Tag Archives: album review

Orchid – ‘The Zodiac Sessions’

Orchid - The Zodiac Sessions artwork

Following the huge success of their big label debut, ‘The Mouths Of Madness’, earlier this year, this timely re-issue brings together san Francisco psych-doomsters Zodiac’s two pre-Nuclear Blast releases – the ‘The Through The Devil’s Doorway’ EP and 2011’s full-lengther ‘Capricorn’, both originally released on The Church Within Records – …

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General Bastard – Revolution Rock

Michigan’s General Bastard (a.k.a Dean Carls) released an 11-song album, Revolution Rock, chock full of old-school punk rock attitude. This full-band effort was recorded at a professional sound studio in Michigan and sounds like it, with clear attack, good balance, and good definition between instruments. Songs have that catchy, simplified …

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Pro-Pain – ‘The Final Revolution’

Pro-Pain - The Final Revolution

This 14th album from the pioneering stalwarts of the New York hardcore scene is a return to their crossover roots, following last year’s somewhat thrashier ‘Straight To The Dome’, with its mixture of hard-hitting street metal riffage and confrontational punk punkiness. With frontman Gary Meskil once again in charge of …

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Fatal Fusion – ‘The Ancient Tale’

Fatal Fusion release label debut

This sophomore album from Norwegian quintet Fatal Fusion – their first for the boutique Karisma Records label – draws heavily on the prog influences of the early 1970s, unashamedly referencing the likes of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, pre-‘Dark Side…’ Floyd, Camel, Colosseum, Focus and Van der Graaf Generator, as well as …

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Death Toll Rising – ‘Infection Legacy’

This third album from Canada’s DTR is as good a slice of death metal mayhem as you are going to hear this year. Packed solid with soaring riffs, which succeed in holding the right mix of melody within their overall context of bombastic beatdowns and crushing themes, the band also …

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The Dead Daisies – ‘The Dead Daisies’

The Dead Daisies - Artwork

Any band boasting a pedigree that includes iconic acts such as The Rolling Stones, Guns N Roses, Thin Lizzy, The Cult and even INXS in its history inevitably has a helluva set of footsteps in which to follow, never mind a pretty impressive heritage to recall… Based around vocalist Jon …

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Place Vendome: Thunder in the Distance

Thunder in the Distance is the third album from melodic hard rock project Place Vendome. Released by Frontiers Records on 1st November 2013, Place Vendome being the brainchild of their President, Serafino Perugino. Fronted by Michael Kiske former vocalist for German rock band Helloween and alos for Avantasia and Unisonic. …

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Asomvel – Knuckle Duster

Formed in 1993 by the late Jay-Jay Winter and Lenny Robinson. Tragically Jay-Jay was involved in a fatal car crash in October 2010, a terrible loss which could leave a band deciding to call it a day. However as AC/DC found Brian Johnson after the death of  Bon Scott, Asomvel …

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Sumosluts – Fat.Hot.Sexy

German Stoner Rock band Sumosluts released their third album Fat.Hot.Sexy on Friday 13th September 2013 on Noisehead Records. Formed in Bamburg, Germany in 2010 their Debut album ‘An Awesome Piece of Shit‘ was released in 2011, followed by ‘Time To Freak Out‘ in 2012 and now ‘Fat.Hot.Sexy‘ When I hear …

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Death Remains – ‘Stand. Fight. Believe’

Death Remains - Stand Fight Believe Artwork

Now and again an album comes along that crushes your preconceptions under the heel of your size 11 New Rock boot… Just as I was sincerely starting to believe that almost every new young band coming out of mainland Great Britain was content to churn out second-rate, copycat emo-core nonsense, …

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Bad Religion – ‘Christmas Songs’

Bad Religion - Christmas Songs

Whether we believe in it or not, like it or otherwise, the so-called “festive season” – when everyone is supposed to be nice to each people we loathe and despise for the rest of the year, indulge in rampant consumerism, eat horribly overcooked poultry for days on end, and whatever …

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Mayfair – ‘Schlage Mein Herz, Schlage’

Breaking a silence which has lasted nigh on 15 years, Austrian progsters Mayfair should really have stayed in a state of hibernation, as this is a truly awful album with very little to recommend it to more than the casual listener. Yes, the four musicians are most definitely accomplished (vocalist …

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Bedlam – ‘Live In Binghampton 1974’

Every now and again, an album emerges from the vaults of rock ‘n’ roll history that represents a snapshot in time:  a moment when those who produced it were right at the top of their game, while at the same time on the cusp of transformation and transition… This is …

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Attack Of The 70ft Bitch – Revenger

Attack Of The 70ft Bitch - Artwork

Hailing from Scunthorpe (“The Industrial Garden Town Of The North” as he describes it), AOT70FB is the work of one Wayne Goodchild, who perhaps can perhaps best be described as a “bedroom producer”.  Having previously enjoyed moderate success under the monicker of Cardboard Dead Boy, he has sought to refine …

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Javelin – ‘Fragments Of The Inner Shadow’

There aren’t many bands who hang around for 30 years before releasing their first album, but German progressive power metallers Javelin most certainly fall into that category:  despite having previously released two EPs (with a 12 year gap between them, it must be said), the quintet have certainly taken their …

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Emperor Chung – Emperor Chung

Emperor Chung‘s eponymous debut, released in 2013, establishes the young British band as a promising, multi-talented act to follow. Musically, the 11-track album spans a variety of influences, from classic rock and elements of jazz fusion, to pop-punk and nu-metal. For a debut, it’s heavy on flash, but none of …

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Buckcherry – ‘Best Of…’

Music journalists are not supposed to get personal about things – but, then, a review is a personal opinion on the subject thereof, so we can’t really help but do what we’re not supposed to do, can we?  So, to speak personally at the outset, I find compilation albums both …

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Red Fang – ‘Whales And Leeches’

Red Fang - Whales And Leeches

Having only completed the mammoth touring cycle in support of their ‘Murder The Mountains’ album at the beginning of the summer, Oregon quartet Red Fang have wasted very little time indeed in recording and releasing this follow up, their third full lengther. The one thing that comes across with this …

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Holy Cross – ‘Place Your Bets’

Italian quintet Holy Cross claim to be “breaking new ground” by attempting to cross traditional power metal and classic thrash: unfortunately for them it’s a cross-pollination which has been attempted many times before – with varying degrees of success. Equally unfortunately for Holy Cross, their attempt is by far one …

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