Posted in Cd Reviews

Playback is a collection that was originally released in 1995, but which has been unavailable outside North America since 2005. It’s a compilation covering the band’s time with MCA records and spans 20 years of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ career, from 1973 to 1993.

What a collection this is! A six CD compilation containing 84 tracks and lasting over four and a half hours. It’s impressive – there’s no other word for it. Not only do you get several discs packed full of their greatest hits, you also get three discs of B sides and rarities including outtakes, material recorded by Mudcrutch (the band that would later become the Heartbreakers)

To review this in detail would involve writing far more than anyone reading this is likely to want to endure – the only people interested in the ...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Polish band ”At the lake” are back with this new album – Maya. It’s one of those albums that straddles multiple genres – symphonic metal and gothic metal primarily, but with folk and classical influences too.

The use of the violin helps differentiate the band from many of the other bands in these genres as it adds a different feel to the music. Add to that the lovely vocals of singer Natalia and the great songwriting and you’re on to a winner

”Tomorrow I will fly” opens with some lovely violin work before the drums join in with a deep pounding rhythm, and the background vocals add a beautiful sound – it’s more an instrumental track than a proper song as the vocals are not singing lyrics but are instead being used more as instruments and very effectively too.

As good as that first track i...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Electric Lady are a Finnish band that formed in 2007 that describe their music as pop-rock. They cite influences including Iron Maiden, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Janis Joplin, and Led Zeppelin, but listening to it there are certainly other more recent influences. To those influences I’d add 80s bands including Pat Benatar and Romeos Daughter.

Brief comments on a few tracks

”A man of that kind” certainly has a very pop feel at first with its bass beat, but the rock feel does come in and the song ends up as a polished pop-rock track.

”Secret love” is a great rock song with plenty of pace, great vocals, plenty of power, and a catchy tune.

”Your Heart Is 100 Times Bigger Than Mine” opens with some nice guitar work and is more of a ballad with some lovely emotion-laden vocals...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Stop Stop are a glam rock/hard rock band that are orignally from Spain, but moved to London last year. They’ve been busy touring and building a good fan base in the UK.

”Unlimited” is their debut album, and I have to say it’s an impressive debut, and certainly lives up to their excellent live reputation. This is definitely a band to watch out for if they’re playing a festival or gig near you.

Brief comments on a couple of the songs..

The album opens with ”Born to rock” with its chunky guitar riffs and rapid pace. The vocals are certainly reminiscent of Michael Monroe – which is certainly no bad thing. It’s a great heavy rock which I can imagine being great live.

”Regret” really does feel like a Hanoi Rocks song and is another great song.

In fact there isn’t a weak song on the album – i...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Universal have just released a Thin Lizzy collection (I’m sure some of you are already thinking ”not another one”), but this isnt a greatest hits collection – this is the bands six albums released between 1974 and 1979 packaged together in one collection – and at a very reasonable price.

So for around £17 or so, you get six albums – thats 57 songs and approaching 4 hours of music – a bargain really when a single new album will cost £10-15. The collection contains six great albums that allow you to not only hear the hits, but to also see how their sound changed during this time.

The lineup was constant for five of these albums: Phil Lynott – Vocals/Bass, Brian Downey – Drums, Scott Gorham – Guitars, Brian Robertson – Guitars...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Late night fiction are a Melodic post hardcore band from Hull. They formed in 2007, but the band as they are now only really came together in 2009 when they moved to a heavier sound and recruited new members. That year the band released their debut EP (Hands and numbers). Since then the band have featured on two live “BBC Introducing” sessions and have toured with bands including Grammatics, The Xcerts, Twin Atlantic, Flood of red, and Dinosaur pile-up.
The band are now releasing a new EP, Polar, with their album expected to follow towards the end of the year. Zane Lowe has already given the EP some airplay which has to be a good sign for the band.

Comments on a few tracks..

The EP opens with “Black watch”, a song that really shows what the band can do, and displays plenty of promi...

Posted in Cd Reviews

With the Euro 2012 tournament going on, what better time for some football related music. This new album features 22 football related songs – the perfect soundtrack when you mute the sound on the TV while the pundits waffle endlessly and annoyingly in the pre-match buildup.

There are three songs on the album sung by England World Cup squads – but they’re all from the 1970 squad, which probably tells you a lot about the standard of world cup teams musical contributions in recent years (anyone remember the awful John Barnes rap?). The songs we get from the 1970 squad are “There’ll always be an England”, “Lily the pink” and Ob-la-di-obla-da”

As well as the pop type songs there’s a healthy mix of a more classical style of music in the album such as “Jerusalem”, “Land of hop...

Posted in Cd Reviews

It’s 30 years since legendary British rockers Asia released their debut album – the self titled release that quickly made a big name for the band with that debut album spending 9 weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard top 100 album chart and selling enough copies to go multi-platinum. Since then the band have released a steady stream of albums and undergone various linuep changes. In 2006 the original band members reunited and since then Asia has been playing with that same original lineup. XXX is their third album since the reunion and is once again being produced by Mike Paxman (who worked with the band on their last album) and is again being released on Frontiers Records. The title is a reflection of the years since the debut album (XXX being roman numerals for 30).

”Face on the bridge” ...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Sist ut på festivalens första dag är Slayer som blivit en folkkär familjeangelägenhet vars musik förenar över flera generationsgränser och säkert kommer att göra det i ytterligare trettio år. Det är hög igenkänningsfaktor hela vägen, inget nytänkande eller experimenterande men inte det minsta tråkigt. Jag kan inte tröttna på Slayer trots att jag i likhet med många här sett dem fler gånger än jag kommer ihåg. Det finns en känsla av trygg snuttefilt att mitt i natten stå bland tusentals andra och höra Hanneman, King, Lombardo och Araya klockrent leverera ”War Ensamble”, ”Death skin Mask, ”Angel of Death” Mandatory Suicide” mfl, mfl, mfl allsångspärlor, och givetvis ”Raining Blood”...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Fransmännen har inte festivalens största publik och det är inte konstigt eftersom deras progressiva och tekniska döds kan verka lite svårtillgänglig såhär sent på kvällen då berusning och annan sensorisk överbelastning gör sig gällande. Speltiden är ur den aspekten lite märklig då man i festivalsammanhang kanske hellre konsumerar lättillgänglig skråla-med-och-headbanga-metal vid denna sena timme. Men nu står Gojira där och de som gillar deras musik gillar den jättemycket. Så pass att det uppstår en circle-pit till ”Flying Whales” och ett engagerat gensvar till tidiga låtar som ”Clone”. Däremot är titellåten från kommande plattan ”Lénfant Sauvage” en ganska seg och såsig skapelse som gör mig rastlös men inget finns att anmärka på framförandet. Fast jag vill ha lite mer action...