Following the critical acclaim of his 2024 debut album White Knuckle Ride, London-based alternative artist AKA Shades returns with ‘Incubus’, a visceral, uncompromising statement that signals the beginning of a new era.
Running just shy of three minutes, ‘Incubus’ grows from its grunge flavoured verse through alt-metal flavoured rap and melodic flourishes. A collision of crushing guitar lines, explosive vocal interplay and the kind of towering hooks built for festival crowds, the track captures the raw energy and production style of the likes of Linkin Park whilst carrying a more gritty, murky undercurrent.
Drawing inspiration from the cultural collision of late-’90s and early-2000s alternative music, and particularly the infamous spectacle and fallout of Woodstock ’99, ‘Incubus’ explores the uneasy space between nostalgia, frustration and disillusionment.
“I’d been going back and listening to a lot of alternative music from the late ’90s and early 2000s. I’ve always been completely fascinated with Woodstock ’99, the music, the style, the energy of it all. I was always stuck somewhere between admiration and horror as I watched it all unravel into a riot. That tension became the heart of this song. It started as an outlet for disillusionment, and that disillusionment quickly boiled into outrage as I wrote, you can literally hear it in the way that the track builds. I was disgusted by so much of what I was seeing globally: human rights abuses, abuse of power, the rise of fascism, and realising just how much mainstream media manipulates and perpetuates it all. ‘Incubus’ is both a cry for help and a call to action.”
Unfiltered, politically charged and unwilling to shy away from difficult conversations, AKA Shades is carving out a unique place within the alternative and nu-metal landscape. As a queer artist operating in a space historically associated with rigid ideas of masculinity, AKA Shades is not only challenging the boundaries of the genre, he is actively reshaping them.
Having built his reputation through London’s live scene, AKA Shades has grown his audience the old-fashioned way: through relentless performances, fearless songwriting and a refusal to compromise. With ‘Incubus’, he delivers a track that feels both rooted in the rebellious spirit of alternative music’s past and completely relevant to the world it exists in today.
Listen below:
