Dan Patlansky interview, London, 18th April 2017

I spoke to South African Blues guitarist Dan Patlansky ahead of his UK and European tour. What’s the Blues scene like in South Africa? As you can imagine, I think Blues is a niche market anywhere in the world, so in South Africa it’s a micro-niche market.  It’s really small …

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Vice – The First Chapter

An over the top album launch at Manchester Rebellion club for The First Chapter, the debut album from Bury based metallers Vice resulted in this review. They like to write long songs riddled with over the top guitar solos from Tom Atkinson and Jack Trelawny with Connor Summers smashing the …

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Scout Killer – Get grilled

Scout Killers have been burrowing away for the past five years shaping and honing their hugely captivating sound. The industrious quintet are now set to reveal their best work to date in the form of their brand new EP, Deception, out 7th July. We had a sit down with the guys …

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Mammoth Mammoth – Mount The Mountain

Mammoth Mammoth (so good they named them twice) return to the fore with an unstoppable and uncompromising album ‘Mount The Mountain’, a release that sees them up the ante and push themselves up into the higher echelons of the music scene The band have been around for some ten years …

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Xerosun – This Dark Rage

Up for review today I have Xerosun‘s new EP ‘This Dark Rage.‘ Xerosun are a five piece progressive melodic death band from Dublin via Wales and Poland.  On listening to ‘This Dark Rage’ I can see exactly why they are ones to watch out for and have recently earned their …

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Silverchild – The Red Desert EP

I caught a live set by Silverchild a few weeks ago when they were part of a four band bill at the Underground in Stoke and was so impressed I had to check out their recorded material, so here are my thoughts on their seismic The Red Desert EP. You always …

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Maplerun – Get grilled

Greek Metal crew MAPLERUN release their third album ‘PartyKrasher’ on 28th April. We had a talk with the interview about their background and here’s what happened:   What is the full band line-up, who plays what? NICK – VOCALS, GUITAR, NIKOS (THE MOOR) – BASS, VOCALS, ORESTIS – GUITAR, CHRIS …

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Axel Rudi Pell – The Ballads V

German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell releases his new album on 21st April 2017.  Entitled “The Ballads V”, it is as the name suggests, a collection of ballads.  You’re not wrong about the “V” either – yes this is his fifth Ballads album, which seems a lot even considering how long …

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The Black Angels – Death Song

Formed way back in 2004, psychedelic rock band The Black Angels took their name from the title of a Velvet Underground song – “Black Angel’s death song”, and now have used the other half of that song title for the title of their new album, Death song. Death song is …

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Ayreon – The source

Some bands release new albums almost every year, but Ayreon isn’t one of them.  Ayreon albums tend to appear every three or four years, and when you listen to them you can understand why.  Ayreon’s albums are all concept albums and the stories are all interlinked.  Arjen Lucassen had said …

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Little River Band – The big box

Little River Band are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1975. Over the course of the last 40+ years they’ve sold over 30 million records and had 13 US Top 40 hits.  As you’d expect over the years the lineup has changed significantly as members leave and are …

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Danny Bryant – BIG, Live in Europe

Late last year, Danny Bryant released a new version of his song “Prisoner”, recorded with a nine-piece big band.  It was a hint of things to come as he followed that up with some live shows in Europe, and is now releasing a live album recorded at those shows.  He’s …

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