Feature Photo: rufus, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Emerging from the vibrant and eclectic music scene of the 1990s, Fiona Apple redefined what it meant to be an alternative artist, weaving intricate melodies with raw, deeply personal storytelling that resonated across generations. Born Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart on September 13, 1977, in New York City, she was raised in a family immersed in the arts, which influenced her musical aspirations. Apple began playing piano at a young age, honing a unique style that blended classical influences with introspective lyrics. Her breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of her debut album, Tidal, which included the Grammy-winning single “Criminal.” The album was both a critical and commercial success, marking the start of her distinguished career.
Over the course of her career, Fiona Apple has released five studio albums: Tidal (1996), When the Pawn… (1999), Extraordinary Machine (2005), The Idler Wheel… (2012), and Fetch the Bolt Cutters (2020). Each album showcases her evolution as an artist, with themes ranging from emotional vulnerability to social commentary and a distinctive fusion of jazz, rock, and experimental sounds. Fetch the Bolt Cutters received widespread acclaim, including the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, solidifying Apple’s reputation as a trailblazing artist.
Fiona Apple’s chart success includes multiple albums and singles that have resonated with audiences worldwide. Tidal was certified triple platinum, and When the Pawn… earned critical accolades for its bold experimentation. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including a Grammy, an MTV Video Music Award, and several industry honors, highlighting her enduring influence in the music world. Beyond her commercial achievements, Apple is celebrated for her raw, unfiltered songwriting and innovative arrangements, which have inspired countless artists across genres.
This article serves as a comprehensive guide to Fiona Apple’s extensive catalog, exploring her songs from A to Z. With her fearless approach to music and commitment to artistic authenticity, Apple has left an indelible mark on the music industry, making her one of the most respected and innovative voices of her generation.
Jeff Lynne’s ELO will perform their final concert on Sunday, July 13, 2025 at BST Hyde Park in London, England. Speaking with MOJO, Jeff Lynne discusses his farewell show, and promises more new music to come.
“It will certainly be an emotional show for me,” Lynne tells MOJO, adding, “it has been great getting to tour the world and to this day at every show I am always surprised and delighted by the crowds and the energy they bring. I will miss it.”
Lynne stresses it’s not the end of the story and that more music will come, though whether that’s new ELO releases or productions for other people he isn’t saying.
“I am happy with what I’ve done, and the crowd reactions to the shows and the music have been amazing,” he says. “This is not a farewell to music. I am excited to return to the studio full-time, which is what I love!”
“My return to touring began at Hyde Park in 2014”, Jeff Lynne previously stated. “It seems like the perfect place to do our final show. We couldn’t be more excited to share this special night in London with our UK fans. As the song goes, ‘we’re gonna do it One More Time!’”
Jeff Lynne’s ELO 2025 live dates are listed below. Get tickets here.
July 5 – Utilita Arena Birmingham – Birmingham, England 6 – Utilita Arena Birmingham – Birmingham, England 9 – Co-op Live – Manchester, UK 10 – Co-op Live – Manchester, UK 13 – Hyde Park – London, UK
R.I.P. Jimmy Bain (DIO, RAINBOW): December 19th, 1947 – January 23rd, 2016 (aged 68)
R.I.P. Graham Anthony Barnes (real name ALVIN LEE; TEN YEARS AFTER): December 19th, 1944 – March 6th, 2013 (aged 68)
HEAVY BIRTHDAYS
Happy 52nd Ted Aguilar (DEATH ANGEL) – December 19th, 1972
HEAVY RELEASES
Happy 39th DAVID LEE ROTH’s “California Girls” – December 19th, 1985 The BEACH BOYS classic was his first single from his debut solo EP, Crazy From The Heat.
