VENUE: OVO Arena WembleyDATE: 04.02.2023 ORGANIZER: AEG Presents and Live Nation in association with X-Ray Saturday night in old London town is always a treat but even more so when such stellar acts as Danko Jones, The Darkness, and Black Stone Cherry are set to take the stage at OVO Arena Wembley in front…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/landfallofficial/ I was very fond of Landfall’s debut album titled The Turning Point (2020) as it boasted great songs with a sense of immediacy and youthful vigor to them, so naturally, I was curious as to how their latest offering, Elevate, would turn out. Sadly, it fails to capitalize on the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://geistofouachita.bandcamp.com/album/black-feudal-savagery My brother recently made me aware of this killer split EP by the two US black metal hordes known as Geist of Ouachita and Eternal Tomb with each act contributing three tracks to this slice of unholy filth, and I am forever grateful to him for turning me on to…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/AfterLapseOfficial/ Highly dynamic prog metal courtesy of the Spanish outfit After Lapse is what we have here, and these guys are a tight and capable unit, perfectly suited to evoking a sense of drama by means of strong choruses and heartfelt melodies. The diversity of the material is appealing, and there…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://omnibuspress.com/ Renowned musician and songwriter Kid Congo Powers, whose musical resume is rather impressive and includes stints with the Cramps, The Gun Club, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, published this deeply evocative and engrossing memoir of his via the brilliant Omnibus Press a few months ago. If you did…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/czarne-wizje This fierce and vicious assault on the senses by the Polish artillery known as Garota was a nice surprise to these ears in that I have never come across their name earlier on nor did I know what to expect when I pressed play. Highly aggressive to the point of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-woods The album artwork and overall presentation of this great looking digipak immediately caught my eye and seemed intriguing. It is therefore with a profound sense of satisfaction that I can tell you, my freaky underground friends, that this American outfit delivers a potent and effective slab of crushing death metal…
The Welsh outfit known as King Kraken blew this writer away by means of their inspired and incredibly well-written debut offering titled MCLXXX, which was released in late January this year, and few albums are as heavy and memorable as this one. There is passion in spades to be found in each song and every…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/nie A deeply unsettling and inhumanly raw slab of noise-infused black metal is what this sinister Polish horde offers. Hypnotic and trance-inducing are certainly words that come to mind when immersing oneself in these hellish and oppressive soundscapes, and everything about this musical endeavor reeks of misanthropy and contempt. Dark vocals…
VENUE: GrieghallenDATE: 28.01.2023 ORGANIZER: Stageway What better way to spend the early part of a Saturday evening than witnessing the immensely talented The Nordic Floyd Show pay tribute to their heroes, Pink Floyd? It has actually become a tradition of sorts to attend one of the act’s performances in Bergen, Oslo, or some other…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: http://www.frontiers.it/album/5838 Tommy DeCarlo (Boston) possesses an impressive set of pipes and is undoubtedly a great singer and front man, but this album entitled Dancing in the Moonlight, which is primarily written by Frontiers Records’ in-house composer and musician Alessandro Del Vecchio, is a huge letdown and utterly forgettable. AOR and soft…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://robmoratti.net/ The talented Rob Moratti (ex-Saga) has a new record out that showcases both his excellent singing and great compositional skills, and although it is a slick and polished offering that falls somewhere between melodic rock and AOR, it also possesses some nice (albeit subtle) prog rock flavors and heaps of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dVETbP5NLiYQFPtVIA3Na The Brazilian melodic rock/AOR outfit known as Tarmat is a real pleasant surprise to these ears as this quartet delivers some incredibly well-written, pristine-sounding tunes that lean toward the magical vibes of Toto, Journey, Boston, and to a lesser extent Europe. Did you say earworms and irresistible hooks? Fear not…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://www.enuffznuff.com/ Their 17th studio album sees Chip Z’Nuff and his skilled bandmates in fine form as they deliver a well-crafted slab of power pop, which essentially means that all the group’s trademarks with respect to melody lines and atmospheres and so on are firmly in place throughout and that the mixture…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/autographband/ The latest release by Autograph is a bittersweet affair in that it is both musically solid and a hugely enjoyable listen but sadly, it also marks the last recorded output by founding member and bass player extraordinaire Randy Rand as he passed away before this well-written album saw the light…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://www.statusquo.co.uk/ The legendary Status Quo have made some excellent and noteworthy recordings in the noughties as evidenced by this 3-disc set containing a nice mixture of classics, rarities, overlooked gems, and even a previously unreleased live show from 2008. This is quite the interesting release in that it displays just how…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://tusm-rke.bandcamp.com/album/intetnett We would be remiss if we did not mention this charming and quirky children’s album by the Norwegian purveyors of psychedelic prog rock known as Tusmørke. Entitled Intetnett and consisting of 21 tunes and a rather brilliant concept and storyline, this is a hugely entertaining and inventive opus that is…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022BAND URL: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ECxgPVegGSXTfZyVzJ786 Featuring the inimitable Johnny Gioeli (Hardline) on vocals, Enemy Eyes is truly a delight to these ears in that this skilled new outfit combines classic heavy metal with hard rock, and the result is deeply satisfying to immerse oneself in. First of all, it genuinely sounds like a true and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/ArcOfLifeRockBand/ I was quite enamored with the self-titled debut album from last year by these gentlemen and thought that it contained some superbly written and exciting prog rock tunes with heaps of atmosphere and cracking good ideas to them. In many respects, Don’t Look Down offers more of the same, and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://omnibuspress.com/collections/frontpage/products/the-jam-1982-published-on-17th-november-2022 What a marvelous piece of work this visually stunning book on that tumultuous yet highly productive year in The Jam’s life that was 1982 is. That was the fateful year when front man Paul Weller decided to lay The Jam to rest following an intensely creative spell from 1977…
