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Upcoming Gigs & Albums
Latest Album Reviews
Latest Gig Reviews
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Gig review: ANTHRAX – Hammersmith Apollo, London, 23 November 2024
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Gig review: BLACK STONE CHERRY – Wembley Arena, London, 23 November 2024
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Gig review: SQUEEZE – Roundhouse, London, 22 November 2024
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Gig review: CARDINAL BLACK – Sub 89, Reading, 15 November 2024
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Gig review: SUZI QUATRO – London Palladium, 13 November 2024
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Gig review: HRH XVII, Great Yarmouth, 7-9 November 2024
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Featured Album Reviews
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Album review: SCARLET REBELS – Where The Colours Meet
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Album review: IAN GILLAN with The DON AIREY BAND and ORCHESTRA – Contractual Obligation #3 Live In St Petersburg
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Album review: THE MANIC SHINE – Let Go Or Be Dragged
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Album review: TALON – Fourplay
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Album review: DOUG WAHLBERG BAND – Flying Under The Radar
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Album review : THE END MACHINE – The Quantum Phase
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Features
Single & EP Reviews
DVD Reviews
Book Reviews
News
Author Archives: brianmc
Album review : SEVENTH WONDER – Become, Waiting In The Wings, Mercy Falls, Great Escape
Frontiers [Release date : 15.09.23] Unsurprisingly, after the commercial and critical success of Seventh Wonder’s most recent album, The Testament, released May 2022, the band’s previous, much lower profile albums have been given a new lease of life. Frontiers Music … Continue reading
Album review : JACK STARR’S BURNING STARR – Metal Generation 1985-2017
Cherry Red [release date 08/09/23] It seems like Jack Starr’s bands have been playing gigs and cranking out albums ever since Heavy Metal became a thing. And yet, from his beginnings with Virgin Steele in 1982, to his primary music … Continue reading
Album review: DBA – Celestial Songs
Cherry Red Records [Release date : 08.09.23] Right from the Downes Braide Association’s (DBA) first album (this is their fifth), the duo sounded like they’d been round the block a few times. Like they’d done things we couldn’t, seen things … Continue reading
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Album review : DEACON BLUE – All The Old 45s, The Very Best Of Deacon Blue
Cooking Vinyl [Release date : 01.09.23] 1987, and the critics said they wouldn’t last, and here we are, 36 years later, and Deacon Blue are releasing… wait for it… a 41 track, double CD album titled All The Old 45s … Continue reading
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Tagged 2CDs, album, blues, Dougie Vipond, Glasgow, Hits, James Prime, Lorraine McIntosh, pop, review, Ricky Ross, rock
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Album review : OLIVER / DAWSON SAXON – Screaming Eagles – The Complete Works (6 CD boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date: 25.08.23] CD1 : Motorbiker (studio album 2012) CD2 : ReLanded (Live 2000) CD3 : It’s Alive Pt 1 (2003) CD4 : It’s Alive pt2 (2003) CD5 : Victim You (Son Of A Bitch, pre OD studio … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged 6 CD boxset, album, Bill Byford, boxset, Graham Oliver, heavy metal, NWOBHM, old school metal, Oliver Dawson Saxon, review, Screaming Eagles - The Complete Works, Steve Dawson
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Album review : MR BIG – The Albums 1976-1978 (3 CD set)
Cherry Red [Release date 18.08.23] This Mr. Big (the UK band) boxset is as close to a full blown “life and career” retrospective of the original iteration of the band as we’re likely to get. It comprises the 3 most … Continue reading
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Tagged AC/DC, Bob Hirschman, Dicken, Ian Hunter, Journey, Kansas, Mott the Hoople, pop, Queen, review, rock, Steve Gibbons, Sweet, The seventies, Tom Petty, Zulu
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Album review : MAGNUM – The Great Adventure, The Jet Years 1978 – 1983 (6 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red / HNE [Release date: 25.08.23] CD1 : Kingdom Of Madness (1978) CD2 : Archive (1976) CD3 : Magnum II (1979) CD4 : Marauder (1980) CD5 : Chase The Dragon (1982) CD6 : Eleventh Hour (1983) This Magnum 6 … Continue reading
Album review : MARCH OF THE FLOWER CHILDREN : The American Sounds of 1967 (3 CD set)
Cherry Red [Release date : 24.08.23] March Of The Flower Children is a fascinating journey through pop (and rock) music in the USA circa 1967… the year of the so called “Summer Of Love.” 3 CDs, 85 tracks, 4 hours … Continue reading
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Tagged boxset, Buffalo Springfield, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Love, March Of The Flower Children, Moby Grape, Paul Revere And The Raiders, pop music, review, Summer of Love, The American Sounds of 1967, The Beau Brummels, The Blues Magoos, The Byrds, The Electric Prunes, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Monkees, The Seeds, The Turtles, The Young Rascals, Tim Buckley, Tim Rose, USA, Vanilla Fudge, Velvet UndThe Grateful Dead
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Album review : HELL IN THE CLUB – F.U.B.A.R.