Happy 13th FOREFATHER’s Last Of The Line – December 19th, 2011
In 1994, BraveWords & Bloody Knuckles magazine was born and here we stand 30 years later celebrating the past 12 months of music on our anniversary! What an incredible ride it has been and it’s far from over! And during the past three decades, we’ve literally seen/heard thousands of releases and this is the time of the season when we crown the finest! The BraveWords scribes have spoken, so join us each day this month as we count down to the BravePick of 2024!
Remember, everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! Stay tuned at the end of December for BraveWords’ writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2024? and Metal Predictions For 2025.
BravePicks 2024
12) THE CROWN – Crown Of Thorns (Metal Blade)
Swedish thrashing royalty! The Crown delivered on all fronts with Crown Of Thorns, an apocalyptic, hellish thrashing destroyer. There’s a certain anger that fills the air as the Swedes collectively light a fire keeping them relevant and one of the premiere bands in all of metal.
Crown Of Thorns stabs its way to #12 with gross ferocity, delicious riffs, and burning attitude.
Scribe Greg Pratt scored the album an 8.0, an excerpt of his review:
Enter Crown Of Thorns, the album title itself a throwback to the band’s earlier moniker, the cover stark and black and white and crusty, opener “I Hunt With The Devil” blasting and grinding and getting a bit atmospheric, but mainly just balls-to-the-wall thrashing speed/death, while “Churchburner” gallops and chugs with remarkable determination.
These guys got life in them, even here 100 albums in (fine, twelfth, fourteenth if we’re counting those Crown Of Thorns records that I kinda forgot about), tracks like “Martyrian” absolute hellthrash earworms (seriously, this song!), and “Howling At The Warfield”, I mean, this song, this is why I love metal so much and will until the day I die.
BravePicks 2024Top 30
12) THE CROWN – Crown Of Thorns (Metal Blade) 13)NECROPHOBIC – In The Twilight Grey (Century Media) 14)DJEVEL – Natt Til Ende (Aftermath) 15)INTRANCED – Muerte y Metal (High Roller) 16)KITTIE – Fire (Sumerian) 17)BLACKTOP MOJO – Pollen (Cuhmon Music Group)
18)BLOOD RED THRONE – Nonagon (Soulseller) 19)RIOT V – Mean Streets 20)PORTRAIT – The Host 21)ROTTING CHRIST – Pro Xristou (Season Of Mist) 22)SAXON – Hell, Fire And Damnation (Silver Lining) 23)ULCERATE – Cutting The Throat Of God (Debemur Morti Productions) 24)POWERWOLF – Wake Up The Wicked (Napalm) 25)ENSIFERUM – Winter Storm (Metal Blade) 26)OPETH – The Last Will And Testament (Reigning Phoenix Music) 27)DARK TRANQUILLITY – Endtime Signals (Century Media) 28)MORGUL BLADE – Heavy Metal Wraiths (No Remorse) 29)THE DEAD DAISIES – Light ‘Em Up (Independent) 30)MÖRK GRYNING – Fasornas Tid (Season Of Mist)
Italy’s cult heavy rock band, Death SS, will release their new studio album, The Entity, early next year. The concept album was produced by mastermind and frontman, Steve Sylvester, along with the English Grammy winner producer, Tom Dalgety (Rammstein, Ghost, The Cult).
The literary inspirations of the 12-song opus range from Aleister Crowley, who seeks to liberate man by awakening his artistic genius, to the characters of writers James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson, who explore the dark side of mankind. It also includes figures such as Jack the Ripper, Walter Sickert, Cemetery and others, ultimately linking to the band’s history.
The band has unleashed the video for their second single, “Out To Get Me”, a dark, orchestral ballad. The main character Jekyll becomes aware of the evil his alter ego has caused and of the other people’s reaction towards him. Tormented by doubts and remorse, his mental health degenerates and in a hallucinatory crescendo, wherever he flees, he feels haunted by hellish creatures – the monsters of his conscience.
