The Texas Flood - 'Worth The Whiskey' (self released) 4.5/5

There is land to the west that is wild and lawless, where the men are tough and the liquor is harsh. And from these bad lands (near Swansea) come The Texas Flood. Part of the NWOATYWRB (New Wave Of Annoyingly Talented Young Welsh Rock Bands), TTF are a blues rocking power trio who take their cue from the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and this is (I believe) their second ep.

Now I first encountered this lot when they played on the same bill as Alien Stash Tin earlier in the year, and I was more than a little impressed that three young guys, barely into their third decade, not only had such a strong handle on classic blues rock, but also the fact they played like guys who had been blues rocking for decades. So I put in a order for their EP and at last its here.

Now there are four tracks on offer here. We kick off with Barking Like An Underdog, an excellent slice of get down and boogie blues rock that has echoes of Jason and The Scorchers about it. Then there's Holding My Own, a slick and subtle ode to masturbation that kicks along like Slug The Nightwatchman (remember them? - damn they were good). Living On The Edge is a glorious Georgia Sats like booze 'n' blues work out and closer Worth The Whiskey comes over like Stevie Ray jamming with Motortrain in a Texas redneck bar and not getting shot. All in all four great tracks.

As for the musicians. Well the core of the band is the superb rhythm section of Tom Williams and Ben Govier, two guys who know how to swing and know how to boogie; a tight unit that just locks down on the beat and keeps the music driving on in classic style. This allows the mercurial talent of singer / guitarist Tom Bradford to shine through - here is a guy who plays like George Thorogood and sings like Ronnie Van Zant. Add in the fact that these guys can write great songs full or infectious hooks and wonderful tongue in cheek imagery and you have in TTF a band that could well go places.

In short a great ep from a superb young band that show a truck load of promise, and is a must for southern boogie and blues rock fans everywhere. Yeeehaaaa South Wales Will Rise Again!!!

Excellent

For fans of... ZZ Top, Motortrain, Jason and the Scorchers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Georgia Satellites....

Fifteen English Pounds - 'Sin City' (self released) 4/5

Fifteen English Pounds hail from the sleepy town of Evesham, in the English Midlands, a place best known in UK rock circles as being the birthplace of 80's OTT glam rockers Wrathchild. This album is a compilation of various demos the band have issued over the past few years brought together into one rather groovy 10 track collection.

Now FEP play hard edged rock of the old school, and they are rather good at it. Kicking off with the high speed blues rock work out of Sin City (not the AC/DC track), this one just screams along, full of tales of sex, motorbikes and rock and roll excess. You get cuts like Effigy with its frenzied harmonica solo, the air punching anthem of Rock N Roll Heaven, the UFO sounding Human Sacrifice... all great stuff. In fact there isn't a weak track on show at all.

If you wanna draw musical comparisons with the great and the good of rock and roll past then if you think of the likes of AC/DC, and NWOBHM legends like Tobruk, Spider, Idol Rich, Tokyo Blade etc then you will be in the right ball park.

The musicianship here is first rate, it's not trying to be to slick and not trying to be overly cleaver, its just a load of great honest balls out, heads down and see you at the end performances. Vocalist Ade Danby has a powerful and compelling voice that reminds me of Toyko Blades Alan Marsh in places, and g-man Andy Crump has a style that draws comparisons with the late great Gary Moore (just check out Cool Tone to see exactly what I mean). Chuck in a rhythm section that's ducks arse tight and as driven as Lewis Hamiltons McLaren and you have a pretty impressive band that can really deliver the goods.

OK, in places the production is a little rough around the edges, but hell, what do you expect from a small up and coming band on a budget, and this can easily be overlooked.

All in all this is a cracking album from a cracking band that has 'cult hero' scrawled all over it, and one that all discerning lovers of the UK underground rock scene should add to their collections.

Impressive

For fans of... Trucker Diablo, Grifter, Dear Superstar, Iron Claw etc....

The All-Seeing - 'The All-Seeing (demo)' (self released) 4/5

(sorry but I have no idea why the cover art loads rotated)

Time for another lucky random surf discovery. The All-Seeing are a stoner rock outfit from Sweden and this, as far as I can work out is their debut demo single. Apart from that I know naff all about them.