Frontiers [Release date: 11.08.23] This outstandingly good Rock / Metal band have everything going for them except their band name and their album art. Neither of which do them any favours. Just as well the music is so good. Constructed … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album review, Alice Cooper, Andrea Buratto, Backyard Babies, Crash Diet, Davide Moras, Elvenking, FUBAR, Glamrock, Hell In The Club, metal, Motley Crue, rock, Secret Sphere, Viking metal
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Album review : STATUS QUO – SQ (Official Archive Series Vol1 – 2CDs)
earMUSIC [Release date 11.08.23] For SQ’s new live album it all began with the ‘Beginning Of The End’. That single, released in 2007, sparked an idea that has only now seen the bright light of day. It was a foretaste … Continue reading
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Tagged Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Ear Music, Eike Freese, Helloween, Kai Hansen, Netherlands, review, Rick Parfitt
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Album review : SCREAM MAKER – Land Of Fire
Frontiers [Release date 14.07.23] Although Polish Melodic Metal band, Scream Maker are usually bracketed beside the bands they have frequently toured with, like Saxon, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Slayer and others, their own material drills down into the DNA of the … Continue reading
Album review : STREETLIGHT – Ignition
Frontiers [Release date : 11.08.23] Streetlight’s debut album is filled to the brim with heart and soul AOR. Few bands have the skill and ability to make it sound this honest. Just unpretentious songs of unerring simplicity and (mostly) uncomplicated … Continue reading
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Tagged album, AOR, Frontiers, Ignition, Johannes Hager, Journey, melodic rock, Powerpop, review, Streetlight, Westcoast Rock
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Album review : RIAN – Wings
Frontiers [Release date 04.08.23] Third album from Swedish melodic rock band, Rian, led by exceptionally talented vocalist/ guitarist Richard Andermyer. Their second on Frontiers. The band’s label debut, titled Twenty Three, was reviewed in GRTR! back in 2021. Here’s what … Continue reading
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Tagged AOR, Dark Horse, Eclipse, Frontiers, melodic rock, Paul Laine, review, Richard Andermyer, Tobias Jakobsson, Treat, Twenty-Three
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Album review : KENT HILLI – Nothing Left To Lose
Frontiers [Release date : 04.08.23] Only one solo album under his belt, yet Kent Hilli seems to have been around forever. Three studio albums with Perfect Plan, two Restless Spirits’ albums and a stint fronting legendary melodic rock band, Giant. … Continue reading
Album review : IRON SAVIOR – Riding On Fire – The Noise Years 1997-2004, 6 CD Boxset
Cherry Red [Release date 28.07.23] “A constant and independent force within the Power Metal universe”. No prizes for attributing this quote to Iron Savior mainman, Piet Sielck. It could easily have come from his Iron Savior buddy, Kai (Gamma Ray) … Continue reading
Album review : EDGE OF PARADISE – Hologram
Frontiers [Release date: 14.07.23] Fresh off a ten date US tour with Lacuna Coil, Edge Of Paradise release Hologram, their fifth album, their third on Frontiers. The band is a duo comprising of Armenian/ Russian/ American singer, Margarita Monet, and … Continue reading
Album review : HATEBREED – The Rise Of Brutality / Supremacy (2CD Deluxe Ed)
