Having explored Greek mythology through experimental instrumental post-rock melodies, Swiss quartet HUBRIS. have turned their attention to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s unrivalled, visionary series The Lord of the Rings, a legendary story that has been the benchmark for creators and dreamers for over 70 years and has been a deep-rooted inspiration for HUBRIS.’ composer and founder Jonathan Hohl. Inspired by the epic series and the real life loss of his grandfather, Hohl translates his grief and the deeper understanding of death into new album White Shores, the stirring emotion evident without a word spoken. Whilst paying homage to the immense world of Middle-Earth and the quest of the Fellowship that shows even the smallest and unassuming of us can change the course of history, HUBRIS. narrow in on the underlying themes of morality and immortality that runs throughout the series and drives the narrative to its conclusion. The album and track titles are direct quotes from the eccentric yet wise Gandalf as he is in the thick of war and facing the end of everything at the siege of Minas Tirith, but rather than lament on the end of times he treats death as something to be accepted, an inevitability that shouldn’t be feared but instead embraced as the journey to the afterlife takes you to “white shores, a far green country under a swift sunrise”. HUBRIS. take inspiration from this gentle approach and from the immortal elves who covet death and paradoxically call it “the Gift of Men”, blending soaring instrumentals with post-rock riffs and spectacular beats that sonically elevate each track into a cinematic masterpiece that makes you reflect whilst also feeling like you’re the main character on your own quest, almost contradictory in how it makes you feel alive while its themes are centred around death. White Shores doesn’t act as a play-by-play soundtrack to the LotR, but there are certain elements that can be matched to the films’ scores and immerse you back into Tolkien’s world, from the opening of death and its dreamlike guitar that reverbs into shimmering cymbals, the melody building piece by piece, note by note, into a sound bordering triumph or acceptance and feeling like the beginning of something new, blasting drums and chords suddenly exploding back in to accompany a dramatic solo before it all fades into muffled synths and plinky notes. death has already taken us on that final journey with its ending representing the approaching shorelines and a final peace. Immediately fading into is, the rhythm continues its ethereal quality as if we were travelling through a modern Rivendell or to the final resting place of Valinor (the Undying Lands), rising and falling in pitch to a subtle beat that flows alongside the hopeful synths, heavy riffs and beats crashing in under wavering notes that layer together until it begins to sound like a heavenly choir. just’s intro of juddering drums and melancholy guitar initially sounds as if the track will take a more menacing approach, but as it climbs in power and range it treads the line between feeling like the pivotal moment in a quest where you have to make a difficult choice and leave the past behind, and sonically coming close to John Murphy’s In The House In A Heartbeat (from horror film 28 Days Later) in its theatrically astonishing combination of classic composition and modern rock, the final notes feeling like a nod to the beginning notes of Howard Shore’s The Breaking Of The Fellowship from The Fellowship of the Ring. another takes on a different look as it continues the journey through the ether, a repeated riff echoing throughout the track as it shifts into more industrial elements of sound and beats, stripping away the peaceful acceptance of death and becoming more of an internal outlet for the person grieving, its lonely strings open to interpretation of everything continuing as normal while the instruments build into an emotional crescendo that demands to be heard and felt, or the aching feeling of grief when it’s so overwhelming you can’t stay hopeful and have to go through this bout of sadness. path I begins with a downplayed snare beat and guitar that gradually rises into powerfully driving bass until it reaches a peak of layered post-rock and cinematic sounds, the beginning of a new day and the understanding that this too shall pass, that grief is love and memory enduring and to celebrate that we should even have those memories to cherish. Similar in style yet differing in sentiment, path II brings our journey to its end on the promised White Shores with a composition that reaches new heights with sweeping riffs and scales, a rising guitar in the background, bass rumbling through at the bedrock of the track, and a beat that progressively climbs to an abrupt drop, fading out to a simplified version of the riff as we embrace the closure that death is just a part of life but it doesn’t mean the end for us still living. “The journey doesn’t end here; death is just another path, one that we all must take.” Score: 8/10 White Stores will be released on 10th September 2026. Words: Julia Stark Photos: hubris.

