Author: Team Uber

Adam’s Curse – ‘What The Ancients Knew About Us’ (Bad Reputation)

Bat Kinane will be a name well known to Irish rock fans of a certain, pre-Millennial generation, as he led the melodic rock combo Glyder to a modicum of national and international success during the mid- to late-Noughties, before unexpectedly disbanding the project when they seemingly were at the height of their powers, with a road of great potential opening up before them… but, then, there is an old saying about quitting when you’re ahead, isn’t there? Apart from minor forays back into the spotlight, Kinane seems to have been something of a musical recluse for the past decade or so, briefly re-acquainting himself with the ÜR massive back in 2013 with his rather interesting Maggy Simpson project, which itself disappeared back into the ether after just one promising, if somewhat flawed album…

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Various Artists – ‘Compendium # 3: Taurus’ (Music-Records)

John B found himself wondering what on earth he was supposed to do with this, the latest sampler from the French Music-Records imprint? It has such a huge range of musical styles and genres it is very difficult to know what to expect from track to track, and with something that has this much variety how do you analyze it as a whole? On the other side of that coin, with so much variety that there is a lot of potential to find something new that you had not considered before. There are some fantastic tracks on here but also there are some that really fell flat for JB. Frankly, he can’t hold that against it too much as any time you have this range of styles you will have some that just don’t quite fit your style…

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Kjell Braaten – ‘Ferd’ (By Norse Mvsic)

There’s every chance that the name Kjell Braaten is one that is not familiar to you, but I bet that if I were to mention the band Warduna, then there’s a good number of you who would recognise them. What links the two is that Kjell has been known to contribute to Wardruna with his traditional percussion talent. As a result, you might be expecting his solo album to sound just like Wardruna. Well, you would be wrong.

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Puteraeon – ‘The Cthulhian Pulse: Call From The Dead City’ (Emanzipation Productions)

The resurgence of classic death metal over the past 15 years or so has created nostalgia for the older crowd that were there when the first wave hit, as well as broadening the horizons of younger listeners to show how powerful the classics really were (and hopefully getting them more interested in seeking it out). Of course, there are bands that play OSDM that was either a specific sub-genre of death metal or came from a specific scene in a localised region (Florida, Finland, Germany, etc.) – besides the Florida bands, most of which were supremely influential and important to the evolution of the genre, the biggest impact in the early 90’s was Swedish death metal, spearheaded by huge names such as Entombed, Carnage, Grave, Unleashed, and the ever-wonderful Dismember. Of the newer bands looking to play within those boundaries, we have seen some amazing work by Entrails, Black Breath, Revel In Flesh, and Demonical amongst a bevy of others that are slaves to the dank, cavernous buzz of the legends that came before , and that have put their own spin on the style.

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Helen Love – ‘Power On’ (Alcopop! Records)

John B feels like he needs to be living in a VW bus in San Francisco listening to this. This is not something he would have ever picked up for himself or even considered but he’s glad to have been sent ‘Power On’. Now, he’s not going to say it is perfect or anything. He does have a few issues with the overall experience, but they are mostly nitpicking and are more opinion than actual issues. Anyway, overall, this is a hell of a lot of fun, as he now explains…

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