This debut EP by Australian-based duo FOREVR is one of those discs you’ll either love or hate within seconds of hitting the play button. With no time to warm up, the band have already shifted from silence to a complete wall of sound in a split second, as the intro ‘Yucatan’ crushes with a huge droning noise. Overdriven guitars with amplifiers turned up to twelve (one even louder) gleefully throw out distorted shapes as chief musician Donovan Miller hammers at an array of effects pedals. From somewhere within, vocalist Sam George-Allen melds her voice accordingly, a filtered sound rising and falling throughout, wisp-like and ghostly as if she’s channelling Elizabeth Fraser on a collaboration with the equally uncompromising A Place To Bury Strangers.
Monthly Archives: August 2015
THE MURDER OF MY SWEET – Beth Out Of Hell
Formed in 2007 around the talents of drummer/producer Daniel Flores and vocalist Angelica Rylin, The Murder of My Sweet is a symphonic metal band based in Sweden. Their third album, 2015’s ‘Beth Out of Hell’ is a ridiculously grand affair straddling a fairly typical symphonic metal sound with huge elements pulled from musical theatre. Those who enjoy Within Temptation, Nightwish et al might glean some listening enjoyment, but to say its bombast is both one-paced and predictable would be an understatement.
THE CONNECTION – Labor Of Love
For garage rock fans, New Hampshire’s The Connection are a band that needs no introduction. For everybody else, here’s the skinny: they’re much loved by Little Steven Van Zandt and get regular play on his Underground Garage radio show and they count Andrew Loog Oldham among their many fans. That seal of approval should be enough for the curious to take a listen, but more than that, these are musicians with a pedigree. The hardest working gang in the state, The Connection features Brad Marino (also of the New Trocaderos), Geoff Palmer, Craig Sala and Kris “Fingers” Rodgers (all of whom have served time as members of the Kurt Baker Band and Wimpy and the Madallions). Their music is retro, but often much friendlier on the ear than so many garage rock outfits, since they’re often keen to mix in a hefty dose of power pop, and on ‘Labor of Love’ – their second full-length – they’ve got choruses and musical hooks aplenty…
Free Cyndi Lauper ‘Goonies’ cover by Steel Trees
Yorkshire stoner rockers Steel Trees have a free gift for you…and it’s a fuzzy belter!
They’ve recently recorded a cover of the Cyndi Lauper track ‘Goonies R Good Enough’ (featuring Charlie B of Nasty Little Lonely) and its available now for FREE DOWNLOAD in the box below.
PRAYING MANTIS – Legacy
Back in the early eighties when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was in force, there were various bands flying the flag for British rock music. While Iron Maiden and Saxon went on to achieve worldwide acclaim and and Metallica’s constant championing of Diamond Head meant that band’s place in the rock history books was assured, Praying Mantis – at least by direct comparison – have never really been given their full due. Their debut album, 1981’s ‘Time Tells No Lies’, is highly praised among rock fans who purchased it at the time of release and the subsequent albums showed founding members Tino and Chris Troy to be a pair whom liked a strong sense of melody within their metal. For a lot of people, however, Praying Mantis will often (if not always) be a band best associated with vocalists Paul Di’Anno and Bernie Shaw, both of whom served time fronting the band in two distinctly different eras. While Paul’s time with Iron Maiden is well documented, like most of his other works, his time with Mantis barely gets a look in. Shaw – later to become Uriah Heep’s longest serving frontman – was always more sympathetic to the Troy Brothers’ style; in fact, his work with Heep on ‘Wake The Sleeper’ and ‘Into The Wild’ isn’t always so removed from Praying Mantis in 2015.