SCENE QUEEN has never been particularly interested in playing by the rules. In a scene where heaviness can sometimes come wrapped in an unnecessarily serious package, Hannah Collins has spent the last few years kicking down the door in pink platforms, armed with pop hooks, Y2K nostalgia and enough attitude to make even the most committed gatekeeper uncomfortable. Now, with METALICIOUS, she’s turning the volume up - and, perhaps most importantly, making the heavy bits heavier. If the whole point of SCENE QUEEN’s self-proclaimed “bimbocore” has been proving that femininity, humour and unapologetically ridiculous fun have every right to exist alongside crushing guitars, METALICIOUS feels like the idea fully unshackled. Described by SCENE QUEEN as “chaotic recession pop, Y2K coded, metal madness”, the seven track EP is deliberately excessive, gleefully messy and completely unwilling to pick a single lane. Opening with Pink Flip Phone, METALICIOUS immediately establishes that this isn’t simply a continuation of Hot Singles In Your Area. There’s an increased sense of urgency running through the production, with the glossy, hyperactive pop elements smashing headfirst into heavier guitars and SCENE QUEEN’s increasingly ferocious vocal delivery. It’s nostalgic without becoming a costume piece, taking the trashy glamour of the early 2000s and dragging it directly into the pit. Then comes Manicure, where the contrast becomes even more delicious. The song is pure SCENE QUEEN: catchy enough to lodge itself in your brain, ridiculous enough to make you grin, but underpinned by a genuine sense of frustration. The joke is always part of the weaponry. SCENE QUEEN understands that you can say something angry without sounding miserable; sometimes the best revenge is dancing while you do it. Shopaholic and Drop Dead Gorgeous continue that balancing act, leaning into the hyper-feminine aesthetic while refusing to let it become superficial. There’s a knowing quality to everything SCENE QUEEN does. The pink, the makeup, the shopping references and the deliberately outrageous presentation aren’t disguising the heavier themes; they’re part of the point. Because beneath the glitter, METALICIOUS is still angry. There’s a reason the music feels so satisfying when the breakdowns hit. This isn’t simply pop music with metal riffs bolted onto it for novelty value. It’s a deliberate rejection of the idea that there’s a correct way to exist within alternative music. Tracksuit might be the clearest example. It takes something as gloriously mundane as Y2K sportswear and turns it into another vehicle for SCENE QUEEN’s particular brand of chaos. The song is enormous, aggressive and knowingly stupid in precisely the right way. Yet underneath the humour is an artist becoming increasingly comfortable with just how heavy she can make this project. And then METALICIOUS delivers its knockout punch. The title track, featuring LEFT TO SUFFER, is exactly what happens when SCENE QUEEN’s world collides with deathcore. SCENE QUEEN describes it as a “tumblr indie sleaze club song” written “in metal font”, and honestly, that might be the most accurate description possible. There’s something wonderfully absurd about the entire concept: a girls’ night at a metal show, drinks flowing, purses flying through the mosh pit and deathcore vocals lurking around the corner. But musically, it works far better than it has any right to. The contrast between SCENE QUEEN’s sugary delivery and LEFT TO SUFFER’s brutality creates exactly the kind of collision that has made SCENE QUEEN so compelling in the first place. It’s also significant because METALICIOUS doesn’t simply use heaviness as a gimmick. SCENE QUEEN has spoken about recording some of her lowest screams yet, alongside the deathcore features, while wanting the project to recapture the sense of freedom she felt when she first started making the Bimbocore releases. You can hear that freedom throughout the EP. There’s even room for the “trauma dumping” SCENE QUEEN jokingly warns about in the EP promo. And that matters. Behind the jokes and the neon-coloured aesthetic, there’s something considerably more vulnerable happening. SCENE QUEEN’s music has always been about reclaiming space - taking things that have been dismissed as too feminine, too silly or too poppy and putting them directly in front of the people who insist that heavy music needs to look a certain way. METALICIOUS doesn’t ask permission. It kicks the door open, throws a handbag into the pit and starts the breakdown. What makes the EP particularly successful is that SCENE QUEEN hasn’t sacrificed the immediacy that made her music so accessible in pursuit of being heavier. The hooks are still huge. The