Author: Steve Earles
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Municipal Waste – Slime & Punishment
This is music without scepticism; it is created with innocence as all good art should be. Municipal Waste are a band truly born out of time, weaned on a diet of beer, 80s music and films – they create their own version of what we now can see was creatively a great time. Lots of…
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Venom Inc – Ave
Venom are, after Black Sabbath and Motorhead, the third most influential band in the history of heavy metal. Thrash metal, speed metal ,death metal, black metal… all owe a huge debt to Venom. The first four Venom albums, especially the first two – ‘Welcome To Hell’ and ‘Black Metal’ – are stone cold classics. This is…
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The Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
Sometimes the degree of talent involved in a project leads you to expect that the said project will be at least as great, if not as good as the sum of its parts. Sadly, despite the competent musicianship displayed here (hence the five out of ten for that), this is music created by committee. The Night…
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Cradle of Filth – Cyptoriana: The Seductiveness of Decay
There is often talk about what band will be the next Iron Maiden. To my mind, a strong contender has to be Cradle of Filth. Their music is first class, easily up there with the Iron Maidens and Judas Priests of this world. Moreover, like the aforementioned Iron Maiden, they are steeping in the story-telling tradition.…
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Tau Cross – Pillar of Fire
For those who love Amebix’s excellent, original and heartfelt music, there is much to enjoy here. Tau Cross (also featuring Voivod’s excellent drummer Away) are something of a progression from Amebix, yet still very much in the same vein as that seminal band. Amebix were very much prophets without honour in their own land yet now…
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A History of Heavy Metal by Andrew O’Neill
I think we’re going to see a lot of books about heavy metal in the near future. Hell, I’d like to write one! But any prospective authors will do well to top Andrew O’Neill’s ‘A History of Heavy Metal’. Firstly, it is seriously funny. On the strength of this book, I imagine Andrew’s stand-up show is well…
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Arcadea – Arcadea
Another Mastodon side-project, this time from Brann Dailor. Mastodon are so prolific they could start their own record label just featuring their own projects. Anyway, Arcadea has some resemblances to Mastodon as you’d expect, but it’s more 80s/electronic orientated, like Mastodon channelling Daft Punk. The danger with electronic-orientated projects is they can noodle off into…
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Alice Copper – Paranormal
In a world gone mad (and going ever madder) it is ironic that Alice Cooper has turned out to be one of the sanest and most reliable men in it. Alice always gives his music 100%. After all these years he could hardly do less; he would only be besmirching his own legend. And, as always,…
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Iron Mountain – Unum
Occasionally, when reviewing records, I receive one that really exceeds my expectations. Such an album is Iron Mountain’s Unum. To give a soundbite description, it is post-metal meets Irish folk, psychedelic and prog, but that only begins the first steps on the journey to describe a band that have a huge, expansive, truly original and…
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A Fast Ride Out of Here: Confessions of Rock’s Most Dangerous Man
By Pete Way with Paul Rees Published by Constable (Little Brown Book Group) Ozzy Osbourne says that he’s way out of his league when it comes to Pete Way; on the strength of this entertaining book I would say that most certainly is so. Musically, Pete is most famous for playing the bass in UFO, but…