Album Reviews

They’re back! So let’s give a big festive hug to Chasing The Fall, Crewe based power pop punkers, with their brand new single, the supreme ‘Lonely Nightmare’. The quirky quartet deliver a powerful message, making it not just a song, but a statement of intent to try and free yourself …

A most welcome return from Bristol based chanteuse Elles Bailey, sees her release ‘Lean On My Love’, second single taken from her, ‘The Night Owl And The Lark’ EP, due out on February 23rd, 2024. This single is a gospel drenched heartbreaker that still manages to raise a smile, such …

Born on July 18th, 1939, Dion proves that music does keep us young at heart, as this octogenarian releases ‘Soul Force’, second single taken from a forthcoming studio album ‘Girl Friends’ via Joe Bonamassa’s KTBA Records on March 28th, 2024. Releasing over forty studio albums in a long career, his …

Belfast’s powerful 3 piece Haint Deliver a hefty 5 tracks of great music If you like your music heavy, progressive, with lots of melodies, and yet still doomy and dark, then Haint and their new EP is made for you. Gifting us 5 tracks and just over 26 minutes of …

Belfast once turned out the Titanic, now we have the equally titanic new band Solothurn Originating from Belfast, Solothurn are a new band comprised from several other Northern Irish bands, and an ex member of Nick Olivieri’s Mondo Generator. Describing themselves as “Alt-Metal” and citing influences such as Alice in …

Bernie Marsden (Bernard John Marsden), born May 7th 1951 – August 24th 2023 will be sadly missed, but leaves us with his recently released, final studio album Working Man, via Conquest Music, with the great man self producing it. The album consists of twelve brand new Bernie Marsden penned tracks. …

30 years on from its original release, Paradise Lost give us a new re-recording of their classic album Yep, 1993 saw the original release of Paradise Lost’s 4th studio album, which over the years, the band had lost the rights to. Rather than go through all the crap and costs …

London East Ends finest, Gypsy’s Kiss return with a new single ‘Gone For Good’, taken from their 74 album. It’s a power ballad with balls, as lead vocalist David Smith captures the desperation in the song, perfectly. Prominent bass runs bubble around potent powerchords. Choruses are full of woe, as …

Welcome back Robert Jon & The Wreck, currently on tour supporting Blackberry Smoke, release a brand new single ‘Help Yourself’ on Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records. Formed in Orange County, California, 2011, the song has a trademark straight from the heart lead vocal from Robert Jon Burrison, over laid back Southern …

Welcome back Scarborough, North Yorkshire based band This House We Built, and what a return as it takes some bravado, not to just attempt a song of this magnitude, but to put a twist on the John Farnham 1986 classic ‘You’re The Voice’, but to emerge with heads held high. …

Farnham based skate rockers, Kit Trigg have just released a very impressive four track EP, ‘Goin For Glory’, via Earache Digital Distribution. These tracks show great promise, point proven by the title track of the EP. An attention grabbing main riff drives this feelgood headbanger along, punctuated by shout em …

Welcome back Takeaway Thieves, who formed five years ago in Blackpool, recently releasing a new single ‘Sundance’, playing their biggest gig so far this weekend at Planet RockStock, Trecco Bay Holiday Park, Porthcawl, on Sunday, December 3rd which surely should have them singing, “Oh we do like to be beside …

Leaf Band UK, recommended to me by a friend, Julian Lloyd who saw the Stoke-On -Trent quartet recently at the Underground in Stoke, return with a recently released single, ‘Get Back On My Feet Again’. Pronouncing themselves as “A real rock band – No backing tracks allowed!”. Forming in 1992, …

My first hearing of The Rods was from their self titled album in 1980, followed up by Wild Dogs in 1982, two essential purchases of mine back then, but are the band still relevant almost forty five years later? Hell yeah they are, as they unleash a brand new single …

To be honest, there isn’t that much to pick apart here from the original version of ‘Man In The Box’ by Alice In Chains, but Jared James Nichols keeps close to it’s essence as he covers his version of it. It’s released ahead of his UK and European tour, supporting …

2024 looks like it’ll be off to a great start, as Joanne Shaw Taylor releases a new single, ‘Wild Love’, taken from a forthcoming studio, released by Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records. She states, “I love this track, I wanted it to be dark and sexy. I think with the boy’s …

Beginning in 2011, Orange County, California rockers Robert Jon & The Wreck flex their muscles for their latest single ‘Hold On’. They proclaim,” It’s a powerful, classic rock track that hits close to the heart for touring musicians like us, pondering how long we can hold on to this life …

Welcome back These Wicked Rivers, as they unleash ‘Force Of Nature’, brand new single taken from a forthcoming album of the same name on March 1st 2024, via Fat Earth Records, and judging by the potency of the single, the album will be a must buy! The Derbyshire based five …

Wounded Cross return from the wastelands to unleash their latest single ‘Monument Of Bones’ to tackle the subject of our environment and focusing on climate change, asking, “What will be left of our planet if we continue down the path we’re on?” It’s the first single taken from an upcoming …

For sheer power and precision, you can’t go wrong with a power trio, point proven by Cream, my personal favourite of the genre, and fortunately for myself, have been asked to review ‘Heavenly Cream – An Acoustic Tribute To Cream’, to be released on Friday, November 3rd, 2023 via Quarto …