The Five Best New U.K. Emo Bands Since 2010, by Telling Secrets

Here are the five best new U.K. emo bands since 2010, chosen by Telling Secrets’ Vik Kovacs.

The band, spearheaded by the visionary Kovacs, just released their debut album and are set to shake up the scene with a myriad of eclectic styles converging, united by a balanced and slick production thanks to some esteemed collaborators.

The next generation of emo has arrived and is bringing something fresh and exciting to the scene. With Telling Secrets as one of the newest entrants, we tabbed Kovacs to tell us more about the vibrant up-and-coming U.K. emo scene.

What You Need to Know About Telling Secrets

From: London/Los Angeles

New/First Album: Telling Secrets I (2024)

What you can expect from Telling Secrets’ debut album is a creative blend of modern rock with soaring, powerful hooks, synth-textured atmospherics, pounding guitar rhythms, sing/scream dynamics and touches of beat-based music.

“I think Telling Secrets I is unique in that I had a hand in every single step of production from the writing, to the final product; both with visuals and audio, which is very rare. I like to understand each part of the process so that I can speak the language of different artists more easily,” Kovacs says of the debut LP.

“I’ve collaborated with a lot of incredible people in the making of this record and I think it’s a true representation of my style at this moment,” he adds. “I breathe and bleed rock, in all its shades, and I hope that’s apparent when you hear the songs.”

Among those collaborative partners are Matt McAndrew (Rain City Drive), Elliot Polokoff (Cemetery Sun) and Rachel Blum (Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B), all on the production and engineering side.

Get a taste of Telling Secrets I and watch the music video for “Case Closed” below before seeing the best new emo bands the U.K. has to offer.

Telling Secrets, “Case Closed” Music Video

Caskets

I came across these guys in 2020 while studying law.

Glass Heart is an amazing album and has a healthy mix of modern rock/metalcore with some emo influenced lyrics.  It turns out I played the same gig in Manchester with their drummer back in the day when we were both in different bands.

North Atlas

We played a show with these guys in their U.K. tour and the best way I can describe them is a much more intense Biffy Clyro vibe with some Nine Inch Nails mixed in there.

They’re cool guys with a great live show with theatrics. Hopefully we can share the stage again soon!

READ MORE: The 10 Greatest Guitar Gods of Emo

Trash Boat

I found this band when I used to intern for Hopeless Records. Before I left they let me take some souvenirs from the merch room and I picked Don’t You Feel Amazing? on vinyl and I’m glad I did.

Killer riffs, amazing vocals and my favorite song off the album is definitely “Vertigo”.

TheCityIsOurs

I think they bring the modern punch and crispness of rock in their productions without it sounding like it came out of a laptop. They sound natural, but huge and a good example is “In The Dark”. The vocal hooks and screams are also such a great combination, the musicianship of the band is fantastic, I like it a lot.

Aside from the fact that the music slaps, I actually went to school with their vocalist, Oli. I used to be so jealous of his Les Paul and it was definitely one of the things that influenced me to try to get one and pursue music. Thanks Oli!

Hot Milk

Whenever I’ve produced other artists, they always seem to use Hot Milk as a reference! I think they are definitely modernizing emo music as it was known in the early days.

I really like “Breathing Underwater.” It has a key change in it which I think is rare these days, especially in alternative music. They are also from Manchester, which is where I started writing my songs, so that’s cool.

Follow Telling Secrets on Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.