Author: Steve Earles
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Illyrian – Round 2: Fight!
Previously known by the impressive monicker of Hellborn Death Engines (which sounds like a great lost 80s film), Illyrian impressively fuse such influences as classic thrash, death metal in the vein of Obituary, and a lot of 80s influences into a profoundly impressive package. First impressions, that’s a great cover, instantly grabs the eye. Secondly, the band…
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John Carpenter – Live Retrospective, 25 October 2016
Vicar St Dublin, Ireland Tuesday 25th October 2016 Film auteur and composer extraordinaire John Carpenter has been a big part of my life for years, his fantastic films and their soundtracks providing a visual and audio accompaniment to my life, and I have to say, the sheer amount of happiness and entertainment his work has…
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The Girl With All The Gifts – film review
A few years ago, when Andy Black and I wrote The Dead Walk (www.noirpublishing.co.uk), we focussed on the quality zombie films because there are so many bad films that add nothing whatsoever to the genre, and indeed by their sheer generic quality serve only to harm the genre. Time has proved our approach the correct…
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Thundermother – Road Fever
I first became aware of the existence of the splendidly-named Thundermother in the pages of the hallowed Iron Fist magazine. It was obvious that this all-woman group have taken their image for the halcyon days of leather and lycra we see in the photos on albums by ’80s legends like Girlschool and Rock Goddess. Grand…
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Old Corpse Road – Of Campfires and Evening Mists
In the metal genre we all love, a band’s artwork speaks volumes as to their intentions. The splendidly named Old Corpse Road’s evocatively titled Of Campfires and Evening Mists features a fire-lit forest with their logo superimposed over it. The said logo features such symbols of nature as a wise owl and horns, and of…
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Horror movie review: The Conjuring 2
The Conjuring was a pleasant surprise when it was released, shining like a diamond amongst endless remakes and found-footage films (how long before someone remakes The Blair Witch Project? No, please don’t, that would be truly horrible in all the worse ways!). For The Conjuring was a well-written, well-directed, well-acted film, with good production values,…
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John Carpenter – Lost Themes II
When John Carpenter released his first ever solo album, appropriately on Halloween 2014, he was amazed at the critical and public acclaim he received. This is as it should be because John Carpenter’s music is an integral part of his films: it is unique, providing the ‘sonic pulse’ to his imagination. When I hear the…
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Mars Red Sky – Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul)
The splendidly named Mars Red Sky have produced a really good album. I would sum it up as a cross between Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd ( I was reminded of the spacey dynamics of “Astronomy Domine,” for instance), Hawkwind (particularly Lemmy-era Hawkwind such as Warrior on the Edge of Time), Voivod (there is the same…
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A Rebel Few – As The Crow Flies
Every once in a blue moon, I get an album to review that truly is a pleasant surprise. Such an album is A Rebel Few’s As The Crow Flies. Coming across as a killer modern combination of Down and Lynyrd Skynyrd, this is one seriously good album. A lot of things makeAs The Crow Flies special:…
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New Keepers Of The Water Towers – Infernal Machine
I’ve heard New Keepers of the Water Towers being compared to Mastodon, and there is some truth in this. They do share some attributes with Mastodon circa, say, Crack The Skye, where their prog influences were much more to the fore than they are now, sadly. But really they derive far more influence from Pink…