Category: Reviews
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NWOBHM THUNDER – The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal: 1978-1986
The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal has acquired a legendary status amongst music lovers. Not only was it a highly influential movement (without the NWOBHM, we would not have had bands of the status of Metallica for instance) but it has an innocence and purity which would be hard to countenance in these more cynical self-obsessed…
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Glenn Hughes – The Official Bootleg Set Volume Three: 1985-2010
Back in the happy pre-pandemic days when one could go to a gig, seeing Glenn Hughes at the Olympia in Dublin was one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen. Glenn has a fantastic way with his audience and is a magnificent singer. Quite simply, this superb six disc set captures Glenn’s magic perfectly, and is the…
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No Future – Complete Singles Collection
No Future was a seminal punk record label, and this well compiled collection gathers together every single A and B side released by them, the majority of which made the Independent Music Charts. As well as being an important and entertaining collection of music, you would never be able to afford to collect all this music in its…
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Circle Jerks – Wonderful
Easily the most underrated hardcore band since the genre’s inception in the early Eighties has been the Circle Jerks. The reason that claim is so easy to make is that, pound-for-pound and album-for-album, they broke a surprising amount of ground that a lot of bands would tread upon (and make a lot more money from) later. When the band…
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The Slackers – Nobody’s Listening / Sleep Outside
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Slackers’ 12″ UV digitally printed vinyl single. Ignoring the, “Gee whiz!” quality of The Slackers’ new single [the “Nobody’s Listening 12” features music on one side and a graphic on the other –ed] as well as the talking point of, “Well, this is a new way of combining digital…
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Jason Isbell – Sirens of the Ditch
It’s pretty uncommon for me to wonder where I was when I review a reissue of an album which was originally released after 2002 (a.k.a. the year I joined the press). That is not to say there weren’t great albums that I didn’t get my hands on to review when they were new, it’s simply…
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Shellshock Rock: Alternative Blasts From Northern Ireland 1977-1984
This is an important release that covers the punk and post-punk music scene of Northern Ireland in the years between 1977 and 1984. This was very much the time of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the music here reflects that. It was produced in an often dangerous time, it reflects those times, and for that…
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Lion’s Law – The Pain, The Blood and The Sword
There’s a certain comfort which can be found in a record which, while new, sounds familiar. As albums like that play, it can be pretty easy for a listener to sigh as a turntable’s stylus finds its intended groove and each cut seems to spontaneously align and produce an accessible, pleasing sensation for its audience.…
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Fruupp: Maid in Ireland – The Best of Fruupp
One of the things that’s fascinating about the early 70s is just how many innovative bands were formed. Such a band were Irish progressive rockers Fruupp, who formed in Belfast in 1971. This would have been in the midst of The Troubles, and people who aren’t Irish aren’t aware of how difficult it was to be…
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Houston and the Dirty Rats – Songs! From the Bathroom Stall?
More than the other things that Songs! From The Bathroom Stall? certainly represents for Houston and the Dirty Rats, the most important rule to keep in mind when listening to the band’s new EP is that it’s unwise to judge a book by its cover. Were one to delve no deeper than just a superficial…