Rock Sound

Motionless In White are on the cover of Rock Sound. Celebrating their accomplishments while acknowledging the hardships and rough roads that led them here, Chris Motionless explains how the support of their devoted fan community helped drive the band towards the creation of new album ‘Decades’. 🇬🇧🌍: rocksound.lnk.to/hin2LGWO 🇺🇸: rocksound.lnk.to/UjTQ2j6W

Tonight Alive, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: Jenna McDougall keeps on staring out at the crowd before her with a look brimming with an abundance of love. Tonight Alive have always had a special relationship with the UK, but to be back on this soil, and indeed back at Slam Dunk, after so many years, to see just how much their music continues to linger on people’s minds and, based on how loud these sing-alongs are, tongues, is clearly melting the band’s hearts that little bit more. Every era of their adventure is covered and celebrated here, from a spine-tingling ‘Lonely Girl’ to a pulsating ‘The Edge’, with every beat as utterly pristine as the last and every vocal soaked in wondrous powerful. There are extra treats in store too, with a showing of the band’s classic cover of Mumford & Sons’ ‘Little Lion Man’ and Stand Atlantic’s Bonnie Fraser joining the party for a stirring ‘Disappear’. The whole experience feels effortlessly beautiful, a chance to bask in what has come before, and see just how vital the band’s output still feels all these years later. Who knows what the future holds, but instances like this live forever, and should be cherished as such. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️ @JackMRog

PRESIDENT, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: Anyone out there still questioning whether PRESIDENT is a genuine phenomenon need only stand in the middle of the roar that the thousands-strong stretching back as far as the eyes can see is making to welcome them to the stage for their Slam Dunk debut. The only thing louder than that fanfare is the sing-along that then accompanies the opening gambit of ‘Fearless’. With every show they play, the more and more sensational every aspect of this fantastical project feels. New additions ‘DOOM LOOP’ and ‘Angel Wings’ are as grand and emotional as they are brilliantly punishing in these surroundings, whilst the whizzes and bangs attached to the spellbinding ‘RAGE’ add a necessary coolness to these baking conditions. Just a few weeks out from the first anniversary of their first performance, those almost 365 days have added so much to what PRESIDENT is, not just as a live act but as a pillar of this community. There are still moments where the sight of the mask sends a discomforting shiver up the spine as they stare out into the masses, but there is now a softness to their expression. A sense of gratitude and adoration has been instilled, simply from just how feverish and fantastical this connection between artist and fan has become. With one final guttural yelp via a crisp ‘In The Name Of The Father’, another rally is complete, and another step towards complete domination is taken. History in the making, every single time. 📷@Zakpinchin ✏️@JackMRog

The Home Team, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: Sometimes, you can tell when a band is about to hit true fever pitch. And as body after body piles into Scott’s Key Club stage to get a glimpse of The Home Team, this is very much one of those moments. And from the second that the band hit the stage, you can tell that they know something is occurring too, because they are firing on all cylinders. Brian Butcher wastes time in showing off his finest moves during a raging opening one-two of ‘Hell’ and ‘Brag’, sending shockwaves through this swooning crowd, whilst an audacious ‘Loud’ sets pulses racing even higher. It’s breathless, bodacious and absolutely brilliant, every element of the band’s luxury sound and confident stature hitting all the right spots track after track after track. Throw in an appearance from Broadside’s Ollie Baxxter on ‘Somebody Else’s Face’, and a final hedonistic hit from ‘Worthy’, and you have a performance that will be talked about for weeks to come. If you aren’t already on The Home Team, now is the time to sign up. Because based on this display, things are about to get explosive. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️ @JackMRog

Dead Pony, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: When you do something that you love, it shows. It’s near impossible for the energy that’s coursing through you not to flow through all that surrounds you. That’s where Dead Pony are right now; completely locked in, in a manner that you can tell they have been aiming towards nailing for some time. Just a week on from the release of their barnstorming new EP ‘Eat My Dust!’, the quartet are relishing the chance for their new creation to incite some early doors chaos. A live debut for the complex devastation of ‘Lost Inside Of Me’ shows just how deep these roots go, whilst ‘Freak Like Me’ feels more and more like a vital anthem for a new generation of rule-breakers to call their own with every outing it has. But the thing that shines the brightest is just fiercely free the band feel. Anna Shields goes from soft to sharp in the flick of the wrist, fully lost in the heaviness that bolsters ‘Everything Burns’ but also touched by the reaction that ‘RAINBOWS’ continues to get from those who see themselves within it. Whilst the lads around her let all their inhibitions run completely wild, losing themselves in every crunchy riff. It’s a recipe for something truly captivating, and what feels like the foundations for the biggest step the band have taken yet. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️ @JackMRog

Static Dress chat with us backstage at Slam Dunk 2026 about new album ‘Injury Episode’, working with Underoath on ‘Nostalgia Kills’ and their memories of playing the festival over the years WATCH: youtube.com/watch?v=aDVmCK…

Sublime talk us through how it feels to be playing their first ever UK shows at Slam Dunk Festival 2026 WATCH: youtube.com/watch?v=HdMFLT…

State Champs frontman Derek DiScanio takes us through his early memories of Slam Dunk, plans for new music and the continued celebration of 10 years of ‘Around The World And Back’ WATCH: youtube.com/watch?v=PPXmU3…

