Tag Archives: album review

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

‘Ten Years of Pussy’ is the title of Nashville Pussy’s new compilation CD to celebrate their tenth year with SPV records, with whom they have released five albums from ‘And Get Some’ in 2005 to ‘Up The Dosage’ in 2014. ‘Ten Years of Pussy’ takes sixteen studio tracks from their …

Dennis Churchill Dries will be best remembered to rockers of a certain vintage as the singer and bass player with White Sister and, latterly and (almost) simultaneously, Tattoo Rodeo.  The former’s self-titled 1984 debut, produced by Gregg Giuffria, is one of the most under-rated and overlooked classic albums of it’s generation, although …

Anzi Destruction former lead singer of Finnish rock band Stereo Junks! well known for his exciting and energetic live performances, which included fire breathing, launched his solo career in 2011 when he released his début self produced album ‘High Clash Motherfucker’, on which he played nearly every instrument.  As a solo performer the …

Constant Source of Disappointment, often shortened to the initials C.S.O.D. are a  four piece Thrash Punk Metal band formed in Blackpool in 2004. Final Insult, released in May 2015, is the third and final E.P. in their ‘666 Trilogy’. Lead vocalist Ligzig Rightguard said “Since we formed as this line up in …

Veteran German and Dutch extreme thrash-death act Dew-Scented has released its tenth and latest studio effort, titled Intermination, on Metal Blade Records. The digital edition of Intermination contains 15 tracks of high speed malevolence that promises to sweep rage and fury across the airwaves. The band seeks to build inter-album …

There is something morbidly fascinating about goregrind.  It’s a musical sub-genre which often inhabits the darker, more taboo elements of the human psyche, addressing lyrical issues which many, more mainstream, artists only dare to skirt around with the comparative finesse of a housewife cleaning her most precious porcelain compared to …

After selling upwards of 80 million albums as a part of rock titan Journey, guitarist Neal Schon has released his latest solo offering, Vortex. For Vortex, a two disc set, Schon was joined in the studio by keyboardist Igor Len, and fellow Journeyman, drummer Steve Smith. Schon has the freedom and the space to explore …

Melbourne, Australia’s Deez Nuts brought forth their fourth studio album, Word Is Bond, in the spring of 2015. Word Is Bond is a 14 track disc filled with monolithic, aggressive hardcore crossover thrash metal that will sear your feet to the floor and melt your face simultaneously. The overall sonic …

SixStringNoise, from Greece, has independently released Snake Side Brotherhood, a ten song album. This offering, the band’s third, shows a natural progression in musicianship, songwriting, and technical mastery. As a duo, Markos and Alex have come up with a cohesive batch of songs which run a gamut from grunge or …

Bringing forth their 12th studio album, Sweden’s Unleashed has, with Dawn of the Nine, successfully continued an aggressive, fairly melodic saga. Their previous release, Odalheim, released in 2012, began this journey. Let’s pretend you’re a new fan, perhaps just introduced to death metal a little while ago, and your virgin …

For some artists, there is one seminal song that, in the eyes of many from the outside looking in, must surely seem to hang around their necks like the proverbial artistic albatross.  For Jim Peterik, founder of Survivor, it must surely be ‘Eye Of The Tiger’:  despite the passage of …

Unrelenting, unstoppable and unbeatable, Danish thrash outfit Impalers have produced a solid classic with ‘Prepare For War’, out now through Evil Eye Records. With two original tracks allied with covers of two timeless classics from Mötorhead and Sodom, Impalers have struck a perfect balance to accompany their full-length record ‘God …