HANABIE.
「HOT TOPIC」
Clearly a 2025 of indisputable successes hasn’t sated HANABIE.’s hunger for being Japan’s next global rock success story. The iron couldn’t be any hotter, and the way they’re striking it is ideal for them, especially for navigating the last few Babymetal comparisons that never held much water in the first place. For starters, big rollouts and campaigns have never been HANABIE.’s creative bag. Among their idol-influenced contemporaries, they’ve kept surprisingly low to the ground in that respect, thus making regular EP releases a worthwhile strategy.
It’s a blessing that HANABIE. have no true gimmick to work through, outside of the hyperactivity and absolute, unavoidable density that J-rock often extols as standard. Yukina’s chirps on ICONIC and トキメキAbout you appear more as regular affect than anything outwardly gimmicky, no less because the formidable growls and slant of metal they’re paired with read as notably ‘normal’. Compressed and blaring, sure (see Spicy Queen or the whizzing GIRL’S TALK), but it’s an exciting rush nonetheless. The acumen for hardcore, nu-metal, alt-metal and an inclusive breadth more is apparent to see, and genuinely fun to hear play out from such a freewheeling act.
There’s also the closer はなびえんちゃん。のテーマ, a bit of J-pop candyfloss that squonks and squeaks about like a kids’ anime theme, and feels more like a skit than anything else. Yeah, it’s the worst track on 「HOT TOPIC」, no contest, but it’s probably supposed to be. If nothing else, it isn’t indicative of where HANABIE. are going next; that’s firmly rooted in songs like ICONIC and Spicy Queen and how they’re forwarding things on that side. And they are forwarding things, if only incrementally. Still, that’s what’s benefited HANABIE. up to now, and despite this not being the next swing at global domination immediately coming after the last, it’ll continue to do so.
For fans of: Electric Callboy, Maximum The Hormone, Broken By The Scream
‘「HOT TOPIC」’ by HANABIE. is out now on Sony Music / Music For Nations.
Shields
Death & Connection
Shields’ return begins with This Is Not A Dream, a bellicose poem where frontman Joe Edwards confronts a violent memory that swings between notional and natural. It’s ultimately emblematic of the fraught state that’s come to define this band. The passing of guitarist George Christie in 2018 has continued to loom low, even now as they reform after disbanding that same year. Death & Connection, then, feels like a visceral response to loss—messy and tangled in ways that don’t always feel clean, but indelibly real in its intent.
That, in itself, is a feat and a half for a band who once could’ve been diagnosed with tech-metalcore’s chronic standstills. Life In Exile was better than many of their fellow up-and-coming djentlemen, but it could’ve happened. That said, Shields wouldn’t have landed on an album like Death & Connection if they weren’t in this exact position. The grief being worked through is too tangible, and often unpleasantly messy in how emotions bubble through to be either wrestled or submitted to. A song like Kill—featuring Edwards adopting almost a rap flow in his delivery—comes so far out of left-field that it couldn’t be anything but genuine desire. And when the album ends with Miss Me and Christie is eulogised by name, it’s a genuine tearjerker in how an album’s worth of build-up is forced to expel.
Amidst that, there’s the balance between narrative finality and a greater, creative metalcore statement that Shields…kinda get right. The knottiness of Death & Connection isn’t reserved to just peritext; it’s very much present in the execution, too. It’s where the gummed-up drums of Parasites uncomfortably fidget, or the honest-to-goodness opera section of the title track that doesn’t gel with metalcore whatsoever, but survives through the audacity to even try. On the whole, though, Shields display a proficiency in metalcore to let them work through a lot of this. The deathcore fragment Abuser might come a little early, but it’s really well done. Elsewhere, Edwards knowing his way around a Holding Absence-esque chorus is what gets a track like Red & Green to really blow up.
