Category Archives: Music

Backbone Cast, Power Within Ourselves. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Power Within Ourselves lays deep, it is the way that it comes out, the way emotionally it finds a way to rage and scream whilst at all times being sensuous and alluring, without this power we can only shrink in to ourselves, we can only find that the doors shut and the windows become locked; we have no power to break the cell down if we neglect our voice and the muscle, no matter how robust, in which to get our point of view across.

Erja Lyytinen, Stolen Hearts. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

If anything comes close to being the proverbial man eater then music should be the one that is all consuming; it should also not confide itself to one gender, to one specific gene pool, it should consume with passion everything in its path and lick its lips as it salivates over the next soul posing as a tasty morsel to eat.

Black Star Riders, Heavy Fire. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is no reason to believe that Rock will ever die, it doesn’t even seem to exist in a world where it never truly goes out of fashion or sits uncomfortably in the shadows having disappeared into a void of distaste or despair. If Rock can never die then it should come as no surprise that the music that is fluid and robust should at times remind you not only of the best of times but of those once inhabited by the music of the past five decades.

Pulco, O’r Tu Allan. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The flavour of music will normally be governed by what surrounds you, play a lot of Rock, then Rock will be your weapon of choice when it comes to playing something that the brain craves. Likewise, if you spend your life taking in the thoughts of the beautiful but abstract then, the seemingly nonfigurative but somehow alluring sounds that capture the ear, perhaps by accident, perhaps driven by some audible design, then it is no wonder that the music you begin to create is seen by some in the same class as Picasso or Van Gogh, it is isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but it is enlightening to some.

Wolfheart, Tyhiyys. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Passion is playful monster that at times never knows the boundaries in which has been set down by tradition; passion finds a way to break past the limitations imposed on the soul and charges without a care into the dark cold world and illuminates it far beyond anyone’s expectations.

Cut, Second Skin. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The deepest cut to the psyche is not always done by others, although their actions on occasions define us and how devastating a blow it becomes to us; the longest cut, the simplest straight forward incision into our skin is because we want to know how the pain feels when inflicted by ourselves. The cut is enough to make us grow our Second Skin, the face we wear when the world is against us, that face that can be marked and bruised but never one to bow under the pressure of capitulation, this is reality of putting two fingers up to the detractors and kicking on in style.

Sages, Sleepwalker. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is our own perceptions that shape the world as we see it, not the start to some far flung science fiction novel in which reality is a fluid state and one controlled by dark forces, but the everyday in which one person’s view of a situation can be drastically or even subtly different to another’s; in that moment perception can be altered and it is a state of emotional attachment that can shape adoration or fear of the unknown.

The Sneaky Nixons, Returning Home A Failure. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is for many a very real fear, going all out to do something impressive, an amazing thing in which your family or your friends might be inspired to emulate or even talk about down the pub for years to come and always starting with the phrase, “Do you remember when…?” However, Returning Home A Failure is something we never like to contemplate, yes we try our best but sometimes, as the detractors are apt to remind us with knives sharpened, our best is just not good enough.

Michael Schenker “Fest” Live Tokyo. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is the pulse of electricity, the chords that beat and ravage the unwary visitor to the point where they think of nothing more than delving into the back catalogue of the artist, of immersing themselves completely into the era of bonhomie and interest in what else the world has to offer. A time before time, for the older fans a memory to hold onto, for the younger, perhaps less versed in the cycle of the live performance, a message to be at one with the power of one of Rock’s finest.

The Rachel Hamer Band, Hard Ground. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The North East of England is one that for many years, decades, had the same sense of enforced isolation thrust upon it as cities such as Liverpool by the alleged powers that be down in the Westminster Village; if it produced something viable, if it contributed to society by being something other than suits and great swathes of money that could be generated at the pressing of an electronic key, then to those entrenched inside the Palace of Westminster, it held no significance.