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Upcoming: New releases (CD/DVD/Bluray) 2026
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Upcoming: UK & Ireland Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2026)
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Upcoming: European, USA & World Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2025)
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Upcoming: European, USA & World Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2026)
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Author Archives: brianmc
Album review: RISING STEEL – Beyond The Gates Of Hell
Frontiers [Release date: 18.11.22] Third album from French traditional (ish) metal band, Rising Steel, who still exist in the last century (in a good way). From their amusingly phallic name, to the way they deploy every rushing, thrashing riff that … Continue reading
Album review: MANTRIC MOMENTUM – Trial by Fire
Frontiers [Release date: 11.11.22] It’s a little off putting that Mantric Momentum’s Melodic Metal debut album, Trial By Fire, shares its title with numerous releases of the same name. From Henry Jackman’s movie music to Journey’s tenth studio album to … Continue reading
Album review: FEMME FATALE – Femme Fatale (2022 remaster)
Rock Candy Records [Release date: 07.10.22] Femme Fatale’s self titled 1988 album was co produced by Rick Neigher and David Cole, who together wrote the opening track and single release, ‘Waiting For The Big One’, the band’s only Billboard Top … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Tagged AC/DC, album, Alias, David Cole, Femme Fatale, Janet Gardner, Lorraine Lewis, remaster, review, Richard Marx, Rick Neigher, Vixen
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Album review: IAN HUNTER – Overnight Angels
Rock Candy Records [release date: 07.10.22] Ahhh… the sweet smell of excess. In 1977, Ian Hunter’s third solo effort came off the back of two albums that were critical successes, but commercial failures. Clearly built on strong foundations, Overnight Angels … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Chicken Shack, Earl Slick, Foreigner, Mott, review, rock, Roy Thomas Baker
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Album review: BANG TANGO – Psycho Cafe (2022 Remaster)
Rock Candy Records [release date: 07.10.22] It might be exaggeration to describe Bang Tango’s music as a radically different take on Hair Metal, but it was certainly its own man. The band, Joe Leste on vocals, Kyle Stevens and founder, … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Axl Rose, Billboard, glam rock, hair metal, Howard Benson, Joe Leste, Mark Knight, review, Rock Candy Records, TOM KEIFER
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Album review: DANGER DANGER – Screw It (2022 Remaster)
Rock Candy Records [Release date: 07.10.22] Somebody lost the “best before 1989” label when Danger Danger were recording Screw It (1991), the follow up to their gold album debut. The sexist album cover; the impossible to misinterpret, double entendre song … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Tagged album, Bon Jovi, Cinderlla, Danger Danger, Erwin Musper, Melodic Glam Rock, MTV, Poison, remaster, Scorpions, Screw It, Van Halen
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Album review: JULIE DRISCOLL – 1969 (remaster)
Cherry Red [Release date: 28.10.22] From the beginning of her career in the sixties, singer Julie Driscoll had worked with the Brian Auger Trinity. And indeed she fronted that band when she scored two UK Chart hits in 1968, covers … Continue reading
Album review: CACTUS – Evil Is Going On (The Atco Albums 1970-72, 8 CDs)
Cherry Red [Release date 28.10.22] Quite some Cactus boxset. Cherry Red have repackaged all of the Blues Rock legends’ releases into a sturdy 8 CD box. It contains the 4 studio albums recorded 1972-74, and 4 albums’ worth of live … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Tagged .38 Special, album review, Bill DeYoung, Black Oak Arakansas, blues rock, Carmen Appice, Chicago, Eddie Kramer, Jim McCarty, Kiss, Little Richard, live, Mose Allison, Rusty Day, Stones, studio, Ted Nugent, Tim Bogert, Vanilla Fudge, Willie Dixon
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Album review: CLIMB ABOARD MY ROUNDABOUT (British Toytown Sounds, 1967-1974)
Cherry Red [Release date: 28.10.22] The British Toytown Pop Sound of the late sixties was not a genre with staying power, but it was fun while it lasted. The very nature of its aesthetic – vaguely humorous songs describing mythical … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged 10CC, 3 CDs, album, Bowie, Captain Beefheart, clamshell, ELO, Godley and Creme, Jeffy Lyne, Peter Frampton, pop, Roy Wood, sixties, Slade, Spencer Davis, Toytown
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Album review: STRYPER – The Final Battle
Frontiers [Release date: 21.10.22] Stryper are a talented, durable, outspoken band, and well before their gradual drift from AOR to Hard Rock to Heavy Metal they were strongly influenced by what they observed around them, and accordingly expressed their beliefs … Continue reading
Album review: IRON ALLIES – Blood In Blood Out
AFM Records [release date: 21.10.02] Iron Allies is a band with an impressive Metal heritage. It’s Herman (Accept/ Victory/ Moondoc) Frank’s new band, and if ever an artist invokes the genre it is he. He’s brought in another well known … Continue reading
Album Review: C85 (3CD Various Artists)
Cherry Red [release date: 21.10.22] Taking its lead from NME’s ultra successful C86, this 72 track, triple CD release, C85, celebrates the rise and rise of the Indie band in the UK. In 1986, NME scribe Neil Taylor had the … Continue reading
Album review: EDDIE and THE HOT RODS – The Singles 1976-85 (2 CDs)