State Champs, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: The pull of pop-punk in the sunshine will always persevere, but that doesn’t stop Derek DiScanio from still being shook at how many people are watching State Champs right now. But at this point, there are few bands as quintessential, as vibrant, and as definitive in the genre, and in returning to Slam Dunk for another round of full-blooded anthem playing, they are further cementing their position within those sentiments. ‘Outta My Head’ is bright and breezy, ‘All You Are Is History’ is triumphant and ‘Everybody But You’ remains one of the best party songs of this decade so far. Each track has a different pocket of this ever-expanding crowd bopping at will, a surefire sign of how far and wide their brand of joviality has stretched. Though, as it has always been, it is ‘Secrets’ that unite all in total euphoric abandon. Voices crack, arms are held aloft, and smiles grow to massive proportions. As they plot their next move and figure out who and what they want to be in 2026 and beyond, it’s occasions like this that allow Champs to be safe in the knowledge that they will have plenty of friends along for the ride, no matter what. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️ @JackMRog

Good Charlotte, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: A lot has changed in alternative music over the last three decades, but some things will always remain. One of them is Good Charlotte, bringing the house down. Knowing that they have been the soundtrack to the childhoods and now the adulthoods of several different generations, the Maddens & Co know it is their responsibility to bring out as much euphoric glee in as many people as possible tonight. And they do so in abundance, because this is hit after hit after hit, with all eras covered in spectacular detail. From the rallying calls and punky romance of ‘The Young and the Hopeless’ hidden gems ‘Hold On’ and ‘Riot Girl’ to the slick playfulness of ‘I Just Wanna Live’ and exuberant energy of ‘Little Things’, there is something for every sort of Good Charlotte fan, and the band are relishing in the chance to deal out so many surprises. Matched with a stage show that boggles the mind as much as it scorches the eyebrows, and it is a display fitting of their calibre, influence and, still as vast as when they started, ambition. Joel and Benji are clearly in a wistful mood, too, taking stock of what it means to be still able to be so far from home but know that they in the company of family after all these years, and by the time the rambunctious double-header of ‘Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous’ and ‘The Anthem’ sends this field into utter pandemonium, they can barely hold back their delight. As complete a headline performance as you’re ever going to see, and a further cementing of just how important they continue to be in so many lives, long may Good Charlotte continue recapturing that feeling of what it means to belong. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️ @JackMRog

Dashboard Confessional, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: To see Chris Carrabba still so enamoured and genuinely engrossed in the music he plays, and the people he plays it for, after all these years is just so lovely. With a catalogue of songs that have soundtracked as many heart flutters as heartbreaks, everyone in attendance at this beautiful performance has a different relationship with Dashboard, and seeing them all play out in unison is quite a sight. The sing-alongs that accompany a crushing ‘The Best Deceptions’ and romantically bold ‘Stolen’ are gorgeously impassioned, whilst the intricacies of ‘Saints and Sailors’ are still as brisk and boundless some 25 years on from when it was released. And with every heart-on-sleeve expression, Chris opens up that little bit more, the smile on his face that bit wider and the bark in his voice that bit louder. All building to a sensationally moving crescendo of ‘Hands Down’, it’s a firm reminder that letting loose and screaming along to the songs that move you really is good for the soul. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️@jackmrog

Having a lovely time at Slam Dunk today? Go and grab your special festival edition of Rock Sound, featuring new interviews with Good Charlotte, Sublime and Knocked Loose, from the info points around the arena!

Static Dress, Slam Dunk Festival 2026 LIVE REVIEW: There are moments in life where things just line up perfectly. In terms of where Static Dress are right now, playing a festival that they grew up attending, just days out from releasing a new album, is pretty special, to say the least. Though what is really the cherry on top is just how feverishly they are taking such an opportunity. Their jagged take on timeless post-hardcore feels sharper than ever in these scorching conditions, with the freshly unveiled ‘Nostalgia Kills’ and slick ‘safeword’ getting those in attendance kicking up a real fuss on the ground. And Olli Appleyard has developed into a formidable frontman, flipping between deep-set appreciation and powerful gutturals like it’s second nature. Throw in a gorgeously emotional run-through of the 2026’s best ballad ‘...Hospice’, and it all equates to a band functioning at the very height of their powers. A crushing and cathartic display that clearly means the whole world to the boys, at a pivotal moment in their journey. The sort of experience this festival is built for. 📷 @CorinneDinDin ✏️ @JackMRog

Slam Dunk Festival 2026. We're right back at it again. 📷 Corinne Cumming

Waterparks' new album ‘JINX’ (Nightclub variant) available with an exclusive art card, hand-signed by Awsten, Geoff and Otto. Limited to just 300 copies. You can get yours, plus the band’s latest cover edition of Rock Sound at shop.rocksound.tv/collections/mu…

Olivia Rodrigo has given us another taste of her upcoming album ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love’, and this one is a melancholic pop-rock cut overflowing with anguish rocksound.tv/news/olivia-ro…

Sleeping With Sirens have given us another taste of their latest album ‘An Ending In Itself’, and it’s a deliciously heavy one rocksound.tv/news/sleeping-…

ERRA & Currents have announced that their co-headline tour will be coming to the UK and Europe for a run of shows rocksound.tv/news/erra-curr…