AJ McLovely, Healing. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We are forever in search of ways to heal, to reconcile and rebuild, and if not cure, then at least restore to a point where the date in which we found we were separated from our view of reality. Healing is the modern-day utopia, the ideal from where we were once lost is within our grasp, therapy is reliable, and yet what all just need to realise that to soothe our soul, to cure the ills of corporate machinations and government interference is to listen to our heart, to believe that Healing can come from within, it comes from the art we must allow in our lives.

AJ McLovely, Healing. E.P. Review. full post

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

What We Do In The Shadows (Series Three). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demeetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch, Kristen Schaal, Lauren Collins, Tyler Alvarez, Aida Turturro, Catherine Cohen, Scott Bakula, Cree Summer, Donal Logue, Khandi Alexander, David Cross.

In the world of the ‘Mockumentary’, What We Do In The Shadows stands out as one of the finest examples of the genre. Not only does it have characters that are unassumingly charismatic, who you genuinely find yourself caring for, but the fact that it is able to develop, that the progressive nature of the writing, the situation and the narrative is fluid enough to keep the viewer on their toes, marks it out as one of the great comedies of the day.

What We Do In The Shadows (Series Three). Television Review. full post

(433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Victory, Gods Of Tomorrow. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Those deities we worship, those supernatural beings who judge, chastise, and inspire us, and to whom we either blame for our misfortune or act in reverence of when we find ourselves in need of spiritual uplift, those invisible beings in which we venerate will one day be considered past tense and the Gods Of Tomorrow will surely take charge. As with the old guards of Norse, of Roman and Greek persuasion, of those that sacrificed souls during a phase of the Moon, eventually all religions are superseded, all gods must fade away or perish at the hands of evolution.

Victory, Gods Of Tomorrow. Album Review. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Unholy. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Crocket Brown, William Sadler, Katie Aselton, Cary Elwes, Diogo Morgado, Bates Wilder, Marina Mazepa, Christine Adams, Dustin Tucker, Gisela Chipe.

Faith is an acquired taste, too much of it can either be a blessing in the eyes of the devout, not enough, and the accusations and whispers start to float through the air as if caught on the winds of scandal; whispers that can be misinterpreted, rumours that can lead to exile, gossip that can unleash Hell on Earth and guide the faithful to take a life.

The Unholy. Film Review. full post

(519 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

The Little Unsaid, December Songs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Those tunes we hear at the start of June make our summers memorable, those melodies and refrains we feel dig beneath the surface of post new year’s ice and snow are the backdrop to the time ahead, but the final month of the year, those songs we hear that saturate the airwaves with their association of overspending, the failure of a system propped up by casual bonhomie as we dive in and out of shops armed to the teeth with regret and credit cards, those are the jingles that signal the end, that dictate how we view the year as a whole.

The Little Unsaid, December Songs. Album Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Vienna Blood: The Melancholy Countess. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matthew Beard, Jürgen Maurer, Conleth Hill, Charlene McKenna, Amelia Bullmore, Michael Dangl, Josef Ellers, Till Firit, Aaron Friesz, Michou Friesz, Nikolai Gemel, Lucy Griffiths, Miriam Hie, Sunnyi Melles, Corinna Pumm, Krista Stadler, Felix Stichmann, Oliver Stokowski, Florian Teichmeister, Raphael von Bargen, Luise von Finckh.

Vienna Blood: The Melancholy Countess. Television Review. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

No Captains, Friends Like These. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

One of the beauties of life is that occasionally you get to hear a sound that you are pretty sure you have never heard before. For the audiophile, the melomaniac, or even the one who walks through the forest listening for the brave late call of a lesser spotted bird as it hunts for its dinner, the cause in which they search is for something new that catches their ears is the reason for harmony, for enlightenment, for a sense of truth in a world that insists that there is nothing new under the sun.

No Captains, Friends Like These. Album Review. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Lordi, Abracadaver. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

From such dreams, reality is created…and ambition to bring about the seemingly impossible must never be ignored.

The announcement of seven albums inside three months from acclaimed Finnish band Lordi might have struck fear in the hearts of the music lover, for how many bands have even gifted the world two in a year and seen the bottom fall out of the public’s affection; and when a certain Neo-Punk from the United States of America produced three inside a couple of months back in 2012 the fall out was heard across the world, forever putting the idea of multiple releases in such a short space of time out of the public domain.

Lordi, Abracadaver. Album Review. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Departure: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Archie Panjabi, Kris Holden-Reid, Karen LeBlanc, Mark Rendall, Christopher Plummer, David Hewlett, Dion Johnstone, Kelly McCormack, Etienne Kellici, Charlie Carrick, Wendy Crewson, Donal Logue, Jason O’Mara, Greg Bryk, Jennifer Podemski, Cara Ricketts, Diana Bentley, Florence Ordesh, Danny Waugh, Lindsey Connell.

Accidents happen, it is inevitable as a good man making a poor choice that leads to his ruin, and yet some accidents are merely the underplaying of planned catastrophe, the chance taken by one person or a group of like-minded individuals to further their cause but presenting it as a freak mishap, a calamity of coincidence that just happens to change the world, or at least the locality in which it took part, forever.

Departure: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(479 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Godzilla vs. Kong. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eliza González, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Kaylee Hottle, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Ronny Chieng, John Pirruccello, Chris Chalk.

When Titans collide it is either a simple case of love or hate for the audiences who cannot but help pick a side, cheer on the winner, take cheap pot shots and boo with bravado the expected loser; this is hard enough to convey with any appropriate meaning when it is two boxers slugging it out in the ring, their signature moves keenly studied and reported, the grudges they bare against each other, but when you transfer that sense of toxic, animalistic brutality to a wider, less human shape, you can end up with a Battle Royale that you cannot keep your eyes from watching, and your heart from pumping with excitement.

Godzilla vs. Kong. Film Review. full post

(590 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)