ALBUM REVIEW: H.E.A.T. – Force Majeure


 

As subtle as a brick and as silly as a juggling monkey riding a unicycle, Swedish Hard Rockers H.E.A.T are back with new album Force Majeure (earMUSIC). It is the Swedes seventh record and despite its over the top, everything and the kitchen sink nature it is a damn good time. It is a rich mixture of AOR, glam metal and hard rock with big riffs, flashy solos and huge choruses coming at you thick and fast. Continue reading


Alice Cooper, Queensrÿche, Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, Skid Row, Lit, L.A. Guns, and More Booked for  Monsters Of Rock Cruise 2022 


 

Rock and metal cruises are coming back post-lockdown. Monsters Of Rock Cruise 2022 will set sail February 9-14  Miami, Florida aboard Royal Caribbean’s Freedom Of The Seas ship, visiting Cococay, Bahamas, and Lababdee Island. The all-star lineup features Alice Cooper and over 35 Artists including Queensrÿche, Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, Skid Row, Lit, L.A. Guns, Kix, Winger, Michael Monroe, Great White, H.E.A.T, Loudness, Pat Travers, Y&T, and many more. Hosted by Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson, Jim Florentine, Keith Roth, Lüc Carl, Nikki Blakk, Izzy and Brian, Metal Dj Will, and Ginger Fish. The public on-sale begins today, at the link below. 

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Alice Cooper, Beasto Blanco, Winger, John Corabi and More Booked for Operation Monster Beach 2021


 From the creators of the Monsters of Rock Cruise and the Megacruise comes Monsters of Rock – Operation Monster Beach, setting sail for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in 2021! Expected to be one of the first major Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Travel Experiences for next year. Operation Monster Beach on May 26 – 31, 2021. Going on sale tomorrow, 12/1/2020 to the general public tomorrow, Tuesday, December 1st at 2 pm Eastern time! . The cruise features stops at two resorts and will be headlined by Alice Cooper, Beasto Blanco, Winger,  “The Mayor” of MOR, John Corabi, Signal 13, H.E.A.T., LA Guns, Kix, Vixen, Eclipse, Mike Tramp, Killer Dwarfs, Black N Blue, Bullet Boys, Pink Cream 69, Faster Pussycat, Electric Boys, Joel Hoeksta, XYZ, Little Caeser with many more acts to be announced. Book your tickets tomorrow and get your passport to rock right now! 

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Skid Row – Backyard Babies – H.E.A.T. – Vega: Live at O2 Ritz, Manchester


A four band bill on a cold Tuesday evening seems like the perfect antidote to the winter blues, so with Skid Row bringing the heat… sorry, bringing along H.E.A.T. alongside Vega and Backyard Babies on support on their latest tour, it seemed like the perfect evening. A quick trip across to Manchester later and it was time for the rather early doors. Continue reading


Download Festival: Day Three – Castle Donington, UK


Download lineup

The final day of a festival is often filled with many emotions: a wonderful weekend sadly coming to an end; another day spent celebrating brilliant innovative and life affirming music; hours spent trying to dry your tent out… So it again proved with Sunday at Download.

Leaden skies greet the hordes either nursing hangovers of epic proportions or gathering their belongings for the trudge back to cars and the dreaded long trip home. It’s cold on the field so a bit of warming up is required. Bacon rolls and coffee do part of the job but Dead Daisies do the rest in a punchy late morning slot that has a much bigger crowd than perhaps even they were expecting. Dead Daisies inhabit that strange world where it is perpetually 1986, eternally sun-soaked California and every band is the last gang in town, riding steel horses into sunsets or the arms of star crossed maidens. As you have probably guessed, I thought it was terrific and an object lesson in how to warm up a crowd.

Sweden’s h.e.a.t. have gathered plenty of plaudits for their two albums of 80’s inspired rock and from this performance it’s easy to see why – they are pumped full of energy and chutzpah and have a genuine love of big tunes and even bigger riffs. It may not be the most original sound of the day but it does the job very nicely indeed. Finland’s Von Hertzen Brothers finish the morning off in predictably brilliant fashion with vocalist Mikko Von Hertzen channelling his best John Travolta via a natty white suit that he does well not to get covered in the ubiquitous festival mud. The VHB brand of rock is so packed full of intelligence and hummable tunes, particularly the peerless ‘Flowers and Rust’, it does make you scratch your head as to why these guys aren’t absolutely massive but their time will come…..Please make it so.

