Posted in Cd Reviews

Limb Music/Sound Pollution

Australian band EYEFEAR was brought to my attention in 2008, and the excellent “The Unseen” – which was in fact their fourth offering. But the band´s history actually begins back in 1994, and of the founding members only drummer Zain Kimmie and guitarist Con Papazoglu remains. The rest of the band is Evan Harris on bass, Seb Schneider on keys and piano, plus vocalist Danny Cecati. The band has decided to remain with their progressive base, but they will also add various vocal elements courtesy of BE´LAKOR grunter George Kosma and Sarah Parker.

Opener “Redemption” is rather pompous, but also quite fast and with variation enough. But the real click doesn´t appear...

Posted in Press Releases

San Francisco rockers Counting Crows have announced their first UK tour in over 4 years. The multi-platinum 7 piece will bring their live show to Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow in April, after touring in Australia and a string of European dates.

“All I could say when I saw the plans for a UK/EU tour was ‘It’s about time” – says Adam Duritz – “It’s hard to explain to fans why bands occasionally let so much time pass between visits. The truth is sometimes life just gets in the way and, before you know it, it’s been a few years. Personally, I’m just glad we’re going back. I have a lot of great memories of past tours. Remembering where we’ve been always gets me excited about where we’re going.”

The tour follows the release in 2012 of Underwater Sunshine (or W...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night started with Chimp Spanner, a band who are fast making a name for themselves and who I was looking forward to hearing. The first surprise for many people is that they are an instrumental band. The second surprise is just how good they really are. Musically tonight they were superb – some really impressive music, but the lack of vocals meant that after three or four songs I was starting to get a little bored. It’s not that the music is boring – far from it, I just find instrumentals less enjoyable normally than music with vocals. It was great but it just didnt feel right on a tour like tonights...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Risen from what seems like the dead, 1970s punk band The Machines are back with their latest 16 track self-titled album. This record is fast paced from start to finish, with remastered opening track “Racing” setting the scene for the bands old-school rocker sound.
With vocal similarity to fellow 70s Londoner rockers, The Clash, and musical structure not unlike Iggy and The Stooges or MC5 – these guys capture all the gutsy anger of a disenfranchised youth generation, leaving you all fired up to attend a riot by the end of the record.
Nick Paul brings his tension building guitar riffs and sincere vocals together to create an apathetic and uncompromising sound, accompanied by the heart rate-increasing drumming of Steve Pegrum and Stephen Reddihough’s undeniably beguiling bass lines.
S...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Love at first bite – Vampire Weekend
The charismatic American four piece bought their effortless charm and indie rock appeal to Sydney’s Big Day Out Festival this month, attracting a huge crowd of excited fans.
So excited in fact, that when in the crowd strangers took to biting mine and others necks – perhaps hoping to spread the Vampire love?
And maybe it worked, as a first time crowd-goer for this band it was love at first bite for me.
Angular, fast paced time signature manipulating songs like “California English” and “Cousins” are so intricately recorded that to see them performed live just as perfectly against 47 degree heat, with band members still smiling, dancing and chatting to the crowd, indeed deserves respect from anyone enjoying the show.
The impeccable drumming of ...

Posted in Press Releases

KOMPENDIUM – PROG’S HIGHEST TALENTS GET TOGETHER TO CREATE THE ULTIMATE CONCEPT ALBUM

In an era of disposable music and throwaway icons, over two dozens timeless artists joined forces to create a concept album that brings back to life ‘the tradition of War of the Worlds, Dark Side of the Moon and Tubular Bells’.

Born as a personal challenge for celebrated producer/composer Rob Reed (Magenta, ChimpanA) to find the lost spirit of the 70s epic albums, the Kompendium project quickly attracted an array of significant figures and different styles. The result was Beneath the Waves, a record bursting with emotions, intensity and a rare amount of talent.

Beneath the Waves blends Celtic music with Rock and Classical to bring the listener through a unique journey...

Posted in Press Releases

Power metal super-group AVANTASIA, fronted by TOBIAS SAMMET, vocalist of one of Germany’s internationally acclaimed bands EDGUY, are set to release a brand new studio album – their first in three years. Entitled ‘THE MYSTERY OF TIME’, the opus is due to street early April 2013 on CD and vinyl via Nuclear Blast Records.

Tobias – AVANTASIA mastermind, frontman and wordsmith, has now released album snippets and an ‘in-studio’ update over at www.tobiassammet.com

Tobi comments;

”Hey friends, as you know I am currently working on a new Avantasia album. It’s a lot of work, but I am so proud of what we are creating right now – it’s amazing stuff.
Of course, Michael Kiske (Unisonic, ex-Helloween), is on board again! I bet you expected this, you can hear him loud and clear, and he i...

Posted in Press Releases

“Around for almost 30 years now, Germanys biggest thrash metal export, KREATOR, have proven to be a persistent, innovative and unstoppable force. And they have stepped it up another level for their return to the UK and Ireland.

Three years have passed since KREATOR headlined in the UK, so we are extremely stoked to announce the thrash-titans return in April 2013, bringing their ‘PHANTOM ANTICHRIST’ tour to the UK and IRE.

Mille Petrozza (Vocalist/Guitarist) comments;

”Finally we are coming back to play 3 selected shows for our loyal fans in the UK! We will bring our 3D tour production to give you the full KREATOR treatment. Support acts will be announced in the next few days, so stay tuned...

Posted in Press Releases

Norwegian progressive extreme metallers ENSLAVED have revealed a tour trailer for their upcoming UK and EU tour, ’Springrite 2013’. The tour is in support of their new album ’RIITIIR’, which was released on the 1st of October 2012. See below for the tour trailer details:

ENSLAVED’s UK dates rack up as follows:

14 March – NQ LIVE, Manchester UK
15 March – HAMMERFEST, Wales UK
16 March – Button Factory, Dublin IR
17 March – Limelight 2, Belfast UK
19 March – The Corporation, Sheffield UK
20 March – The Fleece, Bristol UK
21 March – The Underworld, London UK

Tour dates and tickets can be found on the band’s Facebook page, here: http://on.fb.me/10RqciE.

Buy ’RIITIIR’ on CD: http://smarturl.it/EnslavedCD
Buy ’RIITIIR’ on iTunes: http://smarturl.it/EnslavedRIITIIR

Posted in Press Releases

Australia’s hottest new extreme metal export, THY ART IS MURDER, has signed to Nuclear Blast Entertainment!

Their second album, ’Hate’, was recently released in their homeland where it has been smashing boundaries once thought to confine bands of their ilk. The record came in at #35 on the Top 40 Aria chart, making it the highest debut of any Aussie death metal band ever! Nuclear Blast Entertainment is proud to finally properly release ’Hate’ in the U.K on April 1st. The album was produced and mixed by Will Putney (SUICIDE SILENCE, BORN OF OSIRIS, FOR TODAY) with artwork created by Brent Elliot White (CARNIFEX, DEATH ANGEL).

“Nuclear Blast has always represented the pinnacle of extreme metal, a last bastion in an ever evolving industry,” commented guitarist Andy Marsh...