Cherry Red [release date: 14.10.22] So much crammed into these two Eddie and The Hot Rods’ compilation CDs. So much history here. Of the band, of the nascent sound of Punk. Of the talent that flowed through the various line-ups. … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged 2 CDs, album, Canvey Island, Proto-punk, pub rock, punk, Question Mark and The Mysterians, R&B, review, Them, Top Of The Pops, Van Morrison
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Album review: BLUE OCTOBER – Spinning The Truth Around
Up/Down Records [Release date: 14.10.22] Compulsive songwriter Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October is long past previous compulsions. The only thing he’s tested positive for in recent years is Covid, and he shook that off pretty quickly. And now this authentic … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, JUSTIN FURSTENFELD, review
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Album review: GUN – The Calton Songs
Cherry Red [Release date 14.10.22] Gun trade in emotions – nostalgia, melancholy and ultimately, optimism. Always have, and they have become expert. The title of their new album, The Calton Songs, confirms this. Born and brought up in “The Calton”, … Continue reading
Album review: GRAND – Grand
Frontiers [Release date 14.10.22] Swedish songwriter/singer Mattias Olofsson teamed up with Wigelius guitarist, Jakob Svensson and drummer Anton Martinez to form Grand in 2020. The band subsequently signed with Frontiers. This is the debut. Grand are as good an AOR/Melodic … Continue reading
Album review: WILDNESS – Resurrection
Frontiers [Release date: 14.10.22] Maybe the title indicates that a move to Frontiers for their third album, Resurrection, is seen by Swedish AOR/Melodic Rock band Wildness as a post pandemic rebirth. Certainly, the band have made significant strides in terms … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Dokken, HEAT, Jeff Scott Soto, melodic rock, Pretty Maids, Resurrection, review, Talisman, Wildness
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Album review : KILLER KINGS – Burn For Love
Frontiers Records [Release date: 14.10.22] Killer Kings are guitarist, Tristan Avakian and vocalist, Gregory Lynn Hall. Two names you will immediate recognise from their well documented (in Melodic Rock circles) involvement with near legendary bands Red Dawn, TSO, Heaven & … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged 101 South, album, AOR, Frontiers, Gregory Lynn Hall, Heaven and Earth, melodic rock, Red Dawn, Tristan Avakian, TSO
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Album review: DRAGONLAND – The Power Of The Nightstar
AFM Records [Release date: 14.10.22] First album in ten years from Swedish Power/Melodic Metal band, Dragonland. A lot can change in ten years. A lot can stay the same. This is Dragonland expanded, more ambitious, with a finely developed movie … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, Anders Hammer, Elias Holmlid, Hans Zimmer, Jacob Hansen, Jesse Lindskog, Johan Nunez, John Williams, Jonas Heidgert, melodic metal, Olof Mörck), power metal, review, symphonic metal
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Album review: BOREALIS – Illusions
AFM Records [Release date: 07.10.22] Four years after The Offering, underrated and often overlooked Canadian metal soundscape supremos, Borealis, step up a gear with new album, Illusion. This is a metal band impossible to categorise. Anyone who thought they were … Continue reading
Album review : PETE WAY – Solo Albums 2000 – 2004 (3 CDs)
Cherry Red [Release date: 30.09.22] In 2019, the late great Pete Way and his band played an unannounced gig in my home town, a few miles from Glasgow, just before the pandemic hit and less than a year before his … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged albums, Cherry Red, Michael Christian, Michael Schenker, Pete Way, review, UFO, Waysted
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Album review: JELLYFISH – When These Memories Fade (boxset 7″ singles)
Newland+ [Release date: 30.09.22] This boxset of 7×7” Jellyfish singles is truly a step back in time to when vinyl was king. An A side and a B side. On the A side was the song the label wanted radio … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Alby Galutin, Andy Sturmer, Badfinger, Beach Boys, boxset, Brian Wilson, Eric Dover, Imperial Drag, Jack Joseph Puig, Jason Falkner, Roger Manning, singles, The 5th Dimension, The Association, The Beatles, The Grays Queen, the Lickerish Quartet, The Turtles, Tim Smith, Vinyl
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Album review: IMPELLITTERI – Wake The Beast (3 CD anthology)
Global Rock Records [Release date: 30.09.22] New kids on the block, Global Rock Records have recently licensed Impellitteri’s total back catalogue. That is quite a coup for a non-major label. This 3 CD anthology, Wake The Beast, curated by Chris … Continue reading
Album review: STATUS QUO – Quo’ing In, The Best Of The Noughties (2CDs/3CDs)
earMusic [Release date 16.09.22] Quo’ing In… is a compilation album from one of rock’n’roll’s great survivors, Status Quo. It looks back on the band’s recordings released since the year 2000, embellishing the material selected with up to date studio rerecordings, … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged 3 CDs, album, boogie, classic rock, Francis Rossi, live, pop rock, Quo'ing In, review, rock 'n' roll, Status Quo, The Best of the Noughties
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Album review: GINEVRA – We Belong To The Stars
Frontiers [Release date: 16.09.22] Ginevra is a kind of Europa League supergroup. Not exactly Champions League status. Not yet anyway. Kristian Fhyr, vocalist/ songwriter with Seventh Crystal was the instigator, and with the label’s help, the rest of the band… … Continue reading
