Album Reviews

The greatest selection of albums, reviewed and rated

Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt

Pearl Jam’s latest studio album, ‘Lightning Bolt’ is almost upon us. With their previous album, ‘Backspacer’, having been released four years ago, the longest gap between albums in their 23 year history, Pearl Jam are now ready to make a new statement. I have been listening to this album several …

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Joe Bonamassa – Tour de force – Live in London

In March this year Joe Bonamassa played four special shows in four nights in London.  Each night was at a different venue and with a completely different setlist.  Each night had a different theme – the Shepherds Bush Empire show was the Blues night, the Hammersmith Apollo show was the …

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Flying Colors – Live in Europe

Flying Colors, the group formed by Mike Portnoy, Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Casey McPherson and David Larue released their debut album in March last year, and for me it was one of the albums of the year – stunningly good stuff.  Later that year they toured Europe, and reports I …

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Leslie West – Still climbing

I suspect many of the people reading this review weren’t even born when Leslie West played one of the biggest shows of his career, when in 1969 he played the legendary Woodstock festival as part of the band Mountain.  So he’s been around for a long time, but he’s not …

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Kill For Eden – ‘Living On Mars’ EP

Having released their excellent debut album in May – and despite vocalist Lyla D’Souza expecting her first child around the time of release – London quintet Kill For Eden aren’t hanging around with this hard-hitting triptych of an EP. The three songs are fiery and intense, filled with true rock …

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Broken Hope – Omen Of Disease

In the 1990’s, if you were in a death metal band, you were well-off if you could claim Florida, New York, or Chicago as your hometown. Each locale had something distinct to offer – NY had it’s slam “NYDM”, Florida had bands who pushed the genre to greater extremes like …

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Jesse Damon-Temptation In The Garden Of Eve

Jesse Damon is a renowned artist as a solo singer, songwriter, and guitarist foremost, but has also been the front man for the hugely popular melodic hard rock act Silent Rage since the band’s inception back in the mid 80’s. Silent Rage had four critically acclaimed albums released, including the …

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Charming Grace – ‘Charming Grace’

Charming Grace Artwork

Yet another all-star project by Italian brothers Amos and Pierpaulo Monti, this time recruiting Wheels Of Fire vocalist Davide Barbieri to their ranks, along with a veritable who’s who of guests from the entire spectrum of the European AOR scene, this eponymous debut album is nothing more and nothing less …

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War Iron – Of Prophecy And Alchemy

True underground black metal bands used to pride themselves on a few things: sparse instrumentation, evil vocals, and what used to be termed “basement production”. True to form, but from 2013, we’re introduced to War Iron, a band from Ireland. Their EP, Of Prophecy And Alchemy, plods along in a …

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The First – Take Courage

Join the new wave of British Rock. The First, a band from Cambridgeshire, have released Take Courage, their 11-track second album. This is a melodic, hook-laden disc, rich with anthemic, catchy rock tunes. Widely compared to You Me At Six, the band channels influence from classic rock to power pop-punk, …

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Ferocity – The Sovereign

Ferocity, a Danish death metal band, focuses on truly ferocious vocals, thick buzzsaw stringwork, and solid percussion in a variety of tempos on their second and latest release, The Sovereign. Deep, guttural vocals are “mixed high”, tending to blot out what’s happening underneath. That said, the band seems to have …

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Superfecta – The EP

London’s Superfecta, formed in 2011, have released their debut EP, a four-song effort titled simply The EP. Drawing influence or ‘mojo’ from bands such as Soundgarden, Alter Bridge, Stone Temple Pilots, or Alice In Chains, the modern rock or nu-grunge band focuses each song on a different classic hook of …

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Down The Machine – Everything I Am Not

Caveat: don’t judge a band’s entire output based on one “free” song. This tune, “Everything I Am Not”, by West Yorkshire UK’s Down The Machine, sounds like a cross between industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails, grunge type outfits like Alice In Chains, and modern rock outfits like Audioslave. The …

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Kataklysm – Waiting For The End To Come

A real monster of an album, from one of Death Metal’s all time greats.     When your record label quotes your new album as your finest work to date you know you’re on to a winner. Furthermore, when you realise that Kataklysm have over 20 years of back catalogue …

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The Mission – The Brightest Light

The Mission return with their first album of new songs since 2007's 'Gods Own Bullet', featuring 3/4 of the original classic line up of the band namely Wayne Hussy, Simon Hinkler and Craig Adams with Mike Kelly on drums filling in for missing original member Mick Brown.

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Beissert – ‘Darkness Devil Death’

Dresden’s Beissert may be deeply steeped in Satanism but they have the ballsy bravura needed to take their belief system out of what would many would regard as the traditional format for ‘black metal’ and take it to a new dimension, combining groove metal, industrial and thrash in a way …

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