Cherry Red [release date: 14.07.23] “Heavy Music is this cleansing, therapeutic and cathartic experience for so many”. So says Jamie Jasta, frontman of US Grammy nominated, Metal/ Hardcore band, Hatebreed. No surprise then to learn that his band are longtime … Continue reading
Album review : ALL FOR METAL – Legends
AFM Records [release date : 07.07.23] We distinctly remember reviewing All For Metal’s trailer single, ‘We were Born In Valhalla’, back in December last year, and referring this dubious claim to a Fact Check website. Well, they never got back … Continue reading
Album review: BLOODBOUND – Tales From The North
AFM Records [release date 7.07.23] Since the early nineties, Northern European Metal bands have progressively sought to explore and celebrate the history and impact of Viking Culture. “Viking Metal” has grown considerably since then. One of today’s key exponents is … Continue reading
Album review : BANGALORE CHOIR – Center Mass
Global Rock Records [Release date: 07.07.23] David Reece claims that David Coverdale had Bangalore Choir removed from the support spot on Whitesnake’s European tour in 1989, because he didn’t want to compete with Reece’s voice. The story may well be … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Autograph, Bangalore Choir, Center Mass, Cherry Red, David Coverdale, David Reece, Giovanni Salvinelli, Gypsy Rose, House of Lords, Jimi Bell, Last Autumn’s Dream, Mario Percudani, Martin Kronlund, melodic hard rock, Mikael Erlandsson, Mitch Malloy, Nicolo Savinelli, Phenomena, review, Ricardo DeMarossi, Whitesnake
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Album review : ROBLEDO – Broken Soul
Frontiers [Release date 14.07.23] Second “solo” album from Sinners Blood frontman, James Robledo. Broken Soul is a tough as teak mix of metal and hard rock, driven by the skilful, tuneful axework of his Sinners Blood bandmate, the man with … Continue reading
Album review : PYRAMAZE – Bloodlines
AFM Records [Release date 23.06.23] Bloodlines is the seventh album in eighteen years from Danish metallers, Pyramaze. This is a band who rebuilt their line up in 2015, after significant loss of key members in 2011. It took the new … Continue reading
Album review : STEEL BARS – A Rock Tribute To Michael Bolton – V/A
Frontiers [Release date: 07.07.23] Any adult remotely interested in popular music will have heard of Michael Bolton. His songs have been compiled to within an inch of their lives and have become the language of lurrve on late nite radio, … Continue reading
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Tagged A Rock Tribute To Michael Bolton, album, Anna Nikolic, Barry White, Big Time, Chicago, Desmond Child, Drive She Said, Frontiers, James Robledo, Jim Peterik, Jonathan Cain, Mark Mangold, Michael Bolton, Neven Brankovic, Percy Sledge, Randy Goodrum, review, Santiago Ramonda, Steel Bars, Steve Overland, Steve Perry, Steven Nvyqvuist, Toto, Touch
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Album review : WINTERSTORM – Everfrost
AFM Records [Release date 14.07.23] It’s always the case with music like Winterstorm’s – a refreshing mix of Nordic Viking metal, folk, and fast-paced orchestral power metal – that you have to get with the programme to really appreciate it. … Continue reading
Album review : WITHERING SCORN – Prophets of Demise
Frontiers [Release date: 07.07.23] Withering Scorn is a band made up of experienced, successful heavy metal musicians, assembled by brothers, Glen and Shawn Drover, both ex Megadeth and Eidolon. They are joined by ex Fates Warning bass man, Joe DiBiase … Continue reading
