Artist spotlight: Alexisonfire

The so-called only band ever are back. And, as much as I usually favour going against the grain, their resurgence begs me to hop aboard the bandwagon and cover them in this month’s artist spotlight. ‘Them’ being who? Alexisonfire, of course. The Ontario hard rockers are set to unleash ‘Otherness’, their first studio album in 13 years, this June. Buzzing, much?

I certainly am — and so is my early teens emo self. 2006 saw the drop of ‘Crisis’, a record that houses so many of their hits. Funnily enough, while their newer material is all about the explorative journey through childhood into adolescence and adulthood, age-wise, it was their previous offerings that ticked that box for me.

‘Boiled Frogs’ was an anthem. Pure and simple. It still is, actually. I remember Kerrang! Magazine waxing lyrical about it and I was soon all over it as well. It’s got ferociously fast drumming, a delectable fusion of sung and screamed vocals, and cutting-edge muted riffs. People who consider this kind of sound ‘noise’ haven’t allowed time for the melody of this song’s scorching chorus to fully invade their ears. Young me gave it a big thumbs-up and so does late twenties me.

They’ve so many absolutely roaring bangers, though, and their other albums that came out during the noughties were brilliant. I imagine I’ll have bought tickets to the October show before you’ve even finished reading this article…