British alternative rock four-piece unpeople have released their debut album we are unpeople via SharpTone Records, bringing together towering riffs, huge choruses and a refusal to play by genre rules.
Made up of Jake Crawford, Luke Caley, Em Lodge and Richard Rayner, unpeople occupy the increasingly crowded space between alternative rock and metal, but they’re not interested in choosing sides. There’s a bit of Reuben in the guitar work, a nod to the unpredictability of System of a Down and enough melody to pull in listeners who wouldn’t normally venture anywhere near a metal festival.
The album arrives after a string of singles, including blueprints, friends, clouds, the garden and waste, with four-part vocal harmonies and sharp shifts between melody and heaviness running throughout. A new fan-made lyric video for haunted accompanies the release.
It’s been a busy year for the band. They’ve opened for Metallica in Vienna, appeared alongside Smashing Pumpkins and Coheed and Cambria, and drawn sizeable crowds at 2000trees. They’ve also managed the unusual trick of fitting comfortably onto bills as different as Bloodstock and Kendal Calling, without watering down their sound for either audience.
The British music press has been paying attention too, with cover features in Kerrang! and Rock Sound, alongside support from BBC Radio 1 and Rolling Stone UK. The attention reflects a band whose reputation is growing well beyond the festival circuit.
Currently touring with Don Broco, unpeople will join Royal Blood for UK dates in November before launching their biggest headline tour yet in January 2027. Several dates have already sold out, with the run wrapping up at London’s Electric Ballroom on 28 January.
With we are unpeople now out in the world, the band have a debut record to back up their growing live reputation. The next test is whether they can turn that momentum into something lasting.
