Holly Humberstone has announced her highly anticipated second album "Cruel World", to be released on 10 April 2026. One of the defining voices of her generation returns with an album that captures the tension between pain and pleasure, where chaos and acceptance exist side by side.

     Renowned for her forensic song writing ability - nominated for an Ivor Novello for her debut EP and winning the BRIT Rising Star in 2022 - Holly has grown into a global force, whose lucid storytelling resonates far beyond her own walls. Entering Cruel World, Holly escapes into a dark fairytale world of her own making, where childhood relics, monsters and memory collide. Now Holly allows us to look through the looking glass with the soaring new single “To Love Somebody", accompanied by an enchanting video directed by Silken Weinberg (Ethel Cain).


     Inspired by Victorian theatre, Brothers Grimm and Nosferatu, “To Love Somebody” is a visceral opening statement for the 26-year-old, as the new year begins. Love now, for Holly, is both grounding and destabilising. “The record explores love as beautiful and inherently painful,” she says. 

• WATCH AND LISTEN “TO LOVE SOMEBODY”

     “In To Love Somebody I wanted to capture that contradiction: to love somebody, is to hurt somebody and to lose somebody, well at least you got to love somebody. In order to feel extreme happiness, you have to know extreme sadness. That’s the tension of the record,” says Holly. The past two have been defined by repair, belonging, and rediscovering talismans to her past, moments that were forgotten when she was catapulted into the public sphere at just 20-years-old. Where her top 3 debut album Paint My Bedroom Black was marked by turbulence and longing, 

     Cruel World is anchored in stability and recollection. Visually, Holly has built a world with her sister Eleri and creative director Silken Weinberg, inspired by childhood trinkets unearthed while leaving the Haunted House she grew up in. From ballet shoes, to Alice in Wonderland books, and films like Edward Scissorhands and James and the Giant Peach, sifting through her girlhood belongings reframed the ghosts of her past into something playful and magical.

• PRE-ORDER CRUEL WORLD

     From winning the BRIT Rising Star in 2022 having only released two EP’s and an Ivor Novello nomination for "Haunted House”, to releasing her top #3 critically acclaimed debut album Paint My Bedroom Black in 2023, Holly has become known for her unflinching honesty and ability to articulate the quiet turbulence of young adulthood. Selling out Brixton Academy and Eventim Apollo, to headline tours in North America, Holly recently joined Sam Fender on his Australian tour in November with a run of headline dates. This February Holly will tour Europe for a run of intimate headline dates, with a UK tour in March and April, culminating at Shepherds Bush on 2 April 2026.

     Holly’s story began with Falling Asleep At The Wheel, the breakthrough EP that revealed a young woman translating her haunted childhood home and three-sister household into vivid, unforgettable songs like “Vanilla,” “Overkill” and “Deep End.” The intimacy and precision of her lyrics marked her as a diarist of the small details that make up big emotions. That voice quickly carried her from her gothic family home to the international stage: performing “London Is Lonely” live to millions at the BRIT Awards in 2022, supporting Olivia Rodrigo and Girl in Red across North America, and releasing her acclaimed debut album Paint My Bedroom Black in 2023, written partly in hotel rooms while living the dream she had imagined as a girl.


     Cruel World was written with a new discipline through daily studio sessions with collaborator Rob Milton and draws deeply on love - romantic, platonic, and feminine. Raised among strong women, Holly speaks to the way girls are taught to see one another as competition, unlearning that instinct and reclaiming solidarity as survival. Gothic love songs on the record like “Die Happy”, which was BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record in November, explore devotion, danger and desire, pulling from fairytales, Dracula and the ache of seasons changing.


UK TOUR DATES 

29 March 2026 — Old Fruit Market, Glasgow, UK
30 March 2026 — New Century Hall, Manchester, UK SOLD OUT
01 April 2026 — Electric, Bristol, UK SOLD OUT 
02 April 2026 — Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK SOLD OUT 


Follow Holly Humberstone:

YouTube/ Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Spotify / Apple / TikTok

     Founded by vocalist / guitarist Finnegan Bell, Love Ghost is an enigmatic Los Angeles-based act known for its distinctive blend of grunge, indie / alt-rock, emo, metal and trap rock coupled with mature, poetic lyrics. Their raw, energetic sound has earned numerous plaudits, while a series of collaborations with a wide variety of other artists have broadened the group's cross-genre appeal.

     Their new single, ‘Vengeance’, is an uptempo hard rock song about gaining revenge. An epic guitar riff, soaring vocal and football stadium chant of “Ave Ultio” (‘Hail Vengeance’) lend the track an anthemic quality, with entire audiences heard repeating it when played during the band's recent live sets.


