Album Reviews

Despite the millions of album sales, millions of followers, awards, and sold-out arenas, Europe would be the first to admit that, arguably, they have never received the respect that their output has deserved. The gazillion-selling, keyboard-parping “The Final Countdown” plays a part in that, as it was impossible to escape …

Solo albums by members of well-known bands are very rarely like the mother band’s material. Think Bruce Dickinson Vs Iron Maiden. Myles Kennedy Vs Alter Bridge. Freddie Mercury Vs Queen. Anyone expecting the new solo album from Kai Hansen to sound like his mother band, Helloween (or even the other …

LA-based quartet The Bites seriously impressed when they opened the show for The Dead Daisies in 2024. Not quite Jerry Lee Lewis in 1958 (allegedly) pouring lighter fluid over his piano and setting it on fire, before (allegedly) saying to the headliner, Chuck Berry, “Follow that!”, but the livewire act …

Another week, another batch of singles fresh out of the oven. A mixture of established names and some artists starting on their journey, all worthy of your attention, regardless of placement in the pecking order. Here are just a few of the current singles catching our attention. Click on the …

Brad Marr. Aussie now residing in Germany. One of the good guys. Formerly the frontman of the bloody Aussie nutters Massive. One of the best livewire acts around at the time, and also one of the unluckiest. They would book a tour, then a day later, some of the biggest …

With the advent of streaming and AI-created music, music is, as we are constantly reminded, becoming more disposable. Kudos to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for banning wholly or primarily AI-generated tracks from its official charts; a move that far more countries should replicate. But that won’t stop people from …

Studio album number 14 for Kamelot has the multinational band delving into concept album territory. Set within the halls of Victorian-era RavenHill Asylum, ‘Dark Asylum’ conjures up cinematic imagery of fictional establishments like Arkham Asylum and Peter Jackson’s early masterpiece, ‘The Frighteners’, where the backstory is that two delinquents went …

Any band reaching studio album number five is quite an achievement; for Mexican trio The Warning, though, that achievement is made all the more impressive by the fact that the band are still so young. At 26, guitarist/vocalist Daniela “Dany” Villarreal is the oldest, drummer/vocalist Paulina “Pau” Villarreal is 24, …

It’s been a long-held belief around these parts that somebody needs to get Kris Barras over to America and onto one of those humongous festivals like Rocklahoma. 2024’s ‘Halo Effect’ was a huge step in that direction and an album built for international stages. The soon-to-be-released follow-up, ‘Monsters We Made’, …

Hollywood Vampires started as a simple enough premise – putting together a bar-band to honour dead friends and music legends – but has grown wings into a fully fledged touring and recording outfit that convenes when it can and puts on one hell of a show. The four main stars …