Category Cd Reviews

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“Un-American Gothic” is the first solo album from Hayseed Dixie frontman John Wheeler. The rockgrass band have toured intensively and after performing over one thousand live shows and ten albums they’ve decided to take a couple of years off from Hayseed Dixie. John Wheeler has chosen to spend some of this time off to make a solo album that lets hum explore different musical styles and lyrical subjects.

The album includes two covers – ”Masters of War” by Bob Dylan, and ”Eton rifles” by The Jam, and nine original tracks which cover subjects including the banking crisis and more personal subjects or feelings.

Taking the lyrics first of all, this is a beautifully written album. Songs such as ”Deeper in debt” cover serious subjects but with a bit of wit thrown in...

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”North” is the debut solo album from Irish folk singer Mary Dillon. During the 1990s she was a member of Irish band Deanta, but after more than a decade away from the music scene she’s back as a solo artist. Mary comes from a musical family – her grandmothers were both traditional singers, and her sister Cara is also a well know traditional Irish singer.

The album contains a mix of traditional songs and new songs, with all the songs linked to the North of Ireland. The production is nice and simple – stripped down to the acoustic guitar and the vocal, and this really focusses attention onto two things – Mary’s voice, but more importantly the lyrics.

While the whole album is excellent, my favourite song is ”John Condon”, which tells the story of a 14 year old boy during the first world war...

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Brice plays drums formed in 2007 as a three-piece and have had various lineup changes. They blend styles of music including Jazz and Prog rock and certainly can’t be considered mundane in their lyrical influences. They say they are inspired by novels from Nietzche, Dostoyevsky, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Goethe, Albert Camus, to name a few – certainly not a typical list of influences you’ll hear a band quoting.

The first surprise for me was when I put the CD into the PC and saw that the three songs are all long – two being over 12 minutes and the third being over 18 minutes, so the three songs have a running time of 42 minutes in total

”Freight train blues” is quite a misleading title. I’d envisaged a real blues track, but the music here certainly wasn’t what I’d expected...

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Frontiers/BAM

Norwegian rock diva ISSA, or Isabell Oversveen, is getting a lot of attention for her efforts. First up was her debut “Sign of Angels” in 2010 and then came follow-up in 2011, “The Storm”, both were rewarded rather gratuitously, but not by me. This time around ISSA goes for 12 tracks of past glories, as she sets out to put her mark on classics by the likes of 21 GUNS, TANGIER, BLVD etc. Not a single track of her own means safety in a way, at least amongst genre buffs, but also that she will be put to the test and compared with legends.

AVIATOR`s “Can´t Stop” opens the exam. Though ISSA has a certain edge to her voice she does the track justice. The AOR magic is complete with dexterous keyboards and solid backing overall from HARDLINE personnel...

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Funklord Dynasty

NUBIAN ROSE seems pretty much a vehicle for the charismatic front woman Sofia Lilja. Great reviews and a favorable release in their native Sweden have paved way for this unashamed 80´s party. Lots of radio potential and somewhere between DIO and JOURNEY the info states, let´s see…

Opener “Ever See Your Face” is pretty much in the promised vein; rather basic though efficient, but very Scandinavian. The title track has a more gritty riff, and leans far more in the direction of DIO. The moving balladry of “How Am I” reminisces of RICHARD MARX, and is a fine contribution to the overall impression...

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Massacre/Sound Pollution

East Germans (yes, they´ve been at it since 1985) are the epitome of bad luck and oppression. Being one of the first on the East side of the famous Berlin wall they toured like crazy and won heaps of fans. But the regime banned them, and when that finally changed in 1989, their lead vocalist Detlef Wittenburg committed suicide and the band split. One reunion later, in 1993, drummer Rico Sauermann took his own life. The body count almost matches that of Shakespeare´s drama. Another decade passed, but then another return, then as now with bassist Hanjo Pabst and guitarist Ralf Klein, the ubiquitous members. Newer boys on the block are vocalist Olli Hippauf, guitarist Alexander Kopp, and drummer Simon Mengs. Who came aboard after their second album...

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Black Lodge/Sound Pollution

HYSTERICA are back for a second stab at world domination. This album is said to incorporate classic metal, melodic metal, doom and power metal, that ought to have pretty much all basses covered? Since last time keyboard player Marydeath has joined, but is the all-round approach right?

The general feeling is not that of classic metal, since there is sharpness to the sound, and, quite often, a bit of growl that I did not detect seeing them live at Sävsjöfestivalen in their early days. I also find the album lacking refrains, and it takes until the rather beautiful “Message” before I find anything on offer interesting. Unfortunately the last half of the album only raises hell in “Force”, as they leave out the growl and provide a reasonable refrain...

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Being a modern youth(ish) it is fair to say I come supplied with a degree of self-obsession. So when I saw a band called Te’ were up for review, I of course assumed it was some sort Yorkshire thing and having spent most of my formative years in Yorkshire I thought “aye, I’ll ‘ave a bit o’ that love”, under the assumption it was ‘te’ as in “I’m off te’ park” or something similarly colloquial. Incorrect, well just goes to show I should pay attention to the wider world and maybe read more. Te’ are definitely based in the wider world, hailing from Japan the band formed in 2004, ‘Therefore, the illusion of density breach, the tottering world “forget” tomorrow’ is their fourth album, and notably to followers of the band, it is the first album to feature new bassist Matsuda...

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A review of SYN:DROM’s Iconoclasm

By Amanda Beadman

Iconoclasm is the latest offering from Swedish death metal band SYN:DROM. The release launches itself at the world without a backward step in the opening song, Black Dawn, with a brain drilling drum assault that sets the pace and the standard for the unravelling of the first two tracks.
There are occasional disruptive jolts to the relentless rhythm and growling, intense vocals, with these deviations more often adopting a cut and thrust formula where the guitar spirits itself out from beneath the density of the vocal layering to momentarily take centre stage – before ushering the commanding vocals back into their centrifugal position of dominance.
There are moments when the frenetic pace of the drums seems almost matched by the guitar,...

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Classic punk-rock music is not always the easiest thing to find nowadays. Often, the sound is mistaken for the likes of boy-band, pseudo punk types who croon about lost loves and past transgressions; and many would claim the true, gritty punk sound has left the music industry.

But that is not always the case. English band The Machines newest release, The Machines is not a far cry from the classic punk sound. The band, from Southerland-on-Sea have been playing together since 1977, so it is no surprise the album hails towards a more authentic punk-rock sound.

The album opens with Racing. This song provides an energetic sound with a strong opening...