After the success of the first one, and acting as a nice stop gap between albums, comes Back to Blues Vol. 2 (Mascot Records) – Black Stone Cherry’s second EP covering blues standards from years gone by. Like the first one it comes a year after a proper album, 2018s Family Tree (Mascot Records) in this case, and is chock full of big names. Happily, also like the first volume, it is a joy from start to finish – with the six blues classics given the full Black Stone Cherry treatment.
Three years after the release of Welcome to Fat City (Wind-Up Records) Crobot returns with Motherbrain (Mascot Records). I’ve actually been looking forward to this release for quite a while. I can’t get enough of dirty, rock jams.Continue reading
It’s weird hearing Yngwie Malmsteen not doing the Yngwie Malmsteen million mile per hour guitar run thing 100% of the time. Blue Lightning (Mascot Records / Mascot Label Group) is Yngwie’s bluesy take on classic Rock n’ Roll cover songs, hand-picked, played and sung by the guitar virtuoso. It’s a mindbender to hear. It’s like, Blue Lightning consists of classic tunes but Malmsteen and his eccentric guitar playing makes them seem space-age science fiction futuristic sounding.Continue reading
Danish quartet VOLA are an impossible band to pigeonhole as their 2016 debut Inmazes gleefully hopped genres encompassing Heavy Metal, Prog Rock, Industrial and Electro elements amongst others. Their new album Applause of a Distant Crowd (both Mascot) continues this broad outlook, but this time the keys of Martin Werner play a more prominent role.Continue reading
San Diego rockers P.O.D. have streamed the title track from their upcoming new album Circles, their first for their new label Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group. Dropping on November 16th, ‘Circles’ brings the lyrics, grooves and fire P.O.D. fans are used to. Check it out! Continue reading
If, as world-renowned loud mouth Gene Simmons has more than once mused, rock is dead then someone forgot to pass the message on to Monster Truck. The Canadian four-piece have been churning out no-nonsense Rock since 2009, with their third album True Rockers (Mascot) carrying on their energetic mix of Southern and Classic Rock but, this time, with a few modern touches.Continue reading
Heavy metal and shred guitar icon Adrian Vandenberg (Vandenberg, Whitesnake) and his band Vandenberg’s Moonkings have shared a new lyric video for their track ‘Reputation’. The song comes from their late 2017 release MK II which was released via Mascot Records.Continue reading
Classic rock supergroup Black Country Communion have released a new video from their album BCCIV, released last fall via Mascot Records. You can watch the video for ‘The Cove’ below. The band is made up of legendary rock artists such as Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze), Drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Alice Cooper, Billy Idol) and bluesman guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa. Continue reading
Like Gov’t Mule’s latest album, Shaman’s Harvest new record Red Hands Black Deeds (Mascot) was worked on during the American presidential campaign of 2016 – as such there are underlying socio-political themes coursing through the record. On this, their sixth album, the Missouri rockers have taken a vintage, more organic approach to their Shinedown-esque Hard Rock resulting in a fresher, more attention grabbing sound.Continue reading
With the likes of Dream Theater’s John Myung and Ty Tabor of King’s X in their ranks (alongside Winger’s Rod Morgenstien), one would expect The Jelly Jam to be an ambitious and challenging progressive band, with a wide range of influences in their arsenal. In contrast, over their lifespan, their sound has been a much more direct, song based affair; and latest album Profit (Mascot).
With a plethora of ambitious works and journeys under their belt, Profit still shows them flexing their impressive creative muscles and offering virtuoso performances, but in a more refined and concise manner. This is more straight-forward grunge infused rock with some shades of AOR and the like, for a more gritty but no less immediate hard rock sound. Album opener ‘Care’ is a particularly heavier moment to kick of proceedings and provides an immediately anthemic chorus, preceding the softer, acoustic ‘Stain On The Sun’, before picking pace again.
Herein lies the album’s problem, of an undefined sound which seems to try and encompass too many tones and paces without flowing all too well. Immediately following one of the album’s heavier points with a complete contrast proves somewhat jarring in a manner such rock shouldn’t do. Fortunately the strength of the songs alone, whilst not groundbreaking by any stretch, do hold up strong enough to return to on numerous occasions.
Those unfamiliar with the band before hand may have expected wildly different when noting the personnel involved, but The Jelly Jam are a chance to prove that these guys are not just one trick ponies and can do short, sharp and catchy just as well as sprawling, complex epics. It does still need some refining in their sound to feel truly wholesome; but they have certainly succeeded in making a straight forward, fun album; and that is most definitely the mission.
6.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL
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