GHOST CULT ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2017: Part 1 (50 – 26)


As the dust begins to settle on what will undoubtedly go down in a history as a fine year for heavy and progressive music, the Ghost Cult crew present our favourite albums of 2017. While a year with only a couple of genuine life-changing, genre redefiners, nevertheless 2017 has seen an absolute plethora of very, very high quality releases. With over 400 albums reviewed this year, at an average of 7.5/10, there was a deep pool of quality releases selected and dissected throughout the year. A genuinely democratic inner sanctum here, we now present Part 1 of an official Ghost Cult Album of the Year (2017) run down that s truly representative of Ghost Cult, our writers, and our musical position as a site. Please share your thoughts and comments on the music we collectively love, as we countdown from 50 through to 26…Continue reading


Alice Cooper At The PNC Bank Arts Center


Alice Cooper

08-28-2017

At The PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, New Jersey

All Photos By Julia Sariy PhotographyContinue reading


Joe Satriani Debuts New Song- “Energy”


Joe Satriani recently announced that he will be releasing his sixteenth solo album, What Happens Next, on January 12th. The new record sees him teaming up with Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath on bass, and Red Hot Chili PeppersChad Smith on drums, and we have your first taste of the new material today. Continue reading


Brian Slagel With Mark Eglinton – For The Sake Of Heaviness



“Heavy Metal Will Never Die!”

These words are not just the battle cry of every heavy music fan or the chorus of a song from a band famous for body oil and loin cloths. These are the final words in Brian Slagel and Mark Eglinton’s For The Sake Of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records. The book not only serves as a way to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Metal Blade, but it serves as a partial memoir and life in metal of label founder and CEO, music historian, hockey fan, and all around great guy Slagel. To say metal and rock fans owe him an unpayable debt would be a gross understatement.Continue reading


Alice Cooper – Paranormal


After a gap of six years, legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper is back once again to give today’s youngsters a gentle, but purposeful reminder of how it’s done. At the age of 69, just a few months shy of joining the ranks of the septuagenarians, Alice is clearly in no mood to relax Continue reading


Avatarium – Hurricanes and Halos


Two fingers to convention, I’m jumping straight to the reveal: Avatarium are a superior breed of band that you’d be mad to overlook and Hurricanes and Halos picks things up where the sultry excellence of The Girl With The Raven Mask (both Nuclear Blast) left off. Fashioned from the music of yesteryear, don’t be fooled into thinking this is “just another” Retro outfit, or an “Occult Rock” band; this is the mastery of the music of a fifty years ago, not to be cool, or hip, but as a means of producing powerful, diverse and strong songs.Continue reading


Inglorious – II


From the bombastic opening salvo of lead single ‘I Don’t Need Your Loving’, it is apparent that Inglorious are a rock group of a thoroughly vintage nature. Having formed in 2014 and hailing from Blighty Inglorious are rockers with a self-confessed love of 70’s rock. Continue reading


The Jimmy Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced Album Turns 50


Fifty years ago this week, The Jimmy Hendrix Experience exploded on the scene with the release of their début album Are You Experienced (Track Records), and changed music forever. A critical and commercial success at the time, the album stands today as one of the most innovative and enduring records ever released, with a musical shadow that is still inspiring new guitar players today across every genre of music. Continue reading


Earth Electric – Vol 1 : Solar


The latest project of former Mayhem guitarist Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen, Earth Electric finds the Norwegian musician in typically progressive and diverse form. Forming the band in 2014, and working alongside soprano vocalist Carmen Susana Simões, from Eriksen’s Gothic/Doom act Ava Inferi, the pair hired DragonForce drummer Luigi “Gee” Anzalone, and Doro‘s Luca Princiotta, and recorded a three track demo entitled 2014 the same year.Continue reading