Gotta say this is a sweet little two tracker. Kicking off with a 7 minute minute epic entitled No Place, with its grinding post grunge distorted bass, doomy plod and slog riffing and anthalmic vocals, you can't help but draw favourable comparisons with the mighty Mos Generator and Somerset weed-heads P.O.T. The other cut on show is a sweet little three minute pot and roll work out called Sky, with a head bangable riff, a distant and down beat vocal and a rather short but sweet noise rock guitar solo.

All in all this little demo is highly enjoyable and goes to show that rare gems await the discerning music fan whose prepared to do a bit of net trawling looking for the best of what the underground has to offer.

Sweet.

For fans of... Mos Generator, P.O.T., Stone Axe, Dark Earth....

(download this single for free from -  http://theall-seeing.bandcamp.com/ )

Firewind - 'Few Against Many' (Century Media) 4/5

This is album number eight from Greek metal gods Firewind and main project of Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G.

Now I am a bit of a Firewind fan I will confess, their 2008 album The Premonition being a particular fave of mine. So I was a bit excited about getting this one to say the least. However having lived with it for a while now, I will say I'm finding it a bit of a double edged sword.

On the up side this album is a pretty good exercise in power metal. There are 10 tracks on show, all of a high standard. Gus G is in fine form, check out the wonderful shred and widdle solo on Losing My Mind for an example of a guitar hero at is best. Vocalist Apollo Papathanasio shows once more that he is one of the most distinctive and engaging vocalist in metal at the moment. As for the music, well tracks like Another Dimension with its driving riffs and the huge anthalmic Glorious are all first rate examples of modern commercial metal.

However I do one issue with this album and that's the production.To my ears its a bit too well produced, everything is polished to perfection, and whilst on tracks like the chilled out and introspective Edge of A Dream it works well, in other places the stacked vocals and layered guitar lines and big keyboard wash only serves to take the cutting edge off the whole thing. Riffs that should kill merely stun, solos that should blow the mind tend just to titillate... I dunno may be its a personal thing on my side, but I like my metal with a little bit of the rough edges left on.

Still that gripe aside I can't really say anything negative about this one, and the fact that its topped the Greek album charts and is generating highly favourable fan reviews means they are doing something right here, and more power to Firewind for that.

Pretty Good Overall

For fans of... Helloween, Dragon Force, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Primal Fear....

Fen - 'Of Losing Interest' (Ripple) 4.5/5

This is the fifth album from British Columbia based stoner prog outfit Fen, an outfit that has been around since the late 1990's and their second for Ripple music.

First impressions of this one are very favourable, like a lot of Ripples roster the term stoner rock is the first thing that springs to mind as the opening cut Riddles lurks from the speakers and conjures up sonic images of early Rush, Black Sabbath and Triumph. However as the nine tracks on offer play you begin to pick up a lot more diversity of influence and sound that many of their retro rocking stoner counterparts. A Long Line has an almost Kashmir style Zeppelin vibe to it. The Glove, with its not so subtle lyrical references to Michael Jackson, hints at the work of Max Webster, Light Up The End is a sweet acoustic led pseudo ballad that hints at The Grateful Dead on a Rainbow trip and Snake Path reminds me a little of Blue Oyster Cult in places (a very good thing indeed in my book)

As is to expected the playing and production here is faultless, Doug Harrison and Sam Levin are both superb guitarist, each capable of laying down some spine tingling lead work and joining together in some classic Wishbone Ash style twin lead sections - just check out the lead playing on Pilot Plant. Another big plus is the lyrical content; which serves up some very intelligent and quite dark imagery that is delivered by Mr Harrisons Burke Shelley / Geddy Lee type vocals in spine tingling style.

All in all a great record from a first rate band, and a release that will do both Fen's and Ripple's growing reputation the power of good.

Highly Recommended

For fans of... Mos Generator, Rush, Stone Axe, Blue Oyster Cult, Led Zeppelin...

The Spittin' Cobras - 'Year Of The Cobra' (Omega Records) 5/5

If you take a couple of ex-pat Brits who have cut their teeth playing with the likes of Ginger (ex Wildhearts / Quireboys), hook them up with a couple of talented types from the musically active melting pot of Seattle, cook well in a huge pot of classic hard edged rock and roll and season with an endless series of gigs traveling in a large motorhome (thats an RV to you American types).... Then result will sound something like The Spittin' Cobras.

