Posted in Cd Reviews

It’s been a year since Reckless love released their last album, Animal Attraction. To coincide with their month-long UK tour they have decided to release an EP – Born to break your heart. The EP’s title track is a remixed version of a song from the Animal attraction album. Alongside this we get three live tracks, a previously unreleased song left over from the Animal Attraction album recordings, and three acoustic tracks including a cover of the Thin Lizzy classic ”The boys are back in town”.

The EP comes in a gatefold sleeve and includes a sheet that folds out to a poster slightly larger than A4 with a band photo on one side and track credits on the other.

”Born to break your heart” is a great track on the album, and the remixed version sounds very similar – unless you listened to the...

Posted in Cd Reviews

French band Yotangor were formed in Toulouse in 2008 by composer and guitar player Jean-Guy Pichoustre and lead singer Yngrid Allieres. They then recruited some old friends: Tony Marcos, drums, Patrice Hernandez, Bass and Vincent Agar, lead guitar. The following year they released their first album, ‘King Of The Universe’. The album was a very ambitious album – a double concept album with 26 tracks Now they are back with a new symphonic rock album – ‘We Speak’.

This new album isn’t a concept album, but it’s certainly not a lightweight album lyrically and includes intelligent topics often not addressed in music including racism, the environment and deforestation. Musically it’s a fantastic album – some rich symphonic metal, great vocals and a lot of variety.

Opening track ”Anon...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Infinitus Mortus are a symphonic metal band from New Jersey, USA. The band was founded in 2008 by Stephen ”Stoki” Megna, as a studio project, and after recruiting a singer the first album was released in 2010 (with the confusing title of ”2012”). Now they’re back with their second album – The conspiracy of love.

On looking at the band lineup and seeing two singers, one male and one female (they’re brother and sister), I’d initially assumed this would be following the standard beauty and the beast formula – clean female vocals plus growling male vocals, but happily they’ve chosen not to do what so many other bands have done and instead have clean vocals from both male and female singers. Caitlin has a great voice and her vocals work well with both the music and the vocals of her brother.

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonight is a night of Finnish metal. Folk metal band Ensiferum are headlining with Amoral and Profane Omen as support.

First up came Profane Omen. When they came on it was still very early but the venue was already half full which promised a busy night. I hadnt heard anything by these guys before but they quickly made a good impression with some seriously heavy metal and certainly got the crowd warmed up nicely.

Next up came Amoral – another band I hadnt listened to before. They weren’t as heavy as Profane Omen, being more of a classic hard rock/heavy metal band, but were still pretty damn heavy (and very loud), and having listened to them I’d certainly try and get to see them again next time they play the UK...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Stuka squadron are a London based band that combine World War 2 Germany with Vampires (seems like an obvious combination really doesnt it). They wear long German miltary leather coats, Iron Crosses, and Luftwaffe caps as well as displaying Vampire fangs to create a striking image. A striking image though is nothing without having the music to go with it, and Stuka Squadron aren’t lacking there either – their live shows are always great and I thoroughly enjoyed their debut album (Tales of the Ost).
Since the release of ”Tales of the Ost” the band have toured the UK and also played their first shows in Czech republic and Germany, and have already confirmed their first festival appearance for 2013 – at Hammerfest.

Since I enjoyed the first album and have seen the band live a few times then ...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

”The best jazz concert I ever had in my life!” . That what I said to everybody after witnessing the coming back of CASIOPEA at last September. I have known this fusion jazz band from Japan since the time I was in junior high school. That meaning it was nearly more than 20 years ago! A number of their famous instrument songs with upbeat tempo like Asayake, Black Joke, Galactic Funk, Domino Line or softer tracks like Pastel Sea, Space Road, Twilight Solitude once was familiar in my ears. My brother’s band influenced me as his band wanted to explore and experiment to bring their songs.

Watching back their performance really blow my memory into the 80s, the periods when I was grown up with musical influences that are swift in Indonesia at that time...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

BEAST-ival BEST-ival!

Welcomed back again by the Bestival guys, this was my 5th year of covering and attending the festival. As always one of my most looked forward to ventures of the year!
Bestival was set up by Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank and his partner Josie in 2004, making 2012 its 9th year, and its second year in the large UK festival category.
It is a four-day music festival held every year in late summer, at the Robin Hill country park on the Isle of Wight. It has become one of the most respected festival weekends on the UK calendar, winning best festival both in the medium and large categories.
This year selling out in advance of the event, and hosting to a juicy 50,000 capacity!
Every year Bestival conjures up a new theme so not only is the décor around the festival affected by this t...

Posted in Press Releases

Due to circumstances beyond their control John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest
Have been forced to cancel 3 shows on their forthcoming UK tour.

The cancelled shows are

Wednesday 17th – Edinburgh – HMV Picturehouse

Friday 26th – Wolverhampton – The Wulfrun Hall

Saturday 27th – Norwich – The University of East Anglia

Full info attached.

The rest of the tour will go ahead as planned.

OCTOBER
19th Manchester The Ritz 0843 221 0976 http://hmvritz.com £ 22.00
23rd St Albans The Alban Arena 01727 844488 www.alban-arena.co.uk £ 20.00
24th Bristol St. George’s, Brandon Hill 0845 402 4001 www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk £ 23.00
25th Leeds City Varieties 0113 243 0808 ...

Posted in Press Releases

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release Rage Against the Machine – XX, commemorative 20th anniversary editions of the eponymous debut album by a great American rock band, on November 26th, 2012.

Originally released in November 1992, Rage Against the Machine signaled the arrival of a revolutionary musical force, a band straddling the worlds of hip-hop and heavy metal with a scorching streetwise sound that rapped and rhymed hardcore across a musical backdrop as menacing and inspirational as graffiti. Rage Against the Machine entered the popular lexicon as more than just a revolutionary American rock band, the group’s very name provided a rallying battle cry for the ongoing struggles for liberation–psychic and political–on planet earth.

Formed in 199...

Posted in Press Releases

Following their rapturously received headline tour in October 2012, and recent Best New Band nomination at the 2012 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards, Australian rock band TRACER return to the UK for 4 concerts in April 2013. The tour will coincide with the follow-up to their debut album Spaces In Between. Read the official announcement HERE.

The new, as-yet-untitled album will be produced by Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Silverchair, Cold Chisel), and is planned for late March/early April release.

Tracer’s 2013 UK tour starts at London’s Scala on Tuesday 9 April. Tickets will be made available as special 48-hour Planet Rock radio pre-sale from Wednesday 10 October. Fans who take advantage of the Planet Rock pre-sale will get £1 discounted from their ticket...