This edition of Rock Bops brings two striking releases shaped by fire, rebirth and raw intensity. From cathartic alternative rock to spiritually charged heaviness, both artists carve powerful spaces in the rock landscape.
Scarlet Joy – The Burning Days
Scarlet Joy turns devastation into defiance, delivering an EP that burns bright with honesty, grit and emotional clarity
Lincoln-based alternative rock artist Scarlet Joy returns with The Burning Days, a bold and deeply personal EP written during the early days of sobriety. The record explores addiction, recovery and self-reclamation, all filtered through a sound that is both vulnerable and forceful. Haunting vocals, driving guitars and a sense of rising from the wreckage define the project’s core.
Recorded at Superfly Studios with Andy Banfield, the EP features Tom Latham on bass and Phil Wilson on drums, grounding the songs in a dynamic, instinctive energy. Influences like PJ Harvey, QOTSA and Nine Inch Nails echo through the textures, but Scarlet Joy’s voice is unmistakably her own. Each track feels like a moment of reckoning, a reminder that healing often begins at the edge of collapse.
The Burning Days stands as a cathartic, defiant body of work that transforms past pain into a blazing, empowering force.
Piranha Piranha – Fire Eye
Piranha Piranha ignite a spiritual storm, fusing explosive rock energy with themes of awakening and truth.
Akron duo Piranha Piranha make a striking debut with Fire Eye, a single inspired by a transformative Ayahuasca journey in Costa Rica. The song dives into spiritual awakening, consciousness and the unveiling of truth, shaping heavy rock with a transcendent edge.
The track opens with a match strike that triggers a fuse and a live-recorded explosion. The band captured everything by hand, from firecrackers in a parking lot to the final mortar blast that kicks the song into motion. This attention to authenticity gives Fire Eye a visceral punch. The riff, first written on a drone flute beneath a tree, evolved into its current driving form, retaining its meditative roots while surging with new power.
With its blend of force, message and boundary-pushing production, Fire Eye marks Piranha Piranha as a new rock act ready to make a meaningful impact.
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