Gotta say from the off I'm loving this one, nine cuts of pure, no bullcrap, heads down and let the dandruff fly, air guitar a gogo old school hard rock, that once again shows that the US underground rock scene has thrown  off the post emo teen agnst fakery and the pig grunting devil worshiping sub genre fixated death thrash scenecore sensibilities and has at last remembered how to rock like bastards once more.

This album kicks off with a rather tasty headbanger called All The Way, a track that hits you like a sonic sledgehammer and pounds your brains into a gloriously satisfied mess. And then it just doesn't let up, cuts like Hooker With A Heart Of Gold, Built For Speed, Criminal Mastermind and Throw Your Horns all come at your ears like speeding bullets and pepper your head with wonderfully enjoyable rock and roll buckshot. All the greats are referenced here, Motorhead, AC/DC, Foghat, Quiet Riot, Odin, Aerosmith... and believe me this record sounds just as good as the very best those classic acts have produced.

The final track on this gem is a storming balls out rendition of the Rainbow classic Long Live Rock And Roll and when you have bands like The Spittin' Cobras out there you just know Rock and Roll aint nowhere near dead yet!!

Just Great

For Fans of... Gypsyhawk, Crash Street Kids, Antique Scream, Airbourne....

Gypsyhawk - 'Reverly & Resilience' (metablade) 4.5/5

Pasadena hardrockers Gypsyhawk have been causing a bit of a stir in classic rock circles over the past year. Certainly their reputation reached my ears long before any of their music did, tales of a band from California who sounded like a mad mix of Thin Lizzy, Golden Earring and UFO certainly made me keep a special eye out for them. Then I got hold of Hedgeking, the lead single from this album, and that really impressed me, and now we have this their debut album for Metalblade on our hands.

And I gotta say from the off that its every bit as good as I was expecting. Kicking off with Overloaded, a track that just drips classic Thin Lizzyisms; bass playing singer Eric Harris doing a damn fine Phil Lynott impression whilst guitarists Andrew Packer and Ian Brown do the twin lead bit in the style of the 'Renegade' era pairing of Scott Gorham and Snowy White. Hell if the late great Mr Lynott was still with us this is what Lizzy would be sounding like.

Having laid out the goods in fine style Gypsyhawk then take us on an eleven track cake walk through a damn fine classic rock soundscape. Highlights include the Golden Earring fueled The Fields, Frostwyrm with its hat tips to the likes of The Almighty and Wild Horses, the majestically epic Night Songs From The Desert and the post Motorhead rock out of The Red Wedding. Chuck in a belting cover of the Rick Derringer classic Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo to wrap the whole thing up and you have a damn fine album indeed.

It is indeed great to find acts like Gypsyhawk, who along with the likes of Crash Street Kids, The Muggs and Antique Scream are keeping the old fashioned, no bullshit hard rock flag flying proud and proving once and for all that not all modern rock and metal is inaccessible sub genres and and angry youths with emo haircuts. And long may they continue.

Highly Recommended

For Fans of... Thin Lizzy, Golden Earring, Airbourne, Crash Street Kids, Motorhead etc.....

Elisium - 'Becoming' (Self Released) 4/5

Coming out of Fredericksburg Virginia, in the USA Elisium are a three piece industrial-groove metal outfit who's mission statement reads "we believe music is more than just entertainment, and that our lives, and the very fabric of the universe are united by rhythm and vibrations and harmony. With song lyrics and themes ranging from determination, reincarnation, and man's many attempts at describing the universe, we are not afraid to tackle serious themes in powerful ways." They have have been around for eight or nine years and previously had a full length album released in 2004.


Now this six tracker (well five tracks and an intro piece) is an interesting one. Using Tool as a starting point and sounding not unlike Chicago outfit Treble Damage, these guys have cooked up a rather tasty little mini album that blends elements of industrial grind, groove metal, prog rock and pop punk into an infectious and engaging package that really does stand up to repeated listening. 


