Album Reviews

It was back at the tail end of 2012 that I was introduced to “a whole lot of rock and roll mixed with dirty riffs and skanky licks” when I reviewed Mammoth Mammoth’s previous album… and I enjoyed it a lot. Fast forward a little over two years, and it’s …

The Jury And The Saints from Auckland, New Zealand (NZ) who describe themselves as ‘Monster Rock from Aoteoroa‘ (which is the Maori name for NZ) released their self-titled second album via SPV on 2nd March 2015. Formed by Jesse and Rowan as a two piece in 2009 they toured hard but …

Reach are a new band on my radar, I hadn’t heard anything about them up until this debut album dropped in my inbox. Reach are Reach are Alex Waghorn (vocals), Ludvig Turner (Guitar), David Jones (Bass) and Marcus Johansson (Drums). You may already know Marcus and Ludvig from Adrenaline Rush. …

It is hard to believe that it is 33 years since I heard the news of Randy Rhoads’ death in a tragic plane crash on Friday, March 19th 1982 on Tommy Vance’s Friday Rock Show on B.B.C Radio 1. I never got to see him play as even though I …

It’s been four years since Imaginaerum gave the world the most bonkers record of 2011 and now Finnish giants Nightwish have gone all Darwin on us. Taking inspiration from the naturalist’s seminal work ‘On the Origin of Species’, Endless Forms Most Beautiful is the band’s eighth studio effort, based around the ‘very loose’ concept …

I am waiting for confirmation from the bands PR that this record will be a world record holder after it finally gets released. Why, how? Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, the prog psychedelic outfit which sprouted the first shoots of YES, has applied for a Guinness World Record for the longest period …

First who are they? Right the lads hail from Corby and have been together since 2008 and this new release has been produced by the legend that is Mr Chris (Dark Lord) Tsangrides. Black Acid Souls are: Flakey – Vocals, Chubbs – Guitar, Gruff – Bass, Hoff – Drums, Zed …

Formed in Whitby in 2003 and now based in Leeds utoXator release their second E.P. ‘Songs From The City …Tales of Our Sea‘ via Rock Paper Scissors records on 21st March 2015 with an official launch party at The Key Club, Leeds in association with Slam Dunk that day (details …

Serpentine seemed to be on the verge of something big just a few short years ago when this young British quintet burst onto the AOR scene like a breath of fresh air. Two well received albums and subsequent live work with the likes of FM, Crash Diet and Ten saw …

Even though this new Blues Pills album has roughly the same play list as the studio version, this time we get to hear the group at their best playing live and adding just a few extra twists to some of their already well known and established tracks. If you’ve heard …

Nightwish are set to release their eighth studio album, “Endless forms most beautiful” on 30th March in the UK (three days earlier in Europe).  As the first album since Floor Jansen replaced Anette Olzon on vocals there has been a huge amount of speculation about the album.  I was lucky …

The most striking thing about this band is the fact they are not American. Formed in Sweden in 2007 the band have taken aspects of all the different scenes within the USA from the 80s, mashed them together to come up with a fun and vicious record. Throughout this album …

This is a timely release as it is made up of 2 previously released EP’s that were available only to fan club members and from the band’s official website which sold out fast . The 11 tracks here are compiled from ‘The Wild Cat Sessions’ from 2010 and ‘The Spellbound …

Formed in Sweden back in 2004 and to date released one full length album back in 2007 and now this EP. There is not an awful lot of information of what they have done in the interim. This EP contains five tracks which kicks in with the high energy “Forever …

“The Antifreeze has risen!” Now this is simply hilarious. I think I just found the perfect soundtrack for a horror movie, based on evil household appliances. The band, called Killer Refrigerator was found in 2013 and are fresh and new unlike the horror genre. Maybe they are more like a …

Irish Metal 2 The Masses semi-finalists Megacone have released their debut EP, titled Fondle Fantasy. Like many bands who play instrumental music, particularly fusion, Megacone enjoys putting forth plenty to listen to. There’s a lot to ingest and process here: a lot of time swings, a lot of tempo changes, …

The world of rock and metal from Japan is one that, by and large, has passed the majority of us by until very recently. With the rise to prominence of Crossfaith, Dir en Grey and Sabbat and the quite extraordinary explosion of Babymetal, the genre developed in the Orient is …

For some inane and unknown reason, this third album from Melbourne’s White Widdow initially fell under this reviewer’s radar – which is something which almost became a crying shame as it is a hugely powerful slice of melodic rock. Very much rooted in the classic Eighties roots of the genre, …

Formed in 1989 with the moniker of Abdominal Bleeding and stuck in the death metal genre,influenced by Cannibal Corpse,Morbid Angel and Pestilence,they changed their name to ‘Mangled’,a couple of demos and 3 full length albums followed before they disbanded in 2006, but thanks to Dutch label Victory Records and guitarist …

It’s only around 18 months since The Crunch released their debut album, but they’re already gearing up to release their second album in April.  Ahead of the release of the album they’ve released the first single from the album – Neon Madonna. In case you missed hearing about The Crunch …