-
Upcoming Gigs & Albums
Latest Album Reviews
Latest Gig Reviews
GRTR! Greats
Featured Album Reviews
Features
Interviews
Single & EP Reviews
DVD Reviews
Book Reviews
News
Author Archives: brianmc
Album review : DEGREED – Curtain Calls
Frontiers [Release date 24.04.26] Eighth full length album from respected Swedish Hard Rock band, Degreed…Robin Eriksson, Mats Eriksson, Mikael Blanc and Daniel Johansson. Their sound is impossible to categorise. Is it toughened up AOR, melodic hard rock, metallised hard rock … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged AOR, Curtain Calls, Degreed, Frontiers Music, hard rock, Mats Eriksson, review, Robin Eriksson, Swedish
Leave a comment
Album review : GENERATION RADIO – Take 2
Frontiers Music [Release date: 24.04.26] “In the beginning of 2020, Generation Radio came together with the intent to form a band with a purpose — to bring classic 1980s rock back to life.” So says the band’s website. Formed by … Continue reading
Album review: SOMETHING FOR THE LONGING – Scottish Independent Pop 1985-1999 (3 CDs)
Cherry Red [Release Date : 24.04.26] Compiled by Scottish film director, cinematographer and writer, Grant McPhee, Something For The Longing is a deep dive into “Scottish Independent Pop”. A 15 year, widescreen snapshot taken as the 20th Century was coming … Continue reading
Album review : CREYE – IV Aftermath
Frontiers Music [Release date : 24.04.26] Scandi band Creye hit their stride with their fourth album, Aftermath, delivering melodic rock of depth and width, polished, full of neat gearshifts, and verses as strong as the choruses, just about. The fact … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Aftermath, Andreas Gulstrand, AOR, Boybands, Creye, Frontiers Music, melodic rock, review
Leave a comment
Album review : JACK BRUCE – Halfway To The Stars – The Recordings 2001-2003 (5 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date : 24.04.26] Shadows In The Air (2001) More Jack Than God (2003) Live At The Milky Way part 1 (2001, with the Cuicoland Express) Live At The Milky Way part 2 (2001, with the Cuicoland Express) … Continue reading
Album review : URIAH HEEP – Beautiful Dream, The Recordings 1975-77 (4CDs)
Cherry Red [Release date 24.04.26] Return To Fantasy (1975) High And Mighty (1976) Firefly (1977) Innocent Victim (1977) Cherry Red’s latest Uriah Heep boxset, Beautiful Dream, is essentially a follow up to their Shadow And The Wind set released last … Continue reading
Album review : PRAYING MANTIS – The Official Bootleg Boxset Vol 1 – Live In Japan
Cherry Red [Release date : 24.04.26] CD1 : Live From The Bottom Line, Nagoya Japan, 1993 Part One. CD2 : Live From The Bottom Line, Nagoya Japan, 1993 Part Two CD3 : Live From The Bottom Line, Nagoya Japan, 1998 … Continue reading
Album review : FIGHTER V – Deja Vu
Frontiers Music [Release date : 10.04.26] We couldn’t help thinking that we’d heard this album somewhere before. Maybe it’ll come back to us. Deja Vu is the third album from Swiss melodic rock band, Fighter V. Emmo Acar (v), Lobe … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged AOR, David Coverdale, Deja Vu, Emmo Acar, Fighter V, Frontiers Music, melodic rock, review, Steely Dan
Leave a comment
Album review : MICHAEL SWEET – The Master Plan
Frontiers Music [Release date : 03.04.26] The Master Plan is Michael Sweet’s tenth solo album. He’s yet to surpass his largely ignored Truth album from year 2000 (4 stars from Allmusic, Cross Rhythms, and Hard Roxx), but this one might … Continue reading
Album review : JON ANDERSON – Survival And Other Stories / Earth Mother Earth (2 CDs / remasters)
Frontiers Music [Release date: 27.03.26] Yes, you read that right, two Jon (Yes) Anderson reissues, Survival And Other Stories, and Earth Mother Earth, both now resurrected, dusted down and freshened up. Survival and Other Stories, based on music submitted to … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Leave a comment
Album review : CHEZ KANE – Reckless
Frontiers Music [Release date : 27.3.26] We’re cranking the machine back to 1986. Yes, sounding like every Desmond Child Holly Knight/Diane Warren penned AOR hit 40 years ago, the album launches with the title track, ‘Restless’. Only this time with … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged AOR, Chez Kane, Crazy Lixx, Danny Rexon, Desmond Child, Dian Warren, eighties, Holly Knight, melodic rock, Reckless, review
Leave a comment
Album review : JOHNNY COUGAR (MELLENCAMP) – American Dream, The Mainman Recordings 1976-77 (2 CDs)
Cherry Red [Release date : 27.03.26] John Mellencamp, now an accomplished artist (visually as well as musically) and gallery owner, took the Cougar surname at his manager’s insistence. He thought the record buying public would find the Cougar name much … Continue reading
Album review : LOU GRAMM – Released
Cherry Red [Release date: 27.03.26] Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and Mick Jones were one of melodic rock’s divine pairings who eventually separated. 25 years, 10 band albums, 2 solo albums and 60 million sales later, Gramm has survived a life threatening … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged AOR/Melodic Rock, Bruce Turgon, Cherry Red, Foreigner, Lou Gramm, Mick Jones, Peter Wolf, review
