Category: Album Reviews

Nate Silva ‘The Chase’ (Self-Released)

Formerly lead singer with Canadian proggies The Slyde, Nate Silva has embarked on a solo career with a debut album that sees him pulling together all his divergent yet inherent musical influences into an album that offers a sort of weird dynamically undynamic, consistently inconsistent, hesitatingly unhesitating amalgam of surprising diverse yet unified styles into a dynamic and versatile collection of songs that profiles every aspect of his ability as songwriter and deliverer of great tunage.

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FM ‘Old Habits Die Hard’ (Frontiers Music)

Since their emergence onto the then NWoBHM dominated ÜK rock scene 40 years ago, FM – who took their name from the ÜS radio platforms from which they in turn drew their initial inspiration – have proven to be one of the most enduring and consistent proponents of the genre. Not that, like many of us, they have not endured their share of travails – a lengthy hiatus and most recently the sudden passing of founding guitarist Chris Overland – but they have always come bouncing back, and are determined to prove that this is the case once again with this, their 14th studio album.

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The Loyal Cheaters ‘And All Hell Broke Loose’ (Go Down Records)

A little more than two years after declaring that we’re all dead in the long run with their highly impressive debut album, these German/Italian garage punks now prove that they’re not only very much alive and kicking, and making raucous rock ‘n’ roll music to boot, but also very much in it for the long haul as they break loose all sorts of sonic hell on our unsuspecting withered souls with this declarative sophomore outing.

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Beyond The Beneath ‘Borderlands’ (Self-Released)

We first came across Beyond The Beneath when bassist Davy Greer was recruited into the ranks of the now temporarily dormant Baleful Creed. BTB continued to play a handful of occasional gigs, but these become fewer and more distantly apart as Greer’s new commitment took prominence. We all knew that there were some recordings lurking in the background, but these never saw the light of day, until recently, when Greer, at a loose end because of BC’s continued hiatus, dug around in his musical basement, dusted down the tapes, added a few finishing touches and decided to see what interest remained in them…

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Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders ‘Keepin’ Chaos At Bay’ (Hound Gawd! Records)

Pat Todd has spent decades trawling and trolling the dark corners and dusty shelves of the back alley thrift stores of Americana, picking and choosing from influences such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Neil Young, the Allman Boys to Tom Waits, Hank Williams to the Wilson brothers in an endeavour to distill all of his education and garnered knowledge into a single, career-defining, genre-scoffing dose of ’70s punk rock, country, blues and roots rock… in a bid to keep all the chaos at bay by producing one chaotic rock ‘n’ roll album that sums up everything he knows and has learned about the artform…

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Accept ‘Humanoid’ (Napalm Records)

There are bands from whom you know more or less exactly what to expect each and every time they release a new album. Iron Maiden with their epic lyrical thematics and galloping bass riffs. AC/DC with their basic four-four mid-paced rock ‘n’ roll bravura. Anvil with their tongue-in-cheek-to-cheek no-nonsense sense of fun. Rammstein with their OTT camp take on industrialism. And, of course, Accept, with their traditional balls to the wall (sic) fuck you if you don’t like it Teutonic cross between old school and thrash miens. So, why fuck the formula. Well, thankfully the now crossbred German-American titans do not do so with this, their 17th studio album in their almost 50-year long career, as while it addresses some very modern themes it remains the sort of traditional heavy metal opus we have come to expect and love from the band.

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Steve Conte ‘The Concrete Jangle’ (Wicked Cool Records)

Over the course of more than more decades than he perhaps cares to remember, a period which has nonetheless seen him develop an extremely justified reputation as one of the most respected, not to mention hardest working figures on the glunk scene, resulting in a rock ‘n’ roll CV that includes a six-year stint, covering four albums and a seemingly never-ending world tour with the New York Dolls, and a further four albums alongside Michael Monroe, as well as stints in Company Of Wolves, Crown Jewels and The Crazy Truth, not to mention his various solo projects, there is no doubting Steve Conte’s ability to turn his hand to a decent rock ‘n’ roll tune or ten. Now, almost four years after his last solo outing – not that he’s been quiet in the interim, no sirree Stevie boy – he’s back with a stonking new set of recordings – and a few very good friends along for the ride, not least in the case of former XTC mainstay Andy Partridge who co-wrote exactly half of the ten Übertastic toons featured on this magnificent collection…

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YOBS ‘YOBS’ (Fuzz Club)

Liverpool misfits YOBS release their self-titled debut album via Fuzz Club, following on from their debut double single, ‘Fortune Teller’ b/w ‘Cemetery Man’, which saw the garage-punk four-piece burst on the scene late last year in a gloriously scuzzy and hedonistic blaze. As Jim R discovers, it’s a short, sweet and incendiary statement of intent from a band set to make a serious impact.

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Freeways ‘Dark Sky Sanctuary’ (Dying Victims Productions)

Four years ago, Canadian hard rockers Freeways released their debut album ‘True Bearings’, a hugely impressive debut that fused the sound of classic hard rock from the second half of the ’70s with the verve of early NWoBHM with real authenticity. Four years later, following the sad demise of their previous record company, Freeways have now linked up with Dying Victims Productions for that long overdue follow up album ‘Dark Sky Sanctuary’.

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Verikalpa ‘Tuomio’ (Scarlet Records)

Verikalpa may identify themselves as “Finnish alcoholic trolls” but they are far from drunken fools as this polished collection of 12 ballads about about drinking, partying, fighting – well, we have to assume that’s what they’re about, as they’re all in their native Suomi language – exemplifies and elaborates in .

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In The Remains – ‘Thorn Of Mind’ (Self-Released)

Gestated against the backdrop of the pandemic, In The Remains represents a meeting of the minds of two musicians – guitarist Mats Forslund and keyboardist Johan Chasseur – brought together with a love of the music from the era in which they grew up, both as people and musicians. the heady, hard-rocking Eighties yet determined to give it a new appreciation by making it sound fresh and vibrant rather than dated and staid, forcing listeners through a time tunnel that has them wondering exactly where this album is going to take them… the answer, as Monk discovers, is a dark and mysterious journey of exploration and ultimately rewarding discovery.

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