Tag Archives: Steve Tovey

ALBUM REVIEW: Black Stone Cherry – Screamin’ At The Sky

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When your first two albums are such bonafide classics as to not only launch you to rock fame but also firmly establish your sound and style in everyone’s conscience, it can be difficult to find the space to grow amongst the weeds and weight of expectation, particularly when your third album saw some of the earnestness and depth not quite sacrificed at the altar of “the commercial gamble” (one that paid off, whether or not you choose to blame it on the Boom Boom), but tempered in exchange for slick, rock arena fillers.  

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ALBUM REVIEW: Spirit Adrift – Ghost At The Gallows

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As the dog-fighting solos of “Give Her To The River” battle across the sunlit horizon between your ears, flurries of shrapnel-barbed melodic notes and runs fired first from one side of your headphones then the other, for those of us who are battle-hardened Heavy Metal warriors it’s hard not to grin and surrender to the glory of the Ghost At The Gallows, for the Spirit Adrift has claimed another champion to its horde.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Asking Alexandria – Where Do We Go From Here

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Sometimes an album can be considered on its own merit, or with just a passing reference to the context it exists within. For others, they can, indeed, should, be linked to a “run” or an arc of albums within a period of a band’s career. And for some, it is worth going back to the beginning to truly see the big picture of what and why a specific album is. 

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REVIEWS ROUND-UP: ft. Church of Misery, Witchskull, Altar of Oblivion, Wytch Hazel, Yawning Man, and Tigercub

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Nearly thirty years of diving headfirst into the void, and Church of Misery are back with Tatsu Mikami once more giving worship to the Blackest of Sabbath’s, acolyte to ‘The Riff’ and servant to the retro groove once more on Born Under A Mad Sign (Rise Above). Joined once again after a twenty-five-year absence by original vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda, there is a fine sense of anticipation about the Japanese doom merchants seventh full-length. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: The Dirty Nil – Free Rein To Passions

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Ah, the age-old balance between the jagged, dirty edges of rock and the polish, apparently, required to make a commercial success of this left of mainstream universe we all inhabit. Get it right, and radio and playlists and such stardom-related “things” await… yet, to play that game too much and for too long is to risk losing the soul and joy that is at the heart of the art that got you there in the first place. So, seemingly as a response to the more contrived, collaborative, and involved process that led to their predecessor Fuck Art, alternative rockers The Dirty Nil have given themselves over to their natural instincts, indulging a Free Rein To Passions (Dine Alone) on their fourth album. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Def Leppard – Drastic Symphonies

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In their forty-three year (!) recording career, it isn’t unfair to say UK rock stalwarts Def Leppard are known for a pretty steady formula and approach of, in the main, pristine, polished hard rock songs, centred in an eighties sheen. Most of us could recognise a Def Leppard-style song without too much difficulty, and they aren’t (a few deviations – RetroActive, Slang, Taylor Swift, and Ghostly interactions – aside) known for their musical risk-taking or surprises. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Therapy? – Hard Cold Fire

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While resilience and, well, pure obstinance (so much for the ten-year plan, hey?) have been foundation stones to the story of Irish alternative noise rock stalwarts Therapy?, there are also certain relationships that have been integral throughout their journey. The three-decade (plus) partnership of singer/guitarist Andy Cairns and bass-pounder Michael McKeegan is one, the teaming up with Marshall Records on phoenix album and Marshall’s first release, Cleave (2018) feels important, too particularly as it was a release that also saw them reunited with producer Chris Sheldon, the man behind the mixing desk of the seminal and still majestic Troublegum album that catapulted Therapy? to mainstream success in the mid-nineties. 

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REVIEWS ROUND-UP: ft. Enforced – Chronicle – Vintersea – Ignea – Burning Witches

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While paring Enforced’s third album, War Remains (Century Media) down to a violent interbreeding of Seasons In The Abyss and Nightmare Logic may seem a little unfair and reductive, nonetheless, it immediately focuses the mind on the sort of aggressive perfection you have in store on this utter treat of metallic pummelling. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Predatory Void – Seven Keys To The Discomfort Of Being

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No matter how rotten the State of Denmark ever was, the fecundity of fetidity seems ever more prevalent in the Belgian ward of Ghent; more specifically within the parish boundaries of the Church of Ra, is something far more foul. Missionary for ruinous, dark, and heavy music, six-string dire wolf Lennart Bossu presents a new vehicle to spread the word of power of exacting, challenging, but ultimately rewarding, dark metallic music captured and presented under the guise of Predatory Void, a quintet of local luminaries to Bossu who have helped mould and shape a new, slightly more straight-forward, yet no less demanding than Amenra, force. 


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EP REVIEW ROUND-UP: ft. Black Veil Brides – Oversize – Sugar Horse – Bayside

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Black Veil Brides – The Mourning (Sumerian)

There’s an underlying belief that interim releases are merely disappointing cash-ins comprised mostly of filler and cast-off material. A strong title track usually followed by cover versions, demo versions, live cuts or songs simply not worthy to make it onto a full length record. A theory to which Hollywood based five piece Black Veil Brides clearly do not subscribe.

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