Bloodstock organizers have confirmed that, at this time, they are still planning to proceed with this year’s 20th anniversary festival, which is due to take place over the first weekend in August.
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They say that every cloud has a silver lining, and, personally speaking, one advantage of the current lockdown is being given the opportunity to listen a whole shitload of new music that otherwise most likely would have passed Monk by. After all, ÜRHQ normally receives in excess of 100 album submissions each and every week: most of them are added to a spreadsheet for our esteemed team of ninja reviewers to digest. Now and again, our chief pack mule look at one and say to myself “that looks interesting” – but running a busy website, attending up to four gigs a week and helming a PR company normally has meant that he just doesn’t get the time to explore may of these offerings further… but the last few weeks, and the coming months, have undoubtedly changed that scenario, and so the boss man finds himself cherry picking our inbox with a wee bit more attention than before…
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It’s hard to believe that German rockers Bonfire have been lighting a flame (sic) under the melodic metal scene for almost 35 years now. Perhaps part of the reason for this disbelief may that they have been flirting on the edge of the scene for much of that period, not quite achieving them same level of success as some of the their contemporaries (and countrymen such as Helloween), but instead ploughed a slow and steady furrow that has led them to the release of this, their 16th studio album and the third with vocalist Alexx Stahl.
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According to our Tim, when thrash metal goes wrong it’s incredibly disappointing and that’s exactly what’s happened with the debut full-length from Commando. Hailing from the crossover end of the thrash spectrum, their songs are short and bratty bursts of energy, the majority of which are under two minutes long and the entire 16-track album wraps up in a neat half an hour. It’s full of juvenile humour and fast riffs, but it’s also totally forgettable and has little to recommend. The emphasis is firmly on fun but unlike similar bands, it was probably a lot more entertaining to record than listening to it is.
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Like any educated rock fan, regular ÜR subscribers will be more than familiar with the name of Mike Patton, frontman of the legendary Faith No More and Mr Bungle, among other bands to whom you genuinely should need no introduction. You may, however, be less familiar with this, another of his multiple side projects, as debut offering ‘Geocidal’ more or less slipped under the radar of many critics and listeners alike. Now, after five years of experimentation with a combination of old and new sonic dynamics, Patton and his partner in crime Anthony Pateras have re-emerged into the sunlight with this extremely avant-garde follow up?
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