My Top Five Albums: S U R V I V A L I S T
- Flex Admin
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
With ‘A Place For Those Who Suffer, Alone’, Survivalist sharpen their identity into something both crushing and controlled
The Belfast four-piece have spent the last few years refining what they call Groovecore—a balance of groove-led heaviness, melodic tension, and breakdowns that land with intent rather than excess. This new record feels deliberate at every turn, pairing emotional weight with disciplined songwriting and a sense of restraint that makes its heavier moments hit harder.
Building on the momentum of their debut ‘VII’ and a relentless run of live shows alongside bands like Thy Art Is Murder, Polaris, and Chelsea Grin, Survivalist sound fully settled into their own space. Tracks across the album explore isolation, control, and internal pressure, while the title track stands as a stark centrepiece—dense, confrontational, and unflinching. It’s a release that doesn’t chase trends or easy catharsis, instead rewarding repeated listens and cementing Survivalist as one of the most compelling heavy bands emerging from Ireland right now.
With ‘A Place For Those Who Suffer, Alone’ drawing on years of influence and lived experience, we asked Survivalist to take a step back and highlight their top albums that helped shape their sound and mindset.
Gav: Taking the logical route as I only get to pick one album. I want something with variety, it is the spice of life after all. As much as having Jamie Jasta shout angry inspirational messages at me for however long the unspecified amount of time we’re on this island is, I’ll need versatility or I’ll be painting coconuts and chatting with em. I’m gonna choose something more recent because new music is good shit and we’ve all heard the Black Album 6000 times. So Gideon – More power, More Pain. Big Melodies, lots of aggression, some cool samples and ambience. 10/10 album for me.
Nick: I would have to go with Waking The Fallen by Avenged Sevenfold. It’s the band that started my spiral into all things metal and is such a classic to me in terms of song writing structure, melodies and riffs. It’s not something I would listen to if it came out now as we developed the ability to sing through our mouth instead of our nasal passage but this album will always have a special place in my heart.
Rhys: As difficult a decision as that would be, I think the one album I would bring is Megadeth’s Rust in peace. Every single track is 10/10 and it still enters my Spotify quite frequently.
Lee: D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo’ album – lots of smooth grooves with great harmonies in the vocals and instrumentals. The interplay between all the featured musicians on it (Questlove, Chris Dave, Pino Palladino, Charlie Hunter to name a few) is plenty to keep me sane for a long time.
Joint: Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill. This album is favourite amongst the band and was pretty much all of our first introduction to extreme music. We had all listened to metal before this album dropped but this elevated the chaos, the anger and pushed boundaries we hadn't seen crossed yet. This is the true definition of genre defining record for us.
