Nitrate is a band I have not come across before with Renegade being the third album to date. The group was formed in 2015 in Nottingham, England by guitarist and keyboard player Nick Hogg to play melodic hard rock that was mainly '80s inspired with a lead taken from the likes of Def Leppard, Europe..
Troy Redfern – The Fire Cosmic (RED7 Records)
Anyone familiar with Troy Redfern solely from his 2015 and 2017 releases may well think of him as a country blues rocker. Check out the video for The Line from 2017’s Dirt Blues Ritual, and you’ll see Troy in full Grand Ole Opry Regalia, complete with bootlace bow tie, black leather Stetson and an echo-heavy..
Stephen Crane & Duane Sciacqua – Big Guns (AOR Heaven)
Stephen Crane is an American musician with Kicks (reviewed on Velvet Thunder in April 2021) initially being released in the '80s and despite some most excellent musicians involved it received little or indeed no help from the record label and subsequently passed into history as little more than a curio. However, AOR Heaven has rescued..
Mordred – The Dark Parade (M-Theory Audio)
As the 1980s ended, it really was a new dawn for heavy music. The early 1990s is often touted as something of a dark period for metal but on reflection it was a time where the door was blown pretty much wide open. It is fair to say that while “alternative” was in and funk..
Stefan Berggren – These Are The Times (Grandjam Production)
Stefan Berggren is yet another in a seemingly endless list of quality Swedish rock vocalists with These Are The Times being his second solo release and a most excellent classic rock album it is too. His name may not be that familiar to you but he is another of those singers with an amazing voice..
Strÿkenine – Strÿkenine I (Pride & Joy Music)
I have this constant worry that somewhere in Sweden there is a guy with a beer in his hand sat in a lonely bar just wondering why he is the only man in that country not in a rock band! For a nation with around 10 million inhabitants Sweden has certainly punched above its weight..
Human Failure – Urchin EP (Riot Records)
Human Nature is a hardcore rock band from Newcastle in Australia and it delivers short, sharps stabs of anger, pain and vitriol with a typical punk in your face attitude and all to a grinding, churning riff heavy hardcore backing. There are just the five tracks here with Urchin being the lead single but all..
The Grafenberg Disciples – Johnny On The Spot (The Highlander Company Records)
The rather curiously titled Grafenberg Disciples is a new band from California made up by bassist, songwriter and producer Bob Madsen and the singer Hans Eberbach who comes from a soul and funk background. Some of you may already know Madsen as the co-founder of the American progressive rock bands 41Point9 (with Brian Cline) and..
GREENSLADE – Temple Songs: The Albums 1973-75 (Esoteric / Cherry Red)
You can still put these records on and disappear back to a simpler time of longer hair, wider trousers, three TV channels and, of course, strangely alluring album covers left in school classrooms. It's marvellously evocative stuff... Ah, Greenslade. The name still stirs memories of first encountering the band in 1973, as a callow 12-year-old,..
H2S04 – Love And Death (LO-TEK Music)
Now this is a most interesting release from a band that made something of a stir back in 1998 as producers of indie electro most suitable for the dance floor utilising the remix route. The band passed me by but their songs were picked up by the likes of Pete Tong, Bob Geldof and John..