Tag Archives: Rock N’ Roll

ALBUM REVIEW: Alice Cooper – The Revenge of Alice Cooper

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The Revenge of Alice Cooper (earMusic) is the first album with the original Alice Cooper band since Muscle of Love. Making it the band’s 8th album together, and Cooper’s 30th. Bob Ezrin is handling production duties to help them remember what they did back in the day. It opens with the lead single “Black Mamba,” which is slinky and theatrical. Rather than try to recapture the fire that was burning when they recorded Muscle of Love, they are side-stepping this favor of touching on a more “Schools Out” style of borderline Broadway-drama mixed with the Garage Rock sound Cooper has been dipping his boots in the past few albums. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Kicked In The Teeth – Watling Street Chambers

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In a better universe, Lemmy Kilmister lives. In that universe, Motorhead goes about twenty percent more Punk for their most recent album. 

Because we live in our universe, we got lucky. Kicked In The Teeth gave us Watling Street Chambers (Rare Vitamin Records), which my ears tell me might as well be the same thing.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Electric Wizard – Black Magic Rituals and Perversions, Vol. 1

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In 2024, Electric Wizard returns with their first album in seven years, Black Magic Rituals and Perversions, Vol. 1 (Spinefarm Records), a live album. Returning with a live album is one thing but this isn’t your ordinary live album. Usually, when one thinks of live albums, you may think of hearing bombastic stage sounds and roaring crowds, but Electric Wizard chose to record to an audience of each other and to the fans with the idea that people would get to hear what a band, trapped in isolation with the thought of possibly never playing again. The result of this album is a crushing presentation of songs that are even more raw, angry, and fist-clenching than before.  Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Marcus King – Mood Swings

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Having teamed up with Black Keys frontman Dan Auberbach for the last two albums, on his new one Mood Swings (American Recordings/Republic Records/Snakefarm Records) Marcus King is helped out by producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin. Gone is the seventies, bluesy Rock N’ Roll of the previous record Young Blood, in its place is R&B, Soul, Jazz, Pop and Classic Rock influences with King’s smokey, bluesman vocals taking centre stage. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards

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Rock ‘N’ Roll might be a young man’s game, but it is not stopping the Robinson Brothers from again coming together on Happiness Bastards (Silver Arrow Records) to prove they still have it. If Amorica was the last album you picked up by these guys, then things have changed dramatically. If you are one of their more avid followers then you have heard their transition away from merely being a Led Zeppelin/Rolling Stones hybrid, so this album makes perfect sense. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Sweat – Love Child

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Sweat are a Los Angeles trio composed of guitarist/vocalist Justin Smith, drummer Anthony Rivera, and frontwoman Tuna Tardugno who handles both the band’s vocals and album artwork. 

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REVIEWS ROUND-UP: ft. Amaranthe – Blackberry Smoke – Bokassa – Shooting Daggers

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When Swedish Europop-metalcore (they’re a difficult band to put a tag on considering how distinct their sound is!) sextet Amaranthe announced their arrival with 2011’s self-titled semi-classic album, it was hard to imagine them, as great as their first shot was, still being around thirteen years later. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Jack J Hutchinson – Battles

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Having initially fancied himself as an abstract artist, Jack J Hutchinson picked up a guitar and the rest, as they say, is history. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Rival Sons – Lightbringer

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You wait four years for a Rival Sons album and, just like buses, two come along at once. Lightbringer (Atlantic Records) is the new record from the Californian quartet, following on from companion piece Darkfighter which came out in June this year. With the everpresent Dave Cobb behind the desk, their eighth album is a compact six track offering that mixes their classic, fuzzed up Rock N Roll with atmospheric Folk and acoustic elements to great effect. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Duff McKagan – Lighthouse

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Duff McKagan is an interesting character. Having released his first solo album in 1993, a big gap followed till 2019’s Tenderness, with Lighthouse (BFD Records /Orchard/Sony) his third. This of course is but a fraction of McKagan’s musical story. Consistently coming across as the most likeable out of the classic Guns N’ Roses lineup (in which he played bass and for his part was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), such a rock pedigree is already more than most mere mortals would ever get a sniff at. 

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