What's New in Rock - October 2024
Here’s what you might have missed in the rock world! We're going to go over the releases, live show updates, and cultural developments in the alternative space from October of 2024. There’s a content warning in this article for discussion of grooming and sexual assault, so keep an eye out for that warning in the title if that is something you're not equipped for right now.
The insane @lolafilth performing at @idreamofblush at @worldheadquartersclub , shot by @girl_face_design November 2024 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
New Studio Releases
Indian metalcore outfit Bloodywood dropped their new single on October 18th, 2024, the first single since dropping their debut album Rakshak in 2022. It’s called "Nu Dehli," and is serving their flagship mix of explosive vocals, driving drums, and classic Indian instrumental fusion which crescendos into a final breakdown that nearly made me throw the remote at my television.
In wonderful news for girls and gays everywhere, Megan Thee Stallion has teamed back up with Spiritbox, this time for an original track on her latest album MEGAN: ACT II which was released on October 25th, 2024. Called "TYG," Spiritbox provides deep and screeching guitars while frontwoman Courtney LaPlante offers backing vocals to Megan’s smooth as hell bars. As a heavy music girlie I was happy to hear a little bit of screaming in the back; get Megan on a Spiritbox track and let her rip!
In the Ska world, Less Than Jake has started releasing tracks for their next EP Uncharted. They’ve already released most of it in the form of an EP called Sunny Side, sporting the Uncharted cover art of a map, a satisfying finale to the art of each single released being parts of this same map. I’ve seen nothing but positive reactions from the fans across the internet, so it seems safe to be excited for the full project to drop on November 15th via Pure Noise.
Nu Dehli was released via Fearless Records and is available to stream via Spotify and YouTube music and Available to buy and stream via Apple Music. MEGAN: ACT II was released via Hot Girl Productions and is available to stream via Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. Sunnyside was released via Pure Noise and is available to stream on Spotify, and the full EP Uncharted will be released on November 15th.
Bloodywood behind the scenes of their Nu Dehli music video, shot by @g.shrey on IG, via @Bloodywood on IG October 2024 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The Offspring gets Supercharged
On October 14th, US legends The Offspring announced the UK and EU leg to their Supercharged world tour, crossing the pond in September 2025 and covering 20 European countries. They’ll hit the UK November 10th, starting in Cardiff, and will make five stops across the UK as well as one in Ireland. The tour will be in support of their most recent studio album Supercharged, which was released via their label Wabi Sabi Worldwide, came out on 11th October 2024, and they’re being supported by Simple Plan, of What’s New Scooby-Doo! theme song fame.
In the run-up to the album’s release, frontman Dexter Holland spoke to Men’s Health about earning his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California in 2017; a Ph.D. that he had begun in The Offspring’s infancy, but was paused at the explosion of the 3rd album Smash leaving him A.B.D until he picked his study back up in 2012. The finished product was a 150-page study and review of molecules involved in the HIV virus aiming to explore the possibilities of mitigating HIV infections. Newly-Dr. Holland is hoping to get published—pushed back by his pesky day job as an internationally successful punk band frontman—and expresses wishes to work with U2's Bono in his HIV organization Red. Talking to NME, fellow founding member Noodles musing that they wanted a record that was “Quintessentially Offspring” and that they’re “just warming up” while contemporaries including Sum 41 are retiring, quipping that they “have to stay together for the studio’s sake”—the studio being that of his and Holland’s label Wabi Sabi Worldwide.
Tickets went out on the 18th of October—Manchester, London, and Cardiff are low, Newcastle and Glasgow seating only, so if you want your kids to be alright this festive season, I would get looking! The full list of dates is here.
On the Festival Grounds
When We Were Young was held Saturday, October 18th, 2024, with co-headliners My Chemical Romance playing The Black Parade in its entirety and Fall Out Boy treating the crowd to a whistle-stop tour of all their eras. This included treating us to Bang the Doldrums, almost never played live, Cupid’s Chokehold with Travie McCoy joining the quartet to perform his verses, and thankfully only one MANIA track. Most acts this year chose an album we all wished we could’ve seen, with Pierce the Veil opting for the third studio album Collide with the Sky, Neck Deep opting for Life’s Not Out to Get You and A Day to Remember opting for Homesick, just to highlight the albums I’m the most gutted I missed.
At the end of the weekend, they dropped the headliners for next year, namely Panic! At the Disco (who announced their disbandment nearly two years ago…) who will play their debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, leading some fans to quietly hope that the long-estranged original members of the former quartet will make their return to the stage with ever-contentious frontman Brendon Urie.
Their co-headliner is pop-punk royalty Blink-182, reunited now with Tom DeLonge and promising tracks from Enema of the State, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, and the self-titled album. They will be joined with popular names such as Weezer, Avril Lavigne, The Used, and Yellowcard, while Sleeping with Sirens and Mayday Parade will return. Next year sees more bands from the mid to late 2010s and 2020s making appearances, including the likes of Knocked Loose and Pvris, indicating either that the run of classic bands from when many were young are back in their grooves and don’t feel the need for nostalgia festivals anymore, or that WWWY is trying to distance themselves from that very branding. Next year's festival will take place on October 18th, 2025, on the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, and the full lineup and tickets are here.