The most accessible track on offer is undoubtedly a rather fine and groovy cover of the Men Without Hats classic Safety Dance a track that has already proved a big hit with the BCFM show listeners, becoming the most requested track of the year so far. But I can't help but feel it would be shame for such a good band and album to become known for one 'novelty' cover version, for this album has a lot more to offer.


Tracks like AGV, Bombshells and especially the closer Surface all go to show that Elisium are an act to take notice of, they are heavy and grinding, light and introspective, epic in scope and heartfelt in delivery. All the marks of a damn fine band that could with a lucky break and enough determination go places.


In short a great release, and whilst it may take a bit of tracking down, believe me the effort will be worth it.


Worth a look or four


For fans of... Tool, Treble Damage, AFI, Amebix, Soundgarden.....

Wig Wam - 'Wall Street' (frontiers) 4/5

Now I'm convinced that somewhere in Scandinavia there is a big machine where talented musicians are thrown in one end and great glam rock bands come out the other, over the past year we've had Crazy Lixx, Royal Republic and many others hitting  us up with great new albums; now we have Oslo band Wig Wam with their fourth studio album Wall Street.Now if you think you have come across this lot before, then your probably either a fan of Scan-glam or your a regular viewer of the Eurovision Song Contest, this lot represented Norway in 2005 with a track called In My Dreams, a song that was number 1 in Norway for a long long time and has made them household names in their homeland.

Anyway enough of the history lesson, whats this album like? Well there are 11 tracks on offer here and over all its pretty good. The opening two cuts Wall Street and OMG (I Wish I Had A Gun) are both balls out rockers that take a swipe lyrically at cash culture, bankers, the state of the word economy. Heavy? Nah not really, its all tongue in cheek highly headbangable fun stuff. Then we have a quick change of gear for the highly quirky Victory Is Sweet with a huge chorus, children's choir, orchestral backing and massive sing-a-long hooks. And so it continues... I'm not going to give a track by track breakdown, but take it from me its all good stuff. Other highlights include The Sweet sounding The Bigger The Better, the lighter waver of a ballad in the form of Tides Will Turn (again look out for a massive hook), the dark and driven One Million Enemies and the sleaze filled sex out of Try My Body On (with the biggest hook of all!!) Not really a weak moment on show, even the aforementioned ballad isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Now if there is any justice in the world, Wig Wam would be international superstars with albums like this under their belts, but we all know that justice and the music biz don't exactly walk hand in hand, but  have no doubt that Wall Street will at the very least become a bit of fave with those who like to seek out the good music that lays beyond the stuff served up on mainstream radio.

Pretty Damn Good

For fans of... L.A.Guns, Crash Street Kids, The Sweet, Ratt, Crazy Lixx.....

Circus Maximus - 'Nine' (frontiers) 4/5

Prog metal time again, and this time its Norways own Circus Maximus in the spotlight with this their third studio outing.

Now this is a pretty slick and impressive offering from Michael Eriksen and his band of slick power prog metallers, ten cuts, each a well penned, played and produced slice of musical edification that marks this lot out as leading players in the well populated field of European prog metal.

Once you get past the obligatory short intro track you get into the real stuff, first up there's the impressive Architect of Fortune a 10 minute plus epic that manages to be involved and complex yet avoids the Dream Theater style pomposity and self indulgence. Other highlights include the maidenesque Namaste, the huge and uplifting anthem of Reach Within, and the pair of epic closing tracks, the nine minute Burn After Reading with its superb interplay between guitarist Mats Haugen and keys man Lasse Finbråten; and the ten minute plus The Last Goodbye with its long and glorious build up into a breath taking Yes influenced finale. All in all, damn fine stuff indeed.

Now all the prog metal tick boxes are met on this one; complex riff structures, tempo and key changes, huge soundscapes, deep lyrics, Yes style harmony vocals, huge choruses.... Yet there is more to the Circus Maximus sound than the traditional European prog metal cliches, theres an almost AOR / Stadium rock feel in places here, and Circus Maximus are all the better for that it gives them an accessibility many of their contemporaries lack and a sound that will win them friends beyond the hard core prog metal audience.

Over all a good and very listenable record that stand up to repeated listening.

Worth a spot purchase


For fans of.. Opeth, Yes, Royal Hunt, Dignity, Fates Warning, Dream theater....