Death SS frontman Steve Sylvester comments: “When I had to think of a video to accompany this song, the first thing that came to mind was a classical ballet, an esoteric dance symbolising the eternal battle between good and evil. The dancer/demon and the dancer/angel face and fight each other, symbolising an eternal cycle of birth, death and rebirth. In this context there is no real final victory, but rather a constant flow of forces converging within the soul of the protagonist of the song, who suffers from this dualism. So I looked for two professionals who could embody this vision of mine, and I found them in the persons of Greta Bellintani and Gianluca D’Alò, who did their job very well. The location was the Viper Theatre in Florence, whose stage was well suited to the task.”
Death SS was founded in 1977 by Steve Sylvester with the aim of forming a band that encloses inside of itself all its particular interests for occultism, horror films, erotic comics and rock music, in an original manner.
After disbanding in 1982, Sylvester relaunched the band in 1988, whose discography includes albums such as In Death of Steve Sylvester, Heavy Demons, Do What Thou Wilt and Panic, with influences ranging from dark metal to cyberpunk.
UK prog rock collective Nova Cascade have announced that they will release their fifth and final album, Boxman, in April
It’s the follow up to the band’s acclaimed fourth studio album, The Navigator, which they released last year, itself a tribute to guitarist Eric Boulette (also of French prog rockers Nine Skies) who sadly passed away from cancer in 2022, and which featured Ghost Of The Machine vocalist Charlie Bramald among others.
The album, the band’s most ambitious project to date, features an impressive 28-minute, eight-part opus titled The Choice, while the title track concludes a piece of music that was originally conceived in 1996.
“Working alongside my bandmates in Nova Cascade for 8 years has been a privilege,” says main man Dave Hillborne. “Our final release is simultaneously our most ambitious & personal. We’ve enjoyed amazing critical success since our humble beginnings in a gaming chatroom. It is with great excitement & a slight tinge of sadness that we announce our final release..but we want to go out on an absolute high & believe we have achieved that here.
“May I take the opportunity to publicly thank all of the outlets who have provided us with such generous coverage. Particularly Shaun Geraghty from Progzilla Radio. Without whom we may never have found an audience.”
Boxman features contributions from guitarist Colin Powell and violinist Nina Chikviladze. The new album artwork can be seen below.
Pre-orders will open nearer the album’s release.
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“I’d love to do a crossover Sleep Token track.” Bullet For My Valentine’s Matt Tuck and Trivium’s Matt Heafy field questions on Welsh cuisine, punching people in the face and having a willy for a nose
(Image credit: Press)
When Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium released their breakthrough albums The Poison and Ascendency in 2005, they were laying the foundation for the future of metal. Both bands were young, hungry and had cocksure, passionate frontmen – in Matt Tuck and Matt Heafy respectively – that ensured they became poster-boys for the next generation. In the 20 years since, they’ve ridden highs and endured lows. But with a massive co-headline UK tour in January, which will see them play some of the biggest venues of their lives, they’re still proudly waving the flag for metal. We brought The Two Matts together to take questions from some of their biggest fans.
What are your favourite songs to play (that aren’t from your own bands)? Diaryofadjentleman, Instagram
Tuck: “We haven’t done covers for a long time. I’d have to go back to when we were young boys, but for me it was always Metallica. There’s something about the simplicity of some of their riffs that makes them so fun to play, especially when you’re 14 years old and realise you can play some of it!”
Heafy: “On Twitch, people are always like, ‘Matt, can you play this song by this band?’ and it’s like… I don’t know any other songs by any other bands now. We’ve got 10 albums to learn, man! The only two I’ve got sort-of memorised are Master Of Puppets, where I might forget the odd word in a verse or whatever, and Slave New World by Sepultura. But I do love doing some acoustic songs from The Witcher – Burn Butcher Burn and Toss A Coin To Your Witcher are always great fun. I’ve been playing Peaches from The Super Mario Bros. Movie because it’s so ridiculous doing the dumb high notes Jack Black hits.”
