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***** Out of this world
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Latest Album Reviews
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Latest Gig Reviews
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Gig review: THE DARKER MY HORIZON – Dirty Rockers, Dudley, Saturday 24 October 2020
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Gig review: MARK MORRISS- Cabbage Patch, Twickenham, 3 October 2020
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Gig review: GARY FLETCHER AND NICK RITCHIE – Cabbage Patch, Twickenham, 2 October 2020
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Gig review: COLLATERAL – Leo’s, The Red Lion, Gravesend, Friday 4 September 2020
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Gig review: THE DARKER MY HORIZON – The Victoria, Swindon, Thursday 27 August 2020
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Featured Album Reviews
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Single & EP Reviews
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News
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Features
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Feature: Collectible Collections – MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND – 40th Anniversary Box Set
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Feature: Albums that time forgot … NATIVE CAIN – The Primitive Soul
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Feature: Albums that time forgot…EUROPE – Secret Society
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Feature: Albums that time forgot…JAMES LABRIE – Elements Of Persuasion
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Feature: Albums that time forgot…DON DOKKEN – Up From The Ashes
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Feature: Albums that time forgot … CODE OF SILENCE – Dark Skies Over Babylon
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Tag Archives: heavy metal
Album review: VOODOO CIRCLE – Locked & Loaded

AFM Records [Release date 15.01.21] Locked & Loaded is Voodoo Circle’s love letter to Led Zeppelin and Whitesnake. We should all be delighted that Alex Beyrodt got the band back together again. The classic line up, we mean. The team … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts
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Tagged AFM Records, album, Alex Beydrot, David Readman, hard rock, heavy metal, Locked & Loaded, review, rock, VOODOO CIRCLE
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Feature: Albums that time forgot…JAMES LABRIE – Elements Of Persuasion

InsideOut (2005) For many band members, the band becomes all consuming. It means, as a result of the constant cycle of touring, writing and recording, they can’t deliver their own solo album. There are 15 years between John Petrucci’s first … Continue reading →
Posted in Albums that time forgot, All Posts, FEATURES
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Tagged album, Dream Theater, Elements Of Persuasion, feature, heavy metal, James LaBrie, Marco Sfogli, Matt Guillory, Mike Mangini, nu-metal, progressive metal, review
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Album review: BLACK SABBATH – Paranoid (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe)

BMG [Release date 09.10.20] Another year. Another anniversary. At the dawn of heavy metal as we know it, 1970, Black Sabbath released their second album which went on to achieve multi-million selling status. A fan favourite it yielded a handful … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, Reissues
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Tagged 50th anniversary, album, Bill Ward, Black Sabbath, box set, Doom, Geezer Butler, heavy metal, interview, Ozzy Osbourne, Paranoid, review, super deluxe, Tony Iommi
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News: WIN a copy of BLACK SABBATH Paranoid – 50th anniversary super deluxe box set

Celebrating the 50th anniverary of the multi-million selling album ‘Paranoid’ BMG release a 5-LP/4CD edition on October 9th, featuring the vinyl debut of two 1970 concerts. We have a copy of the CD version and the vinyl super deluxe edition … Continue reading →
Posted in Competitions, NEWS
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Tagged 50th anniversary, Bill Ward, Black Sabbath, box set, competition, Geezer Butler, heavy metal, Ozzy Osbourne, Paranoid, super deluxe, Tony Iommi, win
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Feature: Albums that time forgot … BLACKTHORNE – Afterlife

Music For Nations (1993) Graham Bonnet’s career started in the late 1960s with a conventional pop approach and early solo albums. It was only in 1979 when he came to Ritchie Blackmore’s attention as a potential frontman of Rainbow (replacing … Continue reading →
Posted in Albums that time forgot, All Posts, FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, Radio interview
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Tagged Afterlife, album, Alcatrazz, Blackthorne, feature, Graham Bonnet, heavy metal, heavy rock, Jimmy Waldo, review
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Album review: BLUE OYSTER CULT – Iheart Radio Theater NYC 2012

Frontiers [Release date 08.05.20] An invited audience of 200 lucky fans saw Blue Oyster Cult live on stage at the IHeart Radio Theater in New York in 2012. The event noisily celebrated the band’s 40th year together, expertly recorded by … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts
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Tagged album, Blue Oyster Cult, Buck Dharma, classic rock, Eric Bloom, Frontiers, hard rock, heavy metal, Iheart Radio Theater NYC 2012, live, review, rock
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Feature: What SAXON mean to me…

Saxon have been a life-long passion for Joe Geesin who has followed the band since the mid-1980s. More recently he has contributed sleeve notes and curation to several re-issues. And now he’s ready to write the band’s biography… Barnsley born … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, FEATURES, What a Band/Artist means to me...
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Tagged albums, Biff Byford, heavy metal, heavy rock, history, Paul Quinn, review, Saxon
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Feature: Albums that time forgot – GRAND PRIX – Samurai

Chrysalis [1983] Back in 1983 I ventured along to my first gig on my own at the tender age of 14 to see Iron Maiden at the Playhouse in Edinburgh (Friday 13th May to be exact) and what a show … Continue reading →
Posted in Albums that time forgot, All Posts, FEATURES
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Tagged 1983, album, Andy Bernie, Bernie Shaw, CD, Edinburgh Playhouse, Grand Prix, heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Mick O'Donoghue, Phil Lanzon, Ralph Hood, review, Robin McAuley, rock, Samurai, There For None To See
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Album review: CIRITH UNGOL – Forever Black

