In the decade-plus since they formed in the fiercely working class town of Bridgend, South Wales, Those Damn Crows have gone from wide-eyed hopefuls playing to 20 people at the Camden Barfly to the leading lights of their generation, a genuine modern rock powerhouse spearheading the scene’s current resurgence, notching up a Top 3 album with 2023’s Inhale/Exhale and sharing massive stages with everyone from Queens Of The Stone Age and ZZ Top to the Alice Cooper/Johnny Depp supergroup The Hollywood Vampires and German punk superstars Böhse Onkelz. “Every album, I say, ‘This one is going to be really heavy,’” says Shane with a laugh. “But it never really works out like that, because if you go into something with a pre-conceived idea of what you want, you will fail every single time. You have to let the music choose, that’s how I see it.” Even by their standards, God Shaped Hole – recorded with longtime producer Dan Weller – covers a lot of musical bases while still retaining Those Damn Crows’ unique identity. Anthemic opening track “Dancing With The Enemy” and the electrifying “Let‘s Go Psycho!” (released as a single before their triumphant main stage performance at 2024’s Download Festival) are guaranteed crowd-starters, while the supremely melodic “Dreaming” would sound perfect spilling from an open-top convertible as it powers down the Pacific Coast Highway and the pummelling “Spit And Choke” crackles with punky energy. Elsewhere, “Fake” possesses an unexpected yet muscular waltz-like groove as it turns an eye on those who use social media to sell a distorted perception of their own lives, “No Surrender” is as defiant as its title suggests, “Glass Heart” is gleaming pop rock gem, and the soaring “The Night Train” possesses a beautifully restrained, folky edge. “I almost feel like this is an album of singles,” describes Shane. “It’s like a playlist, it shows off the range of music we love more than any album we’ve done. There’s so many different flavours, but it’s all still recognisable as us.” Pre-order God Shaped Hole here. | 