concepts are still ridiculous. The humour is still firmly intact. But the guitars hit harder, the screams are nastier and the whole thing feels less like an artist experimenting with metal and more like someone realising she can absolutely own this space. SCENE QUEEN has never been about restraint. Asking her to tone it down would be like asking a mosh pit to sit quietly. Ultimately, METALICIOUS is SCENE QUEEN at her most confident, chaotic and completely herself. It’s bubblegum pop smashed against deathcore, Y2K nostalgia drenched in distortion and a middle finger raised firmly at anyone still convinced that there’s only one way to be “heavy”. The scene has changed considerably since SCENE QUEEN first started calling her sound bimbocore. METALICIOUS feels like proof that she helped change it. Pink is the new black. And apparently, it also comes with breakdowns. Score: 9/10 METALICIOUS will be released on 11th September 2026 via Hopeless Records. Words: Angel Turley Photos: Maggie London

With Deathrace, RISING INSANE returned to their metalcore roots while opening up about grief, trauma and the power of community. When we speak, the album has been out for just a few days. The band still feels the excitement from it, and maybe some relief, “it’s finally released and we got it done!” says the band’s guitarist Sven Polizuk. For a long time, these songs have belonged to them. They have lived with the demos, the rewrites, the discussions over direction and the inevitable moments of wondering whether a song actually works. Now they are on Spotify. People are listening and they become part of our lives as well. “It’s definitely a very, very special feeling for each member of the band when you work for so long on an album and you get a feeling that this is it, this is a really good album, we’re onto something here.” he elaborates. “And when you finally release it and you see the songs on Spotify popping up, the playlists it got featured on, that's a very, very special day and we are still hyped from the release day last week. There's this energy going on and we're all very happy about it.” There is a moment in almost every band's career when progression stops meaning “more” and starts meaning “back.” For RISING INSANE, that moment happened somewhere between the road and the rehearsal room. After Wildfires, the German metalcore band had begun moving towards something more modern, “there were more synths, clean hooks, maybe a bridge or a breakdown with screams. We were on this path to make this kind of modern metal music stuff. And then we realised when we were touring that we were missing this old metalcore riffing. Just sit down with your guitar and write some riffs. I think that’s what got us hooked the most.” Sven explains. So they did something that is arguably harder than reinventing yourself: they stopped. “We decided to abandon all the old demos, all this modern stuff and go back to the roots like with Nation or Afterglow.” he confides. That guitar and drum focused approach, ultimately became the foundation of Deathrace, and the album hits with that intent and impact from the moment it starts. When listening to the record pre-release, it felt like an album designed for live shows - however the band mentions that it isn't something they set out to create. “It was not on purpose” they say. “It’s just something that came through the writing process itself.” And maybe that’s why it feels so unifying, because it is raw and genuine. RISING INSANE's creative process usually starts with a riff. The music comes first, with instrumental ideas passed between the members before Aaron begins working on vocals and lyrics. “Normally we are going to start with the music,” Sven explains. “It’s just picking up the guitar, trying to write some riffs and record them. It's kind of a back-and-forth process. ” It is a process of trial and error. Some ideas become songs, others don't. The band isn’t interested in forcing every demo into a finished track; they follow the material that gives them a genuine creative flow and that feels right to them. For vocalist Aaron Steineker, these notes can become a way to process pain. Following the loss of his sister in 2018, its weight has continued to echo through his songwriting, finding a place across their records: “It had a huge impact on me, my family and my whole life, you struggled for years with that. And I can put this struggle and pain into the songs since Porcelain, then Afterglow, Wildfires and now Deathrace.” On Deathrace, that process becomes particularly direct in TRAUMATIZED, a song about the lasting impact of that loss. “I write, sing, scream about this trauma that this loss has left me with.” he explains. But while going