We’ve already ranted and raved about how much we like In Humor And Sadness, the debut album from Josh Scogin’s new band ’68. As frontman of his former outfit, The Chariot, Scogin had a reputation of being a firebrand frontman, turning gigs into furious maelstroms of flying bodies – can he transform that energy to better suit the less frantic sounds of ’68 though? We sent Hugh Platt down to investigate.

Six things we learned watching ’68 in London…

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It used to be that Reading & Leeds marked the end of the festival calendar. If you still believe that, then you’re living in the past, granddad. There are a whole load of tasty little outdoor festivals that the UK has to offer in the wake of the bloated August Bank Holiday Weekend has to offer – this week we’re turning our attention to the post-rock stylings of Bristol’s ArcTanGent.

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There are over 200 artists performing at Reading Festival. Assuming you’re not one of those pricks that goes to a festival just to see the headliners, that’s a hell of a lot of bands you don’t (yet) give a shit about to trawl through in the hope of finding your new love. Plus, you’ve got a job, pubs exist and you don’t even have a tent yet, so time is in short supply. That’s why we exist. We’re here to make sure that you don’t settle on wandering around in a field, blindly hoping to stumble upon greatness but settling on Deaf Havana or, even worse… Mallory Knox. Here are our top tips. Some are new bands and others are just great. Also, there are 12.

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Bloody hell, there’s an awful lot of nonsense on the Reading and Leeds 2014 festival line-up, isn’t there? I mean, we know this isn’t a bona fide heavy music festival like Download and Sonisphere, but sweet flippin’ Jesus is there some pony stinking up the bill this year. That’s because it’s enormous – literally 100s of bands – but, as such, there are also a whole load of bloody excellent bands and this week’s Sunday Spotify Slaylist cuts through all that and brings you the very best of the heavy stuff that you can find if you sniff around the schedule a little bit.

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You know the drill by now. This is the Thrash Hits Festival Splash Page and this is where you’ll find some of the most comprehensive coverage of Download Festival 2014 that you don’t have to pay for. It’s here!

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JFC, @BABY_GODZILLA Just raised the fucking bar at #dl2014 THERMONUCLEAR

— Thrash Hits (@ThrashHits) June 13, 2014

How’s that for a review?

Click here to see the rest of our Download Festival 2014 coverage.

In one week’s time from when we write this, we will be at Download Festival 2014. For three whole days, we will join approximately 100,000 other rock fans to help turn Donington Park into the biggest weekend in the UK rock calendar. Last week our Slaylist tackled the big names on the bill, so this week we’re scaling it back a bit to take on the new guys, the weirdos, and the bands you just haven’t heard of.

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Sometimes, things go wrong. Things went wrong when we sent our man in Liverpool, Matt Thomas, along to photograph the Limp Bizkit-headlined Kerrang! Tour 2014. Some wires got crossed somewhere, and whole everyone else in Liverpool with a camera was allowed into the photopit to snap Fred Durst and co., we were barred and only allowed to snap the support acts – Crossfaith, Nekrogoblikon and Baby Godzilla.

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Part and parcel of being opinionated music lovers is that we go and experience lots of music in its natural habitat – on a stage – and then we decide how good it was. Some spectacles are so powerful that they evoke emotions strong enough to form memories through the drunkenness. It’s a rarity but that’s why some here have to name several before deciding upon their Favourite Gig of 2013. There is zero reason for you to be reading this but if you’ve read this far, you’ll get at least halfway down before clicking the cross.

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For this week’s Cloudcast, our deputy editor Hugh is going it alone – we’ve got a cut from In Solitude (our pick for If You Buy One Thing This Week), as well as tracks by Soulfly, More Than Conquerors, Baby Godzilla, Conan, and Wet Nuns. Oh, and a track by a little-known Watford punk band called Shockmaster. Apparently, they are so very proud of all their boys.

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