Crucified Barbara - 'The Midnight Chase' (GMR) 4.5/5

Crucified Barbara are a all girl four piece outfit from Sweden. Originally a punk outfit they have honed their sound over the past 14 years into a classic old school hard rock outfit. They have toured with Motorhead amongst other and have just issued this their third studio album.

Ooo this is good, I've not encountered Crucified Barbara before but a mate of mine has been raving about them for sometime, so I thought it was time I checked them out, I got hold of this their latest release and boy I'm glad I did. Kicking off with The Crucifier, a juicy slice of old school 80's style metal in the Girlschool / Meanstreak vein, this album is just one glorious exhibition of first rate classic old school rock and metal. Tracks like Shut Your Mouth, Rules And Bones, Kid From the Upperclass etc are all damn fine, intelligent and highly headbangable exercises in classic metal excellence that stand up to repeated listening.

I know this may be seen as cliche, but I can't but notice some interesting parallels with Girlschool on this one. After all both bands started out as punk outfits, both evolved their sound into good old hard rock whilst retaining a little of the punk roots in their sound, and both have the power, drive and attitude to prove that anything the boys can do the girls can do just as well if not better.

OK it's not all good news, there is the ballad Count Me In, a very light weight throw away radio rocker that sticks out from the rest of the album like a Torey boy at a socialist workers rally, (hence this album not getting a perfect 5), but when you also have gems like Rock Me Like The Devil on offer it is a slip up than can be over looked.

The bottom line is this is a great record from a great band and one that should help Crucified Barbara get better noticed worldwide. I expect great things from these ladies in the years to come.

Very Good Indeed


For fans of.. Girlschool, Motorhead, Tank, Meanstreak, The Kix, Rock Goddess etc...

L.A.Guns - 'Hollwood Forever (Dead Line) 4.5/5

Sadly there is a tendency with some bands to split and reform in several different incarnations, and then spend as much time suing the backsides off each other as they do touring and recording. Just like Saxon, Great White, Wishbone Ash etc, glam legends L.A.Guns have also found themselves going down this route. Now I aint gonna let this review turn into a 'for fuck sake' rant. I'll just point out  that this version of L.A.Guns is the Phil Lewis fronted version and get on with it.

Now this album, the latest offering, is a pretty damn good one. It kicks off with a rather storming title track that lays out the stall for the rest of the 13 tracks to follow. We get the rather interesting Eel Pie (a reference to Mr Lewis East London roots?) with its cutting insight into the music business, the big an brooding Burn with its huge hook laden chorus, the rock and boogie bang out of Vine Street Shimmy with its glorious sleazy chorus riff, a fantastic slow and heavy blues workout in the form of Dirty Black Night - which features some stunning guitar work from Stacey Blades and the headlong drive of Venus Bomb which is an air guitar classic in the making...In fact there isn't really a duff track on offer, even the slower cuts like Underneath the Sun, are sleaze filled late night drinking anthems, that manage to stay ell clear of the old power ballad cliche.

Phil Lewis is a vocalist I've always had a lot of time for, after all I'm old enough to have seen him fronting both Girl and Torme back in the early 80's long before he upped sticks to California, and I'm glad to say he still sounds as sleazy, powerful, in your face and convicted as he did on Girl's Sheer Greed opus way back when, add in the fact that Stacey Blades does some of the best guitar work of his career on this one and the rhythm section of Scott Griffin and Steve Riley are as tight as Anne Widdecombes rubber bondage cat suit and you've got a great band writing and performing some first class hard rock

In short, this is a fantastic record and a worthy addition to the catalogue of a great band.

Well worth checking out

For fans of.. Poison, Girl, Guns And Roses, Ratt and classic hard rock and hair metal.

Blackwolf 'Taking Root EP' (self released) 4.5/5

I first encountered Bristol hard rockers Blackwolf about 18 months back when their self titled demo ep dropped into my inbox. That was a cracking offering, it picked up a lot of airplay on the show and got me, and many of the good folk of radioland interested in the band. Since then they have wowed crowds all over the West Country, chalked a show stopping performance at last years Bulldog Bash and got themselves a bit of a reputation as being one of UK's ones to watch. Now we have their first official release in the form of this rather cool four track ep.

