David Bowes looks forward to next week’s fourth edition of Glasgow’s celebration of noise, Core Festival.

The trio are constantly shifting between these states of playfulness and blissed-out chill but the net effect is always the same – smiling faces, shaking rumps, good vibes.

Penance is an album that deserves not just to be listened to but also to be studied and analysed.

Through subtlety, atmosphere and a canny production that somehow makes their compositions claustrophobic and as vast as a barren, alien landscape, they have created something that will draw you deep into the abyss and leave you gasping for air.

Gaerea have become one of the most exciting bands in a cluttered post-black metal landscape, and tonight they demonstrated that they could give every aspect of Loss all the fire and vigour it so rightly deserves.

Two very different bands, two very different approaches, but the goal is the same – play loud, be weird, and have fun. If that sounds like your kind of party too, this is absolutely worth your attention.

This is not a comfortable listen, nor an easy one; it demands time to absorb and to reflect, and because of that it has the potential to stay with you long after the album has ended.

From the songwriting through to the production and execution, this record feels huge, raw and unwieldy, never really committing to a single mood or even genre but instead acting as a channel for the three brilliant and idiosyncratic minds behind it.

Eager to build on the momentum (and success) of round one, Ripcord Fest is back! It seems like this will be a biannual event going forward which means twice the bands, twice the fun and twice the ringing ears per annum. Embracing not only the ethos of the first festival but also of the label as a whole, it’s a celebration of the UK’s fertile underground scene with a marked focused on post-metal, post-rock and math-rock.

There is no such thing as a throwaway album from this bunch – every one has its own impish charm – but if you are looking for somewhere to start, kick off with this.

It’s beautiful and ugly, wild and utterly captivating, and it genuinely verges on the realms of “see this band before you die”. So go do that (see them live, that is – not die).

There’s a palpable sense of loss and wonder in these songs but also power, a primal force that sweeps up band and crowd alike until they’re all one unified swirl of hair, bobbing heads and raised fists. It’s another demonstration of what black metal is capable of in the right hands, not just a spirit of defiance but also one that can bring light.

This is grindcore taken right back to its punk roots – confrontational, irreverent and with a skipload of go-down-swinging gusto crammed into its miniscule runtime. Perfect for when you need an aural kick in the head to start off your day or get you through that next Teams call.

It’s a sprawling, hypnotic labyrinth of sound and getting lost in it almost seems to be the point, an overwhelming barrage of jazz-doom-hardcore excess too out there to even try to comprehend; instead, the audience are content to just come along for the ride and see where it takes them.

Not everything runs smoothly. Sometimes life gets in the way, you lose track of time, and suddenly you’re on a distillery tour. At least, that’s the reason that Chepang’s Scottish show is running slightly behind schedule; but if there’s one thing that …

They’re one of the most forward-thinking and genuinely innovative bands at work in the UK, and getting to see them hammer out a performance like this for the princely sum of sod all feels like Christmas come early.

It’s a celebration of mood, simplicity and versatility. . . No encore, no pandering, just three guys holding a room’s undivided attention and having fun while doing it. Hard to think of a better way to spend a Thursday evening.

Excess and minimalism, violence and restraint, chaos and bliss – Agriculture are all these things, and they’re a bloody great time to boot.

Portland’s finest absolutely killed it tonight and, judging by the blissed-out smiles on folk as they leave the room, no-one could say otherwise.

David Bowes spoke to Edward Thompson and Solomon Radley from UK post-rock troupe Million Moons about their upcoming new album ‘You Be Good, I Love You’.

There’s still some of that old sound, tense steel-strung acoustica and extended spoken word passages, but it’s nestled among a forest of hulking post-metal riffs, drone metal and doom, a landscape bereft of light where old gods still lurk and accept their offerings.