Cardiff’s masters of bold riffs HIMALAYAS upscale their tried-and-tested stadium-rock on rampant second album.
Anyone can write a catchy hook. But few can channel the power of The Riff into something that feels genuinely fresh and urgent in 2025. In the case of Cardiff quartet HIMALAYAS, the latter has become their bread and butter – propelled onward by their massive breakout single Thank God I’m Not You, which currently sits pretty at 51 million Spotify streams.
“My bugbear with rock at the minute is that sometimes people shy away from being bold,” frontman Joe Williams recently told K!. True to his word, HIMALAYAS have always put their money where their mouth is, leaning into the glorious, bombastic stadium-rock that defined the likes of Foo Fighters (who are fans of HIMALAYAS) and Muse.
On their second album BAD STAR, it’s more of the same foundations that HIMALAYAS have built themselves on, only this time, with an added layer of dynamism. Take opener Beneath The Barrel, where the tension hangs for an eternity – almost destined to never break – before a delightfully gritty riff blows your headphones into oblivion. Or, on the flip side, Hung Up – an unstoppable, breathless tour-de-force in controlled aggression, complete with its snare drum suckerpunch.
Afterlife balances brooding swagger with the band’s best chorus to date, while closer A Brand New God lives up to the aura of its title, playing snakes and ladders with its pummelling outro riff, albeit perhaps too closely to Royal Blood’s Out Of The Black.
Lyrically, the album deliberately leans into hazy, precarious messaging – resemblant of the world HIMALAYAS find themselves in – with What If…? posing open-ended question after question. HIMALAYAS aren’t necessarily here to provide the answers, but merely to create a mechanism for people to let off steam and find comfort in their own uncertainties.
BAD STAR might not be an album that changes the world, but it’s not for the want of trying. It’s hard to think of other young British rock acts who have persevered with this style so relentlessly; HIMALAYAS are determined to make this work. Naturally, with their horsepower and work ethic, new territory continues to be unravelled – slowly, but surely. The climb continues…
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Foo Fighters, The Warning, The Amazons
BAD STAR is released on April 25 via Nettwerk. HIMALAYAS tour the UK from May 28.
