Last week’s winners were Dream Theater feat. Lzzy Hale, closely followed by Ricky Warwick in second place and Ghost in third. But who will win this time? Cast your vote at the foot of this page and decide…
The Rolling Stones – Out Of Control
On 25 March 2016, The Rolling Stones became the first rock band to play an enormous free outdoor concert to hundreds of thousands in Havana, Cuba. The event was filmed and called Havana Moon, and tonight (Friday 23 September) it’s showing in cinemas across the world. Sort yourself some tickets, if you can, and check out this seductive blend of blues, rock’n’roll heroism and far-out mystique. They look old (hell, let’s face it, they are old) but their performance is anything but.
Butch Walker – East Coast Girl
“If you make it this far without killing yourself, you’ve got it made,” sings Walker, in one of many dark lyrical vignettes in this uptempo, Springsteen-esque ode. With a video featuring an evil dictator played by Michael Des Barres, its impact veers between sad and bittersweet but sounds ace either way.
Opeth – The Wilde Flowers
Only someone as gloriously nerdy as Mikael Akerfeldt could name a song after the archetypal Canterbury scene band. Once a pioneering prog group, the Wilde Flowers moniker is now attached to this heavy piece of progressive grooviness from Opeth – Swedish metalheads and one of the proggiest bands the early ‘70s never had.
Airbourne – Rivalry
Argh! Oof! Eek! Yep that’s right, the hard rock Aussies’ new track Rivalry is accompanied by a big ol’ fight. Full-throttle, loud, proud and in your face – from the deep opening powerchord chug to frontman Joel’s last deranged cries – it really doesn’t fuck around. ‘It’s been done’, you say? Of course it has – by AC/DC and others like them, so who’s complaining? Exactly, no one.
Green Day – Still Breathing
A sweeter, poppier turn from the crown princes of radio-friendly punk rock, Still Breathing capitalises on their signature blend of heartstring-tugging lyrics and upbeat aggro – minus the fiercer heft we generally expect from them. Pretty stuff.
The Mission – Tyranny Of Secrets
Get your goth on with this new track from gothic rock forerunners The Mission – from their upcoming album, Another Fall From Grace, which main man Wayne Hussey describes as “the lost link between The Sisters Of Mercy ‘First And Last And Always’ and The Mission’s ‘God’s Own Medicine’”.
Nine Miles South – Bones
Beautifully brooding, steely-gazed crossover blues rock from Nine Miles South, with Southern grit and hints of dark country that suggest Nashville origins – rather than their actual homeland Denmark. Saying this, for all the countrified tastes it’s still riffy as hell, with heavy guitar work that places them comfortably in the hard rock camp.
Vellocet – Better Days
This Brighton-based group could be the ones to fill the Gaslight Anthem-shaped hole in our lives (mainman Brian Fallon broke off to do his own thing), if this pretty number is anything to go by. A driving, expansive singalong, it occupies the happy middle ground between younger alt-rock and ‘grownup’ blue collar songsmithery. Nice.