Leave a comment
Album review : THE LOVIN SPOONFUL – What A Day For A Daydream – The Complete Recordings 1965-69 (7CD Boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date: 27.03.26] The Lovin Spoonful lineup – John Sebastian, Zal Yanovsky, Joe Butler and Steve Boone – coalesced in New York’s folk music hub, Greenwich Village in 1964, honing their sound in the city’s nightclubs before they … Continue reading
Album review : IGNESCENT – Eternal
Frontiers Music [Release date : 20.03.26] Judge a hot band by the company they keep. Ignescent have opened for Flyleaf, Skillet, Stryper and many other headline metal/hard rock acts in recent years. You could hear the influences of these bands … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Eternal, Fight In Me, Flyleaf, Frontiers Music, Ignescent, Jennifer Benson, Lambretta, metal, review, Skillet, Stryper
Leave a comment
Album review : WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT – Film and TV Music Of The Swinging Sixties (3 CDs)
Cherry Red [Release date 27.03.26] The label says : “An aural soundtrack for a generation who grew up listening, not only to great pop music, but a feast of TV and Film themes”. Indeed it is, for more than one … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Box sets
Tagged Big Bands, Danger Man, Fifties, James Bond, review, Swinging Sixties, The Avengers, The Saint
Leave a comment
Album review : BLODWYN PIG – The Recordings 1969-74 (3 CDs, Remastered and Expanded)
Cherry Red [Release date : 20.03.26] Blodwyn Pig had quite some pedigree. 1968: Founding member Mick Abrahams (guitar/vocals) came straight from Jethro Tull, after some conflicts with Ian Anderson over musical direction. Co-founder Jack Lancaster, sax and flute virtuoso, had … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Tagged Andy Pyle, Blodwyn Pig, blues rock, Cherry Red, Jack Lancaster, jazz, Mick Abrahams, review, Ron Berg
Leave a comment
Album review : VENUS 5 – The March Of The Venus 5
Frontiers Music [Release date: 20.03.26] What’s so attractive about Venus 5’s second album is its refusal to choose one discrete genre, sub-genre, whatever. It dances around the fringes of pop metal, heavy metal and symphonic metal, all laced with tight … Continue reading
Album review : ASIA – Live In England
Frontiers Music [Release date : 13.03.26] Set in the heart of the East Sussex countryside, at night the Trading Boundaries Café transforms into an award winning live music venue, hosting concerts from world class artists in an intimate setting. Not … Continue reading
Album review : THE LONG RYDERS – High Noon Hymns
Cherry Red [Release date: 13.03.26] The Long Ryders are a band who’ve been long associated with the advent of the Paisley Underground movement in the early eighties. Also Punk, Country Rock, Clarence White, Gene Clark, Walter Hill and The Byrds. … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Cherry Red, High Noon Hymns, Lamb Of God, Limp Bizkit, Long Ryders, Punk. Country Rock, REM, review, The Byrds
Leave a comment
Album review : BLACK SWAN – Paralyzed
Frontiers Music [Release date : 27.02.26] Four years after Black Swan’s second album, Generation Mind, comes Paralyzed, with the four horsemen, Robin McAuley, Reb Beach, Jeff Pilson and Matt Starr riding quickly into view. So called “supergroups”, of which this … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Black Swan, Frontiers Music, hard rock, Jeff Pilson, Matt Starr, Paralyzed, Reb Beach, review, Robin McAuley
Leave a comment
Album review : MOUNTAIN – Don’t Look Around – The Recordings 1969-74 (7 CD boxset)
Cherry Red/Esoteric [Release date : 27.02.26] CD1: Leslie West – Mountain (1969) CD2: Mountain Live At Woodstock (1969) CD3: Climbing (1970) 2 bonus tracks CD4: Nantucket Sleighride (1971) CD5: Flowers Of Evil (1971) 2 bonus tracks CD6: Twin Peaks (1974) … Continue reading
Album review : MICHAEL MONROE – Outerstellar
Silver Lining Music [Release date: 20.02.26] Michael Monroe is on his 13th album now, with the same lineup as last half dozen or so, Steve Conte, Sam Yaffa, Rich Jones and Karl Rockvist, and so you expect more of the … Continue reading
Album review : GENE PARSONS – Kindling And Beyond, The Solo Recordings 1973-1986 (5 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date: 20.02.26] There can’t have been a music fan who lived through the sixties or the seventies who were unaware of The Byrds and/ or The Flying Burrito Brothers. And if they knew them, they would know … Continue reading
Album review : ROSE TATTOO – The albums 1981-84 (4 CD boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date : 20.02.26] Rose Tattoo. Now, there was a band. Still is, in fact. Fiftieth anniversary this year. Only man left standing from the original lineup is loud and fearless vocalist, Angry Anderson. When it all began … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Box sets, Reissues
Tagged AC/DC, Angry Anderson, Australia, boxset, Cherry Red, George Young, Harry Vanda, review, Rose Tattoo, The albums 1981-84
Leave a comment
