HOUSE ABOVE THE SUN – House Above The Sun EP

house above the sun epIn 2014, the London-based DIY blues-rock outfit The Healing released their debut EP ‘Childhood Home’. A year later, three quarters of the band resurfaced under the name House Above The Sun, seemingly having had a musical rethink. While still recognisable as the core of the same band, House Above The Sun favour a much rootsier sound, placing vocalist Jim Moreton’s voice over music that’s arguably more thoughtful than before.

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SAVAGE GOTH – Savage Goth EP

a4196499002_10Savage Goth is concrete proof that you can’t judge things by name alone. Such a judgement led to one of the band’s first gigs being support to a tech metal band – their choice of music somewhat lost upon the receiving audience. Led by songwriter Matthew Kenworthy, the name was a tongue-in-cheek throwback to a slur dating back to his school days in the north of England, where anyone who admitted to liking guitar based music was labelled a “savage goth”.

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BLOOD RED SAINTS – Speedway

blood red saintsVocalist Pete Godfrey first came to the attention of the melodic rock community as frontman of the short-lived (but very promising) In Faith. Realising that being part of a full band would have better career prospects, he formed Blood Red Saints with Rob Naylor (previously of Angels Or Kings) and then enlisted the talents of Gary Hughes’s sometime guitarist Lee Revill. The result is a debut album with some hugely enjoyable melodic hard rock tunes – tunes that constantly hark back to the golden age of 1985-1989 – which should very much appeal to a cross-section of melodic rock buffs.

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NATO COLES AND THE BLUE DIAMOND BAND – Promises To Deliver

nato lpImagine what a band might sound like if the new wave edge of Tommy Tutone collided with The Gaslight Anthem’s American rock… That would surely be cool, wouldn’t it? If that kind of rock ‘n’ roll floats your boat, then you need look no further than the 2013 release by Nato Coles & The Blue Diamond Band. On ‘Promises To Deliver’, Nato and company really bring the party. It doesn’t matter whether their listeners are in the highlands of Scotland, the middle of Greece or in a far flung corner of Australia, the musical sounds are so vibrant and heartfelt, that within a couple of tracks it’s like being transported to Springsteen’s beloved New Jersey or the heartland of blue collar America.

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