On This Track: Weekend Listening #6
- Anne
- 19 hours ago
- 5 min read
Five new releases exploring where independent music goes next
Not every great release demands attention the same way. Some arrive with a huge chorus. Others take their time. This week's On This Track Weekend Listening 6 brings together five artists who couldn't sound more different, yet each reflects a different corner of today's independent music scene: from hardcore communities and alt-country storytelling to improvised collaboration, personal grief, and the tension between private thoughts and the world outside.
Pain Of Truth - "Unforgiven"
The first thing that stands out about ”Unforgiven” isn't the breakdown. It's the gang vocals. Before the song settles into its heaviest moments, there's already the feeling that this wasn't written for headphones. It was written for a room full of people shouting every word back.
Pain Of Truth have always understood that hardcore lives long after a record stops spinning. The songs only become complete once they leave the studio and ”Unforgiven” feels built with exactly that in mind. The riffs are blunt, the drums never let up and Will Putney's production gives everything extra weight without sanding away the band's rough edges.
Michael Brian Smith says the song came from wanting to offer hope during difficult times. That idea could easily have disappeared beneath all the noise, but it doesn't. Hardcore has always found different ways of talking about survival. Sometimes quietly. More often like this.
There's another reason ”Unforgiven” arrives at the right moment. Bands from the hardcore underground are filling festival line-ups that once belonged almost entirely to punk and metal, while younger audiences continue to discover the scene through labels like DAZE. Pain Of Truth don't sound interested in chasing that attention. If anything, the opposite is true. They play as if the room is already theirs.
🎧 Stream "Unforgiven" on Apple Music
J. Killen – "Oak Tree"
An oak tree usually stands for strength. J. Killen gives it a different meaning. In "Oak Tree", it becomes a place of rest rather than endurance. That small shift changes the entire song. Instead of dwelling on death itself, Killen sings from the perspective of someone hoping the people left behind can eventually find peace. It's a difficult subject, but the song never feels heavy-handed. The arrangement helps. Pedal steel hangs quietly in the background, the drums arrive without urgency and the spaces between the instruments matter just as much as the notes themselves. Nothing reaches for a dramatic payoff. The music seems comfortable sitting with uncertainty. Country music has never avoided mortality, but it often tells those stories through heartbreak or memory. "Oak Tree" feels different. It isn't looking back. It's trying to ease the weight of what's still to come. Maybe that's why the song lingers. Not because it offers answers, but because it quietly asks whether love can sometimes mean making it easier for someone else to let go.
🎧 Stream "Oak Tree" on Apple Music
Giraffe – "Room of Forgotten Names"
“Room of Forgotten Names” doesn't seem interested in making a first impression. It starts quietly, settles into its own rhythm and trusts that you'll meet it where it is. That's exactly what makes it stand out. Every instrument seems to arrive at the right moment rather than fighting to be heard. Dave Harrington's guitar opens up the space, Robert Walter colors the edges with warm keyboards, while Spencer Zahn and Kosta Galanopoulos keep the song moving without ever rushing it. The music breathes. Listening to the track feels surprisingly intimate. You can almost hear decisions being made in real time, small shifts that probably wouldn't survive endless editing sessions. Giraffe leave those moments untouched, and the song is stronger because of it. It's an approach that feels increasingly uncommon. While so much new music is built to grab attention instantly, ”Room of Forgotten Names” rewards listeners who stay a little longer. Instead of asking for another skip or replay, it invites something much simpler: to listen without expecting the next big moment. Some songs fill every available space. Giraffe are more interested in what happens when they leave one open.
🎧 Stream "Room of Forgotten Names" on Apple Music
Adjenai – "Early Mourning"
The chorus sounds brighter than you'd expect. That's probably the first surprise. ”Early Mourning” deals with loss, but Adjenai never wraps the song in slow piano chords or dramatic strings. Instead, shimmering guitars, warm melodies and flashes of early-2000s alt-pop keep pushing against the weight of the lyrics. The contrast never feels forced. If anything, it mirrors the strange rhythm of grief itself. Life keeps moving. The kettle still boils. People still laugh. Somewhere in the middle of all that, someone you love slowly disappears.
“Early Mourning” was written while Adjenai was caring for a family member living with dementia and you can hear that uncertainty throughout the song. Not because the lyrics explain every feeling, but because they leave room for them. The silence between the lines matters just as much as what's being sung. Music has never struggled to write about death. Waiting for it is another story. That quiet stretch before goodbye - the part where hope and acceptance keep changing places - is rarely the centre of a pop song. Adjenai doesn't try to solve that contradiction. They simply give it a voice. Maybe that's why ”Early Mourning” stays with you. It isn't looking for a perfect ending. Neither is grief.
🎧 Stream "Early Mourning" on Apple Music
Militarie Gun – "World's Always Burning" (feat. Mannequin Pussy)
“World's Always Burning” sounds restless from the start. The guitars never quite settle, Ian Shelton's vocals keep pushing forward and Mannequin Pussy's appearance only adds to the feeling that the song is trying to outrun something it knows it can't escape.
What's striking isn't the sense of urgency. It's where that urgency comes from. Earlier songs on ”God Save The Gun” often turned inward, picking apart personal struggles and self-doubt. ”World's Always Burning” lifts its head instead. The anxiety is still there, but now it's colliding with everything happening beyond the band itself.
That shift feels familiar. Punk and hardcore have always responded to the world around them, yet many younger bands have spent the last decade writing from a deeply personal perspective. Militarie Gun aren't abandoning that honesty - they're widening the lens. Personal burnout and public exhaustion start to blur together until they become difficult to separate.Maybe that's why ”World's Always Burning” lands so effectively. It never pretends to have answers for a world that often feels impossible to keep up with. It simply captures the moment when you stop looking inward, glance outside and realize the noise never stopped.
🎧 Stream "World's Always Burning" on Apple Music
Some songs make their point immediately. Others reveal it over time. This week's selection reminds us that independent music rarely speaks with one voice. That's exactly what keeps it interesting. We'll be back next week with five more releases worth your time.
Continue discovering new independent music through On This Track, Three Track Week and the INDIENOXZINE | Selections Spotify playlist.