Known for their lush, noise-drenched soundscapes and emotionally charged live shows, Summer of Hate released their new double LP, Blood & Honey on 30 January 2026 via Tee Pee Records.
Hailing from Espinho, the band have carved out a sound that fuses post-punk urgency with shoegaze density, drawing on 60s psychedelia and its 80s revival without slipping into pastiche. There are flashes of Echo & the Bunnymen, The Church, and The Jesus and Mary Chain in the DNA, but Summer of Hate reshape those touchstones into something grimier, warmer, and distinctly their own—where folk-adjacent melody meets amplifiers pushed to the edge.
Structured as two contrasting halves, Blood & Honey thrives on contradiction. Blood is the maximalist surge: a “global shoegaze” sprawl that braids drone, ecstatic noise, and punk propulsion with far-reaching textures and modes—echoes of Sufi music, dabke, raga, and Middle Eastern tonal colours—until it forms a dense, immersive sound-world. Honey turns toward clarity and romance, expanding the dreamlike palette of the band’s earlier work and filtering 60s pop sentiment through a contemporary Portuguese lens—balancing jangle, Britpop, slowcore, and post-punk with melodic focus.
Rooted in the restless Atlantic edge of their hometown, the record carries the band’s sense of place throughout: the intensity and softness of summer, the push-pull of small-town melancholy and outward longing, and the feeling of brightness shot through with threat. It’s music that can feel brutal and tender in the same breath—goth and hippie, comfort and rage—held together by a wall of sound that never stops moving.
With Blood & Honey now out in the world, Summer of Hate sound both deeply rooted and newly unbound—fearlessly reinventing shoegaze as something expansive, anthemic, and emotionally exposed. We asked the band about three of their most important influences.
The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
João (guitar, bakcing vocals): If it wasn’t for the internet, I’d probably be doing donuts with a Honda Civic in the parking lot of a supermarket in a suburban era, watching my life become a literal loop of consumerism, sleeve tattoos, faded haircuts and fistfights. I wasn’t born in a context where being “alternative” is a good idea, but somehow I became an alternative person’s alternative person in the city of Espinho. Apparently there are a lot of us, but we just don’t want to leave the house because we don’t like our philistine surroundings, so we use the power of the internet to access the alternative culture that is denied to us. All the conditions were created for Psychocandy to be one of my all-time favourite records. I had dwelled in music fandom since I was twelve, with nu-metal being my first contact with “heavy and distorted music”, then emo, Radiohead, Sex Pistols and Joy Division. But until then, I never had a genre of guitar music that I called “home” until I saw the video for ‘Never Understand’ by The Jesus and Mary Chain on YouTube and it changed my life. From the feedback intro that floods the whole tune, to the phantasmagoria of a bassline that holds the main melody, to the summery vocals of Jim Reid and solo which is just a three-note lead. Everything about this song made me realize what I wanted to do in life forever. A pop song to end all pop songs, by pop fans who hate pop music, who made a pop hit that popped out, for being the anti-pop of pop. Not to mention the overall classic (almost beatnik) but also modern 80s look, the goth boys who sound like The Beach Boys, the would-be contradiction that makes perfect sense: turning your discomfort into comfort, showing the shiny happy people that there are different ways to smile. This song made me so happy, because I felt like I was understood.
The Cure – Wish
Laura (vocals, lyrics): The album I picked is Wish by The Cure. This was an album I used to listen to a lot when I first got into university, struggling with discovering myself and resolving my own past, and diving deep into The Cure felt like it was meant to be. I’m someone who heavily associates senses (especially sound and scent) to memories, and it’s impossible for me to listen to this album without being taken back to eighteen years old me, alone in a big city. That’s what this album sounds like, a sad coming of age, adrenaline rushing through our bodies, wearing our hearts on our sleeves, terrified and unafraid all at once. It opens and closes melancholic, with bursts of energy and bouts of pain that feel beautifully human. I love the track ‘High’, as I’m a big fan of the sweeter side of The Cure’s discography. Robert Smith has a particularly endearing way of writing about loving and being loved, about the buzzing feeling of being enamoured by someone, and this is a track that perfectly encapsulates that charming side of The Cure. ‘To Wish Impossible Things’ is another one of my favourite tracks. This one’s a lot darker and heavier than the previous, but still beautiful. Again, Smith’s lyrics come to me – “the hope to wish impossible things” – the longing for another time to the sound of a faraway heart. I was going through a tough time back then and songs like this, sometimes the words but always their sound, seemed to make me feel less alone. This album was my companion when no one else was, and it’ll be forever a part of me.
The Horrors – Primary Colours
João: Like the French New Wave was a movement created by cinephiles, in terms of crate-digging, The Horrors made rock n’ roll something worthy of investigation and constant discovery. They made it cool to know about obscure psychedelic rock bands, early examples of electronic music and obscure artists with hits that never were. They curated the dancefloor with things that people didn’t even know they could dance to. This is still how I listen to music: constant archival research. Primary Colours, produced by Geoff Barrow (Portishead), opened a world of references for me. ‘Sea Within a Sea’ introduced me to Krautrock, ‘Mirror’s Image’ to MBV and the magic world of vintage synth sounds. It also taught me how to blend genres and how an albums’ production technique can be an instrument to emphasize the concept. It’s an entire record that also recreates the effect of sleep deprivation, to a point where every prolonged note seems to go almost off the rails, creating a constant sense of unease. No matter how many skinny dudes with black drain pipes tried to imitate it, this album is still unmatched and is a pop masterpiece and incredibly influential. The Horrors are the goth Monkees. They blended the concept of pop, psychedelia and gothic music for a whole new generation and they deserve the success they had from it.
