I’ll still be updating this site as much as possible, but updates will probably be a bit less frequent for the time being. You can also keep up with me on Twitter as well!
IMPORTANT: If you work for a PR company / record label / etc, and have music to submit to me, do continue to do so as usual. The only significant change will be the location of my metal/hardcore/prog-related pieces, and my job at Metal Injection is to help expand their coverage – so I’m constantly (and very successfully) pitching new ideas to them using the emails you send to me! Anything that’s not related to heavy music will continue to appear here at LeonTK.com as normal.
If you have any questions, drop me an email with the subject line “METAL INJECTION”.
When a festival’s lineup includes an insane number of inevitably epic sets, it’s hard to know where to start – and ArcTanGent 2018 is packed with intriguing prospects. Hopefully, this list will help prog-math-post-whatever fans overcome option paralysis, and start you off on the path to the perfect ATG experience… Read more…
Although we’re only about two thirds of the way through 2018, 2019 looks to be Toska’s year. Made up of three quarters of chart-topping alt-rock-prog-metal internet sensations Dorje, Toska have already proven themselves as virtuosos – not to mention awesome music teachers. Guitarist Rabea Massaad and bassist Dave Hollingworth can be found teaching six-string skills and Jedi-level production through online music school Musicisum, founded and owned by bandmate and drumming octopus Ben Minal.
These guys know their shit, and to argue otherwise would be akin to Read more…
British festivalgoers are spoilt for choice year after year, but 2000 Trees remains top of the list for connoisseurs of alternative and underground music. Its lineups are legendary, each day carefully scheduled to ensure minimal clashes and more time spent watching bands, not tearing your hair out trying to Read more…
In the world of underground music, popular opinion doesn’t count for much – but when everyone in the underground agrees on something unanimously, it’s worth sitting up and paying attention. This isn’t a world where spray-tanned mannequins rush to shill for whichever corporations are Read more…
If, for some masochistic reason, you decide to try giving yourself nightmares, leave the cheese in the fridge and keep that copy of The Human Centipede in digital limbo on Netflix. Instead, give Conjurer a shot just before bedtime.
“A must-read for music fans everywhere” – Musicisum
Why do rock stars like Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, and Chester Bennington kill themselves? Why do superstars struggle to stay afloat? And why do so many fail to make it in the first place?
Only this book has all the answers. Welcome to the dark side of the music business.
Start reading for free by clicking the cover below:
As the music industry slows down, its alternative end hibernating while the pop-enamoured mainstream hungrily ogles Christmas shoppers, the time has come to look back on a seriously strong year for organised soundwaves. For me, it’s been heavy, intense, and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the releases listed below.
With so many exceptional contenders in the running for the top spot, the thought of ranking them in order of quality is plainly ridiculous. So instead, I’ve picked out three releases that had memorable impacts on me when I first heard them, and assembled the others in alphabetical order.
The Pretty Reckless’s Who You Selling For – along with previous effort Going To Hell – is conclusive proof (if it were honestly needed in 2016) that women belong in rock music, and are fully capable of kicking ass. The sexists of the music world are like Wile E. Coyote; they’ve run off the edge of the cliff, nothing surrounds them but empty air, they’ve looked down, and they’re panicking. Sonic Boom Six’s The F-Bomb picks up where that image leaves off – it’s cheeky, chirpy, happy and hard-hitting (sometimes simultaneously), addressing a wealth of gender-related issues and providing a great ska-fuelled party soundtrack as only Sonic Boom Six can.
Musically, Dissociation is The F-Bomb’s polar opposite. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s swan song is crammed with brutal and ultra-experimental mathcore – but it’s also Dillinger’s most delicate and diverse album. The Dillinger Escape Plan are living proof that you can achieve great things without compromise, by sticking to your guns and just going for it.
Beyond that point, you’re free to dive into an epic range of albums including solidly grooving rock sets, monolithic slabs of military-grade metal, and progressive masterpieces. Since I’ve not reviewed many EPs this year, I’ve also included a pair of extended-playing mind-blowers in the form of Dorje’s Centred And One and Toska’s Ode To The Author. Dorje specialise in utterly idiosyncratic rock tunes with added progressive spice, while to me, Toska (made up of Dorje’s backline, namely guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth) represent the future of instrumental metal.
Both Dorje and Toska are bands on the rise – and they fully deserve to hit the same peaks enjoyed by the biggest names on this list.
There’s little more to say; for me, this list represents the top albums of 2016. Enjoy the full reviews linked below, follow TMMP on Twitter, subscribe to my brand new YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more world-class music next year!
As the band who brought The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild into the UK metal scene’s collective consciousness, Watford tech-metallers SikTh were under no small amount of pressure to beat the legendary sophomore blues and deliver something special with Album Two. Had they stacked it, nobody could have blamed them; even the most talented creatives are capable of losing the War of Art. In the event, however, SikTh won out – and the result was Death Of A Dead Day, a titanic juggernaut of an album rammed full of exquisitely brutal genius Read more…
