Album Reviews

Three years after their last offering, ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’, California power trio High On Fire have returned to the fray with their truly gargantuan seventh album, the appropriately titled ‘Luminiferous’. Everything about this album exudes the word “heavy”, from the huge ball-tingling bass lines to the humungous riffs which drive with …

Perseverance is a word not used lightly by The Deep which is why Premonition has finally seen the light of day as all of the songs apart from ‘Cold Hearted’ (which was written in the early 90’s) were written in the early 80’s. The band were known then as Deep …

Freedom Call , The German Power Metal band have re-released their 2002 album ‘Eternity’ with a bonus disk including one new song, some live tracks taken from previous live album releases and interestingly, other bands covering Freedom Call’s songs. These track first appeared on the bonus disk from the 2012 …

Screaming Eagles, sometimes abbreviated to Screagles, a Rock ‘n’ Roll band from Northern Ireland release their second album Stand Up and be Counted via Off Yer Rocka Recordings on 13th July 2015. A phoenix arising from the ashes of Soundstone the Screaming Eagles formed in 2010. (Read more about their history …

From the quite green meadows of the Derwent and Trent valleys come one of the East Midlands hottest hard biting rock quartets, Eva Plays Dead and they have produced another crowd pleasing five track E.P. entitled “Sounds Of The Written Word“. The track “1950’s Woman” is a hard, fast rhythm …

So, there I was:  standing minding my own business, propping up the bar in my local when I get a tap on my leather-jacket clad shoulder.  “Shaun said to make sure you get this,” a voice says as a package is thrust into the hand which is not holding a …

  Crematory is a gothic metal/death metal band formed in Mannheim, Germany in 1991. By the mid-1990s they were touring with My Dying Bride, Tiamat and Atrocity and they eventually played Germany’s Wacken Open Air in the  1996,  by popular demand they played again in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2008. …

After catching Cradle Of Filth‘s fantastic set at Graspop Festival, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this album, we were lucky enough to be treated to ‘ Right Wing Of The Garden Triptych‘ live and get a taste of what was to come. Hammer of the Witches is …

If band positions on festivals were awarded based on soldiering on in the face of adversity, Dragonforce would have headlined Download moons ago. Loved and hated in equal measures across the UK, they’ve battled through lineup changes, the wrath of Machine Head and Trivium fans on 2007’s ‘Black Crusade’ tour and …

A few months ago I went to see Wilson open for Halestorm in Glasgow’s legendary Barrowland Ballroom. I also got to meet and interview singer Chad Nicefield before the show and although he was feeling a bit under the weather he could not have been nicer or more giving of …

Popes of Chillitown a Ska/Dub/Punk band from London founded in 2006 have gone through several line-up changes before the six piece line-up we see today. To date they have self released two EPs and pledge funded début album ‘A Word To The Wise‘ in 2013. Their second album ‘To The …

Baltimore, Maryland’s Hatebeak has released a new 14 track album, titled The Number of the Beak. The band’s music is highly experimental grindcore, noise, or even post-grind, with Waldo the African Grey parrot’s various noises used as ‘vocal samples’. Released through Reptilian Records, this is apparently a compilation of all …

When I was asked to review ‘Vibration of Sound’ by The Hicks I was intrigued by the description of an alternative/hard rock with a hint of reggae from Wigan, a town famous for it’s Pier and for being home of the annual World Pie Eating Championship.  These Hicks are not to …

Violent Restitution Razor where one of the first true underground bands that came to my attention on the classic Under One Flag release Speed Kills 2. Imagine a world where to your knowledge the heaviest metal there is was Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer, admittedly it was not a bad world …

Ireland’s Shardborne has released a seven song instrumental opus, titled Living Bridges. Formed in 2010, Shardborne released Aeonian Sequence, its four song debut EP, in 2011. Living Bridges is an odd, instrumental hybrid of progressive rock fusion, djent, atmospheric extreme metal, and regular thrash metal. Like listening to a great …

“Mr. Falwell, you are not my god.” bluntly states Paolo Rossi, at the end of Wasted Youth‘s 1986 release, a six song EP titled Get Out Of My Yard!. Channeling classic punk rock in every sense of the phrase, this disc scratches an itch to hear genuine, vintage high-energy music, …

  Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani has released his latest studio album, titled Shockwave Supernova. The California native’s all-instrumental record explores a fairly loose, abstract concept of an alter ego, named Shockwave Supernova. The songs outline and follow this superhuman persona through journeys across stages both worldwide and intragalactically. This 15th …

The 180gm vinyl re-issues of Rush‘s back catalogue continues with their 7th studio album, Permanent Waves as part of the ’12 months of Rush’ celebrations via Universal Music. Originally released on January 1st 1980, a lot of fans, myself included must have thought it was April 1st as to the …

The 69 Eyes are a dark gothic rock band from Finland, formed in 1989 in the bars of Helsinki they started out playing sleazy rock inspired by bands such as Hanoi Rocks and Motley Crue. Fairly early in their 25 year career the band allowed influences from gothic bands such …

Gasoline Outlaws emerged on to the Northern Ireland rock scene at the turn of this year, when former Black Freeway/Last Known Addiction singer Matt Fitzsimons, freshly returned from a sojourn down under, re-united with his brother Chris and in turn teamed up with former Yellow Sam guitarist Adam Parkin and …