Dunk is in the bag and festival season is underway – let’s gooooo!
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THE HOWLING
‘SALVO’
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THE HOWLING – SALVO – EP REVIEW
Out of the ashes of previous bands comes THE HOWLING. The band have just announced themselves on the scene with a support slot across the UK and Europe with Creeper, and now they share their debut EP, their opening salvo – ‘SALVO’!
With frontman Mikey Lord and co bringing a dark cinematic aesthetic and a theatrical style to not just their music but their entire package – that obviously feels like a match made in heaven (or perhaps the depths of hell mwahahaha). It’s time now however for the band to show what they bring to the table.
Well, that would be big sing-a-longs and an ambitious punk-tinged sound which these five tracks demonstrate perfectly. You can really feel the passion put into these tracks and the desire to build a world around this new project.
‘SALVO’ is therefore a fine opening offering and is a really exciting sign of what’s to come!
Watch Episode 76 of The Full Pelt Music Podcast with guests THE HOWLING!
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A
‘PRANG’
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A – prang – album review
The band with the worst name to search for on the internet are back!
For fans of British rockers A, a time when the band were all over radio and music tv and playing shows with the biggest bands around will be a fond memory. One that the brain knows was a long time ago (considering internet algorithms weren’t a concern), but the heart thinks was just yesterday.
Well, as a stark reminder of how old we are all getting – their last album was released twenty-one years ago!! It’s fair to say that even the most ardent fan had probably assumed that another album was a pipe dream and that sporadic shows celebrating the glory days were as good as it would ever get.
That was until the band announced that they will be releasing, ‘PRANG’. I mean, the phrase long-awaited is probably overused but this certainly feels like an acceptable circumstance to break it out!
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘WALKOVER‘
Four pre-release singles, ‘Hello Sunshine’, ‘Walkover’, ‘Bring On The Likes’ and ‘Shit Summer’, have given fans an indication of what to expect and those tracks make up the first four on the record, giving fans an easy introduction.
The album as a whole does continue with the same charm however that fans would expect. With their famously catchy choruses, witty lyrics, and signature sound all intact this is exactly what old-school fans will want to hear from a new A album.
Of course, the fact that the world has changed and we’ve all got older is explored across the songs along with some personal themes. Produced by frontman Jason Perry, who is now a Grammy winning producer after all, the album maintains the DIY feel and has that loveable A personality at its core.
This is A in 2026 and its just a fun as it was in 2005!
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Marmozets
‘CO.WAR.DICE.’
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MARMOZETS – CO.War.dice. – Album review
The return of Marmozets has been greatly received by those that had them pegged for big things around their two albums in the mid-2010’s.
A band who have had to overcome plenty of obstacles in their career, the wait for album number three has been an arduous journey, but also one with that has seen them able to grow their family. Eight years though is a long time between releases, so how does ‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ stack up to their early work?
Many after all clammer for the weird and wonderful chaos of their debut album compared to the more straightforward sound of their sophomore record. Well, the deeper this new collection progresses the more you sense that album number three is a genuine mix of the two – a controlled chaos.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘A KISS FROM A MOTHER’
Frontloaded with pre-release singles ‘A Kiss From A Mother’, ‘New York’, ‘Cut Back’ and ‘Running With The Sun In Your Eyes’, the first half of the album gives a warming familiarity. The band then begin to stretch their legs again with the second half of the album becoming much more eclectic.
The likes of ‘Dandy’ and ‘Flowerz’ show the more tender side of the band, whilst ‘Mes Désirs’ shows they can still write big arena rock songs just fine.
The album reaches its finale with the seven or so minute epic, ‘Keep Going Darling’, which simply encapsulates the album itself so well.
‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ delivers in all the ways that it needs to. To go with a title that feels rather What3Words like, we’d call it, Eclectic.Frenetic.Ambitious.
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Full Pelt Magazine
Vol. 135
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The All-American Rejects
‘Sandbox’
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THE All-american rejects – sandbox – album review
If we flashback to 2008, The All-American Rejects were one of the hottest bands in rock music with a string of big hits making them mainstays of radio and music TV. The band seemed to have the world at their feet.
Whilst 2012’s ‘Kids in the Street’ didn’t set the world alight; it also wasn’t a terrible album by any stretch of the imagination. Nobody would’ve predicted back then that it would take fourteen long years for the band to release their next record!
That is the case however with the band having been in and out of hibernation over the intervening years with a splattering of singles and some occasional touring. Album number five is finally here however in the shape of ‘Sandbox’.
A stream of singles has built to the release in recent months, so fans already have a very good idea of what to expect, but it’s nice to have the album in our hands at last.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘King Kong’
With themes of aging and understanding adulthood, it seems too obvious to point out that this is a mature album. Sonically as well as lyrically the band have grown and that means that some of that old playful appeal is gone. But that doesn’t mean that their overall charm has faltered with these songs still more than capable of stimulating a range of emotions.
The charismatic allure of frontman Tyson Ritter remains untamed but with their fanbase now older as well, these songs are all too relatable. Getting older is scary and navigating what the world has become is terrifying. Music however has the power to centre the psyche and ground our emotions.
Having The All-American Rejects back in our lives and providing that essential escape is therefore a wonderful thing, and with ‘Sandbox’ delivering so well; let’s hope that album number six isn’t another fourteen years away!
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