     ‘Vengeance' is produced by rock and metal musician Tim Skold, best known for his hitmaking  tenure with Marilyn Manson, and is the first to be lifted from ‘Anarchy And Ashes’, a forthcoming new EP by Love Ghost that is an electrifying collision of hard rock power and industrial grit that captures them at their most urgent and unapologetic. Scheduled for release on 27th March 2026 on Metropolis Records, it will be promoted with a month long European tour commencing in early April.

     Bell and Skold had previously teamed up in 2024 to make the well received album ‘Love Ghost X SKOLD’, also issued via Metropolis.

LOVE GHOST -  ANARCHY AND ASHES - EUROPEAN TOUR 2026

• 2nd April  VIENNA (AT) Arena
• 4th April  LEITERSDORF (AT) Roter Gugl
• 5th April  CHAM (DE) L.A. Live Style Café
• 8th April  HANNOVER (DE) Perle Linden
• 9th April  WARSAW (PL) Voodoo
• 10th April  DRESDEN (DE) Puschkin
• 11th April  FLENSBURG (DE) Kühlhaus
• 12th April  BERLIN (DE) Lark

• 15th April  HAMBURG (DE) Hafenklang
• 16th April  DORTMUND (DE) Junkyard
• 17th April  MOERS (DE) Bollwerk 107
• 19th April  FRANKFURT (DE) Ponyhof
• 20th April  BAMBERG (DE) Live Club
• 23rd April  KONSTANZ (DE) Kulturladen
• 24th April  ROHRSCHACH (CH) Treppenhaus

• 25th April  OFFENBURG (DE) Spitalkeller
• 30th April  LONDON (UK) New Cross Inn
• 1st May  MANCHESTER (UK) Lion’s Den

TICKETS


Official Site  |  Instagram  |  Facebook  |  YouTube

    Yungblud has made history alongside two-time GRAMMY® award-winning iconic rock band The Smashing Pumpkins on a ground-breaking, re-imagined version of his GRAMMY®-nominated Best Rock Song “Zombie,” produced by Matt Schwartz and Billy Corgan, and marking the first time in their storied career that the band have featured on another artist’s recording. Originally released to widespread acclaim, “Zombie” stands as Yungblud’s fastest-streaming solo single of his career with over 100 million streams to date. 
 
      Yungblud first crossed paths with Billy Corgan in Birmingham last July during Black Sabbath’s farewell concert, 'Back To The Beginning', where both artists took part in tributes honouring Ozzy Osbourne. Their connection, however, dates back further — with Corgan first discovering Yungblud through a live performance video and immediately recognizing his raw potential and powerful voice.

​
     In a 2023 interview with Allison Hagendorf, Corgan spoke openly about Yungblud’s trajectory, noting, “I can tell where he’s going, and if I’m right, we’ll be talking about him for the next 50 years.” That belief — echoed more recently on Corgan’s podcast 'The Magnificent Ones' (LISTEN), where he likened Yungblud’s evolution to that of Elton John— deeply resonated with Yungblud, which helped lead him to create the rock album he had long envisioned. Coming full circle, their eventual meeting in Birmingham led to Yungblud inviting Corgan to collaborate — giving rise to this new iteration of “Zombie,” with The Smashing Pumpkins now featuring on a song that Corgan had indirectly inspired years earlier.

 
     Accompanied with an official music video, directed by Charlie Sarsfield, starring Yungblud and The Smashing Pumpkins, “Zombie” kicks off the new year in the best possible way, ahead of Yungblud’s highly anticipated sold-out North American tour which starts May 1st. The song has continued to gain momentum at radio, reaching No. 9 at Alternative — his third career Top 10 at the format and his highest-charting single there in three years — with more than 15,000 spins across all formats.
 
     This latest incarnation of “Zombie” follows a landmark 2025, which saw the Brit blast to the top of the charts and into the hearts of rock fans around the world following the release of his  GRAMMY® nominated Best Rock Album IDOLS [LISTEN], a sold-out world tour, and an emotional live tribute to his beloved friend Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, which also earned him a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Rock Performance [Watch HERE]. 


     Showing no signs of slowing down, Yungblud continues to bridge the generations of rock, collaborating with some of the world’s most revered and respected artists who have influenced him over the years.


     Speaking on the collaboration, Yungblud shares: 

     “Siamese Dream was an album that was there for me more than I could ever explain when I was growing so to be making music with the band that created it is really quite hard to comprehend. Billy has always been such a massive inspiration to me but more recently a huge mentor of mine. His outlook on the importance of truth in art is something that I’ve always held close to my heart.

