Category Cd Reviews

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Chantal Claret is best known as the singer from US rock band Morningwood, and also as the wife of Mindless Self Indulgence singer Jimmy Urine. Her latest album is a somewhat different sound to her normal rock music. The album was released in the US last year and is now getting a UK release. The album, ”The one, the only…” takes 60s girl pop and soul and adds some modern rock and hip hop to give a sound that is both modern and vintage at the same time.

This is one of those rare albums these days – one that stands out as totally different to most other album releases. There are lots of great albums, but most fall into a genre such as rock or folk and while most bands have their own sound, they do usually have a strong resemblance to other bands in the genre...

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Heidi Talbot is a singer from County Kildare in Ireland, who spent several years in New York as part of the group Cherish the ladies. Her first solo album after leaving ”Cherish the ladies” in 2008, ”In love and light” got great reviews, but it wasn’t till her 2010 album ”The last star” that she started writing her own songs. Now she is back with her latest album, ”Angels without wings” (her fifth solo album). As well as her usual team of musicians, she has two guests on the album, both of who are acclaimed guitarists – Jerry Douglas and Mark Knopfler...

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”Another step” is the debut album from Manchester band City Reign. The band comprises the songwriting duo of Chris Bull and Mike Grice along with Duncan Bolton and Ryan Ashton. After moving to Manchester to study, Chris and Mike met at a Ryan Adams gig – the band’s name comes from his song ”City Rain, City Streets”.
The band have released three singles – ”Making plans”, ”Out in the cold” and ”Daybreak” as well as an EP (Numbers for street names). Now they are releasing their debut album on their own record label.

The album was recorded in Salford’s Sacred Trinity Church, so instead of a recording studio where everything is designed to control echoes and the sound bouncing, the the stone walls and high ceiling give a very different recording environment...

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Finnish power metal band Stratovarius are due to release their new studio album, Nemesis, in late February. Fans though can get a taste of the new album with the new EP, Unbreakable, which is being released on 25th January.
The EP consists of five tracks – one new song (Unbreakable) taken from the forthcoming album, Nemesis, plus four songs from earlier albums that have been remastered for this release. Effectively then it’s the first single from the new album, but the presence of four remastered tracks makes it far more appealing than a typical single.

Starting with the new song – Unbreakable, it opens with some nice keyboards, the guitars and drums quickly kick in, followed soon after by the vocals...

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American female fronted band Upon Wings are due to release their Afterlife EP in March. The EP features some guest vocals from Brett Hestla (ex-Creed, Dark New Day) and was mastered by Kid Rock recording engineer Glenn Brown.

Opening track ”Afterlife” is absolutely superb. Vocally the best comparisons are probably Epica and Delain, and musically Delain are definitely a good comparison too. A very impressive start to the EP.

”Take away” is a heavier track with the guitars and drums being harder and making it more of a metal track.

”The dream” has an operatic vocal style for the main vocals with some beautiful haunting vocals alongside them and the music is kept fairly soft and in the background. It’s a beautiful track.

The final track, ”You are my weapon” is another metal track...

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HELLO CATHOUSE!- extremely new single from Babylon Bombs

Hard rock and sleaze in the air- as we love to feel it in bones everywhere. Swedish band from Stockholm seems actually unstoppable.. So, are you ready?

New single from Babylon Bombs is available in 7 days! „It’s a song written as a homage to a good friend of ours and his great rock ’n roll club, which we have played in so many times, since 2005. Cathouse is a kinda catchy-feel good song, perfect in that party-playlist before a wild night out!”- tells the band before secret will turn out to the rock world’s sunshine. Spirit of sleaze is totally owns the tune, and also the audience will be rocked by listening that kind of cool and wild memories of great rock n’ roll times...

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AOR Records/Sound Pollution

Behind the moniker PHOENIX RISING stands guitarist Andrea Maddalone (NEW TROLLS, session musician) and lead vocalist/drummer Titta Tani (ASHENT, GOBLIN etc). After a successful EP, “Give It a Name” in 2012 the band were on their way. They state influences like BOSTON, JOURNEY, PRIDE OF LIONS and GIANT, and they seem to be aiming very high.

The eighties poppy opener “No Lie to Say” boosts electronic sounding retro drums, a nice chorus but alas not the star quality of their peers. On the other hand that may well be the weaker spot on the album, odd choice for an opener. And “It´s Up to You and Me” will not please the target group of listeners either...

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Frontiers/BAM

Here´s a new one, imagine three guys, members or associated with Italian heavy metal band LABYRINTH doing a moderns sounding hard rock album?! Well this is not a mirage, it has happened. Guitarist Andrea Cantarelli, bassist/vocalist Roberto Tiranti and drum ace Alessandro Bissa /VISION DIVINE) are A PERFECT DAY, and have debuted with Frontiers Records.

On the strong side this album contains a lot of well played and highly skilled melodic hard rock. The voice suits the music, the songs are of a quality that would work in many genres..but it is very modern sounding in places. Their self titled opener has a touch of its own, but the refrain can´t reach as high as possible due to the modern sound...

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Swiss melodic death metal band Dreamshade formed in 2006, and in 2008 released their debut EP – To The Edge Of Reality. After two years of touring and playing festivals including Metalfest, Metalcamp and Summer Breeze open air, they signed to Spinefarm records. In January 2011 they released their debut album (What silence hides). Since then they’ve been busy touring, playing more festivals and recording their second album – The gift of life. Now that album is ready to be released. The band recorded the album in their own recording studio and then brought in Jacob Hansen, a man with a seriously impressive reputation, to handle the mixing and mastering.

Guitarist Rocco Ghielmini says of the album ”The songs’ lyrics are mainly about common life situations: questions, torments, thoughts, ...

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Swedish rock band takes our head again..

Rock, we could say, is the genre, what everybody knows. Maybe not like, or love, like thousands and millions of funs all over the world, just simply knows. Anyway the name is with us: in movie titles, on t-shirts, and so on, and so on.. And this is what actually counts. So what? Rock is important, heroic, and gives us emotions. Last but not least people likes to think that it’s even so easy to write a rock melody. Ojjoj: false. You will only like or love the actual song, if you feel or find the soul in. Soul of rock. The real one I mean.

Stallion Four guys give us the chance to find this soul, what we need. (I try to be not so emotional- blame rock music!) On the other side there is also the part of the great eighties...