Trapt, DNA. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Music is everywhere, even those who profess not to like it cannot avoid it for as Trapt prove with heavy eloquent ease, it is in our blood, it runs amok in our veins, it tears the heart and brains apart and crushes any sign of dissent; it is the lifeblood of the Universe and it is in our DNA.

The building blocks of life, the genetic coding which determines what are physically if not emotionally, all can be stripped down and given a name but it doesn’t replace the way that actions and effects can have on the mind and make even the strongest doubt themselves or the so called weakest find courage when everybody else shrinks into the background.

Trapt, DNA. Album Review. full post

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

Sabaton, The Last Stand. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The last man standing, the glory of the battlefield and the ceaseless noise that continues in the head long after the final bullet has pierced the skin or the last sound on the bugle has recognised victory or devastating loss; war is as old as humanity, it is the struggle against tyranny that keeps it fresh and the hope of freedom that stirs the blood lust.

Sabaton, The Last Stand. Album Review. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Liverpool Acoustic Collective, Someday We’ll See Better Days. Single Review.

There are moments when the world, or at least certain people with decency in their hearts and the courage in their minds, is able to make a huge difference. There are many problems to be discussed, to be addressed and be solved, no matter how far we come as a civilisation, no matter the dizzy heights of industrial might, of reaching out beyond our mortal capability into the stars and the progress of technical know-how, people fall through the gaps. They become unseen, almost invisible, past the point of sight until they blur into their surroundings and whether it is through the actions of someone else or their own misfortune, brought on perhaps by a Government and others that just don’t care, the cracks open up regardless and the streets, the parks and the obscured shadows become the home of the dispossessed and the homeless.

Liverpool Acoustic Collective, Someday We’ll See Better Days. Single Review. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Ban The Suit…

Starched,

expensive, made by hand

in a luxurious and classy tailors

with the word

sir

attached to every sentence,

the suits populate the world,

like a cockroach

they can never be destroyed,

they just live through

every explosion that comes their way

and they dust themselves down

and continue shouting instructions

to the shirts and the vest tops;

oh I would like to hang them by their perfect tie.

Ban the suit; the Burka, the motorbike leather,

the heavy metal gig T-shirt, the Crewe

Ban The Suit… full post

(249 words, estimated 1:0 mins reading time)

Cause.

They will question your commitment

to their cause,

the one you never

realised you signed up for

when you wrote about them

in black typed Bookman

Old Style and at size twelve

Font; they will mistrust

when there is a day away,

when you take time from Time

and they will suspect that you

are not one of them,

when you don’t even know what one

of them is.

Less money, less by-line, less

show of hands, just ravenous eagles

soaring high in blue bible sky.

Cause. full post

(93 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

Realisation Of A Dream.

The ambition

realised and a certain

hope fulfilled,

thirty years since it first took root,

buried deep and sometimes neglected

by outside forces,

I opened my mouth to talk

and where the dream at this

juncture

might turn sour,

dry and unresponsive,

a fool and an idiot,

I instead at least looked you all in the eyes,

Ghosts of mine

and friends

and I delivered.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (72 words, estimated 17 secs reading time)

Folklaw, Smokey Joe. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Energy is under appreciated, it sometimes gets confused with over confidence or unnatural exuberance, it occasionally can be grating and the waves of the overdone musician. Energy though is natural, the ally of the ear and if it doesn’t get the notes, if it feels as if the musician is holding back, then the ear takes offence and tells the heart to dismiss completely anything that comes from the recorded message.

Folklaw, Smokey Joe. Album Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Bicester, Rewind To The 80s. Garth Park, Bicester.

 

Bicester was always a quiet town, somehow bordering on genteel despite the nature of calm rebellion installed by the teenagers of the area, the hush of anarchy that was forever blowing in their veins but somehow never getting beyond the point where the small population was ever worried that life was not somehow a picturesque version of some Famous Five novel. Sure there was a riot in the town but comparing that to the big cities, judging against history is like weighing up the difference between an oak and a sapling.

Bicester, Rewind To The 80s. Garth Park, Bicester. full post

(959 words, estimated 3:50 mins reading time)

Wimpy Dreams.

Across the table

in the Wimpy diner

I reacted to my dinner plate

being put down with

“Could you

pass the pepper please Pooh”.

Laughing

I added

“Could I make you any more alliterative?”

Pausing briefly, she replied,

“Possibly, but not before breakfast or brunch.”

 

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (52 words, estimated 12 secs reading time)

Let It Bee.

Panic against the window,

slowly realising its plight

and anxiety levels rising,

it nears death,

exhaustion and dehydration;

in the sun magnified window

of Lime Street Station.

It lowers its wings and

wonders where it all went wrong,

why all the glass and concrete,

where did the fields go,

the flowers, the hedges…

its heart saddened,

sugar water suddenly poured,

dripping from above and for a while

it struggles, Herculean

in its fight to stay alive

and finally after two hours

Let It Bee. full post

(139 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)