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Author Archives: brianmc
Album review: LILLIAN AXE – From Womb To Tomb
Global Rock [Release date : 19.08.22] There’s a thin line between pretension and serious minded rock’n’roll. Lillian Axe do a high wire balancing act on this, their first album for ten years, titled From Womb To Tomb. Mainman, songwriter, guitarist, … Continue reading
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Tagged album, arrangements, hard rock, heavy metal, melody, MTV, review, Saigon Kick, Steve Blaze, symbolism, Trance metal
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Album review: JOHN SLOMAN – Two Rivers
Red Steel Music [Release date: 12.08.22] John Sloman’s ninth solo album is a tale of two cities. His life has been a neverending musical quest to find success and certitude. All the time torn between his hometown of Cardiff, where … Continue reading
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Tagged blues, Captain Beefheart, Cardiff, Frank Zappa, gospel, groove, John Sloman, London, Memphis, psychedelic, review, rock, Todd Rundgren
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Album review: SUNSTORM – Brothers In Arms
Frontiers [Release date: 12.08.22] All that accumulated weight from the Joe Lynn Turner era has been thrown overboard, and Version 2 of the new, invigorated Sunstorm is writing and performing with confidence and skill. Ronnie Romero remains from Version 2′s … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Doro, hard rock, Joe Lynn Turner, Luca Princiotta, metal, review, Ronnie Romero, Simone Mulanari, Sunstorm
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Album review: HYDRA – Point Break
Frontiers [Release date: 12.08.22] Hydra is a project put together by rock’n’roll impresario, Daniel Flores, built around the songs of Swedish wunderkind, Henrik Hedstrom. Flores has brought in another highly talented musician, Andy Kravljaca, to sing and add lead and … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Andy Kravljaca, AOR, Christopher Cross, Daniel Flores, Henrik Hedstrom, Hydra, melodic rock, review, soft rock, Toto
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Album review: LITTLE TEXAS – 4 Classic Albums on 2 CDs
Cherry Red [Release date 12.08.22] In the nineties, Little Texas were country rock’s most famous unknown band. Unknown outside of the USA perhaps, but a multi platinum selling band in their home territory through that decade. This 2 CD set … Continue reading
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Tagged albums, Bruce Hornsby, country rock, Dan Huff, Desert Rose band, Eagles, retrospective, review
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Album review: RESTLESS SPIRITS – Second To None
Frontiers [Release date: 12.08.22] Restless Spirits’ guitarist Tony (Lords Of Black) Hernando’s melodic rock project gains some momentum here, with 4 outstanding singers. 3 of them, Chez Kane, Kent Hilli and Renan Zonta are on the verge of wider recognition. … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Axel Rudi Pell, Chez Kane, Giant, Hardline, Johnny Gioeli, Journey, Kent Hilli, Lou Gramm, melodic rock, metal, Neal Schon, pop, Renan Zonta, review, Tony Hernando
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Album review: NORDIC UNION – Animalistic
Frontiers [Release date 12.08.22] Nordic Union, as every melodic rock fan will know, is a musical marriage of two talented people. Songwriter, producer and guitarist, Erik (Eclipse, WET) Martensson, and vocalist, Ronnie (Pretty Maids) Atkins. Atkins’ advanced form of lung cancer, … Continue reading
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Tagged Eclipse, Erik Martensson, melodic hard rock, Pretty Maids, review, Ronnie Atkins, WET
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Album review: MONTROSE – I Got The Fire (6 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red/HNE Recordings [Release date: 29.07.22] If you’re looking for comprehensive CD coverage of Montrose’s journey through the seventies, look no further. That might sound like a PR man’s tagline, but it’s reflective of reality. This boxset consists of: CD1: … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Bill Church, Bob James, boxset, Deep Purple, Denny Carmassi, Free, hard rock, Jump On It, Led Zeppelin, review, Ronnie Montrose, Sammy Hagar, Warner Bros
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Album review: WAYSTED : Heroes Die Young – Waysted Volume 2 (5 CD boxset)
Cherry Red/HNE [Release date 29.07.22] Waysted reformed early in the new millenium, just to prove that the world hadn’t ended. This 5 CD boxset chronicles the band’s releases from when they kick started their career in 2000, to the date … Continue reading
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Tagged album, boxset, Chris George, Danny Vaughn, Glasgow, hard rock, Pete Way, review, The Barfly, UFO
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Album review: SILENT RUNNING – Follow The Light
Door Records [Release date: 22.07.22] Northern Ireland’s Silent Running convincingly transitioned from Punk to Hard Rock in the eighties, and enjoyed moderate success, scoring support tours with Simple Minds, Talk Talk and Robert Palmer. Albums on EMI and Atlantic Records … Continue reading
Album review: LESSMANN VOSS – Rock Is Our Religion
Atomic Fire Records [Release date: 22.07.22] This Lessmann Voss, Rock Is Our Religion album would be easy to write off because it seems so out of time. Bonfire’s Claus Lessmann and Mad Max’s Michael Voss are clearly not keen to … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Bonfire, Claus Lessmann, eighties, FM Radio, Mad Max, melodic rock, Michael Voss, review
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Album review: UFO – High Stakes And Dangerous Men / Lights Out In Tokyo (2 CD set)
