Best known as the singer for Midlands metalheads Sister Shotgun, Chloe Ozwell has long been a talent that's turned heads, be it with her uncompromising and distinctive voice or magnetic stage presence.

A constantly travelling troubadour, Mike Ross has built up the reputation as a purveyor of wonderfully involving storytelling, his stripped back sound on recent tours a voice of quiet reflection that managed to transport the listener to far flung vistas.

Opening the year with a kick and a pow is new band Swollen Teeth. Slipknot's DJ Sid Wilson and producer Ross Robinson have recently launched a peculiar brand of metal that sounds greatly interesting and notably enticing.

Always one of the biggest hooks from their monstrously successful ‘Impera’album, ‘Spillways’ was a natural choice for a single, its mix of melody, punch and drama utterly addictive.

Right, a head’s up here folks. Metallica have been a constant in my life since I sat listening to “Ride The Lightning” in 1984 wondering how the hell could the band follow that! I still get that tingle of anticipation prior to any Metallicactivity.

Brighton based quartet group The Undaunted came together during the unclear times of the pandemic.

Obituary are the leaders of death metal and have been going strong since 1984. Coming from Florida, they are one of the most dominating death metal bands of all time.

London’s hottest trio Teiger have well and truly sunk their teeth into this cover, their smouldering take on the Portishead classic.

This is what you get when you bring three of the best musicians on the planet together, a fireball that thrills as it melts the skin off your body in one single blast.

To see Within Temptation at the moment is to witness a band at the height of their powers, as anyone who caught them on the recent Worlds Collide tour with Evanescence will attest.

As a tasty cut from their forthcoming album 'The Band Rolls On', 'Lie to Me' couldn't be a better, loud and proud declaration that The Quireboys are here to stay and ready to let the music do the talking.

Already much feted by the music press, North Yorkshire rockers This House We Built are gaining a reputation as a band of class and style, the collective having been brought together just two scant years ago.

London’s Dead Writers are so effortlessly cool that they should come with a health warning, their individual mix of rock, blues, soul and twists of Edwardian Goth as addictive as Absinthe.

Black Star Riders have come a long way since first forming in 2012 to be the next chapter of the long running Thin Lizzy story, the band having developed their own firm identity in the intervening decade.

When one of the biggest bands in the world announces not only a new single but a forthcoming album and tour to support it, the ripples are nothing short of seismic.

The time is coming when Dea Matrona become a household name, their rise both inevitable and unstoppable.