Alex Baker on the new music you need to hear now

Mate, life is just constant disruption at the moment. Do you find that it’s basically impossible to plan anything? Yeah, same. When things go mad, though, there’s always one benefit, one silver lining in the chaos: great music! Below I’ve got artists who are decentralising the music industry, raising awareness of climate change, helping people with their mental health, and more. Come and get it!

The big ol’ wheel of music runs in cycles. Fifteen years ago, everyone wanted to be in a metalcore band, then that made way for emotional rock, before pop-punk became the booze du jour (I cannot tell you how many submissions I’ve had from pop-punk bands in the past five years!). What there isn’t a lot of, though, are just timeless, powerful rock bands – but I’ve found one that absolutely rules: Birmingham’s Endscape. With echoes of some of the world’s biggest bands, finessed with a modern edge that makes truly exciting, I have no doubt that you will love these dudes.

Red Handed Denial are not new per se, but it’s about time they were taken out of the Massively Underrated Band category and planted firmly in people’s consciousnesses across the world. Fronted by the powerhouse that is Lauren Babic, who has utter control over her delivery as she seamlessly flicks between guttural rage and soaring toplines that float above the never-ending sea of technical, almost djent-inspired instrumentation, they are awesome. Check out their tune Father Said below – it absolutely slaps.

Human beings find it really hard to understand two things: 1) that major change only comes around from consistent effort/action, and 2) that there is nothing more important to our survival as a species than protecting our planet. Humanity is not doing enough, quickly enough and consistently enough to reverse the damage that we are doing to our ecosystem, and as Future Palace put it in the song below, the world is 'in tears'. As horrific as the truth of that is, bloody hell it's a good song. If you’ve not yet checked out these Berliners, you will love their utterly enormous, sweeping sound that's reminiscent of PVRIS. The world needs more fantastic bands and artists that genuinely want to promote a better way, and I am here for it.

I first came across these Kent-based chaps a few years ago when they created an amazing post-hardcore version of the old-skool garage classic Sorry (I Didn’t Know) by Monsta Boy. (People between the age of about 25 and 40 will remember what a tune that was back in the day, regardless of what your musical preferences are.) Well, the guys in Seek Harbour have been putting out tunes ever since during the crappest of COVID-laden times, and their latest song really blew me away. So much so that I made them my Featured Artist Of The Week on my show on Kerrang! Radio the minute I heard it. One for fans of bands like early We Are The Ocean and Alexisonfire. Oh, and check out the clean vocals: they are fiiiiiiiiiire!

Birmingham's Led By Lanterns have grown battle-weary from an industry that is just so hard to make a decent living from. So, following in the footsteps of trailblazers While She Sleeps, they are now connecting directly with their fans to create the content that matters to them in return for their direct financial support. Hopefully, with absolutely kickass tunes like the below under their belt you guys will love them and immediately head to ledbylanterns.com to join the Lanterns Alliance! Slowly, music is decentralising, and the future is shaped by the actions of today.

Hear Alex Baker present the Fresh Blood Show on Kerrang! Radio, Wednesday nights from 10pm.