Cherry Red [Release date 22/07/22] UFO’s Lights Out (1977) had been a huge album for the band in Japan. So when they toured the High Stakes And Dangerous Men album there in 1992, they would include a Lights Out set. … Continue reading
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Tagged albums, Clive Edwards, hard rock, Japan, Lawrence Archer, live, Pete Way, Phil Mogg, review, studio, Tokyo
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Album review: TAZ TAYLOR BAND – Nocturnal
Global Rock [Release date 15.07.22] Taz Taylor’s classic hard rock never stands still – it’s always in motion, on the move, heading somewhere. Maybe that’s a holdover from his time driving 18 wheelers across the USA for a living, before … Continue reading
Album review: JOHN STEEL – Distorted Reality
Global Rock [Release date: 15.07.22] This 3 album/double CD set from Ivan Stalev (John Steel) is quite a coup for SFM’s new metal/rock spinoff label, Global Rock. Effectively, the package backs up the release of Steel’s new album, Distorted Reality, … Continue reading
Album review: THE UK SUBS – Yellow Leader
Cherry Red [release date 8.07.22] And they said it wouldn’t last… back in print for the first time in 7 years, The UK Subs 25th studio release gets a coloured vinyl makeover. Yellow Leader 2022 is an 18 track double … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper, double vinyl, Jamie Oliver, Jet, Pat Collier, punk, review, rock, Roy Lichtenstein
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Album review: ORIANTHI – Live In Hollywood (CD and DVD)
Frontiers Music [Release date: 15.07.22] For the uninitiated, Greek/Australian blonde bombshell Orianthi Panagaris is a platinum selling, guitar playing rock artist whose songs have registered many millions of hits online. That’s when she’s not been treading the boards with Michael … Continue reading
Album review: CROSSING RUBICON – Perfect Storm
Frontiers [Release date: 08.07.22] Crossing Rubicon is a marriage made in the world of post Grunge AOR. That world might look and sound just like it did in the eighties, only much smaller, but there’s a greater expectation now especially … Continue reading
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Tagged album review, AOR, Cenk Eroglu, Frontiers, John Bisaha, melodic rock, the Babys, Winger
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Single review: THE AMBER QUILLS – Chords And Candles
Empreint Cordialle [Release date 07.07.22] Prodigious musician Michael Burdett, leader of The Little Death Orchestra, formed The Amber Quills in 1982. The tapes of the band’s recordings were thought to have been destroyed by flood, but Burdett has had them … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, Single and EP reviews
Tagged Divine Comedy, Michael Burdett, Pulp, review, single, The Little Death Orchestra
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Album review: ARDOURS – Anatomy Of A Moment
Frontiers [Release date: 08.07.22] A merger of two musical forces who once crossed paths, Ardours are Mariangela (Tristania) Demurtas, who sings and writes. And Kris Laurent, who writes, plays all instruments and produces. Their album, Anatomy Of A Moment, frames … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Electronic Rock, Kris Laurent, Mariangela Demurtas, pop, review, symphonic, Tristania
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Single review: DYNAZTY – Natural Born Killer
AFM Records [Release date: 26.08.22] Always underrated, Dynazty is one of the best metal bands around right now. On this single teaser, ‘Natural Born Killers’, they create a keyboard heavy, symphonic/melodic metal concoction that just bursts with energy and invention. … Continue reading
Single review: STRYPER Rise To The Call
Frontiers Records [Release date: 24.06.22] Mining the motherlode of Classic Metal (with an extra melodic twist) seems to come easy to Stryper nowadays. You might say that on this single release, ‘Rise To The Call’, a trailer for their forthcoming … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, Single and EP reviews
Tagged Heavy Metal Melodic Rock, Michael Sweet, review, single, Stryper
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Album review : TYGERS OF PAN TANG – 1985-87 (3 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red / HNE [Release date 24.06.22] Arguably there are two Tygers Of Pan Tang. This boxset features Tygers 2.0. CD1: The Wreck-age (1985) CD2: Burning In The Shade (1987) and CD3: The Wreck-age Demos and the Burning In The … Continue reading
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Tagged 1985-87, albums, boxset, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, John Tucker, melodic hard rock, Mutt Lange, NWOBHM, review, Saxon, Steely Dan, Tygers Of Pan Tang
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Album review: PAUL DI’ANNO’s BATTLEZONE – Killers in The Battlezone (3CD Boxset)
Cherry Red [release date: 24.06.22] The career of the currently wheelchair bound singer, Paul Di’Anno has been a journey of detours, dead ends, drug addiction and detainment. His public profile as a musician began with heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. … Continue reading
Album review: JORN – Over The Horizon Radar
Frontiers Music [Release date 17.06.22] Jorn Lande has worked with guitarist Tore Moren since The Snakes in 1998. These two have been in each other’s company for so long that they must by now have developed some kind of musical … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Alessandro DelVechio, Coverdale, Dio, Eurovision, heavy rock, review, The Snakes, Tore Moren
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Album review: BUBBLEROCK IS HERE TO STAY VOLUME 2 (3 CD set)
Grapefruit/Cherry Red [Release date : 17.06.22] To give this 3 CD Boxset its full title: Bubblerock Is Here To Stay: Volume 2: The British Pop Explosion, 1970-73. In the world of sixties and seventies pop, the single was the king. … Continue reading
