Snake Oil & Harmony, the acoustic duo featuring singer-songwriters Danny Vaughn (lead vocalist of Tyketto) and Dan Reed (frontman of funk rockers Dan Reed Network), are to release their debut album, ‘Hurricane Riders’, on Friday 28 February via Zero One Entertainment, to coincide with their next UK tour, which takes place in March
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When it comes to guitarists, Mark Morton is one that should be at least fairly familiar to anyone into their more modern metal – he has been with Lamb of God for 20 years after all! After releasing his debut solo album ‘Anaesthetic’ last year, which included the final track of Chester Bennington’s career, he has this follow up EP to keep his personal momentum going. So, how does it compare to any of his earlier work? Well, to start with the five tracks contained within have guests a-plenty again, namely Mark Morales (on two) – the only remnant from the debut – John Carbone, Lzzy Hale and Howard Jones, certainly not B-listers themselves by any stretch. We have two covers also, in The Black Crowes’ ‘She Talks To Angels’ and Pearl Jam’s ‘Black’ – both songs I’m a fan of and ‘Black’ being something that has more than a modicum of personal significance, so it was with a level of trepidation that Astrocreep made his way through the just over 20 minutes.
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Symphonic metal is one of John B’s absolute favourite genres. To his mind, few genres can match the intensity and passion that is inherent to symphonic. Obviously, he’s not saying that other genres can’t be intense or deep, simply that symphonic speaks to him on a deep level. The operatic vocal style combined with the big orchestral, or at least orchestral inspired, music makes for an experience that feels much bigger than one’s self. This is what makes symphonic special to JB. With that groundwork laid let’s see how Elegy Of Madness does with ‘Invisible World’.
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Growing up in Belfast, it was hard, if not impossible, to ignore Gary Moore. After all, he was born something like a mile from ÜRHQ. He was a prodigious talent, one of the few guitarists, if perhaps the only one, able to turn his hand from classic rock to the most heartfelt of blues, from progressive jazz to nascent thrash with an ease that most of his predecessors, contemporaries and successors would happily sacrifice their own beloved Les Pauls to achieve. Released almost on the eve of the ninth anniversary, at the tender age of 58, of his untimely death, ‘Live From London’ captures the ‘Belfast Boy’ on one of his last ever live performances, and a fittingly timely reminder of his supreme talent it is indeed.
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Monk has to admit that when he got half way through ‘What Is Real’, the opening track on this, the debut album by Swedish hard rockers The Driftwood Sign, he found himself asking “why the fuck am I listening to the new Alter Bridge album? And did that not come out months ago?” The problem was that, especially on that first song, frontman Anders Ekenstierna sounds so uncannily like Myles Kennedy he could be his vocal twin, while Adam Nilsson’s imitation of Mark Tremonti’s tonality is nigh on perfect. They say that first impressions are important, and, to be honest, this was not a good early reference point for our chief pack mule…
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