She’s got the pristine Tallahassee drawl, the songs that ache with confessional drama and the dark, gospel atmospherics that flutter like gossamer.

Raised in a Southern Baptist community in the Florida panhandle, Hayden Silas Anhedönia grew up with a mama who’d play hymns and Gregorian chants on CD while she cooked. By 2018, she’d invented the world Ethel Cain—“an all-American girl trying to fit in and break out of the mould”. Ethel’s a vessel for stories of hard living, doomed romance, and rides to the dusty nowhere on the back of a motorcycle. The songs shade themselves in the dark shadow of the American Dream and burst into sundrenched moments of guitar-driven dream pop. Performed with a church-trained voice that could tame wild hearts.

The Damned:

The first of the London punks, and the only ones unafraid to write crypt-splintering 17-minute epics. The Damned are a fun-loving fearless band, who never stopped shedding their lizard skin.

The story goes, they invited Sid Vicious to audition as lead singer but he never showed up, so the band went with David Vanian instead. Now punk music’s Count Dracula has been at it for almost half a century, with no sign of wear on his blistering baritone. Their first single beat the Sex Pistols to the charts. Their first album, Damned Damned Damned, invented a punk sound that was as dexterous and tuneful as it was ragged and unhinged. Their first US tour was so turbo-charged it helped inspire the birth of hardcore. Every move since— from the white-hot garage rock of 1979’s reformation record Machine Gun Etiquette, through to the psychedelic theatrics of their goth era—proved The Damned have a carefree defiance that’s pure punk rock. And a dedication to sparking live-wire glee from deep within the gloom.

Witch:

Rock icon J Mascis sits at the kit behind a group of utter riff lords. Park the panel van of your mind. Light your inner cauldron and flame on. 

Witch were formed in 2005 by Dinosaur Jr guitar legend J Mascis and his friend, from Teepee Records, David Sweetapple. J embraced his first instrument and got behind the kit while David picked up the bass. With the backline locked, they recruited Kyle Thomas from King Tuff on vocals and guitar, and these days they’ve got Graham Clise (from Annihilation Time and Melbourne shredders ROT TV) wielding the lead axe. After releasing two famously gnarly albums in the 2000s that worship at the altar of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Black Flag, Witch are returning with a dirty hessian sack full of new material. Abandon the humdrum and lift your devil horns. The coven is coming.