Gurriers

The fire keeps burning in the streets of Dublin: the Irish capital continues to prove itself an inexhaustible musical laboratory, capable of putting the "Emerald Isle" back at the centre of musical discourse. The rise of bands like Fontaines D.C. and Murder Capital has kept the hype around the city high, and plenty of young acts have fallen in line to follow their example. If we had to bet on one name for the future of the new Irish post-punk in 2026, we'd put our money without hesitation on the uncontainable electricity of Gurriers. To be won over by their approach, you need only listen to the opening track of the band's first recorded album, Come And See: the track is called "Nausea" and it's Fontaines D.C. through and through. A song that dwells on the socio-economic situation of their country: plenty of young Irish people with few real opportunities spend their time drinking with friends at the pub, hoping they won't eventually have to go looking for their fortune elsewhere.

"It's a problem that they all have", singer Dan Hoff keeps shouting throughout the song. Alongside him are Emmet White on bass (later replaced by Charlie McCarthy), Pierce Callaghan on drums, and Ben O'Neill and Mark MacCormack on guitars. The five of them, lit up by the songs on Dogrel, start rehearsing together at the dawn of 2020, just moments before the pandemic forces them all indoors. Confined by lockdown to working behind closed doors in the rehearsal room, even before they can play live, Gurriers take the opportunity to sharpen their sound — aggressive and tight, fuelled by the long months of Covid frustration. The band's name comes from Dublin slang, "Gurrier", which in Italian translates roughly as "difficult kid": an unruly type who doesn't like following the rules, a street kid, a little hoodlum, someone not to be trusted.

By choosing this name, the quintet immediately declares its intentions: to give voice to the frustrations, raw energy and contradictions of Irish urban youth, in a city squeezed between rampant gentrification and a deep social and housing crisis. An evident unease expressed through rough, direct songs that can encompass both the rave-punk instincts of "Des Goblin" and the post-hardcore edges forcefully laid out in "No More Photos", both the iconoclastic fury of "Approachable" and the shoegaze framework that characterises the title track. All of this is contained within Come And See, the debut album released in September 2024, a series of raw snapshots capturing frontal attacks and nihilistic reflections alike.

Meanwhile, Gurriers earn a reputation as a must-see live band, thanks to shows brimming with energy that push the Irish outfit up the bills of major European music festivals. During the tour in support of Come And See, they start padding out the setlist with a handful of unreleased songs, which make it immediately clear that the band is no flash in the pan, but already has plenty of new arrows in its quiver. Those unreleased tracks will turn into singles doled out sparingly throughout 2026, eventually landing on the band's second album, Nobody's Coming To Save You, in September 2026.

Nobody's Coming To Save You opens with the sumptuous title track, also chosen as the lead single, about as close to early Fontaines D.C. as one could expect — a proximity that doesn't necessarily mean imitation, but rather reveals the result of similar backgrounds, roots and listening habits, reflected in each band's songwriting. "Nobody's Coming To Save You" is a great track, perhaps the best on the record, followed by nine more songs through which Gurriers aim to consolidate their standing while also charting new stylistic paths: on one hand a form of furious dance-punk redolent of Yard Act ("Party Lines"), on the other a certain closeness to Britpop in the Verve/Ashcroft vein ("Pins"), a few further echoes of their older siblings Fontaines D.C. ("Nothing Happens Twice"), and constant injections of powerful, jittery electricity ("Shades", "Today Is Not Enough" and, even more so, the devastating "Waiting For Fisher", which comes close to spilling over into hardcore territory), all steered with a firm hand thanks to the production work of Mark Bowen (Idles guitarist) and Loren Humphrey (previously at the controls with Geese).

Where Come And See made its mark through an explosion of generational rage and post-punk urgency, Nobody's Coming To Save You represents its natural evolution: darker, bleaker and more self-aware. Singer Dan Hoff's vocal delivery grows even more dramatic, moving between scornful declamation and visceral screams of pure frustration at a world now adrift. And no one is coming to save us, as the title eloquently states. Anxiety, precariousness, isolation, collective apathy, social collapse, political cynicism, emotional paralysis: themes immersed in a sound often wrapped in industrial-noise spirals that also look to the Model/Actriz experience ("Drones"). The final stretch of the record brings the two most enveloping tracks, ready to ripple through the second half. These are the power ballads "I Wish I Was" and "Crybaby", which hint at intriguing potential scenarios for the future. Placed here, as a provisional epilogue, they form the best possible bridge toward a tomorrow still entirely to be deciphered. Given that many have long been declaring the end of this rich post-post-punk era, the Gurriers of the 2030s could be among the first to reserve whatever currently unpredictable developments lie ahead. Ready to be found in pole position, determined to keep the evergreen flag of Irish rock flying high.