Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

German pagan metal godfathers ADORNED BROOD returns with their eight albums since 1996. Since their beginning in 1993 the band seems to have matured and developed, plus toured a lot since 2010 and “Hammerfeste”. Surely a gig in Sao Paolo in December must have been an artist bonus as cold as this winter has been. Arrangements, instrumentation combined with groovy folk melodies and classical metal seems to be the way to go according to the info sheet. Let´s find out.

“Einkehr” opens the proceedings with a jolly folk party, complete with pomp and all. The title track really combines a lot into one track, in a convincing way. The same goes for “Call of the Wild”. But the grand epic “Victory or Valhall” doesn´t really tick all that many boxes...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

The second album by strangely southern sounding band from Germany offers both surprises and letdowns. DIRT has been around since 2008, and says that they play sludge and doom with a strong addition of blues and southern rock. How´s that for a change? Can they marry the new religion with the old landed gentry of rock?

Opener “Seven Days” can´t really do anything. The sheer boring factor of a very simple drum pattern over a stubborn but pointless refrain with only the slightest addition of…ZAKK WYLDE´S trademarks does nothing for me. “Dirty” is like another band taking over. It´s groovy and has the right refrain and formula. The same goes for the prowler of a title track that really has me wanting more...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Frontiers/BAM

TEN formed about 20 years ago, as vocalist GARY HUGHES was preparing a new solo album and had a big song surplus. 1996 saw their album debut with “X” and now they also have 10 albums to celebrate. There has been a lot of member changes, as celebrities like Don Airey, Vinny Burns, Ged Rylands and Mark Zoner (of FATES WARNING) have come and gone. Apart from ubiquitous band leader, vocalist, programmer and guitarist Gary the line-up consists of guitarists Dan Mitchel and John Halliwell, bassist Steve McKenna, keyboardist Darrel Treece-Birch and drummer Max Yates.

The album is more mixed and uneven than I wished for. They know their RAINBOW tendencies and they have lots of melody but “The Gates of Jerusalem is only ok. But the restrained feeling is omnipresent on the disc...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Emanes Metal Records

INFINITE TRANSLATION may not be the most metal name of 2012, but the band has been at it since 2004. Formed by lead guitarist/vocalist Max Maniac and drummer Fish Killer they opted for both classic heavy metal and thrash, but soon decided to stick with the latter. This was especially clear after their debut “Impulsive Attack” in 2010. The lineup is completed by bassist Jon Whiplash and rhythm guitarist Guillautine. Can´t wait to hear this one…
For being a Frenchie Max has a very authentic Bay Area voice. Opener “Malicious Mental Oppression” has a small share of acoustic picking before thrash mayhem ensues. No double bass drums of cause, and vary old school all in all...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Wearing their modern and classic rock influences well and truly on their sleeves Oslo’s Motorfinger have their sights set on rock world domination with their new EP ‘Black Mirror’. Citing their inspiration from such bands as Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden you get what you’d expect from them. If you are partial to the slickly produced, heavy leaning alt-rock of the very late 90’s and early 00’s then Motorfinger should be top of your new bands to look out for list. ‘Bastards and Sins’ kicks off the bands 3 track offering with plenty of guitar effects before belting out a lovely chugging bass set to lyrics from frontman Maurice Adams, clearly a man who means what he’s singing with his vocals delving into the James Hetfield style of delivery at times...

Posted in Cd Reviews

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...

Posted in Press Releases

John Wheeler
“Un-American Gothic”
February 4th on Cooking Vinyl

‘This straight debut from [Hayseed Dixie] front man is a welcome diversion – Uncut

‘An album of mature acoustic material’ – Classic Rock

‘While this can be seen as Wheeler’s ‘serious’ album that’s not to say it’s devoid of fun […] his wry lyrics and sharp songwriting make for a surprisingly strong debut away from the rockgrass behemoth’ – Total Guitar

“Un-American Gothic” is John Wheeler’s first solo record, written entirely on the road during 2011. Best known for the past decade as the creator and frontman of the successful Rockgrass act, Hayseed Dixie, the band had spent nearly 9 months on the road and every mile of that tour John traveled, himself, on motorbike...

Posted in Cd Reviews

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...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Onward 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...

Posted in Press Releases

Twenty years in the making, the Norwegian prog ensemble Farmers Market remains as equally musically complex as they are critically acclaimed. Following their 2008 outing “Surfin’ USSR” (on Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings), the new recordings on “Slav to the Rhythm” have been released by the Oslo-based label Division Records to rave reviews in Norway, and are now set to be released on an unsuspecting British audience.

The former album earned them a Norwegian Grammy in the award ceremony’s open category. A well deserved one, considering their 1991 launch as a free jazz quintet and – with instruments including accordion, kaval, gaida, pedal steel, alt sax, clarinet, banjo, guitars, drums and bass – further venturing into Bulgarian folk and other directions in music...