What song was your most personal/ difficult to write? Scarlet.Jen, Instagram
Heafy: “Ascendancy’s Departure was one of the toughest songs I’ve written. It deals with the intense depression that I’ve dealt with most of my life. As I’ve grown into adulthood, I’ve become more aware of what makes me tick and got some of these things figured out in terms of why my brain reacts in certain ways due to anxiety, OCD, ADHD… All those things that can couple up and lead to depression. Departure was me finding encouragement to tackle those things head-on, and thoughts of suicide and not wanting to exist on this planet anymore. It’s been intense going back to some of those songs, realising I’m still dealing with them, just in a different way.”
Tuck: “For me, it’s the entirety of [sixth album] Gravity. That’s the only moment in my life I’ve really struggled with mental health issues. That entire record was a battle – a battle to put out, a battle to please the fans, because I always knew it’d be divisive. But once I decided to let myself fully invest in that side of me and not give a fuck, it was a liberating experience and was a big part of my recovery.”
Who is the next next Metallica? Amy Burns, email
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Heafy: “Bullet and Trivium! Nah, it’s hard to say who the next Metallica is. But if you’re talking the bands who are the successors to what’s come before, and keeping the flag flying high on what metal is, and what modern metal can be, the bands encouraging kids to pick up guitars and create new styles, that is Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium. That’s why this tour is happening.”
Has Matt Tuck ever thought about using a seven-string guitar like Trivium have? 27d_e.corpses, Instagram
Tuck: “I’ve got one! I’ve been learning it. The first single for our next campaign, which may or may not be in January, will have the seven-string on.”
Heafy: “You’ve gotta try the nine- string now! That thing is silly. I don’t think it’d fit Trivium or Bullet but it’s so much fun to play.”
Trivium – Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr [OFFICIAL VIDEO] – YouTube
If someone set up an all-star project like Roadrunner United now, and said you could write a song for anyone, who would you pick? Valerie Dobbs, email
Heafy: “Hans Zimmer. He’s my hero, compositionally and musically, so I’d love to write a song for him.”
Tuck: “I’d love to do a crossover Bullet/ Sleep Token track. I reckon that’d be really interesting. Bring a bit of the Bullet intensity into some of the magic that band have. If they do want to do something, by the way, I’m here.”
Heafy: “You’ve gotta dress up, though – masks and everything!”
Will you make a collab after the tour? Citharae_, Instagram
Heafy: “We’ve got talks and plans. We figure when we actually start writing [for the next Trivium album], having Tuck on a track would be incredible. It was so much fun doing Tears Don’t Fall with those guys, so the sky’s the limit. The fact we’re looking at this as a world tour rather than just a continental one means there’s no real limit to what we can do too. We’ve got backstage rigs, time… it’s gonna be great.”
Tuck: “We hit the studio in October until Christmas, so we’re hoping to start doing stuff then, including a song from The Poison but in 2024 fashion. That’d be the perfect opportunity to get Matt and Corey [Beaulieu, Trivium guitarist] on a track. We’ve got a lot of writing to do, though, so we hope we can do it and get something together that people clearly want!”
What are your favourite foods from the other guy’s country? Manufactured_and_machined, Instagram
Heafy: “I haven’t been able to have proper, traditional Welsh food, but I’d love to! Tuck, what are we saying?”
Tuck: “I don’t think Wales has a food. There’s cawl, a kind of stew. Lots of peasant food, really! But you can make it fucking gnarly with a bit of love and care – my mum makes an amazing lamb stew. What’s your mum’s thing?”
Heafy: “She makes all the best Japanese food. I grew up on all of that, but the Orlando food scene has blown up lately. We’re not like London where you’ll get 50 of one thing, but we’ll have one or two places that do things that are as good as anywhere else in the States.”
If you could punch anybody living or dead, who would it be? Gav Donnet, email
Heafy: “I wouldn’t punch somebody, but I’d heel hook someone and break their MCL [medial collateral ligament] or ACL [anterior cruciate ligament]. That’s my speciality. I’m not sure who, though – there’s a lot of people!”
