Some years ago I decided it was time to start exploring pre-war music, as my ears were always getting blasted either by the latest extreme metal bands or I had the misfortune to hear yet another auto-tuned […]

Double Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Ernie Watts is back with the latest album with his quartet, which has had the same line-up of Christof Saenger (piano), Rudi Engel (bass) and Heinrich Koebberling (drums) […]

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, but even though I have come across many jazz fusion outfits, I think this is the first time I have come across a brutal death metal band. Formed in 2010, t […]

This rather short six-track 25-minute-long jazz album features Johnson performing in a mix of instrumentals and vocal numbers, two of which feature an actual group. For the rest of the time it is just Johnson and […]

One night in 1981, I made my way to a hotel, to see the band who was playing there. When I got in I walked up to the incredibly small stage, looked at the complete backline of floor to ceiling Marshalls, looked at […]

I can just imagine David Brenner’s reaction when I send him this review, namely “How did he find out about this one, we didn’t send out any promos!”. Yep, Gridfailure have become of those bands that I actuall […]

Gridfailure ended 2018 with some live gigs and have now returned in 2019 with the first in a concept sequence of five albums which predict a grim, rapidly approaching reality. The series’ five titles culminate t […]

With a bandname, album title, album artwork, and even record label name providing a few clues, it was rather safe to say that this was an album of brutal death metal before it even hit the player. This is their […]

When Metal Church entered the studio to record their eleventh album the line-up was the same it had been for some years, except that frontman Ronny Munroe had decided to step down after ten years in the band. […]

With Mike Howe back in the band, there has been a renewed sense of purpose and vigour and following on from a live album in 2017 the band came back in 2018 with another studio release. There has been a change in […]

There is no doubt that when ‘Phenomena’ was released back in 1985 it had a huge and immediate impact. It was all over the music press in the UK, Glenn Hughes saw a reinvigoration of his career, and everyone I kne […]

Just two years later and Galley was back with the next installment of the ‘Phenomena’ series. As it was so quick after the last one, he was able to secure the services of many of the same musicians, although the […]

1993 saw the third Phenomena album, which was recorded under quite different circumstances in that not only were the musicians quite different but again it was back to a single singer, namely Keith Murrell who as […]

‘Carolus Rex’ was originally released in 2012, a concept album about Sweden’s 17th and 18th century empire, with a special focus on the rise and fall of Charles XII, the tragic king who devoted his whole life […]

Simone is back with her thirteenth album as band leader, and for me in many ways it is full of surprises. The first of these is that Simone is Austrian, as she sings in pure unaccented English, and if someone had […]

This album was originally released in 2015, then it was followed up by an ambient version in 2016. A new album was released in 2017, also independently, and they have now signed to Code666 and re-released their […]

What were you doing in 1979? Me, I was 16 years old and desperate to discover more about the new metal movement which was literally sweeping the UK at the time, and at the forefront of that was the magazine […]

Credited to Don Bonsanti and The 14 Jazz Orchestra, we have here a thirteen piece Jazz ensemble under the direction of Dan Bonsanti, consisting of four saxes/woodwinds, two trombones, three trumpets, guitar, bass, […]

Fine Soft Day are a progressive rock influenced band from Manchester, having emerged from folk-rock roots. Originally formed in 1996, the band were regular performers across the folk rock scene, mainly in the […]