Taking their cue from the likes of AC/DC, Airbourne, classic Aerosmith, early Def Leppard and even the likes of The Little Angels (the vocalist here don't half remind me of Toby Jebson), Blackwolf play no bullshit, heads down, air guitar a go-go, sledgehammer subtle, old school hard rock and they play it very well indeed. Of the four cuts on offer here everyone is a nice little hard rocking gem that just demands to be listened to. You get the balls out bounce of Stairway Ticket, the bang grind boogie of Finding Fables, AC/DC meets Black Alice rock out of Wayward One and NWOBHMesque Seeds. All of which are first rate rockers that show that Blackwolf have a musical maturity many more established acts would sell their right arms for.

A damn fine ep indeed, and one that will win this lot a heap of friends and hopefully open the door for them to go on to the recognition and fame they richly deserve.

Very Highly Recommended

For fans of - AC/DC, Wolf Mother, Airbourne, Aerosmith, Dedringer, Def Leppard.......

Halestorm - 'The Strange Case Of...' (roadrunner) 4/5

I've been looking forward to getting my hands on this, the second full length album from Pennsylvania rockers Halestorm for a while now. After all I was more than a little blown when their 'Hello, It's Mx Hyde' ep hit the stacks at the turn of the year.

So was it worth the wait? Well lets just say this album comes out of the corner swinging. The triple whammy of the cuts Love Bites (and So Do I) with its full on old school hard rock sensibilities, Mz Hyde with its Diamond Head style riffage coupled to some sweet commercial rock and boogie beats and the back side booting power rock anthem of I Miss The Misery leave the listener in no doubt at all that Halestorm are on helluva band and they mean hoof buttock with the most serious of intentions.

And there's more. You get cuts like the teen angst anthem Freak Like Me, the wonderfully danceable Rock Show (my personal fave cut on the album) and superb headbangably frenzied You Call Me Bitch Like It's A Bad Thing; all of which are fantastic exercises in old school hard rock with a modern twist.

OK there are a few sour moments, there middle of the album is dominated by a trio of power ballads, Beautiful With You, In Your Room and Break In, all of which are fairly naff sounding sub Fleetwood Mac lighter waving radio friendly soft rock numbers that really do the band no favours at all and go some way to undo all the good work they have done on the albums heavier cuts. Add in the closer Here's To Us, which sounds a bit too Theory of Wifebeater for comfort, and the band come damn close to dropping the ball. But fortunately when Lzzy Hale and the boys are capable of pulling a cut like American Boys out of the hat when you need them too you know things ain't that bad.

Basically, Halestorm are one great rock and roll band, and a pretty ordinary bunch of soft rockers and with this album if you listen to the former and ignore the latter your in for a bit of a treat.

Pretty damn good all things considered

For fans of... Paramour, Psycho Kiss, Black Veil Brides, The Dirty Youth etc....

Modern Day Escape - ' Under The Gun' (standby) 4/5

With out doubt the real surprise of 2011 was the success of Black Veil Brides as they exploded out of the California underground to stake a real claim at world domination. Now we have Ohio post emo boys Modern Day Escape attempting to follow in their wake of their label mates with this their second album.

Now with former BVB stickman Sandra Alva thumping the pig skin and taking a very similar approach to production as BVB followed on their 'Set The World On Fire' opus it would be too easy just to dismiss this lot as a band of bandwagon jumpers and move on. But to do that would be to do MDE a huge disservice, cos this record is a pretty impressive work in its own right.

There are eleven cuts on offer here and to be honest they are pretty good. Cuts like Life's A Bitch, Tigers Blood and Feels On The Darkside are all prime slices of top notch commercial mainstream hard rock; bursting with angst fueled teen attitude, mosh pit friendly headbangable aggression and enough catchy hooks to keep a tuna fisherman going for several weeks. All good fun stuff.

All the classic hard rock influences are on show, you get dollops of Moltey Crue, hints of Iron Maiden, Kiss style riffage, post hardcore shouty bits and more... and the end result is another album that could just well help in making the mainstream cool again.

OK its not all good news, there are a few places, especially on the opening cut City of Thieves where the sound is a bit confused and messy and the result is that this album isn't as immediately accessible as the aforementioned BVB opus, but its worth sticking with, especially when it comes to the closing cut Demons Down Below, a track that has 'classic' scrawled all over it.