     ‘Zombie’ is the most important song of IDOLS to me. It’s deeply personal and it was heavily influenced by The Smashing Pumpkins’ ability to mix emotion, cinema and heavy guitars. I sent Billy an email, asking if he would re-imagine this song with me and when he agreed to it, it was a dream come true. To watch one of my idols work on something that I had written was one of the greatest honours of my life. I love that this new version of ‘Zombie’ is heavier, it has Billy Corgan’s iconic guitar sound, it has more urgency and it rips my heart out. I’m so proud of it.”


     The Smashing Pumpkins founder and front-man, Billy Corgan adds, 

     "Yungblud’s star shines bright, so it’s been great fun to lend our zig-zag voice to his ‘Zombie’ which he’s said was inspired by one of our own. Hence the encouragement that we make this rendition as personal as possible and I’m proud to say we’ve done that; if only to honor him in return.”


Watch the official music video for YUNGBLUD, The Smashing Pumpkins - Zombie HERE.


With billions of global streams, chart-topping releases, sold-out tours, and top-tier industry recognition, Yungblud continues to define a new era of modern rock.

www.yungbludofficial.com

     French Progressive Metal / Alternative Rock band Sunbeam Overdrive are delighted to share an acoustic live version of "Fainted Core", originally released as an advanced track on their first EP, which is still available through their Bandcamp page: https://sunbeamoverdrive.bandcamp.com

     You can watch the video at this location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAKjock_58M&ab_channel=SUNBEAMOVERDRIVE


     By working on final mastering touches, the band is now taking the final steps to release their first
album, hopefully coming later this year. Expect alternative and progressive metal with 90's overtones!

• https://www.facebook.com/sunbeamoverdrive
• https://www.instagram.com/sunbeamoverdrive
• https://sunbeamoverdrive.bandcamp.com
  

    Rapidly rising Scandinavian alt-rock / metal band Smash Into Pieces have announced their brand new album A New Horizon, out August 27th. Their sixth full length album, it explores, expands and concludes the immersive journey they began on previous album ARCADIA both aurally and visually. Pre-order the album here.
 

     A New Horizon continues to detail the band's Arcadia World narrative, delving deeper into their story. A futuristic world riddled with political corruption and driven by fear and misinformation, their story follows Apoc, their protagonist, as he vows to put an end to the dark times and encourage society to seek the truth and live freely. Together with the weaving electronic textures, biting guitars, pounding drums and anthemic vocals, it leaves a lasting impression as a powerful, gripping and thought-provoking album.
 

     Arcadia is a mirror image of reality; the setting may be futuristic and different, but the issues that are buried within the album couldn’t be more real. As the roles of social media and technology grow, we become numb to life beyond our screens, and Smash Into Pieces are encouraging you to look up and see the world around you. We are faced with obstacles, challenges and difficult choices every day, but with positivity and a clear mind we can overcome them and find happiness.
 

PRE-ORDER HERE

     The announcement of A New Horizon follows the release of four adrenaline-fuelled instalments, ‘Rise Up’, ‘Real One’, double single ‘VR’ and the recent thunderous anthem ‘Broken Parts’, each of which is accompanied by a lavish music video that further enhances the Arcadia World narrative.  
 

     With a massive track record consisting of five albums, 23 singles, and over 375 million streams and views across platforms, Smash Into Pieces have evolved into one of the fastest rising Scandinavian alternative rock bands to date.
 

     Formed in 2009 and comprised of vocalist Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye, guitarist Benjamin Jennebo, guitarist Per Bergquist and drummer / DJ The Apocalypse DJ, they released their fifth studio album last year which, together with the lyrics accompanying music videos, began to tell the story of a digital world – ARCADIA.
 

     In 2021 that story continues; the story of the resistance and the artificial. This is A New Horizon. Stay tuned for more exciting news and announcements in the near future.

CONNECT WITH SMASH INTO PIECES

WEBSITE / SPOTIFY / YOUTUBE / FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM / TWITTER / TIKTOK / TWITCH

Alternative metal vocalist Jen Janet has announced the upcoming release of her new single "Possession," out on all digital platforms July 8th. 

Self-described as a ‘multimedia musical project,’ Jen Janet has long-term industry experience as both a solo artist and front woman, as well as in fashion, makeup, photography, and videography. Built upon darker imagery, her new music highlights a noticeable shift in genres - her last solo EP, released in 2017, was a focused pop record. "Possession" finds Jen back in her rock roots and ready to embrace the darkness. Jen Janet is a classically trained vocalist and songwriter. Her songs have been licensed for media placements in mobile apps in both Korea and Turkey.

