Album Reviews

Guitars GUITARS GUITARRRRRRS! I’ve never heard an album so drenched in axe work since The Power Of Rock And Roll by Frank Marino way back in 1981 as British heavy metallers Absolva launch a 180gm vinyl format of Defiance that is packaged in a gatefold cover and printed inner sleeves. …

One of the underground’s best-kept secrets, BLACKRAT have been skilfully skirting the often-fine lines among metalpunk, thrash, crust, and traditional speed metal. Formed in 2012, this Canadian power-trio to date have delivered two cult full-lengths, 2013’s rough ‘n’ rowdy ‘Whiskey and Blasphemy’ and 2016’s far-more-epic ‘Hail to Hades’, laying on …

A chance viewing of Stormrider came with them supporting Troyen at the Salty Dog in Northwich recently and my standpoint of watching the opening band was well rewarded with their very impressive set! Formed in Manchester early 2017, they have released a four track EP titled Heavy Metal Machine that …

Hung like Hanratty ‘What you see is what you get’ – out now on STP Records Welcome to the madcap crazy world of Hung like Hanratty, where everyday life is brought to you in 4D!  If ‘Ronseal’ made music, then the can would say: delivers the perfect stroke of lyrical …

      In The Woods re emerge with their latest album ‘Cease The Day’, a progressive masterpiece It’s reasonably well documented that since the bands 2016 offering ‘Pure’, waters have not exactly run smoothly within the fold, indeed I did actually wonder if any new material would surface at …

Deicide have been with us almost 30 years with 50% of the original band still intact which is quite a feat in this day and age. This is the 12th studio album and first with new guitarist Mark English ex-Monstrosity. It is surprising to find that “In the Minds of …

Primal Instinct, debut album by London based Superfecta showed promise in 2014 and is a great stepping stone towards 2018 release Disconnect, currently available on CD from Skyfire Interactive/Skyfire Records and on MP3 from Amazon UK. A change in line up seems to have tightened up their songwriting, point proven …

Leicester band Seven Hells formed in late 2016. They’ve been working hard since then and recently released their debut EP, Prologue, and have plans to release their debut album in 2019. They won the Leicester final of the Metal 2 the masses competition and as a result played Bloodstock festival …

When you remember buying an album when it came out, being asked to review the 30th anniversary edition tends to make you feel old. Surely it can’t be 30 years since this classic album came out? Sadly it’s true, so lets have a look what’s involved in this anniversary edition. …

It’s hard to believe, but “The seven” is actually the debut album from Aonia. The band have released EPs in the past (“Sunchaser” and “City of shadows”), dating back to 2011 and 2014, but until now have not released a full length album. It’s certainly a big year for them …

Award winning Australian rock band John Butler Trio have just released their new album, Home. It’s their seventh studio album in a twenty year career. Although they’re a trio by name and in the studio, they’ve recently increased to a five piece band for live shows. There’s a very personal …

German band KMFDM are pioneers of industrial music and have influenced bands such as Rammstein. Founded as a performance art project by multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko in 1984, they’ve gone on to release a string of albums (around 20) and are known for their live shows. Later this month they release …

Being a black metal band generally seems to involve playing to audiences small enough that the tiniest of venues is too large, and if any band dares to actually become successful the black metal audiences tend to desert them as “too mainstream”. Given that you’d be forgiven for wondering why …

Sari Schorr released her debut album two years ago, and despite spending the last two years on the road touring, she’s now ready to release her second album – Never say never. In that time she’s lived in New York, Spain, France and several places in the UK as she’s …

Slaughter II released their self-titled debut album late last year. Recorded at Crack Studios in Hulme, Manchester and produced and engineered by Kevin Foy. Slaughter II features Brian Grantham the original drummer from Manchester punk rock band Slaughter and the Dogs and Edweena  Banger who was in the rebranded Slaughter. …

Bad Touch leave a great touch on the ears with their latest studio album Shake A Leg released via Marshall Records on October 5th. On seeing the running time at thirteen tracks I was a bit apprehensive about it’s length but could not be more wrong as it captivates from …

Hardcore Superstar (HCSS) hits you right in the face from start to finish, with their new smasher ‘You can’t kill my rock n roll’!  Forged in Gothenburg, Sweden back in 1997 and after a brief hiatus and a couple of member changes, they have continued to embed their footprint on …

“Into the electric castle” was the third Ayreon album and was released way back in 1998. Now 20 years on, it’s being reissued including being released on vinyl for the first time. Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen isnt the type of person who’d be content with just re-releasing something so he …

Northward is Nightwish singer Floor Jansen and Pagan’s mind guitarist Jorn Viggo Lofstad. The pair met in 2007 and in 2008 wrote an entire album’s worth of material together, but never managed to find time to record them. In 2017 they got in touch again and finally recorded the album …

Finnish punk band Teksti-TV 666 aim to prove that you can never have too many guitars, so to that end, this seven member band have 5 guitars (on some songs it’s even more at six). That’s a lot of guitars, but does it work? Well yes and no. Having so …