A new deal with signed with Frontiers Records in the summer of 2019 quickly brought a bounty of archive treats for Blue Öyster Cult’s legion of followers. In January 2020, a welcome reissue of the very hard to find ‘Cult Classic’ disc of re-recordings made its way into the world, along with ‘Hard Rock Live – Cleveland 2016’, a double live gonzo that was well received by fans and press alike. Barely six weeks later, the equally elusive ‘Heaven Forbid’ album (originally released on the CMC label back in 1998) was given a timely reissue and the vaults were raided for yet another live set, this time focusing on their career defining ‘Agents of Fortune’ album.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
ROSE TATTOO – Outlaws
With their combination of hard hitting riffs and no-nonsense attitude, Rose Tattoo quickly became heroes of the Aussie rock scene in the late 70s. The missing link between AC/DC and Cold Chisel, the band had an incendiary frontman in Angry Anderson, which also gave them an easily recognisable brand. Their first two albums, 1978’s ‘Rose Tattoo’ and 1981’s ‘Assault & Battery’ remain firm favourites among fans.
ALPHA-O-MAGA – Make America Grind Again
Alpha-O-Maga are an interesting proposition. They promote themselves first and foremost as a grindcore band, yet chunks of their 2020 release ‘Make America Grind’ again feature sounds that would almost certainly upset the grindcore purists. A grindcore aesthetic certainly pumps the heart of their extreme sound, but right from the beginning of the opening track ‘Gringo’, there’s a feeling that something is just a little different.
KHYMERA – Master Of Illusions
‘Master of Illusions’ comes five years after Khymera’s previous studio album ‘The Grand Design’, making the wait for new material almost as long as the band’s seven year hiatus following 2008’s ‘The Greatest Wonder’. It’s not like band leader Dennis Ward has been resting, of course: he’s continued to be one of the busiest men in the melodic rock scene, working with his other band Pink Cream 69 and moonlighting with Place Vendome (both of whom released albums in 2017), making an album with Gus G in 2018 and even stepping in for bass duties on Magnum’s 2020 opus ‘The Serpent Rings’. You have to wonder if he ever sleeps.
The all round quality of Khymera’s ‘Master of Illusions’ doesn’t suggest that Ward has spread himself too thinly, either. The album has more than enough top drawer material to make it stand up with the band’s earlier works. In ‘Follow The Sun’ and ‘After All This Time’, there are a couple of career bests, which is reason enough to check out this long player.
Listen: Dead Man’s Chest stream new 7″
At the time of this two track release, it’s almost been a decade since Dead Man’s Chest released their first full length album ‘Hateline’. In that time, the London-based purveyors of noise have played hard and toured even harder, sharing stages with the legendary Sick of It All, Madball and a whole host of great hardcore bands.