Posted in Press Releases

The brand new studio album produced by Kevin Shirley
UK release date: 27th August 2012

Five-time Grammy award winning legend and Blues Hall of Fame Inductee Robert Cray is pleased to announce that his brand new studio album Nothin But Love will be released in the UK by Provogue Records on Monday August 27th.

Produced by Kevin Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Aerosmith, The Black Crowes), the ten-song album includes material written by all four Robert Cray Band members; Robert Cray (vocals/guitar), Jim Pugh (keyboards), Cray Band co-founder Richard Cousins (bass) and Tony Braunagel (drums). The new album blends blues, rock, soul and jazz, with a lyric-sheet that examines the triumphs, fallouts and follies of love.

Nothin But Love is Cray’s sixteenth studio album and marks the latest milestone in a ...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonight’s gig is a co-headlining one with both bands playing for an hour. First up was Crimson sky, a female fronted prog rock band from Bristol. I did enjoy their set but there was certainly room for improvement – the keyboards were way too high in the mix and at times drowned out the vocals. The guitar work was good and heavy. The singer moved around and used the space well and her voice seemed pretty good, but during one of the old songs that was written when the band had a different singer then she did seem to struggle, which isnt unusualy when singing somethign written for someone elses voice. The band failed to get much engagement with the crowd unfortunately with most people standing well back, but there was still plenty of applause between songs.

Winter in Eden are a band I’v...

Posted in Cd Reviews

One of the best rock bands to come out of Britain in the 1980’s, The Cult are back with their new album, ”Choice of weapon”.

After the collapse of the short lived Southern Death Cult, singer Ian Astbury joined up with guitarist Billy Duffy to form Death Cult in 1983, before changing the name less than a year later to The Cult. Their debut album, Dreamtime, won them plenty of fans, but it was their second album, Love, released in 1985 that really brought them mainstream attention and commercial success, and the band built on this with Electric (1987), and Sonic Temple (1989). Their 1991 album, Ceremony, was less successful, and their 1994 album, The Cult was even less successful, and the band split the following year...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Industrial metal legends Fear Factory reformed in 2010 after a long absence, and quickly signalled that their decade long break was over by releasing the excellent ”Mechanize” album. Now just two years later they’re releasing their latest album, ”The Industrialist”. The band have described how it compares to the last album, “There’s definitely been an evolution from that record to this one,” states Burton C Bell. “It’s still familiar, very familiar and still very Fear Factory but there are elements that we didn’t really get to on the last record for the sake of metal.”
Dino Cazares has compared The Industrialist to the band’s longstanding 1995 classic Demanufacture. “Demanufacture took what we had done before and broke all that down to create something new...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Thormesis is a German Pagan Black Metal band from Bavaria that was formed in 2006. In 2008 they self-released their debut album ”Gehet Hin Und Kämpfet”. In early 2010 they released their second album, ”Vergangene Asche” after signing with German label Düsterwald Produktionen. Now they are ready to release their third album – ”Von Leere Und Tod”, after signing to AFM records. As a live band they have shared stages with bands including Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Fiddlers Green, J.B.O. and Black Messiah, and have also played Germany’s biggest pagan metal festival – Ragnarök.

The new albums title translates into English as ”Of Emptiness And Death”. The album only contains 8 songs, yet lasts for 54 minutes...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Merrimack are a French black metal band who formed in 1994, and recorded three demos before releasing their debut album (Ashes Of Purification) in 2002. Since then they have released two further albums – “Of Entropy And Life Denial” (2006), and ”Grey rigorism” (2009). Now they are back with their fourth album – ”The acuasal mass”

Perhaps less well known than other French black metal bands Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord, Merrimack have a different style to most of their compatriots, taking more influence from the Scandinavian black metal bands than the French ones, and as such this is a more straightforward black metal album than you’d expect from a French band.

This is a good solid Black Metal album but with little here that stands out as unique then ultimately it fails to be a gr...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Akinesis is Italian duo Gabriele Caspiani and Nando Mambretti. They released their first album (Reflections) in 2005, and have now just released their second album – The Passage.

The music is quite diverse. It’s almost all pop with rock influences, but within that broad category there is plenty of variety, and that does make it hard to describe the album easily.

”Second life” is the heaviest track on the album – definitely a rock track, and for me by far the standout track on the album.

This is definitely a diffuclt album to describe. Most of the album is probably best classified as pop with a hint of rock...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Napalm/Sound Pollution

We always save the best for last, don’t we? When CANDLEMASS announced their final studio album I was saddened, they´ve been around as long as I remember metal. Previous outings after MESSIAH´s stormy exit have been a tiny bit uneven, but with shining highlights. And now that Robert Lowe (SOLITUDE AETURNUS) has been ousted I can only regret it. But with Mats Levén on board, the promise of retirement from the studio might end up like JUDAS PRIESTS ditto?

CANDLEMASS 2011 consisted of stalwarts Lasse Johansson and Mats “Masse” Björkman on guitars, Leif Edling on Bass, Janne Lindh on drums and Robert Lowe on vocals. As the massive sound of “Prophet” hit my MP3 headphones I was amazed, so fresh, so true to their past and yet so fabulous...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Rapid Fire Entertainment/Border Import

Julie Westlake and HYDROGYN returns with their sixth album since 2004. The band first album, “Best Served with Volume” appeared some eight years ago, and now they have seen the release of the ir fifth studio outing. One live and one DVD has also seen the light of day, and players like James Lomenzo and Jeff Young, both with a past including a.o. MEGADETH adds some star quality to the band. Sponsored by the likes of Budweiser and Harley Davidson the band has scored on the US charts, but over here in Scandinavia they are a more unknown entity. The info promises a return to their more melodic roots, let´s hope so…

Opener “Something to Say” delivers with a simple but effective riff and a rather strong refrain...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion Music/Border

STATUS MINOR debuted in 2009 with “Dialog”, and now strikes while the iron is hot. The concept album hovers on the subject of the love-related cycle. The foundation of the band was laid by Sami Saarinen in 2002, and has stabilized to the stable line-up of Sami on guitars, vocalist Markku Kuikka, keyboardist Jukka Karinen, bassist Eero Pakkanen and drummer Rolf PIlve, many of whom are parts of more bands. This album is said to be more straightforward than the prima opus, has a bigger feel and is more heavy and cohesive. Not bad…

“The Wind” creates that effect, as promised. The riff immediately makes me think of classical music, and there is absolutely no lack of progressiveness. The beautiful and well-arranged “Hollow” is certainly more cohesive...