At the beginning of 2021 I was fortunate enough to attend one of the most incredible festivals I have been lucky enough to go to, Auckland Folk. I came away with friendships and a wealth of new musical discoveries, one of which was this young lady from Gore. She was...

When I started work on my first book some eight years ago, I decided I was not going to listen to anything I was supposed to be reviewing during this period, and instead threw myself into the world of pre-war acoustic blues and Sixties electric blues. I made some...

Here we have the debut EP from New Plymouth trio Adam Colless (guitars, vocals), Jason Karam (bass, vocals, mellotron) and Mark Thomas (drums and percussion). The four songs, 23 minutes in length, show a band who are bringing together groove metal with stoner,...

I do not have the energy to describe in detail what has happened to L.A. Guns over the years, but there is now only one band legally allowed to use the name without having another name attached to it, and that is the one which features Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis (who...

I first came across Maart when he was touring as part of Fairport Convention for the ‘Glady’s Leap’ tour, and during that period he was with the band, I saw them numerous times. I caught him a few times with Jethro Tull when he was keyboard player, interviewed him...

Due to their 40th anniversary being in the middle of a pandemic, Anthrax did what many other bands have done over the last few years which is play a gig without an audience and livestream it so fans could be involved. Since then, it has been released in multiple...

  Label: Tonzonen Records: TON137 32:40mins Soulfood Music Psychedelic Rock and blues with tinges of Country  https://deadmanseyes.com/ https://www.facebook.com/deadmanseyes Rating 85/100 From experience, any music released on the ‘Tonzonen’ label is always...

Last month I reviewed the single Forget What You Heard from these guys, and now I have the four-track EP from which it was taken. {Masslands} started as a project between Jacob Tait of {Orphic Décor} (who I also recall reviewing last year) and Mason Blair of Highway...

JP Carroll (ex-{Armed in Advance}, {Swerve City}) is back with his latest album as Arrays, yet again proving what a talent he is as Patience Way takes us on a journey through different styles of melodic rock, often with buzzsaw guitars, and always with hooks and a...

This trio is formed around singer/songwriters and father and son team Shayn (guitar, harmonica, viola, vocals) and Zephyr Wills (guitar, bass, vocal) along with Freddy Limbert (drums, vocals). Shayn is a well-established singer-songwriter and blues musician who has...

While the band name may be new, and this is their debut single, all three of the guys involved in this are no strangers to success in the NZ rock market as here we have a combination of drummer Nick Douch ({Ekko Park}) and multi-instrumentalists JP Carroll ({Swerve...

What with the number of challenges this band have been going through over the years, from line-up changes through to legal battles, I had long given up on expecting a new album from Journey, yet here we are with first new studio release since 2011’s ‘Eclipse’. Neal...

Grey Mouse is a Russian psychedelic/progressive rock band from Russia who were formed in Moscow in the late 90’s by bassist Alexey Chunikhin, who has remained the only constant part of the collective. They are now with the wonderful Addicted/No Name label, and all...

By the time Moscow’s Grey Mouse returned with their second album in 2008 they had changed guitarists, with Arseny Fedorov now in that role while Herman Aleshin guested on two tracks as well. In many ways it is difficult to realise this is the same band as while they...

By the time Grey Mouse came back for their third album in 2013 there is no doubt they had been on quite a journey, but that is not the “trip” referred to in the title but instead is something of a rather more drug-induced nature. While the rhythm section of Alexey...

Even though Grey Mouse were back with their fourth album only a year after their previous one, of course there had been some line-up changes. This time they had added a second sitar player in Sergey Perehov and had dispensed totally with a full-time guitarist and...

It took a long time for Grey Mouse to return with their next album, but in 2021 they released ‘A Moment of Weakness’ with yet another considerable twist in both line-up and style. Founder and bassist Alex Chunikhin is still there, also now adding guitar, while his...

Only two years after ‘Life’, Hardline returned with their seventh studio album “Heart, Mind and Soul’ with the same line-up of Johnny Gioeli (lead vocals), Alessandro Del Vecchio (keyboards, backing vocals), Anna Portalupi (bass), Mario Percudani (guitars) and Marco...