In the ever-evolving sonic landscape of Alpha Wolf, their music transforms like a shapeshifting beast, defying expectations and breaking through boundaries with the weight of wrecking-ball dynamics and captivating off-kilter hooks. The Australian quintet—Scottie Simpson [guitar], Sabian Lynch [guitar], Lochie Keogh [lead vocals], John Arnold [bass], and Mitch Fogarty [drums]—maintains their intensity on their third full-length offering, Half Living Things [SHARPTONE]. “We never want to write the same album twice,” explains Scottie. “Half Living Things is still heavy, but we’re venturing into new territory. Lochie sounds like a force of nature on this too. We considered the live show more than ever, creating parts specifically for crowd involvement. These songs are built to ignite the stage.” With a decade of sparking visceral reactions from audiences, Alpha Wolf crashed into the Top 30 of the ARIA Albums Chart with Mono [2017] and followed up with the Fault EP two years later. A Quiet Place To Die [2020] debuted at #6 on the ARIA Albums Chart, earning a nomination for “Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album” at the ARIA Awards. KERRANG! rated it “4-out-of-5 stars,” and Hysteria hailed it as “a mosh-worthy record that puts high hopes on the band’s future.” Distorted Sound called it “one of the great extreme/hardcore records of recent memory.” Their journey included North American tours with Motionless In White and Knocked Loose and a performance at KNOTFEST Australia alongside Slipknot, Parkway Drive, Megadeth, and more. In 2023, they meticulously crafted Half Living Things, self-producing and weaving together a visceral vision after years on the road. The album title perfectly encapsulates their state of being. On the album’s essence Lochie comments, “There can be no inner conflict without the constant tug of war between desire and disdain, the things you want versus the things you need, or the things that make you feel alive against the parts of it that do not. You cannot grow new parts without leaving the dead ones behind. You cannot be settled until you have truly known the opposite. Find out what makes you tick and just keep running around the clock until you're happy enough to die.” The album kicks off with the neck-snapping chug of the opener and first single, “Bring Back The Noise,” where gnashing harmonics and Lochie’s high-pitched screams punctuate waves of distortion. Scottie grins, “The lyrics fit how we perform live. The more we tour, the more fun we have on stage. ‘Bring Back The Noise’ encapsulates everything we are.” “Sucks 2 Suck” hinges on a head-nodding groove, giving way to a bludgeoning bounce on the bridge. Lochie, the vocalist, adds depth to the track with his perspective, “It's about biting back at anyone saying you didn't work hard for the shit you have. If you had the ethic and tenacity, you'd have it too, but you suck so you don't.” The legendary rapper Ice-T pulls up with a vibrantly venomous verse, and in his instantly recognizable delivery, he warns, “You coming for me? You gotta come better than that!” “It’s the perfect crossover of hip-hop and metalcore,” Scottie goes on. “We decided to shoot for the stars and reach out to Ice-T. We gave him no reference, but he did exactly what we were hoping for! It’s classic. “Whenever You’re Ready” unfolds with an airy haze, leading to an ominous beat and climaxing in a cathartic melodic chorus, “Breakdown if you want to, you can stay inside if you need to.”

Since forming in 2008 in Tuscaloosa, AL, Gideon had been making a name for themselves by defying convention, creating their own distinct sound and never settling for anything that was just run of the mill or ordinary. Rather, the band—completed today by founding member and drummer Jake Smelley, vocalist Daniel McWhorter, guitarist/vocalist Tyler Riley and bassist Caleb DeRusha—kept stretching the boundaries of their sound to great acclaim and to increasing commercial success. 2011’s debut album, Costs, established them as powerhouse of the metalcore scene, but that’s something the band simultaneously pushed away from it, incorporating elements of melodic hardcore and hardcore punk into the fold of their songs, but always with an underlying sense of positivity and defiance. Impressively prolific, the band released their next two full-lengths, Milestone and Calloused, on Facedown Records in 2012 and 2014 respectively, before signing to Equal Vision Records. Their first album for EVR was 2017’s Cold, followed by Out Of Control in 2019, a record that deservedly saw the band’s profile rising steadily. That brings us to Gideon’s 6th full-length studio album. Recorded/mixed/mastered by Randy Lebouef at Graphic Nature Audio, “MORE POWER. MORE PAIN.”is a brutally intense burst of violent noise that both nods to the band’s past, musically and thematically, but also establishes itself in its own context.