Living State: Stalker (2024) single Auckland-based Living State continue to release catchy singles and having seen them play a few times I know they power through the live environment as […]

Hideous Divinity: Unextinct (2024) Between 2012 and 2019 Italian technical death metal act Hideous Divinity released four full-length albums, but it has taken five years for them to return […]

Foncedalle: Foncedalle (2024) This is the debut album by French act Foncedalle, who comprise Marius Mermet (guitar, vocals), JD Mimouni (drum machine, synth) and Clément Maltassat […]

Crucial Velocity: Crucial Velocity (2023) I must admit the reason I grabbed this album was due to some of the people involved as it sounded interesting. This band originally commenced as a […]

The Contractions: 1980 (2024) The Contractions (I don’t know why there is no “The” on the cover, but everything I can find on them has “The”) were an all-female punk trio from San […]

The Brat: Straight Outta East L​.​A. (2017) I get offered a lot of albums to review on a daily basis, with most of the emails being filed in case I need to reference them later, but without […]

Sam Ross: Live at the Mira Room, Vol. II (2023) In many ways this feels like the beginning of a whole new world, and I am sure this is not the last time we will come across an album like this. On one […]

Red Hot Shame: You Can't Make Me (2023) Red Hot Shame is an indie rock group from a Northern California where the mainstay is singer-songwriter Xeff Scolari who works with a fluctuating line-up […]

Kariti: Dheghom (2024) Back in 2020 I reviewed the debut album by Kariti, ‘Covered Mirrors’, and she is finally back with the follow-up. Kariti (карити), which means ‘to mourn […]

Just One Fix: Submit or Death (2024) One of my favourite NZ metal bands in Just One Fix, and it is way too long since they released an EP. We have been getting tasters with singles, but at […]

John Michaelz and the Black Brothers Band: Soul Exodus (2023) Towards the end of 2022 I was asked to review the ‘Limited Edition’ EP by this band, and to be honest I was not too sure about undertaking it as this is […]

Fiffdimension: Acoustic [Yin] / Electric [Yang] (2023) What we have here is a double CD set from Dave Edwards to celebrate 25 years of Fiffdimension, with one disc acoustic and the other electric, both housed […]

Dronestool: DeathHawk (2023) I have now been reviewing music for more than 35 years, which means it is somewhat embedded in me so if I head to a gig I find it difficult not to review […]

Distressed: Nothing For No One (2023) Here we have the debut album from Finnish quintet Distressed, and anyone expecting something of the melodic rock or progressive genre, given the label […]

Miranda Sex Garden: Velventine (2024) To say I was surprised when I was sent this EP by Katharine Blake was something of an understatement as I was under the impression that MSG had broken up […]

Lazy Fifty: One Last Time (2024) single “One Last Time is the third single off Lazy Fifty’s upcoming EP ‘Neighbour of the Beast’ which is a collaboration between Adrian Athy and produce […]

Aborted: Vault Of Horrors (2024) The Belgian death metal act are back with their twelfth album, and they have taken a somewhat unusual approach to this one in that singer Sven de […]

Children of Bodom: A Chapter Called Children of Bodom (2023) On 15th December 2019, Children Of Bodom, which at the time consisted of Alexi Laiho (lead guitar, lead vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka […]

Andy Pratt: Trio (2024) Andy Pratt, who is based in Chicago, is a fluent and melodic jazz guitarist who also sings with a deep and friendly voice. On this recording, which took […]

Zany Starblaster: The Lost Tapes (2019) I have heard quite a lot of Jerry Kingls music in recent years, but this is a blast from the past, quite literally. Zany Starblaster were a Wisconsin […]