through this, he also still thinks of others who may struggle: “I try to give our fan base, the listener, a point they might refer to and take some strength out of the songs that we write.” RISING INSANE builds spaces where listeners can bring their own experiences, one song at a time. There is, however, a cost to that openness. “When you put out songs where you really open up to the audience, you kind of feel naked." Aaron admits. “You share some really intimate feelings with the whole world.” The band still wears it with bravery, showing that the response from their audience has made that vulnerability worth it. Aaron recounts how fans have approached them at shows and at the merch table to say that the songs helped them through difficult times. And that there are the moments when the band can see that connection happening in real time: "Even on stage when I sing specific parts, I can see the faces of the people screaming them back to us, and I know that they are feeling it.” He remembers especially playing Something Inside of Me a lot on the last tour and witnessing peoples’ struggles through the performance and its reception. “Then seeing these people at the merch table, giving them a hug. That’s pretty huge for me," he explains. It is not just singing along, it becomes a collective experience. A lyric that began with one person's grief can become a sentence that somebody else desperately needed to hear. A scream written in isolation can be returned by hundreds of voices. That is where the aggression of Deathrace takes on another meaning. It becomes a catharsis, a way of letting something out. They show us that vulnerability and aggression can co-exist because, sometimes, that is what pain feels like but that community can make it more bearable. That honesty also extends to the band's creative process. When asked whether there was a particularly difficult song to write, Aaron immediately has an example: DARK. Sven sent him the instrumental, and he remembers thinking “this is gonna be a banger.” Then he wrote his first version of the vocals and thought he had gone too far in the experimentation. So they took time to put it aside and rethink it. Eventually, they returned to it and rebuilt it almost completely, with Sven helping develop the ideas that became the final version. It is a revealing story because it shows that sometimes to make something great you need to overcome the fear of stopping and starting again. They also push limits on Deathrace with new collabs: “With each person it was kind of a no-brainer, like with Matt from CASKETS or Tino from ACCVSED.” Sven illustrates. They approach each collab as an additional force for impact, going through their songs with the lens of what could go harder with someone else joining in. When asked who they would like to collab with in the future both members agreed that “the flow of LANDMVRKS would be a really nice fit. These aggressive vocals would be a very fun feature!”. Their approach to vocals and music also comes from their influences, which they name as, for example: ARCHITECTS, LANDMVRKS, FIT FOR A KING or POLARIS. But while writing the album, they deliberately tried to listen to less metal. Sven explains that he wanted to avoid becoming too influenced by it, sometimes just listening to the radio during the writing process. Aaron, meanwhile, was thinking about voices that felt raw rather than perfectly polished. Kurt Cobain was one of those influences. “He had such a raspy voice and it was so raw, not overproduced” he says. “And also the way of switching from fry screams into false cores and into clean, singing shouts that Jamie Hails of POLARIS does really hooked me up for last years and I definitely wanted to give it a try. I think you might hear that in TRAUMATIZED”. When asked which track they would in turn suggest to someone discovering RISING INSANE for the first time, they reflect on a few for the different aspects they bring to the table. They mention that Narcissus would be an unexpectedly favourite for their bassist, Ulf Hedenkamp. That the song can give the feeling of what it’s like when they’re slower, add weighted textures and take their time. DIRT can give an almost waltz-like feeling, and Aaron also points towards GREY, particularly because of its post-chorus guitar riff and closing solo. They however agree that TRAUMATIZED naturally carries particular musical weight and emotional significance and they would gravitate towards recommending it because of what it represents. What's next for RISING INSANE? For now, the band are enjoying the direction they've found: “We will stay with the riffs.” They already have ideas for the future and some material in their pockets, but are firstly