Jen is the vocalist for Mimesis, a progressive art rock project featuring members of Scale the Summit, the Beast of Nod, and Abiotic. The band’s debut music video, Ctrl Alt Del, was released November 11, 2019 and is influenced by bands such as Polyphia, Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and Plini. With her former band Blind Revision, Jen Janet shared the stage with internationally touring acts: Saving Abel, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Motionless in White, Puddle of Mudd, Buckcherry, The Amity Affliction, Devildriver, Amorphis, and many more.

In 2018, the band was nominated for best hard rock/metal act of the year in the New England music awards. Blind Revision was also nominated for best rock/metal and hardcore act in 2017 for the Worcester music awards, and in 2018 for Rhode Island’s Motif Magazine music awards. Motif Magazine also nominated Jen Janet for best female vocalist the same year.

https://jenjanet.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jenjanetmusic/
https://twitter.com/jenjanetmusic
https://www.facebook.com/jenjanetmusic
https://www.youtube.com/c/jenjanet

Multi-platinum selling Bring Me The Horizon are on course for world domination in 2019, with a fresh Grammy Nomination now under their belt and news of their curated headline show at All Points East festival in May announced plus a US Arena tour. A third single entitled Medicine, is out now ahead of their new album amo, which is out on January 25th through RCA.
 
The single was Annie Mac’s hottest record on Radio 1 last night.
 
Bring Me The Horizon are one of the most exciting and successful rock bands to emerge from the UK, selling over 2 Million albums globally to date, playing sell out shows in over 40 countries, including two sold out nights at London’s O2 plus wowing a traditionally non-rock crowd at Glastonbury Festival in 2016. They just completed a sold out UK tour in November and embark on a mammoth US tour next month.
 
Poised now to release their sixth studio album, the band spent last summer writing and recording in Los Angeles, with Oli Sykes and Jordan FIsh handling production.  Bring Me The Horizon continue to push the envelope in terms of sound and blur the lines of traditional rock, well and truly taking it to the next level!
 
Pre-order the album now here
 
TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE
 
www.bmthofficial.com

Who would have thought that Global Metal Apocalypse (GMA) would be celebrating 6 years this year as an international metal music outlet, giving bands worldwide endless coverage through reviews, interviews and everything in and around the edges? Not me.

I started GMA 6 years ago with the vision of unearthing, nurturing, promoting and expanding bands coverage across all continents and the islands dotted across planet earth, with the extended view of tapping into nascent metal scenes that were either unbeknownst to the wider metal community e.g. French Polynesia or to those freshly starting out at the hands of one or two bands e.g. Iron Sliver from Gabon.

6 years later and here I am, ready to announce who has won what category(s) at the annual GMA Awards. Voting went on for two weeks and saw thousands upon thousands of votes pouring in since the voting form went live.

GMA is run solely by one person, myself. But this has not put me off from continuing the site's progression and this year I started a sister site:- Global Mainstream Arts (http://globalmainstreamarts.weebly.com/) to give non-metal artists / bands coverage. But metal will always be at the forefront.

The winners at the 2017 GMA Awards are:-

CHOSEN BY EDITOR:-

• GLOBAL METAL ICON :- Maysaloon (Syria)
  
• MOST INNOVATIVE MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR:- Epica – The Solace System
  
• RELEASE OF THE YEAR BY COUNTRY (IN SEPARATE POSTS FOLLOWING THIS)
  

PUBLIC VOTE:-

Icelandic band Legend will release their sophomore album "Midnight Champion" on October 13, 2017 via Artoffact Records! Pre-orders are available now at iTunes, where you get the track 'Captive' and 'Frostbite' as an instant grat song, and Bandcamp.

Today the band has released the second single from the album entitled 'Frostbite'. Check out the exclusive premiere HERE courtesy of Sonic Seducer

Listen to the song 'Captive' HERE!

The new record takes off from where the dark synth stylings of Fearless left off, with each song taking the listener into a seemingly different universe from the song before it. From moody, introspective (post)-rock, to dancefloor-worthy hits, to riffing metal-oriented tracks that show off Krummi's peerless voice, Midnight Champion is not simply a sequel to Fearless; it exceeds it in every way, making good on the promise that that first record was, as Krummi once said in an interview, "only the beginning."

Midnight Champion features stunning art which was specially commissioned from Branca Studio (Danko Jones, Pentagram, Black Dahlia Murder, Swans) and was recorded in Iceland at Studio Neptunus and Unstudios. 

