Author: Team Uber

Scarlet – ‘Obey The Queen’ (Arising Empire)

John B has very mixed feelings on this debut album from Scarlet. It is a little hard to explain as it is mostly an emotional response. Some aspects are really good while others feel like they fall flat. It feels like every track was supposed to have this deep meaning but JB finds he’s just left confused. Especially because the press packet that he was sent states the meaning behind some tracks; but on most of them our man doesn’t see the connection between the stated meaning and what lyrics are actually said. There are these kinda strange creepy elements to some of the tracks that are just weird and he kinda think that was the goal. Once he got there and stopped trying to dig for these deeper meanings, however,suddenly he was able to find things he liked…

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Devin Townsend – ‘Order Of Magnitude – Empath Live Volume 1’ (InsideOut Music)

Live albums were, in the glory days of rock music, an important document of a band or artist in their raw, unpolished glory where they could stretch themselves and have fun with their recorded material. Classic live albums such as ‘Live After Death’, ‘Live At Leeds’, ‘Made In Japan’, ‘Alive!’, and ‘Live And Dangerous’ were more than bloated ways to suck another buck from the wallets of the fans – they became beloved records that stood head-to-shoulders with the revered studio albums by those bands. There was atmosphere aplenty, extended versions of popular songs, further interplay between the musicians than on the albums, and electricity that can only come from the live experience. Over the years, the amount of live albums that blew minds like the classics did have gotten fewer and fewer, and that old cash-grab vibe became more of a reality. But, every once in a while, an absolute banger pops up out of nowhere, such as ‘Under Great White Northern Lights’ by The White Stripes or Metallica’s ‘S&M’, records that truly captured the lightning in the bottle.

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Leaves’ Eyes – ‘The Last Viking’ (AFM)

Have you ever found yourself sitting there with an urge to listen to some music influenced by the seafaring warriors of Scandinavia only to find yourself crippled by indecision? Struggling to decide whether you want power metal epics, folk metal joviality or symphonic metal serenity? Well fortunately it seems that Leaves’ Eyes has found their niche to cover all of these things at once with their take on Norse-themed metal, as Jonny B now explains…

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