Author Archives: brianmc

Album review : WILDSTREET IV

Posted on April 25, 2024 by brianmc
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Golden Robot Records [Release date 26.04.24] US band, Wildstreet, took note of music’s direction of travel (ie there’s no money in standing still) some years ago and have toured incessantly ever since… frequent appearances at SXSW & M3 Rock Festival, … Continue reading →

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Album review : WAYSTED – Won’t Get Out Alive Volume 1 (4 CDs 1983-86)

Posted on April 24, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date: 26.04.24] CD1: Vices CD2: I Won’t Get Out Alive CD3: The Good, The Bad And The Waysted CD4: Save Your Prayers In 2019, the late great Pete Way and his band played an unannounced gig in … Continue reading →

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Album review : UFO – Covenant + Sharks + Live (3 CD)

Posted on April 14, 2024 by brianmc
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Twin reissue package plus a bonus CD, from British rock legends, UFO. Covenant (2000), Sharks (2002) and Live At Blind Melons (1995). The problem with releasing a career high album like Walk On Water (1995), the band’s de facto “comeback” … Continue reading →

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Single review : WILDSTREET – Heroes

Posted on April 13, 2024 by brianmc
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Golden Robot Records [Release Date 12.04.24] US band, Wildstreet, took note of music’s direction of travel (there’s no money in standing still) some years ago and have toured incessantly ever since… frequent appearances at SXSW,and M3 Rock Festival, plus 5 … Continue reading →

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Album review : THE CRYIN’ SHAMES – Please Stay, Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes

Posted on April 10, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date: 12.04.24] The Cryin’ Shames were late to the Merseybeat party, and departed almost as soon as they arrived. This a 2 CD reissue of every recording made by the band in its various guises. 48 tracks … Continue reading →

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Single review : KURT FROLICH – Another Heartbreak

Posted on April 7, 2024 by brianmc
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Golden Robot Records [05.04.24] Single release from Kurt Frolich, vocalist with Riley’s LA Guns. It has only a passing resemblance to the music of his parent band. Doesn’t make him a bad person, of course. In fact … The first … Continue reading →

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Single review : RHAPSODY OF FIRE – Brave New Hope

Posted on April 7, 2024 by brianmc
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AFM Records [out now] Rhapsody Of Fire’s vocalist, Giacomo Voli sounds more like Brother Firetribe’s Pekka Heino every day. Or maybe it’s the other way round. Those expressive vocals, bringing a lyric to life, are hard to match. ‘Brave New … Continue reading →

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Album review : BLOODBOUND – The Tales Of Nosferatu – Two Decades Of Blood (CD and DVD)

Posted on April 4, 2024 by brianmc
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AFM Records [Release date : 19.04.24] It was 20 years ago today that Swedish keyboard player Fredrik Bergh and guitarist Tomas Olsson jumped the genre ship from AOR to Power Metal. They left behind popular melodic rock band, Street Talk, … Continue reading →

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Album review : VAN DER GRAAF – Vital (2 CD Remaster)

Posted on March 27, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date : 29.03.24] The year after England won the world cup, English musician Chris Judge Smith took a “summer of love” trip to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury, a pivotal point on the Flower Power map. It is … Continue reading →

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Album review : FIREWIND – Stand United

Posted on March 24, 2024 by brianmc
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AFM Records [Release date : 08.03.24] 10th album from Power Metal band, Firewind. The band, Gus G, Herbie Langans, Petros Cristo and Jo Nunez have established their Power Metal credentials over and over again during the last 25 years, with … Continue reading →

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Album review: LILLIAN AXE – The Box Vol 2, The Quickening

Posted on March 22, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date : 29.03.24] The Quickening is the second instalment of a two part series documenting the recorded life and times of metal’s most underrated band, Lillian Axe. There are six CDs. CD1: Deep Red Shadows (2010) w/7 … Continue reading →

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Album review : TROJAN / TALION – The Complete Recordings 1984/90 (5 CD Boxset)

Posted on March 20, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date : 28.03.24] Boxset of remastered material from UK Thrash/Speed Metal band, Trojan, aka Talion. 5 CDs, 49 tracks. CD1: TROJAN : Chasing The Storm studio album, 1985 CD2: TROJAN : Capturing The Storm – Live At … Continue reading →

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Album review : LEAVES’ EYES – Myths Of Fate

Posted on March 15, 2024 by brianmc
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AFM Records [Release date : 22.03.24] Fans of the band, or even just the genre, will know that German Symphonic Metal band, Leaves’ Eyes are totally immersed in Nordic and Celtic mythology. Pipes, fiddles, choirs, growls, all spin up through … Continue reading →