What lifts Death & Consequence the most, though, is the purpose behind it. Shields’ resurrection comes from a need for closure above all else; had it been more cynically-minded, you wouldn’t get half the wild swings that are on here. It’s especially impressive for a modern metalcore album, a scene that preaches the virtue of raw emotion while seldom practicing it. Shields, however, write the warts-and-all missive that, for whatever complaints can be made, is never not true to itself. That, above all else, is why Death & Connection thrives.
For fans of: LANDMVRKS, While She Sleeps, Paleface Swiss
‘Death & Consequence’ by Shields is released on 30th January on Long Branch Records.
Sick Joy
More Forever
See what a couple of years (and effectively engineering your band into a solo venture) can do? If WE’RE ALL GONNA F***ING DIE capped expectations for Sick Joy at Dinosaur Pile-Up levels—i.e. solid yet appreciative of how few minds can be blown from straightforward grunge—More Forever really is a tangible example of…well, more. The alt-rock baseline carries far fewer restrictions now, even delving into the fringe edges of an updated Lanegan-esque toil on Nothing Good and Anything Goes. With Alain Johannes on production, it makes total sense, as does Mykl Barton’s vocal style evoking an amalgam of grungemen throughout the ages.
In sloughing off a vanilla palette favoured by plenty of modern proprietors, More Forever becomes a self-evidently compelling listen. The low-hanging guitar chop of first track proper All Damage makes those intentions known, its storming clatter rejigged for Stockholm Flavour’s fat, fuzz-doused bass lurch and Death Scene (More Forever)’s scraggly Cage The Elephant impression. As far as the extent of this widened spectrum goes, the dark-rock of Anything Goes and minimal percussive tap on Gone Missing clearly pay some glances to Nine Inch Nails, albeit in a more ‘straight-laced’ context.
And yet, that’s not even a complaint when More Forever feels like the charged, tricked-out version of this style by default. As far as hooks and melodies go, Cinnamon Burn and Video Game are about as earworm-y as they come, without deviating from the usual stash of miserablism. With that, it’s now physically stronger, more inspired and catchier than its predecessor—in other words, everything you could ask for in a tune-up of this nature. Thus, in one fell swoop, Sick Joy have gone from one of UK rock’s many space-fillers to a name worth paying serious attention to in 2026.
For fans of: Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Dinosaur Pile-Up
‘More Forever’ by Sick Joy is released on 30th January.
Survivalist
A Place For Those Who Suffer, Alone
The times, they are a-changin’ for deathcore bands at the minute. You’re either clued into the burgeoning Myspace revival, going HAM with your extremities à la Whitechapel, or getting left behind. Dublin’s Survivalist aren’t bringing up the rear or anything, but they’re far from the scene’s next sock-knocker-offers, either. Their genre nom de guerre ‘groove-core’ suggests an attempt to wedge themselves into their own space, though any knowledge of modern deathcore, metalcore or nu-metal suggests that’s wishful thinking. Blunt beatdowns and a tar-thick presentation are commonplace, as are production and lyricism expressly designed to accentuate them. And with that being the case, it’s hard not to feel exhausted by the end of 12 tracks whose bag of tricks is seldom deeper than that.
There is a bit more going on sometimes, though not to where Survivalist can be deemed to ‘diversify’. The closest to that would be Speak Up (Louder), though the reliance on Kid Bookie to shepherd the sound towards hip-hop puts the onus on outside influences to bring more to the table, not Survivalist themselves. At least their own beefy choruses are good, like on Failure Of Being and Weaponised God Complex. Those represent Survivalist at their strongest, where they take on greater shape past the usual, shapeless deathcore and nu-metalcore slug-fest. To be clear, they aren’t bad at that either. It’s just that they aren’t in a position where their particular permutation rises above the umpteen-million other bands doing the same. Deathcore junkies will almost certainly enjoy themselves, though don’t be shocked if it’s just a quick fix instead of your new favourite high.
For fans of: Chelsea Grin, Alpha Wolf, Spite
‘A Place For Those Who Suffer, Alone’ by Survivalist is released on 30th January on Seek & Strike Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