excited to take their new album to the stage. However, preparing to tour also means choosing the setlist. There is a lot more to it than simply picking the songs everyone likes. They want to showcase Deathrace without alienating people who have been following them for years but also consider listeners who discovered them specifically because of the new album. They need to build tension, decide when the crowd should jump, when a circle pit makes sense, when a wall of death might happen and somehow make the whole thing feel emotionally coherent. “It’s not as easy, you can’t be like, okay, this song didn’t work last night, so we take another one,” they explain. The solution is rehearsal, lots of it. “Sometimes you got songs that sound really, really great on a record and then you’re playing it and then think, oh, maybe we have to take another approach to it.” Some songs, they explain, have a kind of “symbiosis” with the tracks around them. Remove one and suddenly the next doesn't hit in quite the same way. They’re deep in the process of constructing this emotional rollercoaster and will be kicking off with a befitting start: Rocken Hilft Festival For Mental Health on October 24th. It will then be followed by a German tour starting in Munich on November 5th. While it is currently the main focus, the band expressed that they would love to play abroad. Sharing their music with people everywhere is after all what they look forward to beyond everything. The feeling of standing in a room and knowing that something you once wrote alone now belongs to everyone in it. Deathrace may have been born from a decision to go back to the roots, but RISING INSANE keeps growing and surprising. RISING INSANE released their latest album Deathrace on 21st August 2026 via Long Branch Records and are currently gearing up for their Deathrace Tour across Germany later this year. Words: Lysandre Pons Photos: Katharina Sterl With thanks to: Hold Tight and Rising Insane

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As a circuit-breaker solution to make digital journalism more accessible and inclusive, Out Of Rage continues to disrupt by offering opportunities regardless of ability and background. Our publication, set up with the ambitious perspective of amplifying young queer voices, is the first of its kind within the heavy subgenre. About Us As a circuit-breaker solution to make digital journalism more accessible and inclusive , Out Of Rage continues to disrupt by offering opportunities regardless of ability and background. Our publication, set up with the ambitious perspective of amplifying young queer voices, is the first of its kind within the heavy subgenre. With its global network of over 500 contributing members, we provide quality journalism education and training, as well as a thriving online network and deep-set connections with the student sector. We aim high, working with arena-level artists including Deftones, Slayer, Wolf Alice, and Biffy Clyro on their most recent tours. In 2025, we catered to over 250 live events and worked on over 400 new releases. We also provided coverage of 17 festivals, and with our monthly editorial covers, we champion the most innovative voices in heavy music. Independent and wildly authentic, by working with Out Of Rage, you are furthering the future of alternative music journalism. About Out Of Rage I'd like to set the record straight - at the forefront of everything we do, we make journalism accessible. We've designed a platform that's future-focussed, built around our community. We uplift and centre our conversation around young people, making sure we put LGBTQIA+ matters first. In the last three years, we have built and curated a platform that continuously strives to offer opportunities regardless of ability or background. That is Out Of Rage to its core. Yes, we prov Amber Brooks We're doing things differently... We believe in being the good we want to see in the industry. As a community that is built on our members and available to anyone who wants to be involved, our contributing network is at the core of our operation, and members can opt in to have access to our journalism and photography chats. From there, they can apply for a range of opportunities that build careers and provide unforgettable experiences. We deliver this by: Allowing everyone, regardless of experience, to work from the bottom up. Providing industry-level insight and resources to improve skills Making sure our platform is disability and accessibility inclusive Engineered a lottery-style system to provide opportunities for everyone on a monthly rotation Queer-centric and queer-focused learning and reporting Cultivating a brand image that reflects our diverse and fantastic community Proving that young people are the future in the music industry

