I don’t know much about music from Africa, but when I heard that Togolese metal crossover band Arka'n Asrafokor were about to release their second album (their debut for RPM), I knew I had to find out more. Sepultura were the first to really get the local...

‘Rapsodia Mexicana’ (Mexican Rhapsody) is the second solo album by young pianist Argentina Durán. It brings together a selection of works by Mexican composers from different eras and styles, including romantic, nationalist, and impressionist pieces featuring works by...

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to catch South For Winter for some dates on their NZ tour, since when I have followed their career with interest. New Zealander Nick Stone and Coloradan Dani Cichon first met in 2014 when they were both volunteering in Peru, even...

John Ambrosini is a jazz pianist, pop-inspired singer, composer, and bandleader who is quite active in the New York City area. Here we find him providing versions of some of his favourite pop and rock classics, along with two originals. Although most of these are the...

Back in the late Seventies, when I was studying for exams, I liked to play music as a background but found if I listened to my own albums I got easily distracted, so instead used to raid my dad’s jazz collection instead. That was where I first came across the mighty...

Here we have the latest release from Intelligent Music Project, a project which is always indicated as being Bulgarian given that the person behind it Milen Vrabevski MD, who composes many of the songs. Twice they have appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest, even...

Here we have the second EP from New Orleans-based death thrash trio Herakleion who were formed in 2020 when drummer Speed Wilson met guitarist/vocalist Apollo Xydias, with bassist, Christian Woerner, rounding out the lineup in April of the following year. The band...

Ferdinando "Herr Morbid" Marchisio (vocals, guitars, synths) first came to prominence in black metal outfit Sacrater, but after that band broke up in 1999, he formed Forgotten Tomb which quickly became a one-man outfit. After the first few albums in that manner he...

Atom Stone (KRYR, Voyager, Metallic Green) hails from New York and on this album he provides lead vocals and then has brought in a slew of well-known guests whose background sounds almost like a who’s who of the music industry: Dan Tracey (Alan Parsons, Steve Nevers,...

It is strange to think that Demon have been on the scene for more than 40 years, releasing their debut single all the way back in 1979 as part of the NWOBHM movement, and although there have been line-up changes over the years, singer Dave Hill has been there since...

Ben Lloyd is a New Zealand based singer-songwriter who has been writing acoustic guitar-based rock songs for over 30 years, both in bands and also playing solo gigs. ‘Leap of Faith’, recorded with producer Tim Julian is his second album, following on from 2013’s...

The latest album from Amber Weekes finds her paying tribute to Nancy Wilson, the singer discovered by Cannonball Adderley (with whom she made a classic album), who recorded a string of jazz-inspired albums for Capitol in the 1960s, had great success in the pop world,...