Tag Archives: pop rock

Pop Evil – Pop Evil

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Pop Evil’s newest offering, Pop Evil (eOne), starts strong out of the gate, a glorious return to good old-fashioned, popular, light Heavy Metal. Dave Grahs and Nick Fuelling prove some nice chunky guitar work interplayed with air guitar worthy riffs. Leigh Kakaty provides vocals you can actually hear! Not only can you hear the vocals but they are also of a pitch and timbre that are pleasing to the ear. Best of all, you can sing along. Frat Boys, Norebang addicts, High Schoolers, Air Guitar and Air Drummers rejoice! An album for all of us!Continue reading →


Marmozets – Knowing What You Know Now

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The world wasn’t ready when the Marmozets broke out with their 2014 début The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets. It was a fresh new twist to punk—well crafted, thrilling guitar riffs, energetic drum fills and majestically roaring vocals. Nearly four years since, the Yorkshire, UK quintet is back, stronger than ever with their sophomore effort, Knowing What You Know Now (Roadrunner). Continue reading →


Von Hertzen Brothers – War Is Over

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The Von Hertzen Brothers have been much covered and much admired across the digital pages of our humble vehicle, in particular, the excellent New Day Rising (Spinefarm). Two years on, and they’re back with the very ambitious War Is Over (Music Theories/Mascot), which further evidences their classic and prog rock sensibilities, and ability to combine them into sumptuous whole pieces. Continue reading →


Steven Wilson – To The Bone

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Genius is a gangly word to throw around, and at Ghost Cult, we don’t use it lightly, or all that often. For Steven Wilson, that tag has applied more often than not to his output in his thirty-year-plus career. As he pulls further and further away from his progressive metal heyday; he runs headlong to return to his early roots in the 1980s of No Man Is An Island/No-Man (look it up if you don’t know it) project. His loose goal going in was to make a pop-rock album in the vein of lightly prog-flavored favorites of his youth such as Peter Gabriel, Tears For Fears, XTC, and others. He achieved this on To The Bone (Caroline International), without any pretense you might associate with an artist making a choice like this.Continue reading →


Silverstein – Dead Reflection

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Dependability is an overlooked trait in music. As exciting as innovation is, bands can prove just as important and special with few surprises in their sound; cliché perhaps to say, but AC/DC are case in point. Over an eight-album career, Silverstein are another example of a band with a reliable but recognisable sound throughout, their brand of emotive post-hardcore always maintaining a youthful vibrancy and intensity. Latest album Dead Reflection (Rise Records) follows this trend for the most part, and even reveals a couple of new tricks up their sleeve.Continue reading →


The Menzingers – After The Party

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Pennsylvania’s masters of melody are back for their third album for Epitaph. If you know The Menzingers, this record is not a departure from where they were heading with their last record, Rented World, and if you’re new to them, embrace the catchiness, great lyrics, and insightfulness of After The Party.Continue reading →


Rock Legend John Wetton Dies After Cancer Battle At Age 67

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2017 is only a month old and we have lost another great one. Singer, songwriter, and bassist John Wetton, best known for his work with King Crimson and ASIA, has passed away after a battle with colon cancer. He was 67 years old. Continue reading →


Saint[The]Sinner – Masquerades EP

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Since Kiefer Sutherland’s piercing, well, I was going to say eyes but let’s go with teeth, made rock chicks around the world swoon and crick their necks to be bitten, vampires and rock/metal have been more than bedfellows, with both aesthetics, lyrics, band names and even subgenres and scenes entwined. Cradle of Filth blew up by cleverly playing the vampire game (no, not ‘I Vant To Bite Your Finger’), Atreyu resurrected the spirit of the Old Ones in their ascension, Korn temporarily buried their career by associating themselves with the Queen of the Damned, even the hippest of the underground, Tribulation, danced with the children of the night earlier this year, Manowar penned one of their best songs (‘Each Dawn I Die’) in honour of the sleepless, and let us not forget Aiden, the dumb bastard black (formaldehyde) sheep of the flock…

And so Saint[The]Sinner have exhumed a classic, pale theme for their sprightly, theatrical pop-rock meets post-hardcore, and it’s a cape they wear well as, with a flourish, they swoop down on ‘Theatre Of Broken Dreams’ haunted house intro and sink their incisors into a vibrant, hurtling, fast paced metalcore lead off track to new EP Masquerades (self-released). As twin vocals trade-off, the throatier screams give way to an engaging, welcoming chorus and a pattern is set.

