Scene Queen - METALICIOUS EP
Scene Queen has never been particularly interested in behaving herself. Since emerging as one of the most colourful and confrontational voices in the modern emo and heavy-music scene, Hannah Collins has built her Scene Queen identity around smashing together things that supposedly shouldn't belong together: bubblegum pop and breakdowns, Y2K fashion and metal, comedy and trauma, femininity and outright rage. On her new EP, METALICIOUS, which is set to be released on September 11, 2026, via Hopeless Records, she takes that formula and turns every dial until the result is gloriously, unapologetically excessive.
Described by Scene Queen herself as “chaotic recession pop, Y2K-coded, metal madness,” METALICIOUS feels like a deliberate return to the reckless creative spirit of her Bimbocore era, only with considerably more firepower. The pop hooks remain catchy and irreverent, but the heavy moments have been pushed into genuinely punishing territory. Low screams, deathcore influences and crushing guest appearances give the EP considerably more bite than its candy-coated aesthetic might initially suggest.
The contrast is precisely where METALICIOUS thrives, however. Opening with the track “Pink Flip Phone,” Scene Queen immediately establishes the EP's nostalgic, hyperactive personality. The Y2K imagery isn't merely window dressing; it becomes part of the project's sonic language, recalling a period when pop culture could be simultaneously tacky, glamorous, ridiculous, and completely sincere. Scene Queen takes that sensibility and drags it through a mosh pit.
“Manicure” is perhaps the clearest statement of intent. Inspired by The Chicks' “Goodbye Earl,” the song transforms the revenge-story premise into Scene Queen's particular brand of metal mayhem. Its humour remains intact, but the music makes the anger considerably more pronounced. The heavier sections feel deliberately jarring, turning the track from a playful pop-metal number into something much more ferocious.
And that's the evolution at the heart of METALICIOUS. Scene Queen isn't abandoning the humour, personality, or the pop instincts that made the Bimbocore EPs and Hot Singles in Your Area such a distinctive concept. She's asking what those songs might sound like with everything she's learned since. The answer is heavier, nastier and more confident.
“Shopaholic” keeps the EP's glossy, larger-than-life personality moving behind some of the album's heavier textures, while the middle of the album rings in with “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” featuring TX2, adding another layer to the project's chaotic energy. The collaborations never feel like attempts to disguise Scene Queen's identity; instead, they reinforce the sense that METALICIOUS is designed as a playground where different corners of alternative music can collide.
“Tracksuit” might be the EP's most ridiculous—and therefore most quintessentially Scene Queen—moment. Combining Y2K fashion with a murder narrative, the song follows its premise with the kind of gleefully unhinged logic that has become central to Collins' songwriting. Beneath the jokes is an unmistakable message: betrayal has consequences, particularly when you're dealing with someone whose entire aesthetic suggests she might actually follow through on her threats.
Then comes “T!ts Out At Brunch,” a title that tells you almost everything you need to know about the EP's sense of humour. It's another example of Scene Queen's ability to turn exaggerated femininity into something empowering rather than restrictive. She isn't asking permission to participate in the heavy-music world; she's kicking down the door in platform boots and demanding everyone make room.
The title track, “METALICIOUS,” featuring Left To Suffer, delivers the EP's heaviest statement, which also closes out the EP. Scene Queen describes it as a Tumblr indie-sleaze club song written “in metal font,” and that description perfectly captures its appeal. The song imagines a girls' night at a metal show where drinks are flowing, purses are being weaponized in the pit, and the distinction between nightclub chaos and mosh-pit violence completely disappears.
Additionally, the Left To Suffer collaboration also gives the track an appropriately devastating weight. This is where Scene Queen's promise that the heavy sections would be heavier than ever really pays off. The juxtaposition between the deliberately playful concept and the sheer aggression of the instrumentation makes “METALICIOUS” feel like the EP's thesis statement: metal doesn't have to look or sound the way the gatekeepers insist it should. That rejection of genre purity has always been central to Scene Queen's appeal. METALICIOUS simply makes the argument louder.
What makes the EP particularly effective is that the absurdity never completely conceals the emotional core underneath it. Scene Queen openly acknowledges that there is some “trauma dumping” here, and that vulnerability gives the project's humour more substance. The pink aesthetic, outrageous titles, and intentionally over-the-top scenarios aren't an escape from difficult subjects so much as a way of confronting them without surrendering control of the narrative. There is catharsis underneath the chaos.
More importantly, METALICIOUS understands that fun can be a legitimate form of rebellion. Scene Queen's music has always challenged the notion that heavy music needs to be grim, masculine, or aesthetically predictable to be taken seriously. Here, she takes everything traditionally dismissed as frivolous—pink clothes, manicures, shopping, Y2K nostalgia, girl nights—and puts it directly in front of the breakdown. The result is an EP that sounds exactly like its creator: loud, funny, confrontational, colourful, and completely unwilling to apologize.
METALICIOUS isn't trying to convince metal purists that Scene Queen belongs in their world. It doesn't need to. Instead, it builds its own world—one where pop hooks can coexist with deathcore brutality, where trauma can become catharsis, where femininity can be weaponized and where a pink flip phone can be just as important as a crushing breakdown.
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