Metal Blade Records [Release date 24.04.20] Cirith Ungol are a band I have been aware of for many years (with a name like that, they are hard to ignore!) however until now I have been oblivious to their history or … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts
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Tagged album, CD, Cirith Ungol, Forever Black, Greg Lindstrom, grunge, heavy metal, Jim Barraza, review, Robert Garven, rock, Tim Barker, Twisted Sister
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Feature: Call Collect – An introduction to DEMON

Jason Ritchie highlights the recording history of NWOBHM band Demon Formed in Stoke back in the NWOBHM the band initially lived up to their name with singer Dave Hill rising up from coffins on stage, along with lots of devil references … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, Call Collect, FEATURES
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Tagged classic rock, Dave Hill, DEMON, feature, hard rock, heavy metal, introduction, melodic rock, NWOBHM, prog rock, review
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Feature: Call Collect – An introduction to BLUE OYSTER CULT

Jason Ritchie picks out some of the key albums from the heavy metal masters Formed from the late 60’s band Soft White Underbelly, Blue Oyster Cult (BOC) are often dubbed ‘the thinking man’s heavy metal band’. But for me they … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, Call Collect, FEATURES
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Tagged Albert Bouchard, An Introduction, Blue Oyster Cult, Buck Dharma, Call Collect, Classic Albums, classic rock, Eric Bloom, feature, hard rock, heavy metal, melodic rock
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Album review: RAGE – Wings Of Rage

SPV/Steamhammer [Release date 10.01.20] Every family has a black sheep. That one relative who never gets invited to Christmas lunch. Rage are that family member, the unhinged uncle who is usually locked in an attic or roaming around the woods. … Continue reading →
Gig review: BLACK SABBATH 50TH ANNIVERSARY PLAYBACK – Number 10, Hackney, 11 February 2020

Most of us listen to music while distracted by other things. Commute to work, at home or live venue. But what if there were no other distractions around you? Just you and the music, in the dark – would you … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, GIG REVIEWS, Special Events
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Tagged Bill Ward, Black Sabbath, blues, classic rock, event, Geezer Butler, heavy metal, Ozzy Osbourne, playback, review, rock, Tony Iommi
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Gig review: POWERWOLF – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, 28 October 2018

It is immensely gratifying to have a band, whose career you have been closely following since day one, reach such great levels of success – case in point here being the German Heavy/Power Metallers Powerwolf. Not many people were supportive … Continue reading →
Posted in GIG REVIEWS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Gig reviews
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Tagged 8 October 2018, Amaranthe, Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, gig, heavy metal, Kissin’ Dynamite, melodic metal, power metal, powerwolf, review
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Gig review: PRIMAL FEAR – Biebob, Vosselaar, 12 October 2018

Ask me to compose a list with the best Metal albums for 2018 and you are almost certainly guaranteed to find Primal Fear’s latest studio effort “Apocalypse” somewhere near the very top. It may be a good two decades since … Continue reading →
Posted in GIG REVIEWS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Gig reviews
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Tagged 12 October 2018, Belgium, Biebob, gig, heavy metal, metal, Primal Fear, Ralph Scheepers, review, Riot V, Vosselaar
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Gig review: SAXON – Barrowlands, Glasgow,18 October 2018

Saxon, as Biff reminded us during tonight’s show, are rapidly approaching their 40th anniversary. With this in mind the band would be forgiven if they decided to slow down a bit and started taking things a bit easier. However, on tonight’s … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, GIG REVIEWS
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Tagged 18th October 2018, Barrowlands, Biff Byford, Denim And Leather, FM, gig, Glasgow, heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Jim Kirkpatrick, live, Nigal Glockler, review, rock, Saxon, Steve Overland, Toby Jepson, Wayward Sons, Wheels Of Steel
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Album review: SAXON – The Eagle Has Landed

BMG [Release date 19.10.18] To coincide nicely with their latest opus Thunderbolt, we get this reissue of Saxon’s classic 1982 live album. This rounds off the BMG reissues of the Carrere and Phonogram catalogue. Originally a single LP, this comes … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews, Reissues
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Tagged album, Biff Byford, classic metal, heavy metal, live, metal, MWOBHM, re-issue, review, Saxon, The Eagle Has Landed
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Gig review: IRON MAIDEN – 02 Arena, London, 10 August 2018

Photo: Andy Nathan It would not be an exaggeration to describe Iron Maiden as the people’s band. They inspire remarkable loyalty among their vast army of fans – I don’t think I have never seen a higher percentage of gig … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, GIG REVIEWS
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Tagged 10 August 2018, Adrian Smith, Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, gig, heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Janick Gers, Legacy of the Beast, London, O2 Arena, review, Steve Harris
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Album review: SAXON – Denim And Leather, Power And The Glory, Crusader (reissues)

BMG [Release date 25.05.18] BMG continue with their Saxon reissue campaign and have produced fine editions of their fourth, fifth and sixth albums. And we can announce these the same week as the first three remasters (Saxon, Wheels Of Steel … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, Reissues
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Tagged Biff Byford, classic rock, Crusader, Denim And Leather, heavy metal, Power And The Glory, re-issue, Saxon
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Album review: RAVEN – Wiped Out

Dissonance Productions [Release date 27.04.18] Formed in the north of England in the mid 70s by brothers John (bass, and vocals) and Mark (guitar) Gallagher, Raven were a trio associated with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Playing what … Continue reading →
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, Reissues
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Tagged album, hard rock, heavy metal, metal, NWOBHM, RAVEN, re-issue, review, Wipe Out
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