Keeping energy levels up throughout is one boon of Masquerades, a Premier League production is another, allowing the endearing and vigorous song-writing to flourish and (widow’s) peaks to peak. With the clean vocals adding an off-centre Panic! At The Disco feel to their arsenal, particularly on lead single ‘She’s A Vampire’, it’s a welcome addition to the heady mix of AFI, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold and Dommin that is sure to see the band on a steep upward trajectory their burgeoning and bloody talents deserve.

The camp horror theme is a cute touch, but don’t let it detract from the fact that the English South Coast crew have summoned forth a beastly set of strong, gratifying, grin-inducing tunes. Saint[The]Sinner have hit the mix right on the money; whether it’s clean or scream on the vocals, it’s all about being dramatic and leaving those hooks in you, as fangs lock into your flesh and notable melodies are injected like venom into the bloodstream in a way that reminds you that, you know what, sometimes this metal thing is about energy and fun, and each track sounds like it was a (monster’s) ball in the creating.

 

8.0/10

 

STEVE TOVEY


Video: Ash Releases Evel Knievel Video, US Tour Booked

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ash kablammo album cover 2015

Ash has released a new music video for their song ‘Evel Knievel’ from their recent album Kablammo, released last June. You can see the clip at this link or below:

 

Following their appearances at the upcoming Reading and Leeds Festivals, Ash will embark on a US tour.

Ash NA tour admat fall 2015

Ash tour dates:

Sep 23: Johnny Brendas – Philadelphia, PA

Sep 25: Jammin Java – Washington, DC

Sep 26: The Gramercy Theater – New York, NY

Sep 28: Subteranean – Chicago, IL

Sep 29: Majestic – Madison, WI

Sep 30: Nether Bar – Minneapolis, MN

Oct 03: Crocodile – Seattle, WA

Oct 04: Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC

Oct 06: Lola’s – Portland, OR

Oct 08: Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA

Oct 09: Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA

Ash band photo 2015

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Biters – Electric Blood

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It’s taken them 20 years to rediscover their midas touch, but of late Earache Records have been on a roll. A rock n’ roll, if you will. Whether Dig installed a Hot Tub Time Machine or not is open to scandalous rumour, but the label has been plucking 70’s rock success after retro-fuelled triumph, seeing the likes of The Temperance Movement, Rival Sons and Blackberry Smoke bring home the bourbon. Atlanta, Georgia’s Biters look set to be the latest in the line of acts on their roster recreating the magic of yesteryear, adding a street-smart proto-punk bite to their rock, rather than the smokey Southern vibe of their new label mates.

Kicking off with ‘Restless Hearts’, rocking a brilliant earworm of a bubblegum chorus, whose conception seems rooted in a world where punk and rock first met, as if Social Distortion had rocked out a couple The Sweet covers, Electric Blood manages to be effortlessly cool in its’ skin-tight Ts and tassle leather jackets. All through, the effortlessness with which the choruses lodge in the brain is to be admired, as Biters bring the pop of 80’s hair metal, mixed into a cocktail of the rough, sleaze and cool of The Rolling Stones and the panache (and tambourine) of 70’s Glam Rock.

Swagger, nonchalance and above all quality simple rock songs dominate the skyline of their début. ‘1975’ and ‘Heart Fulla Rock n’ Roll’ overload with lyrical cliché but this is no parody as they swing authentic, with the latter breaking out into a Gary Moore descending guitar harmony and old-school bass-led breakdown. Vocalist Tuk is part-cheerleader, part-rabble rouser and full-time tunesmith, his simple tones knowing their limitations, but infusing these straight-forward good time songs with the melodies and hooks they need.

Don’t go into Electric Blood expecting anything other than oh-so-cool pop rock, and a love of yesteryear. In the heaviness stakes, Biters are more Gaslight Anthem than Green Day, and at times both are brought to mind. With traces of Americana lacing tracks like ‘Dreams Don’t Die’ and nods to AC/DC (‘Electric Blood’) and Thin Lizzy (‘Space Age Wasteland’), this is an album that demands the top (or at least the windows) down, the open road, the speed-dial nudging naughty and voices raised in joyous communion.

These songs have teeth. Biters just bit hard, and these songs aren’t letting go.

 

7.5/10

 

STEVE TOVEY