Emmure - Slave To The Game (Album Review)

When my friends and I speak of Emmure, many similar things come up. They don’t often tread new ground with their music and could perhaps push the boundaries a bit more; to their credit however, if you love big breakdowns, Emmure have always had your needs catered for. So, as attention turns to their fifth album ‘Slave To The Game’, one has to question if this will mark an improvement from their previous release which was, personally, a tad disappointing.

Written by: Heather McDaid | Date: Monday, 30 April 2012

Holy State - Electric Picture Palace (Album Review)

Norfolk quartet Holy State have already announced that they will be splitting up following this album release. As such, it is hard to look at 'Electric Picture Palace' as merely a full- length debut but more what it now effectively is…their entire career on one forty minute CD.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 30 April 2012

Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion (Album Review)

The difficult thing about long awaited collaborations is that there is that the weight of expectation is always likely to render anything but the most spectacular of end products irrelevant to the ears of many listeners. That is, of course, assuming that the two high profile collaborators have worked together to produce something of the style expected. 'Storm Corrosion', whilst it may come as no surprise to seasoned followers of its two protagonists, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree / No-Man / Solo) and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth), to more casual fans of the pair this record is going to be a tremendous disappointment.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Sunday, 29 April 2012

Cheryl - Call My Name (Single Review)

Capital FM were the lucky ones to première the comeback single from Cheryl Cole. Having formerly dropped her ex-husband Ashley Cole’s surname, she wants to now be known as Cheryl.

Written by: Lara Rainsforth | Date: Monday, 23 April 2012

T Rex - Electric Warrior (Reissue Album Review)

Preceding with a string of iconic hits that lead to a chart-topping, yet brief success, T. Rex ascended from the early 70s’ as one of glam’s greatest contrivers of all time. And who’d have thought that when the band put out their sixth studio disc, leader Marc Bolan would have just six years left to sustain his iconic legacy.

Written by: Gemma-Louise Johnson | Date: Monday, 23 April 2012

Felix - Oh Holy Molar (Album Review)

It’s hard to know what to make of Felix. The trio, comprised of pianist and vocalist Lucinda Chua, guitarist Chris Summerlin and drummer Neil Turpin, got a bit of a break when Stars of the Lid backed them ahead of signing to the renowned Kranky Records. However their music shares almost nothing with their illustrious fans in the ambient world. The songs here are essentially two or three minute piano led pop songs or, at least, they are masquerading as such.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Friday, 20 April 2012

JK Flesh - Posthuman (Album Review)

Is there anything Justin K. Broadrick hasn’t tried his hand at yet? He’s done the whole pioneering metal thing (at least twice over). He’s done the whole epic post-rock shoegaze thing. He’s dabbled in the worlds of ambient, drone and electronica yet now he’s decided to take on dubstep. Sorry…what?

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Friday, 20 April 2012

Thin Lizzy - Fighting (Reissue Album Review)

So, the year is 1975. Tom Baker has just settled into his role as the Fourth Doctor; The Beano comic cost 4p per issue, Margaret Thatcher was still four years away from becoming one of Britain's most famous Prime Ministers, and I was still a full ten years from being born.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Friday, 20 April 2012

The Saturdays - 30 Days (Single Review)

Less than six months after releasing their third studio album ‘On Your Radar‘, The Saturdays are back with yet more new music. Their new track, titled '30 Days', premiered on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 on 30th March 2012.

Written by: Lara Rainsforth | Date: Thursday, 19 April 2012

Bleech - Mondays (Single Review)

The London trio Bleech consists of Jennifer O’Neill, Katherine O’Neill and Matt Bick. Their debut single was released back in 2009 and three years later they are releasing their debut album, set for release later this year.

Written by: Lara Rainsforth | Date: Thursday, 19 April 2012

Europe - Bag Of Bones (Album Review)

Despite quite a few people thinking Europe's career has been all about 1986's 'The Final Countdown', many actually believe their most recent release, 2009's 'Last Look At Eden', was their best. Indeed, since returning from a decade long hiatus at the turn of the century, Europe have been pretty prolific turning out 4 studio albums, 2 live DVD's as well as touring extensively.

