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Upcoming Gigs & Albums
Latest Album Reviews
Latest Gig Reviews
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Gig review: PAUL McCARTNEY- 02 Arena, London, 18 December 2024
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Gig review: BLACK EYED SONS- The Lexington, London, 16 December 2024
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Gig review: BRAVE RIVAL – Thames Side Brewery, Staines, 8 December 2024
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Gig review: STRAY – The Cavern, Raynes Park, London, 7 December 2024
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Gig review: THE SHEEPDOGS, THE COMMONERS – Islington Assembly Hall, London, 5 December 2024
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Gig review: GUN – Barrowlands, Glasgow, 14 December 2024
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Featured Album Reviews
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Album review: THE SIXXIS – Hollow Shrine
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Album review: JESSICA LEE MORGAN – Around The Block
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Album review: THE PECKHAM COWBOYS -10 Tales From The Gin Palace
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Album review: ALAN SIMON – Excalibur IV The Dark Age Of The Dragon
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Album review: FORGET-ME-NOT featuring Jane Gould – S/T
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Album review: FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH – F8
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Features
Single & EP Reviews
DVD Reviews
Book Reviews
News
Author Archives: brianmc
Album review: JIM CAPALDI – The Outside Years (4 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date : 26.01.24] CD1: Living On The Outside (2001) CD2: Poor Boy Blue (2004) CD3: 35 bonus tracks over 2 CDs, most of them unreleased until now. CD4: ditto The late Jim Capaldi, most famously a member … Continue reading
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Tagged boxset, Gary Moore, George Harrison, Jim Capaldi, Paul Weller, review, Steve Winwood, Traffic
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Album review : GRAND – Second To None
Frontiers [Release date: 19.01.24] With the DNA of eighties AOR coursing through its veins, Swedish band, Grand compete with outfits like Wigelius, Eclipse, HEAT and WET in recreating the genre’s past glories in a post Melodic Rock world. On their … Continue reading
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Tagged 1927, AOR, Australian Crawl, Eclipse, Frontiers, HEAT, Jakob, Mattias Oloffson, melodic rock, Svensson, WET, Wigelius
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Album review: METALITE – Expedition One
AFM Records [Release date 19.01.24] Is this 15 track, high concept sci-fi metal album meant to be fun? Because it most certainly is. Not funny, but fun. It’s high energy, as well as high concept. It’s got a slick, sophisticated, … Continue reading
Album review: THE LONG RYDERS – Native Sons Expanded 3 CD Edition
Cherry Red [Release Date: 19.01.24] Since its 1984 debut, The Long Ryders’ album, Native Sons has been regularly lauded by the music press. The album’s fusion of Garage, Folk and Country Rock has commonly drawn praise from high profile publications … Continue reading
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Tagged Coal Porters, country rock, Expanded Edition, folk, garage, Native Sons, review, Sid Griffin, The Long Ryders
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Album review: THE GRANDMASTER – Black Sun
Frontiers Music [Release date: 12.01.24] For The Grandmaster’s second album, mainman, guitarist and Edguy co-founder, Jens Ludwig has recruited ex Fate vocalist, Peer Johansson. Surprisingly, given the accessibility of the material they created in previous employment, much of Black Sun … Continue reading
Album review : NIGHT RANGER – Dawn Patrol and Midnight Madness (Reissues/Remasters)
Rock Candy Records [Release date : 27.10.23] Two more Night Ranger reissues from the house of remasters. The band’s secret weapons are evident from the off on Dawn Patrol (1982), the debut album. In Kelly Keaggy and Jack Blades they … Continue reading
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Tagged albums, AOR, Dawn Patrol, Jack Blades, Kelly Keaggy, Midnight Madness, Night Ranger, pop metal, remasters, review, Rock Candy Records
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Album review : EVERDAWN – Venera
Frontiers [Release date 08.12.23] Classy and classic symphonic metal from Everdawn. Who could ask for more? This US band made a few waves with their debut, (when they were known as Midnight Eternal), only to have internal disputes lead to … Continue reading
Album review : FIFTH NOTE – Here We Are
Frontiers [Release date : 08.12.2023] Frontiers world wide scouting system unearthed Fifth Note in Kohima, a town in the north of India. Originally a Christian Rock band (although India is a predominantly a Hinduism/Islamism country, almost 30 million Christians live … Continue reading
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Tagged AC/DC, album, Fifth Note, Frontiers, India, Kohima, melodic rock, prog metal, review, Samuel Thapa, Scandinavia Rock
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Album review : CASSIDY PARIS – New Sensation
Frontiers [Release Date : 08.12.23] Check out Cassidy Paris’s album promo, ‘Walking On Fire’ on You Tube. it’s surrounded by like minded videos: from Europe, Gotthard, White Lion and The Warning, among others. You can judge a rock artist by … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Australia, Avril Lavigne, Cassidy Paris, Frontiers, Joan Jett, John Waite, melodic rock, Paul Laine, review
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Album review : LAIBACH – Nova Akropola (3 CD set)
Cherry Red [Release date : 01.12.23] It was only when Slovenia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, that avant garde, politically aware metal band, Laibach gained wider acceptance in the country of their birth. Culturally, Yugoslavia was already the most … Continue reading
Album review: WIZZARD – The Singles
Cherry Red [Release Date : 1.12.23] Roy Wood’s Wizzard, a singular seventies’ UK pop phenomenon, burned brightly for 5 hugely entertaining years. A band immortalised (whether they liked it or not) by perennial seasonal hit, ‘I Wish It Could Be … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Cheap Trick, Christmas, ELO, Graham Bonnet, Nancy Sinatra, pop, review, Roy Wood, Status Quo, The Move, Wizzard
