Album Reviews

Jared James Nichols releases his new album, Black magic, on 27th October. The follow up to his 2015 album, “Old glory & the wild revival”, it’s an album that’s eagerly awaited by the fans. In the last few years Jared James Nichols has toured relentlessly, sharing stages with the likes …

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of their 1976 album “Leftoverture”, Kansas planned a 10 date tour that eventually extended to an 80 date tour. For the tour the band changed up their usual setlist and did a set that consisted of a hits type portion followed by playing Leftoverture in …

Year Of The Tiger is the new album from Buckcherry front man Josh Todd under the guise of Josh Todd & The Conflict.  Joining Josh are the Los Angeles trio of Steve Dacanay, Sean Winchester and Gregg Cash.  This album is rock and roll, hardcore, a bit punk but overall …

German band Tankard formed way back in 1982, and alongside Sodom, Kreator and Destruction are one of the big names of German thrash metal. They’re still going strong 35 years later, releasing their 17th studio album (One foot in the grave) earlier this year. They’re now re-issuing their first three …

A great singing voice clearly runs in the family for Mollie Marriott – her father is Small Faces/Humble Pie singer/guitarist, Steve Marriott. It does mean that she’s got a lot to live up to, but I saw Mollie Marriott’s gig at the Borderline in London earlier this year and was …

Rock band Saints of sin come from Christchuch on England’s South coast. Formed in 2013, they’re now getting ready to release their debut album, and having heard it I can say it’s definitely well worth the wait. Too many bands release their first album before they’re in a position to …

When a band announces that with their next album that they are “Going back to their thrash metal roots” it can be taken with a pinch of salt but when I heard Jeff Waters, founder member of Annihilator in 1984 say it on the Bloodstock Open Air Festival main stage …

When attending gigs I’ve always stuck with the same rule and that is to watch the opening bands. At the end of the day, that’s how the headliners started out so give them a chance, you may be pleasantly surprised and I certainly was when I caught Manchester based band …

Once again, the youthful trio Devils Henchmen deliver another high quality EP titled Control that follows their debut 2016 release of EP Hatred. The Liverpool based trio are coming on in leaps and bounds, fronted by lead guitarist/lead vocalist and chief songwriter Joseph Doolan. First track ‘Control’ surges in on …

Well this is a bit of an animal to say the least! Insurrection, the debut studio album from Kent based bruisers Spreading The Disease. Formed in 2014 by bassist Steve Saunders, their debut EP Viral showed a lot of promise which has now been fulfilled when the album is released …

VUUR is a purely magical experience for fans of The Gathering, Gentle Storm and her work with the incredible Devin Townsend. Anneke van Giersbergen formed VUUR in 2016, Anneke decided for the sake of clarity to narrow her musical focus, choosing to go in an acoustic direction as a solo …

  Fallen Mafia, a hard hitting female fronted, four piece from the North East (of England) were formed in 2011 and have played with big names like Y&T, Michael Monroe and Crashdiet, to name but a few. Having toured relentlessly they have been quiet for a year or two, and …

Approaching what will be the last new music we will possibly ever hear from Pagan Altar with the enigmatic Terry Jones on vocals is not a task to be taken lightly. Formed in 1978 and virtually forgotten about until 1998 when their debut album (recorded in 1982) was finally given …

When you’re a band like The Rolling Stones with a career spanning several decades you’re likely to have countless hours of studio and live recordings sitting in a vault never being heard. Happily The Rolling Stones are releasing some of those recordings as their “Rolling Stones, From the vault” series. …

I’ve been a fan of Vardis for a long time, well over thirty five years. Bought 100MPH, The World’s Insane and Quo Vardis on vinyl back in the day so the grumpy old man side of me raised his eyebrows when I saw the press release for these reissues but …

At first glance, it might seem a little odd that Black Stone Cherry have chosen a sextet of blues standards for their next outing. Fear not though, because what the Kentucky rockers have done with the classics from Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Freddie and Albert King is nothing short …

Another week and another amazing underground band discovered. Bridgewater, Somerset based Kinasis have created a crushing four track EP titled Pariah, due for release on September 29th 2017. From the off it’s straight in your face with the mighty riffs and Hellish vocal growls in opener ‘Red Earth’. It builds …

      Lonewolf come howling from your speakers with new album ‘Raised On Metal’   If it’s one thing Lonewolf know how to do, it’s how to write a classic metal tune. ‘Raised On Metal’ represents the bands ninth studio album, and is a rip roaring, no holds barred …

German gothic metal band Crematory released their first studio album way back in 1993. Their 13th was released last year, so it’s safe to say that they’ve got plenty of material to choose from for their live shows. Before the release of their last album, Monument, their clean-vocals singer Matthias …

Ace Frehley’s fifth solo album, Anomaly, was released in 2009. It’s now being reissued. The album has been remastered for this reissue, and comes wth three bonus tracks. One of these has been released previously but not on CD (it was an itunes exclusive bonus track) while the other two …