Slipknot, 5: The Gray Chapter. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

Regret is such a hard emotion to deal with, especially when passions run deep at the loss of a friend or valued colleague. Things unsaid, half remembered conversations which were taken the wrong way can come back to haunt you and the only way at times to deal with the unhinged sentiment is write about it, no matter how long it takes, Time, in the end, has all the time it needs and for Metal sensations Slipkot, Time perhaps is on their side in their new release .5: The Gray Chapter.

Slipknot, 5: The Gray Chapter. Album Review. full post

(509 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Half Man Half Biscuit. Urge For Offal. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

The rage of satire, the cleverness of using the English language to its fullest, most surreal and outspoken is something that should be encouraged daily. Not to be cruel, nor to be vile, disgusting and downright nasty, but to hold a beacon up against those that have those merciless qualities stoked within their hearts and to provide a radiating smile against the darkness that sometimes threatens those with joy in their souls.

Half Man Half Biscuit. Urge For Offal. Album Review. full post

(396 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Neil Diamond, Melody Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are many song writers/performers that are capable of bringing out such a range of complex emotions in the listener that at times it can be either a disquieting experience, one in which the fruitful, almost halcyon days come rushing up from behind or one in which humility reigns supreme and the quiet deftness of time allows a certain introspection of the artist’s work. After releasing music in which has shaped a certain section of society with its tuneful melodies and songs involving love, anguish, the beating heart of joy and life in general over six decades, Neil Diamond has more than earned his place in the hearts of music lovers the world over and his latest album, Melody Road, is no different.

Neil Diamond, Melody Road. Album Review. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Flatline. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Jovian Wade, John Cummins, Christopher Fairbanks, Samuel Anderson, Rajendra Bajaj, Matt Bardock, Jessica Hayles, James Quinn.

Doctor Who is never better than when it brings the alarm and disquiet of a new enemy to the viewers’ minds. Like the Weeping Angels before them, the creatures who inhabit a world of 2D imagery is enough to make people stop and wonder what exactly the scientific world will be able to achieve post the ability to replicate 3D form. Growing human body parts is one thing, to steal that person’s identity by the means of subsuming them into an alien pattern of life is another.

Doctor Who: Flatline. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(548 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

True Love Lies, Theatre Review. St. James Cavalier Castile Place, Valetta.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ray Calleja, Jes Camilleri, Pia Zammit, Bettina Paris, Joe Azzopardi.

The family unit, the last great bastion of civilisation or so they say but when a family is torn apart by uncovered secrets from the past, when the lies, which were told in order to protect at the time, become the pivotal point of damning collision it is no wonder that the family can be seen as dysfunctional.

True Love Lies, Theatre Review. St. James Cavalier Castile Place, Valetta. full post

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

Corazon, Hawn Jien. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

One of the problems that the British seems to have dumped on its doorstep by the populaces of other countries, rightly or wrongly, is that we can be far too staid in our appreciation of other countries’ musical heritage. As a nation we might make the odd noise, the gestured nod in all the right places and congratulate the musicians on producing something insightful, thrilling perhaps, but it never seems to last. From one musical extreme to other, from the might of Heavy Metal to the laid back nature of Folk or the hedonism of pop culture, if it’s not sang in English we tend to hold it at arm’s length for fear of ridicule or misunderstanding.

Corazon, Hawn Jien. Album Review. full post

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

Virgil And The Accelerators, Army Of Three. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are just some things that cannot be beaten, destroyed or taken apart by the flippancy of a malnourished pen. They can only be dipped further into the inkwell and given the responsibility of adding greater texture or colouring, the actions of a pen that gains its pleasure by understanding that the thought of not declaring just how good something is, is akin to the desperate act of the bored, twisted and lonely. That by not embracing something for all its worth is a sacrilege.

Virgil And The Accelerators, Army Of Three. Album Review. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Chasing Pandora, Time. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When the general populace think of the Mediterranean they might ruminate on the blue skies, the mixture that hangs in the air of European influence and North African desire, of wars raged, of a dusky exoticness that draws people in from all over the world and a general ambience that is hard to ignore. Those qualities are even more abundant when it comes to the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino. Three islands in which the European influence has played out heavily across the time, from the French, the Italian states and the British, they weathered and braved terrible onslaught day after day during the Second World War and have a well-deserved reputation of being a distinctive and friendly people to the point that their music, no matter the genre, just seems so uplifting that it is cross every sphere of authorative stimulus imaginable. Chasing Pandora from Gozo are no exception.

Chasing Pandora, Time. E.P. Review. full post

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

Devon Allman, Ragged And Dirty. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are times when it is all a musician can do is to play the notes that completes the soul, no matter how dangerous, no matter how solitary or seduced they make them feel, they must feel armed, perilous and ready for a new critical adventure; even if it makes them Ragged and Dirty.

Devon Allman, Ragged And Dirty. Album Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: Psychodrome. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse, Robert Whitelock, Phil Mulryne, Camilla Power, Bethan Walker.

We are made up so many different facets in our genetic and mental make-up that it somewhat surprising that more is not made of the split personality within the world of Science Fiction. For The Doctor, the many personalities that have lived and also have the potential to do so hides perhaps a frightening question, does the Doctor ever really know himself, even he meets parts of him in someone else?

Doctor Who: Psychodrome. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)