I have seen {Hoop} play twice this year so far (the third will be in a few weeks) and each time I have come away impressed with the depth and breadth of their Americana-inspired folk. This is due in many ways to […]

Last year I saw Sam at The Tuning Fork with a full band, and then a few weeks ago he was playing acoustically at a tiny venue in Ponsonby with just a keyboard player for support (what an incredible night that […]

Matt Joe Gow grew up in the deep south of New Zealand in a town with bad weather and good music: Dunedin. Surrounded by music, he was encouraged to pick up a guitar at an early age, and after traveling the world, […]

Whilst regularly making demos and working on other projects in the studio, it would be 2016 before the next Matt Joe Gow record, ‘Seven Years’, which was released to critical acclaim and was nominated for the Mus […]

After touring and playing numerous festivals in support of Seven Years, Matt returned to the studio in 2018 to record the follow-up, Break, Rattle and Roll. Released to wide acclaim, it went one better than his […]

There has been a significant change in the ranks since Kreator’s last album, 2017’s ‘Gods of Violence’, with the departure of bassist Christian Giesler in 2019 who had been there since 1995. However, founder […]

Recitals are a 7-piece band based in both Te Whanganui-A-Tara (Wellington) and Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and comprise Xanthe Rook (bass, vocals), Tharushi Bowatte (trumpet), Carla Camilleri (keyboards, vocals), […]

CD  ‘FTF Music’  48:51 mins

SOLACE TORMENT – Home (weebly.com)

Solace Supplice | Facebook

Liturgies Contemporaines | Solace Supplice (bandcamp.com)

Rating 90/100

If you can imagine a band with the d […]

I am not sure there is really anything left to say about GWAR, as since they came to rescue earth as ‘Scumdogs of the Universe’. They may not have had the most stable line-up, but two of the guys have been her […]

Beautiful Words is the latest release from Tauranga-based musician Amanda Sloan, who goes under the name Celeste Music. This five-track EP is under 13 minutes long, and for the most part is based around the vocals […]

Here we have the debut single from Hawkes Bay quartet Masslands who feature Orian Green (drums), Ben Liley (bass), Mason McNaught-Blair (vocals, guitar) and Jacob Tait (guitar). They describe themselves as […]

Gideon is of course guitarist with the mighty Shepherds Reign, one of the finest metal acts in Aotearoa, so when I saw a post from him on FB earlier this week where he put up a teaser for a new track I was […]

Here we have the debut single from Hamilton native Becca Caffyn who discovered Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan when she was 15 and has spent the last four years developing her own songwriting and performing style. […]

During the COVID lockdowns of 2021, Killswitch Engage decided to play a gig with no audience and stream it. Not only that, the setlist consists of 2019’s ‘Atonement’ in full, along with the 2000-released sel […]

There are times when one come across just one song from a band and it immediately means an investigation to discover more about them. That was the case when Lisa from MNNZ sent me a video link and asked if I had […]

There are times when one just looks at a release and hopes that it will live up to the promise of the packaging, and when I opened the envelope containing this the first thing I did was take it to my wife to show […]

It is possible that this is the last Fear Factory album from the band as we know it, as the only remaining constant member, singer Burton C. Bell left the year before this was released in 2021. His vocals are here […]