A last gig of the year sees me take in the familiar sound of Clutch, with dual support from Inspector Cluzo, a Funk/Soul n’ Roll duo from Gascony, France, and German Blues-Rock act The Picturebooks. After a brief chat with Jean-Paul from Clutch prior to the gig, I took my place up to take in the evening’s entertainment.Continue reading
Full disclosure here, when I saw the words “acoustic EP”, my toes curled up so far they nestled in my intestines and set off a chain reaction of cringing and shuddering. While King Creature may have established as a sturdy, powerful, energetic Blues Rocking act of growing repute, the acoustic EP is a difficult beast to digest (even without toes clogging up the tracts), with very few examples coming close to Alice In Chains Sap / Jar of Flies (Columbia) levels, and many more being indistinguishable filler littering the bargain bin of many a record store.Continue reading
Fancy that, Thunder Horse (BC/TX) just happens to be the debut LP from well, err, Thunder Horse. I’m only surprised because even the youngest bands today seem to have a trail of EPs and singles before jumping onto the hollowed full length. And as far as musical maiden journeys go, this San Antonio outfit has hit the ground running.Continue reading
With an album cover bearing bright colours and acid-flavoured fonts, plus a deal with Ripple Music, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Psych bangers Psychlona are unashamedly West Coast US. The real shock, therefore, is that this pack of four upstarts belongs to West Bradford UK, and give a fiery edge to that chilled fuzz template. Debut album Mojo Rising (Ripple Music) is set to give a real shot in the arm to a genre already packed with amazing releases in 2018.Continue reading
By the time the final album for 2018 is released, from Watain’s Trident Wolf Eclipse (Century Media) to Sulpher Aeon’s The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos (Van) – both of which were reviewed by Gary Alcock, and neither of which made the final list, trivia fans, – over 1,000 albums will have passed through the Ghost Cult reviews inbox, we will have covered just shy of 550 releases (we do a fair bit of filtering to protect our writers ears from some of the less inspiring releases), and our entire crew will have nominated and voted for 244 of them to be considered as our #1 for the year.Continue reading
From the powerful opening salvo of ‘Beautiful/Dangerous’ and its driving beat, Indie Rockers Royal Blood come to mind. As well as the sonic similarities, Liverpool based Rival Bones are also a duo, with James Whitehouse on guitar and vocal duties and Chris Thomason on drums.Continue reading
One of the first UK rock musicians to demonstrate how crowd-funding could really be successful in the non-mainstream world with his phenomenally successful 555% (Pledge Music) campaign, in 2014 Ginger Wildheart embarked on the G*A*S*S (Ginger Associated Secret Society) project. Fans signed up, and in return, received three exclusive tracks a month and opportunities for a whole host of goodies. At the end of the process, a ten-track release of the most popular tracks, Year Of The Fanclub, was made available to the general public. G*A*S*S Mark II (Round Records) is the Directors Cut… Ginger’s own preferred curation of his favourite tracks from the experiment.Continue reading
Since the release of debut EP Paths of the Slain earlier this year, Connecticut trio Owl Maker – named after a Lakotan crone goddess, no less – have been gaining praise for their hard-hitting Blues Rock, and latest EP Sky Road (self-released) further whets the appetite for a full-length attempt.Continue reading
One of the biggest problems Earache Records faced in the nineties was in identifying a second-wave to follow on from their ground-breaking Death Metal and Grindcore revolutionaries; they had set an unreachable bar with their pioneers that, particularly with a rapidly moving undercurrent of a scene, continuing such a rich vein of form was nigh on impossible. Following their twenty-first century reinvention as a home par-excellence for the very best in Rock (of the Classic-tinged variety), they face a similar quandary… how do you follow-up Rival Sons, Temperance Movement, and Blackberry Smoke?Continue reading
As one of the most recognisable figures in music history (let alone just rock) and a figurehead and member of a couple of massive bands that you may have heard about, guitarist Slash hardly needs any introduction by now. Similarly, whilst not on the same level of notoriety outside of rock circles, Myles Kennedy and his main band Alter Bridge are on a commercial climb and are a certified arena-level band by now, whilst he has also found time to write and tour a solo album this year.Continue reading