No nonsense Rock n’ Roll may not be the flavour of the month but Canadian trio Danko Jones, with twenty-three years under their belts, have got it down to a tee. Their ninth album A Rock Supreme, on Rise Above, continues their trademark sound – which mixes the bite of AC/DC and the swagger of Thin Lizzy with an impressive, Clutch like ferocity.Continue reading
Troublesome and tumultuous times politically tends to bring out the best in musicians, with everyone from the world of Metal, Punk, Country, Folk, and Blues to name but a few raising their voices in protest. Wigan’s own John Fairhurst is strongly rooted in the latter camp, with his new album The Divided Kingdom (Unmanageable Records) containing impassioned rallying cries against greed and corruption, Brexit and the lying politicians involved with it, alongside riffs and hooks aplenty.Continue reading
Hailing from Norway are The Devil and the Almighty Blues, a quintet who offer up a hazy fusion of Blues, Stoner and Rock n’ Roll. Their third and newest album, cunningly titled Tre (Red Sun Records), continues this heady mix – offering up a thick, beefed up take on the Blues for those who like relaxed, stoner grooves.Continue reading
Bus the Unknown Secretary, (or BUS for short), are a four-piece from Greece whose broad and varied approach to Stoner Rock is as vintage as it is welcomed. Never Decide (RidingEasy) is their second album and alongside the usual fuzzy guitars and Black Sabbath influences inherent in the genre, they have thrown in some Alice Cooper and NWOBHM for good measure, not to mention some wonderfully bizarre chicken based album art.Continue reading
Thirty years later and, rather remarkably with the same line up, Swedish rockers Backyard Babies are still at it, their latest effort Sliver & Gold (Century Media) continues where their 2015 ‘comeback’ album Four By Four (Gain) left off – namely glammed up Punk which fuses together the sounds of Green Day and Motley Crüe, with a bit of The Wildhearts for good measure.Continue reading
The bombastic operatic Metal of Avantasia continues apace with their eighth album Moonglow (Nuclear Blast), and just in case you were in any doubt it opens with a nigh on ten minute slice of pomp that would not sound out of place on Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell 2 (MCA/Virgin). The conceptual nature and fantastical sound of previous album Ghostlights is expanded upon here, helped by the ample time Tobias Sammet was given when making it.Continue reading
The latest in the long line of Alternative Rockers are Mantra, a British trio who formed three years ago. This year sees the release of their debut album Dreamland (Dine Alone Records), produced by Tom Dalgety whose body of work ranges from Ghost and Opeth to The Pixies and Royal Blood – with the latter two providing the inspiration here.Continue reading
With a name inspired by – no, not the Def Leppard power ballad or the hickey Accept were screaming for – Halestorm’s ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’ is the all-female Japanese Metal band Lovebites. If you like your Metal relentless, big, bombastic and with one foot in the eighties then you have come to the right place, Clockwork Immortality (JPU Records) is their second album in their short three-year life and it is not for the timid.Continue reading
From the fuzzy guitars and the distorted, feedback-esque noises of ‘Pessimist’ you know what you are going to get from Deathchant. This Los Angeles based four-piece have just released their self-titled debut album (King Volume Records) and it does indeed deal in Psychedelic Rock with a heavy Stoner vibe, supplemented by the occasional flirtation with Metal – not too dissimilar from North Carolina’s ASG.Continue reading
Two years after their self-released debut album The Insatiable Weakness, Melodic Death Metallers Fall have some more Scandi-inspired music for you; an EP with the equally poetic title The Dreamer of Tragedy. This four track offering sees the Texan four-piece broaden their sound – more synth, melody and melancholy to go with the ferocious Melodeath of their debut.Continue reading