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Album review : VARIOUS ARTISTS – I See You Live On Love Street, Music From Laurel Canyon 1967-75 (3 CD Boxset)

Posted on March 11, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date : 22.03.24] For those geography lovers among us, LA’s Laurel Canyon Boulevard snaked up through the hills from Hollywood then down into the San Fernando Valley (as in “Valley Girls”), with little avenues branching off left … Continue reading →

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Album review : CRUZH – The Jungle Revolution

Posted on March 10, 2024 by brianmc
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Frontiers [Release date : 22.03.24] Welcome to The Jungle Revolution, third album on the Frontiers label from Swedish band, Cruzh, and their second with vocalist, Alex Waghorn, winner of Idol Sweden in 2017 (singing Journey’s ‘Faithfully’). Among their admitted influences … Continue reading →

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Album review : LORDS OF BLACK – Mechanics Of Predacity

Posted on March 8, 2024 by brianmc
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Frontiers [Release date : 15.03.24] The Lords Of Black are on their sixth album now, so they must be doing something right, Mechanics… is a thematically sound treatise on the human condition, in which they“embark on a profound exploration of … Continue reading →

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Album review : STATUS QUO – The Early Years 1966-69 (5 CD boxset)

Posted on March 7, 2024 by brianmc
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BMG/Sanctuary Records [Release date : 15.03.24] This 5 CD, Early Years boxset is one of the most interesting of the Status Quo back catalogue repackaging of recent times. It tracks us through the band’s startup moments in the early sixties, … Continue reading →

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Album review : LIPZ – Changing The Melody

Posted on March 6, 2024 by brianmc
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Frontiers [Release date : 15.03.24] Debut album from young Swedish quartet, Lipz, in which they attempt to breathe life into a dying genre, Glam Rock. We’re told. But how do you define “Glam Rock”? Would that be the early eighties, … Continue reading →

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Album review : ALTERIUM – Of War And Flames

Posted on March 4, 2024 by brianmc
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AFM Records [Release date : 08.03.24] Alterium is a new Italian Symphonic Metal quintet led by Nicoletta Rosellini (ex. Kalidia), a talented artist who juggles several media related careers. She also fronts Goth Metal band, Walk In The Darkness. Of … Continue reading →

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Album review : TURBULENCE – Binary Dream

Posted on March 2, 2024 by brianmc
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Frontiers [Release date: 08.03.24] Third album from cutting edge Lebanese Progressive Metal band, Turbulence. Turbulence by name… this truly is a Prog Metal album for genre afficionados. We said that the band’s 2023 Frontiers debut, Frontal was “a defiantly bold … Continue reading →

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Album review : THE END MACHINE – The Quantum Phase

Posted on March 1, 2024 by brianmc
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Frontiers [Release date: 08.03.24] Third album from George Lynch’s “new” band. (Interesting to note that Lynch has “retired” the Lynch Mob band name, admitting that the play on his surname was always “problematic,” but is now “inexcusable” because of its … Continue reading →

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Album review : ALBERT HAMMOND – Body Of Work

Posted on February 26, 2024 by brianmc
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earMusic [Release Date : 01.03.24] There just can’t be any Classic Rock artist who can outdo prolific hit writer, Albert Hammond’s “been there, done that, got the Oscar/Grammy/Platinum Disc…” track record. And when you include the fact he wrote the … Continue reading →

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Album review : AMIGO THE DEVIL – Yours Until The War Is Over

Posted on February 23, 2024 by brianmc
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Liars Club/Regime Music [Release date : 23.02.24] Interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine just prior to the release of his 2021 album, Born Against (a relevant and revealing play on words), Danny Kiranos explained his love of the music of Leonard Cohen … Continue reading →

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Album review : CLIMIE FISHER – Coming In For The Kill (4CD Boxset)

Posted on February 18, 2024 by brianmc
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Cherry Red [Release date 23.02.24] Climie Fisher’s 1988 hit single ‘Love Changes Everything”, taken from their debut album, truly was a pop classic. Still is. None of the songs on Coming In For The Kill replicated its considerable chart success. … Continue reading →

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Album review : SMOKING SNAKES – Danger Zone

Posted on February 14, 2024 by brianmc
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Frontiers [Release date : 16.02.24] Swedish band, Smoking Snakes, release their debut album, Danger Zone this month. The banal band name and cliched album title will surely raise a wry smile on the face of even the most ardent genre … Continue reading →

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