Tuck: “I’d go back to 2004 and punch myself in the face. Tell him to chill the fuck out and be cool.”
What advice would you give your younger selves? Felipesainz8, Instagram
Heafy: “I wouldn’t tell myself anything. No tips or spoilers – he’s gotta go through all the same stuff.”
Tuck: “We’ve been on a parallel journey up to now, so I’m the same. Look where we are now – not only playing shows 20 years on from our breakthroughs, but some of the biggest we’ve ever played. It’s like a fucking fairy tale. This moment is an opportunity for people to reconnect with our bands.”
Heafy: “There is no better pairing of bands than Bullet and Trivium. When you hear we’re doing something together, it feels right!”
Would you rather have a nose for a dick or a dick for a nose? 666metal_beard666, Instagram
Heafy: “That’s the kind of thing one of my bandmates would ask!”
Tuck: “Is the other bit what it normally would be, or do they switch? I’d keep my nose as my nose and have a nose for the dick too. I don’t want a dick on my face!”
Heafy: “Whatever one means I get to keep my dick!”
What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Louise Broadhouse, email
Heafy: “Not naming names, but there was someone we supported in ’05 when we’d not toured Europe yet. The frontman of this American band was like, ‘You don’t wanna tour Europe. The food is inedible, you can’t do anything.’ He told us he just takes sleeping pills to sleep all day, does his show, then takes sleeping pills again. So we’re like, ‘Oh my God, Europe sounds terrible!’ Then we went over and realised it was the coolest place in the world. We went for our first proper Indian food experience, went to a pub and everybody loved us.”
Tuck: “When I was 18, I remember lots of people saying, ‘You should knock this band thing on the head and get a proper job.’ I’m fucking glad I didn’t!”
Bullet For My Valentine – 4 Words (To Choke Upon) (Official Video) – YouTube
Jan 26: Cardiff Utilita Arena, UK Jan 27: Cardiff Utilita Arena, UK Jan 28: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK Jan 30: Manchester Co-op Live, UK Jan 31: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK Feb 01: London The O2, UK
Feb 02: Düsseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Hall, Germany Feb 04: Stuttgart Scheleyer-Hall, Germany Feb 05: Zurich The Hall, Switzerland Feb 07: Paris Le Zenith, France Feb 09: Antwerp Lotto Arena, Belgium Feb 10: Hannover Swiss Life Hall, Germany Feb 11: Amsterdam AFAS Live, Netherlands Feb 13: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany Feb 14: Berlin Max-Schmeling-Halle, Germany Feb 15: Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle, Germany Feb 17: Milan Alcatraz, Italy Feb 18: Munich Zenith, Germany Feb 19: Vienna Stadthalle, Austria Feb 21: Gliwice Arena, Poland Feb 22: Prague Forum Karlin, Czechia Feb 23: Luxembourg Rockhal, Luxembourg Feb 26: Lisbon Campo Pequeno, Portugal Feb 27: Madrid Vistalegre, Spain
Mar 30: Vancouver PNE Forum, Canada Apr 01: Seattle Paramount Theatre, WA Apr 03: San Francisco The Masonic, CA Apr 04: Wheatland Hard Rock Live, CA Apr 05: Reno Grand Sierra Resort Grand Theatre, NV Apr 08: Denver Fillmore Auditorium, CO Apr 10: Las Vegas The Pearl Concert Theater, NV Apr 11: Inglewood YouTube Theater, CA Apr 12: Phoenix Arizona Financial Theatre, AZ Apr 15: Dallas Gilley’s South Side Ballroom, TX Apr 16: San Antonio Boeing Center At Tech Port, TX Apr 17: Houston Bayou Music Center, TX Apr 19: Chesterfield The Factory, MO Apr 20: Omaha Steelhouse Omaha, NE Apr 22: Green Bay Epic Event Center, WI Apr 23: Grand Rapids GLC Live at 20 Monroe, MI Apr 26: Chicago Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom, IL Apr 27: Detroit The Fillmore Detroit, MI Apr 29: Pittsburgh Stage AE Outdoors, PA Apr 30: Philadelphia The Fillmore Philadelphia, PA May 02: Boston MGM Music Hall at Fenway, MA May 03: Laval Place Bell, Canada May 04: Toronto Great Canadian Resort, Canada May 06: Washington DC The Anthem May 07: New York The Rooftop at Pier 17, NY May 09: Bethlehem Wind Creek Event Center, PA May 11: Nashville The Pinnacle, TN May 13: Corbin The Corbin Arena, KY May 14: Atlanta Coca-Cola Roxy, GA May 17: Charlotte Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre, NC May 18: Raleigh Red Hat Amphitheater, NC
Staff writer for Metal Hammer, Rich has never met a feature he didn’t fancy, which is just as well when it comes to covering everything rock, punk and metal for both print and online, be it legendary events like Rock In Rio or Clash Of The Titans or seeking out exciting new bands like Nine Treasures, Jinjer and Sleep Token.
