Haggard Cat are a critically acclaimed British post hardcore/alt-rock duo composed of drummer/backing vocalist Tom Marsh and vocalist/guitarist Matt Reynolds. We thought it about time we got a “feline” for what makes Haggard Cat purr, so we asked Matt and Tom to share four records that have been huge influences on their song writing.

Gnaw’s debut EP is a fuzzed-out pop blast—discover the influences behind it in our Under the Influence feature.

Harboured return with their sophomore album entitled We’re Only The Love That We Lead. Growing as a band in every way imaginable, the trio power through styles and genres with a confident and aggressive stance that declares them as one of the most original acts in the metal scene today.

American Sharks is a three-piece band hailing from Austin, TX. Their punk-metal hybrid sound blends pop hooks with blasting in-yer-face riffs resulting in something akin to if Weezer went Stoner Rock. Coupled with hook-laden singalong lyrics, American Sharks’ forthcoming 2026 album Not Dead Yet is, well, a breath-taking return. 

Deploying a double hit of heavy riffs and soaring vocals, OKAY YOU WIN have quickly built a solid reputation in the UK underground, bringing their blend of driving rock with stoned psychedelics and doomy breakdowns to a string of shows and festivals across England and further afield.

You feel as if you are a part of this incredible journey Verdeaux is taking the listener on its voyage throughout these five albums from the classical concerto-like pianos, into the synths and mellotron in all of its spiritual guidance.

With Closed City out soon, Michael Cloud Duguay unpacks the three influences behind their low-brass-laced blend of avant-metal, drone, and orchestral folk world-building.

‘Is anybody’, I ask, ‘going to do a STRANGEFORMS 2026 preview’? ‘That’ll be you, then’ comes the reply. Oh. Well, I DID ask.

With Blood & Honey out now, Summer of Hate unpack the 3 influences behind their lush, noise-drenched take on global shoegaze and post-punk.

Trip-tastic Radio-length single from the loudest space-rockers in the universe and some intergalactic cephalopods. Taken from forthcoming LP Beyond The Beyond via Heavy Psych Sounds.

With Super Sonic Rock Saga landing today, Sick Shooters’ Laurens den Haan breaks down the key influences behind the band’s bass-less, hook-loaded garage punk attack.

The Temple of the King isn’t just an incredible box set, it’s a journey to the myths and wonders of how this band were revolutionary, amazing, and having the balls to bring their story-telling arrangements to fans in its true metallic foundation.

Built upon looping, intertwining rhythms and heavily processed instruments and samples, ‘Luxury’ distils the band’s unmistakable sonic identity into one focused strike. It’s a precise yet overwhelming construction – mechanical, hypnotic, and abrasive – and a perfect example of what we’ve come to expect from the proprietors of the “total harmful sound.”

After so many iterations of heavy, desert-inspired doom rock over past decades, it seems the essence of purely driving riffs, earworm harmonies and strong songwriting that defined a genre has been forsaken. Bronco Forte are a return to the stark blast that made bands like Kyuss, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden legends. 

Bursting onto the European scene with their debut Panorama EP in 2022, French instrumental quintet Hanry quickly established themselves as something altogether different; fusing soaring post-rock with acoustic warmth and the fragile intimacy of ambient electronica.

This is Hawkwind at the peak of the beginning in the 1970s showing how much this band were ready for lift-off and preparing to hurl through the cosmos 56 years later.

The power of those three individuals, it is one of those albums that stays with you, becoming the soundtrack of your life, and is the masterpiece of all of the electronic sound Tangerine Dream has given to us.

Haunted Lives provides the first retrospective for enigmatic Scottish artist Grey Malkin – a “gathering of works” from 2009–2025.

Montreal-based quartet Bellbird play modern jazz, incorporating stylistic influences including atonal counterpoint, rock grooves, folk melodies, Minimalism, and a reigning (post)punk spirit.

A slow, surreal descent through emptiness and decay. Built on suffocating tension and bleak atmospheres, the song evokes a world where life has become mechanical – a theatre of dead marionettes staring with hollow eyes. . .  a reflection on numbness, loss, and the quiet horror of simply existing.

This Lonesome Paradise Unveils Death Motels: A Gothic Desert Odyssey of music and cinema.