Written by: Dave Ball | Date: Thursday, 19 April 2012

Blood Red Shoes - In Time To Voices (Album Review)

Blood Red Shoes are one of very few NME-esque bands of 2007/8 that I haven’t at some point shiftily deleted from my ipod as a kind of coming of age, “I no longer like jangly high-octane indie pop” statement. But despite being a little sentimental about them, I didn’t expect to heard word of another album. I was surprised, I couldn’t remember their sound being something you could produce 3 albums worth of songs out of and assumed they’d disappeared somewhere down the line.

Written by: Ellen Davies | Date: Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Torche - Harmonicraft (Album Review)

Torche are one of those bands who don’t believe in clichés. They are a stoner rock band by most accounts but, rather than sticking to the reverberating spaced out weed-a-thon favoured by most of their contemporaries in the genre, Torche have spent most of their career being more concise than any band of their ilk has a right to be. 2008’s 'Meanderthal' set their template up and with 'Harmonicraft' they have really upped the consistency levels to produce what should end up as a firm favourite for fans of heavy music this summer.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Blacklisters - BLKLSTRS (Album Review)

Some people will hear this album and zone out. They will argue that there is no point in Blacklisters’ deranged psycho hardcore noise. They will say that for all the pun-filled song titles and undeniable attitude, “BLKLSTRS” brings nothing new to the table and is just another in a long series of records that makes a racket but fails to bring any songwriting clout to the tale. They are talking a load of crap.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 16 April 2012

Maps & Atlases - Beware And Be Grateful (Album Review)

There are plenty of bands that have managed to fuse the craft of fusing pop music with peculiarly jittery math rock but there are few who have managed to do it absolutely seamlessly. On this, their second full-length album, Maps & Atlases have proved that it is possible to meld math and melody to the point at which it almost does not matter that the underpinning to these tunes is essentially the sound of angularly weird guitars. In fact 'Beware and Be Grateful' might be that very rare thing…a largely experimental rock record with the potential to transcend the boundaries and cross over on to your radio any day now.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Thursday, 12 April 2012

Gringo Star - Count Yer Lucky Stars (Album Review)

Gringo Star emerged from Atlanta's independent music scene in 2008 with critically acclaimed debut 'All Y'all' in 2008. The band are now back with 'Count Yer Lucky Stars', which is every bit the same catchy garage rock and is released on the 30th of April.

Written by: Steven James | Date: Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Counting Crows - Underwater Sunshine (Album Review)

It's always a risky strategy to release a covers album, which is exactly what this first release in four years is. Some people would swat it away as “lazy songwriting”, and what if the songs are beloved pieces of beauty that should never have been messed with in the first place? What if it's the exact opposite? What if the songs chosen are rubbish and the sight of them on an album by someone else is still just cause to not buy them again? The thing I respect about this particular album though, above all else, is that this is an album the band just wanted to make because they like the songs, and hope the general public do too. That's it. No other reason, and I must admit, the songs chosen are by and large, pretty good. After all, the subtitle to the album is “What we did on our Summer Vacation”, which translates as “We're having some fun here and just fancy playing some music without having to take it too seriously.”

Written by: James Ball | Date: Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Alabama Shakes - Boys And Girls (Album Review)

Bluesy rock hasn't been done so good since a certain two-piece “brother/sister” outfit from Detroit were with us. Rough Trade Records, and many other people on Twitter that I follow have been raving about this lot for days before I wrote this review. They are the next big thing and rightly so. That's it. We're done. Review over.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 09 April 2012

The Fray - Scars And Stories (Album Review)

'How to Save a Life'. You remember the song. It was all over the charts and the radio about six years ago. That song that made grown adults cry. That song with such a huge poignant sentiment engulfing it it was impossible to ignore. You felt dirty for liking it because it was mesmerising and everywhere. Whatever happened to the band that made it?

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 09 April 2012

Visceral Attack - Quick And Severe (Album Review)

It’s far from everybody’s cup of tea, but Visceral Attack’s debut album ‘Quick and Severe’ has put the band on the thrash metal map. The quintet based between Belfast and Fermanagh have already gigged with thrash giants Gama Bomb and Municipal Waste and established themselves as a hot prospect on the metal scene. Although initially recorded in 2010, the album has been rereleased under independent Belfast label Punkarama Records and the band are off on a tour of England and Scotland to promote their debut effort.

Written by: Daniel Lynch | Date: Monday, 09 April 2012