The bottom line is that this is the sound of the new mainstream, and if it means more of this kind of stuff, and less Nickleback, 30 Seconds To Mars, Theory of a Wifebeater kind of yawn rock then the world is going to be a better place.

Pretty damn good

For fans of... Black Veil Brides, Halestorm, Dear Superstar, Shinedown etc....

Tyketto - 'Dig In Deep' (frontiers) 3/5

Another US East Coast outfit on the comeback trail, Tyketto first emerged out of New York in the late 80's and like many of the second wave of US hair rockers had their careers cut short by the whole grunge movement of the early 1990's. They first split in 1996 after four albums, reformed in 2004 and broke up 'for good' three years later. However less than 12 months later they reformed and have spent the last four years touring their butts off world wide and preparing for this, the first album of new material in 16 years.

Now I will be honest and say I'm finding this on a little bit of a let down on first listen, I have a copy of the bands first album on vinyl, and find this latest offering a bit light weight in comparison. It's a wee bit too radio friendly for my tastes, a bit lacking in drive and balls. It' not until the fifth track on the album you get anything resembling a real rocker, when the the opening riff of The Fight Left In Me cuts in, but even then that riff resolves into something not all that gutsy and pretty middle of the road. In fact true rock out moments on this one are a bit few and far between. Theres the rather groovy slide blues of the title track and the riff heavy and driving Sound Off (the best cut on offer by a country mile), but thats about it really. The rest of the album is made up of light weight US daytime rock radio tunes, rather cheesy power ballads and sub Bon Jovi lighter wavers.

Shame because this album is well penned and played and you know that Tyketto are a band who can rock out like bastards when they want to, but here they never seam to get out of second gear. Still fm radio stations in the mid west will lap it up ever if the rest of the world may find this album a bit lacking in fire.

Try before you buy

For fans of... House of Lords, Beggars & Thieves, Bon Jovi, REM.....

Shinedown - 'Amaryllis' (Roadrunner) 4.5/5

Over their past three albums Florida commercial hard rockers Shinedown have been slowly building a reputation as a band that can bridge the wide gap between mainstream acceptability and underground chic, and now with the release of this their fourth album it finally looks like they are getting that ballance down to a fine art.

There are twelve cuts on offer here, each one a prime cut of note perfect commercial edged hard rock that puts nearly everything issued by their rivals (Nickleback, Theory Of A Wifebeater, 30 Seconds to Mars, You and Me At Six etc) well and truly in the shade. There really is something for everything on this one. You've got some great hard rockers like the highly headbangable Enemies and high energy anthem Nowhere Kids; there's some sweet little softer post indie work outs like the highly infectious Miracle and  the title track, Amaryllis - a cut that sounds a little like the great Crowded House at their best. Chuck in cuts like the REM flavoured power ballad I'll Follow You, the Black Veil Brides-u-like My Name (Wearing Me Out) and the epic closing number Through The Ghost, with its orchestra backing and dreamy melody and you end up with one of the best mainstream rock albums of recent years.

I think where this album wins over most other stuff in this vein, is the way its played and produced. Veteran producer Rob Cavallo is a bit of a master at bringing the best out of an act, and here he has worked his magic once more, the flow of the album is spot on and the sound is polished when it needs to be polished and mercifully left a little rough around the edges when it needs to rock out. Throw in some great musical performances from the band, especially from vocalist Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers and you really do get something worth taking note of.

In short this a great album and one that marks Shinedown as big players in the field of mainstream rock.

Highly Recommended

For fans of... Nickleback, Crowded House, Halestorm, Young The Giant, Kids In Glass Houses....

OSI - 'Fire Make Thunder' (metalblade) 4.5/5

Fates Warning / Arch Matheos guitarist Jim Matheos must be a contender for the hardest working man in rock award. Just six months or so after the release of the most recent Arch - Matheos album, he's back, working once more with Chroma Key (and ex Dream Theater) keys man Kevin Moore and Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison to bring us this the fourth album from OSI.