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Album review : LILLIAN AXE – The Box Volume One Resurrection
Cherry Red / HNE [Release Date : 24.11.23] Lillian Axe is the thinking man’s heavy metal band. Even if you hadn’t heard the music, mainman Steve Blaze (writer/guitarist/producer) writes a cracking set of liner notes. Here is just a glimpse: … Continue reading
Album review: MICK RALPHS – On The Run 1984-2013 (4 CD Clamshell)
Cherry Red [Release date : 24.11.23] Few musicians can claim to have been part of one world straddling rock band, never mind two. Mick Ralphs, guitarist and songwriter, recorded seven albums with Mott The Hoople, and six with Bad Company. … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Bad Company, blues rock, Box Burrell, Mick Ralphs, Mott the Hoople, On The Run, review, Simon Kirke
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Album review : GLENN HUGHES / ROBIN GEORGE – Overcome
Cherry Red [Release date : 24.11.23] Label wars resulted in the Glenn Hughes / Robin George 1990 album, Sweet Revenge, being confined to the dustbin of rock’n’roll history. Until now. Resurrected, remastered and retitled by the UK’s leading reissue label, … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Cannock, Cherry Red, funk, Glenn Hughes, Notorious, Overcome, review, Robin George, rock, Sweet Revenge
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Album review : STATUS QUO – Official Archive Series Vol 2
earMUSIC [Release date 24.11.23] World leading experts at mining their own back catalogue, Status Quo stake another claim with SQ Volume 2 (2 CDs/23 tracks). It’s a 2012 gig, recorded live at the O2 Arena, on the “Quo Festive” tour. … Continue reading
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Tagged 2 CDs, Christmas, live, O2 Arena, Quo Festive Tour, review
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Album review : Looking For The Magic (American Power Pop in The Seventies 3CD boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date 17.11.23] American Power Pop In The Seventies found what it was looking for numerous times. Something of a cliché, but you could almost stick a pin in the chronologically curated tracklist of this 3 CD anthology … Continue reading
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Tagged Alex Chilton, Andrew Gold, Badfinger, Carly Simon, Ian LLoyd, Linda Ronstadt, power pop, review, seventies, the Knack, Utopia
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Album review : DGM – Life
Frontiers Music [Release date : 17.11.23] Hugely underrated Italian Prog Metallers, DGM, continue to provide reasons why they should be underrated no longer. On their eleventh album now since the debut in 1997, they’ve seen the inevitable lineup changes that … Continue reading
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Tagged album, DGM, Italian, Marco Basile, Prog Metallers, progrock, review, Simone Mularoni
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Album review : CARE OF NIGHT – Reconnected
Frontiers [Release date : 17.11.23] Third album from rising Swedish AOR/Melodic Rock band, Care Of Night. Vocalist Calle Schonberg, guitarist Ostrom Berg and producer, Erik Wigelius have shifted the band’s sound up several notches. There’s a strong and welcome resemblance … Continue reading
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Tagged album, AOR, Care of Night, Chicago, Erik Wigelius, Johnny Hates Jazz, melodic rock, Peter Cetera, review, Work Of Art
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Album review : SECRET SPHERE – Blackened Heartbeat
Frontiers [Release date 10.11.23] Blackened Heart is the tenth studio album from the EU’s Power Metal poster boys, Secret Sphere. It’s also the second with original vocalist, Roberto Messina, who reunited with the band on 2021’s Lifeblood, after an 8 … Continue reading
Album review : VENOM – Live From The Hammersmith Odeon (CD/DVD Deluxe Digipak)
Cherry Red [Release date : 27.10.23] Formed in England’s industrial North East in 1979, there was none heavier, none more extreme and indeed none more influential in the heavy metal genre than Venom. The band’s reputation was born out of … Continue reading
Album review: BERNIE TORME – Lightning Strikes 1982-83 (4 CD boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date: 27.10.23] Four CD Boxset of some of Irish guitar wunderkind, Bernie Torme’s best stuff, remastered: Turn Out The Lights (1982) Electric Gypsies (1982) Live 1983 Live In Sheffield (1983) When Torme decamped to London, in 1974, … Continue reading
Album review : ROBBY VALENTINE – Embrace The Unknown
Independent [Release date : 21.10.23] Robby Valentine’s new release, Embrace The Unknown, is his 13th studio album. Something of enigma, he’s worked with Kristoffer (Pain of Salvation) Gildenlow, Jeff Scott Soto, and Arjen (Ayreon) Lucassen, to name but three, and … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Big Pharma, Government, Jellyfish, operatic, pandemic, Queen, review, Robbie Valentine, Symphonic Melodic Rock, Vaccine
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Album review : VITALINES – Wheels Within Wheels
Frontiers [Release date: 20.10.23] Vitalines is Tommy Denander and Robbie LaBlanc. Two musicians who need little or no introduction to the Melodic Rock fraternity. You might immediately be intrigued by the song titles. Several catch your eye: ‘Cards From Another … Continue reading
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Tagged Alias, AOR, Chicago, Frontiers, melodic rock, MrMister, review, Robbie LaBlanc, Survivor, Tommy Denander, Toto, Vitalines, Wheels Within Wheels
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Album review : EDGE OF FOREVER – Ritual
Frontiers [Release date : 13.10.23] Alessandro Del Vecchio’s band, Edge Of Forever, have released some interesting albums over the last few years. Native American culture has been a constant theme. It clearly inspired a quartet of tracks on last year’s … Continue reading
Album review : NUCLEAR ASSAULT – Radiation Sickness
Cherry Red/Dissonance [Release date : 13.10.23] Despite multiple break ups over the years, US Thrash Metal band, Nuclear Assault continued touring into the new millennium, only hanging their boots up last year. The band, formed by ex Anthrax bassist, Dan … Continue reading
