PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal

At one time or another, even the very biggest bands were unknown. The Beatles, for instance, were just another quartet of leather-clad rockers playing in a pokey Liverpool tea bar until Brian Epstein was handed a rough copy of them singing My Bonnie. Bad Touch first came onto my particular musical …

The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping and somewhere in an animated world a gothic city is preparing to sing ‘This is Halloween’ all over again. Curiously, this is the first show at the Fleece in a good number of months where the audience are queuing round the …

At the ripe old age of fifty three I must admit to hearing only a handful of tracks by Kansas over the years but this has been rectified by being given the opportunity to review their comeback album The Prelude Implicit since the departure of front man Steve Walsh in …

With her ninth solo studio album released, Beth Hart can confidently claim to be on fire right now. Fitting really, given that the title of that ninth album is Fire on the Floor and is arguably her freest, most emotionally unhindered release to date.   Her previous recording, Better Than …

Following the band’s widely successful 2015 album, five-piece Southern Rock band, Blackberry Smoke, are set to release their fifth studio album, ‘Like An Arrow’ on Friday 14th October 2016 via Earache Records. The latest album features twelve new tracks, which includes a feature from the one and only Gregg Allman, …

As the season saunters into autumn I found myself at The Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton for the second time in my life this time to see StOp, sToP a flamboyant three piece originally from Barcelona and Bulgaria and now based, not too far from Wolverhampton, in sunny (sometimes) Birmingham. Opening …

Kai Hansen is a German heavy metal legend as a member of Helloween and then Gamma Ray, and more recently his work with Unisonic.  This album celebrates his 30 year career in metal.  Rather than just doing a Gamma Ray album he’s done a solo album, and alongside him on …

Austrian band Cornerstone are back with a new album, Reflections. It’s been five years since their last album, “Somewhere in America” and in that time the and have changed singer.  Sadly I’ve missed them whenver they’ve come to the UK, but definitely want to try and see them live at …

OK, cards on the table, I really like Amaranthe.  There I’ve said it.  Ever since coming across Within Temptation a decade or so ago I have had a soft spot for the the female fronted melodic death metal genre and with Maximalism. Amaranthe have managed to keep me hooked in it. With this …

Glenn Hughes’ latest offering, Resonate, should come with some kind of health warning. Loud, proud and indisputably ballsy, this is an album that demands to be played with the volume switch cranked so far over to the right the woofers in your amps will complain. From the very instant the …

Outstanding is an often overused term. When used to describe former Procul Harum guitarist Robin Trower however, there is hardly an adjective more fitting on this evidence. Yet this isn’t a night owned solely by Trower and his superb backing band of Richard Watts on bass and vocals and Christopher …

Rock Wolves are an all-star trio springing forth from a dynamic heritage of German thoroughbreds. Showcasing the unmistakable talents of ‘Herman Rarebell’ (Scorpions) on drums, ‘Michael Voss’ (Mad Max) guitar and vocals, and ‘Stephen “Gudze” Hinz’ (H-Blockx) on bass. This astounding, diverse and fresh sounding debut will be unleashed to …

Soothsayer hail from Ireland and have been described as doom merchants, however there is a lot more on offer here than doom. They present two hefty tracks with a mixture of influences which have been moulded together to give a unique and dense sound.  The First track “Umpire”, begins with a …

In 2014 Status Quo released an acoustic album – “Aquostic: Stripped bare”.  It was a bit of a shock to suddenly hear the classic songs we know and love being done acoustically, but like many fans, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Clearly plenty of other fans enjoyed it too as Quo …

They might be headlining the O2 Arena in November, but Alter Bridge are one of those bands that often slip under the radar when we think about bands who could top the bill at Download, for example. Maybe it’s the band members’ other commitments – Myles Kennedy’s touring with Slash and …

A Saturday night out in Manchester was something I hadn’t experienced for quite a while, so I was looking forward to this, the third show of the current tour by Glasgow’s Attica Rage. I really enjoy the Rebellion Rock Bar as a venue, it seems to be able to maintain …

Raw passion is the underlying spirit that bursts through on the second of Simon Townshend’s former USA Only releases, Denial.  An album that in its entirety examines addictions – personal and witnessed – this is a musical statement with balls and introspection that is never burdened by laconic remorse or …

Okay. Where to start? Simon Townshend – younger brother of a certain Pete and son of jazz saxophonist, Cliff – certainly knows what it takes to make an album stand out and that’s very definitely what the remastered version of the 2012 release Looking Out, Looking in does. An invigorating …

It’s always a great pleasure to catch up with the Glasgow Hard Rock guys known as Attica Rage. With a storming new album (Warheads Ltd) firmly under their belts, I had the pleasure of talking to main songwriter and vocalist Jonny Parr, and got the lowdown on the production process …

The night began with local heroes and solid groove meisters Morass of Molasses (7). Regrettably, there weren’t many in attendance at the time, but that didn’t show on the faces of the seasoned musicians on stage. A tad sloppy at times and playing songs that are more or less well …