The album is available worldwide October 13, 2017 on Artoffact Records as a double vinyl pressed on special cream colour (black also available), as well as CD digipak and a special edition cassette. Head over to THIS location to see bundle options.

https://www.facebook.com/Legendband/
https://legend.bandcamp.com/album/midnight-champion
https://www.facebook.com/artoffact/
http://artoffact.com

FAINT YOUNG SUN - WICKFORD - POST HARDCORE / POWER POP

Wickford crew Faint Young Sun brought the armored sounds of Post-Hardcore / Soft Rock with the sauces of breakdown HP, funk-out Ketchup and Heinz 666. This is their first time they played their as of yet untitled song, with the fruitiest of breakdowns bearing a apple and cream of the crop, in tandem with a rotten pear in relation to a steamed out drummer. None the less they brought their 'A' game with them, whipping in a formidable ballistic missile of unprecedented audible sound-waves, echoing their name in their own sound of which is incomparable to other bands. Wild Wickford wizardry whips whirlwinds of wondrous wreckage around to calm the anti-carnage which seems to have stalled the crowd, but for Faint Young Sun, they may as well have won the hearts over on this one.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

FREE A.M. - ASHINGDON - PUNK ROCK

Sounding like a estranged mix of acute pop / post-punk rock this band have a screechy vocalist, but with that sounds the sensational audio noise of punk being booted out from the speakers. This is the sort of band that ups the ante from recording to live performances, whilst the guitar strumming is synchronous and the solo was insanely mental, this band brought in a party / funk feel and raised the poker stakes in that heat of the Rayleigh Battle of the Bands, musically they are similar to that of Sum 41 and Madina Lake. Free A.M. are a band bringing back the old traditional foundations of Punk Rock found in The Who, Sex Pistols and The Clash. Free A.M. however made their own sound and something new, just old roots are used as a foundation for this.

[7] RHYS STEVENSON

IT KILLED HARPER - SOUTHEND - PUNK ROCK / METAL

This quartet unleash a torrential downpour of rock infused hardcore or so it would seem as their genre seems to be somewhat undetectable in it's easiest form, however the music itself is a semi-whitewash, coming from a progressive influence by embedding it on a watered down version of hardcore. Creating eccentric solo's, outrageous riffs and a hellbender humdinger of a matrix-cocktail from which involves mixing both rock and metal into the musical cookery pot and brewing something sensationally non-comprehensive in it's penultimate stage. It Killed Harper burdened a decent stage presence, but sadly they were the least promising of the night. There is a long way for these chaps to go before they can think of making something sound-breaking or record breaking. They brim with potential but lacked on the harnessing of the power and enthusiasm they tried giving.

[6] RHYS STEVENSON

ALL FOR YOU - WICKFORD - POP PUNK / HARDCORE

Armed with a female vocalist, bringing more than a Pop Rock sound to the stage All For You delivers a sound that sounds far better than Paramore meeting Rolo Tomassi and The Pretty Reckless in one hit. The vocalist's vocals are left unchallenged, being one of unique sound and different to modern female-fronted bands. All For You is one of those bands that should easily be on Kerrang Radio and in Kerrang Magazine under the 'soft rock' tag, however they caused a rapture of which unleashed a chasm of interlinking musical craftsmanship with the underbelly of a meshed collection of Pop Rock, Riot Grrl and utmost intellect. Whilst the dress style clearly reflects a Post-Punk image, the music does the talking, ripping up a parallel streak of notes to awaken any nearby graveyards, so whilst the dead lay waiting  to be awaken (no pun on the Swindon Metal band) by a band with enough explosive sound to challenge the British Army, the living are always awake, but in this case stand emotionally attached to this band's music. Definitely a band to watch out for, one of the more promising bands from the Essex music scene and definitely Kerrang material for sure, what with having the guts to do a cover of Jessie J's 'do it like a dude', this made JJ look like a poseur in music.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

SOME WERE SATELLITES - ESSEX - ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Climaxing on the vibes of Post-Punk / Hardcore is The Satellites, a quintet with more stomach-churning power than the Saw 'goreology'. But that's a little bit of a non-intellectual statement, in mere sincerity this band have a sack of balls more than ball sacks (no rude pun intended, unless you think that way), sounding similar to Enter Shikari munus the trance music, this quintet finalises a night full of ups, downs and the wide array of genres that have been exerted this night - even if the crowd resembled a home match of a local non-league football match. Even if they had a bout of trouble with the drums and a pun-after-pun sexual-related verbatim, this is a band with MTV stamped on their backside and a record label deal possibly in sight, mixing the best of soft popcore with hard hardcore. The Satellites are a  promising upcoming band that could grab Kerrang's attention, all that's left to say is watch this band closely.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON