Posted in Cd Reviews

Cyclone Empire/Sound Pollution

Spanish band DARKNESS BY OATH hasn´t really impressed me n the past. Since their formation in 2002 they have been addicts to the Gothenburg sound, even featured on a tribute to AT THE GATES. The first demo came in 2005, their debut followed a year later and a second assault in 2009. Slightly rearranged the band now consists of vocalist Aritz Nabarro, guitarists Tristan Iniguez and Alain Castano, bass player Gorka Otero, and drummer Asier Bilbao. Guests on the album are Anders Björler of AT THE GATES and Mario Iliopoulos of the excellent NIGHTRAGE.

Openers are a wicked thing, this one is windy, at first acoustic and slowly transgressing into an electric upstart of a song that is only in its first stages...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Cyclone Empire/Sound Pollution

Formerly known as DEVASTATOR, this straightforward band admits to being in for a rocky ride by naming themselves after being in a BLESSED CURSE situation. The trio of Tyler Satterlee, guitars/vocals, Derek Bean, bass, and Patrick Hamby, drums have been at it since 2001, first as ATROSITY, well, well, and now as a descriptive title. Two EP´s, two demos, the latter two reused here and recorded with Juan Urteaga of EXODUS and HEATHEN fame. For fans of a.o. TESTAMENT and DEATH ANGEL says the info, sounds promising…

Gaaaah! “Bleeding Cross” sets the pace right from the start. Riffs galore and a fine solo go straight for the throat, lovely. The grooves are always there, they may hail from California but the tag Bay Area is inevitable...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Inner Wound/Sound Pollution

Swedish quintet ANDROMEDA dates back to 1999. Six albums and one DVD later they are well-known in Scandinavia and Europe. They have played ProgPOwer USA and Slottsskogen Goes Progressive, and this is said to be their most mature effort so far.

This might be over the wall even in prog circles. Opener “Preemptive Strike”is a piece of advanced musical gymnastics, and quite heavy for its kind. “Lies´r´Us” heads down the same path, twisted even to the limit of not being engaging. They get away far better with the compelling “Stay Unaware” and the rather cozy “Survival of the Richest”. A tad of heedless thrash is probably present in the stomping “False Flag” but everything pales in comparison with the chanting “Chosen by God”...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion Music/Border

Fellow Swedes of long running melodic progressive hard rockers HOUSE OF SHAKIRA are back, now slightly revamped. Originating from 1991 the band has released nine albums, all in all, and a live DVD. Named after a bordello the band are serious enough, and have revised their situation 2007, when their previous full-length album came out. New to the band are drummer Martin Larsson, bass man Basse Blyberg and vocalist Andreas Novak, ex MIND´S EYE. The info says that necessary changes were made prior to begin recording their new album, more focused than ever. Let´s check them out.

The band has changed substantially since last time around. I think the new refrain orientation is very positive. “Opener Brick Wall Falling” has a fine refrain but is not an extravagant opener...

Posted in Interviews

Ahead of this years Cambridge Folk festival, Festivalphoto spoke to the festival organiser Eddie Barcan to ask him a few questions about the festival and what people thinking of going can expect:

Festivalphoto: First of all can you introduce yourself to the readers and explain your role in the festival?

Eddie: My name is Eddie Barcan, I programme and manage the Festival.

Festivalphoto: How long has Cambridge been hosting its annual folk festival?

Eddie: 48 years young this year!

Festivalphoto: Can you tell us a little bit about what people can expect when visiting the festival for the first time?

Eddie: That festival’s don’t have to be hard work and some brilliant music. It’s not too big but there’s more than enough to stop you getting bored. Good facilities. Very friendly people...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Former Housemartin and Beautiful South main man Paul Heaton will be on tour in July with his Soul Opera, The 8th. To tie in with this stage performance, the songs have been recorded in the studio and are being released on a CD/DVD package. The album includes performances from the full original The 8th cast, The Southside Sinnaires featuring: Reg E Cathey from US hit series The Wire, Mercury music prize nominee King Creosote, Ivor Novello winning artist Cherry Ghost, ex Beautiful South singer Jacqui Abbott, as well as sweet soul singer Wayne Gidden, Scottish singer songwriter Aaron Wright, The Earlies Christian Madden, Hull country & western singer Mike Greaves and the wonderful Yvonne Shelton.
The 8th – given a theatrical narrative by award-winning playwright Che Walker (Royal Court and ...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Sonny Landreth is a blues musician from Louisiana, best known for his slide guitar playing. ”Elemental journey” is his eleventh solo album. It’s an unusual album as it’s a completely instrumental release – absolutely no vocals on any of the songs

There are three guests on the album – Joe Satriani on ”Gaia tribe”, Eric Johnson on ”Passionola”, and Robert Greenidge on ”Forgotten story”.

There is a lot of variety in the album. All the songs have great complex melodies, but there are lots of influences intermingling to create a wonderfully rich collection of tunes. As you’d expect there is plenty of beautiful slide guitar here, but the rest of the music is equally good and all works together perfectly.

I have to say I like this album – which surprises even me as its very rare for an instr...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Von Hertzen Brothers are a Finnish rock band who over the last decade have released four albums. The band consists of the three Von Hertzen brothers (Mikko, Kie & Jonne), all of whom had been in other bands before teaming up together.
This new release, ”The best of” is as the name suggests, a compilation of their best songs. The album includes songs from each of their four albums.

This is a band I’ve not seen live – I’d hoped to see them when they played the High Voltage festival but due to a scheduling clash unfortunately missed them. Their music is really hard to categorise as its so diverse and a single song can have varying different influences present...

Posted in Cd Reviews

This is certainly an interesting concept – to take some of the best known classics from English literature – the words of William Shakspeare, and to turn them into songs by setting them to music. It’s one of those ideas that could work brilliantly well, or be a total failure.
As if setting the words to music wasnt a big enough challenge, the decision was taken to use only instruments that would have been around in Shakespeare’s time...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Dancer in the fire” is a compilation of songs from Irish singer/songwriter Paul Brady. His music has varied over the years and has included traditional Irish music and folk music with varying amounts of pop or rock influences. Over the last 34 years he has released well thirteen solo albums plus a couple of compilations.
When I heard that Dancer in the fire was a compilation, my initial thought was that it would be the usual sort of compilation – i.e. a ”best of”, but it isn’t...