Album Reviews

For UK award-winning husband and wife rock duo When Rivers Meet – Grace Bond (vocals, mandolin, violin) and Aaron Bond (vocals, guitar) – appearing on Joe Bonamassa’s recent ‘Keeping the Blues Alive’ cruise was the ideal opportunity to further When Rivers Meet in so many ways. Judging by the footage …

With the much-missed UK music journalist Malcolm Dome championing their cause, NYC-based outfit Tempt raised a few eyebrows with the UK & EU release of their debut album ‘Runaway’ way back in 2016. Now, with the might of Better Noise Music (5FDP, Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria, amongst many others) behind …

Throw a dart at a calendar and chances are that it will land on a date that Alice Cooper is performing in concert, or on the road travelling to the next gig. Showing zero signs of slowing down in his seventh decade as a live performer – why should he? …

According to that great bastion of truth – the internet – the definition of prolific is: “Fruitful or highly productive. A prolific songwriter can churn out five hit tunes before breakfast. A prolific writer cranks out two novels a year, and a prolific rabbit has baby bunnies every few months.” …

It’s a solid fact at this point: if you have the surname Van Halen, you are automatically musically gifted. Jan Van Halen was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist in swing bands throughout Europe in the 1930s/1940s. His eldest son, Alex Van Halen, is a drummer who formed the legendary metal …

Rénovations caused heads to spin with the release of their debut album ‘Break The Frame’ in 2022, and with the quickfire release of the follow-up ‘Blank’, the Edinburgh-based Electro-Grunge trio are up to their old tricks again and fucking with anyone who simply has to pigeonhole a band into one …

Whilst not entirely as full-on as the often-quoted passage in Corinthians 13:11 about becoming a man and putting childish things away, since signing with Napalm Records in 2019 German folk metal outfit Feuerschwanz have performed a gradual move away from the more comedic elements of their music, and gone full …

Stick a gun to this reviewer’s head and ask for the name of the most underrated vocalist of all time and there is only one answer: Frankie Miller. Likewise, ask for the name of the most underrated songwriter of all time and again there is only one answer: Luke Morley. …

Somewhere in Hertfordshire lies a monster that is about to be unleashed. A mammoth soundscape of trauma, death, anxiety and grief that is one shake away from being unlocked and set free. The monster in question is Negative Energy, the sophomore album by the British alt metal trio Vexed. I …

While the latest offering from Dutch master of everything prog-related Arjen Lucassen is not a concept album per se, there is still a thread running throughout the tracks featured within, and that thread would be tall hippy tipping his hat to the 70s, aka the “Golden Age of Music”. And …