Album Reviews

October 2023 saw The Rolling Stones hit number one on the National Album Charts last year with ‘Hackney Diamonds’. The following week, the Beatles were number one on the National Singles Chart with ‘Now & Then’. Among all the jokes (“these guys might just have a future”, “these guys could …

Save for those 10 years of inactivity that began in the late 90s, GUN have been around in one form or another since signing with A&M Records in 1988 and came flying out of the traps with their debut album ‘Taking On the World’, released in 1989. One year later, …

Coming soon to an Enormo-Dome near you, Shinedown with special guests: Kris Barras Band. A statement that until recently might have sounded a bit of an odd mix. Given the limitations of what the genre brings to the table, had Barras kept on the Blues-Rock path eventually he would have …

Alpha Wolf have been on the metalcore scene for a decade now, fast becoming both a cult favourite among peers, as well as a best-kept secret. With every release they put out and every tour they complete, the Australian quintet rightfully gets more and more attention, and it now seems …

Fronted by vocalist Fabienne Erni and guitarist Jonas Wolf (both of Eluveitie) ILLUMISHADE is the perfect example of how what might have started as a short-term project can grow legs and outlive the reason why it was started in the first place. ILLUMISHADE was formed in 2019 when the ball …

With the demise of Sons of Apollo, it was only a matter of time before a new progressive metal supergroup formed. And with the kind of relationship that sparked comparisons with Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord playing off each other, guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal and fellow SoA alumni, keyboardist Derek …

Opening an album with the title track doesn’t happen that much. Usually reserved for mid-album, the title track is very often the anchor that holds the album steady. Enter from stage left, genre-melding Swedes Amaranthe and the title track to their seventh studio album, ‘The Catalyst’. If anyone stumbled across …

A 5-year gap between studio albums is unusual. Unless you are Metallica of course. The relentless album-tour-album-tour cycle can often burn musicians out and the result can often be sub-standard albums where a break might have been more beneficial. In the case of California’s New Years Day the gap between …

Vocabulary.com has this to say about the definition of Perdition: “Perdition refers to hell, and especially the religious idea of eternal damnation: suffering for an endless period of time after death.” There is a fantastic duality about this with regards to South Wales’ five-piece Valhalla Awaits and their new EP …

Almost 20 years after releasing his last solo album (2005’s ‘Tyranny Of Souls’) Bruce Dickinson returns with the hugely ambitious multi-media solo project known as ‘The Mandrake Project’. Lead single ‘Afterglow of Ragnarok’  – released earlier this year as a stunning 7″ single that also featured a comic book in …