Posted in Cd Reviews

Carolus Rex is the seventh studio album from Swedish power metal band Sabaton. The album comes at a time of change for the band, with the band changing it’s lineup radically in the time between finishing the album and it’s release. Four members have left and been replaced, with only Pär Sundström and Joakim Brodén remaining. Sadly this has inevitably distracted attention away from the forthcoming album which is a shame as the album is excellent.
For the new album Sabaton have abandoned their usual lyrical themes of World War 2 and instead have made a concept album about the Swedish Empire in the period 1561-1721.

The album will be released in two versions – Swedish or English...

Posted in Cd Reviews

This new EP from The Treatment was originally recorded and released for Record store day, and was only available in very limited quantities (only 300 copies were produced and all were signed by the band) from a proper record shop, not online. Thankfully though for those of us who missed out, Spinefarm are making the EP widely available from 16th May.

Before getting to the music, lets start with the packaging. There’s a nice Star Wars style cover, and inside it doesnt just tell you what the songs are that are on the EP, it tells you why they chose to do each of the songs (all are cover versions). That for me was a really nice touch – there are thousands of great songs out there, so to get some insight into why a band has chosen a particular song to cover is unusual and interesting.

The...

Posted in Cd Reviews

The Imagined Village is a folk musical project founded by Simon Emmerson of the Afro Celt Sound System. Aiming to produce modern folk music that represents modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom, it features musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Martin Carthy says ‘The Imagined Village was an experiment started back in 2004 to see if trad and non trad musicians could work together on what was largely my back catalogue, something I was only too happy to engage in…”...

Posted in Cd Reviews

“Chasing The Night” is the second album from Leeds singer/songwriter Rupert Stroud. Mixing alternative, indie, rock and acoustic the album is an interesting mix of influences. The lyrics are semi autobiographical and are emotive and at times thought provoking. The album has been produced by Will Jackson (The Kaiser Chiefs, Embrace, The Cribs and The Music) at the Soundworks Studios in Leeds

Cynics would say that ”singer songwriter” is a glorified name for a busker, which I have to admit in some cases is probably true, but in some cases then it’s an unfair criticism. Singer songwrite could also be descibed as ”solo artist who doesnt fit neatly into any of the usual musical genres” – Rupert Stroud falls into this latter category...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Deals Death are a melodic death metal band from Sweden that was formed in 2007. An early lineup of the band featured members of Sabaton. Based in Gothenburg, this is their second album. The first album was released in 2008 and was only available digitally. Since then the band has changed it’s lineup and worked on their second album, Elite, which was recorded in May 2010 – presumably the delay of two years in releasing it has been partly down to finding a suitable record deal. The band are now signed to Spinefarm and have just released Elite .

With nine songs and clocking in at just 34 minutes this isnt the longest album in the world, but Deals Death aren’t alone in producing a short album sadly, and with genres like death metal it is more acceptable – a 34 minute Prog album would be u...

Posted in Cd Reviews

At the beginning of June, Jettblack are due to release their second album, Raining Rock. Before then we have the first single from the album being released. For the single they’ve chosen the title track of the album – Raising Rock. I can see that causing a bit of confusion with people asking when ”Raising rock” will be released – the date depends if they mean the single or the album.

I’ll say one thing, if the title track is any indication of how good the album will be then I suggest you don’t waste any time and order the album now. This is one hell of a good track – well written with a great catchy chorus. Great vocals, some nice guitar work and pounding drums, this is probably one of the best songs Jettblack have released so far.

The B sides (for those that don’t know why they’re ca...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Stones grow her name” is the oddly named seventh album from Sonata Arctica. It’s been three years since the veteran Finnish Power Metallers released their last album (The days of grays). With all six of their earlier albums going Gold in Finland then they obviously have a lot to live up to.

Some brief comments on a few of the songs…

”Shitload o’ money” is an unusual name for a song, but lets be honest the name is fairly unimportant as long as the song itself is good enough, and this song is certainly a good strong song.

”Cinderblox” is an unusual track – totally unlike the rest of the album. It opens with a rapid melody on the banjo before the rest of the band kick in giving it a Hillbilly heavy metal feel...

Posted in Press Releases

Sonny Landreth’s 11th album, bearing the fittingly evocative title Elemental Journey, is something completely different from the Louisiana slide wizard. Released on his own Landfall label, the new CD is Landreth’s first all-instrumental effort and his most adventurous work to date.

“From day one on the guitar, many genres of music have had an impact on me” says Landreth. “For these recordings, I drew from some of those influences that I hadn’t gone to on previous albums with my vocals. Trading off the lyrics this time, I focused solely on the instrumental side and all this music poured out. Then I asked some extraordinary musicians to help me layer the tracks in hopes of inspiring a lot of imagery for the listeners.”

Like its predecessor, From the Reach (2008), Elemental Jour...

Posted in Press Releases

”Electro-pop as honey-sweet as you’ll hear” – The Guardian
”Lettie’s songs are a masterclass in avant-pop” – Wears The Trousers

Album release: Good Fortune, Bad Weather by Lettie
Release date: May 21, 2012
Label: Outerworld Records
Listen: http://www.youtube.com/lettiemusic

On May 21 2012, Lettie releases her new album, Good Fortune, Bad Weather, an incredible piece of electro-pop and a masterclass in songwriting.

Lettie is a ”memory collector”, obsessed with collecting pieces of the past in the forms of books, postcards, second hand shop finds and newspaper clippings. This comes from her sense of ’Saudade’ – a unique Galician-Portuguese word that refers to a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves...

Posted in Press Releases

Russian punks Biting Elbows announce the video for their new single ‘Toothpick’. No strangers to viral video success, Biting Elbows’ last single ‘The Stampede’ has been viewed over 2 million times on youtube ( http://tinyurl.com/d4aymf5 ). The band are hoping that this new track can emulate some of that success and reach a new audience in the UK.

Vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and video director, Ilya Naishuller said;

The song is based on those revenge fantasies that one tends to experience after a painful end to a relationship. When first decided to shoot a video of ’Toothpick’, I was very tempted to just illustrate the revenge fueled story that is told in the lyrics, but after much consideration, I settled on an underground tournament...