Posted in Cd Reviews

Frontiers/BAM

Amanda Somerville has made quite a name for herself, both in metal circles and as a vocal coach. Of US decent, but has relocated to Germany/Holland, to be where the action seems to be. Faithful to her previous career moves she is back with a rock/metal hybrid, involving the duo of Sascha Paeth and Miro (KAMELOT, AVANTASIA etc), handling guitars, bass, keys, drums and arrangements and keyboards respectively. The info claims the material to be in the vein of a mix of Annie Lennox, DORO, ROB ZOMBIE and Sade…what?

Odd, odd, odd. Opener “Machine Gun” can´t be described as a straight rocker. The production and mixing of the voice and the guitars seem strange for the genre. There are operatic parts, rock, pop, but also beautiful slow and steamy moments...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night was started with a short set from Dangerous Breed. They put in a good performance in front of the small crowd, but they did seem lacking in imagination – between myself and a couple of friends, for each song they did we identified an Iron Maiden song with the same guitar riffs and often quite very large similarities.

Scottish biker rock band Attica Rage were next up. Their usual bass player was absent, apparently due to work commitments, but the stand in did a decent job. Attica Rage despite only playing a few times in London had a good level of support in the venue with quite a few people sporting Attica Rage T-shirts and during their set it was clear a lot of the fans there knew the songs well...

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”The return of the spectacular spinning songbook” is a live album recorded in May at two shows in Los Angeles. Unlike most albums, the setlist wasn’t planned in advance – in fact the setlist was only chosen during the show. Elvis and his band play a few songs before picking an audience member out to come on stage and spin a large wheel which is marked up with dozens of song titles. The song title at the top when the wheel stops spinning is the one that gets played next – with the audience member getting to sit on stage as the song is played. This takes audience participation to new levels, and is a great idea. Elvis Costello has done this before – hence the ”return of” in the title – he used the idea 25 years ago (so its long overdue for a return).

The Return Of The Spectacular Spinni...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonights show was Rival Sons and Heavens Basement. For a midweek gig I was quite surprised to see the venue was busy right from the start – often fans arrive late, but clearly a lot of people wanted to see both the bands tonight.

Heavens Basement opened the night and put on a great show which really got the crowd going. We got a very energetic show from the singer who was constantly racing around the stage.  At one point early in the set he dived into the crowd and sang there for part of one song before climbing back over the barrier and being dragged back on stage by the roadies. Musically they impressed too – a great choice to start the night. 

Rival sons were a lot more laid back in comparison and chose to just let the music do the talking for them. 
Their blues tinged classic roc...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The neckbreakers ball started amidst confusion – not everyone was aware the venue had changed from the forum in Kentish Town to the Relentless Garage so some fans (and press) went to the wrong place and were late arriving as a result. 
The band I was looking forwards to most, Death Angel had unfortunately dropped out and the replacement wasn’t announced till the night. 

The night kicked off with Omnium Gatherum. Being on very early they played to a small crowd of maybe 70 people.  Poor lighting meant they played in near darkness. 
They put in a good energetic performance and their heavy music and growling/screaming vocals went down well with the audience. 

Gurd came on stage in front of a slightly larger crowd – maybe 150 people, but as with Omnium Gatherum the lighting engineer appea...

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Frontiers/BAM

Norwegian rock´s most fashionable beauty ISSA releases her second album. The follow-up to her debut “Sign of Angels” sees her trying song-writing together with the Martin Brothers (VEGA, HOUSE OF LORDS). The debut lacked something I have a hard time defining, will that illusive “it” be here , extracted by ISSA and Daniel Flores?

This time around the opener is first class. “Looking for Love” has a slight keyboard intro, a forceful yet melodic refrain and promises more. The rest of the album never in fact reaches that level again. There is an aspiration to create a big US sound, and they often makes the most of songs that are not upto the Martin brother´s normal standards. The echoes of WHITESNAKE and POISON are nice twists, but it also shows the flaws in comparison...

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MDD/Sound Pollution

Germany´s MOURNING CARESS first reared its head in 1998. On board from the start were almost the same line up as today; vocalist Gerrit Mohr, guitarists Florian Erhart and Benedikt Bjarnasson, bass man Daniel Busche and drummer Dominik Schluter. The original guitarists have both left, and the replacements are Florian Albers and Wolfgang Sander. Two demo EPs and two full-length albums have been the result of their activities, and apparently a lot of hardship with lack of backing and bad luck. So, are they worth buying?

MOURNING CARESS are a cross-over band, a mix of the old ways and the latest trends. “A Matter of Time” opens in fine fashion, lots of drive, a catchy melody and almost the voice to suit the material...

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Soulseller/Sound Pollution

DEVIL was formed in 2009, pledging allegiance to the likes of BLACK SABBATH and WITCHFINDER GENERAL. The demo “Magister Mundi Xum” did nothing to harm their chances. The info sheet decribes this album as a joyful trip to hell, not bad for a bluesy, doomy, heavy metal album.

Opener “The Welcome” provides a feeling last known by BLACK WIDOW, or DEMON´s “The Observation”. DEVIL hits right off with the WITCHFINDER GENERAL blueprint “Break the Curse”, and the more original “Blood Is Boiling”. The feeling of past times is there, as is the occult touches of a few Hammer movies. The album is mostly filled with ok music, but not as excellent or as void-filling as the next doom torchbearer should be...

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Atom Records/Cargo

Austria´s CORNERSTONE is in the business of 80´s pop/rock with lots of AOR, big guitars and big refrains. Formed in 1998 by bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Michael Wachelhofer and his brother guitarist/vocalist Steve, the band started out playing covers. The band soon tried their wings, resulting in a near collapse until vocalist Hanna Wachter came along in 2004. The new line up recorded their debut “Head Over Heels”. Many changes seem to have occurred before today´s line up of the founding brothers, drummer and percussionist Mike Pawlowitsch and vocalist Patricia Hillinger came to be. Press and and radio seem to favor CORNERSTONE, this sounds interesting…

In my world CORNERSTONE are a middle-of-the-road band...

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Rock´n´Growl Records/Digital

ROUGH ANGEL rings no bells to me. These recordings were released in 1993, exclusively to promoters and the record industry. Vocalist Csaba Zvekan has remastered the recordings to be a first digital release of Rock´n´Growl. Back in 1993 the material must have been like a violin player in a punk band, will they send shivers down our spines in 2011?

The info claims the music to be like lava, and the opener “Standing by Mirrors” is perhaps lavalike to fans of JUDAS PRIEST or VIRGIN STEELE. But the music also has an element of glue, oddly under-produced and with the typical American fascination for heaviness over melody. Second track “Desire” proves my point, adding only a dimension of running on empty non-OZZY BLACK SABBATH to the mix...