Album Reviews

In the mid-1970s when I was a spotty teenager, there was no internet to find out new rock/metal bands so you had to rely on your local record store, The Friday Rock Show on Radio 1 or music magazines. My bible was Sounds that went on to turn into Kerrang. …

Let’s get one thing straight here, Exodus are my favourite thrash metal band EVER and as long as they keep on blasting out on albums like their latest release Persona Non Grata, then they always will be. My lifelong appreciation of their music started with their debut Bonded By Blood …

Is there such a thing as the perfect album? If there isn’t then Black Coast are having a good crack at it as the Stoke based bare knuckle brawlers stoke up the fires of hell with these twelve neck twisting songs on their latest album Outworld, out on November19th . …

South Wales based trio The Autumn Killers have really hit their stride in 2021, point proven by their recently released studio album Darkside via Skyfire Records and they have just released ‘Do You Want It’, the second single taken from it. It’s four fabulously frenetic minutes of futuristically tinged metal. …

Musically, when I think of Nashville, country music springs to mind but the duo of Stacey Blood and Laurie Ann Layne soon shattered that assumption with their release of Act 1 – All Blood, No Treasure. Act -1 is the first of 4 installments from the forthcoming coming album All …

Jim Kirkpatrick, mainly known for his current tenure of thirteen years playing lead guitar for FM is also no slouch with his solo material, highlighted by the Ballad Of A Prodigal Son album released in November 2020, receiving praise from Blues Matters of “England’s equivalant to Joe Bonamassa”. High praise …

Soundtrack to a failing world… Cradle of Filth never fail to divide opinions, but new album Existence Is Futile may narrow the divide some. Eschewing the all out Gothic horror that has been their mainstay over their long history, real life horror is now brought in. To quote from Dani …

November 16th 2020 saw me tackle one of the hardest albums I’ve had to review, in a good way of course as that’s When Rivers Meet released their debut We Fly Free on One Road Records courtesy of the husband and wife duo of Aaron and Grace Bond. Guitar and …

With the release of the Time Clocks album will the real Joe Bonamassa please stand up? Mainly known for being an accomplished guitarist over the last few of his releases he’s also become a fantastic vocalist to, point proven on these ten stunning tracks. Released via Provogue/Mascot Label Group he …

Bad Touch seem to also have a magic touch as they once more delve into their musical archives and release another single prior to their November/December 2021 tour, aptly titled the ‘Better Late Than Never Tour’. This time they cover what I think is their hardest song to date, the …

Before I start my review of KK’s Priest debut album Sermons Of The Sinner, here’s my view of the current scenario. “KK Downing left Judas Priest, they carry on with Ritchie Faulkner and KK forms a new band with Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens on lead vocals, also an ex Judas Priest …

13 tracks? THIRTEEN tracks to review on the debut album Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time from Nuneaton based trio Dig Lazarus! How dare they! I’m only joking as this very impressive release via Rock People Management kept my full attention from start to finish. ‘Sermon’ is a curious …

Rewind over 40 years to when I was about 17/18 before the internet came to be, so any music info came via magazines or The Friday Rock Show on Radio 1. Sounds magazine was my musical bible and in the late 70’s there was an upsurge of up and coming …

To these ears Joe Bonamassa transcends from just being a guitar hero into a storyteller with a lead vocal to match on his latest single ‘Time Clocks’, the title track of the album of the same name due to be released on October 29th 2021. It’s the third single taken …

New Massacre album “Resurgence” is certainly that – a return to the values of old school American Death Metal…to be Released October 22 via Nuclear Blast Records Best known for the awesome HP Lovecraft inspired 1991 album “From Beyond”, Massacre released 2 more studio albums in 1996, and 2014. Neither …

Normally November is a nondescript month but fear not for 2021 as Stoke On Trent nutters Black Coast release another single ‘Mental’ from their forthcoming studio album Outworld on the 19th. An added bonus is the album launch at The Underground in Stoke the same day. The song certainly lives …

Recently released on Joe Bonamassa’s independent KTBA (Keeping The Blues Alive) Records, also produced by Joe and Josh Smith, Joanne Shaw Taylor releases her seventh studio record The Blues Album. These 11 tracks of blues covers originally released by Albert King, Peter Green, Little Richard, Magic Sam, Aretha Franklin, Little …

Australian Black Metal band Ichor have just released their second full length album “The Black Raven” Though they formed back in 1993, it was not until 2018 that Ichor released their first full-length album. Hosting six tracks of icy cold slow to mid-paced BM, nevertheless, it was a solid piece …

You can’t keep a good band down, point proven by Edinburgh based noisy bastards Thirteen, showing that sometimes 13 can be a lucky number with their latest EP Ego Trap released today on October 1st. I’ve seen them at a few rock/metal festivals over the years and their punk rock …