Up until now, Black Star Riders have been like a musical Jaffa Cake – they looked like Thin Lizzy, they sounded like Thin Lizzy, but they called themselves something else. Whilst that’s not surprising, seeing as they were the same musicians touring as the reformed Thin Lizzy, it made them a slightly hard biscuit to…
Mother Vulture are a new four-piece coming out of Bristol who’ve been making a name for themselves on the live scene. Playing a pleasing, seamless mix of hoary hard rock, alt metal moods and punky aggression, they mix a thoroughly contemporary grab bag of influences with an old school desire to entertain. The star is…
Earthbound is the third album from Finnish death metal mavericks, BLACK ROYAL, and their first since 2020’s excellent Firebride. If you missed it, Firebride was one of the extreme metal albums of that year, not least because of the impressive amount of passion and detail that went into the lyrics. Firebride’s songs were stories chiefly…
For most of the bands that reformed in the wake of the great gig gold rush of the noughties the following years have been a rather understated epilogue in terms of recorded output. There has been little truly great music produced by those acts, but one band who have bucked the trend are Cincinnati’s rock…
“Take me back to the first show, Right back to the first note, When I knew my heart was pure rock ‘n’ roll”. So says NIKKI LANE on First High, the opening track on her new album Denim & Diamonds. For this set, her first in five years, she has teamed up with Joshua Homme…
Young Blood is South Carolina’s Southern rock hotshot, MARCUS KING’s second solo LP and his first on Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label. It’s no surprise Rubin was drawn to King, whose rootsy, classic rock and soul sound is a type of archetypal heritage music that Rubin tries to recreate with his acts. Of course there’s…
It’s hard to think of rock band who are on a better run of albums than CLUTCH. Certainly in the stoner rock genre there isn’t anyone who can match them, KING BUFFALO aside, possibly. Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is the band’s 13th album, but we doubt there’s anybody expecting it to witness any great misfortune….
These days if you’re going to pursue a life in a rock ‘n’ roll band you have to be committed, brave, born for it, even. Let’s face it, the chances of stardom and enormous wealth are slim and you’re working in a medium that is almost an anachronism for young people – it’s like considering…
Did you know that no one born in Wales has ever been into space? Hard to believe, isn’t it? They aren’t exactly short of space cadets though, are they? There is definitely something in the water and in the mushrooms in Wales. From the denim-clad transit van fabulists Budgie, through the mystical rave rock of…
Sometimes a record comes along that is just the right vibe, the right message, and the right sound at the right time. Seattle’s Band Of Horses have been absent for six years, their last release being Why Are You Ok in 2016, and to be honest it may be longer since we thought about them….