“When Jimi Hendrix died, Shane spent the whole day with his face turned to the wall.” How Jimi Hendrix became an unlikely influence upon Irish folk-punk legends The Pogues
(Image credit: David Redfern/Redferns | CONTI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
In his biography A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan English music journalist Richard Balls noted that, during the dark days of the late ’80s, The Pogues‘ iconic frontman would gobble LSD and conduct imaginary conversations with the late Jimi Hendrix.
Although you’d be hard-pressed to find traces of Hendrix’s influence in The Pogues’ wild, romantic folk-punk, both MacGowan and co-vocalist/tin whistler player Spider Stacy were lifelong fans of the Seattle-born guitar god.
“I knew absolutely that I would never be able to play guitar like Hendrix,” MacGowan wrote on Instagram in 2021. “Because he was born with it as a gift and I haven’t got that gift. No amount of practice could give me that gift.”
In a new interview with The Quietus, Spider Stacy hails the importance of Hendrix to the formation of the London-Irish band.
“Jimi Hendrix was really, really important to me and the close group of friends who became part of that Burton Street scene, which then led to the Pogues emerging,” Stacy tells writer Patrick Clarke. “We just used to listen to him constantly. It’s just the noise of the guitar, and his whole attitude – he was just so cool. Voodoo Child was sort of an anthem for us.”
“It’s possibly fair to say that my favourite Hendrix songs are actually on Axis: Bold As Love, but I think Electric Ladyland is the most ‘Jimi Hendrix’ Jimi Hendrix record,” Stacey continues. “It’s the distillation. I think listening to this was the first time when you became aware of things like the crucial importance of the rhythm section. Shane loved Jimi Hendrix too. Siobhan [MacGowan, his sister] mentioned in her eulogy that when Jimi Hendrix died, Shane spent the whole day with his face turned to the wall.”
Spider Stacy led a celebration of The Pogues’ debut album Red Roses For Me in Dublin earlier this week, and The Pogues are reuniting in 2025 to undertake their first UK tour in 13 years, celebrating 40 years of their classic second album Rum Sodomy & the Lash.
Spider Stacv, James Fearnley and and Jem Finer will be joined by special guests for the six-date tour, which begins in Leeds on May 1, and will visit Birmingham, London, Glasgow and Manchester before closing in Newcastle on May 8.
These will be the band’s first dates since the death, on November 30 last year, of their former frontman.
They will play:
May 01: Leeds O2 Academy May 02: Birmingham O2 Academy May 03: London O2 Academy Brixton May 06: Glasgow Barrowland May 07: Manchester O2 Apollo May 08: Newcastle O2 City Hall
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Camp, who also sang for the band, notably the male lead on 1975’s Song Of Scheherazade (from the album of the same name) as well as handling occasional guitar duties for the band, was part of the perceived classic line-up, who he joined in 1972, alongside vocalist Annie Haslam, guitarist Michael Dunford, keyboard player John. Tout and drummer Terry Sullivan.