Backyard Babies’ raucous and efficient cock rock gives way to the studied and equally efficient metal of Mark Tremonti who does Alter Bridge without the tunes (if you’re not a convert) and Alter Bridge with added metal (if you are).  I’m in the latter camp, as are most of an appreciative if slightly wet crowd on the main stage. The new songs from his second album, Cauterize seem to stand up equally well with the more familiar tunes from All I Was (both Fret12) too. Boxes ticked, job done.

Blackberry Smoke are the perfect band for a warm sunset, cold beers and a barbecue, so the presence of rain, wind, rain and some more rain probably didn’t help their cause but I found their performance compelling in an insouciant and entirely charming way. Billy Idol, by contrast, is a bit of a man for all seasons and you can tell why: he has an arsenal of hits that most bands would give their right arm for. You have to pinch yourself that this is 2015 and not 1985 but Idol turns in an effortless performance of crowd pleasers that you know and love- of course there’s ‘White Wedding’ and ‘Rebel Yell’ but it’s ‘Flesh for Fantasy’ and ‘Eyes Without a Face’ that are the standout tunes. Idol has this look of a man who won the lottery, the football pools and the EuroMillions over one weekend – he simply cannot quite believe that he is still the draw that he is – and, even more brilliant, no one in the crowd seems to begrudge him one iota of his considerable success. Bless him.

In much the same way that people gripe about Cavalera Conspiracy and how it’s not the REAL Sepultura (yawn, boring, get over it) so there is a similar constituency that seems to surround former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash and his latest incarnation with Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge. Honestly, I don’t know what the problem is: what’s not to love about an artist playing a blinding set of classic song after classic song peppered with huge tune after huge tune from his latest solo records? I tell you what’s not to love: nothing. Slash clearly writes mega tunes in his sleep and his set is one hour of aural bliss. The 55,000 or so on the main field lap it up like a horde of very thirsty Pavlovian dogs. And rightly so.

Lamb of God, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Lamb of God, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Likewise, the same old situation (song pun entirely intended) for LA’s Motley Crue. Crue, midway through a thoroughly deserved and valedictory world tour to say farewell are another act that many can’t seem to wait to sneer at. “It would be better if Vince Neil could sing better”- kids, Vince Neil hasn’t been able to sing since 1981. This isn’t the point at all. Crue are about the glamour, the sleaze, the rock, the roll, the girls, girls, girls. They bring a show that is part rock opera, part vaudeville, all fire and brimstone. Of course they are absurd and ridiculous- THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. It is absolutely silly and absolutely brilliant- all at the same time.

And so we come, finally, inexorably, to the self-styled hottest band in the world, Kiss. Arriving on site in a fully badged up Kiss-copter, the New York quartet turn this corner of a foreign field into a veritable circus of pomp, circumstance and old style rock n roll. There are stadium rock shows and then there is a Kiss show. There isn’t one second that passes by in this blistering set where there isn’t something going on – fireworks, drum risers, zip wires, crowd singalongs, flame throwing, blood vomiting all in glorious technicolour and all set to a soundtrack that you know and love. As an end to the best music festival I know, it is both fitting and invigorating.

I’ve booked my place for next year already.

 

MAT DAVIES


Billy Idol, Rise Against, etc Added To Download Festival 2015


Download_Festival_2015

Download Festival has announced more acts for the upcoming edition. The newest batch of artists include:

Billy Idol
Lamb Of God
Black Veil Brides
Rise Against
Godsmack
Eagles Of Death Metal
Clutch
Dragonforce
Hollywood Undead
Body Count
Every Time I Die
Parkway Drive
Backyard Babies
H.E.A.T
Motionless In White
Crown The Empire
Northlane
Madball
Mallory Knox

They will be joining the previous announced lineup of Judas Priest, Five Finger Death Punch, Black Stone Cherry, Muse, Faith No More, A Day To Remember, Marilyn Manson, Mötley Crüe, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, and Enter Shikari.