Back in the UK, our own flagship rock festival Download is warming us up for its return, 13-15th June 2025, this time with a new Blue! Color scheme. The lineup for the festival is highly anticipated when the first 60 bands are dropped on the 12th of November, and according to long-term sponsor Kerrang!, they are going to have their own ‘metal gala’ launch event in London on the day, but this hasn’t stopped fans from sleuthing to try and work out who is going to be there. The biggest speculation came when on the 22nd of September they posted a photo with green fireworks captioned ‘summer is officially over. Wake us up when it’s June’ leading fans in the comments to speculate Green Day as a contender, compounded by their already announced run of European shows and festivals. A look at Reddit would have Iron Maiden as a popular favorite to headline, with Sleep Token in a supporting spot, with some whisperings of Electric Callboy on there too.
Bury Tomorrow guitarist @ed_hartwell on IG taking a sip, via @burytomorrow on IG, September 2024 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Worldwide, the Impericon festival in Germany has been announcing their big-name bands, including A Day to Remember making their debut in Leipzig. They will be joined by Heaven shall Burn, Bullet for my Valentine, and Motionless in White in the top spots, while Bury Tomorrow and Trophy Eyes are among the roster lineups for the weekend event. It will take place on the 27th and 28th June 2025 and you can find the full line up and tickets on Impericon.
Knotfest are off down under, with general admission released on October 23rd. Slipknot will be joined by regulars A Day to Remember and Babymetal, this time bringing along Enter:Shikari, In hearts Wake and Vended on their three day trip between February and March next year. The full lineup and tickets for Knotfest Australia can be found here.
Deryck Whibley Shares his Story - CW: grooming, discussion of sexual abuse
The biggest news of the month came from Canadian outfit Sum41: in the wake of their farewell tour, frontman Deryck Whibley released his memoir Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell in which he alleges that former manager Greig Nori groomed then sexually and verbally abused him during his tenure. The abuse allegedly began when Whibley was 18 and Nori was in his mid-30s, and the unwanted sexual relationship between the two lasted around 4 years.
Deryck Whibley interviewed with The Los Angeles Times to discuss the claims, which was published on 7th October 2024. The instigating event, Whibley alleges, was a trip to the bathroom during a rave when the then 18-year-old was offered more ecstasy than he and Nori had been taking that night, but kissed him in the stall instead. Then began the coercion of Whibley into a sexual relationship with Nori, who was almost twice his age and hired as their band’s manager. Nori would accuse him of homophobia and say that he “owed” Nori due to his help in Sum 41’s career when Whibley would try to end the sexual relationship.
He goes on to discuss opening up about the relationship to then-wife Avril Lavigne who was the one to call the abuse what it was. This was the same reaction that Deryck Whibley’s current wife Ariana Cooper had, as well as the reaction of a mutual friend of he and Nori when they learned of the relationship; the discovery by the mutual friend ended the sexual aspect of their relationship, but Nori pivoted to verbal beration and a distancing campaign between Whibley and his bandmates. Nori convinced the members to not have a relationship with their parents as it was not “cool,” telling them “it’s going to hurt your career”: a tactic, Whibley speculates, to conceal his abuse.
Sum 41 finally fired Nori in 2005, but Whibley did not speak to his bandmates about the abuse at the time nor in the run-up to the release of his memoir. In deciding to speak about the abuse, he cites approaching the age that Nori was at the time as a point of realization about the power he had, as well as the MeToo movement “About a year later [from approaching Nori’s age at the time] the Me Too thing started happening. I started hearing stories of grooming, and it all started to make sense.” In regards to its inclusion in the memoir, he states that he “[didn’t] know how to tell the real story without getting into some of this stuff, because it's all intertwined.”
In response, Greig Nori released a statement denying the allegations to The Globe and Mail on October 8th, stating the allegations were false and he has retained a defamation lawyer. He doubled down on this statement in the Toronto Star on October 10th of 2024, claiming every aspect of Whibley’s allegations were false. He has since been suspended from his role as a recording studio manager and engineer in the Algorma Conservatory of Music’s studio and venue The Loft, though they initially maintained that Nori had denied the allegations, that they had no bad reports of his work, and that he did not have a teaching role within their institution (via Sootoday)
Deryck Whibley responded with a heavy video to Instagram and X on the Sum 41 account on October 15th, stating “I couldn’t keep [the allegations] in anymore, and that it had to come out. It has now come to my attention that Greig Nori has called me a liar…I stand behind every word that’s in my book 100%, I’m not a liar, and I’m going to speak to you directly Greig Nori: if you think I’m a liar, there’s only one way to settle this - under oath, in front of a judge, in front of a jury any time you want, I’m ready whenever you are.”
I stand with Deryck Whibley and commend him for his testimony. It is never too late to speak your truth. Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell has been published through Little Brown Book Group, and their Farewell world tour has recommenced in Europe, with tickets available here.
Deryck Whibley commands power during the London date of Sum 41’s farewell world tour. Via @sum41 on IG, Shot by @Soph_Ditchfield on IG, November 2024 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
