Under The Changed Sun: The Rise of Covent

Leeds-based rock band Covent have spent the last decade gigging to a cult of word-of-mouth followers, but their debut album Under The Changed Sun has enshrined these years of live music into ten refined tracks. At thirty minutes long, these tracks accumulate to roughly the length of a car ride, and provide all the window-gazing atmosphere you’d yearn for in an album.

Covent Under The Changed Sun Cover Art © Press

While the natural-born crowd pleaser "Permanent Decay” is a textured patchwork of harsh guitars and hardened vocals (nostalgically encapsulating the kind of slurry romantic grunge that belongs in an early 2000s Evan Peters film), the opening track “Safe” has a tempered softness to it.

From the lightly strummed guitar intro to the euphoric vocals scattered between verses, "Safe" intimately eases us into this sustained climax of an album. The band’s vocalist and guitarist David Lees describes the track as:

"an olive branch, or a loving hand held out, trying to get you to open up and share your feelings, with the promise that you’ll get clarity and understanding in return."

Watch Covent's official music video of Safe

As a whole, Under The Changed Sun plays like a self-contained story. Each track is very much in conversation with each other – we are being musically and conceptually journeyed from “Submerge” to “Lay Low”, going “Under The Surface” to bursting “Out of The Blue”. Lees says “I’ve always been a massive lover of records, especially ones that flow from track to track and don’t let you sit still”. Unlike the band’s previous work, these tracks are not an anthology but a coherent collection, showing Covent’s natural transition into the recording industry.

In this vein, the album rightfully ends with “Peace” – though this track is anything but peaceful. Arguably the most alive song of the ten, Covent resist a winding down melody and instead present us with this raging bonfire of a track, where we’re thrown into the chorus head first with catapulting energy.

Watch Covent's official music video of Peace

Covent have branched out into the polished-up world of recorded music, and refreshingly, the album is atmosphere in itself – even without the bright lights and blurry stages the band are so accustomed to. The band are now quite literally standing Under The Changed Sun, with a radiant catalogue of new work to share with their fans

More articles on Covent.

Frequently Asked Questions About Covent

Who are the members of the band Covent?

Covent is a three-piece alternative rock band based in Leeds, UK. The band consists of David Lees (Vocals & Guitar), Oliver Hunt (Drums), and Liam Sherwood (Bass).

What genre of music is Covent?

Covent blends the heavy, fuzzed-out guitars of alternative rock with ethereal shoegaze textures and 2000s emo. Their sound is often referred to in the underground scene as 'soft grunge' or 'grungegaze', balancing aggressive noise with intimate, melodic vocals.

What bands do Covent sound like?

If you are a fan of modern grunge and heavy shoegaze, Covent is highly recommended. Their sound draws heavy influence from bands like Superheaven, Title Fight, Citizen, Basement, and Teenage Wrist.

When was Covent's album 'Under The Changed Sun' released?

Covent's 10-track debut album, 'Under The Changed Sun', was released on Friday, July 17, 2026. The record was recorded over three years, produced by Bob Cooper across The Chairworks and his Leeds studio, and mastered by Grant Berry of Fader Mastering.

Charlie Jolley
Contributor, BritRock Heaven