The mesmerising van den Berg ... might just be the best drummer I have ever seen... When legendary ex-Focus guitar maestro Jan Akkerman released his latest album Close Beauty in October 2019, the self-confessed Anglophile expressed his desire to return to the UK and tour. In March 2020 though, the Covid lockdown came along and..
Bangalore Choir – All Or Nothing – The Complete Studio Albums Collection (Global Rock Records)
When considering a list of all the known soft metal, melodic metal and hair metal bands, it’s possible the name Bangalore Choir may not bob to the top. It’s a shame really, because their sole album from their early days, 1992’s On Target, may have hit the scene a little too late after these genres’..
Dan Patlansky – Shelter Of Bones (Virgin)
The Covid crisis has been a heavy burden for the music industry, especially for the heavy giggers, but it has also given many musicians a lot of time and space to work on their art. South African guitar maestro Dan Patlansky takes the view that an album is a snapshot of the musician’s life at..
Beth Hart – A Tribute To Led Zeppelin (Provogue / Mascot)
When Hart crashes into the ‘And as we wind on down the road…’ bit at the end, it’s a jaw-dropping, goosebumps moment... Sometimes, you hear of a new project that just makes your mouth water, usually a collaboration between two or more of your favourite artists. The strange thing for me is how often it..
Kissin’ Dynamite – Not The End Of The Road (Napalm Records)
German purveyors of glam metal Kissin’ Dynamite have bounced around the labels a bit since forming as a school band in 2007. Their first couple of albums were recorded for Capitol Records, a subsidiary of Universal, before they jumped ship to German metal label AFM in 2011. This new opus, their seventh full-length offering, is..
John Coghlan’s Quo – the interview
Why don’t you put a band together and do all your Quo songs? This year of 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of British rock band Status Quo, one of the most popular, but at the same time unfairly maligned, bands in UK rock history. Formed when a bunch of school friends poached..
Steve Vai – Inviolate (Favored Nations / Mascot)
If you are a fan of virtuoso musicianship, you will find this one hard to match… There aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to describe Steve Vai’s technical mastery of the guitar. As it happens, this is the album that shouldn’t have been – early in the pandemic, Vai was already deep into a..
Eric Gales – Crown (Provogue / Mascot)
My name is Eric Gales. Any questions? Eric Gales is one of those guitarists who, like Jeff Healey, plays his guitar all wrong, but it sounds so right. The left-hander plays his right-handed Strat left-handed and upside-down, building on the spirit of Hendrix with incendiary licks and charismatic stage craft. If it hadn’t been for..
Eliminator – Ancient Light (Dissonance / Cherry Red)
Eliminator is obviously a great name for a heavy metal band; so great in fact, that a quick search on Google brings up no less than six bands on the first page, and none of them are country and western duos. The one we’re interested in here is a five-piece retro-metal outfit based in Lancaster,..
Wille And The Bandits – When The World Stood Still (Fat Toad Records)
Varied guitar sounds are layered seamlessly over each other in an impressive tapestry of tone... It’s great to hear Cornish surfer dudes Wille And The Bandits back in the studio; it’s been two years since their last album, Paths, hit the shops in February 2019. That release arguably changed their profile from west country heroes..