Camp featured on every Renaissance album from 1972’s Prologue through to 1983’s Time-Line as well as featuring on Annie Haslam’s 1977 debut album Annie In Wonderland. He also worked with Roy Wood throughout the 70s and early 80s.
Camp also featured on UK melodic rocker Robin George‘s solo debut album Dangerous Music and also formed the band Cathedrale, an 80s amalgam of pop and progressive rock that also featured Lifesign‘s mainman John Young. Their sole album was eventually released through Angel Air Records in 2017.
Young paid tribute to Camp, saying, “Sorry to hear of the passing of JC. Thoughts are with Jon’s family and friends. We worked together in the 80’s in a band called Cathedrale (together with Brett Wilde and Tony Bodene) which came very close to making that last step up the ladder. They were heady times and I thank Jon for his friendship and love. He continued to use ‘our’ picture here on Facebook something I’m very proud of. Back in the 70s I used to go and see him play with Renaissance and even booked the band once for a show in Liverpool so I was a fan and a friend. An immense talent.”
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Giant Walker want to open up prog metal to the masses. “Someone who wouldn’t necessarily listen to rock or metal liking our music would be a win,” says drummer Alex Black. “I think prog, by itself, can be very pigeonholey. The fanbase can be sort of niche, as well. We’re maintaining an element of prog, but hopefully still being accessible.”
Listen to the Newcastle four-piece’s second album, Silhouettes, and you’ll agree. They unload nine tight, focused and catchy songs, emphasising cathartic groove and impressive melodies without losing sight of progressive music’s discipline.
Opening cut Time To Waste is quick to bring out singer Steff Fish’s near-operatic vocals, her refined voice and singalong hooks starkly contrasted by Jamie Southern’s grungy, downtuned riffing. Meanwhile, Black and bassist Jordan Gregory lay down a swaggering rhythm section.
Giant Walker – Time To Waste (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube
It’s an infectious mixture influenced not only by prog, but names as far-flung as Deftones and Soundgarden. Giant Walker’s approachable sound is shaped by, and in protest against, their education. Fish and Southern are the linchpins of the band, having co-founded it and been friends since childhood. The line-up was finalised during the collective’s time studying at the Academy Of Contemporary Music in London.
We’re getting away from ‘Oh, you just sound like a bunch of music students.’ We’re focusing on songwriting
“I think that’s probably one of the big things about us that’s changed,” says Fish. “Studying music, you’ve got a lot of stuff to draw from, in terms of just chucking a lot of stuff in. Then it’s just a matter of maturing. You know when to use it a bit more and when you feel like you can strip things back a lot more. How much do you take away?”
Black adds: “We’re getting away from ‘Oh, you just sound like a bunch of music students.’ We’re focusing much more on songwriting, I think.”
Giant Walker – Silhouettes (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) – YouTube
Giant Walker released their debut album, All In Good Time, in 2022. They wrote it while locked down during the pandemic, and Fish admits its lyrics were strongly impacted by current events. “I was very much influenced by the apocalyptic nature of it all,” she says.
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She co-wrote the lyrics on follow-up LP Silhouettes with Southern, and feels they’re are less dark and thematic. The lead single is about overcoming adversity and those who delight in your failures. “I really love co-writing, bouncing ideas back and forth,” Fish explains. It’s cool if I have part of a song, in terms of a lyric, then him taking that vibe and then seeing what he’s done with the bridge.”
After Silhouettes’ release, Giant Walker hope to tour prolifically. Their dream bookings would be slots at hard rock mega-festivals Download and Hellfest. From those springboards, bringing prog metal to as many mainstream ears as possible shouldn’t be too hard, right?
![Trivium - Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/d0dD59FYxJ4/maxresdefault.jpg)