Out Of Rage is a LGBTQIA+ focused music magazine that puts young people in control of heavy music. COVER - GLITTERER: "The scope of things in the past 6 years has really impressed me. This is not the world I existed in before" The first time GLITTERER was showcased in the UK, it was while Ned Russin was still performing entirely solo. One man, his laptop, and his guitar against the world. Based out of Washington, D.C, GLITTERER has never fit a specific mould, but four albums and three Ep’s down the line, their latest full-length, Erer - released last November - was the moment that Russin felt this project at its most complete “I think doing the band by myself was an interesting challenge, but it Search LATEST POSTS REVIEW: Living Weapon - Death In The Family Heavy and extreme music can sometimes feel paradoxical in nature; there’s something inherently fun about it despite its generally offputting nature to most. 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Han Al-Shemerr LIVE FROM THE PIT: Protest The Hero, Pupil Slicer and Obeyer In the centre of London, up a staircase below a neon sign blazing the venue’s name into the sky, is Scala - and for one night only, in the height of summer, it became the home of the most uplifting prog band in music, PROTEST THE HERO. With two bands opening for them, there were mere hours between arriving and the time to finally witness their glorious live show - but first, the supports. OBEYER took to the stage first - with a sound that landed somewhere in the djent/deathco LIVE FROM THE PIT: Heart Attack Man, Pinkshift and Sunday Best After their big cover in April, PINKSHIFT were back in the UK! And together with HEART ATTACK MAN were ecstatic for their final show at the Signature Brew in London. Both American bands are quite familiar with UK crowds and have built a devoted fanbase eager for more shows. Since forming in 2013, pop-punk band HEART ATTACK MAN has made consistent efforts to perform in the UK, particularly from 2023 onward. PINKSHIFT has been performing pop punk and post hardcore music since 2 Rage Reviews: Recent Releases, August 12th 2026 Did you catch the eclipse tonight? The brief moment the moon passed in front of the sun, casting a shadow on its glaringly-bright surface. Rest assured, unlike that fleeting glimpse, these singles aren't going anywhere, and they certainly aren't about to pass us by. Here's what we've been listening to lately: Track of the Week: SiM - Freeze Me Up SiM returns with Freeze Me Up, delivering another explosive dose of their trademark mixture of metal, punk, reggae and electronic. NEW MUSIC REVIEWS REVIEW: Living Weapon - Death In The Family Heavy and extreme music can sometimes feel paradoxical in nature; there’s something inherently fun about it despite its generally offputting nature to most. For example, there’s something like CONVERGE’s Concubine, a track that runs for just over a minute. Within that 80 seconds, there’s so much to pick apart with the performances, production and dynamics to the point where your tenth listen will still produce different results to your first, and even then occasionally that w REVIEW: Dead Retinas - Gloom After blasting their way onto the hardcore scene with back-to-back singles, DEAD RETINAS went semi-quiet, still delivering live shows and hinting at new ideas that lay dormant and hungry to be released over 6 years. The 4-piece explode into the airwaves once more with their pulverising EP Gloom, an EP that speaks to specific but important issues not usually covered in the heavy scene in a sound that contains all their fury and energy over deafening instrumentals. The Manchest Rage Reviews: Recent Releases, August 12th 2026 Did you catch the eclipse tonight? The brief moment the moon passed in front of the sun, casting a shadow on its glaringly-bright surface. Rest assured, unlike that fleeting glimpse, these singles aren't going anywhere, and they certainly aren't about to pass us by. Here's what we've been listening to lately: Track of the Week: SiM - Freeze Me Up SiM returns with Freeze Me Up, delivering another explosive dose of their trademark mixture of metal, punk, reggae and electronic. REVIEW: Empires in Orbit - Audiodrome There are albums that sit comfortably within a genre and then some that seem determined to dismantle the very idea of genre altogether. Audiodrome, the latest offering from EMPIRES IN ORBIT, belongs firmly in the latter. Dark, immersive, and constantly shifting, the opus pulls influences from indie pop, black metal, hip hop, ambient and industrial music, among others. 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