Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Some groups need no introduction; the pulsating power that seeps out of every pore smacks with such intensity that Krakatoa hangs its head in shame for causing a whimpering fuss. For Satyricon, the power is magnified by a considerable factor, as if the island that blew itself apart had dug deep into the Earth’s core and found a big brother to stand behind it.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
For an album, a piece of recording history, to hold so much individual and seemingly disparate talent and turn it into a record such wealth and barnstorming enjoyment is either locked away in the recesses of the Rock music fan’s mind, ready to be spieled out in a lull of conversation in a pub one Friday night or actually physically existing in the form of Snakecharmer’s self-titled and cracking debut album.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Sometimes coming across a group or project that you don’t know about can be cathartic for the soul, for it reminds you of why you fell desperately in love with the chosen genre in the first place. With enough nods to the intricate genius of Mike Oldfield, the eclectic progressive Jazz of groups such as Brand X, the majesty of Pink Floyd and a whole host of Progressive rock bands entwined with an art house feel, Phoenix Rising, an album of colossal combination by Rovo and System 7, is an album that will blow any pre-conceptions the listener may have when it comes to the world of Japanese Progressive Rock.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Dance of Death, as album titles go, it’s a fair one to place on an album cover especially by arguably the U.K.’s leading Heavy Metal band enjoying a new renaissance with Adrian Smith and lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson back within the helm. It conjurors up thoughts of a last waltz, which thankfully will be suspended for as long as possible, of a macabre game with the Grim Reaper, or in this case the band’s long time mascot Eddie doing a plausible impression of the figure in black as if taken from a gruesome version of the film The Seventh Seal, as Death itself holds out its hand and asks you to join together.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Just when all hope seemed lost, when the chips weren’t just down, they had been fried, assaulted by fat and consumed with all the gourmet finery available to those in a busy city centre on a Saturday night out, the British Heavy Rock brigade gets the shot in the arm it has craved since Black Sabbath’s phenomenal album 13 was released. Sheffield’s Black Spiders fit the bill perfectly as one of Britain’s Rocks finest as they survey the wreckage that the Metal scene has become and This Savage Land is more than grateful.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The world may be perpetually on the brink of meltdown as it struggles from one crisis to another with little room to take a breath before the next impeding disaster needs patching up or perhaps covering up; however whilst there are groups such as Touchstone who can fill the emptiness that the soul can feel when living through times such as we do, then there is always a glimmer of hope that a bleak day can have some element of brightness to it.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If you have to join a out of the ordinary following, then music has all the power it needs to make that following gather pace in such a way than the rather obtuse word trendy can express. This year has seen the continent of Europe really come of age when it comes to Heavy Metal, outshining almost all, with a couple of notable exceptions, that the natural homes of the U.K. and North America could hope to match and more so in the Scandinavian heartlands. Swedish Heavy Metal group Cult of the Fox greatly add to this growing reputation with their album Angelsbane.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Earlier in the year, Jo Bywater started thinking about recording more music once again. It has been just over two years since she released her astonishing debut album Cycle Grace Pulse Break and every day since then has seemed a little greyer. There has been the wonderful surprise gig in which to catch her at and relish in the way her songs nurse your psyche but with any decent performer, what the heart yearns for is new songs in which to enjoy and to know they are still actively in love with what they do.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
After four decades thrilling fans and audiences alike as one of the great American rock entertainers, Sammy Hagar has recorded new tracks and put a Hagar-like slant on a couple of absolute towering monsters in which the devotees and aficionados will be knocking themselves out for to have as part of the collection. After great and deserved success with bands such as the enormous fantastic Chickenfoot and the iconic Van Halen, Sammy Hagar & Friends relishes in the man’s ability and undoubted charisma to showcase that even now he is still one of the top draws of rock’s glittering establishment.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Everybody starts somewhere, the great and the good, the seemingly indestructible icons of stage, cinema and music and everyday walk of life. Everybody has a back story, the fledgling beginnings which in time show how, in this case the group of musicians, took themselves on from humble beginnings and with perspiration, dogged determination and age can be sensational. Such is the proposition facing A Lovely War and the quirky, certainly enjoyable E.P. Ezra.