Hatebreed have now been around for nearly 20 years. In a way it seemed surprising as they certainly don’t strike me as a band that have been around for “a long time”, they’ve just always been there. Always been consistent, retaining their fanbase, their sound, their record output, their integrity and of course tour schedule. They just seem to be one of those bands that keep ‘em coming and before you know it they’ve been around longer than the majority of the young and modern bands, you’ll hear on the radio, will ever hope to stick around for. This is not an easy feat in this day and age...
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Richard Thompson has been described as one of the Top 20 guitarists of all time. He’s a songwriter as well as a guitarist, and has written songs that have been performed by an amazing range of stars including Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, Sandy Denny, Elvis Costello, David Gilmour, REM and many more. He’s won an Ivor Novello award, won a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio, and Mojo’s Les Paul award, amongst other achievements.
While many guitarists release their solo albums as instrumentals, Richard Thompson takes the other route – bringing in singers to work with, which means you get proper songs rather than a series of instrumentals. On this album he is joined by guests including Alison Krauss and Siobhan Maher Kennedy as well as fiddle player Stuart Duncan.
The album is being re...
Read MoreOnward Chariots was formed by Ben Morss, a multi-instrumentalist. He’s recruited a number of other musicians to join him, and the result is an indie-pop album with a whole load of other influences thrown into the mix. The sound is made more varied by the range of instruments used which incluude electronics, Strings, Oboe, Clarinet, Mandolin and Trumpet.
Brief comments on a few tracks…
The album starts with ”Opening”, a short (a minute and a half) track that is atmospheric music with some soft high pitched vocals. It’s an interesting start to the album.
The first real song is ”This is my confession I”. It’s got a real indie-pop feel to it with the guitars.
In contrast the falsetto vocals in the chorus of ”Sisters and brothers” makes it sound more like the Beegees...
Read MoreVic Records/Sound Pollution
The name may not be familiar, but Messrs. Ron Van Der Polder, Adrie Kloosterwaard, Paul Beltman and Bas Brussaard makes you think of SINISTER don´t they? Completely right, we´re talking many original and founding members of the Dutch institution here, who surprisingly enough seem to be on collaborating terms here, but not in their most famed incarnation? The aim seems to be a return to the halcyon days of SOLSTICE, DEMLITION HAMMER and…SINISTER of cause!
This is, not surprisingly, totally old school...
Read MoreEscape Music/Sound Pollution
What do you get if you put LAST AUTUMNS DREAM, COLDSPELL, TEN, JORN and GYPSY ROSE in a blended in the hands of guitarist/bassist/keyboardist/vocalist MIkael Carlsson? Most likely LOVER UNDER COVER. This new band seems out to combine the best of Scandinavia´s rock scene, old and new. With gusts of fame and reputation there is musicality and routine in heeps, but can you do a Manchester City in music?
Opener “My Best Friend” says maybe. There is a nice arrangement and a good refrain, but is that real star quality, or merely QUEENS PARK RANGERS efforts? “Angels Will Cry” is more qualifying with the signature keyboards of Scandinavia and more bite overall, but still not masterful in every aspect...
Read MoreGood Night Music Records/Music Buy Mail/Sound Pollution
Germany as a whole is quite productive on the metal scene, in this case it´s the south that´s rising. Singer and guitarist Tom Schaupp, English bass player Timothy Toing and Canadian drummer Matthew Sting pretty much counts for internationals but are all living in Germany. Influences encompass the likes of AC/CD, JUDAS PRIEST, SAXON, WHITESNAKE and ZZ TOP, so what could possibly go wrong?
If you list influences but don´t use the lion part, it´s pretty useless. Most of the music is based on AC/DC, not least the nicely groovy title track. There is also a pinch of early SAXON, which returns in very small doses along the way. The refrains are pretty bland, not least “Frozen Water” and “My Last Beer”...
Read MoreUniversal have been steadily re-releasing a string of albums over the last couple of years as Deluxe editions with lots of extra material thrown in. They’ve covered a wide range of artists across a range of genres, but now it’s the turn of 80’s pop band Transvision Vamp with their two hit albums, ”Velveteen” and ”Pop art” getting the deluxe edition treatment. Unlike many of the 80s pop acts, Transvision Vamp weren’t a polished result of the Stock-Aitken-Waterman hit factory, but instead combined a punk sound with pop to make some great music which had a lot more of a kick than most of the other music in the charts.
Velveteen was the band’s second album, released in 1989 and reached number one in the UK album charts...
Read MoreUniversal have been steadily re-releasing a string of albums over the last couple of years as Deluxe editions with lots of extra material thrown in. They’ve covered a wide range of artists across a range of genres, but now it’s the turn of 80’s pop band Transvision Vamp with their two hit albums, ”Velveteen” and ”Pop art” getting the deluxe edition treatment. Unlike many of the 80s pop acts, Transvision Vamp weren’t a polished result of the Stock-Aitken-Waterman hit factory, but instead combined a punk sound with pop to make some great music which had a lot more of a kick than most of the other music in the charts.
Pop art was the band’s first album and it reached number four in the UK album charts...
Read MoreKompendium is more an ensemble of musicians than a band as such. It brings together for this project an amazing lineup which includes an amazing array of talent including former and current members of bands including Genesis, It Bites, Porcupine tree, Nightwish, Pendragon, King Crimson, Camel, Magenta and many more, along with a choir, an orchestra and opera singers – see below for a fuller list of the people involved. The aim was to create a concept album on the scale of ”War of the worlds” – while there have been many concept albums in recent years they’ve almost all been pretty much a normal album by a band but with a common story running through the songs...
Read MoreBritish heavy metal legends Saxon are back with their latest album – Sacrifice. It’s their 20th studio album in their 34 year career (they’ve also released 9 live albums and several compilations). The band’s last studio album, Call to arms, was a great album, so expectations for Sacrifice are high. The album was recorded at LS Studios in Yorkshire and was produced by Biff Byford with Andy Sneap mixing and engineering by Jacky Lehmann.
As usual the album will be available in a variety of formats – the standard CD, the limited edition CD which includes a bonus disc , Vinyl picture disc, digital download, and a direct to consumer (D2C) edition. Although details haven’t been released of what will be in the D2C version, they are usually impressive packages aimed at hardcore fans...
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