rock/metal albums
Album Review: The Wildhearts – 21st Century Love Songs
The follow up to 2019’s ‘Renaissance Men’, sees Ginger Wildheart, CJ, Rich Battersby and Danny McCormack back in the studio to drop another tub-thumper of a record. The fact these guys are still doing this and writing at this level of brilliance needs to be heard. Ginger comments: “Renaissance Men reminded me of our first album, Earth Vs …
Album Review: Rituals – Awake EP
Newcastle metal band Rituals have been teasing audiences for a while now by dropping various singles over the last couple of years. Now the band have dropped their EP Awake full of driving powerful modern metal ready to fill many a mosh pit. ‘Awake’ rough sounding vocals with thunderous accompaniment from the crashing guitar, pounding …
Album Review: Leprous- Aphelion
Leprous were like many bands during the pandemic who had their touring plans put on hold, they band used the time to re-enter the studio to create their seventh full-length album. Titled Aphelion it comes on the heels of their previous album ‘Pitfalls’. Pieced together in three different studios, Aphelion is a collection of dynamic …
Album Review: Tedeschi Trucks Band – Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN’)
A little history, for the uninitiated; on the 9th November 1970, a certain young guitarist called Eric Clapton and his blues/rock band Derek and the Dominoes released their first (and only) studio album, ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’. Despite Clapton’s latter-day ‘elder statesman of guitar’ status, the album flopped commercially – despite the critics’ favour …
Album Review: The Cold Stares – Heavy Shoes
Rock n roll duo The Cold Stares, have release their new album Heavy Shoes via Mascot Records. Recorded largely at Sam Phillips Recording Studio, Memphis and mixed by Mark Needham (The Killers) and mastered by Andy Vandette (Beastie Boys/Smashing Pumpkins), Heavy Shoes is their heaviest record yet. “I tend to try to write like you’re reading a book. It’s descriptive, …
EP: Swedish Magazines release the otherworldly rockabilly of Worried Sick
Under the direction of a certain Hull resident Tom Fish, Manchester based Swedish Magazines have released their new ep/mini-album (delete as appropriate) Worried Sick, on magnificent cassette via the brilliant DIY outfit, Alphaville Records. Fittingly, especially on further investigation, it was recorded in a bedsit on a laptop with, at least if the press release …
Album Review: Billy F Gibbons – Hardware
What to say about the Reverend Billy F Gibbons, one third of boogie-rock legends ZZ Top and with a career at the forefront of Texas Blues for over fifty years? With a vocal growl as distinctive as the tone of Pearly Gates, his legendary ’59 Les Paul, and an otherworldly feel for the Texas shuffle, …
Album Review: Rich Ragany and the Digressions – Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache
Why is Rich Ragany not consistently selling-out theatres and gracing the covers of the likes of Mojo and The Wire? That’s a question that repeatedly came to mind during the first couple of listens through new album Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache. So, for the uninitiated, first – some history; ‘Rags’, Canadian-born but now firmly London-based, …
Album Review: Twenty One Pilots – ‘Scaled and Icy’: eternally evolving and enigmatic
Eclectic alt-rock duo Twenty One Pilots have gone fully out of the box with their ambitious new album Scaled and Icy. Released Friday 21st May via Fueled by Ramen, their sixth offering sees them head in lighter directions than predecessors Vessel, Blurryface and Trench whilst still remaining fully cemented into their conceptual universe. Instantly reminiscent …