Now I'll admit I'm rapidly becoming a bit of a fan of Mr Matheos, and with this release he has cooked up another winner. From the dark and almost paranoic opening of Cold Call, which builds and builds for almost two minutes before the first killer guitar riff cuts in; to the desolate and bleak closing chords of Invisible Men; this whole album is a sonic ride through a glorious texture of sounds, styles and musical excellence. You get gloriously powerful metal riffing, some infectious pseudo electronic beats and rhythms and some truly inspirational prog rock moments, yet its all blended together into a superb whole that keeps the listener hooked from beginning to end.


Highlights include the almost Pink Floyd like Indian Curse, the Porcupine Tree influenced Wind Wont Howl and For Nothing, a track that has a certain blues feel about it.


In short Mr Matheos and Mr Moore have served up a fantastic album here, and with the once great Dream Theater falling apart at the seams and vanishing up their own backsides, it is one that may well catapult OSI into the top slot of US prog.


Very highly recommended


For fans of... Dream Theatre, Porcupine Tree, Panic Office, Opeth etc.....

Jack Blades - 'Rock And Roll Ride' (frontiers) 4.5/5

Legendary four stringer Jack Blades has had a bit of a glittering career, having done time in Rubicon, Damn Yankees & Blades and Shaw amongst others, he's still a key member of the classic AOR outfit Night Ranger, penned several movie sound tracks and played session for the likes of Ringo Starr, Ted Nugent, Motley Crue and a whole host of others to boot. And that's not to mention a long list of song writing credits.Yet he has still found time to bang out a couple of solo albums, of which this is the latest.

Now I will say from the off that I'm liking this one lots and lots. Rock and Roll Ride is an eleven track long old school rock and roll album, the sort of thing you used to get off the likes of REO Speedwagon before they sold out to the MTV vid kid movement. Kicking off with the highly boppable Back In the Game, this record just rocks. We get some great hard rockers like Born For This, The Who meets Tom Petty influenced Love Life and the superb title track that hints at classic Aussie rockers Rose Tattoo. Then there are other influences in here as well; West Hollywood is a fantastic piece of laid back west coast post psyche rock that hints at the likes of The Beach Boys and Supertramp. Closer Hey Now, is a nicely chilled out semi blues fueled cut that has an almost country rock vibe and Anything For You (penned by Cheap Tricks Robin Zander) is a classic pop-rock track of the old school. All in all this is a damn good album, and one I can't stop playing.

In short this album is a big of a gem and one I will recommend to anyone who likes classic US rock at its best.

Just great

for fans of... Cheap Trick, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Tom Petty.....

Halestorm - 'Hello, It's Mz Hyde' (roadrunner) 4/5

Pennsylvania outfit Halestorm are a prolific lot, they only issued their first album and single in 2009, but since then they have clocked up a studio album, a live album a clutch of singles and no fewer than five EP's of which this is the latest. Now this five tracker is in all intents and purposes a sampler for the bands second studio album which is due out in April, and I gotta say if the album is half as good as the tracks on offer then I can't wait to hear it.

Now the first three songs on offer here are real balls out rockers. We kick off with Love Bites (So Do I) a storming slice of dark and deadly kick butt rock that sounds a little like Lesbian Bed Death on a Megadeth trip. Elizabeth "Lzzy" Hale has a voice to die for, sounding a little like the great Doro Pesch, full of gutsy hard rock attitude and gritty attack and here she shows it off in fine style. Rockshow is a little more restrained and commercial, but as a slice of hard rock it is still more than enough to make the likes of Paramour look like the third rate pop band they really are. Daughters Of Darkness by contrast is  storming anthem that fuses tribal drumming, air punching chorus and bang and bludgeon riffage into a tastefully vicious hard rocker that sounds like Within Temptation striped of the prog rock and faux-operatic trappings.

The final two tracks are a couple of slightly different versions of Here's to Us (the original album version and a cleaned up radio edit). Now this isn't really my bag, its a lighter waving ballad, a tad Nickleback or 'Bad Animals' era Heart, but its not that bad a track over all, and I suppose you've gotta include at least one track to keep Kerrang fm happy.

Over all this is a pretty good release with three great songs to counterbalance the one pretty ordinary one, and its really whetted my appetite for the album when it comes out.

Worth a look

for fans of... The Dirty Youth, Lesbian Bed Death, Psycho Kiss, Six Hour Sundown.....